Sorcerer's Lair

"Beings of the Void, I summon you!"

-The Sorcerer

Sorcerer's Lair
Date available	April 26, 2011
Category	Zen Originals
Based on	Characters created by Zen Studios
Designed by	Viktor Gyorei
Plunger mechanism	Straight into orbit
Skill shot type	Plunger strength (regular), flipper-assisted (super)
Number of return lanes	5
Number of flippers	6 (4 on main playfield, 2 on cellar mini-playfield)
Outlane protection	2 diverting kickbacks
Number of main missions	6
Wizard mode type	Optional final mission, then timed victory multiball
Number of side modes	2
Number of multiball modes	3

Sorcerer's Lair is one of the early Zen Pinball original tables, first released as part of Zen Pinball for the PlayStation 3, and made available as a free starter table in all installments of the Pinball FX series starting with the release of Pinball FX 2. It is a fantasy-horror pinball table, depicting the story of a young boy and his sister's journey into a haunted mansion to outwit a mischievous sorcerer with the help of a mysterious ghost girl named Whisper.

Table overview

The upper half of the table

The back wall of the table resembles one of the interior walls of the haunted mansion the titular sorcerer operates in. A pair of medieval weapons and a shield are hung near the back left corner of the table on a purple, stony wall. By contrast, the walls at the back right corner of the table are just plastered wallpaper. In the middle of the back table wall is a large bookcase filled with many books, which are implied to contain information about magic spells and arcane arts as much of the back center part of the table represents his lab.

Below the medieval weaponry hung on the stone wall, there is a small triangular raised platform at the back left corner of the table, with its straight sides flush with the table walls. A small left mini-flipper is embedded on its left side, used to access a long question mark-shaped crossramp that ultimately ends at the inner left inlane. Failure to execute the shot results in the ball draining down a habitrail destined towards the end of the left inlanes, in front of the left slingshot and just ahead of the left flipper.

The early part of the side ramp wraps around a wooden platform representing the sorcerer's lab, where a figure of the titular sorcerer stands. The crossramp runs under a table of potions he uses, and there is a gold statue holding a bowl large enough to function as a ball saucer (and locker) right next to the sorcerer figure. It is one of three possible destinations of a nearby diverter tower, particularly the right one, via a short dropdown habitrail. Alternately, this diverter tower may turn the ball left to a short habitrail that drops the ball into the habitrail for the back left platform's drain, or send it down a forward exit habitrail to the right inlane.

To the right of the elevated crossramp, as it goes around the sorcerer's lab, is another larger tower with a diverter mechanism that diverts the ball to one of two habitrails: a back habitrail that runs alongside the back table wall to the back left corner of the table to drop the ball to the small back left platform, or a forward habitrail running along the right table wall that ends at the right inlane, merging with the forward exit habitrail from the left diverter tower.

A large orbit wraps around most table lanes, with its apex going behind the sorcerer's lab, but under its bookcase and the abovementioned raised upper crossramp. To the right of the left orbit is a rising crossramp called the ghost crossramp whose entrance faces rightward that curves towards the back of the table before making a sharp left hairpin turn to merge into the draining area of the raised back left platform, leading the ball to its exit habitrail along the table's left wall. Behind the crossramp entrance is a ball locker sinkhole that is periodically blocked by a small portcullis raised and lowered by a small, golden gargoyle.

A lane leading right up to the left diverter tower goes straight past the entrance to the ghost crossramp and the gargoyle ball locker. As described earlier, each shot up this tower can take the ball to one of three different destinations: the exit habitrail along the table's left wall, the forward exit habitrail towards the right inlane or the ball lock saucer in the sorcerer's lab, with each shot cycling between the three. Directly to the right of this lane is a mini-orbit gated by a brown spinner, which sends the ball rolling down the right orbit.

To the right of the mini-orbit is a spindisk with mysterious arcane symbols. Directly behind it is a target bank engraved with magic runes, which are placed along the short wall of the wooden platform representing the sorcerer's lab. When this target bank is completed, the spindisk will rise to expose a hollowed-out cylindrical structure with a spiraling path cut into it that deposits the ball midway through the habitrail of the ghost ramp, as well as a hidden sinkhole inside the cylindrical structure used to start missions. The former represents the winding staircases of the haunted mansion and has inserts spelling STAIRWAY.

