High Scoring Strategy Guide for Paranormal

[Babbylonian]

Good guide, Cloda.

I think if I was going for that strategy, though, I'd go with Doppelganger (the other 2-ball multi), which, though slightly harder to start, has 3 advantages over Levitation:

1) No levitating; I've lost two games because of stuck balls. Though I think I can avoid it now that you've made clear how it's happening (best thing about your guide BTW! ), I hate dealing with the levitating ball anyway.
2) It's super easy to lock away one of the 2 balls for jackpot increasing just by hitting one into a Triangle hole.
3) Unless I'm mistaken, the ball you lock away in step 2 stays locked away until you hit another ball into a Triangle hole and when you do you hit the jackpot.

[Cloda]

Good guide, Cloda.

I think if I was going for that strategy, though, I'd go with Doppelganger (the other 2-ball multi), which, though slightly harder to start, has 3 advantages over Levitation:

1) No levitating; I've lost two games because of stuck balls. Though I think I can avoid it now that you've made clear how it's happening (best thing about your guide BTW! ), I hate dealing with the levitating ball anyway.
2) It's super easy to lock away one of the 2 balls for jackpot increasing just by hitting one into a Triangle hole.
3) Unless I'm mistaken, the ball you lock away in step 2 stays locked away until you hit another ball into a Triangle hole and when you do you hit the jackpot.

I actually considered that as well (before I figured out that the levitation multi-ball) only glitch on the right hand side. If I could find a smooth way to lock the ball with the stupid magnet I would most probably have gone that way. In the end I actually appreciated the levitating ball because for 15 or so seconds it is out of your way and you can just concentrate on raising the jackpot. One thing I didn't mention in the guide is that if you hit the spinner real hard and you quickly manage to go around the mini-orbit and manage to get it past Nessie again with the top right flipper and through the spinner again before it stop spinning with the reverse scoop... the jackpot just keeps on building (I have a clip of that in my video that I will post later). I managed once or twice during the game to within a couple of seconds build my jackpot by almost a million by having a nice run with that sequence. If you are too late and shoot it through the spinner it doesn't register and doesn't build the Jackpot. Another thing about the levitation multi-ball is that if you miss the levitating ball the first time the multi-ball starts and the time run out.. you get a "Second Chance" for about 20 or so seconds to quickly get the ball up the main ramp again and into the cube to basically restart the multi-ball.

[Babbylonian]

If I could find a smooth way to lock the ball with the stupid magnet I would most probably have gone that way.

Granted, it does take some practice. I've managed to get to the point where 3 out of 4 times I hit the hole. I might not have gotten the practice in except that when you complete Spontaneous Combustion or 4th Dimension, the cube resets to Doppelganger and I wanted to get my cube bonuses (specifically, hold multiplier) without relocking, selecting Levitation, and going through that mode again.

[KBI35]

Thanks for this guide Cloda - very informative!

I have to say though that its quite disappointing to discover that getting a high score on what at first I thought was a complex table boils down to grinding a mode over and over again. Shame..

There seems to be no incentive to completing all the multi-ball modes. I agree with those who say cap the jackpot bonuses. They should have done this and made a bigger incentive for 'completing' all the multiball modes.

Also the amount of extra balls is ridiculous.

Actually I can save myself a bit of time with this.......basically what Womble said!

I have been disappointed with every table since Mars and I still think Zen's best work are the Core and Marvel multi-packs.

For a company that focus on Pinball they constantly make some very strange design decisions. I think they need to stop patronising their customers with all these ways they come up with to ensure you get a high score or reach a wizard mode.

They should have more confidence in the design of tables like Pasha. I started out on that one, I didnt care that it was difficult. To me it was satisfying just to improve my score by 2 or 3 million.

When Zen makes difficult tables people complain. Extreme is loathed. Ironman & Pasha are generally disliked. Zen must focus on the majority of gamers. Very few players are as good as you & some of the elites on the board. If Zen just catered to the few thousand instead of hundreds of thousands, Zen would be in 'a world of hurt.'

Zen should come out with some tough tables for the hardcore, but that's not smart business wise, especially if you want to attract beginners to pinball. It's just not feasible.

[Cloda]

First i'd like to say excellent guide!

Just one thing i've noticed is that Hold bonus doesn't seem to be in the list anymore. I must have shot the cube 50+ times and got all extra balls, but never did i see Hold bonus passing by? :S

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll fix it, it should be "Hold Multiplier".

[LukkyNL]

Thx for the guide! Although I really hate the spamming for hiscores... It takes all the fun for me. I wish Zen could program the tables so that spamming isn't worth it. It also makes me wonder if I should buy additional tables.

[Alipan]

Is it a legitimate tactic to just keep putting the ball in an unlit hole on the cube and picking up the 1 and 2 million rewards. Do these ever run out?

I find the levitation multiball quite time consuming whereas for a while I was picking up the rewards very quickly - when I was in the zone I could get one every 20 seconds or so.

I was trying a few things in my game this afternoon to break things up a bit. The Alligator game is a nice 9 million once you get it activated. Also the make the beast dizzy is an easy 10 million at least.

The Levitation multiball is probably the best long term tactic but as Cloda mentions it takes a while to get its value up. For some players of lesser ability than Cloda this may not be the best way to maximise their scoring potential.

[wednesday]

Hey how about this: You build up the jackpots on levitation, then when you're high enough you switch to Doppelganger where it's easier to get the jackpots themselves?

[Alipan]

I think the different multiballs have separate jackpot values - nice bit of lateral thinking though.

[Babbylonian]

By the by, on hitting the Doppelganger hole: While it looks like you're going for a horizontal pull of the magnet, it's actually slightly up as well as being to the right. So, the best method I've found is starting (and fairly quickly stopping) the magnet pull as soon as the ball has open space to the right. This pulls it diagonally down/right which gives it a little bounce up as it continues right to the hole. Also, if you miss low you can quickly tap the magnet to get it to the left side of the cube, then quickly tap the magnet again after it bounces off the left wall to bring it back right - if timed right, you'll get enough velocity so that the upward lip below the magnet will provide enough vertical to get it into the hole.

For some reason, I enjoy these little magnet minigames.

[Womble]

Zen realy has to think about putting caps to every increasing score bonus, so things like this or Spiderman wont happen in the future..

Somehow, not sure how, I missed this post before I made my own.

(Obviously) I agree with you 100%. Sorry to basically repeat what you had already said.

[lasvegaspinballhalloffame]

Most peoplewill not be able to rasie the levitation jackpot as high as Cloda. You're better off with the much easier fourth dimension. More fun too actually.

[AcidWarfare86]

nice guide, thx for the work putting it all together, you really kicked the shit out of the table, thought i need new glasses after i saw your highscore

[Zuprichy]

Most peoplewill not be able to rasie the levitation jackpot as high as Cloda. You're better off with the much easier fourth dimension. More fun too actually.

Yeah...Not much longer to activate, and faster to get jackpots and raise them.... Really appreciated your guide,Cloda( they're ALWAYS useful), the strategy is perfect, i guess though that everyone can pick their favourite multiball mode. Well done, man!

[lasvegaspinballhalloffame]

I don't get why people would wanna put caps on jackpots and such. I couldn't go into the Pinball museum here in Vegas and tell Tim Arnold that Spiderman is giving out too many extra balls and high jackpots so I want him to put a cap on or change these things. Well, I guess I could, but he'd probably ask me what drugs I'm currently on. Just accept the tables for the way that Zen designed them unless there is some mind numbing glitch on it like ball acceleration like the PS3 tables have.