Shoot loop 10 times, sonic boom, repeat over and over. if a ball gets lose, shoot the locks, multiball, jackpots, loops, boom.

Sonic boom is pretty cool,Polk sub hooked up.Once you nail all
3 Daleks it becomes progressively harder.I have owned for short time
and I am sure there is more to learn

Choose the doctor one off the right, playfield X.

Get things close to multiball, do the left ramp 6 times to bump the playfield multiplier all the way up. Enter multiball. Jackpot. KaBOOM.

The best long scoring strategy is to go for sonic booms exclusively.

Doctor 3 is nice to take the time pressure off collecting the booms if you like.

If it is possible on a specific doctor who, NOT shooting the W ramp for sonic boom, and instead bumping the ball over from left flipper to right after the 10th loop and only taking booms on the H-O shots is the lowest risk (this way you never take an on the fly high risk shot at the W ramp).

Go for multiball immediately after ball launch when ball saver is still turned on. Either you are shooting for the center target on the time expander to light the lock, or you are shooting the saucers. Once the ball saver expires, shoot the left orbit to do video modes (which is a relatively safe shot).

If you manage to start multiball, let the two balls that are kicked out of the saucer drain. These you will get back since the ball save is still active. Next, the first ball launched, shoot the H then shoot the O loops till you get your playfield mutltiplier up. Now you will be playing for 180million to complete the time expander instead of 35million.

If you're going strictly for score...

Peg the multiplier and go for the sonic booms. I think my GC is just short of 3b with 120+ loops on all factory setting with lightning flippers

I honestly don't remember why but my Doctor orders is 6 3 2 4

Releasing MB is just to risky of a shot but if you must..make sure you have Doctor 7 lit

I start the same way as you have said shooting for the locks on each plunged ball while ball save is on.
Apart from that I then just work the who loops round and round for sonic booms and if multi all starts then smash that!

I suck at hitting the O ramp on Doctor Who. If I get a sonic boom that is a big achievement for me in a game.

My strat, pick Doc one right off the bat and shoot the outer orbits for pops and load Escape to get video mode going and build up your transmat (you also get an extra ball). Get docs 1, 7, and 6 (they are the three most important in my view) locked up through the video mode then go for the locks and take down your first waive (or three of Daleks/Davros). Rinse, repeat.

If you can hit the O loop with the consistency many here are able to then all the better.

Agree with others to go for sonic booms. Got to spend about an hour and a half on a DW while waiting for my daughter to dance at one of her competitions. Set all the high scores on the game with my highest being 3.2 bil and 240 loops. Fun time.

IMG_0123.jpg IMG_0124.jpg

video mode does lock in all the doctors for the rest of the game, you can even double up on the doctors this way, try and lock down all the doctors on the first ball. You earn a doctor for each wave, the first wave will give you doctor 7 then 6 5,4,3,2,1

Me too. I also need to make sure Bill never comes close to my machine. LOL!

My loop ramp is pretty tough to hit. Any tips on getting it dialed in?

I *LOVE* this game, even if people find it repetitive in tournaments/leagues.

First off, I'm not claiming this is THE strat, it's just mine when I am in competition:

1- Choose 7 (I can never tell if you keep 7's attributes post lock swap, but it seems to, so I just do this), lock ball

2- Choose 1, earn Escape letters by shooting into bumpers. STOP when video mode is ready

3- Lock Second Ball. NOW. Decision time. No matter what happens at this point, I'm going to attempt to hit loops. Not just for Sonic Boom, but for the multipliers. Sonic Boom strategy is definitely a great strategy, but if I don't set up MB and video mode, I'm leaving major points on the table for when I eventually flub the loop/W-H-O. SO. Am I confident that I can rock out the upper loop on this specific Dr. Who? If yes, then I choose 7 again (1 is done after video mode is set). If not, I choose 6 for the extra help earning multipliers.

4- I have my loops done and I am at max multipliers and the ball is on the lower flippers (and Sonic Boom is obviously not running). It comes down to starting video mode or hammering the wall for MB. It all comes down to how much progress was made on the wall and making a decision quickly, before my multipliers go down.

5A- If I do video mode, I *commit* to video mode until I've defeated the final wave (and earn all 7 Doctors + the 7 Doctors bonus, which I've received 60million alone for in some cases ON TOP of the video mode completion score). Video mode is a lot of lower scoring chunks of points spread out, but they accumulate. There is also the rules bonus of earning all 7 Doctors, which opens every strategy up to me from that point forward.

5B- If I choose MB instead, well, play out MB. Getting all the way through MB and defeating Davros + max multipliers can be a 1.2 billion reward all on its own (not counting any other Daleks you defeated getting there). That's a ton of loop shots that my opponent needs to make in order to catch up.

6- After completing either video mode or MB, it's back to setting whatever I just completed back up. Get balls locked or re-set Video Mode. Then repeat from step 3...as in...hit loops to up multiplier/milk Sonic Boom, then make a decision on either Video Mode or MB.

