Street Fighter IV/Basic Elements/Super Meter

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The Super Meter

Every character in Street Fighter IV has a Super Meter at the bottom of the screen. As a match continues forth, certain actions performed by the characters will start filling up the Super Meter.

At the start of every fight, you start with an empty Super Meter. However, between Rounds, you retain whatever amount of Super Meter you had at the end of the Round. So if you have a full Super Meter at the end of Round 1, you will start Round 2 with a full Super Meter.

Super Blocks

The Super Meter is divided into four equal blocks. As soon as a block fills up, it begins glowing blue, which mean the block is ready for use. There are a set number of actions in Street Fighter IV that cost these blocks of Super Meter to perform. As soon as you perform any of these actions, you will drain the appropriate number of blocks from the Super Meter and have to begin filling up the Meter again.

Each block in the Super Meter requires 250 "points" to fill. And unlike Life Meter, this is the same for every character in the game. So everyone has the same 1000 point Super Meter divided into 4 250 point blocks.

Building Up the Super Meter

Below are a list of actions that actually build Super Meter:

  • Hitting the Opponent with a Normal Move Attack
  • Getting the Opponent to Block a Normal Move Attack
  • Performing a Special Move Attack
  • Hitting the Opponent with a Special Move Attack
  • Getting your Opponent to Block a Special Move Attack
  • Hitting the Opponent with a Focus Attack
  • Getting your Opponent to Block a Focus Attack
  • Getting Hit By Your Opponent's Attack
  • Blocking an Opponent's Attack
  • Focus-Absorbing an Opponent's Attack
  • Throwing the Opponent


The amount of Super Meter you build up for each of these actions are pre-determined by the developers. Each move is assigned an arbitrary amount that it builds up. For example, Ryu's Close Hard Punch just happens to build up 60 points on the Super Meter. Same goes for the amount of Super Meter gained from whiffing and landing Special Moves. Ryu's Light Punch Shoryuken, for example, gives you 30 points for performing it and 40 more points for hitting your opponent with it. Again, these values are arbitrarily decided by the developers of the game.

However, the values for all of the other actions are based off the core values assigned to each of these moves. For example, it was stated earlier that Ryu's Close Hard Punch gives you 60 points when you hit the opponent with it. If your opponent blocks the attack, however, you gain 50% of that value. So if the opponent blocks Ryu's Close Hard Punch, Ryu gains 30 points instead of 60.

When you get hit by the opponent's move, you gain 50% of their points. So if Ryu hits you with the Close Hard Punch, you gain 30 points of Super Meter yourself. However, if you block the opponent's move, you gain 25% of their points. So if you block Ryu's Light Punch Shoryuken, you gain 10 points as Ryu's Light Punch gives Ryu 40 points for connecting it as said earlier (the 30 points Ryu gains for performing the Shoryuken isn't factored in).

When it comes to absorbing attacks with a Focus, the behavior is exactly the same as if you got hit by the move. In other words, when you absorb the move with a Focus, you gain 50% of the Super Meter points gained by the opponent and they gain 100% of their Super Meter points.

There are some extraneous methods to gain Super Meter, but they are character specific, such as Rose's Light Punch Soul Reflect, which absorbs Projectiles and converts them to Super Meter.

Using the Super Meter

Below are the actions that drain Super Meter, including their cost:

  • Performing an EX Special Move (1 Block)
  • Canceling a Normal Attack into a Focus Attack (2 Blocks)
  • Canceling a Special Attack into a Focus Attack (2 Blocks)
  • Performing a Super Combo (4 Blocks)


There is one exception to the EX rule listed: Seth's EX Tandem Engine costs 2 blocks of Super Meter, as it seems Capcom decided the move was a bit too potent to only cost 1 block.