Sonic Adventure DX Director’s Cut --------------------------------- Copyright 2005-2007 Brian McPhee Author: Kirby021591 (Brian McPhee) Most Recent Update: April 14, 2007 Originally Created: October 30, 2005 Version 1.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------Table of Contents--------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1* Introduction* Navigation* Storyline* Items & Objects* Section 2* Sonic the Hedgehog* Miles “Tails” Prower* Knuckles the Echidna* Amy Rose* E-102 “Gamma”* Big the Cat* Other Characters* Section 3* Action Trial Emblems* Sub Game Emblems* Adventure Field Emblems* Emblem Checklist* Section 4* Character Upgrades* Mission Mode* Chao Garden* Secrets* FAQ* Section 5* Credits and Legal Information* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ / \ / \ ||----------------------------Section 1*-----------------------------|| \ / \_________________________________________________________________/ ======================================================================= =============================Introduction*============================= ======================================================================= Why, welcome to the guide! Chances are good that you know this is an FAQ for Sonic Adventure DX Director’s Cut for the GCN (Game Cube), but I’ll state it here for all of you who randomly click around the screen and type in “Sonic Adventure DX” at all times (for that is the only way you’re possibly here). But I digress, and both of you reading this would probably like me to move on. Let’s begin with the rich history surrounding Sonic Adventure... ‘cause I know you are just dying to know. In 1999, the Sonic Team delivered Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, Sega’s latest and last system. I remember hearing about it when it first came out, mostly about its stunning graphics. Indeed, screenshots revealed that SA had some of the best graphics I’d ever seen. About one year later, the DC fell flat against competitors (namely Sony), but not before SA could spawn a sequel. After Sega lost its seat in the “Console Wars,” they clung to longtime enemy Nintendo’s new system, the Game Cube. They released a remake of Sonic Adventure 2 on it, and in 2003 they re-released the original SA. My Nintendo fanboyism had stopped me from playing Sonic Adventure on its home system, but now that it was on Nintendo, anything goes. So, how has Sonic Adventure aged? In short, pretty well. The then stellar graphics now look just above average (except during the very well-executed cinemas), and for some reason Sonic has fangs. No, really! Anyways, the point is that for a game that got such high marks for visuals back in the day, SA is still nice today. Far worse than Sonic’s fangs is the game’s length. Sure, we have eight, count ‘em, eight character to play as (seven or six if you want to get technical about it), but that’s another problem. Quite a few of the characters (I’m looking at you, Big) have really stupid missions, and the game is very easy in general (sounds pretty dumb to say in a walkthrough, but at least I’m honest...). The only difficult missions you’ll have are Sonic’s toward the end of the game, as well as a few extra mission (called trials). But, we’re just dancing around the subject here. The other big concern people had for this game was the 3-D aspect. Back then (and back now), it was a hot new dimension to explore, and if an overweight plumber could do it, why not Sonic? Well, it’s a mixed bag. Sonic had gone 3-D before (in a not-so-good Sonic 3D Blast), but not like this. In the third dimension, Sonic has a variety of new tricks. First and foremost, they brought back the home attack (some people might remember a primitive version of it from Sonic the Hedgehog 2) and made it Sonic’s main attack. Plus, we have neat-o moves like the Light Dash. Sonic handles fairly well in 3-D, losing some of his former speed in places, but it’s nothing compared to the hardships of his companions. For some reason, the Sonic Team decided that Knuckles should spend all his levels hunting down emeralds with a fickle radar. Amy Rose gets her own levels, as does Tails (his are mostly rehashes of whatever Sonic did), and a few new characters add to the “variety.” Every single one of Big’s, a cat character introduced to the series, levels is a fishing simulator. All of them! They did see fit to throw him a bone in one boss fight, but it’s also a fishing sim (don’t ask me how). E-102 Gamma, a robot who rebels against Eggman (the new name for Dr. Robotnik), makes for shooter levels. No matter how you slice it, though, the game’s either too easy or too frustrating. Also, there’s the whole camera thing, but it’s not as bad as people make it out to be. I should note, though, that even if the game itself isn’t for you, they have some great mini-games, side games, and extra missions. Within the game is a Sonic Drift-like game (in updated graphics), something very similar to NiGHTS, extra missions to add replay value to the levels, and the Chao Garden. Chao are like virtual pets, and they can be quite addictive. Also, hidden in the game are a few of Sonic’s other games, ones that came out for the Game Gear all that time ago... Just the extras in this game make it worth your money, and the game itself isn’t half bad either! So, if I had to rate this game, despite all that I’ve said against it, I’d say it evens out to a 7/10. It’s really fun, even if it can be beaten pretty quickly (of course, getting everything takes a long time), and all of its good qualities make it into the sequel (which I think is better), Sonic Adventure 2 (it’s called SA2: Battle on the GCN remake). So, what are we waiting for? On with the show! By the by, should you see this guide on web site other than GameFAQs and its affiliated (AOL and GameSpot), please contact me. With your help, we can put an end to plagiarism... of this guide. Thanks a million! ======================================================================= ==============================Navigation*============================== ======================================================================= Have you noticed that everything has an asterisk (*) by it? Well, oddly observant person, it’s there for a reason! Aside from being totally festive, you can use them for navigation. That is, press the CTRL and F keys on your keyboard (that’s Apple and F on a Mac) for a Find/Search box to come up. Type in the name of the section you want, asterisk and all, and click “Find/Search.” After being taken to the Table of Contents, click it again to reach the beginning of that section. It’s fast, friendly, and easy! May it serve you well. ======================================================================= ==============================Storyline*=============================== ======================================================================= Sonic games have always featured fairly involved storylines ever since Knuckles appeared for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and this game is no exception. Since the extra characters technically are secrets, I’ll run you through the beginning of Sonic’s story. +-------------------------+ | Storyline Summary | +-------------------------+ In Station Square, the city that the game centers around, it is nighttime. After returning from a previous adventure, Sonic finds the police/military surrounding the train station. A strange blue creature named Chaos is there. It is resistant to their gunfire, and Sonic decides to challenge it to battle. Little does he realize that this creature has dark designs for not only Station Square, but for the world... That was incredible! Anyways, let’s now discuss the cast of characters, listed as the manual lists them. +----------------------------+ | Important Characters | +----------------------------+ Sonic the Hedgehog: The blue blur hails from South Island where he has a history of rescuing his animal buddies, and he “loves freedom, hates oppression.” This time around, Sonic has to stop his arch nemesis, whom he has nicknamed Eggman, from restoring to power a strange being called Chaos, but is even this hedgehog fast enough to stop the insidious Dr. Robotnik? More importantly, will he be able to do that AND fit in a Super Sonic appearance for all of his fans? Miles “Tails” Prower: A fox born with a birth defeat, Miles has two tails (hence the nickname). This was really a blessing, as it gave Tails the ability to fly and run faster by propelling himself with his dual tails. Tails first accompanied his mentor, Sonic, in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and even then this youngster has been showing off his mechanical genius; he can build machines rivaled only by Robotnik’s. In fact, he was testing a new power source one day when he got involved in Sonic’s new adventure. As a note of interest, Tails is seven years younger than Sonic. Knuckles the Echidna: Knuckles in the guardian of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds (well, he used to be, anyways) on the floating Angel Island. In his first appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Dr. Robotnik convinced him that Sonic and Tails were trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds, and so Knuckles pestered them throughout their adventure. Knuckles eventually realized the error of his ways, and was playable for the first time in a game called Sonic & Knuckles, although he was still sour toward Sonic and company. As of this game, Sonic and Knuckles are friends, but it’s a pretty precarious peace. Knuckles is just waiting to lash out against his friend/rival Sonic, and he may get a chance to. After all, he leaves Angel Island once the Master Emerald is shattered. Knuckles is one year older than Sonic. Amy Rose: A female hedgehog, Amy played the damsel in distress back in a game known to all as Sonic CD. Aside from appearances in games like Sonic Drift (a racing game), Amy is playable for the first time in this game. She has wanted to marry Sonic ever since he rescued her from Metal Sonic (even though she’s a very young hedgehog, three years younger than Sonic), and her goal in life is to hunt him down and make him say “I do,” which Sonic doesn’t plan on doing... ever. Her weapon is the Piko Piko Hammer, and her path intertwines with the rest of the characters’ when she meets one very annoying robot, a real zero (pun!). Big the Cat: In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the cat sleeps tonight... Yes, Big is a simple-minded jungle inhabitant who spends his time with his best friend, Froggy the (who’d have guessed it?) frog, fishing. When Froggy goes missing after finding a strange gem, Big embarks on a quest to find his missing friend. And he does so by fishing... everywhere. Believe it or not, Big has been “so popular” that they included him, along with a few other has-beens, in Sonic Heroes as a playable character, not to mention letting him cameo all over the place in Sonic Adventure 2. What’s up with that? E-102 Gamma: E-102 was created by Dr. Robotnik in the E series as a gunner robot. Along with his “brothers,” Gamma must follow the orders the good doctor, even though he can think for himself. Gamma has a bit of a change of heart when he meets someone aboard the Egg Carrier, and he sets out on a new quest afterwards. E-102 cameos in Sonic Adventure, but he was replaced by a new robot named Omega (the last unique robot in the E series) in Sonic Heroes. Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik: The major villain of the Sonic series, Dr. Robotnik is a self-proclaimed genius. Apparently, his I.Q. is 300. Aside from that, he must be filthy rich; his army is composed almost entirely of robots. In his first act of evil in Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik kidnapped the animal residents of South Island and forced them to pilot his robotic warriors. Among Robotnik’s many technological achievements are the Death Egg, Metal Sonic, and now the Egg Carrier. But, this time, Robotnik’s plot revolves around a mysterious being known as Chaos. After freeing him from the Master Emerald, Robotnik plans to track down all seven Chaos Emeralds, mystical jewels that, when combined, have extreme power, and let Chaos absorb their power, but Sonic stands in his way once again. But this time, Robotnik has reinforcements, and not just Knuckles, either. On a different note, the manual says that Sonic and friends call Robotnik “Eggman,” but the nickname first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. On one of his aircraft, the words “29 Eggman-01,” meaning that Robotnik must’ve invented it himself. Chaos: A blue creature composed of a strange liquid, Chaos is an ancient life form escaped from the Master Emerald. With the help of Dr. Robotnik, Chaos will use the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds to become unstoppable. However, Chaos seems to have quite a bit of opposition in the form of just about everyone else. But, what is Chaos’s motivation? Tikal: A weird voice that helps you out with hints during the game. We only learn the name of the light in different storylines. Perhaps Tikal has a more important purpose. In any case, Tikal was replaced in the sequel (seemingly permanently, judging by his reappearance in Sonic Heroes) by a helping character named Omochao. They’re equally annoying, though. ???: The final secret character, this is a character from quite some time ago (although similar characters have appeared since the original Sonic the Hedgehog). You can unlock him/her/it, but I’ll give you a hint: in Sonic Adventure, this character appears in a tank being rehabilitated. This character does not actually have a storyline attached to it, though. Wasn’t that just the coolest ever!? No!? Okay... sorry to bother you... In any case, let’s move on into new territory – the items! ======================================================================= ===========================Items & Objects*============================ ======================================================================= Sonic Adventure’s items are your standard Sonic fare, plus or minus a few things. Items are essential to the game, as you’ll see when playing, and so I’m listing what they are and what effects they have on your character when used. +-------------+ | Items | +-------------+ Ring: The most important item in the game, rings protect you from losing a life. Now, some things, like jumping off a cliff or being crushed, can kill you no matter how many rings you have, but most things that can hurt you – enemy attacks or hazards – will kill you instantly UNLESS you have these. If you have even one ring and you’re hit, you won’t die. Instead, you’ll just drop your rings (which affords you two hits) and continue. You can still reclaim them, however, by picking up dropped rings. Even if you have more, the highest number of rings you can drop is 20. Getting 100 rings earns you an extra life. Rings act as currency in parts of the game, too. Capsule: Capsules are containers that keep items in them. Touch them or hit them to take their contents. Below are a few capsule items. Super Ring: Capsules often contain these, “Super Rings.” Well, that’s the Sonic the Hedgehog-term for capsules containing rings. They act just like normal rings, only they come in bunches. Super Rings can range in value from 1 to 40 rings. 1UP: A capsule containing your character’s symbol (the face of the character you’re playing as) adds one life to your count. If your lives ever run out, you get a Game Over. Shield: These protect you for one hit. If you are hit while you have one of these capsules items (their symbol is a colored circle), you won’t lose any rings. They come in two types – green and blue. Green Shields are just protection, but blue ones are magnetic – they attract rings to you as well as defending you. Invincibility: Looking like a flower in a capsule, these make you invulnerable to attack for a short period of time. Go ahead – run into enemies! It’ll only hurt them. Power Sneakers: They look like shoes, and they increase your speed temporarily but dramatically. Be careful, though; it’s easier to run off ledges when you have this. Bomb: A handy little item, it destroys all enemies in the area. Animal: When you defeat badniks (a.k.a. enemy robots), an animal that was imprisoned in the robot by Eggman is released. Animals can be given to Chao to upgrade their stats (see “Chao Guide” for details). +---------------+ | Objects | +---------------+ Checkpoint: Looking like “gates” almost, checkpoints mark your progress in the level. That is, if you die after passing through a checkpoint, you’ll restart there instead of at the beginning of the level. You begin with the same amount of time on the clock, though. Capsule: At the end of some levels are capsules, just like in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Jump onto the switch on top of them to release the animals trapped inside. Spring: Red objects that bounce you, springs are essential to getting around many levels. Switch: They look like springs only they’re flattened and on the ground. Hitting switches triggers certain things. Often, they make trails of rings appear or doors open. Strange Light: A mysterious orange ball of light named Tikal, it gives you hints throughout the game. In Sonic Adventure 2, it is replaced by a character named Omochao. Now that we’ve got that clear, let’s get down to business. You heard me right! It’s time for some walking through in the walkthrough! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ / \ / \ ||----------------------------Section 2*-----------------------------|| \ / \_________________________________________________________________/ ======================================================================= ==========================Sonic the Hedgehog*========================== ======================================================================= Sonic is the only available story at the beginning of the game, and his is the longest one by far. Sonic has pretty simple controls; press A to jump (the longer you hold it, the higher you go), A again to perform the homing attack, and hold B to perform a spin dash. You can also press X to perform the spin dash. The Control Stick moves him, and the C Stick can be used to receive a first-person perspective while stationary. And that’s all you need to know. Now, it’s time for the world’s fastest hedgehog to save the day once again! +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 0 | +---------------------+ It’s nighttime in Station Square, and Sonic is returning from a long adventure. But, as he’s jumping from rooftop to rooftop, he notices the city’s police are out in force around a building. Their guns are aimed at a mysterious life-form made of a blue liquid. They make it eat lead, and lots of it, but the bullets have no effect! They fall back, and Sonic decides that this could be a fun guy to fight. Chaos 0 is pretty easy to beat. Really, this boss is designed to let you get a feel for the controls. Remember, jump with A, home attack with another press of A. Chaos 0 is obviously weak in the head, right where that glowing red object is. You can hit it in two ways: jump into it or home attack into it. Either way, it deals damage and drains a third of its health. At first, its arms elongate and hands glow red to punch you. Run or jump to avoid it (pick up some rings, too; you need one or more rings at all times. If you’re hit when you have no rings, you lose a life). After one hit, Chaos 0 adds a spinning attack to its repertoire, but it’s also easily avoided. After another hit, Chaos 0 leaps into the air in an attempt to land on you. Other than that, it’s the same old strategies. At the end, your score is tallied up based on speed, rings, and other criteria. Chaos 0 washes away into the sewer system, and amidst the sound of the rain can be heard the voice of Dr. Eggman. It is Chaos, God of Destruction! And he is not nearly defeated! +----------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Station Square | +----------------------------------------+ Tails is flying a plane he built into Station Square, right by Sonic’s hotel. It’s the easy life, don’t you know? Unfortunately, Tails crashes onto the beach nearby. Let’s go rescue him! Right now, you’re in the Station Square Adventure Field. An Adventure Field is where events, boss battles, and stage openings all take place. Right now, you are in the Pool Side sector of Station Square (the part we can move around in, anyways). You can talk to people by approaching them and pressing B. In any case, the beach begins ahead of you. Walk up to it. The monitor here says “Welcome to Emerald Coast!” Enter this, the first Action Stage, Emerald Coast. +---------------------+ | Emerald Coast | +---------------------+ Our mission is to rescue Tails! Run forward, collecting rings as you go, and you’ll encounter a ground robot. Home attack into it and an animal is released. These animals, imprisoned by Dr. Eggman, can be rescued. Either way, jump to the island to the left, collect the rings, and jump forward to the mainland. Run forward a bit more, defeat another rhino robot, and dash forward to a ramp. Run up the right side, collecting a trail of rings as you go, and avoid the monkey robot (a Kiki) that throws bombs. Hit the spring at the end to bounce through a series of springs to reach the boardwalk. Run through it, bouncing off the rails, to reach a spring. Either home attack into it or continue down the normal path to reach to eventually reach a loop. Sprint into it on the boosters and you’ll land on the beach. Run forward through a few rings to reach the first checkpoint. Now if you die, you’ll restart there. Run forward through the rings to reach a boost pad. Rather than run into it, instead go left onto the high ground and walk down. Defeat a Kiki using the homing attack and then home in on the capsule here containing 15 rupees. After that, jump off the side of the cliff into the water to find a 1UP in capsule. Take it and run back to the beach, run up it, and speed through the boost ramp. You’ll land by yet another checkpoint after soaring over the water below. Run forward in the tunnel you come to gather more rings and run up a wall to the next portion of the level. Ahead of you is a spiky hazard that rises and falls to hurt you. Wait for it to rise and run under into a small tunnel. Take the rings within and continue on to another loop that launches you over the water and onto the boardwalk, which is rocking from the waves. Head forward on it to come to the third checkpoint. In this next section, you’ll just speed over the boardwalk as a whale jumps through the section behind you, thus destroying it. It’s pretty easy and a good way to collect rings. When you land, you’ll pass through another checkpoint. Run forward under one of those gate obstacles and go left instead of the obvious forward. Destroy this Kiki and hit the capsule for a few rings. Now walk into the water and hug the wall to reach three more ring capsules. After collecting them, continue around the wall to reach the gate again. Turn around and run forward up a slope to find a spring. Bounce on it up to another spring; bounce from it to a third. Here, either bounce on the first spring or home attack the 1UP capsule ahead and then the spring. Either way, you’ll end up on a semicircle of rings. Follow it to a bridge; cross it, jumping when appropriate, to reach a lighthouse. Walk to the left around it and you’ll reach a more jungle-like setting briefly. You drop into a tunnel; run forward and hit the checkpoint with your new rings in hand. Run forward and build up speed so that you can run onto the side of the wall. After two ring rows, you’ll reach a capsule that contains Power Sneakers. With them, Sonic runs faster. Run forward through the next few lines of rings along the side of the wall to reach a tunnel. It leads you through many rings, into speed boosts, through a 1UP Capsule, and eventually leaves you at a checkpoint on a stone road. Run forward on it and you’ll barely notice the road curving against the wall. You’ll pass through a tunnel (there are rings in the water if you’d like them) and boost into a speed ramp that leads to another set of boosters. Take them up the quarter-loop to reach a path with a Kiki toward the end. Home attack it and hop up the steps to reach a tunnel. When you’re through with it, the checkpoint awaits. Run forward along the center of the path and you’ll eventually be boosted into a strange light. It speaks to you, telling you to jump into the panel to be transported to the other panels. Before taking its advice, defeat the Kiki to the left and collect the rings in the capsule. Then hop onto the yellow panel. Upon landing on it, you’ll be sped up to the next one. Jump at all of them to land from the fifth on solid ground. Walk forward from there to pass under two spiky gates and reach a series of rings followed by a Kiki. Take the former and crush the latter before running down the next path. After landing on dry ground, run forward under the dolphins to reach the wreckage of the plane and Tails. +------------------------------+ | The SS Central Station | +------------------------------+ Tails and Sonic walk back to the hotel. Tails admits that he has a few bugs in his new propulsion system. He reveals that he’s using a Chaos Emerald as a power source because they have unlimited power. You just GOTTA come over to his workshop in the Mystic Ruins. He has something to show you! Congrats, you unlock the Tails storyline! Now you can play as Tails in Adventure Mode! Rather than lead us to his workshop, though, Tails thinks it’d be more fun for you to discover it yourself. North of Pool Side (on the map) is the Hotel. Walk into the doors here and you’ll reach a monitor. It tells you that the Casino is only open at night. Also, you can take the left elevator here to visit Chao Garden (see the section entitled “Chao Guide” for details on them). In any case, take the door by the stairs and right of the manager out of here. Welcome to Station Area! This region of Station Square is home of the building that gives the place its name – the train station. Ahead of you is the entrance to Twinkle Park, but we’re not interested in it right now. Instead, go left of it to reach SS Central Station. A girl is standing outside of it. Enter through the double doors up the steps. Take the stairs inside up and you’ll find the doors of the train open. It’s leaving for Mystic Ruins (what luck!). Enter into one of the trains and it will depart for Mystic Ruins. +--------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Mystic Ruins | +--------------------------------------+ Climb down these first few flights of stairs to reach the base of a brand new Adventure Field! Aren’t you excited!? Then I’ll stop using exclamation points! Anyways, a team of archaeologists are searching for the ruins here. As you can see, there’s a mountain to the west (look on the map). It seems to have fallen from the sky, as it wasn’t there before... To the east is Tails’s Work Shop. Facing the strange light that gives tips, go right over some train tracks and then up a flight of stairs. Dr. Robotnik appears! He introduces himself as the foremost scientific genius the world has ever seen, but Sonic taunts him by calling him “Eggman.” Regardless, he’s got big plans, and he wants the Chaos Emeralds to carry them out. Sonic refuses to give them to him, and so Eggman decides to take them by force! His machine transforms into the Egg Hornet! +------------------------+ | Boss: Egg Hornet | +------------------------+ It’s a classic-like Sonic boss with one dimension added. The Egg Hornet has little health, and it’s probably even easier than Chaos 0 was. Eggman kicks things off by firing a few missiles at you. Run around and they’ll miss you (be sure to pick up some, but not all, rings). Then the Egg Hornet hovers about for a bit and is surrounded by a red aura. Two spikes emerge and it launches itself at you. Move and it gets stuck in the ground. Now’s your chance to home attack the cockpit! After three such hits (Eggman just fires more missiles with each hit he takes), the Egg Hornet collapses. The main body is still intact, though... Eggman is down in the dirt for a little while pretending to be stuck. But, as they least expect it, Eggman launches a claw at Tails from his side and takes the Chaos Emerald. Chaos 0 appears and consumes the emerald and grows (now Chaos 1). Its left arm now contains what appear to be bones, and it grew from a rather scrawny beast into a tall, muscular one. Eggman plans to feed it all seven Chaos Emeralds until it is unstoppable, and then he will destroy Station Square! In the rubble he will build Robotnikland, the ultimate city, and from it he shall presumably expand his empire. What a loser... So, they take off, and Tails figures that it might be a good idea to collect the other Chaos Emeralds so that Eggman can’t get them. Great idea, fox boy! Now, let’s find one of these emeralds... +----------------------+ | The Wind Stone | +----------------------+ Now go to Tails’s Work Shop by utilizing the flight of stairs here. You’ll see a green stone in front of the few steps leading up to the door. Lift it with B to learn that it is the Wind Stone... It looks like a key. Take it to the place on the map marked “Windy Cave.” It’s right by the Waterfall. Enter Windy Cave and place in the Wind Stone in the indentation. It starts to float, and the wind in the cave strengthens. Jump in to reach Stage 2, Windy Valley. +--------------------+ | Windy Valley | +--------------------+ Our mission? Find the Chaos Emerald! Tails is here to follow you, too, just like he has been doing since Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Run down the path for the first three rings and then jump onto the grassy ledge. Home attack the ten-ring capsule and then the series of fans to reach a Shield capsule. With it, home attack to the left. You’ll drop down either on or in front of (or even behind!) a checkpoint. Jump up the next few ledges, collecting rings as you go, to reach a spring. Bounce from it into an upward draft. Float on it to ground, and then hit the checkpoint (already? That was quick...). As the invisible light told us, the wind forms an invisible path that we’ll have to make use of. Run forward down this earthen path through the rings to reach a ledge. Run off of it (hold the Control Stick forward throughout the wind-run sequence if you want to survive) to dash along the gusts and reach ground. Ahead of you is a trampoline; bounce on it four times to reach your maximum height and push the Control Stick to the upper-left to reach a ten-ring capsule. Drop down to the grassy platform below and jump across the gap that a now broken bridge once covered. Upon landing, take your fill of the rings and run across the bridge. Just before you make it, it collapses, dropping you to the foggy area below. A large blue robot is roaming around here. Home attack it to release its animal and run forward into a trail of rings. It leads you into a giant tornado (really a whirlwind) that flings you to the upper portion of the level. We’re inside the tornado! The glowing light tells us that we need to get up and escape the tornado. Bounce on the spring and land on the grated platform. Take the rings and move over to the yellow panel. Jump on it to the second to the third and so on until you land right in front of the checkpoint. Jump onto the trampoline ahead of you and bounce three times to be high enough to reach the bridge. Walk down it to the spring and you’ll bounce your way up to a semicircular piece of land. On it, run into the well-looking structure with a spring inside it and you’ll be launched out of the tornado (with a sudden change in music, too). Run down the first few runways until you pass a purple caterpillar enemy hovering in the air (a nod to old Sonic enemy Caterkiller?). After it, you’ll notice a Power Sneakers capsule to the right. Take it, run forward, and jump into the stack of blocks. Now run across the road in the air until you bounce up. Hold left to land on the stone platform and run forward afterward. Take the rocket you come to across the gap. Now pass through the checkpoint. Sprint across this grated runway and you’ll bounce onto another grassy platform right of the springs. Home attack the robot to the right and time your floating so that you pass over the spiked ball. After that, claim 40 rings from the capsule and run off the ledge. You’ll run with the wind (pun!) to reach a spring in the air. Bounce off of it and onto yet another grassy platform, complete with checkpoint. As you run down the next runway, you’ll eventually reach the wall. Drop-run down it into a few loops and right over the huge gap below riding the air currents to the final platform. Take 15 rings from the capsule to the left and then touch the purple Chaos Emerald at the head of the island in the sky. We rocked! +-------------------------------------+ | From the Sewers to the Casino | +-------------------------------------+ The train is now departing for Station Square. Get on board while you can and you’ll ride to a Square Station now experiencing late afternoon. And judging by the newspaper’s headlines – Mysterious person left a manhole cover open! – we should get into the sewers. Also, it’s by City Hall (you know by the smell). From where the station is, walk down into Station Area and take the northern path (use the map if you need additional guidance) to a new screen of the city. You’ll find an emblem inside the local Burger Shop; take it. In any case, you want to enter the manhole right of the store named “ATOZ School.” Drop into it to reach the sewers. -------------------------- UPGRADE: Light Speed Shoes -------------------------- From where you land, go north (on the map) to reach a small metal platform. With it, jump up and home attack over the rail to obtain the glowing item. You got the Light Speed Shoes! With this fancy footwear, you can perform a more powerful spin dash (hold B) that will let you travel along a trail of rings at “light speed.” Note that X also works. You know that Sonic is ready when surrounded by a blue aura and he says “Ready...!” It’s quite useful in places. -------------------------- Step on the switch down the hall and a trail of rings appear. Hold B/X until Sonic’s even bluer than normal and release. When you light dash up the rings, you’ll see a door ahead of you. Take it to enter the clothing shop, which is right outside City Hall. Remember fighting Chaos 0 there? Anyways, it’s now nighttime in Station Square, which means that Casinopolis (the casino) is open for business. --------------------- UPGRADE: Crystal Ring --------------------- Return to the Hotel and take the stairs up. Now that we have the Light Speed Shoes, we can get another upgrade. When you take the stairs up, you’ll see two switches. Step on the right one first to make a trail of rings appear. Then step on the left one and immediately begin your spin dash, a.k.a. storing power. By the time you’re ready for a light dash, the door across the gap should close and re-open. Release B/X and you’ll cross the gap. Hold forward to run through the doors before they close and take another upgrade, the Crystal Ring! It reduces the time it takes to store enough energy for the light dash! --------------------- Take the stairs back down and exit the Hotel through the door opposite the doors that lead to Pool Side. You come to the road that connects the Hotel to the famous Casinopolis (there’s always a casino stage in Sonic games, and it’s quite often the third one, too). However, the only way in is closed. That’s pretty bad business! There’s a switch in the surrounding area by the sidewalk. Press it and a trail of rings materialize. Spin dash on them and you’ll collide with the large switch above the neon sign. This opens the door. Huzzah! We saved their business! Now then, to take the Chaos Emerald that just has to be inside... +-------------------+ | Casinopolis | +-------------------+ No joke, my friend. Casinopolis is an “action stage,” Stage 3 in fact. And we need some serious cash if we want to open the vault that contains the Chaos Emerald we’re looking for – 400 rings! You’ll find several money-making machines in the casino. Starting with the Information center, we’ll review all the sources of rings in the casino. Sonic Slot & Pinball: It’s like Sonic Spinball! Well, not really. You earn rings by hitting bumpers and other objects. You can bounce Sonic with the flippers, controlled with L and R, and hit him into the objects on the course. You can lose the ball three times. Should you fail to get 100 or more rings, you get dumped into the garbage. You also have a time limit. It’s a descent way to earn rings, and it also has a slots game you can play if you hit the ball into the right chute. Threes of any symbol, vertical, diagonal, or horizontal, earn you rings (or take them away, in the case of Eggman). You may even earn capsule items from one chute like 1UPs. Card & Pinball: Anyone who’s ever played this Sega classic will know that this has many elements of NiGHTS in it, even the main character. Like the slots, getting less than 100 rings in the game means a trip to the garbage is in store for you. The goal of this game is to use the flippers (L and R) to knock Sonic around for rings and cards. To get a card, shoot yourself into the central chute. For every five cards you get, the game counts for matches. Getting a match with cards will earn you rings. Three of a kind and that sort of thing earn even more rings. If you hit the ball over the top of the machine, you’ll enter a new pinball machine with a bunch of cards assembles for easy picking. Falling in it returns you to the main pinball machine, but not before you pass through a 3D zone quite similar to an area from NiGHTS: Into Dreams. I find this one easier to play than the other pinball game. Garbage: The garbage is actually a great way to get rings, assuming you don’t lose them from being hit by enemies. When you enter, light dash through the first set of rings to pass under the fan robots, called Spinners, and destroy quite a few too with a Bomb. At the end, you’ll collect a few animals and see three spiked balls ahead. Pass them with careful timing and you’ll enter a fan room. You can rise up with them to collect the sideways ring capsules or enter the side tunnels (they lead to these base of the fan, with many more ring capsules and enemies along the way). One way or another, you’ll end up at an X of rings from an exit tunnel. Collect them and advance forward to find a few spiky balls, spikes, and water to slow you down. Make your way through it and jump into the Invincibility capsule. With it, you can safely head forward, collecting rings and other item capsules, until you reach a ladder. Climb up the center for the rings and you’ll end up in the wash rooms. Shower Room: We have seven rings in the shower stalls. One will even spray you (ooh, exciting...)! Kind of useless, though. Emerald Line Slots: The slot machines around the Shower Room can be jumped into or home attacked to release a few rings. They’re pretty easy to get... You know you’ve sacked the slots completely when the signs stop spinning. When you’re all done playing around and have collected 400 rings at least (or if you want to deposit them early), go to the vault (gold hallway with two spinning coins with Sonic’s face on them in front). Step on the switch and your rings will be exchanged for tokens. 400 rings earn you enough tokens to build a mound you can jump off of to reach the silver Chaos Emerald. Congratulations! You won it big! +--------------------+ | Angel Island | +--------------------+ Eggman appears in his vehicle and knocks the Chaos Emerald we just got back out of our heroes’ hands. They try to recover it, but Eggman deploys sleep gas on the two to take it safely. When they wake up, it’s daytime... There’s no time to lose! We must get the remaining emeralds! As you probably noticed, a blue stone similar to the Wind Stone fell into the city after a cinema showed to us when we beat Casinopolis. Walk down past the Chao in Space poster to see the Station Sq Diner. Across from it is an alley. Saunter on over and you’ll find the Ice Stone at the end. Perhaps we can use it in the Mystic Ruins... Take the stairs across from there to the train station and board the train headed for Mystic Ruins. A part of the mountain gives way before we arrive. Jump off the staircases and look left to see the opening. Walk into it – West Cave – and jump into the wind tunnel. This takes you up to a new region of Mystic Ruins called “Mystic Ruins Angel Island.” Angel Island! That’s the island the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds originate from, the home of Knuckles (Sonic’s rival)! So the “mountain,” which was really the floating Angel Island, DID fall from the sky! Go forward from this starting tunnel to find an icy altar. Place the Ice Stone in it and another icy tunnel (Ice Cave) opens. Walk into it and take a ladder at the end into Stage 4. +--------------+ | Icecap | +--------------+ Ahead of you are a few rings and the strange light. It says that even if we’re frozen, jump a few times and we’ll break free. Home attack the enemy ahead twice and head into the opening ahead. You’ll speed out onto a slope. Follow the rings to a spring and you’ll bounce onto a high ledge in front of a tunnel. Enter and bounce on the spring to reach an icicle. Move around to the back on it and press A to jump off and onto the corner ledge. Jump onto another icicle from there and quickly jump from one to the other until you reach ground again. Jump onto the higher ledge and follow the rings to a spring; bounce on it to another trail of rings. Instead of following them, jump to the ledge behind you (the one with crates on it) and follow the path there to a 1UP capsule. After that, go back to your normal path (the one with the line of rings) and take it to a rocket out of this tunnel. Use it and you’ll land before a new one. Walk into the tunnel and follow it to a checkpoint. In front of you is a trail of rings. Light dash across them and you’ll fall to the ground. Jump into the caterpillar robot here for an animal and then jump into the spring to launch through a few rings. After that little trip, take the path ahead of you over the spikes and to a spring. You’ll wind up on a few icicles beneath a spike bed. When the spikes lower themselves, jump to the next icicle. Rinse and repeat. When you reach ground, walk forward past a few spiky ledges to reach a ten-ring capsule followed by a spring. Bounce on it and the next set of springs through a ring arrow, stopping when you’ve taken the rings. Bounce on the first spring and hold right so that you land on the bridge above the alcove you were just in. Jump right to three capsules afterward. Jump back down to where you were and bounce on the second spring to another capsule. Go left just a bit more to a boost pad that sends you to a few icicles. Jump across them (oh the monotony!) to reach a few rings. Gather them up and get on the spring! You’ll come to a switch. Hit it and an ice block bridge materializes. Line yourself up and dash across it, careful not to fall, and you’ll finally hit that checkpoint! Walk down the bridge against the frozen wall until you are sped through a loop and deposited by a yellow panel. Jump on it and the next few panels to land on that bridge we were on earlier (the one by the three capsules). Our high-speed jumping also caused an icicle to come crashing down, which provides us with a way out of this dump! Huzzah! Walk forward across the icicle and you’ll enter into a long tunnel. Just walk through it until you reach a wooden gate. Hey, we’re at the top of that slope we saw earlier! And a gigantic snowball is rolling after us... You know, you’d think Sonic would learn his lesson by now! Luckily, there happened to be a snowboard for him to jump onto right below (how convenient!), and we must now board away from impending doom a la mode. The first leg of this incredible stunt is shown to us from downhill, meaning that it’s hard to predict when stones (which serve as ramps), icicles (obstacles), and rings (cold hard cash) are coming at you. Just wing it, holding the Control Stick down and hoping for the best. When you see a few trees, the camera shifts to a behind-the-back view to make it easier on us. Try to collect rings where you can, avoid obstacles wherever possible, and don’t worry about the snowball; it’s very slow. When you are on ramps, though, press A to do a trick off of them. As the excitement dies down, you ride into a dead-end zone where the Chaos Emerald, green is hidden. We ARE the champions! +----------------------+ | Boss: Knuckles | +----------------------+ The rest of Angel Island is cut off from us for the time being, so let’s go, how you cool kids say, “hang out” at the waterfall. Head over there and a cinema plays. Hey, it’s our old rival and sort of friend, Knuckles the echidna! How’s it going, Knux? Huh? He’s punching at us and making violent gestures? He demands our Chaos Emerald, and make it snappy he says! Let’s put him in his place! The echidna in red is really quite easy. He has a few attacks, ranging from punching us to gliding into us to rolling into us in ball-form. But, regardless of what he does to attack you, we can beat him pretty easily. Home attack him when he’s idle – not attacking you – to do damage. You know you’ve hit him when you hear him say “Oh no!” Three hits and he’s down for the count. After one final charge, Knuckles knocks the Chaos Emeralds out of Sonic’s hands. And then Eggman appears... He steals both of them, and now he has four! Knuckles was tricked by Eggman again! That knucklehead! Now that he has four, Eggman feeds them to Chaos. As Chaos 4, he is a shark-like creature with what appears to be a head incubating in his gelatinous stomach. Oh, it’s on! +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 4 | +---------------------+ He’s a bit harder than before, but not my much. First, you’ll notice the HP bar is longer than before, and that you’re now fighting in a large pond. There are rings spread across the lily pads, and I recommend taking a few before things kick off. Chaos 4 is vulnerable when it pokes its head out of the water (to jumps and home attacks, but I recommend the latter). And don’t be fooled; you can walk on the water. I guess it’s really muddy or Sonic holy. Note that you can’t stay on the water for too long or you’ll sink. In any case, Chaos 4 is limited to few attacks... It may start the battle with an energy attack that appears as an orange wave coming at you. Jump to dodge it. Chaos 4 also dives under the murky surface and sink a lily pad. Later on in the battle, it may split into four and launch its circular components at you, and it goes buck wild on you with water attacks after four hits. Land a fifth hit and Chaos 4 is defeated. From the clouds comes the Egg Carrier. It is an awesome cinema. Eggman announces it just before taking off to it. He begins to fly away when Knuckles dismisses himself (he has unfinished business to take care of). Speaking of Knux, you can now play as him! Congratulations! Tails suggests that you chase the Egg Carrier in the Tornado. To the workshop! Head over there and Tails will ask you to wait outside. In a few moments, out comes the Tornado. Oh my gosh! Removable palm trees! That is so awesome! Sonic hops into the backseat and they take off in pursuit of the Egg Carrier... +-----------------------+ | Sky Chase Act 1 | +-----------------------+ Sonic the Hedgehog 2 veterans will remember the Sky Chase Zone starting off similarly. This sub-game has you controlling the Tornado, and the controls are pretty simple. B, A, and X fire and you use the control stick to move. And in place of rings, you are decked out with an HP system similar to what bosses have. Eggman will deploy a few fighters to pick you off, but they take a measly one hit via missile to beat. For each you defeat, you earn 30 points. Furthermore, you may notice white crosshairs on the screen. If you hold B, you can light them up and use it as a targeting system (it makes things much easier). You just have to survive, which is pretty easy to do. After the Tornado’s gone through the Egg Carrier’s air forces, Eggman stops playing around. He fires the breaker beam on them. Though Tails tries to dodge it, the beam destroys their right wing. This can’t end well... Tails, who is strapped in, crashes with the plane. Sonic, who was in the backseat without a seatbelt, falls from that point into the beach near his hotel. Well, our chances of catching Eggman have been pretty much ruined, now haven’t they? +-------------------------+ | The Cutest Couple | +-------------------------+ Man, I’ve got to relieve myself of this stress the only way we know how in the Sonic world - gambling. Head over to the casino and... Oh no! It’s Amy! Ugh, why her? She’s finally caught up with you, and she’d appreciate it if you served as her birdie’s bodyguard. Sonic refuses, and so she points out that she’ll just tag along anyways. Congratulations! You can now play as Amy! Well isn’t that just dandy? It’ll take more than a casino to rid us of this pain. Let’s go to Twinkle Park, Station Square’s theme park, located opposite the Hotel in Station Area. Sonic and Amy walk toward Twinkle Park’s entrance when Eggman’s robot (who is that hunk of junk?) steps in. Sonic gets ready to knock its lights out when Amy notices an ad. Cute couples get in free at Twinkle Park! So naturally, she just has to go. Sonic follows (who’s the desperate one now, Sonic?), even though this is hardly the time to be dating a hedgehog he doesn’t even like, and so begin Stage 5. +--------------------+ | Twinkle Park | +--------------------+ Grab the rings around the monitor. Ahead of you are two Kikis; destroy them, take their animals, and go forward to find the bumper cars. Home attack one of the enemies to claim the car. In them, the A Button accelerates the car (the more rings you have, the faster you go), and B/X is used for braking and driving in reverse. When you’ve beaten the enemies that you feel like kicking around, drive forward into the circuit. I must say, the bumper cars are very well-done. Drive through this part cruising through foes, rings, and capsules. Eventually, you’ll find ramps and loops and giant falls, all at a very easy pace. When you’re finished, the bumper car is halted, you jump out, and you need to fall into the hole before you. It’s a roller coaster! Man, I was skeptical at first, but this level rocks! The roller coaster is really just a cool sequence, as you can’t do anything until it drops you off in the gardens. Check the corner for a ring capsule and then pass through the checkpoint. Ahead of you are two Kikis standing on explosives. Home attack them and clear the area to avoid taking any damage. After that, advance onward to find another cool game. Line yourself up with the center pin down the alley and enter the brackets. Sonic forms into a bowling ball and you must aim him at the pins! Center yourself and shoot. Depending on how you do, a certain number of rings is dropped by a crown figure ahead (strikes – hitting all the pins – earn you quite a few). After that, go forward to a strange bunny creature. Just jump into it to release an animal and move into the watery pond ahead. Home attack the water bug enemy, collect rings, and mark your progress at the checkpoint. We have two more bloated bunnies to contend with. Jump to hit their head for an easy kill. Take their animals, collect the rings around here, and go ahead to the bowling alley. After clearing it like the previous one, take your rings (if any) and go forward to a trio of Kikis. Now, be careful here. Their bombs and elevations can give you trouble. In fact, you may just want to spin dash past/through