I know there have been numerous topics about nudging, and I understand the basics of doing it (e.g., nudge to move the playfield, not the ball). However, what I still can't quite do is nudge to avoid the outlane. I try to nudge up to bounce the ball off of the outlane post, but this seems to have an equal chance of success as failure. And, when I watch videos of the best players, this seems to be something they can do quite well. So, what are the specific nudging techniques used to keep the ball from going down the outlane?

All games. I’m not that great at any. If there are different techniques, how do you identify them?

I agree with some of the comments, I try to nudge up to get the ball out of the slings and would prefer that the ball stay away from the lanes altogether. But when it is heading for an outlane, what do you do? I’ve been trying to nudge the post up into the ball, but as I said, that only works sporadically. Would it be better to nudge the post to the left or right before the ball gets there to try to bounce the ball off the outer side of it? That may depend upon the game I would imagine.

I did that one glorious time in my pinball life. It was total luck of course. I shouted in celebration, but no one was there to see it or care.

So, all the great advice on here inspired me to nudge more tonight, and . . . I tilted. But, hey, if you're not tilting, I guess you're not trying.

I find it very difficult to predict when the ball is in danger of heading to the lanes to nudge properly. I'm more trying to react once it gets there than trying to keep it from the lanes in the first place.

No. I don’t see that. I’m looking at this thread through safari on my iPad.

Perhaps this is going to be hard to do, but let's take this diagram and assume the different colored arrows are different ball trajectories. How would you nudge to save each one?

PinballNudging (resized).png

I'm assuming you've failed to keep the ball from heading to the lanes, and you have to make a quick nudge. Would you nudge up, to the side, etc.? Does it vary depending on the trajectory?

Nudging up would have been intuitive to me. Nudging to the left probably wouldn’t have been, but it makes sense.