Paw Match: A Free Cat Match-3 Game With No Download

How to start

1. Open tokentails.com/game. You can meet your cat first, or skip.
2. Press PLAY and pick Paw Match (“Match tiles, chain combos, beat the clock”).
3. Pick a level. Level 1 is Kitten Starter 1.

Your first board shows a glowing pair and one line: “Drag one glowing tile onto the other. The clock waits for you.” Do that and the run begins. On an uncleared level 1 you also get a one-time 15 extra seconds if the clock runs out.

The six worlds

Each world has five levels. Later worlds give you less time, ask for a higher score and add more tile kinds to the board, which makes matches harder to find.

Level 1 gives you 132 seconds to reach a goal of 256. Level 30 gives you 94 seconds to reach 1,110.

How Paw Match plays

The board is 8 by 8. Early levels use five tile kinds (hearts, paws, cat faces, catnip sprigs and fire); later levels add water and nature tiles. Swipe or drag a tile onto a neighbour to swap them. Three or more of a kind in a line clear, the tiles above fall, and any new lines they make clear too, as a cascade.

• Goal: reach the level’s goal score before the clock hits zero.
• Mission: each level also asks you to collect a number of one tile kind, for example 10 catnip sprigs.
• Queued moves: you do not have to wait for a cascade to finish. Up to six swaps queue up and play in order (“MOVE QUEUED”).
• Time back: clearing four or more tiles in one match adds a second to the clock.
• Stars: three per level, at 40%, 75% and 100% of the goal. Each star adds a second.
• Fever: in the last 15 seconds, if you are well on the way to the goal, fever mode starts and every match scores double (“FEVER x2”). During fever, big matches add two seconds instead of one.
• Last chance: if time runs out when you are very close to the goal, or no more than two tiles short of the mission, you get five more seconds, once.
• Bonus missions: small side tasks, such as a two-step chain or a match of four, pop up during a run and pay extra points and seconds.

Special tiles and combinations

Specials go off when they are matched, or as soon as you swap one with a neighbour. Swap two specials together for a bigger blast:

• Rainbow + rainbow: clears the whole board.
• Bomb + bomb: two 5 by 5 blasts.
• Bomb + line clearer: three full rows and three full columns.
• Rainbow + any special or tile: every tile of that kind goes.

Tips for high scores

1. Study the board before your first swap. The clock waits, so plan your first two or three moves.
2. Look low on the board first. A match near the bottom moves more tiles above it, which can set off cascades. The game’s own tip says the same.
3. Build specials instead of taking every small match. A line of four is worth more than two quick threes.
4. Combine two specials. A bomb next to a line clearer is the strongest swap most boards offer.
5. Hold a special for fever. Points double in the last 15 seconds, so a rainbow set off then pays twice.
6. Keep the mission in view. Being within two tiles of it when time runs out gives you the last-chance seconds, and specials often clear mission tiles for you.
7. Stuck? Wait a moment. After a few idle seconds the game pulses a possible move, and a board with no moves reshuffles by itself.

Leaderboards for every level

Each level has its own leaderboard, ranked by the highest score on that level. The level screen shows the top scores, your best score and your rank. Sign in to keep your scores and play on another device.

How it compares with app-store cat match-3 games

Many cat match-3 games are apps you install from a phone’s app store. Paw Match is different in a few plain ways: it runs in any modern browser on a phone or computer, starts without an account, and has a fixed set of 30 timed levels, each with its own leaderboard. If you want a quick board in a spare minute, Paw Match is a tab away.

More in the same game

The same PLAY menu also has Purrsuit, a pixel cat platformer with 78 levels (Purrsuit guide), Catnip Heist, a two-cat stealth puzzle, and Pink Paw Knight, a 3D quest with a tiny knight cat. Between games, your cat waits at Home, and the Shelter shows real cats from Pink Paw, a cat shelter in Kaunas, Lithuania. For more picks, see free cat games online and virtual pet cat games.