Right beside the rising spindisk is a long, elevated ramp with inserts spelling CITADEL, leading up to the right diverter tower. As described earlier, it can either take the ball to the raised back left platform or the right inlane, alternating between the two every time the tower is shot to ensure that consecutive balls do not travel down the same path. The entrance to the right ramp is also right next to the table's right orbit. Like the mini-orbit, it is gated with a brown spinner.

The lower half of the table

The entrance of the left orbit is gated by a bumper area of three bumpers. Balls that enter the bumper area either with a direct shot into it or with a full shot up the opposite orbit will exit around the area's frontmost bumper, either towards the table's left outlane or towards the main flipper area. In front of the right bumper is a sinkhole dedicated to Whisper, the friendly ghost who assists Jake and his sister. Two targets labeled with "G" and the second "O" in GOO are on the right sides of these two bumpers, with the G target on the front bumper and the O target on the right bumper.

On the other side of the table, between the right orbit and plunger lane, is a figure of a living tree called a Tree-Being. An upper flipper lines the right side of the right orbit's entrance, placed near the Tree-Being figure. It is used to access the ghost ramp, lock balls in the gargoyle ball locker or hit the middle GOO target. The final GOO target is placed just in front of the upper flipper's tip. Lamps for the missions are placed in the space between this upper flipper and the bumper area.

Further down the table, there are two slingshots topped with several small gears with faces engraved on them, representing the mysterious, hideous inner workings of the mansion. There are five return lanes, three on the left and two on the left, that spell GHOST, as well as two lower flippers. Each outlane is guarded by a diverting kickback that allows a ball draining in the outlane to pass through a gate in between the outlane and the neighboring inlane to safely return to play.

Lamps for the bonus multipliers are featured in the dead space near the flippers. Along the edges of the table aprons are 13 lamps shaped into obsidian stones, which can be collected to be used against the sorcerer.

The cellar mini-playfield

There is an additional mini-playfield installed under this table that represents the dark, creepy cellar of the Sorcerer's Lair that Jake and his sister get trapped in during their investigation. Like the main play area, a main orbit wraps around three other lanes in this mini-playfield: a very short center-left lane leading up to a dead end, a center ramp that takes a large right U-turn to take the ball down the mini-playfield's right inlane and a center-right inlane that takes the ball back to the main playfield through a short, left-curving passageway underneath the prior two lanes described. To the left of the left orbit is a sinkhole where balls enter the mini-playfield, dropping into the left inlane.

An electric barrier is present early up the left orbit, while the center-left and center-right lanes can be blocked by a gate or spiderweb respectively, with the latter being removed by a match right beside the returning portion of the middle ramp. An old wooden clock is placed behind the end of the center-left lane. Towards the bottom of this mini-playfield are two slingshots and two return lanes. The mini-playfield's outhole is guarded by two small flippers and a center post right in between them.

The wall mini-playfield

Another mini-playfield can be played within the walls of the Sorcerer's Lair, filled with various mechanical contraptions that form an obstacle course that the player must navigate the ball through from right to left through two general areas. The left area is a squarish pit of sorts with a stack of six seesaws installed on its wall. The horizontal positions of these seesaws are not at the pit's center and alternate between being right of it and left of it, allowing the player to tilt the seesaws with the flipper buttons to slowly bring the ball deeper into the pit in a slalom-like path towards any of three exits: two false exits at the bottom corners of this pit marked with a red skull icon, as well as the course's only true exit to the left of the right false exit and a little deeper down the pit.

The ball would only enter the pit of seesaws through a dropdown that is the end of a hidden vertical upkicker's long shaft that separates the two halves of the wall mini-playfield, whose entrance is the end of the right half of the course where the ball begins, which roughly consists of a space shaped into the letter S, lined with rotating gears of various sizes, whose rotation can be reversed with the flipper buttons. Crude icons indicating which flipper button is for which direction appear to the right of the first set of gears the ball comes in contact with. The ball enters the mini-playfield course through a sinkhole at the top. If the ball can get past six of the eight gears in this side of the course, it will drop onto a toothy gear belt powered by the remaining two gears at the bottom right corner of the course that will move the ball left towards the VUK to access the left half of the course.

