Pinball Rule Sheets

A repository of rulesheets for pinball machines

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Game Information & Overview:

Sonic the Hedgehog is JJP’s 2026 release and the second table designed for them by Steve Ritchie and the same team that worked on Elton John. Sonic and his friends must put a stop to Eggman’s evil schemes while finding the Chaos and Master Emeralds for a chance to become Super Sonic. The game uses assets from the Modern Sonic levels of Sonic Generations.

Skill Shots:

Whenever the ball is in the plunger, the player can use the action button to select the zone they want to play.

On ball 1 - Lab Detour: Eggman will confront Sonic and the player can attack him with a well-aimed shot at the start of the game using the upper playfield. Plunge the ball and hit either the center ramp or left ramp to send the ball to the upper playfield. Then shoot Eggman to score the skill shot, worth a hurry-up starting at 5M, and increase the base scoring for boss battles; with boss battles on the first ball scoring 2x their normal amount. The skill shot opportunity disappears if the 20-second timer runs out, or if the ball exits the upper playfield without hitting Eggman’s mech. The player also gets 10 seconds of victory laps on the upper playfield after making the skill shot, where every shot adds 5 rings.

On subsequent & locked balls: Lock in an award by plunging the ball or selecting it using the flippers. Then hit any white shot on the right side of the playfield to score the locked-in award, or the pink shot (which moves from right to left and back) to score a super skill shot award. Short plunging the ball will start the skill shot sequence with the shots on the left side of the playfield instead. The difficulty increases with every skill shot made, reducing the number of lit shots.

Awards will be disabled under certain conditions. Checkpoint won’t be given if the player is at the Goal Ring of a zone. Award Hero won’t be given if the player has all three members on a team collected and hasn’t changed the lit team yet.

Zones & Boss Battles:

The main goal of Sonic the Hedgehog pinball is to complete zones, then win the boss fight against Eggman at the end of each zone. The player selects a zone by using the flippers and action button while the ball is in the plunger lane, then locks it in when they plunge the ball.

During any zone, make enough lit shots to reach checkpoints that save your progress in the current zone. The shot value is based on shot difficulty - they vary between 1x, 2x, and 3x the value. Each zone has 6 checkpoints (excluding the last two zones), with the final shot being the Goal Ring that can be scored at either the center ramp (2x) or lab jump ramp (3x) while in single-ball play.

There are seven zones to play through:

The shot maps per zone can be viewed below. Generally, the 1x & 2x shots are all located on the lower playfield, while 3x “expert” shots are located on the lab upper playfield and indicated with flashing blue lights.

[details=”Zone shot maps”]

Green Hill

Checkpoint # 1x 2x 3x
Start Left or right ramp Left or right orbit Left or right lab orbit
1 Center ramp Lockup Either lab target
2 Right ramp Left or right orbit Lab loopback ramp
3 Left ramp Left or right orbit Lab jump ramp (shortcut)
4 Center ramp Bash dash target Lab spinner
5 Center ramp or 6 Badnik targets Chao target Left or right lab orbit
6 Center ramp or 6 Badnik targets Left or right orbits Lab loopback ramp
Goal Ring N/A Center ramp Lab jump ramp

Chemical Plant

Checkpoint # 1x 2x 3x
Start Center ramp (2 shots) Bash dash target Lab spinner
1 Left orbit or left ramp (2 shots) Chao target (2 shots) Left or right lab orbit
2 Right ramp (2 shots) Froggy target (2 shots) Lab loopback ramp
3 Left or right ramp Lockup Left lab target
4 Center ramp (2 shots) Bash dash target (2 shots) Right lab target
5 Center ramp (2 shots) Chao target Left lab orbit (2 shots)
Goal Ring N/A Center ramp Lab jump ramp

Rooftop Run

Checkpoint # 1x 2x 3x
Start Left or right orbit Left, center, or right ramp Any lab shot or target
1 Center ramp Left ramp Lab loopback ramp
2 Lockup (2 shots) Bash dash target Right lab orbit
3 Battle zone targets (6 hits) N/A Left lab orbit (shortcut)
4 Left or right orbit N/A Lab jump ramp
5 Right ramp (2 shots) Chao target (2 shots) N/A
Goal Ring N/A Center ramp Lab jump ramp

