Shrek

Stern, 2008 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Shrek in the Pinball Genie app →

Shrek is a deep game hiding behind a licensed theme most players walk straight past. It has four separate multiballs, ten modes across two independent ladders, a fully playable mini playfield with its own ball and flippers, and a final wizard mode gated behind a six-item checklist. If you have only ever plunged and flailed at it, the machine will feel random. It is not. Almost everything on it is a counter, and once you know which shot feeds which counter the whole thing opens up.

Reading the playfield

The left side is targets: the Fiona standup, the Puss In Boots orbit that returns down the left rather than looping, the Pinocchio drop target and the four-target Baby drop bank. The centre holds the main ramp with the Castle Guard target standing in front of it, the three-target Shrek bank, and Prince Charming above that. The right side is where the game gets unusual — the Donkey mini playfield sits up there with the Puss In Boots Jackpot lane running underneath it, and the Swamp scoop and Gingy spinner feed the whole mode structure. Two captive balls spell P-I-N-B-A-L-L. Merlin, tucked by the bumpers, is your mystery award.

Start with the skill shots

There are two. The obvious one is the bottom target of the Baby bank, lit at the start of every ball, worth 500K the first time and 250K more with each one after. The one nobody finds is the Puss In Boots Jackpot lane: put the plunge through there while the skill shot is lit and you collect double the current value and add 250K to the next award on top. Take the secret one every time. Over a long game the difference is millions.

The two mode ladders

Prince Charming and the Swamp run in parallel, and the pop bumpers rotate both of them at once. That matters — a stray bumper hit changes what you are about to start on both ladders, so pick your target before you commit to a shot. Prince Charming is a counter target: five hits collects the flashing award, six for the next, seven after that. The Swamp is fed by the spinner, ten rotations for the first mode and five more for each one after, up to thirty.

• Un-Happy Hour doubles everything you score for twenty seconds. Never take it cold — stack it on top of a multiball or a big mode.
• Dragon Multiball is the Charming award worth chasing: two balls, six jackpot shots, and a 3M Super Jackpot if you can hold all six lit at once.
• Dinner Theater is the best-paying Swamp mode at 6.75M for hitting all six characters inside thirty seconds.
• Ogres Are Onions scales hard — one character pays 250K a shot, all four pays a million a shot, so spread out early and repeat later.
• Potion Problems is the reverse: pump the Donkey targets first to raise the shot value from 300K to 750K, then cash on the ramp.

Four multiballs, four different jobs

Baby Multiball is the workhorse — clear the Baby bank three times for the first, then four, five and six. Its jackpots are priced in switch hits, so it is a bumper-and-spinner affair rather than a shot-making one. Dragon Multiball comes from Prince Charming. Donkey Multiball is the reward for completing all five characters on the mini playfield during Donkey Pinball, and it demands every character be completed twice — once up top and once down below. Its Super Jackpot is 2M, and hitting Merlin in the seconds immediately afterwards pays triple that. Far Far Away is the final wizard mode, and it starts on the mini playfield before spilling out onto the main one.

The Far Far Away checklist

The last mode is not a shot, it is a report card. Six boxes have to be ticked: five Castle Guard Jackpots, ten lit shots during Repay Your Debt, fifteen Baby Multiball jackpots, all five Prince Charming awards, one Donkey Multiball Super Jackpot, and 25M or more scored inside a single Swamp Wizard. Hold either flipper during play and the third instant-info screen shows exactly which of them you still owe. The Swamp Wizard requirement is the hardest, so build your game around getting there twice rather than hoping to clear 25M on your first attempt.

Habits worth building

Knock Pinocchio down early — the save post between the flippers is real protection, and the lit Tell A Lie inlane raises the target so you can re-arm it. Watch which inside inlane is lit, because the slingshots swap them constantly and a doubled spinner rip is also doubled Swamp progress. Relight Merlin with ramp shots; the game never hands you a useless mystery award. And treat the Puss In Boots and Castle Guard pair as one shot rather than two, because those jackpots are on the wizard checklist whether you were thinking about it or not.

Goals in Shrek

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

• Baby Target Skill Shot skillshot · Medium

  The bottom target of the Baby drop bank is lit for skill shot at the start of every ball. Take it and you get 500K the first time in a game, with every later skill shot worth 250K more than the last.

  Reward: 500K, +250K per skill shot

• The Secret Skill Shot skillshot · Hard

  Ignore the Baby bank. With the skill shot lit, put the ball through the Puss In Boots Jackpot lane instead and you collect double the current skill shot value, and the next one is worth 250K more on top.

  Reward: 2x the skill shot value, +250K to the next

• Raise The Save Post strategy · Easy

  The Pinocchio drop target raises a post between the flippers. It is not permanent — four gongs and it drops again — and bad flipper work will still drain you around it. When the Tell A Lie inlane is lit, rolling through raises the target so you can re-arm it.

  Reward: 200K first hit per ball, +25K after, plus the post

• Build The Bonus Multiplier multiplier · Easy

  The three-target Shrek bank is your bonus multiplier. Every completion advances it, up to 5X. The first completion of each ball is worth 100K, and each one after that adds 20K until it caps at 250K.

  Reward: Up to 5X bonus, 100K to 250K per completion

• Prince Charming Awards mode · Medium

  Five awards sit behind one standup target. Hit Prince Charming five times to collect whichever one is flashing; the next award costs six hits, then seven, and so on. Bumper hits rotate which award is up.

  Reward: One of five awards per completion

• Un-Happy Hour multiplier · Medium

  The most valuable Prince Charming award if you can time it. Everything you score doubles for twenty seconds, so save it for a moment when you already have a multiball or a big Swamp mode running.

