Quick Links:
Game Information & Overview:
- Lead Designer: John Borg
- Code/Rules: Raymond Davidson, Andrew Wilkening
- Mechanical Engineers: John Rothermal (Lead), Robert Blakeman
- Artwork:
- Display and Animations:
- Sound Design: Jerry Thompson, Bob Baffy
- Release Date: September 2025
- Wiki Rulesheet based on Code Rev: 0.87
- Edit the Code revision, if applicable, when you make changes
- Original Wiki Rulesheet hosted on Tilt Forums
Star Wars: Fall of the Empire marks John Borg’s return to the Star Wars license after over 30 years, bringing his pinball career full circle as the 1992 Data East machine was his first ever pinball design. Based on the Original Trilogy, the table is primarily targeted towards novice pinball players and covers aspects of the trilogy that were given less attention in prior releases with the theme.
Layout:
Skill Shots:
Plunge the ball and hit any flashing shot to score a Skill Shot. If the shot is made within only 5 switch hits, a Super Skill Shot worth 2x the value will be scored. At 10 switch hits, the skill shot turns off. The skill shot award starts at 1M and increases by 1M per skill shot. Skill shot opportunities are given at the start of every ball, and if the player has successfully saved the ball using the JEDI ball save.
Players cannot score Skill Shots at the same shot more than once in a game.
Main Modes:
Luke Skywalker, a farmboy from the planet Tatooine, has recently learned of the construction of the Death Star - a massive structure with the capability to destroy planets - from the closest person he has to a father, Obi-Wan Kenobi. On a mission to destroy the Death Star, Luke meets a ragtag team of rebels with similar motives. Luke and his crew have a long road ahead of them if they want to prove the strength of the Rebel Alliance and thwart the destructive plans of the Empire.
Star Wars: Fall of the Empire features four sets of main modes. Only one mode from each set can run at a time, but excluding the Vader modes, they can all be brought into multiball modes as described below if a mode is started before the multiball.
Rebel Missions (FORCE Targets):
Shoot the flashing FORCE targets to light the character shots for Rebel missions (all six of the center shots, excluding the left and right orbits). The game starts on the easiest settings for lighting FORCE but as more and more missions are played, the difficulty will appropriately increase.
All of the missions play very similarly: hit four blue shots to progress through the mission, with the final shot at the Luke VUK completing the mode. Hitting white shots increases the scoring from each mission shot but don’t count toward completion, allowing the player to maximize scoring from each mission.
Each character has three missions: a level 1 green mission with the easiest array of shots but lowest starting value (3M), a level 2 yellow mission with a medium-difficulty set of shots and medium value (4M), and a level 3 orange mission that lights the fewest shots for the highest value (5M). The lit mission colors change with Stormtrooper target hits. If another mission is started at a character who already has a completed mission, the mode shot values will be multiplied by 2x.
The characters also provide different perks, giving each mission some more unique attributes. The attributes and the names for each mode, from easiest to hardest, are listed below:
- Yoda: Spinners increase the shot value by 10k per spin. Missions: Meeting Yoda (green), Jedi Training (yellow), Seeing the Future (orange)
- Luke: The Luke VUK will always be available as a possible blue shot. Luke VUK and right ramp score 2x their normal mode value. Missions: Discovering the Force (green), Escaping the Death Star (yellow), Leaving Dagobah (orange)
- Droids: Slingshots and bumpers move which shot is lit for 2x value. Missions: Rebel Ship (green), Welcome to Tatooine (yellow), Ewok Deity (orange)
- Lando: All blue shots start at 2x, but if enough slingshots or bumpers are hit, they will reduce back to 1x. Missions: Lando Calrissian (green), The Sellout (yellow), Lando’s Redemption (orange)
- Han: All shots are on hurry-up timers that start slightly higher than the normal starting value but decrease over time. Missions: Han Vs Greedo (green), Where’s Luke (yellow), Frozen in Carbonite (orange)
- Chewie: Sarlacc Pit spins build the shot values by 50k per spin. Han center ramp scores 2x its normal mode value. Missions: Dejarik (green), Find C-3PO (yellow), Fix C-3PO (orange)
- Leia: Prioritizes the Luke VUK and Han center ramp as build shots. Right ramp scores 2x its normal mode value. Missions: Jailbreak (green), Trash Compactor (yellow), Rescuing Han (orange)
- Obi-Wan: Any time the Luke VUK or Obi-Wan right orbit are lit blue, they will score 2x their normal mode value. Missions: Ben Meets Luke (green), Duel with Darth Vader (orange)
Complete two missions to light extra ball.
