"For the record, I'm the only one who gets to shake the table!"
- Bombshell, Champions
Nudging is the act of slightly pushing the table itself physically to try and manipulate the ball, usually done to either affect its trajectory or save it from draining. Due to the delicacy of a pinball table's inner workings, this technique is a risky, advanced one that may result in a tilt penalty that forfeits the current ball; however, nudging is not an illegal move, and skillful nudging can be very helpful on difficult tables.
Nudging in Zen original tables[]
The table can be nudged in three directions: left, forward or right, and the controls for nudging vary from platform to platform. If the player nudges the table harshly, a tilt warning will be given for the first two nudges, followed by a tilt for the third consecutive nudge within 10 seconds of the previous. When the tilt alarm triggers, the flippers will deactivate, the ball will drain, and the end-of-ball bonus won't be collected.
When a nudge is performed, the scoring display will briefly show the word "danger" in small, capital letters. However, if the player is close to triggering the tilt alarm, a larger version of that word will appear, sometimes in a different font that matches other text seen in the table. A tilt warning can be reversed after the table is held still for at least 10 seconds.
Nudging in Williams tables[]
Nudging behaves slightly differently in Zen's digital recreations of Williams pinball tables. A single nudge would not result in an alert by itself. However, if another nudge occurs within ten seconds, a tilt warning will be displayed. Once both warnings are activated, if two consecutive nudges immediately follow within less than ten seconds of each other, the tilt alarm will trigger.
Nudging techniques[]
There are a few nudging techniques that players can use to save balls from draining, as long as they don't nudge the game too aggressively:
- Outlane Save: If a ball is about to enter an outlane, quickly nudge the ball away from the outlane (nudge right to save balls from the left outlane and vice versa) before it drains.
- Nudge Pass: If the ball is rolling on a flipper that's opposite of the desired flipper and it lacks the momentum for a dead flipper pass, the player can force the ball to the other flipper by making a forward nudge once the ball is no longer under a slingshot.
- Bangback: This nudging technique can save balls that are deep in an outlane and are about to drain; it is fairly easy to do on Zen original tables, but very difficult to do on Williams tables and not recommended to do on real tables, as it can be very painful. To perform this nudge, the following steps should be performed:
- Raise the flipper that's closer to the outlane the ball is in.
- Wait for the ball to go under the raised flipper.
- Once the ball is under the raised flipper, quickly make a forward nudge to "jump" the ball to the other flipper.
- Operate the other flipper before the ball slips off and drains, either to flick or trap the ball.