Silverball guide · AC/DC
The Bell decides how much, the song decides what
Twelve songs each attach the scoring to a different part of the playfield. The Bell in the middle is separate from all of it, and it is where a good game turns into a big one.
Pick a song, and the playfield changes shape
You choose a song at the start of the game and at the jukebox, and the choice is not decoration. Each of the twelve attaches the good scoring to one part of the machine: the bumpers, the right ramp, the spinner, one of the target banks, the top lanes, the Bell. Play Whole Lotta Rosie and the top lanes matter; play War Machine and the spinner does.
That means the song you are on should match the shots you can actually hit today, and the multiball you are closest to. It is not a soundtrack, it is a scoring rule.
The Bell is the twenty seconds everything else waits for
Three shots to the Bell turns on double scoring for twenty seconds. The fourth and fifth reset that clock rather than improving it. The sixth turns on triple, and further shots keep resetting it.
The multiplier applies to everything: jackpots, cannon awards, song shots, mode points. The clock freezes while a ball sits in a saucer or in the cannon, and on the LE while a ball is on the mini playfield, but it does not freeze in the bumpers. Progress towards the multiplier carries from ball to ball, which is the part worth remembering, because it means you can arrive at a multiball already one Bell shot away from 2x.
The Song Jackpot is the number you are protecting
Every point you score from song shots is also added to the Song Jackpot. It starts at a million, gains half a million for each song you complete, and has no ceiling. It resets when you collect it, and it resets at the end of every ball, which is the whole tension of the game.
It is lit at the start of a game and again after every three completions of the FIRE lanes. So the lanes are not filler, they are how often you are allowed to cash in.
The cannon is the till
Load the cannon from the right ramp, and on the LE from the left ramp for anything except starting a multiball. The Song Jackpot is collected by firing into the centre AC/DC target, and every multiball super jackpot is collected by firing into the Bell.
Miss the shot, or decline to fire, and the awards vanish, except the multiball super jackpot and the For Those About To Rock awards. That is the risk, and it is why a small Song Jackpot early in a ball is not worth the drain. Fire into the Bell or the spinner instead, build the multiplier, and come back for the big one.
Shot values grow all game, and they carry across songs
Song shots pay between their base value and twice it. Each shot you make adds a couple of per cent, and here is the useful part: that growth stays for the rest of the ball even if you change songs. You can raise the value on an easy song and take it into a better one.
Complete all five Musical Note shots during a song and you earn a permanent six per cent lift for the rest of the game, once per song, and two and a half million goes straight onto the Song Jackpot. The lift is capped at twice base, but it is free money and most players never chase it.
Changing songs is worth doing on its own
To light the jukebox you have to light eight other songs, each by completing the task attached to it: a shot to each loop, ramp and the Bell, a full completion of each target bank, a completion of the lanes, a bumper level.
Changing then pays fifty thousand for each song you had lit, rising sharply if you lit all eleven, plus half a million for every song you have already played. Under a playfield multiplier that is a real score. It also makes the next Super Mode available. You are allowed to stay on the same song, but you give up the per-song bonus for nothing.
Three multiballs, and one add-a-ball worth planning for
Jam comes from six ramps, Album from three target bank completions, Tour from eight loops, and all three are started at the right ramp. During any of them, completing the five Musical Note shots adds a ball, once, and starts another short ball save.
Notes you made during the song carry into the multiball, so it is common to walk in needing a single shot for the extra ball. If you are holding a VIP pass, it can spend that shot for you, which is the best use those passes have. Progress towards the other two multiballs stops while one is running, and relighting the same one costs two more shots each time.
Where to start
If you want one plan to take to a machine you have never played: pick Hells Bells. It is the song that pays you for hitting the Bell, and the Bell is also the multiplier, so the two jobs stop competing for your attention.
If your ramps are good, go for Jam instead. It is the easiest multiball to light, six ramps will do it, and shooting the Bell as it starts sets up a multiplied super jackpot rather than a plain one.
Which cabinet are you standing at
This holds on every AC/DC, but a few things move. On the LE and Premium the AC/DC and TNT banks are drop targets rather than standups, and a drop bank resets when its targets are lit for a cannon award. The Bell becomes a swinging ball with a saucer behind it, the left ramp will load the cannon, and there is a mini playfield the ball can be sent to.
UK floors carry the Pro, the Premium and both LUCI versions, so it is worth a look at the target banks before you decide what you are shooting.
Where this came from
Silverball wrote this, but not from scratch: it was compiled against the published rules below and checked against them, rather than written up from one person’s games. None of the wording is theirs. Machines get code updates that move the right shot, so a guide has a date on it for a reason.
- AC/DC rule sheet (author not recorded in our copy)