City Escape

Checkpoint # 1x 2x 3x
Start Left ramp Right orbit Right lab target
1 Right ramp Left ramp Right orbit
2 Lockup Bash dash target Lab loopback ramp
3 Center ramp Froggy target Lab spinner
4 Battle zone targets (6 hits) Chao target N/A
5 N/A N/A Left lab orbit (2 shots)
Goal Ring N/A Center ramp Lab jump ramp

Speed Highway

Checkpoint # 1x 2x 3x
Start Center ramp Left or right orbit Left or right lab orbit
1 Left or right ramp (2 shots) N/A Lab loopback ramp
2 N/A Bash dash target (2 shots) Either lab target
3 Battle zone targets (6 hits) Right orbit Either lab ramp
4 Right ramp (2 shots) Right orbit Left lab orbit
5 Lockup (2 shots) Bash dash target (2 shots) Lab spinner
Goal Ring N/A Center ramp Lab jump ramp

Sky Sanctuary

|Checkpoint #|1x|2x|3x| | — | — | — | — |

Seaside Hill

Checkpoint # 1x 2x 3x
Start Left orbit N/A Right lab orbit
1 Center ramp Left or right ramp N/A
2 Lockup Center ramp Lab spinner

[/details] Once the player has reached the Goal Ring in any zone, the player’s score for that zone will be tallied up and ranked before the Boss Battle starts. The score is based on how quickly the zone was completed, how many “expert” (3x) shots were made, how many rings the player has, and a value per chaos emerald the player has collected. The later into the game the player is, the easier it is to get the maximum “S” rank for a zone.

Eggman will then present himself and Boss Battle will activate. Shoot the center ramp or left ramp to enter the upper playfield, and hit Eggman with the ball enough times to attack the boss and score a hurry-up award that decreases over time. Every battle increases in difficulty, and the player will eventually need to hit shots on the lab playfield to lower Eggman for chances to deal damage. Once the Boss Battle is completed, the player will be given an award that changes with each boss defeated. The awards are:

Feature Modes:

NOTE: Boss Rush and Super Sonic feature modes are not implemented on 0.95 code.

Feature Modes take priority over all other modes and multiballs once started, and serve as mini-wizard modes of the game.

Master Emerald Mission:

Collect enough shots on the upper playfield to light this mode at the center ramp. On default settings, the required shots are 5 orbits, 5 targets, 5 of either ramp, and 25 spinner spins. The required shots can be scored at any time during play outside of boss battles or other feature modes. Shoot the center ramp when lit green during single-ball play, with no other modes active, to start Master Emerald Mission.

While attempting to protect the Master Emerald from Eggman, Knuckles accidentally shatters the emerald and has to recover the shards. 30 seconds of ball save are given at the start of this mode. Within 70 seconds, shoot the lit green shots to collect 2 or 3 of the 30 Master Emerald shards. Once a green shot is hit, it will turn red; red shots score smaller jackpot awards and increase the value for each individual shard. After finding 20 shards, all shots will turn red and the player must hold the action button to reveal where the next shards are. The last shot of the mode will always be at a shot that holds the ball: either the center ramp, lab jump ramp, or lockup. If the player fails the mode, they can requalify it with more upper playfield shots and start where they left off.

Collecting all 30 shards recovers the Master Emerald and boosts all bash dash scoring so that it starts at 3x and increases by 2x per shot while the ball is held. If the player obtained the green Chaos Emerald, victory laps will be enabled for the rest of the game after the mode is won. Every further upper playfield shot lit green will add to a jackpot value scored at the bash dash target.

Casino Night:

The lockup lights to start Casino Night during single-ball play after winning 2, 7, and 10 boss battles. While this mode is available, drop targets cannot be scored towards lighting Chaos Emerald multiball.

Press your luck on the giant slot machine! This mode starts with 60 seconds of ball save, and a tutorial on how the mode’s mechanics work. This mode is split into three stages, where the player must complete tasks to earn tokens for use at the slot machine that activates once the center ramp or lab jump ramp are made. As the player progresses through the stages, more tokens are required to spin the slots and the tasks increase in difficulty. The slot machine has three rows, and the player can add awards from all 3 rows to their prize bank if they have enough tokens before spinning the slots. Points are scored with every lit shot during the mode, but the player only scores their prize bank if they choose to cash out during the mode; it disappears if they fail to cash it out by draining before the mode ends.

