Not to be confused with Sorcerer's Lair, a 2011 virtual only table by Zen Pinball that comes free with the Pinball FX games.
Complete the Sorcerer letters once to light the spinners for 2,500 points per spin, then try to always be in multiball by shooting the left ramp. Multiball comes with a 2X playfield multiplier, which can be increased to 3X or 5X with additional ramps during multiball. Multiplied lit spinners are the way to go.
Any lane scores 5,000 points and a bonus advance, and lights the corresponding letter of A-B-C-D. Completing A-B-C-D advances the bonus multiplier, to 2X, 4X, 6X, or 8X. Completing the lanes again when the bonus multiplier is already at 8X scores 50,000 points.
The lit lanes can be rotated with lane change by the right flipper only. There's a small rubber just above and to the right of the D lane with a switch behind it that advances the lane change once automatically, just to try to mess you up. Try to be mindful of when this will or will not come into play.
Which insert is lit in front of the drop targets will cycle: the white one reads 10K, the green one reads 30K, and the red reads 50K. When any of the three drop targets is hit, the light will stop cycling, and the lit value will be temporarily locked in. Clearing the rest of the drop targets within about 7 seconds of the first one being hit scores the lit value. If the drops are not completed in that time, they will reset. A repeating accelerating sound effect serves as an indication of the remaining time to complete the targets.
Each completion of the drop targets lights one of the in lanes for 3 bonus advance. Both in lanes can be lit with 2 drop target completions. After completing the Sorcerer letters once, this drop target bank is lit for Demon and extra ball. Collecting the Demon lights the Hold Bonus Value lamp in the middle of the playfield, which brings the base bonus count (but not the multiplier) forward to the next ball.
A deceptively difficult shot from the right flipper. The ramp always scores 30,000 points. In single ball play, the ramp always locks a ball if there is not already a lock, or starts multiball if a ball was already locked. This game does have lock stealing, so a ball locked by a previous player can be stolen, and multiball started with just one ramp shot.
During multiball, shooting this ramp advances the current playfield multiplier, up to 3X then 5X. Successive shots to the ramp just score points (but since the playfield multiplier will be 5X by that point, it'll be 150,000 points, not just 30,000, which is not to be sneezed at). If you can dial in the ramp shot and reliably get control of a ball out of the lock, I guess left ramp all day can be worthwhile, but it's usually better and safer to just go for ramps until 5X playfield, then focus on lit spinners instead.
After a multiball ends, there is no requirement for re-lighting the lock- just shoot this ramp again.
Common rule change: many copies of Sorcerer that appear in competition play have begun to implement an alternate ruleset in recent years. On the modified code, clearing the upper right drop targets once is required to light the left ramp for a lock. The game may or may not then require a second completion of the upper right drop targets before the ramp is lit for release and a multiball start.
The S and final R are spinners on either side of the playfield; the S spinner lane puts the ball in the pops, while the R spinner lane puts the ball into the top lanes. The remaining six letters, O-R-C-E-R-E, correspond to standup targets in a rather unique convex curved bank in the middle of the playfield. All standup targets always score 1,000 points.
The spinners start out at 100 points per spin. Completing Sorcerer once lights both spinners for 2,500 a spin for the rest of the ball, and lights the drop targets for the Demon (Hold Bonus) award. A second spelling of Sorcerer lights the drop targets for extra ball. Three completions of Sorcerer on a single ball lights the out lanes alternately for a special, and 5 completions on a single ball awards a special outright.
Collecting any letter in Sorcerer that is not already lit scores 1 bonus advance. For the S and R on the ends, registering just one spin on the spinner will collect the letter.
Make one completion of Sorcerer top priority at the beginning of each ball to get the spinners lit for 2,500 a spin each. Then, master the shot to one of them (preferably the right one) to cash in multiplied spins during multiball. Two ramp shots during multiball advance these spinners up to 12,500 points per spin, which is absolutely colossal, but if you don't trust your ability to make the left ramp with two balls in play, going for 5,000 point spinners with the base 2X playfield multiplier is still very good.
Sorcerer features a conventional in lane/out lane setup with a center post between the flippers. The in lanes score 5,000 points and 1 bonus advance, but this can be increased to 3 bonus advances if the in lane is lit by completing the upper right drop targets. The out lanes score 10,000 points, and can be lit alternately for special after three completions of the Sorcerer letters.
Bonus is advanced by any top lane, any in lane, and collecting a Sorcerer letter. The in lanes can give 3 bonus advances when lit. Maximum base bonus is 59,000 points. Base bonus does not carry over between balls by default, but a Hold Bonus feature is available by completing Sorcerer once to light the top drop targets for Demon, then completing the drop targets.
Bonus multiplier is advanced by completing A-B-C-D lanes at the top of the table, in the order of 2X-4X-6X-8X. Progress on the A-B-C-D lanes themselves is carried forward from ball to ball, but collected bonus multipliers are not. Max bonus is 8x 59,000 = 472,000 points.
When either base bonus or bonus X is maxed out, the corresponding lights on the table will flash in a pattern.
The flippers on Sorcerer are rather close together, so check to see if your copy has had its center post between the flippers removed to make the game more challenging.
Special can be set to score a free game, an extra ball, or points. I believe the points option awards 50,000, but have not been able to test this. Extra ball cannot be set to points, and is either on or off.
Progress on the current set of Sorcerer letters is not held between balls by default, though this is a setting that can be turned on.
The VPX recreation of Sorcerer lights extra ball at the top drop targets after 1 Sorcerer completion (alongside the Demon award) instead of 2, and also scores the immediate special at 3 completions of Sorcerer (alongside lighting the out lane specials) instead of 5. However, the game manual on IPDB does not list settings that change how many Sorcerer completions are needed to light the extra ball or the instant special.
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