Play one mission for four different characters to light the left scoop for Not a Jedi Yet mini-wizard mode.
Falcon Features & Lightspeed Escape:
Shoot the center ramp when the engines under the Millennium Falcon are lit to start Falcon Features. For the first mode, Lightspeed Escape, the center ramp will always give progress towards starting the mode, but afterwards, the player must shoot the right ramp to qualify the center ramp for progress, or hit the target under the center ramp to raise it and enable progress (Prem / LE only).
There are four Falcon Features that can be started and are always played in the following order:
- Lightspeed Escape / Lightspeed Multiball: The center ramp will start Lightspeed Multiball, or other shots can be made to increase the jackpot before shooting it. During the multiball, hit 3 lit shots to score jackpots and eventually light a looping super jackpot that can be scored with repeated shots to the center jump ramp on a time limit. Completing all seven lit shots will relight the jackpots with 1 more jackpot required to light the super jackpot. The jackpot starts at 500k + 250k for each build shot + 50k for each multiball jackpot, and the super jackpot is worth 5x the current jackpot value.
- That’s No Moon: Search for Alderaan by shooting the lit shots, lit 3 at a time in close proximity to each other, in the following order: right ramp, Luke VUK, Sarlacc pit, Death Star ramp. The outer shots of each set score 1x while the center shots of each set score 2x. A time bonus worth 500k x seconds remaining in the mode is scored alongside the final shot of the mode.
- Dogfight: This mode is about alternating the center and right ramp shots. Shoot the center ramp to start the dogfight and then hit the right ramp to score a TIE fighter award. Keep comboing the two ramps before time runs out for more and more points, with combos into the right ramp scoring 2x the TIE fighter award.
- Welcome to Cloud City: An orbit looping mode. The left and right orbits are lit to start timers where the orbits can be shot again for multiplied values. After hitting lit shots at both orbits, the center ramp will light to collect their combined totals and complete the mode.
Completing the first Falcon Feature of a game will light extra ball. This rule does not apply to Lightspeed Escape as there is no way to “complete” it. For Dogfight, completion entails collecting three TIE fighter awards.
Jabba Events:
Salacious Crumb is represented by the drop target blocking the Sarlacc Pit. Shoot the drop target twice to get him out of the way and open up access to the Sarlacc Pit ramp. As the ball spins around, each spin will move the display selection between one of three modes; the selected mode starts when the ball exits the pit, and can be locked in if the player presses the action button while the ball is spinning around in the pit. Every subsequent Jabba Event requires one additional Salacious Crumb target hit to light.
The three Jabba Events are:
- Luke’s Gift: Shoot the flashing shots to help the droids journey to Jabba’s palace. The timer for this mode starts at 30 seconds and resets with each shot:
- Droids target & Sarlacc pit drop target start lit. Once both are made shoot the Sarlacc pit to enter the palace.
- Shoot the center and right ramps to escape from Jabba. Then shoot the Luke VUK to start devising a plan to retrieve Leia and Han.
- The droids target is now lit to score 2x but the Sarlacc pit will change which shot is lit, moving one to the right with each spin. Hit the lit shot or the Sarlacc pit 4 times to trick Jabba into receiving the gift. The final shot of the mode is always at the Sarlacc Pit ramp.
- Jabba’s Palace: Drop target mode. Shoot the flashing shots to light the Salacious Crumb drop target for more and more points. Every time the drop target award is scored, the timer is reset and more shots must be made to relight the drop target.
- Rancor Battle: This is an untimed mode where the player must complete a sequence of lit shots to fend off the Rancor: Luke VUK, right orbit, right ramp, center ramp x2, Luke VUK, Sarlacc pit. The mode only ends if the player drains or completes all the shots that were required. Comboing shots within 10 seconds of each other increases the multiplier for the next award to a max of 3x.
Completing the first Jabba Event of a game will light extra ball. For Jabba’s Palace, completion entails hitting the lit drop target 3 times.
Playing all three Jabba Events will qualify Sarlacc Escape as the fourth event.
Vader Modes & Dark Side Scoring:
The return lanes alternate between lighting Dark Side Mystery at the left eject or qualifying the left scoop to start a Darth Vader mode. Darth Vader modes can be qualified at any time during single-ball play but can only be started at the left scoop while no other modes are running.
