Set in the ever-so-dangerous world of white water rafting, White Water's name must be screamed instead of spoken. It elicits a surge of excitement to see listed among any game bank. It has an incredibly fun layout, and is chock-full of great shots, modes, and callouts. Granted, some competitive players argue that the game falls short in some areas. After all, the best scores on White Water usually come from combining a playfield multiplier with the game’s main multiball. But, that's beside the point. It's just a fun game. And if nothing else, this guide should help you get to the elusive Vacation Jackpot at the end of the river.
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White Water Playfield Overview
White Water delivers one of the most intimidating layouts in 1990s pinball, accentuated by its absurd number of ramps, loops, bumps, whirlpools, and a mini-playfield. But, don't let that overwhelm you! There are 7 major shots to be aware of, each one having its own silly name, which is how I'm going to refer to them throughout this tutorial. These shots are:
Boulder Garden (left loop) - feeds the pop bumpers.
Spine Chiller (left ramp) - feeds the upper playfield.
No Way Out (dead-end lock shot up the middle) - also feeds the upper playfield.
Disaster Drop (center ramp) - drops onto the left loop.
Boomerang Bend (right loop, through the bumpers) - feeds the left loop.
Insanity Falls (left side of upper playfield, lower shot) - feeds the windy ramp to the left flipper.
Bigfoot Bluff (upper shot on the upper playfield) - feeds the whirlpool and comes out of the scoop in the lower left.
Get comfy with making all of these shots.
If you have to only make two, those should be No Way Out and Insanity Falls, which are the lock and the jackpot, respectively.
If you can make three, add Bigfoot Bluff, since it starts some valuable modes.
If you can make four, Disaster Drop can help spot the other shots.
But at that point, you should be able to make everything - perhaps excluding Boomerang Bend, which is a notoriously difficult shot.
There's a scoop on the left side of the playfield. Quickly figure out how this scoop kicks out - while most players don’t aim for it directly, any ball that goes into the whirlpool (i.e. Bigfoot Bluff) returns from this scoop. I find that more often than not, it returns to the right flipper, but that varies from machine to machine. Typically this calls for a drop catch, but sometimes it’s possible to just hold up the right flipper as it kicks out and regain control that way. In that case, the ball often rolls up and down the inlane, allowing two (rather significant) switch hits that we’ll talk about later. But, it’s also possible to get “moonwalked,” where the ball rolls up the right inlane and hops over into the right outlane, in which case you should just go for drop catches.
The upper playfield is incredibly important to high scores on White Water. Soft plunge all balls to land on the upper playfield, and quickly figure out where the two shots are. Like I said, Insanity Falls is a bit more important, but both are pretty significant. The ball doesn't stay up top for long. Every time a ball is up there, you should definitely try to hit one shot or the other. Don’t expect to get more than one flip up top, either. It happens, but it’s not a guarantee.
While there is a kickback (or “bounceback” as the game calls it) available on the left outlane, White Water has no ball save. That’s not to say games on it are quick, but you should proceed with caution early in each of your balls. There’s also no ball save during multiballs, but we’ll go over that in a bit.
Scoring in White Water is somewhat wild. Usually, scores of 100-200,000,000 are pretty solid, but there are a handful of ridiculously valuable modes which alone can be worth a billion or more. Especially when you consider there’s a totally-not-insane 5X playfield multiplier that can be applied at some point in time. We’ll go over that in detail later, but what constitutes a “good” score varies pretty dramatically.
Getting Started
Multiball is always a source of good points. The two targets next to No Way Out light locks, lock three balls to start multiball. Jackpot is Insanity Falls.
Scoring two or three jackpots on the opening volley for Multiball doubles or triples the jackpot for the rest of the multiball.
Shooting blinking orange “hazards” awards solid points. Collecting all lit hazards advances you up the river for increasing value.
Spelling R-I-V-E-R at the left bank of standups, multiplies your bonus and all hazards scored. If you have a high river class, hazards can be worth a lot.some text
Rolling over a lit inlane spots one letter in R-I-V-E-R. Try to light any inlane you’re about to roll through!
Shooting Insanity Falls lights Bigfoot Bluff for a boulder award. The lit boulder award changes by the bumpers. Most significantly, one boulder award grants 5X Playfield for 25 seconds. Running this with a multiball is almost guaranteed to beat any scores which don’t get the same stack.some text
Most ROMs (read: all ROMs on games used in competition) cap the multiplier at 5X for multiball jackpots. A 3X multiball jackpot during 5X playfield is usually worth 5X, and not 15X. (It’s still worth a lot.)
