El Dorado

> "An adventure begins!"
>
> - Announcer

***El Dorado*** was one of the first four pinball tables available in *Zen Pinball* when it released for the PlayStation 3 in 2009, ported to all future releases in the *Pinball FX* series. It is based on the legend of El Dorado, the mythical South American lost city of gold.

## Table Overview

### The upper half of the table

At the back wall of the table, there is a long, jagged habitrail with three spots where the ball can be magnetized and made to jump over moving buzzsaws with a press of the flipper buttons. This habitrail leads down a "snake" habitrail that travels down to the left inlane. There are two orbits at the upper half of the table - a large orbit on the left side, and a much smaller kayak orbit on the opposite side. In between the two entrances of the large orbit is the boulder ramp, which leads down the habitrail to the left inlane, and to the right of the orbit is a Golden Idol toy with three distinct levels - all protected by drop targets and including sinkholes that eject the ball. To the right of the monument orbit are two targets that can be struck to light Artifacts. At the apex of the kayak orbit is the Lost in the Jungle sinkhole, which randomly selects a kickout to eject the ball from. Beside this orbit, to the right edge of the table, is a ramp leading into the pyramid sinkhole, named such as it is located directly under the pyramid model. Directly above the kayak orbit area is a sloped, Gold Search mini-playfield that can be tilted to guide the ball as it rolls through it. The end of this playfield leads to a crossing habitrail that ends at the left inlane.

The left orbit has a spinner that determines which mission will start when the ball is shot into the final head of the Golden Idol. An upper flipper is located at the entrance of the left orbit. At the other side of the table is the airfield ramp, with an entrance shaped into the jaws of a jaguar, and returns the ball down the habitrail accessed when exiting the mini-playfield. To the left of this scoop are two targets, marked "LOCK" and "BALL". To the right of this scoop is a series of three bumpers that make it difficult to shoot the pyramid sinkhole.

### The lower half of the table

There are two sinkholes at either side of the table, just below its halfway point, that represent tombs. There is also another unmarked sinkhole besides the left sinkhole that represents a hidden cave. To the right of the right tomb sinkhole is an exit out of the bumpers that sends the ball to the right inlane. The table has four return lanes that spell JADE, two slingshots adorned with statues of smaller idols, and two flippers. Two standard kickbacks, one per outlane, are available.

### The plunger

The table's plunger is a diagonal, spring-loaded one. Making the kayak orbit within 5 seconds after plunging the ball scores 2 million points, but this isn't indicated as a skill shot.

## Objective

Help a small team of explorers unearth the secrets of El Dorado, the lost city of gold, through eight missions that can be played in any order.

### Missions

To start a mission, the player must shoot all three heads of the Golden Idol by completing the drop targets in front of each head, then shooting the ball into the head. The currently lit mission is determined by shots to the spinner. Missions cannot be repeated until the wizard mode has been played.

Missions score either 5 or 10 million when completed, and are listed in clockwise order. The first time a mission is activated, information will be seen on the display explaining what to do in the mode; this information cannot be skipped.

* **Snake Pit**: Defeat the snakes by hitting 6 drop targets for 100,000 points each. Each target will only raise for 7 seconds before lowering; missing 3 drop targets will fail the mission. Scores 5 million upon completion.
* **Plane Crash**: Pilot the disabled plane by shooting the airfield ramp three times within 30 seconds. The first two shots score 250,000 and the final shot ends the mode for 5 million.
* **Log Bridge**: Cross the log bridge by making three shots to the Golden Idol head, for 1 million points for the first two shots and 5 million for the third shot, without hitting the two drop targets in front of the idol three times.
* **Grave Robbers**: Stop the thieves by shooting either the boulder ramp or the pyramid sinkhole twice before the distance on the display reaches 50 meters in about 30 seconds. Scores 10 million upon completion.
* **Wall Climb**: Scale a wall blocking the city. Extend the rope by repeatedly shooting the spinner for 5 meters per spin, and collect 30 bumper hits to ascend the wall for 10 million points (and 30,000 per bumper hit). The mission runs for 200 seconds.
* **Escape**: Escape the temple by hitting 5 flashing drop targets for 100,000 points each within 30 seconds, as the Golden Idol begins to crumble. Successfully escaping scores 10 million.
* **Labyrinth**: Shoot the four lit entrances of the large orbit to find a treasure for 1 million points, then repeat the same sequence in reverse (without the lights guiding you) to escape the labyrinth for 5 million points.
* **Conquistador's Gold**: Defeat the skeleton, represented by a drop target that moves around the left side of the playfield, by hitting it 3 times with the ball for 500,000 points per hit. Then shoot the left tomb to steal the gold for 5 million.

### Wizard mode

Once all 8 missions are completed, a 3-ball victory multiball will immediately start. All drop targets will score 600,000 points, hole shots will score 1,300,000 points, ramp shots will score 1,200,000 points, and every spinner spin will score 150,000 points until the player returns to single-ball play. The mission progress will then reset.

