One thing I love about Maiden is that almost all the information you need to know is on the playfield with the colored inserts. So we will take a tour around the playfield to see the main parts of the game.
Skill Shots
There are three skill shots of note, and a bunch of secret ones I don’t worry about. They all award points, added ball saver time, and and E-D-D-I-E letter. The simple one is the orange “x” target that is marked “skill shot”. The secret one that people often go for is to plunge directly into the left outlane for 25M! Upon failing either of those two, try to immediately hit the bullseye behind the center ramp.
Eddie Battle Modes
The round inserts between the slingshots are the different battle modes. You light your battle mode (yellow insert in front of the center ramp) by spelling E-D-D-I-E by hitting white lit shots. You can change modes by hitting the lower left spinner, but only before you complete E-D-D-I-E. Once completed your mode is locked in. Start the mode by hitting the bullseye behind the center ramp.
Aces High and Rime of the Ancient Mariner are both multiball modes with add-a-balls at the orb target (if lit through the drop targets). The others are single ball hit the lit shot (often in combination) modes. If you can complete or get far enough in a mode, the bullseye will be lit for a Soul Shard hurry-up. The value counts down pretty fast, and the value can be multiplied by up to 3x if you hit the center of the bullseye.
After you play modes, the game takes away some white arrows to make spelling E-D-D-I-E harder. Eventually it will just be the two ramps!
Complete all the battle modes and spell E-D-D-I-E again to light the final battle, Two Minutes to Midnight. Starting Two Minutes to Midnight awards the white Two Minutes to Midnight Eddie card (towards the Number of the Beast wizard mode).
Trooper Multiball
This is the “main” multiball in Maiden. You need to lock three balls to start it. The green “light lock” insert is in front of the drop targets, and the game starts with the yellow “bonus x” insert lit. Completing the bank gives you the lit award and moves you up to the next insert, “light orb”, and then “light lock”. Sweeping all three drop targets at once is worth two awards.
When you get “light lock”, the two orbits will be lit green to lock balls. For your first multiball, getting “light lock” lights the orbits for all three locks. For additional multiballs, each lock must be lit individually. Lock three balls to start the multiball.
During multiball, all major shots are lit for jackpots. Once you get three, the red “super” jackpot will be lit just to the right of the center ramp. Hitting the super awards nice points, re-lights any collected jackpots at a higher value (different color), and awards the Trooper Eddie card. During multiball, completing the drop targets lights the center bullseye for a cannon shot. The cannon shot awards 1-3 jackpots (based on accuracy), and the first cannon shot gives you an add-a-ball.
Mummy Multiball
You have to spell M-U-M-M-Y twice by hitting the mummy captive ball (to the right of the center ramp). The playfield will show your progress. Spell it once and lock at ball in the sarcophagus at the center ramp (Pro machine) or the left ramp (Premium/LE machine). Once you lock the ball, spelling M-U-M-M-Y again will start the multiball.
During the multiball, your goal is to score mummy jackpots. You light the jackpot (red blinking light at the mummy captive ball) by collecting a certain number of switch hits (so the spinners are great), and then the jackpot is collected at the mummy captive ball and one M-U-M-M-Y letter stays lit. Spelling M-U-M-M-Y lights the super jackpot at the bullseye, and the mummy super jackpot also awards the Mummy Eddie card.
In addition to switches and mummy jackpots, you want to shoot the yellow arrow shots to receive add-a-balls. The first one is the two ramps, then the two ramps and two orbits, and then pretty much everything for the third.
Loop Jackpots
There are two inner loops in Maiden, the bigger one hit from the upper right flipper and a smaller one hit from the upper left. Hitting the loops enough (the number needed is shown on the right side of the display screen) will light the red loop jackpot inserts at both loops. Repeatedly hitting the loops gives good points, and repeatedly hitting loop jackpots gives great points. The big loop is much easier to hit if you raise the upper left flipper (the opening is larger), but you get double points if the flipper is down
Power shots – The Pyramid
In the center of the playfield there are six triangles that form a pyramid. You might think I should have mentioned them before, but you will collect most of them through normal game play (ramps might be the tough complete). The left side of the display screen is dedicated to the number needed to either start or complete each power feature. Complete three power features to light extra ball. Complete all five to ready the Cyborg Multiball at the center ramp. The yellow triangles around the playfield will show you when shots are running a power feature.
