Harley Davidson: Tips and Strategies

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
2
Hi guys,

Although some tables are so straightforward that they don't need this thread, I thought it would be nice for newcomers to not have to sift through the other threads to get some idea where the points are in this table. I'll primarily sum up what's already said in the thread about the video mode. Also, I think a discussion about control vs. flow would be nice for this table, especially with all those 4 ball MB's.

Limited EB's
The one thing that defines this table in terms of length of play and therefore point total is the fact that you max out on EB's: you can earn up to 3 of them in one game. Sources are: getting to 120M, video mode (perfect completion) and extra balls at city 4, 8 and 14. To be complete: if you play poorly on your first 2 balls, 2 extra balls get lit in the outlanes. It's a bit of a toss-up how you get those 3 EB's, but for purpose of points it's crucial to learn to complete video mode every time you play it. To be very clear: perfect completion is hitting all the 16 pedestrians. This is not the most tasteful video mode I know of and it would be interesting to know if this caused any controversy at the time? I know games like Carmageddon which essentially have the same premise (and GTA in a way also) raised hell when they got released. Those pedestrians sure know how to dodge cars in any case....But anyway, after you max out on EB's, video mode yields approximately 6.5 million for completion, and another 35M for perfect completion, 41.5M total. It's not unusual to have a game in which you get to play the video mode at least 15-20 times, without actually aiming for the 4 standup targets that light it at the stoplight. Completing 10 of those yields 400M+. To put the 35M bonus in another perspective: getting this from any Multiball on the table is quite a fair score, especially if you don't get the super jackpot, and with considerably less risk of draining those 2 last balls simultaneously.... :) Also, getting back to video mode doesn't get harder through the game, unlike the requirements for lighting those Multiballs again. I usually get my 3 EB's from an early video mode, 120M and then from another video mode or the 4th city. This also means that although the extra ball timer (8 seconds) starts for the 8th and 14th city, it doesn't actually yield the EB. It would have been nice to get an alternative reward for this, quite the let-down now.

Starting reward, cities and MB's
When plunging a new ball, you get to choose a reward: 10M, Speed Pops (3 miles per bumper hit), (light) Next City, and Harley Letter. I can't think of a reason not to select next City every time. In an ideal game you get 6 cities for free, making progress towards Milwaukee Multiball much easier. When I'm on my last ball and I'm one Harley Letter away from starting the MB, and there is not to be gained much anymore from a city (you just played Milwaukee MB for example), I'll go for the letter, but that's the only situation I can think of. Selecting light next city has a few catches though. First off, cities require a progressive number of miles to "ride" before you reach them. You do that by hitting targets, loops, ramps. The bumper area is an especially good place (shoot right orbit to get 3 mile hits instead of 1) although risky for popping of stray balls. Requirements start off just shy of 100 miles and I believe this gets up to nearly 400 miles for later cities. Because Next City is worth more with every city you reach, there can be some strategy involved. For the first cities, I try not to shoot immediately for the lit Next City at the Mystery Rider hole, but try to collect the city by regular play. Because multiballs are started very easily early in the game, I go for them instead in the hope that I can get anywhere from 1 to 3 cities while in MB. Speedometer and Red Light MB are especially good for this, the first because with every jackpot you get an Add-a-ball (if you are not already on 4) and the left and right orbit shots are used to quickly ramp up the required speed for jackpot. Both shots go to the bumper area which yields miles very quickly, especially combined with Speed Pops. Red Light MB gets you those hits also because of what you have to shoot. Another plus in playing MB's is that collecting patches often happens automatically by stray balls. If you happen to have balls in the bumper area at the same time, the hurry-up countdown is stopped, giving you even more time to shoot for the patch. You can shoot Mystery Rider without any problem during MB, because collect next city is disabled when a MB is running. Worst case scenario is hitting Mystery Rider in single ball play when you are down to 10 miles or less for a next city, this essentially squanders your starting reward. Also, having a Next City lit at Mystery Rider can cause trouble when you have a patch hurry-up running. If you accidentally shoot for Mystery Rider in that time, the patch hurry-up is collected for the next city and you may miss out on one patch (I'll still have to confirm this, fortunately it does not happen very often!). It does collect the 2 cities I believe.

