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How to play Pinball
Controls
| Keyboard | Mouse or touch | |
|---|---|---|
| Left flipper | ← or Z | Hold the left half of the board, or the Left button |
| Right flipper | → or M | Hold the right half, or the Right button |
| Launch | Hold Space or ↓, then release | Hold the Hold Launch button, then release |
| Pause | P or Esc | Pause button |
Keys work once the game has focus: click the board or press Tab.
Scoring
| Hit | Points |
|---|---|
| Bumper | 100 |
| Target I, II or III | 300 |
| Top lane A, B or C (rolling down), or a lower inlane | 200 |
| Orbit | 500 |
| Slingshot | 50 |
| Skill shot (a ball’s first lane, if it matches) | 1,000 |
| Circuit finished | 1,000 |
| Lit scoop (the jackpot) | 10,000 |
| Scoop during multiball | 2,000 |
| Unlit scoop | 0 |
A bumper, target or slingshot scores again only after the ball has left it.
Circuits, jackpot and multiball
The line above the board shows the order, such as ”● L → ▰ T → ○ B → ◇” (done, current, to come, jackpot). Each game draws its own order.
- L, Lanes: roll the ball down lanes A, B and C once each.
- T, Targets: hit targets I, II and III once each.
- B, Bumpers: make six bumper hits on any bumper. Repeats count.
Only the current circuit advances. Earlier hits still score points but do not count toward a circuit that has not started. Progress stays when you lose a ball.
- Finish all three and a diamond lights around the scoop.
- A ball moving up into it is held 0.3 seconds and pays 10,000.
- About 0.35 seconds after the capture, a second ball launches. That is multiball.
- No circuit advances in multiball. Each scoop capture pays 2,000.
- Multiball ends when one ball is left and the extra ball’s 3-second shared save is over. The circuits reset and shift one step: L, T, B becomes T, B, L.
Ball save and how a game ends
A ball-save window opens when a ball first leaves the launch lane: 12 seconds on Easy, 7 on Classic, 3 on Expert. A ball that drains inside it returns from the plunger 0.3 seconds later at 70% power, and the window does not extend. The levels change nothing else.
A ball ends when it falls past the bottom edge with no save active. The game ends with the third ball, or in the Daily after 180 seconds.
Pinball tips
- Go for the skill shot. The line above the board names a lane for each ball (“Skill A”, “Skill B” or “Skill C”); only the ball’s first top lane counts. In our tests, pulls from a tap to a full one-second pull reached lanes A, B and C between them with no flipping.
- Catch, then aim. A moving flipper returns 0.82 of the ball’s speed into its face, a still one 0.35. Hold the flipper up before the ball arrives and most of the bounce goes out of it; then flip. A hit near the tip is harder than one near the pivot.
- Know the scoop. Unlit, it holds the ball 0.3 seconds and fires it up and to the left.
Our numbers
These come from our test suite on the current table (version 6), run on November 2, 2026; How we test explains how our bots play.
Bots
Each bot played 1,000 games on the Daily rules, launching at 70% power. Random flips at random, Novice reacts to a falling ball 75 to 125 ms late, and Skilled tries six flipper plans 0.1 seconds ahead on a copy of the game.
| Bot | Median score | Games with a jackpot | Median game length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Random | 9,500 | 1.1% | 56.8 s |
| Novice | 11,950 | 4.3% | 68.1 s |
| Skilled | 15,850 | 35.2% | 58.9 s |
The Novice bot also played 512 Free-play games on each level, with no clock.
| Level | Median score | Games with a jackpot | Median game length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 14,250 | 6.6% | 79.8 s |
| Classic | 12,025 | 4.1% | 66.8 s |
| Expert | 9,250 | 2.1% | 51.4 s |
From 20,000 resamples, the 95% lower bounds (rounded down) on score ratios are 1.21 for Novice over Random, 1.28 for Skilled over Novice and 1.62 for Skilled over Random. For game length they are 1.16 and 1.24 between neighboring levels. No Free-play game reached the test’s time cap.
In a separate 64-game Free-play run, the Skilled bot’s median game lasted 58.9 seconds, and its 95th-percentile and longest games 80.0 seconds. Each ended by the third lost ball. The bot uses no random numbers and a seed changes only the circuit order and skill lanes, so many of its games repeat the same flips. Read the bot table as a ladder, not a forecast of your score.
Games are shorter on version 6: the Skilled bot’s median fell from 136.9 to 58.9 seconds. On version 5 a ball could wedge in the right outlane, which was too narrow for the 18-unit ball, until “Ball search” freed it. That fires an almost still ball from the scoop’s exit after 5 seconds, if no raised flipper holds it. Version 6 widens the gap to 21 units. Ball search fired 0 times in all 4,600 bot games, against 412, 427 and 2,000 per 1,000 games for Random, Novice and Skilled on version 5. A test released a still ball at 13,565 points across the lane; all left within 280 ticks (1.2 seconds). The bots did not change. As scripted bots, they do not show whether the table is easier or harder for you.
Physics checks
- Same inputs, same game. The table runs on a fixed 1/240-second step with whole-number arithmetic. Chromium and WebKit each reproduced all 460,800 recorded tick hashes on version 6.
- Collisions. A 100,000-case suite passes on version 6. A run on table version 4 missed a near-flat contact (case 1966), and two Easy bot games ran out of solver steps. On version 6, none of the 4,600 bot games (3,000, 1,536 and 64) hit the guard that stops an unresolvable tick.
Not passed or not tested yet
Our first speed probe missed its targets (188.5 ms to start, 33.3 ms for the 95th-percentile frame). Five long-task runs on version 5 found nothing over 50 ms, only two of them on a quiet machine. Version 6 speed is not judged because the test machine was busy, so we cannot yet promise 60 frames per second on your device. Firefox, real phones and play tests with people were not part of these runs.
The Daily table and your records
- Rules: Classic, three balls, 180 seconds. The clock starts at your first plunger release, counts the waits between balls and stops when you pause. If the next ball waits 5 seconds, the game launches it at 70% power.
- Same for everyone: on one date (your device’s local date), everyone gets the same circuit order and the same skill-shot lane for each ball.
- One counted game: the first Daily you finish on a date is saved; later replays that day are practice.
- Records: Played, Best score, Daily streak and longest streak, kept in this browser. Free play keeps Played and Best for each level.
- Check: across 730 test dates, each of the six circuit orders came up 109 to 140 times, and the same order repeated on consecutive dates 128 times. Do not expect a new order every day.
The rules shared by all our Dailies are on the Daily page.
Frequently asked questions
How do I use both flippers on a phone?
Rest a thumb on each half of the board. Each finger keeps the flipper it started on, even if it slides across the middle. Use a third finger for the Hold Launch button under the board.
Does multiball use one of my three balls?
No. The extra ball does not change “Ball 1/3”. The ball number moves on only when every ball on the table is lost.
Why did my ball come back?
Ball save returned it, the unlit scoop fired it back, or “Ball search” moved it after 5 still seconds. None of these changes your score.
Can I nudge or tilt the table?
No. The game has no nudge and no tilt. You control the two flippers and the plunger.
Does pausing use Daily time?
No. Pausing and leaving the tab stop the clock, and so does the 0.6-second “Ready” count after Resume.
Last updated: November 2, 2026.