Table of the Week Club...Week 25: THE ADDAMS FAMILY

It's showtime! Let's start off Season 2 with a bang, eh? It's The Addams Family! And yes, finally a table from FarSight's 4th season. We gave away enough copies of this that I don't think anyone should not own it! So go muck around in the swamp, let THING touch your balls, and take a tour of the mansion.

Let your Uncle Fester a bit.

Yay, a table I'm actually good at!

- There are two distinct ways to play this table: going for Multiball and going for Tour The Mansion. While you can balance both, you won't score as much as you do focusing on a specific strategy.
- Remember that a Skill Shot also collects anything lit at the Thing saucer. This includes the THING award, locking a ball, collecting an Extra Ball, or starting a Quick Multiball. Not sure if it ends the Thing Multiball countdown though.
- If you're playing for Tour the Mansion, bonus multipliers are important. These are collected by shooting the left loop when it is lit by the left inlane. Note that there are some modes that have their totals collected during Bonus, but they are not multiplied. Collect a ton of bonus multipliers and Mansion Rooms, and be sure not to tilt!
- During Multiball, shooting the Vault gives a nice feed to the upper flipper for a Jackpot or Super Jackpot shot. Ignore shooting the left loop or Thing saucer as they are tough shots to make from trapped flippers.
- Remember that at certain numbers of Bear Kicks, you'll instantly be awarded a Mansion Room. Unlike when it's lit at the scoops, this Mansion Room can be collected at any time, even during Multiball. I'm not sure how Thing or Quick Multiball interacts with this, though.

Going for Tour The Mansions exclusively is the only serious high scoring strategy here.

The mansion rooms in the bonus add up, and with the multiplier it starts getting crazy after 5 or 6 tours.

Only go for multipliers after you've started the Tour. Too risky a shot before then.

Don't forget holding the ball on the flipper for 10 seconds or so turns off The Power. In Seance this also stops the timer until you hit a switch but it makes shooting for the ramp a lot less risky.

http://www.twitch.tv/pinballwiz45b/c/6738797

Addam's is one of my favourite tables to play for real. I think the TPA version is way too forgiving though. Just like EoS says, it comes down to just going through the mansions without caring about any other scoring alternatives, which is a shame since the table really has a lot of good scoring alternatives. Pretty much all the modes, the million plus, the 5xswamp, the multiballs etc should be viable options worth shooting for, as it would be on a real table.

With that said - it will be a completely different story without extra balls, so I'm looking forward to playing TAF!

Gus said:

Addam's is one of my favourite tables to play for real. I think the TPA version is way too forgiving though. Just like EoS says, it comes down to just going through the mansions without caring about any other scoring alternatives, which is a shame since the table really has a lot of good scoring alternatives.

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I was just thinking about this. Maybe I need to change the way I play the table in TPA, because I can't play more than 2 or 3 games at a time now. Sure it doesn't help that they're all 30m+ games, but they're so... grindy. Tour The Mansion, drain, rinse, repeat.

It's like this when I play for real, as well, mind, because there I'm all about making my credits last as long as a I can. That means replays, and that means safe and slow scoring - which is what TTM is.

EldarOfSuburbia said:

Maybe I need to change the way I play the table in TPA, because I can't play more than 2 or 3 games at a time now. Sure it doesn't help that they're all 30m+ games,

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If you're not getting much over 30M on TAF, then yeah, there might be a lot of things you need to change.

EldarOfSuburbia said:

I was just thinking about this. Maybe I need to change the way I play the table in TPA, because I can't play more than 2 or 3 games at a time now. Sure it doesn't help that they're all 30m+ games, but they're so... grindy. Tour The Mansion, drain, rinse, repeat.

It's like this when I play for real, as well, mind, because there I'm all about making my credits last as long as a I can. That means replays, and that means safe and slow scoring - which is what TTM is.

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Just touring the mansion is worth more than 30m, you get 50m just by starting it IIRC. It does get grindy after a while, but I think in the monthly tournament format it might get interesting. Draining after touring the mansion is no longer a good idea because you can't use the extra balls you earned. I think if I manage to tour the mansion successfully on one ball (fingers crossed) then multiball is really the only other thing to do for good points. That would probably mean timing out the power every time. Dunno if I'd have the patience to do it. Are there any other good scoring opportunities after touring the mansion? I know 100 ramps is nice, but that's awfully repetitive and a ways off.

