ST:TNG Tactics and Strategies

[Zaphod77]

The spinner is boosted by the drain rift targets (chuckle) (Time Rift). It starts at 1k per spin, and it goes up 1k per Time Rift hit, and will not go above 30k per hit by hitting those targets. BUT see below.

At warp 4, the spinner becomes lit, and scores 100x it's value. Before you reach warp 4, it scores it's normal value. Draining unlights it, but going though the factors does not. This "maxes" at 3 million per spin, which outscores many mode shots, but see below.
At Warp Factor 6, return lane is lit. this will turn on super spinnner, for 10 million a spin. This is pretty nice, and can outscore a MAXED final frontier shot, and is usually disabled in tournaments for this reason. But see below.
At warp factor 7, DOUBLE SPINNER is turned on. this DOUBLES the current spinner value permanently, without regard to the 30k max. the TRUE max is 255k, which then goes to 25.5 million when the spinner is lit. at this point, you get some good spinner action, and you are getting over 700 million a shot until the ball drains! so if you go through the warp factors enough times you are getting 25.5 million a spin for most of the rest of the game. UBER SCORING!

That's what people mean when they say the spinner outclasses everything else in the game. Once the spinner is maxed by 5 to 8 trips through the warp factors, if you got that Picard Maneuver down, your score flies up so fast it's not even funny. Now keep this up with a ball trapped on the left flipper during borg multiball. Dear gods.

Tested with ball control on.

 

[DanBradford]

very helpful Mr Beeblebrox, thank you. i think i get most of it now. not all of it, but most of it.
for completeness' sake, the bits i still haven't fully grasped:

700M a shot at maxed 25.5M/spin, you mean i can spin the spinner 28 times with one whack? wowser.

i'm still a bit confused by the 3M max you mentioned

you say 5 to 8 times to max it at 255? could this even be as low as 4? if i can get it to just 16K with drain rift (chuckle) then i can double it to max in just FOUR visits to warp 7 (32 .. 64 ... 128 ...256) - i got burned in a casino once in Gibraltar playing red/black double-ups on roulette, and hit the house limit before i could double my way out of trouble

5-8 trips through, you mean 5 to 8 balls? as in 3 balls + video mode EB (max once) + warp 8 EB (once) + 450M EB (once) + maxed rollovers EB (once) + battle simulation level 6 EB (more than once?). are there any other EBs or specials out there i have missed?

finally, if i've maxed it at 255K, and get to warp 4 so lighting the spinner, so 25.5M/spin ...... does super spinner still max at 10M/spin, meaning less than i was getting before?

cheers dude

 

[Zaphod77]

super spinner is still 10 million per spin. but i think it's in addition to the normal points. stacking both might get you a billion for shooting the spinner. And if you keep up the Picard maneuvering it will stay running as well. it only turns off when the orange light goes out.

By trips through i mean the warp factors. since you can collect double spinner everytime you reach warp factor 7, and after warp 9 mode it drops back to 1. You can reach warp nine multiple times on a ball.

yeah, so you get it to 16k from the drain rift targets. it then goes 32k, 64k, 128, 255k. you are right that's four double spinner awards. no matter what it takes at least that many to max it.

0=8 doubles needed
1-2=7 doubles needed
3-6=6 doubles needed
7-14=5 doubles needed
15+=4 doubles needed

Actually seems you will only get around 20 spins or so for a good hit in TPA. real machines can be better or worse. so not quite THAT good, but still really awesome.

 

[Zaphod77]

ANother tip. if you have an extra ball and you haven't reached warp nine yet and you are on warp factor 8, consider draining on purpose, so you can select warp 4 next ball and keep the ramp awarding warp factors. repeat until you've maxed the spinner or ran out of extra balls to use.

 

[vikingerik]

I tried it out and the spinner does work as Zaphod described. The base value doesn't reset on a drain, I never realized that, always thought it did, but it is just the 100x light from factor 4 that turns off.

Borg Multiball still far outweighs the spinner on the high end (for game scores of like 100B-plus), but the spinner can get to 10B or so faster than any other method. And during the weaksauce Ferengi or Cardassian multiballs, or even Final Frontier itself, the spinner is a pretty juicy target to pound on.

(Although I still think you want to avoid warp factors, because holding bonus x at factor 5 is bad, means you can't get the bonus X EB on the next ball. That EB is more important than even a maxed spinner, at least in my world.)

