This guide works with all versions of Metallica that have a dot matrix display, including the Pro and Premium/LE versions. Differences between them as they affect gameplay are mentioned in the relevant sections. This guide may not entirely apply to Metallica Remastered (Stern, 2024).
One very simple strategy if playing on a Metallica for the first time is to shoot Sparky all day and play Electric Chair multiball. During Electric Chair, the orbits and Sparky are jackpots, and making enough jackpots lights a super jackpot at Sparky himself. Be careful of the possible of SDTM feeds off of Sparky himself or out of control balls caused by the nearby magnet.
Collect Grave Markers, Electric Chairs, Coffins, and Snakes to light Crank It Up major modes at the lower right scoop. Hit the in line targets, Sparky, or Snake hole to light other shots to spot these items to make advancing toward Crank It Up easier. Hit a single one of those features a lot of time for a moderate-value multiball where more items can be earned. Play Fade to Black as you first Crank It Up if the machine has spinners on the orbits, or For Whom the Bell Tolls otherwise. Complete the Fuel targets then shoot the lane behind them for 20 seconds of 2x playfield at any time.
Regular skill shot: full plunge to the top lanes, then use lane change to move the flashing light to the lane that the ball goes through. 250,000 points the first time you do this, +25,000 each time. Double points and double the increase value if you go through the rightmost top lane.
Super skill shots: score double the value of a regular skill shot. Hold the left flipper while you plunge to activate. This will cause the ball to come down the left orbit toward the flippers, where you must make a shot within just a couple seconds.
There are 4 major items to collect throughout Metallica: Grave Markers, Electric Chairs, Coffins, and Snakes. Collecting enough of each will light the lower right scoop for a Crank It Up major mode. To earn items directly, shoot the in-line drop targets, Sparky, the captive ball, or the Snake hole respectively. Earning an item directly will also light that item at whichever shot has a lit red spider. (The Snake will light at the lit spider shot as well as the two shots on either side of it.) The spider moves to whichever major shot your most recently made. When you make a shot that has one or more items lit in front of it, you receive one of each lit item for free. If you make a shot that has all 3 items flashing, a Coffin Hurry-up will begin, which starts at 900,000 points (+100,000 each time?) and is collectible at the captive ball. Spot item inserts in front of shots are only carried over from ball to ball if you complete the shot in question by lighting all three items and then collecting a Coffin Hurry-up based on that shot's progress. If you collect a hurry-up from each of the 5 major shots, a minor mode called Seek and Destroy begins, which is explained later in this guide.
Coffin hits cannot be spotted by other shots. The only way to speed up getting Coffins is by hitting the captive ball immediately after going through any in lane, which gives 2 hits instead of 1.
There are two flavors of playfield multiplier on Metallica. Both are 2x multipliers and last 20 seconds once activated.
The first playfield multiplier is the Piston target in the lane behind the Fuel targets. If you spell Fuel at those targets, the Piston lane behind them will be lit for 2x playfield. While the Fuel 2x Playfield is running, hitting the Piston lane again will reset the clock back up to 20 seconds. If the timer expires, though, you'll need to complete Fuel again before you can bring the multiplier back online.
The second playfield multiplier is only available if a multiball is running. During any multiball, hitting the four Guitar Pick targets- two on either side of the Grave Marker drop targets, and two on either side of the right ramp- to start the Snake scoop flashing. Now, shoot any ball into the Snake for 20 seconds of 2x playfield scoring. Version difference: on the Pro version of Metallica, the ball shot into the Snake to start 2x playfield will get kicked back into play immediately, but on the Premium and LE versions, the Snake will hold on to the ball and only eject it after the 20 seconds expires.
This 2x playfield can be activated multiple times on a single multiball, but on the first 2x playfield only, the game will add one more ball to the multiball (unless there are 4 already in play) and restart the multiball's ball saver.
Playfield multipliers on Metallica apply to all scoring in the game. This includes things like multiball super jackpots and Crank It Up scoring and collects. It is even possible to have a 4x playfield multiplier running during multiball, because the Snake and Fuel 2x playfield multipliers stack on top of each other if one is started before the other expires. Playfield multipliers do not apply to items collected or to the end of ball bonus should you drain while a multiplier is running.
