Try with a ball. Sometimes the results are different due to factors (vibration, etc) not present with a finger.

ok, then the issue is the ship post. Its binding. That can be the spring got out of alignment and hopped over the washer. Should be an easy fix. Support has a larger washer to send you if you request it. Nothing special about the washer, just a little larger, so if you have one around you can install it. I think Dave did a video about the ship post. I'll see if I can find it.

Dunno how many games you have into it but after around 700 on mine I was having issues and cleaning the ship optos fixed my problem.

Another problem can be the ship post being a little low so the ball whips into the ship, hits the post and climbs up it a bit. The opto can't tell it's there, so it sits. I have a similar problem with my DP. If you take the cover off, and try rolling the ball gently and then firmly into the ship you may find you can see the problem occurring.

AT 1:05 or so in the video is the key that fixed my issue. The post needs to be fully up and stretching the spring did it for my game.

Damn, that's impressive.

I have over 100 plays on my LOV, and only 1 game above 100mil....Time to get serious about strategy here, and start kickin some ass...I'll post back

Thanks everyone for the troubleshooting tips and tricks. I'll work on those in the next day or two. Craziness of the holidays and family stuff. As always the forum is great.

So scoring on this game has made me nearly insane or more insane than before I guess. My highest score is 91M and I got that on the first day just hitting the ball around and not knowing what I'm doing. Have had lots of games in the 80M point range and those mostly come from getting the ship multiball while attempting to conquer the legends.

Love the tips of getting to the 4th legend so you get the multiball but haven't seen that change my scoring much.

Struggle so much hitting that left lane it is sad. All the other shots are okay. This game is far more challenging than my previous pins of TAF and ECLE. Kept the TAF but sold the ECLE as I was tired of all the maintenance on that damn thing.

Any scoring tips are more than welcome.

On the left lane, I removed the plastic piece above it. That way could see the lane much better. That helped my success. I have also found softer shots with less velocity seem to travel around the loop better than real hard shots.

You don't really need to hit the left orbit that much I wouldn't focus on that.
Build up the hammer and combos and use the hammer to win tough fights quickly and the Valk to get that tough shot in battles like the left orbit.
Start ship multiballs to help with battles and just for points.
There are a ton of things going on and you will just need to keep playing to get a feel for it. Even the little things like switching the R A I D inlanes when a ball rolls through so you build that up. Hitting weapon shots to unlock the battles and so on.

I removed the post on the left orbit. Helped a bit.

That’s good advice!

FYI, the manual says to set this at 6.5 degrees, I feel that's the perfect incline to play at

Someone posted 7 on here, I think that's too steep to consistently lock the balls in the ship clean.

I actually have mine at 6.4 and it plays perfectly I think...Love this game

PS -- Can we get Steve to do a solo live stream of this game?? I feel like I am still struggling with some of the strategy tied to the use of the hammer, and selecting the modes, would love to see a live stream of him blowing the game up with better audio than the two that are out from this past year.

The hammer .... hehehe.
A very nice piece of pinball where I absolutely not know what it is for.
A skillshot in the lighted lane and the hammer gets down. But the magnet is doing nothing.
In around 100 games i had one (!) time the hammer got down and the magnet caught the ball.

I have no idea when the ball should be hold by the magnet ...

Thor's Hammer is used to defeat 15 of the 16 legends. Thor is the only legend you can't defeat with the hammer. It's like a smart bomb.
You charge up Thor's hammer with 100 spins of the spinner (50 spins the first time). Progress is carried over ball to ball (and player). Using Thor's hammer to defeat the legend, awards the player with a 5 million point bonus and a bonus battle to play. Simply press the 2nd right flipper button when the hammer icon is on the display.

The hammer is also used:
- hands free skill shot at ball start (awards a weapon)
- automatically during the final shot of Grendel and Jormungandr battles and Ragnarok. Magnet grabs the ball and drops it through the center top lane.
- any other time during the game to award points of various amounts
- when all 3 shiplock targets are hit enabling ship locks
- as a mystery award
- If ['Features']['Combos Fire Thors Hammer'] is enabled, every 5 combos the magnet/hammer will fire.

Anytime the hammer goes off, the magnet will grab a ball if its under the hammer.

