Star Trek: The Next Generation

Williams, 1993 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Star Trek: The Next Generation in the Pinball Genie app →

Star Trek: The Next Generation throws more at you than almost any machine of its era, but nearly all of it funnels through one system: warp factor. Advance it with the spinner and left ramp and you unlock a new toy at every step — bumper values, held multipliers, a countdown hurry-up, double spinner scoring, and a frantic bonus round at warp 9. Chase warp first and the rest — missions, multiball, ranks, artifacts — starts connecting.

The Picard Maneuver

If you learn one shot on this machine, make it this one. Rip the spinner shot on the left orbit, then follow through immediately to the left ramp before the ball settles — that's the Picard Maneuver, worth building real muscle memory around. It advances warp faster than either shot alone, awards a triple jackpot during multiball, and turns Q's Challenge into the highest-scoring mode in the game when you chain it over and over.

Warp Factor And Factor Nine

Every ball starts at Warp 1. Warp 2 is a throwaway 5M, but Warp 3 sets the bumpers to a million a pop, Warp 4 lights the spinner for real scoring, Warp 5 holds your bonus multiplier, Warp 6 unlocks Hurry Up and Super Spinner, Warp 7 doubles the spinner outright, and Warp 8 pays an extra ball the first time you see it. Reach Warp 9 and the game drops you into Factor Nine Mode — the spinner and left ramp push you through 9.1 onward to 9.9 in tenths, each paying more, on a clock that never pauses. A fresh ball resets you to Warp 1, and the left ramp no longer counts toward warp — only the spinner still does.

Seven Missions To The Final Frontier

Start Mission launches whatever's flashing; Command Decision, the small hole by the left ramp, lets you cherry-pick instead. Clear all seven and the eighth, Final Frontier, lights as the actual finish line of the game. Each plays completely differently:

• Time Rift — every shot pays 10M on a 20-second clock; the two red targets buy more time and, for the first three hits, more money too.
• Worm Hole — build value on the right ramp and spinner, then cash out on the left ramp before time runs out.
• Search the Galaxy — hit the three quadrant ramps in the order called out, then finish at the Neutral Zone for the mission's biggest payout.
• Battle Simulation — load a cannon at any hole and fire when ready; each successful shot climbs a level worth ten times its number in millions.
• Q's Challenge — no round timer, just a short fuse on each lit shot. This is where the Picard Maneuver turns into a scoring monster.
• Rescue — thirty seconds to load and save fifty people, using anything that closes a switch to fill the shuttle.
• Asteroid Threat — freeze a countdown at Start Mission, then clean up all seven shots in a fresh thirty-second sprint.

Nearly every mission can hand you an Artifact too — hit enough of a specific shot and the game tells you. Collect full sets of all four types and Final Frontier pays in the billions: roughly 100M per Artifact just for starting, then every shot scales with how many you're carrying. Show up with none and each shot is a flat 10M instead, so stockpile a few first.

Three Ways The Neutral Zone Turns Ugly

Hit the Neutral Zone's three targets to arm it, then hit it again to pick your poison. Ferengi is the friendliest — it stacks up to four balls in play with jackpots at Start Mission worth 10M times however many balls are live. Cardassian is tighter: a 2-ball fight where the jackpot falls as your shields do, so rebuilding shields on the spinner matters as much as the jackpot shot itself. Romulan isn't a multiball at all — it's a race to cloak three ships, one each on the spinner, left ramp and right ramp, before their timers expire and relight them. None of the three are required for anything else, but Ferengi is worth grabbing just to pad time on the Warp and Time Rift shots you're already chasing.

Multiball, Holodeck, And The Rest

The real multiball is the Enterprise against the Borg — lock three balls through the right orbit and left ramp, work the loaded cannon into Start Mission before the third lock for a fatter base jackpot, then chase single, double and triple jackpots while working the spinner to hold your shields up. Let shields hit zero and the jackpot goes dark until raised again. Separately, Holodeck lights from repeated right ramp shots and offers a choice: a flat 25M, or Shuttle Simulation, a hard video mode steered on the flippers with an Artifact and an extra ball hidden in its later caverns. Watch for Advance Rank too — clearing the lanes above the bumpers lights it at Command Decision, and once you're Captain, a lit Advance Rank pays a flat 100M on the spot instead of waiting for bonus.

One more thing worth knowing: when Holodeck reads "Ready" for the third time, pulling the trigger instead of shooting drops you into a hidden Secret Mission, a short frenzy where every switch pays out. It won't win the game on its own, but it's a good reminder of how much this ruleset has buried in it.

Goals in Star Trek: The Next Generation

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

• Plunger Choice skillshot · Medium

  Five choices cycle in the display before you launch — pull the trigger the instant your pick is lit, or tap the flippers to cycle through them faster.

  Reward: Whatever the lit choice pays

• The Picard Maneuver combo · Medium

  The signature shot of the game: rip the spinner shot hard, then follow it straight through to the left ramp before the ball settles. It builds warp factors, awards a triple jackpot in multiball, and feeds Q's Challenge better than anything else on the table.

