Basic Gameplay

This section will discuss some of the more basic game play features not pertaining to objectives, and it will discuss less familiar game mechanics.

Difficulty

At the start of the game, the first player is prompted to choose one of five game difficulties which apply to all players for the game. Most of the specifics on each difficulty are outlined throughout the gameplay rules. Also, the harder the difficulty, the easier it is to achieve a replay credit since the average game time drops. In general, this is how they work:

Zen

This is a special "ultra-easy" difficulty. While it shares a lot of the same values as easy, there are a few key differences which make this mode great for beginner pinball players, those who want to play the full game through, or those who just want to play casually:

Starting health: 0 HP (but can sustain unlimited damage, allowing players to play as long as they want or until they complete the game. However, players take a score penalty at the end of the game for the damage they took in total: 100,000 points per HP)
Starting Armor Class (AC): 12 / 20
Drain damage: Low
Battle difficulty: Low
You will not receive any final wizard modes in Final Judgment
Relaxing music during normal gameplay
You can stop the game at any time at the start of a turn by pressing the Action button (it will flash red).

Easy

Easy mode has the following properties:

Starting health: 50 HP
Starting Armor Class (AC): 11 / 20
Drain damage: Low (starts at 10 HP)
Battle difficulty: Low
Death Saves (maximum): 5

Normal

Normal mode has the following properties:

Starting health: 50 HP
Starting Armor Class (AC): 10 / 20
Drain damage: Moderate (starts at 15 HP)
Battle difficulty: Moderate
Death saves (maximum): 3

Hard

Hard mode has the following properties:

Starting health: 50 HP
Starting Armor Class (AC): 9 / 20
Drain damage: High (starts at 20 HP)
Battle difficulty: High
Death saves (maximum): 1

Impossible

Impossible mode has the following properties:

Starting health: 100 HP
- Lose 1 HP every 5 seconds until you are down to 1 HP (sudden death) except when ball shield is active.
- +HP drop targets award 3 HP instead of 1 HP.
Starting Armor Class (AC): 8 / 20
Drain damage: High (starts at 20 HP)
Battle difficulty: High
Death Saves: None (instant game over once you lose all your HP)
The only difficulty where you can achieve the Heart of Platinum in the Final Judgment (warning: INSANELY difficult!)

Scoring Principles

Generally speaking (aka. on average), scoring operates on the following principle in relation to the digit of points:

x,000 (thousands): Basic switch hits
x0,000 (ten thousands): More important shots
x00,000 (hundred thousands): Combo shots; small jackpots (before multiplier)
x,000,000 (millions): Training mode shots; moderate jackpots
x0,000,000 (ten millions): larger jackpots; significant achievements
x00,000,000 (hundred millions): Total from wizard modes
x,000,000,000 (billions): Total from the hardest to achieve final wizard modes

In general, expect your final score to be the following depending on your skill level (based on "normal" difficulty):

Beginners: < 25 million
Intermediate: 25 - 250 million
Advanced: 250 million - 1 billion
Expert / Wizard: Over 1 billion

Also keep in mind that the last digit of a player's score is a reserved number and represents the game difficulty the player played. This is a work-around for Scorbit's single leader-board system so others can tell what difficulty each player played. It also serves as a tie-breaker; those who played at a harder setting should get priority in a tie-breaking situation. The last digit of every score will always follow the difficulty the player played:

0 = Unused
1 = Zen
2 = Easy
3 = Normal
4 = Hard
5 = Impossible
6 = Easy, Tournament Mode
7 = Normal, Tournament Mode
8 = Hard, Tournament Mode
9 = Impossible, Tournament Mode

For example, a score of 221,093,112 means the player played Easy in non-tournament mode.

Basic Scoring

Bumper inlanes: 5,000
- +20,000 on completion
Bumpers: 1,770
Ramps: 5,000 entering
- +20,000 completing
Orbits: 5,000 entering
- +10,000 completing
Crossbow: 50,000
Yellow standups: 2,500
Center hole: 100,000
Drop targets: 7,500
- +25,000 on completion
Horseshoe: 5,000 entering
- +5,000 completing
Spinner: 770
Scoop: 25,000
Outlanes: 25,000
Inlanes: 5,000
Slingshots: 330

Health / HP system

Saving Wallden does not use a "balls per game" system like most pinball games do. Instead, every player has a health (HP) stat. Draining balls in certain circumstances deals HP damage to players.
Every player has HP at the start of the game depending on which difficulty was selected.
Due to the HP system, there is no such thing as extra balls in Saving Wallden; "extra balls" are equivalent to earning an appropriate amount of HP.

Earning HP

There are a few ways a player can earn HP:

The easiest way to earn HP is completing the +HP drop targets, which can be done at any time. This awards 1 HP each time the bank is completed (3 HP in impossible difficulty).
- After completing the drop target bank, the targets will stay down and the +HP lights will flash for 10 seconds. Every time you hit the rubber behind the targets during that 10 seconds, you earn another 1 HP (3 HP in impossible difficulty).
After completing the 7 primary objectives in Act I, the Citizens Mini-Wizard begins which allows you to earn a lot of HP for the final boss battle.
Progressing in objectives after you already completed them will add more HP that you will receive after the Citizens Mini-Wizard.

