All Saros Adrenaline levels and what they do

Adrenaline levels in Saros — (Image credit: Housemarque / Sony)

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What do Adrenaline levels do?
How to raise Adrenaline levels

Adrenaline levels in Saros are some of the most important and under-explained mechanics in the game. Adrenaline levels build up as you progress through combat without taking damage, granting you a series of buffs and perks, then resetting once you take a hit and forcing you to start all over again. Consequently you're encouraged to play carefully and do everything you can to avoid getting hit, but what actually do the adrenaline levels do, and are the perks worth playing so cautiously?

What do Adrenaline levels in Saros do?

There are five Adrenaline Levels in Saros before you max them out, each one of which grants a new perk or buff that stacks on top of the previous ones until you have all five.

Power Boost: Increased power absorption rate
Infrared Boost: Marks enemies through walls with a red glowing effect
Melee Boost: Increased melee damage
Repair Boost: Increased health restoration from Aether
Power Boost+: Further increase to power absorption rate

I should be clear here that Saros doesn't explicitly state what the effects are beyond the initial labelling of the five adrenaline levels, so what's above is a result of me testing these mechanics in the game and comparing accordingly.

How to raise Adrenaline levels in Saros

To raise your Adrenaline levels in Saros, you need to deal damage to enemies and pick up Lucenite (as well as periodic pickups that can improve your Adrenaline specifically).

Lucenite is very easy to find, dropped by all enemies when killed as well as found around the game. However, the Armor Matrix upgrade system will allow you to enhance the speed at which Adrenaline is increased through Lucenite collection, with multiple nodes with that purpose.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.