This is an explainer on how Overload works, together with basic usage examples. For simplicity, all explanations focus on the SSR version of the skill, but can be extended to the SR version once you understand how it works.

Complexity: Simple - If you understand score bonus, you should be able to understand overload

Basic Overview

Overload is explained ingame like this (SSR)

<INTERVAL>秒毎、<CHANCE>確率でライフを<LIFE PENALTY AMOUNT>消費し、<DURATION>PERFECT/GREATのスコア18%アップ、NICE/BADでもCOMBO継続

Every <INTERVAL> seconds, there is a <CHANCE> chance that <LIFE PENALTY AMOUNT> will be deducted and for <DURATION> you will gain 18% Score Up on PERFECT/GREAT and NICE/BAD will continue combo.

There are 3 Major components to Overload

• The Life Penalty
• The Score Bonus Effect
• The Combo Support Effect

Basically it is a more powerful Score Bonus, with an additional combo support effect, but it comes with a penalty.

Overload cards are also typically Medium Activation chance, which means they have more duration coverage than High activation chance cards of the same timer.

The Life Penalty

The life penalty is an essential condition for activation of the card. The easiest analogy is to think of it as something like an entrance fee for an exhibition. If you do not pay the life penalty, the card doesn't work.

This means that there are several important interactions.

• Overload will consume life before it activates
• Overload will never kill you. It will stop activating once you can no longer afford the life penalty
• In LIVE PARTY, Overload only deducts life from the owner of the Overload card. The other players that did not bring the overload card do not take damage. This was implemented to prevent griefing.

The Score Bonus Effect

This is the same as any score bonus card. In the past, they've buffed overload to also boost Greats instead of just Perfect, making it identical to score bonus in all aspects except for the 1% higher multiplier.

This should be the simplest part of the card to understand.

The Combo Support Effect

This effect is actually present in some SRs as a standalone skill. It works by making BAD and NICE continue combo.

Key points

• BAD and NICE notes still carry their judge properties. This means that BADs still will deal damage to you.
• This causes BAD and NICE to count as a note that continues a combo. This means that in calculation, it will use the current applied Combo Bonus multiplier, but no Score Bonus effects, as there are no skills in the game that apply Score Bonus to NICE and under.

Is Overload a good skill?

Good is subjective. But overload by itself being a better score bonus, will naturally result in better score. It is recommended for people who are interested to cheese a FC of a song while still scoring good on it, or for people who want to avoid the tighter judgement windows that come with Concentration.

As of December 2021, Overload being only 1% stronger than Score Bonus means it doesn't have a place at the top of the metagame, but it's still a handy stepping stone and utility to have for the reasons mentioned above.

Advanced Interactions

This section is for interactions that are not necessary to understand the card. It is intended for more experienced players who are looking to understand the finer details of the card.

• In general, the life values of Overload are chosen such that you won't run out of life in the standard 2min 10s song even with full activations and no guest idol.
• Damage Guard with the same timer as an Overload card will always block the damage, this ignores the positioning of the card in the unit. (Experienced players might know something known as 42135 precedence and that does not apply here. Only one skill in the game actually requires knowing this)
• You can keep a combo through a revive if you die while overload is active with a BAD.
• Since overload requires life to activate, you can pay for a life refill with Jewels in Live Groove in order to have Overload on the encore Event song.