Strategy.

[Zaphod77]

How to make each skill shot.

Right. this is easiest. simply full plunge. works every time.

Middle. from the straight on view, pull back until you can just BARELY see the tip still and let got. this work son pc with mouse. If you land in right, you didnt' pull back far enough. if you land in lef,t you puled back too far.

To hit left, simply pull back until the instant the tip drops out of view. it will barely clear the middle and land left. if it goes back to middle or right you pulled too far.

The magic mirror is very good to hit especially when you have five x bonus because it lights an extra ball. and with how hungry the outlanes are, having the extra ball lit there is very welcome. Bonus hold is nice too but the extra ball is much more important.

I recommend NOT shooting for grasshopper or scorpion on purpose, unless you are in multiball and/or light extra ball is lit.

Trapdoor is an important shot too because it relights kickback. practice this.

Left ramp is challenging but hittable. TO really get the good points you MUST LEARN TO LOOP THIS SHOT.

The ball in play restrictions on extra balls aren't as strict as the instructions say they are. If you collect the score extra ball, the standups extra ball, and the mirror extra ball, then drain, both the mirror and the standups extra balls WILL become available again, even though your ball in play is the same. SO the game is theoretically infinitable... but not so easy to actually do it.

Multiball tricks.

After scoring jackpot, two hits on each ramp target will reopen the organ for a second jackpot. however the jackpot will be low, so don't worry too much about that.
If you drain all but one, then sneak the ball in while the organ is closing, you WILL get the jackpot. also see below.
If you drain all but one at any time, and sneak the single ball under at the last second, it will finish closing, the multiball end music will play, and then it will enter the lock, giving you 2 ball again. this can be combined with the tip above, getting a jackpot and a new multiball instead of having to whack the ramp a lot.

Phantom millions has priority over double your score. this means that if you get the last letter, and it is ball three and you have'nty shot the ramp you LOSE your one chance for a double.

The right orbit gives you a Mystery score when lit by the left inlane. what is it? we don't know, it's a mystery. the game will never tell you what that score is worth under any circumstance. Whatever it is, it's not much.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

- Score as many points as you can before ball 3 starts. Ramp millions is the easiest way to do this.
- Make sure that you DON'T have P-H-A-N-T-O (or even possibly P-H-A-N-T) lit (see above).
- Double your score.
- Then just keep hitting those ramp millions.
- Multi-ball isn't worth it. 2M+change is all you're going to get, for a lot of effort.
- I think the 5x Jackpot Build Wizard goal is near impossible. Way too much luck involved to get it even to 2x, let alone higher.

 

[Zaphod77]

I disagree that multiball is worthless. sure the jackpot isn't that good, but it gives you a good chance to flail at the standups, and possibly get an extra ball. Specials are not very special in this game (laugh). remember, extra balls from standups and bonusx are limited to one per PHYSICAL ball, not one per ball number.

Say you started 2 ball and locked one. instead of locking the second one, take a potshot at the scorpion or grasshopper targets. if you get the ball back fine and dandy. if you lose it you get a feed out of the organ you can then aim for the trapdoor or mirror. if you DO get into three ball you are likely to get some hits on those targets. and the more etra balls you have, the more bricks of the catwalk ramp you can survive. Multiball doesn't lock ANYTHING out in this game, so you can go for dangerous shots in multiball. You can collect bonux, start jackpot build rounds, collect standup awards, trapdoor awards, phantom letters, even millions and double score... all inside of multiball.

Additionally you can get a pseudo extra ball if a draining ball somehow phases through the table an gets teleported into the plunger lane (this does happen more then you would expect. If you see the jackpot and the ONE TWO letters flashing after you think you should have drained, its' because you've got a ball safely in the plunger lane.) Treat thos stuck ballss not as a 1 ball multiball, but as an extra ball. Just play the rest of the table, totally ignoring the multiball until the jackpot gets up high again.

 

[Rich Lehmann]

To me, the strategy with the multiball seems to be to get it and then hit one back into the organ and then again when it's 3. Use it like free balls.

