How to Beat Dave & Buster's Games - Down the Clown

READ THE FULL DESCRIPTION FOR IN-DEPTH STRATEGY DISCUSSION.
Dave & Buster's recently got some new games. Down the Clown is a great short-term AP venture - it can be hit for 2,000 tickets a day consistently, 3,000 tickets if you're really good, and 4,000 if you throw absolutely god-tier.
The jackpot resets to 500 points to win upon powering up; it goes down by 1 on a loss and up by 50 on a win. NOTE: If you catch a group of people cheating playing the game 2 and 3 to a single side, and they jackpot the game, let a tech know - not to get them in trouble but so that they can reset the game for you so the jackpot goes back to 500 so you can hit it legitimately.
If there are balls ready that a prior player left, you ideally want to have 4 of them ready - 1 in your throwing hand and 3 in your off hand; you see me throw 4 at the very beginning before reaching down for more. Beyond that, you typically want to try and grab 3 each time you reach down for more balls; 1 in your throwing hand and 2 in your off hand, as that's the most you're going to grab quickly without accidentally dropping any.
The first game of the two was sloppy as hell - lots of early misses, but you can see how easy it is to take 500 points even with a few mistakes. Game 2 was an absolutely perfect start - though I made an error at 1:51 throwing at a clown on the 20 point row that was not yet fully raised - this didn't count! Had I not made that mistake, and had I been slightly faster for that last batch of 30s before time ran out, that very easily could have been a 700 point game.
Also of note - if no one else is APing this at your location, and people are playing it but not cheating in the early day, you may find the game well below 500 points necessary to win. If it's under 450, and you jackpot, it will reset to 500 after a win instead of just going up 50.
Best of luck to all fellow APs that include this in their hit-n-run gameplay!

[@TINMANHOANG]

Thank you sir. Keep these D&B AP videos coming. All D&B videos are much appreciated actually.

[@NotSoAverageJeff]

Thank you so much, this strategy has helped me out a lot!

[@Steve98NYy12550]

It's not necessarily cheating for two people to play, as the game obviously provides enough space for two people to stand side by side. It's by no means grounds to force dnb to reset the machine but if you have a good rapport with the techs and management they'll do it for you.

[@kaznebula1981]

Steve98NYy12550 facts it’s made for 2 people not 1. Plus it’s not cheating anyways.

[@lucasnassar2778]

​@@kaznebula1981Better if was 3,you just count as different category

[@williamsjessem]

My D&B's version of this does not have an increasing jackpot. I watched a father son duo just go off on this game and the jackpot requirement never changed. In fact there is a little scale on the side that shows what you have to get to get the jackpot and it never changes.

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

The scale on the right hand side says "BONUS" = 500, but on the left hand side there should be a display that has a number that changes. If you're telling me that never changes...can you post a video of someone jackpotting it and the number not changing?

[@williamsjessem]

I should be going back in a week or so and I def take another look. I may have overlooked that.

[@itsabearpelt]

I hit 680 on this game The other day. Best ticket yielding game per credit in the place. Gotta love it!

[@microknight]

Great Video Mew!!! Good Aim and Hit... Problem with our DtC is that there is not enough balls, you are always waiting for the balls to return. Will talk to the arcade manager to see if they will order more balls for this machine.

[@Steve98NYy12550]

Also notice if you stand behind the game while playing, the lever to catch the balls closes with five seconds left resulting in you having no last second balls to throw

[@yougotstupider5402]

I got 10000 tickets with 20 dollars that trick help a lot thank you

[@adenedgmon4546]

Hey I've met you at DB like a few weeks ago your very good at what you do

[@pastelprince5269]

Unfortunately my arcade lowered the game duration to 15 seconds, and considering i can only consistently get in the 500s with 20 seconds, it makes getting jackpots near-impossible for me.

[@Steve98NYy12550]

Ever seen the 767 bug in your store. It's where after a game instead of decreasing by one, the jackpot raises to 767. It's happened to me more than once and at different machines and locations. Always the same number. Something in the machine is doing this.

[@kaznebula1981]

Facts it has to due with the numbers being multiples of something.

[@suelee3391]

It is a technical glitch.

[@andrewsantos2570]

I don't understand how the number of points you need for the jackpot goes up. It should be 500 points for 500 tickets. I am completely lost with how "it" goes up by 50 and down by one. What?!?!? What is an AP.

