Table of the Week Club...Week 54: CYCLONE

You're at the county fair, you see some rickety rollercoaster that looks like it's held together by nothing more than rubber bands and good wishes, and you think, "sure, why not". Somehow this thing costs 12 tickets (which translates to like $15, which is ridiculous), and you hand them over to the carny working the ride. Of course he's on the wrong side of a 72 hour binge, but don't worry, he only operates the ride, he didn't put it together. Or did he?

And that, is Cyclone, the Table of the Week.

Or at least it's how I see it, because how else to explain that amusement park? Maybe I'm just spoiled by living near Disneyland, Magic Mountain, and Knott's.

I'll repeat my most important tip from the strategy forum: Ignore Comet, shoot Cyclone.

The million is tempting, but follow this logic. They score equal amounts per shot if you make everything: 20k+40k+60k+80k+100k+million for 6 Comet shots = 50k+100k+500k jackpot for 3 Cyclone shots.

Cyclone is also a more forgiving ramp, without that nasty exit into the bumpers. And the targets to relight Cyclone (right side ducks) are easier than the targets to relight Comet, and also advance towards extra balls.

To regain control after Cyclone, nudging up in the inlane for a hold pass works very reliably for me. Or Tarek said he had reliable success shooting the Boomerang (left hole) as well.

One more important aspect: extra balls. You are limited to 2 EBs per ball in play (two on ball 1, two on ball 2, two on ball 3). Except that EBs earned for the replay score after each rollover don't count towards this so are truly unlimited. If you can score 10M and roll over the game every ball, you go infinite.

Enjoy this table a lot and the upgraded graphics look great on the PS3.

Ended up playing this game after the tournament last week and scored 25m. You reminded me I needed to upload that to my youtube, so if you are interested in Cyclone gameplay that finished well check it out.
Good luck and keep on flippin'!

I tried Cyclone a few times. I have just bought the rest of TPA. among other tables was Cyclone. The rule set seems not to be that eclectic as the champion pub ones. I still adress champion pub, bought the Pro-version with the IFPA tips; slowly getting better.
Cu on the next totm.

Have fun and keep on flipping.

Just posted 48M for 7th on the leaderboards, I'm definitely on a great TotM roll these last couple of weeks. I followed the strategy posted by VikingErik above, and had the most success with one-timing the return ball directely from the right flipper to the bonus X hole (Boomerang) with the added bonus of getting a bonus X or 100K if maxed at 7X bonus. Also, the ball will return to your left flipper for easy control. Shooting directly for the Ferris Wheel is also an option, and may be a tad bit safer, but that leaves you with no bonus X, and mostly 50K from the Wheel. Also, you'll have to work with a return ball that is moving, instead of a stationary cradle. An up nudge will help to control but I think risk/reward makes this the lesser choice. [MENTION=3745]vikingerik[/MENTION] : when you say up nudge in the inlane, which one do you mean? Do you already control the ball in the right inlane just after the Cyclone ramp? And from there a post pass back to the left?

So far so good, but the trouble starts when you have to light Cyclone's jackpot again with hitting those pesky Duck targets, especially the lowest one. There is a good strategy for that and I think quite safe: when the ball leaves the bonus-X hole, you can cradle it for simple control on the left flipper or do a bounce over to the right. To hit the lowest Duck target you'll have to do something different: hit the ball very late with the left flipper so it just hits the lower side of the right slingshot, this will produce a ricochet to the left slingshot and from there to the lowest Duck target. The trick is now to get control back. I have seen essentially three scenario's: 1. there are some more ricochets and the ball lands without any problem on the left flipper for an easy cradle. Don't touch anything before that! 2. same as one, but now the ball lands a bit further to the right on the left flipper, necessitating a slight nudge back to the left for control and 3. this one is least frequent (had it 2-3 times at max in my 48M game, so I think it's not a fluke, just very infrequent) and can be described as a very low ricochet which also can be catched easily. The hardest part is the timing of the left flipper shot to the lower right slingshot. If you are early the ball will go up the lane towards the rollovers and bumper area, mostly returning before reaching that area and reasonably controllable. If you are late, the ball will hit the underside of the right slingshot and end up very quickly at the right flipper, be on guard to control that ball. Be very late and SDTM drain... I still think this is the safest way to light that lower target. The other two are easily lit by direct shots from the left flipper. Also be ready to nudge to get control back. And then it's back to hitting that Cyclone ramp....

I must say I still prefer Hurricane because of the MB and more forgiving ramps.

Slam23 said:

vikingerik: when you say up nudge in the inlane, which one do you mean? Do you already control the ball in the right inlane just after the Cyclone ramp? And from there a post pass back to the left?

Click to expand...

No. I mean nudge up while the ball is in the right inlane, before it reaches the flipper, which sends it over to the left for a catch. It's a traditional pinball hold pass, which we sometimes lose sight of in TPA with all the other abusable nudging.

It's very reliable, 95% or better, with a PC keyboard. If it's not reliable on a touch screen and shooting Boomerang works better for you, sure, do that. I just can't hit Boomerang reliably enough, about 75% but that's not good enough compared to the hold pass.

I remember finding railroadable rebounds on set shots to the top two duck targets. The third can be tricky to regain control and there's one railroad that finds the left outlane, but I got good at nudging early to avoid that.

Right, nice one, didn't know about that technique, have seen the reverse of it though: use nudge to compete a flipper pass that falls short. And on some real machines I have seen a pro move being pulled off where a player uses a quick flip to quickly hit the bottom of the slingshot right when it clears the inlane to control it at that flipper. About those Ducks: I just find hitting that lowest one from a set shot very difficult to hit and to control hits and misses afterwards but haven't been trying to find out the specific railroad.

I've made a short video how to handle Cyclone in the last year without nudging. The lowest duck target is in fact the most difficult part in this strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXC34p548-o

Tarek Oberdieck said:

I've made a short video how to handle Cyclone in the last year without nudging. The lowest duck target is in fact the most difficult part in this strategy.

Click to expand...

A big thank you for Tarek. The strategy is really good. Forget Feris wheel, ride the cyclone and aim for the bonus multiplier on the lower left side.