Safe shots, control or flow
This table can get pretty wild at times, especially for those 4 ball MB's. I haven't found a way to effectively incorporate the "Electro Up Post" in my play style yet, most of the times I'm too busy nudging to even think of smashing that button. The table is pretty bouncy and fast, and therefore ball control is quite difficult. I have some safe combo shots that I use often. Whenever a ball is fed to the right flipper, I go for the Mystery Rider (taking lit for next city situations in account offcourse), this spits out the ball to the right flipper and I let that dead-pass to the left. Ball goes up the left inlane and gives a rolling ball that can be one-timed to the Stoplight (patch, videomode, Red Light MB), rinse/repeat. Or I go for the right ramp or orbit. I find that missed shots from the left flipper have a good chance of returning to the left flipper for a cradle/dead pass or new rolling shot but be prepared to nudge. I haven't found a safe, controlled way to shoot for the "LIVE" and "RIDE" targets, so I don't often get cities from those. Another, but more difficult one-timed shot from the right flipper is the Harley target. A hit can be a SDTM drain hazard, but the ball loses momentum after hitting the target and with one timely nudge you're safe again. A clean left orbit shot from the right is also possible and can be stopped on the right flipper in cradle position but this is risky when it's not clean, this will feed the ball into the bumpers with stray balls as result. A cradled ball at the right can be backhanded easily into the Stoplight or a straight shot to the Harley. Flipper passing is not very safe (even when the balls seems to have enough speed), and often requires a quick "afterhit" from the flipper from which the ball just left. I had my share of balls that just miss crossing the middle gap or just trickle over the tip of the first flipper, leading to a drain.
Now the big question for me is playing style for this table. My natural tendency on most tables is playing in flow (not stopping or controlling balls), but I have discovered that in the end my best scores come with a controlled style. This table just beckons you to go for flow because it's fast, bouncy and has 4 balls MB's. I now play a mixture: I try to control single ball play with a minimum of flow play, only when it's shots I know very well. Then on MB play I usually just go wild and flail away essentially. I have had some progress towards sending a few balls into the orbits to "park" them in the bumpers and concentrating on the remaining balls to actually aim a bit, but results vary wildy from MB to MB. I know a lot of players just let any excess balls drain above 2 on many tables with 2+ MB's, but to me it seems safer to have the insurance of those 2 extra balls vs. the difficulty of controlling 2 balls. During MB be prepared to do a lot of flipper passing/dead passing, aiming balls at STDM balls, and saving potentially draining balls with the tips of the flippers.

In conclusion I think I can honestly say that this table has grown on me. It's not super deep but the maxed EB's prevent daylong games (I shudder to think what would happen if you could get unlimited EB's from video mode), later play is challenging: reaching Milwaukee is not a walk in the park by far and getting the MB's for a third or fourth time takes a lot of shots and precise shooting. And there is something very satifying in keeping those 4 ball MB's going for a long time! At the time of this posting I'm just shy of 900M but it feels like I'm just on the cusp of breaking a scoring barrier. Anybody with different views or additional ideas?
 
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vikingerik

Active member
Nov 6, 2013
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Requirements start off just shy of 100 miles and I believe this gets up to nearly 400 miles for later cities. Because Next City is worth more with every city you reach, there can be some strategy involved.

This is the most important bit. The strategy though is mostly "don't drain". Get as many cities as possible on that first ball, so that all the free Next City awards from the later balls can give credit for the longest distances. I find you need to get 7 cities on the first ball to make this work. The mileage requirements don't increase linearly, city 8 is longer than cities 9-10.

Past city 12, the NEXT-CITY drop targets are your best bet to advance a city, easier than actually getting all the miles. Pay attention if some of them happen to get knocked down and try to finish the remaining few. Avoid multiballs because starting any resets the drops.

