Table strategy.

[Zaphod77]

The main point sources in the game are jackpot, mystery awards, loop million, and count up (comes from mystery). Bonus is also good on a long ball. With this in mind.

1) nothing is safe! the red target is a death shot if you miss it, and the kickouts can catch you by surprise. usually a dead bounce is the best way to handle it, but it's not foolproof. and you can get surprise drains out of the bumpers too. House balls can and do happen, even if you make the skillshot. Unlike other Premiere games, this one isn't easily exploited.

2) just time out the stunt scene, you will almost never make it even if you try. Those town standups can be death, and those behind the drop target shots are darn near impossible to hit reliably.

3) whenever the ramp is available, and the ball is on the right flipper, shoot it. the backhand is possible but very risky. The only exception to this is if you have already won four that ball, and it starts getting nearly impossible to win another one. If its' not available you want to shoot either the town standups (to light lock) or the loop to upper flipper to follow it up with a loop shot.

4) bricking that countup target is very dangerous, but it's a very good point source, which can give you over 2 million when lit.

5) learn that million loop! use the rotating playfield to feed the upper flipper and give it a god solid whack.

6) when the ball is on the LEFT flipper you usually want to shoot the spinner. you will ALWAYS get either mystery or select a feature when completing a hand, and both of those can (and often do) give instant multiball. And every hand is worth 30k*bonusx, which can go up to 300k per hand. over the course of a long game that really adds up.

7) on select a feature, as soon as you see something decent, like 250 thousand or more points, jackpot scene, or instant multiball, take it, you might not get another good offering. As I said before stunt scene is not worth it unless it's the last light, and taking it only will earn you another select a feature anyway. If you do take it, you don't even have to win it. you DO have to win gunfight to get the light.

8) the jackpot targets are not really that bad, you just need to aim properly so you can trap the ball again after your shot.

9) during multiball aim for the following shots. The rotating playfield, the loop, the spinner (to reset the kickback timer) and the drop targets. you can increase jackpot and collect blockbuster letters in multiball. Or just flail around like a madman if you don't have the blockbuster special goal yet. but you really want to get those loop millions...

10) bonus can be large in this game, so 10x is well worth going for, if you figure out how to get the ball back.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Great guide! I scored 33 million just now and uploading a video of it. Short, but pretty sweet game. EDIT:

 

[Zaphod77]

This is probably their best recreation yet, and is very well tuned. You can easily go from kicking butt to sucking hard.

and, i repeat. the skillshot being easy is true to life. why do you think it starts getting harder to win gunfights after the third on the same ball? because a lot of balls tend to get in there.

 

[fromduc]

I just took the #1 spot on this one, well if u take the Invitro leaderboard which doesnt take the actual #1 score of 2.2B, probably a glitch, even if that score is not tyotally impossible in my mind: it took me 3 hours to make this 200M but i'm a slow player, and i just let go my last 3 EBs as i had to stop somewhere. In real, the 9th digit doesnt appear on the score when u play, and being the 1st PS3 player to got this 9th digit i tried to finish at 199M to be sure to not have played for nothing, and i just failed but tx god the hundre of millions is taken on the leader board ^^

Couple of advices here, in addition to Zaphod's post:

-Golden rule: dont do anything else than the poker hand orbit if u dont have a fresh kickback. By "fresh", i mean that if u just completed a poker hand and had the mistery animation, go back there one time, or your kickback will stop 3 seconds after. The table is already tricky enough to not play it without this solid insurance.

-Learn to control all the kickout returns:
*from bumpers kickout (100%) just dead pass to right flip.
*from poker kickout (99%) do 1 or 2 little left nudge before deadpass, to make the ball hit the end of left flipper, this willl make the RFlip control easyer. In 5% of the case the kickout is so strong that u'll need another left or up nudge when the ball rollback on the Rflip to keep control.
*from million kickout (90%), it's more tricky, but for me the best way is to do a little right nudge just when the ball will hit the left slingshot, ball will go to right slingshot then left up flip and jackpot target. If all jackpot targts are up it will go to one of ur flip for either a direct control or a dead pass. If one or 2 targets are down it goes sometimes to the right targets, and here there's too much target up/down possibility to tell u what to do, u got to learn, but with a bit of practice, u should be able to not lose ur ball 99% of the time. Just nudge soft but often.

-Knowing that if u want to score high u've got to be disciplined, and that means poker orbit again and again (deadpass on the kickout, posttrasfert to the leftflip, poker orbit....). U can give a shot to the ramp sometimes (with a full kickback timer of course, if u miss ur shoot just go poker a couple time before tryin again), but if u are strict u shouldnt: if bumpers are pushing ur ball strongly on the right exit, it's a direct left outlane 50% of the time and the kickback is usually out of time, the most brutal ball killer of this table for me. And as Zaphod says, u cant win the gunfight at a certain point (on PS3 at least u can only win 3 gunfight by ball).

