RBION Tactics and Strategies

Following in the footsteps of the Theatre of Magic and Arabian Nights strategy threads, a place for sharing tips on making your Ripley's score unbelievable.

This time though, I'm the one asking for help. Those of you with the 200M+ scores and the Atlantis and Frog Frenzy goals notched, how did you go about doing it, and what advice do you have for others? My 141M was the result of the Believe or Not feature showering me with extra balls and specials - 10 of them to be exact - and so the score was more the result of luck than skill. I'd like to change that.

I'm not going to go into great detail, but activating Frog Frenzy is not as hard as many make it out to be. The key is to activate and collect as many Super Jackpots as you can during Ripoff and 3-ball multiball by hitting ramp shots. Just learn to hit the ramp shots with accuracy and you should have no problem collecting multiple Jackpots during multiball.

Good point on the ramp shots PiN WiZ. I'm still not good at making them yet and they are definitely key to most things. Several of the continent letter goals (idol jackpot, bigfoot jackpot, penguin loops) rely on them too.

I'm still struggling with Frog Frenzy and Atlantis myself. I have all other wizard goals on this and the other tables but those two are really giving me trouble. I guess it's just building up the consistency. The most super jackpots I've gained in a game is three. Same with the Ripley's letters. Embarrasingly enough, I even had one game where I visited all continents twice and only came away with one letter!

Any advice on keeping the ball out of the stinking outlanes, especially the right one would be much appreciated. I probably nudge the table too much now just trying to prevent any movement of the ball towards those areas because it just loves to drain down those outlanes.

I got into RbioN finally this weekend as it always seemed a bit convoluted how to play this table (as the OP hints at as well).

Now after a few nights of intense play I think I'm " getting" the table and it's appeal. It doesn't have the fun factor ToM has, it's not as " tantalizing" (in the sense it lures you into risky play) as TOTAN is, but it is a very enjoyable table due to it's strategizing and stacking the different modes and multiballs (and finding out which stack and don't) or resetting timers by starting a new one.

On ipdb/org this table get s alot of flack for the downtime the game gives you: " the table is fine playing with itself". Imo it has to do that, because it wasn't made for single ball play. It's made for multiball play, and you need to send one or more ball of and away from your flippers and into the table (where it can play with the table itself) while you are trying to make precise shots with the other ball(s). The fact that there are 6 multiball modes (NA, Antartica, Africa, Atlantis, Shrunken Head Multiball and RIPOFF....is Frog frenzy a multiball mode? I only got it once) and the fact you can stack most if not all of the multiball mode ONTO the singleball ones (Europe, SA, Australia, Asia, Road Trip, 2X playfield) should be telling.

I'm still not good at the table, because frankly I'm not very good at multiball, but this table is teaching me. I also find it quite forgiving as I find there aren't many drainhazards (the tombstone above the flippers is a nasty one, the Idol can be a bit cheap at some times when it gets fed from above) and you get a lot of extra balls and specials. I don't recognize the outer lane issue described by the poster above me for instance. I find that most of the times the curves of the table bounce it towards the inner lane (when I do drain to the outlane its oftern because I nudged it there mistakenly myself). Also when you have multiball going, a drain here or there won't kill you. All it does is end the mode.

• Try to go for the continents as much as possible. Once you've visited all continents you get each continent score added as a bonus. The second time around you get the continent totals of the first round-trip added to the second one;
• When continents are not lit you'll score Ripoff letters. Later on in the game Ripoff Multiball is easier to get than Regular Multiball (after the first multi-ball you need to re-light the head every time to advance it);
• Get as much Ripley letters on the first trip around all continents, as the ball-save time for all multiball continents (Africa, Antarctica, North America) is significantly reduced after the first trip around all continents;
• Asia, Australia (you can hit the vari-target with the top flipper) and South America (hitting the right ramp shoots the ball back into the head) are easiest, you should get them each time round. Europe is the most dangerous continent, it's easy to lose a ball trying to hit the tombstone next to the idol. If you must try hitting the tombstones next to the Shrunken Head;
• Always keep an eye on the temple codes: Special, Extra Ball, Million Plus and Super Jackpot are great rewards off the temple grid. You can scramble the temple codes by hitting the upper left loop (same one used for hitting Super Jackpots) to get the numbers you need. Getting X2 scoring just before hitting a Super Jackpot or finishing all continents is tricky but gives great points.

It took me a while to get used to this table but once you know it ball movement can be very predictable.

bavelb said:

I don't recognize the outer lane issue described by the poster above me for instance. I find that most of the times the curves of the table bounce it towards the inner lane (when I do drain to the outlane its oftern because I nudged it there mistakenly myself). Also when you have multiball going, a drain here or there won't kill you. All it does is end the mode.

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Interesting. I hardly ever lose a ball down the middle on this table, unless I'm sloppy with the flippers. Seems easy to nudge it just enough to get it away from going SDTM. I'm always losing them down the outlanes though. The most frustrating is when it looks like the ball is about to settle and go down the inner lane but bounces back up and right down the outer lane before I can react. This happens to me quite a bit.

