This game definitely needs a PAPA tutorial video.

cant speak for the premium/LE, but on the pro - here are a few basic strategies i tell others:

First, get your LOL (Lord of Light) activated right away on ball 1 while ball saver is lit - you only get one LOL from the drops per game so i go for it early so i have more control of what i do next rather than have a random LOL from multiball (which seems to be bugged). With LOL lit, you can take chances at lighting the riskier houses (tyrell, baratheon, targaryan).

Secondly, dont start any house modes until you start a multiball - then stack 2 together. After multiball, clean up the house modes that you didnt finish. By this time you should have 2 houses completed and hopefully 2 or ready to go at which point you have to decide whether to play 1 house or 2 houses on single ball.

Always try to start 2 houses before you start battle for wall mb.

Lastly, learn to roll your pf multipliers. I usually use multiballs to get it going but from there i'll risk a battering ram shot to keep the multiplier rolling even if the multiball is over.

When I launch as Martell, I usually play that mode alone before multiball. The orbit shots are pretty easy and safe to hit even without LOL lit.

Stark is also OK to play solo, as you can get on a nice roll hitting the center ramp over and over and over, collecting Arya's list, without 3-4 other balls getting in the way.

Never play Lannister without LOL; you are guaranteed to drain off the friggin standup targets!

Baratheon, Lannister, Tyrell & Targarian are great in multiball as the shots are tougher (for me) to hit on purpose. I seem to do OK hitting via the random collisions of multiball!

Hey, I was in LA this weekend visiting my son. We went to play at Eighty Two, downtown. The place was mobbed and rocking midday on a Sunday. 100% of the machines were in play. A few had mobs of onlookers and quarters stacked on the glass. $0.50 plays were awesome!

I finally got to play a GoT Pro and really did enjoy the flow! I was disappointed to see the extra ball insert located on the dragon kickback shot - which I totally suck at! On the Premium, EB is on the right Orbit - much more reliable for me.

I never did get a chance on GB - one guy was totally hogging the machine

Isn't that what the quarters on the glass are for? Man, I'd kill to have a location pinball scene like that near me.

I like stacking Greyjoy and Lannister with multiball. I try to hit the standups during the first half of ballsave. Then with each shot I kill 3 birds with 1 stone. I go for the dangerous shots first: the castle ramp and the dragon (kickback). As a bonus, both houses are super-safe to qualify: left orbits for Greyjoy, center ramp for Lannister.

I like to start as Martell but deliberately not play the Martell mode. I go for Greyjoy, Stark, Lannister, and Tyrell. That gives the perfect set up for going into Hand of the King. For BWMB, I spam the battering ram until the ball save runs out. Then make some shots while continuing to hit the ram whenever playfield multipliers are running out. When I drain down to one ball, use the add-a-ball then its time to cradle up and make the remaining green shots. My goal is to get to super jackpots with at least 3, 4, or 5x playfield. Then the REAL goal is to try to get to the second round of supers. I think my best BWMB is around 990M.

I like going for Winter Has Come, but it is rarely worth much, typically 20-50M. My best WHC is around 250M.

This is a small thing, but I really love it when I complete the 3 targets on the upper playfield, and then I hit one of the "rear exit" switches softly enough to get the ball back. It feels like cheating the game.

BTW, I've noticed that a lot of things will drop that single drop target, like starting a mode. That doesn't affect your ability to advance the castle, does it?

You can get way more out of it if you stack it with battle for the wall. I think the WHC champion score on mine is 900 million or so doing it that way.

Skill shot! Just like a soft backhand up the left ramp, scores on the way up and on the way back! Sweet.

Newb question: if I'm playing a house mode (or 2), do my shots still help me make progress toward qualifying other houses? Kinda feels like the answer is no.

Nope. You can only progress to qualify a new house while outside of a mode/MB.

It took me awhile to realize this one, too, but is important part of why you may not want to start MB or pass on a house. One tricky part - if you 'pass for now', you don't get that option again until another house is lit which may be difficult in some situations. Sometimes, for me, I'm better off battling a house and not trying to beat it and let the time expire, so I can then lock/go for MB.

I admit, this game is still over my head in terms of stacking ... for example:

How do you do that? (I know it's probably painfully obvious, but in the fury of the game all I can do is focus on keeping the ball alive.)

