DMD- Jackbot. So simple in theory so hard to execute. Mess up the visor skill shot and your strategy drastically changes to Casino run. Feel lucky?
SS- Frontier. Combines sharp shooting with nudging and flipper skills
EM- Hard to come to a decision but Mars Trek in my book. So many strategic risk/ reward decisions to be made about going for 2x bonus or cashing in at saucer and rebuilding. spinner strat is also viable but dangerous.
DMD - AC/DC The constant questions you ask yourself about when to cash in song jackpot, how to incorporate the song with whatever multiball you have coming up. Collect with 2x/3x running etc etc.
SS - Frontier - can’t top it. Honorable mention to EBD. I like that you have the option of going left lane all day for slower, steady points vs. drops/inlines for huge bonus collects. Early in the game questioning when to start shooting multiplier targets, when to start hitting collects. Deep in the game (just like frontier) you’re only 2 shots away from huge bonus collects, and the shot that qualifies the collect is risky).
EM - 300 - bonus collect saucer you can’t actually shoot!
My favorite tourney EM is probably Abra-Ca-Dabra. There is a ton of risk/reward in play, and the rules are surprisingly intricate for an EM. Do I want to keep building up the bonus value, or start collecting it at the lit drop? Do I want to try and move the lit drop, or just clear the banks and try again? That lit drop rule rewards super accurate shooting. Plus it has that drain shot to reset the drops which keeps you on your toes. I love Sky Jump for a lot of the same reasons.
Early SS, it is hard to argue with Frontier. For later I will throw Funhouse into the mix. Balanced scoring, a lot of different opportunities. Multiball sequence is fun but difficult to really get going. Watching PAPA finals on Funhouse have been some of the most fun ones to watch. Only downside is some of the mirror modes are kind of useless.
Having a hard time narrowing down DMD but Jackbot is definitely a great one and I’m glad to see the attention it has gotten over the past several years. I do wish Casino Run was player-balanced (aka random but the same for all players.)
On Abra at INDISC I just kept shooting the lit pop bumper for 1k and would usually re-light on the way back down. Repeat. Agreed on FH as there are multiple ways to attack it. ACDC gets used in tournaments?
SS- Funhouse is good, but maybe Firepower. Too much fun watching everyone have to shoot the “stand-ups of death”
EM - Definitely SURFER. Great shots and a few different stratagies. Shot the lane to send it back up top, or get star rollovers, or drop targets. 2x bonus. and hope the ball falls in the saucer once in a while.
Jackbot tournament mode cheating is probably the most misunderstood rule ever. (Followed closely by Funhouse 11:30 reset, LOL. How many times have I seen unsuspecting souls caught by that one?)
First, a clarification: The rule for the cheat button is that it works every 4th time THAT IT WOULD NORMALLY BE POSSIBLE to cheat. So here are some examples of events where it is possible or not:
Dice Roll < 12: Yes!
Any Keno Card: Yes!
Bonus at 1x: No!
Bonus at 2x+: Yes!
Slot Machine in tourney mode: No! (In normal play the cheat could advance it to light extra.)
Play Poker: Yes!
Casino Run is its own completely separate thing in every way. Purely random, and the cheat rules do not apply. You have to play it exactly as you would in normal play. That being said, I can offer you some pieces of advice:
If you have a no-bomb, you are a fool to try and cheat (it actually makes it slightly more likely a bomb would show up).
Do not cheat the first spin (you’ll never bomb out).
If you just cheated a bomb and have spun 4+ times, you are a fool to go more than that.
Finally, when SHOULD you use your cheat? Here are some ideas.
Play poker with a full house (all cards off and 1 blinking): Cheat goes from 50M to 149M (+99M!!)
Keno depending on card fullness: Cheat goes from 5-35M to 99M (+64-94M)
Play poker with 3 aces: I believe this will get you to 99M, and I think 3/kind is 25M? Little sketchy on this one. Gonna call it +75M for now.
Dice Roll. This is a hard one, and one where paying attention to your opponents is VERY IMPORTANT. If someone else plays dice roll before you, you will know exactly how advantageous it will be to cheat. Also, it is obviously very dependent on your dice value. Your roll will become 12, so if you know an 11 is coming and your value is 3.5M, well, then, you would cheat for +3.5M. Congrats! But, if the roll was a 3 and your value was 8M, then you’re cheating for +72M. Nice. BTW, pretty sure dice value caps at 20M if you didn’t know.
Bonus: Obviously highly dependent on value, but could be pretty good, especially if you got a max vortex award that ball from slot or white arrows (50M base bonus). If you have 1x, it’s moot, you won’t get anything. But at 2x+ with 50M vortex, definitely worth it.
In summary, Keno is the safest thing to save the cheat for, but poker could be better if you had any cards. I think we all know in practice this pretty much never happens, which usually means poker will be your worst option to cheat, most likely giving you +5M-+10M or so. Dice Roll is OK if you have roll knowledge, but everyone short plunges these days, so dice values are generally always in the crapper. There is a case to be made for going for skill shots/bumpers (dice value also adds to bonus) especially if you’re on mb 3+ or you blew your easy visor open for mb 2.
Anyway, hope that clears things up a bit for everyone. It’s pure geekery analysis, but I think we all know that’s pretty much me at this point.
Hm. TBH I don’t recall that, but you are waking up something deep in the recesses of my mind that sounds familiar like that. If that’s true, then that makes using the cheat for bonus even stupider.
Personally I never try to cheat bonus other than to use up one of my 3 beforehand. Keno is the clear winner under completely unknown circumstances.
Edit: OBTW, normal bonus/cheat rules apply to Collect Bonus from slot machine. Cheats if at 2x+ will count/work.
Yes this is true. I think if you get max vortex from keno arrow it affects only the skill shot but not your bonus.It’s a bad award anyways as it kind of takes away from the fun of building up the vortex value if you are just playing for fun.