World 4 · Maelstrom
World 4 · Maelstrom: its bins, launch odds, portals, Maelstrom's own mechanics, the lock to the next world and the pets in its claw machine.
Overview
The storm world, and the only one with two boards. On the surface a whirlpool hangs over the left of the pegs and swallows balls that cross it — most are devoured for good, the survivors become your CATCH. DIVE to the board below to spend that catch: down there every bin pays balls, and everything you win floats back up into the vortex as your HAUL. Surface again and tap the whirlpool to make it your launcher. Bins pay ×1.75 coins and the world multiplier is ×1.3, but gems (1 / 2 / 3) and balls are scarce on the surface — the dive board is where balls come from.
The board
Eighteen bins across the bottom, tiered left to right. Maelstrom lays them out like this:
| Aimed at | Chance per launch |
|---|---|
 Grey | 40% |
 Bronze | 40% |
 Silver | 20% |
| Bin | Per launch |
|---|---|
| Grey | 40% (1 in 2.5) |
| Bronze | 40% (1 in 2.5) |
| Silver | 20% (1 in 5) |
 Gold | — |
 Emerald | — |
 Ruby | — |
 Diamond | — |
Shares and landing odds assume both bonus dice are unlocked — the same basis as Bucket Rates.
The surface runs no portals; launches are aimed Grey 40% / Bronze 40% / Silver 20% and stay there unless a geyser or the vortex moves them. The vortex launcher (below) is the road to the right side.
Bins and rewards
| Bin | On the strip |  Coins |  Gold balls |  Gems |  Balls |  Portal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grey | 4 | 228 (55.6%) | ×2 (44.4%) | — | — | — |
| Bronze | 3 | 455 (54.1%) | ×5 (45.9%) | — | — | — |
| Silver | 3 | 683 (80.7%) | ×10 (19.3%) | — | — | — |
| Gold | 3 | 1,365 (79%) | ×20 (13.9%) | 1 (6.68%) | +1 (0.207%) | — |
| Emerald | 2 | 2,730 (69.2%) | ×30 (20.7%) | 2 (8.91%) | +2 (0.779%) | — |
| Ruby | 2 | 4,550 (75.9%) | ×50 (13.3%) | 3 (9.54%) | +3 (0.771%) | — |
| Diamond | 1 | Opens Jackpot Frenzy — floor 113,750 coins · 1,750 gold balls · 220 gems · 220 balls |
Coins are the base payout before your pet, ARCADE Coin Gain and Marquee multipliers. The percentage is that reward's share of the bin's roll. On top of the roll, Silver and better bins independently drop sticker packs and time candy, dice slots open with the Bonus Map, and a landing can drop a pet card at 1 in 35 here — every rate is on Bucket Rates.
The surface: whirlpool, CATCH and geysers
- Where it sits
- Over peg rows 3–7, left of centre, 44% of the board wide at full size
- Grab
- 5% per peg hop inside it — a full-width crossing clips 3–5 pegs, so 3 pegs 14.3% · 4 pegs 18.5% · 5 pegs 22.6% of crossing balls are taken
- Devoured
- 50% of swallowed balls are gone for good (shell pets can cut this to a 15% floor); the rest join your CATCH
- It grows
- Half size when empty, full size at 400 caught balls, one step every 100
- Geysers
- A Bronze landing (3%) or Silver landing (6%) can erupt a water jet that fires every ball in that column back to the top
A swallowed ball comes back exactly as it went in — a split ball is still small, a gold ball still gold, a forged ball still armoured. The Hermit Crab-style ransoms and the Nautilus's pull change how hungry the vortex is; the Manta Ray lowers the full-size line. The HUD reads CAUGHT for the pool and HAUL for the load waiting in the vortex.
The dive board
Tap DIVE (the board must be empty) to drop below. Launching costs one CAUGHT ball instead of a wallet ball, the launch bar turns brown, and the strip is laid out 5 Grey / 3 Bronze / 3 Silver / 2 Gold / 2 Emerald / 2 Ruby / 1 Diamond — the Grey dead zone is wider than up top. Every bin pays balls and nothing else: no coins, gems or gold balls down here, and a dive-board Diamond pays 100 balls instead of opening Jackpot Frenzy.
| Bin | Bins | Pays | Portal | Per dive launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grey | 5 | +0 | 10% | 36.9% (1 in 2.71) |
| Bronze | 3 | +1 | 12.5% | 40.2% (1 in 2.49) |
| Silver | 3 | +2 | 15% | 20.9% (1 in 4.78) |
| Gold | 2 | +3 | 17.5% | 1.7% (1 in 58.9) |
| Emerald | 2 | +5 | — | 0.22% (1 in 455) |
| Ruby | 2 | +8 | — | 0.0317% (1 in 3,157) |
| Diamond | 1 | +100 | — | 0.0007% (1 in 142,055) |
- The dive board runs World 1's four-slime portal chain at 10% / 12.5% / 15% / 17.5% (Grey / Bronze / Silver / Gold), capped at 20% with buffs, at most 3 warps per ball.
