Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run - How to get a high score!!!

In this week's episode, Jared shares with us tips and tricks to get a high score on Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run as well as one very controversial opinion!

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On this week's episode of a Dryer Dose of Disney, Jared shares with us his tips and tricks for getting a high score on Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run as well as a highly controversial opinion. Welcome to this week's episode of a Dryer Dose of Disney. I'm your host, Jared Dryer, and today we are gonna be talking about Millennium Falcon Smugglers run over at Hollywood Studios and at the Disneyland park in Anaheim. And this is a really fun ride. But in this ride you're gonna be collecting a high score, which is a very different than Toy Story Mania or Buzz Lightyear and those types of rides. But we're gonna go through, we've gotten great feedback on our other episodes where we talk about how to get a high score, and we're gonna talk about that today for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run. But in addition to that, we've got lots of tips and tricks for this ride, as well as one really unpopular opinion. And we know we're gonna create some controversy with this and we know we're gonna get a lot of feedback. So you're definitely gonna want to tune into this episode and listen to that. But before we jump in. And give you those opinions. We do wanna ask wherever you're listening to us, find that subscribe button and subscribe to this podcast. So that way as we update our episodes and send out new content, you're gonna get that delivered into your inbox each and every week. And then down in our podcast description below, we have links to things like Patreon, where you can support the show as well as the condo where we stay out in Orlando amongst a lot of other things. So lots of great partners out there. We do ask that you support'em and help them out as well. But go check those out in our leaks below. So if you're familiar, obviously with the Disneyland Park or Hollywood Studios in Orlando, you know that they've created a Star Wars land called the Black Spire Outpost, and there are two really good rides in there. So you've got Rise of the Resistance, which is perhaps one of the most immersive rides I've ever been on in my entire life. And that one's a ton of fun, especially if you're a Star Wars fan. But they also have Millennium Falcon Smugglers run, which is a great chance for you and your group to pilot the Millennium Falcon spacecraft yourself and go out on a mission that Hondo is the character that's telling you what to do. Hondo is gonna send you out there to go collect coaxium, which is the fuel that they used to make power in this universe. It's a fun ride. It's reminiscent of Star Tours as well as some of the other simulator type rides. But this one just goes an extra step further because there's a lot of tasks you're gonna be doing during this game and you're in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, which is totally cool. So that's something I wanted to do my whole life growing up, and now you actually can. So we're gonna share some tips and tricks as well as that really unpopular opinion here in just a few minutes. But a couple things I wanna tell you about the ride before you go on it. Obviously the queue can be lengthy because the load and unload can take a little bit. Now they do have this really cool setup where the ride is built into these wheels where you have multiple cockpits through the same tunnel that are gonna all be able to run at the same time. They actually have a Disney plus video on this, and you can go check that out online if you have the streaming service, Disney Plus, and it's gonna give you how the imagineers built this ride. So that's a really cool thing to go check out. We really love that episode. I encourage you to do that. But this ride also has single rider. And if you've heard of other episodes, I love Single Rider, and I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna have a maybe two to three minute wait if you go into single Rider versus maybe a 30 to 40 minute or maybe an hour long wait if you go through the traditional line. So single rider always on this ride. Now, the downside to that is you're always gonna be assigned engineer, which is one of the three roles we're gonna talk about here in just a second. And you don't get to do the other ones, but you're gonna shorten your wait time. So definitely worth it, especially if you've done it a few different times. So the layout is they take six of you into this cockpit. You have two pilots, one that's flying left and right, and one that's flying up and down. And then you have two gunners and the next two seats that are gonna be shooting at the enemies out there that are flying around. And then you have two engineers in the back that are repairing the ship as you get shot or as you run into things. That's the layout. Every single role in this game is