Strategies.

[DanBradford]

super skill shot ..... as the ball ejects, let it drain. Also, if the skill shot misses, as long as it was weak and hasn't triggered a switch, let it drain. ....The drained ball whether successful or not, returns to the plunge for another skill shot. Just keep repeating the weak skill shot - and drain until you have 3 balls locked, 3 clues, and you've increased your bonus multiplier by 3x also. .... On the start of a new case, use the weak skill shot - no flip - drain technique to get 3 further clues for the new case, and start the basement multiball again - bumpers and Jackpots.......this trick is very picky..... You really have to do it exactly as described. And even when you do it right it will often autofire after you hit the hole twice.

it is picky isn't it. i can get the super skill shot 3 times on ball 1, but on later balls it often autofires even if definitely no switches hit. plus of course if you have any balls locked then you will have fewer opportunities to use this trick, but still thanks for this awesome idea.

it's annoying to get the super skill when clues are maxed but i haven't solved yet so i don't get a new clue, but my worst failing is when, after a successful super skill shot, i let it drain out without realising that autofire wasn't even lit, and the ball just ends and it's 100% my fault. grrrrrr

my only tip to add to this collection is that the revolver is extremely valuable, and the first train combo doesn't usually award it, so getting off the lift on the 6th floor is a handy way to collect some free equipment. i'm determined to get to 30B for the 1000 points today or tomorrow ....

 

[Zaphod77]

a tip. if the ramp raises for taxi chase when you are trying to shoot your super skillshots, it means your welcome is going to run out soon and autofire will activate. so always steer the light OUT of the left inlane when trying the super skill shot 3 times for multiball cheat. It still robs you sometimes, but this has given me the most success on that stunt on pc, wher eyou can't pull the plunger back without flipping without a controller.

 

[DanBradford]

thanks Zaphod, i'll watch out for that. yes, i assumed that steering the light out of the way was better as running past a light seems more likely to trigger a switch (though the inlane itself of course is a switch) .... but also wondered if operating the flipper may count as a switch, so part of me wants to just not touch it anywhere but plunger.

so annoyed with myself, last night i had 20B but had three pieces of equipment and NO revolver (so several billion not collected), and started at least three balls with all clues claimed and case still unsolved (so missed opportunities for extra balls). gah! but i'll get there in the end

 

[vikingerik]

on pc, wher eyou can't pull the plunger back without flipping without a controller.

Is this true? I plunge on most tables by click-dragging the mouse downwards. Does that not work on Whodunnit?

 

[Zaphod77]

it flips the flipper that matches the mouse button. so you drag with left mouse it flips left flipper. drag with right mouse and it flips right flipper, and it changes lanes.


That's what messes up most of the exploiting.

using enter DOES work without a flip, but you can't control it so easily.

 

[DanBradford]

I'm realising the importance of the revolver now.

I just had a semi decent game of 12B where I got the jackpot up to about 140M. So if I assume that during my game I probably scored around 80 or so jackpots at an average of about 110M each (halfway from base 75 to final 140) making 8.8B, the majority of my points then I think about what the difference could have been if I'd obtained the revolver on an early ball:

the same number of bumper hits (65, as it went from 75 to 140) would have sent my jackpot up to around 400M (65x5M + base 75). So those 80 jackpots could have been worth, assuming an averaged jackpot score of 240M (halfway from 75 to 400) the more appealing figure of 20B. By getting the revolver early, my score would have been about 24B instead of 12B.


So an early revolver, by my reckoning, doubles your score. In my pursuit of the 1000HOF points I'm gonna restart if I don't get the revolver after a couple of balls.

edit: the perfect storm finally arrived-
early revolver + high jackpot + lots of multiballs + caught lots of killers for high bonus and bonus X maxed so 1-2B end of ball bonuses + win plenty of roulette + several roof multiballs with 100K hit loads of times
result; 46B and 1000 points

 

[Ulkomaalainen]

Okay, this may be a strange first post (hello everybody by the way, *waves*), but since I am crap at actually playing pinball but about this special thing nagging on me I have some expertise, so here we go:

The roulette table - always use it. If only it were that easy. Yes, you expect to win more than you lose, but there's a but.

I assume from the rules (bet amount goes up to a certain level, then down again), that these are basically a modified percentage of your score, and my (limited, points-scope wise) experience seems to support it. And now, while you win more than you lose, as soon as you have won it, you can lose more than you did before, and vice versa, if you lose the first bet, you will not be able to win as much back.

