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#8 - The Best TMNT Playing Strategy (1.21 Code)

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·20m 18s·analyzed·Aug 27, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Optimal TMNT strategy: pick Raphael, complete Episode 4, maximize Ninja Pizza multiball with octopus toppings and spinner grinding.

Summary

A detailed gameplay strategy guide for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball (1.21 code), focusing on optimal character selection (Raphael), episode sequencing, and the critical Ninja Pizza multiball strategy. The host emphasizes spinner grinding during multiball with octopus toppings and 2x playfield multiplier as the highest-value scoring method, capable of generating 5 million points per spinner hit and enabling 100+ million total scores.

Key Claims

  • Raphael is the best character choice because episodes are immediately lit without needing to hit ramps first

    high confidence · Host directly states this is their tested approach as of August 24 on 1.11 code (competition install)

  • Ninja Pizza multiball with octopus toppings and 2x playfield multiplier generates the vast majority of points in the game

    high confidence · Host emphasizes 'all the points in the game are at' in this multiball and demonstrates math: 126,000 per spinner hit × repeated spins = 5 million per multiball session

  • Spinner hits with maxed frenzy reach 35,000 base points, increased to 42,000 with Level 3 training (+20%), then 126,000 with 3x multiplier

    high confidence · Host provides explicit mathematical breakdown of scoring multipliers

  • Episode 4 (Night of the Mousers) completion bonus in Team Up multiball spots return lane shots, enabling safe left-ramp-only strategy

    high confidence · Host details specific mechanical benefit and how it reduces risk for average players

  • New code update (expected soon) will remove requirement to start new episodes to relight April and Lair targets

    medium confidence · Host states 'from what I hear' and frames as future code change, not yet confirmed

  • Escher Lefkoff achieved 760+ million on TMNT

    high confidence · Host cites specific score as reference point for god-tier play

  • LE vs Pro main difference is glider diverter control for managing left ramp returns

    high confidence · Host confirms this is specific gameplay consequence of hardware difference

  • Host's best Lair shot success rate is 38% from right flipper alone, 50% using left flipper post-pass method

    high confidence · Host provides personal performance data to justify strategy choice

  • 2x playfield multiplier timer is approximately 30 seconds but extends with each spinner hit

Notable Quotes

  • “I love figuring it out. I love figuring out exactly how to just totally destroy a pin, how to dominate it, how to beat it into submission”

    Host @ ~1:45 — Establishes host's design philosophy for strategy content: mastery through understanding

  • “If you can stay under control and you can just keep ripping it over and over and over again, you'll see your scores go up”

    Host @ ~37:00 — Core strategic thesis: spinner grinding is the optimal path to high scores

  • “This is legitimately where all the points are at”

    Host @ ~15:30 — Emphasizes centrality of Ninja Pizza multiball to overall game economy

  • “You can pretty much ignore the modes completely too and be able to get 100 million point games just from doing that”

    Host @ ~20:45 — Stark statement about game balance: mode play is secondary to spinner grinding strategy

  • “He's on god-tier level. So the rest of us mere mortals, if you get over 100 million, that's really good”

    Host @ ~9:15 — Contextualizes Escher Lefkoff's 760M score and establishes realistic benchmarks for typical players

  • “Make sure you get 2X lit while you're in multiball, rip spinner all day. That's the easiest way.”

    Host @ ~38:30 — Distilled strategic summary; represents core gameplay recommendation

  • “Gummy bears adds a ball. That's not in this, in competition install. But you do have on your active ingredients starting out that octopus, and that's so darn important because it starts your frenzy.”

    Host @ ~13:00 — Clarifies competition vs default install differences; explains why octopus topping is critical

  • “I don't hit it often. The best that I've done so far is legitimately about 38 for 100. So a 38% shot rate at my best which is not very good whereas I'm 50-50 on just flipping it up there.”

