After having Luci in the flat for a few weeks I'm still struggling to figure out some basic game-play 'strategy'... I'm probably very dumb, but can someone please help me out on this...

Basically, I know you choose a song, then go for the shot for that song and when you make this shot it opens up the 'note shots' which you pick off... picking these off increases the jackpot value. If you make 8 other shots other than the main shot for that song you get to change the song... if you play all songs you get 'encore' wizard mode... (never been anywhere near this, just read about it).

There are also the 3 multiballs which are initiated by three basic shots: Ramps, loops and targets...

Any songs with Hell in the title allow the sub-playfield to come into play...

Hit the bell 3 times to start 2x scoring, and another 3 times (assuming the 2x doesn't time out) to start 3x.

That's about all I know at the moment...

What's puzzling me is the fabled risk-reward strategy connected with the jackpot... How do you 'work' this? How do you collect the jackpot? By making a lit cannon? By making a lit cannon and then hitting the lit target? In multiball? I heard that after collecting a jackpot it re-sets, so that's the risk-reward part... don't collect it so it gets higher...

Yesterday I was playing a game and I noticed the jackpot was at about 43mil... time to collect I thought... hit a lit cannon, not collected, hit the target from the cannon, not collected... started multiball, not collected... hit appropriate shots in multiball, not collected... Or maybe I did collect it, but it didn't re-set, so I guess I didn't...

Also, if you do collect the jackpot, and it therefore re-sets... does this mean you can no longer build that jackpot back up during that ball?

So, some specific questions:

1) How do you collect the jackpot?
2) After collecting the jackpot, does it really re-set to some base value (or zero)?
3) Can you re-build the jackpot after it re-sets following a collection while on the same ball?
4) If you can re-build the jackpot after collecting it, does is build back up at the same rate it built up before collecting it? (if the answer to this is yes, then I'm puzzled how the risk-reward part works because there would be no benefit in delaying collecting it).

Thanks for any help!!

This is what I was missing... I have been clearly inadvertently hitting the opening song jackpot way too early, and thus taking it out of gameplay 'till I'd spelt fire 4x... so, if, while getting the note shots for a song, you load the cannon (very early in the ball) the strategy would be to avoid the lit target and build the song jackpot more... correct...? Or just avoid the right ramp when collecting note shots and change the song instead of re-lighting the notes...

Er... I see... I think! So, just to be clear, it means that another strategy in the game is to choose a song which is at the beginning of their discography/tours in order to make collecting 'song bonus' easier... so once the song bonus is collected in multiball, can it be collected again during the same multiball?... And what about Jam multiball... no song bonus on that one? (I guess not bacaus there's no specific discography or tour schedule to like it to...

Cool, I'll have a good read at this!! I did see another very long and involved gameplay 'report' somewhere else that I was wading through, but it seemed to go into too much detail and miss out on the basic information...

Thanks guys, this has been a great help!!

Now to play some more games with this new knowledge!!

After trying this out I see it's not correct... loading the lit cannon but avoiding the lit target means that you un-light the cannon and so remove the chance to get the song jackpot... the strategy, therefore, seems to be to simply avoid the left or right ramps... or, to get the first 'free' song jackpot out of the way and focus on re-lighting it with 4xfire... thus opening up the ramps (it seems just wrong to avoid both ramps 'till song JP is increased).

Thanks for posting!

I assume from this strategy that the 'Wizard mode' isn't worth aiming for...?

Here's a question for you seasoned ACDC players... if you have a decent jackpot built up and you decide to reap the benefits by first collecting the song bonus during multiball, you have to start the multiball by loading the cannon... but, if the cannon is lit for song jackpot, then by starting the multiball by loading the cannon, won't that re-set it so that the nice fat song bonus becomes a measly little song bonus?

I guess to avoid this it's necessary to make sure the cannon isn't lit for song jackpot when you start the multiball...

Am I thinking along the right lines?

Please explain the benefits of chosing Hells Bells... it will help me figure this labyrinth of a game out

Or keep your eye on the credit dot