Clown add on guide
Figured I’d do something clown related in my time away so here’s a add on tier list/guide. Firstly here is the tier list (before you say anything about pinky finger read my explanation of it)
Now the explanations
VHS porn: This add on is pretty much a meme but has a bit of value. It might throw off the survivors trying to play around your bottle setups and give false info. Wouldn’t recommend it though as it takes up a slot for a more important add on
Robin feather: This add on is okay but heavily overshadowed by its counterpart. Since the starling feather is abundant this add on doesn’t need to exist. Still not terrible if you somehow don’t have any starling feathers.
Party bottles: Meme add on but it doesn’t come with a downside so if you have no other option it’s not a bad idea
Fingerless parade gloves: If you are learning clown do not I repeat DO NOT use these. Clown’s arc is very important to how you play loops and allows you to throw over objects or up higher easier. This add on only serves to make that harder. By far his worst add on since it is literally a hinderance without even a bp bonus for direct hits (like it should)
Starling feather: This add on is heavily underrated imo. The reduced cooldown allows for quicker setup at loops and more versatile use of the antidote (For example throwing one before breaking a pallet). Overall a very good add on that I don’t see used enough.
Kerosene can: This add on only has 1 viable use I can think of which is against blood amber keys but they are so rare it’s not worth the effort. Otherwise 30 seconds of blindness doesn’t help you slug or snowball so you’re better off with essentially anything else
Solvent jug: This add on is decent but nothing to right home about. The extra 1 second of invigoration can help at certain loops but it’s another case of not being worth the add on slot. Note that this does increase survivor invigoration time too
Thick cork stopper: This add on is great but overshadowed by its counterpart. Not matter how good or bad you are with clown you’ll be reloading constantly so this add on always comes in handy. This does edge out the smelly inner soles if you are reloading at a loop but otherwise it is worse imo.
Smelly inner soles: Pretty much a straight upgrade to the cork stopper. 66% is pretty insane and allows to reload mid chase at any time for little distance loss. Not to mention reloading after a hook isn’t nearly as detrimental now. Definitely one of his best add ons.
Flask of bleach: Clown’s best add on imo. There’s no situation where this add on won’t be useful. The extra 5% slowdown makes bottles more useful at loops and more useful in the open. It trumps the ether imo since it’s better at loops where you cover most of it anyway. Not much to say here other than a great add on.
Bottle of chloroform: This add on is useful but nothing amazing. It gives you more leniency in bottle throws and allows you to cover larger areas for longer slowdown. Problem is good clown’s already know to throw up high for better coverage so this becomes somewhat obsolete. It can also mess with good clowns since the gas clusters spread out so far you can miss survivors if aimed up high
Spirit of hartshorn: Same deal as chloroform except worse. Extra antidote coverage equals longer speed boost. Problem is all you need is 1 cluster of gas to get the 5 seconds which is usually all you need. Pretty useless imo.
Sulphuric acid vial: This add on is essentially a free sloppy butcher. If I assume there is no COH in the lobby I bring this often since it’s free slowdown for an add on slot. Note that you can give a healthy survivor mangled for later if you get the chance. Pretty useful but in a COH meta there are better options
Cigar box: Amazing tracking tool. Can free up slots for more regression/chase perks and help find those pesky blendettes. Very useful all round. Note that this applies to survivors as well so be careful with your antidotes
Cheap gin bottle: Not much to say here. Extra 2 bottle allows for more leniency and less reloading. Very useful for any clown match
Garish make up kit: It’s okay. Extra 2 seconds of invigoration for catching up to W gamers but that’s about it. Easily trumps the spirit of hartshorn though.
Ether 15vol%: Very good add on that helps in most situations. 1 second of extra slowdown after they leave the gas can be very useful at certain loops where you can’t cover the whole area and good for beginners whose aim is a little off. I’d recommend running bleach instead and improving your aim instead of using this though.
Tatoo’s middle finger: Not bad but overshadowed by the lower rarity cigar box. 6 seconds of aura reading is cool but you have to already know where the survivor is to get it activated. Can work as a budget I’m all ears for mindgames but it’s not really necessary when you can hear them coughing.
Redhead’s pinky finger: Firstly I need to note that yes this is clown’s best add on. Exposed is absurdly powerful on him especially when only taking up an add on slot and being available all the time. Why I put it there is that new clown’s should never use it. It teaches bad habits and makes you play him in a ineffective way when you remove it. Not to mention it’s annoying as hell to deal with as a survivor. Just don’t use it
Comments
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I really like fingerless gloves. It's common enough I rarely have less than 20 and survivors never see it coming, but i agree if you haven't learned the base arc keep that turned off.
I usually use vhs and party bottle tho. Mostly because i think its funny. Bleach and corrosive when I'm sober....
I mean... playing serious.
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Very nice guide.
I think that the Cigarbox and Garish Makeup is a very good combo to learn Clown, as it allows you insight into what ways survivors take and how they play certain loops, if essentially cuts down mind games and gives you so much info.
The Redheads Pinkyfinger is indeed ultra strong, but you said it all: it teaches you nothing and you will mostly focus on getting direct hits. The only marginal counter play is running erratically, while Clown will inevitably catch up and get either a hit or a down.
But every once in a while its fun to run it, and if its just for its cathartic effect on a Clown players psyche. If you run it, use it in conjunction with the Gin Bottles and have 6 bottled death at your ready. Your survivors will love you for it and might call you a baby Clown who needs clutch items to get anything done, but that might just be its own reward.
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I argued about this to another clown main here but i think the fingerless gloves are underrated.