 

[Zaphod77]

That's pretty much what i'm saying. the jackpot itself isn't really worth that much, but the additional balls do help you out, since the table is so drainy.

 

[Beatnik-Filmstar]

- I think the 5x Jackpot Build Wizard goal is near impossible. Way too much luck involved to get it even to 2x, let alone higher.

Lucked out and nabbed that goal on my first or second game after completing the standard goals. Then went and read the rules for the table and counted myself lucky. No idea how I did it or if it was a glitch.

Anyone know if the five million point shots one needs to be consecutive? Or will hitting any combination of five million point shots during a game count?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Lucked out and nabbed that goal on my first or second game after completing the standard goals. Then went and read the rules for the table and counted myself lucky. No idea how I did it or if it was a glitch.

I got to 4x and 2 of 3 lanes lit. The ball power drained out of the bumpers.

Anyone know if the five million point shots one needs to be consecutive? Or will hitting any combination of five million point shots during a game count?

Has to be 5 in a row.

 

[David T. Melnick]

Lucked out and nabbed that goal on my first or second game after completing the standard goals. Then went and read the rules for the table and counted myself lucky. No idea how I did it or if it was a glitch.

Anyone know if the five million point shots one needs to be consecutive? Or will hitting any combination of five million point shots during a game count?

----------Got the 5 million shot once or twice (luckily). I have no idea how though.

 

[Beatnik-Filmstar]

I got to 4x and 2 of 3 lanes lit. The ball power drained out of the bumpers.



Has to be 5 in a row.

Hmmmm. Doable, but will take a little time. (Or I'll just nail it without thinking.) It seems my best runs of consecutive ramp shots are prior to PHANTOM being completed. Doesn't do me any good if I crank out HANTO and then botch it.

Oh well - I like the wizard goals that are actually hard.

Edit - one more question if anyone knows. Not surprisingly, I've found it much easier to hit the left ramp off a stalled ball on the right flipper. A hard nudge up right as the ball returns to the right flipper tends to trap it pretty quickly if you time it right. Anyone know if you can keep the million point shots going if you take this moment to trap first? I think I read that the double your score timer doesn't give you enough time and has to be done on the fly. Is it the same for continuous million point shots?

Edit 2 - Nevermind. I see that Zaphod77 says it was possible in another thread. Good to know. May just be easier to hit them on the fly, but who knows. Gonna try the nudge-stall-shoot thing.

 

[Zaphod77]

I tried nudge stall shoot. it WILL get you the FIRST million no problem, but the timer on following ones is tighter. unless it settles VERY quickly, you won't make it. and double score times out even faster.

On the real machine i did it with, the flippers were unusually high angled, and let me hold trap VERY rapidly, and there was JUST enough time to get the million shot off repeatedly (a quarter second wait too long and you would miss it).

I tested with ball control and managed to get it up to 50th million. i wasn't able to get past that, despite sliding the ball back and forth across the trigger, though i might have simply screwed up. SO i posit that the millions from the ramp max out at 50, at which point it will time out and you have to start spelling phantom again.

still can't get the 5x jackpot build, but i have gotten double score and 5th million legit.

 

[Beatnik-Filmstar]

I tried nudge stall shoot. it WILL get you the FIRST million no problem, but the timer on following ones is tighter. unless it settles VERY quickly, you won't make it. and double score times out even faster.

SO i posit that the millions from the ramp max out at 50, at which point it will time out and you have to start spelling phantom again.

still can't get the 5x jackpot build, but i have gotten double score and 5th million legit.

In order:

- On the fly it will have to be. Gonna involve lots of cursing.

- I posit that that will NEVER be an issue for me.