The four Item shots- Grave Marker, Sparky, Coffin captive ball, and Snake hole- all have their own multiballs that are made available by shooting that feature repeatedly. All multiballs generally boil down to "hit the flashing shots", but flashing shot progression varies between them quite a bit. Don't forget that in all multiballs, you can always get 20 seconds of 2x playfield and also score a one-time add-a-ball by lighting all 4 Guitar Pick targets and then shooting the Snake hole. The Fuel 2x playfield multiplier is available at all times as well.
Grave Marker Multiball
Start by: clearing the three inline drop targets, then shooting the standup target behind them once for the first Grave Marker Multiball, or one additional time each time you replay this multiball.
This is a 2-ball multiball. Any shot lit with a flashing grave marker scores a jackpot. The first jackpot always seems to score 214,000 or 216,000, the second jackpot scores 218,000, and every jackpot after that scores 4,000 more than the previous one did. If you shoot the Grave Marker lane itself, that will spot one jackpot for you and score roughly 1.25x the current jackpot value. Shots other than the Grave Marker only have their cross symbols re-lit if all of them are collected.
After collecting 5 jackpots, shoot the inline target lane for a double jackpot that will stick a ball to the magnet in that lane. From here, a 30 second timer will begin where the object is to hit a second ball hard enough that it knocks the first ball off its magnet. Doing so awards a Super Jackpot equal to 1,000,000 plus the current jackpot value. If you continue to make regular jackpots while the Super Jackpot timer is running, the regular jackpot value will be added to the Super Jackpot value as well. After collecting a Super Jackpot, the sequence resets, with one more regular jackpot being needed to qualify the next double and Super jackpots. If Grave Marker Multiball is played more than once in a game, the regular jackpot value will carry over between them so that it can be built higher and higher.
Any shot that scores a jackpot of any kind in Grave Marker Multiball will award one Grave Marker item toward Crank It Up progress.
Electric Chair Multiball
Start by: hitting the Sparky electric chair targets a total of 10 times (+2 each subsequent time). The center target on the electric chair spots 2 hits instead of 1. The three inserts in front of Sparky show roughly your progress so far.
This is a 3 ball multiball. Jackpots are collected at the two orbit shots or at Sparky himself. The bottom of the DMD shows a progress meter; any switch hit will increase the meter slightly, and collected jackpots increase the meter quite a bit. The base jackpot value is 275,000 points, which seems to increase by 7,500 if a jackpot is collected at the center Sparky target or 5,000 from any other location. After filling the progress bar, Sparky will be lit for a super jackpot. The super jackpot's value is unclear, but it seems to be worth 1,500,000 plus an additional 20,000-50,000 for each jackpot collected. Base jackpot value and the number of super jackpots collected is carried over across multiple trips through Electric Chair Multiball. If you collect 7 Electric Chair super jackpots over the course of the game, as indicated by the number of Sparky faces along the bottom of the DMD, all Electric Chair Multiballs from that point forward will be super multiballs where Sparky and all major shots always score 2,000,000 point jackpots.
Any jackpot during any Electric Chair Multiball awards one Chair toward Crank It Up progress.
Coffin Multiball
Start by: locking three balls at the captive ball. The very first lock requires 5 captive ball hits, and all future locks require 10. Version difference: on the Premium and LE versions, these locks are physical. A ball must be caught by the magnet in front of the lock so it can be pounded into the table by the hammer to count. The locked balls are visible under the table, but there may only be 1 lock visible if Electric Chair Multiball was played after making Coffin lock 2, since there are only 4 balls in the game. On the Pro version, all locks are virtual and immediately awarded as soon as you reach what would be the threshold for lighting a lock.
This is a 4-ball multiball. Jackpots alternate between the captive ball and any major shot. Jackpots start at 548,000 points (roughly) and increase by 2,000 for each ball in play every time one is made. Every fifth captive ball jackpot is instead a super jackpot equal to the sum of the previous jackpots since the start of multiball or the last super jackpot.
Coffin multiball is the one and only multiball that can be stacked with another feature multiball. If Coffin Multiball is started first, you may start exactly one other multiball alongside it, and both will run together. If two multiballs are running at once, you can use the Snake add-a-ball twice, once for each. A stacked multiball always has 4 balls.
Snake Multiball
Start by: spelling Snake by shooting balls into the Snake. If the Snake is not open (on Premium/LE) or flashing (on Pro), you must shoot a shot lit with a snake insert to open the Snake. Shots into the Snake when open or lit award Snake letters, and spelling Snake starts multiball.
