For me, the first place to go is Rescue multiball. It requires the fewest out-of-control shots and can be quite lucrative.
To start it, you need to do two things: Capture dorothy, and light RESCUE on the upper-left playfield.
Capture dorothy:
Hit the capture dorothy standups just above the pops on the left. The easiest way to do so is to full plunge or shoot the right loop.
Shoot the right loop to capture the ball on the magnet. In tournament settings this will feed the upper playfield.
Rescue:
Get the ball to the upper playfield by shooting the single drop and then the VUK behind it.
Spell RESCUE by shootings standups, or the little loop (one letter), or bashing down the doors (two letters). Different games feel different for which of these is easiest to do.
If dorothy is captured, you can shoot behind the doors to start multiball OR
Shoot the loop to add one optional virtual lock and reset RESCUE. Each lock adds a ball to multiball and significantly increases your jackpots. You can do this before Dorothy is captured to avoid accidentally starting multiball.
During rescue multiball, everything’s lit for three jackpots per shot, vaguely like HRC.
Other things to do:
If lock is lit on the ramp, shoot it. Three locks for EC multiball. Light locks on the main playfield rollovers mostly by accident. EC multiball is quite lucrative but shooting the rollovers in single-ball play is scary.
If twister is lit on the ramp (spell RAINBOW), you can shoot it to go to the house mini playfield. 10 (or more) loops to start a mode. These stack on multiballs in any order, so try to do that.
If you spell BALL (by accident) on the lower left shoot the spinner for a 2-ball multiball with 2x scoring (think Gollum). Some bad thing will happen to you: the worst one is no-hold flippers.
If the pops spell HAUNTED you can kill the pops by holding both flippers. Time this correctly to drop the ball into the left VUK to start a haunted (super) mode and get a nice flipper feed.
Try to stack the scoring modes (haunted/munckin) with Rescue or EC multiball for a big payday. 2x on top of that is even better. Mode points are scored in bonus and can be 100k, so don’t tilt after a bit stack.
Also note that by default tilt warnings are per game, not per ball. Think before shoving the game through the wall on ball one.
Everything is always available. There is infinite stacking in this game.
Skill shots/plunge options
There are three skill-shots from the UR flipper. In my opinion these are all crazy-dangerous. Either plunge to the pops to pick up the dorothy targets, or plunge the lit top lane for decent points (5k+). There is no lane change. Let the ball go to the lower right.
Things that you can mostly ignore:
Horse of a different color: You get horses for shooting shots. If you have a set all the same or all different, it can be worthwhile to shoot behind the UR flipper to the shooter lane to collect. This gets you a mode-multiplier and some points. This shot tends to go badly if you miss.
The upper right flipper: For some feeds/tables, holding it up gets you a nice trap on the left. Other times, let it go past to a nice trap on the right.
Witch Hurry-ups: Not a lot of points, and you need three completions to start fireball frenzy.
Yellow Brick Road: Lit shots get you an advance. 10 for EB, 20 for points? I’m not sure what EB is worth in tournament mode, but the light show is blinding.
Ball-save minigames: Probably turned off? Well explained on the screen if they aren’t.
Except that no hold typically kills your MB – and not just your MB scoring.
The impact of weak flippers varies between WOZ I’ve played ---- one on location, the flippers at normal strength are on the weaker side, so during Weak Flippers, you can’t even make the ramp with the added momentum from a rolling inlane shot. Other WOZ with stronger flippers: Weak Flippers means that your ramp shot has to be perfect, but still make-able.
Once, during ECMB and down to two balls, I intentionally started my Weak Flipper crystal ball after I’d made it past stage 1 (ramp shots) of ECMB, when only rollovers and throne room were required, so I could cash in on the 2x points.
It’d be good to mention that all haunted scoring / munchkin / fireball frenzy apply to the bonus (post multiplier) so tilting after a huge multiball + mode stack can dock you in the 100k’s.
Not true about Fireball Frenzy, but the rest is accurate. Especially if you had a munchkin x at like 2.5 or 4 or something. That would be a horror show.
Also by default tilt warnings are per game not per ball. So might want to keep that in mind too (PAPA left it this way last year).
Great reminder about the tilt warnings. I won’t say that I’m a fan of it, but it’s an interesting change from all other recent modern pins.
Keefer, for the munchkin X from HOADC success, does it simply go up 0.5X with each successful completion? (1.0 -> 1.5 -> 2.0, etc) Or does the amount of multiplier accelerate with each subsequent successful completion? (1.0 -> 1.5 -> 2.5 -> 4.0)
So, if you screw one up causing you to go down a level, then your reward will go down as well. You could collect 4 (+.5), screw up 5, collect 4 (+.5), collect 5(+1), and then be at 3x. The limit (per-ball) is 10x.
EDIT: Oh yeah and your horse position holds through out the game, so if you don’t mess up, all completions at the 7-level will keep giving you 2x.
I disagree with ignoring the Witch skill shot and hurry-ups as Battle the Wicked Witch is simply too valuable to ignore, plus a good Fireball Frenzy round can be worth a sizable chunk of change. For those that don’t know, the Witch takes 3 hits (or is it 4) to raise then 2 hits to complete the hurry-up. If you hit the Witch on a skill shot you’re awarded 5,000 (+1,000 on future skill shots) plus an instant hurry-up. You’ll probably also nail the harder RAinbow targets from the ricochet or from the ball flying off the magnet. The other reason the Witch skill shots are so important is you’ll only get 3 of them with virtual locks being enabled. If only there was another way to earn another skill shot with virtual locks, like with a successful HODAC shot
Battle the Wicked Witch = Play Emerald City Multiball, Play Rescue Multiball, Start a Munchkin Mode, Play Fireball Frenzy. When the Witch insert turns bright red don’t ignore it (Henderson!)…Up to 100,000 for melting the Witch followed by a very valuable multiball where all shots start at 5,000 each. Flail away!
Playfield Multipliers
In addition to the Crystal Ball modes, any time two or more playfields are active the playfield multiplier raises by +1. Have active balls on the main playfield and the castle playfield? You’re at 2x. All three and you’re at 3x. Add in a crystal ball mode and those values double (4x/6x). Keep this in mind when you’re in Emerald City Multiball as it’s fairly simple to double your jackpot value with a single shot. With two balls cradled, shoot one into the the castle VUK. Once the VUK fires shoot the EC jackpot shot to collect your jackpot value at 2x (or 4x w/Crystal Ball). Very valuable later in EC Multiball when the values reach 20k/30k/40k. Think of those doubled (or quadrupled!)
I totally agree with the value of the witch just not the methodology for collecting her. The machine I play on more likely than naught seeks the right drain after a top right witch shot. So it is safer on that machine to pick it up by sliding it past the witch on the way to the castle.
In addition to the Crystal Ball modes, any time two or more playfields are active the playfield multiplier raises by +1. Have active balls on the main playfield and the castle playfield? You’re at 2x. All three and you’re at 3x.
Yikes. He didn’t know about Battle the Witch?
Keefer, I guess that’s not on par with when I walked away from my sweet game of WOZ at PAPA, and you telling me that I’d missed out on some ridiculously multiplied JP during my Rescue MB. Not that it mattered, because that score ended up on a dead ticket that I voided to save a point on my best ticket.
