Kolchak357
Senior Pigeon
- May 31, 2012
- 8,102
- 2
Thanks for all the super tips. I have an appointment with BH tonight. I plan on finally breaking 1 mil.
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Welcome Back to Digital Pinball Fans - please read this first
Black Hole Tactics and Strategies
- Thread starter monkspider
- Start date
laughing_lunatic
New member
- Jun 6, 2012
- 359
- 0
Best of luck, my man... I should revisit BH at some time...after FunHouse.
Kolchak357
Senior Pigeon
- May 31, 2012
- 8,102
- 2
I finally did it, but just barely (1,005,380). It won't scare anyone at the top of the leader boards, but I'm really happy to finally hit 1 mil. Thanks to everyone for all the helpful posts. They really helped me understand and enjoy the table much more.
honestly all i do is go for the extra balls in the lane next to the lower playfield lane. getting those 2 extra balls from the EB and Special are the overriding priority. once those two are grabbed, do whatever. doesn't really matter, since you can go more or less forever as long as you can pick up those two extra balls for each ball you lose.
Dinosaur Toy
New member
- Sep 10, 2012
- 43
- 0
Whew. Just finished all the wizard goals for BH and posted a 3 million score on the PS3 build. I've kinda been working on BH before seriously attacking other tables, in order to practice landing called shots and stuff.
Any idea what is considered a high score / good run in real life on Black Hole? It's a table I've never had the chance to see in person or see pro play on.
Any idea what is considered a high score / good run in real life on Black Hole? It's a table I've never had the chance to see in person or see pro play on.
i'll let you know -- i'm picking up a realllly nice one this Friday!
by the way, since this thread was last visited, the iOS version of BH had a major re-write of the rules. the biggest differences:
- you can no longer stack more than one extra ball
- the gate in the lower playfield stays open for the duration of the trip down there, once it's open.
the strategy is still pretty similar, though:
1. get to the lower playfield
2. open the gate by completing either the 3 white or 4 yellow drop targets.
3. complete the white drop targets two or more times
4. knock the ball around the lower playfield as much as possible to increase bonus and multiplier.
5. upon leaving lower playfield, collect the extra ball in the lane next to the entrance to the lower playfield
6. head back down to the lower playfield and stay there as long as you can.
7. upon leaving the lower playfield ... head back down there again immediately. if you make it within about 5 seconds, the gate will even be opened automatically for you.
with the new gate mechanics, the lower playfield is so incredibly safe that it doesn't make any sense to go for anything else. don't worry about accelerating gravity or going for anything else on the upper playfield, even though yes you can rack up points much faster up there. you can play indefinitely if you just keep shooting for the lower playfield. re-entering the lower playfield within about 5 seconds of re-entry causes the gate to be already opened for you when you go back down there. it's too easy.
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BLACK HOLE IN THE HOUSE!
and yeah -- it is QUITE a bit tougher in real life. i can go indefinitely on the TPA version .. i think i got about 8 million or so during the tournament. but on my home version, topping 500,000 is a real challenge, and i've only hit multiball twice in about 6 hours of gameplay!
the biggest difference seems to be that quick center drains happen all the time.
also, the lower playfield flippers are not as powerful. it's easier to drain down there, and significantly tougher to make the loop advancing the bonus multiplier.
also, upon re-entry, the TPA version lightly deposits the ball onto the re-entry lane. my version freaking launches the ball at mach 5 so that it smacks the top glass so hard i'm afraid it's going to break, producing a CRACK sound that is several times louder than the conventional "replay" knock. that might just be mine, though! (unlike say 90s williams machines, Black Hole's top glass is only a couple inches above the playfield -- since there are no ramps or toys to speak of, there's barely enough clearance for the ball!)
to farsight's credit, the ruleset that TPA currently has implemented (on ios) seems identical to the ruleset on my machine, including how the gate operates and the fact that you can only have one extra ball at a time. there is even a dip switch to tell it to award extra balls instead of specials (as TPA does).
