Strategy for this table.

[Zaphod77]

Surprisingly, the famous death standups don't always drain. Yeah it can happen, but more often then not you will get the ball back off of them.

With this in mind.

1) coffin ramp is a hard shot. probably harder than real life. Castle ramp is about right.
2) mystery is a pain, and requires a clean shot or lucky bounce. also true to real life.

The key to points in this game is stacking. everything stacks and nothing locks out anything ever. The multi multiball multiplier multiplies the following.

1) mist shots (10m)
2) castle jackpots (which can already be doubled by locking two in castle multiball)
3) coffin jackpots
4) bats bonus
5) rats bonus.

stacking bats with two or 3 multiballs doubles or triples your bonus, and it stays with you for the rest of the game, awarded on every ball. a good ball 1 with a multiball stack+bats bonus+rats bonus can set you up for cracking a billion even if all your other balls suck.

With this in mind.
Extra balls are very important. each one is another collection of your bats and rats bonus. there's one from replay, one form 2 video modes, one from looping castle ramp, and mystery can hand them out directly. and there may be a few more. i forget them all. You can NOT infinite this game, because the extra ball sources are not repeatable. SO get a good ball one and you are set for the rest of the game. the switch bonus is crap.

There is a BUG in the original rom. if you get a tilt warning and drain during it, you LOSE your bonus completely, even if you didn't tilt. including your 100m+ bats and rats bonuses. so DON'T DO IT! if you have a good bats or rats bonus, just take your drain like a man.

Ideal strategy is to stack all mutiballs and bats and rats at the same time. with this in mind. First priority is the pesky coffin ramp to open the coffin lock. having done this, you can then spot castle locks on the castle ramp (it will open the coffin instead if it's closed). Once you've opened that, either brave the standups or loop the castle ramp over and over. if you do the latter, you will lose out on multiplying your first bats bonus, but with luck you can still get a full 50 million from good bumper action. once you got two castle and two coffin locks. go starting multiball. get a ball into the coffin, another one up the castle ramp, and start bats and rats. while you aim for the castle jackpot, you will light mist, and hopefully start it. concentrate on double castle jackpots. if the stars align you will get a multi billion score.

you can trap a ball after a ramp by nudging, but it's not as reliable as it is on the other games it works on. sometimes it will still trickle off the end. but if you can get it down, it significantly decreases the difficulty of looping that castle ramp.

keep in mind power drains out of the bumpers can and do happen. And since every lock results in the bumpers... this game takes a wee bit o luck to score well on.

 

[kinggo]

Nice summary.

The key to points in this game is stacking. everything stacks and nothing locks out anything ever.

Except that video mode precedes multiball. Flippers stop and ball(s) drains and instead of scoring multiple millions one ends up shooting stupid werewolfs.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

The safest way to stack your multi-balls is probably this:
1. Set up your first 2 Coffin locks.
2. Make sure Mist is either lit, or will be lit with the number of Castle Ramps you need to...
3. ... start Castle Multi-Ball.
4. Lock 2 balls to get them out of the way. Oh, and to set up a Double Jackpot.
5. Now start Coffin Multi-Ball (which will still be a single ball since you have 2 locked).
6. Finally shoot the Mystery hole to collect your 2x Double Jackpot and kick off Mist Multi-Ball.

Having said that, if you're feeling brave, go ahead and start Mist immediately after Castle, then lock 2 balls for the Double Jackpot, then start Coffin, then collect a 3x Double Jackpot.

In a 4-ball multiball, let the 4th ball drain. It's not necessary for anything, you only need 3 for Double Jackpots.

Don't bother going for the Coffin Jackpot, you'll get them eventually as random shots go in there.

Castle Jackpots are the money in this game, after Rats and Bats of course, but that's covered.

 

[Zaphod77]

Nice summary.

Except that video mode precedes multiball. Flippers stop and ball(s) drains and instead of scoring multiple millions one ends up shooting stupid werewolfs.

I've never had video mode start in multiball. That said, the software can occasionally get confused, but i've never seen it happen. And i get hosed by bad deflections and kickouts on many other tables that it can happen on. If the game forgot its' way out of multiball, then video mode can start.

This table is probably the most fun to play when you are having a good game. Because it beats you down so hard most of the time, that great game feels awesome.

 

[kinggo]

I did. And I reported it during first beta. And it is confirmed by FS guys on the real thing.

