Tips n Strats: You Shore Need That Ramp Shot

Eegah

New member
May 12, 2013
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Just had an hour-plus 2.7B game on the iPad version which is good enough for 3rd on the Leaderboard for now. My left thumb is sore. Here's what I did for posterity.

Get the Ball Up The Ramp There: 90% of this table boils down to nailing the ramp shot ad infinitum. The ramp works a lot like the Mystery Mirror in Funhouse in that one mode is the extra ball and you need to clear the wagon wheel (ie the ramp modes) on the same ball you collect the EB so that it resets when you drain. CBW is more forgiving than FH however in that if you finish the wheel and go on to get the 1/2B from completing 9-Ball the wheel resets, allowing you to get more than one EB per ball. Sweet.

Technique: It's a late Gottlieb which means high-angled flippers and easy trapping, but this table is even easier than Tee'd Off in that regard. Virtually any ball that goes through an inlane can be trapped, most importantly successful ramp shots. This means if you can consistently make the ramp shot (and you absolutely must have that shot down to do well), you've always got an easy trap to set up your next shot... which is usually another ramp shot. Sisyphus would be proud.

The Horseshoe for the EB can be backhanded easily enough from a trap on the left. Easy peasy, just take your time.

Elsewhere, Kickouts from the Corner Pocket on the far left can be trapped on the right by holding down the right flipper the whole time, and if you're good you can spot two POOL letters this way (more on this below). Post transfers are pretty reliable, though left-to-right transfers can take a couple tries. Be careful trying to cradle separate when you have two balls in play -- I've had a couple double drains when they kinda cancelled each other's momentum.

The cue ball can be a drain hazard -- avoid it in single-ball play except for 9-ball.

Rock Me Mama: With the exception of Horseshoe EB, multiball and 9-ball, every mode on the Wagon Wheel can be safely ignored. The ramp is the most consistent shot and straying from that path yields control of the ball which means danger, and other modes don't yield too much score anyway. Maybe go for the Rowdy Ramp since you're hitting that shot anyway but even that's like 30M at most unless you're good at hitting the ramp on the fly. Wheel modes lock everything else out on the table (even POOL letters) so you gotta wait 'em out from a trap, but at least their timers are pretty short.

There's probably an argument to be made for going for the DOUBLE letters, but it'll take you a few rounds to do it. The first letter is from the corner pocket (read: post transfer to the right flipper) and subsequent letters are the ramp (read: post transfer back to the left), and 15 seconds or whatever isn't enough time to get too many of them. I'm not that great at making the corner pocket shot anyway so I don't risk it.

Video Modes: Terrible, aren't they? At least Cactus Jack is kinda cute.

Don't P in the OOL: For whatever reason you have to UN-light the letters instead of of light them. Anyway these are easily collected via ramp shots. If you're coming from a trap and plan to trap again, make sure the L is lit so the left O will be lit when the ball feeds into the inlane. If you have a kickout coming from the a Corner Pocket you can often light two letters as stated above.

(Un)Lighting all letters lights the Sweet Spot shot at the top, worth a cool 50 mil. I let multiball collect it.

Bank Shot: The bank shot is pretty good at yielding an EB early in the game (and tends to double-trigger so you get two awards), so you may want to focus on that before heading to the ramps.

Welcome to the Half-Billionaire's Club: The single biggest point scorer by far is from completing 9-ball. This requires pocketing the 1-7 drop targets in order, followed by a good cue ball hit (to fire the 8 ball) which sets up a 20-second hurry up for the 9-ball on the right. That's plenty of time so just trap up, transfer to the left if you need and make your shot. If you miss high onto the higher drop targets it's probably okay as it'll likely hit the 9 anyway from all the bouncing around. Speaking of which if you're feeling greedy you may want to hit the ramp a few times while 9-ball is active to get POOL letters since you'll probably hit the Sweet Spot targets at least one while the ball is up there.

End of Ball Bonus: The only substantial bonus is from Pool Ball Mania when you complete the Wagon Wheel. That bonus will likely be nine figures though so for Dog's sake don't tilt.

tl;dr: Trap on the left and hit ramp shots all day erry day, stopping only for EBs and 9-Ball. Everything else on the table is fluff.

And that's way more words than this table probably warrants. That hour long game was only good for about 150 HoF points so uh... Bring a book?
 

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
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Good post, not only helpful but fun to read! I dislike this formula: one-trick pony table and very high HoF requirements means tedious and overlong games. Getting the half-billion will be a nice challenge though
Slam23
 

Eegah

New member
May 12, 2013
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One thing you can try to break the tedium is the horseshoe. It's a quick easy backhand that can be repeated very quick for 20M a pop. The timer is only 4 seconds but if you can get in the groove that's at least 300M a minute.

Lord help you if you brick though.
 

