Not to be confused in theme or shot names with its prequels, Comet (1985) or Cyclone (1988).
If you can reliably and repeatedly hit either of the game's two ramps, focus on either of those, as they both become 1,000,000 point shots when comboed enough. Making enough consecutive shots to the right ramp also adds a letter in Palace: spell Palace to light jackpot at the Juggler, just left of the center ramp. If you light the clown face, you start Clown Time, the closest this game has to a wizard mode, where all shots in the game score at least 500,000 points for 20 seconds. The six shots for Clown Time are the left targets, left orbit, center ramp 3 times consecutively, right ramp, right targets, and dummy standup target near the right ramp. Work toward multiball by completing the left 3-bank targets to light locks and locking balls at the Juggler. During multiball, hit the right ramp as often as possible to combo 1, 2, or 5 millions.
The skill shot is a reflex shot up the right ramp after a full plunge. The ball will travel around the back of the game, down the left side, on a trail that runs on top of the flippers, across a metal rail, and into the left in lane. You now have one chance to shoot the right ramp. Succeed, and you receive 500,000 points (plus an additional 500,000 for each made skill shot, max of 2,000,000 total) plus a letter in Palace toward the jackpot. Hitting any switch in the game other than the left in lane or a switch on the ramp ends the skill shot chance.
Shooting the ramp when lit starts the Hurricane sequence. At first, the sequence is 200,000, then 225,000, then 1,000,000, then 1,000,000 plus a Palace letter, with the latter repeating until the ramp is missed. If you fail a shot worth less than 1,000,000 points, the ramp will stay lit by its value will reset to 200,000, and you must start the sequence over. If you fail a 1,000,000 point shot, the ramp will unlight when it times out, and must be relit by completing the 4-bank of "cat" targets on the right side of the game. If you had collected at least one 1,000,000 point shot before the sequence ended, the next ramp sequence will have one more shot before the million: 250,000 will be added after 225,000 and before 1,000,000. Each time you collect a 1,000,000 point ramp shot and then end the sequence, it will take one more shot to get back to the million the next time.
Making a lit right ramp will light the clown's right eye toward Clown Time. If the clown is completely lit, this ramp starts Clown Time.
At the start of the game, the Comet is lit for 100,000 points. Consecutive shots within 10 seconds of the previous score 200,000, then 300,000, then a repeatable 1,000,000 to you miss. The Comet always sends the ball back to the right in lane. If the time runs out before you collect a 1,000,000 shot, the Comet will stay lit but reset to 100,000 points. If you collect at least one 1,000,000 shot, the ramp will unlight when it clocks out, needing to be relit by shooting the Ferris wheel at the left orbit once; then, when you do, the Comet's starting value will be 50,000 for the rest of the game instead of 100,000, making it one shot harder to get back to unlimited millions.
If a shot goes halfway up the center ramp and then rolls back down, it's curtains; that ball is almost guaranteed to center drain at a hundred miles an hour.
Making a 300,000 point shot at the Comet lights the clown's mouth toward Clown Time.
Hit the 3 duck targets in the left of the game to light the Ferris wheel. The Ferris bonus is equal to 250,000 points plus 15,000 for each bumper hit since the last time you collected the bonus; it resets between balls and games. Max Ferris bonus is 1,000,000 points.
The right in lane lights the Ferris wheel for Quick Score for about 10 seconds. Quick Score is worth 250,000 the first time you collect it, and an additional 100,000 each subsequent time up to a maximum of 750,000. Quick Score and the lit Ferris wheel are entirely separate; you can collect one without the other (in both ways), or you can collect both at once.
Collecting a lit Ferris wheel lights the left eye of the clown toward Clown Time and relights the Comet ramp if it is not already lit.
Going through the left in lane or hitting the unlit Dummy target will light the Dummy target for 18 seconds. Hit the Dummy target when lit to light the clown's nose toward Clown Time and increase the bonus multiplier. If the bonus multiplier is advanced to whatever level is flashing on the playfield, an extra ball will be lit at one of the in lanes or out lanes. Hitting the lit Dummy after maxing out the bonus multiplier at 6x scores 500,000 the first time and 1,000,000 anytime after that.
The Dummy target is very dangerous to shoot directly due to risk of a center drain, so aim and strategize carefully.
Each duck target down adds 15,000 points to the Ferris value. Clear all three to light the Ferris wheel and light a lock toward multiball. Clearing the bank itself might score 100,000 points?
Lighting all 4 targets in this bank scores 100,000 points the first time and an additional 100,000 subsequent times, up to a max of 1,000,000. Completing this bank also relights the Hurricane ramp and the Mystery score at the Juggler lane if they are not already lit.
Shoot the Juggler lane when lit white for a mystery award. Complete the cats target bank to relight the mystery. Possible awards you can be given include:
The Mystery award should give you one of the non-zero point values if a playfield multiplier is running, so it's not a bad thing to shoot for then.
Completing the ducks targets on the left lights locks at the Juggler lane. For the first multiball, just one target completion lights both locks. After that, each ducks completions lights just one lock at a time. Lock two balls, and multiball will start when a third ball is plunged into play.
