Strategy (aka how to pwn)

[Zaphod77]

1) if the ball is launched from the right side, hold both flips up for a catch on the lower left.
2) if ball is launched from the left side, let it go and then hold the right flipper up. it will go down the inlane.
3) you can send the ball around the loop from the upper flippers. this is a good way to get bonusx. the method mentioned in pro tips also works well.
4) bonusx extra ball never gets any harder.
5) extra balls are also available from yagov, and for breaking 1 million. rolling the game will let you get another extra ball at 1 million. Yagov DOES get harder, requiring one more kill each time to get the extra ball.
6) yagov is pretty safe to shoot. kill him a lot.
7) after collecting bonusx extra ball and yagov extra ball, skilfully drain after shooting the yagov kicker. you will be returned the ball, and the kill lights will unlight. you can then get back to work on killing yagov gain. repeat til you got max extra balls. now you can play for real
8) during multiball try to get a ball on each flipper. shoot launch. first landing you will barely be able to get the left flipper on it. it will go back into the launch, for the second jackpot. with practice you can roll the game during ONE multiball. people have doen this stunt in real life, so it's not so unrealistic.

tl;dr. go infinite from bonux, replay, and yagov, and play multiball for fast points.

Note to FS: the flight insurance from yagov kicker should be disabled, since the ball NEVER jumps the flipper.

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

I've played three games only until now, can't say that I've found a final strategy. For safe play I would never use the upper flippers, except in some special situations to prevent ball drains. Also never go for BonusX direct shots and hit Yagov only during multiball (maybe?). Never aim for Tomcat targets, get them from the right lane.
A real safe gameplay is to catch any ball from the upper kickers and shoot the right lane again. This will collect Tomcat targets, enable locks and build up the BonusX during long ball time (if you're fast enough) without any risk.

Here is a short video, the first ball up to the second replay EB at 11M from my third game since release. The quality is poor and the game is nearly unplayable during recording, also lot of mistakes in this early state.
Anyway, a good demonstration for my catching methods...

 

[Slam23]

Does it handle 100M+ scores? That new PAFSUX score is probably bogus.

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

Does it handle 100M+ scores? That new PAFSUX score is probably bogus.

I haven't tried the 100M. The PAFSUX score is bogus for sure, a known account...

 

[Slam23]

Love the controlled MB play, that's where the points are definitely. Takes a lot of patience though to only shoot that right launch lane in single ball play. I don't have the score yet to be talking different strategy but I do tend to go for the Yagov kicker directly, keep up the left flipper and deal with that bounce. Also backhanding the right bonus alley is quite doable and safe. One other controlled sequence that I don't see you use is when the ball returns from the right "lock", this one makes a loop from right to left upper flipper at release. If you keep up that left upper flipper, you get an easy ball on the right lower flipper or deadbounce to the left (on iOS that is, I can see from the video there are some slight physics differences)

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

Does it handle 100M+ scores?

The ROM can't handle 100M, maybe the TPA software does the job. See our PM conversation for HS2.

 

[Zaphod77]

The rom can't handle 10 million. it just tracks that you rolled it. nothing more.

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

The rom can't handle 10 million. it just tracks that you rolled it. nothing more.

Yes, every 10M rollover beat the current ROM #1 score, no matter if 50M or 100M...

 

[Slam23]

And very nicely gives you a new shiny EB when you pass 1M again

 

[pezpunk]

1) if the ball is launched from the right side, hold both flips up for a catch on the lower left.
2) if ball is launched from the left side, let it go and then hold the right flipper up. it will go down the inlane.
3) you can send the ball around the loop from the upper flippers. this is a good way to get bonusx. the method mentioned in pro tips also works well.
4) bonusx extra ball never gets any harder.
5) extra balls are also available from yagov, and for breaking 1 million. rolling the game will let you get another extra ball at 1 million. Yagov DOES get harder, requiring one more kill each time to get the extra ball.
6) yagov is pretty safe to shoot. kill him a lot.
7) after collecting bonusx extra ball and yagov extra ball, skilfully drain after shooting the yagov kicker. you will be returned the ball, and the kill lights will unlight. you can then get back to work on killing yagov gain. repeat til you got max extra balls. now you can play for real
8) during multiball try to get a ball on each flipper. shoot launch. first landing you will barely be able to get the left flipper on it. it will go back into the launch, for the second jackpot. with practice you can roll the game during ONE multiball. people have doen this stunt in real life, so it's not so unrealistic.

tl;dr. go infinite from bonux, replay, and yagov, and play multiball for fast points.