Zaphod77

Active member
Feb 14, 2013
1,316
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ObRulesRape: If you light the 8 ball but don't hit it and go through the wagon wheel and pool ball mania without sinking the 8 ball, you can start 9 ball, then hit the 8 and then the 9 for the half billion. This can be DOUBLED for a cool billion.

ObRulesRape2: Rowdy Ramp Round+Multiball=endless rowdy ramp shots. (harder rules rape) To abuse this you need to learn the ramp shot on the fly. You start multiball when rowdy ramp round is lit, and then just keep shooting both up the ramp. maxes at 40 million per (but of course this can be doubled)

Bank Shots: these are awesome. Eventually you will get AWARD EVERYTHING, which is pretty nice.

Interesting game, but not at ALL balanced.

Scores will get ridiculous pretty fast i think...

So,... it's worthwhile to hit those drop targets to collect bank shots and light 8 ball, to make 9 ball easier.
 
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Eegah

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May 12, 2013
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Why not just trap a ball on the right when doing Rowdy Ramp? Seems safer.
 

Zaphod77

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Feb 14, 2013
1,316
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because both balls are on the left flipper when you start multiball. If you try to catch and pass one the other one will probably show up on the flipper too soon. or the game may decide to refuse to let you post pass.

Also the mode WILL time out unless you are shooting both balls up the ramp.

If you'e mastered the ramp shot on the fly (flip when the ball rolls just past center usually does the trick) you are golden.

ALso no way round is actually pretty easy. just aim to graze the extra ball target, and it will nearly always bounce neatly behind the cueball and be recoverable after. the hardest part by far is to get through pool ball mania without sinking that 8 ball.

PS. I just got TWO cheat half billion shots in the same game. It's SO worth it. Even if you fail to get it, the wagon wheel is locked out until you drain or hit or time out that nine ball, and it's HARD to get 1 through 7. So if you DO manage to light the eight ball it's worth throwing pool ball mania away just to keep the 8 ball lit so you can get the easy 9 ball half billion. And even if it times out, you can start in on the wagon wheel again and get another horseshoe extra ball round.

And yes, it counts for wizard goal. :)
 
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vikingerik

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Nov 6, 2013
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ObRulesRape: If you light the 8 ball but don't hit it and go through the wagon wheel and pool ball mania without sinking the 8 ball, you can start 9 ball, then hit the 8 and then the 9 for the half billion. This can be DOUBLED for a cool billion.

Took me a while to understand what this means. So you mean light the 8 ball towards regular multiball (by completing 1-7 or 9-15), then start Mania then 9-ball all without hitting the 8 ball so it stays lit. That skips the 1-7 phase of 9-ball so you can proceed directly to 8 then 9 for the half-billion.

I found huge chunks of points from the 20M Bank Shots and 50M Sweet Spots during the 1-7 phase of 9-ball. Like 300M total from these, almost as much as the half-billion itself.

One more tip: During regular multiball, ignore the jackpots, the cueball is too risky. You can keep collecting wheel modes so do that instead.
 
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Zaphod77

Active member
Feb 14, 2013
1,316
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Took me a while to understand what this means. So you mean light the 8 ball towards regular multiball (by completing 1-7 or 9-15), then start Mania then 9-ball all without hitting the 8 ball so it stays lit. That skips the 1-7 phase of 9-ball so you can proceed directly to 8 then 9 for the half-billion.
correct. that's effectively how it works.

1 to 7 not skipped, but because the 8 is lit, it registers it, even though 1-7 is not completed. (the game forgets to unlight it, you see)
 

vikingerik

Active member
Nov 6, 2013
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Yeah, confirmed that it works that way, I pulled it off last night. I'm not sure it's worthwhile though, giving up both regular and mania multiballs for the 9-ball shortcut. Mania often scores 200M-plus. Maybe carefully play Mania by trapping and shooting drop targets, doing what you can to avoid the 8 ball if possible.

One more tip: When Mania starts, plunge the second ball full strength (or you don't get the third), but short-plunge the last to the flippers. Mania doesn't start until the third ball hits a switch on the table so you get a free shot before the other two balls release.
 

Zaphod77

Active member
Feb 14, 2013
1,316
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But making the half billion shot lets you work on the next horseshoe extra ball without draining. If you are consistent with that, even if you miss the half billion, it's worth it to get the insurance policy of a second extra ball, whiel draining is likely if you are struggling with 1-7.
 
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fromduc

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Feb 28, 2014
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This one is definitely an infinite one: ramp, ramp, ramp, ignore everything else... but i made a terrible mistake, was tryin to stop before 10B and have been greedy and finished at 10.000.003. I got the score in my friend leaderboard but nothing on the global one for now, 20mn after, feel it bad... Wass urprised that nobody did better here, now i maybe understand why :/
 
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fromduc

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Feb 28, 2014
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Ouch, finally it's OK... i had a bad hint with the table wich didnt make me register my name, but finally it's OK.

PS: to the 3 martians, if u could at least wait the next Invitro leaderboard to beat it, i would apreciate ;)
 

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