This is a 2-ball multiball. All shots start at a base jackpot value of about 360,000. Making any shot scores the jackpot value and icnreases it by about 6,000 points. Making a major shot where a Snake insert is lit also increases the Snake Combo to 2x; making another shot within about 5 seconds of that increases the Snake Combo to 3x. Shoot the Snake hole to score the current jackpot value times the current Snake Combo multiplier.
Items can be collected during multiballs, but Crank It Up cannot be started until single ball play resumes. Locks for Coffin Multiball can be qualified during other multiballs, but not made. Minor modes, mentioned later in the guide, can run alongside each other and any multiball.
After collecting enough of each of the 4 major items, Crank It Up is lit at the lower right scoop. On the most recent version of the Metallica code, the first Crank It Up requires 12 of each item, and subsequent qualifications require one more of each. On all other versions of the code, the first Crank It Up requires 15 of each item, +2 for each additional time. Shoot the lower right scoop to start a Crank It Up.
You will be given a choice of one of four song modes to play: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fade to Black, Battery, and Enter Sandman. You could also choose to just take some points instead, but you should never ever ever do this, as the points offered are peas compared to what the modes can be worth. Modes last for the entire length of the corresponding song (5-7 minutes); when you pick one, though, the first 10-20 seconds of the song are taken up by the game showing you the mode rules unless you press both flippers to skip them. You'll want to pick whichever mode you can score the most points in first, for two reasons: 1) very few games on Metallica get to play more than 1 or 2 Crank It Ups, so you shouldn't leave points on the table by trying to save something for later, and 2) if you do make it all the way to End of the Line wizard mode, the scores you earned in the first two Crank It Ups get re-collected significantly more than the scores you earned in the 3rd or 4th Crank It Ups.
All Crank It Up modes have a completion criteria. If you meet this criteria, you receive 15,000,000 points and the mode rules change to be more like a party-time mode where everything is lit. However, you can continue to play the mode until the song ends. There is frequently a more lucrative option, though: if you collect just one more of each of the four Items (from their original shots, cannot be spotted by lit inserts at other major shots), the lower right scoop will be lit for Crank It Up again, and by shooting the scoop you will have the option to continue the mode, or cash out, which gives an award equal to all of the points you have scored during that Crank It Up to that point. It's not unreasonable for a cashout to be in the hundreds of millions of points. What's more, the 2x playfield from the Piston lane behind the Fuel targets is always in play during Crank It Up. The 2x playfield applies not only to any points you score in the mode, but also to the cashout itself! You can effectively stack multipliers on multipliers in this way, A very good Crank It Up can be worth 200,000,000 points or more.
Without further ado, here are the 4 modes:
For Whom the Bell Tolls (5:09.55): the goal is to hit each of the 5 major shots three times. The first two hits to each shot score a jackpot, and the third scores a double jackpot. Jackpot value starts at 1,800,000, plus 5,000 for each of the four items you collected after lighting Crank It Up but before starting it. Jackpot also increases by 5,000 each time it is collected. Complete the mode by making all 15 shots. On the Pro version of the game, this is usually the best mode to start with, being the simplest and also very valuable.
Fade to Black (6:56.99): all major shots are lit, but one is flashing. Lit shots score 500,000 points. Flashing shots score a jackpot, which works the same as in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1,800,000 start, +5,000 for extra items collected before starting Crank It Up, +5,000 for each jackpot collected). Every 15-ish switch hits also spots one jackpot. Progress toward the mode can be seen as vertical progress bars on the DMD when the game shows the song runtime. Collect approximately 12 jackpots to win the mode. On the Premium and LE versions of the game, it's generally very easy to finish this mode by shooting orbits, since those versions have spinners on the orbits where the Pro version does not; the spinners help get the switch hit jackpots very quickly. If playing Fade to Black on a Pro version, it's still ideal to shoot the orbits so the ball goes to the bumper area.