Some possible tasks for each stage are:

Possible awards from the slots that can be added to the prize bank include: points (10M or 50M), 1 additional token, spotting a hero towards Sonic Heroes multiball, rings (10 or 50), 1 Chao egg, or 1 kickback charge. Past the first stage of Casino Night, scoring 3 Eggman icons on the slots will remove the top award from the prize bank.

If the player makes it through all 3 stages, their next slot spin will score a final jackpot worth 100M and end the mode automatically cashing out the prize bank.

Boss Rush:

The lockup lights to start Boss Rush during single-ball play after winning 4, 9, and 12 boss battles. While this mode is available, drop targets cannot be scored towards lighting Chaos Emerald multiball.

This mode is currently not implemented and instead scores 50M.

Super Sonic:

The lockup lights to start Super Sonic during single-ball play after collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds.

This mode is currently not implemented and instead scores 100M while also removing all 7 Emeralds and their perks from the player’s possession. The player can still start Chaos Emerald multiball but can only score jackpots / super jackpots during it. Emeralds are still scored in end-of-ball bonus.

Multiballs & Bash Dash:

Only one multiball mode can be active at a time, but they can stack with currently active zones up until the player reaches the Goal Ring. If the player has reached the Goal Ring, the zone timer will pause and checkpoint shots will be disabled to prevent the player from starting Boss Battle during a multiball.

Bash Dash: During either multiball mode, shooting the left standup target will hold the ball there temporarily and increase the jackpot multiplier, which starts at 2x, 3x if the player has successfully recovered the Master Emerald. Repeatedly hitting the held ball will increase the jackpot multiplier by +1x for the duration of Bash Dash (+2x with Master Emerald found). This scoring opportunity disappears after 10 seconds (+4 seconds by hitting the left standup target during normal play), but can be relit by collecting rings during the multiball. The Bash Dash timer also pauses when Chaos Control is active.

Chaos Emerald Multiball:

Shoot the inline drop targets near the right ramp to lock balls and eventually start Chaos Emerald Multiball. The first multiball requires only one lockup shot to start, but subsequent ones require one more to a maximum of three locked balls.

While in multiball, along with scoring jackpots, the player can collect Chaos Emeralds lit in the following order: 1, 2 & 3, 4 & 5, 6, 7.

The orbits and ramps are lit for jackpots, with the upper playfield shots lit for 2x jackpots. The last jackpot of each set is a super jackpot that starts at 2M. These awards are much lower than the more substantial points and utility of Emeralds, which increase the frozen timers during Chaos Control by +15 seconds per emerald, give unique perks, and qualify the Super Sonic feature mode once all 7 are found.

Each color of Chaos Emerald provides a different perk that matches with the color of a playfield feature. On normal settings, the colors are randomized.

Sonic Heroes Multiball:

There are four teams of three heroes that can be earned by completing the HERO inlanes, which cycle with the flippers. Pressing the action button will change the currently active team.

As soon as the player has collected all three members of one team, the left standup target will start Sonic Heroes Multiball. The player can delay this multiball and collect more teams by pressing the action button during the intro animation. When a team is completed, their respective shot will score 1.25x its normal value (Chaotix - left orbit, Dark - left ramp, Sonic - right ramp, Rose - right orbit).

Shoot jackpots to increase the value per jackpot by 100k and light the super jackpot at the left standup target for each team after clearing a set of unique jackpots. Team Sonic shots are the battle zone targets & center ramp, Team Dark’s are on the lab upper playfield, Team Rose’s are near the right orbit, and Team Chaotix’s are near the left orbit. If multiple super jackpots are lit (only obtainable by completing more than one team before starting the multiball), the super jackpot value will be multiplied. Bash Dash will also multiply the super jackpots, leading to massive scoring potential from this multiball. Add-a-ball lights at the lockup once the initial ball save timer expires.

