I cannot praise the devs enough for the Clown update.
It seems so simple from the outside looking in. An extra power that does the reverse of the Tonic: speed players up. I can sympathise why many think the Antidote seems lazy or unimaginative, but I’m here to tell you why it’s actually the most clever update they’ve ever done to a killer yet.
The Antidote has significantly raised Clown’s skill cap WITHOUT taking anything away from how he could be played beforehand.
This is very important. The Antidote can be ignored entirely if a player so chooses. Nothing was taken away from Clown’s base kit. And if a player truly can’t wrap their head around Clowns optimal play style, and just wants to stuff around with Clown, the new Fingerless Parade Gloves make Clown much, much more beginner friendly at the expense of limiting his greater big brain plays. That said, Fingerless Parade Gloves also allows Clown to do a few minor things that Clown can’t do as well as he can in his regular base kit. However...
The Afterpiece Antidote absolutely rewards big brain plays when used together with The Tonic. It’s a little teeny, tiny on the technical side (compared to other killers): having to keep a constant awareness of which bottle is equipped, and getting the timing right to switch immediately to the Tonic after placing down an Antidote Cloud so that a tonic cloud can be placed elsewhere is tricky sometimes. This on top of keeping track of your bottle count, and judging when it’s optimal to reload means there’s much more to think about to get the absolute most out of Clown.
This said, set ups that leave survivors no other choice but to run through a tonic cloud while Clown has set himself up to charge at them while Invigorated is devastating on a survivor being chased. The whole “drop the pallet early strategy” goes out the window. They’re never reaching a pallet in time if these set ups are done correctly either at, or leading up to loops. This isn’t the only way to use The Antidote, just as there is a myriad of versatility in how the Tonic can already be used. But the aforementioned set ups getting survivors Intoxicated whilst Clown is Invigorated leads to incredibly fast hits/downs.
Having the two different bottles also gives Clown greater strategic nuance. It still pays to use Tonics ahead of survivors to try and direct them away from strong structures, but NOW Clown can also make good on successfully diverting a Survivor by charging down on them in an Invigorated state as a Survivor dodges the Tonic Gas. That The Antidote both has an activation period and can also positively affect survivors is proof enough to me that The Devs are strongly emphasising that players need to be thoughtful and strategic with Clown, rather than allowing players to get something out of spamming them, like what I see many were doing with the Tonics before this update.
He was already a beast in a chase, but now he’s an absolute MONSTER in a chase.
Even Solvent Jug is great. Yes. Im gonna say it. It was actually buffed! It doesnt matter if survivors can still use their exhaustion perks when Clown is charging down on them in an invigorated state and they’re intoxicated.
Anyway, i could waffle on and on and on. Point is: well done BHVR. Clown update is phenomenal.
Comments
Well, nice to know you saw a difference. He still feels lackluster the few times I've played him. Maybe because he doesn't interest me, but from what I saw, the antidote is just another lazy gimmick that doesn't actually do anything on larger maps against decent teams.
The best part of Clown Buff... the music.
You see that’s what i like most. I’m still playing clown the way I always did and with the addition of some chase music
side note: does anyone else hate his new pink bow? I think it looks out of place and doesn’t fit his p3 outfit at all
It’s not primarily a traversal tool, though there’s nothing inherently wrong with doing that, and I’ll do it occasionally myself.
It’s mostly rounding out his already really good anti loop by ensuring exceptionally safe outliers can still be made dangerous (if thought I’d put into it), and for giving Clown more to prevent survivors even reaching certain loops in the first place. Now Clown can attempt to divert survivors with Tonics (when a chase is out in the open) BUT ALSO give himself additional speed when survivors are dodging tonic clouds.
Yeah I love it too. It’s suitably manic.
I honestly hadn’t even really noticed the bow.