Battery (5:10.22): shoot lit electric chairs. At first, only Sparky himself is lit, but each hit to Sparky lights one other shot for a jackpot. The Sparky jackpot starts at 750,000 points. Hitting Sparky will light the electric chair on one other shot in the game. If all electric chairs are lit, hitting Sparky will make one of the electric chairs flash. Hit a lit or flashing shot to score about 340,000 points (not sure how that exact number is calculated) and add 87,500 to the Sparky jackpot for a lit shot, or 175,000 to the Sparky jackpot for a flashing one. Hit Sparky a total of 12 times to complete the mode. This is usually the least valuable of the four Crank It Up modes.
Enter Sandman (5:30.77): out of the 15 lit inserts spread across the 5 major shots, 3 will be flashing at any one time. Hit a shot with a flashing insert to light it solidly and score 2,500,000 points. If you make a shot with multiple flashing inserts, they all become solid and you earn score for each one. Shots made with no inserts flashing score 500,000. Any switch hit that is not part of one of the 5 major shots will randomize where the flashing inserts are. Light all 15 inserts to complete the mode.
If the ball drains, the Crank It Up mode ends. Crank It Up modes cannot be replayed. When completed, all Crank It Up modes shift to the same rules: all shots are lit for an increasing score that starts at 1,800,000 and increases by 50,000 with each shot hit. This post-completion scoring is still added to the cashout value. If you do cash out, Crank It Up is considered to be over, but the song will continue to play; all 5 major shots will be lit, and if you hit all 5, the Crank It Up scoop will be lit for a re-collect worth 1/4 of the cashout value (or 1/8, if you took a double cashout because 2x playfield from Fuel was running). This mini re-collect can be earned multiple times, and lasts until the ball ends or the next Crank It Up is lit. This can be worth good points, but unless it's near the end of the game, it's usually better as a long-term goal to focus on getting to a multiball to work toward playing another Crank It Up mode. Depending on game settings, if you shoot the scoop and are given the cashout option but decide to continue instead, you may need to collect one of each item yet again to earn the chance to cashout.
After playing all 4 Crank It Up modes- it is not required to have completed or cashed out any of them- the 5th Crank It Up will be End of the Line, the game's wizard mode. End of the Line (7:51) starts by paying you off for every item you have collected during the entire game so far- this seems to be about 150,000 points each. You will probably receive more than 60,000,000 points just for starting the wizard mode, but that's just where the fun begins. End of the Line starts as a 2-ball multiball. 1 shot is lit for a jackpot, worth about 700,000 points (this value does not seem to increase). Then, a moving super jackpot is lit. This first super jackpot is equal to the score you earned during the first Crank It Up mode that you played (and can be multiplied by 2 or 4 thanks to playfield multipliers). After this super jackpot, 2 regular jackpots are required, then the second super jackpot is equal to the sum of the first two Crank It Up modes you played. This pattern continues: 3 jackpots, super jackpot = Crank It Up 1+2+3, 4 jackpots, super jackpot = Crank It Up 1+2+3+4. For the 5th time around, you need 5 jackpots, and the super jackpot is equal to Crank It Up modes 1+2+3+4+1 again. The 6th and final time through requires 6 jackpots, and the super is equal to the scoring from Crank It Up 1+2+3+4+1+2. Each time a super jackpot is collected, one ball is added to the playfield and the ball saver resets. You can still collect one of each item to light the lower right scoop for a cashout, and this can be multiplied by playfield X as well just like all the other Crank It Up modes, but you are only given the decision to cash out if you are down to one ball in play.
Mystery awards given during any Crank It Up mode will always be Crank It Up Bonus, which spots one shot for you.
There are 4 minor modes in addition to the 4 multiballs and 4 Crank It Up modes. Minor modes can be stacked with each other, with any multiball, and with any Crank It Up.
Fuel: hit the Fuel target in the lower left of the game 4 times to spell Fuel. This lights the Piston target in the lane behind the Fuel target for 20 seconds of 2x playfield scoring, and advances the Fuel gauge one level. Filling the Fuel gauge- which requires 3 completions of Fuel the first time, 4 the second time, and 5 after that- starts the Fuel side mode. This is a frenzy mode that lasts about one minute. All switches in the game score 5,000 points. Hit the Fuel target to score an increasing award of 100,000 the first time, +12,500 each additional time, to a max of 500,000. Scoring the increasing award also lights the Piston target for a jackpot, which starts at 750,000 points. Collecting the piston jackpot adds 50,000 to the next piston jackpot and adds 1,000 points to the per-swtich value of the frenzy. Finally, hitting the Fuel target also adds time to the mode (15 seconds?). Fuel ends when the gauge empties or the ball drains. This is a really good mode to run alongside any multiball or Fade to Black.