    Host — Demonstrates willingness to optimize for consistency over difficulty; data-driven strategy

Entities

Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesgameRaphaelproductNinja Pizza MultiballproductEscher LefkoffpersonStern PinballcompanyNight of the MousersproductTeam Up MultiballproductTurtle Power MultiballproductTraining ModeproductA Pinball Podcastorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Host establishes performance tiers: 30-50 million typical grand champion for home machines, 100+ million considered excellent, 760+ million attributed to elite players like Escher Lefkoff

    medium · Grand champion scores on their home at 30 to 50 million... if you get over 100 million, that's really good... Escher Lefkoff got 760-some-odd million... he's on god-tier level

  • ?

    community_signal: Host produces educational strategy content and references separate roadmapping episode, indicating content series structure for player education

    medium · Check out that podcast, listen in because I've got a little bit more information over there... this episode will assume is that you already know how to play Ninja Turtles

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Spinner grinding during Ninja Pizza multiball with octopus toppings and 2x multiplier identified as dominant strategy, making traditional mode completion and jackpot play economically suboptimal

    high · All the points in the game are at... you can pretty much ignore the modes completely... just hit the spinner at will... 5 million points per multiball session

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Game balance appears heavily weighted toward single-shot spinner grinding; mode play and jackpot collection are low-value activities by comparison

    high · Let them play out their modes... For what? For 30,000 points... we don't care about a 250,000 point completion bonus... what we care about is working that spinner... 1 million per hit or 5 million per hit

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Host emphasizes understanding game sequences and shot routing as prerequisite for efficient play; accuracy and consistency prioritized over flashy play

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.061

0:00
All right, welcome back, guys, to another episode of A Pinball Podcast. And today we are going to talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles some more. But this time we're not going to discuss the issues that's been going on with it, the play field issues, node board issues, glider issues. We did that in a previous podcast, and I know that a lot of other people are talking about it right now. And we'll just put that to bed right now. To me, there's no need to keep talking about it because everybody else is. and we'll let them just, I hope CERN figures it out eventually. I really do. But besides that, let's go ahead and talk about, you know, just how to play this pin. I think that's very important, just kind of going over exactly how I like to approach it. Because after all, I would like to think the reason why we all buy pinball isn't just to have them on in the background like I do right now and just to leave them on and just stare at them. I'd like to think that we actually do try to play them. And for me personally, I love playing in tournaments, but one of the things I really love doing with pinball is I love figuring it out. I love figuring out exactly how to just totally destroy a pin, how to dominate it, how to beat it into submission, how to get to wizard mode, and how to do things efficiently. That's kind of how I like to approach things. Now, in terms of Ninja Turtles, what we're going to discuss today is a good approach at playing it. I'm not going to give the exact roadmap on it because quite frankly, I'm still developing that a little bit. And there's new code that's going to come out anytime now that's going to slightly alter even what I'm going to tell you today. Although we can pretty much, I'll explain what that is, what I believe it's going to be. And basically, you know, in terms of roadmapping, be sure after this, check out that podcast, listen in because I've got a little bit more information over there, so I'm not going to go over exactly what road mapping is in this episode. What this episode will assume is that you already know how to play Ninja Turtles or that you have a working knowledge of Ninja Turtles. So that being said, a large portion of this too is it's not really relative whether you're playing an LE or a pro. Truth be told, the main difference of that is is just being able to control the diverter, which is the glider, and I can control whether or not my left ramp is going to actually return back to my left flipper. That does play a big deal in terms of getting episodes set up or getting lit again. And that does play a big deal too if you understand the sequences in order to complete a particular episode, such as if I want to go from my right flipper to my left ramp, but then I also wanted to return back to my right flipper so I could hit the left orbit. and from there I know that post will come up and so it'll come back to my upper flipper and then I can complete the shot on the center ramp but wait there's more because sometimes it might still come back to the left flipper and then I can complete whatever shot I need to on the right ramp or the right orbit slash spinner shot take a breath see what I mean it's important that you know your sequences because you can go over these things in your head and when you know where the next shot is going to be, that's when you can play on the fly, and that's when you can play on the fly efficiently, especially if you're accurate, especially if you're accurate. Now, if you're not accurate, then I don't know how good that'll do for you, but it's important to know those types of sequences. That being said, you can set up different sequences according to an LE and a pro. We're not going to go over that today, but that's just a great example of what you can do, and we will do that in the future. All right, so that's enough talking. We're about four minutes into this, so we might as well get on with it, and I'll tell you guys exactly how to blow up Ninja Turtles. So what I like to do is I like to pick Raphael. And again, somebody might have a better way to do this. This is the best way that I have figured out based on taking the glass off, hitting switches, playing different characters and everything. As of right now, as of the code being 1.11, I hope it's 1.11. I think that's what it is right now. as of today, August 24th, I like using Raphael. The reason being, as soon as I choose Raphael as my turtle, the episodes are lit. I can go ahead and start my episode immediately. I don't have to hit the ramps. So from there, depending on what the episode is, I will either play out that episode, right? Or I will take safe shots that I just wanted to come back to the flipper and I'm just avoiding lighting my multi-ball, starting any multi-ball or anything like that. Typically what can happen is, is because you're starting your episode, you might also end up locking a ball at the same time because that's where you can have your ball lock. The other thing, I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but just to be clear, this is on competition install. This isn't on default. So if something's slightly different, that's why.