I dont lose much STDM either. I find the table is rather lenient on drains. When I do, it is an outlane one though. It sure ain't TOTAN (which I guess is why TOTAN has the shooting stars)

Thanks everyone for the tips. Atlantis is still eluding me (I'm up to 5 letters now), but I managed to activate Frog Frenzy without even realizing it this afternoon. I thought I was on my sixth Super, then the display went berserk. Made my day!

Stacking the continent missions speeds things up greatly and increases your chances for a Ripley letter. It is very useful to stack a multi-ball mission on top of a difficult one, such as Europe. I am at a point where I am picking apart the intricacies of juggling two balls during every sort of multi-ball mode. (with much success) I am sitting at 420 million if that matters.

My single-ball gameplay consists of trapping the ball in the left flipper and planning my shots as much as possible. Hitting the center ramp for jewels (and rewards) should become instinctive from the left flipper. It is extremely useful. My end of ball jewel bonus sounds like a machine gun and 2X scoring bonuses (among others) become frequent.

I wish I could type out a more elaborate guide but, character and format limitations of posting through a PS3 prevent that.

Now that you know how to collect jewels (and subsequent rewards), you will find that you are collecting a 2X scoring bonus more than usual. Use this to your advantage. I just scored about 75 million points off of a continent tour bonus coupled with a 2X scoring bonus. I love this game. If only the Black Hole could enthrall me so much.

Well... I just learned that editing a post through a PS3 is futile. Please eliminate the first duplicate.

Try to always have a multiball continent mode going, that extra ball is a great insurance policy. Also, this way you will go through continents quickly for that continent bonus. Always get 2x multiplier before getting the continent bonus, that can be a ~100 million point shot after going through continents a few times.

Get good at nudging near the temple so you can direct the ball to B or C. Getting extra balls up there helps a lot. Last week I was sitting at 550 million on ball one because of those extra balls.

So far my top score is 6xx million, I can't remember the exact number

Do not go for extra balls or specials at the temple. They're easy enough to get through general game play and, in the long run, you are wasting opportunities for better scores. (The only times when I try for EBs/Specs/Super Jackpots at the temple, is at the onset of the game or when I KNOW I can get away with it)

I abuse the *Bleep* out of the 2X scoring bonus. Use it to bolster your continent mission scores. Especially use it before collecting your continent tour bonuses. When you score 100+ (I'm being generous here, I've scored 300+) million off of a continent tour bonus, you'll thank me.

If you have questions about this table, please ask, I will try to answer them.

While it won't necessarily translate into high scores, if you're looking for tips on getting to Atlantis or starting Frog Frenzy, I wrote up a somewhat thorough guide for TA that you can check out here:
http://www.trueachievements.com/a163470/ripleys-wizard-achievement.htm

Apart from that, I'm not sure I can offer much scoring advice that hasn't already been posted. Some great tips in this thread!

The Frog Frenzy. You have that goal lit up and ready to go. I'll bet you're all anxious to start that puppy, right?

Don't do it. Take time to start a multi-ball mode first and then try for that last shot on the Super-Jackpot. Any multi-ball mode will do but, you really want to try for a Ripoff or a PukeBalls multi-ball. They are the ones that can make the Frog Frenzy a 4-ball affair.

A 1-ball Frog Frenzy is so lackluster, given the effort it takes to get there.

Squid said:

The Frog Frenzy. You have that goal lit up and ready to go. I'll bet you're all anxious to start that puppy, right?

Don't do it. Take time to start a multi-ball mode first and then try for that last shot on the Super-Jackpot. Any multi-ball mode will do but, you really want to try for a Ripoff or a PukeBalls multi-ball. They are the ones that can make the Frog Frenzy a 4-ball affair.

A 1-ball Frog Frenzy is so lackluster, given the effort it takes to get there.

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For your first Frog Frenzy, just hurry up and get that seventh Super Jackpot. For most players, getting to Frog Frenzy happens so rarely that you don't want to blow the wizard goal by being greedy.

After the first one, by all means get into multiball (you are likely to already be there to get that seventh SJ lit) before pulling the trigger.

I've managed four Frog Frenzies (in different games, of course!), but still no progress on the Atlantis front...

Thank you for the addendum, Mr. Serenseven, you are correct. That was my fault. I don't worry about wizard goals, I just let them happen as they happen.

I now feel obligated to try to come up with my thoughts on Atlantis. On my best game, I managed to acquire 31 Ripley letters so hopefully I can help.

Please, stay tuned. I need some time to compose my thoughts. This is gonna be tough.

Atlantis. I have all these thoughts on the matter but, it boils down to this. Know how to stack continent missions. Know how to work the multi-ball continent missions. Keep them balls alive. I don't want to be repeating rules that can be read as well.

I would probably respond better to more specific questions.

Stacking the Continents.

Asia, Europe and South America are the only starter (first in the stack) continents that you can stack others on top.

Let's say I start Europe. (Oh No! I hate this one) I will, as immediate as possible, try for the right ramp (this relights the continents and, the temple as well) and go for the Vari-target. Boom! I just got North America. Now I will concentrate on keeping the balls alive long enough to (randomly) hit enough tombstones. Then I will worry about the NA jackpots.

Let's say I start Europe and then stack on S America. Stack on one more. (if available)

Once you add Australia or amulti-ball continent to the stack, you can stack no more.