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John Wick

Stern Pinball, 2024 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open John Wick in the Pinball Genie app →

Designer: Elliot Eismin. Code: Tim Sexton (pre-0.94), then Mike Vinikour. Editions: Pro / Premium / LE. Ian McShane narrates as Winston. The machine has only two flippers — the Red Circle "dance floor" up top is a non-flippered shoot-in arena.

The core loop

John Wick is a video-game-style enemy game layered on a job + battle structure. Enemies spawn from the Red Circle bumper and standup targets (roughly every 50 switch hits) and sit in front of lit shots, where each enemy acts as a +1x shot multiplier (max 3 enemies = 4x). Defeating enemies is the single biggest scoring lever. The winning pattern everyone repeats: spawn/kill enemies → each enemy multiplies job and multiball shots → stack a Job under a Multiball → cash out at the left eject.

Jobs (7 factions)

Charge the Weapons Crate / right VUK until 3 blue lights are solid, shoot a faction shot to choose which job, then the VUK starts it. Each faction maps to a physical shot: Bowery/Night Watch (left eject), NY Continental/Assassination (left orbit), Osaka/Security Detail (left ramp), High Table/VIP Award (Red Circle), Ruska Roma/Heist (center ramp), Marquis de Gramont/Gather Intel (right orbit), Tarasov/Task a Crew (right ramp). Jobs run on a 60-sec base timer (+3s per shot, +30s every 4th job) and cash out at the left eject for 20% of the job total plus a faction perk. Gather Intel and Assassination are the top point jobs; Task a Crew is played early for its add-a-ball perk. Play 3 jobs → extra ball; play all 7 → wizard mode The Staircase.

Multiballs

Adversary Battles (5, single-ball only)

Defeat 10 enemies in single-ball play to light the left eject, then start a battle: Viggo, Kirill, Cassian, Ares, Zero. Timer 200 sec, 40-sec ball save; change target via left standups or pop bumper. Each level continued adds +1x (max 4x); cash before you drain. "Be Seeing You" pays 25M + 10M bonus + first-time extra ball. Cassian (switch frenzy) stacked with Lights Out + Heist's motion-sensor perk can cash 500M+. Zero is the combo battle. Play all 5 → wizard mode The Duel.

Combos

There is no global any-shot combo timer — combos are naturally-flowing, non-repeated lit shots. Key named combos: the MXV skill shot (right orbit → right ramp → left eject = 10M + 10 enemies), the Gather Intel ramp combo (left ↔ right ramp doubles the center-ramp jackpot), and Zero cashouts (chain blue shots, collect at the left eject for 2x). The Task a Crew spinner loop (right ramp arms the spinner at 2x, then rip the left-orbit spinner) is a top repeatable farm.

Multipliers

Skill shots

Baba Yaga (clean plunge, 0 switches → crate VUK): 1.5M + auto-start a job. Super Crate / Crate for sloppier plunges. VIP backdoor: 650k+, and starts Excommunicado if lit. MXV combo: 10M + 10 enemies. Car skill (Prem/LE only): 850k+ toward Car MB.

Wizard modes (in order)

Red Circle Reckoning (mini — 1 job + 1 battle + one of each MB type), The Staircase (all 7 jobs), The Duel (all 5 battles), and Special Assignment (all 6 multiballs — a limited-flip finale that ends the game).

Editions

Pro uses virtual locks, a bash-only car, standup-target crate, and an open (plugged) Red Circle. Premium/LE add a physical Deconsecrated lock, a motorized/side-hittable ball-locking car, an opening weapons crate with a hidden shot, a motorized Blood Oath Marker, a controlled Red Circle drop target, 3-ball Car MB, and the Car skill shot. LE extras (lighting, backglass, shaker, armor) are cosmetic.

How John Wick plays

John Wick casts you as the assassin working contract jobs for rival factions, and every major shot on the playfield flies a different faction's flag. Take jobs for game-long perks, farm enemies onto the shots that pay, and climb through your multiballs to the twin wizard modes, The Staircase and The Duel.

The loop

  1. Charge the Weapons Crate to three lights, touch a faction's shot to swing the queued job to it, then start that job at the crate up-kicker.
  2. Spawn enemies at the pop bumper and orange targets, and hold a flipper through an ally ramp to herd them onto the shots you are about to hit, so each shot pays up to four times.
  3. Stack the running job under Car Multiball or Deconsecrated so every enemy kill feeds the job and the jackpots at the same time.
  4. Cash each finished job at the left eject for a perk that lasts the rest of the game, and rotate through the five adversary battles.
  5. Complete all seven jobs to light The Staircase, and beat all five adversaries for The Duel.

