This guide provides general strategies to obtain 10 billion points in the Co-Op Endless Mode and earn the BFF achievement. A video example is also attached.
This guide will not provide game exploits. You and your partner will have to practice. We encourage players to play, discover and share information.

If you have earned this achievement or otherwise are an expert at Shatter (2009), please feel free to discuss the proposed strategies.

The Co-Op Endless mode of Shatter imposes no time limit on two players to score as highly as they can. However, the game gradually gets more difficult by increasing the spawn frequency of blocks, meaning most players can only last between 20-35 minutes before they lose.

The BFF achievement requires two players to score 10 billion points, and it is the most difficult achievement in the game (by global achievement stats).

As such, it is recommended (but not a requirement) for both players to have earned the singleplayer Endless and Time Attack achievements to prove their competence.

In the subsequent sections of this guide, I will explain how to setup Co-Op for two players using the Remote Play Together feature in Steam, the mechanics of this game mode, and list some worthwhile strategies.

IMPORTANT NOTE: ONLY THE PLAYER WHO IS HOSTING THE REMOTE PLAY TOGETHER STREAM WILL EARN THE ACHIEVEMENT. IF BOTH PLAYERS WISH TO EARN THE ACHIEVEMENT, THE OTHER PERSON WILL ALSO HAVE TO STREAM IT.



I have embedded a link below of myself and bjshnog earning 16.1 billion points in Co-Op endless in 24-ish minutes. As of 11 July 2022, this placed us at 48th on the global leaderboards. This video is also embedded in the Strategies section of this guide.

The PC port of Shatter has LAN two-player Co-Op, but no support for online multiplayer. However, Remote Play Together allows a host to stream gameplay to another person to simulate a LAN environment.

The host and other players must have a stable internet connection with decent speed internet connection to prevent stuttering, dropouts, and loss of visual fidelity (bit rate).

There are three control schemes that can be used for Co-Op in Shatter:

• Mouse + keyboard
  
• Controller
  
• Keyboard only

Both players have to use different control styles (i.e. both cannot use mouse + keyboard and both cannot use controllers).

Controls can be configured in the Controller tab in the Shatter Settings Editor. You can launch this editor from Steam or from within your game's installation folder.

Note: the configuration tool only allows Keyboard & Mouse and Controller; there is no labelled 'Keyboard only' option as previously described. However, if you set both players to Mouse + keyboard, Player 1 can use the mouse, whereas Player 2 must only use the keyboard.
Both players cannot use Controllers or else the tool will say there is a conflict.

Note 2: I personally do not recommend using keyboard only as it's cumbersome and provides no granularity to the bat's movement.

The player using the mouse can rapidly move their bat across the play field, therefore making them ideal for ball defense. Whereas a player using the keyboard or a controller has their bat speed limited. Decide between yourselves who uses which control scheme.


Figure 1: Shatter Settings Editor configured to have Player 1 (orange bat) to use keyboard + mouse and Player 2 (blue bat) to use a controller.

After configuring the control schemes, apply and launch the game.

While in the game, press Shift+Tab to open the Steam Overlay, find your friend in the Friends List, right click on their profile picture and click Remote Play Together. If this is not an option, check your Steam settings. The friend will receive the invitation in their Steam Chat window, and they can click it to join. The host will have access to the Remote Play Together configuration window.



In this configuration window, at the top right, you are able to change the stream quality to match what your internet can handle.

You can then assign controls.

For controller: click and drag the controller icon next to the person's name down to the bottom of the window and assign it to numbers 1 or 2. The numbers should correspond to whichever player has been given the controller in the Shatter Settings Editor.
For keyboard + mouse: make sure to enable their controls by clicking once on the keyboard and mouse icons before starting the game. If the host is using mouse + keyboard, this step is unnecessary.

Now you can start the game.

Before explaining strategies, I will explain the mechanics that are necessary to understand to score highly for this mode. Unfortunately, I do not know the formulas this game uses for scoring, the frequency and RNG of power-ups, the physics of the balls, etc, as I have not found a resource that has documented the math behind these mechanics, nor do I have the expertise to examine the code. Hence, I will only explain the mechanics as they are experienced by the player in order of importance to score highly.

Several mechanics underpin scoring. But ultimately, scoring is mainly about chaining (breaking blocks with less than a 1 second interval). The more blocks chained, the higher your score gets at an exponential rate.

That being said, chaining is not the only mechanic. The multiplier is also important. Each block earns the player a base score when it is broken. But the current multiplier value will magnify that score proportionally (i.e. if a block is broken and scores 100 points and the multiplier is 20, then it is worth 2000 points).
The multiplier is increased either when a) the player sucks up or reflects shards or b) collects a Multiplier Doubled power-up.
The multiplier decays over time if the player does not suck up or reflect shards, and at a faster rate when the multiplier is large. It will also decay when a block passes the left side of the play field. So, suck up shards, ricochet and shard storm especially when it's high.

