Stern · 2006 · played in VPX, a pinball simulator
Finish the eight jobs shown by the four Compass directions to reach Four Winds, or keep balls on the Tortuga disk to multiply ordinary scoring.
Start with the goal →The whole game
Each Compass direction has two jobs. Finish both jobs for one direction, then shoot the center hole to earn that direction. Earn North, West, South, and East to start Four Winds Multiball.
For points, advance Tortuga at the left ramp. Locked balls on its spinning disk multiply everything scored by the live ball. On ball one, repeat the left ramp: it advances Port Royal, lights Tortuga locks and teaches the table’s most useful shot.
A completed direction only flashes. It is not earned until the center scoop awards it. Watch the four Compass arrows before choosing another setup shot.
The map below shows where each shot for the eight jobs is.
Find your shots
The upper-left ramp reaches the Tortuga disk. Repeat it for Port Royal, locks and the table’s main scoring multiplier.
How to try it: Hold the ball still on the right lower flipper. Aim through the two posts at the bottom of Left ramp and use a firm forehand so the ball climbs the ramp. If it starts up and rolls back, let it reach a flipper before shooting again.
The opening beside the left ramp hits the ship. Sink it to begin the Kraken battle. Expect a direct return after later ship hits.
How to try it: Hold the ball still on the right lower flipper. Aim through the open channel at the bottom of Ship lane; the ball must pass the entrance switch and continue up the lane. If a weak shot rolls back down the same lane, let it return to a flipper before trying again.
Earn flashing Compass directions, extra balls and Liar’s Dice here. Jack the Monkey is printed nearby, but Jack’s hurry-up is earned on the right ramp.
How to try it: Hold the ball still on the right lower flipper. Aim at the dark opening of Center scoop, not at its rim or the nearby posts. After the ball settles in the hole, watch where the machine kicks it back and regain control.
Spell K-E-Y to open the chest. Put balls inside to spell H-E-A-R-T and start Heart Multiball.
How to try it: Hold the ball still on the left lower flipper. Aim into the opening at Treasure chest, avoiding its rim and nearby posts. Watch where the machine kicks the ball back and regain control.
Each climb spells one letter of J-A-C-K and sends the ball toward the upper playfield. The fifth quick climb awards Jack’s hurry-up.
How to try it: Hold the ball still on the left lower flipper. Aim through the two posts at the bottom of Right ramp and use a firm forehand so the ball climbs the ramp. If it starts up and rolls back, let it reach a flipper before shooting again.
The short side lanes earn treasure and can complete the advanced launch. Read the Compass lamps before choosing the next ramp, chest or scoop shot.
How to try it: This is a status area, not a shot. Read its lamps while the ball is held on a flipper, then aim for the named shot whose lamp is still dark.
Launching the ball
Choose the full plunge for control. Use the soft advanced launch when its side-lane award is worth the risk.
Watch the display for the skill-shot award. If the ball rolls back down the launch lane without clearing the gate, pull the plunger a little further next time. If it flies all the way up into the top of the table, pull less. Every virtual table is a little different, so there is no set amount to pull.
Pull the plunger all the way back and the ball goes up into the raised area at the top of the table. There it can roll through the K-E-Y lanes or fall into the Parlay hole, the hole the factory map calls the skill-shot hole.
For your first game this is the better choice. You know where the ball will go, and you can settle it on a flipper and try the left ramp. If you try the harder launch and miss, just play on. Once the ball has hit anything else, the skill shot is gone for that ball; there is no second try.
See the advanced launch done in the video at 1:03 →
Your first useful run
Practice the two halves separately: filling the seven lights, and the quick soft launch to the left ramp. One thing you can do every time is worth more than a wild attempt at every feature.
If the countdown beats you, keep playing. Look at which lights are on and pick the next job you can manage.