Here is the rules sheet if you want to have a peek.
http://tiltforums.com/t/legends-of-valhalla-rulesheet/7449

Steve did several live streams of the game this year and this one is isn't a solo stream but he does blow up the game and explains everything as he is playing with Dave, Max and Mark. This is earlier code so it's missing a ton of changes in the May and July software updates but I think it will help.

I also explained Thors hammer use in another post today. Cheers all!

Thank you .. but in it all: The hammer has some action, but the magnet is nearly not used ... expect my coincidence the ball is right in this moment over the magnet.

Yeah. If I don't get it on the skill shot, I'm doomed for reaching Valhalla. I really wish that rollover magnet was flipper button activated like OKT. Is that possible to code into the game?
I've never come close to completing those rollovers.

God of Thunder is the task. Yes, it is enabled with a superskill shot (to the ship off new ball plunge) or by making the top rollovers twice.

For those that like the challenge, you can make the top rollovers by working with the hammer (every 5 combos hammer fires and as it does hit the right or left loop and align your center arrow rollover, magnet will grab the ball and drop it down the center lane. Then do it 2 more times. You'll also get a Valkyrie each 5 combos.

Once you get to Valhalla a few times, you'll save this task for last since it makes it very difficult to get to Ragnarok if you play Valhalla! Personally I am still trying to get to Ragnarok and Valhalla in a single game. I have achieved both, but never in a single game

Yes, if you don't get God of Thunder by super skill shot you have to make the top rollovers twice.
One full set of top rollovers = 2x bonus, two full set of top rollovers = 3x bonus. God of Thunder is lit at 3x. Short plunges and light shots to the loops or using the hammer/combos to line up the arrows also help.

The God of Thunder requirement is frustrating you? How can I help? Most people tell me the requirements for Valhalla are fair.

I would love to see that magnet be controllable like they are on OKT. It's such a great feature.
I agree, completing those rollovers is a near impossible task.

Allow the magnet to be used for something other than Thor’s hammer. Maybe certain modes if lit for an orbit shot, will also use the magnet.

The only way I believe is earning hammer strikes. That will be the only way to skillfully get the ball to stop in the lanes.

Hey Frank, I always wondered this but never brought it up. Is God if Thunder on the skill list for mystery reward? Could make sense to have that.

Besides the hammer, Top Magnet is used in the final shot of Grendel and Jormungandr battles and final shot in Ragnarok. Will consider more usage of the magnet, thanks.

Not specifically, but there is a mystery award entitled "Spot A Task" that will award you God of Thunder if you have the first 6 tasks completed! This way you have to kind of earn it without it just giving it to you randomly.

Incidentally if you have Tournament Mystery Award enabled in the last update, mystery awards are given in a standard pattern from lowest to highest value where Spot a Task is next to last since we don't want to give an advantage in tournaments. This was added in July after the tournaments in Australia commented it would be helpful.

Quick update. After running the sensor tests on the ship it looks like the Ball1 sensor isn't working correctly. While we had the ship taken apart we cleaned all of the optics with an alcohol swab and now seems to be working properly. Have played a couple games without issue. Will keep an eye out to see if this issue comes up again.

I did open a support ticket with American Pinball as well as what I found.

I think Dwboca is right on this one - it's very hard to intentionally satisfy that requirement by hitting the rollovers with one ball. Walk through that exercise in your mind: Short plunge for one, then you need to get the next five via five hammer strikes and/or random luck.

If this sounds easy, please do it and post a video to show us. I -think- you'll find it's excruciating

I could add a service menu option for god of Thunder lane completions in a future release.
2 = default
With choices 1,2,3 possible

I usually use the super skill shot to light the insert but this should give you more options!

Super skill shot is (very) easy.
Leave it like it is ….

Great to see all the rules discussion and gameplay strategies! I'd like to chime in with a fresh perspective in regards to the "God of Thunder" requirement for getting to Valhalla.

The "God of Thunder" insert could have just as easily been labeled "Super Skill Shot," but we kept with the viking theme and labeled it something unique. The PRIMARY way to light that insert is to complete the super skill shot. On your way to Valhalla, every player gets at least THREE shots at trying to achieve this, and in more likely scenarios more like four or five with extra balls. If getting to Valhalla is your objective, I would focus on making that super skill shot as soon as you can. This concept of needing a skill shot to make it to a wizard mode isn't unique to LoV but has been a staple in game rules for the last few decades.

