Bride of Pinbot: Tactics and Strategies

[David Smith]

This is a pretty easy game to get 1,000 GameCenter points on. There are only three shots you need to know:

* LEFT LOOP: At the beginning of every ball, aim for the left loop (between the Shuttle Ramp and the Heartbeat Ramp). Your goal is to get the Extra Ball, awarded for four shots in quick succession to the left loop. You can get one extra ball this way, every ball.

It's not too hard: after the skill shot, let the ball come out of the jets and bounce from the right to the left flipper. You can hit the left loop safely from a cradled or slow ball on the left flipper. You can also make the shot easily from the right flipper. Keep shooting it until you get the extra ball. With this technique, you replace every lost ball with an extra ball, so you can basically play indefinitely. Even if you miss and drain a few times before collecting the EB, PinBot extra balls will keep you going.

* SHUTTLE RAMP: After you've collected the Left Loop EB, keep shooting the Shuttle Ramp to Activate Voice, Activate Optics, start multiball, and spin the Big Wheel. It's an easy shot from the right flipper. If you have the ball on the left flipper, use the Heartbeat Ramp to transfer it.

Some shots won't lock a ball in the face, but will go straight through to the PinBot mini-playfield. That's fine -- every seventh shot there awards an extra ball, which will further help you keep playing indefinitely. (Tip: you can only have 4 (I think) EBs in reserve at one time, and PinBot will fail to award its usual EB if you have too many stacked up. You might want to avoid the shot in that case.)

Your goal is to get Metamorphosis (the fourth face) and lock two balls via the Shuttle Ramp to spin the Big Wheel. You're hoping for the Billion award, which is key to high scores on this game. TIP: use the kickouts from the face to collect lit extra balls at the left inlane.

* HEARTBEAT RAMP: If the Big Wheel does award Billion, shoot the Heartbeat Ramp immediately to collect it. It's pretty easy.

There's no need to shoot any of the other shots. Avoid the Small Wheel lane: the awards aren't worth the risk and jackpots are a joke. No need to shoot for the jets or the right loop at any time.

I used this technique to play a 2-hour game, scoring 9.385 billion and 1,000 Hall of Fame points. And that's with only eight billion shots -- all those extra balls make it possible to score an "organic" billion, with 5M+ skill shots becoming routine. (It's easy to get the skill shot multiplier above 30x - it only resets twice a game, when the ball-in-play counter increments.)

 

[Richard B]

Didn't know about the extra balls. Makes this game even more ridiculously unbalanced. As for when the ball goes to the Pin*Bot playfield, it isn't random, nor is it influenced by shot strngth. It goes there whenever the ramp is flashing (usually happens after you lock a ball). If it isn't flashing, a diverter goes up stopping the ball so it scores a lock. You can also score a lock when it is flashing if you shoot up the ramp with a shot too weak to make it to the playfield.

 

[pezpunk]

great tips.

i have always found the extra ball loop shot from the right flipper too risky -- if i miss, it's almost always gone. as a result, my game was solely focused on progressing to metamorphosis and spinning the big wheel. i can't wait to try for extra balls from the LEFT flipper, on your advice. even without going for extra balls, my best is 5.5 billion. Hopefully i can get to 1000 PHOF points tonight with this new info

 

[David Smith]

As for when the ball goes to the Pin*Bot playfield, it isn't random, nor is it influenced by shot strngth. It goes there whenever the ramp is flashing (usually happens after you lock a ball). If it isn't flashing, a diverter goes up stopping the ball so it scores a lock. You can also score a lock when it is flashing if you shoot up the ramp with a shot too weak to make it to the playfield.

Unfortunately on iOS the "Lock" light doesn't work, so it's not very clear when the ball will lock or go through to the PinBot playfield.

 

[Daniel Osborne]

Thanks so Much David, just managed 2,202,000 thank to your tips.

 

[pacreis]

I got to 8 billion but unfortanelly i had a bug during a multiball which made one of the balls dissapear and was not able to end the game to register the high score on ios.

 

[pezpunk]

hmm, i'm still losing too many balls while going for the extra ball loop. seems like i score better when i simply go for the billion point shot and nothing else. i still get extra balls every 7th time the ball goes into the pinbot area (every 2.5 cycles through building her i think?)

i've scored between 5.1 billion and 5.5 billion five times but i can't seem to get that sixth billion! i'm sure it will happen.

 

[phreaker47]

The other tip: Backdoor Billion. On many versions, you are limited to scoring eight billionaire club shots. So what I do is after getting the 8 of those, go for the backdoor billion. Shoot the heart ramp over and over with the right flipper. When you get to the "10 loop" combo you are awarded the backdoor billion. It's always been unclear to me precisely how many shots this requires to go up each level on the way there, but it's a LOT. Fortunately, it's not too hard to get streaks of heart ramp shots going.

 

[David Greene]

I've been stuck on 1 Hall of Fame point since on BoP since I got TPA. I know I'm a novice, but I'm not *that* bad. My high score is 14M, I've done all the standard goals except skill shot. Help?

 

[Bonzo]

It's all about the 1 billion point shot. 14 millions are puny compared to hitting this shot once.

 

[pezpunk]

I've been stuck on 1 Hall of Fame point since on BoP since I got TPA. I know I'm a novice, but I'm not *that* bad. My high score is 14M, I've done all the standard goals except skill shot. Help?

the billion point shot skews the "high scores" so much that anything less than a billion is effectively not worth anything. ignore all the flashing lights and lures for any loops other than putting her together and spinning the big wheel.

the only other ramp you should even possibly consider aiming for is the loop that goes around the shuttle ramp, which lights an extra ball if you hit it three times in a short span.

but really you should just be aiming shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp.

