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The Evil Dead

Spooky Pinball, 2024 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open The Evil Dead in the Pinball Genie app →

The Evil Dead is a boutique, single-trim widebody from Spooky Pinball — the Collector's Edition, limited to 888 units (~$9,999). Because there is only one edition, every machine is fully loaded: every shot and mech below is present on all units (trim = all). Design by Corwin "Bug" Emery and "Spooky Luke" Peverill, art by Christopher Franchi, code by Ben Heck, with Bruce Campbell voice. It's Spooky's most mech-heavy game to date. Note: the ruleset is still evolving (code shipping through v2026.04.01), so exact combo timers and point values for some newer features aren't yet finalized.

The playfield

Two main flippers sit at the bottom. A Hidden Sling Flipper replaces the left slingshot (fired by the upper-left button) and reaches the left orbit, left ramp, left deadite, and drops. An upper-right mini flipper feeds a ramp/loop. Below the main field is an RGB-lit fruit-cellar lower playfield with its own flipper, loop, launch, and drain, reached by opening the Cellar Door (Action button).

Key shots: left, middle (lift), and right ramps (all backhandable; the right ramp has a mode-start scoop beneath it); left/right/inner/rear orbits and a hard-to-find center super spinner; the six inline GROOVY drops; the cabin drops + Cabin VUK lock; three Necklace standups; two pop-up Deadites (Evil Scotty left, Evil Ed right) guarding the ramps; the Evil Ash Hand bash toy; the Necronomicon captive ball (mode selector); the rising Cheryl lift bank; the shotgun/boomstick shell targets; and the Deadite pop cluster hosting the Blood Flood targets and the Good/Bad Linda head.

Skill shots

The Standard Skill Shot roves a lit insert onto the GROOVY targets — plunge to hit it for 1,000,000 + 500,000, which also advances GROOVY. The Super Skill Shot holds the left flipper for a soft plunge; hit the random flashing shot within 5 seconds (the only hard timer in the game) for 2x value.

Scoring multipliers (build these first)

Combos and the Bonus Ball

A combo is consecutive lit shots inside a window; tighter chains pay a bigger speed bonus (as in Undying Love's ramp→ramp chain). The general-purpose combo runs on the Necklace targets in any mode not otherwise using them. Combos plus the shot multiplier qualify the Bonus Ball — a free timed extra ball at game's end focused on combos and ball locks, the skill-gated reward for clean shooters. The left ramp is the premier repeatable farm (Delta 88 wants 88 shots there).

Multiballs

Modes and wizard modes

Story modes qualify off the lit white ramps and start at the scoop under the right ramp; the captive ball selects which. The Movie-1 set (Evil Awakens, Hacked to Bits, It Won't Let Us Leave, Undying Love) is the natural entry point. Wizard/token modes — Kandarian Demon (the multi-phase marquee), Hail to the King (25 deadite hits → global multiplier), Destroy the Book, Hero From The Sky, Delta 88 — are gated by Spooky Tokens: hold the Action button while pressing Start to spend them, ideally with multipliers already up. A Tournament Mode disables the Hail to the King global multiplier by default.

Strategy in brief

It is a center-drain game — SDTM control and nudging are the primary survival skills, and the pop-up deadites and the Hand are the main source of dangerous rebounds, so hit them only with a controlled ball. Best opener: standard skill shot → lit ramp to qualify Mode 1 → bank cabin drops/lock (persistent, never wasted) → start a Movie-1 mode → build GROOVY/Blood Flood/Dagger, then stack Cabin MB and Deadite MB on top. Save the risky Boomstick basement run for when multipliers are up.

How The Evil Dead plays

The Evil Dead drops you into the cabin as the dead rise, splitting its story modes across two films you choose at game start. Spell GROOVY for a ball-wide boost, stack modes with multiballs under the Blood Flood and Dagger multipliers, and fight through to the Kandarian Demon.

The loop

  1. Knock the six inline GROOVY drops down in order for a boost that lifts everything you score for the rest of the ball.
  2. Qualify a story mode at a lit white ramp, select it on the Necronomicon captive ball, and start it at the scoop under the right ramp.
  3. Build the Blood Flood playfield multiplier in the pop nest and arm the Dagger shot multiplier off the inlanes before you reach for points.
  4. Stack Cabin and Double Deadite multiballs onto the running mode so a barrage of jackpots all score several times over.
  5. Finish your movie's modes for Destroy the Book, pile up deadite hits for Hail to the King, and spend it all in the Kandarian Demon.

