Stranger Things Pinball Tutorial (Flip N Out Pinball, 2024)

Flip n Out Pinball·video·15m 32s·analyzed·Aug 13, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Detailed Stranger Things Pinball tutorial covering shots, modes, multiball, and wizard mode progression.

Summary

Joel from Flip n Out Pinball provides a comprehensive tutorial on Stranger Things Pinball by Stern, covering playfield layout, basic shots, modes (organized by season), multiball mechanics, Demogorgon/Demodog attacks, and the path to wizard modes. He emphasizes the differences between Pro and Premium models (notably the TK lock magnet mechanism), explains the season-based mode structure with color-coded inserts, and details the various memorable moments and final challenges needed to reach the game's final showdown.

Key Claims

Stranger Things has 12 modes total: six for season one (left side, orange inserts) and six for season two (right side, yellow inserts).
high confidence · Joel describes the mode layout explicitly and demonstrates hitting modes throughout the video.
The left ramp features a TK lock (magnet-based) on the Premium model that requires special handling—a pop-up ramp appears when lock is lit, and backhanding it when the lock is lit will result in a drain.
high confidence · Joel explicitly warns about this mechanic and explains the difference between Pro (safe to backhand) and Premium (requires right flipper approach when lock is lit).
The Demogorgon has a lockdown bar that provides an instant kill and can only be used once per game.
high confidence · Joel demonstrates and states: 'your lockdown bar is lit by default, and that's an instant kill. You can only do that one time per game.'
To reach the wizard mode (Final Showdown), players must complete a five-way combo consisting of: five-shot combo, TK lock, send it back (all season one modes), light the fire (all season two modes), Demogorgon (all five demogorgon attacks), and Demodog (all three demodog attacks).
high confidence · Joel explains the six-light combo requirement and each component needed to reach Final Showdown.
Completing modes perfectly awards two drawings/letters, and accumulating enough drawings provides an extra ball.
medium confidence · Joel mentions this mechanic but acknowledges uncertainty about how to perfectly complete modes: 'I actually don't know how I'm supposed to do that perfectly.'
The right ramp is described as the hardest shot in the game; Joel states he cannot backhand it though some players can.
high confidence · Direct statement from Joel: 'Right ramp, I find it to be the hardest shot in the game. I cannot backhand it.'
Mike Vinacore hides a skill shot (MXV) in Stern games, and Stranger Things contains one of these hidden skill shots.
medium confidence · Joel mentions the MXV skill shot and attributes it to Mike Vinacore: 'That's Mike Vinacore's skill shot. He always hides his skill shot in a bunch of Stern games.'

Notable Quotes

“I'm not an expert. I will share everything I know about the game, but I guarantee I will forget something, so help me out.”
Joel (Flip n Out Pinball)@ 0:17 — Establishes Joel's credibility and invites community feedback to complete the tutorial.
“The left ramp is a tricky one. In a perfect world, it goes like that, but there is definitely a difference between the pro and premium model.”
Joel@ 1:23 — Highlights a key mechanical difference between machine tiers that impacts strategy.
“If that's the case, don't backhand it. Go at it from the right flipper and it should lock that ball no problem.”
Joel@ 2:05 — Critical safety tip for Premium model play to avoid drains due to the TK lock pop-up ramp.
“Right ramp, I find it to be the hardest shot in the game. I cannot backhand it. I've never been able to backhand it on any of the versions of the game I've played.”
Joel@ 3:18 — Identifies a notoriously difficult shot and acknowledges skill variation among players.
“Your lockdown bar is lit by default, and that's an instant kill. You can only do that one time per game.”
Joel@ 11:20 — Critical strategic information about the Demogorgon battle's lockdown mechanic.
“So you just slowly work your way through there and get all the modes done. It's a very hard game but it's a very fun game, it's very immersive.”
Joel@ 14:30 — Summarizes the game's overall appeal and difficulty balance.

Entities

JoelpersonZachpersonNicolepersonMike VinacorepersonStranger Things PinballgameStern PinballcompanyFlip n Out PinballorganizationDemogorgonproductTK Lockproduct