-Stunt scene: a killer, just play it at the beginnig of a game, when u try to build a good game by winning a max of EBs. If it's for only the million reward or if u're already in a good game, let's just time out. I try to launch it by the left target only if it's the last scene to have the bonus game in the poker orbit, and even here i'm not sure it's profitable... and if i do, i also let it time out after have launched it.

-Jacpot: i dont go for it on purpose (except when it's the last scene), it's growing up among the game so no hurry, and the targets can be tricky when one or 2 of them are down. If it's started, i always play it, it's pretty safe, specially by the Lflip.

-Countdown bonus: good reward that u cant ignore, but tricky shoot, so learn it, specially to recover from a miss, with good reflexes it IS possible. I like to try it after a total controle on the Rflip. I never try it more than 2 times, less than 1.5 million is not a good risk/reward ratio.

-Million: in regular play AND in multiball, it's the most rewarding shoot, so u ABSOLUTELY need to be relatively consistent. Here are the 4 options, in my favourite order:
1-From the right flip after a ball control. I'm sure u already tried the ramp, missed it to late, kicked the right town standuup and go to the million by accident. Well, learn to repeat this accident on purpose ^^ I can do it 2 out of 3 times i'd say, by far my most consistent way to the million. If u miss it's usually coz u're too early, so u'll do the ramp or have a come back on the UpLFlip for a classic try to the million (in my case i usually dont try it, as i dont like this methode). On normal play, u'll have an other benefit by turning on this town stand up target, or even the second one if u miss late (but hard recover in this case). On multiball play it's a must do, as u can keep the second ball on the left flipper and u dont need the upleft one to take ur million. Regain control of this second ball with the 2 left flips up is another story, which can make the difference between good and huge games in my opinion, i dont have a solide methode for that but was pretty god at the end.
2- From a left flip control, be a bit early on a poker orbite shoot and u'll touch the corner of the right jacpot target to finish in the million hole. I also Learned this one by recurring miss at the poker orbit. I can do it 30% of the time, so as that doesnt have any advantage in any situation compared to the previous option, i dont use it.
3-Left orbit to UpLFlip, only available 50% of the time, undoable on multiball if u want to keep the second ball safe (or u need to do a quick posttransfert), hard to do consistently, and when u miss a hard recovery to come...
4-Same than 3 but with a red left target before, here u cant keep the 2nd ball in controle at all, the shoot from the left up flip is insane as the speed of the ball is very different each time, and in bonus shooting this red target is so risky ===> FORGET IT.

-Bonus: at the end of a long game, this is definitely the best reward u got. At the end of mine, i had more than 80 pokerhands completed, X30.000 = 2.4M poker bonus. The town standups are not that easy, but on a non-1st ball where u got 3 or 4 EBs stacked and a couple of standups lit by accident, u should go for it. Knowing that u dont want to tilt, and not even to have this tilt warning which turn ur ball on survival mode, so nudge a lot (u dont have choice on this table), but for God sick SOFT. I had the 10x bonus only one time in the midle of my game, and i took 12M just like that. Think about it

Well i think that's all folks

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

-Bonus: at the end of a long game, this is definitely the best reward u got. At the end of mine, i had more than 80 pokerhands completed, X30.000 = 2.4M poker bonus. The town standups are not that easy, but on a non-1st ball where u got 3 or 4 EBs stacked and a couple of standups lit by accident, u should go for it. Knowing that u dont want to tilt, and not even to have this tilt warning which turn ur ball on survival mode, so nudge a lot (u dont have choice on this table), but for God sick SOFT. I had the 10x bonus only one time in the midle of my game, and i took 12M just like that. Think about it

Don't the Poker Hands also get multiplied?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Don't the Poker Hands also get multiplied?

Yes.

 

[fromduc]

Don't the Poker Hands also get multiplied?

Yes it is, but at the middle of my game i had only 30-40 hands completed, plus the normal bonus and 10 times multiplied, i took 12M bonus.

 

[Slam23]

I'm coming a bit late to the party, and haven't got a lot to add to the great strategy posts by Zaphod and Fromduc. Also still struggling to pass the 40M on this table, 200M is not yet in sight for me! Just a couple of additions:

- regarding shooting the loop million from the left flipper: I can hit that one fairly reliable (higher than 30% in any case) by hitting it just at the underside of the rightmost bumper. You then get a bounce to the top post of the right standup targets and into the loop million. I don't know if Fromduc meant the same with his description, but he seems to speak about the rightmost post of the top standup target area which can be hit if that target is down. When going for the bumper, the target can still be up and this is how I know I hit the bumper and not the post (it also sounds as a bumper hit).