- I double posit that I'm lucky. When I new table comes out I tend to just jump in. Most standard goals fall without ever knowing what they were. Then I usually play a few more and usually get a few wizard goals. Only then do I really bother to read the table rules and check what the remaining goals are. Must have gotten a few lucky bounces off the pop bumpers combined with some quick lane changes, cause by the time I bothered checking, all I had left was the double your score and 5 million. Double your score was easy enough, since you get a chance every game and it just comes down to hitting the second shot. Have since paid attention to the jackpot build multiplier and have never gotten it back up even to 4x.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Observations:
- Magic Mirror is a pretty safe shot. Now since kickouts from the Trap Door are random, you won't always get a friendly bounce, but I'd say ~70% of the time, hold up the left flipper and the ball rolls slowly up the left inlane. Just practice getting the timing down on a rolling shot when it comes back down, it's not too difficult.
- From the right flipper, it's better to trap for a shot the Mirror. Most balls coming down that inlane are coming fast, even from the ramp.
- Can't backhand the ramp from a trap on the left. Just not quite strong enough. Annoying when you get PHANTOM lit from the Trap Door, though a dead pass from the kickout works > 50% of the time.
- If you time it right, you CAN backhand the ramp - off the very tip of the flipper - from a shot that goes partially up there and comes back down and isn't headed for the drain. I honestly swear I did this 3 times in one PHANTOM round.
- Biggest problem I have is what to do after collecting the jackpot. Nowhere to park balls any more. Usually there will be one or two balls flying around. Usually I just let them spares drain.
- Double Your Score is nice, but you can score on this table without it. Don't panic if you miss that shot! Keep going for PHANTOM and 1.5M+ jackpots. Other stuff adds up.

 

[Zaphod77]

The backhand from a trap on the left IS possible. i've done it. it does take some practice, and it's harder then the normal way.

60% of the time out of the trapdoor, a cradle will go up the left inlane and back down. you can shoot magic mirror off of that
20% of the time it will bounce over to the right flipper and go up the right inlane some when you trap it there. You can shoot magic mirror off of that one too.
20% of the time it will bounce to the other side and trapping won't work. This is what you have to watch out for.

this does mean that 80% of the time, after shooting magic mirror, you can shoot it right back in, and probably should if you haven't lit the extra ball.

 

[pezpunk]

- I have been racking up big points (albeit slowly) just by hitting the trap door over and over and over. pretty safe kickout, pretty safe shot. if you miss the trap door on the low side, it's always catchable on the left flipper for another try.

- post pass from left to right is 100% safe, but post pass from right to left is very sketchy.

- rather than hitting the skill shot, I prefer to hit the middle lane from a plunger position that guarantees the ball always falls straight down for a guaranteed catch on the left flipper. this guarantees me control right away to carefully pick my shot (and since left flipper post pass is safe, this basically gives me a controlled shot at any target/ramp/hole on the table), rather than depending on the randomness of the pops.

- for how wide the organ hole is, it's surprising how often I miss that freaking thing!

- so many STDMs. these flippers are lightning-esque.

 

[DanBradford]

I don't know how you guys got such great scores, I really don't.

I'm rubbish at it. 9M is my best score, and I don't really enjoy the table so my incentive for improvement is just HOF points.

I'm reading that the points are all about that left ramp. Shame it's so tricky.

 

[Reagan Dow]

Is it just me or would anyone else like to see a table released soon that doesn't drain so darn easily? A table like Creature from the black lagoon or any number of earlier tables. I'd like another table that I can actually play for a while. On Dracula I went into the operators menu and the factory setting for average ball time is 25 or 30 seconds. Obviously I can change that but then nothing gets recorded for high scores and I feel like I'm cheating. With the exception of Junk yard and Black rose pretty much every table released in season 3 plus PHOTO drain very quickly. I guess I'm just whiny today. Someone get me a a midol please!! ;-)

 

[Fungi]

On Dracula I went into the operators menu and the factory setting for average ball time is 25 or 30 seconds. Obviously I can change that but then nothing gets recorded for high scores and I feel like I'm cheating.

I don't think that means what you think it means.

 

[Reagan Dow]

Well I set it for 60 seconds and the ball was slowed down for a minute and didn't bounce off the bumpers as hard. What do you mean? It wasn't a report , it was a setting.

 

[kinggo]

you are forgetting that on the real deal, everything on playfiled is mechanical, so you can alter the slope or change the inlines/outlines width. Or change the percentage of EB or replays but you cannot extend the game or make it easier with just a timer.

 

[Reagan Dow]

That's what I thought but I figured that with the real deal it may change the severity of bumpers etc. no?