As you suck up shards, the Power meter at the top left of the screen will increase. Your shield will activate upon pressing and holding the shield button. While your shield is active, it will rapidly drain your energy meter. However, it will make you impervious to being hit by blocks, and you can ricochet shards back into blocks to destroy them rather than waiting for a shard storm.

Ricochet is the most powerful scoring mechanic in this game mode. Besides being an alternative way to break blocks, it allows you to maintain chains. Use this extensively, especially against explosive blocks.

If you move your bat upwards while ricocheting, the shards will fly down. Likewise, if you move your bat downwards while ricocheting, the shards will fly up. If you remain still and the shards fly towards the center of your bat, the shards will reflect horizontally.

Your bat's ultimate power. After filling your Power meter completely, you can activate this ability which will rapidly shoot shards at the blocks in slow motion. It is especially great for maintaining a chain and clearing the board if overwhelmed. This can increase your chain's worth from millions to billions.

However, using it will completely drain the Power meter, leaving the player with no shield unless they collect shards. Furthermore, it is not great for starting a chain.

Your balls are your most precious jewels, and often are best used when sucked or blown. They form the life system of this game, are easily lost, and can only be gained back by picking up Extra Life power-ups, which is RNG-dependent. Your top priority, even more so than scoring, should be to protect your balls.

You can have a maximum of 4 balls in the playing field at a time. Launching a ball will increase the multiplier by +1. Bouncing the ball with the bat will increase your Power meter by a small amount each time. The player who hits the ball will change its colour to their bat's colour. Balls that match with the respective bat's colour will only be affected by that player's Suck and Blow.

Sucking and blowing will change your ball's trajectory in a parabolic fashion. Sucking will angle your ball towards your bat, whereas blowing will angle your ball away from the bat. Sucking and blowing will also pull and push loose blocks respectively. Therefore, it is generally advisable to blow more often than suck, as this will keep your balls on the right side of the playing field, and push loose blocks away from you.


Note: these are not official block names. Sidhe did not provide the block names in the game's tutorials, but they may exist in the game's code or asset files.

• Blue blocks - easily broken with shards and balls.
  
• Green blocks - If not attached to an anchor block, it is a loose block that will fly towards the player, faster if sucked. Destroy these as soon as possible, as these can overwhelm your play area. In a pinch, it's recommended to break these blocks with a shield to prevent getting the bat stunned or losing the multiplier.
  
• Brown blocks - Same as green blocks.
  
• Anchor blocks - blue blocks with either an X or a spinning cogwheel. Attaches loose blocks, and when broken, will release the loose blocks to fly towards the player.
  
• Explosives - explodes and breaks adjacent blocks. Useful for collecting shards, and scores highly. Using Ricochet and Shard Storm is advisable to keep chains going.
  
• Rockets - a triangular block that when hit once with either a shard or a ball, its thrusters will activate and fly itself (and any attached loose blocks) to the direction is it pointing. Upon being hit twice or impacting against the wall, it will explode and break adjacent bricks. This can be a dangerous block if pointed at the player.
  
• Purple blocks - resistant to shards (do not use Ricochet or Shard Storm on these). Will explode adjacent purple blocks when hit by the ball. The Unstoppaball will pass through it.
  
• Shard blocks / yellow blocks - resistant to balls (incl. Unstoppaball), but vulnerable to shards. Use Ricochet and Shard Storm on these blocks.
  
• Mitosis blocks / red diamonds - spawn daughter blocks (red octagons) every couple seconds if not broken and will take up space on the board.
  
• Daughter blocks / red octagons - easily broken by balls and shards, and will explode adjacent daughter blocks when hit.
  
• Blow blocks - will blow the ball and loose shards away from it. Can be difficult to destroy because it changes your ball's trajectory.
  
• Suck blocks - will suck the ball and loose shards towards it. Shards will be lost forever, so don't leave your shards near them.

Figure 1 - This image shows Blue, Green, Brown, Anchor, Explosives, Rockets, Purple and Shard Blocks.


Figure 2 - This image shows Blue, Green, Shard, Mitosis, Daughter, Blow and Suck Blocks.

Every 10-30 seconds, a Target Brick will spawn. Upon breaking a Target Brick, this will release one of six power-ups:

• Fragments Doubled - doubles the number of shards released from a broken block. Can be used effectively for ricocheting, gaining power for Shard Storm and/or increasing the multiplier.
  
• Multiplier Doubled - temporarily doubles the multiplier but rapidly ticks down over time.
  
• Extra Life - supplies an extra ball.
  
• Extra Power - adds +50% to the respective player's power. It is often recommended for the player with the least power to take this power-up, as a player who's close to Shard Storm or already has it charged will make little or no use of it.
  
• Unstoppaball - increases the size of your ball and allows it to pass through and destroy most blocks except for Shard, Suck and Blow Blocks.
  
