You’re in conflict with your user ID !

Always 3 but I think it's a cultural habit. In France, all the pinballs I played in my youth were all in 3 balls. But I know that in our Belgian neighbors, it was more common for pinballs to be configured in 5 balls.

I usually start with 5 for the first 20 games or so. I just want to get a feel for the game, flow, strategy, and rule set. After about 20 games or so I put the game back to factory settings.

You can always set to 3 with attainable extra balls.

Real men only need 2!!!!!

“Do you set YOUR HUO Pins to 3 or 5 BALLS?”

Same as my formerly routed pins - 5 balls.

I have 2

so after reading this about 3 vs 5. i decided to try my LOTR on 5 balls. At first i was reluctant to play afraid that after i beat my 3 ball high score i would devalue my grand champion status. But what i discovered when i played 5 balls is that i started to enjoy the journey more. I took chances that i would have never taken knowing that i only had 3 balls. Dare say i think i have become a better player. I learned to make risky passes and pushed the machine to Tilting. As a matter of fact my three ball high score still stands but i have had explored a ton more of the game options. I may go back to three but I'm digging 5 right now

I've had about 70 games ranging from the 50s to the 2000s, only one I've EVER set to 3 ball is my Fast Draw (and liberalizing the drain posts). Games last about as long as 5 ball with conservative post settings but the game rules that are changed on 3 ball just plain make it more fun. 3 ball tends to make a lot of objectives too easy, to make up for the two less balls IMO.

EMs and early SS, 5 balls
Alpha numeric and DMD, 3 balls

WOZ has like a zillion extra balls though?

Really?? What is your definition of a true pinhead?? This auta be good

3 ball on factory defaults. I wasn't aware people would play any other way here.

When I have an EM I usually set it on 3 ball, but with the harder 5 ball rules.

It all depends on how well you play and what you want from your own toys!!

Extra ball is lit at the wizard saucer after 10 YBR shots - that's the only one that is easily accessible (unless you set special/replay awards to give extra balls). You have to get pretty far into the game to earn other ones. There are ball save challenges (TOTO and TNPLH) that let you win your ball back on an outlane drain. The first TOTO save only takes one ramp shot; the second time is pretty tough. TNPLH is hard.

I remember playing that game and getting really frustrated with the left outlane drains. Once you figure the shots and learn to avoid that pop bumper, it can turn into a really long playing game. Pretty sure there is a random wizard extra ball award at some point and once you practice frenzy enough that one can be achievable early on. The horse one is hard.

And I still haven’t figured how to avoid that left outlane, so I use the 5 ball settings to compensate my lack of skills !
I might go back to 3 balls though the kids don’t have the patience to play 5.