I have a Premium with the gate adjustment implemented, permitting pretty consistent/smooth orbits. Personally, I like the upper playfield aspect of this machine, but others lament it lacking a fully built-out implementation (yes, could be deeper rules here), or obscuring the ball beneath (which I don't quite get).

The pro offers faster/smoother gameplay, but I find the layout to be somewhat sparse. For me the Premium is just more interesting visually and from a gameplay perspective, the color changing LEDs in the inserts are a big differentiator for me. I should note I am not a great player, but I do enjoy the story, objectives and implementation of the Premium, vs the speed aspect. As they say, different strokes for different folks.

You really should give both flavors a try, see which one sparks your fancy. .

Main Street amusements is selling their premium for 4999. Go get that. Deal of the century.

Owned a premium, sold it and bought a pro.

Very happy with that decision. Prem was more crao to break, upper pf got old quick, and game was a clunkfest compared to the pro.

Damn, that's $1500 less than I paid new in box. I like both flavors but I prefer the premium/LE. As stated above, the color changing inserts are a huge plus, just like MET. I also like the upper playfield. Whatever you decide, get the colorDMD. It adds so much to this game!

I would ask yourself a question-Do you like upper playfields? I have determined that they are not my cup of tea and are gimmicky. I do like uppers that are more of a pass through ramp like Wh20 or Elvis. For me personally the Pro blows the Premium away in terms of fun and flow. I also know Stern had issues with Premium/LE's diverter, etc. Sometimes less is more, the Pro's layout is one of my favorite's. Don't ever buy a machine because it appears to be a good deal, buy a machine that is fun to you and don't pay attention to the monies. My .02

I greatly prefer the pro for all the sane reason stated above. It plays much faster and smoother. I don’t care for upper playfields in general.

Also what are the differences in color changing inserts between the pro and premium. The main shot inserts change color on the pro.

Every insert changes colors in the premium. The light show in the premium blows the pro out of the water.

It is pretty, but can you play pretty?

Yes the light show is much better. It sounded like others were saying the color changing inserts made it easier to understand the shots on a premium.

Absolutely. You’re looking at it the whole time. Adds to the experience.

I prefer the Premium by far - BUT you have to fix the left orbit issue, that is the one thing that will ruin the flow of the game. Once that is done, you're golden. The upper playfield rocks IMO, and you have a whole additional Multiball mode in Castle Multiball.

Played both, bought a pro, best with a shaker

Not my favorite game, but I like the pro better. I've never completed the upper playfield and felt awesome the way TZ does, or Shadow. And it does block the ball. Sometimes you'll expect a left orbit to go around and instead it dribbles back down the left and you can't see it coming. You don't see a lot of the premiums in competition... probably some other good reasons for that.

Pro:
Best flow in pinball. Fast & Fun. It’s only drawback is a pretty major scoring exploit that is easy to get (easier than playing HOTK IMO). It can be fixed in settings but that gimps houses Baratheon and Stark which are already weak houses.

Premium/LE:
The scoring exploit is much harder to trigger on the prem, I ‘think’ the houses may be slightly more balanced on the prem. The light show and is great and whether you go prem or LE, the art blows the pro out of the water. It’s not the best for flow but still ok. The prems major drawback is the rules for the upper playfield, they don’t mesh too well with the rest of the ruleset but there is an extra multiball to go for that has little to nothing to do with the rest of the game but can be played out of sheer boredom.

All in all; both versions need some serious attention and polish in the code dept. if you want speed and flow, go pro. If you want technical and harder, go premium. Whichever you choose, the color dmd is an absolute MUST; there’s no point (other than scoring) for the dmd without the color.

What is the scoring exploit and how do you do it?

I have very strong opinions on this topic, so here they are, summarized.
(Whysnow is 100% dead on in the 4th post above).

The Premium: Ball diverter to top playfield (top of orbit) is prone to failure and causes combo ruin.
The upper playfield just is not that fun, and slows down the game.
The extra ball shot is better placed in the Targaryn dragon lane rather than Martell - more risk/reward.

Most glaring flaw:
In this game, during normal play the ball often travels part of the way up the middle (left) ramp and comes back down.
On the Premium - balls that do this are under the top playfield, obstructing the view and making saving the ball brutal and unfair.

