Pinball Tips: Flipper Timing and Where Balls Really Drain

Updated October 2026

Pinball on this site is a compact table with three bumpers, two slingshots and two flippers, and you get three balls. There are no ramps, targets or multipliers, so the whole game comes down to keeping the ball alive while it rattles around the bumpers. This guide explains how the flippers really strike the ball, where balls are actually lost on this table, and a few habits that keep each ball in play noticeably longer.

The table in numbers

Everything on the table is placed in proportion to the play area, so the layout is the same shape on every phone. Two bumpers sit about a fifth of the way down, at roughly one third and two thirds of the width, and a third bumper sits in the centre about a third of the way down. Each bumper is worth 100 points and throws the ball away from its centre with a strong push.

On each side, a slingshot runs diagonally from the side wall, starting a little below the middle of the table, down and inward to a point just above the flippers. A slingshot hit is worth 25 points and pushes the ball away from the wall. The flippers pivot at about 27 and 73 percent of the width, a little above the bottom, and each one is a bit more than a fifth of the table width long. A ball that falls below the line at 96 percent of the height is gone.

Gravity is strong. The ball accelerates downward by 1.6 table heights per second every second, and its speed is capped at 2.6 table heights per second, so a ball that leaves the bumpers can reach the flippers in under a second.

How the flippers hit

Touch anywhere on the left half of the table for the left flipper and anywhere on the right half for the right one. Both can be held at once, and a flipper stays up as long as at least one finger is on its side. At rest each flipper points down and inward at about 27 degrees below horizontal; held, it swings up to about 24 degrees above. The swing takes roughly a thirtieth of a second.

The key detail is that a flipper only adds power while it is moving. During the swing, the ball receives about two thirds of the speed of the point where it touches the flipper, and that speed grows with distance from the pivot. Contact near the tip therefore produces a much harder shot than contact near the pivot. Once the flipper has finished swinging and is simply being held up, it behaves like a wall: the ball bounces off it but gains nothing.

This changes how you should time a flip. Pressing early, before the ball arrives, means the flipper is already stationary when the ball lands, so you get a dead bounce. The strongest shot comes from pressing just as the ball reaches the outer half of the flipper.

Where balls are really lost

It is natural to assume balls drain down the middle, between the flipper tips, but on this table that gap is narrow. We worked through the geometry in the code: on a table 358 pixels wide, the tips at rest are about 24 pixels apart, while the ball plus the flipper thickness needs about 33 pixels to slip between them. The same is true when both flippers are raised. The middle only opens when one flipper is up and the other is down.

The real danger is the two side gaps between the bottom end of each slingshot and the pivot of the flipper below it. That opening is about 59 pixels on the same table, more than twice what the ball needs. A ball that rolls off the lower end of a slingshot or bounces outward off the base of a flipper can drop through there, and no flip can reach it.

So the only way to open the centre is to raise one flipper while the other stays down with the ball above the middle. Flipping both together whenever the ball comes down near the centre keeps that gap closed and costs very little on this table. The physics runs in the same small fixed steps on every phone, so a slow screen and a fast one play the table identically.

Scoring: let the bumpers work

With 100 points per bumper hit and only 25 per slingshot, your score is almost entirely bumper hits. A ball that reaches the bumper area usually collects several hits before gravity brings it back down, and you cannot influence it while it is up there. Use that time to reset your thumbs and watch which side it is drifting toward.

• Aim upward, not sideways. A hard shot off the outer part of a moving flipper is what gets the ball high enough to reach the bumpers at all.
• Accept slingshot bounces. They are worth little but they send the ball back up into play, which is worth far more than their 25 points.
• Avoid weak taps. A hit near the pivot, or off a flipper that has already stopped, lifts the ball only a short way and gives you little time before it returns.

Learn the launch

Every ball starts near the top right corner, moving quickly to the left across the bumpers. The launch point, speed and angle vary slightly from ball to ball, and because the bumpers magnify small differences, no two first descents are quite alike. Do not expect the second ball to follow the first; instead, keep your eyes on the bumper area as each ball arrives and pick up its direction from the first bounce or two.

Between balls there is a 0.7 second pause. Your flippers still respond during that pause, so you can settle your thumbs in position before the next ball appears.

Common mistakes

• Holding a flipper up and waiting. A raised flipper adds no power and leaves the centre open if the other is down. Hold only for a moment, then let it drop and be ready to swing again.
• Flipping one side at a time. As explained above, this is the one way to open the centre gap.
• Watching the score. The score updates on every bumper hit, which pulls your eyes to the top of the screen. Keep your attention on the lower third, where the decisions are.

A practice plan

1. Play one game where you flip both flippers together every time, and only when the ball is on the outer half of a flipper. Notice how many balls are lost at the sides instead of the centre.
2. Play a second game concentrating on tip contact. Try to make every flip send the ball above the lower bumper.
3. Then work on reading the launch so the first descent of each ball never surprises you.

Your best score is kept on your device, and any game with a score above zero can be submitted to the Hall of Fame from the game-over card.