Devil's Dare

Quickie Version:

Shoot center and upper left drop targets to light locks; lock balls; play multiball. Repeat.

Go-to Flipper:

Mild bias Right.

Risk Index:

High

Full Rules:

First, let’s cover multiball. Finishing the drop target 5-bank in the center activates the left “captive cave” ball saucer to lock a ball. When you lock a ball there, getting the upper left 5-bank activates the “captive pit” area above it to lock another ball, accessed via the upper left spinner. Be careful when shooting the center bank since rebounds can drain. Hitting one of the flashing blue stand-up targets on the left lights a return lane for a “lights 2-ball multiball” shot that activates the captive cave saucer lock; these are combo shots, though. If you get the left light-it lane, you need to immediately shoot the center “Devils Dare “backwards-L”-shaped shot right of the center drop targets and have the ball go through into the saucer right to left (which means having the left target bank drop target not in your way!). If you score the right blue light-it lane, you must one-time the saucer shot directly from the right flipper. If you hit something else first after the ball goes through either blue light lane, the 2-ball lock turns off. You can play either a 2-ball or 3-ball multiball, depending on the sequence of shots. If you lock a ball in the cave saucer with the lights-2-ball-combo, you’ll get a ball in the plunger lane and 2-ball multiball will start when you plunge it. If you lock a ball in the “cave” saucer and don’t have start 2-ball active, you can get the other target bank to light the upper captive pit lock; the light there will start flashing to let you know the upper lock is enabled. Once you lock a ball in the pit, you get a third ball fed to the plunger lane and 3-ball multiball starts when you plunge it. Lock activation is preserved from ball to ball. Multiball scoring features a partial playfield multiplier: target hits are 1000 times the number of balls still in play. Devils Dare has an after-last-ball bonus round if you score enough during multiball. Get 50K or more during 2-ball or 70K in 3-ball and you get a time-limited extra ball, which is a multiball of the same number of balls as you played to earn it. At the very top, finishing the top green drop target 3-bank lights the inner return lanes; scoring either of these lights the opposite spinner for 2K, but only if you shoot it immediately like the 2-ball combo! Advantage flow players on these. The top red target bank advances you towards an irrelevant special, but there’s a ball-save aspect. The ball-save kicker in the left outlane is one of the trickiest in pinball. You light it by completing any of the target banks (top 4-bank twice). When lit, it’s good for one and only one kickback. The kickback is on a manual trigger using a second button above the left flipper button. If you don’t time your kickback perfectly, the ball will still drain out the left. Bonus is a large part of the game when you’re doing well, raised by the two standup targets near the far upper right flipper (you did notice that flipper, didn’t you?) and the spinners. To increase your bonus multiplier, complete the top 3-bank and one 5-bank for 2X, both 5-banks for 3X. I have not noticed a cap on base bonus; the base bonus score display can handle 999,000, but it’s rare to see it over 100K. If you play multiball but don’t reach the bonus-ball threshold, you get the points you did accumulate as additional bonus, but without the bonus multiplier. During multiball, you accumulate both “normal” bonus subject to the bonus multiplier and “multiball target bonus” earned with the playfield multiplier but with no bonus multiplier applied on top. Base bonus is registered in the lower left display where “player 5” would be on a six-player game; multiball bonus is registered in the lower right where player 6 would be. It’s interesting that the two different types of bonus build from different playfield features, except that the top 3-bank counts for both. Get as many of those as you can! Best strategy is to go for multiball, preferably 3-ball but take 2-ball if you’re on ball 3 unless you’re far enough behind to need the 3-ball to catch up. During multiball, UTAD to try to get those top two stand-up bonus targets; when the ball is above the top or right bumper, you can get multiple hits with good bounces. I prefer to shoot using the right flipper to go through the left spinner or off the left 5-bank. Don’t forget to use the upper flipper when you have balls up top! The pink 4-bank of standup targets on the right lights extra ball in the central “L” shot after you complete it twice. There’s a chance your tournament director will leave extra balls active on Devils Dare. Why? If they’re turned off, your EB award is 100K, which you can keep scoring with repeated shots through the center. The game then becomes somewhat unbalanced, so it’s not unheard of for TDs to let you play extra balls instead. When plunging, stay alert and plan to flip with the top right flipper when the plunged ball bounces off the bumpers. Also, when the ball is ejected from the captive pit, it often goes right at the top flipper, giving you a shot if your reflexes are fast enough. Drain warning: balls gently hitting the angled top of the right slingshot are prone to drain out the right outlane.