having a real Black Hole has actually increased my appreciation for what Farsight has done. The virtual version is pretty much identical in almost every respect (other than being more predictable).
and yeah -- it is QUITE a bit tougher in real life. i can go indefinitely on the TPA version .. i think i got about 8 million or so during the tournament. but on my home version, topping 500,000 is a real challenge, and i've only hit multiball twice in about 6 hours of gameplay!
the biggest difference seems to be that quick center drains happen all the time.
also, the lower playfield flippers are not as powerful. it's easier to drain down there, and significantly tougher to make the loop advancing the bonus multiplier.
also, upon re-entry, the TPA version lightly deposits the ball onto the re-entry lane. my version freaking launches the ball at mach 5 so that it smacks the top glass so hard i'm afraid it's going to break, producing a CRACK sound that is several times louder than the conventional "replay" knock. that might just be mine, though! (unlike say 90s williams machines, Black Hole's top glass is only a couple inches above the playfield -- since there are no ramps or toys to speak of, there's barely enough clearance for the ball!)
to farsight's credit, the ruleset that TPA currently has implemented (on ios) seems identical to the ruleset on my machine, including how the gate operates and the fact that you can only have one extra ball at a time. there is even a dip switch to tell it to award extra balls instead of specials (as TPA does).
having a real Black Hole has actually increased my appreciation for what Farsight has done. The virtual version is pretty much identical in almost every respect (other than being more predictable).
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Dinosaur Toy
New member
- Sep 10, 2012
- 43
- 0
I'm not surprised to hear about a deadly center drain in real life Black Hole - when getting good at it in TPA, I pretty much nudge the table every single time the ball falls down the board near the center - else it'd be going in the drain. And that's the trick - it's simple to nudge the table precisely every time! On a real machine, not so simple.
Good to hear that the ruleset is duplicated correctly though, and that everything works basically the same. While playing (most) digital pinball tables will be easier than the real thing, I appreciate knowing that my knowledge of how the machines work in TPA is "legitimate".
Good to hear that the ruleset is duplicated correctly though, and that everything works basically the same. While playing (most) digital pinball tables will be easier than the real thing, I appreciate knowing that my knowledge of how the machines work in TPA is "legitimate".
Deltaechoe
New member
- Aug 30, 2013
- 228
- 0
Well I have a few tricks that allow me to score over 500k on the real table (i've done 1.2m once) and consistently scoring over 3m on TPA.
Trick number 1 is the shot into the lower playfield from the upper right flipper straight from a re entry, this works because the gate doesn't close when the ball is on the lower playfield and if the first shot after re entry is back to the lower playfield you beat and reset the gate timer. This is relatively easy on TPA compared to the real table where ball ejection from reentry doesn't have what I would call consistent velocity, but if I remember correctly, you will have to reopen the gate with the drop targets (right bank of 3).
Trick number 2 is about nudging on the top playfield, and this applies more to the real table as the SDTM drains are brutal on it. You NEED to nudge a lot but, at least on the tables i've played, don't do it more than twice every 20 seconds or so. The trick is to do a left or right nudge (use your best judgment) just as the ball passes that blue jet bumper on the lower level and pretty much instantly kick up whichever flipper you nudged to.
Another tip, multiball isn't as important as some people think it is on this table, a better scoring technique is to complete the two drop target banks and just game the lower level with the eternal gate trick that I mentioned above and you'll mash your way to a multi million bonus in no time
Also, what pezpunk says about the lower playfield is true, the flippers aren't as powerful and there's no way in hell that you could backhand the multiplier loop like you can in TPA
Trick number 1 is the shot into the lower playfield from the upper right flipper straight from a re entry, this works because the gate doesn't close when the ball is on the lower playfield and if the first shot after re entry is back to the lower playfield you beat and reset the gate timer. This is relatively easy on TPA compared to the real table where ball ejection from reentry doesn't have what I would call consistent velocity, but if I remember correctly, you will have to reopen the gate with the drop targets (right bank of 3).
