At the beginning of each ball, shoot for the in line drop targets in the back left of the game to build bonus multiplier. Once that is done, build bonus around the playfield until Hotdoggin Ski Fun has been completed once, then go for mid-ball bonus collects by shooting the K top lane followed by the right side lane.
Score 500 points each, and award the corresponding letter in S-K-I when lit. Going through the K lane, whether the letter has been collected or not, lights the right side lane above the out lane for a kickback and bonus collect. If all three of S-K-I have been collected, the S and I lanes score 5,000 points instead of 500.
The S, K, and I lanes also light the left, lower, and upper right bumpers out of the set of 3, respectively. Bumpers score 100 points, or 1,000 when lit.
The three targets award 3X, 4X, and 5X bonus. Hitting the 3X target also lights the spinner. Completing the in line drops open up a turnaround lane toward the upper left saucer, and also light that saucer for a special.
Hitting the in line drops on each ball is very important to scoring well on Hotdoggin. A common tournament strategy is to trap the ball on the left flipper, make tiny flips to give the ball some momentum rocking back and forth, and then using that momentum to backhand the in lines when the ball rolls toward the end of the flipper. No matter what your strategy for getting up to the drops is, be careful of the return feed, as it frequently comes close to- but is saveable from being- a center drain.
Can be shot directly from below, or from above via the turnaround lane after the in line drop targets have been cleared. The saucer scores 500 points on its own. If Hotdoggin Ski Fun was completed on this ball, this saucer is lit for extra ball until the end of the ball. If the in line drop targets have been completed on this ball, this saucer is lit for special for the rest of the ball. If the special is collected, the saucer value will change to 25,000 for the rest of the ball, and the out lanes at the bottom of the table will both be lit for a special.
Each target down scores 300 points, and awards the corresponding letter if lit. Once all four of D-O-G-G have been collected, each target will be worth 4,000 points, and completing the bank spots a letter in Hotdoggin Ski Fun.
Each target scores 300 points and the corresponding letter if lit. When both the I and N in Hotdoggin have been collected, these targets become worth 3,000 points each.
Spinner scores 100 points per spin, or 1,000 when lit. The spinner is lit for the rest of the ball by hitting the first (3X bonus) in line drop target.
Note that there is no one way gate coming out of the shooter lane. A ball shot to the spinner that does not have the momentum to get to the top of the table- which is frequent- may fall back into the shooter lane for a replunge.
Each target scores 300 points. Collecting all three of F-U-N lights the bank for 3,000 per target and spot letter for completing the bank.
Take caution shooting directly at these targets. No matter what flipper you shoot them from, the ball likes to end up in the left out lane.
If the side lane is not lit, entering it will score 500 points, and the kicker pin will retract, allowing the ball to fall down toward the out lane. It can be saved and nudged back toward the in lane off of a small pin next to the wall of the game. Never take this feed for granted, always play as though the ball is in danger if this happens.
Going through the K top lane lights this side lane for kicker up and collect bonus. Entering the side lane when lit will score the entire bonus with multiplier (and not reset it), and kick the ball up out of the lane instead. If you have a couple multipliers and the 30,000 super bonus is lit, setting up and cashing in this shot is the best thing you can do- unfortunately, it's quite difficult to end up in this side lane on purpose.
Standup targets score 300 points each and award the corresponding letter when lit. If all three of H-O-T are collected, targets are worth 3,000 points instead.
Hoo boy.
Both out lanes score 1,000 points, or a special when lit. Specials light on both out lanes by collecting the saucer special, which is in turn lit by completing the in line drop targets.
On the left side, there are 3 in lanes. From left to right, they award 500 + spot letter, 5,000, and 500 + spot letter when lit.
On the right side, there are two in lanes, which award 500 + spot letter when lit for the leftmost and 500 + spot letter (always) for the rightmost.
Note the height of the posts separating the in and out lanes relative to the tops of the slingshots. If a ball hits the top of either slingshot and bounces toward the sides of the table, it is very liable to "walk" along the tops of the lanes by bouncing off the posts and ending up in the corresponding out lane. Have side nudges ready so the ball can be encouraged to go down a lane instead.
On the right side, part of the slingshot is instead an upper flipper. Presumably this was designed for easier shooting at the D-O-G-G targets and maybe also the in line drops, but both of those can be hit with the lower right flipper just fine unless said lower flipper is very weak, so in practice the upper flipper should just be used to deflect balls away from the right out lane structure.
Each letter in Hotdoggin Ski Fun scores 2,000 points at the end of the ball. Collecting all 15 letters lights the 30,000 super bonus and allows them all to be collected again, in addition to lighting the extra ball at the back left saucer. Only one completion can be stored, so finishing all the letters a second time decreases the bonus from 58,000 to 30,000. The second completion of Hotdoggin Ski Fun immediately awards an extra ball, or 25,000 points if same player shoots again is already lit. Every completion starting with the 3rd awards a special directly. All letters, and the number of times the full phrase has been completed, are held in memory from ball to ball.
Bonus multiplier is found exclusively at the in line drop targets. There is no 2X bonus; the three drops award, in order, 3X, 4X, and 5X bonus. Bonus multipliers are not carried over from ball to ball by default, so collecting them should be each ball's first priority. Max bonus is 5x 58,000 = 290,000 points.
The mid-ball bonus collect at the right side kicker lane scores the full bonus including the multipliers, and does not reset them.
In competition/novelty play, specials score 50,000 points and extra balls score 25,000 points.
The second completion of Hotdoggin Ski Fun can light the out lane specials instead of awarding the immediate extra ball.
Bonus multipliers can be set to carry over from ball to ball. However, the in line drop targets will always reset. This means that if, for example, the 4X bonus is achieved, it will be locked in for the rest of the game, but to advance to 5X on a future ball, the entire in line drop target set must still be cleared again.
The Spot Letter When Lit in lanes can be set to both be always on, alternate but always have one on, both be on only every 5th bumper hit, or alternate but only be on with every 5th bumper hit. On the latter two settings, the Spot Letter When Lit pretty much never comes into play.
The saucer special can be set to be collected repeatedly instead of turning into 25,000 points after being collected once.
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