Nice. And to add to this, if you can pull off an encore, your song level will carry over into that next song.

I need to learn more about band frenzy. I notice band members flashing during the song, Collect said band member and it seems to light the insert solid. Do that for all members and get band frenzy I believe? What I don’t know is what qualifies the band member to start flashing? Is it just based on who you hit first, then hit/collect them again to lock it in?

Sweet rule.
Here it is in case anyone is wondering. 2 member icons shown, the big one in the bottom right is the active one to qualify band frenzy, the smaller one to the left of it is the ‘next’ member qualification. Thanks Keefer!

09A38F01-7EC4-41FE-948D-2D2B792F6CEC (resized).jpeg

ROFL!

Pre-game work is much more fun with the boosters. It’s awesome when you get 2,3, or all 4 boosters stacked together! I’ve gotten a 3.5 mil noise jackpot! I’m loving the booster multiballs, especially stacked.

That said, I’ve put up some 10+ mil scores without boosters or many locked balls and I’ve dropped big jackpots too! When you go into a song quick, you can still score well. If you only have one or two balls locked, pick a song that takes precision shooting like ‘You could be mine’ or ‘civil war’. Additionally, if you only have 2 or 3 balls, use the power chord rule to help add a ball into play. The key will be pressing your luck and cashing in an applause and encore at the end. Risk/reward is the name of the game.

Additionally, here’s a big tip. You can cradle and have your rockit meter at 0 as long as you have the ball saver active. So if you get into a song prematurely, trap up and go for those power chords and/or band frenzy items. Add some balls, get band frenzy, then start blowing it up.

Soooo many ways to play the game. It’s what keeps me coming back. We just need some meaningful album rules add the next layer.

Band member patches boost that members scoring while band frenzy is active. i.e. get Slash’s hat and you’ll boost his scoring switch when band frenzy is active (at least i think that’s how it worked). I believe I had Slash, Vater (Frank), Duff, Axl, and one other - Melissa maybe? I also had the fender patch which helps considerably (hashtag Goren!!). Reality is I don’t honestly know how much the band frenzy boosting helped as I had a bit of a lucky game going into that song by collecting a lot of booster jackpots prior and a starting song level of 152 with the Gun/Rose patch for increased scoring in the Paradise City song.

As for the game, I know the song really well so knew I was at the tail end, If I could cash in an applause and encore, I could have had a 100 mil game. So i went for it! ....and.....collected! However, the freakin encore song was patience haha and my adrenalin was so pumping i was not ready to hear that song. Drained but managed to beat Thirst for Carnage for the first time and ended just shy of 100 mil at 98 mil! Wtf!!?! So close to the 100 mil club haha.

Vater & Duff patches will help boost general song scoring. Fender is awesome for band frenzy.

No rubber on that post.

Little update and clarification. Played some more today focusing on band member patches. Doesn’t appear to increase any scoring per say, but it spots them at the beginning of the song so you can get into band frenzy faster which equates to better scores. Add the fender patch into that and you’ll be smoking.

I often have days where I barely break 10M. Heck, Karl was having a hard time on a few games himself in the streams. The game is very tough - Karl makes it look EASY.

Max’ing out the boosters and going for those 4 patches aren’t as lucrative as it sounds. However, Getting booster jackpots very much increases your song level, but going for those 4 patches (Lights, Horn Hand, Firecracker, Amp) for unlimited boosters sacrifices going for song boosting patches such as Fender, Vater, Duff Skull, song specific boosting patches, and/or band member patches. If I do 3 of the 4 boosters and dont get a jackpot, I then decide if I want to risk going for the 4 patches and do more booster multiballs or boost my levels another way - i.e. band frenzy patches, song patches, etc....EDIT: Or....Do i start a song and depend on good play to get my score high.

What kind of song levels are you starting with? Anything over 100 is great IMO, BUT that is hard to do and my song levels are rarely over 100. It all comes down to those Booster jackpots and getting 6 balls locked. Even if you start a song with 50-75 song level, you can still boost it with good play by making the necessary shots and hitting the scoop and increasing the levels all while getting band frenzy’s - those band member patches and fender patch are awesome for back to back to back band frenzy’s in a song. If you can make an encore, that’s when the scoring really can happen, but buh-bye ball savers and good luck risk/reward is heightened to a max!

Hope this helps. Oh, and here’s the patch sets if this helps. Courtesy of kermit24 :
F0257681-F382-4F37-AC50-71F39ABC18BF (resized).jpeg

Give it some time and learn more of the rules. There’s 3 primary things you can do in a song to pump scoring:

1. Hit song shots and advance the level by hitting the scoop when it’s green.

2. Collect band members that are lit/flashing on the revolver insert and/or bottom right corner display. Get them all for band frenzy to really boost that jackpot.

3. Power chord. Use it for points and/or to add a ball when you really need it.

Also, if you get the fender patch and band member patches, it’ll vastly improve #2 above.

