I wonder if Spike duty-cycles the hold at a higher frequency and that is helping keep temps down?

Easier way to tell is play game, let the ball fall in the hole and wait. The game will kick all the coils after 20 seconds or so. This is the ball search function.

If the ball comes out, the switch in the hole isn't working and needs adjusted or replaced

If the ball doesn't come out, the coil to fire the kicker underneath is bad or disconnected or something else is wrong on the node board.

Just like P2W games, they're milking the whales with these $1K toppers. It's actually a pretty good racket... once a person has a couple games with toppers, their topper-less games stick out like a sore thumb. Gotta have 'em all! Make the official toppers limited production so folks have to scramble to get one and you got a nice money printing machine.

This free portal lock is huge. Make the SSS on your first plunge, then 4 more combos and you can jump right into reality gem quest with 3x scoring, with the ability to bring in Thor if necessary. Should be good for 100M+ right off the bat. Don't make the SSS and you've got a tougher row to hoe, maybe start time gem with single ball play to boost all your multiball ballsaver times? I love how the game can unfold in many different ways.

Stern Avengers rulesheet: https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AIQ-Rule-Sheet.pdf

That sounds correct. Hitting the portal LOCK makes the next quest a multiball. When you shoot the right ramp to start the quest, your locked ball is put into play.

Learn the mode rules first - how to finish each mode, as this is critical to winning the gems. The rules for each mode are distinct but spelled out well in the PDF.

Next is learning what each gem does when placed at each shot - this makes scoring higher or rules easier for the shot. You'll learn to use the gems to make parts of the game easier for you.

Go over the IM and Thor multiball rules so you understand each phase and how to maximize scoring.

At that point you'll know most of the game; the challenge is putting everything together for big scores. This is where the game shines.. having that Megaman aspect of deciding which gems you want to get first to help with later modes, which modes to use portal locks with, when to bring in your thor and IM MBs, etc.

Any computer power cord will work.

If you're only getting saved balls during ballsave, and NOT seeing your ball in play ended early after ballsave ends (bonus count while ball is still on playfield), it's likely an outlane switch is triggering when it shouldn't be. Either an outlane switch wires are going to another switch, or the outlane switch is way too sensitive and being triggered by vibration. Check switches for issues.

The portal locks are for the gem quests; that behavior sounds normal if you're getting multiball at the start of the quest. Are you sure there is no ballsaver? Is it disabled in adjustments?

Just get a Pro instead. It's a fair bit cheaper and you still get all the gameplay, but without the troublesome subway (which doesn't add much to the game anyway). You lost the cool CM ramp, but a 2nd spinner is a good consolation prize.

Best way I've found is to get the peg at least to the right of center. It's easier to hit Sanctum on the left side that isn't protected by a post. Safest shot is one that clips the left edge and rattles in the tower lane. Straight on shots tend to go SDTM and shots to the right come off that post also SDTM.

Get the peg to the right and deliberately "miss" a tower shot just a hair early, that should get your Sanctum shot safely.

You already have several tools to help win the quest:

- Shoot combos before starting a quest to get portal locks, these give you ballsaver plus multiball to help get through them
- Ancillary to this, avoid lighting Start Quest until you're ready so the right ramp is available for combos
- Left ramp, right ramp then inner loop is repeatable and never gives up ball control

- Secret skillshot and Hawkeye combo also light these locks
- If you get locks from SSS or Hawkeye, consider using them right away and saving combo-earned portal locks for later quests.
- Decision between 3x scoring in one quest or having every quest be a multiball

- Have IMMB or Thor close to completion. If you're close to finishing a quest, bring them in for ballsaver/multiball to guarantee you finish successfully.

Rules are fine the way they are. You gotta think, prioritize and plan ahead.

Yep, the health bar is really just a timer, but only for health bonus - not completion. Good compromise. If you're stuck in a single-ball quest and not close to Thor or IMMB, play as slowly and deliberately as you need to maintain control. The gem is far more important than the health bonus.

You never actually run out, it just drains to a minimum (no bonus) and stays there. You stay in the quest til you succeed or drain the ball.

A risky strategy I've been trying if I don't get the secret skill shot on first plunge is to go for time gem right off the bat. The two ramps are easy, tough part is surviving the drops. If you are successful, the longer timers and ballsavers lay a great foundation for the rest of the game. Maybe bring in the first gimme Thor to help ensure completion.