Playing two things at once
The table below tells you which multiballs can play at the same time and which one to start first.
| Combination | What happens, and how to set it up |
|---|---|
| Tortuga + Heart | Spell K-E-Y and most of H-E-A-R-T at the chest first. Start Tortuga Multiball, then shoot the chest to start Heart. Tortuga’s multiplier now applies to every lit Heart jackpot. |
| Tortuga + Kraken | Hit the ship until it is one shot from sinking, then stop. Start Tortuga Multiball, then sink the ship. Read the warning about the ball saver below first. |
| Heart + Kraken | Sink a ship while Heart Multiball is running. The Kraken battle can add another ball, as long as the table has one left to give. |
| Parlay letters + multiball | Does not work. During any multiball the Parlay hole gives no letters. Spell P-A-R-L-A-Y while you have one ball. |
| Ordinary features + wizard modes | Four Winds and the Gauntlet are the finales. Do not count on playing two features at the same time, running two features at once, shoot the way it does in the rest of the game. Just do what the finale asks for. |
The combination that pays: get a ball held on the Tortuga disk, then use a loose ball to hit a lit Heart jackpot. The disk’s multiplier, the number your points are multiplied by, applies to that jackpot. Check that both lights are on, the jackpot and the multiplier, before you shoot it.
Treasure, both West jobs and Liar’s Dice can light Extra Ball. Earn it at the center scoop before the ball ends.
An extra ball is one more ball for your game, played after your current one ends. There are three ways to light one. Earn enough treasure through the short side lanes. Finish the two West jobs on the Compass: beat the Kraken and earn Jack the Monkey. Or get lucky with Liar’s Dice, which sometimes gives one but cannot be counted on. When Extra Ball is lit, shoot the center scoop to earn it. A lit extra ball you never shoot is not yours.
At the factory settings, treasure lights the first extra ball after 25 hits and the next after 50 more. The owner of the machine can change both numbers, so the display on your game is the final word.
Tortuga’s timed locks at the start are the only time it adds balls; later captures on the disk only multiply your score. Starting another multiball that can run alongside it, like Heart or the Kraken, can add a ball to the action. Three other things save a ball, and they are separate from each other: the short ball saver at the start of a ball or a multiball; Parlay, which saves a ball that goes down an outlane, the lane on either side of the flippers that leads straight to the drain; and in the Gauntlet finale, knocking down the six pirate targets, which is an add-a-ball, another ball served into a multiball that is already running.
Once a Kraken or Heart multiball ends, there is no known shot that brings it back. You have to earn it again from the start.
Do not mix up West and East. West gives an extra ball. East gives Special, a free game credit, which is not a ball.
Score higher
Why this works: with two balls held on the disk the multiplier is 3×. A 2-million jackpot hit while that is running pays 6 million. Set up both halves, the big jackpot and the multiplier, before you shoot it.
Decide before you launch whether this ball is for points or for the Compass. For points, protect the jackpot setup above. For the Compass, go after the job you are missing, even when an easier scoring shot like a loop, a curved lane that sends the ball around and back to you, is sitting right there. Both are good plans. Drifting between them without noticing is how a good ball gets wasted.
If you keep missing the left ramp, stop adding jobs. Practice the ramp on its own until you know its return path, the path and speed the ball takes on its way to your flipper, before you take on the pirate targets and the timers as well. After you lose a ball, look at which lights are on before you repeat the plan you had. It may have changed.
Tap a card to open it
Each card tells you how to set a feature up, how to start it, and how to earn what it pays. The two finales, Four Winds and the Gauntlet, have their own cards further down. Any count given here, like twenty bumper hits, is the factory setting; the owner of the machine can change it.
Shoot the left ramp. Each time the ball hits the spinning disk, one of seven red lights comes on. When all seven are lit, Port Royal is done. That is one of the two South jobs on the Compass, and it also lights Timed Lock for Tortuga Multiball.
Finishing Port Royal does not earn anything by itself. Look at which lights are flashing before you spend your next shot.
With Timed Lock lit, shoot the left ramp. The disk holds your ball and the machine serves you a new one. You have about ten seconds to get that one up the left ramp too. Every ball you lock in time joins the multiball; lock three and you start with four balls in play.
