Worms Pinball Basic Guide For Beginners

(NOTE: This guide is incomplete. You will see that the missions section is incomplete. If you have some feedback on the missions, or on anything at all, I would appreciate it. This guide is based on what I have figured out so far)

The majority of the population thinks of pinball as a game of chance… Heck there was a long period when it was even outlawed because of this belief. In reality pinball is a game of skill with some luck thrown in to keep things interesting. Your goal is to score the highest score possible. Most of the time this means that you need to avoid draining the ball. To do this you need to try and stay in control of the ball and minimize the risk of draining the ball either straight down the middle, the outhole (1), or through one of the outlanes (8 and 9). To stay in control you want to take shots that both score points and return the ball to you in a position where you can stay in control… the lower flippers. You don’t want the ball to go eratically left and right. Doing so increases the probability of the ball going in to an outlane. If the ball is about to drain in may be beneficial to give the table a strategic nudge so as to push the ball away from the area of danger. Nudging is part of pinball so don’t be afraid to do it. Just don’t do it too hard (or for too long in Worms pinball) or the tilt sensor will sense this and disable the flippers while the ball drains.

To make more predictable shots it’s beneficial if you stop the ball from moving. You can do this by trapping the ball right above the pivot point of either of the lower flippers. Once the ball has come to a complete stop you can let go of the flipper to allow the ball to roll down the flipper at a predictable and repeatable rate. With time you’ll figure out the precise time to hit the flipper to hit a particular target. Note that it’s easier to hit targets on the left with the right flipper and targets on the right with the left flipper. You can of course “backhand” the ball but that’s a little more difficult.

During the game you will have many opportunities to play with more than one ball at a time. This is called multiball. To stay in control in multiball, try to keep one ball in play while trapping all the other balls on one pivot point. I prefer the right. This will allow you to maximize the amount of time you stay in multible.

Nudging the table is part of the game and is expected both in real pinbal and in Worms pinball. While too hard a nudge will cause a “TILT” and your ball to drain, strategic, controlled and well timed nudges are part of the game and you should use them to your advantage. There are three keys assigned in Worms pinball: nudge up (Space), nudge left (left alt) and nudge right (right alt). Personally I prefer to use the control keys to nudge left and right and I have them mapped opposite to the nudge motion. This is because I always seem to time a nudge in the same direction as the flipper I’m hitting but I can never control the timing of my fingers on the same hand so I use my opposite hand. In other words I use the left control key to nudge right and the right control key to nudge left. My nudge keys look like this

In the version of Worms Pinball on Steam I can’t seem to be able to bring up the configuration utility since I run it under Proton on Linux thus I had to configure the user.cfg file directly. The file is located in:

.steam/steamapps/common/Worms Pinball/user.cfg

To use the opposite left/right CTRL keys to nudge I only changed two lines using my text editor of choice (emacs):

pinball.tiltleft=29
pinball.tiltright=57373

To figure out what keys I needed I used showkey

sudo showkey -s

The keys to playing he game are shown in the table below

The playfield and its features are shown in the screenshot below
1. Drain (outhole) – Don’t let the ball drain!
2. Right Flipper
3. Left Flipper
4. Right Slingshot
5. Left Slingshot
6. Right Inlanes (2)
7. Left Inlanes (2)
8. Right Outlane – Don’t let the ball drain!
9. Left Outlane – Don’t let the ball drain!
10. Left Middle Flipper – Use it to prevent ball from going in to the outlane
11. Held Ball Storage – Holds 3 balls
12. Left Hairpin
13. Left Top Flipper
14. Left Orbit with Combo indication – This is also where the plunger deposits the ball.
15. Left Ramp and Spinner
16. Cave
17. Bumpers – These are mostly hidden. You can get the ball to them through either orbit
18. Weapons Crate
19. Exit point for Right Ramp
20. Ball Lock
21. Middle Ramp (also extra ball when lit)
22. Middle Loop
23. Bunker
24. Middle Orbit and Rank up ramp (also extra ball when lit)
25. Right Ramp (1+ Ramp)
26. Right Orbit
27. Blast Zone
28. Plunger – Where you shoot the ball fromNote that if you press pause or trap the ball after a few seconds you’ll see the game status in the DMD

Just like in other pinball games, Worms Pinball tries to direct you to hit the lit features to increase your score. Depending on what is lit, a combo may provide you with an even higher score. Combos are series of features that you hit sequeantially or within a specified amount of time. If you’re ever wondering what to do, just go for something that is lit. The below will describe the various features and how to score.

