Foo Fighters pinball tournament strategy: upgrade the van before you drive it
Foo Fighters pays for preparation. Van mods, a charged action button and a lit multiplier turn an ordinary mode into a match winner. How to build them, which city to start in, how the outlane post works, and what 447 tracked games say.
·6 min read·Tilt Stats
Foo Fighters is a 2023 Stern designed by Jack Danger. The band drives a van from city to city fighting robots, and each city is a mode. It has 447 tracked tournament games in our data.
Two facts stand out about it. It has one of the lowest upset rates of any machine we track, so the better player usually wins. And the reason is visible in the rules: nearly everything that scores well has to be set up first.
The short version
- Plunge short, into the three drop targets, to earn a van mod.
- Knock down all three drop targets before you hit the paddle behind them.
- Shoot a white arrow and then the left ramp to start a city.
- Make the lit shots, then finish at the Overlord in the center.
- Hit the UFO captive ball until the action button lights, and press it during a mode.
Skill shots
There are several, and each adds five seconds of ball save.
| Skill shot | How | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Drop targets | Short plunge into the drops | 250,000 and a level of the flashing van mod |
| Sonic Radio | Soft plunge to a flipper, then hit a Sonic Radio target on the lower left | 1M and a mystery award |
| Rock-O-Meter | Plunge into the lane beside the shooter lane | Advances the playfield multiplier |
| Super | Left crossover, then side ramp or side loop, for up to six shots | 500,000 times the length of the chain |
| Left outlane | A secret one | 5M, lights Overdrive, and the ball comes back |
The drop target plunge is the one tournament players talk about, because it starts the most important job on the game.
Van mods
Three upgrades apply to your next mode.
| Mod | What it does | Each extra level |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | 20 more seconds on the mode timer | 10 more seconds |
| Speakers | 500,000 more per mode shot | 250,000 more |
| Bomb | Spots two mode shots for you | One more shot |
To earn one, knock down all three drop targets and then hit the MOD-ulator paddle behind them. The flashing mod is the one you get.
The order matters. If you hit the paddle while a drop target is still standing, you get a bonus multiplier and no mod. It is an easy shot to waste.
Mods and action button charges carry from ball to ball, so work done on ball one still pays on ball three.
Cities
One white shot lights the left ramp, and the left ramp starts your first city. A post holds the ball while you choose.
| City | Shots start at | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | 2M | The side loop pays triple |
| New Orleans | 2M | Side shots count twice |
| Roswell | 1.75M | The orange shot pays triple |
| Los Angeles | 1M | Ramps only |
| Chicago | 3.5M | A hurry-up |
| New York | 500,000 | Builds with every spin of the spinner |
A mode runs for 50 seconds on factory settings, 40 on a competition install, and each step of progress adds three. The last shot of every mode is the Overlord, and it pays a bonus plus 1% of the mode total for every second left on the clock. A fast finish is worth far more than a slow one.
Finish the mode on the first visit if you can. Coming back to a city you drained out of halves the final shot.
For a first game, New York is forgiving, since the spinner alone moves it along. Players on Tilt Forums who shared their tournament plans favored Los Angeles or New Orleans once the van was modded, and one reported that a couple of modded modes was enough to win most matches.
The action button
Hits on the UFO captive ball charge the button. The first charge takes eight switch hits and each extra one takes four, up to three charges. Pressing it collects the most valuable lit shot on the playfield.
Its best use is the last shot of a mode, when the clock is running down and the Overlord is the only thing left. Spend any charges you have left on your last ball.
Multipliers
Three lit passes through the Rock-O-Meter lane turn on 2x playfield scoring for 40 seconds, and doing it again makes it 3x. The right orbit feeds that lane when it is lit.
A ray gun target sits inside each inlane, reachable with an alley pass. One of them doubles your next shot, and both make it 4x, for five seconds. These stack with the playfield multiplier.
Multiball
Overlord Multiball. Complete the two standups on the sides of the Overlord, lock a ball in it, then hit the captive ball three times. The first is a two-ball multiball. Later ones need more hits and give more balls.
Area 51 Multiball. On a Pro, five right ramp shots start it. On a Premium or LE the right ramp leads to an upper playfield where it is qualified. It can start while Overlord Multiball is running.
Overdrive, the left outlane save
When Overdrive is lit, a ball that goes down the left outlane comes back. How it comes back depends on the model.
On a Premium or LE a post rises below the outlane, and you have to hold the left flipper up so the ball can bounce off the post and back into play. Players have forgotten to do that on tournament streams. On a Pro the ball is returned for you.
Completing the Sonic Radio targets relights it. The right outlane has a save as well, which has to be lit by the first Bot Award or a mystery award.
Things that go wrong
- The return from the right ramp has thrown balls into the shooter lane or the right outlane on some machines. Watch it on someone else's ball.
- The fork in the Overlord that catches the ball can stick, which blocks the end of a mode. If it happens, call the tournament director.
- A lit mystery award that times out resets the radio dial.
The Sonic Radio targets have a fairly safe return. Two tilt warnings are the standard.
Competition settings
On a competition install there are no extra balls, the van mode timer is 40 seconds, the playfield multiplier lasts 30 seconds, and shots at the Overlord no longer spot its side standups for you. Mystery awards come in a fixed order, starting with 2.5M and then an Engine level.
What the tracked games say
| Tracked tournament games | 447 |
| Tournaments it appeared in | 241 |
| Players with a game on it | 259 |
| Typical game | 19:48 |
| Upset rate | 29.2% |
| Difficulty | 33 out of 100 |
Numbers are from late September 2026. The Foo Fighters machine page has the live ones.
The upset rate is how often the lower-rated player in a pairing finishes ahead. At 29.2%, Foo Fighters is among the ten lowest of the 97 machines we can compare. A game where the points come from preparation rewards the player who prepares, and an underdog cannot stumble into a modded mode with a charged button. If you are the favorite, this is a very good pick. The full ranking is in upset rates by machine.
Among players with at least 20 games on it, Bryan Moen and Angie DonCarlos are level at the top. Moen has won 16 of his 30 games outright, and DonCarlos has finished ahead of 79% of the opponents she has faced. Adam Turgeson, Trevor Klungseth and Andy Fleming follow. The scouting report shows how you compare with your own group.
Where to play it
- Blainbrook in Blaine, 120 tracked games. See the Blainbrook guide.
- LITT Pinball Bar in Minneapolis, 105 tracked games. See the LITT guide.
- Full Tilt Tavern used one in tournaments in September 2026. See the Full Tilt Tavern guide.
Before your next game
The Foo Fighters playbook has player tips, videos and rulesheet links, and the scores tab includes Insider Connected scores from local venues. For the full rules we leaned on the Pinball Rulesheets wiki and Stern's rule sheet.
Jack Danger's next game was The Uncanny X-Men. The whole series is in the machine strategy guides.