Ghostbusters pinball tournament strategy: finish one ladder and survive the gap

Ghostbusters is a 2016 Stern with a gap between the flippers that is wider than normal, a pair of inlanes on each side, and a long list of targets that send the ball back faster than it arrived. Players who like it and players who dread it are describing the same machine.

It has 456 tracked tournament games in our data. A tournament game on it is won by doing one thing well: finishing a ladder of scenes and playing the multiball that follows.

The short version

1. Before you plunge, use the right flipper to put the blue arrow on the left scoop or the left ramp.
2. Plunge softly, let the ball come around the right orbit, and catch it on the right flipper.
3. Shoot the arrow to start a scene, then shoot the flashing shots.
4. Finish every scene in that ladder. Then shoot the left ramp for We Came, We Saw.
5. Stay away from the two drop targets and the unlit 2X and 3X standups.

A skill shot in two parts

The skill shot is set up before the ball is in play, and there is no timer on it.

The left flipper chooses one of the three top lanes. P adds three bonus multipliers, K advances the playfield multiplier, and E adds 3M to the super jackpot value.

The right flipper chooses a shot on the playfield, marked by a blue arrow. The left scoop, left ramp and right orbit each start a scene. The left orbit adds 5M to the super jackpot, the right ramp starts PKE Frenzy, and the right eject catches ten ghosts.

On current code the award is 1M plus 5% of your score, on top of whatever the shot gives. Hitting a different lane or a different shot cancels that half.

For ball one the choice is easy: put the arrow on a shot that starts a scene. The soft plunge matters as much as the arrow. It brings the ball around the right orbit to the right flipper, which is where you want it for the left side shots.

Scenes and ladders

There are nine scenes in three ladders.

Finishing every scene in a ladder lights We Came, We Saw at the left ramp. It is a multiball, and the number of balls equals the number of scenes in the ladder you finished. Jackpots start at 6.25M and grow by 750,000 each, a shot goes dark after you collect it until you make another, and completing it pays 100M.

The community rulesheet for the current code puts it plainly: one good We Came, We Saw is usually a competitive score. The left scoop ladder is the shortest route there, at two scenes.

If no scene is lit, hit the GHOST target on the center line to lower Slimer, then hit Slimer.

By default, draining in the middle of a scene marks it as complete, except for the last scene in a ladder, which picks up where you left off. A bad ball does not erase your progress.

Playfield multipliers

Two standup targets sit on either side of the left ramp entrance, 2X on the left and 3X on the right. When lit they start playfield multipliers, and the two stack to 6X. The same rulesheet notes that one multiball played at 3X can outscore an entire game played at 1X.

They are lit by gear combos, which means looping the left ramp and then hitting the left captive balls or the target bank below them. The K lane, the pop bumpers and Tobin's Spirit Guide can light them too.

There are two cautions. The standups are close to the flippers and send the ball back hard, and unlit they pay very little. Go for them when they are lit and when there is a mode or a multiball to multiply.

Storage Facility Multiball

Collecting ghosts lights locks, at 10, 30 and 50 ghosts. Lock three balls at the left ramp to start it. The lit ghost shots are jackpots, and collecting all of them lights three super jackpots.

Watch the ghost count for another reason. At 60 and 80 ghosts the game lights Loopin' Supers and PKE Frenzy, and ghost collection pauses until you start them at the left ramp.

Strong players do not chase the super jackpot. Its value resets every ball.

Where the ball drains

Ghostbusters has more of these than most games.

• The flipper gap is wide. Balls that would be a routine save elsewhere go straight through.
• A divider separates the two inlanes on each side, and balls bounce off it into the outlane.
• A weak shot at the left ramp rolls back toward the right outlane.
• The two Scoleri drop targets, one in front of the left ramp and one in front of the right orbit, cause airballs and center drains when hit square on.
• A wide shot at the GHOST target can die on a wire guide and drop down the middle. Nudge as the ball leaves it.
• The pop bumpers can kick the ball down the Slimer lane toward the center drain.
• The right ramp is the hardest shot on the game.

At factory flipper alignment nothing on this game can be backhanded, so left side shots belong to the right flipper and right side shots to the left.

The ball save at the start of a ball covers two drains by default, which helps more than it sounds. The default tilt gives two warnings.

Pro or Premium

On a Pro the right ramp returns to the right inlane and the locks are virtual. On a Premium or LE the right ramp crosses over to the left inlane through a steep turn, Slimer moves from side to side and blocks shots, and magnets in the slingshots can grab or throw the ball. The Premium is the harder game.

In competition mode the video mode at the right eject changes. The guessing game gives one correct answer per ten ghosts collected and then a wrong one, so stop guessing when the count runs out.

What the tracked games say

Numbers are from late September 2026. The Ghostbusters machine page has the live ones.

The upset rate is how often the lower-rated player in a pairing finishes ahead. Ghostbusters has a reputation as a game of chance, and the results say otherwise. Its 33.4% is two points under the average of 35.5%, and in the same range as Iron Maiden and The Getaway. The brutal drains hit everyone, and the better players still come out ahead. The full ranking is in upset rates by machine.

What the data does show is that nobody has mastered it. Of 277 players with a game on record, nine have played it 20 times or more, and the best of them, Brad Steinke and Angie DonCarlos, have finished ahead of about 60% of their opponents. On most machines in this series the leaders are above 70%. The scouting report will show whether anyone in your group has an edge on it.

Where to play it

• Blainbrook in Blaine has it on the floor, with 173 tracked games.
• Julie's Pinball in Farmington lists a Premium.
• LITT Pinball Bar ran 149 tracked games on one through May 2026. Check its page for the current lineup.

Before your next game

The Ghostbusters playbook has player tips, videos and rulesheet links, and the scores tab shows the best games on record. The full rules are in the Pinball Rulesheets wiki, and Stern's own basic strategy guide is a good two-page summary.

For another game where survival comes first, see The Walking Dead. The whole series is in the machine strategy guides.