gonna earn point. So the pilots are gonna earn points for flying well and doing the mission and not hitting things. The gunner obviously are gonna get points for shooting different things as they fly, and then the engineers are gonna get points for harpooning, the coaxium, as well as repairing the ship. The maximum number of points you can get is 13,500. Most flights. If you're with a group of people that don't know what they're doing and it's chaotic, you're gonna earn about six to 7,000 points. If you have a group that at least maybe has done it before, or they're pretty quick at learning, you're gonna get closer to that nine to 10,000 point range. And then if you have a group of experts, that's when you're gonna get up into the 13,000 point range. So obviously you're gonna go out there and collect the coaxium. The first one as you go through this ride, and I don't wanna spoil a whole lot if you've never done it before, but I'm gonna give you a couple obviously tips and tricks that could spoil some of it. But the first coaxium you go after is actually a gimme. Everybody's gonna get it. But it can be done quickly, which gives you more time to get the future coaxiums through the rest of the game. So you definitely wanna get as quick as you can as you do it but that is gonna be how you earn those points as you shoot down the other tie fighters and get the coaxium. Now let's talk about each of the roles and how to maximize your points on this ride. So that way you can get the highest possible score. And our big negative opinion, the opinion that we know we're gonna get a lot of feedback on is actually in the first group, and that is pilots. So for pilots, if you wanna score the highest points possible, obviously you don't wanna fly into anything. Now the challenge with that is you only have the control of either left and right or up and down, and you can't do both at the same time, which would really actually help you if you had great hand eye coordination. So you're really dependent on the other pilot or if you're further in the back, in the cockpit, both pilots to fly you in the right direction. So as they're flying Honda's gonna tell you up or down left or right in a couple different instances, but it's really up to you to watch the screen and to know exactly where you are going. There is a tip in here that says when you first take off, you want to dive to get underneath the first rock that you're gonna encounter. And that's a great tip there. And so that could help you get some points, but for the most part, people are gonna run into that first one and you're gonna start losing points. The good news though, if you run into it, you're now giving the engineer something to do, so they're gonna be hitting their buttons. Here's the unpopular opinion. You. Every single kid that has ever ridden Millennium Falcon smugglers run wants to be the pilot. And I'm gonna tell you, if you are a family, so say you're a family of three, four, or five or six, if you have a kid in your party that I will say isn't at least a teenager, do not let them be the pilot. And I know little Johnny's gonna be very disappointed that he doesn't get to be a pilot, but trust me, Johnny's gonna be much more effective and have a better time on this ride if he's in the backseat as an engineer. And the reason that I say that is the engineer role is the easiest role. He's gonna have things to do, but he's gonna have a more enjoyable ride. And what I mean by that is if Johnny's up there piloting, he's gonna run into everything. And the ride's gonna feel jerky. It's gonna feel bouncy. It's not gonna be pleasant, it's not gonna be fun. You're gonna be all over the place and it's not an enjoyable event. Then it's not fun for anyone in there when little Johnny's up there on the control panel driving back and forth. So I'm gonna say, don't ever let your kids pilot this craft. Not only that, if you have fewer than six people, you're gonna be paired with other people. And if you're given the privilege of being in the front and having the pilot seat. You're gonna piss off the other people that are writing with you that want to do if you're letting your kids be the pilot. So I'm gonna tell you, adults should be the pilot and you need to explain this to your kids before you get in line and say, as we go through this, the pilot role is difficult. It is something that is gonna impact the ride for not only you, but for everyone else. And you want them to have a good time as well. So you want to give them a job that they can actually be. Successful at. And again, this is helping them be successful. We're not trying to teach them it's okay to fail at this point in life. We want to teach them, Hey, you can be successful doing other things than other than exactly what you want. So that's the unpopular opinion. Please, I wanna hear the feedback. If you disagree with this and you think I'm a jerk, please give us comments on that and I'm happy to interact with you and tell you why you are wrong, because you are in fact wrong. If you think little Johnny should be the pilot. And