With that said, Frank and I personally don't like game rules where there is no way to make it to the wizard mode if you happened to fail at something that was required on your journey, so Frank graciously added another mechanic to light that insert in the event that you're out of practice making the super skill shot. That option is completing the top roll over lanes. Should this be easy to accomplish? Hell no! The point is that if you can't make one out of 3 or 4 super skill shot attempts we're not just going to hand you the God of Thunder insert on a platter.

Which brings me to my final strategy suggestion - if you find that you're simply having a hell of a time making the super skill shot, get better at your soft plunges and focus on the roll overs via the shooter lane. You should be able to get one right off the first plunge, let the ball drain with the ball save timer, and get your second lane. Then start a multiball mode (Frank has cleverly included a MB mode in every tier) and continue to let balls drain while the ball saver is on and focus on completing those top lanes. It's easier than you think if you have a plan and find the sweet spots on your game.

Legends of Valhalla was purposely designed to be a challenging, fast, flowing game with as few ball stops as possible. It is not intended to be stop and go and was intentionally designed to limit the places the ball comes to a rest. The player controlled magnet stop sounds interesting in theory but contradicts the basis of the general design and rule set, not to mention the logistic complications of having one action button to use that is already responsible for two other player controlled features (Valkyrie and Thor's Hammer).

Hope that helps alleviate some frustrations and give new insight on how to get to Valhalla. More than anything, practice that super skill shot! One of my favorite things on this game is locking three balls in a row and starting War at Sea all via three upper flipper shots. Once you got it dialed in, it will come naturally and often!

I dunno, during normal play, I have very very few balls that ever go over the rollovers.

You can minimize the hurryup call outs by changing 'War on Land Qualify callouts' to minimum under setup/features. No way to turn off the ball in the shooter lane callouts but they are there for a purpose to let you or other players know its their turn, so lets go!

Replay award increment is 10 million to 250 million by 10 million increments. It autoadjusts up and down if you beat the replay score or don't. I can't make this an option to go by 5 million point increments or it would be the default and I prefer it this way. The latest code and later give you many opportunities to surpass 60 million (especially if you have extra balls).

Sorry can you rephrase your question concerning the target to get the extra ball? Not sure what you're asking.
Max number of extra balls is 0, 1 or 2 in service menu with 1 extra ball as the default. There are several events that give an extra ball but they all follow the master setting.

Wanted to close the loop on this. Did some troubleshooting thanks to all of you and the support folks at AP. Found that ball 1 opto was problematic. While we had it torn apart we wiped all the optos down with an alcohol swab and it is working as it should. I much prefer this to installing new opto's BTW.

I know that no one can make this decision for me. But I have an opportunity to get a solid price on the deluxe model and feel like I’m overthinking things. I really want a Wonka, R&M and WoZ but know that I’m going to be super careful with them or end up not playing them and just having a ‘show cabinet’ whereas I can get a super cool original theme pinball with LOV. I don’t know what reassurance I need to put me over the edge but I guess that’s what I’m looking for. I just want a hassle free pin experience and I can just go ham playing the crap out of this thing

I’d say it’s a safe bet on this one. Outside of the boat witches and lock, seems to be pretty rock solid from a mechanical standpoint.

Agree. I had one problem out of the box that was resolved in minutes. The support from the OEM through this thread is super strong. This is an extremely well built game. You can play the heck out of it with small worries.

Their support can’t be any worse than Sterns. Haha

And this thread seems very active, which is where I’m thinking if there is an issue and I can’t rely on American I can just jump in here. Which is probably what I would do anyways.

This would also be my first purchase that that topper comes with it, I don’t have to buy a shaker, and my first invisaglass which is what makes that pricing so appealing to me. That and once again The original theme.

From watching some videos the music and SFX seem pretty descent as well

I guess my last question as it’s a newer pin and I haven’t sold very many. I know I’ll lose money on selling it after I play it but it seems like resell value should be there as there aren’t very many of these out there. On the off chance I hate it.

If you can get a deluxe for under 7, I’d say you won’t have to worry about losing too much on resale.