Other Scoring:

Ring Combos:

Rings can be scored at any time during the game and are mainly used to determine the player’s score during zones, increase the end-of-ball bonus, and to determine shot values during spin dash and feature modes. Light rings by rolling through inlanes or repeatedly shooting the orbits, and collect them by shooting yellow shots near them as combos, with lit zone shots increasing the ring counter regardless of if rings are currently available. Collect 50 rings + 25 per activation to light the left outlane kickback or add a charge to the kickback if already lit. Collect 100 rings to light the extra ball at the center ramp.

The yellow Chaos Emerald multiplies all rings by 1.5x.

Tilting a ball means losing your rings! When the player tilts, half of the player’s ring count this ball will be removed. Draining down the right outlane also removes a few rings.

Advance Chao:

Hitting the Chao target on the very left of the playfield spawns a Chao egg and lights Advance Chao at the left and right orbits. Advance the Chao by shooting repeated orbit shots to score increasing values per shot.

The cyan Chaos Emerald keeps the orbits lit for longer.

Badnik Attack:

The battle zone targets surrounding the center ramp represent Eggman’s army of mechanized animals sent to defeat Sonic. Once all six targets are completed, a timed Badnik Attack mode will start, where further shots to the targets score increasing points but increase in difficulty with each wave defeated. Shooting the upper playfield targets while a Badnik Attack is running will start a hurry-up on the upper playfield, which can complete an entire wave of Badniks in one shot. Defeated Badniks add to end-of-ball bonus.

The red Chaos Emerald allows for unlimited hurry-ups during this mode and boosts its overall scoring.

Spin Dash:

Shoot the right ramp 5 times to qualify a Spin Dash at that same ramp. Once the ramp is hit, the player will temporarily get control of the magnet used to send balls through the loop. Use the flippers to build up Sonic’s spin speed, and press the action button with the right timing (while within the green window) to score the most points and release the ball. The Spin Dash points award is determined by how many rings the player has. Subsequent Spin Dashes require 5 more ramps to light than the last, and starting with the 2nd Spin Dash, the green window will start moving.

If the ball drains straight down the middle after shooting the right ramp, default settings allow these balls to be saved.

Find Froggy:

Big is one of Sonic’s friends who shows up in the most unexpected places. His pet frog, Froggy, was temporarily controlled by one of the same Chaos Emeralds that gave Chaos its power.

Every time the player reaches a checkpoint in a zone, the Froggy target on the far right of the playfield will light to score a mystery award based on the current fishing gear. Lower tier mystery awards include 5M points and rings (5 or 10), while higher tier awards include activating ball save for 8 seconds. More checkpoints are required to light the Find Froggy target every time it is scored. Once the player has all gear, they will be able to catch Froggy (indicated by the target flashing purple / green) and light the center ramp for extra ball.

The purple Chaos Emerald increases the mystery award tier and reduces the number of checkpoints required to light it.

Tails Hurry-Up:

Make 50 spins using the spinner on the upper playfield to qualify the left inlane for Tails hurry-up, which will hold the ball, light a random shot on that can be hit from the left flipper to score a hurry-up, then release the ball. The value for each successive hurry-up adds the value from the previous one to the total.

The white Chaos Emerald reduces the number of spins required to light the hurry-up and boosts its scoring.

Chaos Control:

Shadow, an artificial counterpart to Sonic created by Eggman’s grandfather, has the power to slow down time with the power of the Chaos Emeralds.

If the player has any Chaos Emeralds in their possession, pressing the action button will freeze all currently active game timers for 15 seconds per emerald found, and pressing the action button again will reactivate the timers. Every emerald earned adds more time to Chaos Control.

Timers affected by Chaos Control are the timer for each zone (making it easier to get a higher rank), the hurry-up award during boss battle and Tails hurry-up, and the bash dash timer during multiball modes.

Kickback:

Light the left outlane kickback by collecting enough rings: 50 rings for the first kickback, then 25 more every time. The kickback fires the ball towards the battle zone targets. If the kickback is already lit, collecting the required rings will add another kickback “charge”.

Extra Balls:

Light extra ball at the center ramp by:

If extra balls are disabled, 10M is scored as a compensation award.

End-of-Ball Bonus: