MATA HARI (Bally 1978)
Quickie Version: up top through the center to get the top saucer until your bonus multiplier is 5X. If extra balls and specials have been set to be worth points, then shoot the A and B orbits all day. If not, shoot drop targets all day.
Go-To Flipper: Balanced
Risk Index: High; A-B orbit shots are safer than drop target or saucer shots
Before deciding on a strategy, check two things. First, do extra balls and specials awards points? If they do, then the A-B shots become big, easy points once you’ve completed them 5 times on a ball. Second, how is the kickout from the top saucer? If it’s consistently safe, e.g. the ball falls to the left flipper and you can let it dead bounce over to the right flipper to get to a cradle, shoot for the saucer until you have maxed your bonus at 5X. If the kickout is bad, e.g. SDTM [not uncommon, unfortunately], ignore the saucer.
As for what the saucer does, the first shot scores 3,000, the second 3,000 plus lights double bonus, the third 3,000 plus lights 3X bonus, the fourth 3K plus 5X bonus. The second (2X) saucer shot also lights the left outlane for 50k, and “correct drains” here can win games. The third (3X) shot lights both outlanes. If the saucer shot kickout isn’t too nasty, you would do well to at least get to 3X to light the outlanes.
Once you’ve either maxed out your bonus multiplier or determined that the saucer is unsafe to shoot, you need to choose between shooting drop targets and shooting A-B orbits. The orbits are the better choice if shots to them often go all the way around, i.e. up one orbit and down the other, scoring both. If not, try the drop targets and see how safe the rebounds off them are before making a serious effort at the orbits. A set of eight completed drop targets scores 50K.
The best time to shoot A-B is once you’ve already raised its value to EB or Special and those both award points. In that case, it only takes 2 shots to score the special points; one shot if the ball goes up one orbit and across and down the other!
Targets and lanes advance your base bonus up to 29,000, so max overall bonus is 5X times 29K or 145,000.
Key feeds: besides the saucer kickout, do balls coming down the orbits roll cleanly towards the flippers, or do they skim off of the slingshots?
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