- Mar 17, 2012
- 4,293
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Yep, yep, yep, standard disclaimer goes here: this is not the only way to score well, don't read further if you like figuring things out on your own, etc. Also, this is not as detailed as some of my other guides, simply because Party Monsters is not a very complex table and most things are pretty obvious, such as the...
General strategy: Multiball. Spell E-L-V-I-R-A occasionally for the 3 Million shot. And get really good at those ramps. That's about it. This ain't the Twilight Zone.
Ball control: Elvira wouldn't be impressed with your uncontrolled balls, and neither will her table. Sling-to-outlane power drains are very common; even without the slings' help, a ball wandering toward the outlane will go in. Ramp rejections often go SDTM, and balls dribbling out of the bumpers to the left have a tendency to fall straight to the trough as well. Because you need to nudge so often on this table, and because mobile devices don't do nudging well, get in the habit of trapping as soon as you can after a nudge and letting the tilt settle. You want to save your dangers for when you really need to get violent to make the save.
Even when you do everything right, EATPM serves up cheap drains from time to time. Such is life.
Upon first crashing the party: Take five immediate shots up the right ramp. This collects an extra ball. Then take three shots to the skull to start multiball. Because ball times are short on this table, you don't want to be messing around with extraneous shots. Get what you need and get out. On the other hand, it is worth taking a shot for the Barbeque Bonus up the center whenever it happens to be lit for the chance at extra ball or special. Don't make a special effort to relight it, though.
Lights! Organ!: Not too much of a strategy needed for playing the actual multiball, since you just need to take a shot at both ramps for jackpot. The problem is that the multiball doesn't last very long, with no ball save and those voracious drains. Trap up as soon as you can to take nice controlled ramp shots. If the third ball is about to drain and you have the other two trapped, let it go. Better to lose the third ball than double- or triple-drain from a botched save. The third ball doesn't do anything extra for you - no playfield multiplier or increased jackpots - so don't bend over backwards to keep it.
Getting more organ: The second and subsequent multiballs you have to light the locks first. Try to spell B-A-T rather than J-A-M; that center target bank is deadly. Take it slow, the locks don't time out or anything, no need to rush. Party Monsters was meant to be a flow game, and it often is when looping ramps, but it benefits from controlled play as well.
Around this time, you can also think about starting to loop the left ramp for the 1 Million shot and letters toward E-L-V-I-R-A. Obviously when you get the "A" you drop everything else for that 3 Million shot at the skull. Again, take it easy! Twenty seconds is a long time if you miss the first shot.
Also pay attention to the value of the right ramp when you hit it, once it reaches 150K or so, you're close enough to another extra ball to begin focusing on the right ramp and collecting it.
Odds and ends: The Boogie Bonus is a nice touch, but never really worth enough to bother aiming for. The Barbeque Bonus is dangerous to relight directly, I usually just let random bounces take care of it. The Dead Heads light the center hole for 1M after the third completion on the same ball, and a special if you can manage the nearly impossible feat of completing them six times on the same ball, but hitting them means more side-to-side motion, which is very bad.
Extra balls and specials: One for 3M (which in itself should give you an idea how fast this table drains sometimes), one from the Barbeque Bonus. The right ramp can award theoretically unlimited extra balls, but it gets very hard to collect past two. The first one is 5 shots, held from ball-to-ball. The second one is 8 shots, reset after each ball. The third and subsequent ones are 12 shots, reset after each ball.
Specials are one from the Barbeque Bonus and the ridiculous one from the Dead Heads.
Fun with bonus: Bonus maxes out at 99K at 5X, for a shade under 500K. Not terribly excited, and ball times are usually too short for the bonus to reach maximum value anyway. So if you get overzealous with your nudging, you're not going to miss too much.
A tip for the 3 Million shot goal: If you're having problems staying alive long enough to collect the six letters and score the 3M, note that the letters do not reset from game to game, as long as you A) don't exit to the main menu, and B) don't quit a game in progress. So you could slowly collect the letters over the course of 10 or 20 games if that's what it takes. Also, don't start over if the 3M shot times out, as you only lose the "R" and the "A".
This can also be "abused" when going for high score, by collecting the first 5 letters and then deliberately draining all remaining balls so as to start the next game fresh with a near-certain chance at the 3M on the first ball (which in turn means you only have to collect 7 letters total for your second 3M shot, which is a lot more doable than 12 letters). You'll have to decide for yourself whether you find this morally acceptable or not.
