In Trap the Cat, a deterministic hexagonal path game on a 7×7 hex field, the cleanest way to win is to block one cell, let the cat take its shortest step away from you, then seal the opposite corridor in a second move for an 800-point finish. The puzzle runs on an offset hex grid where an interior position has six neighbors, the cat starts near the center inside a pre-disclosed horizontal corridor, and every valid barrier costs 100 points from a starting score of 1,000. Because the board is fixed rather than random, every common mistake has a known cause: blocking too far from the cat, sealing only one side of the corridor, forgetting that the cat uses breadth-first search to pick its shortest reachable step toward the outer row or column, or trying to recover after the cat has already escaped. The strategy that avoids all of them at once is also the strategy that scores highest, because the cleanest win uses only two valid barriers.
How the cat picks its next step
Every time you place a valid barrier in Trap the Cat, the browser runs a breadth-first search over the open hex cells. For each candidate neighbor the cat could move into, the search computes how many steps remain until that cell touches the outer row or column. The cat then steps onto whichever reachable neighbor has the smallest distance to the boundary. If two routes are equally short, the implementation picks one deterministically so the puzzle stays reproducible. This movement model is the familiar Trap the Cat premise described in the Google Play listing for Chat Noir Hex and an independent browser-game explanation of Trap the Cat: the player blocks one spot, the cat moves toward the edge, reaching the edge loses, and removing every route wins.
This has two practical consequences. First, the cat never wanders — it always heads outward on its current shortest path, so you can predict exactly where it will go one move in advance. Second, the cat's choice is reactive: it only re-evaluates after your barrier lands. That means a barrier placed too far from the action does nothing to redirect the cat on the turn you spend it, but it does cost you 100 points and an opportunity to shorten the puzzle.
Common mistakes in the hexagonal path game
Most losses come from a small set of recurring errors. The table below pairs each mistake with the underlying reason and the simplest fix.
| Mistake | Why it loses the round | Quick fix |
|---|---|---|
| Blocking far from the cat | Each barrier costs 100 points and the cat only reacts to cells near its current route. | Place the next barrier on the corridor the cat will cross on the very next turn. |
| Blocking one side of the central corridor only | The cat simply switches to the other open end and reaches an edge on the next step. | Block the left approach first, then seal the right exit the same round. |
| Trying to block the cat's own cell | Invalid attempts on the cat or an already-blocked cell do not consume a turn, but they also change nothing. | Move the highlighted cursor one step past the cat before pressing Space or Enter. |
| Ignoring hex neighbors | Offset hex rows give an interior cell six neighbors; reading only four leaves routes open. | Before pressing Space, trace each of the six adjacent cells to the outer row. |
| Hoping to recover after the cat escapes | Landing on the outer row or column is a terminal loss; no later barrier can revive that round. | Press Restart as soon as the round freezes in red. |
| Blocking already-blocked cells | The board starts mostly blocked; wasting keyboard presses on the dark cells loses focus, not turns. | Glance at the corridor, not the border, before each press. |
These six patterns cover the overwhelming majority of losses because they all share one root cause: forgetting that the cat is greedy, deterministic, and reactive. Every mistake can be reframed as a single question — "will this barrier shorten the cat's shortest route to the edge?" — and answered by looking at the corridor, not the perimeter.
Trap the cat in two turns: the worked sequence
The cleanest winning line is also the simplest. Follow these steps in order.
- Look at the seven-cell horizontal corridor through the middle of the field. The cat sits inside it on turn 1, surrounded by a wall of pre-blocked cells.
- Use the arrow keys to move the highlighted cursor one cell to the cat's left, then press Space or Enter to drop a barrier on the open cell directly in front of the cat's left-facing path.
- Watch the cat step one cell to the right along its new shortest route to the boundary — this is automatic and uses breadth-first distance to the outer row.
- Use the arrow keys again to move the highlighted cursor one cell to the cat's right, then press Space or Enter to drop a barrier on the only remaining open exit.
- The browser detects that no neighbor can still reach the outer row or column, freezes the round as a win, and locks both the cat and the cursor in place.
The score arithmetic is straightforward and worth showing on the page:
Starting score: 1,000 Minus 100 for barrier 1: 1,000 − 100 = 900 Minus 100 for barrier 2: 900 − 100 = 800 Final score: 800
That two-turn sequence is the reproducible cleanest finish for this disclosed corridor. Any extra barrier you place on a valid open cell pushes the score down in 100-point steps; any barrier placed on the cat or on a blocked cell leaves the score untouched but reveals a mistake in your reading of the corridor. Mouse and touch users can simply click any open cell to drop a barrier — the keyboard flow above works the same way with a pointer.
Why the deterministic corridor changes the strategy
Most Trap the Cat implementations use a random board, which makes each round feel like a fresh puzzle. This version deliberately uses a fixed seven-cell corridor so the two-turn solution and the obvious escape cases are reproducible. That choice has practical benefits for mistake-avoidance: once you have played two or three rounds, every open cell is familiar, every neighbor count is known, and every cat step is predictable. You can rehearse the exact opening without randomness getting in the way. If you want to test a specific blocking order, restart and try it again — the corridor, the cat's starting cell, and the tie-breaking order are all the same.
Determinism turns mistake-spotting into a skill rather than a coin flip, which is why this edition is well suited to a short keyboard break rather than a long campaign. The disclosed board, the disclosed starting score, and the disclosed tie-breaking order are all Lizely implementation choices rather than an official standard, so treat them as the contract for this particular puzzle rather than a universal rule.
Score, controls, and quick recovery
Three details smooth out the learning curve once the corridor is internalized.
- Scoring ceiling. Starting at 1,000 and subtracting 100 per valid barrier, the clean two-turn win of 800 is also the highest score the disclosed corridor allows. Any extra barrier on a valid open cell strictly lowers the result.
- Invalid attempts. Pressing Space on the cat's cell, on a blocked cell, or outside the field does not consume a turn and does not change the score. Treat it as a free preview — a quick way to check whether you read the corridor correctly before committing the real block.
- Restart and boss key. As soon as the cat reaches the outer row or column, the round freezes as a loss and no further barrier can recover it. Select Restart to return the cat, cursor, corridor, score, and turn counter to their initial values. Press Escape twice within 400 milliseconds to swap the board for a simulated operations spreadsheet, then press Escape twice again to return to the unchanged board. The cover is visual only and sends no data.
The completed best score may be stored locally in browser localStorage under a game-specific key for your convenience. Clearing site data or switching browser profiles can remove it without affecting gameplay, and nothing is uploaded, associated with an account, or shared with other players. There is no timer, no public leaderboard, and no network opponent, so the only thing that pushes your score down is the number of valid barriers you place. Use Trap the Cat as a brief path-planning challenge rather than a measure of intelligence or attention.
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Trap the Cat belongs to a wider family of deterministic route-blocking puzzles. Path-planning mistakes in a maze game follow a similar logic of anticipating the marker's shortest step, just on a square grid rather than a hex field. For a different flavor of route-blocking on a deterministic grid, the Maze Game applies comparable reading-and-blocking discipline to a new board shape, while Hashi Bridges turns the same instinct toward connecting numbered islands without crossing paths. Play Trap the Cat for a couple of rounds, restart after every escape, and the corridor will read like an open book by the third attempt.