Skills for the Advanced Pinball Player

Bounce Pass

No, this isn't a basketball pass, this is a method of choosing which flipper you want to hit the ball! The concept is to allow the ball to simply bounce off of the undesired flipper unto the desired one when the ball is rolling toward the center of the undesired flipper at a moderate rate. Here is the VIDEO. You must be wary of two things when performing this technique:

1.

Note the speed of the ball: If the ball is coming down fast, do not perform a bounce pass, as the ball may bounce off the desired flipper and then hit the bottom of the slingshot resulting in a drain. Also, the ball may bounce across the desired flipper, and head up the inlane, and then down the outlane.
2.

If the ball hits the undesired flipper too close the base, it will head very quickly right along the surface of the undesired flipper and then down the center drain. If the ball hits too much off the tip, it may just go SDTM.

Hold Pass


This technique is useful for passing the ball from one flipper to the other when the ball is headed down the undesired flipper's inlane. If the ball is heading down the inlane at a moderately quick speed, simply hold up the undesired flipper and allow the ball to skip over to the desired one.

Nudge Pass

Cradle the ball on the undesired flipper. Release your flipper and nudge the table UP, resulting is the ball skipping over the drain and onto the opposite flipper. This can also be done with a ball coming down an inlane at a moderate speed without trapping the ball. Watch VIDEO

Nudging (often incorrectly termed "tilting")

Nudging is a method of controlling the ball which is very important for giving a player that extra edge. Understanding this concept will enable you to get better scores on a tournament machine and unbelievable scores on a game with a forgiving tilt.

The basic concept is that you want to move the machine to change the direction of the ball, and you must move the machine in the opposite direction as you want the ball to move. The ball is relatively frictionless, therefore you must move the machine. The only times that you move the machine in the same direction as you want the ball to go is when the ball is stuck against something or to perform death save (see wizard skills)

In order to make the ball choose the inlane over the outlane you want to move the machine toward the outlane so that the pin between the inlane and outlane moves toward the outlane and the ball hits the pin on the inlane side and heads down the inlane. This is nudging, and should be performed as quickly and lightly as possible so to avoid warnings and tilt. You can also nudge the machine in the opposite direction in which a ball is heading down the playfield. You do not want to work against the speed and the angle, rather if the ball is heading diagonally left, down the playfield toward the center drain, nudge the cabinet right so that the ball will go more left and you will be able to perform a slap save, hitting the left flipper and then the right in rapid-fire succession.