Most entertaining is to start 3x reality gem and bring in IMMB. With add a balls, you can get all 6 balls going. Keep the wheel spinning and just make shots.

Computer always gives me IMMB locks in .92 version... Haven't tried .93 yet.

Totally digging the VCS Adventure foot tatt

Does nobody use the black rubber Stern installs at the factory? Not seeing any wear on our factory flipper rubber after a couple hundred plays...

Do the other types of flipper rubber not disintegrate, or are they just disintegrating into harder-to-see bits?

Those glossy urethane Superband rings look good and don't ever seem to break down, but I don't like the way they play. I still have a set on my SC because that game seems to eat flipper rubber for lunch, but that's it.

Rick and Morty's implementation works well. Balll falls into the garage way in the back and instantly fires into the left inlane.

Yep: Half-lit on gauntlet = not contested yet. Blinking on gauntlet = currently being fought over. Fully lit on playfield = yours. Fully lit on gauntlet = Thanos's.

Get the mind gem before starting soul gem and power up its avenger to level 1. You can now spot 3 soul gem shots with the button. There's advanced shenanigans involving space gem and another L1 Avenger that can net you 6 button presses, but three should be enough help to clear the mode.

Specifically, space gem on Hulk because he's the 4th shot in the sequence. Mind gem on L1 CA with BW also L1.. any other combination will put the mind gem on Vision or CM who can't be leveled.

deleted rest, misread question

The position of the peg is important if you want a good spin. Shooting from the lower flippers, it's best to have the peg near the 3 or 9 o'clock positions. If it's near 12 or 6 o clock and you hit it head-on, the force of the ball doesn't translate to rotational force, it's driven into the mech itself. You have to hit the peg at an angle that converts the ball's energy to rotational action.

From the upper flipper, you want the peg around 5 o'clock... you can really rip a massive spin if you hit it correctly. If the peg is too close to the upper flipper, you won't get much rotation. If the peg is at 5 o'clock and you need a good spin (reality mode, etc), it's sometimes best to shoot right ramp and setup an upper flipper shot instead of shooting directly.

Had the same problem. Seemed like half my shots were just bouncing off the bank. Looked into it and found that the drop target bank was installed too far back and the targets were being pushed into the rubber, causing them not to drop. Sounds like more then one game went out like that. Since fixing I've had zero issues.

Remove the bank assembly, fill the holes with toothpicks, then reinstall the bank apprx 3/16" forward (away from the backing rubber ring).

See pics. First two pics show the original bad install. 3rd pic shows corrected install. The targets should touch the front of the hole when down, not the rear. Note the difference in spacing when on the up targets.
av1 (resized).pngav2 (resized).pngav3 (resized).png

Complete opposite of my strategy. Love how there's so many ways to approach this game.

I go for the time gem immediately in single ball play.. as long as you can survive the three drop target shots, the 2 ramp portion is easy. Use Thor MB to help with the drops if necessary. I put the time gem on black widow since that ramp gets shot all the time to setup combos.. you get L2 time gem pretty quickly.

Now, for the rest of the game, ALL of your ballsavers and timed modes last longer. When you add in the cumulative ballsaver increases across a portal lock mb, add-a-ball, bringing in Thor or IMMB, another add a ball.. you can play multiball w/savers seemingly forever.

Reality seems to be the highest unassisted scoring mode, so I take it when I have two portal locks for 3x scoring. Spin the wheel up to max and shoot as many combos as you can. Putting the reality gem on Hulk is good for the boosted gamma ray, plus the space gem combos end there for extra scoring.

I tend to put soul gem on CM since she's easy to shoot from either flipper for the soul jackpots. Mind on the drops for soul gem help. Power on CA since he's hard to get, leaving Space for BP.

Tough to keep the line running full-tilt (ha) through pandemic conditions. Changes to procedures due to distance/mask requirements, employee illnesses, pandemic impact on their suppliers, shipping, etc. On the other side you have cabin fever increasing demand. I'm sure they are making games as fast as they can.

Instead of that, just take the tilt bob off the stick. The outlanes are funnels by design, sure, but they're not really that *big* and the balls tend to bounce away if you can catch them with the middle post. If the ball gets near the outlane, encourage it to leave the way it came. As your ball times increase, tighten the tilt so you start nudging more in control.

