Combo

The Combo is a central gameplay mechanic in Pizza Tower.

Behaviour

To increase a combo, the player must defeat enemies. The combo meter depletes in 6.7 seconds, after which Pizza Points are given based on the size of the combo. The combo timer can be refilled by various things:

Increase:

Picking up items. Pizza Points, Clocks, and small Pizza Blocks extend the combo time by 1.1 seconds, while some other items fill the timer completely.
Getting blessed by a Priest fills up the combo timer, but getting blessed by the same priest again does not fill the combo timer.
Finding any of the Toppins or Gerome (aka. the Janitor) fills up the combo timer.
Defeating respawning enemies does not increase the combo, but refills the timer.
Activating the Heaters in Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator fully refills the combo meter.

Decrease:

Getting hit by enemies reduces the combo timer by 2.5 seconds.
Getting caught by a Toppin Monster immediately ends the combo.

Stop:

During cutscenes and item pose animations (such as when getting the Tower Secret Treasure), the combo timer does not decrease.
Grabbing the Greaseball keeps the timer at maximum until it is hit.

Score Value

Score earned from a combo is determined by the formula (x^2 * 0.25) + 10x. A calculator can be found here.

P-rank

In order to earn a P-Rank, the player needs to keep a combo going for the entirety of the level — starting it in the first room and keeping the same combo for the rest of the level. It is also required to get the score requirement of an S-Rank, find all 3 secrets, find the Tower Secret Treasure of the level, and enter the Lap 2 portal.

If the combo allows to get a P-rank, the combo's fill icon will be purple.

Super Taunts

Upon getting a combo of 10, the player can do a Super Taunt. This kills every enemy on screen, but to do it again, the player will have to get another combo of 10 (or increase the current combo by 10).

Combo levels


Combo level	Name
1
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75

Combos 80 and over will loop the names of the combo, adding "Very" in front of them (for example, "Very Not bad but not great either"), and getting a combo of 160 or higher repeats the combo naming scheme of a combo of 80 to 159, looping back to "Very Lame...".

Chef Tasks

This mechanic is tied to the following Chef Task:

Primate Rage
Get a combo of 99 or more in John Gutter.

Trivia

Before the Eggplant Build, the combo meter only depended on enemies and was not the main priority. The player would get points from killing enemies, rather than at the end of the combo. The timer also lasted 2 seconds. The points the player would be given start at 10, then double after each enemy defeated up to 80, then staying at 80 after each enemy. The combo meter was displayed directly on the TV rather than below it.
- The combo meter only had 4 levels:
  - "OK..."
  - "Alright"
  - "Good!!!"
  - "Very good!"
- In Early Test Build, the combo system is absent.
- In Demo 1's Tester Builds 1 to 4, the combo timer took the appearance of a small pizza which loses slices as the time decreases. Combo levels and the combo counter were absent.
  - In Tester Build 1, 2, and 3, the timer lasted 1 second.
  - In Tester Build 3.5, the timer lasted 4 seconds.
- In the Rework build, the timer lasted 4 seconds instead, but the amount of points seems to increase by 10 for every 5th enemy defeated.
In PT_Eggplantv15, the highest combo title was "Brutal!", and after that, it keeps reusing the same title. However, in the files of the game, there were already all of the animations for all of the levels.
In the October 2022 build, combos after "Unfunny" reuse "Unfunny".
Ending a combo at "Funny!" level gives the player "Funny Polka" clothes, and ending a combo at "Unfunny" level gives the player "Unfunny Cook" clothes.
In some playtest versions of the Eggplant build, the combo meter fill icon was purple (though its face was the same), and the combo meter was displayed to the left of the TV.
"Cheflike" is a reference to Unreal Tournament's "Godlike", where a player has to attain 25 frags without dying, while in Pizza Tower, the player has to achieve a combo of 25.