# Wizards & Warriors Presents "MasterClass" - Rush (Stern) ft. Gregory Kennedy & Preston Currie **Source:** Wizards & Warriors **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2025-11-24 **Duration:** 76m 17s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wizardsandwarriors/episodes/Wizards--Warriors-Presents-MasterClass---Rush-Stern-ft--Gregory-Kennedy--Preston-Currie-e3bcrvt --- ## Analysis Wizards & Warriors launches "MasterClass" series with top competitive pinball players Gregory Kennedy (IFPA ranked 11th) and Preston Curry (ranked 15th) breaking down competitive strategy, rules, and meta on Rush (2022). They discuss shot tightness, mode stacking, multiball strategy, record shot mechanics, and high-scoring combo pathways for tournament play. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Rush has six major qualifying shots (left orbit, inner loop, dead end, spinner lane, right ramp, right orbit) that record players hit to qualify modes — _Preston Curry explains basic Rush mechanics during gameplay walkthrough_ - [HIGH] Rush's right ramp is positioned later than expected compared to typical Stern ramps (e.g., Star Trek), making it a tight shot requiring deliberate flipper positioning — _Gregory Kennedy and Preston discuss shot tightness; Gregory describes positioning as 'later than expected' and points to specific flipper location_ - [HIGH] Record shots in Rush rotate in clockwise fashion; hitting a record keeps that record in place while all others shift position, allowing sequences of same-color record shots — _Preston Curry explains record rotation mechanic during strategy discussion_ - [HIGH] Time Machine multiball requires 4 hits by default in competition mode; tournament directors sometimes set it to 8+ hits, making Far Cry multiball the preferred early-game strategy — _Preston states '8 hits is so unnecessary' and both players indicate Far Cry becomes primary if Time Machine is set higher_ - [HIGH] Mode timers do not exist on Rush; players can return to incomplete modes but prefer starting new ones for better point efficiency on harder machine setups — _Preston: 'there's no timer on any mode in the game' and 'I always want to start a new mode'_ - [MEDIUM] Gregory Kennedy and Preston Curry played each other in a Pinsonnati playoff where Preston had a 200 million point lead going into ball three on Rush but Gregory won via combo play — _Preston recounts playoff match: 'I had like a 200 million point lead over Gregory going into ball three. And he started, Le'Ve looks back at me and I'm like, it's not a good sign'_ - [HIGH] Preston Curry entered competitive pinball in November 2021 after seeing a Facebook tournament advertisement, made his first World Championship in 2023 — _Preston's introduction: 'I got into competitive pinball around November of 2021' and 'made my first world championship this year'_ - [HIGH] Gregory Kennedy grew up with pinball through his father's collection and family trips to Pinburgh (Carnegie Mellon), discovering competitive pinball after getting his driver's license post-COVID — _Gregory's introduction describing childhood PAPA attendance and post-COVID tournament discovery_ ### Notable Quotes > "The right ramp is not your Star Trek right ramp. It's a lot later than you think it is." > — **Gregory Kennedy**, ~mid-episode > _Identifies key shot difficulty in Rush; establishes shot precision as critical skill differentiator_ > "If your tournament director sets it up for eight hits, it's so unnecessary at this game. I hate it. And you just prioritize Far Cry instead, honestly." > — **Preston Curry**, ~strategy section > _Reveals competitive adaptation to machine setup variations; shows player agency in strategy pivot_ > "I'm big into math stuff and all the stats that you can find on the IFPA page and everything like that. I was addicted to just exploring that page, and seeing your rank go up obviously feels good as well." > — **Preston Curry**, ~introduction > _Characterizes competitive pinball as numbers-driven; explains modern player engagement with rankings_ > "My inner loop is my most valuable shot in my game because I'm always trying to find a way to set up a big La Vila. That's kind of what I based my whole strategy around." > — **Gregory Kennedy**, ~strategy section > _Reveals sophisticated mode/mode-combo planning; illustrates game depth and player specialization_ > "In this game, the combos are insane. The records around the playfield, like right below them are the one, two, three combos. And these are often ignored, but can be extremely valuable if you know exactly what they consist of." > — **Preston Curry**, ~late in episode > _Identifies combo system as hidden value path; suggests expert players exploit overlooked mechanics for tournament wins_ > "You're really shooting all of your shots here. And like the deeper you go, like you'll definitely like find more right orbits. And like every mode is so different that I think really well coded just to like really show variety in the shots." > — **Gregory Kennedy**, ~shot discussion > _Praises Rush's shot variety and code design philosophy; contrasts with X-Plate trend of asymmetric flipper emphasis_ > "I don't think you're really dancing around your multiballs here because I don't think it's similar to a game like Iron Maiden, for example, where it's like, okay, I really want hollowed with my trooper or mummy multiball." > — **Preston Curry**, ~multiball strategy > _Distinguishes Rush stacking philosophy from themed-mode-specific multiball planning; shows game design influences competitive meta_ > "You have to almost find them. I think a great example is, like you said, that right ramp is not your Star Trek right ramp." > — **Gregory Kennedy**, ~shot discussion > _Emphasizes learning curve; suggests Rush requires deliberate shot discovery vs. intuitive geometry_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Preston Curry | person | Competitive pinball player ranked 15th in IFPA Open Rankings, entered competitive scene November 2021, owns a Rush machine, competes in Stern Pro Circuit and regional tournaments, made first World Championship appearance | | Gregory Kennedy | person | Competitive pinball player ranked 11th in IFPA Open Rankings, from Columbus Ohio, grew up with pinball through father's collection, regular Pinburgh attendee, owns Rush machine shared with Nick | | John Borg | person | Lead designer of Stern Rush (2022), legendary Stern designer known for dynamic playfield design and iconic games | | Tim Sexton | person | Code and rules designer for Stern Rush | | Raymond Davidson | person | Code and rules designer for Stern Rush | | Harrison Drake | person | Lead engineer for Stern Rush | | Michael Barnard | person | Artwork designer for Stern Rush | | Chuck Ernst | person | Graphics designer for Stern Rush | | Paul Cheminski | person | Graphics designer for Stern Rush | | Jerry Thompson | person | Sound designer for Stern Rush | | Frisco Pinball | person | Host of Wizards & Warriors podcast, 'ultimate podcast for competitive pinball', runs MasterClass series | | Jay Land | person | Co-host of Wizards & Warriors podcast | | Rush | game | Stern Pinball machine released February 2022, themed around Rush rock band, designed by John Borg, features complex mode stacking and combo mechanics, widely included in tournament competition mode | | Rush | game | Stern Pinball machine released February 2022 based on Rush rock band, features multiple modes (Limelight, Spirit of the Radio, Tom Sawyer, Working Man, Big Money, La Villa Strangiato), multiball mechanics, and record-based shot rotation system | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; producer of Rush and other modern pinball machines | | Wizards & Warriors | organization | Podcast focused on competitive pinball, hosts include Frisco Pinball and Jay Land, produces MasterClass series featuring top tournament players | | IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association, maintains competitive player rankings (WPPR) and tournament structure | | Pinburgh | event | Annual pinball tournament held in Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; significant event in competitive pinball calendar | | Pinsonnati | event | Regional pinball tournament in Cincinnati area where Preston Curry and Gregory Kennedy competed against each other | | Stern Pro Circuit | organization | Tournament series run by Stern Pinball for competitive pinball players | | Foo Fighters | game | Stern Pinball game referenced for comparison of mode mechanics and multiplier systems to Rush | | Iron Maiden | game | Stern Pinball game referenced for comparison of themed-mode-specific multiball stacking strategy | | Batman 66 | game | Pinball game referenced for comparison of rainbow record shot placement mechanic (Commissioner Gordon shot) | ### Signals - **[gameplay_signal]** Rush's shot layout, particularly the right ramp, requires tight and deliberate flipper control; players report it is positioned later than intuitive and not 'natural' compared to other Stern games, representing a high barrier to entry for newer players (confidence: high) — Gregory: 'The right ramp is not your Star Trek right ramp. It's a lot later than you think'; Preston: 'the shot path confused me... I have no idea where this is on the flipper' - **[gameplay_signal]** Rush features sophisticated mechanics including rotating record shots, mode stacking, multiball combinations, and hidden combo systems that reward deep understanding; game opens up significantly once players study streams and understand playfield strategy (confidence: high) — Preston: 'saw Dalton stream it, Ray stream it, Lowe stream it... I see how this game opens up'; Gregory: 'every mode is so different that I think really well coded just to like really show variety' - **[gameplay_signal]** Time Machine multiball setup in competition mode (8+ hits) causes players to pivot toward Far Cry multiball as primary early-game strategy, showing adaptive meta based on machine configuration (confidence: high) — Preston: 'if your tournament director sets it up for eight hits, it's so unnecessary... you just prioritize Far Cry instead'; Gregory affirms this strategy shift - **[competitive_signal]** Preston Curry's rapid rise from November 2021 entry to World Championship appearance in 2023 reflects modern pinball competitiveness accessible to new players who engage with math, streaming, and ranked systems; Gregory Kennedy represents traditional pathway through family/venue exposure (confidence: high) — Preston: 'I got into