Taxi: Strategy and Tactics

[David Smith]

1. Keep shooting the airport ramps to score Airport Rides until Million is lit.

2. Collect the Million at the Santa saucer.

3. Repeat.

Er, that's it. Jackpots aren't worth enough to worry about, given the risk and the fact that they're hard to collect anyway. (Unlike Jackpot, the Million stays lit until you drain.) Multiball's usually too short to be lucrative. It can be worth going for the C-A-B to collect 5x and the EB, but the bumpers put the ball out of control so it's not worth going for unless you're close. The ramps keep the ball in control, and the million is lucrative.

 

[dontworrybehap]

I pretty much agree with 1, 2 and 3.

 

[pacreis]

I always try to be in multiball mode all the time (it's easy to get unless you have to pick up pinbot), then i can safely go for extra ball in cab or do airport ramps to collect the million. I don't go intentionally for the jackpot but if it is lit i go for it because if you lit the jackpot a second time the special becomes lit.

 

[Jim O'Brien]

I always try to be in multiball mode all the time (it's easy to get unless you have to pick up pinbot), then i can safely go for extra ball in cab or do airport ramps to collect the million. I don't go intentionally for the jackpot but if it is lit i go for it because if you lit the jackpot a second time the special becomes lit.

That is exactly how I play it too. I've already beat my all time from PHOFtWC and that was only 11,345,190.

 

[jaredmorgs]

I've worked out the perfect plunge (for me) on touch devices to award you the passenger on skill shot. This works 90% of the time for me. The pixel position of the plunger tip seems to be crucial now with the recent update. You may need to fine-tune your shot.

http://db.tt/rbKDjLPD

The funny thing is that when I am playing this table with the Wii controller using USB/BT Joystick Center, the perfect position is different, and is far more consistent. 100% in fact.

It is at the bottom of the yellow triangle pictured, not between them.

I think the touchscreen sensitivity is a bit finicky.

 

[Nik Barbour]

I've worked out the perfect plunge (for me) on touch devices to award you the passenger on skill shot. This works 90% of the time for me. The pixel position of the plunger tip seems to be crucial now with the recent update. You may need to fine-tune your shot.

http://db.tt/rbKDjLPD

The funny thing is that when I am playing this table with the Wii controller using USB/BT Joystick Center, the perfect position is different, and is far more consistent. 100% in fact.

It is at the bottom of the yellow triangle pictured, not between them.

I think the touchscreen sensitivity is a bit finicky.

If your playing a touch device (tablet or phone), using a blue tooth controller and plunging using an analogue stick, how straight you pull the stick back affects the strength of the plunge.
Just to try & clarify that - if you pull the stick full back to a 7 o'clock position, it's a weaker plunge than full back at 6 o'clock despite looking the same in game on the plunge view scale.

 

[jaredmorgs]

If your playing a touch device (tablet or phone), using a blue tooth controller and plunging using an analogue stick, how straight you pull the stick back affects the strength of the plunge.
Just to try & clarify that - if you pull the stick full back to a 7 o'clock position, it's a weaker plunge than full back at 6 o'clock despite looking the same in game on the plunge view scale.

That behavior may be specific to the PS3 controller (that's what you use, correct?)

All I do is pull the stick back from the neutral position toward the 6 o'clock position. Not all the way back though.

I play on a Wii Classic Controller plugged into the Wiimote. I have the controller configured to plunge with the right analogue stick.

 

[Nik Barbour]

That behavior may be specific to the PS3 controller (that's what you use, correct?)

All I do is pull the stick back from the neutral position toward the 6 o'clock position. Not all the way back though.

I play on a Wii Classic Controller plugged into the Wiimote. I have the controller configured to plunge with the right analogue stick.

Yeah, ps3 sixaxis controller, with plunge amount controllable from right analogue stick.
Used to use wiimote & classic Controller but didn't like having the cable tether between the two.

 

[phreaker47]

With the new PS3 patch that changed the plunger behavior, I found this hits the 100K skill shot nearly every time: Hold right stick up, then pull down and push all the way back up. Boom.

