Meowdoku Level 96 Walkthrough: Thirteen Steps to Nine Cats

The region map of Meowdoku Level 96

This board uses nine colors: rose, apricot, butter, matcha, mint, soda, periwinkle, lilac, and bubblegum. Rose is the smallest region on the board, a single tile in the top left corner at row 1, column 1. Apricot and periwinkle are tied for second smallest at two tiles each: apricot is a vertical pair at column 5, rows 1 and 2, and periwinkle is a vertical pair at column 9, rows 6 and 7.

Mint has five tiles clustered on the right, butter has eight around the top left, lilac thirteen down the left side, matcha fifteen across the top right, bubblegum sixteen in the bottom right, and soda is the giant of this cat puzzle game with nineteen tiles filling the center. Because soda is so large and so central, it acts less like a clue and more like empty space until very late in the solve.

The pattern to hold onto is that every small region here is either a single tile or a vertical pair. Vertical pairs are unusually easy to handle, because once a cat clears one of the two tiles the other is forced, and that is exactly what happens with apricot on this board.

The opening: rose in the corner at row 1, column 1

Start Meowdoku Level 96 by settling the rose cat on row 1, column 1. Rose is a one-tile region, so technique T1, the last open tile in a color, decides the move for you before you have to think about anything else.

A corner cat is a slightly weaker opening than a central one, because it only has three neighbors instead of eight, but it still clears a full row and a full column. In this case it clears row 1, which wipes out the apricot tile at row 1, column 5 and leaves apricot alone at row 2, column 5. That is your second cat, and it happens without a single cross in these animal games.

Four cats for free at the start

After rose and apricot, the cascade keeps rolling. Butter is squeezed down to its last open tile at row 3, column 3, and matcha, despite covering fifteen tiles, is squeezed to row 4, column 6. Four cats placed and the board is still completely free of crosses.

This happens because each cat removes a whole row, a whole column, and its eight surrounding tiles. On a nine by nine grid that is a huge bite, and when several colors sit close together near the top of the board, they knock each other down like dominoes.

It is worth taking a moment on levels like this one to notice how the geometry works, because the same cascade shows up in harder brain games once the first few crosses have broken the board open.

The key moment: mint and soda claim rows 5 and 6

Eventually the cascade stops, and Meowdoku Level 96 asks for its only four crosses. Look at mint. After the first four cats, every open mint tile sits in row 5, which means row 5 must hold the mint cat and nothing else can. Cross out the lilac tile at row 5, column 2 and the soda tile at row 5, column 4. This is technique T3, a color locked to one line.

Now do the same for soda. Every open soda tile sits in row 6, so row 6 belongs to soda, and you can cross the lilac tile at row 6, column 2 and the periwinkle tile at row 6, column 9. That last cross is the payoff: periwinkle was a two-tile region, and with row 6, column 9 gone it has one open tile at row 7, column 9. The fifth cat goes there.

Those four crosses are the hardest thinking the level asks of you, and the rest is pure cleanup. Mint drops to row 5, column 8, soda to row 6, column 4, lilac to row 8, column 2, and bubblegum closes the board at row 9, column 7. Every one of those is a last-open-tile placement, which is why Level 96 is rated easy despite its full nine by nine size.

Why easy Meowdoku levels are worth playing slowly

It is tempting to blitz through an easy board, but Level 96 is a good place to practice the discipline that hard boards demand. Try naming the technique behind each placement out loud as you go. Recognizing that row 5 belongs to mint is exactly the same skill you will need on a hard nine by nine, just without the time pressure of a dozen other pending deductions.

Meowdoku is free and runs entirely in your browser, which makes it easy to replay a level like this one purely to build speed. The rules never change: one cat per color region, one per row, one per column, and no two cats touching even at a corner. Single-tap to mark a cross, double-tap to settle a cat, and a hint is always there to reveal the next forced cat if you want it.

What is the solution to Meowdoku Level 96?

In solve order the cats go on row 1, column 1 (rose); row 2, column 5 (apricot); row 3, column 3 (butter); row 4, column 6 (matcha); row 7, column 9 (periwinkle); row 5, column 8 (mint); row 6, column 4 (soda); row 8, column 2 (lilac); and row 9, column 7 (bubblegum).

Where does the first cat go in Meowdoku Level 96?

The first cat goes on row 1, column 1, the single tile that makes up the rose region. A one-tile color has only one legal home, so this corner opening is forced in this cat puzzle game.

How do I find the periwinkle cat in Meowdoku Level 96?

Mint is locked to row 5, so cross the lilac tile at row 5, column 2 and the soda tile at row 5, column 4. Soda is locked to row 6, so cross the lilac tile at row 6, column 2 and the periwinkle tile at row 6, column 9. Periwinkle then has one open tile left, at row 7, column 9.

How many crosses does Meowdoku Level 96 need?

Only four, and all four come from the same technique of a color being locked to a single row. The other nine steps are cats placed because their color ran out of open tiles, which makes this one of the quickest boards among these free online games.

Is Meowdoku free and does it work in a browser?

Yes, Meowdoku is a free cat puzzle game that plays directly in your browser with no downloads. If you like animal games, logic puzzle games, or sudoku-style grids, Level 96 is a gentle place to start.