Ball control: The most important bit is to shoot the Mystery Rider scoop on every feed to the right flipper. It's the only remotely safe thing to do on that side, and it's an easy shot that returns control. It's boring as heck but works, those mystery scores up to 7M actually do add up. Heck I think the optimum risk/reward strategy may be to shoot Mystery -> stoplight endlessly and never do anything else.

Don't go for Speedometer Multiball after the first two times. It times out too quickly, a single miss wipes out all your advancement.

The biggest points come from stacking Red Light Multiball into Milwaukee Multiball. In other words, reach the last city to start Milwaukee during Red Light. After Milwaukee finishes, Red Light continues with just a single ball, which can be massively exploited with increasing jackpots until you lose that ball. That's the only particular cusp for scoring though. Beyond Milwaukee, it's just more video modes all over again.

Actually, those video modes are the cusp. Pay attention to the standups and shoot for the last one to light video mode when the other three are lit. Yeah the video mode sucks but those perfect completions are where the points are. Drill drill drill and learn the video mode pattern until you can recite it in your sleep. I actually drew out a diagram and taped it to the side of my monitor.
 

fromduc

New member
Feb 28, 2014
240
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Nice work guys!

Anyway, i got a question: except with this new redlight/milwaukee stacking trick, do you really think milwaukee deserves any attention? I recently made a 1B game where i reached Milwauke with 15 of the 16 patches, and i didnt do that bad on the multiball, and i dont remember how many points i get, but it wasnt even close of a 9 figures score. Am i really bad on this MB or is this wizzard mode useless?
 

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
2
Thanks viking for the additions, I can't believe I missed the non-linearity of the mileage! Great info on stacking Milwaukee with Red Light MB. That diagram made me laugh, I thought of the King of Kong movie where one player actually drew patterns of a video game onto his screen....:)
[MENTION=4175]fromduc[/MENTION]: I haven't reached Milwaukee MB a lot yet, and the first time I even didn't know what to shoot for about 30 secs already gone. What I know is that completing it will yield 48M for completion, and you have to hit 24 shots at the Harley target (each hit representing 2 states). On top of that, every hit scores a jackpot that yields 200.000 points times the number of patches you earned, maximg out at 3.2M. That should give you 76.8M. So an ideal Milwaukee MB goes for 120M and that is no chump change. Then again, that means all patches, and 24 hits within 80 secs.
 

fromduc

New member
Feb 28, 2014
240
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Thanks viking for the additions, I can't believe I missed the non-linearity of the mileage! Great info on stacking Milwaukee with Red Light MB. That diagram made me laugh, I thought of the King of Kong movie where one player actually drew patterns of a video game onto his screen....:)
[MENTION=4175]fromduc[/MENTION]: I haven't reached Milwaukee MB a lot yet, and the first time I even didn't know what to shoot for about 30 secs already gone. What I know is that completing it will yield 48M for completion, and you have to hit 24 shots at the Harley target (each hit representing 2 states). On top of that, every hit scores a jackpot that yields 200.000 points times the number of patches you earned, maximg out at 3.2M. That should give you 76.8M. So an ideal Milwaukee MB goes for 120M and that is no chump change. Then again, that means all patches, and 24 hits within 80 secs.

I had almost all patches, but 24 hits to the Harley in 80 seconds... for me it's undoable.
 

vikingerik

Active member
Nov 6, 2013
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Same here, I've never gotten much more than halfway to the Milwaukee super jackpot. TPA's flippers are just too stupidly weak up the middle to hit the bike fast enough, same as for shooting MM's castle.

Milwaukee is merely decent points, but what else are you going to do? Red Light MB takes a zillion shots after the first couple instances, enough that you'll be finishing cities anyway. Harley MB isn't worth much either. Speedometer MB is too hard to start. Might as well go for Milwaukee, it's either that or video modes until eternity.

Milwaukee's points come from stacking Red Light with it, you can get 100M out of those Red Light jackpots for 80 seconds.
 