Other solid boulder awards include Whirlpool Challenge (quick multiball) and Man Overboard (a hurry-up).
Completing all of the rafts starts Wet Willie’s, which is very valuable.
Forget about getting to the Vacation Jackpot if you’re playing in a tournament.
Hazards & Rafts
At all times during play, there will be some "hazards" lit on the playfield, indicated by flashing yellow-orange lights. The “main” goal of the game, so to speak, is to shoot all flashing hazards to advance up the river. Hazards are worth 500K a piece, and l turn off when collected. Once you’ve collected all lit hazards, then you’ll advance your raft up the river. The first raft advance is worth 4M, with each subsequent advance being worth 2M more than the last.
While raft advances become more valuable over the course of the game, they also become more difficult. Typically, the first advance requires two shots. By the time you’re nearing the end of the river, you’re likely to need six or seven. That’s usually not that big of a deal, although it means you’re more likely to require Boomerang Bend for any given advance. The hazards that you need are totally random, but in multiplayer games, they’ll be the same hazards for all players.
All that said, rafts are far from your top priority in this game. Make no mistake, they can be valuable, and usually are once you’re far enough along. Aiming for lit hazards isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but there are often more lucrative shots you can make instead. More importantly, hazards are always available. That’s really the only reason I’m mentioning this now - whether you’re in a multiball, some other mode, whatever - you will always have a hazard lit somewhere. So, if you’re not sure what to shoot for, “head for the blinkin’ light!”
In case you're struggling with hitting that last shot (such as one to Boomerang Bend), there are a couple other ways to spot hazards. The Disaster Drop shot spots hazards and rafts every so many shots - the display tells you how many shots you need for one or the other. There's also a "secret passage" hidden underneath the Spine Chiller ramp. It’s pretty much impossible to hit intentionally, but if a ball is to drop into that lane, it completes the raft you're working on, which is pretty neat.
When you make your way to the end of the river, you reach Wet Willie's. Starting Wet Willie's is worth 20M, and is basically the final raft. It's a single-ball mode which resumes on the next ball if you drain. At Wet Willie's, you have to hit all seven shots, where each shot is worth 10M. Collecting all seven starts "Stage 2," where you have to shoot one "Traveling Hazard" that moves across the playfield. Collecting that awards a whopping 100M, one of the biggest jackpots in the game. The trick to getting it is the same as any sort of roving jackpot: pick the shot you think you can make, trap up, and plug it as soon as it's there. I usually go for No Way Out, but that's just me. The Travelling Hazard is very hard to collect, as the timer on it is very short and goes away should you drain. After Wet Willie's, you go to the start of the river again.
Multiball
While rafts are good, your first priority should be multiball.
White Water has a very simple multiball. There are two green targets to either side of the No Way Out shot, hitting both of them lights a lock. These lock targets are very dangerous to aim for, but they also tend to be rather sensitive. Ideally, you graze them on your way into No Way Out. You can stack lit locks (indicated with flashing Lock inserts); locking three balls begins multiball.
During multiball, Insanity Falls is lit for unlimited jackpots worth 10M plus 2M per raft you’ve advanced. When the multiball starts, all three balls kick out to the upper playfield, teeing you up for three immediate jackpots. If you manage to score all three, then all jackpots that multiball are tripled. If you score two, then all jackpots are doubled, and if you only score one (or don’t score any), then your jackpots won’t multiply. That’s all there is to it - there’s no super jackpot, no need to relight the regular jackpot, nothing - it’s just Insanity Falls all day.
As such, the strategy is pretty simple. Obviously, you want to hit as many opening-volley jackpots as possible. After that, you want to put as many balls as you can into No Way Out to feed up top, and fire away at Insanity Falls. You could use the Spine Chiller to feed up top, too, but it’s worse for two reasons. First, the speed of the ball off of the Spine Chiller is inconsistent, meaning it’s tougher to time your jackpots. Second, shooting No Way Out will also stall your ball for a second - you can put three balls into the shot way faster than it can spit all three out.
Whatever the case, you should definitely take advantage of how easy it can be to control this multiball. It’s entirely possible to play this multiball without ever using the lower right flipper: shoot No Way Out with the lower left, and shoot Insanity Falls with the upper flipper, juggling as necessary. While it’s unrealistic to expect to play that flawlessly, every shot you really need for this multiball should return the ball in some predictable way. So, take advantage of that! Play in control, only move the balls in ways you’re comfortable with, and find a rhythm that works for you, such as:
Shoot Insanity Falls, plug No Way Out immediately with any balls returning from the shot, repeat. Any missed Insanity Falls shots can be put into No Way out via the lower right flipper
Shoot Insanity Falls, hold up the left flipper to ski-pass over to the right, shoot No Way Out, repeat
With two balls: Trap one ball on each flipper. Shoot No Way Out with the right flipper, shoot Insanity Falls. As the ball comes down the ramp, post-pass the ball to the right, trap up on the left, repeat.
