vikingerik
Active member
- Nov 6, 2013
- 1,205
- 0
Since we don't have this thread, I guess I'll start it, since I'm apparently one of the crazy few who likes Black Knight enough to seriously play it for score. I reached 50 million, good for #15 on the leaderboard.
Extra Balls: This is the primary goal. Completing all four drop target banks three times each lights Extra Ball. If you're good, it's possible to keep earning extra balls faster than you drain them and so play forever.
The instructions and pinball.org rulesheet say that a special (EB) is also lit by completing the upper playfield drops three times each. But that doesn't seem to work quite right, sometimes it happens with a different combination of banks or not at all. Don't worry about this, just keep going for whatever banks the game indicates need hits.
Upper playfield entry: The best entrance to the upper playfield is the left ramp, giving a clear shot at the lock lane. The right ramp is okay, difficult to hit with a moving ball, but easy from a catch. Don't bother with the middle ramp, it's nearly impossible to get any control for a lock shot. Trap the ball instead and shoot the right ramp.
Upper playfield exits: I don't seem to have the problems that many folks report with SDTM drains from the center. I'm on the Steam/Windows version where slap saves are very easy with keyboard controls, but even so, I don't need to slap save very often. Dead passing usually works. As for the other exits, just holding the lower flipper on that side will usually catch the ball from either the left or right exits.
Drop targets: Do not try to complete any drop target banks during single-ball play, unless you get lucky with a shot lined up and only one target left. Go for multiball instead.
Locking balls: This tip was posted not in the Black Knight forum, but over in Genie, and deserves calling out here.
This totally works and means you can keep multiball active almost all the time.
Multiball start: I always start multiball as follows:
Do a hold pass with each ball from the upper left to upper right flipper. Aim VERY LOW from the UR flipper, looking to bounce the ball off the idle UL flipper into the target bank. This works pretty reliably, completing the bank more often than not each time multiball starts. This also ricochets balls back into the lock often, getting more hold pass shots, and keeping balls upstairs for a while racking up some safe points before going down.
The exception is if the UL bank is fully completed but UR bank isn't, in which case I'll flail and whack at the UR bank instead.
Multiball strategy: I seem to get the best results by playing the upper playfield only when multiball starts. Other than that, focus downstairs. It's easy to get caught up by the table's speed and start flailing around, but don't. Keep your cool, trap balls, and use all your usual pinball multiball skills.
Don't try to play with one ball upstairs and one downstairs. The drop target banks are always your goal and you won't complete any that way. If this happens, and it does often, trap the lower ball and just work whatever you can with the other upper flipper until the upper ball drops down. Don't try to send the second ball up unless the UR bank is the last one you need, since odds are the first ball will drop down by the time the second gets up there. I find my multiballs last MUCH longer by making controlled traps and shots on the lower playfield rather than trying to send both up.
Multiball drop targets: Mostly I find I need to focus on the lower left bank, since the UL bank can be completed at multiball start and the UR and LR banks are fairly easy.
The easiest way to complete the lower left drops is to trap a ball on each flipper. Shoot from the right, which will often rebound into the turnaround or multiball start saucer, giving you time to post-pass left-to-right and shoot another target. Takes some luck to get control of a ball for the third shot, but usually happens.
Another way to go for the lower left bank is from the left flipper by rebounding off the middle bank. This works with some reliability, but be very ready with the left Magna-Save.
Mystery See-saw: That's my name for a particular multiball scoring tactic. Trap one (or ideally two) balls on the LR flipper, and get the other on the LL flipper. Shoot the middle ramp, letting the ball whack the backside of the UR flipper and drop back down. Hold the LL flipper and the ball will usually roll up the inlane to activate the mystery score. You have enough time to let the ball settle into a full catch. Shoot Mystery again, let the ball roll back down and up the inlane again, and repeat. This is somewhat risky but can score a LOT of points (million or more) in a hurry if you string together four or five shots.
Magna-Save: Use them a lot, they get relit easily. The most common and important usage is for a ball falling near but past the lower left drop targets (probably coming from a rebound off the middle bank.) When either magnet releases, just hold the flipper and the ball will settle to a full catch. You have enough time to shoot the lit spinner or mystery score this way.
Someone said to use Magna-Save preemptively any time three balls are flying around the lower playfield. I didn't find this useful, it's too easy for a second ball to newton the one on the magnet into the outlane. And then you feel like an idiot if you do need the magna-save a bit later when it's still unlit.
Bug recovery: Unfortunately, this is an essential part of playing this table on TPA. Sometimes the lock lane seems to get stuck and won't let balls in. I've found that a hard direct shot from the upper RIGHT flipper will push past the obstruction and get things rolling again. This happened twice during my 50M game.
Don't start multiball at the lower saucer. That seems to contribute to the problems where the game loses track of the ball count. Worst is when the game starts a 2-ball multiball when there's already two balls in the lock (because you drained.) Starting multiball here also means you can't use the strategy above for attacking the upper left drop targets. Just go upstairs instead and start multiball that way.
At least one bug works in your favor, when a ball jumps out of the table entirely and gets returned to the plunger lane. Enjoy your 1-ball multiball with double scoring still active.
