Iron Maiden Tactics Page


Links

Rules:
Tiltforums Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast Rulesheet (Full written rulesheet. Open-source).

Tips:
Pintips IMDN

Tutorials:
Kineticist: IMDN (*Recommend*: Easy to read tutorial with lots of illustration)
Pinball for Mortals: IMDN (Brief).

Info:
Pinside Pro Prem LE
IPDB Prem
Kineticist IMDN Deep Dive

Extra Info (that I couldn’t fit on the cards, but wanted to.)

The Bullseye:

All references to the Bullseye is referring to the Red/Blue circle/eye thing behind the center Jump Ramp. The ball has to hit the bullseye to register; just hitting the Jump Ramp is not enough.

Intro Side:

Sweeping the Drop Targets (knocking all down in one shot) gives you the lit drop target award plus the next one. Very useful on first ball where you can light locks for Trooper Multiball in one hit.

Note: The “Color Insert Guide” is a rough guide. There’s exceptions and alternative uses for the colors that couldn’t fit on the cards without looking crazy. …but these are the most common uses and should be useful for a player learning the game.

The ORB:
– On the Pro: The left target right of the left spinner.
– On the Prem/LE: The Newton ball on the left of the playfield (right of the left spinner)


Advanced Side:

Mummy Multiball: After first jackpot at the orb (“M”), left ramp is lit to double next switch hits and lights captive ball for another JP (switch hits double JP value). See Tiltforums section for full explanation.

Tomb Treasures:

Can I play with Madness (Full info on Tiltforums)
Red shot can be moved left or right with corresponding flipper button. First red shot hit, adds a ball. Avoid green shots after that (except for under the ramp on Prem).
Pro: ONLY available if you have IC reader installed.
Prem/LE: When under the ramp is lit green, shooting it will hold the ball for a short time.

Run to the Hills (Full info on Tiltforums)

Modes:
Flight of Icarus: after 20M you can still hit ramps for jackpots until mode ends or you hit the bullseye.
Fear of the Dark: Somewhat of a hurry-up mode as the timer WILL NOT pause if you have the ball cradled.

Cyborg Multiball: “starts at bullseye after completing all power features”. You also need to cash in your last power jackpot (or drain (which means you missed out on the jackpot; only if you have a ball left)) at the orb before the bullseye is lit to start CyborgMB. See Tiltforums section for full explanation.

Number of the Beast and Eddie Cards: (Left Card) L1=One Chance, L2=Two Chances 1, L2 info on Eddie Playing Cards:
What you need to achieve these levels. L1 on all cards will allow you one chance to defeat ‘The Beast’ in Number of the Beast. L2 of a card means if you don’t beat him you do not have to re-qualify that card. If you have all L2’s, and you don’t beat the beast (you drain), you will have another chance to beat him IF you have a ball left to play.

System-J “, Then Hit” arrow.

  • On the System-J cards, this arrow, when between wording is used to denote “, then hit”.
  • Eg. Hit lit shot (, then hit) right ramp.
  • More likely to be used on the Advanced side cards to fit more shot sequence info on them.

Gravestone Target

The target on the far left is used in conjunction with the left in-lane; specifically if you shatz (alley pass) a shot from right to left you can get a bonus.
1. Not in multiball: Spots an unlit X target.
2. In Multiball: ?? (need to test).

I couldn’t find space on the cards for this feature, mainly because even if you know the purpose, it doesn’t seem to be a very used feature of the game.

Tutorial Videos

Mr. Bowens from PAPApinball
Iron Maiden (Pro) Pinball Tutorial/Gameplay from Major Drain Pinball

Lots more IMDN tutorial videos here.

Quick Video Tutorial

Quick and Dirty: 5 minute Tutorial from Pinball Mods Brazil (4 min if you skip the intro actually). On a Pro.

Add-a-Ball(s)

Hot to Add-A-Ball (while in Multiballs) from South Carolina Pinball

The above video is great explanation of how to add-a-ball to the main 4 multiballs. Quick reference to these are on the Advanced (“ADV” printed on bottom right corner) Side of the IMDN v2.0 Cards.

Newbie Strategy

The main components of the game seem to be the 2 main multiballs and the modes. You can start either of the multiballs while a non-multiball mode is running.

Mummy MB: Hit the Captive ball until MUMMY is complete. Hit up the jump ramp to the target on the Pro for a virtual lock or up the left ramp on the Prem/LE for a physical lock. Spell MUMMY again to start the 2-ball mode.

Trooper Multiball: The more lucrative of the 2 multiballs. You need to hit the drop targets until the left/light orbit is lit green. Send 3 balls into either orbit to virtually lock a ball until the 3rd lock. (On many games the virtual lock won’t register on every hit. Just be patient and keep hitting the shots.)


More on Trooper MB:
The drop targets are important. Consider working towards the light lock (2nd set of drops completed); After that, the orbits will be lit to lock balls. Getting the targets down quickly often means getting to a Trooper Multiball is easy to get to in your game.

Geometry:
When the ball is coming back down from the top left orbit where the mini-flipper is, consider not flipping. The ball usually comes back to the right flipper where you can practice your drop catch or bounce pass (see Abe Flips (under “General Pinball Skills“) for explanations). Iron Maiden is a fantastic game to practice these skills on which can drastically help your scores.

