Want a daily logic puzzle you can look forward to? Make one Catdoku board part of your day. Start with the regular levels, then unlock Daily Challenge after clearing 20 normal levels. Choose a difficulty, find the hidden cats, and give your puzzle time a clear finish line.
It could be your after-class treat or the little ritual that marks the end of lunch. You don't need to turn it into another task to optimize. Pick a moment when you have room for a puzzle and enjoy working out where the next cat belongs.
What makes a daily puzzle different?
With regular levels, your next board follows your progress. A daily puzzle gives you a different reason to return: a fresh challenge for the current daily period.
Catdoku's Daily Challenge offers Easy, Medium, and Hard boards. Players choosing the same difficulty in the same period receive the same puzzle, with a separate leaderboard for each difficulty. That gives you a shared challenge to talk about, whether or not you're interested in comparing times.
The rules stay familiar: one cat in each color region, one in each row and column, and no touching cats—even diagonally. The board changes; your job is to find the clues.
Try the rules on Catdoku's interactive board →
How to unlock Catdoku's Daily Challenge
If you're new to Catdoku, begin with the regular levels. They give you boards to explore while you get used to checking colors, rows, columns, and neighboring squares together.
- Complete the introduction and play the normal levels.
- Clear 20 normal levels to unlock Daily Challenge.
- Open Daily Challenge from the main screen.
- Select your difficulty before starting the board.
You can keep playing regular levels after unlocking Daily Challenge. Think of the daily board as another way to enjoy Catdoku alongside your progress through the game.
Choose a board that fits today's puzzle mood
You don't have to start with the biggest grid. For your first Daily Challenge, try Easy and see how the format feels.
| Difficulty | Current board size | A reason to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 5 × 5 | You want a smaller board to inspect. |
| Medium | 7 × 7 | You feel like following clues across more regions. |
| Hard | 10 × 10 | You want more space and more possibilities to work through. |
These are board sizes, not promises about solving time. A small grid can still make you pause, and a larger grid may reveal an inviting first clue. Choose the challenge you want to explore, with enough time to finish it.
Give your daily puzzle a place in your day
A useful starting point is an existing pause: after lunch, after your last class, or when you've closed your work for the day. Choose one of those moments as an invitation to play Catdoku.
For a student, that might mean a board after putting away the day's notes. For someone working, it might be a small change of pace before heading back from lunch. These are ways to arrange your leisure time; the right moment is the one you actually enjoy.
Try this simple sequence:
Choose a difficulty → solve the board → notice one satisfying deduction → return to your day.
Once you've finished your chosen board, you can call that session complete. You don't need to clear every difficulty for the daily puzzle to be a worthwhile little ritual.
One practical detail: Daily Challenge does not save an unfinished board when you leave it or close the app. Start when you can stay with the puzzle. If you only have a passing moment, you can preview the rules on this website and save your Daily attempt for later.
When does the daily puzzle reset?
Catdoku's Daily Challenge resets at 8:00 PM US Eastern Time, rather than at each player's local midnight. The shared reset keeps players on the same daily period.
If you play elsewhere, the corresponding local time can change with daylight saving time. Check the in-app countdown when planning your next session. For a routine near the reset, check which challenge is active before you start.
Daily Challenge loads its puzzles online, so plan to have an internet connection when opening it.
Enjoy the deduction before watching the clock
The leaderboard ranks completed boards by clear time, with faster times placing higher. For your first few daily boards, give yourself a different goal: understand why each cat belongs where you put it.
Look for a region with few remaining possibilities. Check what its possible positions mean for the rest of the row and column. Then check the diagonals before placing the cat. A move you can explain is a satisfying discovery in its own right.
For a worked beginner example, read Games Like Sudoku: Try a Fresh Logic Puzzle with Catdoku. If you're choosing where puzzle time belongs in your schedule, explore Relaxing Mobile Games for Short Breaks.
Start your one-board ritual
Catdoku is available for iPhone and Android. Preview the rules here, get the app from our download section, and begin with the normal levels. Your first daily challenge can wait until you've unlocked it and feel ready to try.
Then pick a moment, choose a board, and find today's cats.