Search titles only
By:
Home
Forums
New posts
Search forums
Articles
New articles
New comments
Search articles
Pinball DB
Pinball Tables
Pinball Games
What's new
New posts
New articles
New profile posts
New article comments
Latest activity
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Navigation
Install the app
Install
More options
Contact us
Close Menu
Welcome Back to Digital Pinball Fans -
please read this first
For latest updates, follow Digital Pinball Fans on
Facebook
and
Twitter
Home
Forums
Farsight Studios
Pinball Arcade Tables
Williams Tables - Retired Tables
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1993)
Strategy for this table.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="vikingerik" data-source="post: 201632" data-attributes="member: 3745"><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. <strong>Don't try any flow shots</strong>, it's not necessary and more risky, <strong>always nudge to catch</strong>.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><hr /><p>Now, multiball strategy. Mine is to <strong>prioritize Mist, then Castle, and mostly ignore Coffin.</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>DON'T shoot for Coffin outside of other multiballs.</strong> 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.</p><p></p><p>My basic idea is to <strong>keep Mist running almost all the time</strong>, 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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Never actually shoot for Coffin jackpots aside from ticking the wizard goal. Castle jackpots are always more efficient.</p><p></p><p>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 <strong>Rats</strong> 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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="vikingerik, post: 201632, member: 3745"] 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. [b]Don't try any flow shots[/b], it's not necessary and more risky, [b]always nudge to catch[/b]. 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. [HR][/HR] Now, multiball strategy. Mine is to [b]prioritize Mist, then Castle, and mostly ignore Coffin.[/b] [b]DON'T shoot for Coffin outside of other multiballs.[/b] 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 [b]keep Mist running almost all the time[/b], 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 [b]Rats[/b] 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. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Members online
No members online now.
Latest posts
D
Anyone still playing?
Latest: Dan
Mar 3, 2025
The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios
Home
Forums
Farsight Studios
Pinball Arcade Tables
Williams Tables - Retired Tables
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1993)
Strategy for this table.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top