Attack From Mars pinball tournament strategy: saucers or Total Annihilation

Attack From Mars came out in 1995 and was rebuilt by Chicago Gaming in 2017. Our data files it under the remake, which plays the same rules as the original. It has 564 tracked games across five venues.

The layout is as simple as a modern game gets: two flippers, two ramps, two loops, a lock ramp and a flying saucer in the middle behind a bank of targets. The decision that matters is which of two plans to follow, and it depends on how the saucer treats the ball on the machine you are playing.

The short version

1. Look at the target bank in front of the saucer. If it is up, hold the left flipper as you launch and shoot the bank. If it is down, launch normally and steer the lit top lane.
2. Watch what happens to balls that hit the saucer. If they come back safely, attack the saucer. If they head for the drain, play the ramps and loops.
3. Shoot the center ramp to light the locks and start multiball.
4. Make sure the target bank is down before the third lock.
5. In multiball, trap a ball and use the other to destroy the saucer. Then go for jackpots.

Two skill shots

The regular skill shot is a normal launch. Use the flippers to move the lit lane at the top under the ball. It pays 10M and adds 5x to the bonus multiplier, and each later one pays 10M more.

The super skill shot starts with the left flipper held in as you launch. The ball arrives down the left loop, and for a few seconds any ramp or loop is worth 50M. Shooting the target bank instead also pays 50M and drops the bank in one hit, which saves you two shots at the most dangerous target on the game.

The usual habit among tournament players follows from that. Bank up, take the super and shoot the bank. Bank down, take the regular.

Plan one: saucers

The target bank is the force field. Three hits lower it. Behind it are a drop target, two angled standups and the hole into the saucer.

Each saucer takes a number of hits to weaken, three for the first on factory settings and more for each one after. Then a shot into the hole destroys it for 200M, plus 100M for every saucer before it. Progress is not timed and it survives a drain. Destroying five saucers starts Attack Mars.

The trouble is the rebound. The force field is the most dangerous shot on the game and the saucer targets are the second. Balls come off the drop target and go down the middle. Aim at the side standup nearest the flipper you are shooting from, and avoid shooting the force field at all with one ball in play if the machine is unkind.

Plan two: the ramps and loops

Shoot each of the four main shots, the two ramps and the two loops, three times. That starts Total Annihilation, a four-ball multiball with a ball saver, where those four shots are always lit for 50M and up. A good one is worth about 2 billion.

Pinball for Mortals and Kineticist both describe this as the safe route. The ramps return the ball to the flippers, and none of the shots send the ball back at the drain the way the saucer does. On the remake, one tournament player on Tilt Forums called it the only feature you can depend on.

The third hit on any ramp or loop also lights a hurry-up, collected at the saucer or force field, starting at 100M. If two are running the value is 300M, and three are worth 500M. When all four shots are one hit away, stacking them is worth the effort.

Multiball

The center ramp, immediately left of the saucer, is the lock. It is narrow and steep and easier than it looks. The first time, one shot lights all three locks. After your first multiball each lock needs its own shot.

A lit lock kicks the ball back out to the left flipper. Most players pass it across and shoot the ramp again from the right flipper.

Two rules shape how to use it:

• The force field cannot be lowered during multiball. If it is up when multiball starts, the saucer is closed for the duration. Lower it first.
• The saucer can be damaged and destroyed during multiball. With one ball trapped and another in play, the rebounds that make the saucer dangerous matter much less.

So the order is: lower the force field, start multiball, destroy the saucer, then collect jackpots. The five jackpots are the two ramps, the two loops and the lock ramp, starting at 60M. Collecting all five lights a super jackpot that moves from shot to shot.

Martian Attack is the one multiball that stacks with another. Spell MARTIAN on the standup targets, shoot the scoop, and then start a second multiball before you finish off the martians.

Things to skip in a match

Tournament guides agree on ignoring the bonus multiplier, the Strobe Multiball value and Super Jets. Rule the Universe, the wizard mode, takes too long to reach in a three-ball game to be a plan.

Hold your Martian bombs. One press kills a martian, and the best use is on the last one in a Martian Attack. It works even after the ball has gone down an outlane.

Where the ball drains

• Off the force field and the saucer targets, down the middle.
• Out the outlanes, which are greedy. A ball can also climb the left inlane and fall into the outlane.
• From the scoop on the right, which is narrow and risky to shoot on the fly.

There is no kickback. On the remake's factory settings there is one ball save per game and it lasts four seconds.

Remake notes

Owners and tournament players report that remake flippers often sit lower than on the original, which makes the lock ramp and the saucer harder to hit and makes trapping harder. Some lock ramps reject balls. If the machine you are on does either, that is one more reason to play the ramps and loops.

In tournament mode the Stroke of Luck award at the scoop follows a fixed order, and on some software it pays a flat 50M. Standard competition rules turn extra balls off and allow two tilt warnings.

What the tracked games say

Numbers are from late September 2026. The Attack From Mars machine page has the live ones.

The upset rate is how often the lower-rated player in a pairing finishes ahead. At 35.8% Attack From Mars sits right on the average of 35.5%, which makes it more open than the modern Sterns and less open than the games from the 1970s and 1980s. It is a reasonable pick for nearly anyone. The full ranking is in upset rates by machine.

Among players with at least 20 games on it, Luke Nahorniak has the best record, finishing ahead of 69% of the opponents he has faced. James Skelley, Daniel Hammond, Chris Frame and Marshall Hilgemann follow, close together. The scouting report shows how you compare with your own group.

Where to play it

• LITT Pinball Bar in Minneapolis, 166 tracked games. See the LITT guide.
• Blainbrook in Blaine, 75 tracked games.
• Stray Dog in Minneapolis, 31 tracked games since May 2026. See the Stray Dog guide.

Northstar Pinball Collective ran 230 tracked games on one through February 2026. Check the venue page for the current lineup.

Before your next game

The Attack From Mars playbook has player tips, videos and rulesheet links, and the scores tab shows the best games on record. For the full rules we leaned on the Pinball Primer guide, the Pinball for Mortals mini guide and Bill Dominy's rulesheet.

Brian Eddy also designed Stranger Things and Venom. The whole series is in the machine strategy guides.