Signals

?
community_signal: Tutorial format designed to foster community feedback and knowledge-sharing; Joel explicitly invites viewers to fill in gaps and clarify rules, suggesting organic community learning model.
high · Joel opens with: 'I guarantee I will forget something, so help me out. Leave a comment below with whatever I forget or whatever you found helpful' and closes similarly.
?
design_philosophy: Right ramp shot is identified as disproportionately difficult and appears to have inconsistent/punishing ergonomics compared to other shots; Joel cannot backhand it despite backhanding other ramps.
medium · Joel states: 'Right ramp, I find it to be the hardest shot in the game. I cannot backhand it. I've never been able to backhand it on any of the versions of the game I've played. But I do know some people can backhand that shot.'
?
design_philosophy: Stranger Things Pinball uses color-coded insert system (orange for season 1, yellow for season 2) and LCD/projector guidance to communicate mode requirements, reflecting intentional player-friendly design approach.
high · Joel repeatedly praises the insert system: 'I love the inserts because it tells you what to do rather well' and notes the projector also provides clear visual guidance.
?
product_strategy: Stern has strategically differentiated Pro and Premium models via the TK lock mechanic—Premium includes magnet-based locking with popup ramp (requires careful strategy), while Pro allows safe backhanding throughout.
high · Joel explicitly contrasts the models: 'there is definitely a difference between the pro and premium model' and demonstrates how Premium's TK lock changes the left ramp's risk/reward profile.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.047

0:00

Alright, my name is Joel and I stream on the Flippin' Out YouTube channel. Today I wanted to record a quick tutorial on Stranger Things by Stern Pinball. This happens to be the premium model that I will be playing. The goal is to continue to make these tutorials with games that Zach and Nicole let me stream, but what I will say is I'm not an expert. I will share everything I know about the game, but I guarantee I will forget something, so help me out. Leave a comment below with whatever I forget or whatever you found helpful. I would really appreciate it so we can all learn together it'll be great so let's start with just basic layout shots and layout um your normal two in lane or in lane out lane on both sides nothing crazy you can light a ball save which is that insert you do that by hitting enough of the burn it back shots so from left to right you have this scoop um that is how you activate 2x scoring which you can see that insert there that scoop once there will eject somewhere over here it depends on the game sometimes you might get lucky and it goes all the way around there but that is very much game to game on where that ejects this left shot which looks like an orbit is actually a ramp shot it's one of my favorite shots in the game it's incredibly satisfying there's a spinner there which is awesome but what i will tell you is you got to hit that shot clean because otherwise you're going to go about halfway up and it's going to come right back down. The left ramp is a tricky one. In a perfect world, it goes like that, but there is definitely a difference between the pro and premium model. On the premium model, there's the TK lock, which is right back here on the wall. How a ball locks up on that TK lock, which is a magnet, is there's a little ramp that pops up. If the ramp pops up, do not attempt to backhand that ramp. It is not going to happen. That ramp is going to pop up, it's going to go like that, and it's going to come right back down and probably drain. So you need to be aware of whether or not you've lit the lock. To light lock, you have two little stand-ups here. You can see the green inserts right in front of them will let you know whether or not you've hit them. And then this triangle right there will be the solid green. If it's solid green, that means when you hit that ramp, it is going to try to lock the ball with the magnet on the back wall. So if that's the case, don't backhand it. Go at it from the right flipper and it should lock that ball no problem if lock is not lit backhanded all day not a problem if you're playing on a pro backhanded all day it's way safer than going at it with the right flipper but it is very fun to do it's fun to see those balls lock up on the left ramp this shot right here is how you kind of do the mystery your extra ball your demodog attacks it basically hits a stand-up back here and then it hits a saucer and kind of spits out over here so it's a stop shot like it stops the ball and then it spits it out you have four drops in the middle one of them happens to be down right now those are very dangerous avoid hitting them at all costs there are some modes that you have to hit them you have to hit them down to attack the demogorgons but once you hit them down there's actually two targets behind it and then there's a hole and that's how you start the attacks on the demogorgon the ball go this way and then spit out to the left This is the burn it back shot. It's a quick loop. You have to hit that so many times, and that's how you light your first extra ball. That's also how you light 2X scoring, which is this. And that's also, I'm pretty sure, how you light your outland ball save.

