Super Street Fighter IV/Basic Elements/Ultra Meter

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The Ultra Meter

Along with the Super Meter, every character in the game also has an Ultra Meter. The Ultra Meter serves one and only one purpose: to allow you to perform the Ultra Combo for your character. And unlike the Super Meter, there is only one way to build up the Ultra Meter: taking damage.

You start every Round with an empty Ultra Meter. Ultra Meter does not carry over to the next Round. So if you end a Round with 50% of your Ultra Meter filled up, you will lose all of that and start the next Round with nothing in the Ultra Meter.

Stages of the Ultra Meter

The Ultra Meter is divided into halves. As you continue to take damage throughout the Round, the Ultra Meter fills up. As soon as it fills up halfway, the Meter begins to glow with flames coming off of it. Once it reaches this point, you are allowed to Perform your Ultra Combo.

Once you perform an Ultra Combo during a Round, you will still continue to build up Ultra Meter during the rest of the Round. That means if you use the Ultra Combo the instant you get it, you will most likely build up another one before the Round ends.

Ultra Combos have varied damage depending on how full the meter is. The only way an Ultra Combo can do full damage is if it is 100% full. However, a half full Ultra Meter actually doesn't do 50% of the full Ultra's damage. It actually does 67% of the total damage. From there, it's a constant percentage increase in damage from 67% to 100%.

And yes, that means if you land two 50% full Ultras in a round, you get more damage than by landing one full Ultra Combo.

Ultra Meter Lengths

The length of everyone's Ultra Meter is essentially 90% of their Life Meter if you think of it as damage being directly converted into Ultra Meter. So for Ryu, since he has 1000 Hit Points, his Ultra Meter has 900 points. So if Ryu take 450 damage, that will be 450 points added to his Ultra, which makes it half full. Thus, at 450 damage, he can perform an Ultra Combo.

Focusing On Building the Ultra Meter

Absorbing attacks via a Focus also adds to your Ultra Meter. Whenever you get hit during a Focus, the game essentially behaves as if you got hit, so you'll build up exactly the same amount of Ultra Meter as you would had you actually gotten hit by the move.