Mode Intro:
White shots give EDDIE letters. When spelled the center jump ramp will be lit to start a mode. There are 5 main modes with 2 of them being multiballs. The 3 non-multiball modes can stack with one of the 2 main multiballs. This is a common strategy to rack up some points with all skill levels. Learning which modes are multiballs (see the right replacement card for reference) and learning how to spot when a multiball is close to ready is a good skill to work on.

Changing Modes:
The pop bumpers cycle the modes before the last E in EDDIE is qualified. This is a high risk shot though (both on rejects and the ball coming out of the bumpers), so I suggest working with the Mode that is lit and adjusting your strategy accordingly.

First Mode:
Often you will get Flight of Icarus as the first mode which lights the ramps as jackpots. If you are finding the ramps hard (hint, they are (but also so, so satisfying), consider using the mode to work towards other things like Mummy, Trooper Multiball or even just super features.

Strategy Videos

Loop Strategy from Pin Ball
Tournament Strategy (Loop Strategy+) (Risky but high value Strategy) from MarvLoco; Great explanation on how the loop jackpots work.
Pro Tournament Strategy from Stern Pinball (with Pinball Royalty).

General Pinball Skills

If you want to reach a new level of pinball play: Watch Abe’s videos on pinball techniques and practice them:
https://www.youtube.com/@AbeFlips

Colour Inserts

White (Solid)= adds letter to spell EDDIE for Eddie modes to be lit up the middle (under the jump ramp on Prem/LE, bullseye for Pro), see right card for Eddie modes info.

White (Flashing @ Jump Ramp)= Mode is complete and you have 10 seconds to hit the Bullseye to acquire Soul Shard.

Blue, orange, purple = usually jackpot shots in a mode.

Smaller Purple insert on left: The Orb Mystery (outside of “Fear of the Dark” mode, Purple shots seem to refer to lighting and collecting Mystery awards).

Yellow =
– if up the middle usually mean Eddie mode ready; hit to start. (This is the left arrow of the 3 and not an insert with the Eddie face).
– Eddie Mode Multiballs (Aces High and Rime…) Add-a-Ball shots.
– Mummy add-a-bally shots

Green= shot lit to lock or start Trooper Multiball usually. On Prem/LE (often flashing with another color) mean lock lit there for Mummy multiball.

RED = Sometime Jackpot, Sometimes Super Jackpot, On left Ramp it can mean Tomb Treasure. (Under construction: Are combos and/or deathblows flashing red?

Rainbow Strobing insert= often is more of an illusion where it’s cycling between 2 or more colours. For instance if either orbit is lit for an Eddie letter and a trooper ball lock it will flash between the two colours, in this case White and Green.

Note on Trooper Multiball shots: the shot colours progress from Blue-Green-yellow-Orange-Red for increased jackpots.

After writing the above info I decided to make space on the right ‘intro’ side card for a quick guide. To note though, there are exceptions to what the colors will denote.

Intermediate Strategy

One of the steeper learning curves on this game is watching the LCD for what you are close to. For instance it’s easy to get focused on working towards a second Trooper Multiball when you could have a very lucrative Cyborg multiball ready with less shots. When you have the ball under control get in the habit of looking at the LCD and seeing what you have left. Same with watching the Mode inserts, you might be focused on Features when you might be closer to 2 Minutes 2 Midnight. This also goes for the Instant Info where you may need a reminder how many tilt warnings you have left or how many ball locks are left on Trooper.
Ball under control, remember: LCD, Inserts, Instant Info. LCD, Inserts, Instant Info. (I’m telling myself this right now. …ok Bart, write it out 100 times on the blackboard now. LCD, Inserts, Instant Info. (ok, lets make that a rhyme or something to make it easier to remember).

Tournament Strategy

This can depend on the setting on the game. The higher level of tournament the tougher the settings (see Tournament Settings on things to look for).
For a beginner to intermediate you should try to keep it simple. Try to see what shots are safe (if any) and if others are playing before you, try to see the feeds back to the right flipper from the left orbit (and the ramp kickout if it’s a Prem).

Gameplay Videos

Escher Lefkoff beating IMDN in 42min (Note: At the 12:00 mark (the first) “Under-Over all the way up” (Textbook cradle separation to staged upper flipper to loop!!)).

Lots more IMDN gameplay videos here.

Tournament Settings

Ball Save is usually reduced and sometimes eliminated. When this is the case you still might be able to add ball save from hitting the standard skill shot target.
Super skill shots. The one to watch out for is that the left outlane skill shot can be turned off. This can be a harsh lesson to learn if the ball save is turned off as well (which is usually the case). Check the backglass. Tournament directors *should* have notes saying what features are turned off.
(Need more info on alternate skill shots and if they can be turned off)

Modes usually are defaulted to start with Flight of Icarus. This is only a surprise if you are use to a game that has the random mode setting on.

—-(very) Under Construction (more of a placeholder than anything at this moment ——

System-J Tactics Page Philosophy

There’s lots of strategy videos and guides out there that can offer step-by-step ways to give you the best score. I take a different approach in that I find it more important to think about what state the game is in and what are the option for you. 

The new coded games often have multiple options to achieve a large score. I find an important pinball skill is to realize what state the game is in and then to adapt on the fly and change your focus if another option comes up. This way you get into practice of adapting (with practice) and not getting too distracted or frustrated for the game not going your way. Take my tips as a way to understand the game and not to use it as a linear guide. Like the System-J cards and Tactics guide links, they are not meant to be a definitive way to get better but a piece of the puzzle to put together. 

—-Under Construction ——