During multiball, the right ramp will be worth 1,000,000, then 2,000,000, then 5,000,000, cycling back to 1,000,000 and repeating after three shots. The Ferris wheel is worth 750,000 points; if you put a second ball in the Ferris wheel while the first one is still going, it's worth 1,000,000 points, and if you put a third ball into the Ferris wheel before the first one reaches the in lane, it's worth 2,000,000 points. The center ramp is still worth its normal value, but it will sometimes unlight on its own after holding one of the flippers up for about 5 seconds consecutively as a way to discourage someone from holding a ball on the left flipper and then looping the center ramp all day.
When multiball ends, the game will randomly award you 2x, 3x, or 5x playfield scoring. The amount of time this playfield scoring is active is equal to the amount of time you spent in multiball without raising one of the two flippers. This playfield multiplier can affect all scoring in the game except for the Palace Jackpot.
If you start multiball 3 times in one game, the right ramp will be lit for a Special when the third multiball starts.
Complete the following 6 tasks to light the clown's entire face and qualify Clown Time at the right ramp.
Clown Time progress carries from player to player and from game to game. Shoot the right ramp to start Clown Time when the Clown's face is complete. The Mystery will also usually award Start Clown Time if the clown's face is complete. During Clown Time, you have 20 seconds to shoot anything. All switches in the game score 50,000 points. The Ferris wheel and both ramps score 500,000 the first time, 750,000 the second time, and 1,000,000 after that. Clown Time points are not given to you until the end of ball bonus, so whatever you do, don't tilt a ball where you played Clown Time. If you play Clown Time twice in the same ball, the major shot values will start at wherever they left off after the first Clown Time, and the sum of the points from all Clown Times will be what is given to you at the end of that ball. Playing Clown Time multiple times in a ball is pretty much the only way to collect the table mastery achievement in Pinball FX3 or new FX (score 10,000,000 in Clown Time), if that's how you're playing this table.
The Palace jackpot starts at 5,000,000 points and increases by 130,000 points each time a center or right ramp is made. The jackpot cannot exceed 16,000,000 points. To light the jackpot, spell Palace. Palace letters can be earned from the Mystery award, a right ramp combo that collects at least two 1,000,000 point shots, or any right ramp made after completing both the ducks and cats target banks at least once. Completing Palace lights the Juggler's lane for Jackpot for 8 entire seconds, so you have to be quick. If you fail, the Jackpot stays where it is and the Palace letters are reset to just P-A-L. If you succeed, you win the entire jackpot and all Palace letters are unlit; the jackpot will reset to 5,000,000 points. Both the jackpot value and progress on Palace letters carry over from player to player and game to game.
Hurricane has a conventional in/out lane setup. All four lanes can be lit for Extra Ball by the mystery award or by reaching the flashing bonus multiplier. Lit extra balls can be moved with lane change from either flipper, but both flippers move the lit lanes in the same direction. The right in lane lights the Ferris wheel shot for quick score. The left in lane lights the Dummy.
I have no earthly idea what advances bonus in this game. It may well be 1,000 points for each switch hit during that ball. Base bonus is capped at 500,000 points. Bonus multipliers are received from the lit Dummy target or mystery awards. Max bonus is 6x 500,000 = 3,000,000 points. There is no mid-ball bonus collect, nor is there any way to hold base bonus or bonus multipliers for the next ball.
The first time you reach 3x bonus, one of the in/out lanes is lit for an extra ball. After achieving this, a second extra ball can be earned on a separate, later ball in play for reaching 6x bonus. Bonus multipliers cannot light more than two extra balls.
In competition/novelty play, specials are listed to be worth 1,000,000 points. That might actually be correct, unlike other Williams games from around this time, but I'm not certain. There is no way to set an extra ball to be worth points.
The Dummy, Hurricane, Comet, and Palace timers can all be set to anywhere from 5 to 40 seconds. Defaults are 18, 13, 10, and 8 seconds.
The starting Comet value can be any of 50,000, 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000.
The first 1,000,000 point Hurricane shot can be set to require anywhere from 2 to 13 (!) ramp shots.
The number of Palace lights restored after a failed Jackpot attempt can be anywhere from 0 to 5.
Palace lights and Clown Time lights can be set to be built separately for each player, and/or to reset entirely when a new game starts.
Very rarely do I have strong negative feelings toward a pinball table, and even more rarely than that do I leave an editorial comment in one of these guides, but I cannot express in family-friendly language how much I hate this table- largely due to its setup in Zen Studios' Pinball FX games, which make them very difficult and cannot be changed. Regardless, though, this table is grind-heavy, has obscure rules for lighting shots, doesn't like to give out as many points as you'd expect for actually difficult feats, and is chock full of clowns and intimidating men berating and taunting you. If you enjoy this table, I congratulate you for seeing things in it that I do not, but man was this guide ever painful to write. I can only hope that this page can provide clarity to others and prevent them from getting as frustrated as I did at that damn in-game achievement.
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