(UL = upper left, UR = upper right, LL = lower left, LR = lower right)
So that's Black Knight in a nutshell. Yeah, probably nobody is really playing this one. If you want to play an early 80's speedy multi-playfield drop-target-whacky game, Black Hole is better.
Extra Balls: This is the primary goal. Completing all four drop target banks three times each lights Extra Ball. If you're good, it's possible to keep earning extra balls faster than you drain them and so play forever.
The instructions and pinball.org rulesheet say that a special (EB) is also lit by completing the upper playfield drops three times each. But that doesn't seem to work quite right, sometimes it happens with a different combination of banks or not at all. Don't worry about this, just keep going for whatever banks the game indicates need hits.
Upper playfield entry: The best entrance to the upper playfield is the left ramp, giving a clear shot at the lock lane. The right ramp is okay, difficult to hit with a moving ball, but easy from a catch. Don't bother with the middle ramp, it's nearly impossible to get any control for a lock shot. Trap the ball instead and shoot the right ramp.
Upper playfield exits: I don't seem to have the problems that many folks report with SDTM drains from the center. I'm on the Steam/Windows version where slap saves are very easy with keyboard controls, but even so, I don't need to slap save very often. Dead passing usually works. As for the other exits, just holding the lower flipper on that side will usually catch the ball from either the left or right exits.
Drop targets: Do not try to complete any drop target banks during single-ball play, unless you get lucky with a shot lined up and only one target left. Go for multiball instead.
Locking balls: This tip was posted not in the Black Knight forum, but over in Genie, and deserves calling out here.
This totally works and means you can keep multiball active almost all the time.
Multiball start: I always start multiball as follows:
Do a hold pass with each ball from the upper left to upper right flipper. Aim VERY LOW from the UR flipper, looking to bounce the ball off the idle UL flipper into the target bank. This works pretty reliably, completing the bank more often than not each time multiball starts. This also ricochets balls back into the lock often, getting more hold pass shots, and keeping balls upstairs for a while racking up some safe points before going down.
The exception is if the UL bank is fully completed but UR bank isn't, in which case I'll flail and whack at the UR bank instead.
Multiball strategy: I seem to get the best results by playing the upper playfield only when multiball starts. Other than that, focus downstairs. It's easy to get caught up by the table's speed and start flailing around, but don't. Keep your cool, trap balls, and use all your usual pinball multiball skills.
Don't try to play with one ball upstairs and one downstairs. The drop target banks are always your goal and you won't complete any that way. If this happens, and it does often, trap the lower ball and just work whatever you can with the other upper flipper until the upper ball drops down. Don't try to send the second ball up unless the UR bank is the last one you need, since odds are the first ball will drop down by the time the second gets up there. I find my multiballs last MUCH longer by making controlled traps and shots on the lower playfield rather than trying to send both up.
Multiball drop targets: Mostly I find I need to focus on the lower left bank, since the UL bank can be completed at multiball start and the UR and LR banks are fairly easy.
The easiest way to complete the lower left drops is to trap a ball on each flipper. Shoot from the right, which will often rebound into the turnaround or multiball start saucer, giving you time to post-pass left-to-right and shoot another target. Takes some luck to get control of a ball for the third shot, but usually happens.
Another way to go for the lower left bank is from the left flipper by rebounding off the middle bank. This works with some reliability, but be very ready with the left Magna-Save.
Mystery See-saw: That's my name for a particular multiball scoring tactic. Trap one (or ideally two) balls on the LR flipper, and get the other on the LL flipper. Shoot the middle ramp, letting the ball whack the backside of the UR flipper and drop back down. Hold the LL flipper and the ball will usually roll up the inlane to activate the mystery score. You have enough time to let the ball settle into a full catch. Shoot Mystery again, let the ball roll back down and up the inlane again, and repeat. This is somewhat risky but can score a LOT of points (million or more) in a hurry if you string together four or five shots.
Magna-Save: Use them a lot, they get relit easily. The most common and important usage is for a ball falling near but past the lower left drop targets (probably coming from a rebound off the middle bank.) When either magnet releases, just hold the flipper and the ball will settle to a full catch. You have enough time to shoot the lit spinner or mystery score this way.
Someone said to use Magna-Save preemptively any time three balls are flying around the lower playfield. I didn't find this useful, it's too easy for a second ball to newton the one on the magnet into the outlane. And then you feel like an idiot if you do need the magna-save a bit later when it's still unlit.
Bug recovery: Unfortunately, this is an essential part of playing this table on TPA. Sometimes the lock lane seems to get stuck and won't let balls in. I've found that a hard direct shot from the upper RIGHT flipper will push past the obstruction and get things rolling again. This happened twice during my 50M game.
Don't start multiball at the lower saucer. That seems to contribute to the problems where the game loses track of the ball count. Worst is when the game starts a 2-ball multiball when there's already two balls in the lock (because you drained.) Starting multiball here also means you can't use the strategy above for attacking the upper left drop targets. Just go upstairs instead and start multiball that way.
At least one bug works in your favor, when a ball jumps out of the table entirely and gets returned to the plunger lane. Enjoy your 1-ball multiball with double scoring still active.
(UL = upper left, UR = upper right, LL = lower left, LR = lower right)
So that's Black Knight in a nutshell. Yeah, probably nobody is really playing this one. If you want to play an early 80's speedy multi-playfield drop-target-whacky game, Black Hole is better.
