Top saucers, right standups, and right drops give cards of the lit suit, which are base bonus. Any pair, triple, or 4 of a kind gives bonus multiplier. The only way to get Aces is from the center drop target. Lit suit is changed with the spinner, slingshots, or upper right bumper. Each royal flush gives different awards, but it's very difficult to get more than one or two, and downright unrealistic to get all 4, even in a 5 ball game.
There are 10 saucers arranged in a circle at the top of the playfield. Four are labelled "Ten", and two of each of the others are labelled "Jack", "Queen", and "King". When a ball lands in any saucer, the card of the lit suit and the labelled rank is awarded. Also, 200 points are scored for every 1/5 of a second that the ball is resting in any of these saucers. However, there is also a "clock flipper", an oversized flipper that rotates on its own, that will eventually push the ball out of a saucer.
It is not only possible but likely that the clock flipper will push the ball into another saucer. If you're lucky, the ball will briefly get stuck to the end of the flipper and register in several saucers in a row, spotting many cards. Be on alert for the ball to break the cycle at any time, though.
If all five cards in the Diamond suit have been collected, the saucers will score 2,000 points per 1/5 second instead of 200.
The left bumper scores 100 points and rotates the lit suit with each hit. Suits are always rotated in the order of Diamond -> Heart -> Spade -> Club. The other two bumpers only score 10 points, and do not rotate the suit. Try not to flip directly at any bumper.
There are two in the very top right of the table, above the flippers and next to the saucers, labelled King and Queen; there are two more in the lower right of the table below the drop targets labelled Jack and Ten. Hitting any target scores 500 points, and lights the corresponding rank of the lit suit. If a target's rank has already been collected in all four suits, the 4X light in front of that target will turn on, meaning that target is now worth 2,000 points.
Function similarly to the right standups. From top to bottom, they are labelled King, Jack, Ace, Ten, and Queen. Hitting any drop target scores 500 points and lights the card of that target's rank and the lit suit. If all four cards of that target's rank are lit, that drop target scores 2,000 instead. The drop targets only reset the bank is completed, or between balls. Note that the center target of this bank is the only way in the game to pick up Ace cards.
If all four Aces and all five Spade cards have been collected, the Ace drop target will light for 10X, meaning it scores 5,000 points.
Scores 1,000 points per spin, changes the lit suit with each spin, and funnels the ball back to the top of the table. If the Spade royal flush has been completed, the spinner is lit for 2,000 a spin instead of 1,000. On some particularly difficult Hot Hands, it might be safest to just go for this all day.
Unlike its brethren on the right, this standup is not tied to any cards. It scores 500 points, or is lit for 5,000 if the royal flush of Hearts has been completed.
It's difficult to end up here on accident, and even more difficult to end up here on purpose. Nevertheless, this lane scores 10,000 points, and kicks the ball up toward the bottom of the saucer area. If the royal flush of Spades has been completed, this lane can be lit for extra ball.
Hot Hand has a conventional in lane/out lane setup. The out lanes score 3,000 points. If two royal flushes have been completed, one or both out lanes will light for Special.
The in lanes score 500 points, or 5,000 points when lit. The left in lane is lit by completing the Club royal flush, and the right in lane is lit by completing the Heart royal flush.
The slingshots score 100 points but, more importantly, rotated the lit card suit.
Each lit card scores 1,000 points in base bonus. Collecting a pair in any rank of card lights 2X bonus; collecting a triple in any rank lights 3X; collecting 4 of a kind in any rank lights 4X.
To get to 5X, the entire board must be completed- all four royal flushes. When all 20 cards have been collected, then on the next ball, the board will reset with the 5X multiplier intact and Super Bonus lit, allowing the player to collect all the cards again with a 100,000 point super bonus carried forward. Max bonus is 5X multiplier times 20,000 from cards times 2 full boards = 200,000 points. Realistically, though, any bonus of at least 40,000-50,000 points is very good. Due to the unpredictability of which suit is lit, getting all 4 royal flushes in one game is unfeasibly difficult.
All cards and bonus multipliers are always carried from ball to ball, so getting a selection of cards and preferably a 4X multiplier on ball 1 is of utmost importance.
In order of most to least desirable:
The extra ball can be disabled, but not set to points.
The extra ball can also be set to always be lit when the Spade royal flush is completed, or it can also require Spades to be the currently lit suit.
The special can be set to an extra ball, a free game, both of those, or 100,000 points. It can be limited to one per player per game, or open ended. It can be set to come on after 2 or 3 different royal flushes are complete. Finally, it can also be set to be lit solidly on both out lanes, or alternate between them.
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