As an example, let's assume the 60% winning odds up there are correct, which would go well with 5 roulette tables - 3 wins, 2 losses. Let's also assume that we will always end up betting 50% and not getting any points in between, which of course is impossible, but for the simplicity of the argument. Then, if everything goes "normal", after three wins and two losses, we will end up with only 84.375% of what we started with, a minus of roughly one sixth of our points. (It is easier to see with 100% bets - lose once, and via percentage, we do not get it back, although we know that there will be a couple of millions we can only win, but let's stay simple). Of course, if we only bet small amounts, which do not really affect the next bet, we will win, so there is some kind of cut off percentage, if the bet is higher than that you will lose, if it is lower, you will win with three wins and two losses. This cut-off percentage (with the above assumptions of 60% chance to win and no points scored between wheel spins) is a tad below 39%. (I think I'll spare you the details of how to solve the necessary equation, unless anyone asks).

How is it possible to lose on average when we win each time on average? Well, it isn't - we will win on average. In the best case scenario we will win about 6.5 times our starting capital, in the worst case we can "only" lose 97% of it. So we win bigger, but we lose more often than we win.

So what should you do when betting on roulette? Well, as so often, it depends on what it is you want. I can see five basic strategies you can go for (and I did not make up the first three names):

1) Maximax - get the most in the best possible scenario. Best possible scenario of course is winning on roulette, so if we assume to win anyway, we will always bet.

2) Maximin - the opposite, get the most when everything goes against you. Easy as well, never bet.

3) Minimax regret - chosing the path, where the worst case scenario is closest to the best case scenario. Here again, if you do not bet, you will get the same no matter how the wheel would have spun, so no regrets - do not bet

4) Optimize your average score - again easy, the expected return from a spin of the wheel is positive, so always bet.

5) Optimize the chances of increasing your score in the long run - this is where all of the above considerations come into play. Bet when the amount is less than the cutoff percentage of your score, decline when it is higher. (For practical purposes, we should set it higher than 39%, since you will score in the meantime, which is more important when you had a low score before, i. e. your ability to win back increases faster than your ability to lose back. As soon as you racked up a considerable score though, we're getting close to 39%)

When to play what strategy (this is a general discussion, since strategies 1 and 3 will lead to the same result in this case, but they won't always do that in other cases, so I'll treat them differently. Many of these also apply to other risk taking like going for that last drop target which gives you a 50% of going STDM)

1) Maximax - when you want to end up on top of a large list/tournament. The very top - second place is first loser. Your personal odds of winning are low, in fact, you will most probably land behind most of the players playing a different strategy but if enough players go Maximax in a tourney, none of the other strategies holds up, most probably one of the Maximaxes will win (while many others will epically fail)

2) Minimax - avoid total humiliation. If you need to be in the first 100 of a 120 player tournament to qualify, this is probably the way to go. You will not get very high on rankings, but you are very sure not to become last player

3) Maximin regret - not really useful in a game/tournament setting. It may help sore losers and it will be the best if you have to explain your reasoning to somebody else, if things got pear shaped ("it could only have been worse if I did something else")

4) Maximum expected/average score - again, often not very useful in gameplay situations. Unless you do not play for highest score but for maybe the sum of 5 plays.

5) Maximize chance of improving your score - this will get you the best results in terms of average rank in a tournament (not average score, though). If Maximaxers are around, you probably won't win, but you'll be close to the top most of the time. Best strategy if you need to be in the top 15 or 20 of a larger field to qualify for a next round.

All the tournament ideas again assume roughly equal strength (or no information about other players). If you are by far the best or the worst of the bunch, things change in theory and would matter less and less in practice. Also, anyone can see that you should hardly ever play a pure strategy but adapt to the situation. Being behind by far? Take every risk you can. Finally beat the score your ex has put into the table, kicking hir out? Calm down.

Finally returning to "WHO dunnit?" and its roulette - in the end you will probably want to risk it, since most of your games will be for a high score. So most of what I wrote doesn't really improve your knowledge. Just wanted to share

What a useless post, thanks for bearing with me though.

 

[Zaphod77]

Well if you are playing who dunnit in a tournament, tournament mode will be on, to stop the second chance and roulette shenanigans that tend to cause fisticuffs. The wheel behaves very differently and totally predictably. the first spin you do not pass on loses. the second spin you do not pass on wins. WHether your bet is red or black does not matter. This is tracked separately for each player. So you want to pass on spins until you get a low bet amount, then take your loosing spin, then when you have a high enough bet amount, take your winning spin. repeat as needed. You always know if your spin is a winner or a loser, and can adjust your strategy by that.

In the unlikely event that you are in a tournament with tournament mode not forced ON you should enable it with the flipper code (and inform the other players that this makes slots a fixed sequence and how it affects the wheel, in the interests of sportsmanship). if that isn't allowed, then you should not risk it if you are ahead, and risk it if you are behind far enough that you think you will drain before catching up, or the amount is low enough that you can recover from a loss.

