How to play Pawmoku
Pawmoku is played by filling empty tiles with cats and dogs. Follow two rules: never three of the same animal in a row, across or down, and as many cats as dogs in every row and column. Every puzzle has one solution, found through logic without guessing.
What are the two rules?
Pawmoku has exactly two rules, applied to every row and every column.
Three's a crowd
Never three of the same animal in a row, across or down. Two next to each other is fine.
Fair share
Every row and every column holds as many cats as dogs.
Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be solved by logic alone, with no guessing.
How do I place or change an animal?
Tap an empty tile to place your team's animal, tap again for the other animal, and once more to clear it.
For Team Cat the cycle is empty, cat, dog, empty. For Team Dog it is empty, dog, cat, empty. The starting animals are locked and stay put.
On the website's practice board, arrow keys move between tiles. Space or Enter cycles a tile. Undo takes back a move; Clear removes the animals you placed, and one Undo brings them back.
What do the row and column tallies mean?
The tallies show how many cats and dogs a line still needs.
Each animal's face sits beside its count. Zero means that animal's share is filled. A plus sign means too many: +1 is one too many. A tick replaces the counts only when the line is full and follows both rules.
| Board | Cats | Dogs |
|---|---|---|
| 4x4 | 2 | 2 |
| 6x6 | 3 | 3 |
| 8x8 | 4 | 4 |
| 10x10 | 5 | 5 |
When is the puzzle solved?
The puzzle is solved when every tile is filled and every row and column follows both rules.
On the practice board, all the tallies become ticks and the board shows "Solved." with your elapsed time. It is practice only, with no team score.