Guides › Skills

The nine skills, and when to use them

Skills are how you get out of trouble in Cyber Surfer, and at high heat they're how you fight back. Here's how you get them, exactly what each one does, and when it's worth pressing the button.

How skills work

• Skill boxes float above the road. The first one appears 130 meters into every run, then one every 250 to 450 meters. The more police stars you have, the closer together they come: at five stars, about twice as often.
• One slot. You hold one skill at a time. Driving through a box while your slot is full gives you 100 points instead. Using a skill empties the slot, so you can grab and use the next box even while the last skill is still running.
• Use it with a tap, or with E or Enter on a keyboard.
• Grace period. When any skill ends, you get 1.5 seconds of invincibility. The car blinks so you know.
• Speed kick. EMP, Smoke, Shockwave, Force field and Hover push your speed up 30% while they run, easing off in the last moment. Nitro is faster still.

What you get depends on your heat

The skill in a box is random, but not evenly random. With no police on you, the game leans toward skills for getting around and collecting: Nitro, Force field, Magnet and Hover. Once you have three or more stars, it leans toward skills for fighting: Lane Laser, Shockwave, EMP, Smoke and Decoy. Between one and three stars, the odds blend from one mix to the other.

You never get a second Force field while one is already running.

The skills

• 

  Nitro (3 seconds)

  A burst of speed, 60% faster, and you're invincible the whole time: anything in front of you is smashed for 50 points each. Combined with boost, you hit the game's top speed cap.

  Use it when a wall of traffic is coming and you can't hop it, or to smash a chasing cop for a takedown.

• 

  Force field (5 seconds)

  A glowing shield that turns you into a battering ram. Cars and cops you hit fly up and explode instead of wrecking you. It doesn't save a crash after it runs out, so it's a tool for driving through things, not an insurance policy.

  Use it in the densest traffic, or to ram the Interceptor for a hit.

• 

  EMP (instant pulse, 40 meter radius)

  Every car within 40 meters floats up into the air, so you drive underneath. Every cop in range is taken down, worth 500 points per star you have. The helicopter is shot down and stays away for 15 seconds. It also counts as a hit on the Interceptor and stuns it for two seconds.

  Use it when several cruisers are close, or when the helicopter's spotlight is about to lock on.

• 

  Smoke (6 seconds)

  You become a ghost and pass straight through anything solid. If the police have spotted you, Smoke wipes your heat to zero and scores 250 points ("Lost them!"). If a cop drives into your smoke, your heat drops by a star too. It can't shake off the Interceptor, though.

  Use it at four or five stars, before a roadblock arrives, to start clean.

• 

  Decoy (5 seconds)

  A hologram of your car splits off into another lane, and the cops and the helicopter chase it instead of you. As a bonus, cars in your lane up to 120 meters ahead are knocked to the side of the road.

  Use it when a cruiser is about to box you in, or to clear your lane in a hurry.

• 

  Magnet (8 seconds)

  Pulls in every coin and battery within 25 meters, so you can stay in a safe lane and still collect. It doesn't pull in skill boxes.

  Use it on the Coastal Highway, where coin patterns come much closer together.

• 

  Lane Laser (1.5 seconds)

  A beam fires 140 meters down your lane and vaporizes anything solid in it, 100 points each: cars, cops, barriers, rocks. It also counts as a hit on the Interceptor.

  Use it to open the gap in a roadblock, or when you're stuck behind a slow truck.

• 

  Shockwave (3 pulses, 1 second apart)

  Three rings, each reaching 35 meters, fling traffic, cops, rocks, trees and construction barriers to the roadside ("Repelled", 150 points each), and smash a roadblock's barriers for a takedown. Only the first pulse counts as a hit on the Interceptor.

  Use it when the whole road is blocked, or when the Interceptor is right next to you.

• 

  Hover (6 seconds)

  The thrusters lift the car 3.4 meters up, above every vehicle on the road. While you hover you pull in coins, batteries and even skill boxes from up to 60 meters ahead. You can't hop or slam until it ends.

  Use it in rush hour, or to fly over a stretch you'd rather not drive through.

Skills are your best weapons against the police. See how heat builds in the police heat guide and how to beat the boss in the Interceptor guide.