The mech is setup so that one set of teeth are always up, so the ball will always have to be stepped through. Passthrough means the balls won't lock in the subway, each lock is sent to the end and kicked out. Good if you're getting hangups on the teeth.

If you want the balls to zip through to the VUK, I think you have to physically remove the teeth part of the mech. Set the passthrough setting so the game doesn't get confused.

Gamma ray doesn't start til you roll over the lit right inlane. You did that and then missed the left orbit spinner and hit the tower instead. 100% your fault. Hit the spinner off the feed next time.

Nope, this one is do it or lose it. Keith said earlier that pauses wouldn't work due to the choreographed audio/visual effects. The fact you control the start makes up for the limited time to cash in.

We got a STLE back in the day with a bow not quite as bad as that one. Stern replaced it with a wired playfield. That is not a cosmetic defect, it actually breaks the game, making it unplayable. You should get a wired playfield replacement. They're pretty easy to swap with another person assisting.

and I will say what he's protecting against (ski jump to another BW shot) is trivial to do, so the change was somewhat needed. Less needed was the BP restriction IMHO, takes more skill to exploit that, but RayDay did such a good job on that video I guess something had to be done

Liking the soul gem hard mode.. with some mind gem help I squeaked by with 2 flips remaining and got over 100M. Maybe setup an even bigger bonus for the masochists who attempt hard mode with no mind gem?

Gems are stones. Synonyms help break up monotony in speech.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone

I'm glad the game is so good this is all we have left to complain about

Sorry Thanos, all mine, none for you

Drained before I could cash in 3rd assembly for the billion

Had a 71-flip soul gem but was pissed - I'd held in the button for hard mode but apparently not long enough... dunno how many hundreds of millions that mistake cost me Still finished over a billion for the game.

av (resized).jpg

Got a pro, the only premium feature I miss is the CM ramp, but the spinner is a fine substitute.

The premium raising portal disc is OK but can take a beating when raising, seems wobbly when clobbered and seems to have more issues staying level than the pro disc. Haven't had to mess with my disc at all on the pro. Subway just kills the flow and seems troublesome to keep working correctly. Molded plastic gauntlet looks way too plain and ugly.

Starting gems from the gauntlet ramp works fine. For soul gem, hold both flippers during intro, drop the top flipper as the released ball approaches it to gently bump to LR flipper, where you will drop catch and shoot BW to setup BP and start the sequence.

You start the quest at the gauntlet, and then collect at the gauntlet. Other than that, gauntlet is just another shot (or used to setup UL flipper shots). Doesn't make it feel overused at all.

No regrets on pro at all. If you want to just play, get a pro. If you like fiddling with toys, get the premium.

This is correct behavior. The flicker is due to the gauntlet gems being halfway lit, indicating they haven't been contested yet.

If you start a gem quest and win the gem, the gem lights on the playfield where you place it (because you have it), and unlights on the gauntlet. If you lose the quest, the gem goes fully-lit on the gauntlet (because Thanos has it)

?? how do you show three possible states with just off and on? No way to tell which gems haven't been played yet vs which Thanos has. Code is fine and I have no trouble differentiating between fully lit and half lit glove gems.

Play better, put them all on the playfield and you won't have to worry about it...

Yeah didn't mean to come off that way, sorry but I do think it's fine the way it is. Maybe the dim state needs to be more pronounced?

Music and callouts overall aren't bad IMHO, but some of the modes are pretty flat. Iron Man's callouts in time gem sound like an office intern complaining at a meeting. OTOH reality gem music and voices sound pretty good. I like the mode select and soul gem tunes, others are pretty plain and uninspiring.

The game's rules and layout make up for the audio in spades however.

Space gem mode I believe only does damage with the left orbit, all the others are setup shots for more points. I bet you were just making setup shots and no left orbit damage shots. BTW you can only "die" by losing the ball.

Finishing the mode quickly gives a health bonus based on how much of your bar is left. Basically it's a timer for extra completion points but the mode itself never times out, just bottoms out at 0 bonus.

Randomness is what pinball is all about. YOU can plan on playing the exact same way every time, but you still have to execute, and therein lies the randomness.

