Queens-Style Logic Puzzle Game: Bodoku Showed Me Why I Was Wrong
Ghosts, colored rooms, three hearts and a Why? button, from a 4×4 lesson to a 10×10 board.
By Polarzinho ·
Bodoku is a queens-style logic puzzle game with ghosts: you put one ghost in every row, column and colored room of a square board, and no two ghosts may touch, not even diagonally. It runs in the browser, it has 180 levels in six castle wings, and when you get something wrong it shows you why, which is rarer than it should be. If you play the daily Queens puzzle on LinkedIn, the rules will feel familiar.
I am Polarzinho, the studio panda, so I am biased: Bodoku is a Polar Games title and I walked in already rooting for the ghost. I still played it properly: the lesson, the first 16 campaign levels, the daily puzzle for 24 October, a 10×10 board in Relax, an Endless board and one very expensive hat. I played on desktop, in English, so the screenshots are in English.
How this queens-style logic puzzle game works
The board is a square, from 4×4 to 10×10, cut into colored rooms. The game prints its rulebook above it in three labels, and everything else is deduction:
- One per row & column: each holds exactly one ghost.
- One per room: each colored room holds exactly one ghost.
- Ghosts never touch: not even diagonally.
According to the LinkedIn Help Center page “Games on LinkedIn”, checked on 24 October 2026, Queens is a logic game where you fill the grid so that there is only one Queen per row, column and colored region. Swap queens for ghosts and you have the core of Bodoku’s rule set. Bodoku’s third rule is its own to state: ghosts may never touch, not even diagonally. And in Bodoku a tap is an X and a double tap is a ghost.
The lesson: Bo teaches four moves on a 4×4 board
The game opens on a sleeping ghost and a Tap to start button, then a menu: Play, Map, Daily, Wardrobe, Relax and Endless. Press Play and Bo, a lilac ghost with a leaf on his head, greets you in a bubble: “Hi! I’m Bo! Help me find a cozy spot for every little ghost.” Everything except the cells that matter dims, a gloved hand points, and you learn one move at a time:
- A one-cell room. “This tiny room has just one cell. Double-tap it to call a ghost!”
- Cross out the row and column. “A ghost guards its whole row and column. Cross those cells out: tap them, or drag across!”
- Cross out the neighbors. “Ghosts are shy: nobody can sit in the cells around them. Cross out these two.”
- A row with one free cell. “Look at this row: only one free cell is left. Double-tap it!”
PolarzinhoA glowing cell and a gloved hand pointing at it. Best pop quiz I have ever taken.
My first lesson ended with three stars, 50 coins and “You did it! The castle is waiting for us.”
Mistakes: a pink X, three hearts and a Why? button
I made a mistake on purpose, naturally. In the lesson I double-tapped a cell that looked fine and Bo said: “Hmm… a ghost there would break the puzzle later.” The wrong ghost does not stay: the cell gets a pink X and a Why? button appears.
Press Why? and the game shows its work: “Suppose a ghost went in row 4, column 1.” It lists what each ghost rules out and ends with “Then row 3 would have no possible place for its ghost.” That is a proof by contradiction in a speech bubble.
PolarzinhoBo showed his work. Nobody has ever shown me their work and then been nice about it.
From level 4 you get three hearts, and a wrong ghost darkens one; the lesson and levels 1 to 3 show an infinity sign instead. Some mistakes break a visible rule, and then the game lights up the room, draws a dashed line to the ghost already there and says “This room already has its ghost. Each room holds just one, so this cell gets an X.”
Lose all three and an Out of lives card appears. Bo, in the wizard hat I bought in the Wardrobe (more below), says “Bo still believes in you. Your marks stay on the board.” The buttons read Keep going · 60, with a coin icon, then Start over and Back to map. On level 12 I pressed Keep going and had three hearts again.
PolarzinhoA crying ghost in a wizard hat. I paid for that hat, and I am the one who feels guilty.
Stars follow your slips: no slips and no help is three stars. A single hint on level 1 left me with two, and three wrong ghosts on level 12 left me with one.
Controls: gestures, right click, keyboard or a tool picker
- Tap or click: an X. Double tap or right click: a ghost. The right click worked on every board where I tried it.
- Drag: crosses out every cell you pass over. Hold: a small “maybe” dot, which Bo calls “just a reminder”.
- Keyboard: press Tab three times to reach the board (Pause, Settings, board), move a dashed frame with the arrows, then X marks and G places a ghost.
- Tool picker: in Settings, under Controls, choose “Pick a tool, then tap”.
Levels 1 to 16: six wings and wiggly board sizes
The Map is a castle in six wings of 30 levels, starting with The Haunted Hall (“Creaky doors, warm candles and the first lost ghosts”). Wings open in order, and each has a chest with a star counter.
Board sizes bounce around. In my 16 levels I met 4×4 boards (levels 1 to 3, 5 and 15), 5×5 boards (4, 6 to 9 and 11 to 14) and 6×6 boards (10 and 16). Most started with one ghost already placed, so the first job was crossing out its row, column and neighbors.
PolarzinhoSix crosses and one free cell. The room has no say in this, which is a feeling I know from family dinners.
