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Elvira's House of Horrors

Stern Pinball, 2019 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Elvira's House of Horrors in the Pinball Genie app →

Designer: Dennis Nordman (layout) / Lyman Sheats (lead code). Two-flipper, single-level, B-movie house-party theme. No Pro model — shipped as Premium, LE (400), Signature (50), and Blood Red Kiss; all editions share an identical playfield, mechs, and ruleset, so every shot is trim: all.

The core loop — HAUNTS

The spine of the game is starting Haunts (B-movie modes). Repeatedly shoot the House/Mansion Entrance (center) until its insert flashes purple, then the next House shot starts the qualified Haunt; the Super Secret Back Door skill shot instantly qualifies/starts one for free. Haunts run a 45s timer that pauses in the pop bumpers (resets to 15s if you make progress under 15s). There are 6 main Haunts (Night of the Living Dead, Teenagers from Outer Space, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, The Manster, Manos: The Hands of Fate, The Werewolf of Washington) plus 4 Skeleton-Key-locked Haunts. Completing a Haunt qualifies Trailer Trash (hurry-up worth 50%→75%→100% of the Haunt score depending on ramps hit) and advances B-Restorator rank toward Director's Cut.

Skill shots

Multiballs

Multipliers

Side modes / collect systems

Un-Happy Hour (ramps), Drive Me Crazy (orbits), Gar-Goils Gone Wild (Gar-Goil targets + orbits), Hand of Fate wheel (collected at left outlane), Manos Wheel.

Wizard modes

Tournament money: stack a Haunt + a jackpot multiball under a held 4X Double Trouble, loop multiball supers via the House relight, and 100% every Trailer Trash.

How Elvira's House of Horrors plays

Elvira is flipping a haunted house, and you restore and sell it by playing through her library of B-movie Haunts. Build your market value across every mode and multiball, then close the sale for the whole accumulated total in Wild Market Value.

The loop

  1. Shoot the House entrance until its mansion insert flashes purple, then shoot it again to start a Haunt -- the ramps alone never qualify one.
  2. Play the Haunt out, dipping into the pop bumpers to pause its timer, then cash it at up to full value with both ramps into the House.
  3. Lock balls at the Garage, complete the Trunk targets, and battle the Crypt to run the three standard multiballs, stacking them onto a running Haunt.
  4. Complete the Trunk and Hand of Fate target banks and roll a lit inlane for Double Trouble, then hold 4X so the whole stack is quadrupled.
  5. Finish four Haunts for Director's Cut, tick off all seven requirements, and sell the house at the Cellar.