 

[Zaphod77]

Yeah, T2 has the same issue with it's bonus x extra ball, which is repeatable, but the escape route, which gives you the other extra ball, keeps giving you bonus hold to deny it to you. Because of the easily available escape route extra ball, it's not much of an issue, and you can still go infinite.

Hold Bonus Multiplier is actually a penalty in non tournament play, because it deprives you of your extra ball.

 

[Zaphod77]

Until you've reached warp 9 for the first time the side ramp will keep on awarding warp factors.

ALso first time to warp 8 gets an extra ball.

With this in mind try to avoid getting 8x on your first ball. It ill be impossible to avoid warp 5 on it, so you might as well go for warp 9 to make that ramp stop giving you warp factors. avoiding the bonus x extra ball light on ball 1 lets you get it on ball 2 even after hold bonus. you will still get the warp factor 8 extra ball, the replay extra ball, and possible a shuttle simulation eb and/or a battle simulation extra ball. If you can stack up four before you drain without getting to 8x, you waste nothing. If not, well you would have been robbed on ball 2 if you didn't get it on ball 1.

The same strategy holds throughout the game. try to avoid lighting the bonusx extra ball if you hit warp factor 5, or if you've maxed the extra balls, so you can get it next ball. Easier said then done though...

 

[vikingerik]

It's not that hard to avoid warp factors. On any ball coming from the right inlane, don't aim at the spinner, which is major risk anyway on a brick. Aim at the Neutral Zone or Alpha ramp, which each feed back to the left flipper, or if you miss, the ball usually safely drops towards the flippers.

But yes, just knock warp 9 out of the way on the first ball (and I'll even restart the game if this doesn't happen). And later, whenever you do inadvertently get factor 5, you're free to pound warp factors and the spinner for the rest of that ball since the damage is already done.

 

[Zaphod77]

Yeah. for ball 1, try to max the spinner and collect as many extra balls as you can. 4 is possible een without the bonusx one, but as long as you collect the one at warp factor 8, and reach warp 9, ball one is not a loss, and you should keep playing.

If you are playing to max the spinner as fast as possible at the expense of extra balls, instead you drain after warp 8, and before 9,and keep picking warp 4.

If you are really damn good at repeating the Picard Maneuver,it's pretty fast.

 

[pezpunk]

In a godly game the spinner will eclipse everything else eventually.

interesting. what's godly? my highest is 108 billion (when i won the STTNG kickstarter tournament) but i haven't played it again in forever -- major burnout!

edit: shoulda finished reading before responding! had no idea the spinner could get up that high. very cool.

 

[JefferyD]

Okay, I didn't believe you, but I was wrong. Star Trek is bruuutal. I finally broke down and bought it so I could participate in the tournament, but I'd need a month of non-stop play to get a handle on this thing. My first 100 or so games on Firepower didn't amount to a grand total of five minutes, but I think Star Trek is even meaner than that.

Just by depth and breadth of the rule set there are so many ways to feel completely overwhelmed. No matter which of the goals I'm chasing, the ball slams down the left outlane before I even know it's heading in that direction. I don't think I've completed a single mission successfully. Total Federation washout.

On all the tables where I have the option, I change the settings to hard or extra hard with no extra balls, because I generally don't have more than ten or fifteen minutes to burn goofing around on the iPad; on Star Trek I've set it to 5 ball, leaving it on medium difficulty, with deep consideration of changing the difficulty to easy. That's how bad it's making me feel. I've looked for a setting to stuff a sock into that left outlane, but Farsight has underperformed and forgotten to include it.

I'm studying all of the tips here and hope that this horrid horrid table can be tamed... because I really like it.

 

[vikingerik]

Don't bother trying to complete the missions. You don't need to. They're not worth enough points. Artifacts come way easier from the Holodeck (look up the correct tunnel sequence if you don't know it) which you can light for free at the start of each ball. When you do start a mission, either just wait for it to time out, or shoot towards multiball instead.

As for the left outlane, pay attention to relighting the kickback, which requires only one hit on whichever of the lower 1-2-3-4-5-6 targets is flashing.

 

[Zaphod77]

Yeah, that target by right ramp to left outlane power drain is very nasty. it's better to miss that shot late then to miss it early.

Many of the missions are not that hard if you get the Picard Maneuver down (spinner to side ramp). practice that shot a lot.

