Empire Strikes Back - Yoda rewards

[OriginalEther]

As mentioned in another thread, after thinking for the longest time that you can only pick a reward once, I figured out that you can pick the same one each time if you desire. My question is, which are the better ones to select?

I believe these are the 5 rewards:

Extra 15 seconds
Additional ball
Additional jackpot lane
Increased jackpot lane scoring
Special jackpot lane added

The extra 15 seconds is obviously a good choice.

I'm not sold on the additional jackpot lane. If they remained in place the whole time, yes. But (for those who don't know), after you hit one, it disappears until you hit the other(s), which I think takes away much of the benefit of it.

Ditto for the extra balls. Three or more balls are a lot harder to control and aim than two. It works great when everything is lit. Not so great when you have to place a specific shot.

Where I'm torn is between the increased jackpot scoring and the special lane. The special lane appears to be a one-time shot. In the game I had it it was worth 10 million points. Is it's value increased by the increased jackpot lane scoring bonus, or is it set at 10 million regardless? And how much does the increased jackpot lane bonus increase the jackpot? Knowing this I think goes a long way towards answering my question.

Any thoughts?

[skyway73]

I'm sorry to say I don't have the answers but I too would be interested to find out. I usually go for the extra 15 seconds and increased jackpot score.

Whatever the answers, I think this is another cool feature if this table

[surf1der]

I usually go for extra time, extra jackpot lanes, and/or special jackpot lane. The problem for me is that you must clear all currently lit jackpot lanes before new ones appear. It becomes problematic when I have to hit a jackpot lane with a cross shot with one of the upper flippers (i.e. the sith/jedi lanes). The ball doesn't pause at the top of the flipper like it does during normal play, which makes is a much more difficult shot for me and I could waste all my wizard bonus time just trying to hit that one shot. What's worse is with my ipad, there is no two-stage flipper action so if I have cradle separation with two balls it is impossible to even hit any of those lanes because both upper flippers are already activated blocking the lanes. You essentially have to ignore the extra balls and focus one ball at time, which is okay because you have an unlimited ball save during the wizard mode but it is still a difficult shot. If you don't have a problem with those shots I would probably focus on time and raising base score value for jackpots (and/or special jackpot lanes). You can get some good scoring opportunities during the wizard mode, however, as others have mentioned focusing on empire bonuses or balancing the force with jedi and sith mulitball probably offers better scoring opportunities in the long run.

[shemphoward]

how do you know what you are selecting? I see nothing to indicate?

how do you know what you are selecting? I see nothing to indicate?

As mentioned in another thread, after thinking for the longest time that you can only pick a reward once, I figured out that you can pick the same one each time if you desire. My question is, which are the better ones to select?

I believe these are the 5 rewards:

Extra 15 seconds
Additional ball
Additional jackpot lane
Increased jackpot lane scoring
Special jackpot lane added

The extra 15 seconds is obviously a good choice.

I'm not sold on the additional jackpot lane. If they remained in place the whole time, yes. But (for those who don't know), after you hit one, it disappears until you hit the other(s), which I think takes away much of the benefit of it.

Ditto for the extra balls. Three or more balls are a lot harder to control and aim than two. It works great when everything is lit. Not so great when you have to place a specific shot.

Where I'm torn is between the increased jackpot scoring and the special lane. The special lane appears to be a one-time shot. In the game I had it it was worth 10 million points. Is it's value increased by the increased jackpot lane scoring bonus, or is it set at 10 million regardless? And how much does the increased jackpot lane bonus increase the jackpot? Knowing this I think goes a long way towards answering my question.

Any thoughts?

[OriginalEther]

What system/platform are you playing on?

I can only help on Xbox, where it's located on the DMD (standard placement in the upper left corner). First Yoda appears, then you are told to select a bonus that will appear during the wizard mode, and then you can use the flippers to cycle through.

You'll see the name of the force "ability" then a description of what the actual bonus is.

[OriginalEther]

Didn't keep track of all my selections, but I just finished the wizard mode

Had 105 seconds.
2 jackpot lanes, worth 8 million each (I guessing each selection raises the total by 2 million)
3 special jackpot lanes/targets, worth 10 million each (this is seemingly unaffected by the Raise Jackpot value bonus)
standard 2 balls

Accrued 125 million during the mode, easily my best mode yet (I think my previous were 35, 50, and 80 million)
Interestingly, the ball did pause for my jedi/sith cross-orbit shots.

Makes me think that if the mode is reached quickly, the special jackpot lane is the better choice. If you are taking your time or progressing slowly, the increased value bonus pays out more.


Surf - I do agree with your statement that the scenes probably shouldn't be a priority. Hard to resist at times though. I'm more inclined to go for them when I have the Saber Saver lit, as I despise losing it and the kickbacks during multiball modes. (trickier to decide when I have just 2 kickbacks activated)

[surf1der]

I believe you start with a base time limit of 60 seconds, 5 M per jackpot, and 2 jackpot lanes, and 2 balls. So it looks like you raised the time limit 3 times (15 seconds per reward), you raised the base jackpot 3 times (I believe each reward raises base jackpot by 1 M), you didn't increase the number of jackpot lanes at all, and you picked a few special jackpot lanes. I would say 125 M is a good wizard mode score.

I thought the ball didn't pause during wizard mode. Sorry about that. Maybe I was thinking of Scene 6 checkpoint 3 when you have to hit the cross shots. I am pretty sure the ball doesn't pause there. But I could be wrong again. I haven't played the table in awhile. I should probably take a look at my youtube video guides I made awhile back.

[OriginalEther]

Something to add on this:

You can only pick an award so many times prior to completing the wizard mode. It's either 3 or 4, as the max amount of time I was allowed to have was 105 seconds.

When you finish the mode, they come back. As mentioned in another thread, though, you do get to keep your previous selections.


I may have encountered a bug on this though. I made it to the wizard mode a second time. I think I still had 105 seconds, 2 jackpot lanes, 2 bonus lanes, and 15 million point jackpots. The Sabre Saver was active when I started the mode. At some point, the trap door became a special lane (worth 10 million), but it wouldn't shut. It blocked access to the center target (which I believe was a regular lane), but it allowed me to keep hitting 10 million point jackpots. I'm guessing it wasn't supposed to do that.

Worked out for me; I still got over 300 million points during that mode.

[ROD]

Use the force to collect everything available from YODA. Then own the wizard mode & get a serious score.