How to Play Pinball
Pinball is played by keeping a steel ball in play with two flippers at the bottom of a sloped table, and shooting it at targets, ramps and holes that score. You launch with a plunger, flip to aim, and lose the ball when it drains past the flippers. Most tables reward the same skills: hitting shots with the flipper tip, trapping the ball, and knowing what is lit.
The rules, step by step
- 1Launch the ballHold Space, or drag down near the bottom of the table on a phone, then let go. The power you choose changes where the ball ends up.
- 2Drop the Hull Plating bankThree drop targets stand in front of the Command Deck hole. Knock all three down and the hole is exposed; that is worth 12,000 on its own.
- 3Shoot the Command DeckThe hole holds the ball and the deck offers you a mission, one every nine tenths of a second. Either flipper button locks in the one on the display.
- 4Finish the mission before the timer runs outEvery award doubles while a mission is running. If the timer expires or you drain, the mission fails and stays available for the next ball.
- 5Keep the ball aliveThree balls, with one automatic save in the first twelve seconds of each. Extra balls come at the Navigator rating and at one million points.
- 6Climb the flight ratingEight ranks from Deckhand to Cosmic Command, earned on missions completed or on score, whichever comes first. Reaching Flight Lead counts as a win.
Try it — the rules above, running
Loading the table…
New game deals three fresh balls, Pause stops the clock and the table, and the three-dot menu at the end of the bar holds sound and the full keyboard list. Click the table once, then the arrow keys work — the space bar only pulls the plunger while the table has focus, so it still scrolls the page everywhere else.
Your statistics
- Played
- 0
- Won
- 0
- Win rate
- 0%
- Streak
- 0
- Best streak
- 0
- Best time
- —
A “win” here is any game where you reached Flight Lead — the sixth of the eight flight ratings. Your best score is 0.
The five missions
- Salvage Run — Clear the debris field, then re-plate the hull. (Pop bumpers, then the Hull Plating bank)
- Solar Sail — Run the sail out and hold the orbit. (The left orbit, through the spinner)
- Gantry Repair — Four passes over the gantry. Each one buys time. (The centre ramp)
- Slip the Gate — Charge the cells and slip the gate. Twice. (Both Reactor Cells, then the Jump Gate)
- All Hands — Every hand on deck. Two balls, six shots. (Two-ball multiball — any six major shots)
Keyboard
- ← / Z
- Left flipper
- → / /
- Right flipper
- Space
- Hold to pull the plunger, release to launch
- ↑ / A / D
- Nudge — three nudges and the table tilts
- P
- Pause
- N
- New game
- M
- Sound on or off
- F
- Full screen
- ?
- This list
What do the pinball controls do?
| Action | Keyboard | Touch |
|---|---|---|
| Left flipper | Left arrow or Z | Tap or hold the left half |
| Right flipper | Right arrow or / | Tap or hold the right half |
| Plunger | Hold Space, release | Drag down near the bottom, release |
| Nudge | Up arrow, A, D | Two-finger tap |
| Pause | P | Pause on the bar |
| Full screen | F | Full screen on the bar |
Flippers are independent: holding one up while you flip the other is normal play, not a trick. Holding a flipper up as the ball arrives is called trapping or cradling, and it is the first real skill in pinball because it turns a reflex game into an aiming game.
How does scoring work in pinball?
Every device has a base value, and multipliers stack on top of it. On this table a mission doubles everything, multiball triples it, a combo chain adds up to five times, and each completed loop of all five missions adds another half. They multiply together, so the maximum on the first loop is thirty times — a 12,000-point ramp becomes 360,000.
| Shot | Points |
|---|---|
| Slingshot | 200 |
| Pop bumper | 500, rising to 2,000 within a ball |
| Spinner, per spin | 130 |
| Reactor Cell standup | 800 |
| Hull Plating target | 1,500 |
| Left orbit | 3,500 |
| Gantry ramp | 4,000 |
| Command Deck | 5,000 |
| Jump Gate, lit | 6,000 |
| Plating bank complete | 12,000 |
| Skill shot | 25,000 |
What is a tilt, and why does it exist?
Nudging the machine is legal and useful — it is how you save a ball drifting towards an outlane. The tilt mechanism is what stops it becoming a free extra control. Each nudge adds to a warning that decays over a few seconds; cross the limit and the table tilts, killing the flippers, all scoring and the end-of-ball bonus. Every real machine has one, and playing near the limit without crossing it is a genuine skill.
How do you get better at pinball?
- Aim with the tip. The flipper moves four times faster at the tip than at the base, so long shots need the tip.
- Trap before you shoot. A cradled ball can be aimed; a bouncing ball can only be reacted to.
- Read the lights. The table always says what to shoot next; taking the lit shot is worth several times the same shot unlit.
- Learn one shot properly before trying to learn all of them. A player who can hit the ramp on demand out-scores one who can nearly hit everything.
How do you win more often?
- Learn the tip shot before anything elseThe flipper's surface speed grows with distance from the pivot, so a ball struck at the tip leaves four times faster than one struck at the base. Every long shot on this table — the orbit, the ramp, the Jump Gate — needs the tip, and nothing else you learn matters as much.
- Cradle, then aimHold a flipper up as the ball arrives and it settles against the flipper instead of bouncing. From a cradle you can wait, look at what is lit, and take the shot you want rather than the shot the table gives you. Panicking and flipping at everything is what loses balls.
- Chase the combo, not the single shotLeft orbit, Gantry ramp, Jump Gate, Command Deck and completing the plating bank each extend a chain worth up to five times. The chain lapses after three and a half seconds, so a ramp that returns the ball to the other flipper is the best possible setup for the next major shot.
- Use the inlanesEvery pass through an inlane raises the end-of-ball bonus multiplier, to a maximum of five. Two banks, a mission and a few ramps at 5x is worth more than most single shots on the table, and it costs nothing beyond letting the ball roll where it was going anyway.
- Nudge early, not desperatelyA nudge is worth spending when the ball is drifting towards an outlane and still has time to be moved. Three in quick succession will tilt the table and forfeit the bonus, so treat the DANGER warning as the real limit rather than a suggestion.
- Take Gantry Repair when you are shooting wellEach ramp made adds four seconds to its own timer, so a player who can hit the centre ramp repeatedly effectively has an untimed mission and a 12,000-point shot on repeat. It is the highest-value mission on the table for anyone who has learned one shot properly.
Common questions about pinball
- What is a drop target in pinball?
- A target that falls flat into the playfield when it is hit, usually in a bank of three or more. Clearing a whole bank normally opens a shot behind it — on this table it exposes the Command Deck hole.
- What does a ball save do?
- It gives the ball back if you lose it in the first few seconds. It is there so a bad bounce on the first shot does not end a ball before you have played it.
- Why did my ramp shot come back down?
- A ramp has an entry speed. A shot that is not fast enough hits the lip and rolls back, exactly as it would on a real machine. Hit the ramp with the flipper tip rather than the middle.
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