Table of the Week Club...Week 30: BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA

[Zaphod77]

quick tips.

1) nudge stall shoot. when you shoot a ramp and teh ball returns to the flipper, nudge. the ball will be caught if you do it right.
2) stack multiballs for fun and profit.
3) bats and rats are both worth a lot in multi multiball.
4) be careful with those standups. they aren't as cruel as they are in real life, but they can still drain.
5) try not to miss.
6) accept that you WILL get hosed sometimes, since it's impossible to keep the ball out of the jets and get any real points. eventually the ramp you are shooting WILL lock a ball, and then you are back in the jets with no ball saver. this is a lot of what makes the game such a torture in real life. not only do you have to shoot very accurately, but the bumpers have to cooperate to get those big scores.

 

[Dedpop]

quick tips.

5) try not to miss.

Good one.

 

[David T. Melnick]

I know it's not a shared opinion on here but I don't like anything on it.
The design, art, shots, flow, outlanes, lightning flippers... (OK dmd & multiballs)
I just can't get into it. I'll try to play it more this week.

------
I hope you learn to enjoy BSD quick-like.

 

[vikingerik]

2) stack multiballs for fun and profit.
6) accept that you WILL get hosed sometimes, since it's impossible to keep the ball out of the jets and get any real points. eventually the ramp you are shooting WILL lock a ball, and then you are back in the jets with no ball saver.

2) helps protect against 6). The watchword is "Start with Mist." Always get Mist running as soon as it's lit. Hold a ball on the left flipper for insurance against that lock-jets-drain possibility. You can hold on the left while playing nudge-stall-shoot on the ramp to work towards Castle multiball. And these ramp shots themselves will light Mist again so you can start it again if you lose one ball before starting Castle.

I never shoot towards Coffin multiball until Mist and Castle are already started. Coffin is worse risk for less reward, Castle is always better. And in fact, the best use of Coffin is to relaunch balls up to 4 when a Mist+Castle stack has gone down to 2.

 

[shutyertrap]

These wizard goals are proving to be no walk in the park for me. I have brain farts during the 3rd video wave, I can't seem to get more than 8 rats on any sort of consistent manner, and I haven't even tried for the huge jackpot multiball stacking thing. What's really frustrating me is I should be able to do all of this with little issue. Gotta keep trying.

 

[shutyertrap]

Don't know exactly what it is, but whenever I'm having a hard time with a particular wizard goal, I turn off the volume and soon enough achieve. Knocked off the video and special, only have the 300mil jackpot to go.

Am I the only one that thinks the first siren/succubus is a dead ringer for Sandra Bullock? Just wonderin'.

 

[shutyertrap]

Whew! 61 loops, blew my all time best score out of the water with 8.4 billion compared to a previous high of 1.4, and most importantly got the 300 million jackpot wizard. That felt epic, and good thing I kept collecting extra balls! My bats and rats bonuses were netting me a half billion for the last 3 or 4 ball drains. Now to work out a strategy of scoring big only using 3 balls...

 

[Johni3w6]

Whew! 61 loops, blew my all time best score out of the water with 8.4 billion compared to a previous high of 1.4, and most importantly got the 300 million jackpot wizard. That felt epic, and good thing I kept collecting extra balls! My bats and rats bonuses were netting me a half billion for the last 3 or 4 ball drains. Now to work out a strategy of scoring big only using 3 balls...

Well done and good luck.

 

[vikingerik]

Don't know exactly what it is, but whenever I'm having a hard time with a particular wizard goal, I turn off the volume and soon enough achieve.

I've known for years (since Pro Pinball) that I'm better at pinball sims with the music turned off. My brain will naturally try to time shots with the music but of course that won't work. Great for Guitar Hero, not so great for pinball.

Now to work out a strategy of scoring big only using 3 balls...

3-ball strategy is the same as regular strategy, since EBs are limited on this table anyway, there's no repeatable ones. Stack multiballs and get jackpots, same as ever. Even Bats/Rats is the same for TOTM purposes since you still get to plunge and collect the bonus with otherwise unplayable EBs.

 

[Xanija]

Tip for video mode: it's always a very basic pattern.

After Level 1 there's always the same number of wolves in each wave; this is Level#+1, call it N.

Wave 1 is always N wolves on the right.
Wave 2 is 1 on the left, (N-1) on the right.
Wave 3 is 2 L, (N-2) R.
And so on.

After N L, 0 R the next wave goes back to 0 L, N R.

Still, Level 7 is tricky.

Am I the only one not understanding this? What level are you talking about?

/edit: Do you mean Level = Video Wave #? And wave = wave within a video wave? I was totally confused about Wave 1, Wave 2 etc. as the table uses Wave # as what you describe as level (I think)

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Am I the only one not understanding this? What level are you talking about?

/edit: Do you mean Level = Video Wave #? And wave = wave within a video wave? I was totally confused about Wave 1, Wave 2 etc. as the table uses Wave # as what you describe as level (I think)

Yeah, I completely forgot that each time you play the video mode it's called a "wave". So when I say "level N" I really mean "Video Wave N"; and when I say "wave" I really mean "group of werewolves within a wave".

So - ignoring Wave 1, which has "groups" of 1 and 2 werewolves, each wave always has groups of "Wave# + 1" werewolves, with the pattern shifting from all on the right --> all on the left, with each group dropping 1 on the right and adding 1 on the left.

 

[Slam23]

Whew! 61 loops, blew my all time best score out of the water with 8.4 billion compared to a previous high of 1.4, and most importantly got the 300 million jackpot wizard. That felt epic, and good thing I kept collecting extra balls! My bats and rats bonuses were netting me a half billion for the last 3 or 4 ball drains. Now to work out a strategy of scoring big only using 3 balls...

Good one! I was also up to around 0.5B for bonus around that point in my 9.xB game too. Impressive goal to achieve, that 300M jackpot. I have been close but no cigar....

 

[Zaphod77]

Yeah. this game can really get in your head. very easy to choke, and you always have to watch out for those bumpers.

But a great game of it makes all the bad ones you suffered through worthwhile.

and video modes.

After the first wave, the pattern is the same for all other waves but with an extra wolf in each group.

first the entire group on the right, then all but one on the right, then all but 2 on the left. with each group of wolves one moves to the left side. until they re all on the left. then they all go to the right again. once it clicks, it's very easy.

wave 2

RRR
RRL
RLL
LLL

for wave 3 it's

RRRR
RRRL
RRLL
RLLL
LLLL

you get the idea.