 

[phreaker47]

Loving my new Vita... got 33M last night while sitting in bed... blew the doors off my previous high.

I'm going to have to continue to agree to just shooting the ramps over and over and getting the million. The only other thing I go for at all is the lock, just to get another 100k skill shot... especially when the multiplier is up and you can get up to 500k each time. But then, back to the ramps and the million again and again.

 

[Jutter]

The PAPA tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yrGzydz1c&list=PLD6FCC95DF79D3914&index=1

 

[Bonzo]

http://pinball.org/videos/tutorials/taxi/

 

[Clawhammer]

That's a great tutorial video, but Taxi is one of the TPA games where I think strategy varies greatly from the actual table to the simulated one. I have to agree with the OP- combo ramp shots to light the million is the only way to go (while also locking balls/starting multiball when applicable). On an actual Taxi (as evidenced by the tutorial), those ramps are much harder to hit and any shot that goes halfway up the ramp is an almost guaranteed center drain, thereby balancing the million feature with some of the other scoring opportunities in the game.

 

[phreaker47]

That's a great tutorial video, but Taxi is one of the TPA games where I think strategy varies greatly from the actual table to the simulated one. I have to agree with the OP- combo ramp shots to light the million is the only way to go (while also locking balls/starting multiball when applicable). On an actual Taxi (as evidenced by the tutorial), those ramps are much harder to hit and any shot that goes halfway up the ramp is an almost guaranteed center drain, thereby balancing the million feature with some of the other scoring opportunities in the game.

It's definitely easier on TPA. I've played the real table, and it's definitely harder to hit those ramps over and over with consistency. In TPA this is a breeze, which makes the million shot the thing to focus on. Additionally, on a real table you might find the cumulative jackpot up to 4 million. On TPA it is always 500k because you are playing a freshly reset machine every time.

 

[phreaker47]

Time for a different game

 

[Zorgwon]

On TPA it is always 500k because you are playing a freshly reset machine every time.

You can build up the Jackpot if you like. Just don't start over and don't leave the table. (Steam, Android and iOS)

Shoot both ramps for unlimited millions! It might be a good idea to pick up Gorbie first because the million seems sometimes to be blocked by him (you pick him instead of the million).

 

[vikingerik]

Owner of the new #1 score here, 126 million. I agree, the airport million is where all the points come from.

But multiball is worth shooting for, just to have a surplus ball in play for drain insurance, plus the extra skill shots from plunging. During multiball, I find it's best NOT to go for the express lane. Doing that disables airport rides towards the million. 100k airport loops are less per shot than advancing towards the million. And you want the right-side saucer available to park a ball - I always park one and work towards the million with the other.

During multiball, when you collect the million, the ball stays in there for a good long time (especially if Joyride is also lit.) During this time, you can shoot the Gorbie lane with the other ball and it will clunk into the CAB rollovers. Useful if you're just a few hits away from the CAB extra ball. (My 126M game got the CAB EB three times.) Or else, it's quite possible to shoot 5-6 ramp loops with the other ball and relight the million even before the first ball ejects.

Don't go for Crossover Bonuses, while it's fun and tempting, the problem is you can't make shots with both balls at the same time when they come back down.

It's best never to collect the jackpot. Better to let it time out so that Lola becomes available again to light the lock again. Collecting the jackpot means you'll shortly get stuck with the unshootable Pinbot blocking the passenger sequence.

 

[paljas]

On PC, you can control the ball easily when released from the joyride eject hole. The ball seems to follow the same trajectory 95% of the times. Just keep right flipper up. The ball will then bounce up and left from there, barely touch the top of the left bumper, and bounce back onto the right flipper where it will stay. Another 4% it will not touch the top of the left bumper in which case it will go straight down onto the left flipper where you can catch it. The remaining percent it is random for me, but you'll recognize that case as it is ejected faster from the hole.

 

[Zaphod77]

on many real taxi machines the ramps are impossible to shoot, because the flipper has gotten too weak. and even with a strong flipper, if it grazes the edge of the ramp as you shoot it, it WILL come rolling back and that's very hard to recover from.

Unlike many later games,ramps are dangerous shots to attempt, which balances the million.