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53C1 ARCADE · CABINET MANUAL

Peg Fever strategy: chase purple, cash the middle bucket and break the Warden

How chips, the multiplier, buckets, quotas, relics, refreshes and the Warden work, and which relics stack into huge shots.

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Chips times multiplier times bucket

Every lit peg adds chips: 10 for blue, 60 for gold. Purple pegs add one to the multiplier. When the ball drops out, the shot pays chips × multiplier × the bucket it lands in, and the middle bucket pays ×5. A ball that threads purple pegs and lands in the middle is worth ten shots that do not.

Aim for the cluster

The beam under the launcher shows where the ball enters the field. Aim at the densest column of unlit pegs, and at purple and gold first; a ball that only skims the edge of the field lights two pegs and pays almost nothing. Orange pegs explode and light everything around them, so a bomb at the top of a full column is a free dozen pegs.

Quotas and lives

Each level gives five balls (more with Extra Ball) to reach the quota shown at the top; it grows a quarter each level and half again on Warden levels. Miss it and you lose a life and replay the level on a fresh board. Beat it and you choose one of three relics. The run ends when the last life goes.

Relics that stack

Split Shot doubles the ball on its first peg; Big Ball lights more pegs per pass; Double Purple makes every purple peg worth two; Gold Rush doubles gold; Wide Jackpot widens the ×5 bucket; First Strike triples the chips of the first peg. Split Shot with Double Purple and Wide Jackpot is the combination that turns thousands into tens of thousands.

Refreshes

Lit pegs leave the board after each shot. When fewer than a third remain, a new field drops in and pays a bonus. Green pegs relight every cleared peg on the board, so a late green peg can rebuild a field mid-level.

The Warden

Every fifth level the Warden sits in the middle with the pegs cleared around it. Every ball that hits it and every bomb that goes off beside it cracks it; it must break before the level counts, and breaking it pays a jackpot and a spare life. Aim straight down the middle and let the bounce do the rest.

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