- Mar 17, 2012
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What, did you think after all my cheerleading for TZ that I was going to let someone else write the strategy guide? P'shaw! Qualifications: 13.2B on the PC beta, 902M/896M/830M (EDIT: 1.65B as of 2/16/2013) on the real table, with about a thousand games played on that real table. And again, this is not the only way to play TZ; a table this complex has multiple paths to the high score charts. But first, some bookkeeping:
Read the Bleeping Manual: Either the in-game instructions or the excellent guide at the Pinball Archive will serve you well. I will give some explanation as I go along, but this post would be novel-length if I repeated all the basics here, so go read the instructions if you've not familiar with TZ, then come back here.
General Strategy: There are essentially three ways to go for big points: regulation multiball, Powerball Mania and Lost in the Zone. Fortunately, these three are not mutually exclusive; you can and should work toward all three simultaneously. Lost in the Zone is more of a longer-term goal because of the time it takes to get there but is the single most point-rich mode on the table. The other two goals are available from the start. In general, I prefer to get the first multiball under my belt quickly and then play naturally, working toward whatever goal I'm closest to at the time. We'll look at each goal in turn, but first, you need to master this one combo before doing anything else...
Left Ramp - Right Ramp - Piano: This 3-way combo (referred to hereafter as LR-RR-P), besides scoring 10M, does a host of good things for you. It lights a lock toward multiball. It lights the gumball machine load shot on the Right Spiral. It relights both the piano and the slot machine for door panels. And it collects the lit piano. All in 3 shots.
Why is this so critical? Because it allows you to multiball at will, allows you to get the Powerball out of the gumball machine whenever you want, and quickly lights those door panels for LITZ. And of all the shots in TZ, these three are the safest. At worst you'll smack the Clock Target and have to make a quick nudge to prevent a center drain. But you're away from the bumpers, away from the slings and away from the outlanes when you make these shots.
Also note: Both ramps can be shot from either lower flipper.
Touch That Door, Touch That Door, Touch That Door Early and Often: Regulation multiball in TZ is kind of weird compared to other multiballs. For the first multiball, you have the choice of locking 1 or 2 balls. Always lock the second ball if you can manage it. Doing so raises the base jackpot value from a pitiful 15M to a respectable 40M, but more importantly, each additional jackpot is also worth 25M more than it would have been with only 1 ball locked. For the second multiball, you'll have to spell GUM-BALL twice and then shoot the Lock for release. Subsequent multiballs require three GUM-BALL spellings. If you have the LR-RR-P combo down, spelling this out will not bother you at all.
Achtung! There is no ball saver in regulation multiball! Flip accordingly!
Once in multiball: For the first one, at least one ball is going to come from the auto-plunger, and it gets shot out first. This gives you a clean shot at the jackpot immediately. Otherwise, balls will be coming down from the Lock; it is possible to ricochet one off the resting upper-left flipper and into the piano. After the first jackpot, the Camera relights the jackpot, and you alternate Camera and Piano until you drop out of multiball.
The table will be trying to help you out by activating the Spiral Helper magnets for the currently lit shot (unless Spiral is running, then the magnets may or may not fire depending on the progress in Spiral), and the Ramp Helper (bridge diverter) will be active as well. To take full advantage of this, you need to throw the other ball(s) somewhere safe for a second or two. Good targets include the Lock, either ramp (the right ramp is better, since the ball then has to wait for the bridge diverter to catch and dump, which takes a while), or the Camera shot itself. The slot machine is risky, but can be considered in a pinch. Don't try to hold on to the third ball unnecessarily; there is no benefit score-wise to keeping it around and the multiball is easier to play with only two, so let it go rather than give up a jackpot.
The Greed targets add 5M to the jackpot value, but they can be profitably ignored. You'll probably hit a few of them anyway, and you're generally better off collecting smaller but more numerous jackpots rather than trying for a big payoff and falling out of multiball instead. In the same vein, it is generally not worth it to lock the Powerball for a chance at double jackpots. The Powerball is much better disposed of by throwing it up the Right Spiral to start Powerball Mania instead.
Powerball! Its sole purpose in life, as far as you are concerned, is to be loaded into the gumball machine to start Powerball Mania. You are not interested in the 10M Powerball Loops (play Spiral during a multiball if you want to bother with the orbits). Double jackpots are not exciting when you have the opportunity to collect multiple 50M Mania Jackpots. The table wants you to put it back, and your only proper response is to give the Power what it wants, good and hard!
