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Beetlejuice

Spooky Pinball, 2025 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

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Beetlejuice is Spooky Pinball's 2025 standard-width machine designed by Luke "Spooky Luke" Peters and Corwin "Bug" Emery, based on the 1988 Tim Burton film. It ships as a Collector's Edition (999 units) alongside a standard edition; the two differ only in trim (armor, glass, topper, dust cover), not in rules. The headline gimmick is SpookySpeak voice control — the first pinball machine with voice controls — but it lives on the optional topper and is never required to play; every voice action has an Action-Button equivalent. Documentation for this recent machine is still filling in: multiballs and modes are well understood, but playfield-multiplier math, end-of-ball bonus, and the top wizard mode remain unconfirmed.

Layout

Three flippers — two lower plus a full-size upper-right flipper that services the "Waiting Room" upper playfield. Reading roughly clockwise: Left Orbit (figure-8s to the upper flipper), Left Ramp with the physical Dante's Inferno roulette wheel, the Spinner (feeds pops/Juno Scoop), three pop bumpers, the upper-left Juno Scoop, the center Polaroid Camera targets and Center (multiplier) Scoop with 1-2-3-4-5 inserts, the motorized Sandworm guarded by an Attack-from-Mars-style wall-target bank, the dual-lift Right Ramp (up = couch lock, down = loopable), the Handbook target, the convertible Right Orbit / Deadend vari-target with a drop target, the Beetlejuice captive-ball sculpt, and the Mystery (coffin) Scoop. Up top sit the Afterlife Couch ball lock, the Upper Loop (Knock inserts), and the Waiting Room standups/scoop/orbit. A Magna-Save magnet between the lower flippers auto-rescues outlane and center drains, making the game unusually forgiving.

Skill shots

The Standard Skill Shot rewards releasing the plunge on a lit value and feeds the right flipper; a miss is auto-caught by the magnet without spending a save. The Super Skill Shot — the only chain the code scores as a true "combo" — asks you to immediately hit Left Ramp -> Right Ramp -> Spinner while lit.

Modes (the purple stack)

All eight Beetlejuice modes use one flow: shoot purple-lit shots three times to light Mode Start, cycle to your pick with the Mode Change switch and press Launch to lock it, then shoot the Right Orbit to start. Documented modes: As Seen on TV (7 easy shots then the captive ball), Grave Dig (scoops -> headstone -> ramps -> orbit), Day-O Dinner Party (timed; the machine takes the flippers; switch hits build a multiplier), Head Shrink, Charades, Beetle Snake (3 pops, 30 spins, 3 ramps), 'Til Death (blue shots; spinner raises multiplier, right ramp raises shot value), and Otho's Seance (start and finish at the Handbook target). Modes cannot be started during a multiball. The Juno/Waiting Room chain runs Take a Number (Juno Scoop) -> Advance Counter -> Now Serving.

Multiballs

Multipliers, toys, and awards

Returning Souls is the playfield multiplier: pops spawn Lost Souls, returned via lit shots to briefly raise the X shown on the Center Scoop's 1-5 inserts (values/duration TBD). A separate bonus multiplier is fed by the upper-right Waiting Room standups (exact mechanics unconfirmed). The Dante's Inferno Wheel (Left Ramp) awards Super Pops/Ramps/Spinner/Worm at 5x, Extra Ball, points, or "You Lose." The Mystery/coffin scoop grants Lite Lock, points, Advance Now Serving, Lite Ball Save, or the Shooting Gallery video mode. Magna-Save re-qualifies at the Handbook target.

Wizard

Singing in the Stairwell is the documented mini-wizard multiball, lit by completing 2 modes or starting 4; it has built-in add-a-balls and a Super Jackpot at the Juno Scoop collected with the Action Button. A top-tier wizard mode and the Scare-o-meter remain undocumented.

Strategy

The strong opener is the Super Skill Shot into 1-2 Wheel spins for guaranteed value, then the Upper Loop to light the easy Couch multiball, tapping upper standups for bonus X along the way. Big scores come from stacking a brief Returning Souls playfield X and a Wheel Super onto Afterlife Couch Super Jackpots via the Knock loop — not from any combo chain, as the game has no formal combo system.

How Beetlejuice plays

Beetlejuice brings the Neitherworld to the playfield, leaning hard on a lockbar magnet that saves your drains and a stack of modes qualified by purple shots. Start the modes and three multiballs, build the Returning Souls playfield multiplier, and reach Singing in the Stairwell for the game's marquee scoring.

The loop

  1. Hit three purple Beetlejuice shots to qualify a mode, cycle to your pick at the Mode Change switch and lock it with the Launch button, then start it at the Right Orbit.
  2. Loop the couch on the Upper Loop to light locks, lock three up the Right Ramp for Afterlife Couch Multiball, and light the camera targets off the inlanes for Strange & Unusual.
  3. Feed the pop bumpers to spawn Lost Souls and return them for a Returning Souls playfield multiplier, then open it right before a multiball Super or a mode's big shot.
  4. Complete two modes or start four to light Singing in the Stairwell, then press the action button at the Juno Scoop to collect its Super Jackpot.