[@carlschannel]

1rst i know u posted that a while ago 2nd the points need to score a jackpot goes up so somebody can't hit jackpots all day long easily 3rd ap stands for advantage player these are ppl like him who goes into an arcade to turn a profit by selling the prizes they get they only play select games that they can make a profit on

[@autonomy33]

Holy crap, you make this look easy - I downloaded your FAQ and read your reddit, its so well done and inspiring, thank you so much! I don't think D+B should be sad you posted those tips, it inspires us to try to do what you do - and miserably fail. Can you give Pac Man tips? I've sunk way too much in that game and I think its probably rigged...

[@basilman121]

Stop on 200 tix

[@NewAge2012dotTV]

I saw people start using wooden skeeballs (they took from the nearby skeeball machine) to play this one. The ball is bigger and it won't bounce.

[@alikryeziu5894]

hes a pro

[@kyledannels9951]

When you had the one 10 pointer left you should have hit that to reset the 30's instead of going for the 4 20's

[@jasoncallan]

holy crap. That guy is fast

[@jscalia4909]

I got 490 once and I was so mad

[@ajisback2826]

Action Jackson 4236 i got 620 once I was so happy but also I know how you feel I got 490 once to

[@palace_pro4923]

Nice!!!!

[@longdistanceaswell]

wow amazing

[@josephhutchinson9428]

Is this in Providence, Rhode Island

[@bertterm3014]

How hard do you have to throw the ball to knock the clown down

[@danielcarbajal6574]

I just played this game on thanksgiving and I got the 500 tickets twice but the rest of the times I was get scores of 520 510 and it would only give me 100 tickets

[@bennydelara6070]

Lester I said put my wanted level out, what were u doing

[@mikehong2691]

When I Went To Dave&Buster's@Milpitas, California!-I Played-Star Wars-StarFighter Games&Sega's-Strike Fighter Games!&I Won!-The Whole Games!-From-The Begiining To The Very End!-THAT'S ALL!-Raymond "Mike" Hong!&(And I Had-A Dave&Buster's-GOLD CARD!-Mike!)😎👍!!!!!!!!!&(RMH!)

[@Daveseverythingchannel]

I wonder if you can knock them over from the side with a stick or something (obviously as a second or third person, not a primary way of knocking them down).

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

I'd advocate anyone caught doing that be banned. It's bad enough that people play the game two at a time, they should be removed from the place as well.

[@williamsjessem]

MewtwoStruckBack As you have pretty much stated on Redit, in a nutshell if there isn't a rule against it, good luck enforcing it.

[@japowger]

So if the points needed for a Jackpot is 500, and you win, does it go up to 550?

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

This is correct. +50 on a win, -1 on a loss, EXCEPT if the target score has gone BELOW 450, it will go back to 500 on the next win rather than just going +50. So your ideal situation is finding two machines that have been played and lost more than 50 times each (certainly possible if no one cheats and no other APs are playing), go sub-500, 500, 550, 600, 650 on each machine and then leave it alone, 700 pretty much requires perfection AND a full stock of balls (the balls go missing very quickly on these games, much like footballs disappear out of 2-minute drill.) You'll get 4k if you catch the machines on powerup in the morning and 5k if you happen to catch them when other people have failed.

[@sachinnair1613]

Dat accuracy tho

[@JR123JR8]

The first ball you throw barely hits the clown and it doesn't fall over, but it still gives you 30 points. ...and then you get to knock it down again for 30 more. I've done this many times but have never noticed if i get points for it or not. I wonder if this happens frequently.

[@DanHosfordUK]

Jeremy R yeah it happens all the time. If it blinks black then you got it. The wife and I dominate this in the UK. 8k tickets per session best score over 1100

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

Dan Hosford C'mon man, don't be a dick and play two on the same machine. They technically can't stop you but it screws over everyone that doesn't have a partner that wants to try and play it when you're done. If you can throw legit 800+s on your own, then fair play to you but unless the arcade sees that the thing's at 999 and resets it so other people have a fair shot the game's left in an unplayable state for everyone else for the rest of that day.

[@DanHosfordUK]

MewtwoStruckBack Everyone plays 2p or even 3-4p on the UK machines so it's fair game (These machines are designed for 2p fun) Also, difference is the Jackpot starts at 750. I can hit 750 solo but not better than 1 in 3. No one else plays these machines solo! Even more importantly it's more fun playing as a 2, the whole reason to do it!. There is a 500 machine in another location but it has 5 balls. I play that one solo. 5 balls is tough

[@pacificOcean123]

Can you do a video for a coin pusher game, the basketball game, or the Pac Man game?

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

Coin pusher games are not profitable here, I could try Super Shot eventually. We don't have Pac-Man Ticket Blitz here.

