I have Ulekstore on every one of my games. First thing I buy. Great products and look great too. Buy with confidence!

I paid $5800 NIB delivered to my door with no tax.

Looks like you have a really nice machine! that drive is a deal breaker for me, though. Cheers!

Thanks! It would be for me too

I paid a bit less than that but from what I understand the discounts are becoming much less now. I was told it would probably be the last time I see a discount like that. If you call around you should be able to get 100 less than msrp shipped.

I think it might be time to move on from my Prem, but I love this game. Just needed to start Groot again to light Immolation for the second time in the same game!!

Has anyone else had the issue where Groot is not recognizing the 3rd ball to start multiball? The first 2 balls register no problem but when its time to lock the 3rd it doesn't recognize its in its mouth. Eventually it kicks out the balls after some time but I have to hit another ball in again to start multiball.

Is this the 1st Groot MB or 2nd.
1st one is a three ball MB, 2nd is a 4 ball MB. if you already ready know that my bad. It had not happened to me. But I've only had my game for a month.

This is the first Groot MB after hitting 3 balls in.

Could be a bad opto. Check on page 15 or run a switch test.
Switch #44 Groot Trough 3
9 - CN13 5 PNK ORG 10 BLK GRY Playfield Opto 9-SW-3 520-7064-00 rx

Thanks Spider. Will run through those tests and see what I can find.

This feels like a ridiculous question after having this game for months and playing hundreds of games but...

What exactly triggers Groot's mouth to open? Are there certain states of the game when it can't be triggered?

For the past few days it has been rarely opening. I having been testing switches to try and see if there is a problem and then I started thinking maybe I just don't actually know.

With default settings, 1 shot opens the mouth for ball lock of second ball. 3rd shot opens mouth again for ball lock of fourth ball. Fifth shot opens mouth for start multiball on 6th shot. In multiball it's closed until you hit it once. Then it opens to store a ball for 30 seconds of double scoring. Hit again to open mouth to store a second ball for triple scoring. Once you sink enough jackpots it opens and closes every few seconds for super duper jackpot needed for save zandar. It's used a lot actually. The wizard modes also use it.

Some modes you can't open it like Quill while 2 ball multiball is in play or when in orb multiball. Most modes allow you to progress towards groot multi though.

If you have changed the difficulty of groot to easy it's like 4 shots to the closed mouth to open it then it stays open to lock 3 balls for multiball. Doesn't seem much easier to me though.

As far as the physical trigger it's the opto right in front of the mouth.

Good thing I asked, I didn't realize there was an opto right in front of the mouth. I always went into the pops once or twice and then the mouth opened. Hitting groot in the mouth, a closed mouth, has never done anything.

What do you think that is? I am not very experienced in these things. Could the opto be broken from the factory or maybe just misaligned so the pops shakes into tripping? I just did a switch test of the opto and its not working but I can still get the mouth to open occasionally with a lot of bounces in the pops.

It could certainly be misaligned or you could have a broken wire, also possible it wasn't wired up correctly at the factory if you bought it new and it's never worked. Start by taking the balls out of the game, lifting the playfield and tracing the wires for both optos back. The manual probably doesn't specifiy it so maybe post your pictures and have other owners verify the wiring.

I'd also send an email to stern support. If it's new it's good to start a dialog with them when you notice the problem. They just sent me parts for mine even though I'm out of warranty.

One of the optos is broken, very thin solder wires there and it can break in a way where it’s still in about the correct spot but doesn’t make contact until the pops vibrate it and then it triggers his mouth open. Happened to me, yours is probably the opto chip on the right since the pops are close enough to vibrate it. Pinball life sells both sides optos about $15 for one and $17 for the other I think, I got a couple of both jic. The right one is easy to get to from above you can pop out one screw and loosen the other and rotate the plastic out of the way then you can get to the opto screws and pull the chip out, wire harness is easy to access from under the pf. Until the parts come in it’s a good time for ppl to practice getting to Cherry Bomb mb at least that’s shag I told ppl in my tavern(;

Thanks for the advice. I was playing around with it today and it definitely seems like the right opto. My temporary hack is that I left the screws a little loose and now every time the ball hits the left pop groot's mouth opens. I'll try to not get too used to super-easy mode while I'm waiting for a replacement.

