Champ

Quickie Version:

Shoot center saucer or mushroom bumpers to light captive balls lanes, then captive balls all day. Option for UTAD if rebounds from captive balls tend to drain.

Go-to Flipper:

Balanced

Risk Index:

Very High

Skillshot(s):

Top saucer, which lights both side captive ball lanes and bumpers. Either side is next best, lighting one color or the other. Dribbling through the center without landing in the saucer is bad news, you light nothing.

Full Rules:

Champ is a mostly-captive-ball game, but with an alternate strategy available. If you don’t make the saucer Skill Shot, either UTAD until you get both captive lanes lit or light the captive ball lanes individually by hitting the mushroom bumpers next to them. Once you have both lanes lit, you have to choose between two primary alternatives: continue UTAD to score 3000 point saucers plus whatever random points you get while the ball is up there, or shoot the lit captive ball lanes to get 1000 to 4000 per shot, depending upon how far up the captive ball goes. There’s rebound drain risk from either strategy, plus brick drain risk, so you need to figure out a few things to help decide: When you hit each captive ball squarely, where does the rebound go? How many points does a square hit get you, i.e. does the captive ball regularly go all the way up and down for the maximum value of 4K? What happens if you miss or hit the captive ball a glancing blow? When the ball comes down from up top, how likely is it to drain vs. come to a flipper or through a return lane? How readily does the ball go in the saucer when put up top? If you miss the top shot, what happens? Essentially, you’re doing a risk-reward calculation on the two. If hits to the captive ball fall cleanly into the return lanes, that makes these the best choice. If not, try UTAD through the spinner for the center saucer. YMMV; choose wisely. The Extra Ball lights come on once you max the bonus [15K]; only one side is lit at a time. Take it if they’re on and you can play them! The game can be set to have them come on sooner; again, once lit, shoot them whenever possible. Double bonus is last ball only.