Dolly Parton

Quickie Version:

Inline channel drop targets until bonus at 5X from the left flipper, then UTAD through the spinner. From the right flipper, UTAD to the left of the bumpers.

Go-to Flipper:

Left

Risk Index:

Very High; watch out when the ball rolls down the left side below the D-O-L-L-Y letters

Shots to Master:

Inline drop targets, spinner.

Skillshot(s):

Make the top saucer. That gives you a letter in P-A-R-T-O-N, advancing your bonus. It’s one of the harder Skill Shots due to the wide open spaces on both sides of the saucer; more than half of people’s plunges fail to drop into the saucer at all.

Full Rules:

The first inline drop target also lights your spinner, which is the best thing to shoot on the right side once your bonus multiplier is at 5X. Yes, you could shoot the target at the back of the drops for 20K, but it’s a tight shot and misses can drain. Shoot it if you’re accurate enough to risk it and the rebound from it is safe, otherwise stick with the lit spinner. On many DPs, you can backhand the drop targets from the right flipper; try it! End of ball base bonus is 2K per letter in Dolly Parton collected. You get Parton letters from the top saucer and the inline drop targets, Dolly letters from the standup targets at the upper left. If you finish them all, you get a “super bonus” of 22K locked in for the rest of the game and can start a second set of letters. There’s another lock-in at two sets for 44K. After that, completing the letters scores a special and resets them; don’t do that unless you get points for specials. Your maximum bonus is then [ [ 44K + 10x2K ] times 5X ] or 320,000. Since the 22K and 44K values hold from ball to ball, you’ll need to get these early in the game to get a top score in qualifying. My general technique is just fling the ball at the slingshot left of the bumpers and try to nudge the bounces into the Dolly letters, the top saucer, or both, before the ball comes back down. Since the bumpers block direct shots at most of the Dolly letters, nudging skill can be more important than shot accuracy on this game. Ignore the 5000 lane just below the spinner; if a ball goes through there, fine, but it’s not worth risking shots at. Format note: in “best game” format, it’s more important to get your DOLLY PARTON letters and 6X multiplier for the potential 320K end of ball bonus. In match play, assuming the spinner is reasonably active, shooting the spinner once lit is usually the better way to go rather than shooting the additional in-line drop targets for bonus multipliers.