To get the Powerball into the gumball machine, you first have to get it out of the machine. If you've been playing regulation multiball or shooting a lot of those LR-RR-P combos, you probably have a bunch of Load Gumball Machines stacked on the Right Spiral. So start cashing them in until the Powerball is released.
TPA's Powerball is not nearly as ill-mannered as a real one, which is kind of unfortunate: The Powerball's quirkiness is one of the things that makes TZ what it is. No matter, because you're not going to experience it for long anyway. Dead-pass the Powerball from the slot machine, trap up on the left, let it roll down about 3/4 of the way and shoot for Right Spiral. If you miss, focus on regaining control. DO NOT TRY TO PLAY WITH THE POWERBALL. It is a little bouncier than the steel balls, and it has a tendency to get into trouble faster (although again, not anywhere near as often as a real one). On a real TZ, you'll not last very long with it out. In TPA, the issue isn't so much risk as the fact that no other shot you can make will give you better potential scoring than Powerball Mania, the one exception being Lost in the Zone.
Powerball Mania: Powerball Mania has an initial frenzy, where all switch hits are 250K. This means that your first few seconds you want to hold on the balls, and preferably throw them in the bumpers (on TPA only, not a real table) to maximize switch hits. Of course if you have a clear shot at the right ramp take it and try for the Mania Jackpot.
There's a hidden ball saver for the first few seconds of Powerball Mania. If you have the outlanes lit, now's an excellent time to collect an extra ball or two.
Because you are trying to defeat the Power while keeping other balls in play, actually concentrating on the Powerfield is difficult-to-impossible. So instead just try to keep the ball on the Powerfield and try to shoot the Camera with the other ball(s). What you are aiming for is either a real Mania Jackpot, or getting the ball on the Powerfield high enough to trip the exit opto (even if the ball doesn't actually go through the upper hole) and hitting the Camera immediately afterward. Doing so trips the same combination of switches that a legitimate Mania Jackpot does, and so you are given credit for the Mania Jackpot!
Again, the first part of the LR-RR-P combo can be put to good use. Left ramp relights Battle the Power, right ramp immediately heads to the Powerfield. No fuss, no muss.
As for what to do with balls not on the Powerfield, in order of priority:
Lost in the Zone: Balls! Balls everywhere! Steel balls! Ceramic balls! Ahem...
LITZ is an overwhelming round. Everything is lit! What do I shoot for? Actually, your first priority is keeping as many balls in play as possible. Yes, the auto-launcher will fire them back in...but it's slow, about 3 seconds per ball...and it can only fire one at a time. If you lose 4 balls at once (as I've done), it takes a full 12 seconds to return to full strength...and that means much reduced scoring.
Priority shots are the right ramp for Mania Jackpots. You will not be able to concentrate on the Powerfield at all, if you notice a ball up there give the Camera everything you got to cheat a Mania Jackpot - and that includes playing billiards with the other 5 balls trying to bank-shot the Camera. Second priority: Greed! Those lower Greed targets, normally deadly, paradoxically become safe in LITZ because there's almost always another ball in the way to block a quick center or side drain. And they're fast shots, so you can make a lot of them in a hurry. Third priority late in round: Clock Target for high-value Clock Millions.
If Spiral is running when you enter LITZ, aim for the orbits constantly. You will Spiral Breakthrough like there's no tomorrow. Again, this (sadly) does not count toward the LITZ total, but it counts toward overall score...counts 400M+ if you're good at the orbit shots. If you can get more than one ball up there simultaneously, you can actually "juggle" them across the magnets with alternating Spiral shots and score a Breakthrough for both the incoming and the impacted ball! (This is not supposed to happen, but the ROM gets confused when both spiral magnets are registering balls constantly.)
If Clock Chaos and/or Clock 10 Millions is running when you enter LITZ, aim for the Clock target constantly. It is possible to keep Clock Chaos running throughout all of LITZ due to the number of balls striking the target and reversing the clock, doing so leads to absolutely bonkers Clock Chaos totals (again, sadly not part of LITZ). Clock 10 Millions does count toward LITZ, and is helpful if you're gunning for LITZ Champion.
