The Diglett Stage is the first bonus stage on the Red Field. It stands apart because of one unique rule: there is no timer, but you only have a single ball. Losing that ball ends the stage. It is a stage of patience, which rewards consistency more than speed.
How to reach it
On the Red Field, the Diglett Stage is the first in the sequence: just light up the three Poké Balls on the counter (three captures, or one capture and one evolution) and then enter the bonus hole, or land on the Slot Machine’s direct access. It becomes the next stage again after you clear the Mewtwo Stage. See bonus stages for the full sequence.
The field
The stage is played on a field that fits on a single screen, with two flippers at the bottom. Diglett covers the field: 31 Diglett are arranged in tight rows. The launch lane closes behind the ball as soon as it has entered, which prevents you from getting it back to the starting point. The ball is always a Poké Ball, with no multiplier, whichever ball you had on the table.
First phase: the Diglett
Each Diglett you hit goes back underground and earns 1,000,000 points. There is no time limit: you can let the ball settle and line up each shot. There is no respawning either: once a Diglett is knocked down, it doesn’t come back. The goal is to take out all 31.
A few tips follow from these rules:
- Aim for the rows rather than isolated Diglett: a ball that bounces from one Diglett to the next can take out several in a single shot.
- Use nudges sparingly: they are for correcting an angle, not forcing a shot.
- Above all, keep the ball in play. A single mistake between the flippers ends the stage, along with everything you haven’t scored yet.
Second phase: Dugtrio
When all 31 Diglett have gone underground, a Dugtrio appears in the upper part of the field, in the center. It has to be hit three times with the ball. Each hit earns 50,000,000 points. The music changes at that point: the stage has two themes, one for the Diglett and the other for Dugtrio. The internal titles found in the game’s code are “Whack the Diglett” and “Whack the Dugtrio”.
In total, a cleared stage earns 31,000,000 points for the Diglett and 150,000,000 for the three hits on Dugtrio, for 181,000,000 points. Clearing it takes you to the next stage, the Gengar Stage.
The US version’s messages
Access to the stage is announced by “GO TO DIGLETT STAGE”. If the ball drops, the game displays “END DIGLETT STAGE”; if you knock down all 31 Diglett and then hit Dugtrio three times, it displays “DIGLETT STAGE CLEARED”. These are the stage’s US names; this guide simply calls it the Diglett Stage.
What happens if you fail
If the ball drops, the game displays an end-of-stage message and takes you back to the table, with the ball you had before. The points you’ve already earned are kept, but the stage isn’t cleared: the next time you access the bonus stages, the Diglett Stage will be offered again, with 31 Diglett to knock down once more. What you mainly lose is time, and the chance to move on to the rest of the sequence.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Table | Red |
| Timer | None |
| Balls | Just one |
| Diglett to knock down | 31 |
| Points per Diglett | 1,000,000 |
| Hits on Dugtrio | 3 |
| Points per hit on Dugtrio | 50,000,000 |
| Total for a cleared stage | 181,000,000 |
Takeaways
At 181,000,000 points, this stage earns less than the Gengar Stage (310,000,000 points) and considerably less than the Mewtwo Stage, but it is the only one of the five without a timer: its difficulty comes entirely from the single ball. If you lack precision, it’s better to play each shot cleanly than to try to chain bounces. Its premise, moles to be knocked back down with a ball, recalls fairground skill games, and the internal titles of its music (“Whack the Diglett”, “Whack the Dugtrio”) allude to this. Our scoring system page places these gains within the game as a whole.
