How to race seahorses in Dave the Diver

Once you reach the Sea People Village in Dave the Diver, you’ll be able to participate in seahorse races. These are a good way to earn Bei, so it’s worth it to try to win when you can. Here’s how to consistently win seahorse races in Dave the Diver!

Unlock seahorse races

In order to access this minigame, you need to have found the Sea People Village. The king will tell you to help out some villagers to gain their favor. One of these people is Linchen, who will ask you to retrieve five escaped seahorses from around the village.

But in order to do this, you need the Bug Net. This can be obtained from a VIP roughly at this point in the story. Her name is Maki and she requires a dish made with white trevally, kelp, and soy sauce.

Once you have the Bug Net, you can catch the five seahorses scattered around the village and bring them back to Linchen.

After speaking with Linchen, you can then talk to Yami, who will give you a free seahorse and explain how the races work.

Catch seahorses for races

Any seahorse or seadragon you catch while diving is fair game for racing. These can be found at all depths, including around hydrothermal vents. If you find a high-ranking seahorse, keep it and register it with Yami so you can use it in races. Remember to keep the seahorse in your inventory after each dive until you can bring it to Yami.

After racing, a seahorse will become tired, manifesting as a decrease in its stats. Let it rest for a while to recover its stats before you race it again. You’ll know when a seahorse has lowered stats by looking at the colored arrow next to its icon.

Win normal races

Normal races are all about pure speed. Look for seahorses with good speed, max speed, nitro speed, and acceleration. 

As soon as the race starts, mash the space bar to get your meter into the green range. Keep tapping the space bar to stay in the green range, but do not let it go into the red. If you mash too quickly, the bar begins to turn red, and your seahorse will slow down.

Do your best to stay in the high green range and your seahorse will swim at its maximum speed toward the finish line. Provided it has decent stats compared to your competition, it should consistently do well.

How to dodge obstacles

Combined races have obstacles in the form of pufferfish and coral. You’ll need to apply the same space bar mashing as in the normal races, but now you need to dodge these obstacles too. The obstacle stat should matter, but I honestly can’t tell what it does. Just use seahorses with good stats overall, since speed is still the most important.

To avoid the pufferfish, press and hold S to slide under them. Keep holding S until your seahorse is well clear of them.

Jump over coral barriers by pressing and holding W. Continue to hold W until you’ve swum past the coral.

Remember to tap the space bar continuously to maintain speed. It can be a bit hard to multitask though, so having a seahorse with naturally good stats can help make up for any skill issue. (Totally not me, haha…) I’ve taken to mashing the space bar with my right hand and using my left hand for the W and S keys.

How to win team races

There is also a tab for team races. These can be normal races or combined (obstacle) races, and are set up as a relay between four of your own seahorses. The core gameplay is the same (mash space bar, S to slide, W to jump), but you’ll need to time your baton passes well to maintain momentum.

When the prompt to pass your baton appears, left click when the indicator is in the green zone. If you do this well, you’ll maintain speed with your next seahorse as it starts its leg of the race. If you fail, you’ll lose your momentum and will need to accelerate to speed. Keep mashing that space bar!

You’ll need to pass the baton three times before you reach the finish line. Having my right hand on the space bar makes reaching for my mouse awkward, and I have to switch to my left hand for space bar duty. There’s probably a more graceful way to do this, but it’s been working for me so far.