Tann
New member
- Apr 3, 2013
- 1,128
- 1
Strategy guide to reach "easily" 3M points
Hello Pinball Fans!
Since last week, I worked to get this famous wizard goal, because I wanted it to be done before the release of the PS3 megapatch (previously before Christmas, now delayed to January...)
Whatever, playing "wildly" (I thought that nudge was the key), I barely reached around 1.3-1.5M points per (good) game, and one time 2.2M points with a lot of luck. And a lot of crappy scores too (under 1M).
So, I decided to build a strategy... and by following it strictly, it took me only four attempts to reach easily 3.2M points (and once done, I play wildly again to lose the remaining balls quickly, in order to save.)
This strategy is very simple and consists mainly to "hold trap" the ball as much as possible, and to avoid at all cost some particular shots.
Follow this strategy strictly, and I guarantee you that this wizard goal will become a piece of cake.
Here we go.
Note: this strategy works fine on the PS3 version, it should be OK for the others versions too.
I. Required settings
- Choose 3 balls in the table settings.
Some targets score a lot more points (2000pts against 500pts, 10.000pts against 2500pts). Scoring is waaayyy quicker than with 5 balls.
- Turn off the dual-stage flippers setting.
Thanks, captain Obvious.
- Play with the Camera 2 angle, unlocked.
The best main view to aim, the best zoom to the mini-playfield, and the smoother transition between the zoomed view and the main view.
- Turn off the scoring displayer.
You don't need to track your score, nor the number of balls you have. It distracts, and induces more stress.
- Mute the volume of the table.
Genie sound design can play with your nerves. Listen peaceful music or music you love instead (when I succeeded, I was listening this
)
- Read carefully the table instructions.
Know your ennemy! Know perfectly the scoring system will make you take the good decision at the right moment.
II. How to play
- HOLD TRAP! (or at least TRAP!)
Trap the ball on the flipper as much as you can (a hold trap is when you are able to cradle the ball in an upraised flipper such that it is not moving, see here). In fact, trap the ball before each shot if you can (i.e. you're sure about your attempt success to cradle the ball).
- DO NOT let the ball goes crazy!
That's the first cause of losing a ball. Especially on Genie, where the ball physics is kind of weird. With a safe ball trapped on your flipper, you can easily aim, and you're not overflowed. Yeah, it's boring to play like that, but it's the easiest way to get the wizard goal.
- Nudge constantly... but softly.
In order to trap the ball, you will have to nudge sometimes to avoid center drains, or to prevent the ball going up in the inlane and drain in the outlane. Generally speaking, nudge softly to control the ball at every moment, in each area of the table.
- Do not focus on the extra ball stacking glitch.
Once you get one extra ball (you can focus on this), do not search to get another one because of the glitch. If it happens, it's good, otherwise, try to get another extra ball is the best way to lose the current ball (moreover, the glitch is inconstant).
- Even if you lose the two first balls quickly, continue to play.
Never give up. As you can get an extra-ball (and maybe more than one with the glitch), a good game can start on the 3rd and last ball.
- Strictly follow the strategy rules.
Do only the authorized shots (see below), avoid at all cost the forbidden shots, and do the risky shots only if it's necessary. Follow the same scoring pattern as much as you can, and you will reach 3M points, for sure.
III. Shots and scoring strategy
That's all. Follow strictly all these tips, take your time (the game can last, as you will totally stop the ball a lot), breathe deeply, and don't be tempted to check the score.
And it will happen more quickly than you think. Three sacred words: Goal 5 completed.
Then, lose for being able to save your game. ^^
Merry Christmas, Pinball Fans!
EDIT: skippycue useful advices and video
Hello Pinball Fans!
Since last week, I worked to get this famous wizard goal, because I wanted it to be done before the release of the PS3 megapatch (previously before Christmas, now delayed to January...)
Whatever, playing "wildly" (I thought that nudge was the key), I barely reached around 1.3-1.5M points per (good) game, and one time 2.2M points with a lot of luck. And a lot of crappy scores too (under 1M).
