Hot Tip pinball tournament strategy: the saucer, the spinner and a bonus you can double

Williams built Hot Tip twice in 1977. The first run was electromechanical, with score reels and relays, and 1,300 were made. A few months later the same playfield went into one of the company's first solid state games, and nearly 5,000 of those were made.

The one at Blainbrook is the electromechanical version, and all 700 of our tracked games were played on it. That matters, because every strategy guide we could find was written for the solid state game, and the two do not score the same way. This guide follows the EM's own manual and schematic, and points out where the usual advice changes.

The short version

1. Look at the lamps in front of the top saucer before you plunge. Then plunge softly for the saucer.
2. From the left flipper, knock down all six drop targets to light the spinner.
3. Move the ball to the right flipper and shoot the spinner. Every trip up there is another chance at the saucer.
4. Land in the saucer when Double Bonus is lit.
5. Do not shake the machine hard. An EM gives no tilt warnings.

How the EM differs from the guides

Two things follow. On the EM the spinner is for points and does nothing for your bonus, so the bonus has to be built elsewhere. And the drop targets will not give you Double Bonus. Only the saucer will.

The bonus

Bonus starts every ball at 10,000 and grows by 10,000 per advance, to a maximum of 100,000. Double Bonus makes that 200,000. Nothing carries over to the next ball.

Advances come from the top saucer, the left saucer, the rollover in the captive ball lane, the target at the top right, and the outlanes.

On a game where a good score is a few hundred thousand, a doubled bonus is a large share of it. Building it and keeping it is most of the job.

The top saucer

The saucer sits at the top center with a rebound on each side. It pays 5,000 and a bonus advance, plus whatever award is lit in front of it. The lamps run in this order: 5,000, Double Bonus, 5,000, Captive Ball, 10,000.

The lit lamp moves only when the ball hits a 10 point switch. It does not move on its own. So the lamp that is lit when you step up is the one you are plunging for, and it pays to look first. If Double Bonus is lit, a soft plunge into the saucer is the best start to a ball this game offers.

Drop targets and the spinner

HOT TIP is spelled by two banks of three drop targets with a pop bumper between them. They are shot from the left flipper.

The first completion lights the spinner, which goes from 100 a spin to 1,000. The second raises the targets to 1,000 each and lights the extra ball at the left saucer. The third raises them to 10,000. How fast this happens depends on a setting inside the machine: on the liberal setting suggested for three-ball play, the first completion gives two steps at once.

The spinner is in the upper left lane and is shot from the right flipper. Bob's Guides rates it safer than going back for more drop targets. It also sends the ball to the top of the playfield, where the saucer is, so spinner shots are how you get more tries at Double Bonus.

To get the ball from the left flipper to the right one, the usual move is an alley pass through the right inlane.

The sums change once the targets reach 10,000. One target is then worth as much as ten lit spins. If the ball is under control on the left flipper and the third set is up, the targets are the better shot.

What to leave alone

The captive ball, on the right. The target at the end is worth 10,000, or 30,000 when the Captive Ball award is lit. Owners call it a sucker shot, because the ball comes back toward the drain.

The left saucer. It pays 5,000 and an advance, and at least one owner says it cannot be hit on purpose. Take it when the ball finds it.

Where the ball drains

Bob's Guides rates the risk on this playfield as very high.

• The outlane openings are large, and the slingshots throw the ball toward them. One owner puts 80% of his drains down to the left outlane.
• The pop bumper between the drop targets often sends the ball down the middle.
• The captive ball, as above.

Then there is the tilt. On the EM the tilt bob, the ball roll switch and the vibration switch all trip the tilt directly. There are no warnings. A tilt ends the ball and the bonus goes with it. Nudge with single, short bumps.

One oddity is documented for the solid state version, and the EM is wired the same way: if the first switch the ball touches is the rollover in the spinner lane, the ball tilts. A full-strength plunge can do that. It is one more reason to plunge softly.

What the tracked games say

Numbers are from late September 2026. The Hot Tip machine page has the live ones.

The upset rate is how often the lower-rated player in a pairing finishes ahead. Hot Tip's 38.0% is above the average of 35.5% and typical of the electromechanical games in our data, which run from 38% to 46% with one exception. Short games with open outlanes give the underdog a chance. The full ranking is in upset rates by machine.

Some players still win on it year after year. Bryan Moen has 43 outright wins in 96 games and the best record among players with at least 20. Adam Turgeson and Trevor Klungseth have each played it 120 times or more, with 47 and 48 wins. Luke Nahorniak has won 15 of 24, and Chris Frame 26 of 60. The Blainbrook arena report lists the best and worst records on every machine in the room.

Where to play it

• Blainbrook in Blaine, where it has been in tournament play since 2021. See the Blainbrook guide.
• Julie's Pinball in Farmington also lists an EM Hot Tip on its floor.

Before your next game

The Hot Tip playbook has the rulesheet links and player tips, and the scores tab shows the best games on record. The Pinball Primer guide and Bob's Guides both cover the solid state version. Read them for the shots and use the table above for the scoring.

Hot Tip shares a room with Nugent, Silverball Mania and Eight Ball Deluxe. How to play classic games in a tournament covers the habits they share, and the whole series is in the machine strategy guides.