Completing a power feature adds value to the “power jackpot”, and you can see the value in the lower right side of the display screen. You collect the power jackpot at the “orb/power jackpot” shot in the lower left corner next to the lower left spinner. This will either be a stand-up target (Pro machine) or captive ball (Premium/LE machine). The fun thing is that if you complete another power feature before collecting the jackpot (or losing your ball), the new feature’s value is added and a multiplier is added. This means you could stack all five power features with a 5x multiplier before collecting!
In Cyborg multiball, you want to hit each of the power shots at least once. When that is done (and the pyramid is full), hit the orb/power jackpot shot to collect the Cyborg jackpot. The first two Cyborg jackpots are also add-a-balls! Starting Cyborg multiball give you the Cyborg Eddie card.
Playfield multipliers
There are four little orange “x” targets scattered around the playfield, including the Trooper multiball super jackpot target. Collect all four to light the orange 2X light. You can start using the 2X playfield multiplier by rolling over one of the lit “activate X” inlane switches. Or you can collect another four “x” targets to build to 3X. When the orange multiplier light is solid, your playfield multiplier is available. When it is flashing, your playfield multiplier is running.
Tomb Treasures
Doing good things in the game will light red arrows (right orbit on the Pro, left ramp on the Premium/LE) for Tomb Treasures. You qualify them by collecting your first loop jackpot, for each Trooper or Mummy Eddie card, for each soul shard, and a few other things. The first two treasures are 15M followed by super slings. Beyond that is deep knowledge I don’t keep track of.
Revive
The lower left spinner builds spins to spell R-E-V-I-V-E that lights the outlane ball saves. It is safest to shot at the beginning of multiballs when the ball save is on.
Iron Maiden according to David
I always want to be in a mode, so I start collecting E-D-D-I-E letters, but I do it with the secondary goals of completing power features to get into Cyborg multiball and feeding inner loops (for points and fun!)
I almost never focus on drop targets to light my locks. It happens on random bounces enough that I always light them by ball three. I have also stopped trying to stack modes with multiballs. I find that I am far more successful at each when I am focusing on them separately.
When not in a mode:
From the right flipper I focus on the left orbit/spinner. This feeds to the upper right flipper for big inner loops, and hopefully getting into loop jackpots quickly. I do this until the left orbit shot no longer gives E-D-D-I-E letters, and then I switch to the left ramp. (If I am close to qualifying loop jackpots, I may even prioritize this over starting a mode, because stacking loop jackpots with modes doesn’t work very well).
From the left flipper I shoot for the right ramp. This feeds to the right flipper for the orbit to inner loop described above, but it also gets me ramps towards Cyborg and gets me familiar with making that ramp shot.
From the upper left flipper I go for the Mummy captive ball. It is a safe shot and accelerates getting into Mummy multiball. Given the difficulty of getting five Mummy jackpots to qualify the super to get the Mummy Eddie card, I often need two or three Mummy multiballs. The shot frequently will also hit the drop targets and occasionally will go through the small inner loop. If the last orange “x” I need is the Trooper super jackpot “x”, I will shot for it.
Once the mode is lit, I will go for it from either lower flipper.
When in a mode:
I am playing the mode! My goal is always to get as far in the mode as possible to get points and also collect the soul shard at the end.
Aces High and Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Hit the lit shots and take the add-a-ball at the orb.
Fear of the Dark: Purple shot to spinner. Do it three times and then up the middle for the soul shard. It is particularly nice to spinner to two big inner loops (that re-lights at the spinner), and then with the upper right flipper quick flip into the spinner.
Hallow Be Thy Name: Orange shot to Mummy Captive ball. Then orange shot to complete drop targets. Then orange shot to bullseye. Then bullseye for soul shard.
Flight of Icarus: This is my favorite! Ramp combos! Hit a ramp and the other ramp will be lit for a few seconds for a combo. The combo call out is amazing! I will even take a playfield multiplier into this if I am comboing well. My record is 15 in a row! Get enough points and the soul shard will be lit.
By the time I have played 4 or 5 modes, I almost always will have had one or two Mummy multiballs, a Trooper multiball, and a Cyborg multiball. Along the way there are lots of loops and smiles, and hopefully four Eddie cards and a Number of the Beast!