Reading the lights

  • GROOVY Inline Drops (letters) — lit: A lit GROOVY drop is a letter still standing; take the six inline drops in their fixed spelling order and the boost you earn holds until you drain, so it resets each ball. · then: Complete the word first thing every ball for a boost that lifts all of your scoring for the rest of it, which also lights Mystery at the right orbit -- stop the moving award on the button for points, a save, or a Bad Linda boost.
  • Blood Flood Pop Nest (multiplier) — lit: The left orbit and the lift ramp both pour the ball into the pop cluster, where three nested Blood Flood standups wait; the trio stays down once cleared, and clearing all three switches on the playfield multiplier. · then: Turn Blood Flood on before you start anything valuable, because it multiplies the whole stack of modes and multiballs you layer on top of it.
  • Kandarian Dagger Multiplier (multiplier) — lit: Rolling an inlane lights the OPPOSITE orbit and a same-color fill scores double, and the lit orbit feeds the dagger's build-up rather than the lane sitting there lit on its own. · then: Roll an inlane to light the far orbit, then arm the multiplier with a quick double press of the upper flipper button plus the Launch button, which opens a short build-up window; cash it on a ramp or a jackpot so your money shot lands multiplied.
  • Movie Story Modes (mode) — lit: A lit white ramp qualifies a mode, the Necronomicon captive ball selects which one is queued, and the mode scoop below the right ramp kicks it off; the film you picked at game start decides which modes are even on the table. · then: Complete two of your movie's modes to qualify Cheryl Multiball at the rising lift bank, and finish all four to earn Destroy the Book down in the cellar. · control: Action button: pressing the button defers whichever mode is queued and swaps in a different one, which shuts the right ramp until you light a mode there again (a mode is lit and waiting under the right ramp)
  • Cabin Locks (status) — lit: Knocking the cabin front and back drops exposes the lock up-kicker; both the drops and your banked locks persist across balls and players and can even be stolen, so no early progress is ever wasted. · then: Bank the locks and start Cabin Multiball on top of a running story mode, the bread-and-butter stack this game is built around.
  • The Deadites (shot arrows) — lit: Collect the orange deadite arrows and roll both inlanes to pop the deadites up; only a popped deadite scores, and knocking a lit one down starts Double Deadite Multiball, which stacks onto anything already running. · then: Run the deadites a second time for Deadite Frenzy, and pile up twenty-five deadite hits across the game -- fastest inside the multiball -- to light Hail to the King, the global scoring multiplier.
  • Boomstick & the Cellar (mode) — lit: Bashing the shell sculpts loads the double barrel, and the cellar door drops you to the basement -- a one-flipper lower playfield that drains on its own, so once you are down there you commit. · then: Hit Lock and Load and fire on the audio cue to start Double-Barrel Boomstick Multiball; finishing all four of your movie's modes instead sends you down to hammer the Necronomicon target for Destroy the Book.
  • Give Me Back My Hand (status) — lit: Three hits on the crawling-hand toy trip the trap door; swing at it only off a slowed, controlled ball, since a cold bash sends it straight back down the center more reliably than almost anything else here. · then: The third hit drops the door and starts Hand Multiball; finish the Fingers set to arm the Super Jackpot and cash it with the Dagger already armed so the biggest award of the multiball lands multiplied.
  • Ramps & Necklace Combos (shot arrows) — lit: Both ramps backhand cleanly and feed opposite inlanes, and the three Necklace standups chain whenever the running mode is not already using them; a tighter chain pays a bigger speed bonus. · then: Bank eighty-eight left-ramp shots across the game to qualify Delta 88, and keep the ramp-to-ramp and Necklace chains tight to earn the Bonus Ball.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Take the standard skill shot into the roving GROOVY target for guaranteed points and a free letter, then qualify a story mode at a lit white ramp and start it at the scoop. Spell GROOVY across the ball for the boost, and save the pop-up deadites and the Hand for a slowed ball -- cold bashes on those toys are the main drain. — Standard Skill Shot, Beginner: First 30 Seconds, Spell GROOVY (20% Boost)
  • Building — Lock in the GROOVY boost, clear the Blood Flood standups for the playfield multiplier, and arm the Dagger before you go for points. Then start a story mode and stack Cabin Multiball and Double Deadite Multiball on top, so the whole jackpot barrage scores multiplied. — Big Points: The Multiplier Stack, Cabin Multiball, Double Deadite Multiball, Complete Blood Flood (Playfield Multiplier)
  • The big one — Finish all four of your movie's modes to earn Destroy the Book in the cellar, and rack up twenty-five deadite hits for Hail to the King, the global scoring multiplier. The Kandarian Demon is the marquee multi-phase wizard -- walk in with GROOVY, Blood Flood and Dagger already live, or spend banked Spooky Tokens to jump straight to it, so every phase scores multiplied. — Kandarian Demon (Wizard Mode), Hail to the King, Destroy the Book

The Action Button on The Evil Dead

Center of the lockdown bar.

Evil Dead spreads its controls further than most: flippers, an upper-left button that fires a hidden sling flipper, a Launch button that works the shotgun, and this one. The Action button is the door-and-decision button — it drops you into the fruit cellar, changes which mode you're queuing, and cashes button jackpots.

Goals in The Evil Dead

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

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