Once the multiball is running, the disk does a different job. It still holds balls, but now each held ball multiplies what the loose ball scores: one held ball is 2×, two are 3×, three are 4×. Filling the seven red lights again lets the held balls go.
The catch: once the multiball has started, holding a ball on the disk does not give you a new one. When you are down to one ball, Tortuga is over. To play it again, fill the seven lights and lock balls from the start.
There are six green standing targets with a pirate on each. Hit all six. The lights show which pirates you still need. When the last one goes down you get All Pirates earned, which is one of the two South jobs, and Liar’s Dice lights at the center scoop.
Do this during a multiball if you can. The ball bounces off these targets unpredictably, and with one ball a bad bounce can cost you the ball.
Finish Port Royal and knock down all six pirates. South starts flashing. Shoot the center scoop to earn it. From then until you lose this ball, every jackpot on the table is worth 2 million. Doing the two jobs is not enough; you have to shoot the scoop. And only jackpots pay 2 million, not every switch, the sensors under the targets and lanes that tell the machine the ball hit something.
Treat the rest of that ball as your scoring window. Get a jackpot lit before you take any risky shot.
The chest starts closed. Roll the ball through the lanes in the upper playfield, or hit the closed chest, to spell K-E-Y one letter at a time. With all three letters, shoot the chest and it opens. Now shoot balls into the open chest: each one spells a letter of H-E-A-R-T and lights a jackpot shot. After the T, the next ball into the chest starts Heart Multiball.
Between shots, look at the lights. The shot you are used to making is not always the letter you need.
Three balls are in play. Shoot the lit jackpot shots. Each jackpot you earn makes the Super Jackpot bigger, and its light goes out; earn the whole set and they all light again. To score the Super Jackpot, spell H-E-A-R-T again at the chest, then shoot the chest. Earning it also relights the jackpots.
For the Compass: the East job is to earn a Heart Super Jackpot. Just starting Heart Multiball does not count. When you are down to one ball the multiball ends and the H-E-A-R-T letters reset. There is a moment’s grace to earn as it ends, but that is not a restart.
Pick one goal before the three balls arrive. Changing your mind while a ball is coming at you fast makes both goals harder.
Shoot the ship lane. The first hits lower the ship’s sails; more hits sink it. There are four ships, in this order: Interceptor, Dauntless, Edinburgh Trader, Terpsichore. Each one takes more hits than the last. Only the first ship holds the ball for a moment when you hit it; the rest bounce it back.
Every ship you sink starts a Kraken battle. Sinking the fourth leads to the Davy Jones battle. There is a shortcut called Broadside, explained in the upper exits card.
Shoot the ship with the ball under control, and during a multiball if you can, because it bounces the ball back at you. If you are setting up two features at once, hold off on the sinking shot until the other one is ready.
When a ship sinks, the Kraken appears in the ship lane and a two-ball battle starts. Every shot into that lane takes away some of its health. If you stop, its health comes back. When it is beaten, a hurry-up starts at the same shot: shoot the lane once more, quickly, to earn it.
When you are down to one ball the battle ends. Sink another ship for another go. There is no stored restart to earn later.
Once you are in the battle, hit the lane again and again without wandering off, or the health you took away comes back. Sinking the ship during another multiball can add a ball to the battle, if the table has one left to give.
How to start it: beat the Kraken, then earn the hurry-up that follows. Victory Jig starts with two balls in play. Beat the Kraken again later in the same game and you get another Jig.
How to play it: keep both balls alive and keep shooting. The Jig kept running for more than 45 seconds without a single scoring shot. It ended when one of the two balls was lost. Whether it has a longer hidden time limit, or ends differently while another multiball is running, is not known.
What it pays: rolling the ball through either return lane, a lane that returns the ball to your flipper, adds 5,000 points. A shot into the ship added 5,110 in all: the Jig’s 5,000 plus the ship’s own points. Other targets may pay differently, so do not assume everything is worth 5,000.