Reading the lights

  • Faction Job Shots (mode) — lit: Each major shot belongs to a faction, and whichever one you touch last swings the queued job over to it; the crate glows blue as you charge it, and three solid blue lights means the up-kicker is ready to start whatever job is queued. · then: Pick your job by hitting its faction shot before you feed the crate, start it at the up-kicker, then cash it at the left eject for a permanent perk -- two keep multiballs alive, two guard the outlanes, two feed the blackout, one fattens your bonus. Finish all seven to light The Staircase.
  • Enemies & Shot Multiplier (multiplier) — lit: An enemy parked in front of a lit shot multiplies only THAT shot, stacking to four times once three of them sit there; a fresh wave spawns about every fifty switch hits, and the spinner is cheap fuel at three spins to the switch. · then: Herd enemies onto the shots you are about to cash, then collect those shots for up to quadruple -- the Deconsecrated captive-ball supers scale straight off your total kills, so the farm is where the huge numbers come from. · control: Left flipper button: holding a flipper through an ally ramp steers which way that ally shoves the enemies, so you can herd them onto the job and multiball shots you mean to take instead of leaving them stranded on shots you never hit (as you shoot an ally ramp with a job running)
  • BABA / YAGA Inlanes (lanes) — lit: A lit rollover is a letter you have not banked yet -- BABA rides the right inlane and YAGA the left -- and a YAGA letter will only light on top of a BABA letter you already hold, so the right word has to come first. · then: Spell B-A-B-A to step your end-of-ball bonus multiplier toward its ceiling, and spell Y-A-G-A to light the lockbar button for Lights Out -- half a minute with everything you score doubled, dropped over a battle or multiball. Cashing the VIP Award job starts BABA already partway up every ball. · control: Either flipper button: a tap of the right flipper button steps the lit BABA letter across the right inlane rollovers and a tap of the left flipper steps the lit YAGA letter across the left, so you can slot the lit one into whichever return lane the ball is heading for (before the ball drops into a return lane)
  • John Wick Muscle Car (shot arrows) — lit: Bashing the muscle car lights the left orbit to start Car Multiball, and the car stays the jackpot toy once the balls are out; every start you earn adds another qualifying hit up to a ceiling. · then: Before you ever start it, backhand the car and rip the spinner in single-ball play to pre-load the jackpot, then dump that stored value inside the multiball -- nine car jackpots light a five-times super in Helipad Showdown.
  • WINSTON Captive Ball (letters) — lit: Each bash of the New York Continental captive ball adds a letter toward W-I-N-S-T-O-N; the letters you bank stay lit, and finishing the word lights the lock behind the center ramp, with the count needed climbing after your first go. · then: Lock three balls behind the center ramp to start Deconsecrated Multiball, then after seven jackpots hammer the captive ball again to open a short super burst whose value rides on every enemy you have killed.
  • Red Circle Dance Floor (ladder) — lit: Every hit inside the arena -- the lone pop bumper, the back standup bank -- raises the dance-floor level, and the level you have built holds as your progress toward Excommunicado. · then: Max the floor, then shoot the Red Circle entrance to start a short single-ball build into a two-ball multiball; each orange standup you tag during the build adds a few seconds so the super jackpot launches larger.
  • Adversary Battles (mode) — lit: Killing ten enemies in single-ball play lights the left eject white to start a battle, and the lower-left Blood Oath standups rotate which of the five adversaries is lit, so you can pick them off in any order. · then: Win a battle by finishing its objective, not just starting it -- Cassian is a switch frenzy that, stacked under Lights Out with the Heist motion sensors, can pay past five hundred million. Beat all five to light The Duel.
  • Gold Coin Targets (status) — lit: A hit on the gold-coin stack lights a random shot for a coin or raises its value; you only actually bank the coin by making that lit shot, and every banked coin also drops a million into your end-of-ball bonus. · then: Lean on the right ramp as a safe reset back to the coins, and reach ten in one game for an extra ball -- coins double as ally qualifiers, so the farm pays twice.

Lane change: the flipper buttons move the lit lane. Tapping a flipper button steps the lit inlane rollover: the right button moves the lit BABA letter across the right inlane, the left button moves the lit YAGA letter across the left. Line the lit one up with whichever return lane the ball is heading for -- BABA steps your end-of-ball bonus multiplier, and YAGA lights the lockbar button for the Lights Out playfield double.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Take the Baba Yaga skill shot: a clean plunge that trips no switches pays out and auto-starts a lit job. Pick a controllable job at the left or center ramp, grab gold coins for the Charon ally, and get the fast orbit returns under control before you start reaching for the car. — Baba Yaga Skill Shot, Beginner First 30 Seconds, Car Multiball
  • Building — Start a job and stack Car Multiball over it so every enemy kill scores the job and the jackpots together, while you herd enemies onto the shots you are about to take for up to quadruple. Light Lights Out with YAGA and drop it over the stack. Playing one job, one battle and one of each multiball opens the easy mini-wizard, Red Circle Reckoning. — Best Opener: Stack a Job with a Multiball, Enemy Multiplier Farming, Lights Out (Playfield X), Red Circle Reckoning (Mini-Wizard)
  • The big one — Complete all seven faction jobs to light The Staircase, three escalating levels that top out near two hundred eighty million. Beat all five adversaries for The Duel, the final wizard. The single biggest cashout on the road there is a Cassian battle run under Lights Out with the Heist motion sensors, which can break five hundred million. — The Staircase (Wizard 1), The Duel (Wizard 2), Cassian Battle

The Action Button on John Wick

Center of the lockdown bar.

This is the score-doubler switch and the multiball lifeline in one. Spell YAGA at the inlanes to light it, then press for Lights Out — the playfield goes dark and everything you score doubles for half a minute. Perks you cash out from jobs bolt extra functions onto the same button.

Goals in John Wick

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

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