Agree with all except loop extra ball.

In 2 years I have never got over 40, so 30 gives me much more to shoot at.

More chance of beating the beast now

I have had my game a little over a year now and haven’t seen 3/4 of what the game has in it.

I suck at pinball.

Totally agree. 30 seems perfect to me. Especially with loop jackpots not counting toward the EB. Got 36 loops last night but no EB

I guess I'm a little loopy.

I'll edit my post. Sounds like 30 is the better number.

Kinda same here. Had mine nearly 2 years now. Never had more than 2 Eddie Cards, might of had 3 once, but don't think so. HS is pushing 800 million. Get to Cyborg MB about every 4th or 5th game. Just can't get over the hump i guess. Always get that outlane drain when i'm a shot or 2 away from the next step

Here is what I do when I want to explore the game, which is different than trying to score a lot points. Soft plunge to get the ball to the right flipper, rip Revive spinner. Get ball back to right flipper ASAP and rip the spinner again (my game takes 2 rips to light Revive the first time around). From there I focus on Mummy MB. I used to stack Mummy with other modes, no longer the case when playing for wizard modes. Start Mummy and focus on getting your 5 Mummy jackpots to secure Eddie card #1. From there start trooper (with or without a mode doesn't matter) as my focus is to get the super jackpot to get the 2nd eddie card. NOTE - Anytime I start any MB and I no longer have my Revive outlanes lit, I ALWAYS rip spinners during the MB ball save and I don't shoot for anything else. Getting Revive lit a second time is critical to getting deep in the game. After Trooper card is secured I work on completing Cyborg. I have my left ramp shot down to about 80% and all I do is shoot it, ski jump pass to the right flipper and shoot it again and again. I never try and shoot at the right ramp to complete the Power Ramps. Also, I never play out Icarus mode when going for wizard mode. Instead I focus on relighting Mummy MB while the mode is running to avoid cheap brick drains by shooting at the ramps. Give it a try!

Man I wish I could get 40 loops! I don't think I suck too bad, I've battled and beaten the beast, but they can just be so fast and dangerous that I can't ever seen to get there. I've hit 40 a few times on the old code but the loop jackpots not counting towards the EB makes it near impossible for my mediocre loop skills. I've put a lot of time into practicing the loops but welp

This sounds like a pretty solid strategy to me! I'll give this a shot tonight and hopefully get to the beast 1.08

For some reason I can almost never hit the revive spinner when I try. When I don't try it happens quite often, but to hit it deliberately? Pah.

It’s a shot that requires practice. I only hit it about 60-70% of the time, but I have put a lot of time into just shooting revive over and over and over.

What's everyone's acceptable success rate for your autolaunch making the loop? After much dicking around (most of the typical attempts, including putting in the stronger coil), I'm at about 75%. I'm not real sure how to feel about that.

I’m about the same and it’s the one thing that makes this game irritating. The design stinks and if it’s a integral part of game play then it should have been engineered to be easily adjustable or more rigid once it’s set.

There are so many factors to it. Coil strength, spring strength, game pitch, playfield clean/dirty, angle of guides, etc. I got mine to an acceptable percentage and that's good enough. I usually manually plunge hard during trooper just to make sure the balls get up to the lock 100% , so I can try for the drops right away. It doesn't really ruin the game, it's just a fact of physics/geometry.

If you try the tips that are listed in this thread and/or the IMDN Issues thread, you can get it to 90% or better. You just have to keep dorking with it until you find out what works on your game--but it is achievable.

I'll give it a try thanks. Revive spinner is probably my worst shot tho however. I'll practice it more. When I usually hit it it's not going through with authority so the spinner don't spin enough. Weakest shot for sure. Both ramps, center ramp, orbits I'm pretty good. Think I'll snug up the outlanes as well

I guess I must be lucky. Mine rarely misses... got to be 95% or better. Only thing I've ever done is file a burr off the end of the launch ramp.

For what it's worth, which probably isn't much, I had my autoplunge above 90% for the past 8 months. Did the coil replacement, adjusted the guide, filed the burr on the end of the guide, adjusted the blades on the autolaunch mech, and had a piece of cut flipper rubber placed between the end of the guide and the post to hold position. If the autolaunch got a little wonky I cleaned the pf and it was perfect again. Everything was going GREAT.

All of a sudden, my autolaunch is hitting the mini flipper. Nothing seems to have changed. PF is nice and clean but still the same bad launch. With new adjustments I've got the autoplunge at about 80% but now the manual plunge bricks the skill target post 80% of the time and requires a perfectly finessed plunge to even make the orbit much less go for the super skill shot.

If it got that bad that quick something changed--I'd re-check all the adjustments you made and make sure nothing slipped or loosened--and that the ball is not hitting the tip of the upper flipper.

I agree it's got to be something, but everything seems the same. Guide can't move because of the rubber, and I have not ever had issues with it hitting the tip of the upper right flipper and that still doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm gonna tell you what got my autoplunge to 100%: I noticed that the ball guide would flex a little when the ball rolled through the curve. This flex can change the trajectory of the ball. I eliminated the flex by cutting about a 1" wide section out of a plastic Bondo spreader. This gave me a slender plastic wedge. I inserted this wedge between the gall guide and siderail. I should've taken some pictures of this. It's now buried under the plastics after I reassembled everything.