The bumpers are the round posts that kick the ball away when it touches them. Twenty hits on them finishes Sword Fight, one of the two North jobs, at the factory setting. More bumper hits after that can raise your end-of-ball bonus multiplier; the bonus is the points the machine adds up when your ball ends.
If Sword Fight is the job you are missing, send the ball around the right orbit, or up into the upper playfield and out its middle exit, which drops into the bumpers. There is no separate button to press for the sword.
How to start it: sink a ship and finish Sword Fight. Those are the two North jobs. Shoot the center scoop while North is flashing and Earn Crew begins.
What to do: hit 100 things before the countdown ends. Every switch counts: bumpers, return lanes, targets. A multiball helps, because more balls hit more things. Earn Crew can start and run while Victory Jig is going, so beating the Kraken first is a good setup.
What it pays: the first hit is worth 25,000. Each hit after that is worth 1,000 more than the last, up to 100,000 a hit. The 100th hit showed a total of 7,650,000 on the display, while the hits themselves added up to 7,150,000. In another game Earn Crew showed a 500,000-point total without the 100 hits being reached and without any deliberate shot, so that extra 500,000 is not a prize for finishing. Whether it is paid at the start, at the end, or as a minimum is not known.
If you lose a ball: losing one of two balls ended Victory Jig but not Earn Crew. The counter stayed where it was, at 90 hits to go, the timer kept running, and the next hit scored normally. On a fresh game the display opened at 30 seconds and 100 hits to go. After hit 100 the job was complete, even though the display kept showing three seconds for a moment.
Shoot the right ramp four times to spell J-A-C-K. That starts a hurry-up: a prize whose value counts down. Shoot the right ramp again before it reaches zero to take it.
Be ready the moment the fourth ramp shot comes back to your flipper; the countdown is already running. The center scoop has Jack the Monkey painted on it, but the scoop is not the shot for this hurry-up; the ramp is. Whether the Compass counts Jack as done when the hurry-up starts or only when you earn it is not settled, so earn it.
Sink all four ships and this three-ball battle starts. The ship rises and rocks. Hit the ship itself to take away Davy’s health. A ball that slips underneath the raised ship hits the Kraken instead; that scores points but does no damage to Davy. His health comes back between hits.
Time each shot for where the ship is in its rocking. This is a different aim from the Kraken battle, where you fire straight through the lane. When you are down to one ball the battle ends. What progress you keep for a second try is not known.
Knock down all six pirate targets, then shoot the center scoop while Liar’s Dice is lit. The machine picks a prize for you: points, progress on your end-of-ball bonus, help with a feature, sometimes an extra ball. On competition settings the machine may choose differently.
Take whatever it gives you as a bonus. Do not plan a ball around getting an extra ball from it, and do not assume this scoop adds a ball to a multiball.
The Parlay hole is in the upper playfield. Each ball that falls into it adds a letter of P-A-R-L-A-Y. Spell the whole word and one of the outlanes, the lanes on the far left and far right that lead past the flippers to the drain, is protected: a ball that goes down it is given back. Hitting a slingshot, one of the rubber triangles just above the flippers, can move the protection to the other side. Spell it a second time and both sides are protected. Each save is used up when it saves a ball.
The catch: during any multiball the Parlay hole gives no letters, so spell it while you have one ball. It saves a ball going down a protected outlane, nothing else. It does not give you an extra ball and it does not bring back a multiball that has ended.
The upper playfield has three exits, and each one sets up something different. Rum Ramp is the left exit. It drops the ball into the left return lane, the lane that returns the ball to your flipper. Shoot any lit main shot straight away for a combo, a bonus for two shots in a row. Walk the Plank is the middle exit; it drops the ball into the bumpers. Broadside is the right exit; it drops the ball into the right return lane. If the ship’s sails are down, shoot the ship right away to finish it.
The lanes at the top of the upper playfield have lights. Pressing a flipper button moves the lights along, so you can line up the one you still need. Light all of them and your end-of-ball bonus multiplier goes up.
