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The Sopranos

Stern, 2005 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open The Sopranos in the Pinball Genie app →

The Sopranos plays like the show's plot: everything runs through favors, territory, and moving up. You start as an Associate and work toward Boss, and almost every shot feeds that climb. Learn the rank system first and the rest of the game — the safe, the episodes, the three multiballs — makes more sense, since most of it either builds toward a rank or gets doubled by one.

Climbing The Ranks

Four envelope inserts sit at the left loop, right loop, left ramp, and right ramp. Light all four and the inner loop turns into an Advance Rank shot worth 500K the first time, +100K every rank after. The other route up is the safe — crack it open, close it at the saucer behind it, and that also bumps your rank. Either path works, so lean on whichever side is running hot that ball.

Every rank comes with its own scoring doubler that lasts for the rest of the ball you earn it on — Double Shakedown, Double Safe, Double Truck Heist, an extra ball, Double Meadowlands, and Double Episode scoring, in order. Reach Underboss and you don't just get a doubler — you unlock the Underboss multiball outright. That's as far as the normal ladder goes; Boss is a separate, much bigger ask.

The Safe And The Grind

The safe is the machine's centerpiece, and it's a slow build on purpose. It takes three hits to crack the first time and one more than that every time after, so the crack gets harder to earn even as the payout climbs. Once it's cracked, a saucer opens behind it — drop the ball in there to close the safe back up, bank the bigger award, and advance your rank at the same time.

Running quietly underneath everything else is Shake Down, a background counter on the pop bumpers. Every bumper hit chips away at a target that starts at 25 and grows by 5 each time you clear it, and each individual hit pays more as the game goes on too — not a shot you aim for on purpose so much as a reason not to mind a bad carom into the pops. The spinner in front of the inner loop works the same way in miniature: it climbs the more you spin it and resets if left alone too long, so a fast inner loop shot is worth chasing on its own.

Five Episodes, One At A Time

Spell SOPRANOS — spin the spinner or hit either stand-up target — and the inner loop lights to start an episode. Only one runs at a time, each on a 30-second clock, and parking in the pop bumpers pauses whichever one is live. Each has its own shape:

Three Ways To Multiball

Stugots Multiball starts by knocking down the drop target guarding the Stugots and locking two balls there; jackpots build from the drop target before escalating into a double and then a 3.225M super on the Stugots itself. Bing Multiball takes three left ramp shots to open a 30-second switch-hitting sprint — clear the target and multiball starts immediately, every shot paying a jackpot up to a 250K cap. Underboss Multiball only opens once you've reached that rank: spell UNDERBOSS across the arrows and the safe, then lock up to three balls for a payout that triples, then quintuples. Watch the loops here — a ball shot up either one comes back down the opposite side instead of dropping into the bumpers like everywhere else.

Two mystery awards round out the scoring. The Fish saucer on the far left, lit through any inlane or outlane, hands you something matching your progress — an envelope, a rank spot, extra episode time, or an extra ball during multiball. The Pork Store, lit from two stand-ups under the right loop and collected at the inner loop, is a wider grab bag that can advance almost any system — and very rarely hands you a jolt of points plus a frenzy where every switch pays out.

Becoming The Boss

Boss Mode doesn't light until you've cleared a full checklist: all five episodes played, Bing Multiball played, four Truck Heists collected, Food Fight cleared, the safe opened, every backpanel character buried, a Super Jackpot banked, Meadowlands run to Trap four times, and Underboss Multiball played. Light it at the inner loop and you get four balls, a long ball saver, and the same eight tasks in the same fixed order all over again. Clear it and the game just resets and asks for another lap — nobody stays Boss for long, so treat one clean run through the checklist as the win.

How The Sopranos plays

The Sopranos casts you as a mobster climbing the family. Spell SOPRANOS to run episodes, work up the rank ladder, start the three multiballs, and clear the eight-stage Boss Mode gauntlet.

The loop

  1. Spin the spinner and clip the two stand-ups to spell SOPRANOS, which lights the inner loop to start an episode.
  2. Light the four envelopes on the loops and ramps, then cash them at the inner loop to climb the rank ladder.
  3. Bank a scoring doubler with every rank while cracking the safe and locking balls for the Stugots and Bing multiballs.
  4. Reach Underboss for its own multiball, then complete nine tasks to light Boss Mode at the inner loop.

