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The Mandalorian Pinball Tutorial (Flip N Out Pinball, 2025)

Flip n Out Pinball·video·19m 0s·analyzed·Apr 5, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Complete tutorial for Stern's Mandalorian Premium pinball covering layout, modes, multiball, and wizard progression.

Summary

Joel Engelberth provides a comprehensive rules tutorial for Stern Pinball's The Mandalorian Premium machine, designed by Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan. The tutorial covers playfield layout, mission progression, multiball modes, power-ups (Beskar currency), encounters, and the path to the wizard mode 'This Is The Way,' emphasizing the game's complexity and stacking potential. Engelberth demonstrates cooperative and challenge modes, and highlights the topper's Mandalorian Madness feature and Beskar Bonanza mechanic.

Key Claims

  • The Mandalorian is designed by Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan

    high confidence · Joel states this at the beginning of the tutorial and it is consistent with public record.

  • The game features a fan layout with main shots halfway up the playfield

    high confidence · Joel explicitly describes the playfield layout as a fan layout and identifies shot positions relative to the playfield.

  • Premium and LE versions feature a motorized upper playfield that moves up and down with two full-size flippers; Pro version does not

    high confidence · Joel clearly differentiates the three tier variants: 'On the Premium and LE, there's a whole separate upper playfield that moves up and down with two full-size flippers up there... On the Pro, that is not up there.'

  • Five missions lead to 'I Like Those Odds' mini-wizard mode; three Razor Crest multiballs lead to 'Precious Cargo' mini-wizard mode; three encounters lead to 'You Have What I Want' mini-wizard mode; completing all leads to final wizard mode 'This Is The Way'

    high confidence · Joel describes the progression structure visible on the playfield display and demonstrates advancing through the modes.

  • Mandalorian Madness is qualified by completing six specific tasks: complete an encounter, get a super jackpot in multiball, complete a mission, beat a hunter mode, finish a scope, and complete an ambush

    high confidence · Joel reads the six requirements from the topper and explains the visual indication system.

  • Beskar is the in-game currency earned primarily through hunter modes, spent at the Foundry scoop for power-ups

    high confidence · Joel demonstrates the Foundry menu and explains Beskar acquisition and spending mechanics.

  • The game supports multiple play modes including co-op, impossible play, monster play, team play, and challenge mode selectable via holding the action button before start

    high confidence · Joel demonstrates this feature and explains each mode's mechanics and benefits.

Notable Quotes

  • “This is a Brian Eddy, Dwight Sullivan game. It's very complex. I mean, it's easy to understand. There's just a lot going on that can all go on at once.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 0:28 — Sets expectations for tutorial complexity; identifies designers.

  • “A lot of people feel like this game is fast and dangerous because it is. But yeah, it's a fan layout.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 0:56 — Characterizes game difficulty and playfield layout philosophy.

  • “That post right there is deadly. You will find it. It will make you mad. But yeah, it's there. You'll find it. You'll learn to love it or hate it.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 2:04 — Calls out a specific playfield hazard as notable/frustrating design element.

  • “I love that when it comes to the progress of the game, it's very easily communicated right there in the middle of the play field.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 4:20 — Praises game communication/UX design, calls out Brian Eddy's design philosophy of communicating game state via inserts.

  • “Most Dwight games, you go ramp, ramp. That's how you get a mode.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 5:54 — References Dwight Sullivan's signature design pattern, establishing designer style recognition in the community.

  • “So I always pick light extra ball if I can”

    Joel Engelberth@ 12:42 — Reveals strategic priority for power-up selection in foundry menu.