It's the strategy with a lot more risk involved than straight Sonic Boom, but it gives me insurance that I can knock out the other high scoring opportunities for when that upper loop war of attrition is finally lost, yet my multipliers are maxed.

Just my 2 cents. I love this game.

Doctor 7: That is a good point. I'm under the impression the Doctor playfield bonus carries over when locked. I still haven't figured that out 100%. Otherwise, I can see picking 1 or 5 right away and only doing 7 after the second lock. Another bonus of picking 7 early is if, while trying to lock the ball, you bump the center target. It acts as a wall hit +1. So when the wall finally comes up, it should show two hits already completed. There's definitely no right answer though. EDIT: I'm also under the impression that, if you lock Doctor 7 then choose him again, it becomes +2. I really wish there was something to confirm this, because I've done nothing but Doctor 7 for all choices and got the wall down in like, 2-3 hits max. Can anyone confirm this behavior or is it just all in my head?!?

Multipliers: Yes. If you take too long it will eventually count down. I have gotten to Davros pretty quickly in MB before though. Shooting loops during MB is only something I'll do if I unintentionally wind up in a great situation to do so (happened to smack a ball up to the upper flipper while I have the other balls cradled on the right). I mean, why NOT do that when the opportunity presents itself?

I'm not an expert by any means. Just sharing my favorite strategy for one of my favorite games.

I'm interested in this as well. I am normally a good ramp pounder, but I have never been good at hitting the O ramp consistently. Is there something that can be done to dial that in?

I doubt it's a "dailing in" thing...you probably just need to "dial in" your shooting

But seriously, it's a flipper. Make sure the sleeve is clean and no damage there, and that it sits at the right angle. Basically that's all you can do.

Sadly I think this is probably true. LOL

It's a very early shot to loop...early is the key. It took me 10 or so games to get it down.

I choose the "video mode" doctor first. Then ignore the ESCAPE targets and keep shooting the left loop. Ball generally falls through the pops, into the video mode hole, spotting you 2x ESCAPE lights.

Do this 3 times. ESCAPE is complete, video mode is ready. If you do a video mode wave, you get the Dr spotted.

Then pick the LOOP Doctor. Number 6 from memory. Then just wail on the loop to keep the multiplier up. Then do some more video modes. Then nail some more loops. Then more video. Etc etc etc.

Points bonanza.

The Loop Doctor is the most important one, the multiplier makes a big difference to your score.

Unfortunately once you master the above in a few weeks, the novelty will wear off and you'll quickly tire of the Dr and go back to JD instead. Then sell the Dr to me

rd

IMO it's a very forgiving upper flipper shot, with a wider margin for error than I am use to seeing for major upper flipper shots. The only trick, as mentioned, is that it is an earlier shot than it initially appears. The hardest part of the loops isn't necessarily the upper flipper, but just setting the shot up into the "H" from the lower flippers, especially with lightning flippers. It's in that sweet spot of late, but not THAT late. *shrug*

I mean, I've played several Dr. Who's throughout the years and this has always been the case.

Did you pick up a set of the new replacement ramps? I need to do that while they are available, been slacking on ordering them.

Suggest getting the cliffy as a replacement. It covers the entirety of the plastic:

http://passionforpinball.com/Drwho/scott-dwr2.jpg

Edit: Nevermind, just saw that you said you already ordered a full set of Cliffy's.

Hey, it's really surprising how many strategies are possible with DW. My high score is 2.7 billion with only 27 loops, so there must be different strategies to get "good" scores.

First strategy - and the one I explain to beginners - was "go for multiball". Lock 2 balls in the time expander, choose Dr. #7, raise the time expander and get a multiball. Try scoring as much jackpots as possible. It's an relatively easy way to get something going on the playfield and beginners are always pleased when they get a multiball.

Next strategy was to use the O-loop to get a high multiplier. Nothing wrong with multiplier - it greatly benefits every strategy you might use to keep the multiplier up. Dr. #6 is either the first or at least the second doctor I use. So the multiplier is raised two steps instead of one.
Sonic booms are nice, but it takes some skill to get them. Until you get a sonic boom, there's only those lousy millions in the O-loop. And seriuosly - at 4x multiplier that's only 250k multiplied. Not really worth the effort.

3rd (and current) strategy - go for video mode. Dr. #1 is usually my first doctor. The shot to the left of the time expander is easy and repeatable. Hit the TARDIS three times and you're ready for video mode. Lock the ball in the time expander and switch Doctor to #6. Try to raise the multiplier and start the video modes by hitting the TARDIS again.
In the 3rd video mode, there's an extra ball. You also get another doctor with each completed video mode. Plus some 20+ mil. extra points every 7 doctors - even more if you get 7 doctors with one ball.
Even better - on your way through the loop, you actually do something good for your score along the way. You casually hit repair targets, giving the occasional million and raise the transmat score in the bumpers, giving you extra doctors or a few 100k points when hitting the transmat target.

So my strategy is #1, #6 and then it depends on the ongoing game.

A few weeks? I feel clumsy and ashamed.