Meowdoku Level 97 Walkthrough: The Butter Tile Hiding Inside Apricot

The layout of Meowdoku Level 97

Eight colors divide this grid: rose, apricot, butter, matcha, mint, soda, periwinkle, and lilac. The smallest region here is rose, which is nothing more than the top left corner tile at row 1, column 1. Periwinkle is next with three tiles tucked into the right edge at row 6, column 8 and row 7, columns 7 and 8.

Butter has six tiles, matcha and mint have seven each, apricot has eight across the top, soda has nine down the left side, and lilac is the giant of this cat puzzle game with twenty-three tiles sprawling across the whole bottom right. When one color owns nearly a third of the board, it will always be among the last cats you place.

The oddity to notice immediately is the butter tile at row 2, column 4. Butter is mostly a column of tiles in column 2 plus a small block in row 3, but that one tile at row 2, column 4 pokes up into the middle of the apricot region. Strange shapes like this are usually the designer telling you where to look.

The opening: the rose cat at row 1, column 1

Your first cat in Meowdoku Level 97 goes on row 1, column 1, because rose is a single-tile region and technique T1 leaves no other option. Double-tap that corner tile to settle the cat.

The placement clears row 1, column 1, and the neighbors around the corner. Clearing row 1 matters more than usual here, because five of the eight apricot tiles were sitting in row 1. Apricot instantly shrinks from eight tiles to three, and that is what makes the next deduction possible in these brain games.

The key moment: why row 2, column 4 can never hold a cat

With row 1 gone, Meowdoku Level 97 hands you the deduction it was built around, because apricot has only three open tiles left: row 2, column 3, row 2, column 5, and row 3, column 5. Now look at the butter tile at row 2, column 4. It sits directly beside row 2, column 3, directly beside row 2, column 5, and diagonally beside row 3, column 5. In other words, it touches every open apricot tile on the board.

The apricot cat has to go on one of those three tiles, and wherever it lands it will be a neighbor of row 2, column 4. Since no two cats may ever touch, not even diagonally, row 2, column 4 can never hold a cat at all, and you can cross it out. This is technique T4, a tile touching every open tile of a color, and it is the only use of it on this board. The elegant part is that you learn something about butter by reasoning only about apricot.

That cross pushes butter entirely into row 3, so row 3 now belongs to butter and you can clear the apricot tile at row 3, column 5. Apricot is then confined to row 2, which lets you cross the matcha tiles at row 2, columns 6, 7, and 8. Back on row 3, the butter lock also clears the lilac tile at row 3, column 6 and the matcha tiles at row 3, columns 7 and 8. Matcha is now down to one open tile at row 4, column 7, and the second cat lands there.

The finish: six cats with no more crosses

Once matcha is placed, Meowdoku Level 97 stops resisting. Mint falls to its last open tile at row 5, column 4. Soda falls to row 6, column 2. Butter, which you already knew belonged to row 3, lands at row 3, column 3, and apricot lands at row 2, column 5.

Periwinkle then drops to row 7, column 8, and lilac, all twenty-three tiles of it, is left with a single open tile at row 8, column 6 to complete the board. Six consecutive placements without a cross is a good sign that the hard work was done correctly earlier.

This is a useful shape to recognize in cat games with this structure. If you are twelve crosses deep and nothing is forced, you have probably missed one small elimination rather than reached a dead end, because a properly cracked Meowdoku board tends to finish in a rush.

Getting faster at neighbor crosses

The technique that decides Level 97 is worth drilling, because it is the one most players overlook. Instead of asking where a color can go, you ask which tiles a color will always bother. Any tile adjacent to every remaining option of some color is permanently dead.

Here is how to find those tiles quickly on any Meowdoku board, including the harder ones further along in these free online games.

• Watch for colors that have shrunk to two or three open tiles, since they generate the most neighbor crosses.
• Check the tiles wedged between those options first, because a tile sitting in the middle usually touches them all.
• Include diagonals when you check adjacency, since cats may not touch at the corners either.
• Apply the cross even when it belongs to a different color, which is exactly what happens to butter at row 2, column 4.
• Follow each cross through, because one neighbor cross often creates a fresh row or column lock right away.

What is the solution to Meowdoku Level 97?

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

What is the first move in Meowdoku Level 97?

Place the first cat on row 1, column 1. Rose is a single-tile region on this board, so the rose cat can only go in that corner, and the move also clears five apricot tiles out of row 1 in this cat puzzle game.

Why do I cross out row 2, column 4 in Meowdoku Level 97?

Because that tile touches every open apricot tile that remains. Wherever the apricot cat lands, it would be a neighbor of row 2, column 4, and two cats can never touch. That single cross forces butter into row 3 and starts the chain that places the matcha cat.

How does the matcha cat get forced in Meowdoku Level 97?

After crossing row 2, column 4, butter is locked to row 3 and apricot is locked to row 2. Those locks clear the apricot tile at row 3, column 5, the matcha tiles at row 2, columns 6, 7, and 8, the lilac tile at row 3, column 6, and the matcha tiles at row 3, columns 7 and 8. Matcha is left with one open tile at row 4, column 7.

Is Meowdoku free to play in the browser?

Yes. Meowdoku is a free cat puzzle game that works in any modern web browser on phones, tablets, and computers. If you enjoy animal games and brain games that are solvable with pure logic, Level 97 is a satisfying one to try.