them. In any case, a deadly merry-go-round comes right after that. It’s a shame, really... Jump over the spikes, taking any capsules you can, and you’ll come to another checkpoint. Stop reading this guide, hit it! First, note the presence of a few rings in the fishing pond to the right. Also, there’s a capsule above some explosives (you have to trigger the explosives to get the rings). Beyond that, you’ll want to head over to the springs at the end. Bounce on them to the roof and cross it, taking the rings (there’s a one-ring capsule near the edge) as you go, to reach a half-loop. Sprint down it and you’ll wind up in a watery region. Defeat the water bug robot and leap down into the ground area ahead (ignore the floating platform). In this area, you’ll find an Invincibility capsule above an explosive barrel by a pillar. Take it and jolt forward. You’ll go up the ramp the spiky balls guard, up some stairs by Kikis, and to a walkway with explosives at the end. Home attack the Kiki atop the first set and home attack over the next two after that. You’ll be inside one of the castle towers. Jump to the next through the opening. Walk up the bridge here, avoiding the spiky ball obviously, to reach the fourth checkpoint. Take the obvious route to a spring. Bounce from it to a few floating platforms. First off, jump back and treat yourself to a 1UP. Then hop up the platforms to the rim of the building. Jump to the switch and a trail of rings forms. Light dash across them and you’ll reach a new switch. Repeat the process once more. Now walk around the rest of the rim to reach a spring. Bounce with me until you fall down to a castle’s staircase. It’s guarded by a bloated bunny AND two Kikis! I guess you could say it’s Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble! Oh, that was hilarious! Anyways, defeat the rabbit with a glandular problem and claim three capsules right of the staircase before taking out the trash, a.k.a. the Kikis. And that takes you right to the capsule! Jump onto it to free the animals, old-school Sonic-style, and beat this seemingly pointless stage. +-----------------------+ | Twinkle Circuit | +-----------------------+ Sonic’s lost the girl, but he’s still bent of brutalizing that robot. You’re outside of Twinkle Park, and so you can now experience Twinkle Circuit, a sub game. Basically, you’re in a bumper car and you’re racing the clock to get the best time. It’s a lot like Sonic Drift, the first Sonic racing game, in that collecting rings increases your speed (acceleration power, actually) and that you can’t see most of the track coming your way. The key to getting a good time lies in collecting rings and avoiding the walls (they slow you down). It’s worth an emblem; check it out if you want. Exit the Twinkle Park/Circuit lobby and you’ll see a cinema in which a card of some sort is dropped outside of the Hotel. Lift it up – an employee card – and take it to the locked building left of Twinkle Park’s entrance. The door opens to the interior (the building belongs to a company called Cyber-Net Inc.), and two elevators are revealed. Both lead to the same place – Stage 6. +---------------------+ | Speed Highway | +---------------------+ It’s another seemingly pointless mission – break the capsule. What’s my motivation? I simply can’t work under these conditions... but you can. Run straight down the center of the starting tract of road and you’ll loop your way onto a glass surface. Defeat the Spinners ahead and then jump onto the spring to reach the glass bridge. From it, move onto the platform in front of you. It will take you to the end. To get as many rings as possible, stand on the right side and move to the left. And on the road at the end lies ye olde checkpoint. Take one step forward and you’re shot forward on the boost pads through this badly-constructed road (how does anyone use it?) and onto the side of a building. Avoid the obstacles and you’ll land on a rooftop with a few Spinners on it. Defeat them and take the stairs up to a bell. Ring it for some rings before taking off on the boost pad. You’ll pass through a tunnel, a small road, and quite the cool machine before reaching a new road. Now here’s we’re you all are likely to lose your places in the guide. Run forward and you’ll reach a few ramps. Jump off of them to the upper roads if you can and you’ll come to a few circular-moving platforms. Get on one and ride it to the other. You’ll be taken to another road that leads to a spring. It launches you to a helipad – our regrouping point. Jump onto the helicopter and you can ride it to a nearby helipad. Voila! The checkpoint! Destroy the robots beyond the checkpoint; collect the rings and Power Sneaker capsules. Now run to the rocket ahead of you and take it to a looping road. How cars drive on this is beyond me. Run through it and you’ll soar over a platform in the air. Land on it, take the rings, and home attack across the enemies to reach a 1UP capsule. From there, drop off the platform to where you see a capsule over a Spinner to the left (if facing the building with the spotlights). The capsule is a Bomb, destroying nearby enemies. Now walk forward to a rocket. Grab on and hold tight! It leads you into a building with a glass balcony ahead. Stand on it and the glass cracks! You’re running down the surface of the wall; collect rings if possible. Soon, you’ll break through a second glass wall and the view changes. Avoid the obstacles to keep a steady pace and you’ll crash through a final few glass floors and into the lobby of a hotel. Step outside to find two police robots. Defeat them and continue down the road, collecting rings on the wall if you’d like, and you’ll come to a street with actual cars on it. Cross the street (cars are hazards, remember) and go up (away from the camera). You’ll come to a wall that forces you to step into the road. Wait for a car to pass you and then run through the opening. Head up the sidewalk now and you’ll find a spring. Bounce on it to reach a space between the two roofs. Use the objects here to reach the roof to the left. Then jump to the next building and walk toward the door at the end. Fall through and you’ll come to another rooftop with a few rings and capsules on it. Jump off the left side of the building now to find a fountain (note that there are many other rooftop secrets in this section of the level). Jump into it when it’s all the way up and point yourself toward the blue-roofed clock building. You should land in an alcove with a bell in it. Go forward a bit after seeing it to find the capsule. Finally! +--------------------------+ | Into the Mountains | +--------------------------+ We appear outside of City Hall in Station Square. Ah, so that building the capsule was hidden in was the front of City Hall... See? Station Square is much larger than you thought! Head to the casino and you’ll see Amy being abducted by that robotic freak we saw earlier. It’s hard to believe Sonic seriously wants to save her, but we must. The blue blur plans to cut the robot off in the Mystic Ruins, but there’s one problem: the train station workers are on strike. Ah, what luck! The strike ended JUST as we saw that cinema! Some workers remark that the negotiations went well. Now, head for the station and head over to the Mystic Ruins. Yep, the robot is over there. Sonic calls him bolt brain and threatens the strange creature from high above. But before the rumble can begin, the Egg Carrier appears above them, eclipsing the ruins. It beams that robot up aboard it. Well, it looks like we lost out AGAIN! Man, Sonic really is a loser. Well, as long as we’re here, let’s check out Angel Island. Take the cave by the train station into the Angel Island region of Mystic Ruins and run past the entrance to Icecap to reach an opening into the main island. ---------------------- UPGRADE: Ancient Light ---------------------- Walk down toward the end of the island to find the not-so-well-hidden upgrade, Ancient Light. With it, you can store up energy with the spin dash and attack an enemy you couldn’t normally destroy (like one behind bars) or destroy all enemies in the vicinity of the one you destroyed with your attack. It’s called the “Light Speed Attack.” ---------------------- Now that we have it, trace your steps back to when we saw a Kiki in a cage by a gate (still in Angel Island; called “Watch Ape” on the map). Destroy that Kiki with the light speed attack (hold B until you’re light blue, and then release). This causes the Kiki to explode, and it opens the gate to boot! Pass through the gate to enter the seventh action stage, Red Mountain. +--------------------+ | Red Mountain | +--------------------+ We have to catch the Egg Carrier! And we have to do so by utilizing a bunch of conveniently placed springs! Run forward past a few Kikis to a rocket. Take it up, holding the control stick forward, and you’ll fall through a capsule on your way down. Pass under the spiky balls and jump to the ladder. Cross it, collecting rings as you go, to find a few Spinners. Beat ‘em down and you’ll find a few bridges. Take them up (Kikis come free!) and bounce to the peak of this mountain using the spring. Now then, run onto the bridge to find the checkpoint, the first of many. Continue across the bridge to find a rocket pad with no rocket. Something’s up... I know! Let’s find a switch! It’s right around the corner, the one guarded by a spiky ball. When it’s up, run under. You’ll find the switch, which you want to press. Now backtrack and bam! The rocket’s there. Use it to reach the next summit. But instead of taking the bars across as logic would have it, hop onto the crates to the right and jump to the nearby spring from them. Bounce on the next spring you come to and presto! You’re on an even newer summit. Take care of the Spinners since you hate them, and then run through the checkpoint. Traverse the bridge to reach a new area. Well, I think I know why it’s called “Red” Mountain. It’s an inferno up here! Ah, but this is just the beginning. Carefully pass under the spiky balls and quickly pass over the fiery spots to minimize the possibility of roast hedgehog. A spin dash can be quite effective (if you’re lucky). When you reach the end, you’ll find a 1UP and a spring. Why not hit both? Do so to be launched across the gorge and into the ring of fire, so to speak. Immediately home attack the enemy generating the fire, and then jump to the strange object to the upper-left. It’s a pulley, and Sonic rides it right into the next checkpoint. You see, this level is all about knowing your shortcuts. Jump to the platform to the right and then switch over to the one to the left. But, note that the skull statue there DOES shoot fire from time to time; watch out. A bit more jumping takes you to a spring, and that takes you to a ten-ring capsule. Claim the rings and try to run across the molten bridge before it gives way to Sonic’s incredible hedgehog weight. If you do fall, be comforted in the fact that there’s a 5-ring capsule toward the back, but be discomforted by the fact that there are fire-breathing skull statues all around you. However you choose to cross the bridge, whether directly or by using the spring below it, both take you to a ledge where fire is billowing from an opening. To the left, though, are some Spinners. Home attack through them to reach a 1UP capsule. After taking it, jump to a yellow panel. Jump on it to trigger the jump sequence that leads up to another series of Spinners. Home attack across them to reach a spring. Bounce on it and you’ll come to another. Try to time your bounce so that you pass between the grated platforms above. When you do, jump to the upper one and repeat this process. It leads to the checkpoint, at long last! Spin dash or light dash across the bridge before you, but stop once you’ve crossed it. A skull is waiting to ambush us. Let it blow over and then jump past it to reach a real bridge. Cross it and follow the path to a few springs. Run into the right one to be shot through a capsule; continue down the path afterward. Here, you must hit a switch without being pressed flat by the crushing object here (why doesn’t it press the switch?). As it rises, run in, hit the switch, and move out. A rocket rises from the pad; ride it, holding forward as you do, to another checkpoint. First things first; let’s teach that Kiki a lesson it won’t soon forget! Home attack it and use the adjacent crates to reach a series of bars. Jump from one to the next and you’ll eventually have passed over the lava pit. And you know what that means, don’t you? It means take the ring capsule from behind the rocks, that’s what! When you’re done with that, jump to the pulley by the machine. It takes you to an isolated ledge. Drop into the hole that opens to reach another checkpoint, plus a place with some weird music. Walk through the first part of the tunnel collecting rings. You’ll soon reach a fork in the road – a staircase and a ground path. Take the former up and stop in the middle. See that opening at the end? Face it and spin dash into it. The stairs serve as a ramp, you see. Inside are Power Sneakers within a capsule; take them and run forward into a small tunnel. Get onto the wall when that time comes and then lower yourself to the floor. At the very end is a spring. Bounce on it to a floating platform in the magma. Jump across it, and all the others like it, to reach land. Take the nearby Shield capsule and begin home attacking across the enemies. You’ll land on a crate where a Kiki was when it’s all over. Now, the next part is a bit tricky. Drop down and jump to the platform ahead. The magma starts to rise. Run through it (not at breakneck speeds, but fast enough to escape the magma) and you’ll come to a checkpoint. I really don’t see how this is leading up to the Egg Carrier... Spring forward onto a rock. Quickly, as the magma is still rising, home attack the next few enemies. You’ll eventually reach land. Dash forward and jump at the end to an island with two fiery robots on it. Ignore them and take any capsule you can before jumping onto the floating platforms. Cross the magma stream with them and you’ll come to a new platform, but the only important thing is the spring there. Use it to reach three more platforms in the magma (man is this tedious). Home attack the enemies ahead of you to reach a few graves and a bridge. Spin dash across the latter and you’ll end up by a few crates. Take the capsule on top before spin dashing across another bridge. Then home attack your way to another platform...a few more platforms, one bridge, and two Kikis later, you’ll reach a spring. Use it. When you land, walk into the boosters and you’ll fly right to another ledge. Wait for the large stones to fall before going forward to defeat two Kikis. And before using that checkpoint, claim three capsules to the left for your own. It’s a fire maze. Jump over/under the first few flames to find a few Spinners. Kill them and move on with the level, which entails... giant hammers... Run under them when they’re up and you’ll be at the final stretch! Run forward, grab onto the rocket’s handle, and ride it out of this miserable volcano! Bust the capsule at the top and you will have succeeded in boarding the Egg Carrier somehow. No wait, it’s still above us. Oh my gosh! What amazing luck! Tails just flew in with his new plane, the Tornado 2! This new and improved plane can stand up to the Egg Carrier and all its breaker beams and fighters! +-----------------------+ | Sky Chase Act 2 | +-----------------------+ Well, things start out like last time, only it suddenly became stormy. Remember, move with the control stick and shoot with B/X. Simply shoot down the fighters ahead of you (they really should just shoot us from behind), but be cautious around the Egg Carrier itself. Those missiles are pretty nasty. After more of the same, the Tornado 2 is face-to- face with the Egg Carrier, which is much, much larger, and Tails makes it transform. More compact, we’re now ready to blast through the carrier’s mine fields. Mines don’t move. Instead, they stand in your way and require you to blow them out of the sky (unless you want to take damage bumping into them). After flying under the Egg Carrier one last time, the battle begins. Target? What!? We have to fight the Egg Carrier in the miniscule Tornado 2? I thought Tails was supposed to be a genius! Ah, well, this will be one heck of a David and Goliath story. It’s really quite easy. Our target isn’t the Egg Carrier, but instead the breaker beam’s cannon. Dodge/shoot the missiles as best you can until the face plate of the carrier lowers to reveal the cannon. Shoot now! After a bright blue flash of white (get to the side and hope for the best), the sequence begins again. Once you’ve destroyed the breaker beam, it’s safe to board the Egg Carrier! +-------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Egg Carrier | +-------------------------------------+ Yep, you read right. The third adventure field is the Egg Carrier itself. Run forward to the sides and spring to the central circle. Eggman will start talking to show off the vessel’s “true power.” And now the Egg Cruiser is changing shape to make it harder to reach his position. As it is now, you need to use the Sky Deck to reach him! Isn’t that funny? When the cinema ends, walk forward to a door past a monitor to find the “way to the Sky Deck.” Take it and you’ll enter into Stage 8. +----------------+ | Sky Deck | +----------------+ Well, it seems that Tails has come along for the ride this time. Walk around your starting cylinder to collect all the rings, and then jump for the checkpoint on the catwalk. Now run across the bridge before the turrets destroy it. You’ll reach another cylinder with 20 rings (in capsule) on one side and a ladder on the other. Bust open the former and climb the latter (get it? Latter- ladder!). At the top, spring to a new cylinder. Jump from cylinder to cylinder as you would an icicle from Icecap and you’ll wind up by a 1UP capsule on a catwalk. After doing this, run onto the booster to the right to speed right into the second checkpoint. I must say, Sky Deck is far better than the other stages so far! Step onto the boost pad ahead to be launched into another spinning cylinder. Walk along it to reach another speed pad. It launches you up a series of winding paths (I take that back; Sonic is no loser!). It leads up to a spring that bounces you up to a magnetic Shield capsule (it attracts rings!). Now hop into the spring to be sprung through a Power Sneaker capsule and onto a new catwalk. Run forward into the opening to reach another series of winding paths. Unfortunately, you actually have to wait for the spiky balls to rise to reach the end of this path. At the end, you’ll be sped into the checkpoint. They’re just throwing them at us! First, collect the rings around the base of the cylinder (don’t worry; the spiky balls don’t go down that far). Then, after one of the balls of spikes passes by the ladder, jump on and start climbing! When you reach the bars, jump on and continue the climbing binge. About halfway through, the bars collapse as if to drop you. Hold on, though, and climb to the top after it stops swinging, and you can continue along this upper level. When you reach a safe catwalk, take a magnetic Shield capsule from behind the support pillar here and then walk left along the catwalk. Defeat any foes in the way until you reach a monitor along the path. Skip over it and jump to the huge cylinder ahead. Climb right along it and you’ll come to a new catwalk. Run across it at top speeds; otherwise, you’ll be blown to dust by the power cannons eliminating the bridges here. Continue this through pillars 1-3, and you’ll soon find the fourth. Here, jump to the next catwalk and follow it to a rocket. Blast off and you’ll come to a strange new area, a checkpoint right in front of you. This is the sky deck, and it’s a windy place. Spin dash forward along the first path to reach a red cylinder. Cling onto it until the wind stops blowing, and then go right. Go forward from here through a long series of enemy robots, turrets, and wind gusts. To survive the strong winds, home attack the red tabs on the edges of the carrier. When you reach the wall, start going left into the center. You know you’re there when you see a series of turrets, big and small, littered all over the deck. The upper wall here should be a ramp. Get on and follow the path up to a spring. Bounce with it to some monkey bars. Cross them and you’ll come to a new region of the deck, one with a checkpoint ahead of you. Run into it and then speed down the center of this region. You may have to jump to the next section to continue (they are slowly sinking). At the end, you’ll see a DANGER warning by a gigantic cannon. Walk left of the cannon to find the strange light and a rocket. We must fire a rocket into its center to destroy it. When it turns to fire at you, fire a rocket into the cannon’s opening. This destroys it, and you drop down to another checkpoint – no wind involved. To replace the wind, you have to contend with not only cannons and gunfire but also bombs being chucked at you. Dodge them in the grated holes as you make your way up there. When you reach the end, go to the right and stand in the corner to make the platform beneath you rise. When it reaches its peak, jump off and onto the structure’s roof. There are a few Spinners to destroy; do so. Keep in mind, though, that they do electrically charge themselves from time to time. At the end, turn left as the arrow directs and you’ll walk into a booster pad that launches you all over the place and then to a spring. It bounces you to a ladder. Climb it and then run up the bridge, jumping enemies as you go, until you reach the “target” platform at the end. Jump when a hook swings by and you can ride it into a 1UP capsule. Jump off when you see a white triangle against the wall. The checkpoint is there. Take either of the side ramps to the right and left of the checkpoints up and use them to jump off of and onto the sliding blocks in the area. Jump along them until you reach the uppermost one, and from it you can bound onto the conveyor belt that leads up. Now look ahead of you. See 04, 05, and 06 written in white against a distant wall? Good! That’s where you should be. Drop into the pit and wait in the rightmost corner for the Egg Carrier to capsize. Now that things are a bit different, jump onto the spring and bounce from it to another spring. Before it turns over completely, spring from it to the bars above. Take them across and drop at the end so that you can use the spring to the right. You’ll bounce to another set of bars. Walk right along it and drop against the platform to find a 1UP capsule. Take the opposite path to progress in the level, bouncing up to another set of bars. Go left along them, bounce again, and now climb right. You’ll have to bounce one more time to a set of bars and climb right along them to finally reach the checkpoint. Use the spring by the checkpoint to reach a new path. Follow the arrows along it and you’ll come to a switch. Press it to make the Egg Carrier start turning to the “correct” orientation. In any case, it makes you fall down through a metal tunnel and to the capsule. Finally! Hit it, now! +-----------------------------------+ | The Deck of the Egg Carrier | +-----------------------------------+ We fall into the Egg Carrier Hall, quite the complex little structure. You’ll want to exit it, though, using the “Elevatore” on the second floor. Sonic arrives to see Eggman snatching the bird Amy had (which had a Chaos Emerald with it) from it. He then summons another robot, “Gamma.” It appears, much like the other robot, and Eggman orders it to destroy the pests. You’re going down, Gamma! +-------------------------+ | Boss: E-102 Gamma | +-------------------------+ Gamma is pretty easy. First, Gamma locks onto your position using a laser. Where you were at that moment is recorded, and he then shoots at you. So, you simply have to move between the time you were targeted and when the shot is coming at you to dodge his brand of attacks. Gamma may also take to the air to attack you from above, and he may even take a compact form in which he can roll around, but he uses the same strategy throughout. To defeat Gamma, simply home attack him three times. Gamma collapses, and Sonic rushes in for the final crushing blow. Amy stands between them because “he’s her friend,” and Sonic decides to spare him. In the meantime, the ship is losing altitude. Sonic orders Tails to escort Amy out of here. Sonic will take care of Eggman. Congratulations! You can now play as E-102 Gamma! +--------------------------+ | The Captain’s Room | +--------------------------+ Go to the upper-right of the strange tower in the middle of the deck to trigger a cut scene. If Sonic wants to find Dr. Robotnik, he must change the ship back to its original form. There must be a switch somewhere. When the cut scene ends, use the nearby door to enter a room with a switch. What luck! No, this switch does not change the ship’s shape. Instead, it makes a trail of rings appear. Light dash up it and you’ll come to the Captain’s Room! That’s exactly where we needed to be! There’s a lot of stuff too complicated for your little hedgehog brain to understand, but we’re only looking for a switch. Step on the pilot’s seat and it slides out to the controls, and in so doing a switch is revealed. Step off the seat and press it to see the wings of the Egg Carrier shift back into place. It also reactivates the monorail system. In any case, the front of the ship is behind you when you exit the Captain’s Room. To the left and right of the door are two catwalks leading to the deck. Run across them to enter Eggman’s territory. +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 6 | +---------------------+ Oh my... Chaos has grown... But, there’s a strange cat character named Big here. His friend – Froggy – is trapped within the beast (apparently, the frog provides the tail). He’s not perfected yet, but he doesn’t need full power to destroy Sonic! Oh, that’s it! NOW IT’S ON! I really don’t know how I’d describe Chaos. But, one thing’s for sure: Chaos 6 is MASSIVE. Seriously, one of its attacks is jumping. A wall of energy is released in a circle afterwards, and you should jump to avoid it. Chaos 6 will also try to suck you into its mouth and then “eject you from its body,” which can be challenging to recover rings from. Chaos 6 may even assume a spherical shape, launch different points of its body at you to form a laser grid-like thing, and then hunt you down with its tail to attack (just don’t jump and you’ll be fine). And all the while Eggman is throwing some idiotic robots at you that attack by emitting gases! But, they are in fact the key to victory. They are Egg Bombs, and you should home attack them. You can then pick them up (B) and toss them into Chaos 6’s mouth (or let it suck them in itself). When they explode, the beast develops an icy exterior. Home attack it and you’ve dealt damage. After four such hits, Chaos 6 is shattered. We’ve finally won! Eggman is in denial after witnessing Sonic effortlessly defeat the so- called “God of Destruction,” and at just that moment Knuckles arrives. A little late, are we? Eggman decides to leave now that he’s outnumbered, but Sonic has no intention of letting him escape. He jumps after him, and he lands in a strange jungle, an ancient pyramid ahead of him seemingly rising from the ground. The strange light that has been aiding us leads into the opening. Hmm, should we follow it? Run forward and enter this mysterious pyramid. Huh? It’s Stage 9. +------------------+ | Lost World | +------------------+ We must get to the center of this ancient pyramid! Walk forward out of the starting hallway and jump into the robot here to rescue the animal within. Now take the stairs down into water, following the rings onto land and up some stairs, to reach an archway that leads into another tunnel. Run down it, admittedly one of the cooler running sequences in the game, and you’ll soon be boosted into something more difficult – a tunnel of fire. Just ignore it and run forward (chances are you won’t run into it) to wind up by another tunnel. Run down it and you’ll drop out of the passageway and onto a platform amidst a bed of spikes. Man, the ancients must’ve been wild at parties. Jump forward from there to the checkpoint. Run forward onto a bridge. As you cross it, a snake’s head rises to let you through (snakes are the recurring theme of this place) into a frustrating room. A stone snake statue is swimming about the water, and you must hit switches to change the water level and thus the positioning of the snake. First, look to the right; a capsule’s for the taking. Now go left to come to a switch surrounded by rings. Hit it and jump onto the snake when it comes around. Ride it until you see a few ledges to the side that you can jump to. Get on it and press the square switch there to light the first symbol. After that, get onto the spiky platform ahead and take it to another circular switch. It raises the water level again. So, jump onto your pal the snake and leap left a few seconds later to the second square switch. Throw it down with your body weight to light the second symbol. Now go forward, jumping under and then onto the spiky platform. It leads to a gap with a bed of spikes across from you. Home attack over them to another circular switch. Press it to raise the water level once again. Now ride the snake over to the third switch, a red one, and the door opens. Jump back onto the snake and ride it to ledge that leads to the door. Go through. A short passage leads to the checkpoint. Run forward across these narrow ledges and you’ll soon reenter the pyramid’s interior. When you approach doors, they open. Walk into the darkness and be very afraid. Walk ahead of the light and you’ll soon grab a mirror. Direct it at the other mirror to the upper-right to light the way. Go forward, skipping over the fire robots, and you’ll come to a few steps that lead to another mirror. Again, guide its light to the upper-right to illuminate this area. Carefully jump over the next few gaps, spike-filled or not, and you’ll come to another mirror. This time, aim its light at the mirror to the upper-left. After that, jump forward to the rest of the path and walk forward, defeating the fire enemy if you so desire, and you’ll reach another mirror. Guide its light to the upper-left. Jump to the next platform and then the following walkway to reach a new mirror. Point it at the next mirror; continue down the path. You’ll stop at a trail of rings. Light dash across them to reach that wonderful checkpoint. This next part is pretty cool. Step into the water to be washed down through the tunnels (move around to collect more rings) and out of the waterfall. Walk into the spring you land by and you’ll reach another tunnel. If you loiter, the fiery traps in the tunnel will get you; spin dash through it to avoid them. You’ll come to the checkpoint after that. Walk forward to dash down a runway as a boulder chases you Indiana Jones-style (only the boulder is somehow set on fire). Getting the rings and capsules ahead is really pure guesswork, and it ends with you being sprung to a new door, behind which is a new checkpoint, right after the run. Pass through the next door to reach a new room less fun than the others. First off, jump into the purple caterpillar robot to destroy it. Then walk into the tunnel leading up at the end of the room. It leads into a courtyard inhabited by fire enemies. Defeat all opposing robots here before pressing the switch by the light. In fact, keep pressing it until the tiles on the wall glow. Now you can walk on them. Go up a bit and turn right when you can to reach another switch. Press it so that the next set of tiles glow and walk up them. Walk up this linear path to a capsule, and then jump to the next few tiles on the next wall. Walk across them to reach a rotating block. Jump from it to the next ledge to the checkpoint by jumping over some flaming blocks. Ahead of you is a fiery foe; decimate that unit! Once you’ve disposed of it, enter the tunnel to the upper-left. Here, time your run so that you pass through it without touching a flaming block. It’ll lead you to a switch. Press it, jump aboard the tiles, and follow this set to reach a ledge against the wall. Walk left along it past flaming blocks to reach a hole with a tunnel it. In this tunnel, avoid hazards and you’ll fall to an area with a switch in it. Press it, light dash across the gap, and boost through the next loop series right into the center of the ruins. +--------------------------------+ | The Past of Angel Island | +--------------------------------+ The light takes us to a mural on the wall. It shows a great beast, somewhat similar to Chaos, and so a cinema begins. The temple was on fire, and you can now explore. Cross the bridge to the flaming building to find... the Master Emerald. This is ancient Angel Island! As you leave the temple, you’ll find some fallen figures aside the rubble. They are creatures called Chao, and a girl is looking over them. She declares that she will stop this, and so she approaches the Master Emerald. Suddenly, Sonic appears outside the ruins. Ah, there’s a dose of reality! It’s Eggman, and he’s flying past the pyramid. This time we’ll defeat him once and for all! Go north of the Ancient ruins to the northeastern-most point on the map. It is a tube leading to a tower in the distance. Take it to what must’ve been Eggman’s original base. There are even tanks containing two Metal Sonic-looking characters! Could that be Metal Sonic (the blue one) and the black Sonic robot that appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (the black one)? In any case, you’re looking for some yellow switches on the upper floor. They’re arranged (and numbered by me) like so: ____ ____ / \ / \ | 01 | | 06 | \____/ \____/ ____ ____ / \ / \ | 02 | | 05 | \____/ \____/ ____ ____ / \ / \ | 03 | | 04 | \____/ \____/ If you hit the buttons in the proper sequence, which just so happens to be 5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2, the door near here opens. Take it to Stage 10. +-----------------+ | Final Egg | +-----------------+ We have to reach the center of the base! Eggman must be there... Grab the rings ahead of you and jump over the lasers, between the spiky balls, and onto the other side. Here, send some Spinners into decommission before jumping onto the spring to reach a 1UP and a magnetic Shield. Once you’re decked out with a new shield and a new outlook on life, leap forward onto the boost pad and you’ll be sped under lasers and right up to a few cranes. They’ll try catch you and shake you, and so it’s wise to run forward ahead of them to the checkpoint. Jump through the lasers to reach a hallway. Home attack these new robotic defenders and you’ll find two cranes. Run around them or under them to reach another series of boost pads. You’ll dash off of them and into a few springs that bounce you onto a new segment of the level. Walk forward a bit and you’ll see quite a few Spinners, some of which are electrically charged (be careful that they’re neutral before attacking them). Clear through them and then check the corners. One has three capsules, one being a 1UP, surrounded by lasers you can easily hop over. Once you’ve taken your fill, bounce on the springs some of the robots were guarding to reach an Eggman statue and a checkpoint. This next part is slightly tricky. Get onto the conveyor belts, avoid the spiky machines coming at you, and jump to the next. Your goal is to reach a large spinning tube with grating on the floor. Sprint through it (you may have to use the spin dash at times) and you’ll come to a new sector of the base, complete with its own music! Step forward and you’ll be in the “tower” of the base (you can tell by the shape of it). Jump onto the two platforms in the center of the pit. From there, home attack through the two floating badniks (the classic term for Sonic enemies) and onto a 5-ring capsule. Beyond it is a short tunnel that leads into a room with another capsule and another tunnel leading out of it. Take both. The tunnel leads you through a series of boost pads and passes you through the checkpoint before... You fly out into the middle of the tower. Land on one of the platforms and take it to a rising platform. You’ll find more after it; jump to them. You can see that a robot can be home attacked to reach a capsule, but it’s pretty risky. The final platform leads into another tunnel. It’s just like the last one, only this time the capsule’s a 1UP. Take the tunnel out of here to be sprung to the base of the tower. Press the switch in the center and the platform you’re on rises up a level. Home attack the nearby enemies and you’ll come to a new platform. When the swinging hammer-like object isn’t in the way or about to crash into you, jump and home attack to the platform ahead. It leads to another platform; repeat the process until you reach a 20-ring capsule followed by an elevator. Now we are really in the base of the level. If you walk right of the elevator, you’ll find three capsules. If you walk left, you’ll be forced to pass under some spiky balls to reach a checkpoint. Walk down the steps ahead of you to reach a platform. Jump to the next one from it and so on until you reach one that dips really low. From it, it’s just a little hop onto the central ring-shaped platform (okay, so maybe this is the base?). Walk around it until you find a ledge sticking out to the central box-shaped elevator. Jump onto it and it will descend down to yet another lower level of the tower. Go forward into a room full of treasure. First, get the capsules beneath the spinning spiky balls. Then get the three to the left of that (jump from the pipes to them). Then bounce on the springs in the corners. After that, go forward into the tunnel beyond the spinning spiky balls. It will lead to a room filled to the brim with crab robots (could they be Crabmeats from Sonic the Hedgehog?). Plow through them to reach a ladder. Take it up, jump onto the walkway ahead, and run right to the checkpoint. In the next room, move over the fans to reach the exit (you can fall for capsules, but it’s considerably risky to do so). When you do reach the exit, collect the rings in the center and jump out the other way to more fans. Move across them to come to a door that opens for you. Defeat the Spinners within and look by the corner hidden from view for a boost pad. Sprint up the wall by it and you’ll reach three capsules. Take them and drop down to the floor. Follow the arrow of rings to a conveyor belt that leads to some fans that lead to a brand spankin’ new room. Make sure to bust open the capsules hidden to the left, and then take the conveyor belt and fan to a room of crab bots. Home attack right through their lines to reach a ramp leading up to a spring. Bounce on it and continue down the path to boost through a short tunnel that deposits you by a checkpoint. Run forward and you’ll begin to fall through an open part of the tower. If you have the magnetic Shield, you’re in luck; all the rings will follow you to wherever you fall. If you stay in the center, you’ll reach a Power Sneakers capsule. Use the spring ahead of it to reach a platform that floats before a few fans. Travel up with their air currents to reach another new tunnel. This is quite an elaborate base, eh? You’ll leave it into a room of crab robots, the suicidal explosive ones. Exit through a large double door that opens when you approach it. There are a few robots “concealed” in the darkness, but you need only go forward to reach light and a checkpoint. Walk right to find two tough robots. You’ll just bounce off of them if you home attack them, and they try to keep you stationary with some energy attack they have. Strike when they’re casting the “spell” to pass them. Walk up the path and you’ll come to three dolls – one of Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails! This must be a training ground for Eggman’s robots or something. Destroy them if you want and proceed to the checkpoint. Walk up the steps ahead to reach a few more robots to take down. When the energy-emitting robots release their heads, attack them (and the other robots). When you’ve cleared the room, you can safely charge up a light dash to cross the trail of rings leading out of here. The platform you fall onto qualifies as the “center of the base.” Congrats, you won! +-----------------------+ | Boss: Egg Viper | +-----------------------+ Look! Eggman, dead ahead! Sonic jumps into an arena, and ahead of him is a strange contraption. After taunting Sonic a bit, Eggman reveals the full length of his robot. He tries to escape, but Sonic rockets after him to the true arena. We must destroy him! Even if it is like 200 times the size of us! Of all the bosses in this storyline, the Egg Viper is probably the hardest (that’s not saying much, though). First, spin dash to the right or left to take a few rings (leave a few; take two). The first step in the sequence has the Egg Viper launch lasers at you after Eggman says “Get a load of this!” After three such shootings, Eggman appears and opens the tail to taunt you face-to-face. Now home attack! In the next sequence of attacks, the Egg Viper may stop to shoot one particularly powerful laser at you (move away from it, as even if you dodge it you’ll get hit by an explosion that follows). But, when Eggman emerges this time, he moves back immediately and makes you home attack across the Egg Viper’s segments to hit him. Land on the opposite catwalk to keep in the fight, and now repeat the process until you’ve hit the Egg Viper seven times. As the battle progresses, the Egg Viper uses new tactics. First, it may run down the platform you’re on shooting lasers at you. Run away from it and dodge the lasers as best you can. Eventually, the Egg Viper changes tactics. It will fire two spinning discs at you. Jump onto their flat surfaces and ride them to the now exposed cockpit to land a hit on Eggman. After that, the Egg Viper plows through the other catwalk (I hope you’ve taken the rings from it beforehand), and then it charges through one of the ends of the catwalk you’re on (I hope you’ve taken those rings from it beforehand, too). But, you must still attack by jumping onto the disc it launches. This time, it busts through the other end (you know; hope you have those rings) and uses the disc attack one more time. Hit him again and you’ve destroyed the Egg Viper! It explodes in a pretty cool cinema, but it’s not over. Eggman is going to use a kamikaze attack on us! Move to the ends of the catwalk and charge up a spin dash to get off of it. Just before he hits, launch yourself to safety. Now you’ve really won! Eggman managed to escape the burning Egg Viper, and now he leaves. But, Tails flies in to see us (we’re in Mystic Ruins), and now we have beaten Sonic’s side of the story! What follows is a collection of scenes from the game, plus the credits to the side. Well, we’ve destroyed Chaos, foiled Eggman’s plot to destroy Station Square and expand his empire from there, and we’ve looked really cool while doing it. Congrats! Now, why not try your luck at the other characters’ stories? You’ll learn much more about the story that way... ======================================================================= =========================Miles “Tails” Prower*========================= ======================================================================= Yep, Tails gets to have the second adventure in the game, but it’s one of the easier storylines in the game. Tails is unlocked after Sonic beats Stage 1, Emerald Coast, by the way. The fox has pretty good moves, and it all comes from his ability to fly. Press A to jump and A again to fly for a short period of time. It allows Tails to reach heights Sonic never could! But, while Tails is an extremely mobile character, he loses many points in attack. His only form of offense is the Tails Attack (B or X). Tails will spin, whacking enemies with his twin tails. All of Tails’s missions consist of racing Sonic or Eggman to a certain point in the mission, which makes flying essential to his missions. +--------------------------------------------------------+ | Adventure Fields – Station Square & Mystic Ruins | +--------------------------------------------------------+ Tails is flying a plane he built trying to utilize the unlimited power of a Chaos Emerald, but soon the propulsion system fails. He’s right about to crash into a building when he swerves to the left, thus saving himself. But, he still crashes later in Emerald Coast, the beach near Station Square. Sonic comes to rescue him, and so they walk back to the hotel Sonic’s staying in. Tails explains that it was a test flight for a prototype, and he then reveals that he was harnessing the power of a Chaos Emerald to fly his plane. Why doesn’t Sonic come over to his workshop in the Mystic Ruins? Well, since we invited Sonic over, we’d might as well go ourselves. Right now, we’re in an adventure field (Station Square). Adventure fields are where (most) boss battles take place, cinemas are shown, and character interactions are possible. Right now, you’re in Poolside, which is right outside the Hotel. Take the doors into it. To the north is the Casino area (closed during the day) and to the right is Station Area. It’s outside the SS Central Station, which is exactly where we want to go (we need to go by train to the Mystic Ruins). So, enter and take the stairs up and enter the train. This leads to a new Adventure Field, Mystic Ruins (it’s by far the most expansive adventure field in the game). A team of archaeologists is here after hearing rumors of an ancient civilization once thriving here. In any case, you want to heard toward the point on the map called “Tails’s Work Shop.” You can reach it using stairs by the train tracks. But, when you enter the field before the workshop, Eggman appears. +------------------------+ | Boss: Egg Hornet | +------------------------+ He introduces himself as Dr. Robotnik, the longtime villain of the Sonic series. Today, Eggman (the name Sonic and crew cal him) decides to begin his master plan. But to accomplish his goal, Eggman demands Tails’s Chaos Emerald. He refuses, of course, and so begins the battle. The Egg Hornet is quite easy to beat. You can see his health bar in the upper-right corner (pretty small, right?). You don’t have one, though. In Sonic games, you need to collect rings for health. As long as you have one or more rings, you’re safe from death. But when hit, you lose your rings (or your Shield if you have one). So, kick off the party with running into a group of rings. The Egg Hornet begins by firing some missiles at you. Run around to avoid them. Then the Egg Hornet glows with a red aura and crashes into wherever you were at the time in an attempt to crush you. But, it gets stuck in the dirt; jump into the cockpit to land a hit. Do this twice more to put Eggman out of his misery. The Egg Hornet add-ons explode, which leaves Eggman on his side trying to escape. Tails brags about how easy it was and begins carrying the Chaos Emerald over to Sonic when Eggman launches a claw at it, snatching the emerald from it. Then a strange liquid monster appears, the same one Sonic saw earlier. Eggman feeds the emerald to the beast, named Chaos, making it brawnier. Eggman plans to give it all seven Chaos Emeralds to make it invincible, and then it will obliterate Station Square. Eggman will build on the rubble the capital of his new empire, Robotnikland! With that, the good doctor takes off. We must stop him! After all, “Robotnikland” is a terrible name for an evil empire! Tails is using his noggin today, and so he suggests they collect the Chaos Emeralds before he can. Sonic agrees, but there’s one problem left. Where do we find a Chaos Emerald? +----------------------+ | The Wind Stone | +----------------------+ As long as we’re here, why not check out the workshop? Walk up the stairs to see it. Unimpressive, eh? But, in front of the door is a green object. Pick it up (B or X) to learn that it is the Wind Stone, and it looks like it might just be the key to something. Take it over to a place on the map called Windy Cave (it’s right of the Waterfall). The archaeologist outside said he found a “plate” inside. Walk in and set the Wind Stone (B or X) onto the altar. It floats up and sets down into the indentation, and in so doing the wind becomes stronger. Jump into it to be taken to Stage 1, Windy Valley. +--------------------+ | Windy Valley | +--------------------+ Our goal is to find the Chaos Emerald before Sonic. The level is full of shortcuts Tails can utilize by flying. Start by running forward until you see a strange light. It gives hints (this time it tells us to fly to find shortcuts. Well, from the start, fly to the floating ledge to the right and then fly from it to the grated path even more to the right. Run down the path and you’ll spring to a new area. When you emerge, bounce again to a capsule. Ahead of you are a few green rings in the sky. Fly into the first one and you’ll be blasted to the checkpoint. It marks your progress in the level (if you die, you’ll start from here instead of the beginning of the level). Run forward on this path and you’ll pass through loops. At the end, you’ll run across the wind to reach a new ledge. Fly here to quickly reach the top of this cylinder-shaped mass of earth. Step into the center to be blown to a spring. It bounces you high into the sky. See the green rings ahead of you (but lower in altitude?). Try to fly/descend into them. It takes you to another grated path. Run through it and you’ll begin a very cool running sequence – over the path, down a wall, through a helix, and soon onto the wind. Take a capsule to the left on the island you come to and then grab the purple gem here, the Chaos Emerald! Man, these missions are easy! +--------------------------+ | Opening the Casino | +--------------------------+ Return to Station Square using the train. Exit SS Central Station and look around Station Area. In the corner is the entrance to Twinkle Park (currently closed for repairs), the theme park of the city. Notice a pool of water next to it. ------------------- UPGRADE: Jet Anklet ------------------- Hop in and follow the water to a dead-end. You’ll see an opening in the roof above you there. Jump and fly through the hole to find a “secret room.” There’s a door in here; take it to find a glowing light. This is an upgrade, my fine friend. You got the Jet Anklet! With it, you can fly even faster than before! And that means that we can go farther in the time provided, too. ------------------- Leave the hidden room and enter the Hotel. Now that it’s nighttime, we can enter the Casino (doorway opposite the Poolside door). Run down the initial stretch of road and you’ll find it (with its name in big neon lights, it’s hard to miss). Unfortunately for all those gambling- addicted tourists, the door can’t be opened. Well, that’s just not going to work for us. Fly into the big yellow switch above the “CASINO” sign and it’ll open the way to the institution of gambling. Enter Stage 2 if you dare... +-------------------+ | Casinopolis | +-------------------+ Of all the race-Sonic-to-the-goal missions, this is definitely one of the easier ones. We have to find the silver Chaos Emerald here, and we start out in the dump beneath the casino (they sure are wasteful, huh?). Unlike Sonic’s version of Casinopolis, which requires us to gamble our rings, this is set up like a level. Run forward to find a set of stairs. Fly up along it to collect the capsules floating above them. You’ll come to three spiky balls; run around/under them to reach another opening. It’s a fan; get into it and float up through the rings. There are various shoots to run through, but you want to take one of the lower ones (Sonic will take it). Run through, avoiding