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Starship Troopers

Sega Pinball, 1997 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

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Starship Troopers gives you a war and a scoreboard, and they pull in opposite directions. Six planets have to be cleared of bugs one at a time, but bugs can only be killed in single-ball play — so every long multiball is time spent not winning the war. Learning where those two demands meet is what separates a decent game here from a huge one.

The extra flipper

Before anything else: there is a third flipper, small, above and right of the standard right one, on its own button underneath the normal one. Most players ignore it for their first several games, and that is a mistake twice over. A bug standup hit with the mini flipper counts as two kills, roughly halving the work of clearing a planet. It is also your control flipper — it drop-catches Recon scoop kickouts and bleeds the speed off anything arriving down the right inlane. And it is the only realistic route to the Arm Nukes hole: cradle on the right flipper, hold it up, flick the mini flipper.

The bug war

Four species, four colours: yellow Warriors, green Hoppers, blue Plasma Bugs, red Tankers. Shoot any flashing standup of the matching colour. Displays above the flippers count what is left on the planet you are attacking, and the lit standups thin out as you work through them.

Clear a planet and the Brain Bug rises in front of the right ramp. Each hit is a million, and the required number of hits climbs every time — one, then two, then three. It is timed. Later on, cradling the ball and letting it escape is often the smarter play, because you unlock the next stage either way.

Advance, or nuke

With the Brain Bug gone, two shots light and stay lit until you use one: the Recon scoop advances you to the next planet, the Arm Nukes hole starts Planet Multiball. A 5M hurry-up runs alongside, collected by either. Advance whenever you can — Planet Multiball nukes every flashing planet at once, and the scaling is enormous. One planet is a 1M Nuke, a 10M Super Nuke and two balls; five planets is a 12M Nuke, a 120M Super Nuke and four balls. Making the five Nuke shots (both loops, both ramps, the scoop) lights the Super at the Warrior, and collecting it relights everything.

The other two multiballs

Regular Multiball is at the Warrior — a standup that walks backwards as you hit it, revealing a sinkhole. Four hits the first time, six the second. It is a four-ball with both ramps lit for jackpots starting at 3M. Every unlit bug standup you hit raises that toward a 4M ceiling, and lighting all of them awards an extra ball, so bash the standups before you start collecting. Five jackpots lights a 15M Super Jackpot for sixteen seconds, then the cycle repeats. If you finish without collecting a single jackpot, you get fifteen-odd seconds to get back in the sinkhole for a two-ball restart.

Orbit Multiball costs six loop shots and — unusually — that number never increases. The inlanes cross-light the loops for about five seconds each; three lit loops spell ONE and a magnet drops the ball in the lock, three more spell TWO and start it. A lit loop stays lit after you hit it, so three down the same side in a row is entirely legal. Both loops pay 5M throughout, and the first two loop shots each add a ball.

Recon Levels

Ramps raise your Recon Level, the scoop cashes it in, and there are six. Level one gives a 1M bounty or the Psychic Test video mode; level three brings Double Scoring and Multiball Ready; level four brings the Ramp Hurry-up and Nuke Chase. Level five is where you want to be — it almost always awards regular Multiball if you have not had one, Orbit Multiball if you have. Level six mostly pays a flat 25M, worse than either multiball, so collect at five and resist the climb. A random Recon Boost can shove you up without warning. To climb fast: right ramp, left ramp, scoop is worth three extra levels.

Klendathu

Nuke and clear all five stocked planets and Klendathu flashes. Shoot the Recon scoop and you get unlimited balls for thirty seconds, with every bug standup lit at once. To finish it you need nine bugs of each species and all five Nuke shots — 5M a Nuke, 10M for the Double Nuke at the scoop, and a 50M completion bonus if you get through the whole thing. When the timer expires the mode continues with whatever is still in play, so a good ball here runs long.

Extra balls are scattered in places nothing announces. Fifteen shots to an unlit Arm Nukes hole lights one, as does fifty ramp shots, as does lighting every bug standup during regular Multiball. And playing badly enough lights one for you on ball three.

Goals in Starship Troopers

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

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