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DanBradford

New member
Apr 5, 2013
648
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For some reason I have a mental block and just can't do it. Not even once. It should be so easy, there's no randomness and I even have the route now thanks to you, but I just. Can't. Do. It.

On STTNG I can do the video mode 9 times out of 10, I just go LLRRLLRLLL and there's my 159M, EB and artefact. But on HD3 all I can think is to say to myself 'get the first six then avoid the left lane, then grab the next one by darting into the left lane..... 'then I draw a blank.

Centre
Right
Left
Right
Left
Right
(dodge)
(flail)
(crash)

Am I the only one, or do others have this trouble? Did anyone come up with a good mental exercise to help? Or do I follow the viking and draw the damn thing out?
 

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
2
I learned it in stages because it's a bit long to remember and hasn't got the nice symmetry to it like the STTNG video mode (except that lonesome R at the end). When I got automatic at say the first 6-8 pedestrians, then I focused on the rest. I do it exactly like AntonR. Pedestrian number 7 is the hardest because you more or less have to swipe that one quickly, but without a big movement. It took a lot of practice to keep that one controlled. Otherwise I would suggest taking a bit of valium.....:)
 

DanBradford

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Apr 5, 2013
648
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Well I'm not nudging from this table until I break my PB and feel like I can do the video mode most of the time. Otherwise it feels like I'm leaving 200M just lying there on the table unclaimed.

Don't you just hate it when you drain with an EB lit on any game.......

stacking is also beyond me, except, as you say, the lightning lamp, and of course MB and AFM.
 

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
2
Well I'm not nudging from this table until I break my PB and feel like I can do the video mode most of the time. Otherwise it feels like I'm leaving 200M just lying there on the table unclaimed.

Don't you just hate it when you drain with an EB lit on any game.......

stacking is also beyond me, except, as you say, the lightning lamp, and of course MB and AFM.

Hey man, if you clear out some space in your inbox, I can PM you back ;) I sent an invite through gamecenter, to clear up the confusion.
 

DanBradford

New member
Apr 5, 2013
648
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OK I'm still plugging away at this and now have the video mode beaten ~50% of the time, top score now 915M. I reckon I beat it about six times and missed it (crash, or more commonly missing just one jaywalker) another six or seven more, so I left 200M on the table.

When I was travelling to Milwaukee and had the next city scoop lit (by drop targets I think) or 300+ miles to ride slowly, I saw the opportunity to try the stack that [MENTION=3745]vikingerik[/MENTION] mentioned - "red light multiball ready", it said. So I started that, but then of course my scoop light went out :( - does this mean the stack is only possible by chipping away at Milwaukee the long way?

Anyway by the time I started it, red light MB was over so no stack for me. This time yet again I got down to 4 or 2 states left (so 2 or 1 bike hits) and then when it was all over and I was back in single ball play going to a city only 50 miles away, it felt like a big let down.

Anyway, my target is [MENTION=896]Slam23[/MENTION]'s 1039M and then if I can manage that, I will think about the 1000 HOF target at 1.3B
 

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
2
I'm seeing you in my rearview mirror, coming up fast on that Harley..... :) I can't believe you almost finished Milwaukee! I can't fathom how to hit that Harley target 24 times in 80 secs. In reguler Harley MB I sometimes will hit it 6 times really fast, but then have another round without any hit or at most 1 or 2 before draining to 1 ball. On the other hand, my weakness with MB's in general and especially so with a ball saver active, is that I still try to keep all balls in play. I'm thinking that I have to practice letting some balls drains and only shoot those that have a prayer of landing a hit on the Harley. That will be hard because the instinct to save everything is very strong with this one....
Back to getting that 1.3B!
 

vikingerik

Active member
Nov 6, 2013
1,205
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Yes, you can only stack Red Light into Milwaukee by finishing the 16th city the slow mileage way, while Red Light is running.
 

etchie

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Sep 4, 2014
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I saw in the instructions that it says to push the red button on the bottom right to use the electro push up, but I don't see it at all.
 

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