competitive pinball around November of 2021' and 'made my first world championship this year'; Gregory grew up at Pinburgh via father's collecting - **[content_signal]** Wizards & Warriors launches 'MasterClass' series featuring top-ranked competitive players in deep-dive gameplay analysis using visual telestrator markups; format positions podcast as educational content for tournament-level play (confidence: high) — Episode intro: 'new series called Masterclass where we are going to bring on active... very good competitive players'; hosts note video version with telestrator markups available on YouTube - **[design_innovation]** Rush implements a clockwise record rotation system where hitting a record preserves that record while shifting all others, enabling skilled players to sequence same-color shots and build 2x/3x multipliers; mechanics favor deliberate shot selection over luck (confidence: high) — Preston: 'when you shoot like a record, that record will stay, but every other record will actually shift a clockwise position... you could shoot six consecutive shots in a row that are all the same record color' - **[gameplay_signal]** Rush features album-based combo system (Moving Pictures, etc.) that expert players exploit for 'home run' scoring pathways; combo mechanics are 'often ignored' but 'extremely valuable if you know exactly what they consist of' (confidence: medium) — Preston: 'In this game, the combos are insane... these combos relate to albums... Moving Pictures combo... can be extremely valuable if you know exactly what they consist of' - **[community_signal]** Two world-class players (Gregory and Preston) employ distinct strategic philosophies: Gregory focuses on mode maximization via La Villa setup, Preston pursues quick-scoring 'home run' combos; indicates game depth supports multiple viable competitive approaches (confidence: high) — Preston: 'I'm my home run in this game'; Gregory: 'I'm looking where my records are... concentrate on kind of mode maximizing'; hosts note 'we'll tell you in different ways' - **[gameplay_signal]** Unlike thematic games (Iron Maiden, Foo Fighters), Rush multiballs are not gated to specific modes; naked multiballs retain value because players can qualify new modes during multiball and earn permanent 10% boosts to next mode, making multiball-less runs viable (confidence: high) — Preston: 'naked multiballs in this game... it's not the worst thing in the world... there's still a ton of value to be had from continuing to play' - **[market_signal]** Rush widely adopted in tournament rotation since February 2022 release; competition mode exists to level early exploits, suggesting Stern maintains fairness mechanisms for post-launch game discovery phase (confidence: high) — Host: 'when new Sterns get released, they're generally always included in tournaments... The competition mode at least tries to make things fair before the exploits are figured out' - **[competitive_signal]** Gregory Kennedy and Preston Curry have direct competitive history (Pinsonnati playoff) and both own Rush machines, positioning them as rival specialists; Preston notably picked Rush against Zoller and others at Worlds (confidence: medium) — Preston: 'I own a rush and it's Gregory's and Nick's rush... We did have a weird bank... first game was Rush... I had like a 200 million point lead... he perceived to just like combo his way through it' --- ## Transcript Welcome, everybody. You are watching and listening, hopefully watching because this is going to be a visual experience to Wizards and Warriors, ultimate podcast for competitive pinball. I'm your host Frisco Pinball aka Hottie alongside my co-host the one and only Jay Land. What up Joe? Hey what's going on? We are kicking off a new series so I love talking about competitive pinball as you all have heard 400 hours of it. But we have a new series called Masterclass where we are going to bring on active, maybe intense is a good word too, But very good competitive players that are currently playing and competing in Stern Pro Circuit events, regional tourneys, all that fun stuff. So today in the inaugural episode, we're not just playing Stern's Rush, we're dominating it. How about that? We brought in the best of the best to break down the rules, the shots, the stacks, the secrets to consistently winning matches in your home, local, or even bigger tournaments on this high-octane machine. So joining us are two of the world's most electrifying competitive players, top-ranked Wizards, Preston Curry, currently ranked 15th in the IFPA Open Rankings. What up, Preston? How's it going? Good. And then Gregory Kennedy, who is ranked 11th in those same rankings. What up, Greg? How are you doing? Good, good. So from maximizing your multiballs to figuring out the perfect stacks, we're going to dive deep into Stern's rush for some competitive meta. Get ready for an episode that will absolutely fly by and turn your good game into a grand champion performance. This is Masterclass Rush. So Preston, go ahead, introduce yourself. Yeah, so I'm Preston Curry. I got into competitive pinball around November of 2021. Just kind of was trying to get better at pinball, not knowing that you could compete in pinball. And I saw a Facebook ad for a tournament and signed up and it just snowballed from there, met people in the scene. I started playing locally, learned that you could travel, like saw Fox City Stream at D82 around that time, and just started traveling and got addicted. I'm big into math stuff and all the stats that you can find on the IFPA page and everything like that. I was addicted to just exploring that page, and seeing your rank go up obviously feels good as well. So, yeah, I've been playing since then and made my first world championship this year, which was cool. And, yeah, that's it. Congratulations. Yeah, the math is wild. That's the available math exploration in modern pins is insane. I mean, there's some math in Paragon and Harlem from the old classics, but it's not as good as the new math. So I'm so happy to learn about it, hear about it from experts like yourself. Gregory, introduce yourself. I'm Gregory Kennedy. I'm from Columbus, Ohio. And I've always really grown up around pinball, which I think is interesting to, you know, talking to Preston as someone who said, who just, you know, kind of found it, you know, by pure chance. My dad collects Pinball machines and so we always had a good old family trip growing up to Carnegie, Pennsylvania. So we would go to the papa with the family and they would go do something and my mom and my sister would go do something in Pittsburgh. And Pinburgh, my dad and I would just go. And so after COVID, when that shut down, I didn't know like anything else really existed until I got my driver's license and I started going to everything I could. And so, I mean, other than growing up playing the league and pop, like I didn't know that next level of pinball was out there. So like kind of, you know, that's my development through pinball. And I've, you know, really stood stand with it, you know, with I think the community is great. And, you know, every every turn is unique and, you know, more fun than the last. That's awesome. Have you and Preston been in some epic battles before? Have you played in some playoffs together against each other or do you have any memories together of playing one another? I know I can say the first time I played or I remember playing Preston or hearing about Preston, I went to a tournament right before States in Indiana, the year I played in Indiana. And I remember everyone's talking that Preston's going on vacation, Preston's going to be on a Antonio Cruz or something and he won't be at States. So I was like, oh, this Preston guy might be pretty good. You would have been fine. I figure we'll get this one out of the way. We did play in Pinsonati playoffs one year. We both advanced, so that was good. But we did have a weird bank where the last two games were Algar and Stars. But the first game was Rush, funny enough. And I think I had like a 200 million point lead over Gregory going into ball three. And he started, Le'Ve looks back at me and I'm like, it's not a good sign. And he perceived to just like combo his way through it. It passed me. He was the later player in the game. Yeah. So I have I know I'm for sure. Oh, and one against Gregory on this game. And funny enough, I own a rush and it's Gregory's and Nick's rush. That's funny. It's very interconnected within our friendship. Yeah, it's a Rush-based friendship. Yeah. Well, that's a that's a good segue. We are going to talk and deep dive into the competitive strategy. What you guys think about Rush, the Stern pinball machine developed by lead designer John Borg, Code and Rules Tim Sexton and Raymond Davidson. You got the engineer, lead engineer Harrison Drake, artwork by Michael Barnard, and then graphics from Chuck Ernst, Paul Chemin Kitt, sound designer Jerry Thompson. And it was released in February 2022. I remember when this came out, a little confusing to kind of figure out where to get started, how to approach it. Joe, do you have a lot of time on Rush? Yeah, the location that I mainly play at bought a Rush right when it came out. And this is also kind of around the time I started playing. So I found it very, I feel like a lot of players found it pretty difficult to pick up pretty quickly. So yeah, no, it's definitely one that I'm looking forward to learning more about. I love the layout. John Borg, big fan. So Preston and Gregory, I feel like this became, I don't know if it was a staple. I know when new Sterns get released, they're generally always included in tournaments. Even when Venom was released, it was included. The competition mode at least tries to make things fair before the exploits are figured out. Compared to other Stern releases, if you can remember your first time on those versus Rush, what did you think of Rush when you first encountered it in tournaments? And either of you can go first. That's fine. You got it. I remember the first time I saw Rush was in a Pins Mechanical. Okay. Like the whole, you know, 2, 112 or whatever. 