You can get to the hairpin turn using the right flipper. It doesn’t score much though and you have a very high risk of falling in to the outlane. I haven’t found any real reason to use it unless it’s lit or flashing. Be ready to hit the left middle flipper (10) to avoid loosing the ball to the left outline. I tend to avoid the hairpin turn as it doesn’t score much, doesn’t provide and good setup for combo shots and increases the risk of loosing the ball to the ourlane.

This is a “feel good” shot as the ball orbits goes all the way around and down the right inlane. If the ball is not going very fast when it enters you may be able to get it to hit some of the bumpers (17) for some extra scoring. Use the left orbit in combination with other shots when it’s lit to score higher. Note that the pivot point of the upper left flipper is there. You can’t cradle the ball with it though.

When you launch the ball with the plunger, the ball ends up close to the pivot point. You can pre-press the left flipper button to redirect the ball up the left orbit. The momentum won’t carry it very far though to the ball will roll back down the orbit. When it does, you can use the top left flipper to hit either the ball lock (20), the middle ramp (21) or the middle loop(22). If you manage to hit the middle ramp (21) right after a plunge launch you will get a skillshot bonus. The loop redirects the ball right back down the left orbit so you have the ability to hit multiple loops in a row. If you manage to do three loops in a row you may get one of the extra ball lights lit (21 and 24).

The left ramp returns the ball to the left inlane. Use it for combos. This is also where the spinner is. The spinner is also called the Uzi spinner in the game. The spin value increases the more you spin. It resets for every new ball. Sometimes the game triggers some kind of super spinner mode where the bonus for going through the spinner increases dramatically. This only lasts for about half a minute so when it happens use it. I haven’t figured out how to trigger that yet though. I like using the left ramp because the ball is returned in a predictable fashion and allows me to set up my next shot on the right hand side of the table which tends to be good for combos.

The cave is blocked by a drop target. Once hit it lowers and you can now enter the cave. Depending on what’s lit the cave trigger some special mode.

The bumpers are accessible through either orbit or the loop(22). The increase the bonus but not by much. I never get to them intentionally as I don’t see the reason why.

Everytime you hit the crate a letter from the word “WORMS” becomes active. Once you complete all 5 letter your bonus multiplier increments. It’s difficult to hit the crate with either flipper from a trapped start. I tend to try to do a controlled bounce of the ball on the flippers so I can get the ball to the crate. Note that the “straight down the middle” risk is increased when trying to hit the crate.

Hitting the ball lock shortly after you shoot the ball with the plunger will prepare 2 ball multiball. If you then hit the cave (16) 2-ball multiball will be enabled

Hitting the middle ramp shortly after you shoot the ball will get you a skill shot

The loop is called the loop because you can continuously keep looping around. The ball enters the loop (22) then exits from the left orbit (14). If you manage your timing right you can hit the loop (22) again with the left top flipper (13). Hitting the loop shortly after you shoot the ball with the plunger followed by a shot to the middle ramp will yield a “Super” which awars 5M. Shooting the loop three times in a row will enable extra ball. To get the extra ball hit either of the yellow lights that are now blinking on top of the middle ramp(21) or the middle ramp (21).

This ramp gives you millions of points. It starts off at 1 million and increases from there if the 1+ is lit. For higher scores you’ll need to hit this as part of a combo.

The right orbit(26) leads to the left orbit (14) where the ball exits. If the ball speed is low you stand a chance of using the left top flipper (13) to shoot either the ball lock(20), the middle ramp(21) or the loop(22). If the ball speed is too low, the ball will bounce around in the bumpers (14) for a little while before it exits from the left orbit.

To hit the blast zone use the left middle flipper(10). Once you hit it 6 times you get to Super Blast which means that the seventh hit to the blast zone will award 10M. The blast zone also contains a magnet that holds the ball for a multi-ball should the right mode be enabled (what is that?)

– Weapon drop
– Super blast
– Missile
– Weapon
– Victory
– Thoball (?)
– Ultra Spin
– Ballsaver

You need to follow the card initially shown and then pick it after a fair number of shuffles. It seems that sequence is always the same as you play so you can memorize the first few as they are shown below in the spoiler.

1. Middle (3 cards)
2. Left (3 cards)
3. Third from Left (4 cards)

Shoot the four lit shots to take out the aliens within the time limit to get the maximum points

Alternate pressing the left and right flippers to run as fast as you can to escape the Yeti. Don’t slip!

Shoot the lit shots to diffuse the dynamite within the time limit before it blows… If it does you still get 10M points.