Booster multiball jackpots and # of balls locked prior to starting a song will also increase your starting song level which equals more points.

Once you start getting a feel of each songs rules. The flail fest drops down considerably and precision becomes the key for big jackpots.

After that, it all comes down to risk/reward. Keep pushing that jackpot limit and see how high you can get it before cashing out. Or, push to the end for an applause jackpot.

The only thing that feels out of whack scoring wise to me are the album modes and slash solo. Too much risk, not enough reward. And desert demolition = LOL (good thing live and let die is <3 mins long so DD isn’t lit too often haha). Beating an album should give some kind of booster, like light song and a victory multiball to give you a chance to lock some balls and play some boosters or something.

Band frenzy is a switch frenzy that happens when you collect all the band members during a song. Bottom right corner of the display shows which band member is active to collect; their respective insert in front of the flippers will be flashing as well.

As for the ramp diverter. Mine was a little like that too. It was so long ago I forgot what I did. Maybe adjust and relighted a nearby nut? I honestly forgot. Sorry.

Band frenzy (i.e. switch frenzy). Then you’ll hear a reload click when it’s over and it’ll be available to qualify again.

#1 fender fender fender (this helps a bunch for band frenzy as I understand).

After that, depends on the mood I’m in but typically I go for all the band members patches:
• Vater + Duff skull for their band member shots + increased song scoring
• thunder chucker (drumsticks) is always nice for super jets
• Rose and fuzzy Mic for spotting axl easier in band frenzy
• slash hat
• Melissa
• sunglasses when I come out of a song to get tour lit quicker

Heck....I’m just gonna say all, I go for all the patches

I will say when the diverter is down I can really exploit the patch system with left/right ramp combos. If I had an SE, I imagine I’d have almost every patch by the end of a game.

Patience is unlocked with one of the patches.

As for the magnet. It’s qualified quite often. Mainly at the beginning of the game when AXL lanes are flashing - loop shots activate it. Also, during most songs when AXL is the qualifying band member for frenzy. If it’s not going off during those times, chances are the thermal switch blew - possibly a hidden common problem unfortunately.

Cliff notes version:
Get multiball, don’t drain.

Not so much cliff notes version (i.e. the Long version):
The biggest thing is learning the objectives in the song modes and understanding how the inserts move. While each song is different from the next, the overall construct of rules are the same. The light show is HUGE so it can be a bit overwhelming at first.

I suggest starting with songs from use your illusion 2. They are the easiest to pick up and understand. ‘You could be mine’ and ‘civil war’ are really easy to pick up and run with but they are also the hardest to score in. I enjoy playing civil war because it’s all about the upper loop shot (+ 1 other shot is always lit to help).

Next learn band frenzy shots and how the inserts work on the revolver for them. If a band member insert on the revolver is flashing color, shoot that members shot to collect. Collected band members will be solid white on the insert revolver. Collect them all for band frenzy and the revolver will be going nuts with rainbow colors. Again, ‘you could be mine’ and ‘civil war’ are the best songs to learn this because the overall light show is easier to understand.

Once you got those concepts down, move onto other songs and start learning song mode objectives insert shots. It becomes easier and easier once you learn something less overwhelming like ‘you could be mine’ or ‘civil war’ as mentioned above.

All in all you have 4 objectives during a song:
1. Make song objective shots, light scoop green, shoot scoop and level up the song mode.
2. Collect band members and get band frenzy going.
3. Lock balls for power chord. Lock them all and get a power chord jackpot + add a ball.
4. Keep your crowd meter alive *cough* chuck *cough*. When a song is near the end you really want your crowd meter maxed so you can get an encore. Crowd meter increases by making any shots, lit shots boost it higher.

Next step, doing well:
The more balls and members you collect prior to starting a song, the more balls you start with and the longer your ball saver. So lock those balls!

Patches:
• Always always always get the fender patch, it helps collect members for band frenzy.
• Patches for scoring well: fender + band members
• Patches Wizard mode progression: sponsor patches, sunglasses (for tour multiball), album patches (mainly use your illusion 2 patch for its album mode - hardest album mode to complete).

Scoring vs. wizard mode:
• If you’re going for score and just want to have an absolute Adrenalin rushed risk/reward game, then never cash out of a song and go for encore/band frenzy.

• if you’re going for wizard mode progression, it’s all about those extra balls. when you have the option to cash out of a song, look at the mini LCD, it’ll tell you if you qualified the album mode. If so, cash out (this will light the extra ball). If it’s not complete, then keep playing the song.

Quick tip 1:
Use that power chord guitar lock to store balls and keep the playfield less cluttered to progress song objectives.

Quick tip 2:
If you’re down to one ball in a song mode near the end of the song, you can ‘cheat’ the applause jackpot by shooting scoop when it’s lit green and wait the full 10 seconds. If applause lights during the 10 seconds, it’ll give it to you.

Lastly: have a beer and rock on! Absolute Adrenalin risk/reward fun game.