Level 7 ended with “New helper unlocked! Lantern”. On level 8 I tapped it and it put a ghost on the board for me, which counted as help. The game also nudges you when you stall: on level 3 I stared at the board for a while, and it dimmed everything except the one-cell room while a hand pointed at it.
How to solve a queens-style puzzle: five deductions I used
You need a routine, not a trick: place a ghost, cross out what it rules out, then look at what is left. These five moves did the work for me, all tried by hand:
- A room with one cell gets its ghost. On level 3 a one-cell room sat on the left edge of row 2, and the 9×9 daily had two.
- Every ghost rules out its row, its column and the cells touching it. The game says it in one line: “A ghost rules out its row, its column, its room and every cell touching it.”
- A row with one free cell gets its ghost. After crossing out around the first ghost, the lesson’s second row had a single cell left.
- A room with one free cell gets its ghost. On level 4, six cells of a seven-cell room were crossed out and the seventh was the answer.
- A room inside one column owns that column. On level 10 a two-cell room on the left edge had both cells in column 1, so I crossed out the column’s other four cells. That left the room above with one free cell, and the next ghost followed.
PolarzinhoFour crosses down one column and a ghost appears out of thin air. This is the closest I get to magic.
The game’s own trick, the one behind every Why? panel, is to try a ghost somewhere and see whether a row, column or room runs out of cells. You can do the same in your head when the sure moves dry up.
Hints, helpers and the shop in the Wardrobe
The candle gives a hint. It lights the cell or room to look at, and Bo’s bubble offers Why? and Apply. On level 1 it said “Look around this ghost.” The badge on the Hint button went from 3 to 2, and the level ended with two stars.
On the 10×10 in Relax the hint said “Look closely at the Teal room.” Rooms have color names, and hints use them. Why? answered: “The Teal room has only one free cell left: the ghost goes there.”
PolarzinhoA hundred cells, ten rooms and one glowing teal square. I would have found it eventually. Probably by Thursday.
The Wardrobe’s Helpers tab sells the Candle for 40 coins, the Lantern for 90 and the Broom for 70. The Broom’s line reads “Sweeps away wrong X marks and crosses out every cell that surely can’t hold a ghost.”
The Wardrobe, the trophies and a ticklish ghost
The Wardrobe has five tabs: Hats, Face, Capes, Colors and Helpers. Items come as Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary, and some wait behind a level: the Pirate Hat says “Reach level 61”. Tap an item and Bo tries it on in a mirror: “Ooh, how do I look?” I had 464 coins, so I bought the Wizard Hat for 460 and wore it for the rest of the review.
PolarzinhoI paid 460 coins to look like I understand the rules. Worth every one.
The Trophies screen lists sixteen goals, and each pays coins when you press Claim. The last card says “A secret… try poking Bo.” I poked Bo on the menu until a trophy called Ticklish popped up.
Daily puzzle, Relax and Endless
Daily opens a calendar: “0-day streak. Best streak: 0. Today’s reward: 50 coins.” The 24 October board was a 9×9 with nine rooms, two of them single cells. When I solved it the card read “1-day streak”. Tapping the 23rd opened that day’s board, an 8×8.
PolarzinhoNine rooms, two single cells and zero excuses. I started with the cells that cannot argue.
Relax says it on its card: “No lives, no clock. Pick a size and unwind.” You choose 5×5 up to 10×10. I picked 10×10 and got two stars, a time and a trophy called Deep Breath, with no coin reward. Endless promises “A fresh board every time, a bit harder as you go.” Endless #1 was a 6×6 that paid 8 coins. I saw no hearts in either mode.
Settings worth opening: room patterns and 14 languages
Room patterns gives every room its own texture: hatching, circles, a grid, stripes. High contrast and Vibration are switches too.
PolarzinhoStripes, circles and grids. My sofa has fewer patterns than this castle, and it is trying.
Language offers 14 options, Português (Brasil) and Español among them. I switched to both, and the menus, the lesson bubbles and the Why? panel changed on the spot. The game page says progress is saved in this browser and is not synchronized automatically between devices.
FAQ
Is Bodoku a queens game online?
It is a queens-style logic puzzle game that runs in the browser: one ghost per row, column and room, no touching, diagonals included. The one-per-row, column and colored-region part is the same core rule that LinkedIn’s Help Center describes for Queens (checked on 24 October 2026). On top of that rule set, Bodoku adds its own theme, hearts, Why? panel and four modes.
How many levels does Bodoku have?
180, in six wings of 30, with boards from 4×4 to 10×10, plus a Daily puzzle, Relax mode and Endless boards.
Is Bodoku multiplayer?
No. It is a single-player puzzle.
What happens when I place a wrong ghost?
The ghost does not stay. The cell gets a pink X and Bo explains why, with a Why? button for the deeper cases. From level 4 each wrong ghost darkens one of three hearts.
Does Bodoku have hints?
Yes. The candle points at a cell or a room, with Why? and Apply buttons. A hint counts in the “Mistakes and hints used” line that sets your stars.
Bodoku pros and cons
Ready to find a cozy spot for every ghost?
Bodoku is on Polar Games, straight in your browser. Let Bo run the lesson, cross out the cells around your first ghost and, when a level eats you alive, press Why? before you press Start over.