yes, it's great to get the picture of Johnny up at the front seat holding onto the pilot stick. And you can still do that if you want to. Right When you're going in there, say, Hey, go hop up there. I'll take a quick picture. But Johnny, you are not gonna be the pilot. You need to be in the back seat. Like I said, it makes the ride terrible if you don't, and if you have a group of six and you want to endure your kid being the pilot and have a miserable ride and not impact anyone else. That's fine. But I can tell you from somebody who's ridden this at least 50 different times, that when I get in the ride and I see a kid up front, I just wanna tell the cast member like, forget about it. Like I'd rather go do something else. Now, the times that I get in and I'm with a group of teenagers, college age kids, or a whole group of adults, or the adults are up front, we have a much better time and we get a much higher score. So I'm gonna tell you, if you're interested in the score, keep the kids off the pilot seat, okay? They're gonna be fine in the back. The next tip on this as a pilot is the moves are there's a little bit of a delay, and the moves are gradual. So you don't want to jerk the stick left or right because then you're gonna be going way off screen. What you wanna do is do gradual movements, but you wanna do them in advance of what you need to do. So as you see the rock falling, like I said at the beginning, you want to do a dive if you're on the up and down. But as you come to other things ahead in your path, you want to move in advance of them and move gradually, that's gonna help you a lot. I will also tell you that the left pilot is more difficult than the right pilot. And the left pilot also has a button for brakes. There is a part when you're getting the first coaxium and it's gonna drag you off a ledge and hondo is yelling, hit the brakes. You need to hit the brakes to get more points. That's also gonna keep your ship in better condition, and that's gonna save you more points later in the game. So the more advanced pilot should sit on the left and be ready to hit the brakes button. Now the pilot on the right does get to do the jump to hyperspace. That's cool, but you don't get any points for that, and it's not critical to the mission at all. So just know that as you go in gunners, okay, so you're the second seats, you're in the middle when you activate. So at the beginning, it's gonna tell you to hit your button to activate. It is going to give you two options. You're gonna have an option for auto aim, or you're gonna have an option for manual aim. Now, manual aim is going to give you more points. Auto aim is easier. So I'm gonna tell you if this is your first time riding it, you may want to do the auto aim so that way you can just smash buttons and shoot as much as you want, and it's gonna shoot at the bad guys for you as long as you're hitting the button. If you've done the flight at least once, I would say but you feel more comfortable in the cockpit, I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna get a lot more points if you do manual aim. And the way that this works is you have three white vertical buttons, and those buttons represent shooting towards the top of the screen, shooting at the middle of the screen, and shooting at the bottom of the screen. You don't have to line up any crosshairs, you don't have to do anything else like that. But what you're doing is you're selecting, am I shooting at the top, middle, or bottom of the screen? That again, is gonna get you the most points. The fewer shots you take that are hitting ships and killing them, the better your score is gonna be. So you want to do that correctly and go after it. Now you do have a large orange button that is not the firing button that is for your torpedoes, and those are only used once. So you wanna use the white buttons on the side of the screen that are vertical as you're firing shooting buttons. At one point during the game, just like we were talking about where Hondo tells you to hit the brakes for the left pilot you're gonna have one point in the game where it's gonna tell you to shoot torpedoes, and that's when you're gonna hit the orange button and it's gonna light up for you when that happens. Now in the back of the ship, you've got your engineers. This one is the most self-explanatory. It's pretty straightforward, but basically anytime something lights up and it's got a green flashing symbol or a different flashing symbol around it, you're gonna wanna hit the button to clear that issue. So as you're flying, sometimes maybe it's the engine hyperdrive cooling system, something's gonna go down and you're gonna get three or four different buttons to hit. So yes, you're watching the action take place, but keep an eye on that console. And as you see buttons light up, and usually you're gonna hear an alarm or a whistle as well. You're gonna want to start hitting those buttons and clearing that alarm, and it's gonna tell you that you cleared it on your screen as that happens. Now you also have a big orange button, and this is for