Actually is it not obvious at all, and is one of the more rewarding things to pull off in the game. So, to start WHC, you must complete 4 WIC hurry ups. What you want to do is have Battle for the Wall lit and ready to go, then get your 4th WIC hurry up started. While your hurry up is flashing, start battle for the wall. Then after battle for the wall starts, hit your flashing hurry up to start WHC as well. Enjoy an insanely long ball save and if your Martell, you can milk this stack for close to 2 billion points fairly easily if you're comboing shots.

Also, I'm of the camp that will complete at least one mode before starting multiball, preferably two. Then I have all multipliers unlocked for multiball, and you can really blow it up. And of course if you bring two more houses into multiball and do well, boom, you're at HOTK right after your first multiball.

Precisely. If I have 2 balls locked already I generally just start my houses, shoot for a lite lock target and then start MB. Here is a tip that is probably obvious now to those that have the rules down but I didn't learn until I screwed myself once. Don't start Tyrel until you are ready to start a MB. 3 of the shots are lock target shots so you can't avoid lighting a lock while in that mode like you can other modes.

I do this too as well. Sometimes it's hard to not press the "add a ball" when in BWMB and HOTK will be ready when my BWMB is over. I wasted many add a balls this way.

Or just don't start HOTK and work on other stuff that doesn't involve hitting the center ramp, and wait to start HOTK on your next ball, add a ball in hand.

Once you qualify a house so it's lit to battle, that house shot lights in the WIC color. Hit that shot 3 times to start the hurry up.

That's a good question. I think once it is qualified, it will be lit for hurry up countdown, unless the shot is lit for something else like BWMB or starting a house battle.

Yes, once it's qualified, it will be lit for the shots to start the hurry up. It doesn't matter if it's completed. As an example, if I start with Stark selected, the WIC color is lit at the stark shot. Once I hit that shot 3 times, the hurry up begins. Next if I choose greyjoy, once the house is lit for battle, I can make 3 of the greyjoy shot to start the hurry up.

This is true if you only have one house battle ready. If you have multiple house battles ready, shots to any of those "iced over" house shots during single ball play will decrease that WIC countdown. Then whichever iced over shot you hit to take the counter from 1 to 0, that shot will be your hurry up.

So, you could have Lannister and greyjoy ready for house battle. Then you could hit the greyjoy shot twice, reducing the WIC countdown to 1. Then hit the Lannister shot, and that shot will be your hurry up shot. Also obviously if you were to hit the greyjoy shot one more time instead of Lannister, that will be your hurry up shot.

The countdown freezes if you are in anything other than regular single ball play. So if you're one shot away from a hurry up and start multiball or a mode or whatever, that countdown will still be at 1 when you're back to regular single ball play.

When you have completed a hurry up, that shot will turn your houses color.

Ok, thanks. Didn't realize this.

Lord, I don't even understand what all the acronyms (WIC, HOTK, BOMB, WHC) mean, let alone how to do any of them. If I can get Blackwater Multi-ball going I feel like I've accomplished something.

WIC = Winter Is Coming
WHC = Winter Has Come
HOTK = Hand of the King
BWMB = Black Water Multiball

But I'm with you - I'm still new to this game and learning the rules. Dwight has done a great job; I just can't play well enough yet to crack open the oyster.

True, but.... If you've already played your first BWMB you can easily play and complete Tyrell without lighting locks if you don't want to. Second BWMB requires both of the green stand-ups to be hit for each lock. So you can just avoid hitting the lower one which is doable because that is a damn hard target to hit!

Tyrell is a mode I do frequently before multiball. If you don't want to lock balls during it, hit the right ramp three times between shots to the lock targets.

The rules are complicated but once you start understanding them you realize that it's the most strategic game you've ever played. It is for me at least. It's not just about hitting shots or just do what it says next, you have to have a plan of attack, and you have to execute it. You also have to gamble or bet on your skill. Really challenging and smart gameplay. Love this game.

How in the world could some non Pinhead walk up to this game put .50 in and even have a chance at understanding it.

Just keeping the ball alive for a good bit of time should allow you to at least reach BWMB - this is good fun all on its own, and is what got me sinking more quarters before really knowing the rules.