Speaking of which, any bonus which is part of the LITZ Total that you scored on the same ball prior to LITZing will get dragged into the LITZ Total. (This includes Super Slot, Clock Millions, Clock 10 Millions, Powerball Mania, Greed, and Town Square Madness.) Having a big Powerball Mania or Clock 10 Millions round before entering LITZ is the key to getting a good LITZ Total.
A Most Unusual Camera: Some of the Camera modes can also be employed for fun and profit:
When battling the Power, don't flip indiscriminately. This leads the ball to the middle and down the lower hole. Instead try to flip when the ball is below the black circles in an attempt to pull the ball upward and hopefully through the top hole. If the ball instead comes down the middle, grab it with one magnet, not both, as activating both magnets will cancel each other out. A gentle style works best. Also, keep flipping after the timer reaches 0, you have another few seconds before the magnets truly go dead, and defeating the Power during this time generally still counts.
I tend to ignore Dead Ends, mainly because getting the ball to the right inlane is dangerous (nothing feeds it directly, and balls heading that way tend to find the outlane instead), and also because the Lawloristic shot through the bumpers is not exactly safe either. If you're better at that shot than I am, you may want to try for it as there is an extra ball for making 3 Dead Ends. (There's also a 100M Dead End Bonus at 8 and 20 Dead Ends, but even in that 13B+ game I never reached 8 Dead Ends.)
"Hi! I'm Talky Tina, and I Have a Disturbing Fascination with Extra Balls!" Twilight Zone does not hand out extra balls left, right and center like RBION does, but there are still a few opportunities. Nine and 45 Robots (each once), 250M (once), Lite Extra Ball (once per door panel if you don't collect any other extra ball first), 3 Dead Ends (once), Lit Left Outlane from Camera award (theoretically multiple times) or Orange Super Skill Shot (once per door panel), and the Yellow Super Skill Shot (once per door panel).
Specials are exclusively from Lit Right Outlane from Camera award or Orange Super Skill Shot. Of course, it's really an extra ball in disguise.
Big Risk, Big Reward, in the Twilight Zone: Sorry, Elvira, but Twilight Zone offers more huge bon...uses than your Scared Stiff. Most of the mode points go toward end-of-ball bonus, specifically: Clock Chaos, Clock Millions, Clock 10 Millions, Greed, Powerfield (from Battle the Power), Powerball Mania, and Town Square Madness. The Hitchhikers and Door Panels are relatively minor contributors, even multiplied, when compared to the mode totals except toward the end of super-long games.
This means don't tilt and especially keep your hands off after you hit the second danger. Losing a 250M+ bonus to an ill-considered nudge is not something you want to experience.
If your bonus is enough to push you over 250M, flip both flippers after the first reel of the slot machine stops for a 5M Flipper Bonus. Points is points.
And that is how to get lost in the Twilight Zone! Good luck!
ADDENDUM FOR TWILIGHT ZONE WITHOUT THE BARRIER
If your version of Twilight Zone does not have the barrier installed in the bumpers, make the following adjustments to the above strategy:
Read the Bleeping Manual: Either the in-game instructions or the excellent guide at the Pinball Archive will serve you well. I will give some explanation as I go along, but this post would be novel-length if I repeated all the basics here, so go read the instructions if you've not familiar with TZ, then come back here.
General Strategy: There are essentially three ways to go for big points: regulation multiball, Powerball Mania and Lost in the Zone. Fortunately, these three are not mutually exclusive; you can and should work toward all three simultaneously. Lost in the Zone is more of a longer-term goal because of the time it takes to get there but is the single most point-rich mode on the table. The other two goals are available from the start. In general, I prefer to get the first multiball under my belt quickly and then play naturally, working toward whatever goal I'm closest to at the time. We'll look at each goal in turn, but first, you need to master this one combo before doing anything else...
Left Ramp - Right Ramp - Piano: This 3-way combo (referred to hereafter as LR-RR-P), besides scoring 10M, does a host of good things for you. It lights a lock toward multiball. It lights the gumball machine load shot on the Right Spiral. It relights both the piano and the slot machine for door panels. And it collects the lit piano. All in 3 shots.
