caper_26's tips for playing El Dorado

First, read skippycue's trophy guide, and then read the following:

My 2 basic rules to winning at any table are:
1. Keep the ball in play
2. Hit the high point values

Some Terms:

The Spinner Ramp: The furthest ramp to the left of the table with the spinner at the gate. This leads to the bumpers.

Boulder Ramp: The ramp just to the right of the Boulder Ramp. This carries the ball back to the left inlane.

Decrypt Glyphs Orbit (aka Monument Orbit): I call this an orbit because it resembles one more than it resembles a ramp per se. This also hits the spinner as it exits. This is a single directional orbit and connects to the spinner ramp for exiting only.

Pyramid Ramp: The one leading to the Pyramid that you must hit when you hit the clock and key targets and hear "Go dig up some treasure". When you hit it after that, it says "Artifact Found".

Keeping the ball in play:
This strategy changes depending on what mode you are playing in. For example, if you are playing multiplayer, with 5 million goal, and 0% penalty, then keeping the ball in play is NOT that important. The only downside to losing a ball is you have to restart your experiment and time is lost waiting for bonus scores to be displayed and re-launching the ball. If you are playing single player with the goal of getting your highest score ever, then this is the highest priority.

On El Dorado, some of the ways to keep the ball in play are
Ball Save (I cannot emphasize this enough)
Kick backs
and of course, the Death Save (refer to general pinball wizard skills post)

Ball Save is achieved by:
Spelling JADE by hitting the inlanes. Each the ball enters an inlane that is NOT lit up, you will light up a letter. The lit letters can be alternated by hitting the flippers, so if the ball looks like it will go down an inlane that is already lit, quickly tap left of right flipper so that it becomes unlit before the ball passes through. Left or Right flipper will determine which way the lights alternate.

Kickbacks I believe are activated by the Cave Hole. Don’t quote me on this one; I don't go for these on purpose.

High Point Areas:
Skill shot after Ball Launch, Quartz skulls, Adventures, Unexpected Treasures, described in skippycue's Trophy Guide. Also the Boulder Ramp, Mayan Challenge, and Multi Ball.

caper_26's Multiplayer tips:
There are so many options on this table to rack up points, you have to choose a course of action and stick to it. If you change your mind later, you may find yourself running out of time. Depending on where the other players are in the race, you may have to change plans.

ALWAYS: collect your 600,000 when launching the ball. You get 100K if you have your left flipper raised when launching, and the ball goes in a hole under the upper left flipper. Hit the ball at the right time with the upper left flipper when the ball is ejected from the hole above it, sending it into the Kayak area (You will hear a water sound) and get another 500K.
SKILL SHOT: At the very beginning of the game, you can get an easy 2 million if you launch immediately and perform the above tasks correctly. Instead of 500K, you will get 2 million. You cannot miss and must launch the ball right away. This is only available on your FIRST ball launch! VIDEO Hit the ball in there again for another 500K, then 100K. After that, the value decreases to 10K, 1K, then 100 pts, before returning to 500K. It always starts at 500K when you lose a ball.

Here are some of my game strategies.
Golden Idol - This raises the idol to the last stage before activating an adventure as well as enabling the Gold Search option. Both are advantageous. If you start a game at the same time as the other players, I always go for this in a hurry. Hit the Blue and Orange symbols (key and clock) at the top of the board to "go dig up some treasure" in the Pyramid. Hit the ramp and collect the Golden Idol since this will be the first one in the list of: Golden Idol, Remedy, 4 Leaf Clover, Golden Bridge (Mayan Challenge), Silver Ball. After you collect and Idol is raised, what I do next depends on what the Goal is set at.
If it is 5 million, I go for Gold Search. You must hit the "Lost in the Jungle" hole. To do this, I enable ball saver, then drain the ball and perform the same procedure as getting the 500K in the Kayak area, EXCEPT you must hit the ball with upper left flipper slightly earlier than for the Kayak. It's all about the timing. Get it in there and you can get an easy 5 million by tilting the mini table with flippers and collecting the gold plates. To get the ball to the other side without losing it in one of the holes, tilt the table to the opposite side JUST BEFORE YOU GET A PLATE. The momentum of the ball delays it a little. If you wait until you get a plate and then tilt the table, you will lose your ball. Get all plates and I think you get 1 million for the first 2 and then 3 million for the last one. VIDEO

If the Goal is 5 million and Golden Idol is NOT the next artifact, you have a few options:

Multi-ball: You can do this at anytime (with any Goal) to rack up loads of points. Remember to spell JADE if you can, as the balls come down inlanes.

Ramp Grinding: This one I love. Most times on a 5 million goal, I can win via this method because I can hit the goal before anyone can complete an adventure. I Ramp Grind with the Pyramid Ramp and the Boulder Ramp. Hit either ramp to start. When the ball is returned to the inlane, if you time it right, you can hit the ball on the move directly up the opposite ramp, and so on..... You ask: how is this worth a lot of points? First, the Boulder Ramp is worth, 10K, 200K, 300K, 400K, 500K each time you hit.
***caper_26's Ramp Grinding Tip: Spell J-A-D-E as the ball is returned each time, with Ball Saver already lit, you collect unexpected treasures each time you spell it. These can be Jade Beads: 100K, Gold Plates 200K, Marble Statue 600K, Quartz Skull 1 million. Those added to the Boulder Ramp hits accumulate points in a hurry if you are good enough to do this. I find it easier to hit them with the ball moving rather than stopping the ball and cradle it, then shooting. VIDEO

If the Goal is 10 million (or more) I hit the spinner until the adventure is set to one of the 10 million reward adventures, then hit the idol mouth. The ones I personally pick are Grave Robbers (easiest), then either Wall Climb or Log Walk. Log Walk gives the most points I think of any adventure since you get 1 million each for first 2 successful shots, then 10 million for last one. It is also the easiest /fastest one to fail at. See skippycue's trophy guide for adventures, etc.

Another thing I do it periodically hit the clock and key to collect Artifacts. Mayan Challenge is 2 million plus another million for a quartz skull. For a million goal game, 2 million at the start, plus another 500 K for the Kayak, and 3 million for the Mayan Challenge/Quartz Skull finishes a game pretty quickly.

Remember: Keep your ball saver activated, especially for high penalty games.