Wheel of Fortune

Stern, 2007 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Wheel of Fortune in the Pinball Genie app →

Wheel of Fortune looks like a licence game and plays like a puzzle box. The flippers sit where you do not expect them, the outlanes can hand a ball back, and draining between the flippers is sometimes the best thing that happens to you. Underneath it all sits one idea: points go wherever the Wheel is pointing when you collect them, so the skill is deciding when to collect.

Start with the Toss-Up

Every ball opens with a skill shot. Plunge firmly but not fully and the ball rides the Toss-Up loop for a million, plus another million for every skill shot you have already banked this game. Then shoot the scoop straight away — it starts a hurry-up at double whatever the skill shot just paid. Outside the skill shot the same loop switch is worth a million, climbing 250K a hit to a two and a half million ceiling, so a plunge you have dialled in keeps paying all game.

The Wheel, the contestants, the puzzle

Three bobbleheads sit in front of the Wheel — Lonnie in red, Maria in yellow, Keith in blue — and each has a matching arrow on top of it. Hit a contestant and they guess a consonant, worth whatever their arrow is currently sitting on. The values are randomised every game, and two wedges actively hurt: Bankrupt wipes that contestant's points and prizes, and Lose A Turn benches them until the next spin. The center ramp respins the whole set, which makes it the most important non-scoring shot on the playfield.

One contestant always flashes rather than sitting solid, and everything bankable goes to that one. Hitting a solidly lit contestant makes them the flashing one instead. This matters because only the flashing contestant's prize bank pays out when you solve the puzzle — so an Extra Ball sitting in Keith's bank is worthless if Maria was flashing when you finished.

Vowels and prize banks

• Once enough consonants are down, the scoop lights to buy a vowel. Each one costs the flashing contestant 25K off their bank, so buy after a good respin, not before.
• Clearing every consonant is a one million bonus; clearing every vowel is two million.
• Three prizes can drop into a bank from the Wheel or a Wild Card: Extra Ball, Special and Trip.
• Each solved puzzle also adds 50K to your end-of-ball bonus.

The three inline drops are three separate features

Guarding the right ramp is a bank of three inline drop targets, and each one is worth knowing on its own. The front target lights Free Spin at the outlane rollovers — a drain down a lit one relaunches the ball immediately, two light per hit, and unused ones carry to your next ball. The middle target lights Big Money at the two lanes between the flippers, where draining spins the Wheel for whatever it lands on with a multiplier growing five at a time. The back target lights the Wild Card lane on the far left, which pays a random award plus the value the pop bumpers have been quietly stacking, up to 500K.

Bonus Wheel modes

Every major shot — left ramp, center ramp, right ramp, left loop, right orbit — carries a BONUS letter. Spell all five and the scoop lights with the Bonus Wheel inserts chasing like a spinning wheel; shooting the scoop stops them, and you get whichever of the seven modes they land on. You cannot time it. All seven run about thirty seconds, only one runs at a time, and none of them can be started during a multiball — but starting one just before a multiball stacks them together.

• Ramp Rampage is the cleanest: each ramp scores ten times its matching wedge, and every repeat on the same ramp adds another ten to that ramp's multiplier.
• Risky Spinning lights all five BONUS shots for the sum of the lit wedges — hitting an unlit contestant adds their value, hitting a lit one takes it away.
• Contestant Hurry-Up starts at ten times a contestant's wedge and adds five more for every hurry-up you finish.
• Wheel Frenzy, Combos, Keep It Spinning and Stop The Wheel round out the set, and the center ramp respins values inside any of them.

Two very different multiballs

Wheel of Fortune Multiball comes from the nine MULTIBALL standups and starts at the scoop: three balls, four jackpots from 750K, then Double, Triple and a five-times Super. Extra target hits before you start add 7.5K to the base, as does every revolution of the Wheel. The requirement hardens each time — the first run spots a letter off any target, the second needs every letter hit once, the third needs each hit twice.

Trip Multiball is the one that rewards planning. Bank a Trip on a contestant, make sure they are flashing, then solve. Four shots light from 500K and the base climbs 100K every wave you clear. Take one jackpot immediately after another and the next is doubled.

