Advance to Jupiter

[EccentricFlower]

Disclaimer: I am a truly rotten pinball player who can do a few things well. I find some shots mysteriously easy that others have trouble with, and have all kinds of problems with things real pinball players consider basic. This means that often I get annoyed when I finally clear the first set of table goals only to find that some of the Wizard goals were, to me, easier and in fact I got them already (but didn't get credit for them, obviously).

I am really having trouble understanding why "advance to Jupiter" is in the Pin*Bot normal goals when even the instructions call it the primary goal of the entire game. [EDIT: Never mind, the instructions are just broken strangely. The Sun makes a lot more sense.]

More to the point, as far as I can tell, there is no good way to aim a direct shot at either the bank targets or the Advance Planet hole given their position relative to the flippers. And the bank targets are on a timer! I bet this is super-easy for everybody else but I'm not getting it.

Any advice welcome. That fifth star has been taunting me for ages ....

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Disclaimer: I am a truly rotten pinball player who can do a few things well. I find some shots mysteriously easy that others have trouble with, and have all kinds of problems with things real pinball players consider basic. This means that often I get annoyed when I finally clear the first set of table goals only to find that some of the Wizard goals were, to me, easier and in fact I got them already (but didn't get credit for them, obviously).

I am really having trouble understanding why "advance to Jupiter" is in the Pin*Bot normal goals when even the instructions call it the primary goal of the entire game. To me that's like saying "complete all the marvels" as a normal goal in Cirqus Voltaire. (Actually, I've done that ....)

More to the point, as far as I can tell, there is no good way to aim a direct shot at either the bank targets or the Advance Planet hole given their position relative to the flippers. And the bank targets are on a timer! I bet this is super-easy for everybody else but I'm not getting it.

Any advice welcome. That fifth star has been taunting me for ages ....

The primary goal of the game isn't Jupiter, it's getting to the Sun.

 

[EccentricFlower]

The primary goal of the game isn't Jupiter, it's getting to the Sun.

That makes more sense.

But putting that aside ... sun vs Jupiter doesn't make any difference here if I'm having trouble advancing planets at ALL. As I say, I'm not a great player, but I can generally put up a 1 to 1.2 million point game, and throughout all of those, over the course of months of play, I think I've only advanced as far as Neptune once, and I'm pretty sure that was sheer dumb luck.

Some of you pros have got to have some helpful advice on this, yes?

 

[workshed]

That makes more sense.

But putting that aside ... sun vs Jupiter doesn't make any difference here if I'm having trouble advancing planets at ALL. As I say, I'm not a great player, but I can generally put up a 1 to 1.2 million point game, and throughout all of those, over the course of months of play, I think I've only advanced as far as Neptune once, and I'm pretty sure that was sheer dumb luck.

Some of you pros have got to have some helpful advice on this, yes?

I don't know of any magical way to make it easy to advance planets. If you have a ball cradled on the right flipper you can try and Shatz left inlane rollover. (flip when the ball is right at the end of the flipper to send it over the left inlane rollover and light the advance planet target, the timing is tricky but doable on this table) Then hit the advance planet target that is on the right and not far above the right sling. It is a tight shot, but if you can get the timing down it works well. The other option is the drop targets on the left side. You are on a timer to get them all down, but they are more forgiving if you hit them in my experience. Not that forgiving is a word I'd ever really associate with this table, miss any of the aforementioned shots and you need to be prepared to save that ball. Those outlanes are hungry. When I play the game I'll Shatz the inlane from a trap on the right and try for the advance planet standup if trapped on the left (assuming it is lit). I am of course ignoring the multiball strategy, which should not be ignored if you are more interested in points as opposed to TPA goals.

 

[Zaphod77]

Shatzing the left inlane is the secret to getting this goal. once lit, the spot target is pretty easy to hit by flipping late.

It's particularly easy on this table.

 

[EccentricFlower]

Shatzing the left inlane is the secret to getting this goal. once lit, the spot target is pretty easy to hit by flipping late.

It's particularly easy on this table.

Although I suck at the Shatz/alley pass, LIGHTING the advance planet hole has not been much of an issue, but hitting it is. Still, I'll keep working at it. I feel like that's a less hopeless cause than the drop bank.

 

[Bowflex]

Jupiter activates an extra ball so that is the reason for being a goal. The sun is the ultimate goal which is a wizard goal for the game. With practice, you can hit the advance planet button above the right inlane so that can definitely help a lot. The drop targets are on timers so they are generally easier to hit but more tedious to complete.