Reading the lights

  • Beetlejuice Mode Start (mode) — lit: Three purple Beetlejuice-face shots that roam the ramps, orbits and spinner light Mode Start, and a qualified mode holds at the Right Orbit until you begin it. · flashing: The Mode Change switch blinks while a mode is qualified, and a Launch-button press during that blink locks your pick so the slingshots cannot bump it. · then: Cycle the Mode Change switch to the mode you want, lock it with the Launch button, and shoot the Right Orbit to start it; modes cannot be qualified or run during a multiball, so fit them between multiballs.
  • Afterlife Couch Multiball (status) — lit: Looping the Upper Loop around the couch lights the Knock inserts for locks, the raised Right Ramp is the lock shot, and the couch holds three balls before it tips forward to release them. · then: Lock three up the Right Ramp to start this three-ball multiball -- the easiest on the machine -- pump jackpot value on the Knock loop, then re-lock a ball and collect the Super at the Spinner or Juno Scoop.
  • Strange & Unusual Camera Targets (status) — lit: Rolling either inlane lights Lydia's center Polaroid targets, and hitting each lit camera target once starts Strange and Unusual Multiball. · then: Bank the camera targets for a cheap two-ball start, then farm ramp jackpots and clear the flashing camera sets for add-a-balls that keep it going.
  • SHOWTIME Letters (letters) — lit: The yellow SHOWTIME shots exist in one narrow window -- after you qualify a mode and before you start it -- and vanish the moment a mode begins. · flashing: The letters glow yellow only in that gap between qualifying and starting, so a mode left waiting is your chance to bank them. · then: Leave a mode qualified and chip the yellow letters on the ramps, orbits and spinner, then begin It's Showtime Multiball back at the Right Orbit. Lock a ball there and bank it off the drop target so it caroms into the vari-target and pays the Strength Test Super Jackpot.
  • Sandworm Battle (mode) — lit: The motorized wall targets guard the Sandworm, and knocking all three down drops the wall and exposes the worm's mouth for a battle. · then: Shoot the exposed mouth to drain the worm's health bar and win the battle; defeating enough Sandworms lights an Extra Ball at its standup. · control: Action button: in the Walk With Rhythm battle, rapid action-button presses lower the worm so you can feed a ball into its open mouth (the Walk With Rhythm sandworm battle is running)
  • The Roulette Wheel (status) — lit: Repeated Left Ramp shots light the roulette wheel and the next Left Ramp shot sets it spinning, and the Left Ramp is the safest repeatable shot on the playfield. · flashing: The wheel spins after a lit ramp shot with a You Lose slice on it, so time your stop. · then: Stop the wheel on a five-times Super and stack it into a matching multiball phase, or bank the Extra Ball; a Super Spinner window turns cheap spinner rips into real multiplier value. · control: Action button: a press of the action button stops the spinning wheel where you want it -- Super Pops, Ramps, Spinner or Worm, an Extra Ball, or points -- while dodging the You Lose slice (the wheel is spinning after a Left Ramp shot)
  • Returning Souls Playfield X (multiplier) — lit: Hitting the pops spawns Lost Souls, and returning each soul on a lit shot banks another level of playfield multiplier up to five times, shown on the Center Scoop's numbered inserts. · then: The multiplier opens at whatever level you banked and bleeds off a step every thirty seconds, so trigger it in the instant before a Super Jackpot lands in multiball or a mode reaches its marquee shot, and it doubles that whole burst.
  • Magna-Save Magnet (status) — lit: The lockbar magnet sits between the flippers and, once charged, snatches balls headed for the outlanes or the middle and hurls them back into play, with a spent charge re-armed by swatting a fly at the Handbook target. · flashing: A green button glow means a charge is ready; once it is spent, hit the Handbook target to put the fly on screen and recharge. · then: Keep a charge banked for the drains you cannot flip out of and re-arm it at the Handbook target, which also starts Otho's Seance, so the save is there when a big ball is on the line. · control: Action button: a press fires the Magna-Save magnet to catch a draining ball, and after it is spent, hitting the Handbook target spawns a fly that a green-lit button press swats to recharge the save (a ball is slipping into an outlane or down the middle)

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

The Action Button on Beetlejuice

Center of the lockdown bar.

Few games lean on a button this hard. Its headline job is the Magna-Save magnet tucked under the flippers, which grabs outlane and center drains and flings the ball back at you. Beyond that, modes borrow the button constantly — stopping the wheel, freezing values, and collecting Supers that the shot alone won't pay.

Goals in Beetlejuice

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

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