• Maneuveraball - makes the ball more easily influenced by Suck and Blow such that you can easily and radically change its flight path.

The Fragments Doubled, Multiplier Doubled, Unstoppaball and Maneuveraball power-ups will only last for 15 seconds before expiring.

This section explains some strategies to score highly, elaborating upon the mechanics described in the previous section. Examples of executing these strategies will be referred to at specific time stamps in the video embedded at the bottom of this section.

As previously said, you should defend your balls at all cost, even if it means losing some points. You may not get Extra Lives frequently, and you will need many extra balls at the end game where many bricks are thrown at you and defense is more likely to falter.

The player controlling the mouse is most effective at ball defense. This is because they can spastically move the mouse to catch several balls at once. Whereas someone using the controller cannot move this fast and thus should not be heavily relied upon to defend. Instead, the person with the controller may wish to more aggressively control the balls, ricochet and use Shard Storm. However, the person with the mouse is also great at ricocheting because they can rapidly move around the board. Watch the orange bat (bjshnog) at 24:00 of the embedded video below as an example.

Ricocheting is one of the primary ways you can start and maintain a chain. Since this ability can still be used when the shield is only partially charged, you can continuously use it for any stretch of time until your Power runs out.

Use your ricochet on explosives to keep break many blocks. This will rapidly increase your score, perhaps move loose blocks into the travel path of the balls, and provide many more shards to ricochet again; perpetuating a chain.

If your balls are not on a path where they will break blocks in <1 second, then you can use a small ricochet to buy some time.

The player with the mouse can rapidly move the bat while ricocheting to target as many bricks as possible. This is optimal when overwhelmed with bricks, especially at the end game.

The bat in front is best at ricocheting because the shards are most likely to be sucked towards them. So, it is best to communicate with your friend when you wish to ricochet.

Two excellent examples of ricocheting occurs at 21:50 and 23:49 of the embedded video below. In both examples, we scored several billions (unfortunately at the expense of our balls). We did this by targeting explosives for the reasons explained above and buying time for the balls to collide with the blocks. Note that we did not have to use Shard Storm to get chains this large.


Figure 3: This ricochet occurred at 22:13 of the video, and helped push a 690M chain to 2.92B in less than 20 seconds.

The Shard Storm should (mostly) only be used if:

• a) There is a chain already going.
  
• b) The multiplier is above 20-30x.
  
• c) There are many bricks, or you are being overwhelmed with bricks.
  
• d) There are explosives on the board that can break many bricks.
  
• e) It is your only option to maintain a chain.

The Shard Storm is optimally used when you have a chain of over 10,000,000 already, you have a multiplier of 20x or more and there are many bricks on the board, which includes explosives. I do not believe it is useful for starting a chain, as you will use up all your energy and not be able to ricochet. In my experience, I've found the Shard Storm to be most useful around the middle to late game where there are generally more blocks. In the early game, it's largely superfluous because of the lack of blocks.

I semi-arbitrarily define how 'worthwhile' the use of a Shard Storm is. I base this on the number of points it helps you score. I say only semi, because the goal of this achievement is to earn 10 billion points, so liberally using such a limited ability to earn paltry points is a bad idea.

• <10 million (<0.1% of goal) = awful
  
• 10-100 million (0.1-1% of goal) = poor
  
• 100-300 million (1-3% of goal) = fine
  
• 300-500 million (3-5% of goal) = good
  
• 500-999 million (5-9.99% of goal) = great
  
• 1+ billion (≥10% of goal) = excellent

11:55 of the video is an awful example of using the Shard Storm. Whereas 17:53 is a great example of using the Shard Storm because coupled with follow-up ricocheting, it led to a 500+ million chain.

Note: the Shard Storm will not likely score you 1+ billion points just by itself. It will be a combination of using it, the balls and further ricocheting.


Figure 4: This Shard Storm occurred at 17:53 and is a rare exception where it started a chain that led to scoring 500M twenty seconds later.

Below is an embed of bjshnog and I achieving 16.1 billion in Co-Op Endless in 24ish minutes. This was also embedded in the Intro of this guide. We do not claim this to be the best gameplay by any means. We made several mistakes (my main criticism being our frequent poor use of Shard Storms), and we occasionally didn't follow our own advice, which leaves us only at 48th place.

Overall, our main strategies are to prioritize ball defense, extensively use Ricochet and opportunistically use Shard Storm.

Keep as many balls out on the field as possible, and use a good mix of sucking and blowing.

Keep the score multiplier around 20x or higher, and it's advisable to use Ricochet and Shard Storm especially when the Fragments Doubled and x2 Multiplier power-ups are active as this will lead to large chains, and the lost energy can be restored with new fragments from newly broken blocks.

We wish you luck in gaining this achievement!



Please notify us of any errors in this guide or suggestions to improve it!