What are some tips for pinball beginners??

From someone who's played pinball for forty-five years:

Keep the ball in play. No matter what the machine, you WILL beat it if you keep the ball bouncing around long enough. Learn how to avoid draining the ball before you learn anything else, or you'll be trying to run before you can walk.

Learn to “catch” the ball on a flipper and hold it motionless.

Next, learn how to “pass” the ball from one flipper to the other. Now that you have the basics, we get to the two most important things about beating a pinball game.

First, learn the rules of the game. You need to know what shots need to be accomplished in what order. Note that I didn't mention learning the rules of the specific game until after you've conquered the basics. I still don't want you trying to run before you can walk.

Multiball, Multiball, Multiball on pinball machines that provide it.

These faster and higher scoring opportunities should be exploited as often as possible, especially if there's a shot you need to make that could result in a fast drain.

Last, before you begin, decide whether you are going to play the pinball machine for free games (replays) OR for a really high score. On most modern machines, you can't do both. If you want to make your tokens last longer, go for replays, but if you own the machine or are playing in a tournament, you'll have to play for a high score instead, throwing away chances at extra balls and specials.

Want to know which machines are easier for beginners? Here's a rule of thumb: the more exciting it is to watch a particular pinball table being played, the more difficult it will be to actually beat that game.

Figure out how much you can nudge without tilting the pinball machine. If these games were built to drain the ball, throw the ball off course by nudging. This will keep your overall ball time up. Drain one ball for fun, don’t flip. You’ll see the ball bounce all over the place prior to draining. All of those bounces are potential nudging opportunities to get your game back on track.

Realize that pinball modes are not much different from game to game. But how you activate the modes might be different. Become familiar with all the different modes. Callouts from the game might reference the mode, if you know what to hit for example in a hurry up, you could make a lot of points.

I personally have to tell myself to dead flip every time I play with others. In multiplayer scenarios, your game is not the same as single player. Nerves can kill your game. But one master trick Ive found to playing pinball better? Talk with your friends while playing. It kills the competitive atmosphere and now you brought it back to fun. I’ve beaten top players in my area by just coming out of my shell and loosening up. In some cases, this gives you a leg up because they have this competitive stress too.

Instruction cards can give great tips on how to play.

Capture the ball with your flipper and decide where your going to shoot it.

Target the shots that you rarely shoot for. An example would be the piston target in Metallica. Or Orbits. Learn to nail these tough shots and the rest of the game will be easier.

Watch over your friends as they play. Keep tabs on what scored more and how.

Let me know if you enjoyed reading and will love more tips✌🏽🔧