Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Gottlieb, 1994 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.
Open Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street in the Pinball Genie app →Freddy runs on one idea almost nothing else in pinball copies: you are either awake or asleep, and the two states play completely differently. Awake is ordinary pinball, where you gather items, currency and saves. Asleep is a nightmare, where you fight Freddy on a clock. Players who do well treat the awake state as preparation, not filler — what you are holding when you fall asleep decides whether the nightmare is winnable.
Falling asleep, and what happens next
Three things put you under: the plunger skill shot, the 1... 2... mystery award from the boiler room, and simply running out of time on the sleep meter. Once you are in a nightmare, every flashing FREDDY shot advances the Freddy Meter billboard by two places. Fill it and the boiler room qualifies; shoot the boiler and Freddy goes down for 10,000,000 times the number of the nightmare you are in. If multiball is still running when he falls, you do not wake up — the jackpots light instead.
There are seven nightmares in the ladder, each opening with its own mix of multiball, lit Save Soul targets and an active Freddy jackpot. The first time you see one the game is generous, handing over free items and a partly filled meter. Play it again and none of that help arrives.
The three items
- Multiball — the nightmare opens with multiball already running, which means more flashing shots per second and a much faster meter.
- More power — every Freddy shot advances the meter three places instead of two.
- Set alarm — the boiler room qualifies five seconds before the nightmare ends. Grab him there and the nightmare carries on into the awake state, which is the best position in the game.
The sleep meter is a vertical billboard in the upper centre of the playfield, and it works both ways. Time drives it down toward asleep; coffee shots drive it up. Push it all the way to the top and you become Fully Awake, which does two things: the captive ball starts strobing, and two otherwise unreachable awards come online. Hit the centre left spot target while fully awake for Hidden Mode, a multiball where every boiler room shot pays a flat 10,000,000 — you get one per player, per game. Hit the captive ball spot target instead for Freddy's Bones, which hands you all three next-nightmare items at once, or twenty kruegerands if you already have them.
Kruegerands and the shop
Kruegerands are currency and worth hoarding — anything unspent is collected at the end of the game, and each is worth a million points in the Final Nightmare. To spend them, roll the right return lane while lit, which flashes Freddy's head for exactly one shot; the head is reached by shooting up through the pop bumpers. What is on the shelf depends purely on how many you carry: 10 to 19 buys ten souls, 20 to 29 buys Kruegerand Multiball, 30 to 39 a hurry-up extra ball, 40 to 49 a straight extra ball, and fifty or more buys Dream Warriors outright. Shopping early is usually a mistake.
Jackpots, combos and Dream Warriors
Defeat Freddy during multiball and five jackpot lamps flash. Each shot collects one and puts that lamp out, and when only one is left it relocates to the captive ball and stays active there — so the end of a jackpot round is a shot you can repeat. Separately, the combo feature is a three-part chain: roll the left return lane to qualify the captive ball, hit the spot target in front of it while lit, and that opens the top left gate and briefly flashes the centre jackpot. The window is short, so plan the third shot before you take the second.
Those two plus a Freddy jackpot are what Dream Warriors needs: one multiball jackpot lamp, one Freddy jackpot lamp, one combo jackpot lamp, and the lower left kicker qualifies. Inside it, the strobing shot pays a super jackpot then jumps elsewhere — until it lands on the upper left spot target, where it stops moving and stays live as long as you hold multiball together.
Saves, points and the endgame
- Take That (top left target) changes with how long games have been lasting on the machine. Under three minutes it gives kick save, then claw save, then a hurry-up extra ball, then 20,000,000. Over three minutes it pays 5,000,000, then 10,000,000, then a hurry-up extra ball.
- The claw between the flippers comes from completing C-L-A-W and catches balls the flippers cannot. Using it resets the letters.
- Pop bumpers add 300,000 to your end-of-ball bonus per hit, or a full 1,000,000 each when flashing — bumper time is not wasted time here.
- The T.V. Set pays 10,000,000 multiplied by consecutive hits while it flashes out, so set up a repeat rather than taking one and leaving.
- Low game special — start your last ball under 20,000,000 and the right outlane lights for a special.
The Final Nightmare always opens as a four-ball multiball. Complete five strobing shots to qualify the boiler room, then finish him there; if multiball ends first, the game gives you a grace period rather than cutting you off. The payout is why you hoard all game — a million per soul, a million per kruegerand, and ten million for each Freddy you have already put down.
How Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street plays
Freddy's table swings between being awake, where you stockpile items and currency, and asleep in a nightmare, where you battle Freddy at the boiler room. Work up the ladder of seven nightmares and hoard souls and kruegerands for a huge Final Nightmare payout.
The loop
- Fall asleep one of three ways -- the plunge skill shot, the boiler-room mystery, or the sleep meter draining to the bottom -- to drop into a nightmare.
- Inside a nightmare, hit any flashing FREDDY shot to step the meter billboard forward, then finish him at the boiler for ten million times that nightmare's number.
