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Avatar

Stern, 2010 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

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Avatar's playfield looks empty compared to its contemporaries, and that's by design: almost everything worth shooting is fanned out across the upper third of the table, feeding six parallel features that all report back to one progress ladder. There's no single correct order to play them in. The game just wants every insert on that ladder lit before it will let you anywhere near the finale, so the real skill is juggling six short-term goals instead of grinding one long one.

Getting rolling

The R-D-A lanes at the top hold the skill shot — the D lane flashes by default, worth 250K on the first ball and climbing after. Those same three lanes matter for the rest of the game too: every full R-D-A completion adds to your bonus multiplier and lights one of seven shot multipliers, 2x at first and then a roving 3x once you've doubled all seven. Below that sit the pop bumpers, which build their own value from 3K up to a 20K cap the longer you can keep the ball bouncing.

Na'vi Scoring and the characters

The N-A-V-I bank on the left is the fastest way into the game's main collection mechanic. Spell the word, shoot the bank again, and Na'vi Scoring opens up six flashing arrows — both orbits, the ramp, the link lane, Eywa, and the seeds targets — each one paying a countdown value and lighting a character on the vertical ladder as you go. The Bond inlanes offer a shortcut: roll through all three and one uncollected character's shot flashes on its own for just a couple of seconds, worth grabbing on reflex if you happen to be lined up for it.

Collect all six characters and the N-A-V-I bank itself changes jobs, flashing for Na'vi Multiball instead of Na'vi Scoring. Six jackpots at 150K, four double jackpots at 300K once those are gone, then a Super Jackpot worth the sum of everything — over two million even before any shot multipliers get involved, and it restarts the whole cycle at higher values once collected.

Eywa, Banshee, and the link lock

Eywa's captive ball is worth checking constantly. It lights after a rising number of switch hits and always pays something useful — bonus multiplier bumps, timer extensions, and the game's only source of extra balls, which get collected at the ramp. That same ramp spells out Ride a Banshee (three of its seven letters are given free by default), then turns into a 25-second scoring run in its own right once the word is complete.

The lock lane under Jake's pod is a different kind of commitment. One shot traps a ball there and launches a second into play; hitting the trapped ball free starts Link Multiball, where five shots trade off which is lit for a 250K jackpot (unobtainium always pays double) on the way to a Super Jackpot worth three million or more. Land the re-trapped ball fast enough afterward and that Super doubles before the mode settles into open-ended victory laps.

Amp Suit and Bomber Battle

The motorised three-bank in the middle is the biggest mechanical set piece on the table. Lower it, then land five hits on the battle targets behind — either side target covers the first four, but the fifth has to be the bullseye, which pays two million and launches Amp Suit Multiball. From there it's six single jackpots, three doubles, and a Super Jackpot that can climb past sixteen million with the right multipliers running — and a second Super is available right after the first, at values raised again.

Away from all that, shots to either orbit outside of multiball quietly count down toward Bomber Battle, worth an instant 500K just for qualifying before its own 25-second run even starts. The seeds targets above the right outlane work the same simple way: enough hits to qualify, one more to start, then every switch on the table scores for a fast, low-effort frenzy.

The unobtainium trick, and Final Battle

Here's the one genuinely counterintuitive shot on the table: hitting the forward-facing unobtainium target lights an outlane insert for a growing points award, and the only way to collect it is to actually drain that ball down the lit outlane on purpose. Do it to both sides in the same ball and you double the target's own value in the process.

That same mechanic becomes the whole final act. Qualify all six feature-ladder inserts and the unobtainium target kills the flippers, launches all four balls, and opens Final Battle — a round built on switch-hit thresholds where the modest reward is a points jackpot at the target itself, but the real money is in deliberately losing balls down both lit outlanes for ten and fifteen million apiece before cashing in the fully built target, which relaunches everything you just drained and starts the next round even bigger.

How Avatar plays

Avatar fights for Pandora from both sides of the war at once: round up all six characters to trigger Na'vi Multiball, smash the motorized Amp Suit bank down, and trap balls beneath Jake's link pod. Light each of the six feature inserts and the unobtainium standup drops you into Final Battle, the give-it-everything finale.

The loop

  1. Sweep the four blue N-A-V-I standups, then drive the flashing bank once more to open Na'vi Scoring and chase its arrows for characters.
  2. Round up all six characters and that same bank stops being a scoring round and turns into Na'vi Multiball instead.
  3. Knock the A-M-P bank down and bury the finishing hit in the centre bullseye to erupt into Amp Suit Multiball, the fattest points on the table.
  4. Drop a ball into the link pod for Link Multiball, and loop the lone ramp to spell out a Banshee ride you can run on the clock.
  5. Light all six feature inserts, then strike the unobtainium standup to fall straight into Final Battle.