The plunger & skill shot

The plunger is a spring-loaded mechanism that launches the ball up a straight shaft that merges into the right orbit. Midway through the shaft, the ball would pass through a one-way gate, where the shaft also branches off into a vertical upkicker near the right mini-flipper and Tree-Being figure that pops the ball right near the end of the right exit habitrail of the right diverter tower. A rollover is installed between this junction and the end of the shaft.

The goal of the skill shot is to determine the correct amount of force that will cause the ball to hit that rollover without dropping into the right orbit, and enters the VUK via the back of the one-way gate for a reward of 300,000 points. A successful skill shot will cause the VUK to pop the ball to the right flipper, which must then be used to immediately hit the tower ramp for a super skill shot worth 1 million points.

Objective

Navigate Jake and his sister through the foreboding, twisted hallways of the Sorcerer's Lair to investigate it with the help of Whisper, while outwitting a sorcerer and his mischievous tricks, through six missions - eventually using obsidian against the sorcerer and learning the truth about Whisper during Midnight Madness.

Starting missions & general information

Hit the three rune targets in the mission target bank behind the spindisk to raise it up from the play area, and reveal its hidden spiraling stairway, then shoot the sinkhole right beside the stairway entrance. The mission that starts depends on which mission is lit in the main play area, which cycles with bumper hits. The player must at least start all 6 missions to unlock Midnight Madness and is only allowed one attempt at each mission before Midnight Madness starts. Each mission played on the playfield has a 60-second timer, while missions played on either mini-playfield are untimed. Completing a mission successfully awards obsidian.

Missions

• Bones: Help the siblings escape the skeletons by running fast enough to put enough distance from them, by shooting either spinner a minimum of 20 times. The scoring display will show the distance between the kids and the skeletons, and the player must quickly extend the distance with repeated spinner shots to win. Failure to shoot the spinners will gradually shrink the gained distance.
• Creepy Cellar: As the two siblings venture deeper into the mansion, they are trapped in the cellar by the sorcerer and must find a way out. This mission takes place in the cellar mini-playfield and the player must shoot a sequence of five lit lanes to unlock the exit at the center-right and shoot it, all without losing the ball. Each lane will only light once, meaning the player must shoot all five lanes to unlock the exit.
• Crazy Ghosts: The mansion is filled with frightening ghosts that never seem to go away.... Quickly defeat all six ghosts floating at the entrances of six different major lanes by hitting them with the ball. The player must hurry to eliminate all ghosts, as some of them will respawn over time until a maximum of six remain.
• Arachnid Attack: Jake uses his slingshot to take down the giant spiders invading the cellar. This mission also takes place in the cellar mini-playfield, where the player must hit spiders that hang from the entrances of all five major shots to kill them. The player needs to defeat eight spiders before the mini-playfield exit unlocks to win the mission.
• Behind the Walls: Jake discovers mechanisms within the walls of the mansion and must solve a puzzle with them to get closer to the sorcerer's lab. This mission takes place in the wall mini-playfield, where the player must use the flippers to control the gears' rotation so they carry the ball across the course without being crushed by other gears or against the course walls. On the left half of the course, the player must use the flipper buttons to carefully nudge the seesaws in the pit to make the ball slowly descend towards the course's exit, marked with a green arrow. If the player fails to carefully transfer the ball from one seesaw to the next, it will fall into one of two false exits, resulting in mission failure.
• Gates to the Void: The sorcerer traps the kids with portals inside his lair that lead to the Void, a terrifying dimension filled with monsters. The player must destroy these Void portals with Whisper's help, by first shooting the sinkhole, then shooting the portals in front of each ramp shot. A single sinkhole shot is good for all four portals.

Obsidian

Obsidian stones weaken the sorcerer's powers, and increase the final score awarded from Midnight Madness by 0.5x. Up to 13 obsidian stones can be collected, by completing missions successfully, winning any of the side modes described in the side modes & multiball modes subsection outside of Citadel Multiball, or by making Tower Crawler or Elusion Mastery combos. Each obsidian stone can only be obtained once per method until Midnight Madness has been played.