  Reward: Warp progress, triple jackpots, and huge Q's Challenge scores

• Climbing Warp Factors progression · Easy

  Warp climbs from 1 to 9 off the spinner and the left ramp, and every step unlocks something new — bumper values, the spinner bonus, held multipliers, Hurry Up, double spinner, and an artifact at 8.

  Reward: A new award at every factor

• Factor Nine Mode mode · Hard

  Reaching warp 9 launches its own round: keep feeding the spinner and left ramp to climb from 9.1 to 9.9 in tenths, each one paying more than the last.

  Reward: 20M climbing to 60M per tenth

• Missions & Artifacts progression · Easy

  Seven missions lead to an eighth, Final Frontier — and nearly every one of them can hand you an Artifact worth real points on its own and a lot more once you reach the end.

  Reward: Progress toward Final Frontier, plus Artifacts

• Time Rift mode · Medium

  Every shot on the table pays 10M with a 20-second clock running — and the two red targets in the middle are the only thing standing between you and running out of time.

  Reward: 10M per shot, extended by two red targets

• Worm Hole mode · Easy

  A straightforward build-and-bank mission: pile value onto the right ramp and spinner, then cash it all in on the left ramp before the 20-second clock runs out.

  Reward: 30M+, built by the ramp and spinner

• Search The Galaxy mode · Medium

  Plot a course through all three quadrants in order — center ramp, then right ramp, then left ramp — and the Neutral Zone opens up for the biggest single shot in the mission.

  Reward: 10M to 50M per leg, two Artifacts possible

• Battle Simulation mode · Medium

  Load either cannon at any of the four holes, then fire when ready — each hit climbs a level worth ten times its number in millions, capping at a big payout and often an extra ball on level six.

  Reward: 10M to 100M per level

• Q's Challenge mode · Medium

  Q keeps adding lit shots faster than you can clear them. There's no round timer, only a short fuse on each individual shot — and the Picard Maneuver run through here produces some of the biggest scores in the whole game.

  Reward: 10M climbing to a 100M cap per shot

• Rescue mode · Easy

  Thirty seconds to save fifty people: fill the shuttle by hitting anything, then empty it on either ramp.

  Reward: 5M to start, up to 50M for a full rescue

• Asteroid Threat mode · Medium

  A countdown you can freeze on command, followed by a frantic seven-shot clean-up once it gets low enough.

  Reward: Up to 20M per shot, 50M bonus for clearing all seven

• Final Frontier wizard · Hard

  The actual finish line. Every mission cleared lights it, and it pays out based on every Artifact you've been stockpiling the whole game.

  Reward: 100M+ per Artifact, plus a shot value that scales with them

• Multiball: Enterprise vs. Borg multiball · Medium

  Lock three balls to send the Enterprise into battle with the Borg — build the jackpot with the cannon first, then chase it through Start Mission and the left ramp while keeping the shields up.

  Reward: 20M+ jackpots, triple on the left ramp

• Ferengi multiball · Medium

  Light the Neutral Zone three times, choose Ferengi, and keep it lit to add up to four more balls into play.

  Reward: 10M per ball in play, plus 2M per yellow target

• Cardassian multiball · Medium

  A tense 2-ball fight where the jackpot itself is under fire — keep the spinner working or watch the payout crumble along with your shields.

  Reward: 5M to 50M depending on shield strength

• Romulan mode · Hard

  Cloak all three Romulan ships — spinner, center ramp, right ramp — before their timers run out, and use Klingon Assistance to take a stubborn one off the board entirely.

  Reward: 10M per ship, 30M for cloaking all three

• Hurry Up mode · Easy

  A classic countdown hurry-up, unlocked at warp 6 and started from the left return lane — the sooner you close it out at the right orbit, the more it's worth.

  Reward: 50M counting down to a 10M floor

• Holodeck mode · Easy

  Right ramp shots light this one, and the choice at the right orbit is either a flat payout or a shot at a genuinely tough video mode with real prizes buried in it.

  Reward: 25M flat, or Shuttle Simulation's rewards

• Advance Rank progression · Medium

  Complete the multiplier lanes to light Advance Rank at Command Decision — five ranks climbing from Ensign to Captain, each worth more at the bonus count, with Captain paying out immediately instead.

  Reward: 5M to 25M at bonus, 100M instant at Captain

• Super Spinner multiplier · Medium

  Light it from the right inlane at warp 6 and the left orbit spinner turns into flat 10M-a-spin money for a short window.

  Reward: 10M per spin

• Bonus Multiplier Lanes multiplier · Easy

  The three lanes above the bumpers build your end-of-ball multiplier from 2x up to a 10x cap — after that, every additional pass just pays straight millions instead.

  Reward: Multiplier up to 10x, then climbing millions

• Explosive Millions combo · Easy

  Center and right ramp shots share one climbing ladder — land one and both light for the next step, so you can lean on whichever ramp you trust.

  Reward: 5M climbing to an uncapped 50M

• Secret Mission secret · Hard

  A well-hidden alternate to the normal Holodeck choice — skip both options and get a frenzy instead.

  Reward: 20 seconds of frenzy scoring