21. Like 21. But it was just like, it opened up the whole game for me. And like, just like playing through that so much on like old code, realizing that the way you want to do it with like the buttons and the combos and like, I love the way it shoots. So that, I mean, that really just made it, you know, like click for me, which, you know, eventually ended up me getting one, which is one of the first new strings I've ever bought. Nice. How about you, Preston? Do you have a lot of experience on it? Obviously, you wouldn't be here if you didn't, but when you first encountered it, what did you think? So it came out in February 22, right? So that was three months into me playing competitive pinball. So I wasn't really traveling yet, but we had one locally. And I remember like hitting a skill shot was like a big deal in terms of points. Like the winner might have like 12 million at the time because no one knew what they were doing. And it's like, okay, if you get to the one stack, like one stack mode multiball, like you're going to win. And I, like the shot path confused me. I remember the right ramp. It wasn't a right ramp that was natural for me at all. Like when it first came out, I was like, I have no idea where this is on the flipper. So that took a while to get used to. And I'm one of those people that when I play, I don't learn as much as when I watch people play it. And so I saw like later on, I saw like Dalton stream it, Ray stream it, Lowe stream it, like a bunch of different people. And I'm like, oh, I see how this game opens up and I see kind of the path and you start to see like the danger areas of the game. Right. And I started to fall in love with it, especially once I like learned the code and everything. And then once I owned one, I was just addicted to it. And so the amount of greed you can have in the game and stuff like that, it really opened up the game for me and really started enjoying it from that point on. But it's definitely one of those like high barrier of entry games that's tough to get into unless you've been playing a while. What do you think about the tightness of the shots, either of you, compared to other Sterns? It feels like the shot to the left of the time machine, the little dead end, isn't too bad. Obviously, the time machine shot from the right, I feel like it's better from the right flipper, but that right ramp is not as easy to get to. And then from the upper flipper, obviously hitting the left ramp or the left loop. Compared to, I guess, other Sterns, do you feel it's tighter shots or feels okay? What do you think? I honestly think the shots feel really good. You have to almost find them. I think a great example is, like you said, that right ramp is not your Star Trek right ramp. It's a lot later than you think it is, from at least my experience. So I find my favorite thing about the shots is you're actually using both flippers consistently. And I think especially the more we go into X-Plates, it's like, oh, this is a right flipper game or this is a left flipper game. And like you're really shooting all of your shots here. And like the deeper you go, like you'll definitely like find more right orbits. And like every mode is so different that I think really well coded just to like really show variety in the shots. But I think they're a little tight, but overall, I wouldn't say anything unbelievable. Nice. OK, so that's a good segue, because now we're going to get into first the basics of Rush. You guys can explain to us if you're stepping up to the machine for the first time, what are you trying to shoot first? And then after we get just some surface level basics out of the way, we'll get into the competitive meta and your strategies for approaching it. So why don't you guys lead me off? You're stepping up to rush for the first time. So if you're listening to this episode, I highly recommend you watch the video. The video version will be available on YouTube at Frisco Pinball or Spotify and all your other platforms under Wizards and Warriors. So please watch the video because we are using a Telestrator to mark up some of the shots. So what are you guys doing first? So feel free to tell me left orbit, center, time machine, wherever you go, and I'll mark it up. Yeah, so I'll kind of lead off here because Greg's going to go through like a lot of the modes and stuff, and it's going to be more in depth that way. But from a basic standpoint, you have six major shots that have records on them. It's the left orbit, right, the inner loop, see there, the dead end, the spinner lane, which is the right by the time machine, yep, the right ramp, and the right orbit. And basically those are what you need to qualify modes. Typically you start needing one or two record shots, unique record shots, to qualify your mode at the time machine. And basically from there, there's two different main multiballs in the game. You have your Time Machine multiball. There's three of them, but you get the other two later down the line, depending what you get. But basically the Time Machine multiball is typically four hits to qualify that. So early in the game at a very basic level, you can just go Time Machine for three hits before you qualify a mode. And that way, when you qualify a mode after that, you can shoot the time machine again. It'll start your mode and your multiball together. The other thing is the two stand-up targets on the right ramp. Right there. Perfect. Yep. Once you hit both of those once, it will light the ramp for qualifying a Far Cry lock. You hit the ramp and then you lock the ball at the side scoop. Sorry, I might be going a little fast. No, you're good right there. And then you do that again. You do that same process again and it will start your Far Cry multiball. In this game, you want to be stacking modes in multiball at a very basic level. Obviously, there are certain modes that are better with certain multiballs. There are some modes you'd rather play single ball, but that's the basics of it. The other really basic thing is when you step up to this game, you want a short plunge to your upper flipper. And you'll have three red arrows at the beginning, and your inner loop is a single skill shot, your side ramp is a double skill shot, And your side scoop is the triple skill shot, effectively. That's the really basic level. I know we're going to really like dive into some things. There's multiple other multiballs that are kind of later game items. They actually don't come up as much in competitive because you're typically playing on like any rush that's set up with tight slings. And open outlanes and any sort of tilt bob is an extremely difficult game, honestly. So I would just say, like, from a very basic standpoint, that's what you're typically going to see in a competitive game. So in competition mode, generally the time machine has additional hits needed for the multiball. Are you bashing that right away to get to at least the multiball? Because usually there's no ball save unless you get one of your skill shots. And then I know a lot of I've seen a lot of people say, OK, well, let me hit one record shot, start a mode and then literally just try to get as much progress as I can towards the multiball at the time machine. Since it's going to take a lot and maybe a score of 30, 40 million will win it for me. And either of you can answer. Yeah, I was going to say, if your tournament director sets it up for eight hits, it's so unnecessary at this game. I hate it. And you just prioritize Far Cry instead, honestly. Go ahead, Greg. I want to say a big part of it, based on what I'm looking for here, is am I playing in a match play tournament? Am I game three on a card? Is it pump and dump? I think that's a question for pretty much all strategies that you can apply. I think if I was in a match play scenario and I look up and my time machine needs 10 hits, I'm not even thinking about it. I think Preston brought up a good point where maybe you view Far Cry as your main multiball now. Even though that one, if your time machine is set up like that, you probably got to hit both targets four times for your lock. But definitely making sure you put those points on the table. I mean, card, you know, if you need a big game, like I think you really do have to prioritize, you know, those multiballs because that's, you know, one huge way to open up, you know, points in any honestly modern turn. But I think basically what the summary is saying is like it really depends on situation. But if you just need points up on the board, I would definitely avoid shooting the time machine a lot of times. Yeah, and your Far Cry locks, even on medium level, it's just when you hit the two targets, it becomes a time block that you have to hit that ramp a certain amount of time. It's a pretty long time. The amount that you actually have to do is the same as easy locks. The only difference is when you start the multiball, you have to start at the side scoop, whereas when you're qualified on easy settings for Far Cry, you can shoot, I guess, the main scoop or the front scoop from the flipper, and that will start it. So, sort of getting preliminarily into your strategies for competition. What modes? First, how do you change the mode that's lit at the beginning of the ball? All right, Greg, you got this. This is all you know. So, I believe the modes, when you start your game, each one of your records will be a unique color. And it will be flashing symbolizing that they have not been locked in. And so I will have cyan for Tom Sawyer, orange for Working Man, blue for Spirit of the Radio, pink for Big Money, purple for La Vila, and green for Limelight. So knowing that I want to start limelight first, I'm looking for the green shot. But on the upper orbit, that's where you want a good shot to be. You can be looking at the upper flipper to the side ramp. So that would be where you always want, if you were to have good luck, for say, you would have a green for limelight or a blue for Spirit of the Radio on there. Because that's the first shot that you can take. And so once you start hitting the side rush targets, it starts to scatter the pattern. And so once if your right ramp was blue, it probably won't be anymore once you hit the rush targets, just kind of flipping around throughout the playfield. So I mean it kind of feels like jackpot in that respect where you really want to get the ball under control to take the shot that you want to take to start the game Are you ever full plunging or are you always short plunging to try to get that skill shot I would never full plunge Yeah, I would rather lose my skill shot and try to shoot the side ramp just to get the ball in the flipper. I've definitely learned my lesson from the ball ever going in the pops in this game. So take us now through when you guys are stepping up and what you're looking for as a path to getting a high score. We'll talk about certain scenarios. Perhaps you're coming back on