Game of Thrones

Stern Pinball, 2015 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Game of Thrones in the Pinball Genie app →

Game of Thrones asks you a question before the ball is in the shooter lane, and most players answer it badly. Your house choice is not flavour — it is a permanent perk plus a button power you will press dozens of times. Everything after that is the same seven shots in different arrangements.

Choose your house first, and choose on purpose

Whichever house you pick is immediately qualified to battle, so you can start scoring straight away. The persistent perk matters more than the button in most cases.

• Tyrell keeps one inlane permanently lit for the combo multiplier and lets you move it with lane change. In a game built out of 40-second timed battles, free multiplier on every return is the strongest quiet perk on the machine.
• Lannister pays around 1.5x gold from the standups you hit by accident all game, and its button buys playfield multiplier levels outright at 600 gold per level — capped at eight uses, so spend them deliberately.
• Greyjoy starts already complete and inherits the perk of every house you defeat. The price is that every battle needs more shots and you can only fight one house at a time.
• Targaryen spots its entire three-level battle for free, which is a large head start toward the wizard modes, and its button freezes every running timer for 15 seconds.
• Stark, Baratheon and Martell are narrower: bigger Winter is Coming hurry-ups, a head start plus outlane saves, and an add-a-ball in any multiball respectively.

Seven shots, seven houses

Each house owns a shot, and three hits on that shot qualifies it. Left drop bank is Baratheon, left loop is Greyjoy, the Dragon lane — or Castle Black on Premium and LE — is Targaryen, the left ramp is Lannister, the right ramp is Stark, the right loop is Martell, and the right 2-bank is Tyrell. The left ramp is the busiest shot in the game: it locks balls, starts every battle, and starts both wizard modes.

Battles and stacking

With two or more houses qualified you can stack a pair into one battle, which is the main way of getting through seven houses inside three balls. You can also pass and bank the qualification, though you cannot pass when only one house remains. A battle that times out does not need requalifying — just shoot the ramp again — and Lannister, Greyjoy, Tyrell and Targaryen remember the progress you already made. Read the objective early: Martell only needs three orbits inside a rolling ten-second window, while Greyjoy lights everything and gives you fifteen seconds that refresh on each shot.

The multiballs

• Blackwater is the workhorse. Complete the right 2-bank to light a lock, then lock at the left ramp — and you must lock before you can light the next one. The first lock needs one green target, the second needs both, the third and later need both on a timer.
• Battle at the Wall is a grind: six top lane completions on the Pro, or six Castle Black shots on Premium and LE. The second one costs eleven, so it is not a repeatable strategy.
• Castle Multiball lives entirely on the Premium and LE upper playfield, collected in four steps — Archers, Charge, Breach, then the multiball. Each step raises a drop target in front of your right ramp until you clear it.

The battering ram is the scoring engine

Almost all of this machine's big numbers route through the ram. Three hits qualify the playfield multiplier and a fourth starts it, with each further 1x costing four more hits up to 5x. The catch is the blue arrow in front of it — advance while it flashes or the progress lapses and a three-hit ladder quietly costs you six. Wildfire lit at the ram drops each level from four hits to three. Swords, collected on the right ramp after every completed battle, raise the multiplier ceiling from 3x toward 5x. When the ball is heading down, press the action button to cash your multipliers rather than watching them expire.

Winter is coming, and then it comes

Every shot you use to qualify a house ices over. Freeze three of them and a hurry-up starts on the last one you froze. Four collected hurry-ups drop you into Winter Has Come, a four-ball multiball alternating between a Horde phase with a hidden ticking timer and a Lieutenant phase that freezes your left flipper if you let a shot expire. One trap worth memorising: starting a hurry-up on the mode-start ramp with your third Blackwater lock lit launches multiball with no chance to stack a house into it.

A workable plan

• Pick Tyrell or Lannister if you want points, Targaryen or Greyjoy if you want to reach the wizard modes.
• Qualify houses in pairs and stack them; four completed houses lights Hand of the King, all seven lights Iron Throne.
• Bash the ram whenever the arrow is flashing, and collect swords so the multiplier can actually climb.
• Save Lord of Light — by default the drop bank only gives it once for the whole game — for a multiball rather than spending it on ball one.
• If the machine boots into casual mode and will not let you choose a house, hold the right flipper for three seconds before starting.

Goals in Game of Thrones

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

• Lit Lane Skill Shot skillshot · Easy

  On the Pro, hard plunge into the lit top lane. It pays 500,000 multiplied by the ball number, so it is worth more on ball three than ball one, and it hands you a bonus multiplier on top.

  Reward: 500K x ball number, plus 1 bonus X

• Choose Your House progression · Easy

  The first decision of the game and the one that shapes everything after it. Your house gives you a permanent perk plus an action button power, and the house you pick is immediately qualified to battle.

  Reward: A persistent perk and an action button power

• Qualify And Start House Battles mode · Medium

  Every house owns a shot. Hit that shot three times to qualify the house, then take the left ramp when mode start is lit to begin the battle. Battles are timed at 30 to 40 seconds and most of them are worth restarting rather than abandoning.

