Not to be confused with other tables based on the Star Trek franchise or containing a similar name: Star Trek (Gottlieb, 1971), Star Trek (Bally, 1979), Star Trek (Data East, 1991), or Star Trek Enterprise/Vengeance/Starfleet (Stern Pinball, 2013/2018).
Master the Picard maneuver, which is a combo of left orbit -> side ramp. This gets you Warp Factors to light other things on the playfield, big increasing millions during Warp 9, and is a guaranteed triple jackpot during Borg Multiball. A good strategy is to Picard maneuver whenever the ball is on the right flipper, and shoot the right orbit to light or score locks if the ball is ever on the left flipper.
It's not too difficult to advance to Final Frontier wizard mode by playing and timing out the 7 basic modes, but Final Frontier has very low value unless you're able to play the modes will enough to collect crystals along the way. This turns the actual game progression into a long term investment that's not recommended unless you're sure that the machine you're playing on gives out long ball times.
The DMD rotates between 5 skill shot options. The lit item will move every couple seconds, or you can force the cursor to move with the flippers. Shoot the gun launcher to collect the currently highlighted option. The five choices are:
If you're playing for Picard maneuvers and multiball, go for Warp Factor 4 or Light Lock. If you're playing for mode progression, definitely take Start Mission. Never choose the other two.
There are 7 main mission modes in the game, with Final Frontier wizard mode being qualified after all 7 are played. There are three ways to start a mode: the Start Mission skill shot, the center scoop in the back of the game, and the Command Decision hole just above the side ramp when lit. The skill shot and the center scoop start the currently flashing mission; this is rotated by bumper hits or shots to the Q target just to the left of the right ramp. The lit Command Decision hole lets you pick any of the 7 modes to play; you can even use this to rerun a mode that has already been played to take advantage of its scoring again or collect more Artifacts.
The 7 modes are:
Artifacts can be collected by doing well in modes as described above, or by reaching Warp Factor 8 or completing the video mode, which are described in later sections. Receiving an artifact is always worth 50,000,000 points. When you complete all 7 modes, the next mode start will be Final Frontier wizard mode, whose value depends on the number of artifacts you collected.
Just for starting Final Frontier, you receive 100,000,000 points for every artifact collected, as well as 1,000,000,000 points for each set of the 4 artifacts you have completed. The maximum number of artifacts you can collect is 40- do this, and you will receive 14,000,000,000 points just for starting Final Frontier! A more reasonable startup bonus is around 3,000,000,000, though. After you are paid off for your artifacts, a 6-ball multiball begins where every shot in the game scores 25,000,000 points times the number of artifacts you've collected, maxing out at 250,000,000 per shot at 10 artifacts. If you manage to start Final Frontier with zero artifacts, all shots will be worth a measly 10,000,000. I have no strategy with this multiball other than just shoot stuff! Keep balls in play and rack up the big points for as long as possible. When single ball play resumes, all modes will unlight, and you can make the run again. If you advance to Final Frontier multiple times, the game looks at all the artifacts you've collected over the course of the game, not just the ones collected since the previous Final Frontier you played in that game.
At the start of each ball, you will be at Warp 1. The right in lane lights the left orbit/spinner shot for Advance Warp. If you have not yet achieved Warp 9 in the game so far, the side ramp is also a guaranteed Advance Warp. One of the Skill Shot options allows you to start at Warp 4 (or 2) as well. Each warp comes with its own award:
Light the lock by shooting the right orbit. Lock a ball at the right orbit or the side ramp when lock is lit. You can also light a lock or lock a ball with a skill shot choice. The third lock must be done at the right orbit specifically.
Multiball starts by loading the left probe gun with a ball. You must shoot the ball into the Start Mission hole to increase the jackpot value by 10,000,000 points. After three such shots, or if you miss on any of them, two other balls get kicked out and multiball begins. The jackpot value starts at 20,000,000 points; it is raised slightly with each bumper hit in addition to the opening probe shots. The Start Mission scoop is the jackpot shot: hit it repeatedly to cycle between single, double, and triple jackpots. Occasionally, the Start Mission scoop will unlight; hit the Spinner to reload your ship's shields and light the jackpot again. The more spins are registered, the longer it will take for the jackpot to unlight again. The side ramp cares not for these shenanigans and is always available for a triple jackpot at any point during the multiball.
Spinner and side ramp...sound familiar? If you can continue to hit Picard maneuvers during multiball, you can constantly pick off triple jackpots and always have the center scoop available for when other balls are parked elsewhere.
Hit any Neutral Zone target 3 times, then shoot into the exposed Neutral Zone hole to start one of these modes. They're pretty forgettable and don't fold well into any strong strategy for this game, but here they are anyway:
The 3rd right ramp shot, then every 6th after that (9, 15, 21, 27, etc.), lights the right orbit for Holodeck. Make this shot and you will have two options: instant 25,000,000, or Shuttle Simulator video mode.
In Shuttle Simulator, use the flippers to move left or right. Collect the squares with 10s on them for 10,000,000 points each. Avoid the spiked bombs. Every so often, the tunnel will split into a left and right path, and if you're in the center of the screen when this happens, you will crash and lose. At the end of the 9th cavern, you will receive an Artifact. The video mode is the same every time, and most high level players always follow this pattern for when the path splits: L-L-R-R-L-L-R-L-L-L. A perfect play of this pattern awards 159,000,000 points plus an Artifact (or 149,000,000 plus an extra ball and an artifact, if the video mode feels generous). It's always worth going for the video mode when Holodeck is lit, but it can get a little boring and rhythm-breaking after a while.
Every 6th right ramp lights Command Decision at the upper left scoop just above the side ramp. Shooting the ball into Command Decision when lit (and when no other mode is running) lets you choose with the flippers which mode to start. You can even pick a mode that you've already played to rerun it, if you want to (for example) get more points from another time through Q's Challenge or get another chance at the two artifacts in Search the Galaxy.
Every 15 right ramps lights an extra ball at the Start Mission hole. 50 and 250 right ramps score a special.
Completing the top lanes above the bumpers advances the bonus multiplier in the order of 2x-4x-8x-10x and lights the Command Decision hole for Advance Rank. You start at Ensign and advance to Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, and Captain. Part of your end of ball bonus is 5,000,000 points times your rank, up to 25,000,000 for a captain. Shooting Advance Rank when you are already a captain scores an instant 100,000,000 points. Each completion of the top lanes when the bonus multiplier is already 10x scores an increasing value, first 10,000,000 and increasing by 10,000,000 each time. Hitting a lit standup target in the lower left or lower right of the game when the left kickback is already lit spots one of the top lanes.
Star Trek: The Next Generation has a conventional in/out lane setup. The left out lane has a kickback that is lit by hitting the lit standup target in the lower left or lower right of the game. The slingshots are unusally shaped and not trianglular, with a flat top that bounces the ball toward the in/out lane area. At Warp 6, both in lanes are lit: hurry-up on the left, and super spinner on the right. On top of the slingshots are playfield guns used in the Battle Simulation and Ferengi modes as well as the multiball start and the Launch Probe skill shot. Owing to the widebody structure of this game, the slingshots are more than usual distance away from the flippers, so post transfers are not very viable for transferring the ball from one flipper to another.
End of ball bonus is counted as 1,000,000 times the number of Mission modes you played in the game, plus 5,000,000 times your rank, plus 1,000,000 for each Warp you advance on that ball, all times the bonus multiplier. Bonus multiplier is increased by completing top lanes and turns the bonus into a very formidable sum, so don't tilt where possible. Reaching Warp 5 holds your bonus multiplier over to the next ball. There is no mid-ball bonus collect.
The game manual says that specials score 1,000,000 points in competition/novelty play, which I expect is incorrect as with many 90s Williams manuals. No point value for extra balls is given as an option.
Missions can be set to be able to be run once, never, or an unlimited number of times.
The time that the Neutral zone is open to add balls to Ferengi multiball can be set to between 8 and 20 seconds, default 10.
The number of locks the player may collect from skill shots can be set to 0, 1, 2, or infinite. The setting is ambiguously worded, but I can only imagine that this refers to how many locks you can take from the skill shot per game, rather than per ball or per trip through multiball.
Back to top