Gauging interest in an ST rules/info/strategy doc. Please see and respond accordingly at this thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-much-interest-in-a-stern-star-trek-rulesinfo-doc#post-2883545

That is correct. But it's risk vs reward

Ex Klingon battle 2. You can backhand the alpha ramp all the way to gold or venture off comboing it. I personally rather play it safe to keep the ball in play then to get a lit multiplier for the extra points

Ok, I must confess, I suck at pinball but I love Star Trek.
I am more of a keep the ball alive kind of person, but lately I have been trying some of the strategies to earn more points.
My question is this. I have trouble getting the ball into the away team when lit.
Any help as to which flipper, and how much power and where on the flipper to have the ball to get this shot. Truth be told, right now it pure stupid luck as to when I get it in there at the right time, and I have been trying, but I haven't found that sweet spot yet.
I have the same issue with the warp ramp.
Thanks guys.
May the force, err, Live Long and Prosper

Id recommend gaining control of the ball first on the left flipper and holding it trapped. Then open the right flipper for the away team and go for it. When shooting, it's almost at the very edge of the left flipper and get in the habit of closing the upper flipper just as the ball is going in.

One thing helped me a great deal with that shot. While the ball is trapped on the left and holding the right flipper up, just make the exact same shot you would shoot to make the right orbit! And like SKB said, drop that right flipper to help keep the ball from rattling out.

An old post, I know, but...

My Trek Pro does not have a solenoid on the right gate - it is passive as far as I can tell. So that right gate cannot remain open. Holding the right flipper button does nothing.

Is this option something that was on the LE model? Or removed from later Pro models - mine is Sept 2015.

That is a good point. The left orbit does go all the way around when I hit it. So that gate must open. However, holding down the right flipper button while shooting does not open that gate. It hits the left gate and bounces back against the right one.
Is that a software update that removed that?

Like the others said, best thing is to gain control of the ball on the left flipper, hold the right flipper, and hit the ball of the edge of the flipper. It took me a long time to get a feel for the shot but it's never an easy shot. I have my slings dialed down and often the ball gets slung up around the right flipper. If it looks like the ball might get a bounce up around the 3rd flipper, hold it open.

The warp shot is also a tough shot. If you miss high, hold the right flipper to catch the rebound. Often the ball will be directed back up the right orbit off the flipper and give you another chance. It would also be good to check the level of your machine.

I believe the right gate only stays open when holding the right flipper down. only if you didn't hit the warp ramp skill shot on that ball

I cheat the game with the right flipper button down right gate open on auto plunge when there is a right orbit shot lit.

For the skill shots

Holding down the LEFT flipper opens the gate allowing the ball all the way round so you have a shot at the right ramp for a skill shot

Holding down the RIGHT flipper shuts the gate allowing the ball to bounce back down the right loop allowing for a skill shot at the warp ramp.

In normal play if you get the ball back to the plunger lane you can do the OPPOSITE skill shot to which you have already done on that ball.

Hope that clarifies.

True but to clarify - When holding down the left flipper, the skill shot could be either the right ramp or the vengeance. Whichever red insert is flashing quickly is the one to shoot for. It has a long timer so you don't have to rush the shot.

When holding the right flipper, you have to plunger hard to get the ball to come back around to the upper flipper. If not hard enough, the ball will just fall into the pop bumpers. I've played a ST that couldn't launch hard enough to go for this skill shot. On mine, sometimes the ball takes a weird bounce and doesn't make it out of the gate.

100%. Getting the doubler lit for the alpha ramp by doing KB 1-2-3 is pure gold.

The alpha ramp is the easiest to hit.
Nero 2. The alpha ramp is multi color shot.
Nero 3 I keep back handing the alpha and slowly getting the right flipper shot to be on alpha ramp and then get the left flipper on the warp ramp. Then nail the ball to the alpha ramp. Beat the left flipper like a mad man to get it to the warp ramp again and shoot the alpha ramp repeat repeat. This gets the multiplier lit and the color changing shot all on the alpha ramp. Finish Nero 3 to get the left orbit multiplier lit

Having the left orbit and alpha ramp multiplier lit opens up so much

PD1 - I start the away mission and nail the left orbit
STE1 - often the shot is repeatly the alpha ramp. If it's not, start the away mission and shoot the left orbit

DTD to me it's much like STE. If the ball has been in play and I haven't nailed any shots and more shots get lit. I just nail the alpha ramp over and over again til it's not lit anymore than try to start away mission and nail the left orbit

I'm finding that I like going 3 deep for KB, Nero, SJ, STE as they aren't difficult compared to PD n DTD

This all depends on your skill level if you can make shots. If you can't make the first shot on KB3. You can be stuck on the mission for a while. It's key to make that first lit shot.