spiky balls and a slamming door), to reach the near-end of the level. Fly forward over these spikes and you’ll land by the Chaos Emerald. +---------------------+ | The Ice Stone | +---------------------+ As the duo leaves Casinopolis, Eggman swoops in and knocks the Chaos Emerald out of Tails’s hands. Tails tries to retrieve it, but Eggman deploys some noxious fumes on him, putting them both asleep until morning. Now that Dr. Eggman has two Chaos Emeralds, we really need to move! While we were out, a strange jewel was dropped into one of the alleys in the area. Walk over to the stairs right by the Station Sq Diner. Across the street is an alley. Walk through it to find an artifact quite similar to the Wind Stone (only blue instead of green). Pick it up to learn that it’s the Ice Stone. I know! Let’s use it in the Mystic Ruins! Take those stairs I mentioned earlier up to SS Central Station. Board the train, Ice Stone in hand, and you’ll arrive at the Mystic Ruins just in time to witness a tunnel form in the mountain that “fell from the sky” into the area. How convenient! Leap down to it from the train and enter. Walk through this cave (called “West Cave”) to reach an air current. Ride it up to a new region of Mystic Ruins. It’s Angel Island! Oh my gosh, the “mountain” actually DID fall from the sky! You see, Sonic veterans might know that Angel Island is the home of Knuckles the echidna, Sonic’s rival from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (and many games after that). Knuckles serves as the guardian of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, originally kept on the island. But, what’s relevant here is that Angel Island is a floating island, which is why it could’ve fallen. Anyways, we start out in an icy tunnel. Run forward to find another altar. Place the Ice Stone in it and the door opens; walk in to find a ladder. Climb it to Stage 3. +--------------+ | Icecap | +--------------+ Tails gets all the good parts of the levels! This level was a total suck fest when Sonic played it, but when Tails does it he starts off snowboarding down a slope with a giant snowball chasing after him! Lucky fox boy! Anyways, there’s a Chaos Emerald at the end of these slopes, and as always it’s our duty to race Sonic to it. For the first segment, it’s more luck than it is skill. Because of the camera positioning, we can’t tell what’s ahead. As a result, you can only hope you do well. If you find yourself on a rock (they act as ramps), jump off of it. Once you reach the tree-lined portion of the slope, the camera shifts so that we can see what’s coming up. And that is where we can really shine. Avoid the trees and icicles, collecting but not going out of your way for rings, and keep the control stick pushed forward. Soon, you’ll start seeing red-and-yellow ramps. Press A to jump off of them and do tricks. Tricks increase your speed when you land, and so you want to always go for ramps. Other than that, stay in the center of the track to minimize the possibility of being pushed against a wall. After an icy cavern, you’ll see a long ramp in the center of the slope. You want to jump off of it (and subsequent ramps) to really get an advantage in the race. After two speed boosts, you’ll have little difficulty reaching the Chaos Emerald in the clearing. +-----------------------+ | Waterside Brawl | +-----------------------+ The rest of Angel Island is closed off right now, but that doesn’t stop us from exploring Mystic Ruins. In fact, let’s go see what’s up at the Waterfall. Hey look! It’s Knuckles, and he’s violent! He demands you hand over the Chaos Emeralds, and when Tails refuses, Knux decides to pick a fight. Well, that won’t do. We’ll just have to defend our emeralds! +----------------------+ | Boss: Knuckles | +----------------------+ Hmm, I seem to remember Sonic fighting not only the Egg Hornet but also Knuckles the echidna. Oh well. If Sonic can do it, so can Tails, right? First, grab a few rings. Knuckles punches you at first. Once you hit him, he starts rolling. Score another hit and Knuxy will start gliding at you. Whenever he’s idle, you can attack in one of two ways. First, you can jump onto him (easier said than done), and second you can tails attack him (B/X). The latter is probably the easiest to do. Strike after he attacks. Tails and Knuckles charge at each other one last time when the two Chaos Emeralds are knocked out of Tails’s hands. Eggman appears afterward and steals them. He tricked Knuckles again! Knuckles declares that no one makes a fool out of him, but little can be done. Eggman gives Chaos (now in his second stage) the two new Chaos Emeralds, transforming him into the shark-like Chaos 4. We’ve got to pulverize that thing if we want to survive! +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 4 | +---------------------+ Two boss fights in a row? Well, both are pretty easy. Anyways, to accommodate Chaos’s new shark-looking form, we’re fighting in the water by the Waterfall. You can walk in the water, but it slows you down (also, if you stand in one place for too long, you’ll sink into it). With the ability to fly, though, the water (and chaos) should pose little threat. Chaos 4 has an array of new attacks in this form, but all of them can be flown over. First, its primary means of attack is sinking lily pads. If you’re on the pad it sinks (provided the water hits you), you’ll take damage. Chaos 4 is constantly sinking them to draw you into the water. Once in the water, it may charge you. Chaos 4 is also known to release a wave of energy at you. Being in the air can prevent damage from all of these attacks. To hurt Chaos 4, we must attack the head when it surfaces. You can do this by getting in close to it and using the B/X attack, or you can jump into it. Either way, four hits are required. When Chaos 4 halfway defeated, it starts creating water blasts simultaneously. Deliver two more hits and it is down for the count. From the skies emerges a strange object, and it slowly reveals itself from behind the clouds. It’s a gigantic ship! Eggman announces it as the Egg Carrier, his floating masterpiece. Though it pales in comparison to Chaos (that’s sad), it does make for a useful getaway craft. Knuckles takes off to take care of some unfinished business, but in the meantime it’s up to you two to fly the Tornado (Sonic’s plane, but really the handiwork of Tails) after it. Run over to the workshop and enter through the door. Tails boards the Tornado, the palm trees lower, and Sonic jumps in. Let’s go! +-----------------------+ | Sky Chase Act 1 | +-----------------------+ If you’ve ever played Sonic the Hedgehog 2, you might recognize the name of this sub game. Sky Chase Zone was the second-to-last zone of the game. In this game, it’s the act we chase the Egg Carrier in. The Tornado has simple controls; press B/A/X to fire and move with the Control Stick. Firing is important, as the Egg Carrier deploys a fleet of fighters on you. You can lock onto them by holding B/X/A. The Egg Carrier also fires missiles at you when you get close. It’s very easy, and Tails claims to have won shortly into it. But then, the Egg Carrier releases its ultimate weapon – the breaker beam. It blows off one of the Tornado’s wings, causing Tails to crash. He is separated from Sonic, and he finds himself in a forest in a faraway place. He sees Sonic running ahead of him in his dream, but Sonic is too fast. He can’t keep up. He’s just not good enough... Tails awakens to actually be in the Mystic Ruins. That dream reminds him of his childhood on South Island, when he was always chasing after his idol, Sonic the hedgehog. Tails decides that the Tornado was not powerful enough, which means that he needs to finish that prototype he was working on. But to do that, he needs a Chaos Emerald, stat! Let’s find one then... +----------------+ | The Frog | +----------------+ The train workers are on strike, meaning that we’re restricted to the Mystic Ruins to search for an emerald. Ride the mine cart by the waterfall into the Jungle Area, the most frustrating place in the game. It’s hard to navigate and dark at the moment. You’ll eventually find a red Chaos Emerald in the jungle path (southwest of the ancient ruins area’s lower-left corner on the map), but a frog steals it! Stop it! Run forward and you’ll find a tunnel with a layer of sand blocking its exit. Fly to the ledge above the sand and press the switch there. It drains the soil and lets you through to another sub-game. +-----------------+ | Sand Hill | +-----------------+ Even snowboarding down these dunes, we aren’t quite fast enough to catch that frog! You just have to board to the end, but you can earn points passing through the arches. You only have rocks and a snake statue to contend with. At the end, you’ll recover the frog (and consequently the Chaos Emerald it had), but suddenly the strange light transports you from the desert into a strange place with a temple ahead of you... +--------------------------------+ | The Ancient Civilization | +--------------------------------+ Walk forward to find some people walking around a shrine. What the...! These people... they look exactly like Knuckles old more wild! Knuckles must be descended from them! They are a tribe of warrior echidnas. As one points out, war with other civilizations has made them rich, but the Chief’s daughter disagrees with their way of life. --------------------- UPGRADE: Rhythm Badge --------------------- One echidna points out that you’re quite fast, but a certain badge could make you even faster. You can even spin quickly, like dancing! Go southwest of the Shrine in the center of the village (use the map if you need to) to find the upgrade in plain sight. You found the Rhythm Badge! Hold B/X down and you can continuously tails attack, making it much more effective than before! --------------------- Go south of the shrine on the map to find another temple. It leads to the Altar of Emerald, the resting place of the Master Emerald. Go forward out of this tunnel to find a bridge leading to the altar. Go to it and you will see the Master Emerald flanked by the seven Chaos Emeralds. Wait... That means this is ancient Angel Island! So, it wasn’t always floating. Now exit this area and see the temple. We are greeted by the Chief’s daughter. She was chanting something her grandmother taught her. She introduces herself as Tikal, and before you can say “I am Tails, Dark Knight of Vanda,” the dream ends. Suddenly, everything goes black, and we reappear in the Mystic Ruins. And then comes a large purple cat named Big. It collapses on you, causes the frog to hop away, and then runs off. Weird... +-----------------------+ | Sky Chase Act 2 | +-----------------------+ Head over to the workshop. Tails gets right to work on the Tornado 2. After mending the problems, Tails puts the emerald to work. Introducing, for the first time in Sonic history, the Tornado 2! Off he goes into the night sky. But this time, he means war! Tails flies over Red Mountain on Angel Island in pursuit of the Egg Carrier to see Sonic by a capsule. Hey, what luck! He lets the blue blur board the plane and the two begin their fight against terror of the skies... Aside from it being dark and stormy, the first part of this act plays just like the last one. Remember, move like normal and use B/A/X or shoot. Hold one of those buttons to lock onto targets. Defeat a larger fleet of fighters than before and you’ll brush with the Egg Carrier’s missile defense system. Just shoot ‘em up. Soon, Tails dives into the clouds and starts flying below the Egg Carrier. But before he does that, Tails transforms into a more compact mode. This time, there are also mines to deal with (either avoid them or shoot them). Eventually, you face the Egg Carrier head-on. Eggman removes the faceplate and begins charging up the breaker beam. Fire into the cannon itself (make sure to shoot down any missiles coming your way) to rapidly reduce the Egg Carrier’s health. Soon, it will be defenseless, allowing us to board it! +-------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Egg Carrier | +-------------------------------------+ Unfortunately, this mode has no landing gear, but it’s a small problem compared to what’s ahead. The Egg Carrier is an adventure field! Go forward to the circular platform ahead and Eggman comes onto the intercom. Somehow, he makes the ship transform, thus putting the Captain’s Room way out of reach. To get there, we’ll have to use (*gasp*) Sky Deck... When the cinema is over, walk up the ramp and take the door to Stage 4. We’re moving right along, now aren’t we? +----------------+ | Sky Deck | +----------------+ The two of you are shot out of a cannon and onto a cylinder! We have to race Sonic to the capsule at the end of the deck. When you touch the base of the cylinder, either start moving right along it or jump off and fly to the checkpoint. In all Sonic history, that must be the shortest distance between the starting point and a checkpoint ever. Run forward and a cannon begins to shoot down the segments of the Sky Deck. About midway through, fly up and you’ll see a ledge to the left. Land on it and fly past the cylinders afterward. You’ll come to a ladder. Either fly up it or climb up it to reach a set of monkey bars. Fly over them and you’ll fly over another cylinder and to a capsule by a speed pad. Boost forward through a short path to reach another checkpoint. Boost onto the cylinder ahead of you and fly around it, taking a magnetic Shield (it allows an extra hit and attracts rings to you) from the capsule. When you land, boost forward and run through a winding path of walkways that will eventually deposit you into a spring. Bounce onto it to a magnetic Shield, and then bounce on the next few springs. When you land, run through the tunnel (you should’ve gotten Power Sneakers while airborne; they increase your speed) to reach another winding path, only this one leads down. Head through it and you’ll be sped through another checkpoint, the third already. Instead of taking the ladder ahead of you up, just fly to the top. Then fly over the next set of bars. Now run around the next few catwalks until you reach the cylinder marked as # 4. Note that above the catwalks are aerial boosters that launch you a few capsules. Go past the fourth cylinder and turn onto a ledge at the end with the capsule. Press it to win! +-------------------------+ | Boss: E-102 Gamma | +-------------------------+ You and Sonic fall into Egg Carrier Hall, but we want to leave it as soon as we get there. Hop into the “Elevatore” and it will take you out to the Deck. Out there, we can see Amy standing before Eggman. Before they can ac t, Eggman steals the bird Amy was carrying and extracts a Chaos Emerald from it. Now that he has what he wants, he summons a robot, E-102 Gamma, to exterminate you pests. Well, while Sonic would normally step up to bat, this is Tails’s story, not that glory-hogging (pun!) Sonic’s, and so it’s up to you to take him out of commission. E-102 has two phases to its attacks. First, it locks onto your position with a laser. Then it shoots at where it locked onto you. See the flaw? If you move between the time the laser locks on and when the attack is fired, it will not follow you. So, as long as you’re moving (unless going directly at or away from Gamma), you can’t be hit. Gamma may jump into the air and hover as it shoots (one hit) or roll around as it shoots (two hits), but its attack never changes. To hurt our robotic enemy, just attack it (use the tails attack or jump). Three strikes and he’s out! Tails is about to deliver a finishing blow to the fiend when Amy interrupts him. He’s her friend! Don’t hurt him! Tails decides to spare him, but suddenly there’s an explosion! The Egg Carrier is losing altitude! What destroyed it? Regardless, we have to get off of this thing! Sonic orders Tails to take Amy to safety. He will finish off Eggman. So, Tails grabs Amy and flies off of the Egg Carrier, which was conveniently flying above Station Square at the time. When Tails lands, everything is back on track! While Tails was fighting E- 102, Sonic defeated Chaos 6 (he had six Chaos Emeralds at the time). Eggman escaped the Egg Carrier, and Sonic jumped after him into a totally different area (the jungle part of Mystic Ruins). Tails wonders where Sonic is, but he’s clearly not to be found. But, just feet away from him on the other side of SS Central Station, Eggman is ruined! Chaos was defeated, the Egg Carrier was destroyed, and his plans were foiled once again. But, if nothing else, he will not fail to destroy Station Square! Even though he’s there (he’s clearly crazy), Eggman fires a missile from the ocean (why didn’t he just do this before?) into the Casino region. All will die now! But, the doctor was out of luck again, as the missile did not detonate when it landed. Eggman is furious, and he decides that he will detonate it himself, personally! He blasts through a building and takes off. Meanwhile, Tails is scared. The fate of Station Square rests on his shoulders... Tails has to grow up now. Sonic won’t always be there to come to his rescue... It’s time for him to take responsibility! And to do that, he must reach the missile before Eggman can. Tails follows Eggman, and so begins the final level, Stage 5. +---------------------+ | Speed Highway | +---------------------+ We must race Eggman to the missile! Run forward down the initial tract of road and you’ll pass through a few loops before you have to stop holding forward on the control stick. You’ll land on a glass roof. See the green aerial booster to the upper-left? Fly through it to land on another building. Fly to the building to the left and then the one ahead of it with the bell. From there, boost onto the highway. At the end, you’ll be boosted into a cup-like machine that deposits you on a higher level. Continue down the path until you reach a ramp. There should be an aerial booster ahead. Fly through it and the subsequent boosters to reach a helipad. There is an aerial booster to the left; fly through it to boost to the checkpoint. Fly down to the building to the left. After that, fly into the booster ahead of you. It launches you into a tower through its open roof. When you drop in, look for an opening and run out onto the road it leads to. Run through it and the following roads to come to a few of those police robots. Skip over them and fly into the aerial booster ahead of you. You’ll come to... another road! When you land from it, fly over the rocket on this platform and use it to reach another road. Run through it and you’ll be ejected onto a rooftop. Fly to the platforms to the left of it and grab onto the rocket there. After the blast off, you’ll fall right to a checkpoint. Take the Power Sneakers ahead and fly into the aerial booster. When the boost is over, fly to the next booster, and repeat this until you come to the alcove at the end that marks your completion of the mission! +------------------------+ | Boss: Egg Walker | +------------------------+ The city people, gathered around the Casino where the missile is, are panicking. Eggman is angry that you beat him to the missile, and so he drops down his secret weapon – the Egg Walker. He orders Tails to move. If you refuse, he’ll make mincemeat out of you. “I can do this!” Tails proclaims. Let the battle commence. The Egg Walker is definitely the toughest boss Tails has to fight. If you stand away from the walker, Eggman will fire a constant barrage of missiles (he even uses a flamethrower at times). Approach it and the Egg Walker lifts one leg. It then stomps it; jump to dodge the energy wave it emits. Now jump into the foot or tails attack it. It loses power for a moment, and the imbalance in weight causes the Egg Walker to fall over. Jump into the cockpit now to deal damage. After being hit, the walker will leap into the air, land somewhere in the arena, drop a few bombs, and begin the sequence again. After two hits, the Egg Walker will require two of its feet to be knocked out before it collapses. After four hits, three feet must be knocked out. It takes five hits to win. Congratulations! You saved Station Square from annihilation. The people cheer for their savior, Tails, but what’s important is that Tails did it by himself, without Sonic. He flies off to the Mystic Ruins, and during his celebration he eventually finds Sonic. He must’ve landed over here! The two fly and run together, Tails’s theme song plays, and the credits roll! We see a collection of scenes from the game, credits to the side, and we hear more of the theme song. Now that we’ve seen Tails’s side of the story and rescued Station Square from destruction via missile, why not experience these events from a new perspective? While Tails has stages very similar to those of Sonic’s (some are direct extracts), the others are pretty unique. ======================================================================= =========================Knuckles the Echidna*========================= ======================================================================= And of course, where would Sonic Adventure be without a Knuckles storyline? You can unlock it by beating Knuckles as a boss in the Sonic or Tails story. Knux has a storyline with the same number of stages as Tails, but it’s slightly harder due to his missions. You see, the echidna in red has to track down three pieces of the shattered Master Emerald using a very fickle radar system. But, he has quite a few unique moves to help him do this. Press A to jump and A again to start gliding. If you touch a wall while gliding, you can start climbing it. Oh, and did I forget to mention that “Knuckles” throws a mean punch with B? ‘Cause he does. Good luck and take care... +----------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Station Square | +----------------------------------------+ Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald (as well as the Chaos Emeralds, but not so much anymore) on the floating Angel Island. But, one stormy night, as Knuckles was nodding off on the job, a huge aircraft flew by the island. Knuckles is awoken to a strange creature shattering the Master Emerald! With the emerald in pieces and the echidna enraged, Knuckles is about to ruff up the creature that emerged from it, but it escapes before he can lay a finger on it. Then, the island begins to shake... With the Master Emerald destroyed, Angel Island can no longer float in the skies! With a tremendous wave released in all directions, it falls into the ocean. Knuckles is flung into Station Square as a result of the crash. Though we don’t know about it yet, the Master Emerald has the ability to negate the effects of the Chaos Emeralds, making it extremely important should evil get its hands on the seven Chaos Emeralds. Plus, it’s Knux’s life’s work protecting that thing! So, we need to recover the fragments of the Master Emerald, and fast. They could be anywhere, though... Let’s begin our search right here in Station Square. As of right now, you’re in the Station Area, right in front of the Hotel. The SS Central Station is located in this area, but if you follow the road, you’ll reach the City Hall Area. Because of a little brawl that took place the night before, the entrance to City Hall is closed off. But, Knuckles is a powerhouse; walk into the barrier to knock it down. Approach the open doors to reach the rest of the city, which is Stage 1! +---------------------+ | Speed Highway | +---------------------+ Writing a guide for Knux’s levels is a bit difficult... That is, the Master Emerald shards are scattered randomly throughout the level. But, I can explain the basics. You have three fragments to find, and you have a radar for each at the bottom of the screen (in the center). Very faint signals are blue, closer ones green, then yellow, then orange, and finally red (you’re right on top of it!). Unlike in Sonic Adventure 2, you can track multiple shards at once. The Master Emerald shards are likely to be hidden in alcoves that require using springs or gliding in the right places. Rely on the radar to get the basic idea of where the shards are and then explore the nooks and crannies between buildings. Also, be sure to defeat enemies and break containers, as they might also hide them. Speaking of which, there are two types of enemy in this level – police robots and Spinners – both of which can be punched or jumped into to defeat. And remember, the city is in an ovular shape; you can almost glide down the center to pick up signals. But if nothing shows up on your radar, you can always get hints from the orange balls of light. Lastly, if you’re having a really tough time finding one fragment, you can quit and come back to the level. The pieces will be in new, random places. When you’ve found all three pieces, Knuckles poses, says something really snazzy, and you get a Mission Complete! +-------------------------------+ | Nighttime in the Square | +-------------------------------+ Station Square might appear mild-mannered at a glance, but at nighttime, it becomes a sin city! Well, I guess that’s stretching it a bit, but the casino does open at night. To reach it, enter the Hotel and take the door opposite the Pool Side one into the region of Station Square marked “Casino.” You can also access this area from the SS Central Station, but it’s closed right now. Anyways, once you reach the casino area, you’ll notice something. No, it’s not that Knuckles look really cool with neon lights shining off of him. It’s that the casino is closed, and that there’s a huge switch on the top. Around the casino’s entrance for a building with a “Chao in Space” poster on it (it’s a movie). With rings leading up the top of it, it just has to be important. Climb to the poster and then glide to hit the button, which opens the casino to all those addicted gamblers. See, we really are doing good! Step into the casino, Stage 2, and get ready to go jewel hunting. +-------------------+ | Casinopolis | +-------------------+ My, the casino sure has changed from the Sonic and Tails versions! Seriously, this place is huge, and probably one of the harder levels in Knuckles’s storyline. That’s because it’s mostly vertical, with shards hidden in weird places. There’s a pirate ship toward the top, a golden lion statue (you often have to spring into its mouth for a shard), a huge Sonic statue (the shard may be above it, or you may have to punch a foot of it to make it collapse), and a bunch of enemies that may contain shards. Again, there’s not much to be said since the shards are placed randomly throughout the stage, but here are a few tips I gave earlier: If nothing shows up on your radar, you can always get hints from the orange balls of light. And if you’re having a really tough time finding one fragment, you can quit and return to the level. The pieces will be in new, random places. And (need I even say this?) when you have all three shards, you win! Well done, my friend, well done. +---------------------------+ | Angel Island’s Past | +---------------------------+ After you’ve gotten all three, Knuckles is circled by a strange light. And suddenly, he closes his eyes and appears in a strange land. Well, this was quite unexpected... Walk off the steps you appear on to find... What the...! It’s like a bunch of clones of Knuckles, only they wear braids and don’t have cool shoes! Talking to one of them, you learn that this is a tribe (according to the map, this is what was Knuckles’s race) of echidna warriors. By waging war with adjacent tribes, they have become rich and prosperous. But, the Chief’s daughter disapproves of their way of life. Well, it seems that Knuckles is the last of this ancient race... Many of the echidnas are walking around a shrine (perhaps it is a ritual or ceremony). The shrine itself is built much like pyramids of the Americas, and at the top is the head of a snake, which they seem to worship or revere. By the way, we can tell this is Angel Island from an altar holding the Master Emerald and the seven Chaos Emeralds on it outside the main city area. It looks exactly like the one on modern day Angel Island, only newer. The only difference is that there is water out here, implying that Angel Island hasn’t always been floating. If you look around, you’ll find the chief, quite the battle-scarred leader, talking. He claims that the Chaos Emeralds are necessary to their survival, but her daughter – Tikal – argues this. Apparently, the echidna tribe plans to invade a shrine outside the city, stealing from it the Chaos Emeralds and killing its citizens. But, most importantly, they are taking the holy grounds of these people. Tikal, quite the humanitarian, begs him to reconsider. And with that, this seemingly pointless side quest ends. We reappear outside the casino where you’ll find Sonic and Tails passed out on the ground. Boy, Sonic sure does squirm a lot when he sleeps. I wonder what he’s dreaming about... Oddly, they’re sleeping with their eyes open. Enter the Hotel to find... Dr. Eggman! And he’s holding something as he walks extremely slowly. Is it a part of the Master Emerald? Follow him into the right elevator, which is otherwise never open, and you’ll appear in the dining area. Eggman has a Chaos Emerald in hand, not the Master Emerald. But it doesn’t matter. He wants to use Knuckles as a guinea pig to test his new weapon, anyways! Suddenly, that strange liquid life-form that shattered the Master Emerald back on Angel Island appears. And Eggman tosses the Chaos Emerald into it, making it grow even larger than before! But changing shape doesn’t scare Knuckles. He’s the most courageous echidna the world has even seen! Let the battle begin... +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 2 | +---------------------+ As you are no doubt aware by now, both from playing this storyline and from playing the Sonic or Tails storylines, you need rings to take hits. That is, if you have no rings when hit, you lose a life, but only rings if you’re hit with them. So, grab a few before doing anything else. Of all the various forms of Chaos, # 2 is probably the weirdest. It kicks things off by taking a ball form and bouncing about the room. Run away from the bouncy ball (avoid the shockwaves it gives off, too) until it assumes its regular shape. It’ll now walk around a bit before charging up a fist/tentacle that homes in on you. Try to avoid it as best you can (don’t think jumping alone works), and then swoop in and punch (or jump on) its vulnerable head. Four such hits and Chaos 2 is beat. Just remember, it does add new attacks to its repertoire every now and then. Sometimes, it disperses itself onto the floor (glide above the ground until it stops to avoid damage), and its shockwaves become bigger over time. But, after four hits, it’s down for the count. After doing an obnoxious victory dance over Chaos 2’s fallen body, Eggman brushes it off and makes excuses. But it doesn’t faze Knuckles! Robotnik says that he might know something that might. Sonic is also searching for the Master Emerald’s pieces! Why would he do that? And what does Eggman mean by “wild goose chase?” Knuckles needs to find Sonic. +--------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Mystic Ruins | +--------------------------------------+ Knuckles goes to the Mystic Ruins using the train, presumably. Knuckles’s story is really weird. He just appears places randomly! Anyways, welcome to the Mystic Ruins. A train in the area leads back to Station Square. Anyways, a team of archaeologists is in the area searching for the ruins of an ancient civilization that once lived here. Wait a second! Did Knuckles’s race live here at one time? It’s certainly possible... As long as we’re here, let’s review the different regions of the Mystic Ruins. First, there’s the station. Near it is West Cave, which leads to Angel Island... Wait, huh? You mean, Angel Island fell into the ocean outside the Mystic Ruins? Well, what a coincidence... Opposite the West Cave is Tails’s Work Shop. Yes, fox boy hangs out here testing plane prototypes and whatnot. -------------------- UPGRADE: Shovel Claw -------------------- There are a few more caves north of the workshop. Enter East Cave from the ground near the workshop and you’ll come to a fork in the road. Take the left tunnel and the gate comes crashing down, preventing us from moving on... But, there’s a strangely lit object in here. Pick it up to get the Shovel Claw! Now we can dig through dirt and stone by pressing A and B or A and X simultaneously! Digging often uncovers hidden items, maybe even shards of the Master Island. And if you fail to find anything, you hear a very angry “Dang!” -------------------- To escape this cave, dig in the strange pedestal-like object for a switch. Pick it up (B or X) and throw it (run and press B or X) at the Kiki robot in the cage, thus opening the gate. Dig for another Monkey Destruction Switch and carry it over to West Cave. You know, the cave that leads to Angel Island. Inside, step into a wind current. You’ll appear in a tunnel on Knux’s home island. Walk through it to reach the open area. The shrine is still there, the Master Emerald still smashed. You’ll notice a caged Kiki, like the one we destroyed earlier by the upgrade, near a gate. Toss the switch into it and pass through the opening. Welcome to Stage 3! +--------------------+ | Red Mountain | +--------------------+ Of all the stages Knuckles has to seek out emerald pieces in, I understand Red Mountain. It’s on Angel Island, right near the Master Emerald’s altar, and it makes sense that some would land here. It makes no sense, however, that some would make their way inside a casino! Regardless, let’s add pieces # 7, 8, and 9 to our collection. As you should know by now, emerald fragments are random, but you should be on the lookout for enemies, nooks and crannies around the volcano, the volcano top itself, and places where you get a red signal but there is no shard in sight. In such places, dig the ground to unearth the piece. The best strategy to deploy here is flying around the various mountains watching for signals. Remember to move around different elevations to get signals. All and all, Red Mountain is pretty easy. But, if you need it, use the “hint balls” for tips on emerald locations or quit and come back to the level to set new positions for the fragments. When you’ve recovered the three hidden here, you can forever abandon the mountain. +--------------------------+ | In Search of Sonic | +--------------------------+ Now that we’ve discussed all other areas, this leaves one region unexplored in the Mystic Ruins (aside from the Jungle area, but we’ll get to that later) – the Waterfall. Waltz on over to it, north of the station, to find the... +-------------------+ | Boss: Sonic | +-------------------+ Oh, would you look at that loser hedgehog? He’s all “Hey, Knuckles.” as if nothing happened! But more importantly, he has a piece of the Master Emerald in his hand! He has no right to have that, which means we have to beat him up. Sonic is a bit surprised when attacked, and the blue blur demands to know what possessed his former rival to attack (Knuckles and Sonic have a history of fighting each other). Knux, a very articulate person, just demands the “emerald” (had he specified the Master Emerald, this could’ve been avoided), and Sonic refuses. Well, it looks like the only way to solve our problems is violence. Sonic is the easiest boss Knuckles will face in his storyline. First, pick up a few rings. At first, Sonic will try to jump you. Of course, you can easily avoid this by (guess what?) moving out of the way. Sonic will be vulnerable for a second or two after landing, leaving you with the perfect opportunity to give the ol’ one-two punch. After that hit, Sonic will try to spin dash into you. Jump to avoid it and punch him when he stops. Now he’s had enough! Sonic will now jump AND home attack you. If you jump, both of you will just collide, neither taking damage. After he lands, give him one last taste of your gloved fist to end this. Sonic and Knuckles charge at each other one last time, and Knux manages to knock the Chaos Emeralds, not Master Emerald pieces, out of his pockets. Eggman arrives, right on cue, and takes them. Man, Knuckles got tricked by Dr. Robotnik AGAIN! In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Eggman convinced Knuckles that Sonic and Tails were bad guys searching for the Chaos Emeralds, you see. In any case, Eggman summons Chaos and feeds him the two new Chaos Emeralds. It makes him transform into a hideous shark-like creature, Chaos 4. Though Sonic and Tails would gladly volunteer to fight this aquatic loser, Knuckles insists that he should get to “make him eat dirt.” +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 4 | +---------------------+ Grab some rings and get ready for an easy battle. Chaos 4 will swim around the lake you’re fighting in and try to sink the lily pad you’re on (they all come back over time). This forces you into the water, which slows you down and eventually makes you sink if stood in for too long. Chaos 4 will sink lily pads in two ways – swimming beneath them and dragging it down with its “horn” or launching a wave of water at you. Either way, avoid the resulting water blasts and glide to another pad. Of course, the air is the safest place to be since Chaos 4 occasionally unleashes an energy wave at you, but you’ll want to be on the lily pads/water to attack its head when it surfaces. As usual, do this with a punch or a jump. Once you’ve landed five hits, Chaos 4 not modifying its strategy at all during the fight (it just becomes faster and kicks more waves), you will have emerged victorious over the beast yet again. But from the skies, we see quite an impressive vessel emerge. It’s the Egg Carrier, the same airship we saw outside Angel Island before Chaos shattered the Master Emerald! Eggman calls it his flying fortress, and he escapes to it laughing all the way. Tails and Sonic yap about chasing them in the Tornado, but Knuckles decides to take care of some other things. And I think I know what, too. +------------------+ | The Jungle | +------------------+ You’ll notice a mine cart left of the falls. Hop in and you’ll be wheeled into the Jungle, the most complicated area in the game, probably in any 3-D Sonic game. It’s an intricate series of paths and streams and blah-blah-blah. Our first priority: getting out of here. ------------------------ UPGRADE: Fighting Gloves ------------------------ From the ladder you start on, look forward. You should be able to make out a ridge in the wall to the east. Glide toward it. You won’t make it all the way there, though; you’ll fall about three quarters of the way there. Continue following paths until you reach a part of the map called “Big’s House,” and then climb the wall behind it. Go up a bit and look right for the ridge we saw earlier. Follow it to another upgrade. You got the Fighting Gloves! If you hold down B or X, you can charge up power to perform the “Maximum Heat Knuckles Attack,” which doesn’t seem to do much for you at a glance, but it can be used to home attack enemies, so to speak. ------------------------ If you fall off the ridge, you may land by an Emblem (I’ll explain their use later in the guide; check out “Emblem Checklist” and/or “Secrets” for details on their uses). But, you want to glide toward the area on the map marked “Ancient ruins.” You can see them from any elevated point in the jungle; it’s a massive, walled-off pyramid. Glide to it, check it out, look around. Hey! This is the same structure as that ancient shrine we saw in that strange place the light took us to after Casinopolis! So, that must mean that Knuckles’s ancestors lived in what is now the jungle. You can tell it belongs to that tribe because of the snake head and the sitting echidna statues perches around the front steps. Glide back to the mine cart you arrived by, but don’t take it back to the Mystic Ruins main region. Instead, pick up a golden statue by it. The light calls it the “key to the past.” Jump down with it to the pyramid (you’ll have to wander around the jungle paths to find an opening through the walls) and walk to the backside of the pyramid, facing north. There are two altars, one gold, one silver. Place the statue you have, a bust of an echidna, and it sets into place. The other statue is well-hidden in the maze that is the jungle. Left of the ruins on the map is a small path leading to a circular structure. See it? Enter and dig in the altar you see to uncover the silver statue. Take it back to the altars and set it in, too. With both inside, a gold light appears, leading us into Stage 4. +------------------+ | Lost World | +------------------+ Somehow or other, three pieces of the Master Emerald winded up in here. Please, don’t ask me to explain how. In any case, there’s not much for me to say about this stage, and that’s because the fragment locations are random. Remember to use the orange light for hints and, if you just can’t find one of the shards, to quit and return to the level to reset the locations of the pieces. Now, Lost World doesn’t really do much different from previous stages. Enemies are, as always, likely candidates for emerald locations. As for that matter, so are crates. Then you have the walls, laden with traps like spikes. Notice the lit up tiles. You can walk up those, but you’d might as well just climb. Finally, you can dig in some areas. Note the presence of many tunnels leading to possible emerald spots. With three new pieces added to your collection, we can finally move on. +--------------------------------+ | Boarding the Egg Carrier | +--------------------------------+ That strange light takes us to another place again. Yep, we’re back by the ancient civilization. You can take the door back into the shrine area and take a second look at things, but we’re mostly concerned with the altar ahead of you. The seven Chaos Emeralds are set on the sides, and the Master Emerald is placed in the center. You can definitely see that this is Angel Island. When you approach the Master Emerald, you’ll see Tikal by it. You know, the daughter of the chief, pacifist of the year. There she is, complaining to the Master Emerald about her troubles. She asks the emerald to remove the people from the city. The Master Emerald can’t leave, so she decides to talk to him again. Hey look, a few Chao! They’re the peace-loving friends of hers. Man, this is corny/weird. But, seeing that takes us to the shrine of today, back in Angel Island. Knuckles sets the shards into the Master Emerald, and now it is completely restored. Or is it? No, a chunk is missing. We need three more pieces! But, in the emerald Knuckles can see Eggman’s flying fortress, the Egg Carrier. Conveniently, he sees a robot known as E- 102 fall from Red Mountain and march off. Knux decides to follow it to the Egg Carrier. Follow E-102 into the Mystic Ruins and take the mine cart into the Jungle Area. A huge structure has appeared! Glide over to the pyramid and then glide to the northern edge of the map and look for a tube leading to that tower. Knuckles observes as E-102 enters, and he follows close behind to do the same. He is taken to the Egg Carrier, which starts to take off shortly after that. This is the third and final adventure field – the Egg Carrier! +-------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Egg Carrier | +-------------------------------------+ Walk forward to find the Captain’s Room. Suddenly, the Egg Carrier changes shape for no reason. Well, this is quite confusing... Walk over to the Pool building (refer to the map to find it) and fall into the water. Inside, Knuckles will say that he senses the Master Emerald nearby. Walk through the door to find a capsule and another door that takes you to Stage 5. +----------------+ | Sky Deck | +----------------+ I suppose it is plausible that three pieces of the Master Emerald managed to land on the Egg Carrier. After all, it was right by Angel Island when the emerald was broken. Now, did I say Casinopolis was the hardest stage for Knuckles? Scratch that. This definitely is. A lever at the beginning of the level can be used to change the tilt of the Egg Carrier. Certain areas can only be accessed at certain tilts. Of course, most enemies can be reached at any tilt. Note that cannons and turrets often contain one. Tilting can move some blocks, revealing dirt patches that may have fragments in them, and they also cause some doors to open and fire bombs at you. You might find a piece in there. Now Knuckles has all the pieces of the Master Emerald! +-----------------------------------------------+ | The Decline of the Ancient Civilization | +-----------------------------------------------+ Of course, that stupid light has to send us back to witness another chapter of Tikal’s life. The shrine of the Master Emerald is afire, and that’s where we appear. Go forward and you’ll find Tikal on the ground. She couldn’t stop him. Her father came, but she had no idea how bad this would turn out. So, what happened? Whatever did, Knuckles reappears in the Pool of the Egg Carrier. Ext it and Knuckles’s thoughts will begin to wander. Now that he’s about to restore the Master Emerald, what about that creepy monster? And was all that stuff he saw in the past just a dream? In any case, he says a bright flash of light ahead. Glide over there to find Sonic and Eggman. Sonic seems to have just defeated Eggman, who flees, when Knuckles arrives. The two run off (Sonic chasing the doctor), when Chaos, now in its sixth form, appears. Guessing by what just happened, it seems like Sonic already owned this creature. We’ll just have to give it a knuckle sandwich! Oh, what a pun! +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 6 | +---------------------+ It’s kind of hard to tell what this monstrosity is supposed to look like, but man is it ugly. Its main attack is sucking you into its mouth and then... excreting you out, I guess you’d say. It also launch its tail at you after releasing parts of its body at you to block your escape routes. It may also quick attack you with its tail. Meanwhile, two sections of the floor are missing, forcing you to glide over them (they were removed from Sonic’s fight, I guess), and a bunch of robots are appearing to attack you. You must punch/jump them and then lift the bombs they leave behind and throw them into Chaos 6’s mouth when it’s open. This causes Chaos 6 to freeze. Punch or jump into its head to deal damage. Four hits and it is defeated for real this time. Now it will never damage the Master Emerald again! Congratulations! You beat the Knuckles storyline. Knux takes the six Chaos Emeralds that it had, destroys the Egg Carrier, and flies off. Now the Master Emerald is restored! Angel Island rises from the ocean and resumes its place in the sky. Knuckles is at peace once more. Let the credits roll! ======================================================================= ===============================Amy Rose*=============================== ======================================================================= Ah, Amy Rose, the hedgehog who wants to marry Sonic. She’s playable, too, in what has to be one of the more frivolous storylines of the game. It’s only three stages long, but it gives us a taste of what she can do. You can unlock Amy by meeting her by the Casino after clearing Sky Chase Act I as Sonic. Amy’s weapon of choice is the Piko Piko Hammer, used with B or X. If she is in full run when she uses a hammer attack, she’ll hit the ground hard and fly into the air afterward. If in mid- air when she uses the hammer, it’ll be an aerial attack (of course, A is jump). Of course, with only three stages to go through, don’t be too concerned that you master the controls. This is definitely the easiest storyline in the game. +----------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Station Square | +----------------------------------------+ It’s the late afternoon when Amy is grocery shopping in Station Square. She remembers the good old days with Sonic, chasing the bad guys like Metal Sonic. By chance, though, she notices an eclipse. Wait, no, it’s a gigantic ship. It is the Egg Carrier! And equally by chance, a small blue bird drops from it and beams her. Ha! With it comes a green robotic menace, presumably searching for the bird. Amy picks up the bird and takes off into the Burger Shop. Well, it seems that Dr. Robotnik really wants to beat up innocent birdies, eh? Could this by a Flicky, from Sonic 3D Blast? Either way, Amy vows to protect it from that thing... Well, why would the Egg Carrier be over here? You know, where there’s Eggman, there’s usually Sonic, too. And it was flying over the Casino, was it not? Let’s go check it out. Currently, you are in the City Hall Area. If you follow the road south, you’ll come to the Station Area. As you walk along, you may notice a character flying right to the Hotel. This is a cameo for Cream, a character introduced in Sonic Advance for the Game Boy Advance. Anyways, the main attraction of the Station Area is SS Central Station, which serves as the train station. The train there goes to the Mystic Ruins where Tails lives. But, you want to go the Hotel. Take the door into it and then the door opposite the one leading to Pool Side out. This, my friend, is the Casino area. What do you know? It’s Sonic! Amy rushes up to him and Sonic nervously backs off. Amy offers her hero the chance to protect the birdie she has, but Sonic refuses. That means she’ll just have to tag along. Go to Station Area, right by the entrance to Twinkle Park. It is the theme park of the city, the main attraction outside Casinopolis. And right now, couples get in free! Just then, the bag of bolts chasing Amy appears. Sonic’s ready to rip it to shreds, but Amy would rather take advantage of the deal at the theme park. She runs in and Sonic follows for some reason. Together, they arrive at Stage 1. +--------------------+ | Twinkle Park | +--------------------+ Our goal here, as witch every other mission Amy has, is to evade Zero, the robot chasing us, and grab the goal balloon. Walk forward and grab a ring. As long as you have one of these, you won’t die instantly when hit (you just lose your rings). Also, notice the orange ball of light. Touching it earns you a free tip. Run forward and Zero will jump out of the pool. You can stun it with the Piko Piko Hammer, but it’ll be immobile only momentarily. Plus, you can stun Zero a limited number of times per stage. Run right of the pool and you’ll find several dynamite barrels with Kikis, monkey robots that throw bombs, by them. Press the two switches along the way and continue down this path to reach a door. To the left is a third switch; press it and take the doors. You’ll reach a new area. Walk forward past the spiky balls here to reach a Kiki. Destroy it and continue down the path to a door. It leads into a hall of mirrors. Focus on the real you, walk against one of the sides, and walk forward. Zero drops in behind you, and spiky balls drop onto the center of the track. At the end, you’ll see the mirror image of yourself; controls are reversed. Walk to the door and go forward out of this hallway. Run down the hallway you come to, jumping over spikes and avoiding enemies, to come to a checkpoint. If you die after touching one of these, you’ll restart at it. Run forward into another hall of mirrors and dash down the sides to reach the door, avoiding Zero all the way. Whack the Kikis you come to and you’ll enter another hall of mirrors. Walk around the tiles with creases down their centers (those are hidden pits) to reach a ledge. Jump to it and up the next few steps. Now run along this path, leaping over the gaps, to reach another hallway. Run past the enemies and you’ll emerge by a checkpoint. Zero drops in and begins raging around trying to crush you. You can grab the blue barrel (B or X) ahead of you to hide in it, but then Zero starts randomly attacking everything. Since your slowed down by the barrel, your chances of getting hit are increased rather than decreased. Continue running forward, right up the ramp with spiky balls falling all over it, and you’ll come to a yellow balloon. Jump onto it and ascend to safety. Zero can’t get you now! +-----------------------+ | Twinkle Circuit | +-----------------------+ You appear outside of Twinkle Park. We can leave now, but you’d might as well take the door to the left to play a sub game, Twinkle Circuit. It’s a Sonic Drift-like game, only in much better graphics. Press A to accelerate forward, B to brake, and the control stick to move. Furthermore, the more rings you have, the faster you accelerate. Hitting walls slows you down, though. It’s worth an Emblem, and so you’d might as well play. +------------------------+ | Egg Carrier Hall | +------------------------+ Exit Twinkle Park through the door opposite its entrance to return to Station Square. Amy foolishly thinks she lost the robot, but Zero is there, right above her! It grabs her and makes its way into SS Central Station. It carries Amy onto the train tracks (it doesn’t even board a train) and takes off. Sonic sees her being taken away from below. Next we see of her, Amy is in a prison cell of the Egg Carrier. A robot appears outside her cell and stares at her. He demands the bird. Amy refuses several times, and the robot asks why not. Why does he want it, then!? The robot isn’t quite sure why it wants the bird, actually. E-102 senses something illogical. She cares for something she knows nothing about. The bird flies out of the cell and tries to look as pathetic as it can for E-102 Gamma, the robot here. It tells the bird to escape, frees Amy, and tells her that the Egg Carrier will be arriving at the Mystic Ruins base shortly. I guess the robot wanted to know why someone would do such a thing, and so it did such a thing to find out. ------------------------ UPGRADE: Warrior Feather ------------------------ Walk out of Prison Hall and you’ll reach Hedgehog Hammer, Dr. Robotnik’s favorite mini-game. His high score is 2000. In this game, you must whack hedgehog dolls that emerge to score points. Blues are worth 100 points and yellows are 500 points. But hit Eggman and you’ll lose 200 points. Jump into center stage and let’s get-a whacking! Don’t stand in the center and try it or you’ll hit both dolls ahead of and behind you (and Eggman dolls tend to appear opposite good ones). So, move to the edge of the platform when you hit things. 