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Congo Pinball Tutorial - Danni Teaches

Bug's Scream and Stream·video·19m 54s·held·Sep 23, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Congo pinball tutorial covering diamond strategy, Gary awards, multiball modes, and advanced mechanics.

Summary

Danni provides a comprehensive tutorial on Congo pinball strategy, gameplay, and rules through live gameplay demonstration. She covers two main strategies (diamond collection vs. Gary farming), explains key mechanics like the super secret skill shot (25M in kickback), multiball modes, and various shot sequences. The video showcases tournament-level play on a machine at RD Arcade in Auckland, with commentary on upcoming Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships.

Key Claims

  • There are two main strategies for Congo: collect diamonds/locks for multiball focus, or farm Gary awards all game

    high confidence · Danni explains both strategies early in tutorial, demonstrating preference for diamond-focused authentic play

  • Super secret skill shot worth 25 million points is available in the kickback lane, similar to Iron Maiden

    high confidence · Danni explicitly describes and successfully executes this shot multiple times during gameplay

  • Reaching 100 diamonds unlocks super multiball as the end-game goal

    high confidence · Danni states this objective and tracks diamond progress throughout the game (reaches ~78 diamonds)

  • Gary award second iteration provides multiball rather than standard mystery spots

    high confidence · Danni directly states 'the second Gary award is actually multiball' and demonstrates this in gameplay

  • Diamond Hunt multiball is triggered via mystery spot and creates a frenzy mode for diamond shots

    high confidence · Danni explains and triggers Diamond Hunt multiball during gameplay, describing the frenzy mechanic

  • The ramp on Congo does not divert, allowing sustained ramp shots during multiball

    high confidence · Danni specifically notes 'the ramp, the map ramp does not divert, you can just keep going for your map ramp'

  • Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships occurring in October in Auckland at RD Arcade

    high confidence · Danni announces event details: 'Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships, System 11 World Championships, happening in October'

  • Danni competed against Zoe Rejels at IFPA Women's Pinball World Championships on Congo

    high confidence · Opening statement: 'if you saw the IFPA Women's Pinball World Championships this year you would have seen the amazing game between me and Zoe Rejels'

Notable Quotes

  • “There are two strategies for this game... collect all the diamonds, get your locks, get into multiball... or just go for Gary all day”

    Danni@ 0:32 — Core strategic framework for Congo gameplay

  • “But there is a 25 million point super secret skill shot in the kickback lane. If you've ever played Iron Maiden where that's one of the secret skill shots, this is where it comes from.”

    Danni@ 2:18 — Explains high-value secret mechanic and historical design connection

  • “I could never just play this game normally, right? Like, I couldn't just, like, normally get the lock, right? I always go do it in a funny kind of way.”

    Danni@ 4:38 — Self-aware commentary on her unconventional/chaotic playing style

  • “The IFPA would not like if that had happened during the World Champs. But it's okay.”

    Danni@ 5:46 — Reference to physical ball manipulation rules violation in competitive play

  • “Gary is like a good strategy if your game is playing a bit harder... playing the game in a sort of what I would call an authentic way is a lot more fun”

    Danni@ 1:52 — Preference statement between strategic approaches based on difficulty and enjoyment

  • “If you're coming to the SHPC, I'll rebuild the flippers for you then, so this game will be even better than it already is.”

    Danni@ 6:47 — Commentary on Congo's maintenance issues at RD Arcade location

Entities

DannipersonZoe RejelspersonCongogameRD ArcadeorganizationIFPA Women's Pinball World ChampionshipseventSouthern Hemisphere Pinball ChampionshipseventIron MaidengameBug's Scream and StreamorganizationTechnician Davoperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships and System 11 World Championships announced for October in Auckland at RD Arcade

    high · Danni announces: 'Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships, System 11 World Championships, happening in October, guys. If you're in Auckland or you want to come to Auckland'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Congo identified as strong tournament game; featured at IFPA Women's Pinball World Championships with notable competitive play

    high · Danni describes Congo as 'such a great tournament game' and references her championship match against Zoe Rejels

