Good points can be found all over the table, but safe good points are really only available in the upper playfield. Complete banks of drop targets to light the upper left saucer for collects; do so repeatedly alongside hitting the green standup targets and avoiding the red standup target to maximize the rate at which the saucer collect advances. Score and advance the Colossus bonus with a chance at an extra ball by completing the lower right drop targets or making 1-2-3 on the left in order.
Three inserts labelled Ready, Aim, and Fire will flash in sequence, then the 5 star rollovers will all flash. Precisely plunge in both power and timing so that your ball rolls over as many light star rollovers as possible. Each lit star scores 10,000 points, adds 3 advances to the Medusa bonus, and adds 500 points to the spinner value. When the Ready-Aim-Fire lights are in their sequence, one of the stars will be lit, so if you walk up to the table and plunge with reckless abandon, you'll get one set of the advances. If you plunge at the exact wrong time and hit no lit stars, the spinner will be worth just 10 points per spin. There is no way to return to the shooter lane, nor any other way to advance the spinner value, so what you plunge here is what you get.
The upper playfield can be accessed via either orbit, or a shot between the upper flippers. Hitting any drop target causes the upper flippers to zip together for 10 seconds; this affects shotmaking slightly, but makes it nearly impossible to drain the ball between the upper flippers. The ball can, however, fall back to the lower playfield by going down through either orbit. If this happens, the upper flippers immediately unzip so that the lower flippers can be used to access the upper playfield once more.
The 21 red lights represent your progress in steps toward advancing the Olympus Bonus value. Clearing the top drop targets advances the number of lit steps on the playfield, and lights the upper left saucer for a collect. At first, only 1 target will appear, but 1 additional target will join it after each bank completion. At first, completing a bank adds 3 steps to the Olympus progress, but depending on game settings, this can decrease to 2 or 1 after some drop target completions. If you hit the green targets to light A and B, the next drop target completion awards you double the lit number of steps on the table. If you hit the red standup target, you lose one step of progress instantly.
The flashing red light in the back of the game represents your next goal. Advancing enough steps to meet the goal will increase the value of the upper left saucer by 50,000 points. Goals are at 6, 11, 16, and 21 steps; then, the red lights reset. Every time you complete the drop targets, the saucer is lit for a one time collect.
If the first goal has not been reached, the saucer scores very few points (5,000?) when the collect is lit.
The first time that the saucer is collected for at least 150,000 points, Extended Play is qualified, which is an extra ball played at the end of the game with a timed ball save.
The first time that the saucer is collected for at least 200,000, a special is scored.
The saucer can continue to be increased if further goals are hit, but this gets harder as the game goes. If there is a max saucer value, it is at least 300,000. Be sure to collect the saucer whenever it is lit; if you clear the drop targets again without making the saucer, you lose a chance to collect, which can be very big points.
The saucer value cannot downgrade; if you meet a goal and then hit the red standup target to go back a step, you do not lose saucer value, it will just take more work to reach the next goal. You cannot go below 0 steps.
The left orbit advances bonus multiplier in the order of 2x-3x-5x for the first three hits; anything after that scores 50,000 points. The right orbit scores and advances the lit value each time in the order of 10,000-20,000-30,000-40,000-50,000. Both orbits reset their progress at the end of each ball, and both orbits add 1 charge to the Shield of the Gods center post. If the two digits of the extra ball number feature have been locked in, shooting either orbit resets the feature.
Hitting the 1-2-3 standup targets in order in the lower left, or clearing the drop targets in the lower right, scores and advances the Colossus Bonus, which begins at 30,000 points and increases by 30,000 each time it is collected. This bonus maxes out at 150,000 points; collecting the 150,000 also scores a special. The Colossus bonus is reset between balls.
The middle two digits of the display set into the playfield form the extra ball number. Both digits constantly change throughout gameplay: one decreases, and the other increases. Completing the 1-2-3 targets in the lower left locks in the left digit, and completing the lower right drop targets locks in the right digit. If the two digits match, an instant extra ball is award. If they do not match, shoot either orbit to reset the feature and start the numbers moving again.
There is almost nothing separating the in and out lanes other than a single post, on each side. Directly above the post is a star rollover that advances the Medusa Bonus. The out lanes themselves also advance the Medusa Bonus. On both sides, there are a handful of small posts above the in/out lane structure; be ready to nudge the ball off of any or all of these to encourage an in lane feed or keep the ball otu of those areas in the table in the first place.
The flippers are slightly strange compared to regular ones. They are transparent, and a red light underneath the lowered flipper position turns on when the flipper buttons are not being held. If you're new to this table, be mindful of how the flippers may look weird when you use them.
Between the flippers is a center post known as the Shield of the Gods post. This is an active post, just like the Little Demon on Fireball II released around this time. It is operated with the second button on the right side of the cabinet, or by the right magna-save button in VPX. Pressing this button flicks the post upward to help return a ball to play. You start the game with 5 uses of the Shield. Each use still remaining at the end of the game scores 10,000 points alongside the last ball's bonus.
While the Colossus, Olympus, and Medusa scoring features are all called Bonus, only the Medusa bonus is collected at the end of the ball- the others are discussed earlier in the guide. The 1-2-3 targets, lower right drop targets, orbit shots, lower star rollovers, and out lanes each advance the bonus once. Max bonus is 99,000 points; when you reach 20,000, 40,000, 60,000, or 80,000, that much bonus is locked in and carried forward for the rest of the game, with the remainder being lost from ball to ball. Bonus multiplier for the Medusa bonus is advanced by the left orbit in the order of 2x-3x-5x. Max Medusa bonus, then, is 5x 99,000 = 495,000 points. As an appendix to the base bonus, you also receive 1,000 points for each lit step on the red lights at the back of the game at the end of each ball, and you receive 10,000 points per unused charge of the Shield alongside the bonus of the final ball of the game.
Collecting an Olympus Bonus of at least 150,000 points qualifies that player for Extended Play, an extra ball that is played immediately after the final ball of the player(s) who earned it. Extended Play is an extra ball that starts with 10 seconds of unlimited ball save. The two digits on the left of the in-playfield display show the time units remaining for Extended Play. During Extended Play, you can add to the timer by completing the 1-2-3 targets (10 seconds), clearing the lower right drop targets (5 seconds), making the upper left saucer (1 second), or hitting an already-lit green standup target on the upper playfield (1 second). You can continue to play the Extended Play ball when the timer runs out, but if you drain with 00 on the clock, your Extended Play ball ends, and so does your game.
In competition/novelty play, extra balls score 25,000 points and specials score 50,000 points.
The red standup target can be disabled, so that hitting it does not take you back a step on the red LED light string toward advancing the Olympus bonus.
The rules for the zipped upper flippers can be changed so that each upper drop target hit adds 10 seconds to the zip-together timer, instead of setting it to 10 seconds.
There are 4 options for how the Olympus bonus changes over time. In each case, the four numbers refer to how many steps are awarded for the 1st-5th, 6th-10th, 11th-15th, and 16th+ drop target clears, respectively.