OP, please don't buy into this. Hit the button, multipliers turn red and flippers move them left to right or right to left. Hit button again, multipliers turn green and are locked in. If you want to use them to try to get big points, then it is risk vs reward (taking hands off flippers and watch your ball drain vs big points). If you don't want to use the multipliers do what 90% of us do: lock them into the hyperloop or left ramp shot at beginning of each ball and then leave them alone and play on. You can choose to stack modes or not. Once you learn the modes, you start to realize that you can advance faster by stacking certain modes with each other because they share similar shots. I find that part fun as it adds a bit of intellectual gameplay along with the physical shot-making part. I really don't pay attention to the multipliers unless I am trying to hit the video mode shot.