Go Pro - don't look back.
Thrones is a great, underrated Stern title with incredible scoring combos and terrific risk/reward factors.
The game does badly need one more code upgrade, to correct some flaws and balance the houses at start of game.
Here's hoping Stern delivers, to celebrate the final season coming in 4 months.

More for the fact that there just aren’t that many out there.

Curious what settings you need to change to fix the exploit? Turn ball save off in MB?

Pro all the way

Pro for the flow!!

Pro is kick ass, fast, and fun. No orbit issues either.

I have to agree with Pro. Premium looks better, but Pro plays way better.

My thoughts regarding "Flow" on GOT Pro vs Premium:

The left orbit issue *IS* the flow killer on the Premium - NOT the upper playfield
- This is totally fixable - although it's not the easiest fix, so you find a lot of games with the issue
- The only other difference in Flow (Pro/Pre) is the left ramp mini-PF pass-thru, which is very minor

Here is why the Upper Playfield doesn't hurt the flow at all IMO:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1) It's a pass through upper playfield - if you don't flip it doesn't make much of a difference at all
2) The Right Ramp is *barely* used in the game (especially on a Pro) LOL
-- It's the Stark Shot - so you have to shoot it 3 times to light Stark - a couple more times for WIC
-- Once Stark mode is started, you can shoot either Ramp -> and the left is MUCH safer/easier
3) On a Pro almost anytime the right ramp is used, the left ramp is a safer/easier alternative - so why even shoot it???
4) The shot itself is exactly the same - the only difference is it takes an extra second (if no flips) to get to the left flipper
*update* - the drop target in front of the right ramp on the Premium does make the shot harder (more hits and risk)
--- I like the extra challenge/risk of the drop but YMMV

Premium Pros:
----------------
1) On a Premium the Right Ramp has a more important role -> to access the mini-playfield
-- you decide if you want to focus on the mini-playfield features or not
2) The Mini-Playfield adds another level of play/strategy to most other modes and multiballs
-- A key factor being you can make progress, increase values, etc. safely - draining is not a risk from the upper playfield
3) Castle Multiball is a really cool MB -> Stern just needs to increase the scoring to make it more valuable
4) IMO it's a great Mini-Playfield with 2 full size flippers and 6 different shots

*IF* you like mini-playfields, this is one of the best - hopefully Stern gives GOT an update to utilize it even more!

Exactly the same for Premium! - Once you fix the orbit

Reduce time on winter has come multiball. I forgot the sweet spot of it, I think it was like 12 secs.

Just picked up a premium last week. There is so much to shoot at in this game it’s ridiculous. Love the flow. Love the upper playfield.
What I really need to do is watch a tutorial to figure out all the rules and nuances to really make things happen.

Don’t forget the drop target in front of the right ramp. That slows things down too.

Stack winter has come multiball with Wall multiball. There’s 2 bugs that can be (not always) triggered during this stack. One is getting add a ball will trigger a bear endless ball saver and like a 30-60 second grace period ball saver as long as you continue draining - my advice, play with one hand and shoot for jackpots and super jps and don’t try to save balls from draining. The other exploit is if you do this as Baratheon, the pops will also award a near endless super jp boost making jackpots ridiculously high. Here’s a video of me doing it (not great quality) but check out the ball saver time and Baratheon jackpot increases.

You’ll also see in the video how much of a must the color dmd is. Best color dmd to date?

Pro by a mile. I don’t like a ball being out of view for too long, and the Premium seems to hide it for a long time. The lights on the Premium are better, but that doesn’t make up for the interruptions of flow and the blocked view of the ball.

To add to this. Easiest way to do it is play as Baratheon.
1. Clear drops for LOL ball save
2. Qualify Greyjoy
3. Use Greyjoy shot to get one shot away from WIC
4. Clear drops to start and collect WIC at Baratheon.
5. Qualify stark.
6. Shoot Greyjoy to have one shot away from WIC
7. Shoot and collect WIC at stark ramp.
8. Collect WIC at Greyjoy.
9. Make sure Wall multiball is ready.
10. Start WIC at Lannister. Start Wall multiball. Shoot Lannister.

It is better if you play one black water multiball first and complete 2 easy modes so you can boost your pf multiplier to 5x during the scoring exploit.

This, coupled with lack of code polish, is one of the reasons I sold my pro. Love the theme and game. Dwight absolutely nailed the ruleset on this game. It just needs cleanup.