In all honesty, getting 20 mil is no easy task in this game. You can get yourself quickly into a song and press your luck to try and get through 2 or 3 songs and collect each applause with encore (good luck!) and you might make 20 million. I think it comes down to patch selection, boosters, and how much you want to push for a larger jackpot score and song level. Personally, I think the best method is go for fender first to make sure you’ll get help with band frenzy. Then get boosters going to help with patch selection, collecting members, and ball locks. There’s 2 routes you can go - get the booster patches and maximize those multiballs and go into your song with a near maxed song level. Or, collect your band member and scoring patches (personally this is my strat as it helps get band frenzy going), plus vater and duff giving scoring boosters. I’ll probably also go for rose and patch and play welcome to the jungle. Or get the condom and go for rocket queen. Those are 2 songs that can get band frenzy’s going. Or I’ll get the airplane patch and go for live and let die for a quick encore and press my luck with don’t cry, November rain, or Double talking Jive. Shit, that’s like 4 or 5 strats to getting to 20 million and I’m not allowed to cash out and play the risk vs reward or play any other modes the game offers? Yea not so deep or is it Hahaha. And the game isn’t done! You should know better Chuck than to judge a game on early code.

Btw; scoring aside, have you played tear down the wall or shall we play a game? The other 2 album modes suck, but talk about pinball technique skill in wall and game album modes. Pretty wild. Can’t wait to see what keefer does about the scoring for those, as that I do agree.

I agree. But once you start learning where the valuable information is; you can take quick glances (i.e. look for the revolver for band frenzy members). Which brings me to my next gripe, sometimes the revolver insert is hard to read on an active member that’s already been collected. Hard to tell if it’s white (collected) or not.

That said, I’ve had the game 6 months (wow 6 months went quick!) and I’m still trying to digest display information. But like others said, the small LCD seems to be where the best information lies.

I’ll have to get back to you on this one when I have more time lol. But the short version is get the fender patch and as many band member patches as you can to help with band frenzy. Vater + Duff have scoring boosts associated to their patches. I believe band member patches add additional scoring when hitting their shots during band frenzy (unconfirmed); if so, Melissa’s candy is a valuable patch and so could Vater for ripping the spinner during frenzy.

Nice johnson controls background screen. Do you work for JCI or is that your BMS facility?

Let’s talk rules.

Fender: active members spot another member. I’ve always assumed this is related to band frenzy. So if AXL is the active member and you shoot him, it’ll spot AXL + 1 other member. Is that accurate? I may be missing something because sometimes it seems like this is the case and other times it doesn’t. It makes me wonder if you have to have band members’ patch to qualify this type of action.

Vader and Duff skull patches light frank and Duff in band frenzy for the rest of the game. Are there any other patches do that for the other members? I noticed melissas candy, AXL rose, and slashes patch do not. But I have sworn I have had them lit at the beginning of the song before. Anyone know?

It can be exhausting but the truth is, this is an issue JJP needs to deal with. It’s not a rare one off exception. Most people are posting the same issues over and over. The problem is real.

That said; I posted about gameplay the other day. You did not respond that said; I’ve learned that Vater and Duff skull patches do appear to light their insert for band frenzy all the time. So if you get those 2 patches, it’s two less shots to get band frenzy. That’s big. I do not know if there are other patches or ways to light other members similarly, but I think there is a way.

Also, I’ve been testing out Fender more to try and get some of my questions answered. It seems most of the time if I have fender and Axl for example is lit for frenzy, hitting him will spot him and one other member on the frenzy revolver. However, there are times when it doesn’t do this and I cannot figure out why. I think it has to do with which members you qualify a ball lock for, but not sure. I will do more glass on testing this week.

Lastly, I remember Eric or Karl mentioning in a stream that there’s other band member items to be collected in the game. I found Duffs bass strap, you get it for a successful left loop > upper flipper loop combo. I’m not sure what the award gives you, nor do I know how to get others’, but I’m open ears.

There you go zaphX - gameplay/rules discussion

I’d like to see the mini mode (i.e. pick a song and see how far you can get) be coded something like this:

• pick a song
• you get 1 ball + a 30 second ball saver
Edit: maybe handicap option for more balls or longer ball saver. Novice, advanced, expert.
• you then have to build up to add more balls via wave completions and/or power chord
• anytime you get all 9 inlane rollovers, you get a +5 second ball saver on the next wave
• band frenzy rules still apply (no fender patch haha)
• whether your crowd meter is maxed at applause jackpot or not, do not give an encore. One song and it’s over.
• no cashing out allowed. You either make it to applause or you don’t.

I don’t think band member patches award frenzy inserts. Only Vader and Duff do. I tried an experiment of getting the Rose (Axl) and Gibson (slash) and their frenzy insert was not lit on the frenzy revolver like they are with Duff and frank are.

Or, maybe when you have the band member patches it auto collects their insert when it lights on frenzy? Which is still weird that Duff and Frank are handled differently.