Why is this so critical? Because it allows you to multiball at will, allows you to get the Powerball out of the gumball machine whenever you want, and quickly lights those door panels for LITZ. And of all the shots in TZ, these three are the safest. At worst you'll smack the Clock Target and have to make a quick nudge to prevent a center drain. But you're away from the bumpers, away from the slings and away from the outlanes when you make these shots.
Also note: Both ramps can be shot from either lower flipper.
Touch That Door, Touch That Door, Touch That Door Early and Often: Regulation multiball in TZ is kind of weird compared to other multiballs. For the first multiball, you have the choice of locking 1 or 2 balls. Always lock the second ball if you can manage it. Doing so raises the base jackpot value from a pitiful 15M to a respectable 40M, but more importantly, each additional jackpot is also worth 25M more than it would have been with only 1 ball locked. For the second multiball, you'll have to spell GUM-BALL twice and then shoot the Lock for release. Subsequent multiballs require three GUM-BALL spellings. If you have the LR-RR-P combo down, spelling this out will not bother you at all.
Achtung! There is no ball saver in regulation multiball! Flip accordingly!
Once in multiball: For the first one, at least one ball is going to come from the auto-plunger, and it gets shot out first. This gives you a clean shot at the jackpot immediately. Otherwise, balls will be coming down from the Lock; it is possible to ricochet one off the resting upper-left flipper and into the piano. After the first jackpot, the Camera relights the jackpot, and you alternate Camera and Piano until you drop out of multiball.
The table will be trying to help you out by activating the Spiral Helper magnets for the currently lit shot (unless Spiral is running, then the magnets may or may not fire depending on the progress in Spiral), and the Ramp Helper (bridge diverter) will be active as well. To take full advantage of this, you need to throw the other ball(s) somewhere safe for a second or two. Good targets include the Lock, either ramp (the right ramp is better, since the ball then has to wait for the bridge diverter to catch and dump, which takes a while), or the Camera shot itself. The slot machine is risky, but can be considered in a pinch. Don't try to hold on to the third ball unnecessarily; there is no benefit score-wise to keeping it around and the multiball is easier to play with only two, so let it go rather than give up a jackpot.
The Greed targets add 5M to the jackpot value, but they can be profitably ignored. You'll probably hit a few of them anyway, and you're generally better off collecting smaller but more numerous jackpots rather than trying for a big payoff and falling out of multiball instead. In the same vein, it is generally not worth it to lock the Powerball for a chance at double jackpots. The Powerball is much better disposed of by throwing it up the Right Spiral to start Powerball Mania instead.
Powerball! Its sole purpose in life, as far as you are concerned, is to be loaded into the gumball machine to start Powerball Mania. You are not interested in the 10M Powerball Loops (play Spiral during a multiball if you want to bother with the orbits). Double jackpots are not exciting when you have the opportunity to collect multiple 50M Mania Jackpots. The table wants you to put it back, and your only proper response is to give the Power what it wants, good and hard!
To get the Powerball into the gumball machine, you first have to get it out of the machine. If you've been playing regulation multiball or shooting a lot of those LR-RR-P combos, you probably have a bunch of Load Gumball Machines stacked on the Right Spiral. So start cashing them in until the Powerball is released.
TPA's Powerball is not nearly as ill-mannered as a real one, which is kind of unfortunate: The Powerball's quirkiness is one of the things that makes TZ what it is. No matter, because you're not going to experience it for long anyway. Dead-pass the Powerball from the slot machine, trap up on the left, let it roll down about 3/4 of the way and shoot for Right Spiral. If you miss, focus on regaining control. DO NOT TRY TO PLAY WITH THE POWERBALL. It is a little bouncier than the steel balls, and it has a tendency to get into trouble faster (although again, not anywhere near as often as a real one). On a real TZ, you'll not last very long with it out. In TPA, the issue isn't so much risk as the fact that no other shot you can make will give you better potential scoring than Powerball Mania, the one exception being Lost in the Zone.
Powerball Mania: Powerball Mania has an initial frenzy, where all switch hits are 250K. This means that your first few seconds you want to hold on the balls, and preferably throw them in the bumpers (on TPA only, not a real table) to maximize switch hits. Of course if you have a clear shot at the right ramp take it and try for the Mania Jackpot.
There's a hidden ball saver for the first few seconds of Powerball Mania. If you have the outlanes lit, now's an excellent time to collect an extra ball or two.