As a quick reminder, White Water has no ball saver, so your multiball can end rather quickly if you’re not careful. If you fail to score any jackpots, there is a restart available at No Way Out, although it’s rather uncommon to not score any jackpots.
Multiball in White Water is where the big points come from. Starting one multiball should be pretty easy, and pursuing it right away is a good call. The second multiball does not allow you to stack lit locks (meaning you have to collect a lock before you can light another), but is still reachable. The third requires the lock targets to be hit in rapid succession, which makes it borderline impossible. Expect to play no more than two multiballs per game.
One more thing: White Water has what I like to call “lite lock stealing.” While you’ll need to lock three balls yourself even if there are already balls in the lock, there must be three balls physically in the lock to start multiball. So, let’s say you lock two balls, and then the player after you locks three and starts their multiball. The lock might be empty when it comes back around to you, so you have to lock three balls all over again. It’s not that big of a deal, as any locks you need to re-collect will already be lit, and No Way Out is such an easy shot that it shouldn’t be too much trouble anyway, but it is something to be aware of.
Boulders / The Whirlpool
The upper playfield's two shots each have a little light above them. At any point during single-ball play, one of the two will be lit. If Bigfoot Bluff is lit, shooting it awards a Whirlpool Award. If Insanity Falls is lit, shooting it lights a whirlpool award at Bigfoot Bluff. The Whirlpool Awards are listed on inserts in the bumper area. One of the six will always be flashing; each bumper hit moves the lit award to the next highest one in the line. When you collect a whirlpool award, you get whatever the flashing award is. They are as follows, from bottom to top:
Whirlpool Challenge is a 2-ball multiball during which you have to shoot the whirlpool as many times as possible. The first hit is worth 5 million, with each subsequent hit being worth 2 million more. Every six hits fills up the whirlpool and awards 20 million (plus 20 million per time you've already completed the whirlpool). There's a "last chance" jackpot, too, should you fail to score any jackpots, which awards 5 million in pity points. Whirlpool Challenge is potentially very valuable, provided you get into a rhythm. Ideally, you trap one ball on the left flipper, and use the lower right to feed No Way Out and then the whirlpool. Trap the kickout from the scoop on the right flipper, rinse and repeat. (This is always the first whirlpool award lit, and it's not a bad idea to get it going right away.)
Man Overboard is a 20 million point hurry-up that's collected on any lit hazard. It's worth a lot, but it's dependent on how many hazards you have lit. At Wet Willie's and haven't collected anything? Easy peasy. Only have Boomerang Bend? Good luck. (Note that spotting a raft or hazard, e.g. by hitting the secret passage, counts as a lit hazard and collects the hurry-up.)
Light Extra Ball does exactly what it says at a target in front of the bumpers.
Advance Raft also is pretty self-explanatory, advancing you one raft.
? is "The Spirit of the River," which is a mystery award. In competition, this is usually locked to award you 5,000,000 points, but it has other very valuable awards, most notably “Advance to Class 6 River” and “Advance 3 Rafts.”
5X Playfield quintuples all scoring for the next 25 seconds.
Personally, I find the best award to be Man Overboard. You can pick up a good hurry-up value and...
...Oh, who am I kidding? Nothing, and I mean nothing compares to that 5X scoring. If someone hates this game, it’s because the timing of the 5X playfield is so significant to your score that it makes the rest of the game kind of meaningless. 5X Wet Willies makes every shot worth 50M points with a 500M point traveling hazard. 5X Whirlpool Challenge starts at 25M points per jackpot. However, those are tougher to stack - the best stack is 5X Multiball, where jackpots usually start out in the nine-digit range.
Now, ROMs - i.e. code version - can vary. If the game you’re playing on has the best ROMs for competition, multiball jackpots scored during 5X playfield do not also factor in the typical jackpot multiplier - so a triple jackpot is still worth “just” 5X. However, there are ROMs out there that combine the multipliers, making 15X jackpots possible. Don’t expect this to happen, but 5X jackpots are still wildly valuable so it shouldn’t matter that much anyway.