In my testing; fender in fact will spot you an extra member when you collect the active member for frenzy. But I could have sworn there’s been times where it doesn’t do it but I could be wrong. In all my testing with fender I did yesterday, it would always spot the active member towards frenzy +1 more. Which is how the patch reads.

Example: slash is lit for band frenzy, hit spinning record, collect slash for frenzy. If you have fender patch, it would collect slash +1 other member. This is why the fender patch is the most valuable patch in the game (IMO).

My confusion is how does the game decipher who the other member is on that +1 collect.

Also, I saw no benefit to having Axl and Slash patches as they relate to band frenzy. They only spotted them pre-song, which is actually really helpful after you play your first song.

This is what eludes to some of my confusion with fender patch. I noticed this exact thing yesterday and had no way of collecting the keyboard insert despite having the fender patch. But I know I’ve gotten band frenzy during patience before.

I did a couple quick tests to help answer some questions we’ve been discussing. Here are ‘just the tips’ *snicker*:

• base song level is 10
• if you choose to stick with the default song you get +15 to your song level
• a songs patch appears to add +30 to your song level
• fender patch: if an active member is lit on the band frenzy revolver and you have not collected that member yet, hitting them will collect that member +1 additional for the patch.
• Vader and Duff patches automatically light Frank and Duff for your entire song on the frenzy revolver. As the patch indicates: spot Frank or spot Duff.
• all other band patches appear to award no benefit toward frenzy.
> Melissa awards her tour item. As iepinball pointed out, member tour items raise song value. So this patch raises song value.
> axl (rose) spots axl for rest of game so no need to requalify on follow up songs
> slash (Gibson) same as axl above.

Just the tip: axl and slash patches are great strategy for those trying to make it to the wizard mode
Just the tip (a little deeper): Fender, Vader, Duff skull appear to be the most powerful patches in game for scoring. Stack a song patch on top of those 3 and you’ll be in business.

Enjoy!

Play your booster multiballs. Collecting Jackpots in those multiballs increase your song level. But better yet, use the multiballs to help collect patches.

Learn how to light jackpots for all the boosters. A jackpot will typically light up with a bright rainbow looking insert:
• lights multiball: qualify the jackpot after hitting a certain # of ramps. The jackpot will light at the left loop and move clockwise around the pf every few seconds until collected. If it’s not collected after 2 full rotations, it will go away and ramp shots will be needed to relight.
Single, double, triple jackpot can be collected on one of the following shots:
> loops = triple jackpot
> ramps = double jackpot
> scoop = single jackpot

• AMP multiball: qualify the jackpot after hitting X amount of yellow hurry ups. Jackpots will light for following shots:
> under upper flipper = triple jackpot
> upper loop shot = double jackpot
> scoop = single jackpot

• crowd multiball: one shot lights Teal, qualify the jackpot after hitting an X amount of Teal shots. Collect the only jackpot under the upper flipper.

• Pyro multiball: switch frenzy. Jackpot lights after X amount of switch hits. Collect with action button - time it with the bar on display for single, double, triple jackpot.

Locking balls helps boost song level scoring as well.

Learn how to qualify band frenzy during a song. The fender patch helps considerably for collecting band members for band frenzy.

Last tip: don’t drain

Fender seems to be the best and always the first one I go for, typically. Vader and Duff seem like the next best as they spot 2 members for frenzy, Duff and Richard (left ramp + inside spinner). But I’ll throw a wrinkle into this. I’ve been skipping Vader early on (until I’m ready for my 4th sponsor patch to light extra ball), reason being, not having Richard (the inner spinner) auto spotted for frenzy gives a better chance at using that shot with fender to light one of the harder to get band members, mainly AXL.

…and so the onion peels even further.

Give it time. The first part is learning the construct of the song modes (i.e. the basic objectives) which are:
1. Song: Hitting lit ‘song’ shots to progress the song value and light the scoop ‘green’ to make it to the next level of the song.

2. Band Frenzy: Understanding the revolver inserts in front of the flippers. If a band member is flashing, and you hit their corresponding shot (i.e. slash’s hat his flashing, hit the slash record), it will award that band member and lock them in solid white. Do that for all band members and you’ll get band frenzy which is a timed switch frenzy. Note: bottom right corner of main display shows the revolver and which member is active and which member will be next.

3. Power chord: plant balls in the guitar lock. Lock all active balls and get a power chord jackpot + add a ball. Be careful of the lock release

4. Extra Ball: getting all 9 in lanes lit (JAM, GNR, AMP) will give you the option to light extra ball, IF you cash out of the song.

After you learn those rules. The next part is learning each songs rules. I’m 1000+ plays in so have a good grasp on most of all the songs rules. I recommend starting with the use your Illusion II songs. You could be mine and civil war are two of the hardest songs to play, but they are the easiest to learn the objectives because their shots don’t move around so much.