2000 is quite a difficult score to get, but you can get it. After winning, we get the Warrior Feather! With it, we can use the Spin Hammer Attack. Press and hold the action button and spin the control stick in a circle to wing the hammer in a circular direction. ------------------------ This has the added bonus of opening the door to the main room of the Egg Carrier Hall. But don’t leave the room yet. There’s another upgrade tied into this sub game. -------------------- UPGRADE: Long Hammer -------------------- If you play Hedgehog Hammer again and beat it with 3000 points or more, you win the Long Hammer. It has a longer handle than the Piko Piko Hammer, and so your range is increased. You can also use the Spin Hammer Attack with it. -------------------- Now that we have it, exit this room to reach Egg Carrier Hall. Hammer down the switch left of where you entered to go to Hot Shelter, Stage 2. +-------------------+ | Hot Shelter | +-------------------+ Our goal’s the same as before: reach the balloon while evading Zero. We start taking an elevator down into the interior of the Egg Carrier. Step into the hallway you come to and walk down the aisle to collect rings (you can ignore the Kiki). Right by the orange light is a switch. Grab onto it with B and rotate it counterclockwise to open the door to its left. Walk through it into a new hallway where you’ll run into a new type of enemy. It launches its head at you, which stuns you long enough for the body to charge you. Attack both or just the body to destroy, and then move on past a few spiky balls. As you continue, Zero breaks through the glass. Stun him and quickly run forward with the Power Sneakers! Sprint forward, jump over the water (be careful; if you fall in, you have a chance of suffocating, and it’s hard to get out with Zero bugging you) utilizing the platforms floating on it, and pass Amy through the checkpoint. Jump toward the capsule ahead of you. It is a Bomb, and it destroys all enemies in the vicinity. Walk forward to reach another switch. Spin it counterclockwise and walk into the new room. Claim both capsules here before using the steps to reach the emergency drainage switch. Hit it and the water comes gushing in. Jump onto the platform that’s raised as a result of that, jumping from it to the door afterwards. To open this door, spin the switch left once and right thrice (three times). The first thing you’ll notice in the new hallway is a checkpoint. Walk around the spikes and green objects, right through the rings, and you’ll reach a few more steps. Hop up them and fall into a new hallway. Hey, look, it’s our good pal, Zero! If you are running, you can use a hammer jump to claim capsules above spikes. When you reach the end of this hallway, jump up the steps and hop into the opening to the left. Continue down it, possibly a ventilation system, and you’ll reach a third checkpoint. Walk forward and take the door the camera reveals. Walk down this path and Zero drops in. Man, that is one persistent robot! Take a Shield a little ways off (these are good for one free hit, saving your life and your rings) and you’ll be faced with a fork in the road. Take the closed door ahead of you, the one with Eggman’s face on it. Whack Zero and spin the switch to the left to open the door. Drop into this shaft and you’ll fall through a capsule. When you hit bottom, use the open door to reach a room full of slow-moving gears. Jump across the first few and you’ll come to a switch. Hit it and the gears switch direction. Jump to the third one and jump to the right off of it to the 10-ring capsule on the ledge. Then bounce back up and you’ll reach the checkpoint. Take each of the five-ring capsules ahead of you first. Then walk back a bit to the gear moving right of the checkpoint. Ride it up to another switch that reverses the gear directions back to normal. Jump to the opposite gear from there and ride it up to a new walkway. Follow it past the spiky orbs, defeat the Kikis, and go forward to a few doors branded with Eggman’s face on them. After both open, you’ll reach a long catwalk leading to two narrower ones. Carefully cross them and hit the switch. The other catwalk now draws in a bit; jump onto it while it’s rotating. Now walk down the path, go through the doors, and welcome to a new hallway. It features Zero, don’t you know? Stun Zero and dash forward, jumping the Kikis and climbing the steps to a Shield capsule. Now take the steps back down and follow the path to a lift with a switch by it. Hit Zero and rotate the switch until you’ve risen to the upper level. Jump forward and look down to see a new walkway below. Jump to the spring below and bounce on it to another checkpoint! This is a long level! Go forward to the monitor room. Here, lift the blocks to the side and place them in the matching colored altar. When four are in place, the monitor displays a picture of Zero. Sure enough, he busts through the central monitors. Jump at him, hammer attack, and continue forward past the robot, still evading Zero. Continue down the path, defeating a Kiki as you go, and you’ll come to yet another checkpoint. Walk right to see a ramp. Hit the capsules beneath it and then sprint up the ramps. You’ll come to a block puzzle, and quite a tough one because Zero is here. Place the three blocks in their correct tiles. But, the fourth one is not on the ground. Use the spring to bounce to the beams above. The central one contains the blue block. Set it in its tile and a door opens. Run down the hallway you can now access and another door opens; behind it is the balloon. Take it beat the level! +----------------------------------------+ | A Seemingly Unrelated Side Quest | +----------------------------------------+ Suddenly, a light circles around Amy’s body and she finds herself in an ancient city, a huge Aztec-style tiered pyramid in the center! Gee, what were in those grocery bags, anyways? Back on topic, let’s explore. Go forward and you’ll notice that this place is actually home to an ancient tribe of echidnas! They’re circling around the pyramid, adorned with the head of a snake (perhaps they worship a snake-god), in what must be a ritual. Could these people be the ancestors of Knuckles? Apparently, the Chief and his daughter are arguing over the tribe’s invasion of the holy grounds of another nation. You see, this tribe is warlike and has become rich through expanding its empire to other lands. If you go through the temple doors behind where you start out, you’ll even find a shrine with the seven Chaos Emeralds (when all seven are united, they give off tons of energy) and the Master Emerald, which can negate the effects of the Chaos Emeralds. The tribe probably wants to use these emeralds to conquer other kingdoms. And right by it is that daughter, Tikal. She is watching some cute little critters called Chao. They just appeared, and they start singing/talking! How adorable is that? But, from the surrounding waters emerges a strange beast. What is it? Whatever it was, this dose of unreality ends, and we wind up in the Pool of the Egg Carrier. +--------------------------------+ | Escaping the Egg Carrier | +--------------------------------+ Take the door out of here and a cinema ensues. Eggman appears, claw ready to snatch the bird, when suddenly Sonic and Tails show up. They’re ready to rip him to shreds. But before they can attack, Eggman seizes the bird and extracts... the blue Chaos Emerald! So that’s why Robotnik wanted the bird (and it also shows that it probably is a Flicky). Eggman summons Gamma to dispose of these intruders, and E-102 (the robot that helped us) fights Sonic. He can’t win, and just before Sonic crushes him, Amy steps in Sonic’s way and saves her new friend. Everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog decides to spare him... And suddenly, the Egg Carrier begins to lose altitude! Sonic runs off to attack Eggman while Tails is assigned to help Amy off of this heap of junk. Amy tells Mr. Robot to find a new line of work away from Eggman, and then Tails and Amy fly away from the Egg Carrier, which promptly explodes. Well, this has been quite an exciting cinema! Tails and Amy land in Station Square. It’s the late afternoon, and we can see that Eggman also landed here. Tails runs off to fight him or something like that, but Amy would rather care for the bird. After looking at the bird more closely, she notices a pendant. Hey! It shows its parents! Well, isn’t that convenient? Eggman has the birdie’s parents captive right now, and Amy takes it upon herself to unite the baby bird with his loved ones. The robot told us that Eggman had a base in the Mystic Ruins; we should look there. Before you can even board the train or translate “Mystic Ruins” to Mandarin, you’re there. +------------------+ | The Jungle | +------------------+ Although this does qualify as the third and final adventure field, we won’t be spending much time in the Mystic Ruins. Take the stairs down from the station we come to and go north (on the map) to an area called “Waterfall.” Left of the falls is a mine cart; hop in. It leads us to the most horrible part of the game, the Jungle Area. And not only that, but this is the worst time of day to attempt to navigate the jungle – nighttime. From the high ledge we start on, look around. To the north should be a tower, its position made quite obvious by a mass of lights around it. Now, if you look hard, you should see a pyramid (the same one we saw in that “dream” Amy had after clearing Hot Shelter, only now very old) protruding from the sea of trees. Jump in its general direction. If you’re lucky, you can walk across the treetops and reach it. But, chances are good that you’ll fall into the jungle path. In that case, use the map to reach the area marked “Ancient ruins” as best you can. From there, it’s a simple matter of reaching the north border of the jungle and walking right to reach a tube that takes you right to the base when walked into. After a short cut scene showing Amy check out the bridge, enter. In here, you’ll see quite a few interesting things of Eggman’s. But, by far the coolest are the two robotic versions of Sonic. The black one is (I’d guess) the second-to-last boss from Sonic the Hedgehog, the first Sonic to feature a mechanical Sonic as a boss (though Roller enemies were essentially the same thing in the original). The other is definitely Metal Sonic, the villain of Sonic CD (which also introduced Amy Rose! What a small world this is...). Anyways, you’ll notice a few switches near a door. We have to hit them in the proper sequence to open the door. Here’s some ASCII art showing how the buttons are set up and numbered. ____ ____ / \ / \ | 01 | | 06 | \____/ \____/ ____ ____ / \ / \ | 02 | | 05 | \____/ \____/ ____ ____ / \ / \ | 03 | | 04 | \____/ \____/ Hit 5, 4, 3, and then 2. Real simple, right? This opens the door to Stage 3! +-----------------+ | Final Egg | +-----------------+ That’s right; this is Amy’s last level. But, unlike Hot Shelter, it is medium-length. Zero crashes in behind us (that robot needs to get a life! We don’t even have the Chaos Emerald anymore!) and so begins the mayhem. Run down this initial stretch, either leaping over the lasers or pounding their sources with the Piko Piko Hammer, and soon you’ll come to a few Spinners (alliteration!) and spiky balls spinning wildly. Avoid them all if possible and continue down to a “slope” on the path. Dash down, bounce on the spring, and keep up the pace by running forward some more. Avoiding the cranes should be simple enough, and the checkpoint is ahead. With Amy’s short jump, you should have little trouble hopping between the lasers ahead of you. Right after that you’ll meet up with one of those head-flinging robots. Jump, hammer attack, and continue. Getting hit by them is especially risky here because it sets you up for assaults by Zero. Continue down this track, leaping over the laser grid if you can, to come to another crane. It guards a 1UP capsule; take it if you want. Then take the next tunnel (the orange light is there). Zero busts out from behind one of the walls and continues the great chase. Keep moving until you find yourself at another laser grid. Break the two structures emitting the lasers and continue running down the rest of this hallway. It leads to the second checkpoint. Enter into the new room to find a switch on the ground. Press it; the elevator starts coming down to you. But, it’ll take its sweet time, leaving you to defend yourself against Zero. Now, that stupid light suggests that we hide somewhere, but this creepy robot isn’t that dense. Just keep running; it’s the safest alternative. When the elevator does reach your level, get in. When it reaches its peak, exit it. Suddenly and very predictably, Zero breaks through the far wall and starts this dumb chase all over again. Run right down the path, jumping over the laser when you come to it. You’ll see a barrel, but as you should know from Twinkle Park, hiding doesn’t work out like the orange light says it does. Ignore it, jump into the capsule, and land on the next tier of the room. Continue jumping up the tiers to reach a hallway. Follow it to the third checkpoint. Here, we have five doors to choose from. One is right, four are wrong, and that’s life. The wrong ones are just dead-ends leading to Spinners. The right one leads to a checkpoint. As soon as you set foot in the new room, Zero joins you after making a door out of what was a wall. Run forward and hammer jump (press B/X while running at full speed for a heightened jump) to the doorway. Saunter on through the tunnel and you’ll come to the balloon. Well, that was short! +---------------------------------+ | The Egg Carrier’s Remains | +---------------------------------+ Was that pointless or what? We come out in a new region of the base when Amy realizes that, since the bird came from it, birdie’s parents must still be in the Egg Carrier. Brilliant deduction, Rose! Take the stairs back to the upper level and you’ll return to the jungle, which is now experiencing daytime. Navigate your way through it and climb the ladder. Return to Mystic Ruins (main area), stat! Go south of the Waterfall area to the Station; climb the stairs. Step into the train and you’ll ride right into SS Central Station. Apparently, the Egg Carrier crashed into the ocean and has managed to stay afloat. Take the dock near the Hotel out to it. It’s quite impressive, even when sunk. The birdie finds its parents! All is good! But wait, not all is good. Zero just barely misses the bird. Had it been a direct hit, it would’ve most certainly killed it. Now Amy’s mad! Let’s take that annoying robot DOWN! +------------------+ | Boss: Zero | +------------------+ Well, how do you like this? Not only have more than half the characters fought Chaos 6 on this very platform, but Amy’s canning Zero on it, too! Anyways, you should be familiar with Zero’s attack patterns by now. Zero is pretty tough compared to most bosses in the game. He’ll start attacking with its built-in laser right from the get-go. Aside from that, Zero may also pound the ground to release an energy wave. Also, notice an electrical fence on the side of the arena. Keep clear of it. Give Zero a taste of your hammer. You want to knock him into the electrical fence. Do so and he’ll short-circuit for a second, exposing the switch beneath his head’s “cap.” Hit it while you can to deal damage. In this phase of the battle, Zero uses larger shockwave attacks and a longer-ranged laser, not to mention an attack where it launches its fist at you after locking on to your position. Hit him again. Zero now launches both fists, charges them electrically, and spins about. Put those jump-rope skills to the test to dodge them. Also, the other attacks get longer. Deliver one final blow to Zero and he will explode, finally! Amy does her little victory dance, and you should too! Congratulations! You beat Amy’s storyline. As it turns out, the little bird is A-okay, and the Flicky family can live in peace. Amy’s so happy, she’s going to try her best, too (whatever that has to do with anything). Now, her thoughts turn to Sonic, which leads us right to the credits. This storyline has been just like Amy – short and sweet (well, not really sweet, but hey, this is where I complement the heroine). ======================================================================= ============================E-102 “Gamma”*============================= ======================================================================= Definitely the darkest story of the game (although it’s still pretty corny), this storyline explores the adventures of a robot made by Dr. Robotnik – E-102 Gamma. He’s unlocked after Sonic or Tails beat him in a boss battle in their storyline, or by watching the cinemas succeeding Amy’s Twinkle Park stage. Anyways, Gamma operates pretty uniquely. He jumps with A, of course, but his primary attack (B/X) is a laser gun. First you must point it at enemies to lock on, and then you release to fire a homing missile. It can be maneuvered with the control stick, by the way, but the laser only lasts for a few seconds. If Gamma locks onto multiple enemies at once, he can destroy several in one sitting. If you run, you will eventually transform into a compact form – rolling mode. Exit it with A. Now, E-102 has some pretty interesting missions. You have a time limit, and it’s increased by shooting enemies. The more enemies you shoot at once, the more seconds are added to your time. The bonus time per enemy group breaks down in the chart. +----------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | # of Enemies Destroyed | Bonus Seconds Awarded | +----------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | 1 Enemy Targeted | 1 Second | | 2 Enemies Targeted | 3 Seconds | | 3 Enemies Targeted | 6 Seconds | | 4 Enemies Targeted | 9 Seconds | | 5 Enemies Targeted | 15 Seconds | | 6 Enemies Targeted | 30 Seconds | | 6 + x Enemies Targeted | 30 + 5x Seconds | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ That is, if you defeat more than six enemies, you get 30 seconds plus an additional five seconds for each other enemy you destroyed. Now, on with the main walkthrough. +--------------------------------+ | The Birth of E-102 Gamma | +--------------------------------+ We see Dr. Robotnik, our creator, standing before us. And you are the second model in the E-100 series of robot – E-102, Codenamed: Gamma. Gamma’s duty in life is to obey Robotnik. You take control briefly; walk right to where the doctor is. E-101 Beta, Gamma’s big brother, is practicing in the shooting range beyond this door. He’s more advanced than you, but you should do fine... Enter! This is Stage 1. +-----------------+ | Final Egg | +-----------------+ It is time to prove our worth to Master Robotnik! Our goal is to destroy the Sonic doll hidden in here. As you’ll see, the clock in the upper-left corner starts at 3:00 and ticks down. Target the Tails and Knuckles dolls around you (walk forward and a few more pop up) to add a few seconds to the clock. Now go forward! As you go, a Tails doll pops in front of you, and you soon come to a pair of Knuckles dolls by a few rings. Rings are items that let you take a hit without dying immediately. Grab a few and continue down the path. Quite a few new dolls appear to be targeted (the more shot at once, the more seconds are added to your time) as you move down. You’ll find a spring at the end; bounce on it to a few new dolls/enemies. Keep down this path, blowing up a few more dolls along the way, and you’ll reach a checkpoint. If you die after touching one of these, you restart there (with the same time, of course). Walk into the next room. Dark though it may be, you should be able to see quite clearly a Sonic doll dangling from a hook over a pit when the camera shifts view. It takes three hits to destroy, but that finishes the mission. That was short, eh? +------------------------+ | Boss: E-101 Beta | +------------------------+ Take the stairs outside the entrance down to find Dr. Robotnik and Gamma’s big brother, E-101 Beta. Robotnik decides that the Egg Carrier, his flying fortress, needs a good crew. And that means that either you or big bro gets to stay on board. We must pass this test to eternally serve our master! To determine who the more competent robot is, we must do battle with E-101. Robotnik himself says that Beta has better chances, but he owes it to us to let us at least try. We will not fail the master. Beta is basically a black version of us, only better equipped. Immediately grab a few rings and jump to avoid the homing missile E-101 will fire at you. You can blow it up with your own homing missiles if you’d like. E-101 is also able to hover in the air, and those are the only two things he does for now. Lock onto Beta and shoot him out of the sky, lowering his health. He continues using this strategy, and you very well could tap B/X rapidly to fire a barrage of missiles at him. Since Beta never modifies his strategy, he’s easy opponent. Three hits is all you need to defeat E-101. Robotnik is more than a little surprised we won, and so we can serve aboard the Egg Carrier. Beta also wants to board, and Robotnik decides to grant him special permission. They could always use a spare set of parts, right? Shortly after that, the Egg Carrier takes off from its hiding spot in the jungle of the Mystic Ruins. During the launch, Robotnik gathers his four robotic servants – E-102 through E-105. He shows us a frog with a tail on the monitor. Its capture is absolutely vital to his plans. We must capture it immediately. Excellent. Once again, this is the perfect chance to shine before master Robotnik, but also to outshine our siblings. E-102 goes to search in Station Square. +----------------------------------------+ | Adventure Field – Station Square | +----------------------------------------+ We arrive in the Station Area. If you look ahead of you, you can briefly glimpse Cream the rabbit from Sonic Advance. Yes, she’s making a cameo in Sonic Adventure DX. In any case, you are currently outside of SS Central Station, which connects the Mystic Ruins with this city (the workers are currently on strike, though). Furthermore, Twinkle Park, the city’s amusement park, is to our left. A Hotel is to our right. Let’s check it out. Walk through the doors and you’ll come to two more doors. One leads to the Casino area, the other Pool Side. Well, since it’s light out right now, the Casino is closed. But Pool Side is always open. Take those doors out to see water. If you try to jump into it, you’ll start hovering over it. You see, one of the main differences between E-102 and E-101 is the hovering system. E-102 has a rather outdated propeller system while E-101 uses a jet pack. In any case, talking to the women out here reveals that a frog hopped on over to the beach. Although it’s currently blocked off by barriers, it’s not a problem for us. Shoot down the targets and walk onto the sandy shores of Stage 2. +---------------------+ | Emerald Coast | +---------------------+ Our mission is to catch Froggy... in three minutes. Walk forward and you’ll see Kikis, robotic monkey enemies that throw bombs, on the umbrellas. Target them for bonus seconds and keep on moving to reach a small ramp. Target and destroy the foes on the left side of it before bouncing on the spring, taking you to yet another boardwalk. Walk down the obvious path, locking onto as many things as possible simultaneously, and you’ll come to three Kikis by a few red chairs. Destroy everything. Now continue down to a loop. Natural growth prevents us from taking it (as Sonic did in his mission here), but we can still turn left and walk down the other path available to us. Waste no time; shoot the Kiki and capsule. Then walk to the spring at the end of this walkway. While at the peak of your jump, target three capsules in the air. Shoot at them as well as the grounded targets; move on after that down the sandy path. Keep going until you have to turn onto a grassy ledge. Defeat the Kikis inhabiting the ledge and one of the animals released will be Froggy, just the fellow we’re looking for. +----------------+ | The Past | +----------------+ Suddenly, a strange orange light overtakes us. We appear in some strange land. Man, this happens way too often! E-102 tries to determine its location. It is in... an unknown place. This presents a problem. You can take the tunnel behind you to an ancient city, but none of the echidna inhabitants seem scared of you, metal man. So, just walk across the bridge before you to reach an ancient shrine. You see a bunch of Chao, and their singing seems to awaken a beast in the water. E-102 is about to get close-up when someone warns him not to go any closer. There’s a presence guarding these children, a loving, gentle creature. But, this girl’s father wants to invade this land, to take the emeralds there. +-----------------------------+ | E-101 Beta & Amy Rose | +-----------------------------+ E-102 awakens from his “dream” in Egg Carrier Hall. His siblings all got the wrong frogs. You’re looking for the frog that swallowed Chaos’s tail and a Chaos Emerald! Ah, but Gamma got the right one! Impressed by Gamma’s superiority, Robotnik beams the others away. Now you have a new assignment. Go through the door to the far right. Inside, you’ll find a girl. Take the bird from her. E-102 walks into the wrong door, and inside he finds... the parts of E- 101! Beta shed its basic weaponry... It is rebuilding itself! It is... improving itself! Gamma speaks to it, but Beta does not respond. Could it be plotting to overthrow its siblings to win back superiority? E-102 exits, asserting that it was the wrong room. In any case, use the rightmost door this time. We find ourselves in a mini-game room called Hedgehog Hammer, but that’s not important. Move on into Prison Hall where the girl is being kept. E-102 locates her and stares her down from behind the bars. She’s a hedgehog named Amy Rose, and she has a blue bird with her. E-102 Gamma is straight to the point. He demands the bird twice, and Amy refuses twice. He asks why not and she asks why he wants it. He isn’t sure, actually. Well, Amy suggests that Gamma help them out. Gamma does not understand. Why would one try to save something that is useless to them. The bird flies out of Amy’s hands and stares into Gamma’s lifeless eyes. Gamma cannot take it. He needs to see why this girl would do this, and to do that he will mimic her. He frees Amy by pressing the switch; he even tells her that they’re approaching the Mystic Ruins base and that she’d best hurry if she wants to escape. Amy thanks him, and now Gamma has new data. He may not understand it completely, but helping others for no reason has been introduced to his system. +------------------------------------+ | The Booster and the Elevator | +------------------------------------+ Exit back to Egg Carrier Hall. Robotnik is making announcements. The ammunition room is unlocked, and he wants us to get the Jet Booster. -------------------- UPGRADE: Jet Booster -------------------- Walk over to where Robotnik first ordered you to capture Froggy (labeled “Elevatore” on the map) and climb the stairs nearby. Walk to the door to the right and enter. This is the Arsenal. Drop down form the platform you start on and enter the green light. You got the Jet Booster! Now you can press A in mid-air to hover, just like E-101 did in our battle. It’s quite useful. -------------------- Head back into the main room and Robotnik contacts you. Now that you have the Jet Booster, he wants you to report to the rear of the ship. Take the elevator (marked “Elevatore” on the map) up and out of here, right to where we need to be. Somehow, that Amy Rose is still onboard, and Sonic and Tails managed to get here. Robotnik wants us to exterminate these pests. It is time to put all our training to work! +-------------------+ | Boss: Sonic | +-------------------+ Sonic will attack immediately; move out of the way (left or right) and collect a few rings. At first, Sonic attacks by jumping at you. That’s it. You’ll see no fancy home attacks or spin dashes or the like for now. Fire a homing missile Sonic’s way to hit him. Make sure he’s on the ground, standing, when shot (otherwise, he’ll just be stunned). Now Sonic decides to spin dash you. Wait for him to stop rolling or just shoot at him while he is. Either way, that’s how to score another hit. Now the hedgehog’s angry. He’ll jump at you and home attack, which can be pretty dangerous if you have slow reflexes. Lock on and fire one last homing missile to bring Sonic to his knees. Remember, you need to shoot him when he’s on the ground. Gamma is about to shoot and kill Sonic, but Amy gets in the way. She gives him a little pep talk, lets his feeble robot brain, err, AI remember her, and “Mr. Robot” lowers his weapon. Suddenly, the Egg Carrier starts to lose altitude! Sonic orders Tails to escort Amy out of here while he finishes off Eggman. Gamma still doesn’t understand why Amy helped him... Either way, he flies off the Egg Carrier before it explodes. He finds himself in the Mystic Ruins. Images of his life thus far are racing through his mind. E-101... Amy... Robotnik. Gamma arrives at one final decision: friends are trapped inside the E-series robots. We must save them... +----------------------+ | The Wind Stone | +----------------------+ One of the E-series robots dwells at the end of Windy Cave. Let’s go check in on it... Windy Cave’s gusts are too weak to carry us into Windy Valley, the area beyond the cave, but we can amplify their strength with a so-called “Stone of Wind.” Go to Tails’s Workshop on the east side of the Mystic Ruins (you’ll have to climb the stairs to reach it). Right in front of the door is a green artifact – the Wind Stone. Take it with you to Windy Cave, right of the Waterfall. Set it on the altar and the winds become stronger. Jump in to experience Stage 3. +--------------------+ | Windy Valley | +--------------------+ We must seek and destroy E-103! And as always, we have three minutes to do it in. Walk forward and target the robots and platforms here for extra time. If you target each segment of the caterpillar robot, you can get loads of bonus time easily. You’ll soon come to a bridge, and I suggest you hover over it and then turn around to destroy the rhino robots. Then you’ll see another caterpillar; destroy its segments all at once. Continue down the path over another bridge to come to three HIT! Signs. Hit them (in collaboration with the chameleon robot and the caterpillar robot if possible) to blow up the canisters over there, thus opening the way to a short drop. Jump into one of the capsules below, target the other one (and the caterpillar robot) before you land at the checkpoint. Follow the path down to another caterpillar ripe for the picking. After it is yet another, and then comes a few dynamite packs. Let them explode and pass through the tunnel, taking you to more packs to destroy. After that, traverse the bridge, blow up the dynamite packs in the area, and enter the next tunnel. You must blast through but a few more bricks to reach the second checkpoint. The light encourages us to go on; the robot we’re hunting for is up ahead. Blow up the foes in the air ahead of you first, and then hover across the gap with the help of the Jet Booster. This takes you to another bridge. If you blow up the rhinoceros enemy on the bridge, it will give way and both of you will die. So, be the smart one and cross it completely. THEN turn around and shoot it. Afterwards, hop up the steps and bounce on the spring. Hover a bit to land on the ground. E- 103 is waiting. +-------------------------+ | Boss: E-103 Delta | +-------------------------+ The blue version of us, Delta is a simple robot. It’s a lot like our fight with E-101 Beta. Treat yourself to some rings if you have none and then turn your attention to Delta. The missiles it fires are homing, and they’ll eventually detonate themselves if you let them linger for long enough. Of course, he is also a master of the Jet Booster. Anyways, target and destroy the missiles when they’re coming at you to defend yourself as you shoot the daylights out of E-103. Five hits do the trick. Delta explodes, leaving one major explosion afterwards and an animal behind. Gamma raises his gun in triumph, saying “E-103 Delta – Rescue Complete!” What kind of crazy robot logic is this? I went through all that trouble just to save the animal trapped within the robot... +--------------------+ | Angel Island | +--------------------+ The more observant readers might have noticed that there’s a place marked “West Cave” on the map, but there’s no entrance from Mystic Ruins. Well, it just appeared. It’s quite close to the Station that connects these ruins to Station Square. Jump into the tunnel that’s formed, ride the air currents into Angel Island (a new region of Mystic Ruins), and follow the path out of here and into the open. This is the site of the shrine for the Master Emerald. It’s chipped. In any case, you should see a Kiki in a cage by a gate out here before the bridge. Shoot it to open the way to Red Mountain, Stage 4, where another one of our friends needs “rescuing.” +--------------------+ | Red Mountain | +--------------------+ This time, we must track down our yellow brother, E-104. And guess how long we have? Yes, it is three minutes. How’d you know? Regardless, walk forward and blow up the rocks ahead of you. Now walk down the tunnel, targeting a group of Kikis, Spinners, and then a mixture of them. The area you come to is an open place; walk through, making sure that the enemies have been cleared out, and continue down to see magma. Walk to the left of it on some black-green steps. At the top, you have the perfect sniping position to take out the Spinners and the Shield capsule ahead. Proceed down the rest of the hallway until you reach another open area. Walk over the rocks floating in the magma stream (don’t loiter; the platforms will sink if you do) and you’ll come to a few more Spinners and a few more packs of detonate. Shoot them all. Advance into a new open area using the doorway you created; there’s a spring here. Bounce on it, shooting the explosives ahead of you before you land, and then keep right on down the path (no slow-down at all!). Walk to the right to avoid a crusher object and you’ll be home free; the checkpoint is right after it. Lock onto every target-able thing around you and fire, earning yourself rings and a few more precious seconds. Continue down this rather straightforward path... It is interrupted by a bend around a magma stream, Kikis and rotor enemies present for destruction. Walk around the bend, take the rings from under the crusher if you want to risk it, and shoot the rock wall ahead of you down. This reveals a narrow path; walk over it. You’ll reach a few more enemies just waiting to be converted into time followed by a hammer hazard you can easily avoid. This all leads up to what looks like an ant hole with HIT! icons on it. You’re going to want to shoot it. Fall down the shaft we’ve unveiled to reach another checkpoint in this confusing network of tunnels. Basically, destroy everything (in clusters) ahead of you in the tunnel, moving on after you’ve mowed down everything else with your laser gun. You come to a larger chamber with a bunch of stalagmites jutting out of the magma. Target the conveniently placed explosives on them and they fall over, forming bridges for you to walk on. Be sure to decimate the robots patrolling the area, too. When you’ve crossed the field of magma, E-104 awaits. +---------------------------+ | Boss: E-104 Epsilon | +---------------------------+ Epsilon, colored yellow, is almost exactly the same as Delta. Like usual, nab some rings before the fight begins. So, what makes Epsilon special, you might be wondering. Even if you aren’t, I’ll answer it for you. Unlike all the previous models (aside from yourself, of course), E-104 is able to fire multiple non-stop homing missiles at the same time (they will exist simultaneously; they aren’t fired simultaneously). Don’t let them stack up on you; getting hit twice in a row will kill you. Shoot the missiles to defend yourself (note that Epsilon has a habit of hovering via Jet Booster after each shot) and shoot his body to attack him. Slightly weaker than E-104 requires a mere four hits. After that, he “dies” in an exaggerated explosion. “E-104 Epsilon - Rescue Complete!” +-------------------------------+ | Back to the Egg Carrier | +-------------------------------+ E-105 Zeta and E-101 Beta still need “rescuing.” Yeah, E-102 really wants to free those animals... Gamma thinks back to when he saw Beta rebuilding himself, before he met the girl. They must be aboard the Egg Carrier. Leave Angel Island and you’ll find a doorway at the base of the Station. Enter to find yourself at a dock of sorts. Step onto the wreckage there and you’ll float to the Egg Carrier’s crash site in the ocean. Now aboard, take the small elevator platforms up to the runway of the ship (probably for deploying aerial fighters). On either side there is a spring; bounce on it. You’ll land by some blue lights; step onto them. This brings the monorail to you. Get aboard to ride into Egg Carrier Hall. ---------------------- UPGRADE: Laser Blaster ---------------------- The remaining robots are in Hot Shelter. Hmm, sounds like we could use some water, eh? Go to the second level of the hall, into the Water Tank. Inside is this upgrade, the Laser Blaster. With it, we now shoot in a wider area. Neat-o! ---------------------- Now that we have it, go to the end of Egg Carrier Hall that has the three doors. The middle one leads to Hot Shelter. Enter it, Stage 5, if you dare... +-------------------+ | Hot Shelter | +-------------------+ We have three minutes to find and destroy E-105, but we lose our first eight to riding the elevator. When the door opens, step out into a corridor of the Egg Carrier’s interior. There are two ways to go, but let’s take the one straight ahead of you for the heck of it. After you’ve blown the robots present to smithereens, taking all the extra seconds you can from them, drop down the shaft this door leads to and walk forward a bit to the first checkpoint. Target the enemies ahead of you (plus capsules including a magnetic Shield and a 1UP!). Jump onto the gears before you, hopping between them to reach a few more Kikis by a blue crate. Blow them all up. Beneath the crate was a switch, and you want to press it. This reverses the direction the gears are moving in. So, jump onto the gear from there, jump toward the wall ahead of you from there, and hover your way to a spring. Bounce on it. The checkpoint lies straight ahead. Blow up the crate ahead and step out onto a spring. Bounce up and hover forward (you have an excellent point to attack from in the air). Land by the doors branded with Robotnik’s mug and they will begin to open. Walk forward and hover to hit the switch. Voila! The catwalk rotates to a new door. Just hover back onto it and take the door now available to you. Massacre the Kiki defense forces set out before you before moving on past some crates. Collect the capsules quickly and move on. Soon, you’ll see some stacked crates. Defeat the Kikis on them and then proceed down the rest of the tunnel. You’ll come to a few explosives with boost pads ahead. Take them up, hold the control stick forward, and hover about midway through the leap to reach the other side of the gap. Mark your progress with the checkpoint. Immediately step on the switch to the left, and stay on it! A crane picks you up and drops you to higher ground (blow stuff up while being lifted). Under one of the crates ahead is a switch; step on it and run back to the crane pickup location (you can also stand there and shoot the switch to save time) to be carried onto a train system. You’ll take it to another checkpoint after that. At first, concern yourself only with moving along this first train. Jump across the segments, avoiding spiky balls and shooting Kikis in groups. But when you reach a large crate that precludes any further movement, you need to jump to a train to the left. Switch between these trains until you’re able to reach another checkpoint. From here, bounce atop the large crates and jump between the crates to reach the head of the trains. You’ll find a switch right before the right train; press it. The train will stop, revealing yet another checkpoint. This is by far the hardest mission E-102 Gamma has... Collect capsules to the left and right. Walk under the spiky chain balls, blow up some explosive devices after that, and fall into the shaft that is revealed. Shoot for capsules along the way. When you land, you’re surrounded by Kikis. Beat them quickly and then blow up the crates adjacent to them. This exposes a boost pad; use it to enter a small alcove with a checkpoint inside. Boost yourself into the arena... +------------------------+ | Boss: E-105 Zeta | +------------------------+ Zeta is definitely the most advanced of his evil brethren, and the most original one you’ve fought yet. E-105, the purple one, has hooked itself up to what must be an ammunition bin. Seven turrets emerged from its body, and it’s ready to kick some mechanized behind. But, E- 105 has some weaknesses, too. It can’t move from where it’s attached, and its missiles don’t home. Run around the platform, shooting any enemies/missiles that Zeta sends your way, and target the turrets. When all seven are destroyed, Zeta’s head explodes, thus releasing the animal that was trapped within. Now all that’s left is Beta... Take the Elevatore back to the deck of the Egg Carrier. Gamma realizes that it must destroy itself to rescue the animal inside, but first he must destroy Beta, who just so happens to fly by at that moment. Follow Beta toward the central platform of the Egg Carrier (where almost every character has had a boss battle) and the battle commences. +--------------------------------+ | Boss: E-101 Beta MARK II | +--------------------------------+ Beta has vastly improved since our last encounter... But then again, so have we. Grab a few rings before Brother strikes, noting that this is a timed battle. Let’s focus on E-101 now that we have a few rings up our sleeves. It’s very fast and constantly hovering. It even has a built-in missile deflection system to counter our attacks. It’s seemingly invincible! Meanwhile, it will attack by lighting itself and charging you in a rapid tackle attack. It also launches missiles – four at a time and in waves before tackles, even more at a time normally. Destroy them with missiles of your own to counter (or run until they explode in their own time). Now, how do we actually hurt Beta MARK II? Run to avoid its charge attack. For a moment, its back will be facing you, and the robot is tilted so that its advanced Jet Booster is pointed toward us. FIRE! That’s the only time he’s vulnerable to you. After two hits, Beta soars high above the arena and fires a laser blast at you. It’s easy to avoid, though it has a huge explosion radius. After three hits, Beta uses the same attack, only now it’s a flurry of laser blasts you need to worry about! The explosions last for a few seconds after the lasers touch ground, which makes this somewhat tricky. The final laser blast is gigantic. Land one more hit and Beta will be destroyed. It falls to the ground, seemingly destroyed. Gamma approaches it, and in Beta’s final moments, it points its cannons at Gamma and fires two lasers blasts right into its frame. Gamma is frail from the battle as it is, and he’s nearing the blackout – death. A bird was released from Beta, and in Gamma’s last moments, it sees the bird of Amy’s reunited with its parents. Gamma explodes, the flames engulfing the Egg Carrier’s arena. But he died with its mission accomplished... The Flicky family is reunited. Gamma understands now. He has helped another with no thoughts of reward. Congratulations! Yes, I know, Beta and Gamma killing each other in the final battle is a pretty melancholy ending, but so it is. The credits reflect on Gamma’s short life, lasting only a few days... And though no one will ever know his sacrifice, Gamma has made Amy Rose’s wishes come true. ======================================================================= =============================Big the Cat*============================== ======================================================================= And now for a completely different storyline... I admit, I was a bit hesitant to write for Sonic Adventure DX, and that’s partially because of this fellow. It’s not that I hate Big or something (he’s an okay guy, I guess), but I do rather dislike his missions (so much so that I moved Big after Gamma on the list, even thought their storylines are in reverse order). Basically, Big’s storyline is an excuse for including a fishing simulator in the game. That’s all his levels are – fishing for a frog. While some of might like this, you’ll find it to be boring and frustrating if you don’t know the controls (which is why I list them below). Anyways, Big the hydrophilic cat is unlocked when Sonic owns Chaos 6 in his storyline. Now, get ready for a run-down of Big’s, the jungle-dwelling simpleton, controls. First, this rather large cat can lift, carry, and throw objects other characters can’t. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move onto casting. Have Big face a body of water, first of all. Press and hold B or X to make a cast indicator appear; use the control stick to position wherever you’d like. Release B/X to cast the lure. If the cast was successful, the lure sinks and fishing mode begins. I’ll get to that in just a second. But first, note that you can cast the lure onto enemies to attack them, and you can just press B/X near an enemy to strike them with your fishing pole. Now that we’ve got that down, let’s go over fishing mode. When the lure is cast into the water, you can press a few buttons to do various fishing-related actions. The control stick is used to tug at the line. This entices the fish. When they bite, tilt the control stick down to hook onto them. Then you can either keep tugging (but don’t unhook the fish) or press B/X, which is slow, or A, which is fast, to reel them in. When the fish/frog is close enough, Big pulls it up and out of the water. Congratulations, you caught a fish... Also, if you want to quit fishing quickly, press L and R at the same time. Now, let’s get this walkthrough over with. And I do mean “over with,” ‘cause unless you’re an exceptional fisherperson or you read my ramblings above, this is going to be unpleasant. +-------------------------+ | The Search Begins | +-------------------------+ It’s nighttime. We’re in the jungle. We see a cat. This is a bad joke. But suddenly, we hear a crash in the distance. Big’s friend, a frog who goes by the name of “Froggy,” goes off to investigate. It’s a strange pool of water... And before we know it, the water pounces. A few minutes later, Big wakes up. Froggy has grown a tail, and suddenly it has an appetite for Big’s lucky charm, a golden emerald! Froggy bounds off, leaving Big to catch up with him. Why would our longtime pollywog pal abandon us? Big chases him right into Station Square, and that’s when we take control. As of this instant, we’re in front of SS Central Station and the sun is up to indicate daytime. To our left is the Hotel, in front of which are Sonic and Tails muttering about Eggman and collecting Chaos Emeralds, and opposite them is Twinkle Park, the theme park in this town. To our right is a road that leads into a new segment of the city. The newspaper stand is along the way, and the saleswoman there says that a manhole was left open near City Hall. Well, we know how filthy cats like to be (not cleanly at all), which is exactly why we’re going to explore the sewers. Follow the road into the City Hall Area. Froggy! And he’s hopping to a car! But it crawls under a car and falls into the sewers (apparently, they tried to cover the manhole by parking a car over it). Well, that’s no trouble for Big. He’s plenty strong enough to lift that car. Do so (B) and dive right in. From where you land, travel south (refer to the map to know which direction south is) down the tunnel to reach a door. Walk in to ride up to a tube that connects the sewers with Twinkle Park (for some reason). Follow the tube to a fork in the road – Twinkle Park or Twinkle Circuit. Take the park, Stage 1, for now; we’ll visit the circuit later. +--------------------+ | Twinkle Park | +--------------------+ Ooh, joy. The fun begins. Though there’s a lot more to the park than this, we start out by a pool of water with fish inside. Let’s go fishing for Froggy! But first, make life easy for yourself and beat down the Kikis around the perimeter of the pool. You can either cast your line at them or approach them and tap B/X to bludgeon them with your fishing pole. When they’re all history, pick a spot to cast off from. Remember: hold B/X, position the casting spot with the control stick, release B/X, use the control stick to bait fish/frog to you, press down on the control stick when they bite to hook them, and reel them in with B/X/A/control stick. Now, the real challenge of Big’s levels lies in reeling the fish in. A pulls them quickly, B/X slowly, and the control stick hardly. But, no matter how you choose to do it, you need to watch the gauge on the right, the line intensity gauge. If it gets too high (you’ll hear a noise when it happens), the fish/frog will voluntarily let go. So, pull them in (I prefer B), but take momentary breaks when the intensity gets too high to lower it. Keep at it and soon you’ll catch Froggy, who weighs 500 grams. Unfortunately, Froggy gets away right after Big catches him, but at least we beat the level... +-----------------------+ | Twinkle Circuit | +-----------------------+ Right outside Twinkle Park is a sub game called Twinkle Circuit. It’s quite similar to Sonic Drift, Sonic’s first racing game, for several reasons. First, collecting rings makes you accelerate more quickly. Second, there’s very little indication that the track will suddenly change, which it does, and that hitting walls makes you lose much if not all momentum you had. You just race the clock to get the best time you can. Though it’s strictly for fun as far as the storyline is concerned, it does earn you an emblem. +---------------------+ | The Ice Stone | +---------------------+ We may’ve lost Froggy, but at least we can be comforted in knowing that a strange blue object fell onto the ground outside Twinkle Park’s main entrance(notice Cream the rabbit from Sonic Advance flying through to make a cameo as soon as you exit Twinkle Park). The Ice Stone’s right behind it (you’ll have to wade through some sewer water to reach it). Pick it up to learn that it is the Ice Stone, a key to be used in the Mystic Ruins. So, get aboard the train headed for the ruins (notice Amy Rose to the right of the station. She says she’s bored and is contemplating going shopping). ------------------ UPGRADE: Power Rod ------------------ Jump off the steps of the Station once you’re in Mystic Ruins. For those players patient enough to navigate the Jungle, there’s an upgrade just waiting for you to find it. Take the mine cart in the Waterfall area of northern Mystic Ruins to the Jungle, Big’s home. Use the map to reach Big’s House on the east end, If you push the table in the center, you’ll get the Power Rod, an upgrade. It increases your casting distance a bit. ------------------ Return to the main area of Mystic Ruins and enter West Cave to the west (obviously). Step into the air currents, which are somehow strong enough to carry Big upward, and you’ll find yourself in Angel Island, a new addition to the area. Walk down the tunnel. According to the archaeologist team, a frog entered this cave. Perhaps it is beyond this blue door... ------------------ UPGRADE: Lift Belt ------------------ Place the Ice Stone on this altar and the door opens (how’d Froggy get through then?), letting us into an icy cavern. About midway through is a huge pool of water that this cat can’t cross. But, now you can, with the Life Belt! Step into the green light to receive it. The Life Belt makes you float on water, letting you position yourself more easily. To dive down, press A in water. If you hold it down, Big can walk on the floor of the submerged region. To jump out of water, dive down, rise up quickly, and you’ll hop a tiny bit; hold the control stick forward so that you land that hop on the ground. Pressing A by walls while afloat sometimes works for jumping out. ------------------ This in mind, cross the pool of frigid water before us. Note that it is possible to suffocate if you remain underwater for too long. Now all that separates us and Stage 2 is a ladder. All’s up who’s going up. +--------------+ | Icecap | +--------------+ Like other stages in the game, Icecap was the name of a zone from a previous Sonic game (in this game, Sonic the Hedgehog 3). And somehow or other, Froggy managed to wander into one of the cold ponds in the area. Between the ice and the music, this has to be the most depressing level in Big’s storyline. Anyways, there are many pools of water in this level, even a power-up hidden in it. Let’s go exploring... ---------------------- UPGRADE: Lure Power-up ---------------------- From the start, walk over to the spring. Bounce on it and follow the narrow path you land on up, going right of the spikes you see ahead. Now jump down to the lower platforms so that you land left of the wall of spikes. From there, it’s a simple matter of hopping onto the spring and landing on a new ledge. Follow the trail up to a third spring; let it bounce you to a pool of water. Get in, press A to dive, and walk through the tunnel in the wall. Follow it into open waters; bounce out of them utilizing the spring on the wall. Hop up the next two platforms, run down the bridge, and stop when you reach some frozen ice. Lift the icy boulder there with B/X (Big’s got a good grip!) and drop it onto the darker blue ice. Sink down in the water you have accessed and you’ll find the upgrade amidst the bones of dinosaurs. Take it, an improved lure. With it, you can catch bigger fish than before. ---------------------- Now, onto beating the level. It has been my experience that Froggy is always swimming in the bigger surface-frozen pond on ground level. Lift the boulder near the starting point, drop it onto the ice, and take a dip in the water. Alternately, cast your lure in from outside the water. Either way, Froggy should be present (not to mention some big fish, too). Anyways, hook your dear frog like before and reel him in. When this is accomplished, clumsy Big drops him again and the hunt continues. +--------------------+ | To the Coast | +--------------------+ Drop out back to the main part of Mystic Ruins. Big sees a fox boy – Tails – has Froggy, and Big runs forward to tackle him and take back his little buddy. Tails is freaked out and drop the frog. Froggy promptly hops away. It was headed for the Station; it must be going back to Station Square. What is with this frog!? Follow it back to SS Central Station. You’ll notice Sonic in the lobby of the station yapping about how he has to go after the robot that kidnapped Amy. Exit the station and you’ll witness Froggy jumping into the Hotel. After it! Tail the frog (pun!) into the Hotel and go through the southern door to Pool Side. The girls here say that Froggy went hopping into the beach. And that’s where you’re headed - Stage 3. +---------------------+ | Emerald Coast | +---------------------+ With some funky music and a few Kikis running around, Emerald Coast is easier than Icecap but harder than Twinkle Park. You can find a multitude of rings, even a 1UP, scattered around the playing field, but we just want to catch Froggy. He’s swimming by the base of the lighthouse. When you catch him, Big holds on this time. But, unfortunately, a robot runs by and nabs him. Though Big doesn’t know it, this is E-102 Gamma. Big pleads with it to give him his friend back, but the robot just runs away. Big follows it straight to the Egg Carrier, a strange land that smells of Froggy... He must be close. +-------------------+ | Hot Shelter | +-------------------+ Walk forward from Egg Carrier Hall and take the central door to Stage 4, Hot Shelter (you’ll have to hit the switch by the door first). Froggy’s inside. Big rides an elevator deep into the Egg Carrier’s interior. Take the door out into a short hallway afterwards. Walk through it, open the door, and welcome to the Egg Carrier’s aquarium. Walk down the path here, whacking a Kiki with your pole along the way, until you reach a small pool of water with a Kiki stationed on a platform in it. Drop into the water (which contains a rather large eel) and cross it to a new hallway. Take the door at the end into the drainage room; hit the switch on the central structure to flood the room you’re in with the waters of the aquarium. And with them come the fish. Swim around until you find Froggy’s relative location, and then get onto the central “island” of the room. Cast your line, catch the frog, and be happy! +--------------------------+ | A Link to the Past | +--------------------------+ And, like in all other the storylines thus far, the orange light that helps us takes us into the ancient past. You probably understand the background, but I’ll clarify in case you haven’t read the walkthroughs for the other characters (aside from Sonic). Right now, you’re in the holy grounds of a simple-minded tribe called the Chao, and a malevolent creature watches over them. The shrine is going to be invaded by a race of echidna warriors, Knuckles’s ancestors, so that they can rise to power using the Chaos Emeralds. Now, walk forward to find a girl talking to herself at the store. She’s just noticing the shrine. Wait, she’s talking to the water... What a freak! The girl wanders in, gasps some more when she sees the Master Emerald, and starts to chant some crazy song. And then we return to our regularly scheduled program. “What was the point of that?” you say aloud. “Oh, you’ll see,” I answer. +-------------------------------+ | Froggy Escapes... Again | +-------------------------------+ Suddenly, the Egg Carrier begins to shake. Big decides that they’d better leave soon. But over the intercom, we learn that the emergency alert has been canceled. Furthermore, the monorail is resuming operation. So, let’s make use of it. Step onto the blue light in this hall to summon the monorail. Get into the first car and you’ll be taken to the deck of the Egg Carrier. From where you are spat out, walk up a steep path on the side of the ship to the upper level, and then traverse the catwalk above it to reach the arena of a liquefied creature hovering in mid-air. I’m probably the first person to ever say that... Suddenly, Dr. Robotnik appears and orders Chaos to take the Chaos Emerald and the frog. Froggy opens its mouth, spitting out Big’s lucky charm, which is actually a Chaos Emerald, and Chaos absorbs it along with a blue emerald Robotnik had. Then Froggy jumps into the beast’s mouth! According to the doctor, the frog was possessed by Chaos’s tail. So that’s why Froggy was running from us and took our lucky charm! By engulfing Froggy, Chaos regains its tail and becomes much larger than before (now it is “ultra strong”). It is Chaos 6. But, Sonic arrives in the nick of time. He realizes that the frog and the cat are friends and promises to reunite you two. But, we never get to see Sonic in action; Big decides to get Froggy out himself. +---------------------+ | Boss: Chaos 6 | +---------------------+ No, seriously, I’m not joking. This is not a boss in the traditional sense; we don’t have to deplete all of Chaos’s health. We just have to fish Froggy out of him. Run away from Chaos 6, who can jump and swallow you and do all sorts of nasty stuff, but stay close enough to cast a line. Quickly cast your line into Chaos 6, right onto Froggy’s position (circled in red on the screen) to instantly end the battle. We won! Big celebrates. He won’t let anyone take his pally now! Sonic orders us to leave, which is our final challenge. Walk over to the Tornado 2, the plane crashed here, and Big gives it a try. He uses to escape an exploding Egg Carrier, and he manages to return to his homeland, the Jungle, with Froggy at his side. Now they can spend the rest of their years together, best friends forever. Congratulations! You beat Big’s rather odd storyline. Now these two are reunited, let the credits roll! ======================================================================= ===========================Other Characters*=========================== ======================================================================= There are two other playable characters in Adventure mode. One is unlocked after you’ve beaten the storyline of everyone else – Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big, and Gamma. The other is unlocked when you get all 130 Emblems (see the “Emblem Checklist” section for details). But, as not to give away who these characters are, I clumped them together here. Now, we have some major spoilers here. Of course, everything has its fair share of spoilers (it’s a walkthrough, what do you expect?), but this section really gets into it. We’ll begin with the first storyline unlocked, consisting of a few cinemas, some running around the adventure fields, and a boss battle only – Super Sonic! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------Super Sonic------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +---------------------------------+ | The Ancient Beast Returns | +---------------------------------+ The world is at peace once again. Sonic has beaten Eggman once and for all, Tails has saved Station Square, Knuckles has rebuilt the Master Emerald (and took six of the seven Chaos Emeralds), while Amy and Big got their lesser goals accomplished. Gamma... has been terminated. I listed those in order of their benefit to the world. But perhaps better than all of those, Chaos has been destroyed. First Big “fought” the creature, then Sonic really did some damage, and Knuckles all-out annihilated it. The world is safe once again. On the other hand, what was that strange light, and why did we learn so much about that ancient culture that thrived in the Mystic Ruins and Angle Island? And where is the final Chaos Emerald? Ah, but who really cares? Like Knuckles said, perhaps it’s best if we don’t know it all... In the Mystic Ruins, the final Chaos Emerald lies in the wrecked Tornado 2. Suddenly, Angel Island falls back into the ocean. What? And in the meantime, Eggman is patrolling the jungle, pouting. He hates that Sonic for foiling his master plan! If only he could... WHAT!?! Chaos is alive. Weak, but Chaos is alive. Meanwhile, Knuckles is concerned for the island. Why isn’t it floating? The Master Emerald is restored; it should float! Well, perhaps the Chaos Emeralds are responsible for this somehow. Knux decides to consult Sonic on this, get his advice. But look! Eggman is lying on the ground. He looks like he was beaten, and not just roughed up like when Sonic fights. He was literally blown out of his ship and pummeled! Knuckles runs up to the downed doctor. What happened? This must be a trick of Eggman’s. He speaks, slowly... “Chaos is...” what? Speak up! He needs not. Chaos is there before us. He strikes. Chaos is back. +------------------------------+ | Chaos – Past & Present | +------------------------------+ Sonic is leaning against a tree in the Mystic Ruins. Tails runs up to his buddy and gives him the news. Angel Island just fell again! Sonic can hardly believe it. We briefly take control of Sonic. Enter the tunnel that leads to Angel Island and ride the air currents up to it. Run out of the starting tunnel and dash over to the Master Emerald’s shrine. Walk around to find Eggman and Knuckles, both very weak. Were they fighting? Knuckles speaks slowly... Chaos is alive. He stole the Chaos Emeralds... Eggman flies off to seek revenge on his former servant. Knuckles is desperate. You need to recover the final Chaos Emerald, the one Tails used in the Tornado 2. Wherever it is, we have to find it! Unfortunately, the strange light takes us into the past at the most inopportune time. Walk to the shrine, still in flames as Sonic last saw it... Ahead of us is the Chief and Tikal. The Chief wants to steal the emeralds, but Tikal stops them. They mustn’t give into the will of greed! Tikal stands in their way, but they take the seven Chaos Emeralds, the total power they possess. The soldiers trample Tikal and the Chao... The Chaos Emeralds rise up, the water begins to rise. The shrine shakes, and out from it rises a monster – Chaos. It transforms, and in moments the soldiers are dead. Sonic rushes to Tikal and asks if she’s okay. She awakens and starts to freak out. She chants some weird words by the Master Emerald and it begins to flash. Suddenly, Tails wakes Sonic up. You two must find the Tornado 2 now... +---------------------------+ | The Seventh Emerald | +---------------------------+ When Big was ordered to flee the Egg Carrier after rescuing Froggy from Chaos 6, he used the Tornado 2 to fly off. He crashed in the Jungle, and the wreckage of the plane is still there, the Chaos Emerald still powering it. Go to the Jungle via mine cart and Sonic + Tails find it by Big’s House. Just as they walk up to the Tornado 2, Chaos snatches up the last emerald. It followed us to the emerald! Station Square is busy as usual. Nothing’s different about today. But suddenly, the water in the sewer begins to ripple a bit. Soon, it’s gushing from the manholes. And soon, the city is flooded. A wall of water overcomes everything. Station Square is in ruins, and from it emerges the most immense creature in the Sonic universe. Chaos has all seven emeralds. Sonic stands before it. Eggman has constructed the Egg Carrier 2, made just in case Chaos ever disobeyed. He fires the breaker beam and Chaos easily returns the shot. The Egg Carrier 2 is destroyed as well. Sonic doesn’t stand a chance... The light descends down to us and manifests itself into physical form. It’s Tikal! If this goes on, Chaos will destroy the world, just as he did before. Her heart and his have been imprisoned within the Master Emerald for ages. He must be sealed back! But as Sonic points out, that won’t work. We must destroy him once and for all if we want to end this. If we do not, this cycle will just repeat itself forever. The other characters arrive. They give Sonic the Chaos Emeralds; Chaos absorbed the negative powers of the emeralds and discarded them. But Sonic can still utilize the positive energies of the emeralds left by Chaos, full of hatred and rage. Sonic holds the seven Chaos Emeralds, and a golden light bursts from them. He is transformed. A golden aura surrounds his body, now equally gold with fiery red eyes. This is Super Sonic, faster, stronger, able, and willing. The surviving population chants him name: “Sonic!” The world is in need of a hero. +---------------------------+ | BOSS: PERFECT CHAOS | +---------------------------+ If you haven’t played the original Sonic games, Super Sonic is brought on when Sonic has the seven Chaos Emeralds and 50 rings, which are used like fuel. We lose exactly one ring per second. And if our rings ever reach 0, we die (there’s also a 20-minute time limit). It controls like Sonic normally does, but all your attributes are made better than before. You’re faster, you jump higher, you hit harder – you’re just plain better. Then again, Chaos has also become stronger, too. We’re both in our ultimate forms. Now it’s just a battle between the positive and negative energies of the emeralds. We start out running down a flooded road that was Station Square. Fragments of highways have fallen into the water. They are filled with rings; run down them. You can also boost on them to go airborne for a moment. Soon, Perfect Chaos begins the offensive. For now, it just fires a few energy blasts from its mouth. They’re easy to avoid, but watch out for the last blast Chaos uses when you get close. If you’re going at maximum speed (your aura becomes blue) or just a tad under, you’ll turn into a bolt of lighting and climb up Chaos’s long, serpent- like body to smash into his head, dealing damage. Three hits like this and Chaos is defeated! Wait, no he’s not. He rises up elsewhere, refills his health bar, and the battle starts over. The only difference is that this time Chaos means business, and that you start out with less rings than usual. Chaos sends a plethora of colored blasts at you constantly. They can’t hurt you (Super Sonic is invincible), but they knock you back. When slowed down, you lose rings and can’t hit Chaos. Zigzag to avoid the blasts if you can, hope your timing is right to dodge the cyclones he throws at you, and good luck. It’s very hard if you can’t dodge the blasts, but you only need hit him three more times to win for real (once and for all!). Chaos explodes, leaving Sonic to his obnoxious victory dance. Chaos reverts to his normal form... As if from nowhere, a group of Chao appears and start talking to him. The others observe. Chaos seems to have neutralized after seeing this. The Chao he was protecting have survived. Life goes on. These two, Tikal and Chaos, disappear to live out their lives in their own time. Eggman, who was watching, also takes off. Tails finally breaks the silence. All’s well that end’s well, right? But, Sonic isn’t sticking around. He’s always on the move, don’t you know? CONGRATULATIONS! You beat the game, for real this time. But, stick around, my friend. There are still plenty of other things to do in Sonic Adventure DX, and I’m not just talking about watching these credits for a seventh time! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------Metal Sonic------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Not counting the GG games included here (see “Secrets” for details), the only other playable character is Metal Sonic. Most players wouldn’t know it, though, as unlocking “it” is a real doozey. You must get all 130 Emblems, which is not a cakewalk by any means. So, does Metal Sonic have his own storyline? I mean, we saw Metal Sonic in a rehabilitation tank in Eggman’s Mystic Ruins base. What else does he do? Obviously, Metal Sonic contributes nothing to the storyline. He is basically an alternate costume for Sonic. There are only two real differences between Metal Sonic and Sonic. First, Metal Sonic has a special move – he hovers. When running fast enough, he begins to lift off the ground. It provides less traction, but it’s slower than Sonic’s max speed. Second, Metal Sonic does have all the same missions as Sonic, but all C Missions are replaced with Break the Capsule. For instance, in Emerald Coast where Sonic normally must reach Tails, Metal Sonic must break a capsule that replaces Tails. Since you can’t get emblems from playing as Metal Sonic (you already have them all by then), you get marks next to the levels you’ve beaten instead. There’s no reward for beating every mission with Metal Sonic, and it was really a rather cheap way to add replay value to Sonic’s stages, but you haven’t truly finished the game 100 % until you’ve done this. And now you know exactly how to beat all the C Missions with all the characters! We can finally move on with the show. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ / \ / \ ||----------------------------Section 3*-----------------------------|| \ / \_________________________________________________________________/ ======================================================================= =========================Action Trial Emblems*========================= ======================================================================= Sonic Adventure has emblems coming at you from all over the place. Section 3 is devoted to guiding you to each and every one not covered in Section 2 – namely, the non-storyline important emblems (minus Chao Garden, which is in Section 4). In any case, Trial mode challenges you, the player, to beat an Action Stage or Sub Game’s alternate goal. For example, almost every B-trial in Action Stages is collecting 50 rings. Well, those are good for a number of emblems, and that’s why I’m covering Trial Mode in this and the next section. This section will discuss Action Trials, the next Sub Game Trials. This section is organized into six broad categories - _____’s Action Trials – that contain guides for each individual trial. To skip ahead to the one you want, use CTRL and F to search for “[Name of Character]’s Action Trials. You’ll either look for Sonic’s Action Trials, Tails’s Action Trials, Knuckles’s Action Trials, Amy’s Action Trials, Big’s Action Trials, or Gamma’s Action Trials. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------Sonic’s Action Trials------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +---------------------+ | Emerald Coast | +---------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule! You should have no problems with this. It’s more of a question of reaching the end of the level without wasting time unnecessarily than it is getting 50 rings. If you do find yourself short on rings near the end of the level, though, you can always collect the numerous rings on the beach before the capsule, as well as along the loops and 15 in a capsule near a Kiki before the jump panel sequence. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 2 minutes. Quite opposite the other level, this is quite tough. Sonic’s A-trials are always beating the level within a certain time limit, and they are usually pretty difficult. Always keep moving forward (rapid spin dashes are the best mode of transportation), use the upper tunnel that you can reach by running on the side of the wall toward the end (once you enter the second region after the lighthouse), avoid damage at all times, and so on. It’s the little things that add up here. Don’t bump into the rails at the beginning, use the spring on the first boardwalk instead of running yourself, and try to master spin dashing. Good luck. +--------------------+ | Windy Valley | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule! Once more, this is the easy trial. Getting 50 rings by the end of the level is no challenge at all, and there are quite a few toward the end to keep even the clumsiest of players well-supplied. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 3 minutes. This is pretty easy, too. It’s not nearly as difficult as Emerald Coast’s two-minute challenge, anyways. There are no great shortcuts, but using the capsule-to-windmill homing attack at the near beginning of the level is the best you’ll get. Even if you play a pretty average game, you’ll come out with at least two seconds to spare in the end. +-------------------+ | Casinopolis | +-------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule! Please! This is super easy. Just fill up the vault with rings like you normally would, go back for 50 more rings, and hit the capsule’s switch. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 5 minutes. This is challenging. We need to earn 400 rings and break that capsule within 5 minutes... I suggest playing pinball, losing as quickly as possible to access the garbage, and running through it, getting as many rings as possible (twice). Then enter the vault, hit the switch, and jump to the capsule. Five minutes should be enough if you’re lucky, +--------------+ | Icecap | +--------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule! There seems to be a trend here... It’s easy, too! There are many rings in the final slopes and in the final tunnels in the cave, which provide for you even if you do get hit. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 4 minutes. This is a lot harder, especially if you don’t know the shortcut. Figure that snowboarding will take you about two minutes. That leaves you with two minutes to reach the slopes. You can shave off many seconds by going down once you reach the slope for the first time. Normally, you’d use the spring to jump into the tunnel by the rock. This time, go down a bit to a rock with a jump panel on it. Use the panels to reach a later point in the level. Take the ground route instead of an icicle route whenever possible, and use ramps when boarding (also, avoid walls). Also, if you want to cut down on snowboarding time, go left right after you enter the section before the last tunnel. You’ll find a secret cave filled with rings that’s shorter than the normal path. +--------------------+ | Twinkle Park | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule! This shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Between bowling and the beginning driving sequence, ring-collecting isn’t that hard. The only complication you might face is losing your rings to the abundant enemies in the level. This really goes without saying, but try to avoid contact with the enemy. Don’t even try to destroy them if you don’t have to. If you do get hit, at least you have light dashes and three 5-ring capsules at the very end to soften the level. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 3 minutes. This is quite hard; you’ll really have to live up to your name – the faster hedgehog in the world. Don’t worry about getting all the rings or capsules. When you reach the bowling segment, just press A to skip right through it. Don’t stand around to catch the rings that fall. The only thing that could take up your time is the beginning sequence – the bumper car driving. Avoid walls to keep at a high constant speed (the best way to do this is to release A whenever you need to turn. That way, you’ll have a moment of no traction, letting you turn very easily), collect rings while driving to increase your acceleration rate, and use speed boosters whenever possible to get through the track as quickly as possible. At the end, instead of light dashing over the rooftop, run or jump. +---------------------+ | Speed Highway | +---------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule! Not too hard at all. In fact, you’ll probably get 50 rings off the first highway alone. If you don’t have 50 by the time you reach the actual city part (where City Hall and the capsule is), look around. There are capsules hidden in all the numerous nooks and crannies. You should do well. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 2 min. 30 secs. I won’t lie to you. This is extremely hard, one of the more impossible speed missions. First of all, if you ever reach a long, flat surface that you aren’t running at maximum speeds on, spin dash repeatedly to get through it (don’t live out spin dashes; press B quickly). This save you a few seconds (you can also apply it to other trials if you want). An example of when to use is the first tunnel of the level. Second, know how to navigate the city! Too often do you reach the city with just enough time to get by and then get lost. Work out the best way to reach the fountain and use it when you seriously try the level. Lastly, never stop! If you get hit, you lose speed, and that can lose the trial for you. In the vertical fall section, avoid pillars. If you make an almost perfect game, you’ll just barely win. +--------------------+ | Red Mountain | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule! Ooh, this is the first time the B-trial could be a menace. There are tons of enemies and hazards in Red Mountain, but there are also many rings. You can mess up quite a few times and still beat this trial. I mean really, there are enough rings in the volcano to accommodate you three times over. Just be careful, watch out for natural hazards, and avoid enemies as much as possible. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 3 minutes. Forget Speed Highway, THIS is nearly impossible, if played the regular way. Fortunate for you, Red Mountain has tons of shortcuts that really help you out here. First, you can save some time by holding right while taking up the first rocket to bounce on a spring up to a later point in the level. Shortly after that, when you take the rocket after the first checkpoint, hold A and forward when you get off to land on the high-up spring (it’s the fastest way to go). Second, spin dash whenever possible (as stated above). Next, after the first crumbling bridge, look left to see some Spinners. Home attack through them to a yellow-orange panel; jump across those for a nice shortcut to a later point. When you reach bars you need to climb across, jump and home attack over them (or try jumping/home attacking over the lava). Spin dash through the volcano section like there’s no tomorrow. When you come to the fourth checkpoint (the one before the triple springs), jump left to land on a lower level by the rocket that sends to the fifth checkpoint. This saves considerable time. If you are exceptionally good, you’ll beat this. Good luck. +----------------+ | Sky Deck | +----------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule. This is like a medium difficulty. There are many rings to collect, but there are also many contraptions built to knock them out of you. It gets a lot easier once you’ve destroyed the second cannon, and you have plenty of opportunities to gather rings. Just don’t get hit! TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 5 minutes. 5 minutes is stretching it, a lot, but this can be done. First and foremost, spin dash like crazy whenever you can do so safely. At the beginning, jump around the pillars instead of crawling along them slowly. It’s a real time-saver, like two seconds per pillar. When you reach the strong winds, don’t pay any attention. You can spin dash faster than they can blow. But what really takes up the time is the final stretch – the bars and the tilting ship. Be careful but quick and you may be able to get through it fast enough to beat the trial. If you are lucky (the only I was able to beat this trial), you can spin dash very far into the tilted ship part before the ship turns, saving you TONS of time. +------------------+ | Lost World | +------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule. Would you have guessed it? Anyways, this isn’t bad at all. You’ll find more than enough rings throughout the level, and it’s relatively enemy-free. But, go slowly in the tunnels; they often have fire hazards that are hard to miss if you’re sprinting through at breakneck speeds. Furthermore, take care not to fall into the water in the dark room of mirrors. Even if you totally mess up, you should be able to collect 50 rings before the level ends. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule with 4 min. 30 secs. I’ve got two for you: not easy. First, spin dash throughout the level (you should be used to it by now). Next, when you reach the snake-pool room, hit the switches as fluidly as possible. That is, jump on the snake, take it to the next switch, hit it, jump back on, etc. Don’t let it ever go around for a full circle with you on it, as that’s a waste of time. When you hit the third switch to raise the water to its highest point, jump back on the snake and jump right along it to reach the red switch’s platform. That’s the quickest way to reach it. Then ride the snake, who’ll be coming back soon, to the door. Then we have the dark room. Know exactly how to aim the mirrors (a little lower than you’d expect) to get through that section quickly. If you’re someone with a photographic memory, you could conceivably get through that part without resorting to mirrors at all. When you reach the river after the waterfall, bounce on the springs. Finally, if you fall in the vertical tile room, restart. Good luck! +-----------------+ | Final Egg | +-----------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the capsule. We’ve officially reached a hard ring-collecting trial. It’s not that there aren’t enough rings, it’s just that this level is really long and, since it probably has more traps and enemies than any other level in the game, it’s easy to mess up in. VERY easy. Note the presence of a 40-ring capsule (plus other capsules containing rings) in the room after the second elevator, plus a magnetic Shield. Just avoid enemies (well, duh!) and hope for the best. TRIAL A: Destroy the capsule within 4 min. 30 secs. This is one of the most challenging trials in the game. There are almost no shortcuts, it’s laden with enemies, and there are many enemies to hit you, in so doing slowing you down. As such, every second counts. When you reach the spinning tubes after the conveyor belts, home attack through them rather than walking along them slowly. When you reach the huge shaft you must fall down, memorize the location of the platform you have to fall to so that you don’t waste any time bouncing back up to it. Jump through the rooms full of Crabmeats rather than home attacking through them. Don’t go for the out-of-the- way capsules. Spin dash down tunnels and open areas where it’s safe to do so. But above all else, have fun! No seriously, just follow all the other tips. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------Tails’s Action Trials------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +--------------------+ | Windy Valley | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and beat Sonic! Unlike in Sonic’s missions, Tails’s B-trials are harder than A-trials. Sonic is pretty slow, but he too collects rings, and those are rings that could’ve been yours. If you stay in front of Sonic, running down the center of the looping walkways, you’ll win by default. There are two 10-ring capsules even before the halfway point (you have to fly to reach either), and, if you keep ahead of the competition, you’ll win with ease. But, don’t get out of your way for rings. Remember, you want to get rings, but you’re also racing Sonic. TRIAL A: Beat an even faster Sonic! This is simple. Tails still has all the advantages with his ability to fly, and Sonic has gained very little speed anyways. Just use the green rings, fly into the air current instead of walking up around the cylinder to reach it, and try your hand at falling down to lower points in the track if you’re really desperate. But it’s not difficult at all. +-------------------+ | Casinopolis | +-------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and beat Sonic! This shouldn’t be a problem. There are a few capsules in the first room, more than enough in the fan rooms and tunnels, and even a few supplementary rings in the final stretch. And being able to fly gives you a definite advantage over Sonic, as usual, because you can easily bypass obstacles he must pay extra attention to. In other words, it’s going to be a landslide victory, a nice change of pace after Sonic’s levels. TRIAL A: Beat an even faster Sonic! Sonic’s gotten faster? I didn’t even notice. Fly through the first part, ride the fans up, dash down the tunnels, and fly over the last part of the level. The only thing that might throw you off is hitting the capsule on your first jump! So seriously, don’t worry about this. Sonic might even get stuck behind something and try to spin dash his way out (which gives you an even heftier lead). If you still can’t win, you need to practice A LOT. +--------------+ | Icecap | +--------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and beat Sonic! This is definitely Tails’s hardest trial. Flying won’t help you now; it all comes down to snowboarding skills. And on top of that, you have to find 50 rings! At first, there aren’t any good ways to predict when rings are coming. The first few are to the left, the next few to the right, and they finish on the left. Now that the view’s changed, you can sort of tell when rings are coming. Collect as many as you can for now. Later, when you reach the near end of the level, you’ll have the option of using a series of ramps to soar over the surrounding area and to the capsule or taking a lower route. Remember, since Sonic day 1, the high route is almost always the best. Take it to find a few last- minute rings that could push you over. Beating Sonic is no big thing if you take the high road, but collecting 50 rings is hard whether you’re racing Sonic or not. TRIAL A: Beat an even faster Sonic! Sonic’s picked up some speed and he’s ready to own you, my friend. But, with careful planning and the right moves, you can hit the capsule way before he does. While he may beat you down the slopes, you have a trump card – ramps. Always jump off of them, especially the last few before the capsule (they are the key to your success). If you manage to get even a few of them, you should have enough of a lead to hit the capsule first. Just watch out for icicles, trees, and other obstacles. Nothing to it. +----------------+ | Sky Deck | +----------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and beat Sonic! What with all the capsules they’re shoving down your throat, how can you not win? Seriously, beating Sonic is a walk in the park because you can cut corners with flying, which leaves us with little else to do but pick up rings. That’s pretty easy to do, too; there are several capsules along the way that you almost have to get, plus a magnetic Shield. And if you steal really need it in the final stretch where you must destroy the huge cannon, aerial boosters fire you through plenty of ring capsules. TRIAL A: Beat an even faster Sonic! Give me a break! Sonic may be faster, but you’re still the fastest. Fly past ladders, by pillars, across obstacles. Meanwhile, Sonic has to face those things. And he still gets stuck, too. So, this shouldn’t prove hard at all. Just play like normal. +---------------------+ | Speed Highway | +---------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and beat Dr. Robotnik! Even if you replace Sonic with Eggman, the difficulty doesn’t increase. There are many rings along the way to accommodate you, and Eggman isn’t a speed demon by any means. There’s not much else to say, but that’s only because this trial’s so easy. Uh, good luck, I guess... TRIAL A: Beat an even faster Dr. Robotnik! Okay, so the doctor is a tad faster than before. Still, it’s an easy emblem. Play just like you normally would and you’ll win, easy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------Knuckles’s Action Trials------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +---------------------+ | Speed Highway | +---------------------+ TRIAL B: Find the Emeralds without using any hint balls. This shouldn’t be difficult. Watch out for the hint ball after the bell (it is easy to just run into it on accident) and take it from there. Use the radar to track down the emerald fragments, and restart if you really can’t find one of them. It’s hardly any different from regular C-trials. TRIAL A: Find the Emeralds within 1 minute. On the other hand, Knux’s A-trials are pretty darn difficult. In fact, most of them are on the verge of being impossible, as 1:00 is an EXTREMELY tight time limit. You have to make no mistakes, and some hint balls have been removed to make it even harder. Here’s the battle plan. On your first try, completely ignore the time limit. Just find the emeralds (DO NOT TOUCH THEM!) and memorize where they are and the fastest way to reach them. Then restart the level. You should know exactly where to look now, and the shards will not have changed places because you restarted. With the one minute provided, glide out and find them real quick-like. It’s relatively easy once you know where you’re going. But if you think the emeralds are too spread out to get in a minute, quit and retry. The emeralds might be clumped closer together in new locations. +-------------------+ | Casinopolis | +-------------------+ TRIAL B: Find the Emeralds without using any hint balls. With or without hint balls, Casinopolis is no fun. Just play like normal, but don’t use the orange balls of light for help. It’s all you, pal. So, I wish you good luck and happy hunting. TRIAL A: Find the Emeralds within 1 minute. This is a nightmare! Seriously, 1:00:00 is way too strict. We’ll be using the same strategy as before to beat this trial. First, play a game paying no attention to the time limit. Memorize where the emeralds are, don’t get any of them, and restart the level. They will be in the same locations, but now you know where to look. If they are spread out too far to get in a minute’s time even if you do know where to look, just quit and retry. When you have a comfortable setup, go for the gold. It’s pretty simple once you’ve got it down pat. Good luck! +--------------------+ | Red Mountain | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Find the Emeralds without using any hint balls. To quote Sherlock Holmes, “It is simplicity itself.” Play the level as you normally would, but be careful not to accidentally run into a hint ball. The radar should suffice. TRIAL A: Find the Emeralds within 1 minute. If you can do this on your first try, you deserve a medal. If not, follow this guide. First, start the trial and look around for emerald pieces. DO NOT TOUCH THEM! Leave them behind and memorize their locations. When you’ve found all three and know exactly where they are, work out a good way to reach all three of them in succession quickly. Then restart the level and, with advanced knowledge of what the trial’s going to be like, nab all three before the time runs out. If the emeralds are too far apart to recover in a minute, quit and retry. Chances are extremely high that they’ll be in new locations. Good luck. +------------------+ | Lost World | +------------------+ TRIAL B: Find the Emeralds without using any hint balls. Easy as 1-2-3. Simply rely on your radar to find the emerald shards, avoiding the hint balls at all costs. You’ll find the fragments sooner or later. TRIAL A: Find the Emeralds within 1 minute. As usual, use your first go in the trial to find the emeralds but not collect them. If they are too far apart to get in one minute, quit and retry to reset their positions. When you’ve memorized where the fragments are, restart. They’re in the same positions, which means you should be able to reach them quickly. ‘Tis the key, my padawan. +----------------+ | Sky Deck | +----------------+ TRIAL B: Find the Emeralds without using any hint balls. This is kind of hard since the light is right by the lever, but otherwise it’s the same as normal. You shouldn’t have much trouble with this, I hope. TRIAL A: Find the Emeralds within 2 minutes. Ah, Sonic Team’s gone soft on us. TWO MINUTES!? That’s way more than enough! No but seriously, this is the toughest trial the Sonic Team could produce for Knuckles. First, play the level as you would normally, ignoring the time limit. Find out where all three of the emeralds are and what tilts they can be gotten out. If some can be gotten at multiple tilts, take that into consideration. For example, if something can be gotten at any tilt, combine it with an emerald that requires a specific tilt. This saves time. Once you have all the locations down in your head and you’ve figured out the best sequence to get them in, taking tilts into account, retry the level and use that strategy you developed. It should make it pretty easy. Good luck. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------Amy’s Action Trials-------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +--------------------+ | Twinkle Park | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and grab the balloon! Nothing to it. There are more than enough rings in the last outdoors part, and so this shouldn’t be too hard. Just try not to get hit (this stage has more enemies in it than most). TRIAL A: Grab the balloon within 2 minutes. Now we are starting to get hard, but not quite yet. It’s really very easy to reach the balloon in two minutes. All it takes is a lot of hammer jumping (when running at full speeds, press A to do a very high jump). Don’t do this in the low tunnels or when you’re reaching the door in the mirror rooms. Elsewhere, it’s fair game. Abide by these rules and don’t stop running. That will get you out of here in the time allotted. +-------------------+ | Hot Shelter | +-------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and grab the balloon! You have a lot of enemies to contend with, but there are enough rings to go around. Make good use of the Shields to prevent any loss of rings. Not too much to say, so good luck! Like YOU will need it... TRIAL A: Grab the balloon within 6 min. 30 secs. You’re given plenty of time for a long trial... and you probably won’t need it. Hammer jump wherever possible, keep going, don’t stop for anything, and finish the block puzzles efficiently. If you manage to do that, you’ll beat the trial with a minute to spare, easily. Not even Amy’s trials are hard... +-----------------+ | Final Egg | +-----------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and grab the balloon! This is SO easy! All you need to do is keep 3 rings until the very end of the trial. Go behind the balloon wall and you’ll find two 1-ring capsules, one 5-ring capsules, and a 40-ring capsule! This makes the trial incredibly easy. If you can’t manage to keep 3 rings on hand, you need more help than this guide can give. TRIAL A: Grab the balloon within 2 min. 30 secs. So, Amy finally decides to take a ride on the challenging side. Yep, beating Final Egg in 2.5 minutes is tricky, but it’s totally possible if you quit your lollygagging ways (the first step is denial). First, always be hammer jumping. To instantly get a good run that you can jump with, just jump normally, holding forward. When you land, you can immediately break into hammer jumps. The most time-consuming portion of the level – the only good excuse you have if you lose – is the door- picking segment. If you have really bad luck, you can lose thirty seconds or more to it. Still, if you reach it as far into the level as 2:15:00, you can make it to the balloon. If you make an effort, this trial will fall very easily, just like the rest of Amy’s refreshingly easy emblems. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------Big’s Action Trials-------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: I recommend getting all four lure upgrades (see “Character Upgrades” for details) before attempting these frustrating trials. +--------------------+ | Twinkle Park | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Catch a 1000g fish and Froggy! Fortunately, Big has fairly simple trials. First, I suggest you have the Power Rod for these trials (see “Character Upgrades” for details). Now, catching whoppers is a lot harder than reeling in that lightweight frog. The intensity levels rise very rapidly, and they can actually pull back. For this reason, I advise you get into the water with the Life Belt to be as close to them as possible. After all, reeling them in from 30 meters away is pretty hard. I find the best way to bring them to you is to tap A at a constant pace, keeping the intensity just below the beeping point. And always remember to pull the control stick in the direction opposite them. It’s the different between a 3-minute struggle and twenty seconds of calm patience. They’ll slowly come in and you can regulate intensity levels easily, unlike with B/X. After you’ve landed a fish of 1000 grams or more, take Froggy along for the ride, too. TRIAL A: Catch a 2000g fish and Froggy! Well, that’s creative, isn’t it? No but seriously, this trial will hurt your hand... a lot. These fish may be fat, but it’s all muscle, as they can resist your best efforts very easily. Try holding B. It’s completely ineffective; they’ll just give your line a tug and stop you dead in your tracks. The strategy we used above does work, but it takes a long time, much longer than before, which is why it’ll probably be more than a little tiring for your thumb. I suggest alternating between fingers if you feel like tiring out (I rarely give advice on holding the controller, but now’s the time!). Also very effective is tapping the A button with your index and middle fingers at a rapid pace. So, once you’ve caught the real lunker of the group (which takes a lot of hunting), take Froggy back to end the trial. +--------------+ | Icecap | +--------------+ TRIAL B: Catch a 1000g fish and Froggy! I covered the basics for every trial in Twinkle Park’s guide; use it for this section. Nothing’s changed very much, anyways. TRIAL A: Catch a 2000g fish and Froggy! It’s another one of Big’s ultra-long trials. Just finding this fish is a royal pain in the neck, and reeling it in isn’t fun, either. See the Twinkle Park section for helpful hints. Note that the fish are very few here; try looking by the dinosaur bones (if you follow the tunnel in the water Froggy is swimming in, you’ll come to them) for fish that meet this requirement. +---------------------+ | Emerald Coast | +---------------------+ TRIAL B: Catch a 1000g fish and Froggy! With such heavy fish in the water, you should have no trouble finding a 1000 gram fish. After you’ve accomplished that, catch Froggy. Again, there’s not much to add; see Twinkle Park’s section for more tips. TRIAL A: Catch a 2000g fish and Froggy! Even though the fish are generally larger here, it’s still very difficult to find a single fish tipping the scales at 2000 grams. Expect to be fishing for a long time... Refer to Twinkle Park’s guide for some useful hints. +-------------------+ | Hot Shelter | +-------------------+ TRIAL B: Catch a 1000g fish and Froggy! Just do what you always do – look at Twinkle Park’s guide. It contains everything you need to known and more! TRIAL A: Catch a 2000g fish and Froggy! Ooh, another painfully long trial. See Twinkle Park’s guide for a nice one-size-fits-all guide. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------Gamma’s Action Trials------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- +-----------------+ | Final Egg | +-----------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy the “Sonic Doll”! Remember, the time limit still stands. Normally, this would be a tough mission because it’s very short, but you can find 40 rings in capsules toward the beginning of the level. When you first turn left into the lit hallway, jump upward and spin around with the laser on. You should target four 10-ring capsules, thus earning you 40 rings. Ten more off the ground and you’re there! You can reach two more once you’ve used the springs, by the way. Just avoid the two enemies in the stage and you can easily win. TRIAL A: Destroy the “Sonic Doll” with more than 150 seconds remaining! This is incredibly easy. You just need two and a half minutes or more remaining when you finish the level. Target everything in groups, move quickly, and you should manage. Such missions will become very tough down the road, though. +---------------------+ | Emerald Coast | +---------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and catch “Froggy”! This shouldn’t prove difficult. There’s a 5-ring capsule to the left over an umbrella, which is surrounded by rings on a small “island” (really more of a sandbar) to the left of the starting point. Target capsules along the boardwalk and when in the air after the final set of springs and you can easily clear with more than 100 rings. Just watch out for enemies! TRIAL A: Catch “Froggy” with more than 180 seconds remaining! This is the first trial that you actually have to work for somewhat. There are many Kikis in the first section, and toward the end by Froggy. A cluster of them are on the bridge above the first set of springs, and you’ll have to get them all in groups if you want to beat this one. +--------------------+ | Windy Valley | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy E-103! Yep, the boss battle is included, which means you need to watch yourself in that fight so that you don’t lose your hard-earned rings. You’ll find a magnetic Shield during the large drop to the first checkpoint, which helps you both keep your rings and attract new ones to you. There are many capsules scattered around the level and lots of free-floating rings to be taken; there are enough to beat the level with well over 50. TRIAL A: Destroy E-103 with more than 150 seconds remaining! This is a joke, seriously. It’s possible to beat this level with more than double the specified time. Anyways, the key to success lies in the caterpillars. That is, when you see one, target each segment in it so that you can hit them all at once. If you do, you’ll get 40 seconds. The trial does include your epic struggle with E-103, but that shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds or so. +--------------------+ | Red Mountain | +--------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy E-104! While Windy Valley may’ve been two easy emblems (like Final Egg and Emerald Coast), Red Mountain and Hot Shelter are harder to get (though this particular trial is a cakewalk). Get a Shield by a few Spinners before the tilted path by the lava room (at the end of the initial hallway) to help in ring storage. As for ring collection, there are many capsules jammed into the short space that is this stage. All you have to worry about is not losing your rings to E-104. TRIAL A: Destroy E-104 with more than 180 seconds remaining! Here we have our first big challenge, though it’s not exactly Final Egg. There are many bonus seconds to be awarded in the first hallway. Speed through enemy-less sections, skipping capsules (you have no need for them), and try to reach the boss with 15 seconds or more on the clock (that’s the amount of time you’ll likely need). The shootout with Epsilon is included, of course. Just try to hit many enemies simultaneously. Good luck. +-------------------+ | Hot Shelter | +-------------------+ TRIAL B: Collect 50 rings and destroy E-105! Ouch! Well, things pick up in difficulty a lot right about now. It’s not for a lack of rings; you’ll find two 40-ring capsules by a 20-rign and a 5-ring capsule at one point in the level. It’s just very easy to get by enemies and have the time run out in this stage. The hardest part is the train system. Keep your Shields raised and hope for the best. And remember, avoid missiles in your battle with E-105! TRIAL A: Destroy E-105 with more than 120 seconds remaining! Simply put, this is nearly impossible, even with a time limit reduction. Target as many enemies as possible. In the area after the 4 capsules worth a collective 105 rings, you’ll see a few “hidden” Kikis to the left off the main track; target them. When falling down the long shaft toward the end of the level, hover so that you can target some other Kikis not normally accessible. They can earn you more than 1 minute combined, and the Kikis on the ground below make it even easier. Also, near the start of the level, after the spinning gears, hover to a spring to bounce up rather than taking the ladder. Other than that, just take the many enemies out in droves, and beat Zeta as quickly as you can (it should take about ten seconds). Good luck! Believe it or not, those are all the action trials, covered in full. Now, let’s move onto the even easier emblems – the sub games! ======================================================================= ===========================Sub Game Emblems*=========================== ======================================================================= You may’ve noticed that there are many mini-games in Sonic Adventure DX Director’s Cut. Well, the other type of trial comes from sub games, and there much easier in general, but also hard in places. Here, I shall guide you through them. Note that while many characters can play sub games (all can play Twinkle Circuit, for example), the emblem you get from them only counts once. Therefore, I have alphabetized the sub games below, listed which characters can play it, and thus reduced repetition. Remember, even if Sonic AND Tails beat Sky Chase Act 1, you only get the emblem once. +------------+ | Boss | +------------+ Characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big, Gamma This is the only universal sub game other than Twinkle Circuit. It’s basically a Boss Rush Mode. You play against all the bosses of a character in order, and the time you got on one is added to the next. Your goal is to beat all the bosses in a collectively low time. There are records for each character to beat, but doing so doesn’t get you an emblem. This is just a “fun” little mini-game, and the only way to replay bosses like the Egg Hornet or Chaos 2. +-----------------------+ | Hedgehog Hammer | +-----------------------+ Characters: Amy In Amy’s storyline, she must play Hedgehog Hammer to reach the main room of Egg Carrier Hall and get the Warrior Feather upgrade. She must use the Piko Piko/Long Hammer to hit Sonic dolls in a Whack-a-Mole imitator to earn points. Blue Sonic dolls are worth 100 points when hit. Gold Sonic dolls are worth 500. But hitting Dr. Robotnik dolls costs you 200 points apiece. Good luck... -------- EMBLEM 1 -------- You just have to beat the high score, whatever that may be. It’s probably what you got in Adventure mode (somewhere above 2000). Stay cool, consider what you hit before you attack, and go for Super Sonic dolls the most. Don’t stand in the center and try to hit the dolls; it’ll slow you down slightly and hit any doll directly behind you, which could be a Robotnik doll. This shouldn’t be too difficult. -------- EMBLEM 2 -------- Now you have to beat your score in Emblem 1. Use the same strategies as before, just be better, and the emblem is yours. +--------------+ | Icecap | +--------------+ Characters: Sonic, Tails You can board down the slopes, just like in Tails’s mission and in the latter half of Sonic’s. You can’t win an emblem in this, but it’s a fun little mini-game. Earn points by passing through multiple gates in sequence. If they included this, though, why not the Casinopolis games? +-----------------+ | Sand Hill | +-----------------+ Characters: Sonic, Tails Same story as Icecap, only you do get emblems for this! You are snowboarding down a desert path amongst many red posts, called gates, and passing through many gates in a row (you can skip some, but there’s a time limit between each one) earns points. The level, which is filled with ruins and snake statues, was probably once territory of the ancient tribe we often see in the Adventure mode. Note that the Sonic and Tails versions are different, and that Sonic’s is probably easier. -------- EMBLEM 1 -------- You just have to get to the end of the level. Yeah, it’s quite easy. There are pretty much no ways to lose... Just don’t get stuck by a wall or something. -------- EMBLEM 2 -------- Note: Even though Sonic and Tails play different versions of this level, the emblems one gets still count for the other. Ooh, now we have to beat a score of 10,000. It’s considerably tough. Even when you see a gate you think you can make it to, stupid pillars rise from the sand and block you, blowing you off course. Luckily, you get bonus points for making a good time, which makes even a mediocre run pretty good. In Sonic’s version, once you get out into the open area where all the cacti are, go to the far right. There’s a long sequence of gates down a separate path that’s pretty useful (if you do it right, you can get around 40 that way). Just jump before speed boosters; they tend to mess you up. In Tails’s version, just avoid speed boosts where you can. +-----------------------+ | Sky Chase Act 1 | +-----------------------+ Characters: Sonic, Tails Sky Chase is a throwback to the second-to-last zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which was also named Sky Chase. We have a very similar situation to the first. That is, we are in the Tornado (Sonic’s plane, apparently, but Tails keeps it in his house and built it...) trying to board the Egg Carrier. We have to shoot down missiles and enemy fighters for points while surviving ourselves. It’s pretty easy. Shoot with A/B/X and move with the control stick. You can also lock onto enemies by holding the fire button and moving the crosshairs over them. Simple, no? -------- EMBLEM 1 -------- You’ll get this by playing Sky Chase Act 1 in the storyline of Sonic or Tails. You just have to survive to the end (even though, as far as storylines go, the Tornado doesn’t survive, you know what I mean). -------- EMBLEM 2 -------- WHY!?! You have to beat a score of 8000 to get this emblem! Yep, it’s pretty difficult. Basically, you need to destroy everything, and in clusters. Missiles are easy to hit and are a good source of points, but the fighters should provide you with many points and are harder to hit. If you do lock onto them, make sure to fire before they fly off the screen. Also, there are many cannons that you can fire (the ones that launch missiles). Remember: locking onto multiple things increases the points you get from them. And have fun with it. Once you’ve mastered clustering targets together, it’ll be only moderately difficult. +-----------------------+ | Sky Chase Act 2 | +-----------------------+ Characters: Sonic, Tails Sonic and Tails, united at Red Mountain, are making a second attempt at boarding the Egg Carrier. Just like in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the second act is harder than the first. It’s just the proliferation of enemies. Note that we’re fighting in the Tornado 2, built by Tails and powered by a Chaos Emerald, and that midway through the battle, the Tornado 2 transforms into a more compact version of itself. -------- EMBLEM 1 -------- You just have to get to the end of the level and defeat the breaker beam cannon (the “boss” of the sub game). It should be easy, and you’ll already have it, considering that you have to beat Sonic or Tails’s storyline to even be playing sub game trials. -------- EMBLEM 2 -------- Did you think 8,000 points in Act 1 was hard? Well now it’s 20,000! That’s a whole lot of points to collect, I know, but there are many more enemies and many more possibilities for huge groups of enemies under the targeting system (hold B/X/A). I’d actually say this is easier than Act 1’s second trial. The last part of the level is the best for collection of points (you can double your score there), and the boss also provides many points. If you don’t have enough points at the end of the level to get the emblem, simply don’t break the Breaker Beam’s cannon. Just sit there, targeting missiles, until you eventually win. Damaging the cannon also earns you points. But don’t stay out there too long; the breaker beam can kill you. +-----------------------+ | Twinkle Circuit | +-----------------------+ Characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big, Gamma Ah, Twinkle Circuit. It’s accessible in Adventure mode from outside Twinkle Park’s entrance, but anyone can play. Here, we’re in a racetrack, like Sonic Drift (Sonic-themed racing game for the Sega Game Gear). The controls are pretty simple. A is accelerate, B/X brakes, and the control stick moves you around. Collecting rings makes you accelerate faster, but hitting walls slows you down. The number of rings you have is displayed on the back of your car. Twinkle Circuit is home to two very easily-collected emblems. Let’s review! -------- EMBLEM 1 -------- This time, use no strategy. All strategies will be discussed in Emblem 2’s guide. You’ll see why once you learn what the goal of Emblem 2. You’ll probably beat the record time of 5:00:00 this go-around, and that’s incredibly easy to do. Seriously, you’d have to actually try to get such a bad time. But, beating that time is not required; you just have to race through the track, going slow and steady, until you’ve made three laps. -------- EMBLEM 2 -------- Since you undoubtedly beat the 5:00:00 time limit in Emblem 1, your goal this time is to beat whatever your previous time was (the record time). That should be easy to do if you deploy a few new strategies. First, always go for speed boosters. Second, hold forward on the control stick (most of the time; don’t try it in tight turns or curvy areas). Third, the most important thing to do is let go of A as you are making a turn. If you do, you’ll lose a bit of speed as you turn, but it’s easy to recover. If you don’t take my advice, you’ll end up hitting walls, and that just kills your speed. Lastly, memorize where rings are in your first lap and collect them in the second and third. That should be enough to beat your first time, unless you somehow got some brilliant and unbeatable record when you got Emblem 1... And that covers all the 10 emblems connected to sub games. Let’s get on with the show! ======================================================================= =======================Adventure Field Emblems*======================== ======================================================================= Scattered throughout the three Adventure Fields – Station Square, Mystic Ruins, and the Egg Carrier – are emblems. They’re real easy to find, but I decided to cover them here anyways. Here’s a guide to all twelve of them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- #) Adventure Field Recommend Character: Notes: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Above is the setup, below are the actual entries. Let’s-a go! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Station Square Recommend Character: Sonic Notes: Any character can get this, really, but let’s just say Sonic. Locate the Burger Shop in the City Hall area and step inside. Lo and behold, an emblem! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Station Square Recommend Character: Tails Notes: Go to SS Central Station. Once inside, look above the main entrance (not the Casino one) to find an emblem in an alcove there. Simply fly up to it. Note that other characters can reach it by walking along the ledge against the wall. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) Station Square Recommend Character: Tails Notes: Go to the City Hall area (the building with the red door that leads to Speed Highway in Knuckles’s storyline). as Tails and tails attack the weeds until eventually you find an emblem. It is not clearly visible, and you’ll probably have to get it a few tries. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Station Square Recommend Character: Tails Notes: Go to the alley you find the Ice Stone in by the entrance of Casinopolis. Fly straight up there and you’ll hit an emblem. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Mystic Ruins Recommend Character: Tails Notes: Head over to Tails’s Work Shop and stand on the roof. Look opposite the runway that the Tornado takes off on and you’ll see an emblem on a ledge in the distance. Fly to it (Knuckles can glide to it) to claim your prize. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Mystic Ruins Recommend Character: Sonic Notes: Again, any character can get this. This particular emblem is Jungle-bound. Follow a path leading right from the entrance to find an emblem real early on. It’s quite close to the wall, on which is the Fighting Gloves upgrade for Knuckles. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Mystic Ruins Recommend Character: Tails Notes: Behind Big’s House in the Jungle is a hollow tree; use Tails to fly onto a branch. Fly again and in through the top to find the emblem inside. Knuckles can also climb the nearby wall and glide in. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) Mystic Ruins Recommend Character: Knuckles Notes: I suppose Tails could also get this, but it’d be difficult. Get onto the wooden bridge in Angel Island and walk up to the Master Emerald’s shrine. Don’t step onto the ground, though; stay on the wood. Look left (toward the entrance to the tunnel you came into the Angel Island area by) and start gliding in that direction. Soon, an emblem should become visible; glide into it to take it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) Egg Carrier Recommend Character: Sonic Notes: The ship’s wings need to be out (pull them in or push them out in the Captain’s Room). From the Captain’s Room, look to the left (while facing the CR door) to see a cannon. Walk up to it to lift the lid; hop in and be shot out. Now walk off the building here to fall to a door that is locked. Fall to the left of it to find an open but secret door leading to a place on the map marked “Private Room.” It’s Eggman’s room! If you hit a switch here, a bed falls out, thus revealing an emblem on the wall. In case you were wondering, the room connected to the Private Room is the one we used the light dash in to reach Captain’s Room in Adventure mode. Also in case you were wondering, the locked room (which Tails can enter) is a throne room, I guess. But with the slot machines, the little rocket toy, and the rocking chairs, I’d almost say it was designed with a baby in mind... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) Egg Carrier Recommend Character: Sonic Notes: Go to the arena where you (plus just about every other character) and Chaos 6 fought each other. This needs to be in the mode in which the wings are out (see # 9 for details on changing them). Around it are cannons. When you walk up to them, the yellow hatches atop them rise up. Jump inside to be launched across the arena. At these speeds, you can crash into boxes, thus breaking them open and revealing their contents. One is an emblem. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) Egg Carrier Recommend Character: Tails Notes: Go to the Pool room in either form of the Egg Carrier. If you fly up, you can find a diving board, six 10-ring capsules, and an emblem. Ka-ching! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 12) Egg Carrier Recommend Character: Tails Notes: It should be wings-out mode (change the wing positions from the Captain’s Room). Fly atop the spinning yellow disk on the deck to find an emblem. Man, that yellow disk would’ve been a great spot for a boss battle... Note that though you can reach this disk in wings-in mode, the emblem is only there when they’re out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Well you learn something new every day! Now that we’ve added 12 more emblems to our total, let’s tally up the emblems, shall we? ======================================================================= ===========================Emblem Checklist*=========================== ======================================================================= There are 130 emblems to be found in Sonic Adventure DX. What are they used for? Well, I guess I’ll let the secret out. When you collect a specified number of emblems, you unlock something secret. That’s as far as I’ll go here, although I will actually let you in on things in the “Secrets” section. Here, we’re going to discuss (list, really) exactly how the emblems are dispersed throughout the game. This section is designed to be printed out for your use. If you need to, copy and paste it into a text editor (like Microsoft Word, for example) and print it. You could also increase the text size or the font (we are required to write 10-size font for GameFaqs, and you may want to increase the size so that it prints larger). You don’t have to print it; you can also see this by going into Trial and then Emblem Results on the main menu, but it’s nice for places like Adventure Field to be able to tell which you’ve done. Anyways, the brackets ([__]) are for placing checkmarks in. -Sonic Action Stages- [__] 1) Emerald Coast C [__] 2) Emerald Coast B [__] 3) Emerald Coast A [__] 4) Windy Valley C [__] 5) Windy Valley B [__] 6) Windy Valley A [__] 7) Casinopolis C [__] 8) Casinopolis B [__] 9) Casinopolis A [__] 10) Icecap C [__] 11) Icecap B [__] 12) Icecap A [__] 13) Twinkle Park C [__] 14) Twinkle Park B [__] 15) Twinkle Park A [__] 16) Speed Highway C [__] 17) Speed Highway B [__] 18) Speed Highway A [__] 19) Red Mountain C [__] 20) Red Mountain B [__] 21) Red Mountain A [__] 22) Sky Deck C [__] 23) Sky Deck B [__] 24) Sky Deck A [__] 25) Lost World C [__] 26) Lost World B [__] 27) Lost World A [__] 28) Final Egg C [__] 29) Final Egg B [__] 30) Final Egg A -Tails Action Stages- [__] 31) Windy Valley C [__] 32) Windy Valley B [__] 33) Windy Valley A [__] 34) Casinopolis C [__] 35) Casinopolis B [__] 36) Casinopolis A [__] 37) Icecap C [__] 38) Icecap B [__] 39) Icecap A [__] 40) Sky Deck C [__] 41) Sky Deck B [__] 42) Sky Deck A [__] 43) Speed Highway C [__] 44) Speed Highway B [__] 45) Speed Highway A -Knuckles Action Stages- [__] 46) Speed Highway C [__] 47) Speed Highway B [__] 48) Speed Highway A [__] 49) Casinopolis C [__] 50) Casinopolis B [__] 51) Casinopolis A [__] 52) Red Mountain C [__] 53) Red Mountain B [__] 54) Red Mountain A [__] 55) Lost World C [__] 56) Lost World B [__] 57) Lost World A [__] 58) Sky Deck C [__] 59) Sky Deck B [__] 60) Sky Deck A -Amy Action Stages- [__] 61) Twinkle Park C [__] 62) Twinkle Park B [__] 63) Twinkle Park A [__] 64) Hot Shelter C [__] 65) Hot Shelter B [__] 66) Hot Shelter A [__] 67) Final Egg C [__] 68) Final Egg B [__] 69) Final Egg A -E-102 Action Stages- [__] 70) Final Egg C [__] 71) Final Egg B [__] 72) Final Egg A [__] 73) Emerald Coast C [__] 74) Emerald Coast B [__] 75) Emerald Coast A [__] 76) Windy Valley C [__] 77) Windy Valley B [__] 78) Windy Valley A [__] 79) Red Mountain C [__] 80) Red Mountain B [__] 81) Red Mountain A [__] 82) Hot Shelter C [__] 83) Hot Shelter B [__] 84) Hot Shelter A -Big Action Stages- [__] 85) Twinkle Park C [__] 86) Twinkle Park B [__] 87) Twinkle Park A [__] 88) Icecap C [__] 89) Icecap B [__] 90) Icecap A [__] 91) Emerald Coast C [__] 92) Emerald Coast B [__] 93) Emerald Coast A [__] 94) Hot Shelter C [__] 95) Hot Shelter B [__] 96) Hot Shelter A -Adventure Field- [__] 97) Station Square - Burger Shop [__] 98) Station Square – SS Central Station [__] 99) Station Square – City Hall [__] 100) Station Square – Ice Stone Alley [__] 101) Mystic Ruins – Work Shop Ledge [__] 102) Mystic Ruins – Jungle Path [__] 103) Mystic Ruins – Hollow Tree [__] 104) Mystic Ruins – Angel Island Air [__] 105) Egg Carrier – Private Room [__] 106) Egg Carrier – Arena Boxes [__] 107) Egg Carrier – Pool Room [__] 108) Egg Carrier – Spinning Disk -Mini Game- [__] 109) Hedgehog Hammer B [__] 110) Hedgehog Hammer A [__] 111) Sand Hill B [__] 112) Sand Hill A [__] 113) Sky Chase Act 1 B [__] 114) Sky Chase Act 2 A [__] 115) Sky Chase Act 2 B [__] 116) Sky Chase Act 2 A [__] 117) Twinkle Circuit B [__] 118) Twinkle Circuit A -Chao Race- [__] 119) [__] 120) [__] 121) [__] 122) [__] 123) [__] 124) Sonic Story Ending [__] 125) Tails Story Ending [__] 126) Knuckles Story Ending [__] 127) Amy Story Ending [__] 128) E-102 Story Ending [__] 129) Big Story Ending [__] 130) Super Sonic Story Ending Well, there you have it! Note that Chao Races are covered in the section entitled “Chao Guide.” Hope that helps, and happy hunting! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ / \ / \ ||----------------------------Section 4*-----------------------------|| \ / \_________________________________________________________________/ ======================================================================= ==========================Character Upgrades*========================== ======================================================================= One thing that Sonic Adventure introduced to the Sonic scene was upgrades. When you find an item enveloped in green light, chances are it’s an upgrade. When you touch them, your character gets that item, which helps them do something better or do something new. Each non- secret character has some (surprisingly, Big has the most). And although most are required to advance in the storyline, some are completely optional, which is why this section is necessary. That in mind, let’s get on with it! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Obtain: Function: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- There we go... That was the layout, and up next is the list. Don’t get too excited, now. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sonic Upgrades ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Light Speed Shoes Obtain: These shoes are cleverly hidden in the sewers. Once you fall through the manhole, you can’t miss ‘em. Function: The Light Dash has become Sonic’s latest and greatest move in recent 3-D hedgehog outings, and it has its roots here. Although it takes longer to use than, say, its SA2 counterpart, it’s a nifty little item all the same. When you hold B/X down long enough, Sonic will stand up from his spin dash with a blue aura surrounding him. If you are by a trail of rings, release B/X to fly at the rings and dash through them like a line. They’re needed several times during Sonic’s storyline. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Crystal Ring Obtain: Amble on over to the Hotel once you’ve gotten the Light Speed Shoes. Ascend up the stairs and hit the switch to make a trail of rings appear. Step onto the other switch (stay on it) and charge up your light speed dash. Release to cross the rings to an alcove containing this piece of functional jewelry. Function: This halves the time it takes to charge up the light speed dash. Yeah, it’s pretty superfluous, but still a nice accessory. Sonic needs to wear SOMETHING other than shoes, right? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Ancient Light Obtain: It’s on a large rock in the Angel Island region of Mystic Ruins, between the entrance to Red Mountain and the Mystic Emerald shrine’s bridge. Function: This rarely used upgrade lets you use the Light Speed Attack. In other words, charge power with a spin dash and then release B/X by an enemy. Sonic will do an attack at the speed light (that we can’t really see; feel free to create theories about how Sonic annihilates them) that makes enemies explode. It’s needed to enter Red Mountain, and players bent on getting their money’s worth on this item may want to use it some more, too. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tails Upgrades ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Jet Anklet Obtain: You’ll find these in the sewers (you must fly through a hole to reach it) behind Twinkle Park. Function: Now you can fly faster than before. Therefore you can fly higher than before because you go at a faster rate for the same length of time. Everyone wins! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Rhythm Badge Obtain: This is found in the ancient civilization you sometimes flashback to. It’ll take a bit of searching, but you’ll find it hidden in plain sight sooner or later. Function: Now you can hold B/X to do a continuous Tails Attacks. It’s nice when you’re cutting down weeds, and it can be used to plow through enemies, but that rarely needs to happen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Knuckles Upgrades ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Shovel Claws Obtain: You’ll find them in East Cave near Tails’s Work Shop. Once you find them, you have to use them to leave the cave. I know you could use the extra practice. Function: Now you can dig by pressing A and B/X simultaneously. In levels beyond that, emerald fragments may be buried underground, and this will be necessary. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Fighting Gloves Obtain: Climb the walls in the Jungle and you’ll find a ledge over Big’s House (in the area, at least). On that ledge is this upgrade. Function: If you hold B/X for a while, this move charges up. Release it to inflict major damage on nearby enemies (fatal in most cases, but not for bosses and the like). It’s needed to enter Red Mountain, but not much afterwards. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Amy Upgrades ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Warrior Feather Obtain: The first time you beat Hedgehog Hammer aboard the Egg Carrier, you win this. Function: You can now hold B/X to perform the Spin Hammer Attack. You just spin the hammer around in place. Yes, I agree, it’s not that great. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Long Hammer Obtain: After you’ve gotten the Warrior Feather, beat a score of 3,000 in Hedgehog Hammer. Function: A green, all-business hammer, the Long Hammer looks much more menacing than the Piko Piko Hammer does (but still pretty cutesy). The handle is longer, providing more range. I guess it does somewhat improve the Spin Hammer Attack. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Upgrades ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Life Belt Obtain: It’s right by the pool of frigid waters preceding the ladder that leads up into Icecap. You can’t miss it if you tried. Function: Now Big floats on water... which actually is pretty helpful. Not only can he cross large bodies of water, but he can also fish, up- close and personal. Press A to dive down to the bottom of the pool of water, and release it to float back up. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Power Rod Obtain: When you get a chance to visit Mystic Ruins, visit Big’s House in the Jungle. Ooh, and be sure to lift Big’s bed up to find this little number. Function: The Power Rod has a longer line than the previous fishing rod did, letting you fish for things from a greater distance. It’s handy every now and then (Big’s final boss battle comes to mind...). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Lure Power-up (1) Obtain: There are four of these. For the first, swim into the water behind Twinkle Park’s entrance. Continue down until you find this. Function: You can now catch bigger fish. I highly recommend collecting all four lures before attempting Big’s action stage trials. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Lure Power-up (2) Obtain: This is the only in-level upgrade in the game. You’ll find it in Icecap. From the start, walk over to the spring. Bounce on it and follow the narrow path you land on up, going right of the spikes you see ahead. Now jump down to the lower platforms so that you land left of the wall of spikes. From there, it’s a simple matter of hopping onto the spring and landing on a new ledge. Follow the trail up to a third spring; let it bounce you to a pool of water. Get in, press A to dive, and walk through the tunnel in the wall. Follow it into open waters; bounce out of them utilizing the spring on the wall. Hop up the next two platforms, run down the bridge, and stop when you reach some frozen ice. Lift the icy boulder there with B/X and drop it onto the darker blue ice. Sink down in the water you have accessed and you’ll find the upgrade amidst the bones of dinosaurs. Take it, an improved lure. Function: Once again, this lets you catch bigger fish. It is pretty much a requirement for Big’s action stage trials. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Lure Power-up (3) Obtain: This is hidden in the Jungle near Big’s House. On the map, you should see a small circular structure branching off the main path. There are two; one to the west by the Ancient ruins, and one to the east near Big’s House. Enter the eastern one (it’ll take a bit of exploring to find the entrance; use the map) and this upgrade will be yours for the taking. Function: Now Big can catch even bigger fish! Huzzah! These lures are instrumental in collecting the emblems in Big’s action stage trials. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Lure Power-up (4) Obtain: Board the Egg Carrier. Go to Egg Carrier Hall via Elevatore and look right of the entrance to Hot Shelter. See the switch? Jump onto it to open the door. Then head through it, plus the Hedgehog Hammer room, to reach Prison Hall. The first cell you see contains the upgrade. Just jump on that switch to lower the bars and it’s yours. Function: Big will now be able to catch even bigger fish than before thanks to his new lure. I suggest you collect all four of these lures before trying your luck at Big’s action stage trials. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- E-102 Gamma Upgrades ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Jet Booster Obtain: Right before Gamma and Sonic lock horns on the Deck of the Egg Carrier, Dr. Robotnik orders you to find this in the Arsenal. Go to Egg Carrier Hall, climb the stairs to the “second floor,” and open the Arsenal door. The upgrade’s a few feet below you. Function: This extremely useful but underused upgrade lets Gamma slowly descend to the ground (thus increasing his jump range). Use it by pressing A in the air. It’s so good that, like other upgrades, they included it in SA2 not once but TWICE! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade: Laser Blaster Obtain: After the Egg Carrier crashes and you get on to go to Hot Shelter, check out the Water Tank (now open). You’ll find this inside, just waiting for somebody to pick it up. Function: The description the light gives us isn’t too clear, but this upgrade gives your blaster more power. That is, if you defeat one enemy and there’s another one right by it, it’ll destroy that one, too. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- There! Now your life is enriched. Moving on, I’d say it’s high time we went on pointless quests... and I’m not talking about Adventure Mode, either! Oh, zing! ======================================================================= =============================Mission Mode*============================= ======================================================================= Added to the GCN version of Sonic Adventure are 60 missions for you to complete. You unlock them after beating that character’s action stages in Adventure mode. They ask you to do fairly random things, some in action stages, and there doesn’t seem to be any reward. But, there is, and it’s good. For every 20 missions you complete successfully, you earn a secret (see “Secrets” for details). You can see which ones you’ve completed by selecting “Mission” on the Pause menu when in Mission Mode. In this section, I will guide through all 60 of the missions (organized by the character that completes them) so that you can get all three of the very nice rewards. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission #) “Game’s Mission Description” Card Location: Completion: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Above is the setup, and below is the list. They are organized by the character that completes them (in the order of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big, and Gamma). Don’t let this be a Mission Impossible! Oh, how punny was that... Note: You can search through this rather long section by searching for “Sonic Missions,” “Tails Missions,” “Knuckles Missions,” “Amy Missions” “Big Missions” and “Gamma Missions” using CTRL and F. You can also use CTRL and F to search for “Mission #” (obviously, fill in the “#” with the number of the mission) to look for a specific one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sonic Missions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 1) “Bring the man who is standing in front of the hamburger shop!” Card Location: You’ll find the first mission card just outside SS Central Station. Completion: From where you pick up the card, head over to the City Hall region of Station Square. Near the CH is the Burger Shop, and standing right in front of it is a statue of a man welcoming you in. Pick him up (B/X) and carry it back to SS Central Square where the mission began. Set the statue there to get a mission complete. Congrats! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 2) “Get the balloon in the skies of Mystic Ruins!” Card Location: Take the train to Mystic Ruins. Left a bit from where you exit the train (at the top of the steps) is the card. Completion: You may notice that a bunch of Spinners have appeared by the Waterfall with a balloon with them. Home attack up the ranks and then burst that bubble, err, balloon, to clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 3) “Collect 100 rings, and go to Sonic’s billboard by the pool!” Card Location: On the steps of the Pool outside of the Hotel, the card waits for one brave enough to take on its challenge... Completion: Suddenly Sonic has an advertisement sign by the pool. Collecting 100 rings is pretty easy; go to the Casino area and hit the switch. Light dash up the rings and repeat as necessary. It’s a lot easier than using the Hotel light dash rings (it’s the best way to collect the rings, hands down). After 12 dash cycles (there are 9 rings in the line), return to the Pool and hang by the billboard. And that’s a wrap. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 9) “Get the balloon floating behind the waterfall at the emerald sea.” Card Location: Check behind the elevator that leads up to Twinkle Park and Twinkle Circuit. Expect to find this. Completion: Go to Emerald Coast (Stage 1). After you pass the lighthouse and enter the second half of the stage (right before you run on the wall to take a shortcut), you’ll notice a waterfall right of the main path. A Spinner is now there, and a balloon is also in the vicinity. Home attack the Spinner and home attack again to find a line of them behind the falls. Continue home attacking until you’re bounced by a spring to the balloon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 11) “Destroy the windmill and proceed. Find the balloon in orbit!” Card Location: In the Waterfall area, opposite the Waterfall, there is a stream that runs into the ocean. Right before it begins, submerged underwater, is this card. Completion: Play Stage 2, Windy Valley. Go forward from the beginning to see a 10-ring capsule. Home attack it and then home attack up the windmill objects floating in air. At the fork in the windmills, home right. You’ll soon reach the balloon (you’ll pop it and fall to your death, but at least you cleared the mission). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 13) “I can’t take a shower like this! Do something!” Card Location: Try the Casino area, right by the Casino Ken sign. The card is to the right of it, on the sidewalk. Completion: Once you’ve entered Casinopolis (Stage 3), go to the showers. You’ll find it buzzing with the sound of fan blades spinning. You must make the showers usable once again by destroying all the Spinners in the shower stalls. So, this must mean that Eggman makes his robots water-proof... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 15) “My medallions got swept away by the tornado! Somebody help me get them back!” Card Location: I’ve got to give Sonic Team some credit; the card is hidden well. In Mystic Ruins, take the stairs down to the ground and look left of the Station. There’s a fence blocking off the cliff’s edge. Beyond the fence is this card, just left of the Station (if facing it from the north). Completion: Play through Windy Valley (Stage 2) until you reach the tornado part. There are five medallions inside. The first is behind the first spring, the second is on the grated path in the second tier of the tornado, the third is before the platforms you jump on, the fourth is beyond the checkpoint, and the fifth is on the final stretch of land before the spring that leads out of the tornado. By the way, if you look at the medallions, they look just like the Sonic tokens from Casinopolis. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 17) “Aim and shoot all the medallions with a Sonic Ball.” Card Location: This card is found in the shop outside City Hall (the one that connects with the sewers). Completion: Our destination? Stage 3, Casinopolis, of course! Once there, play Sonic Slot & Pinball (not the NiGHTS-themed one). Inside are five medallions that you need to hit the pinball (Sonic Ball) into. When you have accomplished this, you clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 20) “Get all the medallions within the time limit! It’s really slippery, so be careful!” Card Location: You’ll find this one in the water in Ice Cave (outside the entrance to Icecap) in the Mystic Ruins – Angel Island area. Completion: Go to Icecap, Stage 4. After the first checkpoint (you’re now inside the huge vertical chamber), fall down to the path against the wall you’d normally take to find a switch. Press it and a 1:00:00 countdown begins. In the next sixty seconds, you need to collect 13 medallions. The first seven are on the first set of icicles you come to in that cave. The last six are on the second set of icicles. A minute is plenty of time to clear this mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 23) “Go around the wooden horse and collect 10 balloons!” Card Location: Look in the corner of the room that acts as the entrance to Twinkle Circuit and Twinkle Park. Completion: To complete the mission, play Twinkle Park (Stage 5). Get up to the merry-go-round. There are ten balloons there that you must collect (despite the spiky balls spinning around). When you’ve got a 10/10, consider it a job well done. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 27) “Collect 100 rings and head to the heliport!” Card Location: This particular card is inside the Burger Shop in the City Hall region of Station Square. Completion: Collect 100 rings in Speed Highway, Stage 6, first. Do this before you take the helicopter. This is easy if you take the low path (don’t take the shortcut you reach by running on the side of the building). Step in the circle beneath the helicopter and the mission is cleared. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 28) “During the morning traffic, use the fountain to get the balloon.” Card Location: Make sure you check the ledge above the Hotel entrance. To reach it, jump on a car and ride it to the Hotel parking area, jumping before you enter the tunnel to reach the ledge. Completion: Get to the near end of Stage 6, Speed Highway. Jump into the fountain at the end and hold the control stick to the upper-right so that you bounce on a spring and go through a balloon. It may take a few times to position yourself correctly, but you’ll get it eventually. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 30) “A fugitive have escaped from the jail of burning hell! Find the fugitive!” Card Location: Go to the Ancient Ruins in the Jungle of the Mystic Ruins. Opposite the entrance to Lost World (on the other side of the pyramid) is a card between the two altars that Knux has to place statues in during his Adventure. Completion: Well into Red Mountain, Stage 7, you’ll find a few Spinners have been introduced to a room in the volcano area. They’re by a series of collapsing bridges. Home attack up them to find the “fugitive,” which looks nothing like a criminal to me. So that explains what those weirdoes dancing behind bars in Red Mountain are... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 33) “Shoot yourself out of the cannon and get the balloon!” Card Location: Go to the Pool to find the card at the bottom of the steps leading into it. Completion: Assuming the Egg Carrier is in wings-in mode, exit the Pool and shoot yourself from either cannon by the building. You’ll pass straight through a balloon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 34) “Can you get the balloon that is hidden on the ship’s bridge?” Card Location: You’ll find this on a catwalk connecting the deck with the arena that Sonic (plus others) fight Chaos 6 (plus others) on. Completion: You’ll find a spring over those catwalks. Find the one over the catwalk you found the objective card on and it’ll spring you to a trail of rings leading to the balloon. Land and go back to the spring. Charge up a light speed dash, but don’t release B/X yet. Bounce on the spring, still holding B/X, and release when you get up to the trail of rings. You’ll go straight through the balloon, thus completing the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 36) “Fighter aircraft are flying everywhere. Somebody get me out of here!” Card Location: Ride the Elevatore to Egg Carrier Hall. Above and between the door leading to Hot Shelter and E-101 Beta’s room is a laminated card. Completion: Go to Sky Deck from the Bridge part of the Egg Carrier when it’s in wings-out mode (from wings-in mode, change the mode from the Captain’s Room. Then go to Egg Carrier Hall and ride the monorail to the Bridge). Once there, enter Sky Deck (Stage 8). After you’ve destroyed the first cannon, you’ll reach a part of the level susceptible to the wind. At the very beginning (right after a checkpoint) is a statue of a man (the Burger Shop guy, yes, only less friendly now). Pick him up and take him to the next checkpoint. There’s a circle a little ways before that; set him on it. Mission complete! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 40) “What is hidden in the area that the giant snake is staring at?” Card Location: Hey, let’s pay a visit to Tails’s Work Shop! Look inside to discover... Mission 40. Completion: Enter Lost World, Stage 9. Get to the waterlogged room that the giant snake statue swims around in. Get through it until the water is at its highest elevation. Make sure you don’t have a magnetic Shield, either. Ride the snake around and charge up a spin dash. Hold B/X until you see a trail of rings, and then release to light speed dash through them. You’ll bounce straight into a balloon, clearing the mission for you, and then fall to your death. But at least we beat the mission! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 41) “Look real carefully just as fall from the waterfall!” Card Location: The card is literally right outside the entrance to Lost World in the Mystic Ruins Jungle. Completion: Get to the part of Lost World (Stage 9) in which you ride down a waterfall. Before going, make sure to be to the very right so that you collide with a balloon as you’re being washed downward. You may have to restart at the last checkpoint if you miss. And THAT is how it’s done, grasshopper. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 45) “Go to a place where the rings are laid in the shape of Sonic’s face!” Card Location: Look inside the cave that Tails entered Sand Hill by in the Jungle. The card lies in wait there. Completion: Curses! We must play through almost all of Final Egg. Do so, stopping when you reach the third room chockfull of Crabmeats. Go into the room after that – a dark one with a few enemies loitering in it. Defeat them. Notice that this is the room Gamma shot the Sonic doll down in. Look on that side of the room and you’ll notice a spring. Step onto the grated path to be as close to the ledge as you can safely, and then jump forward, home attack across the pit, and bounce on the spring (holding the control over to move left further). You’ll land on a new level of the room where a bunch of rings make up Sonic’s head. Touch the flag there to clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 46) “A secret base that’s full of mechanical traps. Pay attention, and you might see...” Card Location: Look on the map in the Jungle of Mystic Ruins. There’s a circular area near Big’s House, right? It’s where one of Big’s lure upgrades is. And it’s also where you’ll find a new mission card. Completion: Oh, shoot... We have to go back to Final Egg. Near the end of the level there’s a long drop after a checkpoint. Fall down against the upper wall, centered, and you’ll hit a balloon as you fall. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 49) “Scorch through the track, and get all the flags!” Card Location: We’re finally out of Mystic Ruins! Go to the sewers in Station Square. Right by the switch Sonic normally would trigger and light speed dash up is the objective card. Completion: This = hard. Go to Twinkle Park and start on the tracks. You have to collect 31 INDIVIDUAL flags along the tracks. Normally, this would be nearly impossible. Luckily, if you pass one, you can always press B/X to brake until you stop, and then keep pressing B/X until you go in reverse. Use this to collect them all. Just go really slow, tapping A to inch along the track, and you’ll clear this mission. Just remember to be ready to turn around instantly after the loop (otherwise, a boost pad will keep you from some flags). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 53) “Pass the line of rings with 3 Super High Jumps on the ski slope!” Card Location: Go to the Mystic Ruins and take the tunnel to Angel Island. You’ll find this card on a rock near the entrance to Red Mountain, right where you got the Ancient Light upgrade. Completion: Get through the majority of Icecap to reach the final tunnel you snowboard through. Ahead are three ramps; hold the control stick forward on each (the entire time, even after the jump) and jump at the very end of them (on the striped tip). The music here is distracting, and you should mute it if possible. This is almost impossible to do if you focus on Sonic; act as though you’re only controlling the tip of his snowboard or his shoes. If done correctly, you’ll achieve major speed and soar off the last one to complete the mission by flying over some line in the sky. It’s hard to do, and it’s easy to waste time trying to do it. I wish you well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 55) “Run down the building to get all the balloons!” Card Location: Take the Twinkle Park elevator up and, when you reach the top, go left instead of the usual right. You’ll come to the card at the end of the glass tube. Completion: This is fairly simple. Go to Speed Highway and get to the part where you run down the building’s side. Come with a few spare lives so that you can Restart before the fall and repeat this more easily if you fail. As you go down, you need to pop a total of eight balloons by running through them. The first three are in the part with no pillars; the last five are in the indoors part. It goes right, left, and center. Then you fall inside. Go center, left, right, a bit more to the right, and a tad left of the center. A job well done. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 57) “Peak of the volcanic mountain! Watch out for the lava!” Card Location: This is behind the Master Emerald in the Angel Island sector of Mystic Ruins. Specifically, it’s behind a large rock on the edge of the island, slightly northeast of the Altar of Emerald on the Map. Completion: This one’s a snap. Get to the volcano in Red Mountain (right before the pulley that takes you into the underground region of the level) first. Now, jump on the bars until you reach the highest one. Jump from it to the top of the cliff to the left. The game doesn’t really let you be there, and it pushes you back. Push back yourself to break free and get to the edge of the cliff. Turn around to find a spring opposite you. Spin dash forward, jumping before you get off the cliff, so that you go forward enough to home attack the spring ahead of you. It bounces you into the balloon, thus completing the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 58) “The big rock will start rolling after you! Try to get all the flags!” Card Location: This is right behind the ladder on the Jungle floor in Mystic Ruins. Completion: Go to Lost World and get to the part where the boulder starts rolling down after you. Do not trigger it yet, though. Walk forward very slowly until it does start rolling. Immediately turn around and spin dash back into the tunnel you came through. Now the boulder rolls ahead of you, and you can collect the 36 flags down this path at your leisure. They come in groups of three. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tails Missions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 4) “Weeds are growing all over my place! I must get rid of them!” Card Location: This is right in front of the Station area leading to Mystic Ruins. Completion: Go to Tails’s Work Shop and use the Tails Attack to clear the weeds there. There are 51, including a few in the water. Make sure you don’t miss any! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 10) “What is that sparkling in the water?” Card Location: It’s right in front of the elevator that leads to the dining room where Knuckles fought with Chaos 2 (in the Hotel of Station Square). Completion: Simply enter Chao Garden (SS) from the elevator near the card. Left of where you enter is a fountain, and in it is a Sonic medallion. Take it to clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 16) “Get the flags from the floating islands!” Card Location: This is near East Cave, lower in elevation than Tails’s Work Shop. Note that it is not inside the cave; it is outside it. Completion: Now Windy Valley has eight flags added to it. You need to collect all of them. Each one is on a small floating island with a circular platform on one end and a windmill on the other, both connected by a narrow walkway. To give you an indication of where they are, you should have three by the time you reach the checkpoint (the third being almost exactly above the checkpoint), still three by the second, and the remaining five before the end of the level. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 24) “’I hate this dark and filthy place!’ Can you find it?” Card Location: Check the alley where the Ice Stone was in the Casino area. Just don’t be surprised when you find the... SURPRISE! Mission card! Completion: When you reach the spiky balls in Casinopolis, stop. Look left and fly up to find a “billboard” (a.k.a. sign) featuring Cream the Rabbit, a character from Sonic Advance that makes several cameos throughout the game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 31) “Get the balloon as you float in the air along with the trash!” Card Location: Go to SS Central Station in Station Square. Between the two staircases is a clock that shows the time; on top of it is the card you seek. Completion: Return to Casinopolis. When you reach the second fan room, ride it up to the top and get into a tunnel. Don’t run down it yet, though. Jump out, fly up a bit, and continue this until you can get a balloon at the very top of the room (the fan won’t carry you that high by itself). Burst the balloon and you’ve got a cleared mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 37) “Fly over the jungle, and get all the balloons!” Card Location: Go to the Jungle in Mystic Ruins. When you arrive, the card will be right behind you. Completion: Suddenly, five balloons materialized in the Jungle Area. Why don’t they float away? Regardless, fly to each and take it. You can walk on the treetops that aren’t above paths on the map; fly to a balloon, land off a path on the map, and continue until you’ve made that mission wish it were never written. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 47) “Get 10 balloons on the field under the time limit!” Card Location: Let’s go to Mystic Ruins and take a nap at Tails’s Work Shop; we’ve had a tough day out in the field. Well, our cabin is on the roof of the workshop... Would you look at that!? A mission card just happened to be atop the roof! This is how I find everything in video games – going out to do stupid stuff you really can’t do and winding up finding what I need... Completion: This is pretty easy. You have 2:30:00 to collect 10 balloons (the time starts when you hit the switch next to the card). Start by taking the one over Tails’s Work Shop and the runway for the Tornado (2). Then take the two balloons over the arena where you fought the Egg Hornet. After that, fly onto the railroad tracks and collect all the balloons that you can from there. Finish up with two by the Waterfall and you’re done. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 54) “Slide downhill in a blizzard and get all the flags!” Card Location: You’ll find this one outside the ladder that leads up to Icecap. Completion: This would be hard, but the flags are limited to the last stretch of the level only, greatly reducing the difficulty. When you reach the first of the last three ramps, ignore it and look left. There’s the first flag. Follow the path of flags to collect all thirteen. It’s hard since you’re going so fast and the flags are so thin, but you’ll get it sooner of later. Good luck! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Knuckles Missions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 5) “I lost my balloon! It’s way up there now!” Card Location: This is right by the gambling-attic mother and child left of the stairs in the Casino area. Completion: Would you look at that!? A balloon appears above you. Climb the nearby building with the rings leading up it and glide into the balloon. Lucky for you, these missions won’t always be this hard! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 12) “Who is Chao a good friend with? And what is hidden underneath it?” Card Location: Go to where Sonic and/or Tails fights the Egg Hornet in the Mystic Ruins (it’s right by Tails’s Work Shop). That’s an order! When you arrive, the card is close to the center. Completion: Now near the stairs leading to Tails’s Work Shop is a sign advertising Sonic X (TV show). Moving clockwise from it, there’s also one advertising Sonic Mega Collection (GCN game), Sonic Advance 2 (GBA game), Sonic Pinball Party (GBA game), and then one just showing Cream the rabbit, a Sonic-universe character introduced in Sonic Advance (GBA game). Well, Cream is a good friend of two Chao – Cheese and Chocola. Therefore, she must be who the card is talking about. Dig by her sign to find a Sonic medallion, thus clearing the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 25) “What is hidden under the lion’s right hand?” Card Location: Jump on the little wall that acts as a fence near City Hall (it’s outside the entrance to Speed Highway, where Sonic fought Chaos 0). From it, glide to the right of the two objective cards placed on the ledge above the door. Completion: Go to Casinopolis (Stage 2) and spring up to the pirate ship. If you go clockwise from it, you’ll come to a giant lion of bronze. Under its right paw (your left) is a flag; run under it, grabbing the flag as you do so, when the lion lifts its paw to clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 26) “What is that on top of the ship’s mast that the pirates are protecting?” Card Location: Go to City Hall, right by where Sonic and Chaos 0 locked horns. Jump onto the wall and glide to the ledge above the door that you enter Speed Highway from (as Knuckles) to reach the other objective card hidden here (this one’s on the left). Completion: This mission also requires you to visit Casinopolis. Once inside, use springs to reach the pirate ship. You want the ship that isn’t burning; you may have to glide to it. Climb up the wall near the pirate ship and glide from it to the mast’s pole. Climb to the top of it to find a flag near the top. Take it to clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 32) “Can you get the balloon that is hidden under the bridge?” Card Location: Look for the card on the bridge that leads from the Red Mountain area (that is, mainland Angel Island in Mystic Ruins) to the Altar of Emerald where the Master Emerald is kept. Midway through the bridge is this. Completion: This is actually moderately difficult. Somehow, a balloon guarded by springs at the top of it and electrically-charged Spinners at the bottom of it has appeared under the bridge, and we must glide into it. Of course, if you go too low, you’ll either fall and die or run into a Spinner. If you go too high, you’ll bounce off before your fist connects with the balloon. To do this, go back to the tunnel you enter the Angel Island area by (the one that contains the entrance to Ice Cave. When you exit it, look left to see a short wall. Jump onto it and look forward to see the bridge. Start gliding forward, dropping a bit as you go. When you’re getting close to the balloon, drop down to its center and glide forward from there, hitting the balloon. Then turn, mission accomplished, to grab onto a wall (as not to die). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 38) “A message from an ancient people: In the direction where the burning arrow is point, you will see...” Card Location: Go to the Mystic Ruins Jungle Area and glide over to Big’s House. Climb the wall behind the house to come to a ledge (the very one that Knuckles finds the Fighting Gloves on). The end closer to Big’s House has the card on it. Completion: To complete this one, let’s go to Lost World (Stage 4). Behind where you start is an opening that leads into a small back room. Two sets of burning arrows are now be fired (pun!) through the room, and their lines intersect at a point. Dig there to unearth a Sonic medallion. Woo! We won! We ARE the champions! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 48) “Can you get the medallion that the giant Sonic is staring at?” Card Location: Go to the antique shop (it connects to the sewers and is right outside City Hall). Outside of it is a lamppost with the card on top of it. Completion: Return to Casinopolis (Knux’s missions sure are out-of- order). As you probably noticed earlier, the center of the casino is adored by a gigantic Sonic statue. It’s facing a newly formed mass of springs surrounding a single medallion. We must take the medallion. To do this, climb the rope near the door to the NiGHTS-themed pinball game up to a pirate ship, and then turn around to face the medallion and springs. Glide into the upper-left springs to be bounced to another pirate ship. From there, glide into the hole in the springs to take the medallion (even if you miss, you’ll probably be bounced back up to the ship for another go). When you do get it, the mission is cleared. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 56) “Relentless eruptions occur in the flaming canyon. What could be hidden in the area she’s staring at?” Card Location: There’s a little cranny near West Cave’s entrance in the Mystic Ruins Station Area. Pick up the card there, which is right next to a tree, to begin your quest. Completion: This mission calls for venturing into Red Mountain. When you start playing, glide forward onto the small peak ahead of your own. On it is a billboard showing Cream the rabbit, a newer Sonic character from Sonic Advance (GBA). Turn to face the direction the billboard is facing and start gliding forward. Land on a small peak with a Kiki throwing bombs on it near a circle of rings. Destroy the Kiki and dig in the center of the circle to uncover a medallion. And THAT is that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 59) “Watch out for the barrels, and find the hidden flag inside the container!” Card Location: Go to the Pool room of the Egg Carrier. Climb the walls to reach the diving board above the door. Ready to jump off into the waters below is the objective card; grab it. Completion: Make your way into Sky Deck. Tilt the ship with the lever to the right (from the starting perspective). Now glide forward to the section of the deck with two hooks spinning over it. Below, on the floor, are a few cannons/turrets in front of some doors spilling out explosives. In the compartment marked 03 is a flag; take it to complete the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Amy Missions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 6) “He is going to drown! Help the man in the water!” Card Location: This is right by the wooden hut near the Waterfall and the mine cart that takes you into the Jungle of Mystic Ruins. Completion: Some poor statue (the Hamburger Shop guy?) has been placed in the water of the Waterfall! We’ve got to save him! Drop into the water and lift (B/X) the statue. Jump out of here on the platforms against the wall and set the statue in the circle that appeared by the objective card to complete this formidable mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 18) “During the night, at the amusement park, place your jumps on top of one of the tables.” Card Location: Go to SS Central Station in Station Square and check the structure by the right set of stairs for a card tucked in. Completion: To Twinkle Park! Once there, look right from the start to see a pool of water with a platform hovering over it. Hammer jump your way onto it; you should be right by a spring floating in the air when you do land on the platform. Jump and press A to swing the hammer in mid-air, hitting the spring with it. This bounces you up into the balloon you must pop to clear the mission. In other words, it clears the mission for you! Huzzah! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 19) “What is that behind the mirror?” Card Location: This is on the ledge with the musical note on it (above the door to the music store near the newspaper stand by SS Central Station in Station Square). Either hit it with your hammer or hammer jump to it. It’s your choice; I can’t tell you how to live your life. Completion: Get to the third mirror room (the one with the faulty floor in places) of Twinkle Park. Near the steps you’ll find in the mirror the reflection of an invisible balloon. On your side of the mirror, hammer jump or whack your hammer into where the balloon should be to produce such a mirror image. This will clear the mission for you – and more. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 43) “Fortress of steel. High jump on 3 narrow paths. Be careful not to fall.” Card Location: Go to Prison Hall in Egg Carrier Hall. You can reach the hall using the monorail system. In Prison Hall, open the first cell by jumping onto the switch outside of it so that you can take the card within. Completion: Go to Hot Shelter, into the second room where you must place colored blocks in the correct slots (near the very end of the level). Bounce on the spring there (the one needed to reach the blue block) and you’ll wind up on a narrow path. Look right (using the C Stick) to find a spring in the air; knowing where it is, walk toward it and jump, press B to attack it with the hammer and bounce off of it. You’ll collide with the balloon, which clears the mission for you. Another one bites the dust! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 50) “Select a road that splits into 5 paths before time runs out!” Card Location: Enter Eggman’s base in the Jungle of the Mystic Ruins. On the upper floor, hammer jump onto the central block-structure to find this card. Completion: Get to the point in Final Egg where there are five paths, one leading to the checkpoint, the others leading to dead-ends. First, open all the doors so you know which one has the checkpoint in it. Do NOT go in that one (otherwise, the door shuts and you’ll have to restart to retry this mission). Then hit the switch in the center of the room. This makes a Sonic Pinball Party (GBA game) billboard appear in a dead-end; you must reach it in ten seconds. Try all the non- checkpoint ends until you reach the right one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Missions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 8) “The medallion fell under there! No illegal parking please!” Card Location: This is a patch of grass near the Hotel, SS Central Station, and Twinkle Park’s entrance. Completion: Go to the City Hall sector of Station Square, the region with the car blocking the entrance to the sewers. Lift the car (‘cause Big has ‘big’ muscles! Oh, what a pun!) to fall in. The medallion is behind you when you fall. Take it to clear the mission! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 14) “I am the keeper of this hotel! Catch me if you can!” Card Location: This is in the corner between the Hotel and SS Central Station on the sidewalk. Completion: When I think of what I’ve learned from Sonic Adventure DX, the first thing that comes to mind is this: Every body of water has a keeper. Well, the keeper of the Hotel resides in the Pool, and it’s one of the gigantic, devilish-looking fish made of metal. This is perhaps the largest of this type of fish I’ve ever seen. You must catch it. Cast your line and get it to bite, then reel it in. Even though it looks huge, it only weighs 500 grams, making it as easy as catching Froggy. Catching the Keeper of the Hotel clears the mission for you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 22) “Find the flag hidden in the secret passage under the emerald ocean!” Card Location: Take the stairs in the Hotel (Station Square) up to find this card by the two switches. Completion: Let’s pay a visit to our good friends at Emerald Coast! Sort of opposite the lighthouse is a “pillar” of rock jutting out of the water; swim to it. Dive down to the seafloor there and circle the pillar to find a cave. Swim into it and follow the tunnel up to a secret room within the pillar. It has a few big fish and a flag in it. Take the latter to complete your third Big mission! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 29) “I am the keeper of this canal! Catch me if you can!” Card Location: This is in some grass outside the City Hall building in Station Square. Catch it if you can! Completion: There’s now an 800 gram keeper in the “canal” behind the entrance to Twinkle Park (you know, the one with green water that connects to the sewers? Yeah, be glad this is just a normal game and not a simulator). Even through it’s one of those monstrous metal fish, it should be easy picking – it only weighs 300 grams more than Froggy. When you’ve captured it – alive or dead – the mission is over. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 35) “I am the keeper of this icy lake! Catch me if you can!” Card Location: We finally get to leave Station Square and explore Mystic Ruins! Check out East Cave and go to where Knuckles got the Shovel Claw, then to where he dug up the Monkey Destruction Switch. Behind that altar is the objective card. Completion: The fish in the water outside the entrance to Icecap talks like he were the gingerbread man or something! We’ve got to put an end to this. Once again, it looks larger than life, and this one actually is on the hefty side, weighing in at 1400 grams. But remember what you learned in the action trial stages (if you don’t, go read up) and reel in this lunker. Note that lure upgrades might be helpful, too (see “Character Upgrades”). Once you’ve reeled in this metal fish o’ doom, the gold sticker = yours. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 44) “I am the keeper of this ship! Catch me if you can!” Card Location: And we’re off! Destination? The Egg Carrier! When it’s in its wings-in mode (that’s how it is normally when it’s just drift-metal), the card is right of the building that contains the Pool on the Deck. It’s near the edge. Completion: Yep, even the Egg Carrier has a keeper, and it’s by far the most fearsome of the four. Weighing in at 2000 grams, I recommend finding all the lures you can get your big, feline hands on. Once you’ve caught this metal demon-fish, the mission’s over. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 52) “Get 3 flags in the jungle under the time limit!” Card Location: This is quite the complimentary piece in Big’s House (in the Jungle Area of Mystic Ruins). Completion: Lo and behold, a switch has materialized atop Big’s bed! Jump on it to begin a 3-minute countdown in which we must find three flags hidden in the Jungle. Quickly hurry over to Ancient Ruins, the pyramid Sonic and Knuckles enter Lost World by, and take the flag in the northwest opening in the wall (use the Map). From that opening, step onto the path and go left (south) to a fork in the road; there’s an opening leading to a circular dead-end (again, check the Map if you can’t find it). The flag is a few feet into the tunnel. Now, from there, head back to the ladder that leads up to the mine cart you came here by. At the fork in the road right before the ladder is the third and final flag. Congratulations on your recent success! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 60) “Something is hidden inside the dinosaur’s mouth. Can you find it?” Card Location: Once you get off the train (when arriving at Mystic Ruins Station Area), jump on top of the train and walk along it until you fall off of it and onto the tracks that lead into the mountain. Right after the train is this card. Completion: Play in Icecap, Stage 2 for the Bigster. Like you do when getting the lure upgrade in Icecap, follow the springs and tunnels up to an icy area with dinosaur bones below. Break open the ice with one of the nearby boulders and drop in. Sink to the bottom in this frigid water to see the skull of a dinosaur. Enter it through the eye socket and you’ll find a flag. Take it to complete the mission! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Gamma Missions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 7) “Lonely Metal Sonic needs a friend... Look carefully.” Card Location: The card lies before the mine cart connecting the Jungle to Mystic Ruins Station Area (it’s on the Station Area end). Completion: Enter Eggman’s jungle base (where one enters Final Egg in). As you’ve probably noticed before, there are two rehabilitation tanks on the second floor being occupied by metal clones of Sonic, one of which is blue (called Metal Sonic; from Sonic CD). Well, there’s now a statue of a man (the Hamburger Shop guy! Again!?) on one of the “structures” on the lower level. Jump to it and carry it to Metal Sonic. Set the man in the circle before the tank to clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 21) “Protect the Sonic doll from the Spinners surrounding it!” Card Location: The objective card is right outside the little car that takes you from the Jungle in Mystic Ruins to inside Eggman’s base. Completion: It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. Play Final Egg to the end, right when you reach the Sonic doll, to find a few Spinners loitering around it. Shoot ‘em out of the sky to clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 39) “Treasure hunt at the beach! Find all the medallions under a time limit!” Card Location: Stop at the Hotel in Station Square for a bit. Above the receptionist’s desk is a door that can only be opened using a switch across the room (the door leads to Sonic’s Crystal Ring upgrade). Well, jump up to that door and target the switches across the room. Shoot them to open the door and step inside. There she be – the card. Completion: Off to Emerald Coast we go. When you reach the loop that is blocked off, forcing you to go left onto a boardwalk, notice a switch on the roof of the second... thing. Shoot it to trigger it and you’re given 45 seconds to collect five medallions. # 1 is right below the switch. Hover to the second one (it’s floating in the air; hover when you are sprung up into the air), and fall down to find the third in the center of the sandy path before two Kikis. The fourth is on the path that leads to the ledge Froggy is on, and the fifth is hidden behind that ledge in the water (right next to a 1UP). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 42) “I can’t get into the bathroom. How could I’ve let something like this happen to me?” Card Location: For this card, let’s amble on over to Egg Carrier Hall. You should use the monorail to reach it. Inside, take the door to Prison Hall and check the little dip across from Amy’s former cell. The card is tucked in there. Completion: Play Hot Shelter, Stage 5. At the very beginning (after the elevator), blow up the crates to the left and right and enter the rooms they were blocking. Both are bathrooms, which are infested with Spinners. Clear out the enemies in both restrooms to also clear the mission. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 51) “Gunman of the Windy Valley! Destroy all the Spinners under a time limit!” Card Location: Climb to the top of the Ancient Ruins in Mystic Ruins Jungle Area. The card is there. Completion: This time, play in Windy Valley, Stage 3. Shortly into the level (after you cross the second bridge) is a long drop, and there’s now a switch on the wall before you fall. Shoot it and ten Spinners appear in the fall, and you are given ten seconds to destroy them all. Shoot the first two from the ground and then drop down. Slow your descent with the Jet Booster and destroy them all individually; don’t worry about getting all at once. If you destroy them all, you clear the mission! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- And THAT, my friend, is how to beat all sixty of the missions! Your rewards are pretty nice, and if you can’t stand the wait, check out “Secrets.” But before that, it’s time to talk Chao. ======================================================================= =============================Chao Garden*============================== ======================================================================= Chao Garden is a huge, but optional, part of Sonic Adventure DX, and five of the 130 emblems come out of here. So, I decided to write a guide consisting of the ins and outs of raising Chao. Since it’s so extensive, a separate Table of Contents is needed for this section, and that means that we need to quit the asterisk (*) system and start putting those numbers and decimals to use. For this section, when you want to skip to a certain sub-section, use CTRL and F (Apple and F on Macs) to bring up the Find/Search box. Type in what you need and click Find/Search to be brought to the Table of Contents. Click it again to go to the beginning of that section. ---------------------Chao Garden Table of Contents--------------------- Section 1.0 1.0 What is Chao and what is Chao Garden? 1.1 How do I enter the Chao Gardens? 1.2 Starting Out Section 2.0 2.0 Caring for Chao 2.1 First Evolution 2.2 Chao Mating 2.3 Second Evolution 2.4 Death and Rebirth Section 3.0 3.0 Chao Garden Shortcuts 3.1 Help Monitors 3.2 Chao Transporter 3.3 Naming Chao 3.4 Abandoning Chao 3.5 Tiny Chao Garden 3.6 Moving Chao – SA to SA2 3.7 Black Market 3.8 Adventure Field Eggs Section 4.0 4.0 Chao Stats 4.1 Standard Stats 4.2 Hidden Stats 4.3 Animals 4.4 Stat Grades 4.5 SSSSS Chao 4.6 Point Totals Section 5.0 5.0 Personality Types 5.1 Personality & Hidden Stats 5.2 Fruit Preferences Section 6.0 6.0 Chao Stadium 6.1 Beginner Races 6.2 Jewel Races 6.3 Party Races Section 7.0 7.0 Special Chao 7.1 Chaos Chao 7.2 Character Chao 7.3 Special Colored Chao 7.4 Controlling Chao Traits Section 8.0 8.0 In Closing ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ==============================Section 1.0============================== ----------------------------------------- 1.0 What is Chao and what is Chao Garden? ----------------------------------------- Chao, pronounced like “chow,” are oh-so adorable little virtual pets with a bit of AI (Artificial Intelligence) introduced to the Sonic series in Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast (this game’s original). Although Chao were taken a few steps further in Sonic Adventure 2 (and its GCN remake), Sonic Adventure is at the root of the popular Chao series. Indeed, Chao Garden is like its own video game, completely separate from Sonic Adventure DX (it actually takes up its own space on the memory card). Really, even if you downright despised Sonic and crew, you’ve got to love the Chao. Plus, five of the game’s 130 emblems are tied into Chao Garden, which makes it a worthwhile venture if you want to unlock everything in the game. Raising Chao to do all the things people do – eat, walk, run, fly (well maybe not fly) – will be time-consuming, but you’ll love it (or learn to love it). And... begin! ------------------------------------ 1.1 How do I enter the Chao Gardens? ------------------------------------ There are really three Chao Gardens (the sanctuaries where Chao live, as they are pathetically weak on their own) in Sonic Adventure DX, one accessible from each Adventure Field. All of them are pretty easy to find on your own, but just in case... Station Square Chao Garden: The entrance to the first Chao Garden is inside the Hotel of Station Square. Simply take the left elevator up to the garden. It is the nicest garden, being smoothly paved with a glass roof, a fountain, and several doorways leading to other places in it. Mystic Ruins Chao Garden: To explore the Chao Garden of Mystic Ruins, go to East Cave in the Mystic Ruins Station Area (it is near Tails’s Work Shop; it’s the same cave that Knuckles gets the Shovel Claw in). Instead of taking the left door into the tunnel guarded by a Kiki, hop into the mine cart to the right. You’ll ride right into a jungle and/or nature-themed Chao Garden. Its landscape makes it, for me, the least desirable of the Chao Gardens. Egg Carrier Chao Garden: First, let’s stop at Egg Carrier Hall. Opposite the entrance to Hot Shelter (on the Map, it’s a doorway labeled “Warp Room”) are a few switches with letters on them. Hit them to spell out EGGMAN and the door opens. Step into the teleporting device to be taken to an island-based Chao Garden with a crashed missile on the shore and an Egg Carrier-style structure in the center. You don’t have to do anything to unlock these gardens; just go to them (note that the Egg Carrier Chao Garden is open to you even before the Egg Carrier crashes). All characters can go to Chao Gardens, as all characters can raise Chao. Each can support eight Chao in total, meaning you can have as many as 24 Chao at any given time. ---------------- 1.2 Starting Out ---------------- In each garden are two eggs. Your Chao-raising career starts here, my friend. Now, you can just brush this off, but even now the Chao is being affected. You can pick up the egg (B/X) and rock it (with the control stick) to be a positive influence or you can chuck it against a nearby wall for not-so-fond memories of the Chao’s childhood. The implications of the way you choose to hatch your Chao are discussed later. Its main effect is on the Chao’s facial features. ==============================Section 2.0============================== ------------------- 2.0 Caring for Chao ------------------- Since every parent wants to be their child’s best friend and not the disciplinarian nowadays, I suppose I should tell you how to get your Chao to like you – and fear you. You see, Chao are extremely judgmental creatures. They form opinions on every living thing they interact with (namely, the six characters and other Chao). And you do want Chao to like you; it has some nice benefits (which will be discussed later under “Death and Rebirth”). The first, most basic aspect of winning your Chao over is reading its emotions, a simple matter that can be done using the little ball above your Chao’s head. It changes to reflect their mood. Here’s what the four forms mean: ! – They are about to do something or they figured something out. ? – They are thinking about something or they are confused. Heart – They are happy. You want this one! Tornado – They are annoyed or tired. Simple, no? At other times, the ball will be a neutral mode (normally a ball, but it changes depending on your Chao’s alignment; more on that later). Of course, the ball shapes are only temporary; they show your Chao’s passing thoughts. Really, punch your Chao one time and it’s not going to have a Tornado up for two weeks. The ball lets you know if what you’re doing is effective. But to really know if a Chao likes you or not, you’ve just go to do one thing: whistle. When no Chao is around you, the Y option will be “Whistle.” If your Chao hears you and comes to you, it likes you. If it doesn’t come (and doesn’t acknowledge you), it’s probably just neutral to you. If it runs away from you (or if it does this normally), it hates/fears you. There is a ton of other ways to tell if your Chao worships the ground you walk on or if it is plotting your demise with the other Chao, but this is the clearest and easiest way. Yeah, sure, that’s nice to know, but how do you get the Chao to like you? Well, I’ve got a few tips here on earning your Chao’s love and not losing it ‘cause you thought you were picking it up... - Pet your Chao often (walk up to them and press B/X). It’s a cheap way to show affection for them, but it’s not without its risks. If you pet your Chao too much, it’ll become a spoiled brat, no longer responding to when you’re nice to it. The same goes for picking your Chao up to rock it or carry it: Chao like to be picked up, but don’t carry them constantly. - Speaking of which, be very careful when you’re trying to pick up or pet your Chao. If you’re not positioned right, you’ll use your B attack instead of showing your love. Needless to say, Chao don’t like getting being run over by a hedgehog, whipped in the face by dual tails, getting punched into the stratosphere, being flattened by a cutesy hammer, being whacked by a fishing rod, or being thrown into hard surfaces. Gamma is definitely the safest to use; he can’t hurt the Chao in any way. But then again, he can’t pick up drowning Chao... - Don’t attack Chao in general. Jumping on them, flying into them, throwing them against the wall, and all that good stuff hurts the Chao and irritates them. If you hurt them too much, they’ll eventually fear you and run away. They sometimes cry or throw temper tantrums. If they REALLY hate you, they’ll actually fight back. - Chao like to be given items (to do so, pick up an item with B/X and set them in front of them. They’ll lift their arms to take it from you when you get near). So, feed your Chao every time you enter the garden. If they’re full and they throw the fruit you give them away, don’t give it to them again. If Chao are full, force-feeding them only gives them stomachaches. And Chao know how to keep a grudge, let me tell you. By the way, make sure all Chao can get their grub on. If one is starved, it will steal the fruit of another. Also, Chao will eat themselves if left alone long enough, but it’s always nice to get a home-cooked meal. - Hey, Chao need sleep too, you know! So don’t wake them up when they’re nodding off. They’ll wake up on their own in a few minutes anyways, and they’ll be tired and agitated if you get them up too soon. If Chao like you, you can get them up without risk of tuckering ‘em out by whistling. - If a Chao can’t swim (they need 100 swim points to swim, but more on that later) and they wander into water, they’ll start flailing their arms like they’re drowning. Rescue it! - For that matter, don’t throw your Chao into the air or drop them off cliffs hoping they’ll start flying. The Chao won’t like you when it crashes into a wall or lands in the water. - Give Chao equal attention. Chao tend to get jealous really easily, and they’ll hate each other (and the ignored one will dislike you) if one is the favorite. So remember: spend equal time with all Chao. - You want Chao to be good friends, not mortal enemies. So, let them play together. If one Chao is doing something, set the other Chao by it to let it join in. The more the merrier, right? - Don’t abuse Chao with one character just so it likes the others better. It usually doesn’t work out, and there are better ways to get your Chao to like you. - It doesn’t affect you and your Chao’s relationship, but try to hold off on raising your Chao’s stats until it is an adult. If you raise them when it’s a child, it’ll never reach its full potential. Keep in mind that, if no fruits are available, you can shake trees (B/X) to knock some down. You can also buy a number of cool Chao items or accessories at the Black Market, but more on that in the section of the same name. Of course, being nice to your Chao is not that much fun. The real fun in raising Chao lies in evolution, molding your Chao into whatever you feel like. ------------------- 2.1 First Evolution ------------------- The first evolution of your Chao determines their alignment. You see, all Chao decide to be either Hero, Dark, or Neutral. This happens after a certain length of time (specifically, when the Chao is a one- year-old). One day, your little bundle of joy will be enveloped in a cocoon, it’ll be dormant within for a few moments, and it then emerges evolved. Yep, it’s pretty quick. Alignments don’t really mean anything when it comes down to it. In Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, this game’s sequel, it’s important to certain races your Chao can participate in and it also works into the game’s theme; Hero vs. Dark. In this game, it is solely for looking cool. The most noticeable difference between the three types is the Chao’s ball floating above the head. In Hero Chao, it is a halo; in Dark Chao, it is a spiky ball; in Neutral Chao, it remains the normal ball. Dark Chao also have more devil-like tails and demon-esque wings (speaking of which, tails and wings grow much larger than they were before during the first evolution). Each type has different eyes to reflect its type, and all of them are physically bigger than children. Hero and Dark Chao change colorings, but Neutral Chao stay the same. So, how does one rear a Hero, Dark, or Neutral Chao? Well, it’s pretty easy. It seems that alignment depends solely on fruit. If you keep your Chao on a diet only or almost only of Hero Fruit from the Black Market (see that section for details), it will become a Hero Chao. The same games for Dark Chao and Dark Fruit. Don’t feed your Chao Hero or Dark Fruit and it’ll be Neutral. Easy, no? You should restrict your Chao only to the fruit of the alignment you want, just to be safe. Once a Chao is aligned a certain way, it cannot switch to another alignment. Aside from taking sides, your Chao also takes up a stat type in its first evolution. That is, your Chao will emerge from the cocoon as a Swimming Type, a Flying Type, a Running Type, a Power Type, or a Stamina Type (called “Normal”). What type it becomes is based on which stat you emphasize in its childhood. Giving it 100 or more swim points (allowing it to swim) will greatly raise the chances of your Chao becomes a swim-type. The same goes for teaching your Chao how to fly or run. So, if you don’t want them to become that type, don’t teach them those abilities. Stat type asserts which area the Chao specializes in. For example, if two Chao, one Run and one non-Run, are running alongside each other at the same level of running, the run-type will win because it is its area of specialty. Stat types also influence how your Chao looks, providing even more variations in Chao’s physical appearance. Note: For more information on stats, take a look at Section 4. --------------- 2.2 Chao Mating --------------- “Chaoko, of Ninja from Crazy, begat Chaosky and many a nameless Chao.” Yes, Chao can mate. It happens sometime around the age of 2, before your little buddy enters into adulthood. Luckily, Chao are unisexual (there is only one gender), which means any two Chao can be bred as long as they’re both evolved. You know your Chao is fertile when a ring of flowers surrounds them. Place another Chao by it and they perform a mating dance kind-of-thing. And just like that, an egg is left behind. The Chao loses its flowers (no more mating season), and life continues. Chao can also enter a forced mating season by eating a Heart Fruit (buy it at the Black Market; see that section for details). Note that if two Chao are both in their mating season and they are dropped by each other, they will certainly mate; if one Chao is fertile and the other is dropped by it, they might not (the Chao’s attitude toward each other and random chance may be involved). If one Chao chooses not to mate with the fertile one, pick it up and drop it down again until it does or you give up. You can forcibly stop mating by picking up one of the participants before the egg is produced (eggs mark the end of the mating process, and both leave their fertile stage after it). The baby Chao may resemble its parents, but chances are good that it does not. While some features of the newborn Chao are random, some things (most notably the coloring of the Chao and the Chao’s stat grades) are determined by the parents. In any case, it’s a cheap egg, and the only way to get some of the more interestingly-colored Chao. The mating season (there are actually two natural mating seasons; one before and one during a Chao’s second evolution), whether used to make a baby or not, is important because it marks the beginning of your Chao’s aging process, the second evolution. -------------------- 2.3 Second Evolution -------------------- The second evolution is not an “evolution,” per se. It’s a gradual aging process for the Chao that lasts from after the mating season until the Chao is 4 years old (late into that age for that matter). So now that we’ve danced around the subject, what IS this so-called “second evolution L29-145J?” Well, it’s just the best coming of age story in video games. There’s no cocoon, and the Chao develops slowly. For example, the ears really develop on Chao (whereas they don’t have them at birth). Perhaps the most significant thing is the introduction of a second stat type. Yesiree Bob, there’s a second stat type! Now you can have a mixed Chao type that specializes in up to two areas. You might have the Running- Flying Chao, for instance, that excels in running and flying. You can also have a Chao with a doubled-specialty, like a Swimming-Swimming Chao. Each combination of stats yields a different-looking Chao, and the alignments and animal parts (more on that later) further diversify Chao (as do colors). So, there are thousands of possible Chao if you include color and animal extensions. The bad part of the second evolution is that after it’s over, the Chao’s life is nearing its end. --------------------- 2.4 Death and Rebirth --------------------- Unfortunately, all Chao must die eventually. About half-a-year after the second evolution is complete (when the Chao is 5), the Chao will begin the death process. Remember, a Chao year is about 3 hours, and time only passes when you’re in the garden. Fortunately, the Sonic Team saw it fit that your virtual pets don’t die permanently. Sure, if the Chao is surrounded by a gray cocoon, they will disappear and die forever. Chao die like this if they were mistreated a lot in their lifetime. If it turns pink, your Chao will be reincarnated. It will be born again from an egg. Reincarnated Chao start at Level 1 in all stats, but they have 10 % of their points (again, refer to Section 4 for details on stats). They keep their name and records from the races. Dark Chao get reincarnated with arched eyes that look kind of menacing, and animal parts may be passed on to the new but old Chao. So, the moral of the guide is this: don’t abuse your Chao. You might as well send them off to some happy Chao paradise with the Chao Transporter (which will also be covered later) if you’re going to bully them. Note: Taking care of your Chao and feeding them diverse fruits makes them live longer. Mating, on the other hand, is known to reduce the lifespan of your Chao, as is beating your Chao. If you don’t care for your Chao, they will die sooner than later. It seems that even the most abused of Chao will live at least 2.66 years (eight hours). If you treat your Chao normally, no frills, it will live 5 years (15 hours). ==============================Section 3.0============================== ------------------------- 3.0 Chao Garden Shortcuts ------------------------- This section will be dedicated to the structures within Chao Garden and all the things you can do there. Well, the simplest ones are the transporter devices in each garden (called “Warp Holes”). Once you’ve visited each garden, you can use them to warp between the gardens. Saves you a bit of walking, eh? The SS transporter leads to Station Square; MR to Mystic Ruins; EC to Egg Carrier. This is also how you can move Chao between the gardens (sometimes it is necessary to isolate one particular Chao). ----------------- 3.1 Help Monitors ----------------- In the Station Square Chao Garden, you’ll find several of those floating computer devices. If you read them (B/X), they’ll give you tips and advice. First, let me say that I’m insulted you’d even acknowledge their existence with this terrific guide in front of you. But if you MUST read them, at least check out this section first, to be warned. The monitor near the transporter devices (see the above section) just explains how the Warp Holes are used. The one near the “Transporter Device” also explains how to use it (very generally), and the monitor near Chao Stadium’s entrance indicates that it is Chao Stadium. Only the monitor near the big fountain is of any use. It explains (very, very generally) several important topics, rendering this guide practically obsolete (no, but seriously, it’s intentionally vague). Among other things, it also drops the web address of the Chao homepage: http://www.sonicteam.com/chao/ Well, that should clear up ALL of your numerous questions concerning those help monitors... -------------------- 3.2 Chao Transporter -------------------- The “Transporter Device” in each of the Chao Gardens (it looks like a GBA with a red button in front of it) is really the Chao Transporter. It performs some basic operations on the Chao, such as naming them or taking them for a “walk.” To use it, pick up your Chao and step onto the button. Coming up next are the various things you can do at the Chao Transporter. Don’t have too much fun now! --------------- 3.3 Naming Chao --------------- Although it’s really third on the command list, this is definitely the easiest to explain. You can name (and re-name, as the case may be) your Chao at the transporter with up to seven characters. These include English letters of both cases (lowercase and uppercase), extended Latin (like accented letters), several symbols (pictures like stars or musical notes, a few Greek letters, the upside down ‘?’ in Spanish, keyboard signs like <, >, ^, %, etc.), and many symbols I could only describe as Japanese-looking. You can even number your Chao! You can change the Chao’s name as many times as you’d like (you see their name with their stat counter when you pick them up as well as in Chao Races). Naming your Chao has no effect on them whatsoever, but it makes the job of identifying them easier. Chao retain their names even in reincarnation. Gotta name ‘em all! ------------------- 3.4 Abandoning Chao ------------------- Unfortunately, you won’t become attached to all of your Chao... On the contrary, you might (and probably will) favor some Chao while others just don’t matter. If you want to get rid of a Chao, but you don’t want to kill them by making them die instead of reincarnate, the Chao Transporter can let you part ways in a happy way. Send your Chao packing and they’ll go to a pleasant forest where all abandoned Chao live in harmony and happiness. So, if you’re an abusive Chao breeder, do your Chao a favor and let them get out of your hair and vice versa. -------------------- 3.5 Tiny Chao Garden -------------------- “A fourth garden?” you say out loud. Yes, there is a fourth garden, the Tiny Chao Garden. It can only be accessed from the Chao Transporter (from any garden), and it requires certain extra items: 1 GBA (Game Boy Advance) 1 GCN-GBA Link Cable (cable for Game Cube and Game Boy Advance) Sonic Advance (optional) Note that other games will also work in place of Sonic Advance, a GBA game, like Sonic Pinball Party (they should be made by Sonic Team and include the Tiny Chao Garden option). The GBA games let you save your garden on them so that you can take your Chao anywhere with you. You can play in Tiny Chao Garden without a cartridge in the GBA, but you cannot save it and it will disappear when you turn the power off (you can unhook it from the GCN, though). Insert the GBA, linked to the GCN, in one of the Game Cube’s sockets. Then pick up your Chao (in Chao Garden) and step on the Chao Transporter’s button. Go to the first option – Drop off. Now select the socket with the GBA you want to play the Tiny Chao Garden in. An artificial copy of your Chao is made and put in the GBA. The original (GCN) Chao is kept in the Game Cube’s Chao Garden, too. So now, it’s like you have two of the same Chao – one in the Cube and one in the Advance. The copy Chao is dropped off into the Game Boy Advance to play in the Tiny Chao Garden. It’s a simple place. There’s water in one corner, and the Chao walks around. You can pet it and feed it with fruits you buy (more on that later). There are two mini-games to play, and the game gives you point readings for things like Mood (happiness) and Belly (hunger – the lower the more food it wants). The other stats – Swim, Fly, Run, Power, and Stamina – are also kept track of. The Chao’s name (select it to change it) and alignment (or “Child”) are placed in the upper-right corner. The lower-right corner shows your ring count. I’ll explain that later. Your Chao will wander around and say random things (i.e. “Uh oh! I gotta go!”). You can pet it with A (and lift weeds or items). But that’s not important. What’s important are the mini-games. See the two GBA icons near the stat bar? “Click” on them to play a mini-game. Here, I’ll cover them both. WHITE GBA: This is a fairly hard game. Your Chao asks you to find a specific Chao in a field. All of them look the same, of course, but that’s beside the point. You have two minutes, and picking up the wrong Chao gets you a 30 second deduction (picking up the right one adds ten seconds to your total). Since all the Chao are pretty much the same, you have to rely on Tikal (the orange ball of light; it is found by the pavement, the flowers, and other areas) for hints. She’ll say stuff like “The Chao you’re looking for is facing west” and that sort of thing. The more Chao you get in the time limit, the more rings you earn. PURPLE GBA: This is a matching game featuring snack foods. First, you are shown all the cards, after which they are flipped over. Then your Chao walks over the field and moves a few around. Then you have to select the matching ones to earn rings. More matches equal more rings. Note: You can also collect rings in Sonic Advance (or Sonic Advance 2 or Sonic Pinball Party) and transfer them to Tiny Chao Garden. That’s definitely the best way to earn rings if you can. With the rings you win, you can buy items at the store. Press L to bring out the “catalogue.” There are seven different fruits to buy, and there are also very expensive eggs and other items. Each time you play a mini-game, a new egg appears for sale. This is how you get some eggs that can’t be gotten in SA DX normally. The eggs for sale are: Egg Price (Rings) ---------------------------- Normal 0 Silver 500 Gold 1,000 Ruby 5,000 Sapphire 7,000 Amethyst 8,000 Emerald 10,000 Garnet 12,000 Aquamarine 14,000 Peridot 16,000 Topaz 18,000 Onyx 20,000 Pretty steep prices, huh? Likewise, the three items below are very expensive. But unlike the eggs, new ones don’t appear randomly after you play mini-games. You must buy them in order of cost (lowest to highest). Item Price (Rings) ---------------------------- Trumpet 1,000 Duck 2,000 Television 8,000 These items can be played with by your Chao while in the Tiny Chao Garden. That pretty much covers everything in Tiny Chao Garden. To return the artificial copy to your normal garden (you’ll still only have one Chao), reconnect the GBA-GCN link and choose the option “Pick up” on the Chao Transporter (you can also pick up rings for your GCN game). But, we’re not done here. Because of the way Tiny Chao Garden works – it creates a copy of the Chao – we can quite a cool thing you can’t do normally. We can transfer Chao. --------------------------- 3.6 Moving Chao – SA to SA2 --------------------------- In Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, there was a really nice feature (that we took for granted) called Chao Kindergarten. In it, you could do several things, and Sonic Team thought that the naming-your-Chao option was the most important. So, though there is no Chao Kindergarten in the original, they did make naming your Chao possible for the remake, but they did at the price of removing the Move option on the Chao Transporter. In SA2: Battle, you could move your Chao from one memory card to another, in effect moving the Chao from one game to another. Unfortunately, the Move option was removed for SA DX to make room for Name. Lucky for you, though, there’s a way to get around this. First, put your Chao in Tiny Chao Garden. Remove the link cable (it doesn’t matter if have a cartridge in the GBA or not) and turn off SA DX (or SA2 if you’re porting the other way). Take out the disk and put the other game inside the GCN. Turn it on and get to its Chao Garden. Hook that GBA and GCN back together and pick up the Chao in the new game. Congrats, you have successfully transferred your Chao from one game to the other! This is very useful, especially if you have one super-strong Chao from one game and want to conquer the Chao Races in the other. In this way, you can also learn (from SA2’s Chao Kindergarten) what your Chao’s stat grades and personality type are. You will notice one thing after transferring your Chao, though. It no longer has its animal parts. Yes, it’s true; SA DX and SA2: Battle have different animals in them, and so Sonic Team just made it so that none of them register at all. But who cares? At least you CAN transfer them. ---------------- 3.7 Black Market ---------------- The shady underbelly of the otherwise peaceful Chao World, the Black Market is a terrible store where... well, it’s not that bad, I guess. The Black Market is found only in the Station Square Chao Garden, and there you can spend your hard-earned rings on items. I mean, really, you must’ve noticed that the rings you have left over after clearing an action stage are deposited into one huge ring count. Well, this is what those rings are used for. It seems that the Chao who operates the store will sell certain items to you only if you have a certain number of emblems. It differs in some games, though; there’s really no way to tell when you’ll be able to buy something. Also, he restocks randomly each time you go there, which makes it even harder to get what you want (not to mention the fact that it’s really expensive!). Here’s a handy list of what is sold there, arranged by what the item is and then by price. ---------------------------------Eggs---------------------------------- Item Name Prices (Rings) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- White Egg 400 Blue Egg 500 Red Egg 500 Yellow Egg 500 Orange Egg 600 Aqua Egg 600 Pink Egg 600 Purple Egg 800 Brown Egg 800 Green Egg 800 Gray Egg 1,000 Light Green Egg 1,500 Black Egg 2,000 Shiny White Egg 4,000 Shiny Blue Egg 5,000 Shiny Red Egg 5,000 Shiny Yellow Egg 5,000 Shiny Orange Egg 6,000 Shiny Pink Egg 6,000 Shiny Purple Egg 6,000 Shiny Brown Egg 8,000 Shiny Green Egg 8,000 Shiny Gray Egg 10,000 Shiny Light Green Egg 15,000 Shiny Black Egg 20,000 --------------------------------Fruits--------------------------------- Name Prices (Rings) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Round Fruit 80 Cubicle Fruit 80 Triangular Fruit 80 Hero Fruit 120 Dark Fruit 120 Chao Fruit 200 Heart Fruit 300 Mushroom 300 ---------------------------------Hats---------------------------------- Name Prices (Rings) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Apple 2,000 Cardboard Box 2,000 Pan 2,000 Empty Can 4,000 Paper Bag 4,000 Stump 4,000 Bucket 6,000 Flower Pot 6,000 Watermelon 6,000 Wool Beanie (red) 8,000 Wool Beanie (blue) 10,000 Wool Beanie (black) 20,000 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Hats are items that Chao can wear on their heads if you give it to them. Chao only wear hats if exposed to a blue animal (koala, mole, or skunk); see that section for details. To remove a hat from a Chao, either wait until they do it themselves or throw them against the wall. Everything is sold in rings, which means you’ll probably have to run through Emerald Coast more than a few times to pay for, say, the black Wool Beanie. And unlike SA2: Battle, there is no ring glitch to help you out in SA DX. ------------------------ 3.8 Adventure Field Eggs ------------------------ This doesn’t really fit here, but since we’ve been talking about ways to get eggs (Tiny Chao Garden and the Black Market), I said, “Hey, money can’t buy happiness.” Then I decided to cover the other three eggs here. That’s right: there are three special eggs that can’t be gotten in any other way hidden in the three Adventure Fields. If you want to get them again, their positions are reset after you get a Game Over in an Adventure Field (i.e. jump off the edge of Mystic Ruins over and over). Here’s the list by field... Station Square: This one is pretty interesting. First, go to the City Hall area (where Sonic fought with Chaos 0; where Knuckles entered Speed Highway) and search the grass. You’ll come across an egg-shaped object made of stone. Pick it up and enter the nearby antique shop. See that nice gold egg on the pedestal? Pick it up. The security system goes off and bars cover the doors. So put the stone egg in the gold egg’s place to trick the system into thinking nothing was stolen. Now take that egg – the Gold Egg – to Chao Garden. Mystic Ruins: You’ll notice a strange object with a silver egg in its “mouth” behind the Waterfall in the Station Area. If you trigger a similar platform on the edge of the pond area, the statue (of what seems to be a face) shoots forward and drops the egg into the water. It floats to shore; pick it up and take it – the Silver Egg – back to Chao Garden. Egg Carrier: As long as you’re in the neighborhood, why not drop by Prison Hall in the Egg Carrier? Once there, open the middle cell by jumping onto the switch by it. Pick up the Onyx Egg there and take it back to Chao Garden. Well there you have it, folks! Note that the Shiny Gold/Silver eggs cannot be gotten in any other way, but the Onyx Egg can be bought in Tiny Chao Garden for 20,000 rings (why you’d do this is beyond me, but they’re your rings...). ==============================Section 4.0============================== -------------- 4.0 Chao Stats -------------- You might have the coolest Chao ever. He might be a Chaos Chao (see Section 7), he might look just like Thomas Jefferson, and he may very well have cost you 20,000 rings for the egg alone. But what good is a super-cool-looking Chao if it can’t even stand up by itself? This is the basic reason for Chao to have stats – it gives them their basic abilities. With 100 points in the Run category, a Chao can walk and maybe even “run” instead of just crawl and be carried. 100 Swim points? Congratulations, now your Chao can swim. 100 points of Fly and your Chao can fly with the best of them. So, for that simple reason, all Chao have stats and a star bar to display them. You can see your Chao’s stats when you pick it up. In this section, I’ll talk about what the stat categories are (what they represent), how to raise them, etc. We’ll also discuss some stat- related stuff, like grades and animal behaviors. Trust me, this will explain itself later on. ------------------ 4.1 Standard Stats ------------------ The game keeps track of your Chao’s progression in five different categories (in this order) – Swim, Fly, Run, Power, and Stamina. The more points your Chao has in these categories, the more adept the Chao is at that skill. All Chao start life with 0000 points in everything (except reincarnated Chao, who are born with 10% of their point totals from their previous life). Your Chao receives a certain number of points for each level it gains. Levels are gained by filling the segmented bar in the stat box (which is done by giving your Chao small animals and fruits, but more on that later). Levels go as high as LV.99, and your Chao starts at LV.00. But let’s not get off-track here. This section is designed to explain what each stat represents. Swim: As the name implies, Swim represents your Chao’s ability to swim in water (each garden has water in it for this purpose). When a Chao has 100 points of Swim, it can swim. Otherwise, you’ll have to rescue it when it gets in water. Fly: Obviously, this represents your Chao’s flying capacity. After all, the wings on the back of your Chao are there for more than just decoration. With 100 points in this category, Jr. can fly in the air. How long he stays up there is determined by how many points of Fly he has. Run: Your Chao’s ability to run – and walk – is gauged by the Run stat. With 100 points of Run, your Chao can walk (without them, it crawls everywhere). This is a vital skill, especially in Chao Races. The more points you have, the faster you go. Power: This stat is representative of your Chao’s upper body strength. It’s rarely used outside of Chao Races, but starving Power Chao are known to shake trees to knock fruit down. The more Power a Chao has, the faster they climb up rocks, push things, and shake trees in the Chao Races. Stamina: Probably the least important of the stats is this. It’s your Chao’s capacity for physical activity. In Chao Races, Chao will pass out momentarily if they run for too long with low Stamina. Chao with high Stamina sleep less often, too. Unlike the other stats, Stamina can ONLY be raised by feeding your Chao fruit. Your Chao can specialize in all of these five stats, called the Standard Stats, during the first and second evolutions. The Hidden Stats, on the other hand, are not specialized in. ---------------- 4.2 Hidden Stats ---------------- Have you ever noticed that sometimes during races Chao trip? Or that they sometimes fail at puzzles or miss shortcuts? This, my friend, is due to the hidden stats. In all likelihood, you’d never know they existed without this guide. But they do. The secret stats of Intelligence and Luck play a big role in the races, even though you usually have no clue they even exist. Here’s what they are. Intelligence: This is how smart your Chao is. Intelligence isn’t tested very much in SA DX races (it’s tested a lot more often in SA2: Battle). One time it’s tested is in the Emerald Course when your Chao can cross the bridge or take a shortcut by jumping off the bridge. Aside from that, Intelligence isn’t very important in the races. It can be raised with blue animals and Mushrooms, the seemingly useless “fruits” of the Black Market. Luck: Blue animals and Mushrooms also raise your Chao’s Luck, a measure of how often it trips over when running. Such trips are big time- wasters in races, and having high luck decreases your Chao’s chances of tripping in races. Intelligence and Luck are on independent scales; they aren’t measured in the same way standard stats are. Intelligence and Luck are on a scale of 100 points, so their ratings for these are kind of like percentages. You cannot go beyond this 100-point limit. Of course, this all lies in the programming of the game; it means nothing to you because you can’t view this percentage even if you know it exists. Blue animals and Mushrooms raise .25%. In other words, giving your Chao 400 blue animals (we’ll discuss animals in the next section) will guarantee you perfect stats in these areas. Keep in mind, though, that personality types (see that section for details) also affect Intelligence and Luck. I should point out that there are also two additional stats in the Tiny Chao Garden called “Mood” and “Belly.” These reflect your Chao’s happiness level and their hunger, respectively. Higher Mood means the Chao is very happy; higher Belly means the Chao is full. These are not stats in the same way that standard stats are, though; they are represented by x/10, not points. Though these stats only seem to exist in Tiny Chao Garden, your Chao’s mood and hunger is probably measured in the same way in the real Chao Gardens. ----------- 4.3 Animals ----------- As you probably discovered early on, Chao gain stamina when they eat fruit from the garden. You might’ve also noticed that fruit from the Black Market also raises different stats (for example, Chao Fruit raises everything 1/10 of a level for each bite the Chao takes). But forcing your Chao to gorge itself on fruit is not the best way to level-up, and it takes a long time, too. So, why not put those animals Sonic’s been rescuing since Sonic the Hedgehog (his first game) to good use? In other words, exposing your Chao to small animals also helps to raise levels. Dr. Eggman captures animals and forces them to pilot/power his robots. You must’ve noticed that one comes out each time you destroy a robot. Well, those animals (you can carry ten at a time) jump out and into the garden when you enter Chao Garden. Pick them up and give them to Chao to combine them with the Chao. Keep in mind that of the 15 different animals you can get, they are all divided into five groups of three. You can tell which group they belong to by the background color of their picture (shown to you when you pick one up in action stages). Not so coincidentally, you can tell which stat an animal helps the most by their group. Here’s a chart, ‘cause charts are just so nifty. +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ | Animal Name | Group’s Color | Stat | +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ | Penguin | | | | Sea Otter | Yellow | Swim | | Seal | | | +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ | Parrot | | | | Peacock | Purple | Fly | | Swallow | | | +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ | Deer | | | | Kangaroo | Green | Run | | Rabbit | | | +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ | Elephant | | | | Gorilla | Red | Power | | Lion | | | +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ | Koala | | | | Mole | Blue | Random | | Skunk | | | +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ Blue animals are random because they don’t lean any which way. Animals tend to be arranged by their group in levels. Generally, Swim animals can be found in Emerald Coast, Fly animals in Windy Valley, Run animals in Speed Highway, Power in Red Mountain, and the blue animals are separated. Koalas are found in Emerald Coast, moles in Windy Valley, and skunks in Hot Shelter. Three things happen when you expose your Chao to an animal. First, the Chao exposed to the animal gains points. When those points reach 100, the Chao gains a level (note that the points they add make up levels. That is, when your Chao gets 100 points in a category - points are derived from animals and fruits, which provide 10 points per “layer” - they level-up. These points do NOT represent the total stat points – the ones displayed on the bar above the segmented meter – but instead the hundredths of the meter itself.). Second, the Chao may gain some animal parts that alter their appearances. Third, the Chao receives an animal ability or special effect. Below is a list of their effects (the things they let Chao do in addition to receiving body parts). Penguin: Slides on belly Sea Otter: Backstrokes when swimming Seal: Rolls sideways Parrot: Sings Peacock: Poses Swallow: Back flips Deer: Draws pictures Kangaroo: Dances Rabbit: Hops in place Elephant: Sit-ups Gorilla: Beats chest Lion: Break dances Koala: Blows kisses Mole: Somersaults Skunk: Emits noxious gas The blue animals also let your Chao wear hats (see the Black Market section for details). SA2: Battle veterans can see that some abilities (like drawing, dancing, and singing) are the equivalent of a Chao Kindergarten lessons in SA2: Battle. And that’s pretty much all there is to know about small animals. --------------- 4.4 Stat Grades --------------- Just like humans, some Chao have natural talent in certain areas and some don’t. So, when a Chao is born, it randomly (if reincarnated, it has the same grades as when it died; grades may also be passed down from parents, but it’s hard to predict what grades the Chao will get) receives what I call stat grades – a letter that represents their potential in each of the five standard stats. E is the worst, then D, C, B, A, and S (the best). Grades determine how many points you receive when you level-up. So as you can tell, grades are very important to your Chao’s performance. Unfortunately, Chao Kindergarten does not exist in SA DX, and so there is no easy way to know what your Chao’s statistics’ grades are. If you have SA2: Battle and access to Tiny Chao Garden, I recommend learning what your Chao’s grades are by transferring your Chao to SA2: Battle and visiting the Chao Doctor (to transfer Chao between games, see section 3.6). If you don’t have access, you can figure it out by seeing how many points your Chao receives in an area when it levels-up. Here’s a chart of surefire, dead giveaways as to what the stat grade is. +-------+-----------------+ | Grade | Giveaway Points | +-------+-----------------+ | S | + 28/29/30 | | A | + 25 | | B | + 22 | | C | + 19 | | D | + 16 | | E | + 11/12/13 | +-------+-----------------+ As you can see, it can be hard to determine an A-D grade because there is an overlap in the points given at certain grades so that you can’t be sure which grade is which unless you get one of the numbers above, which are unique to those grades. That is, the possible points given for each grade: S 26-30 A 23-27 B 20-24 C 17-21 D 14-18 E 11-15 Or to display it in a better way that shows overlap: +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | Grade |11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30| +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | E |XX|XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | D | | | |XX|XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | | | | | | | | | | +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | C | | | | | | |XX|XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | | | | | | | +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | B | | | | | | | | | |XX|XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | | | | +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | A | | | | | | | | | | | | |XX|XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | S | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |XX|XX|XX|XX|XX| +---------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ So, now that I’m all chart’d out, let’s move on. After all, you should know how to determine Chao stat grades by now. Like I said, grades determine what amounts of points you can get when you level-up that stat. Obviously the best is S because it could allow you to get 30, the highest number of points, but S is hard to come by. The next section is devoted to helping you raise a Chao with all S stats. -------------- 4.5 SSSSS Chao -------------- We could go on and on about how to raise the grades of your Chao to all S’s. But I’ll try to give it to you in brief. If you read the above section, you’d know that S stat grades are the most desirable because they provide the most points for your level-ups – more payoff than any other grade. So, to have the “perfect Chao,” you’d want to have a Chao with all S grades. Easy, right? Wrong! The chances of having a Chao born with all S’s is slim to none – 1 in 7776. So, let’s review the other ways to do this – reincarnation (the safe way) and breeding (the fast way). -----------------------------Reincarnation----------------------------- In the first evolution, your Chao decides to take up a particular stat – Swimming, Flying, Running, Power, or Stamina (called “Normal”). Doing this not only alters their physical appearance; it also raises that stat grade by one (E -> D, B -> A, etc.). So, hatch an egg until it has above average stats (an S or two and some A’s, hopefully). If it comes out bad, reset the game without saving (it takes longer, though, because you don’t have easy access to stat grades with the Chao Doctor like in SA2: Battle). Then, there will come a time when that Chao is to die. All your hard work is wasted, right? No, not quite. If you treated it well, it will reincarnate, setting itself up for another lifetime to raise another grade. So in theory, it is possible to repeat this cycle over and over again until you’ve raised all the stat grades through evolution. Of course, with a happy Chao generally taking 15 hours to go through a life cycle, that’s a long, laborious, and boring process. It would take weeks, even months, for your average player (starting from an average or below-average Chao). So, it’s important to start out with a pretty high-ranking Chao. Of course, if you can’t stand this painfully slow process, you might combine it or use it with the next one... -------------------------------Breeding-------------------------------- There is sufficient evidence to prove that Chao pass on their grades to their children. About half the grades from one and half from the other are passed down. So, get two nice Chao and breed them. You want them to have better grades than each other in all areas; no overlap. For instance, SSABS and BCSSA would be a great combination. Make them fertile or wait for one to be in the mating mood, and then save and quit. Now breed them. If the result is good – a blending of all the best or most of the best grades – keep it. If not, reset without saving and try again. When the results are good, you’re facing with a new option. Note that, by some fluke, grades sometimes go down. So, it’s more risky than reincarnation... The child will probably have good stats, but they’ll probably be lagging in one character. Mate it with another Chao better in that category (I hate to say it, but using a parent is really convenient since it almost automatically has better stats in one area. Ugh, I feel so dirty preaching Chao incest...). Keep doing this until you get close to all S’s, then use the reincarnation method. This is pretty good, but it’ll produce lots of “useless” Chao that you probably aren’t very attached to. However you choose to create an SSSSS Chao (if you do), I wish you well. ---------------- 4.6 Point Totals ---------------- So, how many points CAN a Chao get, anyways? Here, I’ll calculate just how many points your Chao – assuming it is an all-S Chao that miraculously gets 30 points every single time – can have in total. With all S stats, which is extremely unlikely, you have the potential to get all 30’s, which is far more unlikely. Even if your Chao does have all S’s, your chances of getting a 30 (it is random) every time for 99 tries is 1/5^99, a super-low number. It is practically impossible, but if you do get it somehow, your Chao will have 2970 points. Since reincarnated Chao start with 10 %, their potential is 3267. Well, that just puts little Chaosky’s 1786 to shame, doesn’t it? Again, points, not levels, determine how strong your Chao is in an area. But let’s get serious. The odds are against you in a big way. If you had godlike luck, perhaps you stand a chance. If you reset your game every time you get 29 + or below, you’ll be in a for a long ride. I really can’t express how low the chances are, but think of it this way. You have to get the 30 out of five possible choices each time. That puts your first level-up at a 20% chance, right? That’s pretty bad in itself. To repeat that, you have another 20% to face, so getting 30 for the both of those tries reduces to a 4% chance. Keep doing that until you’ve got 99 30’s! Pretty low, right? So in conclusion, don’t get bent out of shape when you don’t end up with 2970/3267. ==============================Section 5.0============================== --------------------- 5.0 Personality Types --------------------- Every Chao is an individual nowadays, so we further divide Chao into personality types. Yes, each Chao behaves according to their personality type, which can change over time. Now, SA2: Battle players would know that learning your Chao’s personality is simple in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. You just saunter on down to Chao Kindergarten, visit the Chao Doctor, and you’ve got all the information you need. Well, it’s not so simple in Sonic Adventure DX; there is no such place as “Chao Kindergarten.” So, unless you transfer your Chao over to SA2: Battle using the trick mentioned in sub-section 3.6, you’ll have to use your undoubtedly brilliant powers of deduction to figure out your Chao’s umbrella personality type: 1) Big Eater: This type of Chao likes to eat, and they almost always eat as if they were starved. 2) Carefree: Your Chao hasn’t a care in the world... I don’t see any noticeable, behavioral differences here. 3) Cry Baby: Your Chao will cry at the drop of a hat... Bummer, eh? 4) Curious: I guess they think about things more often than other Chao. In any event, it doesn’t affect their behavior too much. 5) Energetic: These are more active Chao that do activities (i.e. drawing) more often than other Chao. 6) Naive Chao: These Chao mate more frequently and with a wider “audience” of Chao. You know what they say: Ignorance is bliss. 7) No Personality: These dull Chao are nothing special. They just act like your average Chao. 8) Picky Eater: Quite the opposite of Big Eaters, these Chao are always nearly full. They don’t like most fruits, so try finding the fruit type they like (Cubicle, Triangular, or Round). The Chao Doctor could’ve told you this in SA2: Battle, but alas, there is no Chao Kindergarten. 9) Spoilt: Your Chao throws temper tantrums from time to time when it’s being ignored. 10) Short Tempered: This is probably the least desirable personality type after Cry Baby. Such Chao throw tantrums more often than regular Chao, are more likely to become bullies, and are just real unfriendly people. Chao can switch between personalities. For example, spoiling your Chao may turn it to a Spoilt-type Chao. Well, why didn’t I tell you this earlier, you ask yourself. Because personality types also influences one of the most dynamic duos to emerge from the Sonic world since Sonic & Tails. ------------------------------ 5.1 Personality & Hidden Stats ------------------------------ You guessed it! The hidden stats – Intelligence & Luck – are both affected by certain personality types. It would seem, though, that only certain personality types have a bearing on these two stats. Here’s what they do. Cry Baby: The worst type, this sets both Intelligence and Luck to 5 (out of 100) and precludes any increases. Curious: Luck cannot be raised, but Intelligence is doubled. Naive: Intelligence and Luck are both doubled. Short Tempered: Intelligence is disabled from increasing and set to 10 (out of 100), but Luck is doubled. Obviously, Naive is the best and Cry Baby is the worst. To help get a Naive personality, keep Chao playing together and give them lots of attention and fruits and items. Cry Babies are born of being ignored, and it’s really debilitating to have such low Intelligence and especially Luck in Chao Races. All other personality types have no effect on Luck and Intelligence. --------------------- 5.2 Fruit Preferences --------------------- We took Chao Kindergarten for granted in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, but man oh man was it useful. In it, the Chao Doctor could tell you your Chao’s health status (sick or not), its name, age, alignment, evolution type, personality, awards won, Chao Karate rank (Chao Karate doesn’t exist in this game), and, strangely enough, its fruit preference. Yes, they have Cubicle, Round, and Triangular Fruit for a reason – every Chao likes one better one than the other two. These three fruits can be purchased at the Black Market, by the way. So if you have a Picky Eater Chao, or if you just want to treat your Chao right, try to figure out which shape of fruit your Chao prefers and feed it to them on those special occasions. If you can go to Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (see sub-section 3.6), you can learn this from the Chao Doctor directly, but otherwise you’ll have to use trial and error. It’s not very important, but I felt I should at least mention it. ==============================Section 6.0============================== ---------------- 6.0 Chao Stadium ---------------- Yet another reason why Station Square has the best Chao Garden: it has the entrance to Chao Stadium in it. It’s a door opposite the one you enter the garden by, right near the Chao Transporter. Inside, you can race your Chao against others in super-intense races I (and the game) call “Chao Races.” Winning the harder races earns you five emblems in total, which is the only reason this entire Chao guide exists. I suggest entering with a really high-level Chao to just breeze through this; get your Chao to around L.90 in all areas (except stamina) before coming here to just blow through all of this. And remember: press A rapidly to encourage your Chao during races! ------------------ 6.1 Beginner Races ------------------ Ah, the Beginner Races. At first, only they (and Party Races) are available to you. Obviously, there’s a lower level of skill needed here (the opponents here are young Chao that can barely run or swim). At first, only four courses (or tracks) are available to be played on. They are: 1) Pearl Course: This course consists of pushing a ball forward and running. Power is tested the most. 2) Amethyst Course: There’s a lot of running here – pretty much all running. Your Chao may fly off the first bridge and take a water route, testing Fly, Intelligence, Swim, but it’s not necessary. 3) Sapphire Course: At first, your Chao will run down part of a checkered walkway, and then it will climb up a cliff (Power). After some more running, they fly down off a cliff and swim to the finish line. 4) Ruby Course: This is pretty much all swimming. After a few steps on dry ground, you hit water and swim to the end. By beating all four of the above courses (1st place), you unlock a fifth course. 5) Emerald Course: This is the longest track of all, and it combines elements from each other course to make for an all-around Chao’s playground. It is the hardest and longest. If your Chao takes a shortcut by jumping off the bridge to a water route, they are using their Intelligence stat. By winning in each of the Beginner Races (in other words, after beating Emerald Course), you’ll unlock the Jewel Races. --------------- 6.2 Jewel Races --------------- We have the exact same courses as in Beginner Race, but the competitors must’ve seriously improved their training regiment ‘cause now they’re pretty hard, if I do say so myself. So, good luck, and keep raising those stats! These are the races that count; beating each of them earns you an emblem. So, through Jewel Races, you earn the five emblems from Chao Garden. --------------- 6.3 Party Races --------------- If you want to see whose Chao is the fairest, err, fastest, of them all, look no further than Party Races. It serves no purpose other than competing with friends (on multiple memory cards), but it’s fun enough. You can also race up to four of your own Chao against each other making use of four GCN controllers. ==============================Section 7.0============================== ---------------- 7.0 Special Chao ---------------- NOTE: Since there’s no really *new* content to add to this section, this is a slightly edited version of Section 6 from my Sonic Adventure 2: Battle guide’s Chao Garden section. These are the Chao that will wow your friends. There are many, many special Chao. I only list the particularly cool ones in my guide (I'm a pretty cool guy, after all... What are you laughing about?). Please don't e-mail me asking me how to get a Chao who looks like so and so. I don't know because I have not mixed every Chao type known to man. Go ahead and experiment. A lot of Chao look like a lot of things. Of course, you're only limited by your imagination. -------------- 7.1 Chaos Chao -------------- Chaos Chao are undoubtedly the coolest Chao in the game. First, they are immortal; they cannot die. Second, they cannot mate (that's not that bad). Third, they have different balls than anyone else on their heads. Here are the three Chaos Chao with descriptions. Light Chaos Chao: This is neutral and it looks very similar to Chaos 0, the first boss of the game (in Sonic’s storyline). Light Chaos Chao have a bolt of electricity (it looks that way. It is still ball-shaped) on their heads. Angel Chaos Chao: This is my least favorite of the three, but it is still cool. Its eyes are constantly closed and it has two graceful "ears" running down the side of its face at almost 45 degree angles. The halo is now translucent. Devil Chaos Chao: This Chaos Chao is very sleek like the others, but it has two erect horns sticking out of its head, and it has a flame for a ball. Having Shiny Chao (from shiny eggs) is the coolest way to make Chaos Chao, in my opinion. Now I will tell you how to make these three. It will definitely take some time – three lifetimes. If you want to pass a lot of time, leave the GCN on overnight with your character in the garden. If your Game Cube has proper ventilation, you can do this without harming it. Also, be sure that your Chao can swim. If he cannot, it probably won't like you too much if you let it drown all night. First, you must have the Chao reincarnate twice. To make sure that your Chao will reincarnate, make sure that it comes to you when you whistle. Also, to prevent other Chao from dying, you may want to put them in separate gardens (time only passes in the garden that you're in). In its third life, give it one of all 21 animals. See that section for locations. Finally, decide which alignment it will take. That is, if you want a Light Chaos Chao, make it Neutral, Angel Hero, and Devil Dark. These will definitely be the pride of your garden. Notes: It can be in its third life, but it can also be in a later life (fourth, fifth, what have you). Also, it doesn't become a Chaos Chao the instant you give it the last animal. You must wait for it to evolve the first time. Also, there is a very slim chance that your Chao will not become a Chaos Chao even if you did all the right things. To remedy this, let it reincarnate again and then try again. ------------------ 7.2 Character Chao ------------------ A few Chao can be made to look like characters. There are five characters that you can make them look (more than remotely) like. No, there is not an Eggman, Tails, Rouge, Knuckles, Big, Amy Rose, Omochao, etc. Chao. There just aren't. In the original SA2 there was a Chao editor, but there is not one in SA2: Battle, let alone SA DX. Technically, you can get a Knuckles Chao. However, that would require that you go to Japan and participate in the "Game Jam." Then you’d have to transfer the Chao from Battle to Sonic Adventure DX. There is also an official Tails Chao (that actually looks just like it) for Phantasy Star Online (GCN) players to get. But, Sonic and his rival from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, as well as another popular Sega character, can be replicated pretty nicely. Sonic Chao: Yes, this Chao looks like Sonic. It has the three hair spikes and is blue. Start with a regular Chao (the eggs that are in the garden) and influence it to be a Neutral Running type. In its second evolution, make it by a Neutral Running/Running type. At first it will be green, but it will be blue by its second evolution. Shadow Chao: Start with a normal garden Chao and raise it to be a Dark Running/Running Chao. If all goes well, it will turn from green to dull to red (the spikes), and the body will slowly become darker. Super Sonic Chao: You'll need either Tiny Chao Garden or the hidden egg in Station Square (Adventure Field) for this (see sub-section 3.8). Get a Gold Egg and hatch it. Then raise it to be a Neutral Running/Running type. Lo and behold, it looks very much like Super Sonic. Super Shadow: Logically, a Silver Egg would work, but it doesn't. Super Shadow requires a bit more work to get. First, mate a normal Chao and a Shiny Gray Chao to have a two-toned Chao. Then make it a Dark Running/Running type. NiGHTS Chao: NiGHTS is a character from a Sega Saturn game of the same name. You can see the creature during a 3-D cinema in Casinopolis’s card-based pinball game. This Chao is raised as a Neutral Flying/Flying type. Those are all the Sonic character Chao. These Chao don't live forever like the coveted Chaos Chao, but they are still pretty darn neat. ------------------------ 7.3 Special Colored Chao ------------------------ There are several skin color variations that look pretty neat. Specifically, there are two-toned, clear, shiny, and jewel colorings. To knock off two of those categories, I'll explain what those last two are right now. Shiny Chao are hatched from "Shiny" [Color] Eggs bought at the Black Market. [Jewel] Eggs are the pricy eggs purchased from Tiny Chao Garden, three of which can be gotten in the Adventure Fields (see 3.8). Shiny Chao and Jewel Chao are reflective and metallic. They look pretty cool, in my opinion. Two-toned Chao result from mating two differently colored Chao. While one color seems more dominant than the other, they have highlights and colorations at the end of the hand, etc., of both. This often looks very nice. I won't list all the recipes for main colors and highlights because there are so many, but try experimenting. Clear Chao can be totally transparent, or tinted in a certain shade (but still clear). You will be able to see their eyes, wings, and the balls on their head, but nothing else (unless it is tinted, in which case you can make out the outline) will be visible. Clear Chao are made by mating Shiny Chao with Jewel Chao of any colors. This makes for many possibilities, and I don't care to list them all. The only bad part about this is that special colors tend to run up a high price pretty easily... --------------------------- 7.4 Controlling Chao Traits --------------------------- There are a few ways to control, to an extent, what your Chao will look like when it’s born. The easiest way to do this is to hatch its egg in special ways. Although there is still an element of randomness, these methods usually work. To rock an egg (or any item, for that matter), pick up the egg and hold B. Tilt up and down on the control stick to shake it. You can practice on fruit. Dazed - This Chao looks confused. Shake the egg for a long time. Evil - Use any of the following methods to get an evil-faced Chao from birth: chuck it at a wall, shake the egg, put it down, and shake it some more, or hold the egg, run around the garden, and jump while doing so. Grin - Jump up and down for a very long time while holding the egg. When it is about ready to hatch, place it on the ground and pick it up before the Chao is out of the egg. Throw the egg at the wall. This is an evil grin. Happy - Let the Chao hatch on its own - no interaction with you. Normal - Rock the egg around twenty times. Zigzag - Rock the egg five times. Note that reincarnated Dark Chao are born with arched, evil eyes... I’ve got to admit, I was extremely scared when I first saw this. Also, in Tiny Chao Garden they give you a preview of what a Chao will look like when it is born and being transferred to the Game Cube. If you're not satisfied with the face, cancel and try again. The face will (probably) change. Try until you like what you see. ==============================Section 8.0============================== -------------- 8.0 In Closing -------------- So now you know just about everything you’d ever need to know about raising Chao – and collecting the emblems attached to Chao Garden – in Sonic Adventure DX. But remember, when you are a successful Chao- raising machine pumping out SSSSS Chao or Chaos Chao or what have you that Chao have feelings, too. “But they’re artificial video game characters,” you say. Wrong! If that were true... well, okay, I guess it is true. Just do me a favor and take care of ‘em, eh? So... Ciao Chao! ======================================================================= ===============================Secrets*================================ ======================================================================= Naturally, there’s a boatload of secrets to be found in Sonic Adventure DX, and they’re a lot better than Sonic secrets usually turn out to be (*thinks back to the “secret special ending” of Sonic the Hedgehog*). Let’s begin by summing up the “secret” characters. +-------------------------+ | Secret Characters | +-------------------------+ MILES “TAILS” PROWER: Sonic’s faithful friend, Tails, can be unlocked for Adventure Mode by beating Emerald Coast in Sonic’s storyline. KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA: Sonic’s friend and rival, Knuckles, plays Adventure Mode, too – but only after he’s beaten in a fight as Sonic or Tails in their storylines. AMY ROSE: After Sonic meets up with Amy, an annoying hedgehog he rescued in Sonic CD, after Sky Chase Act 1, her story will be unlocked. E-102 “GAMMA”: Defeat E-102, Eggman’s robotic servant, on the Egg Carrier’s Deck as Sonic or Tails to unlock his storyline. BIG THE CAT: Beating the final boss of Sonic’s storyline will unlock Big, a newcomer to the Sonic realm. SUPER SONIC: The stronger form of Sonic is unlocked by beating the other stories to completion – 100 %. METAL SONIC: Get all 130 emblems to be able to play as Metal Sonic, the robotic duplicate of Sonic (from Sonic CD) who barely differs from Sonic at all in abilities, in Action Trials. He’s like an alternate costume. While secret characters are your main motivation to keep playing Sonic Adventure DX, you’ll later be compelled to play for emblems and mission cards. What do these do, exactly? I’ve kept it hidden until now, but I will reveal it here. +------------------------------+ | Trial and Mission Mode | +------------------------------+ To unlock the Trials and Mission Mode of a character, simply beat their storylines. Super Sonic has no trials, by the way. Similarly, Metal Sonic has no Mission Mode. +-------------------------+ | Secret Mini-Games | +-------------------------+ Don’t be fooled by “mini-games” in the title. The game calls them that, but they aren’t mini in any way. The complete Game Gear Sonic library is included in Sonic Adventure DX; that is, all 12 of Sonic’s games for Sega’s portable – the Sega Game Gear – are unlockable! Huzzah! For every 20 emblems you collect, one game is yours. For the last ten, you get two games at once! For every 20 missions you complete, you also get a game. Here are the games: Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic Drift Sonic Chaos (also called “Sonic & Tails”) Sonic Spinball Sonic Labyrinth Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble Sonic Drift 2 Tails’ Skypatrol Sonic Blast Tails Adventure When playing these classics, press L and R to show the GG view (smaller view as the Game Gear would show it) and L and R to return back to the full-screen view. I may write guides for these games in the future, but don’t hound me about it! Well, that pretty much covers all the secrets of the game. There are some Chao-related secrets, but they are covered in their sections of “Chao Garden.” ======================================================================= =================================FAQ*================================== ======================================================================= We finally reach the “FAQ” part of the guide. Please, read this before e-mailing me. For that matter, please read ALL of the guide before e- mailing me! After all, that’s the point of this section – to answer your questions before you ask them. Now, let’s get cracking! Question: I can’t beat [name of trial/mission]. Can you help me? Answer: Yes. Read the guide. Seriously, if I wrote up this entire walkthrough, why would I hold any secrets back? Everything I know about completing that mission/trial is included; don’t ask me for additional tips. I reiterate: everything is in the guide; don’t expect me to give you more tips. Some things are just naturally hard, anyways (though most of the game is fairly easy). Question: How do I unlock [character/game/mode]? Answer: See “Secrets” for details. Question: Who is the “Chao Doctor” and what is “Chao Kindergarten?” Answer: In Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, there was a place called Chao Kindergarten available. In it, you could do several things, but one of the most useful (but also greatly taken for granted) was Chao Doctor, an old Chao fellow who gave you the Chao’s age, alignment, stat type, stat grades, fruit preference, and a few other things. It really helped, as now you must guess or observe to learn these things. Question: What are those small animals I collect in action stages? Answer: Traditionally, Eggman powers his robots with animals. When you destroy one, they are released. If you take them to Chao Garden, your Chao can be exposed to them, giving them boosts or minuses in stats. Question: Can I play as [second-last secret character] outside of the last boss battle? Answer: Nope. Sorry, but you can’t in any of the Game Cube 3-D Sonic games. Question: I just can’t seem to beat Big’s A action trials. There just aren’t 2000-gram fish! Can you help? Answer: These fish don’t appear unless you have the lure upgrades (especially in Twinkle Park, which has very small fish). It also requires patience. The metal, demonic-looking fish usually weigh in pretty well. Question: I put a hat on my Chao’s head after exposing it to a blue animal, and now it can’t take it off! Are hats, like, permanent or something? Answer: Not quite. If you wait long enough, Chao may take hats off themselves. But if you’re not a particularly patient person, you can always hurl them into a wall. Works every time... Question: Can I use your guide(s) on my web site? Answer: Sorry, but no. Please refer to my legal section for details. Question: What other guides do you have? Answer: Quite a few. This is my 37th (I know what you’re thinking...), and you can use the below link for an up-to-date listing of all of them: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/46879.html Question: How can I contact you? Answer: Not asked nearly enough, this question. First, I'd like to set out a few guidelines. All contact occurs through e-mails (not IMs or anything else), which must relate to the guide (no chain letters, socializing, etc.). Please put "Sonic Adventure DX" or the name of the guide in the subject. Make sure to examine the entire guide before e- mailing me. In my prime, I answered e-mails pretty regularly, but now it's on a very irregular basis with lots of gaps, so it's in your best interest to read the guide instead of waiting for me to answer your questions. I don't open attachments. Finally, be specific in your question. Thanks in advance. You can e-mail me at: Kirby0215@aol.com And that concludes this interrogation session! One section remains for your reading please. It makes this guide worth using. Without further ado, the legal section, ladies and gents! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ / \ / \ ||----------------------------Section 4*-----------------------------|| \ / \_________________________________________________________________/ ======================================================================= ====================Credits and Legal Information*===================== ======================================================================= Here’s a riddle for you: What’s extremely intense, as sweet as honey, and more addictive than any drug? Well!? Give up? The answer is, of course, a resounding, “LEGAL SECTION!” Everyone the world over loves them! I bet that somewhere some old folks are telling their grandchildren about their first run-in with a legal section as we speak! And their grandchildren say, “Oh boy, I can’t wait until I read MY first legal section!” to which the grandparent responds, “Some day, little Timothy, you too will experience the joys of legal information. Some day...” Why are you looking at me like that? Ah, but regardless, I must admit that this is all just a super-clever way to keep you in suspense. And to let the anticipation just fill your soul, we’ll begin with the... +---------------+ | Credits | +---------------+ First off, let’s give it up for me ‘cause I wrote this guide and have no sense of modesty! Also, my parents and other ancestors. Without you, this wouldn’t be possible! So thanks, guys! Secondly, who could forget Nintendo? Yes, this is an advertisement; buy their products! They licensed the game, after all. But really, Sega deserves the majority of the praise, as they actually made the game. So kudos to them! Last but not least, let’s applaud GameFAQs. They are the only site allowed to host my guides, and they’re pretty snazzy on top of that! So instead of the usual three, I say FOUR cheers for them! Then there are those who recently helped me. Below is a list of who they are and what they did. That wraps that up, but the list may very well grow in the future. This leads us into... you guessed it, the legal section. I don’t want to keep you waiting too long lest you explode with excitement and I’d be charged with manslaughter, so let the games begin! +-------------------------+ | The Legal Section | +-------------------------+ First of all, I take no credit for the creation, distribution, production, idealizing, or in any way making this game. That honor goes to Sega, not me, and I do not deny this. That is, all trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Second, this document is Copyright 2005-2007 Brian McPhee. Third, this may not be reproduced in part or in full under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. To make it absolutely clear, no one but the website GameFaqs may use my guides on their sites, books, magazines, etc. Tada! Man oh man was that “wicked tight,” as you young people say. But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and this legal section (oh yeah, and this guide, too) are done with. So, until next time, you have only these words to remember me by... They are quite possibly the coolest three words in the English language, and every guide I’ve ever written ends with them. They are, how you say, the “attractor” of my guides. And you know what? You have permission to read them! So, take a deep breath, wash your hands, and scroll down a bit. Destiny awaits... See ya later.