Pick the exit you can handle, and know your next shot before the ball reaches the flipper.
Shooting the ball through either of the two short side lanes awards treasure. Doing that can also light the Bonus Treasure targets next to the lane. When the ball rolls to you down a return lane, it can light Catch the Wind at the side lane on the opposite side of the table.
Treasure earns extra balls: at the factory setting, the first extra ball lights after 25 treasure hits, and the next lights after 50 more. The owner of the machine can change both numbers: the first from 15 to 50, the second from 30 to 80. The display shows the number that applies to your game. When Extra Ball is lit, shoot the center scoop to earn it.
Go for the side lanes when the ball is coming to you slowly or when you have several balls in play. Do not give up a good multiball shot to force a side lane.
Beat Davy Jones and earn a Heart Super Jackpot. Those are the two East jobs. Shoot the center scoop while East is flashing and Special lights. Earn it at whichever side lane is lit.
Special is normally a free game credit, or whatever the owner has set it to. If the machine is on free play, a credit is worth nothing, so do not risk a good ball for it.
The two finales
Finish all eight Compass jobs and earn all four direction arrows at the center scoop. When Four Winds flashes, shoot the center scoop once more to start it. Lighting the eight small lamps is not enough; you have to earn the arrows and then start it. You can watch the arrows being earned before Four Winds starts in this game, from 15:27 to 16:33.
In each wind one shot blinks. Hit it first: it sets a jackpot value that starts falling. Then hit every other lit shot. Clear them all and you move on to the next wind, four times in all.
Normally the mode ends when you are down to one ball, with a short grace period while it winds down. If a ball is added during that grace period, Four Winds starts again. Which shots add a ball here is not known, so do not count on it. If you lose Four Winds, the wind you reached is kept, but you have to earn a new start.
Take the blinking shot first, then go after the shots you have not made. A shot you are comfortable with that is already dark does nothing for you.
The Gauntlet is the last challenge. It refills the table to four balls. Shoot the left ramp to the disk to challenge a pirate, then make the shot the game lights to defeat that pirate for a Gauntlet point. Repeat. Knocking down the six pirate targets adds a ball, as long as you are below four. Normally the mode, this challenge, ends when you are down to one ball. As with Four Winds, if a ball is added while the Gauntlet is ending, it starts again.
Alternate between the disk and the defeating shot; firing the disk over and over does nothing on its own. When you are getting low on balls, go for the six pirate targets. Gauntlet points also count toward their own score, so this is not just another Davy Jones fight.
From the video
2:31 · earn Max Jackpot, then use it on the same ball
2:31: earn Max Jackpot and use it on the same ball. 4:55: chest jackpots with Tortuga’s multiplier running.
8:34: lock balls on the Tortuga disk again while Heart Multiball is running. 11:34: stick with the plan that is scoring instead of chasing something new.
26:04 · Launch the new ball yourself during Timed Lock
26:04: when Tortuga holds your ball and serves a new one, the machine will launch it for you after a moment, and that launch sends the ball all the way up into the upper playfield. Pull the plunger gently yourself first. The ball drops to the right flipper and you have more time to shoot the left ramp for another lock.
Try that soft launch on your own table. A real machine’s plunger and nudges will not match the virtual one exactly.
The videos need an internet connection. Everything else on this page works without one.
Your machine may be set differently
The rules here are for version 6.0 of the game software, the version number this table shows on its display. Two of the features above, Victory Jig and Earn Crew, were played through on this exact table to pin down how they behave. Everything in the first list below you can count on. Everything in the second is worth a glance at the display before you rely on it.
These are listed so you know which numbers to watch the display for.
The shot map is Stern’s factory map. The photograph of the machine is by theKorn, from Pinball Rebel, and shows a real machine at a test location. This is a fan guide, not an official Stern or Disney publication.
Settings differ from machine to machine. Where the display disagrees with this guide, trust the display.