Sure you lose the ability to lob over certain loops but that doesn't always come up. Some maps aren't affected at all from this. Mostly the indoor ones.
What fingerless does give is make your bottles arrive at their destination faster and i find that pretty valuable.
Biggest problem is that it messes up muscle memory but if you get used to it there are times you can gas a survivor before they round corners that normal lobs just can't do
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Fair enough. I just don’t like the arc of fingerless parade gloves since I like to throw bottles over walls to throw survivors off
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Either way it does use an add on slot for something more important you’d be better off just using something else 90% of the time
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Yeah I can agree with that. Knowing survivor pathing is essential to playing him well
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Tbf, i'd move the brown behind the yellow feather and move the garnish down to where the brown feather is, Double feather is really useful and it's Strong when used properly,
Another good Combo would be the Flask of bleach and Cigarbox is just... a strong wombo combo,
Extra bottles + reload is also good, the other green addons that expand the antidote gas is... mainly useless, Would put it on its terrible list,
Other than that.. this isn't a bad Clown addon guide, Might i ask.. will you do a Combo guide aswel? or are ye gunna do another addon list for said killers? =P
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Another upside of using the Cigarbox is that it forces you to use the Antidote, something that many peeps struggle with Clown at first, because its delayed and not an easy "plug and play" like the Tonic and its mechanically "weaker", being just a +10% speed boost, contra the - 15% speed from the Tonic.
Still, learning how to employ the Antidote effectively will also teach you how to essentially destroy and walz through normally safe loops and get a hit.
My Clown play fastly improved once I got this down, the basic technique is this: throw down a Tonic one side of the loop, an Antidote at the other, chase the survivor through the Tonic, then change direction, and get invigorated, while the survivor is intoxicated and ideally runs through the Tonic again.
It's a bit awkward to explain, but once you understand the concept it destroys so many loops.
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Yeah. The game doesn’t really encourage you to use the antidote much so most people don’t. This is why I’ve always said it need it’s own separate ammo pool on a cooldown
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For real! A separate ammo pool would help a lot in making Clown more fun and easier to play. Some people meme with him, but he is actually pretty rare, especially as a main.
Any ideas how to give him some more map pressure? Maybe auto invigorate him when he is out of a chase for 10s or something. Or let the entity drop down a bottle of Tonic on the generator that just got finished :P
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Garish Make-Up Kit is a pretty incredible add-on, combine it with Cigar Box and it's absolutely on par with the Ether + Bleach combo. I find people still way underestimate how good the Antidote is, the speed boost makes hits possible on many tiles that simply aren't without it, and it particularly helps on pallet play once the pallet is dropped, something Clown in the past struggled with.
The advantage the Antidote has over the Tonic is that the survivor cannot really play around it since you do not have to try and get the survivor to run into it, you just have to place it such that it is opportune for yourself. Another advantage is that the invigorated effect on yourself regularly lasts longer than the intoxicated effect on the survivor - intoxication only lingers for 2 seconds, invigoration for 5. This often more than makes up for the slightly lower catch-up speed boost that invigoration grants as compared to intoxication. And not only that, but while intoxicated survivors have a fairly easy time judging where they can make it at their reduced movement speed, it is much harder for them to judge when your increased movement speed allows you to catch up. Hell, sometimes they don't even know that you're zooming. And the lack of experience many survivors still have going up against Antidote enjoyers also benefits you, especially once increased invigoration duration add-ons come into play.
Of course, the ultimate Clown combines purple and yellow for maximum effect, but if you are one of the people still skeptical about the value of yellow and find it more comfortable mostly sticking to purple, try sticking mostly to yellow for a few rounds instead, I bet you'll be surprised.
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I play a lot of clown and rarely use antidote except when I mistakenly press the switch bottle toggle haha. I do very well with him but I have been playing him since release. I will take your advice and try antidote out more. Speeding around does sound appealing. I just have to figure out the bottle placement so I do not lose momentum.
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This guy clowns around, and this is the highest of praise in this regard.
Top advise and I hope that this inspires a few more aspiring Clown enthusiasts to learn the deeper secrets of his kit and see how awesome and fun he can be.
Though truth be told, nothing beats his sound design.
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Here's some example games from a very experienced and good Korean player that uses the Garish Box combo and enjoys his yellows (looks like twitch timestamps do not work when embedding videos, so here's raw links):
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1235887510?t=2h21m12s
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1202214744?t=6h13m51s
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1207024451?t=5h43m6s
Nothing too crazy in these games, I've seen him have more impressive ones, but it still shows well how to work with Antidotes and the value of the add-ons, lots of easy hits once you know where and when to place the yellows.
I'll raise my Antidote Bottle to that.
Post edited by zarr on2 -
Awesome post @Phasmamain! I'm curious has your clown build changed any? I know last time I remember it being gearhead, bbq, pop, and oppression right?
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Yes it has actually. Pain resonance is a game changer and works brilliantly with surge. For the last slot I switch between Gearhead and STBFL but usually STBFL for the chase potential
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Oh crazy I'll definitely try it I've been missing some clown lately and wanted to play him again. I've been having a lot of fun with Billy recently surprisingly. Well except that time I got rpd with him.
I'm going to have to unlock that perk from the artist for that build tho first.
You know what would be great if you were ever up for it, creating a guide on how to use his yellow bottles because alot of clown players don't understand how to use it or flat out ignore it entirely. I myself feel giddy when I see the rare clown player use them and use them well
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I have made a clown guide which covers it pretty well though I might make one focused on just the antidote. Here it is if you’re interested (some of it is outdated but most of it holds up)
https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/251266/definitive-clown-guide-updated#latest
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