Maybe I’ll do a breakdown for dummies so to speak for each song. But not now, I’m at work

I posted a couple months ago about it but saved it in my back pocket for times like this

• Default song = +15 points to song level
• Song patch = +30 points to song level

Song level & patches:

• base song level is 10
• if you choose to stick with the default song you get +15 to your song level
• a songs patch appears to add +30 to your song level
• fender patch: this is the single most important patch in the game before starting a song. if an active member is lit on the band frenzy revolver and you have not collected that member yet, hitting them will collect that member +1 additional for the patch.
• Vader and Duff patches automatically light Frank (drums - green top right side of revolver) and Duff (Bass - yellow left side of revolver) for your entire song on the frenzy revolver. As the patch indicates: spot Frank or spot Duff.
• all other band patches appear to award no benefit toward frenzy.
> Melissa awards her tour item. As Troz pointed out, member tour items raise song value. So this patch raises song value. Band member items like Melissa’s candy can also be collected via the 3 loop shots. Not sure how many are needed to get an item, and these are special game items (not patches) that boost song level.
> axl (rose) spots axl for rest of game so no need to requalify on follow up songs
> slash (Gibson) same as axl above.
Just the tip: axl and slash patches are great strategy for those trying to make it to the wizard mode
Just the tip (a little deeper): Fender, Vader, Duff skull appear to be the most powerful patches in game for scoring. Stack a song patch on top of those 3, and even drumsticks and melissas candy, and you’ll be in business.

Band Frenzy (how it works):
• the revolver inserts in front of the flippers represent band members. One active band member will be flashing during the song; it’s icon will also appear on the bottom right portion of the display. Shoot the active band member and it’ll lock their insert solid. Their spot on the revolver animation in bottom right corner of display will also be solid. Collect all band members (revolver completely filled) to start band frenzy. The inserts can sometimes be hard to tell if it’s flashing for it being active or not, so looking at the bottom right corner of display helps.
• additionally, when one of the keyboardist are active, shooting them will award both keyboardist. You can potentially collect 3 band members with one shot if you have the fender patch > keyboardist active, shoot piano key rollover > collect both keyboardist + 1 extra for the patch.

GNR is steadily moving into a top 5, maybe even top 3 favorite pin of all time for me. Moments, Adrenalin, risk, agony, reward, and of course…the encore.

Just to share some of those moments I experienced tonight. Had double right loops then smack into the right ramp target for a lights double jackpot. Then a left loop > upper right flipper inner loop > whip around and let it bypass down to the bottom right flipper and smack into the left ramp straight into a ball lock. And anytime I get the ball to whiz through the center spinner and through the pops up the whizzy-do into the top lanes, especially during a band frenzy; so sweet.

I just can’t stop smiling, game is so good, felt compelled to post. I Feel bad for anyone refusing to experience the genius GNR offers when they think it’s just a glorified light show. Oh well, sucks to be them haha.

It spots them on the revolver during all songs for remainder of game. Even when band frenzy ends, they will be spotted again.

Fender makes it so when an active member (one not collected) is lit on the revolver for band frenzy; that making their shot will not only spot that member on the frenzy revolver, but spot one additional member. So you basically spot 2 members in one shot. Spotting all 7 members starts frenzy.

Best way to learn about band frenzy is keeping an eye on the revolver inserts or revolver in bottom right Corner of the the display, and recognize which members are spotted and which are not. And when a member not spotted is active (insert pulsing), watch how the revolver spots work when you hit that members’ shot. Hopefully that makes sense. It’s pretty simple and I’m a little tired so may be making it sounding more confusing than it is

There is a way to spot 3 members in one shot. I’ve hinted, and even said how to do this in previous posts. But I’ll leave it as a mystery a later time now

Not necessarily true, you don’t have to play them before a song. Yes, if you do well and collect super jackpots it will raise your song value. However, there are other ways to raise your song value without using boosters. Such as, patches, left and right loop, and repeating the upper loop shot, and lastly locking balls.

To an extent, I find song value slightly overrated. Meaning, going into hey song with a 50 to 75 song level really isn’t that bad versus risking Balls prior to a song in efforts to maximize that level. Song level and scoring really start to shine once you get one or two or more encores , and are repeating your band frenzy.

That all said, the perfect storm is doing well in your boosters, getting patches, making loops, locking all six balls; and then capitalizing with band frenzies, power chords, and encores. But if you can do that well in a song, do you are going to get to a max song level after a couple encores anyway without doing all the pre-song multiballs.

Side note: Getting a 3 to 4 booster multiball stack going is exhilarating in itself and worth playing for how fun it is rather than building song level. It’s such a rush to get all 4 at once.

Making boosters slightly harder to qualify does open potential for interesting newer strategies. Such as, saving a near qualified booster multiball for after my first song knowing how much progressively harder a booster mb becomes to start. And, going for JAM lanes/target to qualify members after I’ve played a couple songs.