Because you are trying to defeat the Power while keeping other balls in play, actually concentrating on the Powerfield is difficult-to-impossible. So instead just try to keep the ball on the Powerfield and try to shoot the Camera with the other ball(s). What you are aiming for is either a real Mania Jackpot, or getting the ball on the Powerfield high enough to trip the exit opto (even if the ball doesn't actually go through the upper hole) and hitting the Camera immediately afterward. Doing so trips the same combination of switches that a legitimate Mania Jackpot does, and so you are given credit for the Mania Jackpot!
Again, the first part of the LR-RR-P combo can be put to good use. Left ramp relights Battle the Power, right ramp immediately heads to the Powerfield. No fuss, no muss.
As for what to do with balls not on the Powerfield, in order of priority:
- Shoot the right ramp to get on the Powerfield. In Powerball Mania, you can have two or even all three balls up there. Each new ball entering the Powerfield also resets the Powerfield timer, and can score Mania Jackpots independently of each other.
- Shoot the Lock. This will present you with a nice slow ball to the upper-right flipper for a Camera shot and a chance at a fake Mania Jackpot.
- Shoot the left ramp, to set up a right ramp or Lock shot.
- Town Square Madness: Even though the bumper area is much safer than on a real TZ, I still ignore this round. The ball is still out of control and there is some risk of immediate center or right outlane drains. However, if you're about to start a multiball mode, or if you get this from the slot machine and Fast Lock is flashing and collectible at the piano, it can score very, very well if you throw two of the three balls in the pops. (Keep one elsewhere to prevent an unlucky triple drain.)
- Lite Extra Ball: The important thing to know is that if you collect any other extra ball, this door panel is spotted and you can't get the extra ball from the door panel. You can light other extra balls, just not collect them. So whenever this panel is flashing, your immediate and overriding priority is to get to the piano to collect it. If Town Square Madness is flashing, collect it and then immediately execute a LR-RR-P combo to collect Lite Extra Ball as well. Also note that the slot machine will never give this to you unless it's the last panel on the door (very, very unlikely).
- Super Slot: Ignore it. The slot machine's a death shot, although again, TPA's is more friendly than the real thing. If you must go for it, aim slightly to the right of the opening to avoid the Greed target on the left, which is responsible for most of the powerdrains off the slot machine.
- Clock Millions: This can pay off, but you have to pay attention to the state of the clock. The Clock Target is a slightly risky shot, so you don't want to mess around with it for a piddly 1M or 2M. Instead, take an immediate shot at the Clock Target while the hour hand is still on 12 - this scores 12M - then ignore it for a few "hours". Resume shooting when your brain's risk/reward center tells you it's worthwhile; I usually start back up around 6:00 or so and try to squeeze in the 5 more shots needed for Clock Damage Bonus. Don't hurry up and take bad shots just to try for the bonus though, it's only 10M.
- The Spiral: This is mostly ignorable, except in one case: If you're about to start a multiball, any multiball. This is because auto-launched balls score "free" Spiral shots, and having multiple balls flying about means more Spiral shots in the fairly strict time limit. The most dramatic stack is Spiral immediately before LITZ, which causes numerous Spiral Breakthroughs to take place for 15M each. This quite easily can reach 200M; too bad it doesn't count toward the LITZ Total. One minor caveat: Once you reach the Spiral Breakthrough phase, the magnets no longer fire, so that means you'll have to make piano and Camera shots without the table's help. Usually the 15 millions are worth the trouble.
- Battle the Power: Just what it says. Tips for putting the Power in its place are given below.
- 10 Million: You should never earn this panel the normal way; you should get it off the Yellow Skill Shot at the start of the first ball.
- Greed: Worth playing, carefully. Don't hit those targets by the bumpers; they're deathtraps. Instead, aim for the ones on the side of the slot machine (but not the one adjacent to the opening) and near the piano. Of course, if you can get a multiball going, you can be much more liberal in your choice of targets.
- Camera: Lights the Camera twice. See the Camera section for details on what to do about a lit Camera.
- Hitchhiker: Awards 2M per Hitchhiker collected up to that point and for the rest of the ball. This obviously can get huge (200M) in a long game. But you don't really have to be concerned about collecting it early, either, best to get it out of the way and get that much closer to LITZ.
