The critical factors that limit the performance of layered sodium ion cathode materials are analyzed by a combination of theoretical simulation and experiments. These materials include quaternary, ternary, binary and single transition metal (TM) NaTMO2 layered structures. The capacity and cyclability are different among these layered structures depending on the various combinations of the transition metal ions, i.e. the transition metal combination based performance engineering. This work elucidates these critical factors that control the battery performance in terms of electrochemical structural and microstructural evolutions, and pointing out the engineering direction to high performance sodium ion batteries.