How the table is laid out
A pair of pop bumpers sits near the top, cyan on the left and coral on the right. The LIFT ramp climbs the left side and the CASCADE ramp the right. Spinners turn on both orbits, and a drop-target bank sits on the right of the mid-field.
There are no charge ports. The big bubbles, all with 2 shells, are cyan on the middle left, coral in the middle centre and cyan again in the lower centre just above the flippers. The cyan ones leave magnets; the coral one leaves an extra pop bumper.
The Mother Bubble blows in a diamond-shaped cluster of small bubbles hanging from a gold-ring anchor, with two bomb bubbles that pop everything around them.
The objective
CLEAN SWEEP: pop every big bubble and the whole diamond before the clock runs out. Only matching colours pop. With no rings, paint the ball in a top lane (the flippers rotate their colours), swap with both flippers, or climb a ramp, which paints a colour you can use now and arms the ball. Pop the anchor to drop the diamond.
Strategy, step by step
- Before each plunge, rotate the top lanes with the flippers so the lane your skill shot rolls through shows cyan: two of the three big bubbles want it.
- Both ramps are colour sources and shell breakers here. An armed ball off LIFT or CASCADE bursts both shells of its target, so ramp, then flip straight at the middle centre coral bubble.
- Full trips round an orbit spin the spinners and fire a lightning bolt that cracks a shell on the toughest bubble. It never finishes one off, so follow up with a real hit.
- The lower centre cyan bubble sits just above the flippers; after it cracks, the ball usually drops back to you still cyan, ready for the second shell.
- Tag either bomb bubble in the diamond with its colour; each blast strips the cluster around it and opens a line to the gold-ring anchor.
How to get 3 stars
QUICK: end with at least a quarter of the clock on the timer. NO BALL LOST: no drains (each would cost 5 seconds). WHOLE CLUSTER: pop the diamond's gold-ring anchor so the cluster falls whole. Each star stands alone.
Common mistakes
- Looking for a coloured ring to fix your colour. Night Orbit has none; use the lanes, the ramps or both flippers.
- Hitting the top lanes without checking their colours first. Rotate them with the flippers before the ball arrives.
- Counting on an orbit bolt to pop a bubble. It only cracks shells; the last blow must come from the ball.