- Clock Chaos: This mode is @#$%!-ing annoying. Try to block out that infernal tune and whack that Clock Target. Scoring more than 3 hits becomes dicey; scoring 6 gives you a 25M bonus and a fun quote from [spoiler censored]. To be honest, I generally ignore this mode unless Clock 10 Millions happens to be running along with, or again if a multiball is going.
- Super Skill Shot: Always go for Yellow, and hit the Lock as soon as possible. That extra ball is temporary; it'll disappear if you drain before collecting it.
- Fast Lock: This multiball is valuable not because of its own scoring (the Lock is hard to hit and the jackpots are small compared to regulation multiball or Powerball Mania), but because of its potential in stacking. Note that in all cases you need to start the other mode(s) first, once Fast Lock starts the piano and slot machine shut down. Let us count the ways:
- Stack with Spiral and wail on the orbits to score Spiral Breakthroughs at 15M each.
- Stack with Town Square Madness and dump balls in the bumpers for an insane TSM total.
- Stack with Clock Millions, Clock Chaos and/or (especially) Clock 10 Millions to maximize scoring in those modes. Clock 10 Millions + Clock Chaos + Fast Lock is particularly nice.
- Stack with Greed for safer collection of those otherwise-deadly targets in the lower part of the playfield.
- Lite Gumball: Not much to say here, really.
Lost in the Zone: Balls! Balls everywhere! Steel balls! Ceramic balls! Ahem...
LITZ is an overwhelming round. Everything is lit! What do I shoot for? Actually, your first priority is keeping as many balls in play as possible. Yes, the auto-launcher will fire them back in...but it's slow, about 3 seconds per ball...and it can only fire one at a time. If you lose 4 balls at once (as I've done), it takes a full 12 seconds to return to full strength...and that means much reduced scoring.
Priority shots are the right ramp for Mania Jackpots. You will not be able to concentrate on the Powerfield at all, if you notice a ball up there give the Camera everything you got to cheat a Mania Jackpot - and that includes playing billiards with the other 5 balls trying to bank-shot the Camera. Second priority: Greed! Those lower Greed targets, normally deadly, paradoxically become safe in LITZ because there's almost always another ball in the way to block a quick center or side drain. And they're fast shots, so you can make a lot of them in a hurry. Third priority late in round: Clock Target for high-value Clock Millions.
If Spiral is running when you enter LITZ, aim for the orbits constantly. You will Spiral Breakthrough like there's no tomorrow. Again, this (sadly) does not count toward the LITZ total, but it counts toward overall score...counts 400M+ if you're good at the orbit shots. If you can get more than one ball up there simultaneously, you can actually "juggle" them across the magnets with alternating Spiral shots and score a Breakthrough for both the incoming and the impacted ball! (This is not supposed to happen, but the ROM gets confused when both spiral magnets are registering balls constantly.)
If Clock Chaos and/or Clock 10 Millions is running when you enter LITZ, aim for the Clock target constantly. It is possible to keep Clock Chaos running throughout all of LITZ due to the number of balls striking the target and reversing the clock, doing so leads to absolutely bonkers Clock Chaos totals (again, sadly not part of LITZ). Clock 10 Millions does count toward LITZ, and is helpful if you're gunning for LITZ Champion.
Speaking of which, any bonus which is part of the LITZ Total that you scored on the same ball prior to LITZing will get dragged into the LITZ Total. (This includes Super Slot, Clock Millions, Clock 10 Millions, Powerball Mania, Greed, and Town Square Madness.) Having a big Powerball Mania or Clock 10 Millions round before entering LITZ is the key to getting a good LITZ Total.
A Most Unusual Camera: Some of the Camera modes can also be employed for fun and profit:
- Clock 10 Millions: Plays just like Clock Millions, but more valuable. While it scores well on its own, it really shines if started right before a multiball and/or in conjunction with Clock Millions or Clock Chaos.
- Collect Bonus: Save this one for when you've built up a large bonus through Clock modes, Greed, Powerfield, Powerball Mania, etc. This can easily score nine figures in one shot if used at the right time. Do not collect it at the start of a new ball; it's just a waste then.
- Hold Town Square: Useless. Collect at first opportunity so you can move on to more interesting things.
- Lite Greed Targets: Pretty obvious. What's not as obvious is that this causes the next strike on the Clock target to be worth 10M (only once per ball).