medium confidence · Host notes personal experience differs from stated timer duration

  • 100+ million is considered excellent home play score; 30-50 million is typical grand champion threshold for home machines

    medium confidence · Host provides community context for scoring expectations but not verified data

    • @ ~11:30

    high · It's important that you know your sequences... when you know where the next shot is going to be, that's when you can play on the fly... especially if you're accurate

  • ?

    product_strategy: LE vs Pro distinction on TMNT primarily mechanical (glider diverter for left ramp control) rather than thematic or content-based

    high · The main difference of that is is just being able to control the diverter, which is the glider... That does play a big deal in terms of getting episodes set up

  • ?

    product_concern: Host acknowledges ongoing playfield, node board, and glider issues with TMNT but deliberately deprioritizes discussion; suggests these are widespread community complaints

    high · We're not going to discuss the issues that's been going on with it, the play field issues, node board issues, glider issues... I hope CERN figures it out eventually.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Upcoming code change will remove requirement to start new episodes to relight April and Lair targets, potentially altering progression strategy

    medium · From what I hear, you don't have to start new episodes in order to relight the April and the Lair targets... the new code update might undo this

    • 4:58
    So from there what I like to do is again I either play out my mode or I won It depends what the mode is The one mode I want to guarantee myself that I will play out is Episode 4 which is Night of the Mousers That's the Baxter 1 mode. That's his very first one or the first episode. And this is important for a major reason. And a major reason for this is, quite frankly, this episode is easy to complete. Okay? but each episode also gives you a completion bonus that you can use in your team up multi-ball so for those scoring at home team up multi-ball can come after you have played through four episodes and it's very important to get to this point because it is where you can grind out some more points i've had some team ups that have equaled out to 40 clear up to 60 million on their own by utilizing this. And so what I like to do, if I get an eye of the Mousers, I'll play it out. You can hit the targets, spot your shots. You can hit ramps. You can hit orbits. Basically everything's lit. And this is also a great episode to bring into multi-ball. My preference is, is I want episode four to set up with a multi-ball, which would be our Ninja Pizza multi-ball. That's my preference to do. Because obviously, the more balls that are out there, the easier it is to complete the mode. Okay? So that's very important right there. If you can, set it up by hitting the pizza targets, which will change the mode that's lit. So sometimes if episode four is lit on ball one, I'll go ahead and just hit a pizza target and change the episode. No harm done. That's often what I'll do. I don't like taking episode four on its own. So we go on from there. Let's say we're done with our first mode. From there, I'll really start focusing in on getting the next mode lit, but I'll also focus in on hitting the lair shot here and there. I want to get my training lit, and this is assuming I'm going to blow up the game. This isn't a tournament strategy. This is I'm wanting to show off, go for broke, leave my initials somewhere. I'm wanting to put up over 100 million on this pin, which is an incredible score on this. Now, I saw that Escher Lefkoff got 760-some-odd million or something like that, but he's on god-tier level. So the rest of us mere mortals, if you get over 100 million, that's really good. That's really good, and that's what we're aiming for right here.
    7:40
    Thus, I will go ahead and get Lair ready, hit the target. I think it's like four or five times at that point. And then that's when I'll want to go into the layer shot underneath the upper flipper in order to start training for my level two Raphael. As everybody knows that shot, it's brick city. So an easy way that you can get there, simply get it on your left flipper, do a little flip and you'll see the ball roll up the end lane, come back to your flipper and then you can just flick it up and you can backhand it. That's how I found is the easiest way to do this. I've done the layer shot on its own just from the right flipper and it's quite frankly just as frustrating as the Raza right ramp was for me. I don't hit it often. The best that I've done so far is legitimately about 38 for 100. So a 38% shot rate at my best which is not very good whereas I'm 50-50 on just flipping it up there. So I just choose just to do that plus it's a lot easier to post pass from the right to the left. So once you get that started, of course, you're going to hit the right ramp and then the left ramp in order to finish out your training, basically. And that will get you to, I believe it's 2x crane combo, which is not important at all. We don't care about that for this. What we do care about is getting to our next episode now. And this is where I