3:18

Right ramp, I find it to be the hardest shot in the game. I cannot backhand it. I've never been able to backhand it on any of the versions of the game I've played. But I do know some people can backhand that shot. It is a nice shot. It feels good when you hit it. But you just got to find it. You got to find that shot. And the right the right shot over here it feels like an orbit, but it's not there's two pop bumpers back here The ball is going to go back there pop around a little bit And that's that shot and then there are targets around the play field and I can it spells. There's one here D E M O And then this one which isn even facing the flipper It right it that direction That is how you spell Demodog That's how you do the Demodog modes. So we will talk about that when we get there. So there's your basic shots and layout. Let's talk about, I'm thinking we're going to go with three M's. I swear I've heard this somewhere else, and if I have, I super apologize. But we're going to go with modes, multiball, and memorable moments or milestones. I don't know if you think of a better alliteration leave it in the comments, but we're gonna just try to remember that together So to start with modes there are 12 modes in the game if you look right here There are six modes there Those are those inserts and six modes there those correspond to season one and season two so all season one over here all Season two over there if you also also look at the inserts Orange inserts on this side yellow inserts on that side So all of season one on the left side all of season two on the right side So to start a mode you're going to hit one of the main shots three times and you can see how many times you've hit It by the inserts in front of the shot. So to explain that a little more We're gonna take a brief intermission here with the skill shot when you start the game You're gonna see that we have a scrolling arrow on the drop targets If you hit the scrolling arrow you plunge into it. Boom. That's one of the skill shots The other skill shot, which is very difficult, is you have to perfectly land the ball over there. There's a third skill shot, the MXV skill shot. I don't know what it is. Leave it in the comments. If you do, that's Mike Vinacore's skill shot. He always hides his skill shot in a bunch of Stern games. So, let's say I did plunge, and I hypothetically landed it perfectly in that scoop. You will see right above me the super skill shot. That's how you start the game. But really what I wanted to show is if you look, we have flashing inserts. That shows on all four of these major shots. We have not hit any of them. So let's go ahead and hit nothing. Let's hit that ramp. What we'll see now is this one's solid. That's indicating we hit it one time. So if I hit that again, we've now hit it two times, which makes that solid. If you want to change your mode, if I hit that ramp one more time, I would be starting Morris Code. If I did it over here with the orange shots, I'd be starting Bullies. So if you want to change your mode you want to hit it back into the pops the pop bumpers are what changed your modes You can see I actually only hit the pop bumper for the yellow side that one did not change So we're gonna play turn up the heat Actually, what I want to show you is by default if you hit the mystery award It will give you a shot. That's only for your first two modes So it gave me that third shot it realized I needed to do that When you're playing a season two modes the mode shots are gonna be yellow When you're playing the Season 1 mode, the mode shots are going to be orange. So they definitely tell you what to do. You can see at the very top of the LCD screen a red progress bar based on shots. The projector on the Pro and Premium also do a really good job telling you what to do or what to hit. Make sure when you're hitting ramps that you scroll the insert lights so you fill them up. If you do a mode perfectly, every mode has like a perfect way to beat the mode.

11:44

Your fourth mode is how you get into total isolation. Other things I wanna show you, Demodog. If you spell D-E-M-O-D-O, the only one I've missed is G, you light Demodog Attack. Demodog Attack, if you hit back there, that's what I just started. Demodog attack is all about target hits. So you want to continue to hit those targets over and over again. This mode is challenging. It basically locks you out from doing pretty much anything else. What I will say is you can work on progress for burn it back shots. That's how you get your extra ball. So you see right there, light three more for extra ball. otherwise you can work on trying to attack the um the demogorgon um or you can actually try to play the mode but as you can see to get back to that oh shot super dangerous um but yeah this is how i would get into my second demogorgon battle second demogorgon battle is two demogorgons um what i want to show you here is first one i'm just going to hit my lock button boom that killed the first one gone i can only do that once per game though and then i have to bop him a handful of times this is a two ball multi-ball though so you can start this while in a mode so if you're smart you'll use that to towards your to your advantage to get through the so that was me hitting in the mouth that's two demogorgons gone um that might be about it what i will say is um things to work on would be your five-way combo you got to do all six of these things to get the final showdown so five-way combo uh you got a string five awesome shots together tk lock pretty easy you just got to start at once this one right here send it back means you've played all of season one's mode light the fire means you've played all of season two's mode Demogorgon means you've played all five Demogorgons and then Demodog means you've played all three Demodogs. If you can do all those things, boom, you're good to go. Do be aware of the two times X scoring. That happens when you hit enough burn it back shots. You can start that. It's worth double the points. Otherwise, basically the way you're going to get through the game is you're going to do all four modes, total isolation. Once you're through there, all four modes again, total isolation two and then you're going to do two modes on one side to do a wizard mode two modes on the other side to do a wizard mode that means you've done all all you've done both of those so all 12 modes and then you got to make sure you've hopefully gotten through demodog and the door get demogorgons on the way you will definitely have done tk lock at some point or tk multi-wall and then you got to get that five-way combo it's a very hard game but it's a very fun game it's very immersive i think it's relatively easy to understand i love the inserts because it tells you what to do rather well and um yeah hopefully that explained a lot if i forgot anything or missed anything leave it in the comments um but yeah go enjoy this game both the pro and premium are awesome and i hope you guys have enjoyed the topper up there in the upper corner um so yeah have a great time