- Lite Outlanes: With TPA's special = extra ball, this means both outlanes are lit for extra ball. This is an excellent time to start Fast Lock, or even better Powerball Mania to take advantage of the hidden ball saver.
- 10 Hitchhikers: Will immediately light Battle the Power, and if you've collected the Hitchhiker panel on the current door, it'll add an immediate 20M. Collect at will.
- 3X Town Square: Self-explanatory. Don't worry if the Town Square value is low, even at minimum this is going to be 22.5M.
- 20,000,000: Ditto. Collect as soon as you can, it's not like the value will ever change and it's standing between you and something potentially more profitable.
When battling the Power, don't flip indiscriminately. This leads the ball to the middle and down the lower hole. Instead try to flip when the ball is below the black circles in an attempt to pull the ball upward and hopefully through the top hole. If the ball instead comes down the middle, grab it with one magnet, not both, as activating both magnets will cancel each other out. A gentle style works best. Also, keep flipping after the timer reaches 0, you have another few seconds before the magnets truly go dead, and defeating the Power during this time generally still counts.
I tend to ignore Dead Ends, mainly because getting the ball to the right inlane is dangerous (nothing feeds it directly, and balls heading that way tend to find the outlane instead), and also because the Lawloristic shot through the bumpers is not exactly safe either. If you're better at that shot than I am, you may want to try for it as there is an extra ball for making 3 Dead Ends. (There's also a 100M Dead End Bonus at 8 and 20 Dead Ends, but even in that 13B+ game I never reached 8 Dead Ends.)
"Hi! I'm Talky Tina, and I Have a Disturbing Fascination with Extra Balls!" Twilight Zone does not hand out extra balls left, right and center like RBION does, but there are still a few opportunities. Nine and 45 Robots (each once), 250M (once), Lite Extra Ball (once per door panel if you don't collect any other extra ball first), 3 Dead Ends (once), Lit Left Outlane from Camera award (theoretically multiple times) or Orange Super Skill Shot (once per door panel), and the Yellow Super Skill Shot (once per door panel).
Specials are exclusively from Lit Right Outlane from Camera award or Orange Super Skill Shot. Of course, it's really an extra ball in disguise.
Big Risk, Big Reward, in the Twilight Zone: Sorry, Elvira, but Twilight Zone offers more huge bon...uses than your Scared Stiff. Most of the mode points go toward end-of-ball bonus, specifically: Clock Chaos, Clock Millions, Clock 10 Millions, Greed, Powerfield (from Battle the Power), Powerball Mania, and Town Square Madness. The Hitchhikers and Door Panels are relatively minor contributors, even multiplied, when compared to the mode totals except toward the end of super-long games.
This means don't tilt and especially keep your hands off after you hit the second danger. Losing a 250M+ bonus to an ill-considered nudge is not something you want to experience.
If your bonus is enough to push you over 250M, flip both flippers after the first reel of the slot machine stops for a 5M Flipper Bonus. Points is points.
And that is how to get lost in the Twilight Zone! Good luck!
ADDENDUM FOR TWILIGHT ZONE WITHOUT THE BARRIER
If your version of Twilight Zone does not have the barrier installed in the bumpers, make the following adjustments to the above strategy:
- Town Square Madness: Do not play it unless Fast Lock Multiball is running. This is because Fast Lock's jackpots are not particularly high-scoring and the required shot is hard. With regulation multiball or Powerball Mania, you have more profitable jackpots that outweigh Town Square Madness scoring.
- Battle the Power: With the bumpers becoming deadlier, the penalty for failing to defeat the Power is greater. If you're not the greatest at battling the Power and you're close to some other objective (multiball start, Lost in the Zone, etc.), you may want to complete that objective first before risking your ball on the Powerfield.
- 10 Million: Because the skill shot will literally rocket the ball into the pops, it's risky to take it now. I generally will chance it on the first ball (because if the table rudely drains out the left, I will restart the table), but not later on.
- Super Skill Shot: In contrast to the 10M skill shot, a chance at an extra ball is worth the risk.
- Powerball Mania: Do not throw balls into the bumpers to try to maximize the initial frenzy; concentrate immediately on Mania Jackpots.
- Dead Ends: Do not try for them. If you miss even slightly and the ball hits a bumper, chances are it's going to nick the upper right bumper and get pushed through the gap where the barrier was, straight to the left outlane.
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