Pool Nation FX

MAJOR EDIT: The game has now been patched, and the achievement is now MUCH easier.

Old Solution:

Ok, so, needless to say, this is a VERY difficult achievement.

In the 360 version of this game, you were able to store your 'ball drop clock stopper' until you needed it. Unfortunately, you can't do that in this version.

Anyway, to do it without this ability is very tough.

The best way I found to do it, is at the start, wait until there's between 3-5 balls on the table at all times (except for when the timer's at 15 minutes+), so you've always got a shot on so you don't lose your streak.

Your ball-pot streak is the most important thing in Endurance. If you keep your streak going, at the later times (13 minutes onwards), it'll only take 1-2 balls to restart the ball-drop-stop clock.

Hope this helps.

The video below shows a full 20 minute run for the Super Zen achievement including it unlocking at the end. I have added counters to show the number of balls in the current break/streak as well the number of balls required to activate each drop shooter stopper.


The counters illustrate how the length of the break/streak is inversely proportional to the number of potted balls between Drop Shot Stopper activations. i.e. longer streak equals fewer balls required to activate the Drop Shot Stopper. There are break points around 6 and 13 minutes, at these times the number of balls that drop increases as well.

Making long pots also helps to fill the Drop Shot Stopper bar, but maintaining the break/streak is more important IMO. You can also use skill shots as well to fill the Drop Shot Stopper bar faster, I didn't rely on that method in the video.

Skill shots are more risky than normal shots and are most useful if you lose the break/streak. They can help you activate the Drop Shot Stopper quickly and reduce the number of balls on the table. This will benefit you more if you are closer to the 20 minutes rather than earlier in the run, depending on your skill level.

Tips
I used mainly first person view and occasionally top down view to get alignment for the more difficult shots. I didn't use fine adjustment to save time. I used the default power on most shots by pressing . I began lining up the next shot once I had control of the camera. I didn't use side spin. Stick sensitivity was set at maximum. I turned the music off to improve concentration. I used my experience of real world pool and snooker to be aware of possible upcoming shots in advance.

I prioritised shot accuracy and thus break/streak building over increased shot rate. Once the steak is lost the balls drop very quickly and you lose control of the table as it quickly fills with balls. You have more time than you realise, don't rush.

On the break I used full power and no spin to pot the first ball. I maintained a streak (from the break) of 104 balls for over 17 minutes. As the break/streak progressed the number of balls required to activate the Drop Shot Stopper went from 6 or 7 down to 2 or 3.

I activated the Drop Shot Stopper 32 times during the run.

If the table was becoming depleted of balls I delayed potting while the Drop Shot Stopper was activated to keep an appropriate number of ball and thus potting options available. Effectively that gives you up to 15/16 "free" seconds on the table. Be aware that clearing the table causes 3 balls to drop at the same time.
If you are becoming overwhelmed with balls on the table then pot as many balls as you can while the Drop Shot Stopper is active.

This video was the result of many failed attempts and shows the difficulty of this achievement, my best time before this was 17 minutes. Good luck.

From the main menu, select Endurance and make sure that you turn aiming aids off. It doesn't matter what difficulty you play on, you can still unlock this, and the other endurance achievements. So go for Easy, which mainly only affects the speed of which balls drop on your table.

The aim of endurance mode is to pot balls quicker than new ones appear on your table. You want to only really go for balls that are either near pockets or lined up straight with the cue ball and the pocket. If there is nothing on, try setting up your next pot, rather than going for long hopeful shots that hardly ever come off.

Every so often you will get a 'Ball Stop Dropper' to use. This will appear on the bottom right of the screen saying push to use. As indicated, this stops balls appearing on your screen for 15 seconds. You can elect to save this for when your getting close to your limit of 24 on the table, however please note that you don't build up your next ball stopper until you have used your current one.

If you reach 20 minutes at the Endurance table you will also unlock all the following achievements:










For a total of 170GS! Happy Potting!

People say that it is hard achievment but it is actually easy one. Only few things to make sure
1. Make sure you keep the strike going even to the last 20th minute
2. Try not to pot white ball
3. Always if possible try to pot the ball which the game is telling you as there will be less time wasted to turn around (I know some of them sometimes are hard ones so then you can change to different ball).
4. Also change difficulty to easiest one and cue line to extended.

If you do this it should come easily! :)