"Howdy, partner!"

Welcome to my first official Pinball Arcade guide! This is based on the pinball machine, White Water, made by Williams in 1993. One of the greatest games of its time, and also comes great with Space Shuttle, in Table Pack #13. Below is a complete written guide on each of the game modes.

The Skill Shot is located at Insanity Falls, on the top playfield, lower left ramp shot. This Skill Shot easily awards 1,000,000 (and increases by 1,000,000 each time it is made on the plunge). Keep in mind that a full plunge sends the ball around and down the Spine Chiller to the lower part of the playfield, so take just a tad off on the plunge and you'll make the shot.

Sometimes it's best not to make a Skill Shot when there's something else lit on the Upper Playfield, such as a Whirlpool Award, the beginning of Whirlpool Challenge, or collecting a Hazard at Bigfoot Bluff (upper ramp).

You'll notice that you have a Vacation Planner on the display, either when you hit Bigfoot Bluff (when nothing is lit) or looking through the Status Report via trapping the ball. There are four things you need to do before collecting the Vacation Jackpot:

• Class 6 River
  
  
• Welcome to Wet Willie's!
  
  
• Claim all 6 Whirlpool Awards
  
  
• Lock 3 Balls into No Way Out (THIS MUST BE DONE LAST!)

It's up to you to decide what to do.

"Say yer prayers!" (Upon reaching Class 6 River)

On the left side of the playfield are 5 targets, spelling out R-I-V-E-R. Of course, you can shoot for these targets, but I recommend using the lane change feature (always going from left to right) on the inlanes/outlanes to switch to where the ball is headed. That way, you can collect River Classes without putting the ball out of any further control. Though, only the inlanes will account for River letters; outlanes just score 250,000 points when lit.

River Classes affect both your Hazard awards and your End of Ball Bonus. For your End of Ball Bonus, your total bonus is multiplied by your current River Class, up to a maximum of 6.

Your base Hazard value is 500,000 points. This value is multiplied depending on what your current River Class is, up to a maximum of 6, with a value of 3,000,000 points. (This doesn't affect the value during Wet Willie's.)

"It's the Boulder Bash!"

Hit the Left Orbit 3 times to start this mode. You have around 15 seconds to score as many points from the bumpers as possible, valued at 500,000 points. (Plus some annoying effects.)

The bumpers' value is initially worth 50,000 points each, but left orbit shots to the Boulder Garden raise the value by 50,000, up to a maximum of 300,000 points per pop. This value is held throughout the game.

You'll notice in the bumper area that there are 6 awards to be collected for the Vacation Jackpot. These 6 awards are:

• Whirlpool Challenge
  
  
• Man Overboard
  
  
• Light Extra Ball
  
  
• Advance Raft
  
  
• ?
  
  
• 5X Playfield

They can be collected in any order. The bumpers change the award each time they're hit.

"Ride the Whirlpool!"

This is a 2-ball feature. Each shot in the Whirlpool scores big points, starting at 5,000,000 points and rises by 2,000,000 each time the Whirlpool is hit. Once you shoot the Whirlpool 6 times, you'll get a bonus of 20,000,000 (and rises by 20,000,000 for each 6-pack) instead of the 6th award. The 7th, 13th, etc. award will still continue on even when the bonus is collected (17,000,000; 29,000,000; etc.)

The Challenge ends when 1 of the 2 balls drain. If you don't collect a Whirlpool, you'll have a Last Chance to get the 5,000,000; which will be a few seconds before it times out.

"HEAD FOR THE BLINKING LIGHT! GRAB ONTO HIM!"

Shoot any flashing Hazard. The value starts at 20,000,000 and counts down rapidly (actually slow enough), so just make any flashing Hazard to end the mode and collect the value on the display.

"Get the Extra Ball!"

Lights Extra Ball at the lower right target below the bumpers. Self explanatory.

Completes the current Raft. Pretty much self-explanatory; see Advancing Rafts.

???

It's basically a Random Award for this part of the Garden. The rewards are as follows:

Instant Class 6 River

Advance 3 Rafts

Light Extra Ball

5,000,000

8,000,000

"5 Times the Fun!"

This will last for 25 seconds and will 5X EVERYTHING on the playfield except for Extra Balls and the Vacation Jackpot. Quite useful for 5X Multiball, Advancing Rafts, and possibly Wet Willie's as well.

"Nice strattling, partner!"

Throughout the playfield, there are flashing yellow lights known as Hazards. Each of these shots must be made in order to advance to the next raft. Once you make a certain number of shots, you'll score the value of the Raft, more Hazards will light, and the music will change up. (Best part of the game is the music; it gets more frantic with each Raft!) This progressively gets harder with each Raft and after the first Wet Willie's.

