One of the most exhilarating and rewarding systems in Sunset Overdrive is its combo and style meter mechanic—represented by a little lightning bolt icon in the top right of your HUD. While the game might not thoroughly explain how to build or maintain this meter, mastering it is key to unlocking your character’s true destructive potential. This guide dives deep into how it works, why it matters, and how to stay airborne long enough to keep the madness going.

Why the Style Meter Matters

The style meter isn’t just for bragging rights—it’s directly tied to your character’s Amp abilities. These Amps are broken into different tiers that activate as your style meter increases:

• Level 1: Unlocks Hero Amps (two types active)
• Level 2: Triggers Melee and Dive Bomb Amps
• Level 3: Activates Epic Amps (e.g. lightning storms on kill)
• Level 4: Everything goes “bad crazy”—a full-on overload of powered-up chaos

Higher levels allow insane passive damage output. For example, one Epic Amp causes lightning to spawn randomly with your attacks—devastating in high-level encounters, especially against late-game robotic enemies.

How to Build Your Style Meter

Your style meter is directly linked to traversal. The more creatively and consistently you move, the more the meter fills. But here’s the catch: variety matters. You can’t just bounce on the same object or grind the same rail—repeating the same movement on the same surface yields diminishing returns. Think of it like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater—spamming one trick won’t get you high scores.

Use multiple types of traversal back to back:

• Grind on rails, ropes, signs
• Bounce off umbrellas, cars, vents, canopies
• Wall run and wrap corners using X
• Dive bomb or spring off enemies for added effect

Try to chain different paths together before entering combat zones. Building a little pre-battle momentum primes your meter to explode once you start landing kills.

Keeping the Combo Alive

Raising the meter is only half the battle—you’ve got to keep it going. Touching the ground? That’s your style killer. Even a split second ruins your combo count. If you go from 47 to 1, you’ll feel it. Your flow is broken.

To avoid that:

• Never stop moving. Use grinds, bounces, and wall runs to maintain elevation.
• Use your tools: Air boosts, dashes, and even air bounces can prolong your airborne time.
• Recovering from a fall: If you’re about to hit the ground, try these last-ditch saves:
  • Press X then A to vault off a vaultable object (handspring recovery)
  • Use the dive bomb jump to slam and bounce
  • Land on bounceable objects like cars or umbrellas

There’s even the quirky option to grind on water once—if you do, jump and dash to keep momentum, but you’ll have to bounce on something solid before doing it again.

Advanced Tips for Traversal and Combo Chaining

Once you’re familiar with the core techniques, look for creative ways to extend your combos:

• Grind underneath objects using crowbar animations for momentum resets
• Flip from under to over a grind rail and jump simultaneously for a boost
• Use circular buildings or silos to loop indefinitely
• Mix traversal and shooting—grinding while firing helps style and damage simultaneously

Traversal isn’t just about getting from point A to B—it’s your power source. Movement fuels style, and style fuels Amps.

When It Counts Most

Maintaining high combo counts is critical during challenges and late-game encounters where you’re swarmed by enemies. Having your Epic Amps constantly activated turns you into a mobile storm of destruction. Grinding, bouncing, and shooting without touching the ground not only maximizes efficiency—it makes you practically unstoppable.

In Summary

• Build your style by chaining diverse traversal methods
• Avoid touching the ground at all costs
• Trigger Amps by raising style levels
• Use environment variety to your advantage
• Practice movement until you can stay airborne indefinitely

With these tactics, you’ll never look at rooftops and telephone wires the same way again. Sunset City is your playground—and now you’ve got the power to turn it into a nonstop explosion of style and firepower.