Hyper Shards
Fly a glass ship up through five panes of a stained-glass window, gather the shards of every foe and fire Hyper, alone or with a second player.
Hyper Shards is a vertical shooter in a stained-glass window. Your ship flies up through the glass and fires on its own; you steer it between the Soot Fleet's bullets, gather the shards of every foe you break, and fire Hyper when the shards have charged it.
The goal
Light the Great Window: five panes, each about three minutes long, each opened by lighting the one before. A pane is lit when its boss falls.
| Pane | Halfway | At the end |
|---|---|---|
| Valley Pane | Leaded Kite | Lantern Warden |
| River Pane | Weir Wheel | The Tidebell |
| Harbour Pane | Buoy Bell | The Ninefold Rose |
| Tower Pane | Gargoyle | The Weathercock |
| Rose Pane | Soot Lamp | Soot Mother, in two stages |
How a pane goes
- Waves of foes come down the glass: darts, weavers, swarms, turrets, mines, lancers, bulwarks and carriers. Each later pane fires faster and takes more hits to break.
- Halfway, a mini-boss stops the pane until it falls; at the end comes the boss.
- You have three ships. A ship that is hit is lost, with one level of power and half its Hyper meter.
- A P falls now and then, and always from a carrier and a mini-boss: it adds a level of power, up to four, from two shots to seven. The Valley and River Panes start at power 1, the Harbour and Tower at 2, the Rose Pane at 3.
Shards and Hyper
- Every foe you break drops shards. They drift down the glass and fly to your ship when it passes near.
- 45 shards fill the Hyper meter, the ring around the Hyper button. Full, Hyper lasts 6 seconds: every bullet on the glass turns into a shard, your shots go through foes and hit twice, bullets that touch your ship break, and shards score double.
Stars
Lighting a pane earns one star. Gathering 60% of the shards its foes dropped earns the second, and 85% the third. Shards from broken bullets do not count.
Wren
Wren, a pilot of the squadron, flies in with every boss in a small orange dart and fires homing shots beside you. When you are down to your last ship, she comes early, once a pane.
Controls
- Phone or tablet: the stick, bottom left, steers; Hyper is bottom right. A touch elsewhere does nothing.
- Mouse: hold the button anywhere and the ship flies toward the pointer.
- Keyboard: WASD or the arrow keys to steer, Space or Enter for Hyper. Esc or P pauses.
- Gamepad: the left stick or the d-pad steers, a face button fires Hyper.
- Two players on one computer: player 1 flies the Lancet with WASD and Space, player 2 the Quatrefoil with the arrows and Enter; two gamepads work as players 1 and 2.
- The pause button is top right, and the game stops while the tab is hidden.
Tacs and awards
- A lit pane pays 5 Tacs and 5 more for each star; a lost pane pays a Tac for every 40 shards gathered.
- Awards pay Tacs once: the Valley Pane lit 5, the River 8, the Harbour 10, the Tower 12, the Rose 15, the whole Great Window 25, three stars on every pane 40, a first Hyper 5, and a pane lit without losing a ship 15.
Each pane's stars and best score, and your Tacs, are kept on your device.
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