Silverball guide · John Wick
Let the room fill up before you shoot
Enemies gather in front of the shots while you play, and a lit shot pays once for every one standing in front of it. Shooting a job too early is how most of the score on this machine gets left behind.
Enemies are the multiplier
During a job, every lit shot is multiplied by the number of enemies, the blue circles, standing in front of it. They spawn over time as you hit switches, so the longer the ball has been in play the more of them there are.
You can speed that up deliberately: the orange standup targets and the Red Circle bumper increase how many spawn. That is the difference between a job that pays and one that ticks over.
The plunge is a real decision here
There are four different skill shots and they do genuinely different jobs. Plunge into the right VUK without touching a single switch and you get the Baba Yaga, worth a million and a half, which starts the lit job immediately whatever state the crate was in. Touch one switch on the way and it is the super crate skill shot instead, which advances the crate and pays from 750,000.
The back door into the Red Circle club is the VIP skill shot, and if excommunicado multiball is lit, that plunge starts it. A full plunge followed by the right orbit, right ramp and left eject combo is the MXV, which pays ten million and adds ten enemies to the next spawn.
That last one is the most valuable thing on this list, because it does not just score, it stocks the playfield with the multiplier you are about to spend.
Starting a job, and choosing whose job it is
Shoot the weapons crate or the right VUK to advance the three blue lights in front of the crate. With all three solid, the VUK starts the next job.
There are seven factions and seven jobs, and you pick which one by shooting that faction's own shot to light its insert before you start. Each faction pays a different perk when you cash out, so this is a real choice rather than a cosmetic one. Three jobs played lights an extra ball.
The clock, and the thirty seconds most players never claim
A job runs sixty seconds, with three more added for every shot you make, and every fourth job starts with an extra thirty.
You can also buy thirty seconds outright, once per job, by completing the weapons crate targets and then shooting the right VUK. It is sitting there in plain sight and it is the cheapest time on the machine.
Cash out at the left eject
Making the shots a job asks for is only half of it. The perk is paid when you shoot the left eject to cash the job out, and a job left uncashed is a job you did not really play.
That shot is worth thinking about before the timer gets tight, because it is also where the escape jackpot is collected during a battle.
Allies are qualified before you need them
Hit the gold coin targets to light an ally, then shoot the left, centre or right ramp to qualify that ally for use during your next job.
This has to be done before the job starts. Once you are in one, it is too late, which makes the coin targets a thing to clear during quiet play rather than a thing to chase.
Adversary battles
Defeat ten enemies in single ball play and the left eject lights for an adversary battle. These are single ball modes with a long ball save, which makes them the safest scoring on the machine.
Make the lit shots and hit the blood marker to light the left eject, then decide: cash out, or keep the battle running at higher scoring. Do well enough and you are awarded Be Seeing You for twenty five million, ten million in the end of ball bonus, and an extra ball the first time.
Three multiballs, three different routes
Bash the car to light car multiball at the left orbit, and note that the car itself changes which multiball is lit, with helipad showdown as the default. The captive ball spells WINSTON to light the locks for deconsecrated multiball at the centre ramp. The Red Circle bumper and the targets around it advance excommunicado multiball.
On a Pro the first car multiball takes four hits to the car; on the Premium and LE it takes two.
What the mini wizard modes are actually asking for
Red Circle Reckoning needs a spread: all three multiballs, one job and one battle. The later mini wizards want the opposite, a complete set of one type, so all the jobs, or all the battles, or all the multiballs.
That means the first one rewards playing the whole machine and the rest reward specialising. Decide which you are doing by about ball two.
The outlane save
The blood marker standup targets on the left light an outlane ball save during normal play.
On a machine where the good scoring depends on letting enemies accumulate, an outlane save is worth more than it looks. It is the thing that lets you wait.
On the Premium and LE there is a fifth plunge, behind the car, which advances the next car multiball as well as scoring.
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.
- John Wick rule sheet (author not recorded in our copy)
