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Foo Fighters

Stern Pinball, 2023 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Foo Fighters in the Pinball Genie app →

Theme: The Foo Fighters road-trip across the country in the Tour Van, battling the alien Overlord and its bots, culminating in The Final Battle. Designer Jack Danger. Editions: Pro / Premium / LE (Premium & LE share rules; their key difference from Pro is an Area 51 upper mini-playfield and a physical Deadpost outlane save).

Core loops

Multipliers (stack multiplicatively)

FooBot & wizards

Collect all 6 FooBot parts (one per band member, each from a distinct feature) to light the left ramp for FooBot Multiball. The Final Battle (full wizard) requires all 14 van modes + Austin + D.C., all 3 Overlord multiballs, and FooBot MB — a 4-phase battle with ~1-minute unlimited ball saves per phase.

Tournament line

Build the Overlord early (it's the most drain-prone area — backhand the captive ball), mod the van (Engine for time), start New Orleans (all shots lit, side-flipper shots count twice), then stack 2× playfield + van mode + Overlord MB + Area 51 together for the money game. Bot Frenzy 8× spinner and Ray-Gun 4× layer onto the biggest shots.

Newer Stern code may shift exact numbers slightly; structures are stable.

How Foo Fighters plays

Foo Fighters sends the band on tour against an alien Overlord: save cities from the tour van, beat the Overlord across three multiballs, and build a giant FooBot from the six band members' parts. Score everything under the Rock-O-Meter playfield multiplier and reach FooBot Multiball and the four-phase Final Battle.

The loop

  1. Spell V-A-N on the white-arrow shots, take the Left Ramp to the Tour Van, and pick a city; follow its lit shots and always bank it at the Overlord.
  2. Cash band-member combos at the Overlord -- backhand the arena targets for the 5x cash-out -- and light Combotron Multiball after six of them.
  3. Fill the Rock-O-Meter with three Right Orbit shots for 2x playfield, refill it for 3x, and arm the Ray Gun return-lane targets to multiply your single biggest shot.
  4. Earn all six FooBot parts from the game's big features to light the Left Ramp for FooBot Multiball, then complete every city plus all three Overlord multiballs for The Final Battle.

Reading the lights

  • V-A-N & City Modes (mode) — lit: White arrows light the V-A-N shots, and making them lights the Left Ramp, which feeds the Tour Van to hold the ball and let you pick a destination -- one V-A-N is enough for your first city, rising toward three later on. · then: Choose a city and follow its lit shots -- the final shot of every van mode is always the Overlord -- then bank it; completing cities unlocks the Austin and D.C. bonus stops, both required before The Final Battle will light.
  • Overlord Lock & Cash-Out (mode) — lit: The three arena targets fronting the Overlord light the lock, then the Overlord shot locks a ball and its captive ball starts the multiball once you have pounded it enough times. · then: Backhand the arena from the right flipper -- it is the most drain-prone spot on the playfield, so never take it on the fly -- for a 5x combo cash-out instead of the Overlord's 3x; once you have banked six cash-outs the Side Ramp lights for Combotron Multiball, and each of the three Overlord multiballs demands a longer qualify than the one before.
  • Rock-O-Meter Playfield X (multiplier) — lit: Three Right Orbit shots fill the Rock-O-Meter battery; filling it starts 2x playfield for about forty seconds, and filling it again while that runs upgrades to 3x and resets the timer. · then: Relight the battery at the Mod-ulator paddle behind the drops so the next fill is ready, and hold that last orbit shot until a mode and a multiball are already running -- the multiplier is wasted on an empty playfield.
  • Ray Gun Shot Multiplier (multiplier) — lit: Hitting a Ray Gun return-lane target arms a 2x on your next shot, immediately hitting the opposite Ray Gun bumps it to 4x, and it stays armed until you take a shot. · then: Point the armed multiplier at your single biggest shot -- an Area 51 or extra-ball shot under 3x playfield can reach nine figures -- since it stacks multiplicatively with the playfield and FooBot multipliers; rolling the return lanes relights the targets between uses.
  • UFO Button (status) — lit: The UFO captive ball under the clear dome charges the lockdown-bar button -- yellow for one use, green for two, red for three -- and the charge holds until you spend it. · then: Bank charges by hitting the UFO captive ball -- a quick shot in off the upper flipper doubles the UFO bonus -- and save your presses for the biggest lit shot you cannot reach cleanly on your own. · control: Action button: each stored press collects whatever lit shot is worth the most while a van mode or multiball runs, but a shot handed over this way scores flat, skipping the Ray Gun and playfield multipliers; it will spot an Overlord shot toward the lock, yet never the phase-ending Overlord shot or the arena targets beside it (a van mode or multiball is running with shots lit)
  • Area 51 Multiball (mode) — lit: Five Right Ramp shots qualify Area 51 Multiball, and on Premium and LE the ramp then diverts the ball up to the Area 51 mini-playfield. · then: Start it at the Right Ramp and score the divert jackpots; after eight, take the super -- a Right Ramp into the captive ball on Pro, or the hidden secret-files target up top on Premium and LE -- and it stacks on top of any Overlord multiball you have running.
  • Bot Standups & Frenzy Spinner (status) — lit: The four bot standups each step the center-spinner value up toward eight times, and the Bot Award target cycles its offer -- ball save, then Mod-ulator Frenzy, then Bot Frenzy -- handing you whichever is lit when you collect. · then: Hit all four bots to build the spinner, collect the third Bot Award to light Bot Frenzy at the Left Ramp, then rip the center spinner once for the whole built-up value -- it drops back down afterward, so rebuild the bots before the next rip, ideally inside a multiball under 3x playfield.
  • FooBot Parts & Wizard (status) — lit: Six inserts, one per band member, light as you earn each FooBot part from a different feature -- Torso from Combotron, Head from Area 51, the arms from an Overlord super and Bot Frenzy, the legs from a one-visit city and Supersonic Radio -- and each collected part also grants a 2x at that member's shot. · flashing: The Left Ramp flashes for FooBot Multiball once all six parts are assembled. · then: Assemble all six and start FooBot Multiball off the Left Ramp; then save every city plus Austin and D.C., play all three Overlord multiballs, and clear FooBot to light The Final Battle, the four-phase full wizard.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

The UFO Button on Foo Fighters

Center of the lockdown bar.

The captive ball under the clear UFO dome charges the lockdown bar button. Bank up to three uses — yellow for one, green for two, red for three — and each press hands you the most valuable lit shot during a van mode or a multiball.

Goals in Foo Fighters

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

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