ball three. But let's let's take us through your each of your approach as far as strategy into Stern Rush. So just to clarify, do you want to do like openers then like for like ball one? Like what are we what are we looking at? That's a good idea. So ball one, what are you guys stepping up and thinking about doing? What are your strategies for this pin? Yeah, so one thing I'll say about the records is when you shoot a record, it moves all the other records as well. So you see like the six that you've circled before? If you circle those again, they move in a clockwise fashion. So when you shoot like a record, that record will stay, but every other record will actually shift a clockwise position over. And so theoretically, like you could shoot six consecutive shots in a row that are all the same record color. So I want to like Greg said, like you're prioritizing certain modes. And I always kind of want to put modes on or the modes I'm going for on the important shots. So if I see a blue record, for instance, Spirit of the Radio on the dead end, which is the cash out for Spirit of the Radio, like I'm trying to lock that in as soon as I can. And if you miss it, like you're now five records away from that coming back to being on that shot again. And you have to either shoot the rush targets or something else to get it back on. The reason it's so important is because any record that you start the mode that was part of the qualifying part of kind of getting that on the playfield becomes a 2x shot. And you feel you have all the records the same color, which is kind of a rare scenario, but it's a 3x multiplier on every one of those shots. So that becomes extremely important in kind of getting that set up initially. Obviously, like with harder machine setups and stuff, like if I can just get it on a couple shots, like I might just note like, hey, I have limelight on the inner orbit and the right ramp. And it's like, OK, like when I'm shooting this, if I start like a stack or something like that, like I'm going to try to hit those shots as often as I can in that process. So that becomes a lot of what we initially look for, I guess. But in terms of just like a breakoff strategy, like you want to like my unless they set the time machine up to be more than four hits. I'm trying to combine my first mode, which I'm trying to play like Limelight, like Greg said, or even Spirit of the Radio or something. And I'm just trying to combine that with a time machine multiball in this case. Yeah, that's that kind of was the transition I wanted to see if you guys obviously getting a ball one mode stack plus multiball is ideal. But I didn't know, are you, was there any chance you're saving the first multiball for maybe your second mode? If you think you can clear out one mode and get to the next record, or are you just trying to get that stack initially? I don't think you're really dancing around your multiballs here because I don't think it's similar to a game like Iron Maiden, for example, where it's like, okay, I really want hollowed with my trooper or mummy multiball. You're not doing it for anything other than value. And at the end of the day, because there's no timer on any mode in the game, it really kind of balances, okay, I want to finish the good mode. Because like as long as you play that ball, you'll always be running that mode until you finish it. So I feel like that it's kind of. I don't know, you don't try to like save your multiballs for really any particular. Yeah. And even if you start your multiball and like finish your mode really quickly and you're in your multiball, you can actually like hit record shots again to start qualifying your next mode anyway and start getting boosts on it. So every unique record you hit past the amount qualified is a 10 percent boost to your next mode. And so you can like get out of your first mode in your multiball like and then like have a 30 percent boost or something on your next on your next mode. Right. And so when you're in multiballs in this game, like just multiballs, you're not locked out at all. Like, first of all, the multiballs are worth a decent amount of points. And like the fact that you can do qualification during the multiball like is worth so much. So naked multiballs in this game is like, like, yeah, you're not trying to do them, but if they happen, it's not the worst thing in the world. And especially if you just complete a mode really quickly and you're in a multiball, like, there's still a ton of value to be had from continuing to play on this. Where's your addable on your time machine multiball? The scoop right here? Yeah, it's the three inlanes. You have to get those. And then it's just front scoop shot. It won't count on side scoop and the game will get confused too. If you have a ball in from the side scoop and you shoot one in the front scoop, if you have any in there, you can't get an added ball right away. But yeah, it's your first mystery award hitting the front scoop. And for modes, let's say ball one, you've started Limelight and you've gotten like 30% of the way through, but you drain. So for Ball 2, is it still active for you or do you have to reactivate the record shot and hit the time machine to start it again? Or is it ready for you on plunge on Ball 2? I'd say it's very similar to something like Foo Fighters where you still have to re-qualify it. I guess it's not like Foo Fighters, you have to re-qualify it, but you don't really come in with anything other than the progress you had from when you got out of the mode. So, Greg, what are you doing when you start bowl one? I think Preston said it really well. Like, I'm looking where my records are at, you know, seeing if I can get, like, a green or a blue one, like he said as well. You know, really one of the key shots that I feel like I shoot a lot, which I think are the right orbit or the right ramp, the spinner lane, the dead end, and just the upper flipper orbit. Just because, like, that's where my plunge is going and that one is the most convenient. I'm definitely looking to bring whichever mode I start between the two of those into my time machine. And then after that, I can just kind of evaluate where I am in a lot of like my next mode qualification or if I was still in my mode. As far as the right ramp shot, is there a position on this left flipper? Is it near the end that you're finding it more consistently? I know every pin is set up differently. Is it more towards the tip? Because I know it is a tight shot for people to find. But you said I know you mentioned earlier that it's later than you think. Is it because I feel like if I find it on the tip, it's usually headed over here to orbit or maybe one of the rush rush targets. What do you think? I don't think it's quite on the tip. I definitely do think it's later than than expected. I don't think it's one of those real sweet spot ramps just because I honestly think the orbit to the left of it feels really good to shoot. So I kind of find that as the sweet spot. It's almost like my bailout on my left flipper. But I would kind of feel the shot from the insert right above it, like the leftmost side of that circle and then down. So like right there. OK, what is the I remember from Star Trek. What does the away team shot here do when you lift the upper flipper and hit it through? Not a whole lot. Sometimes your extra ball moves there. And you can also, in single ball, it re-does a skill shot. And I think there's like a drum bonus or something, maybe. Yeah, there's a drum bonus. Something that we're not even considering, honestly. Yeah, nowhere as crucial as away team. Going back to the modes. So if you don't finish, you mentioned there's no mode timers. If you don't finish a mode, you can go back into that mode? Or even if you finish it, can you go back? It's more likely that you are going to go back into that mode because the records that you qualified for in that mode actually stay on the playfield, weirdly. So they become more of the predominant records that begin your next ball. But yeah, you can go back in and play it. The value doesn't seem very good. I always want to start a new mode, honestly, unless I completely just drained immediately out of it or something like that. I guess finishing a mode is good. When you finish a mode, it does qualify a rainbow record, so your next shot will put a 2x on a shot for the rest of the game. So that's a good argument for going back into it. But obviously the value is not that great. If I'm four-fifths of the way through Limelight and have just a couple more shots to finish it, I can go back in and get that rainbow record. But not only do you need to survive getting out of it, put a rainbow shot on something, and then you have to hit two or three more record shots to qualify your next mode. So I'd rather go into a more lucrative mode before that. There's only so much time you get on Rush when it's set up hard. So I want to maximize that time in terms of point efficiency. And I think going back into modes that you're almost done with can hurt that sometimes. So I love the idea of a permanent multiplier on a shot when you've done something good. I really like the way the code on Foo Fighters does it, where if you do it extraordinarily well, I think it's like you get a super jackpot on some multiballs or whatever. And then it corresponds to like, OK, left ramp is boosted for the rest of the game or just rest of the ball. Where are you putting your rainbow record multiplier? Because it reminds me of Batman 66, too, when you hit the Commissioner Gordon, you could put it on a shot. Generally, I put it on the Penguin Scoop because I feel like I'm going to get a jackpot there and maybe it'll get multiplied. So where are you guys putting your rainbow record shot? In order of importance for me, dead end, right ramp, inner loop. How about you, Greg? I would go, in order of importance, inner loop, right ramp, dead end. And what's the reason for that for you guys? Just those are the shots that you feel comfortable with? I'll start. My inner loop is my most valuable shot in my game because I'm always trying to, and I'll talk about this later, I'm trying to find a way to set up a big Lovilla. So, I mean, that's kind of what I based my whole strategy around. And so that is by far the most important shot in that mode. So I'm just overall setting that up. The right ramp, I feel like I want to get ready for a lot of my multiballs because it'll be some of my larger value shots. And then my dead end, just because I think it always