Now all this is hearsay if you’re playing a tournament setup machine with no ball savers, no extra balls, and very hard setup. Then my strat is use ball 1 and 2 to go for boosters, ball 3 to see how far I can make it in a song. Otherwise, my normal strat is trying to get my 4-5 go to patches, lock balls, and use boosters as needed, but if I happen to chain stacks then it’s all or nothing. Situational pinball at its best!

« Spoiler! Click to reveal. sorry for the long post »

The inserts can be confusing at times. I think what happens is an already collected member becomes active again so it’s hard to tell if you need to hit their shot or not needed because they are already collected. Try to make it habit to look at the bottom right portion of the display, the band members revolver is much clearer and easier to read there.

As for shooting. Sometimes the call outs can help, and I often wonder if hitting a called out shot awards more than the others. But all in all, you just need to learn the pattern of song shot inserts and how they stand out vs the rest of the light show. Then it’s a matter of choosing to go for band frenzy members, song shots, or power chord.

It’s a pretty easy rule to learn and understand. However, it can be hard at times to tell if a member is collected or not.

Here’s a few suggestion on the rule and tracking frenzy:
• revolver inserts above flippers indicate the band members. A flashing insert means that band member is the active shot. Shooting that shot collects the band member.
• Here’s where it can get confusing; a band member can still flash even if they are already collected. it can be a little difficult to judge if they have been collected in this case as shooting their shot will do nothing.
• a good habit to get into is glancing at the revolver on the bottom right corner of the display as it’s much easier to tell if members are collected or not.

So here’s the new strat I’ve been working on. It’s definitely for more advanced play and you really have to know how to light up Band Frenzy.

TLDR:
***All in all, the bottom line***
Always get fender first obviously. But Skip Vader and Duff, why? If you know how to play the band frenzy wheel, you can actually get frenzy going faster without those 2 shots already spotted. The theory is you’ll have more opportunities to collect 2 members with those extra 2 shots.

The long story:
1st 3 Patch order: fender, T-shirt, poster
This gives you control during a song.

I will typically start a song or go for more patches, really depends on boosters and play. But no matter what, on my first song I’ll play extremely controlled, low score, with the intent to light extra ball and get out.

Next patch set: gun + rose for WTJ + Paradise set. Then thunder chucker and Melissa’s candy for increased scoring and song level.

Situational pinball starts to play a part. Two ways to go:
Option 1: Get condom and nighttrain patches and prepare to absolutely annihilate and chain encores on appetite for destruction songs starting with welcome to the jungle. (I was doing paradise 1st, but that song is very hard to survive so I’d much rather play it 2nd or 3rd encore if it pops up like it did in my game I posted just above.

Option 2: get album patches and prepare to light those modes up after a few more songs. Much harder strat and not ideal unless you’re good at album modes.

EDIT: oh yea, and this is important. having the T-Shirt + Poster patch set allows you to trap up and focus on band frenzy shots.

***All in all, the bottom line***
Always get fender first obviously. But Skip Vader and Duff, why? If you know how to play the band frenzy wheel, you can actually get frenzy going faster without those 2 shots already spotted. The theory is you’ll have more opportunities to collect 2 members with those extra 2 shots.

Actually the songs are quite different from each other and each one makes you attack the playfield and combos differently. The only similarity between songs is band frenzy and power chord, even then those are situational pinball strategies.

The only characters you can perma spot for band frenzy is Bass (Duff) and drums (Frank). The others are collects to qualify a song. I have a deeper explanation of this somewhere buried in this thread.

Spots him for band frenzy so his insert is always lit on the revolver during a song leading up to band frenzy. Duff (skull) is the only other patch that spots a member for band frenzy.

The other patches in the game that qualify band members are the ones that relate to pre-song qualifying.

Yes. Each song has specific shots that progress you through the stages. It can be a bit overwhelming at first to spot these shots and/or see how they’re indicated on the inserts. And with 23 songs, all I can say is it takes time. Pick a few songs to focus on at first - civil war is the hardest of all the songs.

Here’s a breakdown of where you should expect most the shots for each song to be. This is not 100% accurate:

Album - Chinese Democracy

Album Mode - so you want to play a game:
Blue/white shots are good and will progress to complete mode. Hitting a Red/Yellow are bad will break your success streak. Get enough blue/white shots to complete. I believe the longer the streak of successful blue/white shots without hitting a red/yellow, the higher your score (and quicker the mode?) will be.

Better: 2-group shots will be lit. They will either be the left ramp + left loop, right ramp + right loop, or center spinner + inner loop. The shots will stay lit even as you hit them and will only alternate with the changes of the song. I believe this is the song that changes to only the spinning record as the main shot during the solo.

Chinese democracy: all main shots are lit and will stay lit even as you hit them. They are the left loop, fog or power chord on upper pf, inner loop, center spinner, right ramp, right loop, and under flipper. As you progress further in the song, the shots will begin to unlight as you hit them making it harder to progress.

