FIELD GUIDE / 01 ARCADE MUSE · BZ-2
ONE MORE
GOOD RUN.
A little knowledge.
A whole new game to notice.
The ball finds a route. The board comes alive. Your car gets its chance. Learn what connects them—and give your next run a plan.
Keep this guide open beside your game. No bets. No in-game purchases.
01 GET YOUR BEARINGS
A dial. A ball.
A reason to look closer.
Your first goal is simple: learn what a small change at the handle does to the next few balls.
- 1
Launch & play.
Press the start button. The song sets the pace, the race begins, and balls fire automatically. There is no ball purchase and no stake to protect.
- 2
Make one small adjustment.
Drag the right-hand dial up to increase launch strength, or down to reduce it. A short tap stops or restarts firing. It does not pause the race.
- 3
Follow a few balls.
Start with the standard 12% POWER setting for a few shots. Watch where they leave the outer rail, which pins they touch, and where they finish. Keep a useful setting long enough to see a pattern before changing it again.
Mouse or touch
Drag the launch dial vertically to adjust strength. Tap it to toggle firing.
Keyboard
Focus the launch dial with Tab. Use arrow keys to adjust; hold Shift for smaller steps. Enter or Space toggles firing.
The line-finder experiment: three settings to compare
Try 12%, 38% and 75% for several shots each. These are practice waypoints, not winning settings. Lower settings send ordinary shots toward the left; higher settings move the rail exit toward the right. Look for a colour you have been missing.
The opening ball, and a ball after a long spell without a START, can receive visible violet entry assistance. It uses a special route. Judge your dial adjustment by the ordinary shots that follow.
Balls already in play keep their existing paths. Let your new shots reach the board before judging a change.
The Music and SFX dials change sound levels. They do not change the odds, launch power or score.
02 LEARN THE CONNECTIONS
Three colours.
Three ways to help.
The coloured routes beneath the race screen are more than decoration. Real ball contacts power real driving support.
BLUE / CYGNUS
PASS
DRAFTHelps your car use the slipstream and find a passing line. Completing a blue round also turns the metal gates.
GREEN / ORION
CORNER
GRIPSupports corner speed and lane changes. Charged green contacts activate the upward centre lane.
PURPLE / LYRA
SPEED
NITROAdds acceleration support. Charged purple contacts open the warp mouths, sending the same ball across the board.
A round is a collection.
Touch three different pins in one coloured route to complete a round. Three qualifying rounds earn that colour’s star. Each route has a 14-second cooldown between completed rounds.
A TRACE is a journey.
One ball touching three linked pins in quick succession earns a TRACE. Its path lights up, then an echo can restore one dark checkpoint. A real ball still has to finish the round.
03 THE BOARD’S BIG OBJECTIVE
From one good shot
to a full-board SURGE.
This is the long game inside the short game. Learn the sequence, then recognise your moment.
FOR A SURGE
- 1
Collect all three stars.
Complete the blue, green and purple star objectives. With all three collected, the central collector opens.
- 2
Load three real balls.
The centre briefly holds the balls that enter. Once all three are ready, they launch together automatically. No extra button is needed.
- 3
Use the multiball window.
During the 14-second multiball, touch each of the three coloured routes. Watch for CENTRE OPEN.
- 4
Find the opening.
Send a real ball through the central opening while it is open. A successful SURGE awards 240 in-game balls and powerful racing support.
04 READ THE RACE
You feed the race.
The cars do the driving.
There is no hidden steering stick. Your direct controls belong to the pinboard, and its results can support your car.
START or V stores a coloured charge.
The charge is used in a race duel.
Acceleration, score and an open GATE.
The five HOLD colours are a separate system.
The three pin routes provide driving support. The five HOLD colours show charge tiers for REACH. Balls entering START or V add a charge; pin contacts determine its colour. Up to four charges can be stored. If the HOLD is full, a stronger incoming charge can replace the weakest. Keep playing: a full HOLD is still useful territory.
Default odds for one charge, before assistance. Creators can change these settings. The cabinet’s How it works panel shows its configured values.
Do four charges mean four times the chance?
No. Each charge is an independent draw, and one winning stage wins the REACH. For example, four default blue charges give about 28.4% overall—not 32%—before any assistance applies.
