Spell TOMCAT repeatedly to work toward multiball. The exact number of spellings needed to start a multiball can vary greatly based on settings. During multiball, shoot the right orbit 3 times to score the jackpot. The left orbit gives Kills, and 8 Kills scores extra ball, but beware the extremely fast kickout from this lane. Bonus multiplier is lit at one of the center loop entrances by making the loop itself or going through an in lane.
Red standup targets spell TOM, and blue standup targets spell CAT. There is one set of TOMCAT targets at the top of the playfield, or there are also TOM and CAT targets on either side of the bottom of the playfield. It's safest to try to pick off the top ones, though.
Spelling TOMCAT lights locks. Exactly how this functions depends on game settings:
The right orbit locks balls after the appropriate number of TOMCAT spellings. When 3 balls are locked, shooting the right orbit when Release is lit (may require another TOMCAT spelling) starts Multiball.
The lock can be lit multiple times, both by settings that allow a single TOMCAT to light two locks or by spelling TOMCAT multiple times without shooting the lock shot in between. If the lock is lit multiple times, subsequent plunges will lock balls after the right orbit is hit once.
Each subsequent multiball increases the difficulty regarding how many TOMCAT completions are required to start it.
Hitting an upper TOMCAT target immediately after the ball goes through the upper loop in either direction scores Hot Streak. Hitting more targets without letting the ball fall to the bottom of the playfield increases the Hot Streak bonus, with each Hot Streak hit scoring 10,000 more points than the previous.
Shooting the right orbit during single ball play when it is not lit for Lock or Release spots a letter in TOMCAT.
Shooting the left orbit scores a Kill. After 7 Kills (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delto, Echo, Fox, and Golf), the next shot to the left orbit kills General Yagov, scoring 250,000 points and an extra ball. On a clean and well maintained machine, the kickout from this left orbit should be unfahtomably fast, right at a flipper. There is Flight Insurance, though, which is a brief ball save for if the kickout sends the ball directly down the middle.
The center targets also award a Kill if they are lit briefly after going through a lit in lane. These are far too dangerous to shoot for directly, though.
After 3 balls are locked, shooting the right orbit when Release is lit starts Multiball. Multiball can also be started by shooting the left orbit when Ripoff is lit, though I have not been able to determine what causes this (seems like it has to do with whether there are balls physically located in all 3 locks, such as by another player, when the current player gets credit for lock 3?). There are two scoring features exclusive to multiball:
Multiball is always 4 balls to start.
Comboing the upper loop or going through an in lane will light one side of the upper loop for Advance Bonus X, towards the maximum of 8x. The upper loop can be shot directly from the lower or upper flippers on each side.
Hitting the lit 1-6 target (which moves on its own) lights the spinner on the right side of the upper loop for 1,000 points per spin. Even when lit, this is not enough to be meaningful.
F-14 Tomcat has a conventional in/out lane setup. The out lanes are lit for Special by lighting every TOMCAT and 1-6 target during multiball. There is a kickback in the left out lane. It is on by default at the start of each ball, unlights when it is used, and can be relit by hitting whichever center standup target is lit orange (it alternates, and the kickback is not relit if the center targets are lit for a Kill).
The in lanes, when lit, light the center target for a Kill. Comboing the left in lane to the right orbit scores a Launch Bonus, which awards 50,000 points the first time as pulled off and an additional 50,000 each subsequent time, maxing out at 250,000.
Most targets and lanes advance the bonus by 1,000 points each. The current bonus value is the sum of all lit blue arrows: maximum base bonus is 64+32+16+8+4+2+1 = 127,000 points.
Bonus is multiplied by shooting the upper loop when it is lit orange: upper loop can be lit for bonus X by making the upper loop itself (multipliers are then available by repeatedly making the loop with the upper flipper), or by going through an in lane. Max bonus multiplier is 8x. Max bonus is 8x 127,000 = 1,016,000 points, so be sure not to end a long ball with a tilt. Once per game, an extra ball can be collected at the left orbit shot by maxing out the bonus multiplier at 8x. There is no way to carry over base bonus or bonus multiplier between balls.
TOMCAT letters and Kill progress toward Yagov can be set not to carry over from ball to ball; by default, both do carry over.
The minimum difficulty for the first multiball can be changed as described in the Spelling Tomcat section above.
The Rescue (left kickback) can be set not to be on at the start of each ball.
The Launch (right orbit) can be set not to spot the next letter in TOMCAT.
The Center Kill can be set to award a letter in TOMCAT in addition to the Kill itself, which it does not do by default.
The in lanes can be set to only light for a Kill once 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x bonus is reached instead of being available to start. Each time Yagov is killed, this setting will get harder for a given player within a single game.