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.
How Scared Stiff plays
Elvira hosts six Tales of Terror, and merely starting all six -- not finishing them -- lights the wizard mode at the Crate. Along the way you feed a backbox spider wheel for its grab-bag of awards, then climb the Stiff-O-Meter into four-ball Monster Multiball.
The loop
- Begin each Tale at its own shot: lock balls in the Left Loop, sweep the three Leaper standups, run the top lanes, pound the Crate, rack up bumper hits and ramp for the Boney Beast.
- Shoot the Right Ramp to arm the scoop, feed the scoop to set the spider spinning, then freeze it with a flipper button on whatever award you dare stop it.
- Once every Tale has been started the Crate lights Scared Stiff, and you alternate a ramp then the Crate up ten meter levels.
- Land the tenth level on the Crate and Monster Multiball breaks open with four balls and all three jackpots lit together.
Reading the lights
- Tales of Terror (status) — lit: Each Tale you have begun lights its own marker and holds for the rest of the game, because the count is about which ones have been started rather than how well they scored. · then: Get the three cheap ones -- Leapers, Deadheads and the Boney Beast -- going early, let the Monster's Lab arrive off bumper traffic on its own, and once all six are lit the Crate becomes the shot that opens the wizard mode. A weak Left Loop that dies in the Secret Passage spots a Tale outright, which rescues a stubborn last one.
- Coffin Multiball Locks (status) — lit: The Left Ramp lights a lock and the Left Loop holds it, and each stashed ball stays put until three are stacked away. · then: Three locks set off Stiff in the Coffin, a three-ball multiball whose jackpots hop between the two ramps at half a million each, and even a hit on the unlit ramp still tacks ten thousand onto the value.
- Deadhead Lanes (lanes) — lit: An unlit Deadhead rollover is one still to collect, and you seldom aim at these directly since they fall in as the ball wraps the top off a Left Loop or Middle Loop. · then: Light all three of the top lanes for Return of the Deadheads, each lane paying twenty-five thousand more than the one before, and lean on the Middle Loop to pick up whichever one you keep missing.
- Spin Spider Wheel (mode) — lit: The Right Ramp lights the scoop, and feeding the scoop sets the backbox spider spinning past a ring of awards that pay nothing once already claimed, so every spin is worth a shade less than the one before. · then: Where it lands can hand you Double Trouble, Boogie Man, Beat the Crate or a multiball restart, and stopping on the three Eyes across separate spins lights an extra ball. Spinning during a multiball is worth far more, since two of the slots restart the multiball itself. · control: Either flipper button: press a flipper button to stop the spinning wheel on whatever award you are brave enough to leave it on (the spider is spinning in the backbox)
- Stiff-O-Meter (ladder) — lit: Start every Tale and the Crate lights the wizard mode, and from there the ten-rung meter climbs a level per shot for as long as you keep strictly alternating a ramp and the Crate. · then: Each rung pays fifty thousand more than the last, and the tenth shot has to land on the Crate, which is what tips you into Monster Multiball. Break the alternation and the climb stalls.
- Outlane Insurance (status) — lit: Both outlane comforts are switches you flip yourself: clearing the three spell standups lights the Cast a Spell save on the left, and one Telepathetic target flips the right outlane's award lamp on or off each time you hit it. · then: Leave the left save lit so a left drain hands the ball back, and stop the right target on an odd count so a right drain pays a random award instead of ending the ball. The first Cast a Spell costs two full passes of the bank, later ones only one.
Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.
Start scoring
- Ball one — Plunge into the skill-shot hole every ball, since the award grows a quarter million each time you cash it. Light the Cast a Spell save, then knock out the cheap Tales -- the three Leapers, the top-lane Deadheads and the Boney Beast ramps. — Skill Shot, Light Cast A Spell, Night Of The Leapers, Return Of The Deadheads
- Building — Stack the harder Tales -- lock for Coffin Multiball, beat the Crate open, let the bumpers hand you the Lab -- and work the spider wheel for the three Eyes extra ball and its mode awards. Save a Double Trouble landing to double a multiball already in progress. — Stiff In The Coffin Multiball, Terror From The Crate, Start All Six Tales Of Terror, Spin The Spider, Collect Three Eyes For The Extra Ball
- The big one — Starting all six Tales lights Scared Stiff at the Crate; climb the ten-level Stiff-O-Meter by alternating ramp and Crate, and finish on the Crate to break into Monster Multiball. That four-ball mode pays five million just to arrive and lights all three jackpots at a million apiece. — Scared Stiff (Stiff-O-Meter), Monster Multiball
Does Scared Stiff have an action button?
No dedicated button — manual plunger, flippers, nudging. The one moment your flipper buttons do something other than flip is up at the backbox wheel: a right ramp arms the scoop, the scoop sets the spider spinning, and either flipper button freezes it wherever you dare leave it.
Goals in Scared Stiff
Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.
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Plunge straight into the Skill Shot hole. The award grows by 250K every time you collect it, so it is worth taking seriously on every ball rather than treating it as a first-ball novelty.
Reward: Points, +250K per collection
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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Collect Three Eyes For The Extra Ball
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Extend A Multiball With The Wheel
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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