What Meowdoku is
Meowdoku is a free cat logic puzzle for phones, made by Oakever Games and released on the App Store on May 19, 2026. When we checked on November 4, 2026, the iPhone version had about 404,000 ratings, averaged 4.8 out of 5 and sat at number one in the Casual chart. It is also on Android, and it is free to download with ads and in-app purchases.
The game describes itself as a mix of Sudoku's reasoning and Minesweeper's deduction. In practice it is a version of an older puzzle type called Star Battle, which also appears as LinkedIn's Queens. Nobody owns the rules, which is why so many similar cat puzzles have appeared this year.
Meowdoku rules
The board is divided into coloured sections. Each section needs exactly one cat. No two cats may share a row or a column, and no two may touch, even diagonally.
In the app you double-tap a tile to place a cat. You get three hearts: a wrong cat costs one, so guessing soon ends the attempt. There are also daily puzzles, seasonal events and leaderboards for your fastest times.
How to solve Meowdoku puzzles
We have not played through the app, so these tips come from building our own puzzle of this type, where a program has to solve every level by logic.
Start with the smallest section. If it has two or three tiles, look for a tile that all of its options would block. That tile can be ruled out.
Use sections that sit in a line. A section lying entirely in one row must hold that row's cat, so every other tile in the row is out. Two sections inside the same two rows work the same way, and so on.
Check what a cat would block. Each cat removes its row, its column, its section and all eight tiles around it. If a cat on some tile would leave another section with no tiles, that tile is out.
Never guess. With three hearts, a guess is the most expensive move in the game. A well-made puzzle of this type can always be solved one safe step at a time.
Can you play Meowdoku online?
The official game is the phone app. We did not find a browser version from Oakever Games. Searches for meowdoku online lead to many fan-made sites and copies, and the ones we looked at are not run by the developer. For example, meowdoku.org is an independent guide, despite the name.
If you want this kind of puzzle in a browser, we made our own called [Sunspot Cats](/g/sunspot-cats). It is free, needs no download and has 60 levels plus a daily puzzle. It has no hearts, and clashing cats just glare at each other until you move them. It is not Meowdoku and is not connected with Oakever Games: the art and the levels are ours, and only the old puzzle rules are shared.
Which one is the official Meowdoku
On iPhone, the official listing is Meowdoku! by Oakever Games, and the developer's own website is oakevergames.com. The App Store also has similar cat puzzles with close names, such as Meow Sudoku: Cat Puzzle and Meow Puzzle: Cat Sudoku Logic, so check the developer's name before you install.