Back to the music part: Go here. Tracks 1 and 3 are the main White Water music, after each Raft is reached.[www.cgmusic.net] The makers really nailed the game. Thank you, Chris Granner and the Williams team!

"Welcome to Wet Willie's!"

Stage 1: All Hazards are lit for 10,000,000 points regardless of River Class. Make all shots to advance to Stage 2.

Stage 2: Travelling Hazard. It's like the Super Jackpot shot in Attack From Mars; you have 27 seconds to make the shot for a neat 100,000,000. Back to Raft 1!

"Head for Bigfoot Bluff!"

There are 2 white targets located just west of the bumper area. Complete the bank 4 times to activate Hotfoot for about 16 seconds. During this time, shots to Bigfoot Bluff score 10,000,000 and an item for Gold Rush. If you already claimed a key, you may also get a Camera (for Camera Craze; 3,000,000 each shot if Bigfoot is made) and also a neat surprise (Hint: MOOOOOOO.).

"It's a Gold Rush!"

Below the R-I-V-E-R Targets is the kickout from the Lost Mine. Shoot the Lost Mine (usually it's a carom from another target or such) to collect an item (in order: Flashlight, Map, Key). The Key will start the Gold Rush. This is a 2-ball feature that scores 250,000 points each switch. This continues until 1 ball drains.

NOTE: Watch the upper right corner of the DMD for a nice surprise when you get the flashlight ;)

"WHITE WATER!!!!"

Locked 3 balls? Well, get ready to shoot the Insanity Falls ramp, because that's where the Jackpot is located. Each hit gives you a base value of 10,000,000 PLUS 2,000,000 each time you Advance Rafts. Be informed that the first 3 kickouts from No Way Out determine what kind of Jackpots you'll get for the remainder of the Multiball. Also, Whirlpool awards do not coincide with Multiball, but you can activate Wet Willie's.

0 or 1 Jackpot: "Jackpot!"

2 Jackpots: "Double Jackpot!!"

All 3 shots: "TRRRRRRIPLE JACKPOT!!!"

Didn't get a Jackpot at all, and drained 2 balls? Shoot No Way Out quickly to restart the Multiball, but with only Jackpots available.

Multiballs are harder to activate after each time. For the first Multiball, both green targets need to be hit once for each Lock to light. On the second, they need to be hit twice to light a Lock. From the third on, the second hit on the targets activates a timer, and you have a limited time to hit the other target a second time to light the Lock.

NOTE: 5X Playfield ALSO coincides with White Water Multiball Jackpots, even if they're only 5x the value and not increasing the multiplier. So you'll get 5x Jackpots until the timer runs out on 5x Playfield. Your multiplier will be retained depending on how many Jackpots you get during the kickouts of the three locked balls (Example: Your Jackpots will remain doubled if you shot it twice during the kickout while 5X was still active. When 5X ends, Jackpots will be doubled.)

"WHOOOOOOOO-HOOO!!!"

Once you complete all the tasks and locked 3 balls, you'll get a shiny 200,000,000 from the Vacation Jackpot. Enjoy the few seconds of madness before White Water Multiball [and a free game (real)/Extra Ball (TPA)]

"Hey, you found a secret passage!"

Disaster Drop: The center ramp in the lower playfield. Shooting it adds a Drop, and various rewards include Bonus Held, Spot Hazard, and Light Extra Ball.

Spine Chiller Multi-Millions: 2,000,000 points + 1,000,000 each time the ramp is made via the right inlane. Value resets once timed out.

The Secret Passage: Located underneath the Spine Chiller. Allowing the ball to go through the passage via a weak shot at the orbit advances a raft. Does nothing (?) during Wet Willie's.

Combo System: Two Way Combos are worth 2,000,000 (Spine Chiller + Insanity Falls). Three Ways are 5,000,000 (+ Right Orbit/Disaster Drop/No Way Out). Four Way Combos are 8,000,000 (from No Way Out: Insanity Falls). Five Way Combos are 10,000,000 (Disaster Drop/Right Orbit).

Extra Balls: Always collected at the lowest target below the bumpers. I think there's a maximum of 10 allowed per game. Scoring 90,000,000 gets you an Extra Ball. Disaster Drop and one of the Boulder Awards can light an Extra Ball.

Bounce Back: Acts as the Kickback of the game, located in the left outlane. You can relight it by spotting the 3 red targets, in between Disaster Drop and the Hotfoot targets, or spot a Hazard when Bounce Back is already lit.

This is really one of the best games of any Williams pinball machine, aside from a select few. Get this game ASAP, but I'd prefer getting the Season Pass as it saves you a ton on many other games as well. I hope I covered everything...

My personal best score: Watch my video. I think you'll hate me now. (EDIT: Outdated due to a past live broadcast. I think it's 6.4 billion now.)

Thank you for reading my guide, and play more pinball!