- Expected return: 0.89 balls per dive launch before pets — the Giant Isopod (free dives, bigger payouts, Grey re-launches) and the Manta Ray's Filter Feed push it past break-even.
- Dice and pet cards still drop at ×0.5 the surface rate, sticker packs and time candy at ×0.25.
- Balls the bins pay fly up into the ceiling vortex as HAUL. Split balls pay a quarter.
The vortex launcher
Back on the surface, tap the whirlpool: the launch bar turns blue (VORTEX) and each press fires one HAUL ball out of the eye onto the surface table instead of from the tube. Vortex balls roll on their own table and are then pushed right by 1 bin (the Sailfish's Full Sail multiplies it, Trade Winds adds bins, up to 6), never short of the first Silver bin and never into Diamond by push alone. Diamond is a separate pre-roll that scales with that push: 1 in 75,000 with no aim up to 1 in 15,789 at a +3 aim. Tap the whirlpool again to go back to the tube.
| Bin | Rolled on the table | Lands (aim +0) | Lands (aim +1, no pets) | Lands (aim +3, maxed) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grey | 13.7% | 13.7% | 10.3% | 3.42% |
| Bronze | 28.3% | 28.3% | 22.3% | 10.3% |
| Silver | 46.2% | 46.2% | 40.2% | 28.3% |
| Gold | 9.77% | 9.77% | 23.5% | 47.8% |
| Emerald | 1.76% | 1.76% | 2.51% | 5.76% |
| Ruby | 0.293% | 0.293% | 1.17% | 4.43% |
| Diamond | — | 0.0013% (1 in 75,000) | 0.003% (1 in 33,584) | 0.0063% (1 in 15,789) |
Vortex balls pay coins with the volley bonus and still chip the World 5 lock; a Diamond from the vortex opens Jackpot Frenzy like any surface Diamond.
The door to World 5 · Inferno
- Lock
- 15,000,000 HP
- What chips it
- Every landing in an Emerald, Ruby or Diamond bin
- Damage per landing
- Ball Power × (Emerald ×1 / Ruby ×1.5 / Diamond ×20) + 10
- Reward
- 1,000 gems, once, plus the way to World 5 · Inferno
Tap the padlocked door on the board for a live readout: HP left and exactly what your next Emerald, Ruby and Diamond landing will chip. The full formula and a damage table are on the Worlds hub.
- Only surface landings chip the lock — the dive board pays balls, not lock damage.
Pets available here
The claw machine you stand in front of is Maelstrom's: one pull costs 500 gems (your first 50 paid pulls here are 375 gems — 25% off) and rolls one of these 8 pets at the base odds shown. Pet Score and rare-luck buffs push the rare tiers up — see Claw Odds. A guaranteed mythic lands on your 400th non-mythic pull in each world.
Tips
- The loop is CATCH → DIVE → HAUL → VORTEX: feed the whirlpool, spend the catch below, fire the haul back over the gem bins.
- Surface bins pay balls only from Gold up and only 2% / 4% / 6% of the time — the dive board is your ball income here.
- Right-bias pets (Sailfish) are worth more than portal pets on Maelstrom: the vortex push is the only road right.
See also
- Worlds — The 5 worlds of Ballin Tycoon: locks and how to break them, each world's coin / gem / ball ladder, bin layouts, portals, mechanics, claw pets and World Hop.
- World 3 · Flora — World 3 · Flora: its bins, launch odds, portals, Flora's own mechanics, the lock to the next world and the pets in its claw machine.
- Jackpot Frenzy — The Diamond-bin minigame: guaranteed floor loot, tilt rounds that grow a multiplier, the Fortune Wheel, and the Void Warden pet.
- Bucket Rates — Every reward, amount and chance for every bin in every world — coins, gold balls, gems, balls, portals, dice, sticker packs, time candy and pet cards.
- Giant Isopod — Giant Isopod — uncommon World 4 pet. Rules the dive board — cheaper launches, fatter hauls.
- Sailfish — Sailfish — rare World 4 pet. Sails vortex balls further right — the launch aim.
- Baby Shark — Baby Shark — mythic World 4 pet. Breaks world gates — harder bites, twice-chipped locks.