My question is this: There is 100% no other way to clear alien invasion except for locking 5 balls correct? I know TSPP has all kinds of tricks up it's sleeves but under no circumstances and no combination of things happening or secrets will AI be beat without locking 5 balls?

Here is what happened. Playing a decent game on TSPP, get to alien invasion, lock 4 balls, get to 5 and then fail to beat it. I proceed to get to alien invasion a second time during the same game (Which I've done a few times but never to my knowledge had this happen). I have maybe 3 (may have been 4) balls in play and about 17 seconds left on the clock, all the sudden flippers die, the 6 piece mini wizard mode puzzle comes up and says I cleared AI? I finish my game off wondering what happened. I'm sure my switches are all working and I definitely wasn't up to 5 ball the second time through AI. I check my audits, sure enough no count on 5 ball lock? I thought hmm maybe I cleared one of the other puzzle pieces during the AI so I went back to the puzzle and checked it was definitely middle piece on the right hand side (which is alien invasion). Now I'm stumped. Can anyone school me on this? No different rules or anything the second time through? I didn't even see any adjustments for AI in portals.

Edit: I just thought of this but is there any way a lock could have been awarded to me somehow without physically locking a ball in?

Update: I can't recreate this no matter what I try so my only verdict is that I must have been mistaken somehow.

That's where I'm at too. I've never seen or heard of any other way to beat AI other than physically locking 5 balls. My personality is such that I'm going to have a really hard time just letting it go as a one time fluke. Even if by some strange occurrence switches malfunctioned and accidentally awarded ball locks to get to 5 then surly the audits would have reflected that. Like I said, I'm stumped on it.

Thanks . Unfortunately getting to it and beating it are two very different things for me haha. Who knows maybe if it is uncovered that there is in fact another way to beat AI then it may become more common for me.

One more thing I'd like to note incase anyone was wondering I'm on software 5.0

There was no call out from what I recall. It acted as if the mode had timed out other than the fact that there was still time remaining and the mini wizard mode puzzle came up and cleared AI.

I feel like I must be crazy, it seems like the most likely scenario and easier to explain . The problem is that I had two onlookers watching me play and I was explaining to them the mode and I had just finished saying "see where it says 17, that's my remaining time" when it all happened. Considering they don't know how the game operates (or care for that matter haha) they can't verify my story. The easiest way for me to sleep at night might be to tell myself that I got distracted telling them what was happening and time went by faster than I remember. As for the puzzle piece maybe that was my mind being wishful lol.

100% agree with you on the fact that it's one of the most fun (and frustrating) modes of all.

It's a reasonable theory that some locks may be counted from a previous ai. I will try to recreate it at some point. I actually folded my games up last night after playing due to me moving in a couple days but hopefully by next week I'll have them all set up again and I can test some things.

From previous posts by Keefer there is only one clock in the game and it's impossible for one mode to be at 10 and another at 20. As far as stacking things with AI I'm not 100% sure what is possible to be run at the same time. I've run daredevil mania, which I'm sure most have. I'm quite sure I've had secret stash running, then started AI and had stash continue. I'm curious about what else carries over. If hurry ups carry into AI then I can see potentially being awarded a lock for getting a run of 4 hurry ups (pretty sure 4 is a lock) completed.

Unfortunately I am sure, now I feel like one of those people that claim they saw Bigfoot :-\. I'm not taking about locks from secret stash I'm talking about locks that are awarded for completing regular cbg hurry ups. Under normal playing conditions starting exactly 4 hurry ups and hitting them will award a lock. I'm curious if those carry over into AI.

If someone is so inclined maybe try this scenario out. If not I will try and test it once my games are moved. Here is what I propose to test (probably much easier with the glass off ):

-Start all modes and light alien invasion (but don't start AI just yet)
- hit cbg 4 times and take note of which hurry ups are active
-start AI
-hit the 4 shots associated with the hurry ups that were lit regardless if they are still lit or not
-see what happens

So I got my game set up again and tried to recreate this. Tried doing the hurry up thing and starting AI but nothing. Tried getting to AI and locking 4 balls then draining on the 5th then getting back to AI a second time, nothing. My final verdict is that I must have been mistaken somehow. It doesn't seem like there is any other way to beat AI other than physically locking 5 balls.

Even though it was over 3 years ago I think I will be able to sleep just slightly more comfortable now lol. Thank you. It seems like there might be some very rare bug.