Entities

Joel EngelberthpersonThe Mandalorian PremiumgameBrian EddypersonDwight SullivanpersonStern PinballcompanyFlip n Out PinballorganizationZach and NicolepersonStar Wars: The Mandalorianproduct

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Joel's streaming and tutorial content represents community educational efforts, with structured video walkthroughs and live Wednesday night gameplay sessions aimed at teaching newer players.

    high · Joel introduces: 'I stream every Wednesday night with my brother from 10 to midnight Eastern Standard Time. And so feel free to come check us out live' and presents comprehensive tutorial structured by layout, rules, modes, and mechanics.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Brian Eddy's approach emphasizes clear communication of game state and progress through insert placement on the playfield, making complex games more navigable for players.

    high · Joel states: 'One thing you will definitely find is that I love about brian eddie games he he communicates well with inserts' and praises the center progress display: 'I love that when it comes to the progress of the game, it's very easily communicated right there in the middle of the play field.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dwight Sullivan has a signature 'ramp, ramp' mode entry pattern across his games, establishing recognizable designer style in the community.

    high · Joel states: 'Most Dwight games, you go ramp, ramp. That's how you get a mode.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: The Mandalorian is characterized as a high-complexity, fast-paced game with substantial stacking potential where multiple systems (missions, multiballs, encounters, power-ups) can run concurrently, requiring skilled play to manage.

    high · Joel describes: 'It's very complex. I mean, it's easy to understand. There's just a lot going on that can all go on at once' and 'There's a whole lot that can stack and go over top of each other.'

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.057

0:00
Hello, my name is Joel Engelberth and this is the Flippin' Out YouTube channel. I stream every Wednesday night with my brother from 10 to midnight Eastern Standard Time. And so feel free to come check us out live. And just last night we were actually playing this game. This is the Mandalorian Premium Pinball Machine by Stern Pinball. And yeah, we had a ton of fun with this. So please, yeah, check us out live. Check out the past recordings. But you know what? I'm going to do the best I can to give you a tutorial on this game. This is a Brian Eddy, Dwight Sullivan game. It's very complex. I mean, it's easy to understand. There's just a lot going on that can all go on at once. So I will do my best to try to break this down and give the best tutorial I can for you to try to understand what you're doing in this game. So I will start off the tutorial like I normally do, which lets do a quick layout or show the layout of the game. One thing you're going to see is all the main shot into the game are basically halfway up the play field. So a lot of people feel like this game is fast and dangerous because it is. But yeah, it's a fan layout. And once you find the shots, you can really start to flow and get your way through it. There are in-lane, out-lane. You can light or buy the ability to light the out-lane ball save. So nothing crazy there. You're going to use the left in-lane for scope. And then that's one of the ways you can start hunter mode as well as start hunter on the right. I will get into that. There are three stand-up targets here. That's how you light hunter. There are two stand-up targets over here. That's how you do the Boba Fett playfield multiplier, which I will get into. Left and right orbit. There's a spinner on the left. Nothing crazy there. There is a magnet up there that Grogu can stop the ball and then send the ball down one of five lanes. That's how you do your mystery award.
1:42
Then you have this scoop. The scoop, incredibly important. That's the foundry. That's the store. That's how you buy your power-ups. You're going to want to find that shot as well as that's where you get your extra ball and start your missions. A lot of missions end on that shot. So you're definitely going to want to find that. One thing you will definitely find is that post right there. That post right there is deadly. You will find it. It will make you mad. But yeah, it's there. You'll find it. You'll learn to love it or hate it. The left ramp feeds all the way around. The left ramp is actually what also feeds the upper playfield. On the Premium and LE, there's a whole separate upper playfield that moves up and down with two full-size flippers up there. Up there, there are six stand-up targets that you're going to hit to get through the encounters, and I will try to show those off. On the Pro, that is not up there. It's just part of the play field down at the bottom, and there's just one flipper to hit those six stand-up targets.

  • “Co-op's awesome. You and everybody else that are playing, you're gonna share your progress. So this is a very long game. There's a lot to do in this game.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 17:04 — Highlights cooperative mode value and game length, positioning it as feature for long play sessions.

  • “Embrace the journey. Try to accomplish all the different tasks to work your way all the way to the end to This Is The Way.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 18:11 — Final thematic message reflecting game's philosophical framing around progression and completion.

    • product_strategy: The Mandalorian Premium and LE include motorized upper playfield with two flippers; Pro tier lacks this feature entirely. This represents significant mechanical differentiation between tier variants.

    high · Joel explicitly states: 'On the Premium and LE, there's a whole separate upper playfield that moves up and down with two full-size flippers up there. On the Pro, that is not up there. It's just part of the play field down at the bottom, and there's just one flipper to hit those six stand-up targets.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: The game supports multiple cooperative and competitive play modes (co-op, impossible play, monster play, team play, challenge mode) accessible via pre-start button hold, enabling varied difficulty and social play experiences.

    high · Joel demonstrates and explains: 'If you push and hold the action button before you start a game. So let's push and hold, you can choose your mode of play. So co-op, co-op's awesome... Impossible play makes everything way harder... Monster play... Then you can do team plays... And then this the challenge mode...'