Habits worth building

• Either outer ramp doubles your next shot; both ramps in sequence quadruples it. Spend that on a jackpot, never on a standup.
• Every fourth left loop shot pays a Hold award, and the loop count carries between balls.
• The right orbit steps the pop bumper multiplier to five times, which grows the Wild Card value too.
• Ten ramp shots light the extra ball outright.

How Wheel of Fortune plays

Wheel of Fortune is a TV-show game where you solve word puzzles for points set by a spinning wheel. Make the contestants guess letters, steer prizes into the right bank, and stop the wheel on its big wedges while chasing Multiball and the Bonus Wheel modes.

The loop

1. Hit a contestant to make them guess a consonant worth whatever their colored arrow points at on the Wheel; respin junk values on the center ramp.
2. Keep the contestant holding your prizes flashing, then solve the puzzle at the scoop so the payout lands in the right bank.
3. Spell B-O-N-U-S across the five major shots to light a Bonus Wheel mode at the scoop.
4. Finish the nine MULTIBALL standups and shoot the scoop for the three-ball jackpot ladder.
5. Knock down the inline drops to open the right ramp and light Free Spin, Big Money and Wild Card.

Reading the lights

• B-O-N-U-S Shots (letters) — lit: Each of the five major shots -- the three ramps, the left loop and the right orbit -- carries one letter of BONUS, and a lit letter is simply one you have not collected. · then: Complete BONUS and the scoop lights, with the mode inserts chasing round like a game-show wheel. Stop them at the scoop to launch one of the seven Bonus Wheel modes -- and start it just before a multiball if you want the two stacked.
• The Contestants (status) — lit: Lonnie, Maria and Keith each track a colored arrow on the Wheel, hitting one makes that contestant guess a consonant worth the wedge under their arrow, and whoever you last struck becomes the flashing contestant -- the only one whose banked prizes pay out when you solve. · then: Set the flashing contestant on purpose before you solve at the scoop, and respin the arrows off the center ramp when they park on junk or a Bankrupt wedge. Clear the consonants for a bonus and buy the vowels once enough of the puzzle shows.
• The Wheel (status) — lit: The Wheel's two dozen wedges are reshuffled every game and its three colored arrows set the value of every letter and most mode shots, but two wedges bite -- Bankrupt wipes a contestant's points and prizes, and Lose A Turn pays nothing. · then: Respin a bad spread on the center ramp, which swaps in a fresh set of values. Land Extra Ball, Special or Trip wedges into a contestant's bank, then solve with that contestant flashing to collect -- a Trip banked that way starts Trip Multiball.
• MULTIBALL Standups (letters) — lit: The green MULTIBALL standups are spread left, center and right, and the first pass lets any target spot the next letter, the second pass makes each letter want its own target, and the third asks for it twice. · then: Finish the word and start three-ball Multiball at the scoop. Bang extra targets and spin the Wheel a few more times first to raise the base jackpot, then climb the ladder -- Jackpot, Double, Triple and a five-times Super.
• Inline Drop Targets (status) — lit: Three drop targets stack in front of the right ramp, each one a feature rather than a plain gate -- front to back they Light Free Spin, Light Big Money and Light Wild Card -- and while any stand the right ramp stays blocked. · then: The front drop lights the outlane Free Spins that relaunch a drained ball; the middle lights the Big Money lanes between the flippers that spin the Wheel on a drain; the back lights the far-left Wild Card lane. Clear all three to open the right ramp for its multiplier and jackpots.
• Ramp Multipliers (multiplier) — lit: Either outer ramp lights your very next shot for double, though the right ramp only opens once the three inline drops are down. · then: Combo the left ramp straight into the right ramp to arm a 4X instead of a 2X, then spend it on something worth multiplying -- a jackpot or a hurry-up, never a standup. Set it up ahead of a big shot rather than wasting it on a target.
• Pop Bumpers & Supers (status) — lit: Right-orbit shots feed the pop bumpers and step their multiplier toward 5X, every bumper hit also grows the Wild Card value that the far-left lane cashes, and the two inlanes each arm a short Super. · then: Stack the Wild Card value in the bumpers, then collect it at the Wild Card lane before it resets at the end of the ball. Pass the right inlane and shoot the left loop inside five seconds for Super Loops; the left inlane instead lifts the bumpers to Super Bumpers until the ball leaves the nest.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

• Ball one — Ride the Toss-Up loop off a firm plunge for the skill shot, then cash its doubled hurry-up at the scoop. Start solving puzzles -- hit contestants, respin bad values, solve -- and knock the front inline drop to bank Free Spins as insurance. — Toss-Up Skill Shot, Solving Puzzles, Free Spins
• Building — Spell BONUS for a Bonus Wheel mode, set up the ramp multipliers, and steer Extra Ball, Special or Trip prizes into the flashing contestant's bank. Feed the bumpers to grow the Wild Card value as you build toward multiball. — Spell B-O-N-U-S, Bonus Wheel Modes, Ramp Multipliers, Load A Prize Bank, Feed The Bumpers
• The big one — The multiballs are the top end. Finish the MULTIBALL standups for the three-ball jackpot ladder up to its five-times Super, and bank a Trip to start Trip Multiball off a solve. A Special routed into the right contestant's bank is the game's rarest collect. — Wheel of Fortune Multiball, Trip Multiball, Extra Balls And Specials

Does Wheel of Fortune have an action button?

The Wheel spins itself — there is no spin button to hunt for. Stern had not started fitting a lockdown-bar button in 2007, so it is flippers and the shooter rod, and the rod is the one worth practising: a firm but not full plunge rides the Toss-Up loop for a million that grows with every skill shot you have already banked.

Goals in Wheel of Fortune

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

• Toss-Up Skill Shot skillshot · Medium

  Plunge hard but not full so the ball rides the Toss-Up loop. It pays a million, plus another million for every skill shot you have already made this game. Then shoot the scoop for a hurry-up starting at double what the skill shot paid.

  Reward: 1M and climbing, plus a doubled hurry-up

• Solving Puzzles progression · Medium

  The puzzle is the spine of the game. Hitting a contestant makes them guess a consonant, and the value of that letter is whatever their coloured arrow is sitting on. Clear all the consonants for a one million bonus and all the vowels for two.

  Reward: 1M for all consonants, 2M for all vowels, 50K to bonus per puzzle

• Control The Flashing Contestant strategy · Medium

  One contestant always flashes instead of sitting solid, and everything bankable goes to that one. Since only the flashing contestant's prize bank pays out when you solve, deciding who is flashing at the moment of the solve is the single most valuable habit on this machine.

  Reward: Directs every banked award

• Buy A Vowel strategy · Medium

  Once enough consonants are down, the scoop lights to buy a vowel. The points go to the flashing contestant like everything else, but a vowel also takes 25K back off that contestant's bank — so buy them when the arrows are on big wedges, not small ones.

  Reward: Wedge value minus 25K, 2M for all vowels

• Load A Prize Bank strategy · Hard

  Three items can drop into a contestant's prize bank: Extra Ball, Special and Trip. They arrive from lucky Wheel spins or from Wild Card awards. You only collect the bank of the contestant who was flashing when the puzzle was solved, so a Trip in the wrong bank is a Trip you never take.

  Reward: Extra Ball, Special, or a Trip Multiball

• Spell B-O-N-U-S progression · Medium

  Every major shot carries a BONUS letter: left ramp, center ramp, right ramp, left loop and right orbit. Collect all five and the scoop lights up, ready to launch any one of the seven Bonus Wheel modes.

  Reward: Lights a Bonus Wheel mode at the scoop

• Bonus Wheel Modes mode · Medium

  Seven modes, one at a time, roughly thirty seconds each. Every one of them uses the Wheel — usually the three arrow values become the mode's scoring values — and the center ramp respins those values mid-mode. You cannot start one during multiball, but you can start one just before and stack them.

  Reward: Varies by mode; bonus multiplier on tournament code

• Ramp Rampage mode · Medium

  The cleanest of the Bonus Wheel modes. Left ramp scores ten times the red wedge, center ramp ten times the yellow, right ramp ten times the blue. Each hit on a ramp adds another ten to that ramp's own multiplier, so repeating one ramp compounds fast.

