It is important to be familiar with common mechanics of pinball tables to fully enjoy any of Zen's pinball tables.
A pinball table is played by shooting a ball onto a playfield and using small, built-in button-operated bats called flippers to manipulate the ball through lanes, bumpers, targets, ramps, and more to achieve goals and score points. A typical game provides the player with three balls equivalent to "lives" in video games, with each ball ending when the ball drops past the flippers and into the outhole below them.
The player begins each ball by using a propulsion mechanism known as a plunger to shoot the ball into play. Usually, right off the initial plunge, there is an opportunity for the player to plunge the ball in such a way that a particular lane or target can be hit - either directly from the plunger, or immediately with the flippers after the ball is shot into play. This is called a skill shot.
After the ball is launched, the player must now use the flippers not only to keep the ball in play, but shoot targets that award great score and/or complete a series of objectives that eventually lead to a larger score and a sense of victory. A game of pinball ends once each of the three supplied balls are lost at the outhole, although extra balls can be earned to extend the game by completing certain tasks.
One way to earn huge scores is to complete a series of missions, or modes where certain actions must be completed with the ball, sometimes within a time limit. Every table in Zen's pinball simulations has a series of missions that must be completed to unlock a final mission called a wizard mode, as well as optional side modes that can be completed for points, but typically do not confer additional benefits or count as progress towards the wizard mode. Certain modes called multiballs can bring additional balls into play and provide opportunities to earn large scores called jackpots.
Tables also feature aids and benefits that can be awarded and earned while working on modes; this wiki refers to these as perks. There are various kinds of perks that instantly award points, aid in progressing through main modes or extend the survivability of the ball by activating mechanisms that protect the ball from draining.
During play, the player can also nudge the table to influence the ball's movement, but cannot excessively do so due to the delicacy of the table's inner workings. If the table is nudged excessively, its tilt alarm will be triggered, which will disable the flippers, forcing the ball to drain and end. Any end-of-ball bonuses that the player would to earn had the ball drained normally are forfeited. On most Zen Pinball tables, the tilt alarm will trigger after three consecutive nudges occurring within seconds of each other on factory settings. Each nudge will cause the scoring display to briefly show the word "danger", which becomes larger if the player is one nudge away from triggering the alarm.