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Congo features interconnected playfield zones (upper/lower) with complex rule layering that rewards strategic decision-making and creates multiple valid gameplay paths

    high · Danni explains dual strategies (diamond vs. Gary farming) and notes 'you've got stuff going on in the lower playfield, stuff going on in the upper playfield'

  • ?

    venue_signal: RD Arcade's Congo machine has documented mechanical issues: flipper angle misalignment and problematic kickback, scheduled for maintenance before SHPC

    high · Danni repeatedly references flipper angle issues and kickback problems, stating she'll rebuild flippers and have Technician Davo address kickback before championship

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.060

0:00
Hello and welcome to another DanniTeaches. Today we're here with Kongo. Now if you saw the IFPA Women's Pinball World Championships this year you would have seen the amazing game between me and Zoe Rejels on this game and honestly it is such a great tournament game. So today we're going to take you through a little bit of how to play it with some gameplay. Now there are two strategies for this game. I go for the first strategy which we will talk about now and that is collect all the diamonds to get your locks, get your locks, get into multiball. Keep doing that throughout the whole game, get as many diamonds as you can and work towards your super multiball at the end. Once you get 100 diamonds that is. To help you build up your diamond stash get the mystery and get diamond hunt multiple this basically allows you to frenzy a bunch of diamonds shoot all the diamond shots as much as you can and uh yeah get towards that super 100 diamond target something else you can do is shoot for gray gray or as my mother calls him gary gray is an awesome way to get some mystery spots for some diamonds and gray is also really good because the second gray award is actually multiball. But my recommendation is go for your multiball naturally first, try and get your diamonds and locks as you would sort of normally, and then use the second grey award after you've already had your first multiball. With that being said, the second strategy of the game is just to go for grey all day. If you go for grey all day, you'll still get awesome awards, you'll get some good points in there, but I think playing the game in sort of what I would call an authentic way is a lot more fun and gets you a lot further through. I think grey is like a good strategy if your game is playing a bit harder. Now the other thing we're going to mention here is skill shot. If you have never seen this before you may not know you've got your skill shot in the three bank of targets there and you need to hit the lit target in the skill shot bank to get your skill shot. But there is a 25 million point super secret skill shot in the kickback lane. If you've ever played Iron Maiden where that's one of the secret skill shots. This is where it comes from.
2:32

  • “You can see the rules are up on the screen. So you've got stuff going on in the lower playfield, stuff going on in the upper playfield. I mean, it's almost like a regular multiball, plus some.”

    Danni@ 12:54 — Describes Congo's complex playfield layout with multiple active areas

  • “I did not read the rule set for this game before we jumped in. I just wanted to play and figure it out. That's Papa Duke good.”

    Danni@ 17:57 — Shows learning-by-playing approach and introduces 'Papa Duke good' phrase