  Reward: 10x wedge value per ramp, climbing 10x per repeat

• Risky Spinning mode · Hard

  All five BONUS shots light for a jackpot worth the sum of the currently lit wedge values. Hitting an unlit contestant lights them and adds their wedge into the total; hitting a lit one turns them off and takes it back out. Land on Bankrupt and the jackpot value goes with it.

  Reward: Sum of lit wedges, with a climbing multiplier

• Contestant Hurry-Up mode · Medium

  Hit a contestant and the five BONUS shots light briefly for a hurry-up worth ten times that contestant's wedge. Every hurry-up you complete adds another five to the wedge multiplier, so this mode rewards a fast contestant-then-shot rhythm rather than hunting for one big shot.

  Reward: 10x wedge, +5x per completion

• Wheel of Fortune Multiball multiball · Medium

  Complete the nine MULTIBALL standups, then shoot the scoop. Three balls, four lit jackpots starting at 750K and working from the left side across. Second is doubled, third tripled, fourth is a five-times Super Jackpot.

  Reward: 750K base, doubling to a 5x Super Jackpot

• Trip Multiball multiball · Hard

  Solve a puzzle with a contestant who is holding a Trip, or solve a Prize Puzzle. Three balls with the left ramp, scoop, center ramp and right ramp lit from 500K. The base value grows by 100K each time you clear a wave, and back-to-back jackpots double the next one.

  Reward: 500K base rising 100K per wave, up to a 5x Super

• Ramp Multipliers multiplier · Medium

  Either outer ramp doubles your very next shot. Combo the left ramp into the right ramp — which needs all three inline drops already down — and the next shot is quadrupled instead. Set this up before a jackpot rather than spending it on a standup.

  Reward: 2x next shot, or 4x from a ramp-to-ramp combo

• Free Spins strategy · Easy

  Knock down the first inline drop target and the outlane rollovers light for Free Spin — a drain down a lit lane relaunches the ball immediately. Two light per target hit, and unused ones carry to the next ball, so you can be playing with all four banked.

  Reward: Instant ball save on a lit outlane

• Wild Card secret · Medium

  The third inline drop lights the C-shaped lane on the far left. The award is random in normal play but comes in a fixed order under competition rules, opening with a ten-times bonus, then Complete Puzzle, then Light Bank Specials. The lane also cashes the Wild Card value the bumpers have been stacking, up to 500K.

  Reward: Random award plus the banked Wild Card value

• Big Money multiplier · Medium

  The middle inline drop lights the two lanes between the flippers. Drain down a lit one and the Wheel spins for whatever it lands on, with a multiplier that grows by five every time you collect. Knock the target down while both lanes are already lit and you take a flat million instead.

  Reward: Wheel value, multiplier climbing 5x per collect

• Feed The Bumpers strategy · Easy

  Bumpers open at 1K and add 100 points every ten hits to a 1.5K ceiling, and that base is multiplied by a factor that grows with every right orbit shot up to five times. Every hit also feeds the Wild Card value, which is the real reason to care.

  Reward: Up to 1.5K x 5, and a growing Wild Card value

• Super Bumpers And Super Loops multiplier · Medium

  The inlanes each arm a short super. Super Bumpers lifts the bumpers to 25K a hit, climbing a thousand at a time, and ends the moment the ball leaves the nest. Super Loops makes the left loop worth 125K up to 250K, doubled, on a five-second timer.

  Reward: 25K bumpers, or a doubled 125K-250K loop

• Left Loop Hold Awards strategy · Medium

  Every fourth left loop shot pays a Hold award, in a fixed order: Bonus Value, Bumper Value, Wild Card Value, Bumper X, Bonus X, Left Loop Value, Right Orbit Value. Loop totals carry from ball to ball, which makes this a slow-burn feature worth starting early.

  Reward: One held value or multiplier every four loops

• Extra Balls And Specials progression · Medium

  Two routes to an extra ball and only one to a Special, and both of the good ones run through the prize banks. Know them before you spend a solve on the wrong contestant.

  Reward: Extra ball or Special