- While awake, farm the three carry-in items and a pile of kruegerands, and push the meter all the way to Fully Awake for its two hidden awards.
- Bank one jackpot of each type to qualify Dream Warriors, and hoard souls and kruegerands to cash them all at once in the Final Nightmare.
Reading the lights
- Freddy Meter (ladder) — lit: Inside a nightmare every flashing FREDDY shot counts the same and steps the meter billboard two places, or three if you carried extra power in with you. · flashing: A shot only flashes while a nightmare is running; awake, these same shots do other jobs entirely. · then: Fill the meter and the boiler room qualifies -- shoot it to put Freddy down for ten million times the nightmare's number and wake up. Beat him while a multiball is still going and you stay under with the jackpots lighting instead.
- Sleep Meter (status) — lit: The billboard in the upper center reads how awake you are, and left alone it only ever slides toward sleep, so coffee shots at the boiler are what push it back up. · flashing: The captive ball strobing is the tell that you have hit the top and are Fully Awake. · then: Hitting bottom sends you into the next nightmare; reaching the top arms two awards -- the center-left target for Hidden Mode, a boiler multiball paying a flat ten million a shot, and the captive-ball spot target for Freddy's Bones. Hidden Mode is a once-per-game gift, so set it up.
- Save Soul Targets (status) — lit: Nightmares open with one or all of these targets lit, and the souls you collect on them bank away for a big payout much later. · then: Down Freddy with a multiball still alive and five jackpot lamps light, and the last one relocates to the captive ball and stays live to camp on. Every banked soul is worth a million when the Final Nightmare tallies up.
- Combo Jackpot Chain (shot arrows) — lit: Rolling the left return lane arms the captive-ball spot target, and hitting that target while it is lit throws the top-left gate open and flashes the center jackpot for a brief window. · then: Drive the ball through the opened gate before the window shuts to bank the combo jackpot, which also lights one of the three Dream Warriors lamps you are gathering. Pick that last shot before you hit the spot target, because the timer is short.
- Dream Warriors Lamps (status) — lit: Three lamps track one jackpot of each kind -- a multiball jackpot, a Freddy jackpot and a combo jackpot -- and each stays lit once you have banked its type. · then: All three together qualify the lower-left kicker for Dream Warriors, where a strobing super jackpot leaps to a new shot each time you collect it until it settles on the upper-left target and holds. From there it is a repeatable super until you drop out of multiball.
- Freddy's Shop (status) — lit: The right return lane arms the trade, which flashes Freddy's head for a single shot reached by going up through the pop bumpers. · then: Make the head to spend your kruegerands, and what is on the shelf scales with how many you hold -- ten buys souls, twenty a Kruegerand Multiball, forty a straight extra ball, and around fifty buys Dream Warriors outright. It pays to wait and shop rich rather than early.
- T.V. Set (multiplier) — lit: Once lit the television flashes out, and only a hit landed during that flash pays, ten million times however many you have strung together in a row. · then: Line up a second hit off the return instead of striking once and moving on, because the multiplier is the entire point and four straight is a wholly different score from one. Should the set flash mid-nightmare, the hit banks your end-of-ball bonus rather than points.
Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.
Start scoring
- Ball one — Take the plunge skill shot so you enter a nightmare holding your own items rather than whatever you happen to have when the sleep meter runs out. While awake, farm the boiler mystery for carry-in items and feed the pops to build an end-of-ball bonus worth keeping. — Plunger Skill Shot, Earn Your Items While Awake, Build The Bonus In The Bumpers
- Building — Beat nightmares at the boiler, drive the meter to Fully Awake for Hidden Mode and Freddy's Bones, and stack kruegerands while lighting one jackpot of each kind for Dream Warriors. Relight your saves off the Take That target so a middle drain or an outlane does not end the run. — Defeat Freddy, Coffee And The Sleep Meter, Bank Kruegerands, Dream Warriors, Take That
- The big one — The Final Nightmare opens as a four-ball multiball where five strobing shots qualify the boiler, and finishing him tallies everything you hoarded -- a million per soul, a million per kruegerand and ten million per Freddy already beaten. Dream Warriors' repeatable supers are the other top-end score. — The Final Nightmare, Dream Warriors
Does Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street have an action button?
There is no third button to press — Freddy is a 1994 Gottlieb, so flippers, plunger and nudge cover everything. Its unusual controls live on the playfield instead: the claw between the flippers that catches balls once you have spelled C-L-A-W, and the glove flipper by the lower left kicker that gives you a swing at the captive ball.
Goals in Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.
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The plunge is one of only three ways into a nightmare — the others being the mystery award from the boiler room and simply running out of time. Taking it here means you choose when the fight starts rather than having it chosen for you.
Reward: Straight into a nightmare
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The whole machine runs on two states. Awake is normal play, where you gather items and points. Asleep is a nightmare, where you fight Freddy. Understanding what carries between the two is the difference between surviving nightmares and being fed to them.