I'm actually surprised a lot of people don't like it. I think the software has a lot going for it in todays pinball market. Of course, not everyone likes the same games, but I was just surprised more than any other time, that people are turned off by the game. Not a problem though. I still play it more than any of my other games.

The only thing to note is that if you complete 4 WIC hurry-ups, and thus play Winter Has Come, you *cannot* light any more WIC hurryups until you beat Iron Throne. The shots that correspond to modes that you did play, but WIC shots you did not collect, will turn the color of your house as if you *had* collected its WIC.

So, similarly to HOTK, you only get one shot at WHC until Iron Throne.

Correct. However, if you change the WHC settings harder, you can change it from 4 to 5,6, or even all 7 hurry ups I think. While that makes it harder to reach WHC, it could make the mode way more lucrative since the jackpots are based off the values of your WIC hurry ups collected to that point.

You can also complete house shots on the upper Playfield. Hit the 3 standup targets, that lights the castle in the mini orbit, hit the mini orbit for the castle that you are in the mode for (bonus at end of ball), then the 3 stand ups change to complete shots for the mode. So you can avoid starting BFTW multiball if needed.

I think this is the best code of any Stern I own, or have owned. It's like IM and LOTR had a baby. Want risk/reward? GOT has it. Want strategy? GOT definitely has it. Perfect balance of "broad" and "deep", I think.

And if you want to enjoy GOT while drinking too much, you can play it like an early SS pin. Give yourself a goal, like "qualify Tyrell, Baratheon, Martell and Greyjoy". See how many balls it takes you to do it. Really brilliant game.

Someone make a tutorial already

I'm going to diagram this beast with a MindMap soon. Vacation is the end of June and GOTLE is coming along.

Nah, no need to make points more lucrative, just play as house stark! in fact, Stark is becoming my favorite house to play cause of the super stack and scoring bonuses. I got this super stack going after completing just one mode! (earned an extra sword from mystery too). This was done on my pro - yes, I know this is an LE/PREM club, forgive me

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I'd love to see one of the lesser-loved houses spot an advance on the upper playfield. I was going to say Stark, but SKB ruined it for me with his post just now, lol.

Crap, I knew I shouldn't have posted in the LE club thread

Fifty cents? It's a buck per game where I first played it up here (the operator removed the "3 games for $2" card, but didn't change the setting so thus of us in the know quickly figured this little secret discount).

It took me about 20 games to decide to buy one. Had no idea of the rules, but I think the seizure-inducing light show is what kept me hooked. Then the first time I figured out how to get Blackwater multi-ball going that sealed the deal.

I do wish someone would post a comprehensive rules/strategy guide just for the Premium/LE. The two I've seen combine Pro and Pre/Le strategies and it's just too confusing. As someone else said a video tutorial would be great as well.

I think that by and large, the Pro and LE strategies are pretty much the same. If I'm on the upper playfield, I always try for the lit targets and rollovers, unless I'm in a multiball. I think the only strategy that's specific to Pre/LE is "don't try to hit the single drop target from the left flipper".

Wow, do tell more on how you managed to get 2 billion off WHC. I'm happy to get a couple hundred million out of that mode.

Just a crazy ass good super stack multiball. I think i defeated the WHC boss 2 or 3 times with 4x and 5x pf multipliers going. It was chaotic and amazing!

On a side note, i just played a game and accidentally started the WHC + BFW super stack. I had 3 WIC's and BFW multiball ready (Which is the dragon shot on the pro). I did left loop combo right into the dragon shot and was pissed cause i didnt want to start BFW - but low and behold, the loop shot progressed WIC down to 1 shot and the shot to the dragon started both BFW multiball AND the WIC hurry up. I was ecstatic. Only pulled out 1 bil on that WHC multiball though.

Defeating the boss in WHC is where all the points are in the multiball as defeating him gives you the total of all 4 of your WIC values. Add in combos and pf multipliers and you can get a serious jackpot value if your WIC hurryups were big.

The secret if you pull off the super stack is getting that right loop shot scored quickly cause it becomes a 6 ball multiball and is tough to get the right loop with balls in the shooter lane all the time.

Another side note: you can do the WHC super stack with blackwater multiball too! But, ive found stacking it with BFW is better.