I generally don't go PD 3 deep because of the difficulty. But last night I tried it while in Klingon mb. Is there any difference between PD2 - PD3. What I could tell in the madness is that you have to shoot all 7 shots in each tier.

One exception would be DTD GAT which is the spinner at 75K per spin (I believe this GAT may be OK to start whenever).

Currently pd2 and pd3 are the same. On original code, pd3 required all shots completed during the timer. Later code kept shot progression which matched pd2.

I changed up my strat

I use to go
KB 1-2-3
Nero 1-2-3 to light the doublers

But exploring more of the game. I find. The hardest shot for me is the warp ramp

So I will either start with KB 1
Then do PD 1 -2. I make as many shots in PD2 as I can. If I make the warp ramp on PD2. Then I finish it. If not. I move onto KB 2. I will come back to PD 2
When I have 2 balls locked and hit KLingon multiball on PD2.
With ball save on. I let the balls drain and try to nail the warp ramp.

With medals now.
i actually find now that level 1 are the hardest. KB 1, PD1, DTD are not bad because the shots will be the same. But Nero 1,STE, SJ 1. The shots change after the first shot. I wonder if it's random or if their is variables to determine the shots.

(quoted to follow this topic)

Can someone explain extra balls? I know there's one after warp 3 but not sure of the other ones? Only lucked into one tonight but not sure how it happened.
Thanks

There's another extra ball after completing the second vengeance mode.
Can also be a black hole award.
The warp ramp extra ball reflexes depending on how often they're achieved. I've seen it as high as 9

Besides the warp ramp and vengeance extra ball you can set your machine to award extra balls at scoring increments.
I have mine set at 50 mil , 100 mil , 200 mil , 300 mil, 400 mil.
You can also set the warp ramp to what ever you want , mines at 7.

holy hell you must score over a billion every game with that much extra ball action

yep, the "never ending star trek"

Cmon guys. .it's a hard game . I bet more than a few have there game set up similiar .

Have you been to EA with that many extra balls?

The one I play is on location. Unfortunately it's on code 1.3
The light extra ball is warp 3 and no extra balls at point increments.
It's also starting to auto launch balls which is extremely frustrating cause when one drains it signals end of ball. Hard to play when you have a good game going and all the sudden your dealing with issues. I think that's why he lowered the replay to like 8 million.

Hell no...
My high score is about 440 mill completing level 1 and half of level 2.
You set your machine up like mine and let me know when you get to EA.
I also have it set to 7 ball...

I had mine set up that way for about 6 months but just set it back to one extra ball at 100 mil, opened up the right outlane and reset the high scores. I feel that I've given myself enough time to get good at the game and am now challenging myself to do well with harder settings. It's a lot more fun now. Thanks TampaJEFF for challenging me to step up my game!

I've been to EA 4 or 5 times on factory settings and one or two modes away many more times than that. I'm sure it'd make it easier.

Here's another strategy that comes into play for home owners; and its not a strategy persay, just setup tips.

There's 2 things that come into play for the warp ramp:
1. Ability to hit the ramp with the upper flipper.
and
2. How the ball returns to the flipper from the warp ramp.

Both of these can be adjusted to make a more pleasant warp ramp experience.

The reason i bring this up is ive been having a hell of a time hitting my warp ramp the past few weeks because of item#2 above). So much, i havent been enjoying the pin. I, then played a pro on location yesterday and it suffered from both #1 & #2. Hard to hit, and the return sometimes went to the shooter lane.

That said, here's what i did to tweak mine and so far so good!

For #1 item above; ability to hit the warp ramp: Changeout the flipper rubber. As simple as this sounds, its quite effective AND....if that doesnt do the trick, try another rubber. In my case, i changed my flipper rubbers just last month (which was the beginning of my issues with the warp ramp). I swapped for another rubber, still same problem. Something didnt quite feel right with those 2 flipper rubbers when i took em out so i dug deep into my bag of 6 flipper rubbers and found a good one. This may sound silly, but i ordered a batch of flipper rubbers from PBL way back when and they just dont feel the same or as good as the ones from Marco. Maybe its me, but in this case it proved to be game changing.