After shooting the lit left scoop, a variety of shots will light to start a Vader mode (each mode can only be played once per game). Hitting the lit shot will start an untimed mode where the goal is to hit enough shots to complete the scene, with the “starting” shots increasing the multiplier for shot values by +1x and only relighting once another shot has been made. Therefore, the player can either hit easy shots to complete the Vader mode quickly, or try for higher scoring by focusing on the “starting” shots.
The modes and how they start are listed below:
- Left or right bumper: Grand Moff Tarkin - 6 shots
- Left scoop: Lord Vader Arrives - 3 shots
- Left or right orbit: Emperor’s Guidance - 3 shots
- Luke VUK: Family Reunion - 5 shots
- Death Star ramp: Death Star II Plans - 3 shots
- Sarlacc pit: Bounty Hunters - 3 shots
- Stormtrooper target: Lack of Faith - 5 shots
- Return lanes: Emperor’s Orders - 3 shots
Once any mode has been completed, Dark Side Scoring will activate for the rest of the ball. This is a roving shot feature where one purple shot is lit at a time to collect 5% of the points scored in all successfully completed Vader modes, which moves to a random shot each time it is collected. Awards are also lit once enough dark side scoring shots have been made:
- 5 dark side scoring shots: lights extra ball
- 15 dark side scoring shots: lights the left scoop to start dark side multiball
Multiballs:
Multiballs can be started alongside any main mode, if the multiball is started while the mode is running. The only multiballs that can be stacked are Lightspeed Multiball with Battle of Hoth Multiball; they otherwise must be played on their own. Multiballs also prevent players from starting most other game features, though they can progress towards qualifying them so that they can start once the multiball ends.
Jackpot Multipliers: During these two multiballs, if Rebel Missions were played or completed, their respective shots will score more. A pulsing character shot (for a played mission) will score a 2x jackpot, and a lit character shot (for a completed mission) will score a 3x jackpot.
Rebel Assistance: Level up your characters through Rebel Combos to help progress through multiballs easier. A pulsing character name insert (for one combo made) collects 2 jackpots, and a solidly lit character name insert (for two combos made) collects 3 jackpots.
Add-A-Ball: During any multiball, collect 10 spins in the Sarlacc Pit to light the action button for a one-use add-a-ball. If the stack above is performed, the player will still only be able to obtain one add-a-ball. 10 more spins are required for subsequent add-a-balls in the same game.
Battle of Hoth Multiball:
Light virtual locks at the Luke VUK by shooting the droids target in front of the AT-AT. Each droids target shot lights one lock and they can be stacked, but subsequent multiballs require more target hits and for the lock to be scored before the next lock can be lit. Once the third ball is locked, Battle of Hoth multiball will begin.
The main goal of Battle of Hoth is to spell AT-AT to light the super jackpot. This is done by first scoring a jackpot (lit at any shot and worth 500k + 250k per jackpot), and then shooting the droids target to score a letter jackpot worth the total of all jackpots prior (excluding ion cannon multipliers) and a letter in AT-AT. Once a letter jackpot is scored, the jackpot value resets and more jackpots are needed to relight it, up to four for the final letter jackpot.
Once AT-AT is spelled, all jackpots will turn off and shooting the Luke shot will award a super jackpot worth 5M + the total of all the letter jackpots that were scored. Scoring the super jackpot resets the jackpot progress but also increases the base jackpot value by 500k.
Once the player exits Battle of Hoth multiball, they will have one last chance to shoot the Luke VUK to take down the AT-AT and score a super jackpot determined the same way as the normal one. This last chance super jackpot is lit for 10 seconds.
Death Star & Death Star II Multiballs:
Shoot the Death Star ramp to open up the lock at the toy, then shoot the ramp again to lock a ball there. Once three balls are locked, Death Star Multiball will begin by releasing the locked balls towards the flippers.
- Death Star Multiball: All shots are lit to score jackpots; if a jackpot is made, the shot where it was scored will unlight until a different shot is made. After scoring 14 jackpots, all jackpots will turn off and the Death Star ramp will be the only shot lit. Shoot the ramp to open up the toy, lighting it for super jackpot. Before scoring the super jackpot, the other jackpots will relight for 30 seconds when the ramp shot is made: hitting 3 of these jackpots increases the super jackpot multiplier to 2x, then 3x after 7 jackpots are made (all subject to progression increases from rebel combos). After scoring the super jackpot, ball save will start up again, a ball will be added, and victory laps will start; hit the flashing shots for victory laps, then hit the Death Star to score a victory super jackpot and relight the other shots at increased values.