I had a wire come of within 10 plays after unboxing of the opto present at Rocket. Apparently the soldering skills can be improved at stern …

Plan to finally install cpr9999 orb plastic protector and wondering if I still need the metal piece from stern as I put it back together.
I feel like this metal piece was pretty useless as my original orb plastic cracked anyway.

Nope, you do not need metal bracket from Stern.

Ty sir!

I still need to install mine (months later)

Are there any instructions or just remove what's there and reverse?

Haven't looked and not sure what's there on an le (with the movable orb parts)

The metal protector part was added to later builds of the PRO, after serial #275330. See Service Bulletin #191:

https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stern-SB191.pdf

My metal protector unfortunately failed on my GOTG that is for sale the plastic protector is definitely needed with the metal crutch

Thx, appears mine is a later build with the metal bracket but unfortunately did not help protect as bulletin indicates. cpr9999 protector installed now and ready to go - hope it will do the trick this time.

Take a look at my Ad pictures. But pretty much what you said remove, add protector and reinstall.

Did you ever get the three times to start multiball resolved or find the setting??

Thanks!

I believe it's the groot difficulty setting. Standard is hit, lock, hit, lock, hit, multiball. Easy is hit, hit, hit, lock, lock, lock, multiball I think. Not sure it's actually easier. The really easy setting seems to be hit, lock, multiball.

Finally got my GotG side armor rails in. They look sweet, but now I'm a little boggled. 3 of the 4 original screw holes lined up no problem and it's not going anywhere, but there are 4 new screw hole spots in the armor that would require drilling new holes into the cabinet. Like, umm, I bought the armor to protect it, not drill into the cabinet a few more times.

Now I'm torn if I want to fill in the holes with screws or leave as is.

What will it hurt?

The future of rock and roll!

Then don't put them in, I didn't on my JP armor and its fine.
You could use a little bit of double stick tape if you are worried about it being loose at the bottom but its pretty rigid.

Where did you find the armor?

Pu-parts still had the Gold and Black armor variants available.

I hate asking such a simple question but can you adjust the shaker motor strength on guardians pro? I added one but it is really soft! Couldnt find anything on here, the web or the manual.

Yes, there is a setting for the shaker, with three levels. Can't remember what number, but you'll see it if you scroll through...

I went through it multiple times! Is it possible it's not on the pro since it didnt come with a shaker from the factory?

It’s Feature Adjustment #61 on my Pro.

I do have that, but that is just how often it shakes, not the intensity

Go into game specific features - I think it’s towards the end so you can go backwards…

You can adjust it but its not in any settings menu.
You have to take the cover off the shaker and adjust the weights.

In relation to eachother-
Parallel = most intense
90° = medium
180° = least intense.

Dang, that's how mine are, guess it's just not very strong! Only other one I ever had was on my LAH, it was so strong it about rattled the game apart!

The shaker I put in my guardians shook constantly and violently. I didn't like it even on minimal settings and adjusted weights. I moved it to a different machine.

Has anyone started seeing NIB GOTG machines arriving from Stern factory? I have one on order and was told to expect likely delivery of "July". Has anyone seen a recent build GOTG machine arriving recently?

Sweet that they are still making them.

Two guys in my league here both got one quite a while ago already. I thought the new run was already done?

Just checked with my distributor... July run is still scheduled. I guess some NIB machines will flow in a few weeks.

I bought a NIB Guardians eight months ago. about six months in, after roughly 2500 plays (my wife loves this game!) started having issues with the Groot mouth. It would try to open and make it part way but not fully open, then repeat. Initially thought it was just switches being bent, but after some troubleshooting it was the motor itself that had failed somehow. It would 'slip' and not make the journey from one switch to the other.

Luckily I was still under warranty from Nitro Pinball, and they ordered a new motor from Stern and even sent a tech to install. The odd thing is that the motor worked fine for over 2000 games, but 2000-3000 games is way to early for a motor to be failing, don't you think?

My wife and I both really like this game. Get the Cleland sound mod if you can, and cool that Stern is doing another run so a bunch more people can own this awesome pin!

Hi fellow Guardians, I finally put the lit Orb Drop Target mod into its own thread so anyone can access the instructions whenever, enjoy!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-orb-drop-target-mod#post-6352469

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Mine was doing the same thing. Stern sent me a new motor to fix it as well and I had about 2k games on mine. Got it in late November. Pretty sure it's the gearbox that went. Stern support has been great.