## ### ### ### ##### ################# ### ########### ####################### ################## ##################### ##### ############# ####### #### ##### ##### #### ######### ##### ### ### ###### ##### ### ### ##### ##### ### ### #### ##### ### ### #### ##### #### ### #### ##### #### #### ##### ####### ####### ###### ###### ############################### ############# ##### ###### #### #### #### #### #### #### ##### #### ###### ##### ######## ###### ###### ####### ########## #### ###### #### ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Sonic Heroes A Rank Guide and Tips Version 0.6 9/8/04 By Angnix peter379@msu.edu ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ NOTE: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Version 0.7! This version is to give you some idea of what the final will look like, there is some good info in the level specific section, a little more than was in version 0.6 and well, not sure when I will work on it more especially on the level overviews and the important shortcuts in some levels. As you can see I will provide tips on a mission by mission basis and sometimes even walkthroughs. This guide already contains a huge amount of info on how to A-rank the different types of levels, info about Team Blasts and leveling up, nice glitches, how to defeat all types of enemies the best way and already has complete details on how to A-rank all of the bosses. The next version will also have info on Super Hard Mode and possibly the points value for each kind of robot. And the buttons I mention are for the GameCube. Enjoy. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Version History: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Version 0.5: 9/5/04 Version 0.6: 9/8/04 Corrected errors and updated several sections. Added lots of info under the level list part. Version 0.7: 9/16/04 More level-specific information was added. Table of Contents and numbering expanded. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Legal Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ This guide cannot be placed on any site without my permission. Sonic and all related characters copyright Sonic Team/Sega. Sites with permission to post my FAQS: www.GameFAQS.com www.Neoseeker.com www.cheathappens.com faqs.ign.com www.cheats.de www.supercheats.com www.wogaming.com ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Table of Contents: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 1. Introduction 2. A Guide to Leveling Up and Extra Info on Team Moves/Team Blasts 2.a. Leveling Up 2.b. Team Differences 2.c. Team Blasts 3. A Few Helpful Glitches 4. Missions and Mission Layout 4.a. Points Missions 4.a.1. Normal Points Missions 4.a.2. Time Trial Points Missions 4.a.3. Team Chaotix Object Hunt Point Missions 4.b. Time Missions 4.b.1. Team Dark Destroy 100 Robots Time Missions 4.b.2. Team Rose Collect 200 Rings Time Missions 4.c. Bosses 4.c.1. The "Egg Birds" 4.c.2. Team Battles 4.c.3. Robots 4.c.4. Final Boss, the Egg Emperor 4.c.5. Extra Boss, Metal Madness and Metal Overlord 5. Missions List 5.a. Stage 1: Seaside Hill 5.b. Stage 2: Ocean Palace 5.c. Boss 1: Egg Hawk 5.d. Stage 3: Grand Metropolis 5.e. Stage 4: Power Plant 5.f. Boss 2: Team Battle #1 5.g. Stage 5: Casino Park 5.h. Stage 6: BINGO Highway 5.i. Boss 3: Robot Carnival 5.j. Stage 7: Rail Canyon 5.k. Stage 8: Bullet Station 5.l. Boss 4: Egg Albatross 5.m. Stage 9: Frog Forest 5.n. Stage 10: Lost Jungle 5.o. Boss 5: Team Battle #2 5.p. Stage 11: Hang Castle 5.q. Stage 12: Mystic Mansion 5.r. Boss 6: Robot Storm 5.s. Stage 13: Egg Fleet 5.t. Stage 14: Final Fortress 5.u. Final Boss: Egg Emperor 5.v. Extra Boss: Metal Madness/Metal Overlord 6. Questions? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 1. Introduction: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ This is my first time writing a FAQs on a 3D game, so bear with me! Also I mention the GameCube buttons because that is the version of the game that I happen to have, sorry but I do not know what the corresponding buttons for Xbox and Playstation 2 are. Also this guide assumes you are very familiar with all the moves and abilities of each team and that you have already been playing this game for a while. Anyway this is a guide for those of you who want nick juicy tips on how to earn A ranks in all the levels of the game so you can unlock that mysterious ??? that is on the main screen. If you really want to know what it is, it is Super Hard Mode, basically all of the same levels made a little harder than the Team Dark levels but can only be played as Team Sonic. Ehh, not much of a reward in my opinion, but well getting all A ranks for all Bosses and all levels is worth bragging rights! For most missions, a rank is earned depending on how high a score you get, so an A rank is dependent on if you know how to rack up those points or not! On the other hand, some missions like Team Dark's and Team Rose's extra missions and all Bosses are ranked depending on how much time you took to finish whatever you are suppose to do in that level and not on score at all. Some other missions, all of Team Sonic extra missions for example, you have to complete in a certain time limit but they are based upon score too so basically you have to rush and do something and make sure to rack up points along the way. Anyway Points and Time Missions get separate treatment. The first part of the guide I just sort of decided it was necessary. The specific details of Leveling Up, a lot of the Team Differences and Team Blast effects are not covered in the handbook and I feel it is important to know how these mechanics properly operate in order to better understand how to get thorough the levels, I did not include the basic moves in the handbook/tutorials of course because hopefully you know them by now if you are playing this game. The second part of this guide are a few in-game glitches that you can use to your advantage. The third part of this guide will be general tips on how to do both points based and time based missions. There are sort of sub-categories under points and time and these will also be covered listing what missions they are because even though Team Chaotix's Casino Park and Team Rose's Seaside Hill for example are both points based there are two totally different ways of handling them. The fourth part of this guide is a more detailed list of all missions and contains a description of the mission and more specific hints for that mission and what score/time you need in order to get an A rank and is the section the Bosses are covered. Currently not nearly complete, but look what I have completed already to get a good idea on what the future version will look like. Enjoy! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 2. A Guide to Leveling Up and Extra Info on Team Moves/Team Blasts ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ It is very important to have a good understanding of the moves each formation does, I did not feel like describing all the different moves of each team, these are listed in the manual and you probably already know them by now but I will give you often not so obvious info about Leveling Up and each Team's strengths/weaknesses. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 2.a. Leveling Up: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ In order to level up, you must collect the blue, red or yellow power spheres from inside every 5th robot you kill, when you hit a checkpoint to earn one of the color of the leader that touches it, or in some item boxes and balloons. You start off each level at level zero for each character and can go up to three, additional spheres collected do add to your score at the end of the level. The blue ones level up speed, red power and yellow flight. You can easily tell what level your character is at by observing how many dots have turned while next to that character's picture in the level formation indicator. Sometimes when encountering enemies you might want to change formation if one character is leveled up a lot more than other characters. Here is a general guide to the changes that take place with each level up with each formation: Speed: Level 0: Normal attack level, attacks count as one hit. Level 1: Attacks now count as two hits. Level 2: Attacks now count as three hits. Level 3: Jump Dash/Homing Attack now has Tornado-like properties, now you can do things like just using a Homing Attack on shielded enemies and turtles without having to use Tornado first and jumping toward poles to go up them instead of using the Tornado, this can save lots of time. Power: Level 0: Normal attack level, many attacks count at three hits, no combos. Level 1: Now extra combo attack is performed if B button is continuously presses. Level 2: More powerful combo. Level 3: Most powerful combo that kills in a very wide area. Flight: Level 0: Normal flight time, Thunder Shoot counts as half a hit on most enemies, one for flying enemies. Level 1: A little more flight time, Thunder Shoot now can hit more than one enemy but attack power is the same. Level 2: More flight time, Thunder Shoot now counts as a full hit on most enemies. Level 3: More flight time, Thunder Shoot now is a Ring Attracter, just Thunder Shoot at rings to attract them. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 2.b. Team Differences: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Team Sonic and Team Dark are identical except for Team Blast while Team Rose and Team Chaotix are more unique. I decided to list this by the moves that the teams differ, Team Blasts are in the next section. Speed Formation: Tornado Attacks: Sonic/Shadow: Blue/Black Tornado, Sonic and Shadow can spin around an enemy without touching it and overall a nice attack to use, the basic tornado and it has nice speed too. Amy: Tornado Hammer, This tornado actually moves and homes in on enemies so it is best to use it farther away from an enemy than near it. The only problem is that like most Team Rose attacks it is slow. Espio: Ninja Leaf Swirl happens to be the most interesting Tornado. Not very good at attacking enemies with because it does not move and Espio does not move around the enemy so he can't really use it close to an enemy, but this attack also makes Espio invisible to enemies. While Espio is invisible the rest of the team is left behind, best to use when you want to get past enemies undetected. B button Solo Attacks: Sonic/Shadow: Flying Kick, not that bad but it puts the character in danger. On the other hand if you accidentally use it instead of Rocket Accel it does not slow down the character very much. Amy: Swinging Hammer Attack, has a wider range than Sonic/Shadow Flying Kick but it is much slower. Espio: Shuriken Stars, Much easier to use because you can turn Espio invisible and leave the rest of the team behind. The stars are very cool and even bounce off walls and stuff, but they are not very powerful at all and don't even damage enemies that happen to have shields. Triangle Jump: Sonic/Shadow: Typical Triangle Jump between walls but Sonic and Shadow can't stay clinging on the wall forever so you must keep on the move. Amy: She cannot use this move at all Espio: The best Triangle Jumper, he can stay stuck to the wall forever, very handy when there are moving obstacles in your path. Light Speed Dash: Sonic/Shadow: The only characters that can use this move. Press B button along a line of rings to instantly dash through them. If there are enough rings you are awarded points for dashing through them depending on how many there are. Good for getting extra points and some areas even require you to use this move to get past them. Propeller Hammer: Amy: Can only be used by Amy. If you press A button and then just keep it pressed, at the highest point of her jump she will spin the hammer around and can sort of fly for a few seconds. Power Formation: B button with team: Knuckles/Omega: While holding the other two characters Knuckles/Omega attack enemies with arm swings. Pretty effective and fast, but dangerous because the characters get a little too close to the edge while being slightly uncontrollable and fall off. Big: He uses his fishing pole to hit Amy and Cream at enemies. A nice long-range attack, but it is slow of course. Vector: Vector spits Espio and Charmy out of his mouth at enemies. A little faster than Team Rose but still basically the same attack. B button while jumping: Knuckles/Omega: They throw their team mates at enemies using Fire Dunk. I think Knuckle's attack may be a little longer range. Big: He attacks with a huge belly bop, actually not that bad but slow of course. Vector: Hammer Down: Uses his arms to attack downwards, actually a pretty slow attack. B button without team: Knuckles/Omega: Punch at enemies, fast. Big: Attack with his fishing pole, slow. Vector: Bites enemies, intermediate in speed. Jumping while in Fighting Pose: Knuckles/Omega: Fire Ball Jump, The other characters spin around in a wide circle, can be uses as an attack, but not a very powerful one. Big/Vector: Not an attack, only used to get out of Fighting Pose. Flight Formation: B button without team: Tails/Rouge: Dummy Ring Bombs, not a very powerful attack, about as powerful as Thundershoot depending on level but sets up a nice stun trap for enemies. Cream: Chao Attack, Slow but very powerful, Cheese will attack and kill all nearby enemies. Charmy: Sting, a good and fast attack, but Charmy attacks directly and often puts him in harm's way. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 2.c. Team Blasts: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ When the Team Blast gauge is charges up all you have to do is release it and there you go, instant killage! But Team Blast has other effects too. The meter goes down slowly showing you how much time some after effects have left, the meter lasts 10 seconds. There is also a special Team Blast that appears during the extra boss, that will be talked about later. Team Sonic: Sonic Overdrive, Knuckles and Tails launch Sonic into the air so he can use Light Attack on the surrounding enemies. After Effects: Light Attack, Sonic in any formation will use Light Attack on any nearby enemies if you use your B button attack, it is a powerful Homing Attack that kills most things instantly and Sonic usually will not stop till everything is dead. I like using it in Flight Formation but make sure you don't keep thundershooting, just sit there until Sonic takes care of everything. Annoying Glitch: I read about this glitch before and didn't think much about it till it happened to me... sometimes during Team Blast instead of attacking the enemies Sonic will shoot way up high in the air and he will never come down... why does this happen? I have no clue, but it's kind of funny... Team Dark: Chaos Inferno: A powerful combination of Chaos Control and Omega's weaponry, not sure if Rouge really does anything at all... After Effects: Time is totally frozen for 10 seconds, the clock doesn't even move. Perfect for time trials and if you want to freeze enemies and even bosses to attack much more easier but watch out, if there is anything you need to move like opening doors and fans then this move can actually slow your progress though a level. Team Rose: Flower Carnival, a very festive attack indeed, not sure how it kills anything though. After Effects: The most broken Team Blast. Each character levels up by one and a Shield and Invincibility take effect as if they got them from Item Boxes. Team Chaotix: Chaotix Recital, apparently their horrible music can kill enemies. For each enemy killed they get either 5, 10 or 20 Rings. After Effects: Rings are still earned for enemies killed during the 10 second period afterwards. This attack is why I have 99 lives for Team Chaotix in my game. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 3. A Few Helpful Glitches: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Here are four of in-game glitches that you do not need a cheat device to use. If you feel like cheating then these can really come in handy, especially the first three, the last one is mostly for fun. Team Blast Meter Fill-up Glitch: This one may be a little tricky to get down at first but very useful if you can learn it and it can come in handy during bosses, this glitch will fill up your Team Blast meter almost 1/3rd full instantly so do it three times in a row to almost fill it up completely, you might want to do it four times, it works for all teams and even during the extra boss. Get into fly formation then press B and either X or Y at the same EXACT time. The game will try to thundershoot and change formation at the same time, a very large, strange electrical ring appears around the flight character as the formation is changing when it is done properly and the Team Blast meter will go up 1/3rd. It is easy to slightly miss the timing, often just causing you to thundershoot then change character or change character then the B button action for the changed character. Team Dark Pole Glitch: Team Dark only of course, if you happen to use Team Blast and freeze time in front of a pole that rises up/comes down and you already hit the switch for it, even though the pole has not appeared yet use Tornado and you will go up an invisible pole, this actually saves a few seconds, the time it would take for the pole to appear. Team Rose Extended Propeller Hammer Glitch: Near the end of using Propeller Hammer press B button to perform a Tornado Hammer, at the end of this move keep pressing A and you will go into Propeller Hammer again, you can only repeat Propeller Hammer this way once, and if you use a Jump Dash at the end you can go really far distances. Team Chaotix Fly Glitch: This one might give you sore fingers, and the truth is it is only useful if you want to explore places you can't normally go, but I decided to include it here and it might be useful in some hard flying spots and as the name implies only works for Team Chaotix. You have to be flying against a wall either visible or invisible, just keep pressing A and B at the same time, if you are lucky what will happen is that Charmy will suddenly rise higher up as if he hit solid ground higher up and the flight meter will fill back up again, so if you have patience you can fly up as high and as long as you want as long as there is a wall. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4. Missions and Mission Layout: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ There are a total of 14 levels and 7 bosses that are a little different for each team plus the Extra Boss that I will detail later. Each of the 14 levels for each team have two missions, you complete mission 1 in Story Mode but in order to get to Mission 2(extra) or to play the first mission over again easily you want to go to Challenge Mode instead of Story Mode on the 1 Player menu. You usually have to do something totally different to complete Mission 2 and it might even be ranked differently. As I stated earlier this part of the guide is just general tips, look in the Mission List and Specific Tips section for more detailed info if you happened to be stuck on one mission. Also for Team Chaotix missions there is a very nice guide to them on GameFAQs in case you cannot find something. Here is a table of what the missions in general look like by what the mission is and if it is points or time based: Mission 1 Mission 2 ---------------------------------------------------- Team Sonic | Get to the Goal | Time Trial | Points | Points ---------------------------------------------------- Team Dark | Get to the Goal | Kill 100 Robots | Points | Time ---------------------------------------------------- Team Rose | Get to the Goal | Get 200 Rings | Points | Time ---------------------------------------------------- Team Chaotix | Varies | Varies | Points | Points ---------------------------------------------------- Team Chaotix missions often involve finding a certain amount of certain objects in level, but they can vary from just getting to the goal to stealth missions where you cannot be detected by the enemy, a lot of them are sort of two mission types fused together and so two specific sections will apply to them and there will be more notes on them in the level list. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.a. Points Scored Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to all missions except Team Dark and Team Rose 2nd mission. The MOST important thing to remember about these missions is this: you lose all points if you die and start again at a checkpoint so that means you must get though the entire level without dying once! So you have to be awfully skilled in order to make it through alive! Later I will discuss the types of points missions, some Team Chaotix missions have two types. Most missions are ranked according to your total score at the end of the act, but I will note that some of these missions are either timed like Team Sonic extra mission so you have to play fast anyway, or you get so many time bonus points from completing the mission fast that you will have to anyway, for example Casino Park and BINGO Highway, these subcategories will be addressed later on in this section but these general rules apply to all subcategories. Anyway you receive points many ways so here is a list of points you can get and how you get them, note that I might have left some out: ENEMIES: Enemies are in my opinion the most important source of points, so it is important you know how to kill them correctly. Each type of enemy is worth a different amount of points and also you receive bonus points depending on how many you kill quickly. But the tricky part is the fact that each enemy is best killed with a certain formation, so here is a list of all enemies in the game detailing how to kill them, I will add how many points they are worth some other time. Note that leveling up your characters is very important because each character level is more powerful than the lower level and some enemies can only be killed by certain characters when they are leveled up so I will mention this too. Enemies Bonus Points: You get rewarded points for killing lots of enemies together. You get about 4 seconds after killing one enemy to kill another in order for the bonus to still be good, so you can take longer than 4 seconds to kill a lot of enemies but you will still get a higher bonus if the interval between each one is less than 4 seconds. If you kill them in Team Blast you are just rewarded for how many you killed during the blast. Here are the bonuses: 2: 400 3: 800 4: 1000 5 or more: 2000 Eggbots: These normal enemies are often found alone, but sometimes they are carrying guns, shields and swords. They look a little different in Casino Park and BINGO Highway. Normal or Holding Gun: Easy to kill in either Speed or Power formation, the gun really isn't that threatening when they have it. Some of them only talk one hit to kill with even a level zero speed character. A level 2 or 3 Flight character can also take care of them rather quickly. Sword: Like the normal ones, but you just have to watch out for being poked with the sword, so some attacks like Big and Vector's that attack downwards may not be a good idea. Red Shield: Cannot be attacked by Flight Formation's Thundershoot at all, must be either removed with a Tornado Attack or Level 3 Homing Attack or attacked in Power Formation, Power Formation can plow though them quite quickly. Blue Shield: This shield slowly crumbles away, like all shields it is best to first knock it up in the air using a Tornado attack or Homing Attack if your Speed character is level 3, with Power or Flight formation you will have to continue attacking it till the shield crumbles away completely, this takes a while. Spiky Shield: Tougher than the red one, best to remove with a Tornado. Golden: If you see a gold colored Eggbot near a bunch of other ones, just attack the gold one and when you destroy it the rest will go down with it. Flying Enemies: There are several types of these too and have to be tackled differently. Normal or shooting at you: Pretty easy to kill. In some situations you want to use Flight formation and sometimes if they are meant to be killed this way they only take one hit to kill even with Level 0 thundershoot. If your flight character is only level 0 and 1 and you are trying to kill a flying enemy and it knocks it down to the ground and it has that angry symbol, I like to then briefly switch to Power Formation to quickly take it out. But sometimes you are suppose to Homing Attack across them to bridge a gap with Speed and often if this is the case then they take three hits, hopefully your teammates are following you across and/or you are leveled up in order to kill them. Dropping Bombs: You defiantly want to avoid the bombs, they take more than one hit so if you have a low level flying character then you might want to carefully if there is a bomb on the ground take it down with Thundershoot them use Power Formation long range attack to kill it. Spikes: Some of them will have spikes that will occasionally come out of them, they need to be attacked with a good force when the spikes are not out, but not a problem if you attack then with a good high level Thundershoot which you should anyway. Silver coated: These are difficult to deal with because they are coated with Armor, you usually have to shoot them down with Thundershoot which grounds them and does not damage then attack with Power Formation. Sometimes these guys will drop bombs too! Search Light: If you are spotted by their searchlight more robots will appear, you want the searchlight to spot you so you have more stuff to kill. Kill like any other flying enemy, some are armored also. Trapping: These floating guys will try to trap you so you cannot move. If all three teammates get trapped at the same time you loose a life. It is best to attack them like flying enemies or just plain long range. You defiantly want to kill them if they trap one of your teammates or they will be trapped for a long time. And the gold ones will also try to move away taking your teammate with them. Turtles: Their tough shells make it impossible to attack with Flight formation. Beware both kinds of turtles shoot off deadly energy pulses that are very wide and long range, the two kinds of turtles have to be handed slightly different. You can flip both with a Tornado. Green Turtles: You can easily get them with Power Formation. You can also turn them over with a Tornado in Speed formation, but this is normally slower than Power except in the case of Level 3 Speed that can kill them with just one hit, that is preferable over Power if your speed character is fully leveled up. Golden Turtles: Tougher than the Green Turtles, they can hide in their shells and be totally protected. They can only be attacked by Power formation if you catch them firing with their heads out of their shells. It is best to flip these using Speed formation's Tornado, Rocket Accel or Level 3 Homing Attack. Special Note: it is a requirement to kill them for the Power Plant Team Chaotix missions and they are in cages you normally have to open but instead use Team Blast to kill them while still in the cages, it saves lots of time. Wizards: Two different kinds, can be killed by normal means but watch out, some of these can flip over and change from one type to the other. Healing: They send out a tune that heals the other robots in the vicinity, take them out quickly so you will not have problems killing the rest. Spell Casting: Dangerous, if they catch you off guard they will cast a spell that will trap you for a short period of time and take away rings. E-2000s: These red or yellow guys are tough and shoot out very long and kind of wide beams. They have shields, but actually Flight is the best because unlike other shielded robots they can be paralyzed especially when they are firing that laser. With a level 0 or 1 flight character I like to stun them with Thundershoot then switch to power, but the best are level 2 or 3 flight characters that can kill them quite quickly. Don't use speed formation on them at all. For really tough ones consider using Team Blast on them. Hammerbots: These are the hardest enemies to kill and come in two kinds. They either swing their giant hammers around and around or try to smash you with them. Flight formation can stun the regular ones, but Speed does noting at all, these guys need to be fought with Power. Regular: Power formation is good on these guys, but stunning them with Thundershoot is good, but Thundershoot doesn't do any damage. If you do not want to bother you can just Team Blast them. Helmeted: The worst enemy in the entire game. Their helmet protects them from all types of attacks. Your best bet is to Team Blast them, even if your gauge is not full if there are a lot of them especially I find it quicker to just attack with Thundershoot some distance away to fill up the gauge or use the Team Blast glitch then Team Blast them. If you really want to attack them without Team Blast, you must first knock off the helmet with a Tornado or a level 3 Homing Attack and about the only way to safely do that is if they just fell down after spinning round and round. Then after the helmet is gone you can only attack the green spot on the top of it's head with preferably Power formation, still very tricky. Pumpkin Ghosts: Annoying, but not worth points at all and Team Blast does not affect them. RINGS: Each Ring you pick up is worth 10 points. One ring may not sound like it makes much of a difference, but it can. Think about this, a 5 ring item box is worth 50 points, 10 rings 100, 20 rings 200, so think about that before you think about ignoring rings. Also you keep the points even if you lose the ring so you don't have to worry about keeping your rings at all in score missions, only in Team Rose Extra Missions. If you have Team Sonic or Team Shadow don't forget about Light Speed Dash! Different numbers of rings you dash in a row are worth different amounts of points! If there are at least 4 rings lined up in a row I often will change to Speed Formation just to Light Speed Dash them to pick up extra points, it can make a major difference. Also remember you can Light Speed Dash circles of rings and sometimes other weird shapes. here are the bonuses: 4 or 5 rings: 200 6-9 rings: 400 10-17 rings: 800 18 or more rings: 1000 RAINBOW HOOPS: In the levels you will encounter three Rainbow colored Hoops in the air. If you go though them you get extra points of course, 1000 if the main character goes though one and 800 if one team mate makes it and 1600 more on top of that first 800 if the second one makes it, but you will not get the extra point bonus if your teammate goes though the same hoop you did. These hoops appear in different formations corresponding to what team formation you need to go though them with, here are a few examples. Three perfectly one after another, like a tube: Either Speed formation or Power formation in Fight Pose. Lined up horizontally: Power or Speed depending on how spread out they are. Lined up vertically: Flight Formation. POWER CORES: You get 100 points for each power core you pick up in a level. TEAM CHAOTIX MISSIONS: You sometimes get points for finding stuff in Team Chaotix missions. END OF LEVEL BONUSES: You get extra points for each level you have leveled up each character. You may also get a Time Bonus, but this varies by level. Casino Park and BINGO Highway have huge Time Bonuses that will make up a vast chunk of your points in those levels. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.a.1. Normal Points Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to: All Team Sonic, Dark and Rose Mission 1, Team Chaotix: Ocean Palace Mission 1 and Rail Canyon Mission 1 (Casino Park and BINGO Highway have time level like qualities, see below for more info.) All levels in this category are basic levels where you just have to get to the Goal Ring with a certain number of points, just look at the section above to refresh yourself on how to get lots of points in the level before getting to the goal ring. In most of these levels it is a little more important to get lots of points than to get a good time, however I will point out the exception of Casino Park and BINGO Highway, in those levels there is a huge time bonus, it is advantageous to get through the level as quickly as possible, so they are really semi-time levels but the score is still based on points, also I find if you go through the mission like it was a time trial you can often A-rank it also. Anyways the time bonus is sometimes pretty significant in other levels also so definitely go through pretty fast also. Also it is true that Team Chaotix Ocean Palace is sort of an item-find but since you just have to find one item at the end of the level then really it is a normal. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.a.2. Time Trial Points Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to: All Team Sonic Mission 2, Team Chaotix: Grand Metropolis Mission 2 Rail Canyon Mission 2, *Frog Forest Mission 2, *Egg Fleet Mission 2 *These Team Chaotix Mission 2s have another type also These are normal missions with a time limit! So not only do you have to get all the points but the extra stress of having to make it to the Goal Ring on time without dying make these a much harder class of missions to A rank and very often you have to get a similar amount of points as the first mission. So you better be as speedy as possible and sometimes I can barely make it with a few seconds to spare! But don't fret, it's possible and here are some tips. First go into speed formation as much as possible, that should be pretty obvious. Most of these are Sonic missions, so remember to use Light Speed Dash on all lines of rings you see in your path plus they give you extra points. You also get a pretty sizable time bonus, but well for a lot of these you will barely make it in the allotted time anyway so you are worrying about going extra fast anyway. There are several handy shortcuts in certain stages, the most important ones I will detail under the specific levels they are in later in the guide. Use Team Blast as much as possible and make sure you level up and stay leveled up so you can kill enemies quickly, Team Blast does not take time from the clock, in these missions killing enemies is usually not as important, just make sure you get through the level as quickly as possible killing enemies only when you can Team Blast or you know you can do so quickly. Another technique to use is to walk past easy to kill enemies in Power Formation so you are still going somewhere and your teammates are earning points for you. However in a few of these such as Grand Metropolis 2, you need to kill enemies also to get the A-rank, the importance of enemy killing varies by level. You might want to do these missions after you are already very familiar with the layout of the level so you are not wasting time bumbling through it. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.a.3. Team Chaotix Item Hunt Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to: Team Chaotix: Seaside Hill Missions 1&2, Grand Metropolis Missions 1&*2 Power Plant Missions 1&2, BINGO Highway Missions 1&2, Bullet Station Missions 1&2, Lost Jungle Missions 1&2, Hang Castle Missions 1&*2, Mystic Mansion Missions 1&2, Final Fortress Missions 1&2 *These Team Chaotix Mission 2s have another type also Not only do you have to go around gathering points, but in these missions there is something else to find too and the level will not end until you have found everything you have to, there is a flower at the end of the level that warps you back to the beginning. The difficulty of finding whatever varies, in the first missions where you typically have to find only some of the objects it's pretty easy, but when you have to find all of the things in a level it can get quite frustrating. The objects vary in what you have to do, sometimes you just have to pick them up and sometimes you have to destroy it but the main tip is this, if you want to A rank know where all of them are so you don't go crazy. There is a very good Team Chaotix guide on GameFAQs and I hate to admit it but I used it a couple of times, if you can't find something no shame in looking up it's location unless you are seriously determined, but don't blame me if BINGO Highway or Mystic Mansion mission 2 drives you insane, a lot of those objects are hidden very well! Here are some other good tips: Time does not matter much, in fact in some stages, BINGO Highway and Bullet Station really come to mind, there are flowers set up so you can go back to get items you missed in a particular section of the level, it doesn't hurt your chance at an A rank to go back and many items especially in the stages mentioned above are hard to get even if you do know where they are. Make sure you are still killing lots of enemies and still racking up those points, and don't die if you are trying to get an A rank even though you still have all the objects you have found already because you lose all of your points of course! And remember that in this case Team Blasts gives you more points via rings and in some of these levels you get points for finding the objects! For most of the Mission 1's you don't have to find everything in the level, but it still helps if you know where the first ones are just to make the level shorter, you can still get an A rank. The only exception is Final Fortress, I will discuss that more later. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.a.4. Team Chaotix Stealth Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to: Team Chaotix: Ocean Palace Mission 2, Frog Forest Missions 1&*2, *Hang Castle Mission 2, Egg Fleet Missions 1,*2 *These Team Chaotix Mission 2s have another type also In these missions you must not be detected! You are detected if a robot or in the case of Frog Forest a frog sees you and an exclamation point appears over their head, then you lose a life! So how do you remain unseen? This is where you get to have some fun with Espio's Invincibility, you can sneak by then undetected and still attack some with the Shriken Stars, but those stars happen to be pretty weak plus you don't get help from your team. Anyway here are some more tips: Remember while invisible don't get hit or Espio's invisibility is gone and well you get detected, stay a good distance away from robots/frogs. You might not want to even mess with the enemies, esbut you still need to kill at least some anyway because these are points scored missions and more importantly you may have to destroy some robots to advance further in the level. If the Team Blast meter is not full the safer way is to use Shriken Stars, but they are weak and slow and useless against shields. If you are brave enough and if it is appropriate you can still Homing Attack an enemy without being detected for some reason. Sometimes you can also attack from a distance with Vector's ground attack, but well for some reason it doesn't work all the time. But the hands down best way to attack is Team Blast! You can sneak up on a group of enemies and then all of the sudden hit them with Team Blast plus of course the ring bonus you get helps to fill up that meter again. Hit enemies with Team Blast as much as possible. Anyway it can get frustrating to kill enemies without being detected, you probably want to go faster through the level. This is also easier in Frog Forest where the enemies can still detect you but you just have to get past froggies... Also in half of these missions there is something else to worry about, two of them in fact are also a time trial, this could really try your patience! but just breath, relax and you will be okay. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.a.5. Team Chaotix Ring Gathering Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to: Team Chaotix: Casino Park Missions 1&2 Casino Park is different of course in that you get a huge time bonus that makes up the vast majority of your points in those levels, so in fact you should treat these missions exactly like a Team Rose Collect 200 Rings so you might want to look at that section, also you should of course read the level specific tips I give in the list section. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.b. Time Scored Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Unlike the Points Missions the Time Missions are only ranked by how much time you successfully complete the mission not how many points you get at all. The missions in this category include Team Dark's Second Mission, Destory 100 Robots, Team Rose's Second Mission, get 200 Rings and all Bosses. Bosses have their own categories, the "Egg Birds", Team Fights, Robots and the Final and Extra boss and have their own section. The great thing about these missions is this, for the stage missions you do not have to worry if you happen to die when you are attempting an A- rank. You will loose all of your points and you will not be leveled up anymore which may hinder the mission a little, but you still can get a nice time to get an A-rank. Mainly focus on your mission and try to take as many shortcuts as you can while still making the requirement, but sometimes you may want to take a slower route to gather more rings/get more robots, it is sort of a tradeoff in time vs. reward. It is a principle I studied quite a bit as a Zoology student, if animals can make those sort of decisions I am sure you can! Anyway following is more detailed tips for this type of mission. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.b.1. Team Dark Destory 100 Robots Time Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to: All Team Dark Mission 2 Basically the idea is simple, kill 100 robots as fast as you can. The bad thinkg is how long these missions are, just check out some of the times... The good thing is that with Team Dark Team Blast is on your side... After Team Blast use the 10 seconds of free time you have to your extreme advantage, run like crazy to save time later on! Also remember you can and sometimes have to hit the Back ring where the Goal Ring used to be and start again at the beginning of the stage so don't worry if you don't hit 100 the first time through. Another good hint if you feel like cheating a little is to use the Team Blast Gauge Fill Glitch explained in the Glitch section, you could theoretically use this to get through a level in very little time indeed, I have not tried it yet since I found out about this glitch not long ago. There are a few cautions I will give you about Team Blast however: First it can be inconvenient if you happen to use Team Blast in a place such as in front of a fan, in front of a door that opens, etc, you will be stuck until time unfreezes, so try not to get stuck. But there is one place where you look stuck but are not, it's a glitch where if time is frozen in front of a pole that comes out of the ground, you can still use Tornado and you will go up an invisible pole! If you are stuck then don't waste the time, attack randomly, I like to use Thundershoot to help fill up your Team Blast gauge again so you can use another time saving Team Blast sooner. Second, some robots will teleport into the area when you get near them, beware when time is frozen you might run totally past these areas and the robots will not appear, but remember in these missions it is perfectly okay to hit the back ring and the time advantage might override getting those few robots you happen to miss. Third try to use Team Blast to take out a least a few robots with it, only occasionally will I use a time freeze in another place, one good place is to freeze the rocks in Ocean Palace, but I will talk more about that in the Ocean Palace section. Note: Team Chaotix Grand Metropolis kind of resembles this mission, but it is still more of an object-hunt mission and points matter, but there are similarities in how it is played. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.b.2. Team Rose Collect 200 Rings Time Missions: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Applies to: All Team Rose Mission 2 (Team Chaotix Casino Park Missions 1&2) Like all Team Rose missions this is simple and straight forward, just find 200 rings as fast as you can. Unlike other missions you might want to avoid enemies in this one just so you do not risk loosing rings, attack them with long-range attacks like Thundershoot and Big's attacks. Anyway you want to level up Cream anyway because level three Flight Characters add a ring-attracting component to Thundershoot so you can much more easily gather rings, so touch checkpoints and use Team Blast sometimes. Also get those nice Shields to protect yourself, with Team Rose you automatically get one an invincibility for a short time too so yeah use Team Blast whenever possible. An often looked over source of rings are the springs that have three stars, light all three stars up, I actually like Thundershooting them and you get a reward, most of the time it is 5 rings, they can make a lot of difference. And of course you want to avoid dying because if you die half-way into the level you will loose all rings but keep the time you have already gathered which is not good at all in this particular situation. But trust me, none of these missions are very hard, you should have no problem except maybe in a couple of the levels like Power Plant which I even wrote a walkthrough for. (Team Chaotix Casino Park mission 1 and 2 are points scored, not time but there are so many points awarded for time bonus they should be treated just the same as these missions) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.c. Bosses: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ There are 7 bosses spaced out at the end of each similar two stages. The first 6 are sore of in a pattern of what "type" they are and are sort of fought the same, while the Final and Extra Boss have their own strategies. Most of these bosses are fought pretty much the same way no matter what team you are using, but I will sometimes give team specific tips. The Extra Boss has 4 different sections fought by the 4 different teams. The main thing to remember about a lot of these bosses is this, there may be a lot of other robots and a lot of other things around you to get/attack, but often you want to completely ignore and go right for the boss if you want to A-rank them. Here are the basic strategies for each boss, instead of putting them in order the first 6 are categorized because of their similarity. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.c.1. The "Egg Birds": ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ This category includes the first boss, the Egg Hawk and the fourth boss, the Egg Albatross. The Egg Hawk only has one machine you have to defeat, but the Egg Albatross had three separate stages and the last one is in fact the Egg Hawk again, just a little harder. I use the same strategy for all teams, but the Egg Hawk and Egg Albatross do have slightly different strategies, the main thing is that these are not Team Blast bosses, and that you need to ignore all the robots and other junk around you. EGG HAWK: First the Egg Hawk flies kind of backwards along a straight path firing at you, but then it gets to a wider circular areas where it stops and comes down to the ground and spins around, the "Rotary Attack". Ignore all the robots and stuff you see. What you do is when the Egg Hawk is flying away from you make sure you are in Speed Formation, run and catch up to it then just Homing Attack like crazy. When it reaches the circular platform then switch to power formation. With Team Sonic and Dark use the ground attack to punch at it, with Rose and Chaotix you will want to jump and press B button to attack from above. You should destroy it before it even has a chance to take off again. EGG ALBATROSS: This time this contraption has three parts and it always travels away from you between platforms connected by rails, the main thing is to attack with nothing but Homing Attack. Try to ignore all the other robots again. In the first stage if you are using Homing Attack on the front of it it will do no damage at all. So instead when the boss begins run to the back of it between the wings that have the cannons mounted on it, it will stop momentarily and you should easily get to it, and use Homing Attack at the back of it. When you Homing Attack you will creep forward, if you get too far forward where you can't damage it them carefully jump off when it is safe and go to the back again, but if you are careful and keep pressing up you should be able to stay in the safe spot at the back of the machine hitting it till the first stage is destroyed. Stage 2 has a big propeller on it, you can just Homing Attack this and stay with the machine constantly Homing Attack till it is destroyed. Stage 3 is the Egg Hawk again, it does not stop, so just run up to it and Homing Attack again till it is gone. Some people use Thundershoot to slow it down, but I don't find this necessary, follow these instructions and you should be fine. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.c.2. Team Battles: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The two team battles are boss number 2 and 5. There are two different platforms and the second one is a little smaller and the team you are fighting during the second battle will use Team Blast pretty early, but it should not matter what platform or team you are fighting. Yep, you might be fighting a different team, but this is in fact the easiest to A-rank. Basically what I do is start attacking immediately with Tornados, hopefully this should send them flying off early which you have to anyway to A-rank, if they don't well just try again. You should have no trouble with this. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.c.3. Robots: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ This category is boss 3, Robot Carnival and boss 5 Robot Storm. Basically Eggman sends wave after wave of robots for you to destroy. Here are some good tips: Remember the best way to kill each type of enemy and use it! Refer to the part of the guide where I talk about destroying specific enemies, but it can be frustrating when especially at the end of Robot Storm he just sends out tons of crazy enemies at once. Also pay attention to what characters are leveled up or not, it can make a difference of how fast you destroy them. Don't worry about points, this can actually mess you up, just worry about killing everything very quick. The best attack especially at the end of Robot Storm is to use Power Formation combos. Not only are you actually invincible when using a combo, but you will send a fiery rain of destruction on the stage, killing enemies as soon as they appear and is also a way to fill up Team Blast when in a dangerous situation especially with hammerbots. And the best of all is to use Team Blast and to remember how to take advantage of them, also if you jump on the spring at the beginning of Robot Carnival you can hit a balloon that will fill up your meter right away. Here is a quick overview of taking advantage of Team Blast after effects for each team: Team Sonic: You can use Light Attack for 10 seconds afterwards, still enough time to attack more enemies when they start appearing, I like to send Sonic out when if flight formation, just pressing B and watching Sonic automatically kill the next wave of enemies, Light Attack can even kill hammerbots. Team Dark: The Time Freeze may seem annoying at first because it doesn't seem to help fill up Team Blast again, but don't let the frozen time go to waste. Attack especially in flight formation to help fill up that Team Blast bar again or even use the Team Blast glitch, especially at the end of Robot Storm you will defiantly want your Team Blast, if you really get stuck remember to use Power formation to fill up your meter. Team Rose: Basically just use your invincibility and shield to your advantage, but Team Rose's is not as hard as the other team's anyway. Team Chaotix: VERY great, you can horribly use the Ring advantage and usually fill up your Team Blast meter immediately again after using it! If is not quite full remember you still have 10 seconds to start killing the next wave of enemies and getting more rings. I have topped 999 rings with these bosses using this team. Also not the special note I have for this team regarding the cannon part of Robot Storm, don't use the cannon, fly over there and use Thundershoot, you can't reach those robots with Team Blast! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.c.4. Final Boss, the Egg Emperor: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Definitely one of the hardest bosses, basically the same technique for all 4 teams, but with slight differences and the interesting fact is that it is pretty easy with Team Dark if you do it right and hardest with Team Sonic. The Egg Emperor has several attacks. You are either on a straight away platform and he is going away from you, or he is in the middle of the circular platform and is attacking you while cannons and other robots will try to mess with you. If he is kind of far away, he will send out energy slashes with his sword, usually easy to dodge but can be devastating if they get you when jumping to the next platform. But if he is too far away, he will charge you, pretty muck impossible to avoid unless you go into Power Formation and do a combo attack. A little closer and he will send out missiles, pretty easy to avoid. Anyway here is the basic strategy: First part in speed formation, make sure you hit the very first level-up boxes. Keep up with him so he can't charge you. When going to the first to second straightaway, you will see a balloon floating there, I like using flight to make sure I get it, it is another Flight power core, you definitely want your flight character to be level 2. Then before you get to the circular platform you can use the star flap thing in Power Formation to get a power powerup, but not necessary. Now he is in the center of the platform. Now your first mission is to take out the cannons, they will hurt you later on usually if you don't and they contain items. Sometimes after this your Team Blast meter will be already full, then attack. If it is not go up to Metal Madness and start Thundershooting till it is full and you can Team Blast. Thundershoot slows him down and he can't attack nearly as much. You can take care of the other robots also if they are bother you, Team Blast should destroy them for you. He might still be able to then get away then you have to chase him again, make sure he is not going to hit you while crossing the gap between the circular area and the next straight away, and now that your flight character is leveled up you can even try to attack him on the run and I often will be able to use Team Blast again before he reaches the next circular area. He should be almost gone or gone when you get to circular area #2. Here are some team-specific tips: Team Sonic: The hardest team, the Team Blast after-effect may not help, he will probably run away again before you can finally stop him. The robots in the circular area are shielded so you can't kill them with Thundershoot, I try to ignore them and let Team Blast take care of them. Team Dark: Easy because there is even a glitch that happens sometimes. Team Blast is very important in this case, so you might want to even have the gauge full before you get to the first platform, what helps is killing the red robots one the straight-aways, they kind of get in your way anyway. Using Team Blast freezes time making it very easy to attack of course and often he will die just after using Team Blast once then continuing to attack with Thundershoot even though you should have not even taken that many points from him. But beware, when he gets down to very low health with this team he just charges continuously, so the only way to kill him is to switch to power and attack into nothingness till your Team Blast meter fills up, then use Team Blast as he is BACKING AWAY from you so he is not protected by his shield, then attack while his is frozen, but using the strategy above it should not get to this point. The robots in the circular areas are a couple of E-2000's and the beams can be very annoying but they do not move much, I take care of them with Team Blast. Team Rose: Easy because there are 20 ring item boxes in three of the cannons and a shield the fourth, you should have the Team Blast gauge filled up after you get these rings, then he should be almost dead and you can take advantage of your invincibility, finish him off with Thundershoot, if he moves off to the next area aggressively pursue him. Team Chaotix: Ehh, pretty average but beware, the robots that are in the circular areas are capture type, have Vector kill them as soon as possible. Also two of the cannons contain tough golden shield robots, instead of killing them right away let Team Blast get them for added rings. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 4.c.5. Extra Boss, Metal Madness and Metal Overlord ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ In order to unlock the Extra battles, you must first get all 7 Chaos Emeralds from the Special Stages of every second stage, the stage before the bosses. Then because it is easy to miss, go to story mode, then arrow over to the right past Team Chaotix and you will see Last Story. It will appear in Challenge mode after beating it once. Anyway the fight is broken up into 4 parts, one for each team, the first three being Metal Madness and the last being Metal Overlord you fight with a Super Team Sonic. Anyway if you die in one of the four parts you will start over again at the beginning of that particular part so you can die and still A-rank it. The only problem with dying during the Metal Madness part is the fact that how fill the Team Blast meter is and rings are actually transferred to the next team once you defeat a part of it. Also remember that how many lives you have in each part is determined by how many lives that particular team has already earned so if you are inexperienced make sure you have plenty of lives for each team. The truth is however like most Extra Bosses in Sonic games it is actually not that hard, trust me if you follow the instructions I have here you will make it well under the 7 minute time limit. METAL MADNESS, TEAM ROSE PART: Metal Madness' Attacks and other info: The spot you hit in order to damage Metal Madness indicates what attacks you CAN'T use against him. In Team Rose's part the spot is always blue so you cannot use speed formation, Amy, to attack him at all. Cream cannot level up very well, so basically you should attack only with Big. Metal Madness' attacks are pretty basic and include a tail swipe across the platform, and fiery attack across the platform and a spike attack where you have to avoid the spikes that come at you. General Technique: The easiest part of course. Immediately switch to Power formation and stay there. Grab a few rings and break open one of the two wooden boxes on the back of the platform, they contain Team Blast Item Boxes. Get one of them and then walk over to the front of the platform, the large red spot in general is always the best place to attack from, and perform a Team Blast to really deliver a heavy blow. Attack the enemy with Big using his B button ground attack shooting Amy and Cream at Metal Madness, jump after shooting Amy and Cream so you do not go into a Combo Attack which does no good in this situation, you will be invincible of course so you just have to attack, jump, attack. When you loose your invincibility he should already be mostly finished. Go to the other box and get the other Team Blast Item Box, but DO NOT USE TEAM BLAST AGAIN! Team Blast can be passed onto the next team in this boss, if you use it now you will just waste it. Instead go back to the front of the platform, it should only be a few more hits and you will be on to the next part. METAL MADNESS, TEAM CHAOTIX PART: Metal Madness' Attacks and other info: He attacks the same as in the previous part with one added devastating attack, he will send spikes at you that can freeze a character in the team and trap them. If all three team members are trapped you lose a life, so if a team member gets trapped attack the ice dome and free them as soon as possible. The spot on Metal Madness in this part alternates between red and yellow, when it is red no Power attacks, Yellow no flight. That means that you could attack with Espio the entire time, but that is too slow, alternate between Charmy and Vector. There is also a cannon toward the back of the platform in this part, you could use it to attack and you do at one point in the instructions I give, but in general you do no want to use it to attack, but see the balloons? They do contain useful level-ups. General Technique: Team Blast will have been passed on to Team Chaotix, but before using it first you need to level up Charmy to level 2. First change to Flight formation and head for the cannon, it will fire you out into the air and you will hit a balloon above the platform that will level you up. The second balloon up there levels up Speed, I never seen the need to get it. Then change to Power Formation and get in the cannon again, this time you will have to aim the cannon. See the balloons in the air off the back of the platform? First aim the cannon at the left balloon, it contains another Flight power core. You could get the second balloon, a Power power core, but instead I then aim the cannon right at the spot on Metal Madness which is yellow to start of with and fire the last two shots getting a couple of hits in and doing that makes sure the characters land safely back on the platform. Now go to the front of the platform, the red spot again, and Team Blast him. After the Team Blast the spot is usually red, now just keep attacking, when it is red attack with Thundershoot, when it changes to yellow switch to Vector, on the red spot, and use his ground B button attack to shoot Espio and Charmy at him. Keep switching like this, when attacking with Charmy you might want to fly up in the air to avoid stuff. If the ice gets you then free your teammates. Anyway I found it a little fast in the end if you actually take your time and fill up your Team Blast meter a little more at this point, because a full Team Blast Meter does help with the Team Dark part a lot, but you can get by with it at least half-full. METAL MADNESS, TEAM DARK PART: Metal Madness' Attacks and other info: His attacks are the same as in the Team Chaotix part, but he dishes them out faster and the platform is a little smaller. This time around the spot alternates between all three colors, but I still alternate between flight and power, attacking with flight when the spot is blue or red and power when the spot is yellow. General Technique: The Team Blast meter from the Chaotix part is about half-way full if you kill the Team Chaotix part most efficently, if it is full them it is a little easier at first but in the long run it is actually a little better if you do not come into this part with the meter perfectly full. First level up your characters, the metal boxes contain Power of course, the wooden boxes are Speed and if you fly up in the air you will find three balloons containing flight of course. Anyway you want to have your Team Blast meter full, so if it is just use it, or fill it up, but actually make sure you don't almost kill him or kill him outright before you use Team Blast, this saves time. You might just want to fill up the meter faster, for example blowing away the spike pillars with Rocket Accel is a good thing. Once that Team Blast meter is full it is great because time is frozen, then you need to alternate between Rouge when the spot is blue and red and Omega when it turns yellow, to attack with Omega you have to jump first before pressing B to fire Shadow and Rouge at him, this is harder than attacking with Big or Vector, the red spot on the platform is the best position again to do this from. Even if he is not dead after you pounded him during that 10 seconds just alternate between Rouge and Omega still till he is gone. If you are really good then these first three parts will be done in about 2 minutes. METAL OVERLORD, TEAM SONIC (SUPER) PART: Actually not that hard, all you have to do is fill up your Team Blast gauge and use Team Blast 5 times to defeat him. The only way you can die is if you run out of rings, in this battle unlike previous super battles you lose one ring every 2 seconds which is good. Anyways Metal Overlord has about three main attacks that are countered by Speed, Power and Flight. Countering the attacks with the correct formation will help fill up your Team Blast meter and make sure you hit the balloons containing rings also. Anyway there are a couple of different techniques. If you have a very nice time from the first three parts, the simplest way to do this part is a Tails only technique, just stay in Flight formation and keep Thundershooting to fill up your meter ignoring Metal Overlord's attacks, often you can do this and still get within the 7 minute time limit and get an A-rank. But the battle will go a lot faster if you counter the attacks correctly, here is how: The Crystal Attack is countered with Speed, it is best to just Homing Attack the large crystals to break them. You can press B at the right time and use Light Attack on them, but this does indeed burn up rings and I see no point in doing this. The Spike Attack is countered with Flight, just keep thundershooting the spikes. Anyway toward the end of the attack the spikes will start to freeze, if a teammate is trapped make sure to rescue them. The Battleship is countered with Power, when you see him go beneath the clouds change to power and fill the area with fireballs with the B button attack. You get a nice boost in Team Blast meter by destroying it. Sometimes especially if the fight goes on for a while Metal Overlord will freeze time for 20 seconds, he can't hurt you but well you end up losing 10 rings if he does this. Don't forget you can also use the Team Blast glitch here too. Anyway if you follow these instructions you should be well under the 7 minute requirement. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5. Missions List: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ This is a nice long part of the guide. It covers all the stages/bosses in order, all the boss info in contained in the first part of this guide. Each stage is followed by the team names, and under each team name is the in game description of both team missions which is followed by type of mission, score/time requirements for the mission and in some cases specific things to keep in mind when trying to get an A rank, but often I will put nothing here with means to just follow the general strategy for that specific type of mission. The bosses are greatly covered in the first section, only very brief info is contained here. Note: Far from complete, and as you can see I have not even added the level overviews yet, look through it and you will get an idea what this guide will be, especially the Team Rose second mission walkthrough for Power Plant and the info on Team Chaotix second mission for Rail Canyon which is one of the hardest of them all, I will add more info on Rail Canyon about the general shortcuts later. If you have any suggestions on what should be in this section you can e-mail them to me. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.a. Stage 1: Seaside Hill ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: The first level is the easiest of course. It's music is a remix from Sonic Adventure's Emerald Coast. Anyway the most annoying missions for this level are Team Chaotix's find 20 hermit crabs, they did hide a few of them very well, and Team Sonic's time trial is sort of tight but really not that bad if you focus more on getting through than on enemies, but besides that you should not have any problems A-ranking this level at all. TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Head for the whale island! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 60,000 points Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 5 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 50,000 points and 5 minute completion Special Notes: 5 minutes is tight for this level, but you should be find if you focus on getting through it instead of on enemies, and there are a lot of light speed dashes, you should make it with more than enough points. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Get to the whale island! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 70,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 7 minutes Special Notes: A good amount of time, only about 100 enemies in the level, you will probably miss some of them in the cart part but it is perfectly okay to hit the back ring at the end. TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Get to the other side of the sea! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 48,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 2 minutes 30 seconds TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Find 10 hermit crabs! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points and 10 hermit crabs Mission 2: Find all 20 hermit crabs! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 35,000 points and 20 hermit crabs Special Notes: A few of them are very well hidden, a few the harder ones include the very first one that is near a 1up off the side of the cliff near where the first obvious crab is and a couple hidden under movable ruins and breakable blocks. Consult the guide if necessary. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.b. Stage 2: Ocean Palace ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Escape from the ancient ruins! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 50,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 5 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points and 5 minute completion Special Notes: Kind of tight, focus on getting through not extra points. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Flee from the ancient ruins! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 90,000 points Special Notes: Kind of hard for some reason, make sure to get as many points as possible in level and use Team Blast to save time. Also pretty soon after the first checkpoint there is a choice of paths, fly up to the left or break a block then a lower speed path, go the fly path and kill the robots up there for more points, at the turtle part more parts are found if you get in the cannon in Fly Formation. Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 5 minutes Special Notes: 5 minutes is tight, in order to make it you need to use Team Blast as much as possible except in front of fans of course them run like heck killing robots along the way, and go the fly path instead of the lower path were described in mission 1, and get in the cannon in fly formation at the turtle part. If you do that and get all other robots in the level you should make it under 5 minutes and have 100 robots a little before you reach the rock part at the end. TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Find the ruins floating on the sea! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 5 minutes 30 seconds TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Rescue the Chao trapped in the palace! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 50,000 points Special Notes: Only one item to find at the end so treat as a normal level. Mission 2: Rescue Chao without being detected by the enemies! Type: Team Chaotix Stealth A-rank Requirement: 43,000 points without being detected by robots Special Notes: Not a hard stealth mission, definitely use Team Blast to kill all the enemies guarding the Chao at the end, fill up your Team Blast meter beforehand if you have to. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.c. Boss 1: EGG HAWK ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Egg Bird A-rank Requirement: 1 minute ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.d. Stage 3: Grand Metropolis ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Rescue the city under the control of Eggman! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 60,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 5 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 58,000 points and 5 minute completion Special Notes: The vast majority of this level is Speed Formation and the level shortcuts are mainly catching Light Speed Dashes across gaps, definitely level up Sonic. You get a lot of points from Light Speed Dashing rings and 5 minutes is enough time, but the points for an A-rank for some reason can be elusive, killing enemies is more important in this time trial than most, make sure to light speed dash all the rings you can and kill enemies you see also. You have to master the Light Speed Dash and Homing Attack to do this one well. To give you an idea, I spead through this level in only 4 minutes and ended up with 57,000 points, a B Rank, then I went slower killing enemies only making it with about 20 seconds to spare and had over 70,000 points. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Crush the city under the control of Eggman! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 65,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 8 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Stroll through the modern city! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 50,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 3 minutes 45 seconds Special Notes: This one is kind of tight, but if you get the rings that you see and continue on quickly 3 minutes seems possible. Right after you encounter the first enemy there are a couple of Fly monitors and a boost rings, instead of hitting the boost ring go to the area below that where you will find a cage guarded by robots containing 20 rings and also other rings including a 3 star spring. There is one more important cage with 20 rings later on surrounded by enemies out in the open. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Clear out the enemies in the city! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 65,000 points with all 85 robots destroyed Special Notes: Extreme Team Blastage and Ringage because of Team Blastage! There are a lot of robots, but all of them are pretty darn obvious and you will get so many rings from Team Blast you should defiantly be able to keep that meter full, not hard at all, make sure your cannon aim is on target when you get to the ones you have to kill with the cannon. Mission 2: Clear out the enemies within 8 minutes! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt/Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 60,000 points with all 85 robots destroyed in 8 minutes Special Notes: 8 minutes is a good amount of time and you should make it if you are quick at killing enemies, treat pretty much like the above mission but you have to do it in one go through the level, Team Blastage!!! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.e. Stage 4: Power Plant ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Escape from the chaotic plant! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points Special Notes: The energy tank part at the end is quite rough, it just takes practice in getting through the various parts quickly to avoid the rising lava. Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 9 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points and 9 minute completion Special Notes: No drastic shortcuts. A lot of enemies to kill to get to further sections and you should get enough points from that, ignore most other enemies. In the two rooms with gray walls that are multi-layered the high path is much quicker than the low path where you will just have to encounter more enemies you have to kill to go further. Pick speed over flight. The first part when you are the rising platform should be done in Flight Formation, the second part mostly in Flight but change to Speed so you can Light Speed Dash the spirals of rings for lots of points. Same note about the energy tank as for mission 1. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Escape from the chaotic plant! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 72,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 7 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Escape from the energy plant! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 3 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: This one is difficult actually and a lot of the rings are not that obvious, so here is a walkthrough, almost entirely in Flight formation: For the very first part which is the rising platform you want to be in flight formation. The first three balloons are all flight power cores so it is fine if you just get one or two, but for the next two circles of balloons fly up and hit the boosters so you have a chance of popping them all, there are a total of 30 rings in the balloons. When you get to the top circle around the room to pick up rings and Cream should be level three. When you get to the top kill the enemies in Flight formation and the blue path will appear. Get the rings on the path and make sure to jump and hit the balloon before you fall lower. Now after that blue path and you are spit out of the dome you will see a speed and fly choice, pick fly so you can pop the balloons in the boost rings and even get an extra 10 in the air before you fall back down on another blue path. At the checkpoint ignore both the boxes beside it that only contain power cores and the boost rings and balloon you see above, hit the speed pads on the floor grabbing the line of rings along the way. In the area you are in now first thundershoot like crazy to activate the 3 star bumper for more rings and to destroy the enemies, when the enemies are gone a cage opens and you get a nice 1 up as a reward, also grab the rings on the floor below where the enemies where. Now go up the blue path up the wall and you will be by another blue path and you will see a Special Key in a cage. Go along the blue path and grab the rings, you will find two 3 star springs, activate them with thundershoot to get 10 rings but don't bounce on them, then go back to where that Special Key is. Now fly up and hit the booster above the key to get another cool 20 rings from balloons in the air. Now land near the weight and use Thundershoot to safely gather the rings on the ground then fly over the weight and go up to the next area, don't worry about the 3 star spring, it isn't rings. Now carefully avoid fireballs when going up the next blue path but don't go too high up afterwards and hit the rainbow hoops, go lower and kill the enemies before going uphill to get a few rings there. In the next room with the turtle, use Team Blast to make it easier, then break the boxes in Power formation and get your meter filled back up from the boxes to the left and 10 rings in the boxes to the ring and also grab the 6 rings on the floor before changing back to Flight formation and going up the blue path that appeared when you killed the turtle. Go through the next room killing the enemies, grab the handle and land on the floor near the blue path going up the wall but be careful of fireballs, when going up the next blue path there are rings you can gather. At the top of the blue path you will see a target, try to hit it off-center so you are rewarded rings instead of a 1-up or Team Blast. In the next room gather the rings on the floor, if you did the first part perfectly there should just be enough rings to get 200, if not kill the enemy so the pillar goes up, there will be boxes you have to thundershoot before you can continue on. After the next checkpoint go down instead of up in the huge area and you will find a huge amount of rings on the floor, if you are not to 200 after that forget it. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Defeat the 3 gold turtle robots! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points with 3 gold turtles destroyed To save time get the first three turtles because there is a huge amount of level between the first three and the last two. Mission 2: Defeat the 5 gold turtle robots! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points with 5 gold turtles destroyed ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.f. Boss 2: TEAM Battle #1 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Team Battle A-rank Requirement: 30 seconds Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.g. Stage 5: Casino Park ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Dash through the giant theme park! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points Special Notes: This level treat as a time trial! To A-rank ignore playing on the pinball tables, get through as fast as possible, see the above section to know how to get off each pinball table as soon as possible and kill lots of enemies. Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 5 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points and 5 minute completion Special Notes: Same notes as mission 1 but even more urgent, you defiantly need to scoot out of the pinball tables, this one can be rough to do under 5 minutes if you accidentally get stuck on one of the tougher tables! You need to be very fast and kill enemies with maximum points bonus to A- rank. I barely A-ranked this one truthfully. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Blast through the giant theme park! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 50,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 10 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Play the giant pinball tables! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 35,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 4 minutes Special Notes: Easy, you will probably easily get them before you even get to the second pinball machine. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Win 200 Rings! Type: Team Chaotix Gather Rings A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points and 200 rings Special Notes: Mission 2: Win 500 Rings! Type: Team Chaotix Gather Rings A-rank Requirement: 14,000 points and 500 rings Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.h. Stage 6: BINGO Highway ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Blast down the high speed slides! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points Special Notes: Make sure you do not die, but easier said than done with the awful BINGO slides. Like in Casino Park don't get hung up on pinball machines, but a little less important in this case. Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 6 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points and 6 minute completion Special Notes: This one is just plain awful, not point wise, but time and dying wise!!!!! Not only is it hard to make it through without dying because of falling off of the BINGO slides, but 6 minutes is very, very tight in this level. Major level shortcuts, look at the above list, take every single one you can. Kill enemies only if you have to or with Team Blast, unfortunately you have to kill several enemies to get to other sections of the level. BINGO slides are awful, all I can say is stay away from the gaps!!! All I can say is practice makes perfect. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Try the high speed slides! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 42,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 12 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Try the BINGO slides! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 35,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 3 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: Easy, especially if you get to the BINGO slide as fast as possible and win BINGOS. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Collect 10 casino chips! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points with 10 chips Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect all 20 casino chips! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 20,000 points with 20 chips Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.i. Boss 3: ROBOT CARNIVAL ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Robot Destroy A-rank Requirement: Team Sonic: 2 minutes 30 seconds Team Dark: 3 minutes Team Rose: 1 minute 30 seconds Team Chaotix: 3 minutes ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.j. Stage 7: Rail Canyon ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Head for the terminal station! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 35,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 5 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 35,000 points and 5 minute completion Special Notes: TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Find the entrance to Eggman's base! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 10 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Go beyond the rails! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 38,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 4 minutes Special Notes: Pretty easy, get 3 star springs and break stuff open and change rails if you see rings on another rail later on. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Infiltrate the terminal station! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points Special Notes: Not that hard actually if you know how to work the switch puzzles at the end or completely go past them, look at mission 2 if you want to know how. It is mission 2 that will give your nightmares... Mission 2: Infiltrate the terminal station within 6 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 34,000 points and 6 minute completion Special Notes: EXTREMELY hard to do in 6 minutes! One of the last emblems I got let alone A rank! Take ALL shortcuts, don't worry about killing things but definitely get rainbow hoops and look over the handy shortcut list for this level, even the crazy ones, but I will warn you even with all shortcuts you will have like 15 seconds left if you are lucky! Here are a couple more tips: Level up Charmy, you will especially need him in the end when doing the switch part which you should thundershoot, that is if you do the switch part, there is a way around it and most shortcuts are flight formation and you want maximum flight time if you goof and you have to fly to get back to rails. Fast like crazy! Stick to the fastest rails, even switch rails if you see a booster on one beside you. Team Chaotix specific shortcuts: At the part blocked by lasers, instead of bothering with the switches use Leaf Swirl and become invisible to get past the lasers then switch to fly and use Charmy to open the flower. Shortcut the switch part at the end: To totally bypass the switches when you get into the puzzle area at first just go straight on the rails and go past the first switch that is surrounded by the train going around in a circle, get into Flight Formation. You will go up a hill and at the top slow down, you will be under a sign pointing up, this is where the blue laser rail starts. Now jump off and go to your right and you will find the rails that you would normally have to activate a switch to get to. It is sort and curves around, SLOW, you don't want to go far. Look ahead and you will see the area that the second red rail would have connected you to, it is right behind the sign that points to the right. Jump for the sign, the camera will change angle on you but don't let that bother you, see the entrance to the tunnel, the stuff sort of sticking out behind the sign? They are very solid, land on them, then jump and fly till you find a yellow and black striped platform, then from there fly up to the rails that lead to the second switch puzzle which I explain below. Last switch puzzle: You can either just jump to the right in Flight Formation to get to the rails leading to the end without worrying which switch combination to use to get to the end, or you can remember a combo that works, here is one that does even though it might freak you out: Hit the first two stitches on the middle rail, then switch to the left rail and stay there, you will look like you are going toward doom, but you end up hitting a switch again that gets you the correct laser rails. There is probably an easier one, but I usually use the above trick and haven't really researched this much. This is one that definitely takes a lot of skill, know the level extremely well before attempting. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.k. Stage 8: Bullet Station ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Destroy Eggman's base! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 6 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points and 6 minute completion Special Notes: TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Annialate Eggman's base! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 55,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 11 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Find Eggman's base! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 38,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 4 minutes Special Notes: Kind of difficult and there are only about 200 rings in the entire level, I probably should write a walkthrough, but for now all I will say is to get rings on rails, make sure to pop all balloons in the cannon part, there are a lot of rings in boxes and capsules, in fact destroy the capsules on the train for 30 rings, get 3 star springs and at the last cannon go in it in power formation and fire the cannon slightly off-center so you bounce up just right off the springs to get over the fence for those last few rings. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Destroy 30 capsules! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points with 30 capsules destroyed Special Notes: Mission 2: Destroy all the capsules! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 26,000 points with 50 capsules destroyed Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.l. Boss 4: EGG ALBATROSS ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Egg Bird A-rank Requirement: 2 minutes Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.m. Stage 9: Frog Forest ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Get through the forest where the wild animals live! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 35,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 5 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 38,000 points and 5 minute completion Special Notes: TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Get through the forest where the wild animals live! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 14 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Explore the forest where the frogs live! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 3 minutes 30 seconds TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Get through the forest without being detected by the frogs! Type: Team Chaotix Stealth A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points without being detected by frogs Special Notes: Mission 2: Hurry and get through without being detected by the frogs! Type: Team Chaotix Stealth/Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 42,000 points without being detected by frogs in 4 minutes Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.n. Stage 10: Lost Jungle ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Venture through the deepest part of the jungle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 6 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 30,000 points and 6 minute completion Special Notes: Even with ALL the level shortcuts it will be very close to the time limit, so definitely read the shortcut section. Ignore all the hammerbots except for the two in the room that unlock the cage with a spring in it you need and you should Team Blast those two, the hammerbots just waste precious time including the first one, you really don't need that shield in that cage that bad. If you just kill only occasionally and light speed dash every place it is possible you should have an A rank if you can get to the end without dying. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Explore the deepest part of the jungle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 14 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Escape the jungle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 42,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 3 minutes 45 seconds Special Notes: Pretty easy if you ignore most enemies, don't fight the hammerbot at the beginning and don't bother killing the spiked flying enemies especially. Make sure to pop all balloons, use thundershoot if you have to. There are a couple of semi-hidden 20 ring item boxes, soon after checkpoint #2 you will kill 2 capture robots, this opens a semi-hidden cage to the right of there with 20 rings inside, and shortly before the next checkpoint after that in the area that is sort of walled in is another 20 rings, when you see the 3 star ring you bounce up to get higher look behind you and you will see it. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Rescue 10 Chao! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points with 10 chao Special Notes: Mission 2: Rescue 20 Chao! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 32,000 points with 20 chao Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.o. Boss 5: TEAM Battle #2 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Team Battle A-rank Requirement: 30 seconds Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.p. Stage 11: Hang Castle ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Infiltrate the mysterious castle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 6 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points and 6 minute completion Special Notes: TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Enter the spooky castle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 65,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 11 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Find the haunted castle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 3 minutes 30 seconds TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Get the keys inside the haunted castle! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 35,000 points with 10 keys Special Notes: A couple of keys are pretty well hidden, know where they are before trying to A-rank and especially for the next part. Mission 2: Collect the keys without being detected by the enemies! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt/Stealth A-rank Requirement: 23,000 points with 10 keys without being detected by robots Special Notes: Not that bad actually, sneak up on most of the enemies while invisible then kill with Team Blast, the keys are obvious because you had to find them all for the first mission anyway. Ignore the very first enemy guarding the switch and the first search light robot, a lot of enemies can't or very hard to attack without being detected because Espio can't kill them, sneak past them, start Team Blasting large groups of enemies later on. Near the end of the level right after you pull the two switches to open the door to the room where the key is behind a breakable wall, you want to use Team Blast right up against this breakable wall so you kill not only the three enemies in that room but also the dangerous searchlight robot in the hallway. In the tower area use Team Blast where the switch is that flips the level so you kill all four enemies in that area at one. Pumpkin ghosts do not count as enemies. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.q. Stage 12: Mystic Mansion ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Escape from the haunted castle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 36,000 points Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 7 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 36,000 points and 7 minute completion Special Notes: No shortcuts, ignore enemies you don't have to kill to continue on to the next part of the level, get the 20 rings before the trolley and pop the balloons in the trolley part and if you don't die you should get there within 7 minutes with enough points from in level and time bonus but with less than 30 seconds remaining, but be careful you do the alter part correctly and stuff it can be frustrating going through it one shot without dying. TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Escape from the crazy castle! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 58,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 11 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Escape from the haunted house! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 45,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 3 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: Barely 200 rings, but it is a short level. Not that bad if you pop all of the balloons during the cart part, and at the end the balloons on the platform are worth 10 rings each and there are balloons in all three skeleton positions which means if you are brave enough especially when the skeleton is at the hardest position to fly to the platforms (right switch) if you get the rings in all three positions that's 60 rings, nothing to laugh at. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Blow out all the red torches! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 25,000 points with all 60 red torches blown out Special Notes: Mission 2: Blow out all the blue torches! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 20,000 points with all 46 blue torches blown out Special Notes: The blue torches are a lot harder to find of course, you might want to consult a guide. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.r. Boss 6: ROBOT STORM ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Robot Defeat A-rank Requirement: Team Sonic: 4 minutes Team Dark: 6 minutes Team Rose: 2 minutes Team Chaotix: 4 minutes Team Chaotix, when you get to the cannon part where you are suppose to shoot at flying enemies from the cannon in Power Formation, instead switch to fly formation, fly over toward the enemies and just hover there pressing the A button and attacking with the B button at the same time till they are all dead. Then just fly over to the boost rings that were behind the enemies and hit them to get back to the platform, it is a lot quicker that way. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.s. Stage 13: Egg Fleet ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Get to Eggman's flagship! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 20,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 9 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 30,000 points and 9 minute completion Special Notes: TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Land on Eggman's flagship! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 30,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 13 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Find Eggman's fleet! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 5 minutes Special Notes: The main issue here is making sure not to lose rings, there are plenty of rings in the level, but make sure you have a shield and stuff so you do not get hit. A good start is to start off the level on the upper path, you start the level on a rail, jump right at the end of the rail and just keep A pressed and you will go into propeller hammer and hopefully hit some rainbow rings that will take you to high platforms, a good area with lots of rings, but anyway if you keep from getting hit you should make it well within the time limit. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Infiltrate the flagship without being detected by the enemies! Type: Team Chaotix Stealth A-rank Requirement: 33,000 points without being detected by robots Special Notes: Mission 2: Hurry and get to the flagship without being detected by enemies! Type: Team Chaotix Stealth/Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 30,000 points without being detected by robots in 6 minutes Special Notes: Sounds awful, but 6 minutes is plenty of time to get through this level very easy compaired to something like Rail Canyon second mission for this team. Especially easy if you Team Blast the robots you have to in order to continue on to the next area, fill up the Team Blast gauge before killing your first group of enemies by thundershooting away from them. Also know how to get past the couple of little puzzles in this level. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.t. Stage 14: Final Fortress ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overview of Level: TEAM SONIC: Mission 1: Destroy the flagship's core! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 62,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Get to the Goal Ring within 9 minutes! Type: Time Trial Points A-rank Requirement: 40,000 points and 9 minute completion Special Notes: TEAM DARK: Mission 1: Get to the core where Eggman is! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 100,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Defeat 100 enemies! Type: Team Dark Defeat 100 Robots A-rank Requirement: 100 robots in 12 minutes Special Notes: TEAM ROSE: Mission 1: Hurry and find Eggman! Type: Normal Points A-rank Requirement: 36,000 points Special Notes: Mission 2: Collect 200 Rings! Type: Team Rose Collect 200 Rings A-rank Requirement: 200 rings in 4 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: Easy to make it within the time limit but be familiar with the level and make sure not to get hit and lose rings. TEAM CHAOTIX: Mission 1: Find the keys to the cell where the client is locked up! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 65,000 points with 5 keys Special Notes: Surprisingly hard to A-rank for a first mission. To A rank you need to kill enemies, you will not kill enough enemies if you get the very first 5 keys in the level, no matter how hard you try you will probably end up with a C or B rank. So skip one or more of the first 5 keys and continue on in the level killing more enemies. Mission 2: Find 10 cell keys! Type: Team Chaotix Item Hunt A-rank Requirement: 55,000 points with all 10 keys Special Notes: No worries about what keys to get/ignore here, just be very careful, it can be hard to stay alive and make sure you know where all 10 keys are, some are kind of hidden. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.u. Boss 7 (Final): EGG EMPEROR ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Final A-rank Requirement: 3 minutes 30 seconds Special Notes: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 5.v. Boss 8 (Extra): METAL MADNESS/METAL OVERLORD ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Type: Extra A-rank Requirement: 7 minutes ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 6. Questions?: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Got Questions? I will answer them if they are not stupid. And as I noted before, I will only answer questions relating to the FAQS, do not e-mail me and try to start a personal relationship or something, I will not respond to such e-mails. ### +-X+X#, ##. ### ######- ### =#,=#######; .###+, ;###+ .# ##.##. .x###= X##= ### +# x# ## # =## ; ##x X- # ##. ###### .# ###### ##; # #- #. ## x#+ ## ## +## -##x# ## ## ##XX , =##=####; . .x## ,## =###### ## - . =# # = = +# ## ## ## # #+ ;=, X###+ ,# . # # ;,. =###;x .. ### , ## #- ## #- X# # ###- # # .###+ =# X -# # ,# ,#X =# ## ##- ###x# -####; #+ ;# + ##. +## # .# ,#.,,-# -## +### #X.xX###. . ,# X ## ;# # # =# ## -# #.#####, ###x#x##x#X ,# .# ## =# ### -# #-# =# .## , #. .# # # +# .# # # +# x##+ # .#= # - =#= #;##+ ;#.; x#; # # ## #. ## # #, ##= - #== ##. =###-. # #=# # ## ## ## # +# +#+ +Xx +## = +## # # +# #. # #++ #-,#+#X. #- .## ## -#x #x #+ =# # -######+=##### + ## -# ## ## =x+ - ## x##+ =# # .#+ +x+x#### ####= ,# =## ##=x ##x =# X +#X##x#+## ;xx=+=;### #=-X## ##### ## ###### ##+## ,#- # #+++===-+#=## x= #=X##-#+ .# #. # #####, # ### # ;#x=++=xX# + xXx =. ## # ### ## # ## ## xx##+#==++xX###=# # +### =# xxx # #+X##x#- x=+++==-+x###;=x## =##,# +# ,# xx +### .. +X #. #x # .# #### ###X## # X### #; ## # , ## .,# # #x # # ## .## ## # #; .#-# # ;#x.-= # ##- # =#X #X####; ##= # ,## ## ## ## ## ## #x##-### #+ ;# #### #x### # #### x; # .x =x ## # # ,x #, #x ## # =#=x#X (c) Angnix 2004