    • 2:38
    We have the Razor Crest, the Razor Crest model, and below that model, there's a dangly target. You're going to hit that, and that's going to go this way. That's how you actually start the Razor Crest multi-balls. There's three of them in the game. So I will show that off then you have the Horseshoe shot and what's unique on the pro the premium and le is there's a scoop here that actually drops down during certain parts of the game where you that's where you get your jackpot or you Scope or ambush and that actually that ball then will go up here on the wire form and then feed over to the left side So pretty cool shot that is different on the premium and le then you have there's two little stand-ups here for playfield multipliers and then here you go is the right ramp you can backhand that shot and yeah it's nice quick little horseshoe or turnaround ramp that'll feed the right flipper and that's about it so it's not a crazy layout it's easy to understand once you start playing but it can be brutal but that's what makes it fun so now that's out of the way let's talk rules let's talk rules few things I want to point out first uh if you look right here in the middle this is what i love about brian eddie games he he communicates well with inserts so there are five missions once you do all five missions that's how you get to i like those odds there are three razor crest multi balls once you do all three that's how you get to precious cargo cargo that mini wizard mode and they're in three encounters once you do all three encounters that's how you get to you have what i want once you've done all that, that's how you get to the final wizard mode. This is the way right there in the middle. So it's nice. I love that when it comes to the progress of the game, it's very easily communicated right there in the middle of the play field. Another thing I want to point out is actually up there, I have the topper on this game and the topper does a really cool effect. It looks awesome in person. I'm trying to get it on camera. With the topper, there's something called Mandalorian Madness And to do that there six things you have to qualify You can see them in the upper left there six individual pieces those six things are complete an encounter get a super jackpot in one of the multi balls complete a mission then you have to beat a hunter mode you have to finish a scope and you have to complete an ambush once you've done those six things that'll qualify mandalorian madness so i'll try to show that off because i don't think a lot of people have seen that the other thing is there's a there's a constant best car um it keeps track of all the best car earned on this game and once it gets to i think 20 000 best car there's like it's like best car bonanza or something like that um it's crazy it's crazy it gives you all the foundry stuff it's just a crazy thing so what's cool about that is if you're ever on location and somebody happens to have this this topper and you see that the best car bar is almost filled try to fill that up and then enjoy that crazy Beskar motor. So there's a secret skill shot and a super skill shot in this. I will show that off, but for the sake of just trying to keep things understandable, I'm just going to do a short punch here just to get the ball in play. And we're going to focus first on modes. Most Dwight games, you go ramp, ramp. That's how you get a mode. So there's one ramp and then two ramps. And then we hit the scoop here and that's how we start our mode. What is cool about the first two modes though is the scoops will also count as a ramp So you theoretically could hit the scoop three times and you'd be in a mode once you're in a mode You want to hit yellow shots? another thing that I've done is I actually lit my first encounter my encounter on the left ramp because
    6:26
    Because that's all I have to do to get the first encounter going so here I am I'm just hitting yellow shots got through the first phase and then we're going to hit a few more yellow shots here. I was, I don't need to skip through the, ah, we'll skip through some of the animations. They, they did a great job getting film assets for this. So there we go. There's one, two. Okay. And that's it. Now that I have a solid light, I have beat that mode. And if you look up at the topper, I have a yellow block up there. So that means I beat the topper part of the moon. So now that I've done that let's focus on multi-ball. Why not? So multi-ball is a certain number of hits right up the middle. So there's one, there's two, there's three, and then you'll see now I have solid arrows here in the middle which means the next shot I hit will start the multi-ball. I would start the number one multi-ball. That's spiders. If you want to change multi-ball you hit the Boba Fett targets over here so that would go to the second one the third one so there's pirates and then there's uh i forget the names but we're gonna go ahead and do spiders i gotta hit it clean which is it's hard to throw the ball in this game because the wire forms of the way there we go so now that i'm playing spiders i want to talk about one of the power-ups