Losing HP / taking damage

There are several ways players take HP damage:

Nudging the table too hard
Draining a ball without ballsave / shield when not in a multiball
Draining a ball in a mini boss or final boss battle (regardless of the number of balls in play) unless the player has ballsave / shield active
Starting Chaser 2-ball but failing to progress to the full multiball
Failing to complete a sniper hurryup phase
Getting caught on fire in the dragon multiball
Ending the viking multiball without killing all the vikings
Failing the escape multiball

Losing all HP / Death Save

Unless otherwise mentioned, a player will enter "Death Save" if they lose all their HP for a chance to continue the game with 1 HP. This feature is not applicable for Zen difficulty, Impossible Difficulty does not allow Death Saves, and players will not get any more death saves after level 5.
In death save, the player must revive their character by pressing the action button to the rhythm of the heart beat (aka. when, and only when, the action button is lit) 30 times without getting 3 strikes. A player earns a strike if they either press the action button when it's not lit, or they fail to press the action button at least once when it was lit during a heart beat. The game gives some grace; a player cannot earn more than one strike per heart beat.
Each time a player enters death save, it gets increasingly more difficult to complete without striking out.
The pacing of the heart and the margin of error allowed for pressing the action button depends on the death save level (the margin of error is the length of the heart beat contraction / how long the action button is lit):

Level 1: 60 beats per minute, and a margin of error of 300 milliseconds.
Level 2: 80 beats per minute, and a margin of error of 233 milliseconds.
Level 3: 100 beats per minute, and a margin of error of 187 milliseconds.
Level 4: 120 beats per minute, and a margin of error of 150 milliseconds.
Level 5: 140 beats per minute, and a margin of error of 133 milliseconds.

The starting level for the first death save depends on the game difficulty level chosen:

Zen: Not Applicable
Easy: Level 1 (allowing 5 death saves)
Normal: Level 3 (allowing 3 death saves)
Hard: Level 5 (allowing 1 death save)
Impossible: There are no death saves; player dies

After level 5, there are no death saves anymore; the player will die the next time they run out of HP.

Drain Damage Value

The starting drain damage for each player at the start of the game depends on the level of difficulty chosen for the game:

Zen and Easy: 10 HP
Normal: 15 HP
Hard and Impossible: 20 HP

However, this value can increase under certain circumstances:

Nudging the table too hard increases the drain damage value (it will also deal immediate damage as indicated in the losing HP section):
- Zen and Easy +2 HP
- Normal: +3 HP
- Hard and Impossible: +4 HP
Each time the player ends a training session having scored 0 points from it, the drain damage value increases:
- Zen and Easy: +1 HP
- Normal: +2 HP
- Hard and Impossible: +3 HP
Outlane poison (see below)

Outlane Poison

Another way the drain damage value can increase is via the poison on the outlanes:

When not in a mini boss or final boss battle, hitting an outlane with poison lit (yellow) will increase the drain damage value (unless shield was active). This includes during multiballs, so be careful!
- Zen and Easy +2 HP
- Normal: +3 HP
- Hard and Impossible: +4 HP
In mini boss and final boss battles, hitting a poisoned outlane (red) will deal drain damage to the player instead of raising its value.

On the start of a game, both poisons are not lit. When an outlane is hit, that turns poison on for the outlane. Poisons turn back off when collected, but they can also be turned off via BLACKSMITH. To turn the left outlane off, spell BLACK. To turn the right outlane off, spell SMITH.
Poisons are never lit when a player has / achieves an Armor Class of 20.

Skillshot

At the start of each player's turn, a skillshot is available at the TRAIN standups. One of the standups will be flashing purple. If the player plunges the ball and hits that standup before hitting anything else (including other standups), they are awarded the skillshot: 3,000,000 points and advance all letters (except ones where there are only one left to spell).

End of Game Bonus

Saving Wallden does not have end-of-ball bonuses since it uses an HP system. However, there is an end-of-game bonus awarded after a player ends their game / dies (or completing all of the table's objectives). The bonus consists of the following:

100,000 points for every training session started in phase 1 (+ 250,000 points if mini boss 1 was defeated)
200,000 points for every training session started in phase 2 (+ 500,000 points if mini boss 2 was defeated)
300,000 points for every training session started in phase 3 (+ 750,000 points if mini boss 3 was defeated)
400,000 points for every bonus training session started
50,000 points for every jackpot collected in Chaser (multiplied jackpots count as multiple jackpots)
200,000 points for every completed sniper hurry-up
2,000,000 points for every completed dragon battle
250,000 points for every killed viking
2,000,000 points for every successful escape
150,000 points for every Armor Class
5,000,000 points if the Final Boss Battle was started
10,000,000 points if the final boss was defeated

In collaborative play, the end of game bonus is not awarded until after the last player dies since all players share game progress and the bonus multiplier.
The bonus is then multiplied by a bonus multiplier.