30 MINUTES. Not 30 MILLION ....

EldarOfSuburbia said:

30 MINUTES. Not 30 MILLION ....

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Oh, sorry.

workshed said:

Are there any other good scoring opportunities after touring the mansion? I know 100 ramps is nice, but that's awfully repetitive and a ways off.

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The other way besides multiball is the combo sequence into the 5X Graveyard shot, if you've raised the graveyard value to a decent amount. Bear kick - left orbit (bonus X) - upper ramp (5M combo plus Thing star) - swamp (10M combo plus 5X Graveyard up to 20M). That totals as much as a couple multiball jackpots right there.

vikingerik said:

The other way besides multiball is the combo sequence into the 5X Graveyard shot, if you've raised the graveyard value to a decent amount. Bear kick - left orbit (bonus X) - upper ramp (5M combo plus Thing star) - swamp (10M combo plus 5X Graveyard up to 20M). That totals as much as a couple multiball jackpots right there.

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Yeah, good point. That left orbit shot is a bugger though. The Lawlor shot through the pops is scary.

Am I the only one who is completely stymied by the Wizard Goal of collecting 10 million plus shots? So hard on one ball! I normally play in view 2, but view 3 has actually increased my accuracy for it (shoot Thing ramp, wait for ball to enter red paint just above book). I've gotten as many as 9 before losing the ball, and am just completely frustrated by it. And I thought collecting 100 bear ramps was tough. Yeesh.

shutyertrap said:

Am I the only one who is completely stymied by the Wizard Goal of collecting 10 million plus shots? So hard on one ball! I normally play in view 2, but view 3 has actually increased my accuracy for it (shoot Thing ramp, wait for ball to enter red paint just above book). I've gotten as many as 9 before losing the ball, and am just completely frustrated by it. And I thought collecting 100 bear ramps was tough. Yeesh.

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I did it regularly when the table first came out - and nowhere near so much since. I think because I stopped going for the Bear Kick->Thing/Bonus X->Left Ramp->Swamp combo so much and started concentrating on Mansion Rooms instead.

I've still not cleared the 10 Million or 99 Bear Kicks on my tablet, though I've been close (9M!!) on the former, but never more than 60-ish on the latter.

shutyertrap said:

Am I the only one who is completely stymied by the Wizard Goal of collecting 10 million plus shots? So hard on one ball! I normally play in view 2, but view 3 has actually increased my accuracy for it (shoot Thing ramp, wait for ball to enter red paint just above book). I've gotten as many as 9 before losing the ball, and am just completely frustrated by it. And I thought collecting 100 bear ramps was tough. Yeesh.

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When the game first came out on PC I got it pretty quickly. Once it came out on PS4 it was the wizard goal I struggled with most for some reason. I feel your frustration. Make sure to just hold up the thing flipper as the ball comes down after a left ramp shot to get an easy feed to the left flipper. After that it's just Bear Kick, Thing ramp, and get the timing right for the upper left ramp shot.

shutyertrap said:

Am I the only one who is completely stymied by the Wizard Goal of collecting 10 million plus shots? So hard on one ball! I normally play in view 2, but view 3 has actually increased my accuracy for it (shoot Thing ramp, wait for ball to enter red paint just above book). I've gotten as many as 9 before losing the ball, and am just completely frustrated by it. And I thought collecting 100 bear ramps was tough. Yeesh.

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Took me ages to complete the 10m plus. But the bear kicks? Not even close, maybe 60 at best.

Finally. Finally did the 10 million plus wizard goal. Nearly had a panic attack when I saw 9 million, and then 15 seconds later hit 10 million but didn't get the wizard. I guess that's where the "plus" part comes in. It it one more time and goal registered. Happy to have that monkey off my back. Now to just get rid of the Genie and AFM monkeys.

Grats SYT! Always a good feeling to nail the last shot for a wizard goal!