When things go bad on rivet board

[bradtech519]

I just went 300k on one guy after dying twice on pie factory at around 100k and got within 20k of beating my PB HS 427,900.  Then get two bad rivet boards where the fireballs are rushing to the center left & top left. What do you guys do when things go south on the rivet board stage? I try to wing it but that seems to be causing me to not get past 390-430k for a going on two months now. Winging it on lower levels when the fireballs don't have Barry Sander's speed works. Has to be some kind of strat to counter the rushing left of them.  Starting to feel like you could sit me down at 400k with all my men and I'd get back to back to back rivet boards like this. 

[dnickolas]

There’s no real elixir for this, but you could try rushing up top before taking out the lower left girder to save enough time to beat them to the top left if they spawn high right, since that’s the main issue. I forget if you’re on MAME or a cab but if MAME try a save state on a rivet and keep running it for a while to get used to dealing with different scenarios.

[bradtech519]

I didn't think about that leaving the bottom left rivet intact. I think I'll give that a shot next time.  One thing I did try was leaving the middle left hammer in place, and just focusing on getting all the left side rivets taken out. The time saved getting to the top first might be worth it. Only thing that sucks is is when they fill in below you, and then the ones on the right upper side start coming in on top of you. While the bottom left fireballs rush up to meet them on the left side.  Seems like I saw a game where Wes Copeland saw some scenario and went to the bottom right rivet first & got rid of it. Then went back to the left side. I wonder if there is a situation where it's best to attempt to limit the fireballs "marauding" scope early on to stop them from coming left. They are so fast and random when hitting level 05. 

[bradtech519]

I've found being more aggressive on Level 05 rivets and above has helped me drastically. When on a ladder going up or down. If the fireball is heading my way. I go in the ladder which way it's heading and it usually retreats. Not always the case. Also in the instances where I have double fireballs coming at me. When trapped in the upper left by Kong. I attempt to get to the right side of Kong. Almost exactly on him and backjump to the ladder. Then either jump stright up if fireball is coming or escape down the ladder quickly.  There have been instances of extreme fireball aggro.  Where they always charge you on ladders regardless of being aggressive. But they seem to be fewer and I just try to wing it. While working my way up

On the left side above hammer. If it's just one fireball. I can usually escape easily. By going up and down the ladder. Waiting for the fireball to also to go up the ladder. While watching the other fireballs on the right side. I feel like this has helped me go from 400k to 800k player. Along with improved barrel steering on barrel boards & grabbing the hammer immediately and going left on pie factory.