Scared Stiff

Bally, 1996 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Scared Stiff in the Pinball Genie app →

Scared Stiff is a game about collecting six things and then cashing them in. The six Tales of Terror are the spine of the ruleset, and the machine only cares that you have started each one — not that you scored well on it. Understanding that distinction is the single biggest jump in scoring on this machine, because it turns the game from six separate challenges into a checklist you can route efficiently.

The six Tales of Terror

• Stiff In The Coffin Multiball — the Left Ramp lights a lock in the Left Loop. Three locks start a 3-ball multiball where the two ramps alternate as 500K jackpots. Hitting the unlit ramp still adds 10K to the jackpot value, so there is no truly wasted ramp shot here.
• Night Of The Leapers — three standup targets, one hit each. Two sit either side of the Left Ramp and the third is beside the Right Ramp. This is the cheapest Tale on the game and should usually be your first.
• Return Of The Deadheads — light all three top rollover lanes. You rarely shoot for this directly; it falls out of Left Loop and Middle Loop shots that carry the ball around the top.
• Terror From The Crate — bank hits into the Crate. Four the first time, four more on each later run. The last hit swallows the ball and starts a 2-ball multiball with 250K jackpots for every re-entry.
• The Monster's Lab — pure bumper accumulation, around twenty hits on a factory setting. The one Tale you cannot aim at, so never spend shots chasing it.
• Eyes Of The Boney Beast — three Left Ramps. Conveniently, those are the same shots that arm your Coffin locks, so these two Tales build together for free.

Spin the Spider is the real ruleset

The backbox spider wheel is the most under-used feature on the machine and the reason good players outscore casual ones by an order of magnitude. The Right Ramp lights the scoop, the scoop starts the spider spinning, and a flipper button stops it. Where it lands decides the award.

Two things make the wheel worth planning around. First, three of its positions are Eyes, and collecting all three lights an extra ball. Second — and this is the part most players miss — two positions restart a multiball that would otherwise be ending. The Coffin restarts Coffin Multiball with three fresh balls, and the Crate restarts Crate Multiball. Spinning the spider during a multiball is therefore worth dramatically more than spinning it during single-ball play.

The wheel also hands out Double Trouble, which doubles every shot for twenty seconds; Beat The Crate, which pays the Crate value multiplied by a Stiff-O-Meter reading that moves while you watch; and Boogie Man Boogie, where every shot pays 10K and each sink hole you feed adds 5K to that value for the rest of the mode. One caveat: landing on something already collected pays nothing at all, so the wheel gets steadily less valuable the more you spin it.

Useful misses

Two shots on this layout reward failure. A Left Loop attempt that lacks the speed to complete the loop drops into the Secret Passage, which spots a Tale outright — a genuinely useful way to fill in the one Tale you cannot otherwise reach. And a Right Loop shot that comes up short falls into the Skill Shot hole rather than dying, so the right side is more forgiving than it looks.

The Telepathetic Power target is worth a mention too. It toggles the right outlane light on and off with every hit, and with it lit a right outlane drain pays a random award instead of simply costing you a ball. Never shoot for the outlane, but check the light's state before you play the right side loose.

Getting Scared Stiff

Once all six Tales have been started, the Crate lights the wizard mode. From there the sequence is strict and simple: ramp, Crate, ramp, Crate, climbing ten levels of the Stiff-O-Meter. Each shot pays 250K plus 50K more than the last, and the tenth and final shot must be the Crate.

That last Crate shot starts Monster Multiball — four balls, five million points just for arriving, and all three jackpots lit at a million each. There is no alternation this time; both ramps and the Crate are live simultaneously. It runs until fewer than two balls remain, so use the opening seconds while you still have all four up.

Opening plan

Clear the spell target bank first. The Cast A Spell ball saver at the left outlane is off when the game starts on most machines, and this game drains left freely — earning that ball saver before anything else is usually worth more than any Tale. The first light costs two full passes through the bank; later ones cost one.

After that, take Leapers, Deadheads and Boney Beast early, since they are cheap and largely overlap with shots you want to make anyway. Let the Monster's Lab arrive on its own from bumper traffic. That leaves the two multiball Tales as the only real work, and both of them score while you collect them.

Goals in Scared Stiff

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

• Skill Shot skillshot · Easy

  Plunge straight into the Skill Shot hole. The award grows by 250K every time you collect it, so it is worth taking seriously on all five balls rather than treating it as a first-ball novelty.

  Reward: Points, +250K per collection

• Light Cast A Spell strategy · Easy

  The left outlane ball saver is off when the game starts on most machines, so it is something you earn rather than something you have. Clearing the spell target bank turns it on and buys back the drain that this game hands out freely.

  Reward: Ball saver at the left outlane

• Stiff In The Coffin Multiball multiball · Medium

  The main multiball and the first Tale most players collect. Left Ramp lights the lock, the lock lives in the Left Loop, and three of them start it. Once running, the two ramps alternate as jackpots.

