Meowdoku Level 86 Walkthrough: Seventeen Crosses Before the Second Cat

The Meowdoku Level 86 board layout

The seven colors are rose, apricot, butter, matcha, mint, soda, and periwinkle. Mint is the smallest region on the board, a single tile at row 5, column 3, and unusually it sits in the interior rather than on an edge. Rose is two tiles, side by side at row 1, columns 1 and 2, and butter is also two tiles, stacked in column 7 at rows 2 and 3.

Soda has six tiles in the left middle, matcha ten tiles through the centre, apricot thirteen tiles across the top and upper left, and periwinkle fifteen tiles filling the bottom row and the right side below butter.

A 7x7 grid is the smallest board Meowdoku uses, which is part of why this level is hard. There is very little empty space, so the cats interfere with each other constantly and the neighbour rule does an enormous amount of the eliminating. In tight cat games like this, thinking about which tiles touch what matters as much as thinking about rows and columns.

The opening move and why it is forced

Your first cat in Meowdoku Level 86 goes on row 5, column 3. Mint is exactly one tile, so its cat has no alternative, and you can settle it before reading anything else on the board.

A central cat is more powerful than an edge cat. This one clears row 5 and column 3, and because it has eight neighbours rather than three, it also removes a whole ring of tiles around itself. Soda takes the worst of it: the cat sits inside soda territory, so soda drops from six tiles to just two, at row 3, column 2 and row 6, column 1.

Those two remaining soda tiles are the target of the whole middle section. To force the second cat, Meowdoku Level 86 needs you to prove that row 3, column 2 is impossible, and that proof travels through almost every other color on the board.

The key moment: three colors reserve three rows

Start with the two-tile regions at the edges, because they lock lines. Every open rose tile sits in row 1, so row 1 belongs to rose, and the apricot tiles at row 1, columns 4, 5, 6, and 7 are crossed out. Every open butter tile sits in column 7, so column 7 belongs to butter, and the periwinkle tiles at row 4, row 6, and row 7 of column 7 are crossed out as well.

Next come the neighbour crosses, technique T4, and Meowdoku Level 86 uses six of them. The tiles at row 2, column 1 and row 2, column 2 each touch both remaining rose tiles, so neither can hold a cat. The tiles at row 2, column 6 and row 3, column 6 each touch both remaining butter tiles, so those go too. With apricot squeezed out of row 1 and its neighbours, matcha becomes locked to column 5, which crosses the apricot tile at row 2, column 5 and the periwinkle tiles at row 6, column 5 and row 7, column 5. Two more neighbour crosses finish the shaping, because the tiles at row 3, column 4 and row 4, column 6 each touch every open matcha tile.

Now for the moment that makes this level memorable. Apricot, butter, and matcha can each only place a cat in row 2, row 3, or row 4. Three colors that need three rows use up all three rows between them, so no fourth color may take a cat there. That is technique T5, matched colors and lines, and its single consequence here is decisive: the soda tile at row 3, column 2 is crossed out. Soda is left with one open tile at row 6, column 1, and the second cat lands at last. The rest of Meowdoku Level 86 is pure relief. Rose drops to row 1, column 2, apricot to row 2, column 4, butter to row 3, column 7, matcha to row 4, column 5, and periwinkle finishes on row 7, column 6.

Tips for hard Meowdoku boards

The lesson of this level is that a long silence does not mean you are stuck. Seventeen crosses is a lot, but every one of them is small and certain, and none of them requires a guess. Hard boards in Meowdoku are never about intuition; they are about being willing to keep making small true statements until a cat is forced.

It also helps to know the order in which these ideas usually appear. Line claims come first because they are easiest to see, neighbour crosses come next as regions shrink, and matched colors come last when several regions have been reduced to two or three tiles each.

• Do the line claims first: any color confined to one row or column owns that line outright.
• Then hunt neighbour crosses, checking every tile that sits beside all the remaining options of a small color.
• Watch for two or three shrunken colors that share the same two or three lines, then clear those lines.
• On a 7x7 grid, expect the no-touching rule to do most of the work, because cats crowd each other.
• Mark every cross as you prove it, so the board remembers the argument instead of you.

Why Meowdoku is a great cat puzzle game

Levels like this one are the reason Meowdoku holds up next to other logic puzzle games. Every board is built so that a complete chain of deductions exists, and the hint system reveals the next forced cat rather than a random answer, so you can always learn the step you missed instead of guessing at it.

It is also free, needs no installation, and runs in any modern browser, which makes it easy to play a board on a phone during a break and a harder one on a laptop later. If you enjoy brain games that reward patience, Meowdoku Level 86 is exactly the kind of challenge worth sitting with.

What is the solution to Meowdoku Level 86?

In solve order, the cats go on row 5, column 3 (mint); row 6, column 1 (soda); row 1, column 2 (rose); row 2, column 4 (apricot); row 3, column 7 (butter); row 4, column 5 (matcha); and row 7, column 6 (periwinkle).

Where do I place the first cat in Meowdoku Level 86?

On row 5, column 3. Mint is a single-tile region there, so the mint cat is forced with no reasoning needed, and because the tile is in the middle of the board it clears a ring of eight neighbours along with its row and column.

How do I find the soda cat in Meowdoku Level 86?

Rose owns row 1, which clears the apricot tiles at row 1, columns 4, 5, 6, and 7. Butter owns column 7, which clears the periwinkle tiles at rows 4, 6, and 7. Cross out row 2, columns 1 and 2 because they touch every open rose tile, and row 2, column 6 and row 3, column 6 because they touch every open butter tile. Matcha is then locked to column 5, clearing the apricot tile at row 2, column 5 and the periwinkle tiles at row 6, column 5 and row 7, column 5, and row 3, column 4 and row 4, column 6 both touch every open matcha tile. Finally apricot, butter, and matcha reserve rows 2, 3, and 4, so the soda tile at row 3, column 2 is crossed out, leaving row 6, column 1.

Why is Meowdoku Level 86 so hard?

The second cat alone needs seventeen crosses, including six neighbour eliminations and one use of technique T5, where apricot, butter, and matcha reserve rows 2, 3, and 4 between them. Twenty-four steps on a 7x7 grid makes it one of the densest brain games in the Meowdoku campaign.

Can I play Meowdoku Level 86 for free in my browser?

Yes. Meowdoku is completely free and runs in any modern web browser with nothing to install. Single-tap a tile to mark a cross, double-tap to settle a cat, and remember that each wrong cat costs one fish.