Midnight Madness

Midnight Madness is started the same way as the missions that preceded it, and is a two-part final mode comprising of a hurry-up and a timed 3-ball victory multiball.

• Hurry-Up: Whisper reveals that she was the sorcerer's prisoner and is about to be taken back by him. The player must save her by shooting her with the ball at either crossramp before the sorcerer kidnaps her within 25 seconds. If the player successfully saves Whisper, an obsidian stone will be awarded. The ball saver will remain active for this phase and expire when it ends, regardless of outcome. Then, the flippers will be disabled and the ball will drain to transition to the second phase of the wizard mode.
• Victory Multiball: The sorcerer, having reached the peak of his power, summons the "creatures of the darkness" in a last-ditch effort to get the kids to flee. This 3-ball victory multiball lasts for 40 seconds, with all shots scoring 1 million points and attacking the sorcerer's creatures. Once the 40 seconds expire, the flippers will be disabled, all balls will drain, and the sorcerer will lose the extra power he gained at midnight. The amount of points earned during the wizard mode will then be multiplied by 1 + (0.5 per obsidian collected during the current run). If the maximum of 13 stones were collected, an additional 50 million point bonus is awarded. The progress towards playing all six missions then resets.

Side modes & multiball modes

Hurry-ups

• Tree-Being Hurry-Up: The forest surrounding the Sorcerer's Lair is filled with terrifying monster living trees called Tree-Beings, and Jake knows just how to defeat them. Shooting either orbit six times will start a battle against a Tree-Being, requiring the player to make three shots to the Tree-Being in front of the Citadel Ramp for 2 million point hurry-up values decreasing to 500,000 points. Defeating the Tree-Being for the first time will award obsidian.
• Stairway Hurry-Up: The stairs in the mansion collapse, requiring the kids to escape to safety. This hurry-up is qualified at the sinkhole by spelling STAIRWAY at the spiral ramp in the raised spindisk, then started by shooting the sinkhole. The player must shoot the spiral three times within 10 seconds per shot to earn hurry-up values starting from 2 million points and decreasing to 500,000. Winning the mode the first time will award obsidian.

Multiball modes

• Multiball: The default multiball starts when three balls are locked in the gargoyle ball locker by first shooting the mini-orbit, then shooting the ball lock from the upper right flipper. Once all three balls are locked, they are released into play and the player can earn jackpots worth 1 million (+20,000 per bumper hit, until a jackpot has been collected) by shooting all major lanes. Once all jackpots have been collected, the player can score a super jackpot worth 3x the value and obsidian by shooting the upper crossramp at the back left corner of the table.
• Sorcerer Multiball: The Sorcerer does not like to be disturbed in his arcane research, and will not hesitate to do battle with those who bother him. Every third shot up the tower ramp will divert the ball to a ball locker saucer at the sorcerer's lab, where the sorcerer will capture the locked ball. Once three balls are locked in this manner, the player will engage in a 3-ball multiball battle against the sorcerer. To defeat the sorcerer, the player must make one shot to the left orbit, the right ramp and the stairway ramp to defeat the beings of the void for 2 million points each, then shoot the tower ramp to lock all remaining balls back in the sorcerer's lab for 2, 3, and 5 million, with a 20-second time limit for the final ball. If the player drains the ball or fails to lock the last ball within the time limit, or loses all but one ball before reaching that point, the sorcerer will escape and the multiball mode will end in failure. Locking the final ball successfully will defeat the sorcerer temporarily, and he will surrender an obsidian stone.
• Citadel Multiball: Whisper plays hide & seek with Jake at the lair's citadel, where she knows he would be safe. If the player spells CITADEL on the right ramp, a quick 2-ball multiball will begin where the player can earn jackpots worth 1 million by shooting Whisper wherever she appears at the entrance to the ghost crossramp, the mini-orbit, the right orbit, or the tower ramp. There is no way to earn obsidian during this multiball.

