Table of contents

  1. Basic Gameplay
    1. Difficulty
      1. Zen
      2. Easy
      3. Normal
      4. Hard
      5. Impossible
    2. Scoring Principles
    3. Basic Scoring
    4. Health / HP system
      1. Earning HP
      2. Losing HP / taking damage
      3. Losing all HP / Death Save
      4. Drain Damage Value
      5. Outlane Poison
    5. Skillshot
    6. End of Game Bonus
      1. Bonus Multiplier
    7. Power-ups
    8. Bumper Access
    9. Combo Shots

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

Unless running in tournament mode, 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. 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 the game 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 of damage)
  • Starting Armor Class (AC): 10 / 20
  • Drain damage: Low (starts at 10 HP)
  • Battle difficulty: Low
  • 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 difficulty has the following properties:
  • Starting health: 50 HP
  • Starting Armor Class (AC): 9 / 20
  • Drain damage: Low (starts at 10 HP)
  • Battle difficulty: Low
  • Death Saves (maximum): 5

Normal

Normal difficulty has the following properties:
  • Starting health: 50 HP
  • Starting Armor Class (AC): 8 / 20
  • Drain damage: Moderate (starts at 15 HP)
  • Battle difficulty: Moderate
  • Death saves (maximum): 3

Hard

Hard difficulty has the following properties:
  • Starting health: 50 HP
  • Starting Armor Class (AC): 7 / 20
  • Drain damage: High (starts at 20 HP)
  • Battle difficulty: High
  • Death saves (maximum): 1

Impossible

Impossible difficulty has the following properties:
  • Starting health: 50 HP
  • Starting Armor Class (AC): 6 / 20
  • Drain damage: High (starts at 20 HP)
  • Battle difficulty: High
  • Death Saves: None (instant game over once you lose all your HP)
  • Live flips only: flippers will return to their starting position after reaching their full flip even if you have the flipper button held
  • The only difficulty where you can achieve the Heart of Platinum in 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): Totals from mini-wizard modes
  • x,000,000,000 (billions): Totals from Judgment 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 if you hit a standup
  • Yellow standups: 2,500
  • Center hole: 100,000
  • Drop targets (+HP): 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.
    • 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 leaf switch behind the targets during that 10 seconds, you earn another 1 HP.
  • After completing the 7 primary objectives, the Potion Motion 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 can receive in Potion Motion.

Losing HP / taking damage

There are several ways players take HP damage:
  • Nudging the table too hard / often
  • 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 Scope 2-ball (SNIPER) but failing to progress to the full multiball
  • Failing to complete a CHASER 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) 15 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 by 4 HP (it will also deal immediate damage as indicated in the losing HP section).
  • Each time the player ends a training session having scored 0 points from it, the drain damage value increases by 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 (red) will increase the drain damage value (unless shield was active) by 3 HP. This includes during multiballs, so be careful!
  • In mini boss and final boss battles, hitting a poisoned outlane will deal drain damage to the player (whatever it is for that particular battle, not the main drain damage) 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 can be turned off via BLACKSMITH. To turn the left outlane off, spell BLACK. To turn the right outlane off, spell SMITH. Poisons also turn off after being hit.

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 immediately ready a training session or mini-boss battle (CASTLE).

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 cooperative 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. Also, the armor class bonus is based on the average AC of all players.

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.
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), and advances BLACK and SMITH by 1 letter each.
  • Glitch: Award 3X glitch jackpot
  • TRAIN session: Adds or stacks on TRAIN multiball (see Objective: Castle for more information)
  • Mini Boss Battle: Adds a 20-second ball shield
  • Feast: Upgrades the color of every shot to the next scoring level.
  • SNIPER Scope 2-ball: Adds a 20-second shield
  • SNIPER 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.
  • CHASER: 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 20%.
  • VIKING or Viking Raid: Deals 1 shot worth of damage to every Viking (also collects points and, if applicable, adds multiball time)
  • 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 the current shot.
  • Final Boss Battle stage 1, all routes: The summoning sequence for the Archangel will be briefly displayed on the DMD the next time you go to input mode.
    • Can only be activated when not in input mode for the Archangel summoning ritual.
  • Final Boss Battle stage 2, SPARE and Neutral routes: Deals 50 HP damage on the invincible cage.
  • Final Boss Battle stage 2, KILL route: Awards 20 HP and adds a 20-second ball shield.
  • Final Boss Battle stage 3, SPARE route: No power-ups necessary; action button disabled.
  • Final Boss Battle stage 3, Neutral route: Deals 50 HP damage on the boss.
  • (There is no stage 3 in the KILL route)
  • 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: Rank up immediately
  • 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)
  • Satan's Wrath Wizard: +15 seconds added to the Wizard Mode
Power-ups cannot be used in Death Save.

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.