 

[mpeman]

Great strategy. I'm noticing that a 2 player game of this table can take well over an hour if things are going well.
Easily my favorite table of the ps3 collection.

 

[151120]

This table is so frustrating. Just had about 15 Big Wheel Spins (lost count), only one gave the Billion point shot. Probably the longest game I've played yet. Gah...

 

[Jutter]

Thanks for the tips. Some people have a gripe with this table (this table's too easy... this one's too hard. To please all is to please none I guess), but I like it because it's uncomplicated while still very flashy, and the process of the bride's transformation makes this table epic.

 

[vikingerik]

Found an interesting way to abuse this table. It's borderline cheating, but this game is already so easy to go forever on all those extra balls that it doesn't really matter. (I found the left loop method for EBs very easy.)

You can nudge the ball from the Heartbeat ramp into the plunger. Nudge leftwards just as the ball is coming off the left wall of the oscillating pathway. That gives a free skill shot and bumps its multiplier. It's easy to get control coming out of the bumpers (just dead pass) and do it again. By the time the multiplier hits 100x, that's 20M per skill shot, or even missing it for the next bucket still gives 10M. 250x multiplier means 50M skill shots!

Best, you can even do this all during multiball with a ball locked, so you have a backup ball in case you drain. Unfortunately, multiball does not double the skill shot points, but does double the other assorted spare change from the bumpers and heartbeat ramp.

And unfortunately, the fun ends eventually. The skill shot multiplier rolls over to 0 after 255x. Still, I racked up an extra 4 billion (on top of the usual 8+1 billion shots) doing that, quite a bit faster (bit over an hour) than the standard way of shooting for Metamorphosis and the big wheel. Then I was bored and just ended the game for 13.5B total instead of trying to reach 255x skill shot again.

 

[neglectoid]

You can nudge the ball from the Heartbeat ramp into the plunger. Nudge leftwards just as the ball is coming off the left wall of the oscillating pathway. That gives a free skill shot and bumps its multiplier. It's easy to get control coming out of the bumpers (just dead pass) and do it again. By the time the multiplier hits 100x, that's 20M per skill shot, or even missing it for the next bucket still gives 10M. 250x multiplier means 50M skill shots!

thats insane. i never knew/noticed that that call can go back to the plunger from that area.

 

[Zaphod77]

oddly enough in real life i think the billions digit will not register unless you get a billion shot or the backdoor billion.

 

[phreaker47]

So, just confirmed that on the PS4 version you are not limited to registering up to 10b only. This was an issue previously with the PS3 version I had understood. The local high scores won't reflect it, but the leaderboard will!

Here's something else I can confirm after a marathon game that started last night and ended about an hour ago with a new #1 score (yes, I slept, watched football during it...lawl.. made DAMN sure my PS4s power saving feature was turned off):

We've been long convinced that the fully rom-emulated versions of the table stopped awarding billion shots on the big wheel after you complete 8 of them. So, you could get 8 plus the backdoor billion for 9, then have to earn points other ways the rest of the way. I'm pretty sure that mobile versions didn't have this limitation so there seemed to be an unfair advantage there. The news is, you actually CAN get more billion shots. It is just extremely rare. I'd estimate the odds at about 1 in 100. I got 6 or 7 more of them in my game, but I had to absolutely hammer away forever on big wheel shots, and I'm betting I easily hit around 600-700 of those over the course of the game after I had reached the 8 billion "limit". So yeah, maybe 1% chance. Strangely though, at one point it gave me two in a row, way later in the game! About 50% of the time, you'll get 5 million. The other 50% of the time you get any one of the others. Most of the time you're just hoping to get 50 million a lot. Hitting a few of those still makes the wheel the most lucrative thing in the game and it gives those out often enough. You can ride the whole process on rails if you just master the shuttle and heart ramps, and it's easy to keep 4 EBs stacked all day long (That's how you run up the skill shot multiplier because you never lose it on endless EBs)

Oh yeah, I was going to mention the 255 skill shot multiplier limit, but vikingeric already did. Funny thing happened... after 255, it actually goes to 0x for one shot. I happened to hit the 200k, and was awarded "200,000 x0" with the usual "YAHH HOO!" Good times.

Oh and yeah I also noticed you can make the ball hop to the plunger from the figure 8 track when it was meant for the right inlane... I've done it by accident during multiball and sometimes it just hops over on its own. Never thought to exploit it... heh. But, if you have the multiball cycle going, you'll end up with a lot of plunger shots anyway.

 

[Mark W**a]

Yeah, I'm playing now on ps4.

Its good to know not to expect any more billions after 8.

On mobile it doesn't stop at 8. Whether it is just better odds or stops after a certain amount I don't know. In fact I haven't even reached my old mobile best of 9.9 billion yet.

I was wondering if "power charge" can give you better odds on the wheel. Has anyone ever tried that?

OH MY GOD. Man, call it freak luck or whatever, I JUST got another billion! Man, I was not expecting that at all! Over 10 billion now haha.

 

[StarDust4Ever]

I wonder if the Ouya version limits you to 9 billion shots. It's technically a console but it's Android based. I've only hit a billion once. It was the first table I achieved all Wizard Goals...