 

[Zaphod77]

To make the first two skillshots, press launch when the middle face lights.
to make all others, press it a little after the first one lights, but before the second one does.

both ramps ARE loopable without trapping, but trapping helps a lot for both, and as i said can be done by nudging to help catch the ball. Post transfers work pretty well, even though you'd think they would be hard.

you CAN backhand the open coffin lock, but it's NOT easy. same for the mystery hole.

don't worry about the loop counter maxing out at 99. it doesn't. it even counts past 255! SO feel free to loop the castle ramp until it diverts to the plunger every chance you get.

 

[Zaphod77]

Okay i finally reproduced the video mode interrupts multiball bug. you can hit the mist multiball and then before the game notices its' free, shoot the orbit and start video mode. in this case you WILL get back mist multiball when it ends.

I've also had mist multiball try to start while already on 3x multiball, and has it lose track of the number of balls a few times.

That said i rolled the game that time. got bats over 500 million. rats scores a lil under 4x with double multiball and a lil under 9x with triple multiball.

i still haven't gotten a 300m coffin jackpot. that goal is HARD!

 

[Storm Chaser]

Yeah, I still have the 300M coffin jackpot to go plus the Special. The special however will just be a matter of getting good at shooting the altar, although it is a tricky shot I have no doubt I will make it once I put my effort to it.

But the 300M-goal. Phew! Anyone got any good tricks to facilitate that?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Every Castle jackpot lines you up for a 2x Coffin shot. Otherwise... not really. Just start lots of multiballs. I never tried for the 300M, it just happened.

 

[Storm Chaser]

Every Castle jackpot lines you up for a 2x Coffin shot. Otherwise... not really. Just start lots of multiballs. I never tried for the 300M, it just happened.

Does the coffin jackpot reset every time it is collected? It seems like it but I haven't really been able to check since I had to keep track of all the balls. Is there something one should be aiming for, or not be aiming for?

 

[Zaphod77]

The coffin jackpot never resets until game over. it is doubled if three or more physical balls are on the playfield, and subject to multi multiball multiplier. so you have to collect the coffin jackpot after the castle jackpot ejects the balls from the lock after collecting 3 coffin jackpots. if you have two trapped in the lock, you will only get a 3x instead of a 6x jackpot, and you need the 6x50 to get 300 million.

 

[Paul Petrissans]

To light castle multiball locks, do people go for the ramp or the drop targets?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

To light castle multiball locks, do people go for the ramp or the drop targets?

Ramps. I let the targets take care of themselves. With the ramps, make sure you have Coffin locks lit before hitting the multiples of 6, and also if you're one short of a multiple of 6 loops and Castle lock is lit, hitting the loop to lock the ball loses the award entirely.

 

[Zaphod77]

Sometimes when i'm in a dangerous mood i will hold off on the ramp until i lock two coffin balls, and only shoot it when castle lock is lit. this sometimes will get me a 2x bats bonus. but it's usually the better play to just loop the ramp after opening the coffin.

From a trap this should be a 100% shot, and as i explained, you can trap by nudging sideways at the right time after the shot.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

 

[vikingerik]

I played BSD as the free table of the month, and scored 70B that didn't count on the leaderboard because trial version. Anyway, here's my take on strategy.

As usual, let's start with physics and railroading. Like many other games around that era, you can catch from most ramp/inlane feeds with a nudge up as the ball reaches the flipper. When the left popper (from Mystery) is feeding to the flipper, a rightwards nudge seems to be a bit more effective. But at any rate, you should be nudging to catch on every inlane feed. Don't try any flow shots, it's not necessary and more risky, always nudge to catch.

The Asylum eject is the one I haven't found a good way to handle, can't find any nudge that works for a catch. You can wait and let it dead pass from the left flipper, which doesn't yield a catch but at least gives a fairly makeable shot at the castle ramp. The other option is to one-time upwards with the left flipper, which may find Mystery or a manageable rebound off the left center standup.

There are safe shots from a catch on the right flipper to either the middle or right targets in the center bank. Aim for the right edge of each of those targets and you get a railroaded bounce back to a catch. I haven't found a safe way to hit the left-center target, but it easily gets hit by random rebounds anyway. The left-side bank doesn't seem to have any safe shots. So I get my Castle locks about evenly split between ramp grinding and the center bank, which I'll use whenever it's just the right and/or middle targets that are required.

The Mystery scoop seems almost impossible to hit from a rolling shot or anything other than a full catch. It can be hit on a clean set shot although the sweet spot is quite narrow. I actually hit it most consistently by aiming for the red post to the right of the hole.