Another thing to mention about item #1. If you're still having issues once you replace the rubber, try slightly adjusting the switch prongs of the right flipper to give it just a hair more action.

So i cant honestly tell you if it was the flipper rubber or action from the coil switch as i did both. But at least it gives you some ideas to try.

Item#2: This is the more popular mention when it comes to adjusting the warp ramp. But, there's a set screw at the exit of the warp ramp that can be loosened, then adjust your warp ramp, and retighten screw. You will have to do this approx 3-4 times and its best to do it after wiping down the pf when the ball is traveling at its fastest.

Hope this helps someone out. I know I for one am happy to be on track with consecutive warps again

For those that have a hard time hitting the left vuk with the right flipper or hitting the away mission with the left flipper.

If you trap the ball with right flipper. You can backhand the away mission. You have to do it pretty quick once you release the hold.

I do. And I've still only made it to Amok three times in 1800 plays.

Heck, I just figured out there is more to Klingon multiball after destroying the first six birds of prey.

I am inconsistent at hitting the warp ramp. Some days I can easily get 5 or 6 in a row but other days I struggle to make just one. I've adjusted the warp ramp in the past but don't know if it makes much difference. You just have to get a feel for the shot like any other shot.

Lots of great info here!

Just learned about the super skill shot, and have been able to pull it off a few times.

Skill Shot #1 (Gimme) - Rollover Lane
Skill Shot #2 - Hold left flipper to allow the plunge to enter the left orbit, hit the lit red enterprise insert shot. 1M points.
Skill Shot #3 (Super) - Hold the right flipper and the ball will bounce off the top ball gate, and should bypass the lanes hit the rollover switch and come down by the upper right flipper. If you can hit the warp ramp, the shot is worth 1.5M points.

It may not be the best scoring strategy, but I always go for the warp super skill shot. Save left left flipper hold skill shot for later. Use when you need the ball quickly served to the flippers to make a critical shot.

I've tried a few different strategies I've seen other players do, but this is what works best for me. I can consistently get 100 million point plus games with this.

1.) Start w/ Prime Directive (working towards super ramps via space jump and save the enterprise.)
All the timed modes since the latest code release will pause the timer (after 4 seconds since the previous switch hit I think) until you make a shot, take advantage of this and combo as many shots as possible.
a.) Cradle the ball on the left flipper, and backhand the left orbit then combo anything that's lit. Keep doing this until the mode is over.

2.) Before starting another mode work on the extra balls and get some points along the way.
a.) Start vengeance multiball, and try to hit the warp ramp (up to 3x to light extra ball).
b.) Get vengeance multiball all the way up to the final shot and cradle the ball with the left flipper. Backhand the left orbit and combo the final shot 2x'ing the vengeance for 5 million x 2.
c.) Get whatever warp ramps you haven't got towards the 3 needed for the extra ball and hit the vengeance shot for the extra ball.

3.) Start the next vengeance mode, and hit the vengeance 4x for the 2nd extra ball.

4.) Go for klingon multiball, and don't forget to combo (using the left backhand trick, as many shots as possible, especially the super jackpot).

5.) Start space jump, and prime directive and use the same combo trick.

6.) Once super ramps are lit, don't shoot for the ramps if you can help it.
a.) Again cradle the ball on the left flipper, and backhand the left orbit then hit the warp ramp. Do this for as many super ramp shots as you can.

7.) Go for Kobayashi Maru w/ the final modes. (I blaze through these just focusing on keeping the ball alive so I can get to cashing in the medals and the multiball points, better players or those still on ball 1 or 2 may want to keep the same strategy up for points and medals going into Maru.

Below is another idea that I've seen players do, but it hasn't been effective for me.
1.) Start Nero and complete modes 1, 2 and 3 if possible to get the spinner bonus up. Then go for the strategy above. This will give a boatload of points every time you hit the left orbit (+ spinner) to do a combo. I almost always lose my last ball shortly after completing the 3rd nero mission though. #lifegoals.

Nice write up. Do you just ignore the GAT shot?

I don't ever shoot for it, but if I hit it I'll try for the points (lanes, ramps, vengeance). I've heard players say it's really important, but I feel like either away team shot is risky and will only take it when I need to start (if the game is on hard) or advance a mode.

seems silly not to combine your mulitballs with modes?