Perks

• Ball Saver: At the start of each ball and multiball mode, and after a ball has been locked for Multiball or Sorcerer Multiball, a 15-second ball saver will activate. Once it expires, it can be reactivated by shooting the upper crossramp four times on the same ball. (A short free ball saver will activate if the ball exits the bumper area around the left side of the front bumper and drains down the left outlane.)
• Kickbacks: Whisper is familiar with the ins and outs of Sorcerer's Lair, and can show the siblings secret passageways and shortcuts to escape danger. If the player spells GHOST, Whisper will activate a diverter at the left outlane, and spelling GHOST again before it is used will activate the diverter at the right outlane. Once activated, kickbacks will stay on until they are used.
• Bonus Multiplier: Spelling GOO on the three, scattered targets placed throughout the bottom half of the table will advance the bonus multiplier by +2x up to 10x. The multiplier is only good for the current ball unless Whisper Award grants a multiplier hold.
• Whisper Awards: Whisper is a friendly ghost who wants to protect Jake and his sister. Every other shot to Whisper's sinkhole will score a random award. Possible awards are: points (100,000 - 300,000), bonus multiplier hold, activation of either kickback, crazy bumpers or spinners (each bumper hit / spin scores random points between 10,000 - 20,000), obsidian, starting the Stairway Hurry-Up, or lighting an extra ball.
• Combos: There are three types of combos that can be executed on this table:
  • Regular Combos: Shooting lanes lit with the word "combo" within 5 seconds per shot will score combo points (100,000 + 50,000 points per shot in the combo). Scoring a 6-way combo will light an extra ball and light all further combo shots in the sequence for 300,000 points per shot.
  • Tower Crawler Combo: A shot to the exposed stairway ramp when the spindisk will light the tower ramp, then the right ramp, and finally the stairway ramp again to score a 4-way Tower Crawler combo - with each shot scoring the combo points described above. Reaching a 4-way Tower Crawler combo for the first time collects obsidian and lights all three ramps to continue the combo sequence for 1 million points per shot.
  • Elusion Mastery Combo: The elusion mastery level can be advanced by shooting the left orbit, then quickly shooting the ghost crossramp. Every fifth elusion mastery combo will advance the level, score 5 million points, and collect obsidian. An extra ball will light after 10 elusion mastery combos.
• Ghost Score: The points scored for shooting the ghost crossramp start at 50,000 points per ball and increase by 25,000 with every shot, to a maximum of 1 million points.
• Extra Ball: Extra balls can be lit at the upper crossramp by executing a 6-way combo, advancing to level 3 elusion mastery with 10 combos, maxing out the bonus multiplier, or as a random Whisper Award. Each unique extra ball method only works once per game.

Tips

• To start up missions, you will need to shoot the spindisk to complete the rune target bank, but the spindisk can throw your ball in random directions and can sometimes lead to unwanted drains. Whisper's sinkhole also incurs a similar risk if you seek her rewards. Thus, you should take advantage of how easy it is to activate the table's persistent kickbacks to protect against outlane drains, and know how to reactivate the ball saver when it expires so that you have some protection from unwanted ball-ending drains. Frequent shots up the citadel ramp alone will eventually help you earn both, as long as you make sure the ball hits an unlit return rollover when it takes the ball to the right inlane and master the timing for cross-shots to hit the elevated crossramp when the citadel ramp takes the ball to the small elevated platform on the table's back left corner.
• While extra balls are limited, you should seek them out to extend your session, especially when you do not have to clear missions successfully to unlock the wizard mode. The easiest extra balls can be earned with a 6-way regular combos and a random award from Whisper. Just remember that extra balls can only be claimed by shooting the citadel ramp until the ball goes to the back left platform, then making the cross-shot through the elevated crossramp.
• On this table, every ramp will take the ball to the main flippers most of the time. If you want the ball on the left flipper, use the crossramps or the staircase ramp. If you want the ball on the right flipper, use the citadel ramp. The tower ramp can service both main flippers alternately while locking balls for Sorcerer Multiball.

External links

• Official table trailer
• Table walkthrough by ShoryukenToTheChin (PDF)
• Official table soundtrack on Bandcamp