Reading the lights

  • SOPRANOS Letters (letters) — lit: Every spin of the spinner or clip of the two stand-up targets adds a letter toward SOPRANOS, and the spinner pays its own climbing cash on the way through. · then: Finish the word to light the inner loop, then shoot it to launch the next episode; only one episode runs at a time and a fresh one starts only in single-ball play, so bank the word and clear back to one ball first.
  • Episode Arrows (mode) — lit: The two loops, two ramps and the inner loop are the five arrow shots every episode is built from, so a lit arrow is a live episode shot and the inner loop is where most episodes finish. · then: Start an episode at the inner loop, take out its lit arrows before the thirty-second clock, and close it at the inner loop; episode scoring doubles once your rank reaches Consigliere.
  • R.I.P. Lanes (lanes) — lit: A lit R.I.P. lane above the pop bumpers is one you have yet to roll, and completing all three raises your bonus multiplier for the rest of the ball. · flashing: Off the plunge, one R.I.P. lane blinks as the skill-shot target before the ball leaves the shooter lane. · then: Roll all three lit lanes to step up the bonus multiplier that scales your whole end-of-ball bonus, and a plunger skill shot landed here also lights another of the eight backpanel faces that feed the very same multiplier. · control: Either flipper button: a flipper tap shifts the lit R.I.P. lane sideways, so you can slide it under the ball and roll a lane you still need, and off the plunge the same taps line the blinking lane up before the ball drops in (any time before the ball rolls through the R.I.P. lanes)
  • Advance Rank Envelopes (ladder) — lit: An envelope insert rides each loop and each ramp, and lighting all four turns the inner loop into a rank advance that pays a Tribute. · then: Cash the four envelopes at the inner loop to climb from Associate toward Underboss, and each rank you earn arms a scoring doubler for the rest of the ball; closing the cracked safe advances rank as well, and reaching Underboss starts its multiball outright.
  • The Safe (status) — lit: The safe is the centerpiece toy; pound it open in three hits the first time and one more than the last after that, and the saucer behind it opens up. · then: Drop into that open saucer to shut the safe again for a climbing award and a rank bump, and keep in mind the safe is also one of the shots that spell UNDERBOSS.
  • F-I-S-H Lanes (lanes) — lit: The four inlanes and outlanes each light a letter of F-I-S-H, and the Fish saucer over on the far left stays unlit until you complete the full word. · then: Feed the lit Fish for a mystery award scaled to your progress, whether a spotted envelope, a Truck Heist reset, Bing switch hits, an R.I.P. character, extra episode time, or an extra ball during a multiball.
  • Stugots Lock (status) — lit: Knock the drop target down to light a lock at the Stugots, since a ball snuck past while the target still stands only pays a small Quickie Bonus and gets kicked back out. · then: Lock two balls to start Stugots Multiball, then keep hammering the boat and its guarding drop target for jackpots that grow toward a super, and clearing that lights every arrow shot for jackpots as well.
  • UNDERBOSS Multiball (status) — lit: Once you actually reach Underboss rank, every hit across the five arrows and the safe spells a letter of UNDERBOSS and pays its own climbing jackpot. · then: Spell the whole word to light three lock shots, the Stugots among them, where the first lock scores once, the second triples the value and a third quintuples it, and in this multiball alone a ball sent up one outer loop comes back on the far side to your flippers rather than into the bumpers.

Lane change: the flipper buttons move the lit lane. Tap either flipper to slide the lit R.I.P. lane above the pop bumpers, moving it under the ball so you roll the lane you still need; off the plunge, the same taps line up the blinking skill-shot lane before the ball leaves the shooter. Complete all three R.I.P. lanes to raise the bonus multiplier that scales your end-of-ball bonus.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Spell SOPRANOS on the spinner and stand-ups to light your first episode at the inner loop, and lane-change the R.I.P. lanes to build your bonus multiplier early. Crack the safe for a steady award and a step toward your first rank. — Spell SOPRANOS, Plunger Skill Shot, Crack The Safe
  • Building — Light the four envelopes and cash rank advances at the inner loop, since each rank arms a scoring doubler for the ball, and run episodes between the rank-ups. Lock balls for the Stugots and Bing multiballs, and reach Underboss rank to start its own. — Advance Rank, The Rank Ladder, Stugots Multiball, Bing Multiball, Underboss Multiball
  • The big one — Boss Mode is the true finish line: complete its nine prerequisites to light it at the inner loop, then win an eight-stage gauntlet through Food, Meadowlands, Truck, Boat, Bing, R.I.P., the arrows and the safe. It only ends when you lose all four balls, so a lit Fish paying Add-A-Ball can keep the run alive. — Boss Mode

Does The Sopranos have an action button?

This is Whitestar-era Stern, a good seven years before a button showed up on the lockdown bar. Two flipper buttons, a shooter rod and your hips are the whole interface — hold the left flipper in as you plunge if you want the super skill shot.

Goals in The Sopranos

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

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