Pick 8 ball or 9 ball play based on whether you're better at shooting a lot of drop targets or a few specific drop targets respectively. Then finish a rack by hitting enough flashing drop targets and collect the 3,000,000 Trick Shot hurry-up at the left orbit. Jackpot is lit by completing a rack, a set of Cue top lanes, and a set of lower right standup targets to collect the three sharks; jackpot is lit at the right Hot Shot saucer. If extra balls are on, light them on the in/out lanes by making the left orbit immediately after finishing Cue.
Player 1 on a game of Pool Sharks must decide on ball 1 whether to play 8 ball or 9 ball rules. Once they make that decision, everyone in the game must use those rules. The differences lie in how Racks are scored toward lighting the Trick Shot or Jackpot.
On 8 ball play, letters can be collected from the Hot Shot targets in any order, but Hot Shot must be completed twice- once to finish the 1-7 balls, and the second time for 9-15. After all 14 balls have been collected, only 1 lit ramp needs to be made to collect the 8 ball and finish the rack, which lights the Trick Shot.
On 9 ball play, Hot Shot only needs to be completed once, but the letters can only be collected in order. If the target corresponding to the current required letter is down for any reason, that entire bank (Hot or Shot) will reset. Spelling Hot Shot gives the first 7 balls in the rack- from there, the 8 ball and 9 ball must be collected from ramps. Making the ramp lit for 9 ball finishes the rack and lights the Trick Shot.
8 ball versus 9 ball play does not affect the number of balls/turns that each player receives; that number will still typically be three.
If you're not the best at hitting specific drop targets, but the drop targets are safe to shoot for in general, go for 8 ball play if you have the choice, but if you have even decent accuracy, 9 ball is the better pick, since it generally requires less work to finish a rack and light the Trick Shot. In competition play, unless tournament rules require players to pick 8 ball, most people will generally pick 9 ball mode. There are separate high score tables for 8 ball versus 9 ball play.
A full plunge that goes all the way around the back of the game and down the left ramp scores 100,000 points and adds 1 ball to the current rack. Plunge shorter than that, and the ball may fall into the one of the habitrails used by the ramps; doing this scores 200,000 points and adds 2 balls to the current rack. Plunge even shorter than that, and the ball may fall off the plunge ramp into the saucer in the back right of the game, scoring 300,000 points and adding 3 balls to the current rack. If you plunge too short and miss the 3 balls outcome, the pinball will return down the right orbit and nothing will be scored- however, watch closely, because when this happens, the ball will frequently come to the flippers without scoring any points. If you don't hear any score sound effects and your score is still flashing quickly, you can drain the ball for free and try the plunge again, since the playfield was never validated due to no points being scored.
Each drop target adds 5,000 points to the jackpot. Hitting a flashing drop target causes that letter in Hot Shot to light and awards one of the pool balls in the current rack. Completing either bank at any time causes that bank only to reset and increases the value of the Cue Stick captive ball shot by one stage. If the game is being played with 9 ball rules, a drop target bank can also reset if the currently flashing letter's target is down- for example, in Hot, if the O was made first, then the flashing H was hit, the O will flash, but since the O was knocked down before, the entire Hot bank will reset.
During 8-ball rules, lighting all of the letters in Hot Shot twice will light the ramps for 8 ball, which completes the rack. Progress on the second spelling of Hot Shot (the 9-15 balls) cannot be made until the first spelling (the 1-7 balls) is finished first.
During 9-ball rules, letters in Hot Shot must be collected in order, but only one spelling of Hot Shot is needed to light the ramps for 8 ball and 9 ball and complete the rack.
Going through a lane lights that letter in Cue. Lit lanes can be rotated in either direction using flipper lane change. Completing Cue awards the Tiger Shark, advances the bonus multiplier up to a maximum of 5x, and lights the left orbit for Light Extra Ball for a few seconds.
When not lit for the 8 or 9 balls, the left ramp scores the 25,000 point Half Bank Shot, and the right ramp scores the 50,000 point Full Bank Shot. Left ramp shots typically come down one of the habitrails to the flipper, while right ramp shots go all the way around the back of the game and come down the left ramp.
When Hot Shot has been completed once or twice as required for the current rack's rules, one or both ramps will light for the 8 ball (in both modes) or the 9 ball (during 9 ball play, after the 8 ball ramp has been made). On easy settings, or on the first rack only during medium settings, both ramps will be lit for both the 8 and 9 ball as necessary. On hard settings, or on every rack starting with the second on medium settings, only one ramp will be lit. (In the latter case, for 9 ball play, one of the two ramps will randomly be lit for 8 ball, and then the other ramp will have the 9 ball after the 8 is collected.) The 8 and 9 balls never move or time out once they are lit. Collecting the 8 ball in 8 ball play, or both the 8 and the 9 in 9 ball play, completes the rack and lights the Great White Shark.
Shooting the left orbit sends the ball toward the Power Shot scoop. If the left orbit is not lit for anything else, the Power Shot scoop gives a mystery award, which gives one of the following at random:
The kickout from the Power Shot scoop puts the ball in the Cue lanes.