said earlier that, you know, the new code update might undo this because from what I hear, you don't have to start new episodes in order to relight the April and the Lair targets, which would be really important because it kind of takes away that progression or any reason to really go through your progression necessarily. But for now, before that code's out, we're going to just say, you got to get to the next episode. And from here, for me, it doesn't really matter what episode I'm doing. Although there are some that are easier. I just find, I just want to go ahead and get it started. I'm not worried about moving the episodes or anything like that. Again, if I'm on episode four, I'm going to go ahead and take my multi-ball right around this point. And this is really, and we're talking about the ninja pizza multi-ball that's below the turtle van or in that pizza parlor. And this is your most important multi-ball right here. This is the most important time in the whole game, especially early on, if you're going to absolutely blow it up. And here's why.
    9:58
    So we're going to say, let's act like that we're in night of the mouths. There's episode four, all the shots are lit and let say we starting to start our multi The good news is and you want to keep this in mind for this multi is that you don well I say this is good news you will not be able to collect any gummy bears. Gummy bears adds a ball. That's not in this, in competition install. But you do have on your active ingredients starting out that octopus, and that's so darn important because it starts your frenzy. And this is where all the points in the game as of today, as of right now, this is legitimately where all the points are at. So once you start this mode and you have, or once you start your multiball and you have octopus toppings,
    10:49
    you want to basically focus in on getting your 2x lit from there. Okay? And this works even better, even more important with Raphael. if you can hold off on this multi-ball and you can get to your level three training you add an x on top of your playfield x so basically 3x i believe is what it becomes which is so much more important i'm going to tell you why because we're going to go over these numbers and it's all going to make sense so we're in multi-ball and then we're going to assume that we're trying to get 2x running that means we got to keep complete layer the layer targets until that 2x lights that's up towards It's in the middle of the play field on the north side right by the pizza parlor. You'll see it marked by an insert.
    11:33
    And what you want to do from there, you're going to go ahead and hit that target. That's going to start your 2X. It's going to light it. And then from there, you are going to hit the right spinner on that right orbit until you drain, until you can't do it anymore, until you just pass out from sheer boredom or you get a cramp in your hands and you can't do it anymore. It is by far the most optimal play that you can do. Eventually, that switch frenzy will work its way up from, I believe it starts out at 3,000 per hit, and eventually it will max out at 35,000 points.
    12:11
    Thus, when you hit that spinner, if you're ripping it really well, you're going to be anywhere between 850 clear up to 1.2 million per spin usually. I stay right around there when it's maxed out.
    12:25
    And what's even better is for any mode or, sorry, for any training that you do, it adds a percentage on.
    12:38
    So if you get to 3X training, you're going to be adding 20% to your total base score, which basically will raise that 35K ceiling up to 40 or that 35K base. or see no 35k is basically losing my mind here that he'll raise the 35k ceiling to 42 000 so you'll be able to max out your frenzy at 42 000 and that's just the base now you bring the multiplier into it which is a 3x that'll take it up to 126 000 so is this all starting to make sense so on its own without any multipliers it would be 35 000 with the multipliers it would start rising up a little bit more. It changes it around a little bit. It adds on 10% whenever you finish training too. So all this is important to bring this together. And thus, when you bring it up to with the 3x multiplier, it becomes worth $126,000 per switch hit. Okay. Doesn't sound like much until you realize when you rip that spinner over and over and over again, your scores become about 5 million points. That is massive in a game in which people have grand champion scores on their home at 30 to 50 million.
    14:03
    And you can legitimately just hit the spinner at will. If you can play under control, if you can play trapped up, you hit the spinner at will, you're good to go.
    14:12