Note to FS: the flight insurance from yagov kicker should be disabled, since the ball NEVER jumps the flipper.

man, this table didn't take long to railroad, did it?

my first 5 or 6 games i got obliterated. like not even close to a million. but after i figured out a few of the tricks (some outlined above) i could play just about as long as i wanted. it's a shame, because this table is SO FAST it would be really really fun if it weren't so easy to almost completely mitigate drain risk.

 

[Zaphod77]

This was more difficult then predicted. the key shots are harder to make then it seems like they should be. but i still rolled it twice during my attempt at the 250k launch bonus wizard goal, which failed to register even though it got it three times.

 

[Worf]

I don't think the Yago shot is that dangerous - it turns on the ball saver (flight insurance) so if you miss it, you got insurance. In fact, a possible strategy is to simply do nothing and use the insurance to keep control of the ball...

In fact, I think that's the only shot that has a ball saver. Anyone know what they use to make it return so fast?

 

[Slam23]

The easiest EB to get in my experience has been looping bonus x from the right lower flipper with a deadbounce from the left lower back to the right lower after the loop, just watch out for fast returns: they will trickle over the tip of the flipper, a timely nudge has to be applied. You have more than enough time to keep that bonus x lane lit to repeat.
I handle returning balls a bit differently from Zaphod's methods (also very useful by the way):
- ball shot from the right "lock" area: keep up the left upper flipper for a catch on the right lower flipper, or deadbounce it to the left flipper for a right lane shot to the up-kicker
- ball shot from the left lock: let it go (no action with the upper flippers) and either do a live-catch to impress the public, or shoot actively up the right lane and control it the same as described above. May need a slight nudge to keep the ball from rolling over the tip
- shoot Yagov: keep the left lower flipper up, after the ricochet the ball routinely travels across the upper flipper area and hit the right upper flipper, with a slight nudge you can deadbounce that ball safely back to the left lower flipper.
I find post-passing a bit finicky and often use Yagov to get the ball from the right to left flipper, and while doing that advance my kills if needed.

 

[Fungi]

I don't think the Yago shot is that dangerous - it turns on the ball saver (flight insurance) so if you miss it, you got insurance. In fact, a possible strategy is to simply do nothing and use the insurance to keep control of the ball...

I've been trying and I can't even get it to drain down the middle. It just hits the left flipper and bounces around.

 

[Zaphod77]

Sometimes it will drain if you hold right flipper up. otherwise it bounces back to left flipper.

PS: when it fires from right lock, hold up ONLY left flipper and it will head over the the right flipper, where you can then hold trap it. it's the launch from left lock that i don't know how to hold trap from yet.

 

[Slam23]

Left lock: just live catch it on the lower right flipper, or shoot it up towards the up-kicker and let it bounce back on the right flipper, or deadpass it to the left.
It's quite possible to go infinite on this table with max 4 EB's stacked, but any (prolonged) lapse in concentration and you'll find yourself inputting your initials....

 

[Paul Petrissans]

I'm here trying to see if anyone has any plunge strategies. I've only managed to get it to plunge to two different ramps but haven't been able to discern any advantage and the instructions don't seem to mention the plunge from what I've seen.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

It might as well be an auto-plunger. The game decides which side the ball goes to or which locked ball to release if there are three locked.

 

[Zaphod77]

you can get it to change it's mind about where it's gonna plunge it by plunging weakly. problem is to do that well you have to know what it's picking in the first place.

 

[relaxation]

Here's a breakdown of my recent game. Boy am I bad at multiball. I also dropped this game once I was placed within the top 10, I didn't I'd want to triple my EoBB count to meet the current #4.