Trick number 2 is about nudging on the top playfield, and this applies more to the real table as the SDTM drains are brutal on it. You NEED to nudge a lot but, at least on the tables i've played, don't do it more than twice every 20 seconds or so. The trick is to do a left or right nudge (use your best judgment) just as the ball passes that blue jet bumper on the lower level and pretty much instantly kick up whichever flipper you nudged to.
Another tip, multiball isn't as important as some people think it is on this table, a better scoring technique is to complete the two drop target banks and just game the lower level with the eternal gate trick that I mentioned above and you'll mash your way to a multi million bonus in no time
Also, what pezpunk says about the lower playfield is true, the flippers aren't as powerful and there's no way in hell that you could backhand the multiplier loop like you can in TPA
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Zorgwon
New member
- Sep 14, 2013
- 614
- 0
Locking a ball on the lower playfield will (almost?) always CLOSE the gate which is another reason not to do so. If you haven't opened the gate yet you can naturally lock the ball on the lower playfield which is an escape of the black hole.
EDIT: The gate stays open until the pinball touches a bumper or a slingshot on the upper table with the exception of the gravity tunnel. A timer of about 7 secs gives you the opportunity to collect the extra ball, although that's not easy to get.
And don't spend your precious time just to prepare the entrance of the Black Hole. Don't be frightened and do it!
EDIT: The gate stays open until the pinball touches a bumper or a slingshot on the upper table with the exception of the gravity tunnel. A timer of about 7 secs gives you the opportunity to collect the extra ball, although that's not easy to get.
And don't spend your precious time just to prepare the entrance of the Black Hole. Don't be frightened and do it!
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vikingerik
Active member
- Nov 6, 2013
- 1,205
- 0
New leaderboard #1 owner at 191M here. This was my strategy:
Every ball, the absolute first thing you do is enter the lower playfield, complete the blue drops twice, then shoot the upper playfield top lane to score the extra ball. Do nothing else until you get this. I failed this only once the entire game, when the initial plunge rocketed from the bumpers straight into the left outlane. If you gain any control of the ball from the plunge, you should always be able to get this EB and go infinite.
Then go for one G-force, then for multiball. Lock downstairs, hit the four yellow standups, and lock upstairs. It's OK not to go for both G-forces. One G-force will carry over to the next ball, while getting both means you need to redo them. Multiball is easy enough with the gate permanently open that maxing the lower playfield at 999,990 should happen even at only 2x scoring.
The key target on the lower playfield is the yellow drops. Each of these is lit by hitting one of the upper playfield yellow spot targets. When lit, they score 3000 bonus times the G-force accelerator, which is far more than anything else. And the key to hit them is to play slowly and carefully. It's very easy to start flailing like crazy on the cramped playfield with lots of balls, but don't. Bounce pass left-to-right whenever you can, and the right flipper can usually hit those yellow drops. Catch balls on that left flipper and deflect them to the right as you can. It's also possible to hit the yellow drops from the left flipper on a ricochet from the center bumper, though the sweet spot for this is quite small.
On every drain from the lower playfield, hold the left flipper to catch whatever you can, while turning your attention to the re-entry shot back into the black hole. I can hit this shot about 90%. There are also trajectories that miss but feed the ball back into the rightmost inlane for another shot. Be ready for this.
There's lots of skill in corralling stray balls to get them back downstairs. The most important bit is to catch on the left main flipper whenever you can. You can hold a ball here while making other re-entry shots. Then quickly post pass and shoot the tunnel with that ball while the previous one is still descending.
It appears that you can't get multiball a second time on the same ball. I'm not sure if this is true to the real table or not. But anyway, if multiball ends before reaching the 999k bonus max, I'll keep going with the single ball until reaching it. I never failed to reach max bonus after starting multiball during my entire game.