Lightning flippers: I actually quite like how they play on this table. They actually give a bit more control for handling multiple balls at once with the extra space around the flippers; it's less likely to accidentally hit a ball away when trying to catch. And the difficulty around slap saving is perfect - I actually miss slap saves about ten percent of the time, which feels just about perfect for what should happen. I can certainly see where anyone without my precise eye and keyboard would hate the lightning flippers, though.

---

Now, multiball strategy. Mine is to prioritize Mist, then Castle, and mostly ignore Coffin.

DON'T shoot for Coffin outside of other multiballs. It's too risky. It can be hit consistently from either flipper, but the shot is narrow and misses are dangerous with bounces into the bumpers or slings. Grinding the left ramp is much safer since it's a very easy shot from a good set. Stick to Mist and Castle.

My basic idea is to keep Mist running almost all the time, as much as possible. Take it whenever it's lit. Don't try to avoid or save it for stacking. Keep that second ball in play as drain insurance while working towards more Castle locks. It's OK if you do lose Mist before starting Castle, because all the loops will bring Mist close to starting again.

To start Mist, nudge right to catch the feed from the popper, then shooting the floating ball is easy. Go for Castle locks with Mist running, of course. You can nudge up to catch from a Castle loop feed even while holding the other ball on the left flipper. So grinding Castle while within Mist works just like in CFTBL.

Once Mist and Castle are running, the main multiball strategy begins. We all know how exciting it is to stack up the multi-multiballs, but that's only the first part, now you have to cash it in by executing to actually score the jackpots. There's a LOT of skill and strategy in this. Whether you get just a couple jackpots for a billion or grind out dozens for ten-billion is what separates the men from the boys here.

Here's how to grind them. On each popper eject from a jackpot, nudge right to catch that ball on the left flipper, then very quickly post pass and shoot the ramp again while the previously-locked ball is still replunging into the bumpers. That clears the board to get control of another ball or two and lock a second if possible. More generally, just keep as many balls as you can in the Castle lock at all times, since of course that keeps the playfield clearer and safer. All these loop shots also kick off Bats frequently and relight Mist for later.

I keep doing that as long as the Mist + Castle stack has at least three balls in play. The 2x multiball multiplier is good enough; the bump to 3x from adding Coffin is not worth the risk and distraction away from doubled jackpots.

Once Mist + Castle is down to two balls so double Castle jackpots aren't possible, then I start shooting for Coffin. That's mostly to relaunch balls up to 4 when Coffin starts, not so much for the higher multiplier. This doesn't always succeed, but does often enough that it pays out more than going for gimped Castle single jackpots. If I lose the multiball before filling Coffin, that's okay, its progress will wait until the next instance of Mist + Castle.

Never actually shoot for Coffin jackpots aside from ticking the wizard goal. Castle jackpots are always more efficient.

When a full Mist + Castle + Coffin stack is down to two balls, the priority early in the game (on the first 2-3 or so balls) actually becomes Rats at the altar. Rats does weird things with the multiball-multiplier, where somehow 13M x 3 becomes over 100M. But anyway, that 100M rescored over many balls is worth more than undoubled Castle jackpots. Once Rats is running, just go back to shooting Castle locks and jackpots, the Rats scoring will take care of itself.

After a lengthy multiball, Mist will usually be lit again right away. Just take it. Even an unstacked multiball is worth it for the drain insurance, on a table with no infinite EBs. Once I started doing this, I started going a half hour or more between drains. So go for Mist, go for Mist, go for Mist.

 

[Extork]

I agree, except I always try to go for Fluffy the Vampire before all of that stuff

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I agree, except I always try to go for Fluffy the Vampire before all of that stuff

Those 10 points can make or break your game. I agree.

 

[Extork]

Those 10 points can make or break your game. I agree.

Well yeah, but at several hundreds of millions of times, Fluffy can really start to add up ��

 

[kinggo]

But at any rate, you should be nudging to catch on every inlane feed. Don't try any flow shots, it's not necessary and more risky, always nudge to catch.

except that that is not so easy to do on mobile. Inlines are way to fast and while it is possible to catch with a nudge at the same times it is also very likely to do something far more dangerous than on the fly shot. And while in the game I can understand that, the fact that ball that comes through habitrail is also crazy fast like there are no bent ends and what's even worst, then on last 3mm of flipper tip it loses all the momentum and falls down to the middle. IRL ball can pass on the other flipper, in TPA that will fail 99% of time.

Look at the above video on 2 min mark....
and the real thing, at 7:50 is one example

There were some complaints about that during beta but nothing much has changed. Diner, the table before BSD has the same problems with waaaay to fast inlines when ball comes from the ramp.