The safest consistent points come from whaling on the 4-bank of drop targets in the upper playfield for up to 100,000 points per completion. The upper playfield left drop targets light the lane behind them for points or Drain Shield, which is an out lane ball save. Complete drop target sets in the left of the lower playfield to light locks toward multiball. During multiball, only scores attained from the upper playfield 4-bank get multiplied by the number of balls in play.
Five lights in front of this drop target bank constantly cycle between 20,000, 40,000, 60,000, 80,000, and 100,000 points. Hitting any target scores 1,000 points and a bonus advance, and also stops the flashing light wherever it is lit. You then have 10 seconds to knock down the rest of the targets in the bank to collect the lit value. If you don't clear the bank in this time, it resets on its own and the award light begins to rotate again. If two or three balls are in play, the bank completion award for this bank is doubled or tripled respectively.
Similarly to the 4-bank, these drop targets are on a timer that begins after the first one is knocked down. Unlike the 4-bank, though, these targets do not reset on their own when time runs out. If this bank of targets is completed in time while the red light in front of them is still flashing, you are awarded a letter in FIRE, which gives you 20 seconds of 2x playfield scoring. If you collect all 4 letters in FIRE in this way, the standup target in the far lower right of the lower playfield will be lit for a special.
Any completions of these drop targets, whether they were still lit for a FIRE letter or not, advances the value of the horseshoe loop behind these targets.
The horseshoe loop scores 10,000 points if not lit. Each completion of the upper playfield's left drop targets advances the value, first to 25,000, then 50,000, then Drain Shield. Drain Shield is a one-time semi-indefinite ball saver on one of the out lanes. It is possible to have Drain Shield active on both out lanes at once. The horseshoe lane can be set to have its value reset either after any collected value, or only after a Drain Shield is collected.
To the right of the 4-bank of targets is a saucer marked Alien Eject that serves as one of the possible lock locations for multiball. Multiball is discussed further below.
There are two 3-banks of drop targets on the left. Like the upper playfield left drop targets, there is a timer on these, but the banks do not reset when their respective timers expire. Completing a bank within the time limit while the blue light in front is still flashing advances the Solar Gun timer, explained further below. Any completion of a blue target bank, whether in time or not, scores 3 bonus advances and randomly lights one of the three lock saucers- far left (near the left drop targets), near left (near the center drop targets), or the upper playfield lock. The leftmost blue target bank also adds one credit to the right magna save, and the center blue target bank does the same for the left magna save.
Locking two balls when only two locks are lit starts 2-ball multiball. Locking three balls starts 3-ball multiball. To get 3-ball multiball, you must light lock #3 before making lock #2. During multiball, the upper playfield 4-bank completion bonus is doubled or tripled if there are 2 or 3 balls in play respectively. This is the only multiplied scoring during multiball: the 2x or 3x does not apply to the entire playfield. There is also a separate bonus ladder that is advanced in exactly the same way as the standard base bonus, but it can only be advanced when there is more than one ball in play, so it's useful to keep any multiball alive even if you're not completing the upper playfield drop targets.
Balls cannot be relocked for another multiball until after single ball play resumes. Locked balls stay in their saucers between turns, so lock stealing is available.
Making any unlit lock saucer scores 5,000 points.
Between the far left and near left lock shots is a small ramp with a target at the end and inserts leading up to the ramp that spell the word SOLAR. These inserts scan so that only one is lit at a time. When you hit this target, whichever letter in SOLAR is lit will also be lit in the center of the playfield. Each collected letter in the word SOLAR adds 1 to the bonus multiplier at the end of that ball, for a maximuim of 6x. If you spell the entire word SOLAR, you receive an instant extra ball as well.
Complete a bank of blue drop targets while the timer light is still flashing to power up the Solar Gun. One powerup prepares the gun for 3 seconds, a second powerup makes it 5 seconds, and a third powerup makes it 10 seconds. When the solar gun is lit, hit the standup target to activate the captive ball. From here, a magnet will power on and off intermittently for the amount of time lit on the playfield, causing the captive ball to rock back and forth. Each time it rolls over the button switch in the middle of its area, 10,000 points are scored.
Hitting the target hard enough to move the captive ball onto the sensor when the gun is not lit will score 5,000 points per switch activation.
Rolling through the left in lane lights the right ramp for a Mystery for about 10 seconds. The mystery is most often a random score value between 20,000 and 99,000 points, but the game manual says that the mystery can also award a letter in SOLAR, light one of the Drain Shields, or power up one of the Magna Saves.
Scores 10,000 points, or a special when lit by collecting all 4 FIRE letters.
Solar Fire has a conventional in/out lane setup. Out lanes score 5,000 points and one bonus advance, and can be lit for Drain Shield by the upper playfield horseshoe or the Mystery. If the ball goes down an out lane lit for Drain Shield, it will be returned to the shooter lane for the same player to continue their turn, and the Drain Shield will be used up. In lanes score 1,000 points and a bonus advance. The left in lane lights the right ramp for a Mystery award as described above.
There is a magna save available on each side of the table, above each in lane, A full charged magna save allows the player to hold the appropriate magna save button (just behind the flipper button on the side of the cabinet) for one full second to try to fling the ball back into play or get it to drop into the in lane. Each ball starts with 1 second of magna save on both sides, and completing a set of lower playfield drop targets maxes out one of the magna save charges (leftmost target bank charges the right side magna save, and center bank charges the left magna save). There is no additional scoring available for a ball that successfully makes an in lane after being caught by the magna save.
There is a center post between the flippers by design. If playing in a tournament, make sure it's still there and see if it has had its rubber removed for competition play.
In lanes, out lanes, the SOLAR target, an each individual drop target in the upper playfield 4-bank score 1 bonus advance. Any lock saucer scores 2 bonus advances. Completing any 3-bank of drop targets gives 3 bonus advances. There are two separate bonuses in the game- Playfield and Multiball. The Playfield bonus only increases when there is a single ball in play, and the Multiball bonus only increases when more than one ball is in play. Both bonuses max out at 63,000 points, both are added to your score at the end of the ball, and both apply the current bonus multiplier. Bonus multiplier is increased toward the maximum of 6x each time a letter in SOLAR is collected from the SOLAR target in the left of the lower playfield. Max bonus is 6x (63,000 plus 63,000) = 786,000 points. There is no mid-ball bonus collect. Base bonus is never carried from ball to ball, but SOLAR letters (bonus multipliers) are.
Completing the word SOLAR can give 200,000 points instead of an extra ball. I do not know the exact point value that a Special can be set to award, but would assume it to be at least 200,000 as well, which is nothing to sneeze at on this game.
Timers can be individually set for the 4-bank drop targets, the mystery award, the upper playfield 3-bank, and the lower playfield 3-banks. The manual lists all of these options as simply 00 to 09, though I do not believe this simply refers to 0-9 seconds; I would guess 3 is added to the selected number so the actual setting range is 3-12 seconds.
SOLAR letters and FIRE letters can be set to clear between balls instead of carrying over. It would be in the spirit of early 1980s Williams to make it so that if you completely spell SOLAR and max out the bonus multiplier, it will be reset anyway regardless of this setting; I have not been able to confirm if this happens.
The value of the horseshoe loop behind the upper playfield left drop targets can be reset only when a Drain Shield is collected, or be reset for any collected award.
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