leaves the option open for a really big spirit of the radio. Just because multiplying that shot always cashes out really well with spirit of the radio. All right. So ideally, you've you've set things up on ball one or ball two. Kind of kind of guide me through your ideal playthrough. Obviously, we're not talking about getting to Cygnus book one, Cygnus book two or wherever it is. But if things are going your way, what is what is your path? I both of you can can definitely tell us. Yeah, I think we'll tell you in different ways because I think Greg will concentrate on like kind of mode maximizing. I'm my home run in this game and like this is a game that at Worlds I was I picked against Zoller for a few different reasons. But the fact that I know that the certain home runs you can kind of hit in this game and I really focus a lot of my effort when I'm trying to, you know, When you have to play someone really good at the game, like a Greg, like a Zoller, like anyone like that, right, Zmech, you have to find ways that you can score very, very quickly. In this game, the combos are insane. So obviously the records around the playfield, like right below them are the one, two, three combos. And these are often ignored, but can be extremely valuable if you know exactly what they consist of. So there's a few combos that are just at my utmost importance in the game. So the moving pictures combo and these so these combos relate to albums and basically you get a button for whatever songs are on those albums. A lot of them have one, but moving pictures, for instance, has three. So the moving pictures combo is the right ramp. And that will light like your twos on the ray orbit in the spinner lane. The next shot would be spinner lane in this case. And then that spinner lane will light the inner loop in the side ramp. And the side ramp is where you want to go for that. That's your moving pictures combo. And so you get a button that's good for an Adabal and Red Barchetta or a blue button. So the green button is Adabal. The blue button is a shot spotter. And it basically like does a wave across the play field. The wave is it always starts on whatever side the ramp is diverted to. So if it's diverting left, which can you circle those like big red things by kind of on the outside? One's near the drops right to the left. Yeah. So the big red thing right there. Right. That and the one on the other side of it. Those blink and those will indicate to you which side your ramp is diverting to. Oh, OK. So whatever side is blinking, that's where the shot sequence, like the blue button sequence will start. So if it's on the left side, like the first shot that gets spotted is anything on the left orbit. And then it goes up to, oh, shoot, I forget which way it goes. Is it the side scoop, side ramp, inner orbit, dead end, spinner, right ramp, right orbit. I think that's the sequence. I get confused on the side shot part of it, but it's an incredibly valuable. The blue button is like crazy. It can be absolutely massive. Like I've had once like close to a billion points when I've like hit it through. Right. And like so the moving pictures combo like it qualifies for two different modes. So I'm like ignoring like what modes I'm qualifying because I'm just planning to either play a Limelight or play a Tom Sawyer eventually if that's not what I qualify initially. And then you have a few other ones I want to go over. So Snakes and Arrows is the dead end. Left orbit, and these are sequence. So you have to hit dead end first, left orbit after, inner loop. That's your Far Cry multiball. And then permanent waves is your spinner, inner orbit, and then side ramp. Side ramp. Yep. This one. Yeah. So that's your free will and spirit of the radio. I'm always trying to use it for spirit of the radio in this case. And then hemispheres is kind of, you know, Greg's kind of home run here is right ramp and then right orbit. And that's going to be your Livia combo. So you can only qualify these albums in single ball play. There is some like one, two, three jackpot stuff you can do in multiball with a certain perk thing. We're not going to worry about that. You can only get these in single ball play and you have to cash them in at the time machine when you hit those combos. You can stack combos technically, but you want to cash those in as quickly as possible. So you have those buttons in your back pocket moving forward into the game. It transfers ball to ball. Once you have the combo for the albums, those albums stay on your record effectively for the entire game. So if you ever get into anything that they qualify for, you can use whatever power up they have associated with them. So, for instance, the moving pictures one. So I want to get that one as quickly as possible. Let's say I have time machine lit. My moving pictures is available. I have limelight lit and I have a multiball ready at the time machine. The first thing I'm doing when I see that is I'm looking up in the either the top right corner, I believe, one of the corners of the LCD. And I'm seeing what Time Machine Multiball is going to be qualified for my limelight mode. If it's Red Barchetta, that's the thing I don't want to start because Red Barchetta and limelight are the same button. And basically when you're in the multiball and the mode stack, Red Barchetta and Limelight, it prioritizes the added ball rather than a sweeping shot. So instead, this is like way too much, but instead, like I'm going to hit dead end. Dead end changes your multiball you're going to play at the time machine. And I'm trying to get to either fly by night or subdivisions, right? And so when I start the multiball, or when I start the Moan multiball stack, like let's say it's Limelight and subdivisions, what happens is you have a blue button available, your multiball starts. I try to get like a couple of the multiball shots out of the way. So what happens in subdivision, the time machine's the first shot for your jackpot. It spreads from there, it divides, right? It goes dead end and right spinner. But what happens is like let say I on the left I can button through and it will spot a left orbit limelight shot a left scoop limelight shot a side ramp limelight shot an inner orbit limelight shot and then it spots a jackpot at the dead end plus a limelight shot uh a jackpot on the time machine because it relights jackpots there a jackpot on the right spinner and a limelight shot a jackpot and a uh um and a limelight shot on the right ramp and a jackpot and a limelight shot It's massive, right? And you're basically like more than halfway through your mode already just from using a button. You've already hit like a bunch of the jackpots that you need in order to light a super jackpot in that mode. And like from there, like you're just ripping shots, right? And you're very close to finishing that. Coming out of this, probably qualifying another mode because you're working like not only are you almost done with limelight, you can finish that. Like you can start working on your next mode from there and you can like hit a super jackpot in subdivisions. It becomes massive. Like and that's the kind of thing like you want to score so quickly in this game because ball time is pretty low in hard setups. And I think that like people ignore this, the combos that can be set up this way and they can win you a game just from the fact that you get like basically nine free shots or whatever it is just from holding down a button. So your button spots all of them? It's not like Bishop? Wow, that's amazing. I did not know that. Spots all of them. It's one-time button use, one time for the album. And like, for instance, I said Movie Patries has three songs on it. You can only use it for like one of the songs, which is why it's important to change your multiball if you're doing a multiball mode stack with like Limelight or even Top Sawyer. And so you're changing your multiball at the dead end shot. Yes. OK, that is a really, really great explanation analysis of a strategy that most people probably aren't aware of. I was not aware that the spot shot perk or button spotted a wave of them. I thought it was just one. Like another good example is Livia, right? Like let's say I hit the right ramp once in Livia and I have the button and I miss it the next time and you're on the combo. You're like, well, I don't want the combo to time out. If you start on the right diversion, it'll spot right ramp and then dead end and then left orbit. So you get your two times, three times, four times, like just from that free. So you kind of have a button in your back pocket that can like extend your combo in the mode. And it's I mean, that's why they're just so valuable. They can be used in such a great way that way. Like I mentioned the Spirit of the Radio one too. Like not only are you spotting a jackpot shot in it, but you're also like increasing the value with each of the ones it hits on the way through. So you're sweeping spot shotter. Ideally, you're using it for limelight if you're in a mode. Yeah. So the moving pictures one. That's why I like the permanent waves one, which is your Spirit of the Radio. Like that's another really good one to have. So the ones I really like having are the limelight and Tom Sawyer. The Tom Sawyer one can be good because it's a three phase. And then it's so it's your two orbits and then your two ramps, the side ramp and the main ramp. And then every shot's lit. So if you hit just four shots and then button through the last thing, you're done with the mode. That's fantastic. Fantastic advice. Greg, how about you? Your push. I'm basically I'm going to narrow in on one mode and which Russians talked about this mode. But I am really going hard on Livia. So I think my ball two really revolves around thinking if I have, you know, the Livia I want just prepped to win the game. So I hopefully I finished a mode and I want my rainbow record either on the right ramp or the upper loop. And so both of those shots I would say are the two most important shots that I can put multipliers on in Livia. So and then as Preston said as well, I am trying to get the Hemispheres combo for Livia, which is just right ramp, right orbit. So I find that one extremely easy to do since it's only two shots and neither of them are fairly difficult. So then I am trying to stack my Purple Livia with my Fly by Night, I can't think of what it's called. The Multiball on the right ramp. Oh, Far Cry. The Far Cry Multiball, thank you. Yeah, so I'm trying to stack my Far Cry with my