When you first start playing pinball it can feel like improving your scores is impossible. How are people getting these massive scores? Believe it or not, with just a few small changes, your score can climb higher.
Inlane Lights
One of the biggest ways to improve your game early on is to mind your inlane lights.
Inlane lights are lights above the inlanes and outlanes on the playfield. On modern games, they are commonly found above your flippers, as shown on Stranger Things:
They can also be found above other inlanes on the playfield, like at the top of Deadpool:
When your ball travels through one of the lanes that has an inlane light, that lane lights up. What most players don’t know is that on most games, you can actually control where those lights are with your flippers. Using Deadpool as as example, if your ball goes through the leftmost lane and lights up, you can use your flippers to change the light to the rightmost lane. That way if your ball goes back through the leftmost lane it lights another light instead of the same one.
Why should you pay attention to your inlane lights? Because on most modern games, these provide MASSIVE rewards. Completing a set of inlane lights (aka moving the lights around so that you light all of them, which then triggers them all to go back out) most commonly gives you things like bonus multipliers which massively helps your end score. It can also do things like light your mystery award, light an outlane ball save, and all kinds of other fun stuff.
If you’re not minding your inlane lights, you’re leaving a lot of points and opportunity on the table.
Skillshots and Variable Plunging
Nearly every pinball machine, from old to mid to new, has a skillshot that you want to get when you plunge the ball. On old games, they provided rewards like opening a gate to prevent the ball from draining and maybe a few points. On mid era games and newer games, you can get anything from points, to bonus multipliers, to other fun rewards. On new games there are even different levels of skillshots: regular skillshots, super skillshots, secret skillshots, and even super secret skillshots. Getting a skillshot at the beginning of your ball is a great way to set you up for success. So how do you do it?
Most games will have a specific shot you need to plunge the ball into or hit to collect the base level skillshot. Usually there will be a light to indicate where you should try to get the ball to go. If it’s not obvious, ask a fellow player and if they know they would likely be happy to share. But let’s say you know where the ball should go but you can’t quite get it there. What to do?
Pay attention to if the skillshot has to do with inlane lights, covered above. Can you move the lights using the flippers to the lane ball is going down? If so, you have control over getting that skillshot.
If your ball consistently goes way past the skillshot, chances are you’re plunging too hard. There is a whole range of strength with which you can plunge the ball. In fact, on most games you can even see the spring and measure how hard you’re plunging, as you can see on Deadpool:
Use this to fine tune the strength of your plunge so you can get the ball where you want to go. This can be particularly helpful if you’re playing a game like White Water and the plunge sends the ball right down the middle and ends your ball. Vary how hard you’re plunging the ball on different games to see what brings you the most success.
Shoot the Flashing Lights
There is a joke in pinball that the way to play any machine is to, “Shoot the flashing lights and don’t drain.” While this is most often said in jest, there is a lot of truth to that statement.
There are two parts to being successful in pinball: flipper/ball control skills, and knowing the rules for the specific game you’re playing. Each pinball machine has different scoring rules, different strategies, different ways to play them to get the highest score. If you’re just starting out, you’re probably not going to know the rules very well. The way to start learning games and also get the best scores possible is pay attention to the lights.
If something is lit, it’s probably a good idea to aim for it. If you hit a few shots and there are suddenly purple arrows everywhere, chances are that those purple arrows are important. If there is a lightshow around a specific shot on the playfield, you should do everything you can to get the ball to where the lights are flashing at you.
The caveat to this is on older games where instead of shooting what’s lit, it’s probably a good idea to shoot what is not lit yet to progress the game. Unless there is a light by a spinner. Then you should DEFINITELY shoot for the spinner.
In Conclusion…
It can take time to learn how to pay attention to the details of a game, particularly when you’re first starting out and just trying to keep the ball in play. Understanding nuances of machines, like inlane lights, skillshots, variable plunging, and which lights you should (or shouldn’t) be aiming for is a great way to improve your game with not a lot of effort.