Reading the lights

  • R-D-A Lanes (lanes) — lit: Three lanes span the top of the table, and the D in the middle is lit for the skill shot as every ball begins; a lit lane is a letter still open, an unlit one already banked. · then: Seat the lit lanes so the ball finishes R-D-A; every full sweep pushes your end-of-ball multiplier up a notch and arms a shot multiplier -- a 2x waiting on the next marked feature shot, and once seven of those are banked a roving 3x that hops from shot to shot. · control: Either flipper button: either flipper button walks the lit R-D-A lane to the side, letting you drop a lit one over whichever lane the ball is about to run through -- the same nudge lines the flashing D lane up for the skill shot straight off the plunge (before the ball climbs up into the top lanes)
  • N-A-V-I Targets (letters) — lit: The four blue standups on the left spell N-A-V-I; a lit letter is one you still owe, and on softer settings any hit fills the closest empty one, so the word falls quickly. · flashing: Once the word is done the whole bank strobes -- clout it once more to kick off Na'vi Scoring, or Na'vi Multiball if all six characters are already in hand. · then: Na'vi Scoring drops six arrows around the table that pay real points and each fill in a character; gather the full six and the strobing bank hands you a two-ball multiball, climbing from jackpots to double jackpots to a Super cashed on the unobtainium standup.
  • Character Shots (shot arrows) — lit: During Na'vi Scoring these six -- the two orbits, the ramp, the pod lock, the captive ball and the seeds bank -- flash as the character shots; landing one pays the counting-down value and books that character onto your ladder. · then: Chase every arrow before the count bottoms out to bank all six characters, which is what arms Na'vi Multiball back at the letter bank. Roll the three Bond return lanes instead and one uncollected character's shot flashes for a beat, a quick side door to the same ladder.
  • Amp Suit Bank (mode) — lit: The motorized A-M-P bank stands mid-table with a disruptor magnet sitting just ahead of it; one clean hit on the strobing letter drops the whole thing, or grind all three targets down the slow way, to bare the battle targets behind it. · then: With the bank down, five hits settle the fight -- the opening four fall to either flanking target, but only the centre bullseye lands the fifth and erupts into Amp Suit Multiball, three balls and the biggest Super Jackpots the table pays.
  • Link Lane (status) — lit: The lane beneath Jake's link pod is the lock; a pair of posts lifts to pin the ball there, and the opening lock only asks for a single shot while a spare ball fires out to keep play going. · then: Work the five alternating jackpot shots -- the letter bank trades off with the seeds bank, the pod trades off with the captive ball, and the unobtainium standup stays lit for double -- toward a Super past three million at the pod. The ball re-snares for a moment after, and a fast follow-up banks a second Super before the victory laps.
  • Unobtainium Target (status) — lit: Every hit on the unobtainium standup lights one dark outlane for a growing payout; once both glow, further hits push the value up in steps toward a one-million ceiling. · then: This is the rare table where you drain on purpose -- roll a lit outlane to collect its award, and take both in the same ball to double the standup's own stored value. The very same target opens and later cashes Final Battle, which makes it the most important standup on the playfield.
  • Ride A Banshee Ramp (ladder) — lit: The table's one ramp spells Ride a Banshee -- B-A-N comes free on default settings, so four solid ramp shots fill in S-H-E-E; the ramp is also the only spot that pays out one of Eywa's scarce extra balls. · then: That last ramp shot closes the word out and immediately kicks off a timed run right back up the same ramp, so keep it looping while the clock burns; Eywa can toss in more seconds if she offers a time extension mid-run.

Lane change: the flipper buttons move the lit lane. Either flipper button walks the lit R-D-A lane to the side, so tap it before the ball climbs into the top lanes to seat a lit lane in its path -- the same move lines the flashing D lane up for the skill shot straight off the plunge. Filling R-D-A steps your end-of-ball multiplier up and hands the next marked feature shot a 2x, and later a roving 3x.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Bank the easy, low-risk points: take the flashing D-lane skill shot off a firm plunge, then work N-A-V-I into Na'vi Scoring and ride the pop bumpers, which climb their own value on every hit. Sweeping R-D-A here also stocks your multiplier for the bigger shots to come. — R-D-A Skill Shot, Na'vi Scoring, Ride The Bumpers
  • Building — Stack features toward the ladder: drop the Amp Suit bank into its battle, lock up Link Multiball at the pod, spell a Banshee ride on the ramp, and count orbit shots into Bomber Battle for an instant five hundred thousand. Feed the seeds targets for a switch-scoring frenzy, and lean on Eywa's captive ball -- the only well the game's extra balls ever come from. — Amp Suit Battle, Link Multiball, Ride A Banshee, Bomber Battle, Seeds Fast Scoring, Eywa's Mystery Award
  • The big one — The summit is Final Battle, the wizard mode: light all six feature inserts, then strike the unobtainium standup to cut the flippers dead, fire all four balls out, and drop into it. It pays per switch, then throws multi-million awards onto the outlanes for you to drain into on purpose -- while Amp Suit Multiball's twin Super Jackpots stand as the biggest scores short of the finale. — Final Battle, Amp Suit Multiball

Does Avatar have an action button?

The cabinet is bare bones: shooter rod, two flipper buttons, start button. Stern's lockdown-bar action button was still two years away when this one shipped, and no rule on the game asks for one.

Goals in Avatar

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

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