 

[Ulkomaalainen]

True. Although the general strategy guide will work in other circumstances, too - albeit not referring to this roulette thingy then. See, all the work, and it amounts to only very little. Feels like playing Black Rose to me

 

[Zorgwon]

You have to consider the bonus multiplier which will be advanced no matter if you win or lose. If you pass on the roulette the multiplier will remain. The multiplier affects all upcoming balls.

I would like to switch the gambling off.

 

[big_kick]

Even if you pass on the roulette, it increases the multiplier by 1X. (From instruction)

 

[fromduc]

Even if you pass on the roulette, it increases the multiplier by 1X. (From instruction)

Right. And after a very very long game i can confirm that the roulette makes u win most of the time, i'd say around 80% in my game. So if u're playin for a top game with tens/hundreds of millions, dont take anything else in consideration, play each time.

BTW, as i took the #2 spot (and let all my balls go as Anton was again so far with his #1), a couple of advices, most of them already said here:

-Always start with the Rubik trick for the skill shot (3rd post of this thread), sometimes it will take u 4-5 times or even more but it's so rewarding... if u take 3 clue u just have to go to the 2nd floor and u got ur EB. This is the key for a kind of infinite play.
-Do everything Zaphod says on the 1st post of this thread. Couple of precisions:
*Multiball Jackpot maxes at 504 Millions, not that bad anyway ^^ If u manage the elevater well enough, takin the revolver should be ur 1st priority, takin the 2 EB at the beginning and losin them in tryin to have the revolver is losin ur time. After that, during multiball u just want to max the jackpot at 504M in priority, u'd take jackpots only if u cant manage to shot the balls in the bumper, or to let u less traffic and more time to shoot the other balls in the bumpers. When jackpot is maxed, right hole, roulette shot and elevator (when it's open) should become easy shot with nexperience, specially the right hole on a left flip rollin ball.
*After have found all clues rsolve the case as fast as possible, u want the EB and if possible the 20M Bonus of the case resolved, after that other scoring is pointless.
*Be really really disciplined on your shoots, right taxi chase by the left flip is a killer, ALWAYS backhand it. Same for the Phone, even if it's a bit easyer with right flip and if the left backhanding can come to a STDM, it's savable by a nudge. I play the other shoots normally, i just backhand the left taxi chase to solve the case if i run out of time, it's personnal but for this one i'm more consistent with normal right flip shot.
*When u're safe enough on EBs and got something lit for runnig the slot machine, take it in priority: each slot nudge awards u 5 Millions on ur bonus, meaning 4 slot machine nudges = 1 case solved in term of bonus: at the end of my game i had more bonus with slot nudges than cases solve (and total bonus on each ball was around 10B!!). Of course u got to maximise bonus multiplier ASAP.
*Elevator madness is not interesting in points, and 2 balls MB can be a killer on this table, i prefer to catch a ball and advance my taxi letters, and let the 2nd ball drain when it's done.
*If u're maxed on EBs (4), then try to finish the useles stages of the elevator (5,7,8, Penthouse which is "only" 1bilion at best and is not a priority in a great game) or the good ones if u didnt visit them, anyway try to finish it here, when u're not affraid to lose a ball. U want to be able to go to good stages (MB one, clue one, slot machine one...) ASAP.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Bonus multiplier. Max it as fast as you can (it goes to 25x). It's easy, you can flipper pass and nudge to catch from the right lane kickout every time. So just keep doing that and shooting Roulette, passing every time, until your bonus is 25x. (Sadly the only ways you can see what your current multiplier are, are draining, playing Roulette, and getting the Sewer award.)

Then just solve cases, getting EBs along the way.

Pretty soon you'll have a permanent bonus of 5B+ every ball. I got it up to 7.5B.

 

[Zaphod77]

There is a bug that can cause the 3 bank to stay down for the rest of entire ball. it's easiest to trigger by entering floor 8 just as elevator madness ends. having done this you can just blast though the elevator and collect lots of multiball jackpots.

There's a video showing how to do the bug in real life.

There are other ways to trigger it, which can result in the 3 bank staying down for elevator madness, o even going up and down constantly for the rest of the ball (!).

 

[Zaphod77]

There is a secret mania feature in this game.

when the elevator is passing floor 3 (because you already exited that floor once), flip three times quickly with both flippers and the elevator pointer will move back and stop on floor three. if you then hit the middle of the ramp, it starts a 20 second 2 million/switch mode. this timer slows down significantly if you combine it with multiball.

Yes, the spinner counts.