    I mean, you could absolutely just keep at it, keep at it, keep at it. And you can pretty much ignore the modes completely too and be able to get 100 million point games just from doing that you honestly can i've done it a few times at the very least like i pointed out on a facebook group you can pretty much guarantee that you'll at least be consistent at 30 40 50 million i mean you will be if you can dial it in and you can perform these things in order that's pretty much where you where you'll get to all right so the other part is and kind of circling back a little bit a big reason why I want to make sure that I complete episode four of Night of the Mousers is because whenever you do get into team up multi-ball you will have basically a lot of the shots lit in which you need to hit x amount of shots I can't even remember I wish I knew the exact answer because I'm trying to tell you guys this information but basically you gotta hit a certain amount of shots and that light a turtle in which you you save the turtle Whichever one you not so we Raphael that means we going to save Leonardo we going to save Donatello and we going to save Michelangelo That's the idea of it, is to rescue the three other turtles and complete the moat. well if you complete episode 4 the completion power up for it or the benefit of that is that the return lanes will spot a shot that is insanely important especially considering all we have to do then the whole entire time you're in team up all you do is hit the left ramp over and over and over again spot your shots until a turtle's lit, hit the turtle, hit the ramp over and over and over again until another turtle's lit, hit that turtle, save them, then you're back to left ramp over and over and over again.
    16:05
    Realistically, that's really all you have to do, and it's relatively safe. If you are an average pinball player, you should at least be able to scratch out a decent amount of points just playing multiball like this. If you're an above-average pinball player, you will raise your scores up considerably overnight just by doing this and like i said as of right now as of the current code this all works and just the expected value out of these points is so much higher by utilizing your multipliers utilizing your switch hits utilizing the correct toppings utilizing the correct turtle this is by far the easiest way for people to really scratch out points. Now, there is some meta in it that if you're going to go deep, deep, deep into the game, other turtles might be more beneficial, maybe, depending on how you're going to play it, but I mean, that's, it's a stretch, though. As of right now, Raphael, to me, just for this particular strategy, I think it's the best way to go. You know, I don't worry about the jackpots at all and even if you're playing on default and you have gummies added on for the add a ball it's still so much more important to to make sure that you do have octopus on your toppings and to keep in mind too the way that you make sure you have octopus on there if you're playing on default and not on any competition because sometimes i don't think it maybe it does I haven't played it enough, but if it doesn't start off as an active topping, then you just hit one of those pizza targets and that will keep moving the toppings and waiting over to your active toppings that aren't locked. And again, anytime you lock a ball, you're locking in a topping. So keep that in mind and you'll know which ones are unlocked based off your green, the little green triangle, or not triangle, the green outline that's on that topping. So that's ultimately what you want to look for right there. And again, training is so dang important because each level increases your overall score. Anything that you score, it increases. Level two is 10%. Level three is 20%. Level four is 30%. So there is value in that, especially if you're running a 2x play field, especially if you're running a 3x multiplier because you have the added benefit of level three Raphael. And that's all I got today. That's, I mean, that's the way to do it. So, you know, if you got to listen to this all over again, if I was all over the place, I apologize again, easiest way, octopus toppings, right? Make sure you get two X lit while you're in multiball rip spinner all day. There you go. That's the easiest way. And this works in Ninja pizza. It does not work in turtle power multiball, which is on your right ramp. Doesn't really work in team up multiball either. Doesn't work on wizard modes or anything like that. This is strictly Ninja Pizza multiball. Make sure, again, last time we'll say this, octopus on the toppings. Get your 2X play field lit. Get it going, and then rip the right spinner. And technically, 2X, from my understanding, is only supposed to last about 30 seconds. My timers have always had it going for at least a minute and 15 seconds. All you got to do to keep the 2X going is just hit it again. It'll restart the timer all over again. Other than that, if you can stay under control and you can just keep ripping it over and over and over again, you'll see your scores go up. You will knock down your high scores. You'll basically shock anybody that you're playing. Let them go ahead and hit jackpots all day long. Let them play out their modes and put the ball in danger for what? For 30,000 points. No, we're not looking for 30, 35, 50,000 points. We don't even care about a 250,000 point completion bonus of an episode. what we care about is is working that spinner upwards of 1 million per per hit or 5 million per hit that's what we're looking for so hopefully that works if you guys have any questions just leave a comment below i'll be sure and answer it i'll be more than happy to help other than that have fun chasing that grand champion score you guys take care and i'll see you guys later