    • Gary Stern
    person
    Now that we know some of the rules let's jump into a game and see some of it in action. All right here we are in game we're going to go for that super secret skill shot 25 mil oh and just like that 25 mil straight up on the board definitely worth going for. Go for the lit diamonds here, try and get our locks lit, and just like that we got our, oh no, I was going to say we got our first lock, but it lit the lock, it didn't give me the lock, so I need to shoot that, oh, never mind, we're going into the mine shaft, got five diamonds there, happy with that pickup, that'll go towards our next lock, and get the lock, we got the lock, we're good, we made it, all unlocked, we need to keep going for our diamonds, Do I only have that ramp lit? Yes, I need to shoot the one that's lit on that ramp. And hopefully we can get some relit. Now it's never going to be lit, but that super secret skill shot is still active. So make sure you always go for it if you can.
    3:35
    And just like that, another 25 mil. You can see why people go for it. It's kind of important. It gives you lots of points if you keep going for it. I'm going to try and get that ramp, or I'll shoot the mystery. Either of the two would be really good right now. Mystery is going to give me my diamond hunt multiball. If I get the ramp, then I can get my diamond and see if we get any relit.
    3:55
    Oh, just enough, just enough, just enough oomph to get up there. They have not relit, so I'm going to go for my diamond hunt multiball there. Get that mystery going.
    4:08
    And here we go. Just a little mini multiball here. Just a frenzy. But we will do. It will do nicely to get us towards our next lock. if I don't insta-drain like I just did. There's no... Oh, I just had this barely any ball save on here, so I wasn't sure if it was going to give it back, but it very kindly gave it back. Doesn't mean I'm using it for... Damn it. Well, in good news... I just did the crackiest stuff I've ever seen. But I got the lock. I got lock two, and we're good. You know, I could never just play this game normally, right? Like, I couldn't just, like, normally get the lock, right? I always go do it in a funny kind of way. Oh goodness, alright, what are we going to do? So to get some more diamonds lit I can go grey I can go mystery I can do whatever I want Let go oh let go pops actually did not mean to go pops but there we go what are we going to get for mystery we should get some diamonds no we got lockers lit which is even better let's do it ah doesn't mean I hit anything just hit Travercom instead but there we go our third ball is locked and we have got multi ball. So regular jackpot on the left ramp, big super on the right ramp there. So let's get some going. The nice thing is because the ramp, the map ramp does not divert, you can just keep going for your map ramp. Where did my third ball go? Technician Devo, I think we've got to look at this before. Oh, there it is. I knocked it free. The IFPA would not like if that had happened during the World Champs. But it's okay. Oh, come on.
    5:55
    And you can see super scores lit up the top and the purple flashing, so that would have given us some good points. But alas, I didn't get it, so that's okay. Map is lit, so I'd love to get that award. Should be 25 million for the first run. There you go. Some more free points. And what do we want to do now? We can do anything. We've got so much choice this game. What I'll do now is go for Gray. Gray's got some good awards that he can give me if I ever hit the shot. Did you see how floaty that was? For those of you who are coming to the Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships. I was too busy doing promo. I couldn't play. Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships. System 11 World Championships. Happening in October, guys. If you're in Auckland or you want to come to Auckland, we've got some tickets remaining. Gotta shout it out. Come to the RD Arcade. Come and play this beauty. I will rebuild the flippers for you by then, so this game will be even better than it already is. So, we're gonna go for our super skill shot again.
    6:56
    Oh, missed it, but again, we can let it go. Try again. Oh, didn't quite that time. And you might want to line up your Zinj letters there. Make sure you get your unlit letter on the end there, so that if you get it, then it gives it to you, let it go down, unlimited attempt, how good is that, very generous, no, still didn't get, this is the patience that is required here, um, if you can't be bothered, that's understandable, because honestly, it can be a process, I'll take it, I'll take the cop out of a regular skill shot, and let's go for some grey, we've got, we've got an embarrassment, embarrassment of a ball there, and apparently we're just going for Travacom all day, which is fine, you know what, Travacom mode is better than everyone says it is, Travacom you get 10 million a shot to those targets mate, we're almost there, three more, two more, I'm almost there, I just want to