- About playing MB: Ideally I have two balls trapped, one left, one right. Then shoot first from the left and immediately afterwards from the right (at the W-target of T-O-W-N). I would say that shooting from the left flipper is less risky because an early shot hits the rightmost target with an easy deadpass on the right to left flipper. A late shot will go clean through the spinner area with a fairly safe return from the poker card kickout. An early shot from the right on the "O"or "T" target will give an immediate drain risk. A late shot will go up to the gunfight without big risks, or feed the upper left flipper which can be risky or rewarding depending on your skill of hitting the loop million from there. After shooting both balls to the loop million it's saving anything you can, because there is a good chance for a quick drain when balls return from the loop million. I haven't found a reliable safe way for that. So I'll gladly take my few millions earned and hope I have the one ball left if the smoke clears!

- Multiball is best played with two instead of three balls because it's essentially the difference between having some control and flailing away. Instant MB from a won gunfight is the best way to start this, because this will limit MB to 2 balls right from the start. Starting MB from a completed poker hand or from a basic lock is suprisingly hard to keep to two balls, because plunging the second ball is sure to land in the gun fight hole, giving a third ball. And trapping two balls, but losing the third on purpose is harder than you would think! With two balls trapped on one flipper and one on the other, it's hard to shoot for millions and keep control. Still working on this issue, and experimenting with plunging to miss the gun fight hole on purpose.

- Regarding poker hands: there seems to be a difference on average what the results are between shooting a fairly clean shot from the left flipper (more spins from the spinner), or a more messy shot from the right (less spins). The left shot is easier to hit but because of the deadpass to the right from the gunfight kickout, you will probably shoot more from the right (reliable post transfers are hard to do in my opinion on this table). I have had games where I couldn't miss that right shot, to instantly missing 3-4 shots in a row. I'll probably have to play some more games to confirm this but I have seem to found that shooting balls from the left tends to give the same poker card as the card that was before, shooting the balls from the right tends to give a different card than the one before. That means when you are set up for a potential full house and corresponding extra ball (for example two pairs or three of a kind already in place), I have made that hand more from shooting from the left flipper. In reverse it seems less true but still holds a bit: when you are set up for a straight and corresponding extra ball (for example 4 different cards) which already may have come from shooting more from the right, the right flipper sometimes gives the fifth card for a straight, but often also just a pair (not necessarily with the next-to-last card). Shooting from the left flipper seems to give the pair more often (often with the next-to-last card), so your best chance could still be shooting from the right flipper in this instance. In short: when you want more of the same cards, shoot from the left, when you want a different card, shoot from the right. I'm very curious if more players have found this to be true, or that I see patterns where there are none....

- I hate those specials! But boy, if playing on the real table is anywhere near how it plays on TPA, you would win free games all night!

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

Never mind all that. This is what you need to be doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8HToMAh2qM

 

[fromduc]

Never mind all that. This is what you need to be doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8HToMAh2qM

1) Really boring
2) Too slow

 

[Dedpop]

Never mind all that. This is what you need to be doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8HToMAh2qM

Really really really boring.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Really really really boring.

I agree - I'm staring at that link trying to imagine what the video could be showing, and I'm getting bored.

Please when posting links to videos it would be helpful to include a brief description for those of us who can't view the video (for instance when I'm at work YouTube is blocked; if I'm reading the forum using Tapatalk I'm not inclined to play videos either).

 

[Extork]

He was just spamming the spinner to get cards, over and over and over again, collecting millions alon the way.

On my phone i just figured out that you can let it dead pass over without nudging, and then backhand it from the right flipper. It's a trickier shot. But I was able to do that over and over. It's a little faster, and no nudging required, or use of the left flipper at all. But im not sure if that's possible on whatever system that was. Sometimes boring works! Lol

 

[Zaphod77]

yeah he was saying to simply shoot the spinner. that was the entire strategy. eventually you will get an extra ball, and then you can play for real.

pretty boring though.

 

[vikingerik]

Well, that's actually pretty normal for these games, or at least the TPA versions. Elvira, T2, Black Hole, High Speed, Victory, Gorgar, the right thing to do in all of these is grind something boring until you get your extra ball, then you can play for real. It helps when the table rules make playing-for-real the way to get the EB itself, as in Genie, Black Knight, Big Shot, and most later games like TZ, TOM, NGG.

 

[Zaphod77]

honestly the elvira grind for extra ball is pretty easy. then you grind the other ramp instead.

that's the proper strategy in real life as well.

 

[fromduc]

Well, i got nothing about boring when u got no choice, or even when it's quicker, but on this table by learning a couple of things u can much more enjoy the table AND have points really quicker than that, so for me it's really a bad choice... except if u want to beat the leaderboard with 8 or 10 hour of really boring play, a pity when u got other options IMO

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

Post your strategy. I'll try it tomorrow.

 

[fromduc]

Post your strategy. I'll try it tomorrow.

Well u got it here on post #4, but it's long and i'm sorry about my english ^^ Anyway, the real question (more than the boring side) is how long did u play to make how many points? I did 200M in 3 hours and i stopped there with 3 EBs remaining.