  Reward: Mode scoring, plus progress toward both wizard modes

• What Each Battle Wants progression · Medium

  Seven battles, seven different jobs. Knowing the objective before the timer starts is the difference between a completed house and a wasted 40 seconds.

  Reward: Four houses lights Hand of the King, all seven lights Iron Throne

• Winter Is Coming mode · Medium

  Every time you qualify a house, the shot you used to qualify it ices over. Freeze three shots and the hurry-up starts. Collect four hurry-ups across the game and you go straight into the mini wizard mode.

  Reward: A hurry-up value, and progress to Winter Has Come

• Winter Has Come wizard · Hard

  Four Winter is Coming hurry-ups drop you straight into a four-ball multiball with two alternating phases. The hurry-up values you banked earlier set the jackpot scoring, which is why Stark's perk can make this mode enormous.

  Reward: Super Jackpot pays out all four banked hurry-up values again

• Blackwater Multiball multiball · Medium

  The bread-and-butter multiball. Complete the right 2-bank to light a lock, then lock at the left ramp — and you must lock before you can light the next one. Three locks starts it.

  Reward: Jackpots on the five major shots, Super Jackpot at the ram

• Battle At The Wall multiball · Medium

  A three-ball multiball earned by grinding one repetitive shot. On the Pro that is six top lane completions; on Premium and LE it is six shots to Castle Black. The second one costs eleven.

  Reward: Ramp and loop jackpots, Super Jackpot on the Dragon

• Castle Multiball multiball · Hard

  The upper playfield's own multiball on Premium and LE, and the one most players never deliberately go for. Progress comes in four named steps and each one raises a drop target that blocks your right ramp until you clear it.

  Reward: A separate multiball earned entirely upstairs

• Hand Of The King wizard · Hard

  Complete four houses while you are not in a battle and the mode start lights for it. It plays in sets: light shots, complete them, then cash a Super at the ram. Which four houses you bring changes the mode more than anything else you do.

  Reward: Super Jackpots built from your best four shots per set

• Iron Throne wizard · Hard

  The full wizard mode, and it takes all seven houses. What makes it unusual is that it does not end — not when you drain to one ball, and not when your ball ends. You pick it back up on the next ball.

  Reward: Super Jackpot plus an add-a-ball per castle taken

• Playfield Multiplier multiplier · Medium

  Three hits to the battering ram qualify the multiplier and a fourth starts it. Every four hits after that adds another 1x, up to 5x — but the higher it goes, the shorter it lasts.

  Reward: 2x through 5x on all playfield scoring

• Combo Multiplier multiplier · Medium

  A second multiplier that lives on individual shots rather than the whole playfield. Making shots raises other shots' multipliers, and rolling a lit inlane pushes them along faster. It caps at 5x under normal play.

  Reward: Up to 5x on individual shot values

• Collect Swords progression · Medium

  Finish a house battle and the right ramp lights for a Sword. Swords are worth points on their own, but the real reason to collect them is that each one raises the ceiling on your playfield multiplier.

  Reward: Raises the playfield multiplier cap from 3x toward 5x

• Wildfire mode · Medium

  Complete the lock targets to light Wildfire at the ram, then keep hitting it. The first hit gives 10, and each hit after gives one more than the last. Wildfire raises your Blackwater jackpots, though with diminishing returns as the pile grows.

  Reward: Bigger Blackwater jackpots, and cheaper playfield multipliers

• Gold And The Mystery Shop strategy · Medium

  Complete the gold standups to light Mystery, then choose between keeping your gold and two priced awards. The menu is a genuine shop with fixed prices, so gold is a currency worth managing rather than a scoring stat.

  Reward: Anything from 1 million to a lit extra ball

• Lord Of Light strategy · Easy

  Clearing the left drop bank arms a ball save on both outlanes — but by default only once for the entire game. Treat it as a single insurance policy and think about when you want it active.

  Reward: A save on both outlanes

• The Spinner Ladder strategy · Medium

  Nine levels of spinner value, with one hard rule attached: you can never climb higher than the number of house modes you have completed plus one. It also resets to level one at the start of every ball.

  Reward: A spinner that actually scores

• Build The Bonus Multiplier multiplier · Easy

  The top lanes drive a bonus multiplier that climbs all the way to 20x — high enough to be worth real points on a long ball, and on the Pro every completion doubles as progress toward Battle at the Wall.

  Reward: Bonus multiplier up to 20x

• Working The Upper Playfield mode · Hard

  On Premium and LE the upper playfield is not decoration during a battle — it is a time machine. Each target in the right sequence buys 5 seconds, and the castle at the end pays 15 million plus 7.5 million in bonus.

  Reward: Mode time, 15M and 7.5M bonus per castle

• Turn Off Casual Mode secret · Easy

  Some machines are set up in a stripped-down mode that takes your house choice away and starts you as Stark. You can refuse it from the cabinet before the game even begins.

  Reward: Full rules, including choosing your own house