your harpoons. And as you're flying, you're gonna come up behind a car with coaxium in it, and he's gonna tell you to shoot your harpoons. That is the orange button. And if you watch the screen, it will line the car up in your sight, so you don't wanna shoot the harpoon until it's right in the middle. And when you do shoot the harpoon, it's gonna hook to that car and you're gonna be all set. Now on the second one that you're shooting at, once you shoot it, he's gonna tell you to keep hitting the button, and that's gonna send this like electrical charge to dislodge that cart on the first one. You don't have to do that. So know when you shoot your harpoons, you can keep hitting that orange button as much as you want, and that's gonna help you get that coaxium a little bit easier, and that's gonna help your score as well. So I'm gonna encourage you when he says shoot the harpoon get it lined up, and then just keep smashing that button as much as you can. So that is how you're gonna get the maximum score out of this game is by getting good pilots in place. That is the most important 'cause. That's where the most points are. Again, your kids should not be pilots. If you disagree, come find me online and disagree. But good pilots are where you're gonna get the best score. So make sure you put your best people up front. Number two on score is gonna be your gunners, and you're gonna get it if you do manual aim. Top, middle, bottom buttons is where you're shooting on the screen and then hitting the button for the torpedoes later when you need it. And then engineers in the back, your goal is just clear the buttons as they pop up. And then harpoon the coaxium. When you get that opportunity and when you get back to the landing zone, you're gonna find, you're gonna probably have a much, much higher score than anyone else that you've ever. Say that again. You're gonna have a much higher score than other people that you know that may have ridden this in the past, and you're gonna have great bragging rights with them. Now, what I encourage you to do is if you do have a really large group, you should be competing on this. And I'm telling you, you should go through the standard queue in that instant. To make sure you have a full six seats with your people, where you can designate where everyone is, and then there's tons of videos out there on YouTube that you can watch that will also give you a lot of these same tips and tricks. With that. That brings me to our, I can do this all day tip of the day, and on this ride, there's actually a really cool feature that not many people know about, and that is Chewbacca mode or chewy mode. So as if you've ridden it, you've got Hondo telling you Go get the coaxium and he's gonna give you directions. All the way through the ride, you can actually swap out Hondo for Chewbacca and you're gonna hear Chewbacca roar commands at you, which obviously you're not gonna understand throughout the whole ride. But it is a really cool feature to unlock and when you actually come off the ride, every time I've done it, I've had the cast members congratulate me on getting chewy mode unlocked and asking me, how was it, did you have a good time with chewy mode? Because this is such a tough thing to do, i'm gonna tell you right now how to do it. And so write this down or remember it. And it's not difficult to remember but you're gonna wanna remember it when you go to ride this ride. And the way that it works is when you go into your seats and you get buckled up and they check you all in every seat, all six are gonna have to activate. Meaning they're gonna have to hit a button to activate and it is in how you activate. So if you are a pilot, if you are the left right stick, you wanna push that stick all the way, either way. So all the way to the left or all the way to the right. And then hit your activate button with it all the way to the side. If you're the up down pilot, you, same thing. You wanna push your stick all the way up, or pull it all the way down and hold it there while you're hitting your activate button for the other four seats. It's identical. So whether you're a gunner or an engineer, what you want to do is you wanna hold down one of the white buttons underneath your screen and hold it while you hit your activate button. If you can get all six people to follow this. You are gonna activate Chewbacca mode and you're gonna know because when the game starts, you're just gonna hear Chewbacca the entire time. So that's a really cool feature. It's a kind of an Easter egg that's hidden there, and it's a great way to make this game a little bit more unique and a little bit more challenging for those that have maybe ridden it before. So with that, we wish you a magical week as you're planning your next Disney vacation. As you're planning that vacation start talking to your kids now about the fact that when you ride Millennium Falcon Smugglers run your kids are not gonna be the pilots, they're gonna be the engineers. You're gonna put them in the back and have a great week, and we'll talk to you guys next time. Bye-bye.