Rules and strategy guide
How to play Paw Plots
Paw Plots is a logic puzzle: place one pet in every row, every column and every colored region, without any two pets touching. If you’ve played LinkedIn’s Queens, Meowdoku or a one-star Star Battle, you already know the rules. This guide covers them in a minute, then shows the techniques that solve even the hardest boards, all without guessing.
The four rules
Every board is a square grid, from 5×5 up to 10×10, split into as many colored regions as there are rows. A puzzle is solved when:
One per row
Every row gets exactly one pet.
One per column
Every column gets exactly one pet.
One per color
Every colored region gets exactly one pet.
No touching
Pets can’t touch, not even diagonally.
That’s it. Every Paw Plots puzzle has exactly one solution, and each one is checked to be solvable by pure logic, so you never need to guess.
Controls, lives and hints
- Tap a square to cross it out (✕). Tap a cross to clear it.
- Double tap to place a pet.
- Drag to cross out a whole stretch at once. Start a drag on a cross to erase instead.
- Three lives. A pet in the wrong spot bounces off, becomes a cross and costs a heart. Lose all three and the puzzle starts over.
- Five hints a day. A hint never just hands you the answer: it points at the squares that matter and explains the next deduction in plain English.
Where to start
Crossing out is half the game. Every time you place a pet, cross out the rest of its row, its column, its color, and the eight squares around it. Then look for the most constrained places on the board:
- Small regions. A one-square region is a free pet. Two- and three-square regions usually sit in a single row or column, which is a big clue.
- Regions squeezed into one line. If all of a color fits in one row, that row belongs to it.
- Rows or columns with few open squares. When only one color is left in a line, that color’s pet is in that line.
Six solving techniques
These are the same deductions the Paw Plots hint engine uses, from easiest to hardest. Every example below is a real step from a real puzzle, with the explanation the game gives.
1. Last open square
When a region, row or column has only one open square left, its pet must go there. It’s the most common move in any Queens-style puzzle, and it’s often all an easy board needs.
The hint says:
Orange has only one open cell left, so its pet goes there.
Purple outlines mark the squares the step looks at, red ✕ marks what it rules out, and a dashed circle marks where a pet goes.
2. A color stuck in one line
If every open square of a color lies in the same row (or column), that color’s pet will be in that row. Since a row holds only one pet, every other square in the row is ruled out.
The hint says:
Purple fits only in row 2, so the rest of that row can't hold a pet.
Purple outlines mark the squares the step looks at, red ✕ marks what it rules out, and a dashed circle marks where a pet goes.
3. A line that only one color can fill
The mirror image: if a row’s open squares all belong to one color, that row’s pet is that color’s pet. So the rest of that color, outside the row, can be crossed out.
The hint says:
Row 1 only has room in Yellow, so that color's pet is in this row. The rest of Yellow can't hold a pet.
Purple outlines mark the squares the step looks at, red ✕ marks what it rules out, and a dashed circle marks where a pet goes.
4. Pigeonhole: two colors, two rows
Scale the same idea up. If two colors fit only inside the same two rows, those two pets use up both rows, and no other color can have a pet there. It works for three colors in three rows, and for columns too. This is the trick that cracks most hard puzzles.
The hint says:
Purple and Pink fit only in rows 1 and 2, so those rows are theirs. No other color can use them.
Purple outlines mark the squares the step looks at, red ✕ marks what it rules out, and a dashed circle marks where a pet goes.
5. Squares that would smother a color
Remember that pets can’t touch. If a pet on some square would touch every open square of a nearby color, that color would have nowhere left to go, so the square can’t hold a pet. Small regions are the usual victims.
The hint says:
A pet on any of these cells would touch every open cell in Yellow, leaving it nowhere to go.
Purple outlines mark the squares the step looks at, red ✕ marks what it rules out, and a dashed circle marks where a pet goes.
6. Lookahead
When nothing simpler works, try a pet somewhere and follow the easy consequences. If they leave some color with no open squares, the pet can’t go there, so cross it out. This isn’t guessing: you’re proving a square is impossible. Expert boards need it once or twice.
The hint says:
Try it: if a pet went here, Pink would soon run out of open cells. So it can't go here.
Purple outlines mark the squares the step looks at, red ✕ marks what it rules out, and a dashed circle marks where a pet goes.
Questions
Is Paw Plots the same puzzle as LinkedIn’s Queens?
The rules are the same: one piece per row, column and colored region, and no two touching. Paw Plots uses cute pets (or your own pet’s photo in the app) instead of crowns, has a free daily puzzle in your browser with no account, and 1,000+ graded levels in the app. More on how they compare.
What is a Star Battle puzzle?
Star Battle is the classic pencil puzzle this family comes from. A one-star Star Battle has exactly the Paw Plots rules; larger Star Battles ask for two or three stars per row, column and region.
Do I ever have to guess?
Never. Every puzzle has a single solution that logic alone can reach. If you’re stuck, a hint shows the next deduction and explains why it works.
How big do the boards get?
The daily puzzle runs from 6×6 early in the week to 9×9 on Saturday and a big but friendly 10×10 on Sunday. The app’s levels go from 6×6 to 10×10 and get trickier as you go.