one of the power-ups that's lit by default and you'll see the power-ups over here on the left is I have flamethrower lit by default. So flamethrower doubles the value of every shot. So I'm going to push and hold that and you're going to see the lights go right to left. So now they're all flashing. So let me go ahead and you have to hit every single one of these purple shots. But because I used my flamethrower, they're all worth 2x. So that one, there we go. work our way across now remember i'm in multi-ball right now i'm just holding the other two this this ramp is the hardest one for me to hit uh you can get additional value up there um but i'm gonna go ahead and ignore it my super jackpot is lit let me go ahead and hit it and boom i've hit it if you look at my my towards my mandalorian madness i now have a green shot up there. So I'm looking good. You can keep hitting this jackpot for a certain period of time. And that's what a lot of tournament players go with this multi-ball, but they bring in all the playfield multipliers, which I still have to explain. So I'm going to drop down to one. So we have finished that multi-ball solid. You can also see that on my progress up there. Let's talk about scope. I have hit all three of these blue shots, so my scope is lit. So how scope works is, you're gonna hit something that gets it to roll over the target, and then I have one chance to hit one of the blue shots, and it will reward me with something. So in that case I was rewarded with Beskar You can see I completed my scope that the blue target up there Let go ahead and work on this encounter The challenge with this is I can throw the ball around because there's plastic. So let me actually play some pinball here. I'm gonna try to hit the yellow shots and keep the ball alive. There we go. There's one phase.
    9:47
    Oh, okay. So I'm down. So let's go back up. There we go. These far shots are the hard ones. There we go. There's two phases. You can see the phase progressing on the helmet itself. Let's hit these last two targets.
    10:08
    Nope. One more. There we go. And this will give me my encounter. There we go. So I beat the encounter. So I'm going to have a solid red dot here. So the light encounters again. I have to hit the left ramp a handful of times and then I can get back up there to do encounters so that's one mission one encounter all I have left for the Mandalorian madness is
    10:33
    hunter and ambush So let me show you I have blue lit over here. This is the mystery shot That's because I hit a certain number of orbits the magnet grabbed it and it just kind of does some crazy stuff throwing it around
    10:48
    Alright, let's talk about hunter hunter is over here on the left so you hit all three of those and it's gonna light the hunter light and you can move that with your flippers so let's go ahead and have it go through here that's gonna light the opposite side orange which I totally missed missed it again there we go and then now that that side it's kind of hard to see but hunter is actually lit on this side so me this is a hurry up and I'm gonna miss it because I can't throw the ball. There's my Hunter. So I've done Hunter, so all I have left is Ambush. Now, being that I'm still in one ball, actually Hunter lights that play field multiplier. Scope lights that play field multiplier. To light the third play field multiplier, you have to hit the Boba Fett targets. If you get all those going on, it actually gives you a 5x play field multiplier and you can spell Boba Fett again and it will keep giving you time. So I'm at 78 seconds, 77. If I hit it again, it keeps going up to 80. So really good players just keep that going. They keep that going. They keep the play field multiplier just always up.
    11:54
    For me to get into another multi-ball, you actually have to do this razor crest hurry up. So let's try to do that real quick.
    12:04
    One more. There we go. So now that that's lit, I'm going to have to go up the middle. And then the razor crest hurry up is just a bunch of shots up the middle.
    12:15
    There we go. until it times out. So this is one person's, or one, some people complain that they feel like the multiballs are, it's just up the middle over and over again. Which there is some truth to it, but there's value there. So this thing's about to time out, and then once it times out, let's just go ahead and get into a mission shot. Once it times out, it will,
    12:40
    I started another mission, second mission lights extra ball. Once it times out, I'll be able to work towards another multi ball. But you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and drain, so that'll give me the other mission. The only thing left I have to do is ambush. You can see that up there, I just have to do ambush. But at this point, that's kind of, I've explained the play field multiplier, missions, it's just ramp ramp, get into a mission, once you get through all five, you're in a mini wizard mode. Now that I'm on my second ball, I can work towards this next multi ball. My foundry's lit, let me go ahead and show you that. This is where you spend your Beskar. Beskar is stuff that you earn throughout the game, that's your currency. You earn a lot of Beskar by doing hunter modes. And this is where you can select different power-ups of what you want to do.