Immediately after a rack was finished, the left orbit will be lit for Trick Shot. (The insert reads "Maximum 3 Million".) This is a hurry-up award whose value is displayed on the backglass. The award starts at 3,000,000 points and stays there for about 7 seconds; then counts down to 100,000 over the next 15 seconds; then stays at 100,000 for about 5 seconds before timing out. To collect this value, you must shoot the left orbit and make the ball into the Power Shot hole. The Power Shot hole is notoriously misbehaved on some machines, so there may be some screwjobs and rimouts involved here, but that's pinball. Always try to go for a big Trick Shot, because it's very difficult for anything else on the table to be worth as many points.
Immediately after any completion of the Cue top lanes, the left orbit will be lit for Light Extra Ball for about 15 seconds. Shooting through the left orbit and into the Power Shot scoop during this time lights an extra ball on one of the in or out lanes.
The Cue Stick is the captive ball in the back left of the game. Hitting it when not lit scores 10,000 points. Completing either bank of drop targets at any time (both Hot and Shot individually) advances the Cue Stick value up the following ladder: 30,000 - 50,000 - 80,000 - 100,000 - 200,000 - 300,000 - 500,000 - Million. If the Cue Stick is hit for any value of 100,000 or less, the value will stay where it is after being collected. If the Cue Stick is hit for 200,000, 300,000, or 500,000, it will reset back to the 100,000 level. If the cue stick is hit for the Million, all lights will reset and the value returns to the base level of 10,000 points.
The standup targets in the lower right of the game belong to the Hammerhead Shark. Hit all three to light the three green lights, which awards the Hammerhead Shark himself and lights 2x Cue Stick Value for 15 seconds. (2x Cue Stick also ends once collected.) The Cue Stick value never times out or decreases on its own, so try to hold off on hitting it until the value maxed and the Hammerhead targets are completed, to turn the Million into 2,000,000.
When the right saucer lane is not lit, it scores a Shark Bite, which adds 100,000 points to the current jackpot.
Collecting all 3 sharks in a single ball- the Great White from completing a rack, the Tiger from the Cue lanes, and the Hammerhead from the lower right targets- lights this lane's saucer for Jackpot. The Jackpot value starts at 1,000,000 points at the start of each ball; it is advanced by the following:
If there is a maximum Jackpot value, it is at least 2,500,000. Collecting the jackpot resets its value back to 1,000,000, but multiple jackpots can be collected per game or per ball.
The Jackpot is only lit for 20 seconds. If it is not collected, this saucer becomes a sort of hurry-up award: after the Jackpot times out, the Great White Shark will be flashing, and making this saucer scores 750,000 points. After 20 more seconds, the Great White light will stop flashing, and the Tiger Shark will flash instead: now, you have 20 seconds to make the jackpot shot for 500,000. Once that time expires, you have 20 further seconds to hit the jackpot shot while the Hammerhead is flashing for 250,000 points. Collecting the jackpot or any flashing shark value, or letting the Hammerhead time out, will finish the jackpot run and force that player to collect all 3 sharks again for another chance at any of these scores.
Pool Sharks has a conventional in/out lane setup. The only thing in or out lanes can be lit for is Extra Ball; extra balls are lit by making the left orbit immediately after a Cue completion, or as an award from the Power Shot mystery. Which in/out lanes are lit for the extra ball can be rotated in either direction with flipper lane change.
Bonus is calculated as a count of switch hits, plus 100,000 points per completed rack (max 3), plus N points per collected ball on the current rack in progress.
N is equal to 10,000 points during 9-ball play, and 6,000 points during 8-bal play.
I do not know the exact breakdown of what switches contribute to the bonus, and how much. If there is a maximum to the switch hits part of the bonus, it is at least 800,000 points.
The switch hits part of the bonus cannot be carried over from ball to ball. The racks and pool balls keep their progress between turns, so that portion of the bonus will build throughout the game. The bonus multiplier can be set to carry over between balls, but by default it does not. There is no mid-ball bonus collect.
There is no Special award in this game. The manual says that when extra balls are off, "a score" is awarded instead: I do not know this score's exact value, but would expect it to be roughly 100,000 points.
The left orbit extra ball, the 2x Cue Stick, and the Jackpot each have their own timer setting, and can be set to between 1 and 99 seconds. Default values are 20, 15, and 20 respectively.
The following features can each individually be set to remember their lit status between balls or not: the number of racks, the bonus multiplier, any lit extra balls, the captive ball value, and the Cue lane lights.
The starting value of the Cue Stick, as well as the threshold where the Cue Stick will reset to that value if it is scored for more than that value, can both be set to any level on the ladder from 30,000 to Million. By default, the starting value is 30,000 and the fallback threshold is 100,000.
The timer for the entire Trick Shot countdown sequence can be set to 40, 35, 27 (default), 20, or 15 seconds.
Flipper lane change can be disabled for the top Cue lanes.
When 8 and 9 ball shots are ready, the game can be set to always light both ramps, always light 1 ramp, or light both ramps on the first rack and only light one ramp for all subsequent racks.
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