Champ is the 4-player version. Sky Kings is a 1-player version that can be set to add-a-ball play instead of replay awards. Scoring and playfield are the same, but minor differences between the two are mentioned at the end of the document.
Try to make the top saucer as a skill shot to light both captive balls. Failing that, hit the two mushroom bumpers to achieve the same. Once both captive balls are lit, whale on them for 5,000 points and 4 bonus advance until the bonus is maxed out at 15,000. Once the bonus is maxed, continue to shoot for captive balls unless the game has activated the setting where extra balls score 5,000 points, in which case shoot for those targets instead. Ignore the spinner and the center of the table (aside from the skill shot).
The left top lanes scores 500 points and lights the yellow bumper and left captive ball. The right top lane scores 500 points and lights the green bumper and right captive ball. The center saucer scores 3,000 points, lights both bumpers, and lights both captive balls. An ideal skill shot collects this saucer, but be careful, because the saucer kicks out directly downwards through the spinner and this feed comes with quite high center drain risk. It should be possible to get at least one flipper on the ball most of the time, but it's not a trivial save.
If you go for the saucer skill shot and miss it, do NOT try to reclaim it by shooting through the spinner at the saucer. The mushroom bumpers serve as a much less dangerous way to light the captive balls following a missed skill shot.
10 points, or 100 when lit.
Always scores 100 points per spin. Every 10th spin awards a bonus advance. While tempting, this is not optimal to go for.
Score 500 points and light the captive ball and bumper on the same side of the table.
The primary scoring shot in the game. Each captive ball has 2 rollover switches and a standup target at the end. The rollover switches score 1,000 points each, and they also each give a bonus advance if that captive ball is lit. The standup target also scores 1,000 points, and a special when lit. Specials are lit by maxing out the bonus at 15,000 points. Since the ball triggers the rollover switches once on the way up and again on the way down, a full shot to a lit captive ball can give 5,000 points and 4 bonus advance, which is almost always the most valuable shot in the game. Success on Champ or Sky Kings depends almost exclusively on how accurately you can hit a lit captive ball and how frequently you can regain control afterward to do it again.
These targets always give 1,000 points. When the bonus count is 8,000, 10,000, 12,000, or 14,000, the left target will be lit for extra ball. When the bonus count is 9,000, 11,000, or 13,000, the right target will be lit for extra ball. When the bonus count is maxed out at 15,000, both targets should be lit. (The most recent VPX version of Sky Kings as this page is written does not implement this correctly, and instead both extra ball lights are off at 15,000 bonus.)
On Sky Kings only, extra balls can be set to award 5,000 points. If this is the case, it's slightly easier and more efficient to collect repeatable 5,000s from the extra ball targets instead of full captive ball hits once the bonus is maxed out at 15,000.
Champ and Sky Kings have a conventional in/out lane setup. Out lanes score 1,000 points. In lanes score 1,000 points and a bonus advance. No kickbacks, gates, or center posts here.
Bonus is advanced by rollover switches in a lit captive ball lane, every 10th spin of the spinner, or any in lane. The current bonus value lights certain extra ball or special targets as described above. Double bonus is awarded for free on the final ball of the game. There is no way to receive double bonus as an award during gameplay. There is also no way to carry over any bonus or collect the bonus mid-ball.
Champ is the 4-player version of this playfield. It is advertised as being "convertible to add-a-ball", but as far as I have been able to find, this just means that specials and replay scores can be set to give extra balls instead. There is always a maximum of one extra ball per ball in play on Champ, and there does not seem to be a way to change the extra ball or special awards to points.
Sky Kings is the 1-player version of this playfield. On replay settings, the specials and replay scores give a free game, and the extra ball targets give an extra ball with a max of one per ball in play. However, Sky Kings can also be set to true add-a-ball mode, where specials and replay scores give extra balls and the game counts down the number of balls to play. Up to 10 balls remaining can be stored. Finally, in novelty mode, all extra balls and specials can give 5,000 points instead.
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