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The Munsters

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

Open The Munsters in the Pinball Genie app →

Designer: John Borg · Code: Dwight Sullivan · Editions: Pro, Premium, LE. The only meaningful rules split is Grandpa: Pro plays Enlarging Ray on the main playfield; Premium/LE play Grandpa's Laboratory on a physical lower mini-playfield with its own flippers, orbits, ramp, saucer, and THE MACHINE bash target.

The Five Family Areas (progression spine)

Herman, Grandpa, Spot, Raven, and Lily. Starting/completing one level of all five qualifies the Munster Madness wizard mode. Every area start does two universal things: lights the Kitty target (playfield-X / bonus-X / Raven advance) and lights the left ramp for a Raven advance. Each area also has its own Super Jackpot collectable at the Dragula lane.

Scoring engine: 6X + stacked Super Jackpots

This is not a combo/flow game. Tournament players farm the 6X playfield multiplier (built and held at the Kitty target, ~1-minute timer, tap Kitty to keep it alive) and stacked Super Jackpots. There are 10 (Pro) / 11 (Prem/LE) independent Super Jackpot qualifiers (Herman, Spot, Lily, Grandpa/Enlarging Ray, Raven, Eddie, Marilyn, Zap, Mystery, Chattering Teeth, +Machine on Prem/LE) and ALL of them stack at the Dragula lane. Hold the Zap button (~1/3 sec) to cancel a collect and keep stacking, then dump the whole stack at 6X. A perfect Munster Madness cycle is community-cited at ~938M at 6X vs ~91M at 3X.

Side systems

Wizard: Munster Madness (4-ball)

Stage 1 complete areas for buffs → Stage 2 collect jackpots → Stage 3 four cascading hurry-ups in order left ramp → right orbit → right ramp → left orbit, each adding the previous value. Hidden Secret Mania (130 teeth or Mystery) lights all 7 areas.

How The Munsters plays

Run the five Munster family members' modes at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. Drive the Kitty target to a 6X playfield, stack Super Jackpots to dump at Dragula, and light the Munster Madness wizard multiball.

The loop

  1. Start a mode at any of the five family areas -- Herman, Spot, Grandpa, Lily, or the Raven ramp -- and every start lights the Kitty target.
  2. Collect the lit Kitty to climb the playfield multiplier 1X, 2X, 3X, 6X, and tap it even unlit to keep 6X alive on its timer.
  3. Bank Zap charges off the purple teeth targets so your jackpots leave Zap Jackpots behind, building toward the Zap Super.
  4. Hold the Zap button at the Dragula hole to cancel each Super Jackpot collect and keep stacking the Supers instead of cashing out.
  5. Once the multiplier is up, empty the whole stack at Dragula with one shot for the biggest score, and start all five areas to light Munster Madness.

Reading the lights

  • The Five Family Areas (mode) — lit: Herman, Spot, Grandpa's Laboratory, Raven at the left ramp, and Lily are the five family areas; each lights to start, and any start also lights the Kitty target. · then: Start a level of all five to reach Munster Madness Ready. Each area plays differently -- a hurry-up, a letter chase, a frenzy, a mini-playfield -- and every start also feeds a Raven advance and your playfield multiplier.
  • Kitty Playfield Multiplier (multiplier) — lit: The Kitty target lights whenever you start or finish a family area, and collecting it lit advances the playfield multiplier one step -- 1X, 2X, 3X, then 6X -- while starting a roughly one-minute timer. · then: Three lit collects reach 6X. Even an unlit tap on Kitty resets the timer, so pat it every so often to hold 6X while you set up and cash your biggest shots -- almost everything worth collecting on this game wants to be taken at 6X.
  • Dragula & the Super Stack (status) — lit: Completing the DRAGULA standup bank lights 5X at the Dragula hole, and the hole is also where every Super Jackpot on the game gets collected. · then: Cancel-and-restack until the Kitty multiplier is at 6X, then release and shoot Dragula once to dump the entire stack multiplied -- the biggest single shot you can score. Spelling DRAGULA first lays a 5X on top of that collect. · control: Action button: press and hold the Zap button for roughly a third of a second while you shoot the Dragula hole to cancel the Super Jackpot collect and keep the Supers stacking on top of one another -- the button's blink rate shows how deep the stack has grown (several Super Jackpots stacked and 6X not yet up)
  • Chattering-Teeth Targets & Zap (status) — lit: The four purple chattering-teeth targets pay out teeth and, right after each hit, set the Zap button blinking to bank a charge. · then: Bank enough teeth and Grandpa's Laboratory lights at the scoop; keep collecting toward the big teeth total and Secret Mania comes into reach. The Zap Supers you build fold into the Dragula stack. · control: Action button: tap the blinking Zap button in its short window to bank one charge, up to a meter of five; with charges banked, every jackpot you then collect leaves a Zap Jackpot behind, and four Zap Jackpots light the Zap Super (right after any purple target)
  • Herman Multiball (mode) — lit: Bashing the Herman toy arms the Herman Hurry-Up, and shooting him again during it captures the ball on the magnet in front of him while a second ball plunges down to your flippers. · then: Knock the held ball off the magnet to double the hurry-up you built and start Herman Multiball. Stacking Lily's everything-scores frenzy on top inflates the entire thing.
  • Raven Multiball (mode) — lit: Playing a level of another family member lights a Raven advance to collect back at the left ramp, and three of them start the three-ball Raven Multiball. · then: Rip the left-orbit spinner to run the Raven clock toward midnight and raise the jackpots, collect all four, then dump the Super at Dragula under 6X, the best window all game for piling on points.
  • Grandpa's Laboratory & The Machine (mode) — lit: Enough chattering teeth lights Grandpa's Laboratory at the scoop, and shooting it drops mini-balls onto the lower playfield on a countdown. · then: Down below, use the mini-flippers to shoot both lower orbits and light THE MACHINE, then bash it to start Grandpa Multiball and climb its jackpots to the Machine Super. On a Pro the same teeth start Enlarging Ray up top instead.
  • Marilyn & Rotating Buffs (shot arrows) — lit: Rolling the flashing inner-left inlane lights the right ramp for a Marilyn boyfriend departure. · then: Every second departure hands you a rotating buff -- Super Pops, Super Spinner, or Super Loops -- so spend a spinner buff ripping the left orbit, a pops buff around the right orbit into the bumpers, and a loops buff cycling the orbits. Every second departure also lights the Marilyn Super.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

The Zap Button on The Munsters

Center of the lockdown bar, on the front rail.

The lit button on the front rail is the Zap button, and it does two unrelated jobs on this game. Most of the time you are tapping it to bank charges that turn your ordinary jackpots into extra Zap Jackpots. Late in a good ball it becomes a hold button that stops Dragula from paying out so you can keep piling supers on top of each other.

Goals in The Munsters

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

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