Meteor

Quickie Version:

Knock down the M, R and all but one of the E-T-E-O Meteor letter targets, then shoot the spinner all day. Whenever you complete Meteor and the targets reset, get them again, then back to the spinner.

Go-to Flipper:

Left

Risk Index:

High; watch out for around-the-world spinner drains in either direction

Full Rules:

This is one of the more spinner-heavy games you’ll ever find. The spinner is worth 200 points plus 200 per letter target down in Meteor for the letters E-T-E-O and 600 extra for the M and the R. If you have M-E-T-O-R, for instance, you get 200+600+200+200+200+600 or 2,000 per spin! Finishing all six letters resets the Meteor letter drop target bank and reduces the spinner value back to 200. Each time you complete Meteor, you also raise your bonus X by one up to a max of 7X. Bonus is built from the numbered target banks, 1, 2 and 3, 1000 for each target up to 7 total. Completing a numbered target bank also awards the current value of that bank, i.e. how high your bonus for that number is (unmultiplied). Maximum end of ball bonus is 147K (1000*7*3*7), but whenever your ending bonus multiplier is 6X or 7X, it resets to single bonus for the next ball. For 1X to 5X, the multiplier is held. Meteor targets downed during a ball are remembered, while the 1-2-3 banks all reset each ball. My general strategy is UTAD: spinner from the left flipper, with the occasional center shot for the “R” in Meteor when the spinner value is low; bank shot off the #2 drop targets from the right flipper. I don’t worry about accidentally completing the Meteor letters, even if I have the optimal five lit, for three reasons. First, it’s pretty easy to knock them down again to get your spinner back up close to its maximum. Second, the Meteor targets themselves are good value - - 2000 each for E-T-E-O and 6000 each for the M and the R, or a total of 20K per set. Third, that bonus multiplier advance I mentioned earlier. The lit return lanes spot a Meteor letter, too, so you’ll often finish the set by accident when the ball goes through there. The lanes present an opportunity for strategic shatzing: if you have 3 or 4 letters and the ball cradled on the right flipper, you can try shatzing the ball to the left flipper. This will both set up a spinner shot and potentially collect another letter or two, increasing your spinner value if your alley pass goes up far enough to trip the return lane switch. Just don’t shatz too hard, you can get an up-the-inlane, down-the-outlane drain. As for the 1 and 3 banks, I ignore them, since you’ll collect some by accident making saves or via slingshot bounces. I’ll shoot for the number 2 bank at the upper left if the ball is coming down the right return lane too fast to trap but too slowly to pass it to the left flipper. That will both add bonus and get the ball up near the Meteor letters; you’ll usually want to nudge one way or another after the ball bounces off the #2 targets to try to get it to deflect towards the Meteor letters or the top of the bumper below them. If I have the ball cradled on the right flipper and the letters I need up top are the middle ones, I’ll sometimes shoot to thread the ball between the bumper and the upper flipper. That shot is riskier, though, since a miss can hit either the bumper or the post below the upper flipper and rebound downwards toward draining. Observe that the gap to the left of the bumper is much wider than to the right, making that the outside shot the easier route to the top from the right flipper. Meteor is a great game for practicing ball transfer techniques, since it’s so important to get the ball on the left flipper. Plus the sound of a good spinner rip is really satisfying.