General strategy: Multiball. Spell E-L-V-I-R-A occasionally for the 3 Million shot. And get really good at those ramps. That's about it. This ain't the Twilight Zone.
Ball control: Elvira wouldn't be impressed with your uncontrolled balls, and neither will her table. Sling-to-outlane power drains are very common; even without the slings' help, a ball wandering toward the outlane will go in. Ramp rejections often go SDTM, and balls dribbling out of the bumpers to the left have a tendency to fall straight to the trough as well. Because you need to nudge so often on this table, and because mobile devices don't do nudging well, get in the habit of trapping as soon as you can after a nudge and letting the tilt settle. You want to save your dangers for when you really need to get violent to make the save.
Even when you do everything right, EATPM serves up cheap drains from time to time. Such is life.
Upon first crashing the party: Take five immediate shots up the right ramp. This collects an extra ball. Then take three shots to the skull to start multiball. Because ball times are short on this table, you don't want to be messing around with extraneous shots. Get what you need and get out. On the other hand, it is worth taking a shot for the Barbeque Bonus up the center whenever it happens to be lit for the chance at extra ball or special. Don't make a special effort to relight it, though.
Lights! Organ!: Not too much of a strategy needed for playing the actual multiball, since you just need to take a shot at both ramps for jackpot. The problem is that the multiball doesn't last very long, with no ball save and those voracious drains. Trap up as soon as you can to take nice controlled ramp shots. If the third ball is about to drain and you have the other two trapped, let it go. Better to lose the third ball than double- or triple-drain from a botched save. The third ball doesn't do anything extra for you - no playfield multiplier or increased jackpots - so don't bend over backwards to keep it.
Getting more organ: The second and subsequent multiballs you have to light the locks first. Try to spell B-A-T rather than J-A-M; that center target bank is deadly. Take it slow, the locks don't time out or anything, no need to rush. Party Monsters was meant to be a flow game, and it often is when looping ramps, but it benefits from controlled play as well.
Around this time, you can also think about starting to loop the left ramp for the 1 Million shot and letters toward E-L-V-I-R-A. Obviously when you get the "A" you drop everything else for that 3 Million shot at the skull. Again, take it easy! Twenty seconds is a long time if you miss the first shot.
Also pay attention to the value of the right ramp when you hit it, once it reaches 150K or so, you're close enough to another extra ball to begin focusing on the right ramp and collecting it.
Odds and ends: The Boogie Bonus is a nice touch, but never really worth enough to bother aiming for. The Barbeque Bonus is dangerous to relight directly, I usually just let random bounces take care of it. The Dead Heads light the center hole for 1M after the third completion on the same ball, and a special if you can manage the nearly impossible feat of completing them six times on the same ball, but hitting them means more side-to-side motion, which is very bad.
Extra balls and specials: One for 3M (which in itself should give you an idea how fast this table drains sometimes), one from the Barbeque Bonus. The right ramp can award theoretically unlimited extra balls, but it gets very hard to collect past two. The first one is 5 shots, held from ball-to-ball. The second one is 8 shots, reset after each ball. The third and subsequent ones are 12 shots, reset after each ball.
Specials are one from the Barbeque Bonus and the ridiculous one from the Dead Heads.
Fun with bonus: Bonus maxes out at 99K at 5X, for a shade under 500K. Not terribly excited, and ball times are usually too short for the bonus to reach maximum value anyway. So if you get overzealous with your nudging, you're not going to miss too much.
A tip for the 3 Million shot goal: If you're having problems staying alive long enough to collect the six letters and score the 3M, note that the letters do not reset from game to game, as long as you A) don't exit to the main menu, and B) don't quit a game in progress. So you could slowly collect the letters over the course of 10 or 20 games if that's what it takes. Also, don't start over if the 3M shot times out, as you only lose the "R" and the "A".
This can also be "abused" when going for high score, by collecting the first 5 letters and then deliberately draining all remaining balls so as to start the next game fresh with a near-certain chance at the 3M on the first ball (which in turn means you only have to collect 7 letters total for your second 3M shot, which is a lot more doable than 12 letters). You'll have to decide for yourself whether you find this morally acceptable or not.