  Reward: All scoring doubled for 20 seconds

• Dragon Multiball multiball · Medium

  A Prince Charming award. Two balls, a forgiving ball save, and six jackpot shots: Fiona, Puss In Boots, Shrek, Gingy and both captive balls. Jackpots start at 250K and climb 100K each to a 750K cap.

  Reward: 250K to 750K jackpots, 3M Super Jackpot

• Light The Swamp progression · Medium

  The spinner is the key to the whole left-hand side of the ruleset. Ten spins lights the Swamp scoop for a mode; after that the price climbs by five each time, topping out at thirty spins.

  Reward: 500K and a Swamp mode

• Bridge To Fiona mode · Easy

  Thirty seconds on the side shots and the ramp. Each lit shot pays 500K and every one after adds 100K, capping at a million a shot. Simple, safe and the friendliest of the Swamp modes to a newer player.

  Reward: 500K per shot climbing to 1M

• Dinner Theater mode · Medium

  Thirty seconds to hit all six characters once each. The first pays 750K and each one after adds 50K, so the sixth is worth a million — and finishing the set adds another million on top for 6.75M in all.

  Reward: 6.75M for all six characters

• Wrestling Match mode · Easy

  A brawl scored on switch hits. Every playfield switch you make lands a hit on the knight, and he swings back at random. The mode ends when either life bar empties, and winning pays a bonus on top of the points you scored.

  Reward: Points per switch, plus a bonus for winning

• Potion Problems mode · Medium

  Thirty seconds where any of the five main shots pays 300K. The Donkey targets are the lever: every hit on them raises the shot value by 50K, up to 750K a shot.

  Reward: 300K per shot, raised to 750K

• Ogres Are Onions mode · Medium

  Four character shots for thirty seconds, and the payout depends on how many different ones you have hit. One character pays 250K a shot, two pays 500K, three pays 750K and all four pays a million a shot.

  Reward: 250K to 1M per shot

• Swamp Wizard wizard · Hard

  Play all five Swamp modes and they stay lit; the next Swamp shot starts the wizard round for a flat million on top. The starting jackpot is built out of everything you did in those modes, and every jackpot you take raises the multiplier.

  Reward: 1M to start, escalating multiplied jackpots

• Donkey Pinball mode · Medium

  Spell P-I-N-B-A-L-L on the captive balls and the Swamp scoop hands you the mini playfield. Your main flippers go dead, the mini ball launches, and every drain is relaunched until the clock runs out. It starts at fifteen seconds.

  Reward: Character values plus a playfield multiplier to 3X

• Donkey Multiball multiball · Hard

  Finish all five characters on the mini playfield and the main flippers wake back up for Donkey Multiball. Every character now has to be completed twice — once up top and once down here — and jackpots start at 500K.

  Reward: 500K jackpots, 2M then 3M Super Jackpot

• Baby Multiball multiball · Medium

  The workhorse multiball. Clear the Baby drop bank three times for the first one, then four, five and six for each one after, to a ceiling of six. The first is two balls with barely any ball save; later ones start with three.

  Reward: Switch-count jackpots

• Merlin secret · Easy

  The mystery award, lit at the start of every ball and relit by ramp shots. It can hand you a million, two million, a bonus multiplier, a lit Castle Guard Jackpot, Baby Multiball, an extra ball, a Special, or Far Far Away itself.

  Reward: One of roughly seventeen awards

• Fairy Godmother secret · Medium

  The Fiona target lights the Fairy Godmother, and her award is always something you can actually use right now — mode time, a hurry-up reset, a P-I-N-B-A-L-L letter, three free Charming hits, or an add-a-ball during multiball.

  Reward: A context-sensitive award

• The Pinball Combo combo · Medium

  Either orbit into the upper captive ball pays a combo starting at 500K and growing 50K each time. Direction matters: starting from the Gingy side pays the full value, starting from Puss In Boots pays half.

  Reward: 500K climbing by 50K, halved from the left

• Castle Guard Jackpots combo · Medium

  Shooting Puss In Boots drops the Castle Guard target, raises its value and lights the Castle Guard Jackpot for a short window. Five of these jackpots is one of the six requirements for the final wizard mode, so this pair is worth drilling.

  Reward: An escalating jackpot, and Far Far Away credit

• Repay Your Debt mode · Medium

  Started from the Castle Guard target when its light is flashing. For twenty seconds every lit shot pays 200K multiplied by how many Castle Guard hits you have banked since the last one, up to a million a shot.

  Reward: Up to 1M per shot, or a flat 400K from Merlin

• The Far Far Away Checklist progression · Hard

  The final wizard mode is not a shot, it is a report card. Six separate parts of the game have to be pushed to a threshold before the Swamp scoop will light for it. Hold a flipper for instant info and the third screen shows exactly what you still owe.

  Reward: Lights Far Far Away at the Swamp

• Far Far Away wizard · Hard

  The end of the game. Phase one is eighteen seconds on the Donkey playfield building a jackpot that starts at a million, with drains relaunched. Phase two puts every ball on the main playfield with all of those jackpots lit.

  Reward: Everything you built in phase one, paid at every lit shot

• Ride The 2X Inlanes multiplier · Easy

  One of the two inside inlanes is always lit, and every slingshot hit swaps which one. Lit 2X Gingy doubles the spinner for a few seconds; lit 2X Fiona doubles the Fiona target. Free points if you are paying attention before you shoot.

  Reward: Double value on Gingy or Fiona