The scoring rule
A shard is worth 10 × your current combo. Collecting a shard within 1.5 seconds of the previous one raises the combo by one, up to a cap of ×9. If 1.5 seconds pass with no pickup, the combo drops back to zero and the next shard starts again at ×1. A hazard hit also resets it.
That gives three regimes. While building, each shard is worth a little more than the last: 10, 20, 30 and so on up to 90. Once at the cap, every shard is worth 90. After a break, you pay the building phase again.
What a chain is worth
| Shards in an unbroken chain | Points | Average per shard |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 10 |
| 3 | 60 | 20 |
| 5 | 150 | 30 |
| 9 | 450 | 50 |
| 15 | 990 | 66 |
| 30 | 2,340 | 78 |
The same thirty shards collected as ten separate chains of three are worth 600 points. Collected as one chain, they are worth 2,340. Nothing else in the game is close to that multiplier, which is why our measured play shows about 94.6% of shard points coming from pickups at ×5 or higher.
The clock that matters is 1.5 seconds
The run timer is 60 seconds, but the timer that decides your score is the 1.5-second combo window. At full speed the orb covers roughly 444 units in that time, about three-quarters of the arena's width. Four shards are always on the field and new ones spawn at least 60 units away from you, so there is almost always a shard inside one window's reach.
The mistake that breaks most chains is not slowness; it is chasing the nearest shard into a corner and leaving the next one a full arena away. Before you take a shard, glance at where the following one is. Taking a slightly farther shard that leaves the next one close keeps the chain alive.
What one hit really costs
A hit removes 3 seconds from the clock and resets the combo. For a strong player both effects stack:
- Lost time: our dashing test player collects about 1.9 shards per second, so 3 seconds is about 5.7 shards worth 90 each at the cap.
- Rebuilding: the eight shards after the reset are worth 10 + 20 + … + 80 = 360 instead of 8 × 90 = 720.
Together that is roughly 870 points per hit, more than a fresh chain of nine. It explains why avoiding hits moves scores more than chasing shards faster: our measured average rose by 49% just by dashing away from danger, mostly because the run lasted longer (42.9 s → 51.4 s on average).
How Double and near misses fit in
The Double power-up doubles every point for 5 seconds, applied after the combo. At ×9 that turns 90-point shards into 180-point shards, so a Double taken at the start of a long chain is worth far more than one taken while rebuilding. A 25-point near miss (dashing through a hazard) is doubled too, and it doesn't touch your combo.
Practical rule: if a Double appears while your combo is low, it is often worth waiting a second or two, building to ×5 first, and then taking it — as long as it isn't about to vanish (power-ups last 6 seconds and blink in their final second).