[@pacificOcean123]

MewtwoStruckBack Thanks! If there is any one who is an expert on D&B, it's you! Btw, what makes a game profitable? Coins seem to get a lot of tickets.

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

Tragic Gamerz Profit = being able to get prizes (that are easily resold) where you pay less in gameplay to get them than the prizes are worth. Even if you buy your chips on Wednesday, at 15 coins = 7.8 chips spent (valued at $1.04), you still need roughly 14 tickets per coin to BREAK EVEN, let alone turn a profit. A good benchmark for a game being profitable at D&B is doubling your money - I can't think of a single game on the floor with their current settings that you can CONSISTENTLY put coins in and average 28 coins out per coin played. Goin' Rollin' used to be good until they took the bonus settings from 50-100-150-200 for consecutive coins in the bonus slot and changed them to 25-50-75-100. If you believe you know of a game that you can average better than 28 tickets per coin played on a consistent basis, I'd love to hear about it.

[@pacificOcean123]

MewtwoStruckBack Yeah, I can't think of that much. I mainly play for a lot of tickets, not necessarily profit. I see a lot of people playing Pharoah's revenge or something (coin pusher) and see that they win a lot of tickets so i thought maybe they were good games to play.

[@Daveseverythingchannel]

MewtwoStruckBack The Simpsons game is pretty easy. the "I" is easy to get and give you 30 tickets (though that number keeps going down). and getting all 3 W I N isn't really hard either and that is 500 tickets.

[@violetsparkle5371]

Big First Place!

[@cowboymaxwell]

wow

[@MrPollitogatito]

do one for mini mega oct o score plz

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

That one hasn't been installed at my location yet but is coming soon. I watched the game on KZbin and it just seems like a Monster Drop sequel that gets people to play up to 8 credits in one go. I'm not sure whether or not there's a skip function on it for high value spaces or not as the manufacturer hasn't posted the service manual on their site yet.

[@Noodlebryce34]

I beat I six times I a row yesterday and got 710 as my best so he can't be that good and every time some sucks at it the score yu needs for bonus 500 will go down 1 score but if you beat it t It will go up by however much you beat it in half so say you needed 530 and you got 600 then the median of that is 35 cause difference is 70 and I did I so much yesterday that you had to get over 650 for 500 tickets but he had good strategy it's the sme I did

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

The score goes up by 50 on any win and down by 1 on a loss. My highest so far is 790. A tenth of a second faster and it would have been 820.

[@andrewsantos2570]

So if it is at 650 to win and I score 550 how much do I win?????????? I thought it was just 500 Points. 500 Tickets. All the time.

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

No, it doesn't work like that. If it did I wouldn't have posted this video because I'd be trying to keep the game secret to maximize the length of time I could milk the game before it inevitably got changed. The score that changes game by game is linked to the jackpot of 500. 400-499 is 100 tickets, 300-399 is a lower bracket, and so on and so forth, down to a score of 50 or below being 10 tickets. The exception to the rule being if the game has been played poorly by many people, or has just been turned on for the day AND people lose without immediately jackpotting, a score that would normally not break the 100 ticket bracket (400-499) may jackpot. For your purposes, since anyone following this strategy should be able to throw 400+ points even on their worst game, you just assume every losing play will generate 100 tickets, and every play above the ever-changing threshold is 500 tickets.

[@andrewsantos2570]

I got it, thank you so much. This strategy is so in depth i'm going to use it next time i'm at D&B in Denver in March. :)

[@Jdevy]

Can this game be maxed to 999?

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

I would be very surprised if it could be done legitimately. People cheating could possibly do so but unless you are able to reach down and scoop up 4 balls every time you run out of balls in hand, and comfortably and quickly throw all 4 at the targets being perfect every time, I don't see breaking 800 on any consistent basis being a thing let alone 999.

[@DanHosfordUK]

MewtwoStruckBack The game is designed for 1 or 2 players (check the manual as per your guide) and a lot more fun with 2. 900+ is achievable but still tough. Setting the natural jackpot to 750 is one way the arcade owners can keep the payout fair and ensure only the top players consistently jackpot. On balance, given the way the game is setup for two players, a 500 payout is too low for most venues

[@Steve98NYy12550]

two people working together can do it easily. I've never seen one person do it. My highest score is 750, just not enough time or balls to get any higher.

[@Steve98NYy12550]

One way to score really high is if the top bar of 30s is locked in the up position and you can just throw at the 30s throughout the game. If you can throw fast enough, you can get 999. 34 balls in 20 seconds,

[@DanHosfordUK]

Steve98NYy12550 Yeah this happened at mine. They took away the balls so each machine has like 6 balls. Basically makes 2players redundant