Comet pinball tournament strategy: setting up the million-point jump

Comet has no multiball and no modes. It has a roller coaster ramp, a motorcycle jump, two banks of carnival targets, and the first million-point shot ever put in a solid state game. It is also the second most-played machine in our tournament data, with 877 tracked games, nearly all of them at Blainbrook and Northstar Pinball Collective.

The game looks simple, and most of the scoring is. What decides tournament games is that Comet pays more on every ball than it did on the one before, so the player who is behind after two balls is still very much in it.

The short version

1. Plunge softly so the ball drops through the 1-9-8-6 lanes at the top. A full plunge skips them.
2. Use the right flipper button to move the lit lanes and finish 1-9-8-6.
3. From the left flipper, shoot the Cycle Jump in the upper right while it is lit.
4. Complete both target banks to light the Comet ramp, then keep shooting it.
5. On ball three, finish 1-9-8-6 first and then go for the lit jump.

Why the last ball is worth the most

Completing the 1-9-8-6 lanes scores 50,000 and starts a playfield multiplier that runs for 20 seconds. The size of that multiplier depends on which ball you are on: 2x on ball one, 3x on ball two, 5x on ball three.

That schedule is the whole shape of a Comet game. A lit Cycle Jump pays 200,000 for the top ring. At 5x, the same shot pays 1,000,000. A player who has 300,000 after two balls can pass someone sitting on 900,000 with one jump, and everyone in the group knows it.

So play the first two balls to build, and treat ball three as the one that counts. If you are ahead going into the last ball, you are less safe than the scores suggest.

The plunge and the top lanes

Comet has no skill shot award. The plunge still matters, because it is the easiest route to the top lanes. Aim for a soft plunge that falls through one of the four lanes. Each lane scores 1,000 and lights its number.

Too soft and the ball falls back toward the right flipper. Too hard and it rides the Corkscrew around to the left flipper, which pays 20,000 and leaves the lanes untouched. On ball three, that full plunge costs you the first step toward the 5x.

Lane change is on the right flipper button. Watch which numbers are lit and move an unlit lane under the ball before it arrives.

During play, the controlled way back to the top is the Corkscrew, the spiral ramp in the upper left, shot from the right flipper. It needs a strong flipper and a clean hit.

The Cycle Jump

The jump is the ramp in the upper right, shot from the left flipper. The ball lands in one of three rings depending on how fast it is going.

By default the jump is lit at the start of every ball. It goes dark once any ring is scored and relights from the left return lane. That makes the order of operations on ball three matter: finish the lanes first, then shoot the jump while the 20 seconds are running. Starting the multiplier with the jump unlit wastes it.

The Comet ramp and the two target banks

The Duck targets sit on the left and the Rabbit targets on the right, four standups each. Completing both banks lights the Comet ramp in the center. From there the ramp pays 30,000, then 50,000, then 100,000, as long as each shot follows the last within about 15 seconds. Unlit, it pays 10,000.

This is the steady part of the game. It also lines up with the multiplier: a 100,000 ramp at 3x or 5x is a good use of the 20 seconds when the jump is dark.

Tournament settings usually turn extra balls off. On Comet an extra ball you would have collected pays points instead, reported as 200,000 times the playfield multiplier in play, so a lit extra ball is still worth shooting.

Bonus and the Dummy

Comet keeps two bonuses, one for ducks and one for rabbits, each topping out at 63,000. The multiplier comes from Dunk the Dummy: knock down the single drop target left of the Comet ramp, then hit the bull's-eye behind it before the target resets. The steps run 2x through 5x.

Bonus is a smaller prize than the jump or the ramp, and Bob's Guides rates both Dummy shots as risky. Treat the multiplier as optional, something to take when the ball is cradled and the shot is on.

Where the ball drains

• The left side is reversed. The return lane runs along the cabinet wall and the outlane sits where an inlane would normally be, so a ball that looks safe may be headed out.
• There is no right inlane. The right flipper backs straight onto the slingshot, which makes trapping on that side harder.
• The pop bumpers feed the outlanes. The left bumper exit tends to fall toward the left outlane and the right exit toward the right one.
• A weak Comet ramp shot rolls back down the middle.
• Most center drains start with a rebound off the Duck or Rabbit targets.

A nudge as the ball reaches the left outlane can bounce it off the rubber and back into play. Test how much nudging the machine allows on ball one, when a tilt warning costs the least.

What the tracked games say

Numbers are from late September 2026. The Comet machine page has the live ones.

The upset rate is how often the lower-rated player in a pairing finishes ahead of the higher-rated one. Comet's 35.5% sits right at the average for the machines we have enough games on, which is a surprise for a game with a million-point swing built in. Knowing when to take that swing is a skill, and the results show it. Our upset rates by machine post has the full table.

A typical game takes 12:39 from the first plunge to the result being entered, which is on the short side. In a round with a clock on it, Comet is a safe pick.

Among players with at least 20 games on it, the best records belong to Chris Frame, who has won 45 of his 81 games outright, then Bryan Moen, Adam Turgeson and Trevor Klungseth. If one of them is in your group, Comet is probably their pick and a poor one for you. The scouting report shows where you stand against your own group.

Where to play it

• Blainbrook in Blaine, where 696 of the tracked games were played. The Blainbrook guide covers the room and its schedule.
• Northstar Pinball Collective in Savage, with 181 tracked games. See the Northstar guide.
• Julie's Pinball lists a Comet on its floor, with no tournament games recorded on it yet.

Lineups change. Check the venue page before you drive.

Before your next game

The Comet playbook collects player tips, tutorial videos and rulesheet links, and the scores tab shows what a big game looks like. For the full rules, the Pinball Primer guide and Bob's Guides are the two we leaned on.

Comet shares a room with Eight Ball Deluxe and Paragon, and the habits carry over. How to play classic games in a tournament covers what they have in common, and the rest of the series is in the machine strategy guides.