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If you've made it here, you probably have realized that pinball is HARD. It takes skills and luckily that means you can get better!

As you are trying to complete objectives to level up, it's helpful to try to identify what specific skills could help you reach your goal.

It can be helpful to think of pinball in terms of Control, Offense, and Defense.

Here are problems related to each:

Control: the ball bouncing around uncontrollably

Offense: can't get the ball where it needs to go

Defense: the ball drains easily

Let's face it -- it's likely all three, but choose one at a time to focus on!

Look below for tips on improving in each of these categories:

Control

This is arguably the most important skill!

Look at the picture above - notice how the ball is "cradled" or "trapped." This is the ideal set up before each shot, since you are in full control.

How do you get the ball there, though?

Well, it's difficult! There are many techniques to learn here, but again, focus on one at a time! Here's the first one to learn -- The Dead Bounce:

Keep practicing with it and watch how much more reliably you can get control of the ball! Pay attention to what Abe Flips says in the video about when to use it when NOT to use it.

Once you've gotten the hang of how the dead bounce can help you, move on to learning more techniques for more situations. Check out Wax Pinball's curated list of skills to work on in order!

Offense

This is all about aiming and shooting!

In general, there are specific places on the flipper that the ball must be on when flipped that send the ball towards the place you want it to go.

Here's Abe Flips again with a tutorial on aiming and shooting:

and another similar one by Tim Sexton, professional pinball player:

use some of these fundamental ideas to improve your offense!

Defense

These skills may seem a little unethical at first...

...and it's because most of the time it involves shaking the machine around!

WHAT, isn't that cheating?? And isn't that RUDE?

It seems like it at first, but not only does it take very precise timing and movement to pull off, there's also a safeguard so that you don't just lift the machine off the floor and prop it up so that you never lose!

It's called Tilt.

Look a this photo below:

This is a Tilt bob. It's a pendulum that's part of the innards of the machine.

It acts like a alarm system to let the game know that you are moving it around too much!

When you move the machine and cause that pendulum to swing, if it touches that metal ring that surrounds it, you get a "Warning" and after 3 warnings, you "TILT" and your ball is over (usually quite dramatically).

So how do we avoid triggering the alarm system?

NUDGING

These are small strategic movements, or "nudges," to the machine that you can use to keep the ball in play.

Watch, our friend Abe Flips, nudge the machine as the ball was on its way straight to towards the outlane drain:

This is called an "outlane save" and this is why it falls into the category of Defense.

Here is the full video about nudging (and there's a part II you can watch too!):

These are very subtle moves that take a long time to master, so just keep that in mind!

Over time, you will start developing your own style of play. Just don't forget to have fun :D

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