Deliberately lining up the 5X playfield with what you want is tough. Basically you can keep shooting at the bumpers until it lights up, but I advise against it. Instead, just pay attention to whatever’s lit - if 5X playfield is the next boulder award, try to set up a multiball (or literally anything valuable) so you can start that with 5X playfield running.
I also can’t stress this enough, 5X playfield IS the most valuable of the boulder awards.
I also can’t stress this enough, 5X playfield IS the most valuable of the boulder awards, but that doesn’t make Whirlpool Challenge or Man Overboard worthless. They’re still worth playing out, even if they pale in comparison to a 5X multiball.
Other Things
Those are the big things to be aware of with White Water, but there are a few other elements to scores that you can keep in mind.
First off, the River Classes. The R-I-V-E-R targets on the left side of the playfield, when completed, advance your River Class from 1 to 6. River classes multiply both your bonus and your hazard value. For instance, at river class 3, you're getting 3X bonus, and all hazard shots are worth 1,500,000 points. Shooting at the RIVER targets is risky, but you can also collect RIVER letters by rolling over an inlane when it's lit. There's one light that you control with the flipper buttons; be sure that the light is always lit whenever a ball is about to roll over an inlane. Draining your ball resets your river class to 1, and as mentioned above, there's an "Advance to Class 6 River" mystery award which is very nice. (Also, for some reason, that inlane light goes to the right regardless of what flipper you flip. It’s a bit weird.)
There is a kickback, called a "Bounce Back" which is relit by completing the three targets in the center of the playfield. It often relights itself off of a kickback, too, which is nice. As an added bonus, completing the targets when your kickback is already lit spots a hazard for free.
The Lost Mine scoop on the left awards items with each shot to it. You need three - a flashlight, a map, and a key. Once you have all three, you start Gold Rush, a two-ball multiball during which all switch hits are worth a quarter million. It's not super valuable since there aren't that many repeated switches, but it's there. Hit the bumpers during this mode.
Hitting the "Bigfoot Hotfoot" targets next to the leftmost bumper advances you towards Bigfoot Hotfoot, a somewhat lucrative mode that promotes repeated shots to Bigfoot Bluff. In this mode, Bigfoot won't divert your ball into the whirlpool, it'll return to the right flipper to make another shot, award 10M, and spot one of the items you need for Gold Rush. If you already have all three, you get a cow, and then a camera, which makes all hazard shots worth 3M for the rest of the ball. Not bad at all, but not something you should aim for.
There's also a "Boulder Bash" mode that makes the bumpers more valuable every few shots to the left loop but that can basically be ignored. If the game is making shrieking noises, it means you have Boulder Bash going.
Vacation Jackpot
Finally, there's the big-super-mega-payoff award, which isn't a multiball, but a jackpot worth 200M. It actually increases from game to game - each game played on that machine where the jackpot isn't scored, it increases by 10k. Scoring it resets it to 200M. To get the Vacation Jackpot, you need to do four things:
Reach Wet Willie's (completion or scoring of the traveling jackpot is unnecessary)
Collect all Whirlpool awards
Reach class 6 river (that mystery award can come in handy since otherwise you have to do this in one ball)
Start Multiball
The first three can be done in any order, but starting the multiball has to come last (and instantly awards the jackpot with a spectacular lightshow). Ironically, the easiest requirement is what makes this so difficult: to reiterate, playing two multiballs is very easy, playing three is nearly impossible. It's easier to start the second multiball inadvertently than it is to do any of the other three things intentionally.
The Vacation Jackpot is not very valuable in the grand scheme of things. It’s practically worthless when compared to a 5X multiball. Finishing Wet Willie's is worth a total of 170M points, and is much easier to do. So, if you're playing for score, the Vacation Jackpot should be an afterthought. It's just so hard to reach and is not worth very much at the end of the day. Get your multiballs going, advance up the river, and capitalize on 5X scoring.
If you're playing for glory and just care about the jackpot, the strategy is simple: you don’t just want to ignore multiball, you want to avoid it entirely. Focus on boulders, hazards, and river classes, nothing else. Use the Spine Chiller to access the upper playfield instead of No Way Out, unless you can somehow hit No Way Out without hitting the targets on the way in. If you do end up playing a multiball, don't worry about jackpots and just focus on river letters and hazards. But again, this isn't worth going for in competition. Focus on using that 5X correctly instead.
Also, like the 5X multiball, the Vacation Jackpot is usually not multiplied by 5X Playfield. However, it may be affected on older ROMs, in which case, congrats on your new Grand Champion score!
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