Table of the Week Club...Week 58: JACK*BOT

Space, robots, gambling, pinball. What's not to like about this week's table, Jack*Bot? Let's see who's willing to go double or nothing with tips and strategies.

I don't know if it was just the game messing with me yesterday, but I seemed to get more insta-drains from the jets and from the Game Saucer on my tablet than I do on my PC.

Is short-plunging worth it to avoid the jets? I can't remember if it even works. I always go for the skill shot anyway, if you max it to 5x50M, are you really going to pass up 250M?

There are two big scoring possibilities, Casino Games/Casino Run, and Multiball. Early on Multiball is more profitable, but it soon becomes riskier to start unless you're really good at getting those visor shots down. Eventually you'll want to concentrate on the Casino, and the Double Bonus award from the ramp/inlane can get over 200M too.

Yes, short-plunging to avoid the jets works and you should do it. It helps to be good at mid-air nudging to get the ball safely to a flipper. Going for the skill shot is OK at the start of a ball when you have ball saver protection, but not after a lock or a ramp shot into the plunger. Yes, you are going to pass up 5x50M, the drain risk from the jets is too much.

Here's my game plan:

Phase 0: Get the first Casino Run ASAP, because it's much more generous about giving EBs early before you collect any others.

Phase 1: Go for multiballs. This builds up Keno cards for that game's value. Also make sure you hit the cycling Keno arrow on every visor shot, which (counterintuitively) can award Poker cards. Poker cards figure into both that game value and the bonus. I play for multiballs until I'm down to about 1 EB remaining.

Phase 2: Go for Casino Runs. Ideally you'll have the Keno game value up somewhere past 400M, and Poker over 200M. The ramp shots to relight the game saucer will also frequently result in lighting Cashier for 2x bonus, which should also be over 200M. Go for double-or-nothing on any significant game value (over 100M), it's an easy shot. Casino Run is worth points but more importantly can always still award EBs. Always end and collect a banked EB instantly unless you have No Bomb.

How do you get those multiballs, and mega jackbots in them? Grind the Visor safely. There are reliable railroads (at least on PC) back to safety for left flipper -> blue visor target and right flipper -> green visor target. Keep using these; once you finish a column, the game will usually give you credit for an adjacent target instead. I can get 25 hits to open the visor without ever losing control.

Those eye locks are messed up these days.

Pinballwiz45b said:

Those eye locks are messed up these days.

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Are you talking about the locks not locking the ball? If so, the TPA version of Pin*Bot has the same problem. Some of the IRL machines I've played had the same problem.

Hella sick score, BTW!

Played some Jackbot today... yup still suck at it!

EldarOfSuburbia said:

I don't know if it was just the game messing with me yesterday, but I seemed to get more insta-drains from the jets and from the Game Saucer on my tablet than I do on my PC.

Is short-plunging worth it to avoid the jets? I can't remember if it even works. I always go for the skill shot anyway, if you max it to 5x50M, are you really going to pass up 250M?

There are two big scoring possibilities, Casino Games/Casino Run, and Multiball. Early on Multiball is more profitable, but it soon becomes riskier to start unless you're really good at getting those visor shots down. Eventually you'll want to concentrate on the Casino, and the Double Bonus award from the ramp/inlane can get over 200M too.

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The saucer has some faux-randomized releases, some straight to the middle pin, others a bit skewed to the right flipper and some which already bounce around in the alley near the saucer and go into the slingshots. They don't feel different to me as far as I remember. It took quite a few games though to get reaquainted with this table!

Slam23 said:

The saucer has some faux-randomized releases, some straight to the middle pin, others a bit skewed to the right flipper and some which already bounce around in the alley near the saucer and go into the slingshots. They don't feel different to me as far as I remember. It took quite a few games though to get reaquainted with this table!

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It think it's the confidence I have in being able to judge where the kickout is going, and nudge accordingly. I'm still not comfortable nudging on my tablet.

It took me the better part of a year playing TPA on my iPad to get touch nudging in my system. Then it probably took another year to develop automatic reactions. I still suck at using the up nudge.
Btw: Dizzer2012 just posted a 700B game on Jackbot, almost 6x the next best score. Kind of takes the oomph out of this week's TotW. I'm just getting used to the table again and it is kicking my drainy behind....

vikingerik said:

Here's my game plan:
...
Phase 1: ... Also make sure you hit the cycling Keno arrow on every visor shot, which (counterintuitively) can award Poker cards. Poker cards figure into both that game value and the bonus.

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I'd modify your plan and always start a real game with a cheated slots mode that starts you off with +10 Poker cards, would help Poker, Cashier and Bonus (like getting your rats&bats in on ball 1 of BSD)and hit the cycling Keno arrow for the max vortex value (+50M bonus, that gets multiplied at the end too) at the start of every ball.. it helps if you soft plunge at all times.