## Side Modes

* **Poisoned!**: 25% of the time, after shooting a tomb sinkhole, the player will be poisoned and must quickly shoot either tomb again within 10 seconds to find the antidote. There is a 50% chance that the tomb chosen will contain the antidote, and if it is found, 5 million points will be awarded. The timer for this mode can be increased by 1 second for every remedy **artifact** collected.
* **Mayan Challenge**: If the final head of the Golden Idol is lit and the player shoots the pyramid sinkhole three times, the ball will be captured and placed into the jagged table-wide habitrail at the back. A buzzsaw will pass above the habitrail and the player must press either flipper button at the right time to jump the ball to the next part of the habitrail. Moving the ball across to the other side of the table will award 2 million points as the team survives the trap.
* **Gold Search**: If the final head of the Golden Idol is lit and the player shoots the Lost in the Jungle sinkhole, the ball will be sent to a mini-playfield. Find treasure by tilting the mini-playfield with the flippers, so the ball passes through the flashing circle rollovers as it rolls down. Each rollover target collected scores 1 million.

## Multiball Modes

* **Multiball**: Shooting the LOCK and BALL targets next to the airfield ramp once (+1 per multiball played) will lower and open the Golden Idol's first head to start a quick 2-ball multiball mode. The player can earn jackpots worth a minimum of 30,000 (+10,000 for each four-leaf clover **artifact** found) by shooting any of the three sinkholes, which can be increased by 50,000 points before they quickly decrease in value by shooting any flashing shots. Five times per multiball activation, re-locking a ball into the Golden Idol will start a 3-ball Frenzy, lighting the sinkholes for super jackpots worth double the jackpot value.
* **Teamwork**: If both tomb sinkholes are lit, the next shot to a tomb sinkhole will start Teamwork. During this quick 2-ball multiball, the player must shoot a tomb sinkhole with one ball, then hit a random drop target within the next five seconds with the other ball to earn 100,000 points. Repeating this process 3 times scores 5 million points and ends the mode, returning to single-ball play.

## Perks

* **Ball Saver**: Every 3 completions (and every 4, 5, etc. thereafter) of the JADE return lanes will activate the ball saver.
* **Kickbacks**: Every 15 seconds the ball is in play, the cave sinkhole will light for 15 seconds to activate the left, then the right kickback. Kickbacks are only good for the current ball.
* **Bonus Multiplier:** Shooting the airfield ramp three times on a single ball (then 4, 5, etc.) will increase the bonus multiplier by +2x up to 10x.
* **Narrow Escape**: Every 5 shots to the boulder ramp score increasing points, starting at 100,000 points and increasing up to 500,000 points for the fifth shot. The value then resets.
* **Treasures**: Find various treasures by shooting the monument orbit four times, then collecting 30 spinner hits; or by spelling JADE at the return lanes. These treasures exclusively award points of up to 500,000.
* **Artifacts**: Shooting the two targets next to the monument orbit will light the pyramid sinkhole to score a random artifact from the following: Golden Plates (300,000 points), Golden Idol (instantly raises the third head of the Golden Idol), Golden Bridge (starts **Mayan Challenge**), Four-leaf Clover (jackpot base value increases by 10,000), Silver Ball (starts **Multiball**), Remedy (+1 second added to the **Poisoned!** mode), or Decryption (lights the left orbit to excavate a **treasure**).
* **Extra Ball**: If the left orbit is already lit to excavate a **treasure**, shooting the monument orbit four more times will light the left orbit to score an extra ball in place of the treasure. Unclaimed Extra Balls will be forfeited if the ball is drained before they are collected.

## Tips

* Repeatedly shooting the boulder ramp is the easiest way to rack up a high score. Shoot it from the right flipper, then hold up the left flipper and flip the ball as it reaches the apex of the held left flipper. More often than not, this will allow you to easily make the boulder ramp and gain quick points.
* Missions generally aren't worth the risk, but if you want to play through them that badly, both flippers can be used to consistently make the drop targets in front of the Golden Idol.
* Extra balls are easy to come by if you consistently shoot the monument orbit, and are vastly preferable to the small points normally awarded from treasures.

## Changes from original release

* Originally, spelling JADE at the return lanes would always activate the ball saver, or reset the ball save timer if it was already active. This was nerfed in *Pinball FX3* so that ball saves would be more difficult to obtain.
* The lock for Multiball originally was lit by just hitting the LOCK & BALL standup targets once. In *Pinball FX3*, the amount of target completions required to light multiball increases by 1 for each activation.

## Known glitches

* Balls that exit the Gold Search area will be subject to much faster physics than the table normally has.
* The display when more than 1 LOCK & BALL target completion is required to light the lock has incorrect grammar; it always says "X MORE HIT TO LIGHT LOCK" (X = number of hits required.)

## References & Easter Eggs

* The layout is very similar to that of the 1995 Williams pinball machine *Congo*.

## External links

* Table walkthrough by ShoryukenToTheChin
* Official table theme on Bandcamp