show it off because everyone gives me stuff for always getting to it so there you go so we've got a gary spotted i'm gonna call it what my mum calls it we've got a gary here and what you're gonna do is just keep hitting and it should spot you the letters there we go gray has been defeated aka gary and we got 20 diamonds very generous of gary there and we got our second gary straight away so thank you to the mystery for spotting our first one there. Don't take it too seriously. It sort of just spots you the letters. So if you're not hitting the targets, don't worry, just keep hitting and it'll eventually spot you the letters. Hopefully. There we go. Now we're into our second multi-ball, right? Because we got our second Gary award. So let's go. Let's try to get some more jackpots than last time. Oh, none. Oh, none. Oh, none. Apparently we're getting none. That's okay. You know, we can't always win in this. Ah, you know what? We still got one. We got a last minute one. It's all a bit of fun when we're in Danny Teaches. Alright, so we've still got heaps of diamonds lit. We can go for it, but I'm going to go for Matt. It's going to divert so I can shoot it straight on, but I also got my diamond. Thanks for diverting back. Whoa!
    9:20
    You've got to be real careful with this flipper because it's on a bit of an angle. Again, if you come into SHPC, I'll rebuild the flippers by then so we won't have this issue. The flippers will be in perfect alignment.
    9:33
    Now let's try and get that. We got mystery instead and you know what? I'll take it. 15 diamonds. We're getting closer and closer to that 100 diamond gold. Now if you're like, how many diamonds do I have? I don't know how close I am. It will say it on the display and I will show you where in just a second Alright we got Matt Plunged it into the slings and it gave me Matt
    10:02
    Thanks game, I love you too. So if you look where it says free play, there you go, 78 diamonds. Got a little bit of a way to go, but not too far. Let's go for walk. Try and get a third multi ball, that'll be nice.
    10:17
    Alright, and back for another super skill shot if we can. Nope, plunged it into the in lane and we don't want to mess around because there's no ball save if you try for it and then miss it. If it's not at the start of the ball. Keep shooting for your diamonds. whoop got plenty of diamonds still lit so just keep your eyes peeled go for what's going 10 more to like lock it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll nice let's keep comboing 20 million for a combo is really good hey sometimes it'll fall into that uh volcano shot and that's okay whoo the volcano ejects pretty funny on this game. Most Congos, the Volcano Eject will pop it onto the ramp. R1 decides to just throw it wherever it decides is good that day.
    11:15
    And you can see there it even bounced back. But that's the fun of the RD Arcade. Funny things happen all the time. Let's go for Grey again, aka Gary.
    11:25
    Come on, Gary. Let's go, Gary. I can't wait for everybody who hasn't played this game before to walk up and be like I gotta get Gary okay we're almost there and it hasn't given me the letters yet so that's a really bad sign it might be my first Gary that I don't get the letters on oh did it give it to me last minute no it didn't I can't believe it but still got almost 60 million which is crazy for that oh I've got a little funny thing going on there Alright, let's keep going for grey.
    12:00
    Nice, got Amy here. So if you spell Amy those lanes up top, you're going to get into this mode where Amy scores. By getting it into that top eject again by either of those top shots, you get plenty of points. It's a little hurry up. The quickest way is to shoot that flashing purple super score. But I suck at hitting it, so I just aim for the block shot there. because even though you get like a million or two less at least you gain it there we go got 15 diamonds there thanks amy appreciate it mate here we go diamonds are lit very nice happy with that whoa get it under control danny oh get the lock girl get the lock girl no extra ball in this game so we gotta keep going. What are we on now? We got it! We got it! We got it! We got enough diamonds. Amazing. So you can see the rules are up on the screen. So you've got stuff going on in the lower playfield, stuff going on in the upper playfield. I mean, it's almost like a regular multiball, plus some. Shoot the stuff that's lit, basically, right? You've got the eject slit, you've got the ramp slit, you've got Gary going, see everyone in Yoko Koe knows it's Gary, that's his real name, can't believe we've got a little ramp crossover moment happening there, very nice, keep going, want to get some control on it, but really you just go for it, I can't believe it, can't believe it, where's the other ball, or is just keep them going. Where's the other ball? Did it get stuck in the eject again? Okay, well we're just going to keep playing until the ball comes out. It's fine. I'm not in a Josh Sharp tournament. We don't have