 

[pezpunk]

Yeah, that target by right ramp to left outlane power drain is very nasty. it's better to miss that shot late then to miss it early.

yeah, I would bet that left post on the right ramp is the primary cause of those left outlane powerdrains. if you are going for the beta ramp, LATE is better than EARLY . also, the ball often falls from the pops directly into the left outlane (something I have not seen my game at home do), but that is saveable with a timely nudge.

Many of the missions are not that hard if you get the Picard Maneuver down (spinner to side ramp). practice that shot a lot.

yeah - the missions are not impossible. they are just very very punishing if you miss shots. you can get decently high scores and multiple Final Frontier trips per game by playing the missions out, if you are accurate. I can score 10 to 20 billion that way. (of course, borg multiball strategy eventually dwarfs those scores, but that takes forever and is tedious as hell)

speaking of which -- for the timed tournament, what was everyone's strategy? did the 20-minute time limit make the super spinner the optimal way to go? here's what my strategy was:

1. lock 3 balls for borg multiball
2. make the three cannon shots at the start of borg multiball (each one permanently increases the jackpot value by 10 million)
3. intentionally not score any jackpots -- instead, drain all balls during borg multiball, so that the auto-save shoots them into the pops (to build jackpot), and letting them drain when they fell
4. when autosave expires, save one ball, and start locking balls again.
5. repeat until there are only 5 minutes left -- then start getting as many jackpots as I could. mostly super jackpots via the delta ramp.

I ended up in 10th place on that table with about 12 billion (?) if I recall correctly, so I think my strategy was probably not the best one.

 

[Extork]

I've been doing the same. The only difference is that I've been starting as many missions as I can along the way. And I'll play out the holodeck if it gets me up to 4 artifacts. On TPA, if you chose the 25mil from the holodeck, it allows you to easily hit the center shot, as the left flipper only registers to make it in the center target. So, I'll go for that even though I'm doing the Borg strategy, only up to 9bil, but this seems to work

But what I want to know is if anyone actually plays out the missions. Only one that might be worth it is the Asteroid belt

 

[pinballchris]

I've been doing the same. The only difference is that I've been starting as many missions as I can along the way. And I'll play out the holodeck if it gets me up to 4 artifacts. On TPA, if you chose the 25mil from the holodeck, it allows you to easily hit the center shot, as the left flipper only registers to make it in the center target. So, I'll go for that even though I'm doing the Borg strategy, only up to 9bil, but this seems to work

But what I want to know is if anyone actually plays out the missions. Only one that might be worth it is the Asteroid belt

In the current tournament, I start missions but go for locks during play. I also let the missions play out on errant shots. I try for the 20Mil asteroid shot initialy though. Still stuck at 10-11 billion max over 20 minutes. Doesn't matter how many MB's I have, 2, 3 or 4 with a Final Frontier...still 10-11 Billion. Frustrating.

 

[Extork]

In the current tournament, I start missions but go for locks during play. I also let the missions play out on errant shots. I try for the 20Mil asteroid shot initialy though. Still stuck at 10-11 billion max over 20 minutes. Doesn't matter how many MB's I have, 2, 3 or 4 with a Final Frontier...still 10-11 Billion. Frustrating.

We are both doing it wrong I think. We need to ignore final frontier

By the time we get final frontier, it's still a waste of time.

 

[pinballchris]

YEah probably, my problem is that I get the yips on my scoop shot after the first MB, lol. Which obviously takes away lots of points.

 

[nstalkie]

I am in 2nd place of the gold tournament last time I checked:
ST: 2nd place with 14,728,299,390

I basically played like I usually play. I tried to do the missions to the best of my ability. At Launch, I picked Warp 4 first, then missions afterwards, locks at the end.
Video mode, I played out to get items.
I only had 5 items during Final Frontier, usually I get 6. I did get a good Final Frontier though, scoring a lot of ramps.
Afterwards there was no time left to go for another FF. At that point I concentrated on multiballs and I got a great multiball as well. (3rd multiball in total).

I have tried to concentrate on just Final Frontiers, it's not worth it IMHO. I think borg multiballs are the way to go. I did try this, but couldn't score above my score I listed here.
Edit: a test game where I ignored Borg multiball at all and just tried to get to Final Frontier twice ended in about an 8 ~ 10 billion score.

 

[Extork]

True, but did they really have to make a show about the cardassians? Bad joke. Ok, I take it back