Something I find kind of fun to do is playing a pinball machine, but focusing on only one shot above everything else. Not only does it help accustom me towards the layout but at times, it can actually be reasonable scoring-wise to make a single shot over and over and get tons of points.
A good example would be the captive ball from Breakshot, where each hit is worth 10k incrementing by 10k per hit… but it has no cap, so in the late game, if you hit the captive ball all day, you could be getting 1 million+ per captive ball hit.
The Batmobile Hurry-Up from Batman Dark Knight is another fun thing to build up over the course of the game. In Bowen’s tutorial he spent some time trying to build the Hurry-Up to a billion points, which is… not small change on that game, and has been done.
A bad example would be the Combos in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. These are the only purpose that the left orbit serves in the game, they start at 150k, and cap at 600k. This is not a good rule to play for, because 600k is measly on Ripley’s - you could make more than that from a decently played mode.
Batman ‘66 also has the Batphone Hurry-Up, which has many different ways to increase its value and even an initials slot for the person who gets the highest Hurry-Up.
I’ve always been curious about how the combos work on that game considering other displays typically prevent you from seeing the points awarded. Are they worth trying to build up?
Ummm yes. The two way combo is the only one that builds and it’s from left orbit to shadow loop. Starts at 10 mil and goes up 3 mil per time, value holds through the game with no cap.
Cracking off hundreds of millions each combo is so great
The best ones are those that have risk associated with them: you lose everything you’ve built when you drain.
It’s also satisfying to chop wood with a larger and larger axe at those shots that build & hold with no risk (like Shadow loops), but the builds that you stand to lose them are the most satisfying/interesting to me. AC/DC Song Jackpot/Bonus was one of the first ones I noticed when I got into competitive pinball.
The Munsters does something kinda similar with the Super Jackpot rules and the 6x multiplier but I know most people have mixed feelings about that game, myself included. It’s pretty fun to try and collect a bunch at once though.
Scared Stiff ramps are satisfying, repeatable, and build up by repeated shots. But reset when anpther switch is hit.
Left Bony Beast ramps builds by 50k cap at 450k…which is almost same value as Jackpots in Coffin Multiball. Right Spider ramp builds too but mot sure of values…also builds to Extra Ball and various other awards.
I like to start a game by just trying to loop ramps and lock down the aim on shot before starting other multiballs etc. Can be a viable strategy fpr quick medium.points
Yeah this one’s a little counterintuitive because you need to let the lamp time out the first several times in order for you to be able to build it up to higher values. Much rather spin the lamp at 375K/spin than 150K/spin!
Someone (may have been Eric Meunier) got the “points” award on the Hobbit button up to 20K or something ridiculous. At 1000+100. Pretty sure I wound up nerfing it but don’t remember (might’ve just stopped letting it work during wizard modes).
both increase throughout the game, to become not insignificant values, with never resetting.
Other examples of hitting the same shot repeatedly for good value are those games where making a shot adds to the bonus, which is cumulative across balls. Think Earthshaker, Whirlwind
For fun I did the math. After 82 loops the value is 253M. I don’t know if it would cap at 255M on the 83 loop or if it would cause an overflow and cause odd behavior elsewhere. But on the way, you will have scored 10,783 million points.
