Cherry Bell

Quickie Version:

Plunge or shoot up top to score the center lane to light double bonus at the collect saucer. Shoot the center saucers until one awards you triple bonus. After that, UTAD via the left orbit. Shoot the collect bonus saucer if you’re willing to risk losing your tripled bonus and build it back up, or if doing so would give you enough to win your game.

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Go-to Flipper:

Balanced

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Risk Index:

High

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Full Rules:

This game is mostly about the bonus and the three center saucers. The Skill Shot is the center lane up top, which lights double bonus - - for the collect saucer hole only, not end-of-ball bonus! Make sure you get this; it also scores 5000. If you miss the skill shot, your first priority is to keep shooting up top via the left orbit until you get double bonus lit. You’ll earn more bonus advances along the way, so that shot does double-duty. You advance your bonus by one notch of 10K with the top right lane, the two star rollovers, the left orbit to the top, the left return lane and the right outlane. The bonus collect saucer on the upper right side is your friend - - fill up your bonus to 100K, collect it, refill it. That’s your primary strategy on this machine. The center saucers give you things, but only one, triple bonus, is really useful. Other awards are lighting the yellow standups for 10K instead of 1000 [don’t bother to shoot at those, lit or not], raising the right side post [reduce drain risk], an extra ball [worth it if enabled] and lighting the two special targets [worthless, never shoot these either unless they’ve been altered to award big points]. The center saucers have safe kickouts, so don’t be afraid to shoot them until you get that triple bonus lit. The ball won’t necessarily go into the saucer you shoot at - - it usually rattles around in the cove there a bit before falling into a saucer. As for the ball-protecting post on the right, it is NOT foolproof - - the ball can creep around the edge of it and still drain out the right side. Treat is as an aid but not a sure thing. The left top lane, also worth 500, lights the bumpers for 1000. Unlike most machines where the bumpers stay on once lit, either for the entire game or at least the remainder of the ball in play, on Cherry Bell, the bumpers are turned off whenever the ball hits either of the two small green standup targets right and left of the bumpers. That happens fairly often, so the bumpers rarely stay lit long. The bonus collect saucer is multiplied by only the double bonus lane; the triple bonus feature applies only to end-of-ball bonus. The collect saucer resets your bonus to 10,000; if the doubler is on, it stays on for the remainder of that ball. The bonus reset is strategically important, especially if you’re on your last ball. If you have the end-of-ball tripler on with the bonus maxed at 100K, and then collect bonus at the saucer, you just potentially gave up either 90,000 points if you have the doubler lit or 180,000 points if you didn’t have it lit. You traded 300K in end-of-ball bonus for either 100K or 200K now plus the potential to refill your bonus. Unless you can refill some or all of your bonus before your ball drains, you lost points. This means that you need to pay close attention to your score versus that of your opponents. If you’re last to play and behind by less than your multiplied bonus, don’t shoot the collect bonus, just play on gently [don’t tilt!] until you drain and win! If you’re close to catching up, same advice. But if you’re behind by a lot, take the collect shot and try to refill the bonus to forge ahead. If you’re player one or two and you’re ahead by a good margin, you could consider not taking the collect as well and just going UTAD until you drain. If you’re way behind, though, as any player number, you’re pretty much forced to take the collect bonus whenever it’s high [say 80K or more] and then try to refill and multiply it if you haven’t already done so. That’s the only realistic way to make up a gap of several hundred thousand points on this game. Observe that at the bottom the left side has one outlane and one return lane, while both lanes on the right are outlanes. Which outlane on the right is better depends on your bonus situation. The inner outlane is worth a fixed 5,000, while the outer outlane lane advances bonus. This means if your bonus is less than the maximum base of 100K, you’re better off advancing bonus by 10K (worth 30K if tripled). If you are at full 100K bonus base, the 5000 is better. Key feeds: the kick outs from the center saucers and the bonus collect hole - - can you get the ball back to a cradle, or do you need to flip away? Format notes: in “best game” format, go for collect bonus once it’s at 100K and assume you’ll build it back up again later in the ball before your end-of-ball bonus. The only exception would be if your game is already among the top scores without your bonus. In match play, it depends on if your opponents have already played or not. If you know your opponents scores, decide accordingly based on what you need to pass them. If you’re player 1 and having a good game, go ahead and collect. If you’re player 1 and you’re facing tough competition, consider preserving your bonus if doubled or tripled.

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via Bob's Guide