A reminder for everyone that Specials are worth 250M points, keep that in mind when playing your casino runs.

I was playing a lot of Jack*Bot yesterday. Both on my PC and on my (Android) tablet. I got a new high score on the PC (36B, up a touch from my previous of 35B), but got nowhere on my tablet. I think, maybe, I've figured out why.

For some reason, I find it next to impossible to make the Game Saucer shot from a trap on the right flipper. In over an hour of playing, I made this shot just 2 or 3 times! That can't be right. I'm not that bad a shooter. This is a bread-and-butter shot, the real money-maker on this table. Is something off with the tuning on mobile, or is it just me being useless?

relaxation said:

I'd modify your plan and always start a real game with a cheated slots mode that starts you off with +10 Poker cards

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Cheating slots doesn't give you the poker cards, it gives an EB. But yes, it could be worthwhile to restart until you get the poker cards, that's a big slingshot towards the poker and bonus totals. But even I got bored of restarting and waiting for that. It might be necessary in a 20-minute tourney though, like CC's bonus bounty.

EldarOfSuburbia said:

For some reason, I find it next to impossible to make the Game Saucer shot from a trap on the right flipper.

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I've only played on the PC, but yes that shot is a lot tighter than it feels like it should be. Same as for BSD's mystery scoop in the same location. My Jack*Bot ball times and scores went up considerably once I started shooting the game saucer only from a left flipper trap instead. The big reason is safety on misses, which from the left flipper will usually safely rebound to a flipper and a catch, while right flipper misses will bounce off the post or visor into the slings.

I've found that from a right flipper trap, missing the Game Saucer to the left and hitting the post between the saucer lane and the ramp is a 100% insta-drain down the right outlane. Time to practice that backhand.

One nice railroad I found was the green(?) (second-from-right) Keno arrow/visor target from a right flipper trap gives a nice bounce back to the right flipper. It's an easy shot as well.

On a lighter note, how's this for "worst Casino Run ever?":
First roll: Bomb - nothing - No Bomb (seriously, I never knew this could happen! of course the No Bomb immediately cancels out the Bomb)
Second roll: Nothing - 25M - nothing (brings the total up to a whopping 127M! - try for more!)
Third roll: Lite Extra Ball (woo!) - nothing - Bomb!! (gimme a break!!)

That really happened to me.

I've had less of a problem hitting the saucer from a right trap as described by Eldar, but it takes constant alertness and precision to avoid that instadrain from hitting the shot late. Will experiment with shooting from a left trap to see if that yields better results. And yeah, I had my share of heartbreak from Casino Run, not as bad though as you Eldar! I think it's personal....
I'm looking for a timed nudge to get the EB from the ramp shot to the "bagatelle" area above the bumpers. Anyone tips on that?

EldarOfSuburbia said:

On a lighter note, how's this for "worst Casino Run ever?":
First roll: Bomb - nothing - No Bomb (seriously, I never knew this could happen! of course the No Bomb immediately cancels out the Bomb)
Second roll: Nothing - 25M - nothing (brings the total up to a whopping 127M! - try for more!)
Third roll: Lite Extra Ball (woo!) - nothing - Bomb!! (gimme a break!!)

That really happened to me.

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Yes that has happened to me as well, as my first casino run in a game about 3 months ago.

Slam23 said:

Will experiment with shooting from a left trap to see if that yields better results.

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I don't think this is any more accurate per-shot, but it yields much safer rebounds on a miss to try again. Patience and discipline is the key.

Slam23 said:

I'm looking for a timed nudge to get the EB from the ramp shot to the "bagatelle" area above the bumpers. Anyone tips on that?

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You and everybody. I've done it a handful of times but very inconsistently; my high 190B game never got it. Doesn't seem to be any railroadable nudge to do it. What can work is to nudge twice, as soon as the ball enters and again after the tilt bob settles, and just hope it rattles around both times long enough for the award to click to EB.

There's also the cheaty way: Sometimes the ball will fall through the hole, but not hit any bumpers, which means the game doesn't know it fell so the ramp award stays lit and cycling. If you can get control on the left flipper without hitting any switches, you can wait until EB is selected again and alley-shatz the right inlane for it.

vikingerik said:

There's also the cheaty way: Sometimes the ball will fall through the hole, but not hit any bumpers, which means the game doesn't know it fell so the ramp award stays lit and cycling. If you can get control on the left flipper without hitting any switches, you can wait until EB is selected again and alley-shatz the right inlane for it.

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Hey shooting the inlane isn't too bad! There is a risk of going out the left outlane for those that don't nudge though. It's worth going for since you can get two EBs out of it.. and that scenario happens to me often enough to worth consider doing on purpose.

You're right about the cards not being cheat dependent, it's probably just an uncommon reel since the other side of it's reel is a cow.