PINBALL HALL OF FAME: THE WILLIAMS COLLECTION (WII VERSION) }}} F U N H O U S E {{{ strategy guide PURPOSE This guide is not intended to be comprehensive, but hopefully the included strategies will prove to be useful. INTRODUCTION Funhouse is a very ramp-oriented table, with only a small emphasis on target shots, jet bumpers, and rollover lanes. It's arguable whether ramp-oriented tables are inherently more or less fun, but it definitely allows Funhouse to rely more on skill. Good scores will be in the tens of millions, possibly even in the hundreds, although I have yet to hear of a 100,000,000 point game. CORE STRATEGIES There are many ways to score points in Funhouse, but there two core strategies you should follow. These apply to most pinball tables. 1. Keep the ball in control. Since most of your important targets are ramps, you have very good control over where your ball will end up after each shot. Avoid blind shots and focus on catching the ball and hitting the ramps. The minute your ball hits one of the slingshots near the flippers, the odds of it draining to the left or right increase dramatically. Survival odds off the slingshots are somewhere between 75% and 50%. Not good. 2. Prioritize the extra ball. Your ball is going to drain eventually. In Funhouse, extra balls are fairly plentiful as long as you take the time to go get them. Every ball out of the plunger has a chance of being that mega-score ball where you get 30,000,000 points or something like that, so you need as many as you can get. It's also never fun to be sitting on ball 3 without a safety net; having an extra ball in reserve will help your composure. DANGER One of the easiest ways to lose a ball is to miss a Trapdoor loop shot. If you don’t make it far enough up the loop ramp, when it comes back it will have very little momentum, and it will have a good chance of doing one of a couple things: A) Rolling directly over toward the left outlane, or B) landing on the left slingshot, which in turn will hit the right slingshot followed by the left outlane. So if you see the ball rolling weakly down the Trapdoor loop, you’ll probably want to start nudging the table *before* it reaches freefall. You’ll have to experiment to see what works. SPECIFIC STRATEGIES To progress and score big points you need to advance the clock to 11:30, lock two balls in the Hidden Hallway, hit the Rudy shot, then hit the Trapdoor during Midnight Multiball. There are other good ways to score points but they will occur along the way toward this primary goal. Below are the specific strategies for accomplishing all of the above. 1. Center Ramp to advance the clock. The Center Ramp is a low-risk shot that deposits the ball on the left flipper, making it a very safe way to advance the clock. If you want to be boring, you can just keep doing this until 11:30. 2. Trapdoor loop to advance the clock. If you want to gain points faster, use the Center Ramp or the flipper switch technique to get the ball to the left flipper, then shoot the Hidden Hallway followed by a series of Trapdoor loops to advance the clock and score the 500,000 to 1,000,000 point award. 3. Hit Rudy to light Mystery Mirror, leading to a lit Extra Ball. Every chance you get, hit Rudy in the mouth. This is supposed to light the Mystery Mirror, although in my experience it doesn't always work (could be a misunderstanding). Always shoot the Mystery Mirror when lit, since this is probably the easiest way to light the Extra Ball. 4. Center Ramp when Steps are lit. Although purposely trying to hit the STEPS targets may not be a good idea (you lose control of the ball), it's important to take advantage of the Steps every time they are lit. Often you will have a chance to light the Extra Ball. 5. Mystery Mirror Super Dog/Frenzy exploit. One of the great things about the Mystery Mirror is that time stops when you hit it. This means that timed events such as Superdog and Frenzy will be put on pause until the ball is ejected back at your flipper. When the ball ejects, you can time a Mystery Mirror / Superdog combo shot to advance the Superdog or Frenzy bonus amounts with very little drain on the clock. Use this to rack up huge bonuses! IMPORTANT SHOTS In order of priority, these are the shots you will need to be good at hitting. Not all shots are listed here, because I feel some shots (Gangway) are not critical to achieving a high score. None of the shots in Funhouse are terribly difficult, but I've rated them anyway. 1. Hidden Hallway. Difficulty: Medium This is the most important shot in the game for three reasons. 1) It's the extra ball shot, 2) it's the shot you need to advance the clock to 11:45 and midnight, and 3) it's the setup shot you need for the Rudy shot and the Trapdoor shot. The only consistent way to hit this ramp is from the left flipper. 2. Trapdoor shot. Difficulty: Medium This shot is important simply because of the point values involved. It's the shot that earns you multi-millions during Midnight Multiball. It's also a good way to rack up 1,000,000 points at almost any time during the game by completing multiple loops in combination. If you can consistently do the loop combination you'll end up with a lot more points at the end of the game. 3. Rudy shot. Difficulty: Medium The Rudy shot starts Midnight Multiball, scores 1,000,000 points when lit, and also lights the Mystery Mirror. 4. Mystery Mirror. Difficulty: Low This is one of the key elements to this table, but it's so easy to hit that it doesn't make the top of this priority list. The Mystery Mirror is where the ball usually ends up when you miss the Hidden Hallway shot. It's an important shot because when the ball spits out you can easily trap it with the right flipper, which in turn allows you to hit the Center Ramp (Steps ramp) and also sets you up to switch the ball to the left flipper. Also important are the awards it provides, most notably lighting the extra ball in the Hidden Hallway. You will probably hit the Mystery Mirror more than any other shot. 5. Mystery Mirror / Superdog combo. Difficulty: Medium Using the right flipper it's possible to hit the Superdog and Mystery Mirror in one shot. With practice, you can repeat this every time the ball exits the Mystery Mirror. 6. Center Ramp. Difficulty: Low Not only is this the route to the Steps, it also advances the clock without costing you control over the ball, plus it switches you from the right flipper to the left, setting you up for the Hidden Hallway shot. During Midnight Multiball it opens the Trapdoor for another multi-million point shot. (During multiball the shot obviously becomes much more difficult.) 7. Steps plunger. Difficulty: High While not technically a shot, this is important because it's one of the ways to light the Extra Ball. It's tough to be consistent though, so you'll probably be trying multiple times. 8. Flipper switch. Difficulty: Low Again not technically a shot, this is an important technique because it's an even lower-risk way to move the ball from the right flipper to the left, setting you up for the Hidden Hallway shot. To execute the technique, simply hold the ball with the flipper until it comes to rest, then quickly release and press the flipper button again. 9. Right Gangway. Difficulty: High I have not learned to use this ramp well yet. Supposedly the Trap Door loop or Gangway shots will light the right Gangway, and you will score points every time you shoot the lit Gangway, until eventually you light the Extra Ball.