to play by the IPA rules. Now we do because I don't know where it is. Oh, it's there. Oh my gosh. Okay, we're going to fish that one out oh bro all right it's back in the plunger lane it's gonna fire out as soon as i do this i'm sure here we go is it gonna auto plunge or do i have to plunge it great i have to plunge it and it could go straight down the out lane i can't wait to see what this happens okay let's go traverscom we're almost there i can't believe i haven't gotten traverscom yet i'm sure i'm like one shot away um but if you're in this stage you can go for mystery you can go for map you can go for grey do whatever you feel correct. How have I not got it? Oh, here we go! Travacom mode. 10 million per target you hit on Travacom. So my favourite thing to do is to not hit Travacom when it's lit. There we go. So you can see there, just piling up the 10 millions. There is stuff that more valuable in this game Obviously grey is like huge in this game I actually don recommend going for Travacom but if you get it and like on our game it not too dangerous to go for it like it controllable then there's no problem actually going for it. You're just not going to get that many points from it. You'll get it. You'll get enough. There you go. Got a few million from it. Happy with that. 70 million. Pretty good. Pretty good outcome. I feel like, oh, you could easily get a hundred mil from it if you were committed to the piece. Here it comes out of that stupid kickback. Again, if you're coming to the SHPC, I'll have that fixed for you by the time we're here. Jokes, I will put it on the list for Technician Davo to fix. He can teach me how to fix it. Another Gary here. I'm just going with Gary now. That's his official name now. If you're on the channel, we love Gazza.
    15:44
    Come on, give me the O. That O has been problematic. Please just spot it for me. There we go. Thank goodness. I thought we were not going to get it again. 20 diamonds. Amazing. Let's keep going. Lock is lit.
    16:00
    Lock is lit, but where's the lock? It said lock is lit, but lock is not lit. Lock is very much not lit. Can I get mystery? What's mystery going to give me? I always forget where we're at with mystery.
    16:17
    The mystery is always actually consistently the same. So you can memorize what mystery is going to happen next. But I don't think about it that much, you know. I'm not that smart. So we've got jungle jackpot here. This is always your third map award, I believe. and so we want to get it back into that eject as soon as we can does not mean I'm going to please please let me hit it there we go backhanded it for like none could have had it at 30 mil got nothing instead and that's okay you're better to get it and get a multi ball than to not so this is another multi ball in the game ghost try multi ball So what you want to try and do, which I'm not doing very successfully here, is get it in either mystery hole, so mystery or map. And it's going to give you whatever value you've got for your hurry up as your jackpot. Does not mean I'm going to get that many, but we're going to try.
    17:24
    Ooh! Oh, absolutely did not get it there. Oh let's go what I did not get in hurry up value I have made up for in getting shots so I'm happy with that look at that oh nice if you get both at once you get your super jackpot I did not know until tonight we are learning together see I did not read the I didn't read the rule set for this game before we jumped in I just wanted to play and figure it out that's pretty good we had a pretty good ghost tribe there almost a hundred milli very easy get over a hundred mil especially if you get a really good hurry up value I'm gonna try and get the mystery in the video mode here did not hit it come on girl come on girl hit the thing. That's alright. I'll cop out and take a map ramp. I'll take a map. Give me the map. What have we got? Relight diamonds. Alright. Oh, hitting Travercom instead of Mystery. I've lost all patience with the game. I can't find the Mystery. Just keep hitting the Pops instead, which is fine actually. I must say there's actually quite a bit of value in those pops. Oh, missed it. I can't believe I missed the video mode. I couldn't show you the funnest of video modes. Damn. But not a bad game at all. Boom. Boom. Got our name up and everything. Pretty cool. I can't believe I got Grand Champ. That's how hard this game plays. Again, SHPC, rock up and beat this Grand Champion score, because I know you can. Lambo, I'm looking at you, you can come and beat the score, come on, show up, so there we go, almost 2 billion, and I didn't even show off the video mode, damn it, no extra balls on this, obviously, if you've got extra balls, it's a lot easier, but there you go, if you're playing it on location, and you want to hit that juicy replay value, get those kickbacks, get those super secret skill shots, and that is all for now, if there's anything else, I'll put it in here, Otherwise, thank you so much for watching. I really thank you for joining us today and see you on the next one. Bye!