Ok I actually think I just got it. Replaced the rubber between post and guide to a smaller size had my autoplunge 20/20. Plunger was being a little wonky still so I tightened the bottom bracket screws and raised it a hair as it looked misaligned. Everything is great so far 2 games in.

If it goes out again I'll try to stiffen the guide as mentioned above as that sounds like a solid plan

I don't bother focusing so much on revive. After Robert posted his YouTube video, it has influenced a lot of players to focus on it too much.

You should go for revive, but only at strategic moments when other important shots are not lit. During ball save is a good strategy, especially if you need the pop bumper X. During some MBs is good too.

I find loops to be more beneficial as they lead to an extra ball. I get revive usually only once per game and average scores over 500 mil. If I focus too much on revive, goodbye extra ball and hello drain.

The quickest path to an EB is getting 3 power modes knocked out. I never get EB's by doing loops and I actually go for the loop shot quite often.

I get the 3 power modes EB most decent games. I got the 5th tomb treasure EB once. I don't think I've ever gotten a loop jackpot. I find it far too dangerous of a shot, I guess I need to work on it.

Do you need to complete everything a 2nd time to battle the beast a second time? I got him down to 9 health yesterday on ball 2. I totally botched ball 3 anyway, but I was curious if you have to start over.

Yes. Any Eddie card that is not at level two will need to be qualified to battle the beast again. All level two cards stay lit. If you have all four cards at level two and drain, if you have another ball you get to battle the beast again immediately.

Right there with you

I think I must be the only person who likes the auto-plunge not going around unless I hold the flipper. On my machine if I hold the flipper it's like 95%, if I don't it's about 10%. But that way I get to decide where I want the ball to go. I kinda assumed it was intentional. Sometimes I want it to go around and sometimes I want it to hit the top flipper and come down to the bottom flippers. Outside of the madness of multiball ball saves, I tend to use it strategically.

My auto plunge is about 9/10 but I still hold the mini flipper up most of the time out of habit. Ive trained my brain to assume any Maiden i walk up to wont auto plunge correctly lol

Edit: flipper up is almost 100%

Answering my own questions for posterity.

I found that my upper spinner actuator arm was sitting quite a bit above the switch. I think this caused the switch to miss single spins on occasion and that would lead to left orbit locks not counting. I bent the switch arm up so that less rotation was needed to activate the switch.

This was answered here; https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/up-the-irons-the-iron-maiden-pinball-official-owners-club/page/161#post-6038250
I will add that the left red torch flashing does not distinguish between which is ready between the tomb treasure or sarcophagus lock. It also doesn't distinguish when both are ready simultaneously. It's not very useful.

I am still not 100% but I think the rule is, in MB, it only counts for spotting an X. For battle modes, it counts only for a lit progress shot. I am not sure what happens when both are running.

This on turned out to be pretty intuitive. The LED color matches the color of the target rings; outer ring is red, inner ring is blue, bullseye flashes both red and blue.

Just installed the new code tonight. Man this game is bolted to the floor more than ever!

Its the best game I own and have ever played.... LOVE IT!

I saw them in '87 in Omaha. Do you remember the opening band?

Waysted was the opening act.

Vinnie Vincent Invasion was the opener. I was there as well. I was 13 years old and my parents let me go with my guitar instructor and his band mates, a bunch of post college aged metal heads. Needless to say I had a very good time!

Newspaper article the next day said they had the sonic impact of a small nuclear weapon. The stack of speakers was like a small mountain and the stage scenery and above lighting rig were constantly changing...

Waysted opened in Omaha too. One of the best concerts ever. We were frontish to stage and buddy caught a McBrain drumstick. As 17 yr olds that drumstick was priceless.

I caught a drum stick at the Toronto show but it was 2019 and i was 37 at the time.

God damn right it is! I'm with you...I'm taking this one to the grave with me, lol

Hit a flight of icarus 7-way combo, nearly shit a brick.

I find the newly lit inner orbit insert on 1.08 very bright. Is there a way to dim it?

Some pro owners have reported this. Hopefully it's rectified in an update, so it doesn't cause that Led to burn out.

I can’t find the setting to use the real knocker. Is it named something different?

There are no knockers in modern sterns. Only digital squacks.

You can modify the game and add one.

Shit a brick-arus?

Yes I have one added already. Where is the setting to use it? It worked before the update and I can’t find the setting.

Comet warm white vs stock "natural" white, thoughts? I'm leaning towards warm for my upcoming shop job.

IMG_20210101_124806296 (resized).jpg

Well, I did my entire Maiden in Comet warm white and think its a major improvement over original. Much easier on the eyes.

The warm white compliments the artwork, the stock really washes it out. I vote Warm

Duplicate

I think CW looks better with the blue plastics but that’s just me. I think the sunlights are a good compromise and may try those.