On AIQ, if I can initially plunge the secret skillshot, I'll take that lock, quickly shoot 4 combos for another lock then start reality gem to hopefully lay on big points early and a 2x shot placement. If I biff the SSS, I'll start single-ball time gem instead to try getting the longer timers and savers for the rest of the game. If I'm making the tg shots well, I'll play single ball. If not, I'll bring in thor to make sure I get the damn gem. Nothing set in stone.

If your "always play that way" plan involves a shot you suddenly just can't hit during a match, what then do you do? Good players have multiple backup plans.

I don't see how AIQ is different from any other game in that context... if you're always making shots, all games will get boring. You'll eventually find the optimal strategy on any machine, even the ones that throw modes randomly. R&M is exactly that, you get whatever dimension and mode it dishes. And yet the strategy is still just start modes and multiball as much as possible. Execution is everything on that game.

You don't need the gems to get to the endgame, just battle for them and just collect the Avengers three times. Winning gems gives you perks that you can use for higher scores and help complete modes, but for now, just worry about shooting Avengers for the three collects and wizard modes (soul gem, black order, battle royale). After all the gems have been fought over (whether you won or not), you get to battle Thanos for endgame.

Defend the soul gem first; you have your ballsaver to help out for a while. Defend the gem you want the most first.

You can disable thanos taking gems in the settings now if you find it irritating.

I don't think the people complaining of losing gems realize how many resources the game gives the player to help win the battles.

You only lose the gem if you drain during the gem battle. Therefore, set as much up to prevent draining during the battle:

- You can make the secret skillshot or shoot combos to get portal locks. Use the portal MB wisely, controlled play trap and shoot.. treat the extra ball(s) as a spare and not something to get points more quickly.

- You can bring in Thor or IMMB into the battle for additional balls and ballsaver. Not only that, both Thor and IMMB come with TWO add-a-balls (Antman mystery and Eye of whatever at Sanctum).

- If you get the time gem early, all those ballsavers last longer, making later gems easier

- If you need even MORE ballsaver, knock some drops down, figure out where Super Ballsaver is on the grid, then bring it in during a Battle

- During the battles, skip the additional "extra points" shots and just go for the gem goal (e.g. mind gem - shoot the fast blink shot then wheel 3 times for quick finish, ignore the non controlled avenger shots)

- Remember Marksman hawkeye will give back a gem if needed

If you do all this, you should get gems pretty regularly. And remember, the comics and movies would be pretty boring if the Avengers consistently wiped the floor with Thanos and won every battle before the finale...

The game is very bassy.. I replaced all three speakers and added a little 2.1 amp from parts express. It sounds really nice. Most of the soundtrack is meh but I do like the stage select and gem won tunes. Out of the three Elwin games we have this is the only one that didn't get an external sub.

Looks like it might block view of tower releases... does this affect the Hawkeye Challenge at all?

This is why I went with the pro. As cool as the opening portal is, the raising disk assembly seems quite fragile and fussy, and the lockup trough is meh and also fussy. Pro being just a spinner is much simpler and I've not had to do any fiddling with anything except repositioning the DT bank forward a bit so the targets actually dropped.

I would absolutely love to buy an Avengers "Promium" with the CM ramp but none of the other Premium features.

I don't miss the scoop, actually prefer the pro play with fast target return and no waiting on balls going through the subway. Changing gems does take one extra step on the pro (hit antman then the potbelly ramp to stop the ball while changing) but that's not a big deal. The ball stops often enough on the pro I don't feel the scoop is needed.

Yep, everyone is different. I went premium on Maiden due to the art and mummy lock, but really don't care for the extra mode (madness) and will disable it eventually. Got lucky that none of the orbs have ever given me issues and mummy only needed a wire resoldered once. For JP I went pro as there were too many issues with the dino and I wanted to play, not fix. Bad first impression - I broke the dino on the first JP Prem I played at Expo '19

I can always upgrade later on either / both if I want to.

Is the Thor figure too close to the rail, ball bumping into him?

This is probably what the location is noticing. I see it get pretty dark during those 'off' phases at my house, and was surprised how long the GI was left off.

I've had the game for months... many hundreds of plays and never got the ball stuck there. Buddy comes over couple days ago and his first ball jams in the pop. WTF?

I can absolutely empathize with ops who have to deal with this stuff on a daily basis.