The Seel stage is the second bonus stage on the Blue Field. It lasts 1 minute 30 seconds, with an unlimited number of balls until the stage is completed. Seel swims in the water here, in the form of three silhouettes. The idea is simple: hit their heads when they come out of the water, as many times in a row as possible, because the points and the icons go up with the streak.
How to reach it
On the Blue Field, the Seel stage follows the Meowth Stage. It is only offered after you clear the Meowth Stage, and you get there like the others: three Poké Balls lit up and then the bonus hole, or the Slot Machine’s direct access. See bonus stages.
The field
The field is a pool. Three Seel swim beneath the surface, visible as silhouettes. From time to time, one of them pokes its head out of the water for a brief moment: this is the only time it can be hit. If it is hit, it dives straight back down. If it isn’t hit, it dives back on its own after a while. The stage’s music is inspired by the first generation’s sea theme, the one that plays with Surf in Red and Blue.
The streak and the points
The core principle is the streak: hitting several heads in a row, without any of them diving back on its own, raises both the number of icons added and the points. The icons increase by the length of the streak, while the points double with each hit:
| Hit in the streak | Points | Icons added |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1,000,000 | 1 |
| 2nd | 2,000,000 | 2 |
| 3rd | 4,000,000 | 3 |
| 4th | 8,000,000 | 4 |
| 5th | 16,000,000 | 5 |
| 6th | 32,000,000 | 6 |
| 7th | 64,000,000 | 7 |
| 8th | 128,000,000 | 8 |
| 9th | 256,000,000 | 9 |
Six hits in a row are enough to collect 21 icons and complete the stage. The points, meanwhile, reach their cap with a streak of nine hits: a multiplier of 256. A perfect nine-hit streak therefore earns 511,000,000 points. As soon as a Seel dives back on its own, the streak is broken and the multiplier goes back to zero.
What is a streak worth?
A streak of L hits earns L x (L + 1) / 2 icons and 2^L – 1 million points. The table below gives these values for every possible streak.
| Streak length | Icons gained | Total points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1,000,000 |
| 2 | 3 | 3,000,000 |
| 3 | 6 | 7,000,000 |
| 4 | 10 | 15,000,000 |
| 5 | 15 | 31,000,000 |
| 6 | 21 | 63,000,000 |
| 7 | 28 | 127,000,000 |
| 8 | 36 | 255,000,000 |
| 9 | 45 | 511,000,000 |
The length of the streak therefore matters far more than the number of hits: nine hits in one streak are worth 511,000,000 points, whereas nine isolated hits earn only 9,000,000.
Succeeding or failing
When the 20 icons are reached, the stage is cleared, but you can keep earning points until the timer runs out or the ball is lost. If you lose the ball before clearing, the streak and the multiplier are reset and you take a penalty of four icons; the game sends you another ball as long as time hasn’t run out. If the timer reaches zero without a clear, the stage is failed and will be offered again. Clearing it takes you to the Mewtwo Stage.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Table | Blue |
| Timer | 1 min 30 sec |
| Seel on the field | 3 |
| Icons to collect | 20 |
| Points for the first hit | 1,000,000 |
| Maximum multiplier | 256 |
| Penalty for losing the ball before clearing | 4 icons |
Tips
- Focus on the length of the streak: a streak of six hits is enough to complete the stage, and the following hits become pure point harvesting.
- Aim for the visible heads, not the silhouettes: only a Seel that has poked its head out can be hit.
- A broken streak doesn’t cost you the icons or points you’ve already earned: only the multiplier drops back.
With this doubling logic, a well-played Seel stage far outstrips the gains of the Meowth Stage, provided you chain your hits. In the US version, it is announced by “GO TO SEEL STAGE”, failed with “END SEEL STAGE” and cleared with “SEEL STAGE CLEARED”. In the Japanese version, it is called “Pawou Stage”, after Seel’s Japanese name.