- Death Star II Multiball: not implemented on 0.86
Other Scoring:
Ion Cannons (Shot Multipliers)
Shots to the left and right pop bumpers in single-ball play charge up the ion cannons and eventually light the Rebel Alliance icons at all major shots. The next time one of these shots is made, it will be worth 2x for the rest of the ball in play. The player cannot advance shot multipliers while any multiball mode is active.
If the player lights a shot multiplier at all major shots, then the next ion cannon activation will activate a 3x shot multiplier that moves across the playfield (from left to right) with every bumper hit.
Rebel Combos & Super Modes:
While in single-ball play, shoot any shot to light natural combo opportunities from that shot, then make the flashing shot to complete the combo. The first combo completed at a character starts its name insert pulsing, and the second combo completed at a character solidly lights its name insert & starts a super mode. Points are awarded for Rebel Combos based on the number of unique combos made this game. During the Battle of Hoth and Death Star multiballs, jackpot progress is doubled or tripled on shots with pulsing or solidly lit character name inserts respectively.
Super Modes are untimed features that award points for continuing to hit shots around the playfield, similar to the ultra modes on Bally’s World Cup Soccer. The points are determined by how many super modes have been completed; each shot made during a super mode scores the “super mode value” divided by the number of shots required to complete the super mode. This value starts at 10M and increases by 2.5M with every super mode completed over the course of the game. Each completed super mode also awards their full value in end-of-ball bonus.
Each character’s super mode, and the number of shots required to complete it, are:
- Yoda: Super spinners (200 spins)
- Luke: Super targets (10 FORCE target hits)
- Droids: Super droids (10 droids target hits)
- Lando: Super slings (20 slingshot hits)
- Han: Super lanes (10 lit inlanes, the same inlane cannot be hit twice in a row)
- Chewie: Super Sarlacc (40 Sarlacc pit spins)
- Leia: Super ramps (10 ramps, alternating between center ramp and right ramp)
- Obi-Wan: Super pops (20 bumper hits)
Dark Side Mystery:
Complete the return lanes, which cycle via the flippers, to light the left scoop for Dark Side Mystery. The lanes alternate between lighting mystery and lighting the left scoop to start a Vader Mode, so long as the player isn’t currently in a multiball mode.
Mystery can give any of the following:
- 15M points
- Light rebel missions
- Advance Falcon
- Advance Hoth
- Advance Death Star
- Add charges to ion cannons
- Award 2 JEDI letters
- Stormtrooper hurry-up
- Light extra ball (percentage-based, only one per game)
- Mynock Multiball (Prem / LE exclusive: shoot the lowered ramp 10 times to light an extra ball. 10M per lowered ramp shot, and 25M for the 10th ramp shot if extra ball has already been lit during this mode. This is made available after scoring two mystery awards, and only if a multiball isn’t running.)
Every completion of the return lanes regardless of award also adds +250k to the Stormtrooper hurry-up base value, which resets once the ball drains. The hurry-up value increases even while multiball modes are active.
TIE Fighter Ramps / Hyperspace Loops:
Shoot the right ramp to collect TIE Fighters: 1 per ramp shot, 2 if made as a combo from the center ramp on Prem / LE models. Awards are given at thresholds of TIE Fighters:
- 5, 15, 45: starts Hyperspace Loops. Shoot the center ramp as many times as possible to build a hyperspace jackpot that can be scored at the right ramp, and cash out the jackpot before time runs out. The center ramp build value and right ramp jackpot can be multiplied by shot multipliers.
- 10, 30, 60: lights extra ball, defaulting to the Luke VUK shot but alternating with slingshot hits between that shot and the right ramp.
Stormtrooper Hurry-Up & Bonus X:
Shoot the far right standup target to collect Stormtroopers. After collecting 2 Stormtroopers (+1 per hurry-up), a hurry-up will start at the target that was used to collect them, starting at 10M (+250k per completion of the return lanes and decreasing to 1M. The player cannot start this hurry-up during any multiball mode but can collect Stormtroopers and qualify the hurry-up once multiball ends.
Completing a Stormtrooper hurry-up awards +1x to end-of-ball bonus and multiplies the next Stormtrooper hurry-up award by +1x.
JEDI Ball Save:
Rip the spinners to add letters to JEDI and light the outlanes for ball save. The spinners only count down towards filling up JEDI during single-ball play.
- Pro: The ball save only lights when JEDI is fully spelled and only during single-ball play. Once a lit outlane is rolled over, the player must press the action button before a drain is registered to save their ball and continue play.
