At the top of every club thread are key posts... this one of them. Look to the top of any page in the thread. There are 11 on this club thread.

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

My AIQ Premium arrived today! Thanks to JJ and his GameExchange team for delivery and great communication through the wait. Made a few of the adjustments suggested here on launch power etc... It’s been smooth playing since setup. My AntMan guide has washers and the Thor Guide is quite clear of the playfield. May slide a few washers in anyway. Subway works no issues, same with the portal.

Clearly much easier to hit the Marvel Ramp when I’m not thinking of it.

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My favorite is around the loop to the right flipper and instead of hitting the Tower Skill shot, hitting at least 2 of the Vision drop targets will get you a Super Secret Skill Shot 3M point, 10 Sec ball save and spot an award from the drop targets.

Edited... wait didn’t read....that was already in the .94 code, apologies.

Just re-read the Infinity Gauntlet comics while taking a break from playing. I know several times it’s been mentioned here that Adam Warlock is missing from AIQ code. Reading the comics I thought they’d code him in around the Soul Gem or something, but it is hard to see how he gets a big ‘new’ part in AIQ code releases...the game structure seems pretty fleshed out currently. But hey they can code anything they want!

However, when finished reading I was wondering if anyone has discussed the idea that ‘we’ the players are Adam Warlock on AIQ? It would make some sense from the comics that our battle with Thanos to take and hold the gems makes us Warlock? Thanos leads the Black Order, we as Warlock lead the Avengers and battle our team against Thanos’ team.

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I think it looks pretty good! Haven’t been a fan of the figures generally but I think you’ve placed them well, cutting Vision was clever for sizing and his super power....and the Ant Man figures kick ass! That’s also great idea done well. It’s as good as the Pym building mod, which I didn’t think would be equaled for that shot.

Nice and thanks for sharing!

same here for my premium, November build, December 2020 delivery, 600+ games, zero issues. Only a small adjustment to the installed updated disc level kit. Pablo from Stern support said all builds in my timeframe and beyond had fixes like subway and disc leveling installed. I followed the new machine checklists in the key posts above, and beyond cleaning and waxing have only tightened the Thor Captive ball once and I am rotating upper flipper rubber every couple hundred games to manage wear.

Now the kit to stop me bricking three shots in a row on posts to immediately drain... THAT would be gold... oh wait... that’s the ‘play better’ mod. Can’t seem to get that installed in myself.

EDIT: actually I am watching one issue for mentions in this group. I believe my auto plunger loses power or fades in longer games. It will deliver the ball around the loop at the start of a walk-up game no problem, but rather quickly fades and stops delivering the ball beyond the bumpers until it has a bit to ‘recover’ between games . I can always manually plunge around the loop, and I do so, but that isn’t a solution for chaotic multi-ball play. There have been a couple/few mentions but nothing seems definitive across owners...

Hi TaylorVA, plenty of specifics here on this issue, including key posts at the top of this page... that isn’t RTFM advice. But the good stuff is already documented about early builds needing a leveling kit, late 2020 builds and forward probably don’t, and Stern documentation on adjusting the disc, no need to repeat.

The biggest tip is getting a cloth and larger wrench on the plastic nut to initially loosen the disc. It feels like a trust fall....”am I doing this right.” Be cautious but deliberate and firm, loosen the nut and all the other instructions and adjustments I mention in the key posts are straight forward.

Once I confirmed I had the leveling kit, I’ve only adjusted once for 700+ games, and it’s a 10-20 minute effort.

Good luck

1471.and change... and I can't seem to get close to it again!

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Been in the club since December, and have been a Avengers comics fan since childhood from Kirby to Buscema’s art and beyond. It’s a dream theme and the CM ramp and layout made it a day one buy for me.

However, there’ve been several times I wasn’t sure I was good enough to actually enjoy the game, let alone deliver the shots hit so easily in the tutorials and streams. Because the truth of the game is you need to consistently, repeatedly, execute 3-6 linked shots to progress or score. And that means control. When you execute the game is awesome, when you don’t… it’s frustrating. But I’ve found my way. Some here might say I’m ‘playing better’, and they’re right. I brick fewer shots, allowing for more a consistent set-up of combos, portal locks, IM and Thor MB’s, which juices the scoring nicely. Also, hitting the friggin BW/CM combo 3-4 times in a row is VERY satisfying.

So I finally cracked a billion points, and I can see getting there again. No Thanos Attacks or Battle Thanos, but did Battle Royale and BOM, and only had 4 gems. There is obviously much more to accomplish, and many ways to leverage the gems for scoring or progress to repeat and improve my score. I am now really enjoying the game

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LOVE the Iron Maiden Killers hanging back there. Some of the best early IM Eddie art for sure!

I just tried this fix Friday evening... and it works! Thanks @martinacoustic! It has worked at least for the 2 dozen or so games I’ve played since. And without one ‘lost’ ball from a finger not popping up completely. Which was happening most games before.

My only comment on the fix is that I tried putting the washer as shown on the pic... for me...it made the subway problem worse. So I pulled the mech again, moved the washer to the other side of the finger, and voila’ it works just as described. So if you try the fix and it doesn’t work, move the washer to the other side of the finger and try again.

Also, I was intimidated when starting this, but it really is pretty simple to remove the mech and make the changes described. All told it was probably an hour of work, and now I could crank out the fix in just a few minutes. I hope I don’t ever have to.

I don’t have IC on my AIQ, but I had the same issue Thursday night on my Rush. New personal best at 2.3B, nothing on IC, but the High score initials acted like IC, and I earned several achievements during the game.

Haven’t removed it, but the next time you play AIQ in the wild w/o the fix, you will caught agape by the ball falling out the side... I do think it helps and you will appreciate it.

Of course it also keeps you focused on a level and well pitched machine to make sure rejects feed a flipper, not SDTM.

I’ve said this before here, and it’s just an opinion, but I think we are supposed to be Adam Warlock leading our team against Thanos and the Black Order, it fits the comic book storyline. Thankfully there are no JJP-style player selfies counting as Adam Warlock content...

Space gem has become much easier for me. The Widow ramp, side ramp, hawkeye loop to Hulk is a killer combo. It scores very well on Space Gem, and opens portal locks quickly. It’s a great combo to use to learn the timing of an AIQ in the wild on ball 1 without losing a high scoring gem mode like Reality Gem. Generally the combo works well for Time Gem too, but hit the stand ups rather than Hulk.

I practiced the beautiful combo of Widow, Gauntlet(side) Ramp, Hawkeye Loop, Hulk, until it became a natural dance. It feels great to hit, it’s smooth to execute, and it CRUSHES Space Gem by finishing in the pops. It’s become an easier gem battle and obvious single ball choice for me.

Since we’re talking technicalities…Marvel ramp does nothing for Space Gem.

Sure Gauntlet Ramp, innovative ramp accessible from all three flipper, side ramp… you figured it out, but I fixed my post.