Livia. I think the biggest thing about that is, because they don't start at the same time, I'm not worried about when I start by Far Cry, I just want to have it. So I'm purely like mode started is like the main priority. Like the multiball is just running in the background and making sure I do everything I want to do in the multiball or in the mode. And so Livia, the way I play it, hopefully with a button, is I first shot is right ramp. Second shot is right ramp. And then it comes to the right flipper and you want to shoot to dead end. Usually you'll find pros in tournament. But if you're lucky enough to find a premium tournament, this will be different. This does not feed a flipper. So I find I am ready with my button on the left side for this part. So hopefully I get a trap and then I'll button through this part. Buttoning from left to right with my Levia shot on the left orbit spots. I think Preston said it was three different shots. So we're spotting left orbit, the side ramp or the side scoop, I believe, and then the spinner lane. So then I hope to shoot the spinner lane and combo the upper orbit, which I hopefully have my multiplier on or a purple record so I can give as much value as I can. And so the fun perk about this is after you shoot your first upper orbit, when it is your next available shot, you can keep shooting the upper orbit until you have one shot left in the mode. So it's basically spotting shots while keeping your combo and then you can finish it on the scoop. And then hopefully I'm still in Far Cry and I can mess around with that multiball for some points. But I mean, that's really my main strategy. I know I really commit to that harder than sometimes I feel like I should. But that's always why I try to play limelight on ball one just to get a safe 50 to 60 million. And so I can do something that like, because if this done correctly, this wins 99% of games of rush. But, you know, if I don't get it done, I'm falling back to like, you know, a 70 million score when I'm winning maybe, you know, 40 percent of games of Rush. I think you guys said it best. The playtime on this pin is very short for most tournaments just because of how they're usually set up. You know, whether they're on two by fours, competition mode, ball savers off. You got to hit a skill shot to get something just to give yourself a little bit of breathing room. Then your time machine is eight to ten shots, whatever it is. Just out of curiosity, are you guys ever focusing on the instruments on the left? And is there anything special in here on this area of the play field? I don't I mean, I don't want to speak for both of us, but I don't think either of us are. They just kind of happen. They're extremely dangerous and they're not as necessary as like Walking Dead, for instance. It's the same kind of multiball rules for it. But it's one of those things that if I happen to clear all three of the instruments, like in a multiball, if they're clear and like a couple are just kind of like waiting there, like I might take a pot shot at hitting behind the target to like activate my instruments. There's some benefits in the background that you kind of get from those. I believe like the spinner becomes more valuable with a certain one. Your 1-2-3s become more valuable with a certain one, and your pop bumpers build time. Pop bumpers, yeah, which is honestly pretty nice because your pops are advancing toward a multiball as well. That's headlong. Another thing you don't see in tournaments that often, but that multiball is insane if you can get to it or can be insane. But we might take pot shots, but in single ball play, I think shooting those are kind of a trap. If you do happen to light your free will multiball and it's available to take, if you want to combine that with a mode, that's great. And you're probably already playing a great game if those are ready to go. It's just not a shot that's pretty ugly to shoot at. It's late on the flipper. It gets into problem areas of the play field that you don't really want to be in typically. So it's not something that I'm extremely focused on. And if you're trying to set a GC at your home game that you can kind of move around, yeah, they're great. But in comp, it's not happening that often. Some more general question for any pins you've owned in your home. It doesn't have to particularly apply to Rush, but it could. Home versus competitive play. What is the biggest adjustment you have to make? I've been spending probably the last two weeks playing Avengers, just constantly trying to get to Battle Thanos. It's a blast, but it's an ass kicker. But when I see it in tournaments, I'm not taking the same path. I'm not going for Portal Lock. I'm literally just trying to prep Thor and maybe get to a gem and hopefully pray from there, get something going, get to reality, get to power. Is there a big adjustment that you constantly see from home to competitive play that you're making? I think actually this game is really unique in that regard. It's where it's like your first one third to one fourth of the game are going to look very similar where like, you know, you have to get through those modes. And, you know, I mean, most likely you're starting your time machine multiball first. And then, you know, after that, it's really like, OK, do I feel like I want to keep, you know, taking the safe shots and, you know, making it through these modes that I can? Or maybe do I want to risk it more for something like you said, like those drop targets? Because Free Will is, I think, a really fun multiball to play for its rule set. Being something similar to Love, Gun, and Kiss, where all the shots are lit, and then once you hit one shot, you have to hit that shot again. But I think getting to the wizard modes, I feel like is more natural for book two, which I believe is the book for modes. In a tournament aspect, reaching book one is much more unlikely. You have to play all multiballs for book one, and I don't find myself traditionally shooting the time machine enough for what I see to be a third time machine multiball in tournament playing. But I think that's what this game does really well. In a home perspective, like he said earlier, and part of the reason he learned to love it is it opens up so much. And I think, credit to the coders, I know Ray had a lot of influence on this, the wizard modes are fantastic. And they're really unique and just a lot of fun to play. So I think that's something that really made me want to own it at home. Yeah, the thing I would say is the biggest difference, and this isn't an issue with Greg's game. Greg sets up his games really hard. For me, it's like flipper rubber adjustments, adjusting to whatever flipper rubber tournaments they're using. I know Jegpen, for instance, used these yellow rubbers that were insane. They just bounced everywhere. I was just sending stuff away a lot of the time. In terms of this game, there's a lot of tourney setup-dependent things. The first thing to look out for is the inner orbit. A lot of rushes had kind of a defect where it shoots through the switch of the inner orbit, which can really affect a strategy like Greg's, for instance, and he will adjust away from it if the inner orbit is completely unreliable. I mean, there's a lot of things in this game, but like shooting the left orbit, for instance, like I won't do uncertain competitive setups as much because when you shoot the left orbit and you hold the right flipper up, because of the steepness of the game, it'll go above the side scoop instead of in it. And so that becomes a more dangerous shot because you're creating kind of horizontal action. You kind of like flip away or something like that, but it's a pretty like unreliable shot to take. And because of the double inlanes on the right side, you also can't just let it go past the right flipper, kind of like Maiden. So that's an adjustment that I sometimes have with that. The other thing is like the scoop feed coming directly at you. That can be quite a bit different on each copy. And it's something to kind of watch out for because you don't get like grace period ball saves from that either. What about you, Joe? I know you've got a maiden at home. Is there something you do differently or approach tournament copies of maiden? Or maybe you just see something, you know, at your local versus one you see at bigger tournaments like any pin. Yeah, I mean, it's it's funny, right? Like it's it's my favorite pin of all time. And like I'm very comfortable the one at home. But like, for example, I saw one today on location and I like hate the way that it plays. So it's like I know what to do. And it's just like making those adjustments to that specific copy is always, you know, It's the eternal struggle when you have a pin at home and then you have to see it in the wild. It's just completely different. Adjusting to that is the whole thing of playing competitively, right? Exactly. Making those adjustments. Yeah. Let's talk Ball 3 strats, back strats, because this is a good way to transition into the final part of this episode in Masterclass, Wizards and Warriors, our first one. I think it's going great. So I really appreciate you guys explaining and helping out. So Ball 3 down by, let's say, $80 million to Z-Mac to Eric Stone, let's say, anybody. What is your Ball 3 strat, assuming you have played one-time machine multiball and you haven't finished a mode? What is your comeback strat on Rush? And I'd like to hear from both of you. And Preston, let's go with you first. If I'm down by that much and that's my progress, I'm assuming this is a pretty hard rush. So I'm going to short plunge. I'm going to either try to shoot the side ramp or the side scoop in order to start a ball save because you don't get a ball save and your playfields on Mac would qualify without hitting a switch technically when you plunge. Uh, so I want to do that first. Uh, from there I'm prioritizing, uh, build, or, uh, like, I'll look at my dead end, and if I see Spirit of the Radio, I'm shooting that. But I'm probably just finding a Spirit of the Radio shot, to be honest. Um, I'm also hoping Far Cry is, like, pretty close here. Uh, but, because it's, like, the kind of, like, the middle, it's like a triple in this game. Like, Livia is like the home run, 100%. And Spirit's definitely like a triple. And you can build Spirit really, really high in this game. So you have five cash outs on the dead end that you get. And those cash outs are capped technically at 50 million points. If you have a rainbow