So, I decided to build a strategy... and by following it strictly, it took me only four attempts to reach easily 3.2M points (and once done, I play wildly again to lose the remaining balls quickly, in order to save.)
This strategy is very simple and consists mainly to "hold trap" the ball as much as possible, and to avoid at all cost some particular shots.
Follow this strategy strictly, and I guarantee you that this wizard goal will become a piece of cake.
Here we go.
Note: this strategy works fine on the PS3 version, it should be OK for the others versions too.
I. Required settings
- Choose 3 balls in the table settings.
Some targets score a lot more points (2000pts against 500pts, 10.000pts against 2500pts). Scoring is waaayyy quicker than with 5 balls.
- Turn off the dual-stage flippers setting.
Thanks, captain Obvious.
- Play with the Camera 2 angle, unlocked.
The best main view to aim, the best zoom to the mini-playfield, and the smoother transition between the zoomed view and the main view.
- Turn off the scoring displayer.
You don't need to track your score, nor the number of balls you have. It distracts, and induces more stress.
- Mute the volume of the table.
Genie sound design can play with your nerves. Listen peaceful music or music you love instead (when I succeeded, I was listening this
)- Read carefully the table instructions.
Know your ennemy! Know perfectly the scoring system will make you take the good decision at the right moment.
II. How to play
- HOLD TRAP! (or at least TRAP!)
Trap the ball on the flipper as much as you can (a hold trap is when you are able to cradle the ball in an upraised flipper such that it is not moving, see here). In fact, trap the ball before each shot if you can (i.e. you're sure about your attempt success to cradle the ball).
- DO NOT let the ball goes crazy!
That's the first cause of losing a ball. Especially on Genie, where the ball physics is kind of weird. With a safe ball trapped on your flipper, you can easily aim, and you're not overflowed. Yeah, it's boring to play like that, but it's the easiest way to get the wizard goal.
- Nudge constantly... but softly.
In order to trap the ball, you will have to nudge sometimes to avoid center drains, or to prevent the ball going up in the inlane and drain in the outlane. Generally speaking, nudge softly to control the ball at every moment, in each area of the table.
- Do not focus on the extra ball stacking glitch.
Once you get one extra ball (you can focus on this), do not search to get another one because of the glitch. If it happens, it's good, otherwise, try to get another extra ball is the best way to lose the current ball (moreover, the glitch is inconstant).
- Even if you lose the two first balls quickly, continue to play.
Never give up. As you can get an extra-ball (and maybe more than one with the glitch), a good game can start on the 3rd and last ball.
- Strictly follow the strategy rules.
Do only the authorized shots (see below), avoid at all cost the forbidden shots, and do the risky shots only if it's necessary. Follow the same scoring pattern as much as you can, and you will reach 3M points, for sure.
III. Shots and scoring strategy
| #1 is the safest way to go through the spinner. Trap the ball, and flip a second after you release the ball. If you miss, the ball is slow enough to be able to nudge, and avoid some critical situations. #4 is another way to go through the spinner without danger, for the same reason. Use #3 to shoot the star targets after a trapped ball. Even if you miss, the ball won't go crazy, and most of the time, it comes back slowly on the right flipper. And you can retry. Do some kind of backflip for the rightmost target. #2 is the only shot you have to do when you want to access directly the mini-playfield. Do not try another shot. Moreover, by doing this, you can hit, sometimes, the extra-ball target. When the ball comes on the mini-playfield, lift the upper left flipper, softly nudge, and you can trap the ball on it. Finally, #5 is the safest shot to go to the scoring hole, but it's not a consistent shot, especially after a hold trap. It's easier to shot when the ball rolls (simple trap) or "on the fly". "Backflip" with the right flipper works too, but not if the ball was trapped (some shots after a cradled ball will work though, but it's tricky). |
| When attempting the #1 shot to go through the spinner, be careful to not do the #1 shot. SDTM occurs a lot. The #2 shot seems to be an useful and legitimate shot, but it is one of the worst! Avoid at all cost. The #3 shot seems legitimate too, but I think it's the one which leads the most to SDTM... when missed (i.e. you don't go through the spinner). If you go through the spinner, it's OK, otherwise, you're doomed. Finally, the #4 shot, is the last "tempting" shot. But this one leads 90% of time to the dangerous left side rollovers. Avoid it. |