  Reward: 3-ball multiball, 500K jackpots

• Night Of The Leapers mode · Easy

  The cheapest Tale on the game. Three standup targets, hit each one once, done. Two sit either side of the Left Ramp and the third is beside the Right Ramp.

  Reward: Tale collected

• Return Of The Deadheads mode · Easy

  Light all three top rollover lanes. You rarely shoot for this directly — it falls out of Left Loop and Middle Loop shots that carry the ball round the top, so plan those shots and this Tale arrives on its own.

  Reward: Tale collected, climbing 25K per lane

• Terror From The Crate multiball · Medium

  A two-ball multiball earned by beating on the Crate. Four hits the first time, four more each time after. The final hit swallows the ball and starts it — then just keep feeding the Crate.

  Reward: 2-ball multiball, 250K jackpots

• The Monster's Lab mode · Easy

  The one Tale you cannot aim at. It comes from raw bumper hits — around 20 on a factory setup — so it tends to arrive as a bonus during scrappy play rather than something you plan.

  Reward: Tale collected, bumpers worth 10K

• Eyes Of The Boney Beast mode · Easy

  Three Left Ramps, three Eyes, Tale collected — and the ramp turns into a scoring shot afterwards. This stacks naturally with lighting Coffin locks, since both live on the same ramp.

  Reward: Tale collected, Left Ramp scores points

• Start All Six Tales Of Terror progression · Medium

  The spine of the whole game. Six Tales — Coffin Multiball, Leapers, Deadheads, Crate, Monster's Lab, Boney Beast — and starting all six is what unlocks the wizard mode. Note the word is started, not finished.

  Reward: Lights Scared Stiff at the Crate

• Spin The Spider secret · Medium

  The backbox wheel, and the most under-used feature on the machine. Right Ramp lights the scoop, the scoop spins the spider, and a flipper button stops it. Where it lands decides your award — and several of the awards are worth more than the shot that earned them.

  Reward: Wheel award (varies)

• Collect Three Eyes For The Extra Ball strategy · Hard

  Three of the spider wheel's positions are Eyes, and collecting all three lights an extra ball. It is the single best reason to keep spinning even when the wheel starts repeating itself.

  Reward: Extra ball

• Telepathetic Power strategy · Easy

  A single standup toggles the right outlane light on and off. With it lit, a right outlane drain pays a random award instead of simply costing you the ball — so check its state before you play the right side loose.

  Reward: Random award on right outlane drain

• Build Webvalue combo · Medium

  The Right Ramp pays Webvalue — 50K for every web item you have collected — so its value is entirely a function of how much you have banked earlier. Ramp totals also hand out hold bonus, extra ball lights and points at set counts.

  Reward: 50K per web item collected

• Double Trouble multiplier · Medium

  A spider wheel award that doubles every shot for 20 seconds. Short, so know in advance where you are sending the ball — the best use is stacking it onto a multiball or a Crate run already in progress.

  Reward: All shot values x2 for 20 seconds

• Beat The Crate mode · Hard

  A wheel award that pays out the Crate value multiplied by the Stiff-O-Meter number — and that number moves up and down while the mode runs. Timing your shot to a high reading is the whole trick.

  Reward: Crate value x Stiff-O-Meter level

• Boogie Man Boogie mode · Medium

  A wheel-started mode where every shot pays 10K to begin with, and the value climbs 5K each time the ball goes down a sink hole. Feeding holes deliberately is what makes this mode worth anything.

  Reward: All shots 10K, +5K per sink hole

• Extend A Multiball With The Wheel strategy · Hard

  Two wheel positions restart a multiball that would otherwise be ending — the Coffin restarts Coffin Multiball with three balls, and the Crate restarts Crate Multiball. Spinning the spider during a multiball is therefore worth far more than spinning it during single-ball play.

  Reward: Multiball restarts instead of ending

• Scared Stiff (Stiff-O-Meter) wizard · Hard

  The wizard mode. With all six Tales started, the Crate lights it. From there you alternate strictly — ramp, Crate, ramp, Crate — climbing ten levels of the Stiff-O-Meter, and the tenth shot must be the Crate.

  Reward: 250K climbing by 50K per shot, then Monster Multiball

• Monster Multiball wizard · Hard

  The payoff for the whole game. Four balls, five million just for arriving, and all three jackpots — both ramps and the Crate — lit at a million each. There is no alternation here; everything is live at once.

  Reward: 5M start award, 1M jackpots on all three shots

• Middle Loop Extra Ball strategy · Medium

  The Middle Loop is the game's extra ball shot when lit, and it doubles as the cleanest way to fill in Deadhead lanes. Two rewards on one shot makes it worth practising even when the extra ball is not lit.

  Reward: Extra ball when lit

• Secret Passage Tale Spot secret · Medium

  A shot that rewards failure. A Left Loop attempt that lacks the speed to make it round drops into the Secret Passage and spots a Tale outright — so a deliberately soft left loop is a real, if inelegant, way to fill in the Tale you cannot otherwise reach.

  Reward: Spots one Tale