More Jaws July 2024 Insider Connected Quests + Seasonal Quests + John Wick Contract Quests Introduced

Some firsts for Stern Pinball Insider Quests in July include the introduction of contract quests in John Wick and another set of Jaws quests. I don’t recall any other game yet getting a second treatment of quests, at least since I’ve been tracking (see the history below), and our family are huge Jaws pinball fans, so this is a huge win for us anyway. I hope they repeat this trend and even have year to year seasonal game quests (like every 4th of July year going forward, celebrate Jaws!)

Let’s dig into the 6 Jaws July quests first, here’s a look at all of them, and the official page from Stern here:
https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider/events/10178/leaderboards

Here are the six Jaws quests to be completed by date:

• July 1-7 – play and collect 3X quickshot
  Just use the small upper right flipper, hit across the playfield through the quickshot lane to activate, when not in another mode, then hit the fin target to increase the quickshot. If you hit far up the far left lane on your crossshot, you can get a 3X shot the first time, but if you miss the fin, it resets to 1x
• July 1-7 – collect 10+ quickshots
  While you’re working on the 3X quickshot badge (see above), this one will increment above
• July 1-7 – score over 20 million in a feeding frenzy
• July 1-7 – fire 500 harpoons in Shark Hunter
  Since you only get 20 harpoons, but can earn more by leveling up (+10) and +5 harpoons for each time you hit the harpoons, it will probably take something like 10-20+ games to achieve this. Since you need shark teeth to play this mode, also you need for the 4th of July competition mode, better start collecting your shark teeth now.
• July 1-7 – Complete Quint’s Challenge
  This might be the hardest of the Jaws quests, with only 5.7% of all Insider Connected players achieving as of this writing. I’ve completed Level 1, but not any of the other levels. Level 1 will work for this badge.

• July 4 ONLY – collect 50 fireworks in 4th of July competition mode (v0.91 code)
  The right side ramp and center ramp both award 15 fireworks each, also ripping the spinner (left) or the reel can generate a good amount of fireworks. Any combination of these and then hitting the boat to collect the fireworks before the time runs out

There are also two July leaderboard challenge contests that take place July 1-7 located here:
https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider/events/10183/leaderboards

Get the highest score on the Jaws 4th of July Challenge mode and rank here:
https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider/events/10183/leaderboards/BfUvU-cPFMj-wDPZ?game=JWS

A return of Shark Hunter leaderboard challenge, ranking is here:
https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider/events/10183/leaderboards/vdkn-MDLH-tXPf?game=JWS

The monthly leaderboard challenge is for Black Knight: Sword of Rage.

July Black Knight: Sword of Rage Leaderboard is here:
https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider/events/10181/leaderboards/BqPC-aTbqb-ncJTY?game=SOR

July 2024 Seasonal Quests

There are three July 2024 Seasonal Quests located here:
https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider/events/10179/leaderboards

Here’s the breakdown by date:

• July 11-14 – Play any Rush machine for Bastille Day
• July 1 – 31 – Play two different Brian Eddy IC machines: Venom, Mandalorian or Stranger Things
• July 4 ONLY – Score 10 million on any of the 24 IC games
  Jaws would be the ideal game to play here. Hitting one or two key plunger skill shots can earn the needed 10 million points, but there are several other high scoring IC games (see: Ranking Stern Spike 2 Games by Scoring Tier +Took 900+ days to score over a billion)

John Wick Contract Quests

Potentially the most exciting and certainly the most unique quests available in July 2024 are for the newest Spike 2 IC pin: John Wick. Some of these quests are both timely and limited in how many IC players can collect them. Notification for some of these quests is sent via the Stern IC app (iOS and Android).

As of this writing and publishing, there are four open contracts available here:
https://insider.sternpinball.com/insider/events/10143/leaderboards

Here are details for these four open contracts, with presumably the entire month to complete:

• June 27 – July 31, 2024 – Start “Excommunication Multiball”
• June 27 – July 31, 2024 – Defeat 100 enemies
  Note: see the 200 enemies limited contract further below
• June 27 – July 31, 2024 – Start Helipad Shodown Multiball
• June 27 – July 31, 2024 – Score 40+ million

The most unique badge to earn are the limited contracts with the first of what appears to be six total limited contract is to defeat 200 enemies. It looks like this:

The first contract is limited to 2,000 IC players and as of this writing 52 of these 2,000 have been completed, leaving 1,948 remaining. My guess is these will take at least a few days and possibly the entire month for 2,000 to be collected, so it’s not a super rush time-wise, but if you don’t own or have home access (HUO) to a John Wick, it might be a good idea this weekend to get out there and play and take down those enemies.

In the Facebook group chat for Stern Pinball Insider Connected Enthusiasts (https://www.facebook.com/groups/892839409087535), I asked Dean Stantoine, that was among the earliest in the world to complete the achievement (congrats Dean!) how many games he played to defeat 200 enemies and his answer was 5 or 6 games at his skill level.

Note: Dean’s comment that the enemy kill count is located in the top left corner of the LCD screen, so you can track it in game.

Of further interest, apparently this limited contract open and closes for availability based on how many have earned it, so that adds an additional variable to collecting. I’m not sure if you must kill these enemies during the open/active window or not, which might make it a bit frustrating for those that have to travel to collect this contract if when they play it doesn’t count, but if it does count, only the ability to earn it when the window re-opens(?) I’ll update as soon as more is learned, but for now, just get in and play a John Wick and take 200 enemies down.

Whew! A good amount to do in July, particularly the first week and at somewhat random(?) times with the John Wick limited contracts. I like the concept of these John Wick badges because there is some mystery and intrigue around them, similar to what a secret agent might experience. Love creativity like that. It does increase my interest in playing John Wick and something indicated I was looking forward to in my first thoughts on the game (see: John Wick Pro + Premium (Stern 2024 v0.81 code) Detailed Thoughts after Flipping On Location + Show)

Prior Stern Insider Connected quests history by month (since they started doing monthly quests):

Since October 2023, Stern has offered quests to earn virtual badges on a monthly frequency. Here’s a historical record of our coverage. NOTE: prior to October 2023, there were other quests in 2023, like a Foo Fighters quest that spanned multiple months for a tour, but there weren’t month-specific quests. There were also some months where there were global tournaments only.

• June 2024 – What’s Coming in IC Future? (UNOFFICIAL) + June 2024 Stern Pinball Insider Connected Quests
• May 2024 – Humpday Wednesday #41 Jaws (Stern 2024) Live Play + 50 Day Streak + FX Tournament + May 2024 Insider Connected Quests
• April 2024 – April 2024 Insider Connected Events 6 Quests+ Avengers Infinity Quest Tournament + Constructive Criticism for March Machine Mania – PlayGamesMore
• March 2024 – UPDATED Stern Pinball Insider Connected March Machine Mania Has Arrived – 007 Tourney + Increased Logout Time + Surprise Quests?
• February 2024 – Stern Pinball spreads togetherness in eight February 2024 Insider Connected Quests
• January 2024 – January 2024 Stern Insider Connected Quests: Elvira House of Horrors Featured
• December 2023 – Stern Insider Connected December 2023 Quests for Virtual Badges Details, Game on!
• November 2023 –TIME-SENSITIVE – November 2023 Stern Pinball Insider Connected Quests: Godzilla Day, George Gomez Spotlight and The Heroes Quest
• October 2023 –Stern Pinball Insider Connected Quest October 2 – 31, 2023: Jurassic Park Dino DNA