Reward: The structure of the game
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Inside a nightmare, every flashing FREDDY shot pushes the meter two places along — three if you brought more power in with you. Fill it and the boiler room lights. Shoot it and he goes down for 10,000,000 times the number of the nightmare you are in.
Reward: 10M x nightmare number
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Three items carry from the awake state into your next nightmare, and they change it completely. Multiball means the nightmare opens with multiball. More power makes every Freddy shot worth three meter steps instead of two. Set alarm gives you a way out at the end.
Reward: A nightmare you can actually win
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The most interesting of the three items. With the alarm set, the boiler room qualifies five seconds before the nightmare ends — and if you grab Freddy there, the nightmare carries on into the awake state instead of simply expiring.
Reward: A nightmare that continues past its own clock
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The vertical billboard in the upper centre is a clock you can push back. Time drives it toward asleep; coffee shots drive it toward the top. Both ends matter — the bottom drops you into the next nightmare, the top makes you Fully Awake and unlocks two hidden awards.
Reward: Fully Awake, which arms Hidden Mode and Freddy's Bones
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Reach Fully Awake and then shoot the centre left spot target. You get a multiball where every boiler room shot pays a flat 10,000,000 and it runs until you are back to one ball. You only ever get one of these per player per game, so make it count.
Reward: 10,000,000 per boiler shot
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The other Fully Awake award, and the one that changes your next nightmare. While you are fully awake, the spot target in front of the captive ball hands over all three next-nightmare items at once — or twenty kruegerands, if you already hold all three.
Reward: Multiball, more power and set alarm together
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Defeat Freddy while multiball is still running and five jackpot lamps start flashing. Each shot collects its jackpot and puts that lamp out. Keep going and eventually only one is left — and that last one moves to the captive ball, where it stays active.
Reward: Five jackpots, then a repeatable one
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Any nightmare that is running with multiball flashes the lower left target for an extra ball into play. It is easy to overlook with everything else lit, and it is the cheapest way to keep a nightmare multiball alive long enough to finish it.
Reward: One more ball in play
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A three-part chain and one of the three lamps you need for Dream Warriors. Roll the left return lane to qualify the captive ball, hit the spot target while it is lit, and that opens the top left gate and briefly flashes the centre jackpot — complete it for the combo jackpot.
Reward: Combo jackpot and one of three lamps
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Light all three jackpot lamps — one multiball jackpot, one Freddy jackpot and one combo jackpot — and the lower left kicker qualifies for Dream Warriors. Inside it, the strobing shot pays a super jackpot and then moves, until it settles on the upper left spot target and stays there.
Reward: Repeatable super jackpots
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Kruegerands are the game's currency. Plenty of features hand them out, each one is worth a million in the Final Nightmare, and leftovers you never spend still pay you in the end-of-game bonus. Kruegerand Multiball builds a pile fastest.
Reward: Currency for the shop and 1M each at the end
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Roll the right return lane while it is lit and Freddy's head flashes for one shot — through the pop bumpers. Make it and you can spend kruegerands. What is on offer depends entirely on how many you are holding, so it pays to wait rather than shop early.
Reward: Souls, multiball, extra balls or Dream Warriors
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The top left target hands out different things depending on how long games have been lasting on the machine. On a fast machine it gives you saves first; on a slow one it just pays points. Either way it is the most reliable way to relight your kick save.
Reward: Kick save, claw save, hurry-up extra ball or up to 20M
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Complete C-L-A-W and you can activate the claw device that sits between the flippers — the one thing on this playfield that catches a ball headed straight down the middle. Once you use it the letters reset and you start again.
Reward: A save between the flippers
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Once lit, the television starts flashing out, and hits during that flash pay 10,000,000 multiplied by how many you have landed in succession. That multiplier is the point — one hit is fine, four in a row is a different game entirely.
Reward: 10M x consecutive hits
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Qualify the glove and the lower left kicker stops being a hole that just spits the ball back — instead you get to flip the ball off the ramp yourself. Land it on the captive ball and the game pays you for it.
Reward: An award for hitting the captive ball off the glove
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The end of the ladder, and it always opens as a four-ball multiball. Five strobing shots qualify the boiler room, and the boiler finishes him. The payout adds up everything you have hoarded all game — souls, kruegerands and every Freddy you have already put down.
Reward: 1M per soul, 1M per kruegerand, 10M per Freddy defeated
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A quiet mercy rule. Start your last ball with under 20,000,000 and the right outlane lights for a special for a timed period. It is the one time in this game that a right drain is something you might actually aim for.
Reward: Special at the right outlane
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Build The Bonus In The Bumpers
Every pop bumper hit adds 300,000 to your end-of-ball bonus, and 1,000,000 each when the bumpers are flashing. That makes time in the bumpers genuinely productive rather than dead time waiting for the ball to come back.
Reward: 300K per hit, 1M when flashing
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