| I use the #1 shot only if the rightmost target is the only one up and lit. Otherwise, it's safer to do the #3 shot to reset the star targets. Same story for the #2 shot, only if there is one remaining star target, lit. The #3 shot is the most risky shot above all. But it gives an extra ball. The white target can be shot after a trapped ball, but the ball return is unpredictable. The red target is even more difficult to shoot, because you have to wait the last moment to flip. In the two cases, be very careful. Some shots on the fly will work too (especially for the red target). You can also wait that the ball hits the target "by luck", but it induces you lose the ball control for a moment. EDIT: see skippycue tips at the end of this post for shooting a lit special without danger. |
| A-B-C is the main scheme of play. Pass through the spinner to raise the bonus value (A), the ball hits the bumper (B), which lights the star targets (C). Repeat this scheme as much as you can, to increase the bonus value. You can shoot G once you're at least at +20.000 points and X4. Sometimes, after A, the ball goes to the mini-playfield (D). If you can, try to shoot the white targets first (it lights the white target in F, easier to shot, see the risky shot #3). Try to stay as long as possible in the mini-playfield, because shoot all the targets gives a lot of points (especially the white ones, when lit). You can "hold trap" the ball here too. To escape safely from the mini-playfield, you can trap the ball on the upper left flipper, and try to shoot E, and at the same time, score a rollover (and light the mini-playfield extra-ball, once all letters are done). If you see that the ball goes to the very dangerous area (Z), be ready to nudge to make the ball go to the right (as soon as possible, with a strong nudge, tha ball will roll on one the rollover "corner" and escape). Do not go through the ABC letters, only the D letter is safe. If the ball still goes to the Y area, you're pretty doomed at this moment, unless the ball has enough velocity: with a strong nudge, you can pass above or under the bumper, and escape. But despite all your effort, you will go to the "death zone" (X). At this point, pray, or when the ball comes in contact with the rubber between the inlane/outlane, at this right moment (and only this moment, not before!), nudge very softly to turn the odds. But be careful: a too early nudge (or too strong) can possibly throw the ball toward this damned left outlane... whereas it was falling safely to the right. To finish, remember that when you hold trap (T), the ball can go up until the outlane, or slowly drain to the center. Be always ready to softly nudge. |
That's all. Follow strictly all these tips, take your time (the game can last, as you will totally stop the ball a lot), breathe deeply, and don't be tempted to check the score.
And it will happen more quickly than you think. Three sacred words: Goal 5 completed.
Then, lose for being able to save your game. ^^
Merry Christmas, Pinball Fans!
EDIT: skippycue useful advices and video
Just thought I'd check out the Genie community since I've now successfully scored over 3 mil on the PS Vita, PS3, and PS4 versions of the game!
First, on the left side of the table, it is almost always ok to go down the B slot. This tends to hit the left bank in that area when it drops down which pushes the ball out safely below the bumper. It is not 100%, but it's definitely around 90% success. So I would say if you have the ability to nudge the ball and you can't prevent it from falling down, D is of course the best option, but B is a close second. It is important though that when you let it go down B you DON'T nudge it at all unless you notice it is not popping out like it is supposed to. Nudging screws up the default momentum that normally pushes the ball out of there.
Second, I actually think it's better to light up the special (the four red targets at the top) instead of the extra ball (the three white targets at the top). There is a very safe way to grab the special with much less risk than trying to hit the white extra ball target. I found that going for the white target is an unfortunately aggressive shot and often bounces straight back down the center. You can hit the special with a quick backhand shot from the right flipper, and if you miss, the ball drops nicely onto the upper left flipper to be caught and then dropped back down to the lower right flipper. Here is a video demonstrating this technique:
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