Critical Pressure (Table 17): invasion guide

How the table is laid out

A star of 5 pop bumpers fills the top: cyan, coral, cyan, coral and cyan. The LIFT ramp climbs the left side and the CASCADE ramp the right, with a permanent rescue post between the flippers.

Both coloured rings, cyan and coral, sit together in the middle centre. The big bubbles, all 2 shells, are cyan on the middle left and middle right and coral in the middle centre.

A curtain from the top lowers two pyramid-shaped clusters of small bubbles, each hanging from a gold-ring anchor, with a bomb bubble and a gold bubble (points x2) among them.

The objective

INVASION: pop every big bubble and both pyramids before the clock runs out and before the sinking bubbles reach the red tide. Only matching colours pop. Paint the ball in a top lane (flippers rotate them), at the centre rings, on a ramp or with the two-flipper swap. Pop an anchor to drop its pyramid before it sinks.

Strategy, step by step

1. Deal with whatever is lowest first. The sinking bubbles closest to the red tide are the real threat; the high ones can wait.
2. Drop the pyramids early by their gold-ring anchors: one hit removes a whole sinking cluster instead of chasing it down the board.
3. Critical Pressure puts both ports in the middle centre, right below its coral target. Paint coral there, crack it twice, then flip both flippers for cyan and turn to the flanking targets.
4. Invasion rewards ramps: on Critical Pressure the armed ball from LIFT or CASCADE deletes a whole sinking cyan target before it drops lower.
5. Use the bomb bubble when a pyramid has sunk low; the blast clears the bottom rows nearest the tide.

Common mistakes

• Chasing the highest bubbles first because they are easier to reach, while the lowest ones slide into the red tide.
• Picking at a pyramid from the bottom instead of dropping it by its anchor.
• Carrying coral from the centre ring into a side shot at a cyan bubble; the bounce loses time the invasion does not give back.