This Love: 4 roving targets on left side of playfield (left loop + CD target + left ramp + AFD target) and 4 roving targets on right side of playfield (right loop + UYI2 target + right ramp + UYI1 target). Roving shots stay lit even when you hit them, they change position on a timed pattern to the music.

Album - Use your illusion I:

Album mode - Desert Demolition:
Objective is to wipe out all 7 band members and win the race. Your racer (in red on display) will be in last place on the display. Whichever band member you’re next to, their shot will be lit - hit it and you will wipe them out. You can hold the action button to speed up your racer to get next to other band members. When you’re not holding the action button, your racer will slowly go back to last place again. Switch hits build your turbo meter for action button. Wipe out all 7 racers to win.

Coma:
Just about all shots are lit. Hit anyone then Coma lights, hit it, and all shots light again. Rinse + repeat through the waves. It’s a long song but I believe it may change later in the song.

Double talking Jive:
Very similar to my Michelle. 2 roving targets follow each other clockwise around the playfield but at a much slower pace than my Michelle.

November Rain:
switch frenzy that gets increasingly more difficult each wave.

Live and let die:
Wave-1: get all 4 targets which will light the center spinner for final shot.
Wave-2: get the 4 shots of 2 ramps + 2 outside loops which lights center spinner for final shot.
Wave-3: get all the 8 shots above to light center spinner for final shot
Following waves I believe are the same, good luck getting that far, short song.

Don’t Cry:
Objectives switch every other wave. 1st & 2nd wave is left ramp + 2 right targets. 3rd & 4th is right ramp + 2 left targets and so forth. Halfway through the song objectives switch to Coma, JAM, + Pyro targets. Then switches back; I believe it mixed the 3 different objectives near the end. Shots stay lit but get progressively harder near the end where made shots unlight.

Album - Use Your Illusion II:

Album Mode - Tear down the Wall:
All 6 main shots will be lit and represent a poster on the wall (display). Each poster on the wall on the display represents a shot on the playfield which is in order from left to right. If the cannon is pointed at an undamaged poster, the shot will be red and the action button will be lit red. Hit action button to blow a hole in the poster/wall and that shot will be inactive/damaged. You must then move the cannon to the next target by spinning the slash record. If you successfully spin it to an undamaged poster, the shot will light red and so will the action button. Hit action button - rinse + repeat.
If you hit an undamaged regular lit shot that the cannon is not pointing at, you will add a scoring multiplier to that shot that can stack with consecutive shots and will increase its score when the cannon is pointed at that shot and you hit action button to blow it up.
If at anytime you hit a shot that you had blown a hole in (i.e. an unlit shot) it will relight the shot and the wall/poster for that shot will need to be blown again.
Hint: whichever direction you spin the slash record, the cannon will move that same direction (i.e. clockwise or counterclockwise). Additionally, the cannon will not move any further than the far left or right loop shot, unless you get the UYI-2 patch then the cannon can wrap around past the loop and move to the other side of the playfield. This patch is critical to complete the mode.

You could be mine:
one shot is always lit. The shot changes each wave.

Civil War: inner loop is always lit + either the right ramp, left loop, right loop, or Left ramp (alternates with song).

Estranged:
There will be 4 static shots and one roving shot always lit. Depending on where you are in the song, the pattern will be one of two methods. Typical (start) - 4 album targets always lit + roving shot on loops or ramps. Alternate: 2 loops + 2 ramps always lit + roving album target.

Album - Appetite for Destruction

Album mode - defeat the robot:
All main shots are lit. Whichever shot you make, all other shots will go away and you can hit that same shot an addition 3 times (on a hurry up timer) to do damage. If you hit the same shot 3x or if the hurry up timer runs out, all shots will light again. During the hurry up phase you can freeze the timer with a shot under the upper flipper. Additionally, targets will be lit green - if you hit them they will build your energy. Collect enough energy to get an attack with the action button. Get robot to 0 health then hit action button to complete.

It’s so easy:
This is a shot frenzy (not switch frenzy). Every shot is lit, 10 shots complete the wave. Each shot you make will no longer be a qualified shot until you pass the wave.

MR Brownstone:
Inner spinner is lit. Hit it and it will light 2 or 3 shots. Early on the 3 shots are left loop, left ramp, and center scoop. Hit one of those shots and inner spinner will light again. Alternate until you pass the wave. Depending where you are at in the song, the lit shots after hitting inner spinner will be different.

Sweet child o’ mine:
2 loop shots lit. Hit either one and the 2 shots will switch to the ramps. These bank of two shots alternate back and forth as you hit them. The scoop will also be lit early on and periodically through song.

Welcome to the jungle:
This song is a bit of a jungle. Starts off with most the shots lit. Next wave switches to loops but when you hit one the shots switch to targets. Midway only the inner loop shot will be lit; unfortunately the right ramp detour will not divert (bug?). Then it goes back to all shots but as you make one it switches to targets, loops, ramps, then just the coma for awhile.

