How to Solve PetDoku: 4 Beginner Hints (Easy 506)

PetDoku The JoyPlus Soft Planning Team October 17, 2026

Every PetDoku board can be solved without guessing. Instead of listing tips, let's solve one real board from the game together: Easy 506. Four hints come up along the way, in the order you need them, and you will use the same four on every board after this one.

PetDoku is a Queens puzzle. It has the same rules as Queens puzzles (including the daily Queens game on LinkedIn), Meowdoku and other cat sudoku and animal sudoku apps, so you can use everything in this guide in PetDoku, Queens puzzles and Meowdoku alike.

The rules

One pet in every colored region.
One pet in every row and every column.
Pets never touch each other, not even diagonally.

Tap a square once to mark it with X (no pet here). Double-tap or press and hold to place a pet. A pet in the wrong place costs one of your three hearts, so mark X freely and place pets only when you are sure.

Hint 1: Start with the one-square colors

The yellow region is a single square, so its pet is certain. Placing it rules out its row, its column and every square that touches it (red X).

A region with only one square is a free pet. Place it, then mark X on everything it rules out: the rest of its row, the rest of its column and the eight squares around it. This tidying up is most of the work in PetDoku, and it is what reveals the next move.

The blue square in the bottom-left corner is also a one-square region. Same thing again.

Hint 2: Only one place left

After the first two pets, the teal region has just one square without an X. The teal pet goes there.

Every region, row and column needs exactly one pet. When one of them is down to a single empty square, that square is the answer. After each pet, look over the regions and lines it touched. This one hint finishes most Easy boards.

Hint 3: When a row fits inside one color

The top row has three empty squares left, and all three are red. The row needs a pet, so the red pet must be in the top row. That rules out the red square below it.

Sometimes the empty squares of a row all belong to one color. The row has to get a pet, and only that color can give it one, so that color's pet is in this row. Any square of the same color outside the row can be marked X. It works the same way with columns, and in the other direction too: if a color's empty squares all sit in one row, the rest of that row is X.

Hint 4: A square that every option touches

The second row has two empty squares left, both orange. Whichever one gets the pet, it touches the two red squares right above. So neither of those can hold a pet.

When a row, column or region is down to two or three choices, ask: is there a square that every choice would rule out? Here both choices in the second row touch the same two squares in the top row, so those two are X no matter which choice turns out right.

The rest is Hint 2

6. The top row has one empty square left.

Solved: one pet in each color, row and column, and none of them touch.

Habits that save hearts

Mark X first, place pets last. An X never costs a heart.
Start with the smallest regions.
After every pet, clear its row, column, region and the squares around it.
Stuck? Look for a row or column that fits inside one color (Hint 3), then for a square that every option touches (Hint 4).
Use a hint instead of a guess. It shows the next logical step, which you can spot yourself next time.

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