record or a blue record on the dead end, they're capped at 100 points per cash out. And then if you have all blue records or rainbow records, they're capped at 150 per cash. So it's like it's capped at like 750 million of cash outs, which could be like I mean, that's insane, like an insane score for Rush, especially in comp. But I want to start spirit and I want to stack in a multiball. And from there, what I'm going to do in that multiball is shoot the build spirit shot. I'm going to avoid the dead end. Like let's say I'm in Far Cry. I'm going to avoid the dead end as much as I can. I'll try to shoot the spinner first because in spirit, spinner builds the build value of each shot. And then I'm going to try to shoot like every shot is lit to build outside of the dead end. So right ramp, right orbit, left inner loop, left scoop, left side or side ramp and left orbit. Those are all build shots in spirit. And the more you hit, the more cash outs you have available on the screen. On the dead end. And especially if this is a premium, all I'm doing in the multiball is shooting build shots on a pro where you don't get the feed coming back from kind of a buck or whatever. I might just take some pot shots and cash out as I'm going a little bit more. Theoretically, all I have to do is get to, like, let's say I have a blue record on the thing. All I have to do is get to 7 million cash outs because of the blue record, multiplying those to 14. And I can hit 14 million five straight times and I'm done. Nice. Yeah, that's a very solid strat. I was trying to do the math and the shots in my head. I love it. How about you, Greg? Spirit's an awesome mode. Like, it's honestly a perfect mode with a multiball Because you can build and then you can just cash out at the end. Personally, that is something that I think I can definitely get along with as well. But I'm looking really hard into Far Cry multiball. And I think just the raw ability of that multiball, even by itself, is really good. I think it's, especially in the early phases of the game, some of the best points you can get. And I'll stack a modem. I'm not too particular with which one at that point. Just because I don't want to be wasting shots on ball three that maybe might greet a little bit. I'd rather try to do it, take a little bit longer. So I think really narrowing in on that multiball. Preston discussed the button earlier. I don't really think that's something I'm looking at too crucially here on a ball three. Just because that kind of views on piling on top. But Rush, the way Far Cry Multiball works, it is, you'll have five shots that could be lit. They could be red, yellow, orange, blue. Green. I want to say green. And green. Yeah. No, green and blue. Yep. So hottest to like darkest 5X is red 4X is orange 3X is yellow 2X is green and 1X is blue So those red shots if you really put a priority on them I think can add up really big to catch an 80 million deficit with some random road running in the background Yeah, and outside of the Livia combo, that's the only thing that's timed in the game is those jackpots will actually time out on you. So you want to shoot them quickly. And they relight jackpots when you hit jackpots. They relight two, I think. Pro versus premium. Is the premium safer? Do you get feeds back more safely? Yes. So the pro versus premium, obviously the main difference is, as Preston mentioned, the buck on the dead end shot coming to that lane, which ends up mattering a lot, not only for safety, but that's, you know, a shootable shot that you can get a return to to get your ball safe. Otherwise, on the pro, you just kind of have to hope it's almost Flight 2000 where it's like nothing's really feeding these inlanes. So you have to hope and get lucky that you get that one for addable. But normally on premiums, I also find the flippers to be stronger just because you see a lot of pros on locations. They've played a lot more. So honestly, I find that the shots are just a little bit different just because I do find more power in the flipper on premiums traditionally. The only way the premium is a little bit more dangerous is if your side scoop isn't lit for anything and you get it in the side scoop, it'll shoot it back out the side. So it'll go horizontal, which is a little bit annoying. I've noticed that. It goes like sometimes to the rush targets. I'm like, oh, crap, it's going to be. Yeah, and that's a dangerous area. Like little kick off the rush targets like guides down. It creates bad spin on the ball. So you'll see a lot of right outlanes coming from that area. So you want to like shimmy a lot on the right side. Is there any major difference in your approach on pro versus premium strategies or is it kind of the same but you've just got like a couple safer feeds or safer returns except for this stupid side scale? I would say the main thing that changed is like how much like I think Preston put it perfectly earlier is like how much on a premium I value the blue spirit of the radio. Just because that return back is so much times better. And when you do have a good value on it, you can just repeat it and combo it for all five shots, which makes it a lot safer. But at least for me, I don't really find much different with a premium to pro. Yeah, the other big thing is it does feed that inner in lane and there's no way to feed that on the pro and you need that for added balls. I find that like really tough setup rushes, you don't get a lot of in or inlanes on them for some reason. And so getting added balls in like Time Machine Multiball can be extremely difficult on the pro if it's set up hard for some reason. So if you have like it's almost better if you start a Time Machine Multiball with your like mystery already lit for the pro if it's set up really hard. But it's not something to prioritize, just something to kind of pay attention to in the back of your mind. Is this a shimmable pin on the outlanes? Can you shimmy that back into the... Not when they open them. I mean, you kind of. Yeah, I would say this game is very different from when I think like just literally taking the rubber off the outlane changes everything. Because I think with no rubber, this game turns from, like you said, I think it's very shimmable. It's just gone. When it's gone, it's gone. You got bored. On the premium versus pro, the other thing I feel like that's a little different is the ramp, right? The time machine ramp? Is there anything specific to note when the ramp is down? I'm assuming when you have a mode qualified, it'll raise. But like I feel like sometimes during modes like it'll go down. I just don't really know why or like why. What kind of prompts it to go back up? I don't know if you guys know that or have much time. You have to have something qualified at the time machine to have a combo qualified for it to raise. You have to have your multiball lit or you have to have a mode ready to go or maybe a mode shot. Like if the end of limelight, I assume it goes back up. Yeah. And when you're shot for big money, all of your shots are lit, V and FAs. Anytime a mode shot is lit on the time machine, it will be up. What flipper are you shooting the time machine from generally, right? I'm never taking a shot from the left on a premium. I shoot left. Oh, on the premium? Okay, the one at my house is much easier forehand, and I know where the forehand shot is. I noticed in comp I definitely like backhand a little bit more, but I'm kind of an equal opportunist on it. Like I'm not afraid to shoot the pro time machine from the left. If I find it kind of like rattling, then I'll prioritize the right, I guess. I saw Zemek, he did this at the UK Open last year, and I'm glad I learned it. He would, you know, send the ball up the left end lane and then it would sort of ski pass and bump over to the right end lane Because that left shot to the time machine was just too unfair or just too hard. So that was something I was interested in figuring out why do people avoid the left. And it's just I don't think it's I think the angle of it geometry wise is just not as consistent as the right flipper. Yeah. And we can talk about kind of the lower play field and how to like use stuff down there, because I think it's important on this game. And I think people get, I don't want to say lost on this game with that, but I think there's a lot of things you can do to make the game safer at the lower part of the playfield. So on the right side, like almost any ball coming through those end lanes, honestly, it's probably best to try to post stop the ball on the right side. You get a lot of post stops to just stay there because it's not a natural post pass on that one. The left side is a natural post pass. So like if I just have a trap ball on the left side in post pass, it should go to the right. On the right, if you notice when you do a post pass, it typically like guides back up the right end lane and then you ski pass back over. And you kind of have to like instead do a rolling one if you want to if you want to do a post pass that that you like get like partially on the flipper or something like that. But like post catching on this game is immensely important and it's not it's not as much of a flow game like it can be in multiball and stuff, but it can be really clunky as like you kind of alluded to earlier in the episode where you said the shots are a lot tighter. That's definitely the case in shots from a trap are always going to be easier. So post catching in this game is like immensely important. So explain to people what post catching is. Yeah, so when the ball is going down an end lane and it's going toward the flipper, you want to basically flip right as it's getting to like the kind of the end or the kind of the beginning of the flipper and like bash it into the top or into the bottom of the sling. And that way, the ball just kind of stops there and you can get it and kind of get a free trap from it. Yeah, very, very precise timing. But man, it is such a good skill to learn. Yeah. Most people can eventually get to post passes and understand how it how it works there, unless you're on an L-win sometimes. And, you know, ski pass and bumping over. But what about what else about the lower play field would you like to talk about? The other the other thing I'd mention in multiballs, if you have two balls in the same flipper, you want to do your transfers, I think, really low, honestly, Because I don't think the ball transfers off of like high transfers well at all. And so like on the left, probably the most