Lady Justice: during regular gameplay, any shot to either ramp awards a letter in Metallica. Completing the word Metallica scores 2,000,000 points and starts Lady Justice. Lady Justice is a 45-second timed ramp and orbit mode, but making one of those ramps or orbits resets the clock to 15 seconds if there was less time than that remaining (and there is also a generous grace period). To start Lady Justice, all ramps and orbits are lit for 750,000 points. When you make one, the ramp and orbit on the opposite side of the table is lit for 775,000, and the ramp and orbit on the same side of the table are lit for 475,000. Making any ramp or orbit scores the value set to that side of the playfield and increases both sides by 25,000. If you make a shot on the higher-value side of the table, the values will switch, so that the higher value is not on the side that you just shot. You must balance the scales of justice in this way, alternating shots between sides of the table for the biggest points.
Seek and Destroy: if you light all three symbols at any major shot and then shoot that shot while it's flashing, a hurry-up begins that is collected at the captive ball. If you collect this hurry-up as it corresponds to all 5 major shots, Seek and Destroy begins. During Seek and Destroy, all major shots score a base value of 500,000, but one flashing shot scores double the base value. After making a flash shot, shoot the captive ball to earn 4x the base value, then increase the base value by 12,500 points. Like other minor modes, this is a 45 second mode and the timer resets back to 15 seconds if any major shot is made when there are less than 15 seconds on the timer. This is probably the most valuable of the minor modes, but there is one major drawback- when Seek and Destroy ends, all inserts in front of major shots are turned off, meaning you must restart the process of lighting shot inserts so that you can spot Crank It Up items. This is usually a big enough drawback that if there's any chance at all that you can avoid starting or collecting the 5th shot complete hurry-up, you should.
Blackened: hitting all 4 Guitar Pick targets completes a Pick Set. Earn Pick Sets to light Band Members: the first member needs 1 Pick Set, the second needs 2 more, the third needs 3 more, and the fourth needs 4 more, for a total of 10. (Each band member needs one more Pick Set on each subsequent trip to Blackened.) When you collect the 4th member, Blackened starts immediately. It's so difficult to get all the way to Blackened and play it out without activating other scoring modes that I have not been able to figure out the exact rules and progression: from what I can tell, you have a jackpot that starts at about 2,000,000 points that increases a small amount with each switch hit and about 250,000 with each pick target hit. If you completed a Pick Set, one flashing major shot scores the jackpot. If this is incorrect or you have more details on the point values, please get in touch. Blackened scoring seems pitifully low relative to the amount of work it takes to get there, especially compared to Lady Justice or Seek and Destroy.
At the start of each ball, the three pop bumpers each require 10 hits to complete. Bumpers score 10,000 points per hit and 75,000 when completed. Completing a bumper increases the number of hits required for the next completion by 1, increases the per-hit score by 200, and increases the completion bonus by 1,500. If you complete all three bumpers, the Piston lane behind the Fuel targets is lit for a Blown Piston. If you make a combo of multiple shots that ends at the Piston lane, you receive 1 Blown Piston for each shot in the combo. Otherwise, you just get 1 Blown Piston flat out. An extra ball is lit at 15 Blown Pistons. In older versions of the code, the extra ball only requires 10 Blown Pistons, but the length-of-combo rule does not apply.
The two top lanes near the bumpers and the three in lanes form a single set of 5 lanes. Roll through an unlit lane to light it. Lane change with either flipper can rotate lit lanes in either direction. Lighting all 5 lanes will in turn light the Mystery award at the lower right scoop. If you complete the lanes multiple times before cashing in the mystery, the mystery can be levelled up further, giving it a better chance of giving better awards. Possible prizes include:
Metallica has a conventional in/out lane setup, but with two in lanes on the left instead of 1. The 5 in lanes form a set that lights or advances Mystery as described in the previous section.
Bonus is calculated as a count of switch hits plus 5,000 points for each Item collected on that ball. Bonus multiplier is advanced by knocking down an inline drop target or from a mystery award. As far as I can tell, the only way to reset the inline drop targets once they are all down is to play a Grave Marker Multiball. Bonus is typically not significant compared to the rest of the game's scoring.
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