    13:28
    This power-up you get, there we go, this one is more ball save. This one is kind of a smart missile when you're in a mode, it's great. This one you just complete an encounter level. This one you get the flamethrower effect, which I showed you. This one you add a ball during multi-ball. This one you can start a mission without having to qualify it. This one you can start a multiplier, or you can light Razorcrest from multi-ball without having to qualify it. This one will light the next encounter mode for you. This one will light scope for you. This one turns on your out-lane ball save. This one's your extra ball, which is huge. And then this last one here is an additional plus one multiplier to the overall play field So I always pick light extra ball if I can All right so all I have left to do is ambush You can see that up there at the topper. So to do ambush, you're going to hit the horseshoe first. If I can, there we go. Now we have to hit a white shot. Another white shot. Okay, let me hit the scoop here. Come on, come on. There we go, and now I have to hit the right ram, and there we go. I've successfully completed ambush. So now I'm in Mandalorian Madness. So here in Mandalorian Madness, you start by basically doing all this stuff you did to get into Mandalorian Madness. It starts off as a one ball multi-ball, or just a one ball game. But let me hit all three of my mission shots. Come on. Oh boy. chuck the ball up there into Grogu. There we go. So, and then you can hit a super jackpot because I completed the mission shots. Come on. Come on. There we go. And that'll kick out a second ball. So now scope is lit. So blue shots for scope. So there's one. And then super jackpot will kick out a third ball. Come on. Come on. Throwing the ball is really high so now i have a third ball i can do my hunter shots so remember i would i would have multiple balls going right now so and let's do that and then i now have my ant so i have three here's my fourth ball so here's ambush yeah and then i'm gonna go up the middle to that and now i'm back at the beginning and uh yeah you're gonna play that until you run out of time the balls drain my flippers are dead and you're gonna see it resets right back to where we were and it'll kick out another ball to continue play but um yeah i think i'm i think that's everything i think i've shown off the missions so make sure you ramp ramp scoop that's how you're going to work your way through five missions hit the yellow shots when you're in the missions uh multi ball right up the middle after you played one multi ball you either have to wait till your next ball to play the next one or you have to do a hunter to get the razor crest multi ball the razor crest lit to keep progressing that way. Encounters, left ramp until it's lit, and then you're going to be up there, shoot around. So complete all that to get to that multi-ball, or that mini wizard mode. Complete all these to get to that one. Complete all those to get to that one. Then you can get all the way into it. One thing I did want to show off, though, is this is Dwight Sullivan game. One of the things that Dwight does very well is if you push and hold the action button before you start a game. So let's push and hold, you can choose your mode of play. So co-op, co-op's awesome. You and everybody else that are playing, you're gonna share your progress. So this is a very long game. There's a lot to do in this game. So if you play cooperative, if I beat two missions and you beat three, collectively we just got to the mini wizard mode. It's an awesome way to play. Impossible play makes everything way harder, which is a fun challenge. Monster play is, I'm on impossible play, player one is while everybody else is on normal play. So it's a cool way to like level out your playing abilities Then you can do team plays like to be to 3v1 very very fun way to play And then this the challenge mode the challenge mode is a way to get straight to that one the you have what I want That mini wizard mode, so I definitely encourage Everybody to try that challenge mode because it's a lot of fun to do so Hopefully if you have a chance to see one of these on location It has a topper check that best car level if it's high keep playing that game try to get to that Beskar Bonanza. But I hope I did a decent job explaining what all to do in the game. There's a whole lot there. There's a whole lot that can stack and go over top of each other. If you want to focus on playfield multipliers, you can blow up your score really quick. Otherwise, just embrace the journey. Try to accomplish all the different tasks to work your way all the way to the end to This Is The Way. So thanks again, Zach and Nicole, for letting me borrow this game. Feel free to check out the other tutorials I've done, the other live streams that we've done, the past ones. Come check us out live on Wednesdays. And yeah, everybody have a great day. See ya.
    18:54
    Thank you.