ideal one is to go really low and then post pass over. So like really low up post pass over because typically the slings are so tight on rushes. I don't know why, but it's been my experience with like all the competition ones where like if it like kind of hangs on the sling, it'll just fire. And so I tried to go like really low on the slings, like at the very base of them, basically to have anything transfer, especially because the right one like kind of hangs over the flipper a little bit. And so you can get in a lot of trouble on that one if you like have it high up on the sling. And there's there's just some like odd transfers in this game that people will drop out of multiball, like just trying to transfer the ball. So I think keeping it low is always ideal for doing any of that sort. And especially over-unders can be really effective on the left-hand side. Thanks, Preston. That was a really good explanation of some of the flipper skills and flipper tricks you can do on Rush. Is there anything that we might be missing related to Rush as far as maybe modes or any other sort of progress like headlong that you guys want to talk about? I'll start by digging in on Headlong Flight. Headlong Flight is qualified by your pop bumpers, which is advancing the big clock you see right over the left orbit. So you will slowly work your way to midnight on that clock based on the amount of pop hits you have. And you will know you have advanced an hour when your right orbit lights up yellow. And then you will get, you know, the amount of millions on based on what time it is. Like if it's eight o'clock, you get eight million. Once you qualify midnight or noon, I don't know, your right orbit will again light. But instead of being yellow, there's a little insert that just says multiball. So that is headlong flight. Headlong flight is actually the only multiball that you can stack with other multiballs. But you have to start the other multiball first. So, yeah, it is very stackable. Obviously, like you can bring a mode in as well. The mode works like you start with your right ramp and your side ramp lit all yellow. So if you hit the right ramp, I think it's your upper orbit. Is that right, Preston? Yeah, it's upper orbit, side ramp and right ramp. Yeah. So the dream combo in this game is your upper orbit to your side ramp to your main ramp. So I believe the way the scoring works is the shots are going down in value based on how long has passed. And so I believe it's 10 seconds or 5 seconds per million. So if it's been 5 seconds, it would be 11 million on the first shot. And then if you combo them, it's multiplying them. So the more you hit in sequence, the more they'll be. This multivall can be really big because you can work your shots up to around 72 million a shot. If you combo your orbit, your side ramp, and then your right ramp would be 72 million because it'd be 12 million times three because it's your third shot you fit in a row for 36. And if you have a record on it, it would be times two for 72 million. So that is it's it's very late game. But I mean, it's even a reason to multiply like a rainbow record on your right orbit, you know, multiplying, you know, nine or, you know, 11 by two is it's pretty decent points in a rush. That play is pretty hard. Does it matter where your last shot on that headlong is the right ramp? Does your rainbow record go on the right ramp or the right orbit because the right orbit is what starts the multiball? I like the right ramp just because that's your final shot. But I usually have it on the orbit anyway just because of LaVia. So I remember when we talked about what my priority shots are, my right ramp and my upper orbit were my two most important shots. And I think this is another reason, you know, that kind of combines. Okay, nice. Yeah, I want to reiterate like how great, like when Greg says like putting it on the inner orbit, he's completely right because it is like for the LaVilla combo. The LaVilla combo is so insane that if you're in the inner orbit part, it's still within the same combo. Shot value times seven times two and then times eight times two times nine times two times ten times two times eleven times two. So the last shot or the 11th shot of that combo is 22x the shot value, and the shot value is increasing as it's going on. The home run in this game is completely that, and even if you don't combo all the way through it, it's still worth a ton of points. So Tete's completely right on the inner orbit being kind of the... Uh, like, it's just so overpowered in Livia that it's, uh, if you need, like, a maximum score on the game, like, that's the way to do it. Isn't there an achievement for the 12-shot combo? Yeah. It's really not that bad. Like, if you own one, like, it's, like, if all the feeds are fine and everything and your side loop registers, you're good to go. Like, you'll find it. I think I remember Dalton had a journey to get it on stream. He was like going for the last achievement. Well, this was awesome. Is there anything left strategically you'd like to talk about in Rush or how you approach it in a competition for anybody watching? We've been given some great, great details and approaches, so I really appreciate it. But if either of you have anything left regarding this Stern masterpiece, speak now or forever hold your peace. Yeah, I mean, we didn't talk about big money, but that's one where you're kind of progressing and then you cash out on the time machine. So you can like build the time or like advance your time machine toward your first multiball, like kind of using big money. I've seen that a lot on really hard rushes. The other thing I'll say is I know we were kind of in the weeds for a lot of this episode of like very like kind of more advanced, I would say, strategies. If you are looking at like a very basic just kind of overview, I know we did one briefly at the beginning. But Ray has a video. I think it's called like Baby's First Rush or something like that. Like reference that. It's really good. It'll kind of teach you what to look for and then come back to this for like more of the advanced stuff. And both Gregory and I were kind of on like some of the social media stuff or discord and stuff like that. Like if you have any specific questions, like feel free to reach out to me. I'm always willing to like answer pinball stuff. There's a lot of other really good people at this game as well that can be a resource. It's one of those things, like if we're at a tournament even, we're always willing to talk about strategies on games. And especially this one, like we're both pretty passionate about the game and think the games develop really, really well by the team. Anything, Greg? Just to reiterate his point, like, I mean, the biggest part, you know, about pinball is, you know, the community with it. And, you know, 9 out of 10 people are, even if they're playing against you in a game, are more than likely or more than happy to, you know, maybe share some strategy. So I think that's always a great resource to have. And, you know, I know if I'm ever at an event or someone wants to message me, I'm all for it. That's awesome. Joe, do you have any questions for them? Final questions? Thoughts? Yeah, no, thank you guys so much for coming on. I've learned, I feel like, a lot about Rush. I really want to play one now and test it out and see if I can blow it up. But no, this has been great. Thank you so much. I'm kind of pissed I don't have one here because I really want to try those combos. I really want to try that spottable sweep. Yeah, we've experimented a lot with stuff. I hate hearing that and not having the ability to play one right now. This has been Wizards and Warriors Masterclass Rush. Preston, do you have anything you want to plug, anything you want to promote or say before we say goodbye? I mean, promote your local scene. I think everybody is like, you know, try to grow your local scene if you're a player and like participate in it. I know specifically in Indianapolis, we have the Tappers ICS League has done a really good job of that. Our bells and chimes Indianapolis chapter has been really good. And then one venue I think is really good in Indianapolis is Pinball as well. So I'd like to shout out all of them. How about you, Greg? I'd like to just start by saying thanks to both of you for really welcoming me on the show. I think that was really fun and something I was looking forward to doing. But I think Preston said it great. It's just like there can't be enough local pinball. One more person at an event takes, I think a great example is the eighth person, takes finals from two to four. And how much more fun is that for, honestly, everyone? More people get to qualify. There's more finals. So, I mean, really just being out there and making those relationships with people around you who also play pinball. That's what it's all about. Joe, you got anything? I'm good, man. Yeah, play more pinball, guys. That's good stuff. I appreciate you guys. Thank you for coming on. If you are a competitive player, you don't have to be top ranked. All I care about, all we care about is that you're active and you have a passion for any pin, whether it's Simpsons Pinball Party, Paragon, whatever it is, just reach out. I'd love to have you on. Thank you both so, so much for coming on to talk about this. I feel like this was an amazing evolution of the Wizards and Warriors podcast and your knowledge is deeply, deeply appreciated. So thank you, guys. We will be back with either another regular episode of Wizards and Warriors to round out the year-end results for all the tourneys. We've got Pinsonati and the Winter Bash at Atomic Pinball in Illinois. And then if not, we might have another episode of Masterclass coming up. Hope you enjoy that. But that's it. Peace, love, and pinball, guys. See you all later. Bye. The bells are ringing, I step up to the table, my heart is singing. The crowd is watching, the tension is high, I'm ready to play, it's time to defy it. Pinball warriors, we're ready to fight, the fad ball madness, it's our delight. Hoppers and flippers, we're in control, pinball wizards, we've got the soul. Pinball, and the arcades alike. With the three spotting my every command, In this pinball kingdom, I make my stand. Real-law warriors, we're ready to fight, Puppet, my band, it's our delight. Puppets and fibers, we're in control, Pinball, Wizards, we got the soul. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-08-04 | Item ID: 5c32a9ff-d100-407e-9781-96f2ff0eedf6*