My Michelle: 2 hurry up roving targets move clockwise to the tempo of the song.

Out ta get me:
4 left shots will be lit (left loop + left ramp + 2 targets). It switches to the 4 right shots (right loop + right ramp + 2 targets. It switches back & forth based on where you are in the song, not after each wave (i.e. more of a timed mode).

Paradise City: x amount of pops hits will light one of the major shots. Subsequent pops hits will light more major shots. Make one of the lit shots and it will remain unlit until pops relight it. If nothing is lit, shoot the pops.

Night Train:
1/4 of song waves alternate from both ramps to 4 album targets
2/4 of song is the AXL lanes
3/4 of song is ramps
4/4 of song is AXL lanes

Rocket queen: CW + CCW moving shot. The 5 main shots (left loop, left ramp, inner spinner, right ramp, right loop) are the shots that will light for this mode. Only one song shot will be lit at a time and The song shot stays planted until you make it. It starts on the left loop and makes its way around CW until you light the scoop. On the next wave it starts on the right loop and will make its way CCW around the playfield. Each time you start a new wave it alternates the start position from left loop (CW) to right loop (CCW).

Paradise City: x amount of pops hits will light one of the major shots. Subsequent pops hits will light more major shots. Make one of the lit shots and it will remain unlit until pops relight it. If nothing is lit, shoot the pops.

Depends if I want to go for higher song scores, higher album mode scores, or more control and trapping. I typically go for frenzy patches, followed by control, then move to the album patches as I set up those modes.

Fender: always always should be your first patch

Duff skull + Fender + Vader: great trio for band frenzy scoring

T-Shirt+Poster: if you want more control and trap up more often in songs.

All 4 sponser patches: fender + Vader are 2 high quality patches for band frenzy. Might as well Get the other 2 for the extra ball

4 album patches: if you want to blow up an album mode. Even more lucrative and worth going for if you’ve adjusted your settings to so that album modes score higher.

Also, looks like

^^ This!!
Those 2 timers are critical to making powerchord and album modes more lucrative. My album scoring is typically higher than my song jackpots (granted I do well in the album).

Remember; doing well in songs isn’t just about doing well pre-song; yes it can help, but the faster you can progress through the waves, the higher jackpots become, ultimately increasing the final jackpot.

Pre-song priorities (or options) should be:

1. Ball locks - getting 4+ locks increases song level quite a bit and is relatively the easiest pre-song task.

2. Fender patch!

3. Booster multiballs: this is subjective. Starting any of the 4 booster multiballs is extremely easy (got a problem with that? Fix your settings!! ) - but, you need to do well in the booster mb’s in order to drive your song level up, otherwise you played them for no reason. so it’s no gimmie. Prioritize. Sometimes it’s worth not starting a booster so it’s lit for when you cash out of a song and use that booster for collecting band members and locks.

4. Patches: fender/Vader/Duff for band frenzy. Fender/T-shirt/poster for control and ball trapping.

5. Loops: x number of loops rewards band member items. Each item increases song level +5.

Listen; you can be Karl D’Angelo or the super elitist and try to maximize all 5 of those priorities; if you like to grind. Or you can be more realistic and just go for a few. The truth is; you can boost the scoring in songs quickly by progressing through waves, getting powerchord jackpots, or starting band frenzy. And (typically) playing a 2nd or 3rd song off encore will negate all that pre-song setup anyway. EDIT: Also (unconfirmed), if you cash out of a song then get back into a song without draining your song level will be the same or higher (end EDIT). Also, if you adjust settings so not everything is on extra easy, you’ll find more features of the game like album modes, powerchords, and cashing out of songs more meaningful.

If you’re trying to maximize everything pre-song every game, i imagine you’d get burnt out quick. That’s like trying to get the perfect set of gems, with max level avenger, and max captain marvel x5 on avengers. It’s cool to try it once in awhile; but you’ll burnout quick if that’s all you do. Expand your horizons.

2 year owner - GNR rocks!

My magnet is out too now. Luckily, it’s not that impactful on gameplay. The worst part of it out is qualifying AXL for band frenzy. Luckily the fender patch helps with this, otherwise I use the center spinner shot in hopes to get through the pops to the AXL switch. You have the right idea of making eb easier to qualify. I haven’t found it too cumbersome to qualify AXL pre-song - you can always use the JAM lanes/target.

Yea, if you’re not getting band frenzy and want higher scores, this is where you need to focus. I sometimes get band frenzy like 6 times in one song (some sarcasm there). Fender, Vader, duff patches. Then, see which symbol is flashing on either the band member inserts matrix in front of the flipper, or in the lower right hand portion of the LCD; hit that band member to collect - you’ll get 2 band member collects with that one shot if you have fender patch.

Note: the latest update makes it more clear on the inserts of what’s collected, what’s active, and which still remain.

Hope I explained that well. But you can boost your song jackpot a few million with a single band frenzy and ripping spinners.