- Prem / LE: Once 2 / 4 letters in JEDI are lit, the button will be lit to quickly pulse the magnet below the flippers once per letter after an outlane is rolled over. If all of JEDI is spelled, pressing the action button will cause the magnet will toss the ball back into play from between the flippers, with 3 pulses left if the player still needs them to save the ball.
Every time the player fully spells JEDI, the difficulty of relighting it increases. 20 more spins are needed per letter.
Extra Balls:
Extra balls can be lit by…
- Completing 2 Rebel Missions
- Completing the first Falcon Feature of a game (excluding Lightspeed Escape)
- Completing the first Jabba Event of a game
- Making 5 lit shots during Dark Side Scoring
- Scoring 10, 30, and 60 TIE fighters from the right ramp
- Lighting it from a percentage-based mystery award
- Hitting the lowered center ramp 10 times during mynock multiball (Prem / LE exclusive)
There are two extra ball shots - the Luke VUK and the right ramp. The slingshots alternate which shot is lit for extra ball. If 2 extra balls are lit, both shots will be lit to collect them.
End-of-Ball Bonus:
Bonus is determined by the following:
- 200k per mission started
- 1M per mission completed
- 300k per Jabba Event started
- 1M per Jabba Event completed
- 300k per Falcon Feature started
- 1M per Falcon Feature completed
- 300k per Vader Mode started
- 1M per Vader Mode completed
- 150k per Rebel Combo collected
- 1.5M per Super Jackpot collected (in either Battle of Hoth or Death Star multiballs)
- Total points from completed super modes
All multiplied by the bonus multiplier which increases by +1x with every stormtrooper hurry-up completed. The bonus multiplier caps at 15x.
Wizard Modes:
Not a Jedi Yet (Mini-Wizard Mode):
Light the left scoop blue to start this mini-wizard mode by playing four different characters’ Rebel Missions. While the mini-wizard mode is lit, no further missions can be lit.
In the depths of Cloud City, Luke has been captured by Darth Vader. Wanting to finally take revenge on him for what he did to Obi-Wan, their lightsabers clash during an epic battle, but Luke isn’t prepared for what Vader plans to tell him.
This mini-wizard mode’s scoring is based on a percentage of total scores gained from the prior Rebel Missions (up to 10 can be played, as each character has 3 different modes). Shots start out lit white for 1x value, but hitting the same shot again will turn it blue for 2x, then red for 3x. Hitting any 3 shots will light the left scoop, Luke VUK, and Sarlacc pit blue to advance to the next stage, activate a 15 second ball saver, and score a value based on the current status of the lit shots. Beware, as after hitting a red shot, that shot can no longer be made again (outside of progress) between shot waves for the rest of the mode!
After clearing out 6 waves of shots (a total of 24 shots, including 6 blue progress shots), the left scoop is lit to score a final hurry-up based on the total value of the shots that were remaining to collect once all 24 shots were made. Collecting this final hurry-up completes the mode.
Sarlacc Escape (Mini-Wizard Mode):
Start this multiball mini-wizard mode by playing all three Jabba Events. This mode is the fourth Jabba Event and starts as those modes did, with repeated shots to the Salacious Crumb drop target followed by a shot to the Sarlacc Pit ramp.
Collect switch hits to light the jackpot at the Sarlacc Pit ramp; when the jackpot is lit, shoot the flashing arrow shots to increase the jackpot multiplier. The jackpot is scored once for every spin in the ramp but on competition mode, will cap out at 50 spins. Scoring the jackpot adds a ball and returns to the switch frenzy phase.
After scoring four jackpots, shoot the left scoop to score a super jackpot worth the jackpot total and complete the mini-wizard mode.
Dark Side Multiball (Mini-Wizard Mode):
Light the left scoop purple to start this mini-wizard mode by collecting 15 shots during Dark Side Scoring. To start dark side scoring, complete any Vader mode, then the randomly lit purple shots will advance towards lighting this mini-wizard mode.
During the cutscene that starts this multiball, press the action button if you want to cancel out the multiball and play another Vader mode instead, increasing the value of the multiball before starting it.
Dark Side Multiball is a 3-ball multiball where all shots are lit to score the current Dark Side Scoring value (5% of the built-up value from Vader modes). Hitting all eight major shots or hitting the left scoop relights all shots.
Once the multiball ends and single-ball play resumes, the left scoop is lit to score a final hurry-up starting at the total value of Dark Side multiball and decreasing to 10% of the total value. Shoot the left scoop to collect the hurry-up award and complete the mode.