EDIT: I also believe some of the bugs in this stack are due to consistently getting jackpots. So if you’re not triggering jackpots, the ball saver time will reduce like normal. So it is a bit skill based.

Even for the same price, Id buy a pro - dont care for the upper playfield at all, slows down a great shooting game!

Without the upper playfield you can't do this..... During MB, get a ball trapped on an upper flipper, then play the other ball or two downstairs for jackpots with zero risk. Takes some skill to do this. Also, there is the upper playfield completion during a House mode which can add greatly to your bonus(7.5M/House before multipliers/carries over ball to ball). An added dimension to the game.

Castle MB, while being fairly low scoring in itself, can be used to get numerous sets of drops, thereby increasing the spinner to insane values.

Pro tip on either model: While trapped up, to check your spinner value, go into instant info and press the other flipper exactly 19 times to quickly see your spinner value. Of course you can just shoot the spinner to see the value, but often the animation gets trumped by WIC hurry-up/Greyjoy progress info.

Pro, faster gameplay and it’s easier to see what’s going on, also cheaper. Less mechanical things to go wrong.

Only major downside of pro IMO is that the lighting on the premium/le is better.

Pro all the way!! Amazing flow. One of my fastest flow games. The only pro I own!! I recommend you play both and see which one you prefer!

Thx. I will without a doubt never be able to do that. Lol

Takes practice for sure. But once you get it, it’s easier than getting to HOTK (on the pro model). I’ve never done it on the premium model (haven’t had many opportunities) but Keith Elwin did.

That's something I did not know. Thanks - now I'm dying to go try it.

I did trigger the endless ball save couple weeks ago during those 2 modes combined?
Are you sure it's a bug?

That is the only time I ever made it to Midnight Madness Multiball too - and have no idea what I did to do it.

Pro is faster and cheaper, it’s the one I prefer.

Pro

Midnight Madness is automatically started if the internal clock strikes midnight while you are playing.

You did nothing to trigger it - other than playing at the right time of day.

What is the left orbit issue mentioned several times that needs to be “fixed”?
Is it consistent thru all premium machine production or was it addressed by stern after getting feedback from buyers?

The diverter in the back of the premium blocks the orbit when it should smoothly go all the way around it hits the diverter and goes into the pops. This kills combos which are a huge part of the game.

Stern never fixed the issue. Every premium/LE has this problem.

Yes. Unlimited ball save is never intended in a pinball machine. Stern is supposedly working on fixing these bugs, but no idea when the update will come.

The issue is a diverter on the orbit to the upper playfield VUK. When not diverting, it disrupts the ball on a left orbit shot and the ball will usually not make a full orbit. It will usually go into the jets, and sometimes come back down the left orbit.

All Premium/LE games seem to have the issue from the factory. Stern provided a software "fix" by disabling the left orbit versus a hardware fix to provide a smooth left orbit. There are multiple things that can be done, but the best typical fix is to take the orbit diverter out and increase the bracket hole size, and replace the bracket in a specific manner.

This issue is so prevalent, IMO it's the real reason why most people think the Pro is so much faster / flow. After playing a Premium/LE with a great working left orbit, the Premium is practically at the same level of flow / speed, with more "cool stuff" going on in the game. GOT is a game where you need to trap up periodically or the speed will drain you in short order anyway (Premium or Pro).

Important note for any GOT Premium/LE owners:

To fix the Orbit issue, you must do 2 things:
- apply the bracket mounting holes fix
- AND re-enable left orbits in the menu (the most recent software disables them by default!)

pro is ugly as hell. plays super fast and smooth tho. alot of fun for sure.

I prefer the premium. I bought NIB based on a checklist of features that I like in machines, and I didn’t play one before purchasing. The upper playfield was one of the selling features I enjoy in games, and even if this one doesn’t have perfect implementation, I enjoy it. The improved light show is unbelievable compared to the pro model. But honestly I don’t like the feel of the pro’s gameplay vs the premium because the dragon kickback shot and right orbit are implemented differently. I don’t like the right orbit/VUK shots moved to the dragon. The throne not being there and the kickback trapping the ball messes me up.

I also find the premium more difficult of a game. I think this makes it better for the home environment because of lasting power. (Maybe this is also why many don’t prefer it)

No mater what one you buy it needs a shaker and colorDmD installed. The two best mods for this game hands down.

Premium/LE for me.

I prefer the premium.

prem /le for me