Bonus Multiplier

At any time in the game, players can work towards increasing their end-of-game bonus multiplier. Each time they complete / light the three bumper inlanes, they spell one letter in "BONUSX". Spelling all 6 letters increases the end-of-game bonus multiplier by 1. Flipper buttons alternate which lanes are lit.
Once 3X is achieved, the bumper inlanes must be completed within a period of time equal to 90 seconds - (10 seconds * (bonus X - 3)), or they all turn off and you must try again. This makes getting further bonus X's progressively more difficult to do. For example, once at 9X, you only get 30 seconds to complete the inlanes.
The multipler cannot exceed 9X. When a player tries to do so, the table starts glitching out.

Power-ups

Saving Wallden does not have mystery awards. Instead, to ensure more fairness in competition, and to add an element of stacking, the table has power-ups, which are like mystery awards except they are predictable and can be replicated.
A power-up can be collected at any time. Shoot a flashing gem shot to collect the gem. Collect all 6 gems to ready a power-up at the action button.
When you have a power-up, the action button will flash light blue. Push the action button at any time to activate the power-up. Activating the power-up awards the following depending on what is happening on the table when you pressed it:

Normal Game Play: Advances Chaser, Sniper, Dragon, Viking, and Escape by 1 letter (unless the feature is already ready to start), advances BLACK and SMITH by 1 letter each, and completes TRAIN (except in bonus phase) if applicable.
Glitch: Award 3X glitch jackpot
Training session: Adds or stacks on TRAIN multiball (see Objective: Castle for more information)
Mini Boss Battle: Deals 20 HP damage to the monster.
Feast: Upgrades the color of every shot to the next scoring level.
Chaser 2-ball: Activates a 20-second shield.
Chaser multiball: Add-a-ball if less than 5 balls in play, else 20X jackpot
Goblin: Adds a crossbow standup for 20X jackpot. If all 3 are already lit, collects a 20X jackpot instantly.
Sniper: Increases the hurry-up value by the starting value (20,000,000 for phases 1 and 2; 10,000,000 for phase 3).
Ambush: Increases the value of all active hurry-ups by 20,000,000. If no hurry-ups are active, activates a hurry-up starting at 40,000,000.
Dragon battle: Reduces fire level and/or increases HP damage at the crossbow. See Objective: Dragon for more information.
Tri-Draconian Assault: Increases all 3 jackpots by 25%.
Viking or Viking Raid: Downgrades every viking's health by 1 color slot (20 HP).
Escape: Activates a 20-second shield.
Evacuation: Evacuates 3 citizens.
Blacksmith Mini-Wizard: Increases each side of the horseshoe by 2 lights.
Potion Motion: Collects up to 3 random ingredients.
Final Boss Battle SPARE route: No power-ups available because they are not necessary.
Final Boss Battle stages 1 - 4: Activates a 20-second shield.
Final Boss Battle stage 5: Deals 30 HP damage to the boss.
God of Pinball Wizard: In a definition phase, the clock will be reset to 20 seconds. In an execution phase, 20 seconds will be added to the clock.
Ascension into Angelhood Wizard: TBD
Celebration Wizard: +30 seconds added to the Wizard Mode
Revival Wizard: TBD
Shutdown Sequence Wizard: No power-ups, but every shot on an active gem increases the amount of time to collect the Shutdown jackpot by 0.2 seconds.
Repent Wizard: +20 HP and a 20-second ball shield
Satan's Wrath Wizard: +15 seconds added to the Wizard Mode

Power-ups cannot be used in Death Save since the Action Button is used for CPR.

Bumper Access

Normally, shooting the orbit will not send the ball to the bumpers (unless the shot was soft enough to pull it to the bumpers by gravity) and instead will come out the other side of the orbit.
When the ball travels through an in-lane behind the slingshots, the orbit on the opposite side (the one in firing range of the flipper) will be lit for 5 seconds to divert the ball directly to the bumpers.

Combo Shots

In normal gameplay only, you can collect points for making combo shots. The shots which qualify for combos are left ramp, left orbit, crossbow / captive ball, horseshoe (both sides), right ramp, right orbit, and scoop.

To activate combo shots, you need to shoot any qualifying shot, and then another qualifying shot within 5 seconds. White arrows will flash for every qualifying shot except the one you activated the combo on.

From that point forward, shoot any shot with a flashing white arrow within 5 seconds to score a combo. Combos score 250,000 points x combo level. The shot will turn off, the 5-second timer resets, and the combo level increases by 1. Shoot another shot with a white arrow within 5 seconds to score the next combo. Repeat until you either collect all shots or the 5-second timer expires. If you collect all combo shots, you are awarded with a secret "Combo Crusher" mini-wizard.