Once the bonus is maxed at 999k, there's not much else to do on that ball. The fastest way to score now is to keep shooting the spinner for 1k/spin, just letting the ball go from the black hole without flipping as long as the re-entry gate remains open. This isn't very fast though so I prefer to just intentionally drain to cash the 999k bonus. Before that, do set up for the next multiball as much as possible: lock downstairs and complete 3 of the 4 yellow targets upstairs. (If you complete all 4, they will reset on draining.) Also make sure you leave exactly 1 of the blue targets up downstairs, so that next time you can open the gate and work towards the EB as easily as possible.
Next ball, get that EB again, and repeat forever. I went until I thought I had 150M for #1 (obviously miscounted by quite a bit) and just drained the last two balls intentionally.
Every ball, the absolute first thing you do is enter the lower playfield, complete the blue drops twice, then shoot the upper playfield top lane to score the extra ball. Do nothing else until you get this. I failed this only once the entire game, when the initial plunge rocketed from the bumpers straight into the left outlane. If you gain any control of the ball from the plunge, you should always be able to get this EB and go infinite.
Then go for one G-force, then for multiball. Lock downstairs, hit the four yellow standups, and lock upstairs. It's OK not to go for both G-forces. One G-force will carry over to the next ball, while getting both means you need to redo them. Multiball is easy enough with the gate permanently open that maxing the lower playfield at 999,990 should happen even at only 2x scoring.
The key target on the lower playfield is the yellow drops. Each of these is lit by hitting one of the upper playfield yellow spot targets. When lit, they score 3000 bonus times the G-force accelerator, which is far more than anything else. And the key to hit them is to play slowly and carefully. It's very easy to start flailing like crazy on the cramped playfield with lots of balls, but don't. Bounce pass left-to-right whenever you can, and the right flipper can usually hit those yellow drops. Catch balls on that left flipper and deflect them to the right as you can. It's also possible to hit the yellow drops from the left flipper on a ricochet from the center bumper, though the sweet spot for this is quite small.
On every drain from the lower playfield, hold the left flipper to catch whatever you can, while turning your attention to the re-entry shot back into the black hole. I can hit this shot about 90%. There are also trajectories that miss but feed the ball back into the rightmost inlane for another shot. Be ready for this.
There's lots of skill in corralling stray balls to get them back downstairs. The most important bit is to catch on the left main flipper whenever you can. You can hold a ball here while making other re-entry shots. Then quickly post pass and shoot the tunnel with that ball while the previous one is still descending.
It appears that you can't get multiball a second time on the same ball. I'm not sure if this is true to the real table or not. But anyway, if multiball ends before reaching the 999k bonus max, I'll keep going with the single ball until reaching it. I never failed to reach max bonus after starting multiball during my entire game.
Once the bonus is maxed at 999k, there's not much else to do on that ball. The fastest way to score now is to keep shooting the spinner for 1k/spin, just letting the ball go from the black hole without flipping as long as the re-entry gate remains open. This isn't very fast though so I prefer to just intentionally drain to cash the 999k bonus. Before that, do set up for the next multiball as much as possible: lock downstairs and complete 3 of the 4 yellow targets upstairs. (If you complete all 4, they will reset on draining.) Also make sure you leave exactly 1 of the blue targets up downstairs, so that next time you can open the gate and work towards the EB as easily as possible.
Next ball, get that EB again, and repeat forever. I went until I thought I had 150M for #1 (obviously miscounted by quite a bit) and just drained the last two balls intentionally.
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Mark Miwurdz
New member
- Apr 7, 2012
- 684
- 0
Do you have a vid out there, viking?
vikingerik
Active member
- Nov 6, 2013
- 1,205
- 0
No, but I could see about making one if you're interested enough.
Mark Miwurdz
New member
- Apr 7, 2012
- 684
- 0
I am. Maybe you could include low risk, eb grinds like some of my vids.