Table of the Week Club...Week 26: THE PARTY ZONE

For week 26 of TotW, it's time to BYOB to The Party Zone! Personally I've not given this table much attention in TPA, and in league meetings the real table consistently kicks my butt. Time to remedy that by learning the thing! So please post tips and thoughts, let's collect those wizards.

I'm Captain B. Zarre! Almost live from the - oh wait this joke got old before I even said it.

So the best scoring strategy in the game comes from activating 10x Playfield, then nudging the machine until you get a tilt warning. This will stop the timer until you make a major shot (ramp, bumper lane, saucer, lock). Note that the Way out of Control lane isn't included in this list. This means you can easily shoot that lane over and over for some huge scores. Admit it, there's no one who doesn't want 100 million for each WOOC shot. If this strategy is done correctly, you can score even more points than a completed Multiball!

Also, just wanted to remind everyone that after the first Multiball, it becomes way tougher to activate, with some risky shots involved. Instead, try and shoot the lit Comic over and over until you collect "Surprise".

When this first came to TPA, I played it a lot because I have never played the physical machine but for me the playfield is a bit of a mess and the audio is rough, not sure if it's because I'm playing it on a PS3 or because that is how the machine is.

How I play is to try and get multiball and just keep on shooting the ramp. I'll have to figure out how to activate the 10x playfield.

Johni3w6 said:

When this first came to TPA, I played it a lot because I have never played the physical machine but for me the playfield is a bit of a mess and the audio is rough, not sure if it's because I'm playing it on a PS3 or because that is how the machine is.

How I play is to try and get multiball and just keep on shooting the ramp. I'll have to figure out how to activate the 10x playfield.

Click to expand...

10x Playfield is the third Way out of Control award, so shoot the WOOC targets three times to light the lane to collect the award.

Captain B. Zarre said:

I'm Captain B. Zarre! Almost live from the - oh wait this joke got old before I even said it.

So the best scoring strategy in the game comes from activating 10x Playfield, then nudging the machine until you get a tilt warning. This will stop the timer until you make a major shot (ramp, bumper lane, saucer, lock). Note that the Way out of Control lane isn't included in this list. This means you can easily shoot that lane over and over for some huge scores. Admit it, there's no one who doesn't want 100 million for each WOOC shot. If this strategy is done correctly, you can score even more points than a completed Multiball!

Click to expand...

Yep, but how the hell can u be consistent on this WOOC line? Specially knowing that one of the typical miss goes directly to the Robot... I hate this table, really.

I like this table better than most, I guess. 10x scoring gets a nice boost, but 2x scoring needs to be your bread and butter.

Captain B. Zarre said:

10x Playfield is the third Way out of Control award, so shoot the WOOC targets three times to light the lane to collect the award.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip.

Anyone know a good way to hit that WOOC lane? I hit it very rarely on a rolling ball, never from a trap it seems. Shooting the ramp and the robot seems the easiest and safest, but it gets old quickly... Multiball is kind of fun and chaotic, but it seems to lock out WOOC million plus, right?
The skill shot really adds up! I got several 10M+ shots there. It doesn't display the full 10M but awards it correctly. I think it gave me 12M once too (and displayed the full 12M), weird things happening in the Party zone

Gus said:

Anyone know a good way to hit that WOOC lane? I hit it very rarely on a rolling ball, never from a trap it seems. Shooting the ramp and the robot seems the easiest and safest, but it gets old quickly... Multiball is kind of fun and chaotic, but it seems to lock out WOOC million plus, right?
The skill shot really adds up! I got several 10M+ shots there. It doesn't display the full 10M but awards it correctly. I think it gave me 12M once too (and displayed the full 12M), weird things happening in the Party zone

Click to expand...

A good way to hit the WOOC lane is by shooting either the cosmic cottage or the robot, passing the ball over to the left flipper by holding the right flipper up, then making a delayed shot to the lane.

I don't have a problem shooting that lane from either a trap or a running shot from the ramp. This is on a PC with a controller, though, so the timing might be a bit trickier on a tablet.

The skill shot may be nice but it's not huge points over the course of the game. 10 skill shots is 55M (not sure if it's doubled). That's the same as 5 maxed WOOC shots, without 2x. 3 maxed 2x WOOC shots is 60M.

WOOC millions do count during multiball, you just don't see it flash up because of other stuff going on. Lighting one of the WOOC awards (5M, 1M Pops, 10x, Special(=50M!)) overrides the millions for that one shot to collect only.

The boring way to play Party Zone is to keep going Comic->Ramp until you get an EB, then get Multiball started for 2x scoring, then go for the WOOC millions.

As you go on you need more and more ramp shots for that EB, but at least you're getting 2M a go, right? And you will collect Comic awards from time to time, which will usually result in starting multiball. After the second multiball - no matter how it's started - you need to shoot the request saucer 3 times to light each of the Party groups at the Cosmic Cottage, and shooting that saucer more than once deliberately is not recommended.

I played this one up to around 800M but I don't remember if the ramp shots needed for EB max out at any level. Ramp-Comic all day was the way to get to 800M for me, with some MB thrown in there. Also those door prizes add up nicely over the course of a game. I've missed this TotW and get up to speed again on this one.

Thanks for the advice guys! I upped my score to 1.5B now. Regarding the skillshot, keep in mind that it goes above 10M after a few shots at the 10M level. My last skillshot was worth 18M, so in total I'd say all those points ain't peanuts, and they are "free" points to boot! I don't think they get doubled, but I'm not sure, will check if I try again. I tried to get the 10x thing going but it's hard to cash in on!

Whoever thought 7.5B is a good target score for 1k HOF must be crazy good at this table

Tarek's best score is still way up on the next best (all around 2B).

And that's not even close to 7.5B.

IMHO this would be a great put-up-or-shut-up table.

Better than CP at least!

Just a quick final observation, the skill shot cannot be doubled, because you're plunging either at the start of a new ball, or at the start of multiball. Both of these circumstances cancel 2x scoring.

Upped my best to 1.2B, quite a long grind. Exploiting the 10x WOOC and tilt is quite hard, although the WOOC lane can be hit fairly consistent with a flipper pass from right to left and then one-time it from the left as Cap'n Bizarre already mentioned. The table feels like you can go infinite but it's gets progressively more difficult to stack up those EB's. I have been up to 30 required ramp shots to light the next one. That requires a steady concentration and stamina. Does it cap out anywhere after 30?
Some loose balls:
- keep that preemptive nudge ready when the Captain releases the ball, otherwise 9 out of 10 times a left outlane drain
- deadpassing is dangerous, especially with lowspeed/lowenergy balls, ramp shots that don't make it all the way up are more safely cradled or onetimed to the Robot Comic than deadpassed
- Flipper passing ramp returns from left to right and then onetiming the ramp again could possibly speed up your ramp EB hunt, but your timing has to be perfect, also because those passes differ in speed and angle on the flipper
- there are some recognizable railroad shots with corresponding solutions
- 2x booster is your friend when grinding, so complete MB or make that last MB consolation shot at least after draining 1 ball
So back to Central Park!
- anybody got more than one EB from the Robot? I didn't....
- I hate Eat/Drink/BeMerry, it often steals my perfectly set up Robot....
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