Reading the lights

  • The House & Cellar (mode) — lit: Every Haunt begins and ends at the House center, and win one and the front-door steps rise away to expose the Cellar underneath, which closes out many Haunts and is the climax shot for the biggest goals. · flashing: A purple-flashing mansion insert means a Haunt is qualified and the next House shot will start it. · then: Loop the House to qualify and start Haunts, and the moment one finishes take both ramps then the House to bank the full Trailer Trash cash-out. Four completed Haunts light Director's Cut here, and the Cellar is where you eventually sell the house for Wild Market Value.
  • The Garage (status) — lit: Knocking down the gravestone drop guarding the Garage lights its locks; feed three balls in to start Wild Women Multiball, the cheapest multiball to reach and an easy one to layer over a Haunt. · then: Lock three and farm the jackpot ring -- left orbit, ramps, House, right orbit, Crypt -- shooting the House after five jackpots for the Super, which then lights both orbits for supers. Starting Attic Attack, the third Garage multiball, is one of the seven Wild Market Value requirements.
  • Junk in the Trunk (status) — lit: Completing the 36-24-36 standup bank opens the motorized trunk; the left ramp's crate diverter then drops the ball inside to collect a random Junk piece and lock it, and a second lock starts the two-ball Trunk Multiball. · flashing: A flashing trunk insert cycles which of the four collectible Junk items is on offer. · then: Lock through the left ramp and cash its Super Jackpot for one to three Junk pieces. Collecting all four Junk starts Phone-A-Fiend -- another sale requirement -- and pulls out the Atomic Raygun, which the lockdown-bar button fires to spot a shot in your running Haunt.
  • Deadhead Family Crypt (mode) — lit: The green crypt is a bash toy: shoot it to lower the mausoleum, wake a Deadhead and batter its skull, then return to the crypt to finish it off, with each successive Deadhead demanding more hits than the last. · then: The first Deadhead lights the right-outlane ball save, the second an extra ball, and the third that Super Head Shot, itself one of the seven sale requirements. Defeated heads are held from ball to ball, so no early crypt work is ever wasted. · control: Action button: aim the flashing Super Head Shot at the crypt -- the third Deadhead cannot be finished any other way (the third Deadhead is up and the Super Head Shot is lit)
  • Freak Fryer & Gappa Angry (ladder) — lit: The center Freak Fryer tower charges on switch hits across five levels; topping it out lights Gappa Angry over at the House, which then runs six escalating lock stages that climb the playfield toward the Cellar. · then: Charge the tower, start at the House, and work the staged locks -- House, then both ramps, then both orbits -- up to the Cellar Super Jackpot and a six-ball multiball. Starting Gappa Angry is another of the seven requirements for the final sale.
  • Double Trouble Playfield X (multiplier) — lit: Complete the Trunk standup bank and the Hand of Fate target bank and one inlane lights for Double Trouble; the lit inlane is what you roll through to switch on playfield-wide multiplier scoring. · then: Time the lit inlane so it rolls just as a fat scoring window opens and it fires 2X for thirty seconds; re-complete both banks and roll a lit inlane again while it still runs to upgrade to 4X, then work the House and orbit supers with the whole playfield quadrupled. · control: Either flipper button: tap a flipper button to move the lit Double Trouble inlane between the two returns, so the ball rolls through it on the shot you choose (Double Trouble is lit and the ball is heading for the inlanes)
  • Gar-Goil Targets (mode) — lit: The row of green Gar-Goil standups fills the Garg-Oil-Gauge as you complete it; filling the gauge starts Gar-Goils Gone Wild, which turns both orbits into escalating value. · then: Complete the targets to start the mode, then farm the orbits for value that climbs each shot up to a Super Jackpot. Starting Gar-Goils Gone Wild is one of the seven boxes you tick for the final sale.
  • Hand of Fate Wheel (status) — lit: Completing the Hand of Fate target bank arms a spin and lights Hand of Fate at the left outlane; the next ball to drain that way throws a spinning wheel onto the display instead of just dying. · then: Let a lit-outlane drain feed the wheel and stop it within about six seconds on an award you need -- Double Bone-Us doubles your entire end-of-ball bonus. Collect all six segments and a second wheel opens, which is where the extra ball lives. · control: Action button: press the lockdown-bar button to freeze the wheel wherever you like, so you decide the award rather than leaving it to chance (the wheel is spinning after a ball drains down the lit left outlane)

Lane change: the flipper buttons move the lit lane. Complete the Trunk and Hand of Fate target banks and one inlane lights for Double Trouble; tap a flipper button to move the lit inlane between the two returns so the ball rolls through the one you pick. Rolling it fires 2X playfield scoring, and re-qualifying the banks and rolling a lit inlane again while it runs upgrades you to 4X.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Soft-plunge behind the mansion into the Super Secret Back Door for a fat score and a Haunt handed to you free, or take the near-riskless top-lane skill shot for points and a bonus-multiplier bump. Start the Haunt at the House, then dip into the pop bumpers to pause its timer while you learn the shots. — Super Secret Back Door Unskilled Shot, Dead End Top-Lane Skill Shot, Safe Beginner Opener
  • Building — Start a Haunt first, then stack a Garage Multiball on top, since you can pull a multiball into a running Haunt but never start a Haunt once a multiball is going. Pre-bank the Trunk and Hand of Fate targets so you can roll a lit inlane for Double Trouble and hold 4X across the whole stack. — The Core Stack: Haunt + Multiball + 4X, Garage Multiball (Wild Women), Double Trouble (2X → 4X Playfield)
  • The big one — Complete four Haunts for Director's Cut, worth around a hundred million for all four films. Then tick off all seven requirements -- Director's Cut, the Super Head Shot, Phone-A-Fiend, Gappa Angry, Gar-Goils Gone Wild, Attic Attack and They Came From Space -- and sell the house at the Cellar in Wild Market Value, a hurry-up paying your entire accumulated total. — Wild Market Value (Final Wizard), Director's Cut (Wizard)

The Action Button on Elvira's House of Horrors

On the lockdown bar.

Three jobs, all worth knowing. It stops the Hand of Fate wheel on the award you actually want, it fires the Atomic Raygun you pull out of the Trunk, and it aims the Super Head Shot at the Crypt.

Goals in Elvira's House of Horrors

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

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