Quickie Version:

Right side standup target all day if unmodified. If modified, same target from the left flipper, UTAD from the right flipper and hit the 3-target bank with the upper mini-flipper.

Go-to Flipper:

Left unmodified, bias right modified

Risk Index:

High, though the return from the right side standup target is usually safe

Full Rules:

If the machine is set up factory, right target all day dominates all other strategies. Who wins is whomever survives the target rebounds best and can consistently transfer the ball from the right flipper to the left. Because this strategy is both well known and not that hard to execute, Kings of Steel may be modified when used in a tournament. One such mod is to create a gate below the standup so that shots to it exit into the plunger lane, and to also remove the gate behind the left flipper to make it harder to get control of the ball on that flipper to make the target shot. For this latter scenario, used at INDISC 2019, there’s now a dual strategy: you should still shoot the right target if you have the ball cradled on the left flipper, but now the safer route is to get the ball to the right flipper and go up top all day. Your goal is now to hit as many of the white card rollover buttons as possible before having the ball drop into the top saucer. You get 10K per lit card; completing them lights the 40K extra light, two sets of cards lights the 80K extra light, so you can get up to 110K per saucer shot with two sets plus three cards. Finishing the third set scores a special rather than points and resets the extra value to 40K, where it remains for the rest of the ball, making a maximal shot then 70K. Still, at 40K-70K per shot, it’s a reliable source of points. Bonus is also important when not in the target default situation. Base bonus is 5K per card earned on the left side targets. The 10, Jacks and Queens are scored by hitting the drop targets. Kings and the Ace are scored by hitting the stand-up targets behind the drops. It’s a bit tricky to tell how much bonus you have; unlike most games, Kings of Steel only displays the “active” row of lights for bonus, rather than all items that have been collected that add to bonus. You must collect cards in poker order: the 10, then 2 Jacks, then 3 Queens, then a full house of 3 Queens and 2 Jacks. Once you have your full house, the drop targets stay down and you work on your 4 Kings plus the Ace with the standup targets. Partial card sets award bonus for your degree of progress: if you’re working on the full house, you have 6 bonus cards banked (1:10+2:J+3:Q) plus your progress towards full house, so if you have two Queens and a Jack in the full house row, you’ve got 9 cards total for 45K base bonus. Finishing the 4 Kings and Ace to complete the set of 16 cards raises your banked super bonus by 80K and starts another set. Super Bonus goes up to four sets of cards for 320K base, so with 4 sets plus 15 of 16 cards, your maximum base bonus is 395K. Completing the three Deuce targets at the upper left near the mini-flipper advances your bonus multiplier in steps up to 5X. With a 5X bonus multiplier, that’s 1.975 million maximum bonus. Cards are also spotted for getting the top saucer, either return lane, and one of the six possible center target values. The ball save gate on the right is opened by hitting the center red standup target when the light below it says “open gate,” one of 6 possible values for the target. It’s best to ignore that center target, though, it’s drainy. In the Indisc setup, best strategy is up top (above the upper flipper) from the right flipper and right standup target from the left flipper.