There is no input that guarantees a random draw. Welcome and comeback assistance can also affect a REACH; the score target still requires real points.
A real pack has breathing room.
Slipstreams, corners, passing space and earned support can change the order. A trailing car has a chance to recover; that does not promise a last-second win.
When BOOST becomes RUSH.
The first BOOST can lead into RUSH when enough time remains. RUSH offers short race opportunities, although a moment stays a normal chase when a pass cannot physically happen in that window. Keep playing the board: the GATE is open during BOOST and RUSH, paying 15 in-game balls per entry.
05 GIVE THE RUN A PURPOSE
Chase the light.
Then chase your best.
Your finishing position is one result. Filling the illuminated cabinet arch is another.
Ball awards, constellation chains and race results add points. Reach the target to fill the arch. A place on the podium is not the same as completing the score target.
The standard AFTERLIGHT target is 140,000 points. Every awarded ball adds 12 score points. Race awards and well-timed REACH taps add their own points separately. Custom cabinets can use a different target: check STATS.
Three useful ways to practise.
The steady run
Change launch strength sparingly. Compare START / SHOTS over a stretch of play, then check your score at the finish.
The route hunt
Watch one coloured route and learn what fills its checkpoints. Broaden your attention to all three once that rhythm feels familiar.
The full-board run
Recognise the transition from stars to LOCK to MULTI. Keep firing and watch for CENTRE OPEN instead of following only the cars.
Pocket reference: balls, points and the finish
| Board event | Balls | Points |
|---|---|---|
| START / V | 3 | 36 |
| Side pocket / completed route | 5 | 60 |
| TRACE | 8 | 96 |
| Symbol match | 10 | 120 |
| GATE entry | 15 | 180 |
| SURGE | 240 | 2,880 |
The finish adds 2,500 / 1,800 / 1,200 / 700 / 350 points for positions one through five. Duel stages, wins and RUSH can add more along the way.
Ball awards are play counters. They are not money or paid credits. SURGE also opens the prize gate briefly and adds support, so keep watching the balls after the big award.
Open STATS to see your current play, target and local cabinet record. Help and STATS do not pause an active run. Completed plays save on this device; another browser or cleared site data may have a different record.
06 TAKE IT TO THE CABINET
Your next six
little victories.
Pick one thing to notice on your next play. Tick it here when you have tried it.
FIELD MISSIONS
One good observation is a good start.
BACK POCKET / QUICK ANSWERS
Before your next run.
Can I steer the car or force a win?
No direct steering control is provided. You control launch strength and firing, earn support through the board, and can add timed style points during REACH. Drawn REACH outcomes remain drawn outcomes.
Why did firing stop while the race kept going?
A tap on the launch dial switches firing on or off. Tap again to restart. It is not a pause button. The song and race also finish before the result screen; firing ends during the outro.
Where are the prizes and the creator’s work?
The result screen can contain the creator’s work, links and optional rewards. A reward may be available immediately, after a first play, after a score-target success or after a third play, depending on the creator’s settings. These milestones do not depend on finishing first. Not every cabinet offers rewards.
Can I soften the motion and lights?
Open How it works and enable Reduce camera motion and light effects. You can adjust Music and SFX independently, or use the mute button.
What can I keep after the finish?
The result card shows your position, score, balls won, TRACES, multiballs and SURGES. Share card creates an image of your result to share or download. Play again starts a fresh run.
Use the same browser and cabinet to build your local record. Records are not synced between devices.
Pocket glossary: the cabinet’s language
- HOLD
- Up to four coloured charges waiting for a duel.
- TRACE / ECHO
- A linked-pin shot, followed by a replay that can restore a checkpoint.
- REACH
- A head-to-head race duel using the charge draw and disclosed assistance.
- BOOST / RUSH
- Racing bursts with the prize gate open.
- LOCK / MULTIBALL
- Collect three real balls, then release them into a timed board challenge.
- SURGE
- The 240-ball award earned through the multiball objective and central opening.
- Full arch
- The cabinet’s target score has been reached.
Is there one perfect power setting?
This guide does not claim one. Real pin contacts, active mechanisms and the balls already in play all matter. Start with a small adjustment and observe. The useful skill is recognising what the board is doing.