Funhouse is an amazing game with one of the coolest and creepiest toys in pinball, Rudy! His eyes follow the ball, he yells at you, and his mouth moves when he talks!
To do well at Funhouse you really only need to focus on two things, the Clock and the Mirror.
The Clock (and multiball)
The Clock is in the middle of the playfield and tracks your progress towards multiball. Most things on the playfield advance the clock towards midnight (multiball), so you don’t have to focus on advancing the clock because it just happens.
When you get to 11:30 the lock will be lit (yellow lock light) just to the left of Rudy. Lock the first ball to get to 11:45, a second to get to midnight. Rudy will then fall asleep, and you need to shoot the ball into his open mouth to start multiball. When locking balls beware that the ball may be ejected from the Hidden Hallway (behind Rudy’s head) to the upper flipper.
During multiball the trapdoor opens for a 2 million jackpot. You have to hit the inner loop from the upper flipper to get it in the trap door. If you collect the jackpot, you re-open the trapdoor for a bigger jackpot by hitting the ramp. If your multiball ends before you get a jackpot, a timed quick re-start is lit at the lock shot.
The Mirror
The Mirror has six awards and the flashing award is collected at the Mirror scoop when the white Mirror Value arrow is lit. Once collected the shot can be re-lit by hitting Rudy. It will also re-light for a few seconds when the ball goes through the outer right inlane.
The Mirror can be made directly from the right flipper and usually as a bank shot off the Superdog from the left flipper.
The awards are: light extra ball (collected at the lock), light Million Rudy shot, Superdog (big points at red Superdog standup targets), quick multiball (2-ball multiball with 1 million Rudy hits), open Steps, and pop bumpers at 10 clock minutes per hit.
Collect all six awards to light the Mirror for Super Frenzy where all switches are big points. Don’t tilt because frenzy points are collected during bonus! When your ball drains, the Mirror will reset and you can do it all over again!
The Extras
Skill shot: Plunging softly to clear the back of Rudy’s head but not hard enough to go all the way around to the upper flipper awards Rudy’s Hideout for 250K, 500K, 750K, then 1 million.
The Steps: You open the Steps by hitting the four S-T-E-P targets, the Steps Mirror award, or getting the ball in the right hole just below the pop bumpers. This will then divert ramp shots to the left plunger lane. You then can plunge for lit awards. Each time you complete the S-T-E-P targets a new Step award is lit. One of the awards lights the extra ball.
Gangways: When the ball goes through the left inlane or the inner right inlane, the opposite Gangway orbit is lit to award whatever is in the flashing Gangway triangle (right above the flippers). The right orbit is very dangerous, but the left orbit is quite safe. Most importantly the final Gangway award lights the extra ball. After the first completion, progress towards the extra ball is no longer held from ball to ball.
Strategy:
In tournament, I find Funhouse to be kind of boring. Basically it is advance the clock for multiball and go for the Mirror quick multiball and Rudy million shot.
When playing for fun and GCs, Funhouse is amazing! Instead of prioritizing multiball, you can make extra balls your main goal in order to extend your game. Definitely try to blow up the multiballs when they happen, but the clock fills itself eventually no matter what you hit.
Instead I try to complete the Mirror every ball. If I can get an extra ball on every ball, my game could last forever. Between the Mirror, the Gangways, and the Steps, you could potentially get three extra balls on every ball! In real life this never happens, but your scores will be a lot higher with five or six balls instead of three!
Remember that you have to hit Rudy to re-light the Mirror. The easiest way is to hit the lock shot, which advances the clock and smoothly feeds the upper flipper for a shot at Rudy.
