Hello and welcome to Pinball Pursuit, your go-to channel for all things pinball. Today we're heading into a spooky world of campy horror, creepy creatures, and some innuendos. I'm Mrs. J. And I'm Dr. C. That's right, today we're diving into Elvira's House of Horrors, a 2019 pinball machine by Stern. It was designed by Dennis Nordman with rules led by Lyman Sheets, and artwork by Greg Fares. This game has you helping Elvira exercise her house with all the spirits of terrible B-level horror films so she can get it on the market ready to sell. It's goofy, campy, and fun. So whether you're stepping up to the game for the first time or trying to remember how this game works so you can work on your high scores, this guide will help you get the most out of Elvira's House of Horrors. As always, let's break down the playfield first. We'll get going from left to right. First, we have the Hand of Fate left outer lane. This outer lane has a unique save that can be activated by hitting the Hand of Fate stand-up targets on the right side of the playfield. Once you hit those, Elvira will yell, The Hand of Fate is lit! If you drain down this lane, you'll see a spinning wheel on the screen that can either award you points, double your bonuses, or yes, give you a ball save. You have to stop the wheel with the middle bar action button. Luckily, it moves pretty slow, so getting the ball save is pretty easy. Assuming you don't want one of the other prizes instead. I like that that ball save is available with this. I feel like ball saves are kind of hard to come by on this machine. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. Next up, we have the Junk in the Trunk box and targets. Hitting all of these will open the trunk, allowing you to lock a ball by hitting the left ramp. Doing so will also award you a trinket. More on those later. You can hit the ball into the top of the trunk to lock a ball, but this is practically impossible to do on purpose. The left orbit sits right next to the trunk. This shot advances Drive Me Crazy and is active during most haunts. Just to the right of the left orbit is the left ramp. This ramp will advance most of your haunts and advantage you towards Unhappy Hour. It is the shot you need to hit to lock a ball in the trunk for Junk in the Trunk Multiwell. Next to that is the garage shot. This shot is gated by a tombstone drop-down target. Once you hit that target down, the garage will be open, allowing you to lock balls towards some very fun multiballs. Now we have the most important shot of the game, the front door. This shot starts haunts, advances towards new haunts, collects your trailer trash bonus, and is the super jackpot for many different modes and multiballs. This ramp can also lift up, revealing the cellar, another important shot towards multiple haunts. Behind the house is the back door. This can be soft plunged into for a nice skill shot, and the back door can also be hit from the orbits if you hit it just right Doing so will immediately qualify a haunt or advance a haunt in progress Just to the right of the front door is the entrance into the pop bumpers and the real estate sign This is important if you ever get to the final wizard mode, which we haven't done yet. I'm trying. We'll get there. We'll get there. Maybe. The right ramp is just below the pop bumpers. This advances unhappy hour and is an important shot during many of the game's haunts. To the right of that ramp is Deadhead Family Crypt. This shot transforms from a stand-up target to a scoop and then to a skull bash toy. It's a fun mech that gets you points with the Deadhead side mode. The right orbit is next to that with the Beast Boost spinner in it. This shot is sneaky because the lit insert often gets hidden behind the spinner. So if you find yourself in a haunt not knowing where to shoot, it's probably because the right orbit is lit. Just below the right orbit are the Hand of Fate stand-up targets. Lighting these enable the left out lane hand of fate. Above these targets is the ball launcher from which the balls that go into the dead head crypt will fly out of. The other important targets on the playfield are the gargoyles. These stand up targets flank either side of the front door and the dead head crypt and will jump into the air when hit. They are brutal as hitting one of these can easily send your ball barreling towards the middle of the playfield. Hitting the gargoyles will fill up the gargoyle gauge in the middle of the playfield. Once that is full, you can hit the gargoyles to enable Gargoyles Gone Wild, which awards some nice points for hitting the stand-up gargoyles, the orbits, and the front door shots. If you can manage to activate this during a multiball, you can rack up some nice points. Now let's get into the main modes of the game, the haunts. These modes are themed around cheesy horror movies, and you can start a haunt by shooting the house entrance when it is lit. There are multiple haunts, each one represented by a different window in the house. When a haunt is available, a window in the house will light up and hitting the flippers will change which window is lit. Each window corresponds to a B-movie that haunts that room in Elvira's house. Whichever window is lit when you hit the front door shot will decide which haunt you do, which means you can choose which haunt you want to complete. Let's map out which B-movie corresponds to each window. The Brain That Wouldn't Die, which is the leftmost window on the first floor of the house. Next to that window is the Manster, which is one of the best modes to activate during multi-balls as it requires lots of shots to complete. Above that on the second floor is Teenagers from Outer Space. Dr. C finds this mode to be the easiest to complete as it only requires a few shots. Yes, yes it is. Moving to the right side of the house, we have Night of the Living Dead located on the ground floor. This is another easier mode to complete, but also offers some nice bonus opportunities with extra shots you can do. Above that on the first floor is Manos, the hands of fate. Perhaps the worst movie of all time. I recommend the MST3K episode that features it it really funny Anyways this is another good mode to stack with a multiball as it requires a lot of shots and can score some major points On the second story, you'll activate the Werewolf of Washington. You'll notice there is an additional window on the right. This is a room that can only be unlocked if you get a skeleton key from the trunk. There are three possible haunts you can get from this window. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Another great MST3K episode. The Satanic Rites of Dracula or the Giant Gila Monster. I think it's pronounced Gila. Is it really? I don't know. I thought it was Gila. I have no idea. Now I have no idea. Embarrassing. Each haunt is pretty unique and features different objectives. They are all pretty campy and Elvira's intro and outro for each one is amusing. To defeat these, keep an eye on the screen and the playfield inserts for guidance. One big bonus to completing a haunt instead of timing out or failing it it is that you get the opportunity to activate trailer trash. That's right, and trailer trash is huge. It allows you to double the points you gain during a haunt. This is activated by hitting the yellow shot into the front door after you've completed your haunt. This activates trailer trash and lights each ramp as well as the front door. The front door collects a big bonus and hitting the two ramps prior to hitting the front door greatly boosts its value. This is key to getting some big scores on this machine. Now let's talk about a few side modes of this game. First up, the Deadheads. Throughout the game, you'll be tasked with battling Deadheads, the ghoulish creatures that lurk inside the crypt. To challenge a Deadhead, shoot the Deadhead crypt to reveal the scoop. Once activated, the Deadhead will float on the display screen and tease you while you play. Bashing the skull in the crypt enough times will open up the scoop again. Hitting that will require you to use the middle bar action button to shoot the ball across the playfield from the launcher above the hand of bait targets and into the junk in the trunk targets. You must hit the trunk targets while all are flashing white to defeat the deadhead. Next up are Unhappy Hour and Drive Me Crazy. Unhappy Hour is activated by making a certain number of ramp shots on either the left or the right ramps. Drive Me Crazy is similar. It is activated by making a certain number of orbit shots on the right or the left. Once activated, each of these award bonuses that build when you hit their respective shots again. Rams for Unhappy Hour, Orbits for Drive Me Crazy. You have 30 seconds to score these points. Again, having one of these during a multiball can get you some nice points, especially if you're also in a haunt as all of these points stack on top of each other. These can also be activated multiple times throughout the game, simply requiring more shots before each subsequent activation. Is it finally time to talk about multiballs? Oh yes it is. Yay! Okay, there are a couple of main multi balls we are going to cover. First up is the garage door multiball These are Wild Women of Wongo Add a Zombie and Attic Attack All of these are activated by locking balls in Elvira garage First you have to hit the drop target in front of the garage This gets you access to the garage allowing you to shoot in there and lock a ball After locking three balls, you can activate a multiball. My favorite thing to do is stack haunts with a multiball to get some major points. That's right. Next is the junk in the trunk multiball. This is also a ball lock multiball. You must either get lucky and have a ball fall into the top of the trunk, or you can hit the three trunk stand-up targets on the left side of the playfield. Doing so will pop open the lid to the trunk and hitting the left ramp will drop a ball into it, locking the ball for the multiball. Lock two balls in the trunk and voila, you start a two-ball multiball. It's a ton of fun. Oh, and locking a ball in the trunk also awards you with a trinket. This could be the skeleton key, which opens the far right room in the house, Elvira's dagger, which adds bonus points, the lab test, which increases your jackpot values, or the atomic ray gun, which will complete a single shot in a mode for you by activating the action button in the middle of the bar. Collecting all of these items does unlock an additional multiball, the phone-a-friend multiball. The last multiball we'll cover is house party. This is unlocked after you activate three haunts. You don't have to complete the haunts, you just have to start them. It is unlocked like your other haunts by hitting the front door multiple times. This will light the house party insert. Hitting the front door activates this thrilling four ball multiball mode where every shot is a jackpot and the front door is a super jackpot. Hitting the front door can also add a ball if the rotating attic has the eye facing forward when you shoot a super jackpot. The number of shots you have successfully made during your haunts increases the value of those jackpots. It's a hard mode to get, but you can score some major points if you do. Yeah, you can. Now there are for sure other modes you can unlock in this game, such as They Came From Space, which unlocks after you complete all six haunts, or Gappa Angry, which takes place after you completely fill up the Freak Friar meter in the middle of the playfield. But this guide is to get you started, and believe me, there's enough here to really work on for a while. One thing to note before we leave is how to get some extra balls in this game. There are two main ways to get an extra ball. You have to complete, not just start, but actually finish two haunts. Or you can defeat two deadheads. Doing either one will net you an extra ball. Elvira's House of Horrors is an incredibly fun and engaging game that blends humor, horror, and deep gameplay mechanics. Whether you're battling deadheads, exploring spooky haunts, or racking up huge jackpots in a multiball, there's always something exciting happening. We hope this guide helps you conquer Elvira's House of Horrors. If you have any questions or strategies to share, drop them in the comments below. And don't forget to like, subscribe, and ring that little bell so you never miss a Pinball Pursuit tutorial. Until next time, keep flipping!