Fireball pinball rules and strategy
The Strategy
Fireball uses each saucer lock to give another plunge, while a ball held in Wotan turns later Wotan shots into a repeatable gate loop. Make the 3K plunge, close the zipper flippers, store one ball in Wotan, and repeat its gate while the lock remains held.
The goal
On the 1972 Bally Fireball, learn the 3K plunge, keep one ball in Wotan when possible, and repeat the Wotan gate instead of forcing uncontrolled three-ball play.
Plunge so the ball stops before the upper-left gate. Let it fall across the horizontal 1K lanes.
Use the plunge to light the mushroom bumpers. Treat each later lock as another skill-shot chance.
Use the center mushroom to zip the flippers when the hit is available through normal play.
Settle the ball on the zipped flippers. Release and repress a flipper very quickly to make a small, precise change to a slow ball. the ball up the opposite flipper.
Shoot a target on the same side as the active flipper, often from near the flipper base and behind the nearby slingshot. Odin or Wotan to lock a ball. Prefer Wotan when both saucers are available.
With one ball held in Wotan, repeat the Wotan shot. Let the moving ball pass the gate and score the lit bumper values.
- The held ball blocks the saucer. The next ball passes through the gate and crosses the upper rollovers before it returns.: The held ball blocks the saucer. The next ball passes through the gate and crosses the upper rollovers before it returns.
- Each lock also gives a new plunge and another chance at the 3K skill shot.: Each lock also gives a new plunge and another chance at the 3K skill shot.
If a side mushroom releases the held ball, relock a ball as soon as control permits. Do not chase three-ball chaos for its own sake.
Alternative route: Lock and plunge
Use this when the Wotan repeat gate is unreliable or the zipped-flipper settle does not work.
- Shoot the safer lock saucer from a controlled flipper.
- Use the new plunge for the 3K skill shot.
- Relight the bumpers and accept their incidental scoring.
- Relock the returned ball when either saucer shot is controlled.
Need to know
- 3K skill shot
- Plunge just short of the upper-left gate to cross the horizontal 1K lanes and light the three bumpers.
- Odin and Wotan locks
- Each saucer lock gives another plunge, while a side mushroom bumper releases the ball from the opposite saucer.
- Zip flippers
- The center mushroom closes the gap between the flippers, while the side mushrooms can open it again.