Ring Attacking Safety - THE ULTIMATE CHAO THROWING GUIDE
Submitted by SkyLights
If you've ever attempted this before, you'll know that this level is extremely unsafe and unforgiving. There's no invincibility and there's heaps of black holes popping up all over the place, not to mention boxes being thrown at you from all directions and mass amounts of enemies just waiting to poke you and spill your rings all over the ground. It's very frustrating, but there is a way to do it where you actually feel like you can succeed. That's where this guide comes in.
To start off, a few notes. There's a lot of traps and hazards in this level, but much of the time, you can actually make the hazards eliminate themselves. For example, the enemies. Most of the time they're hanging around a spot where a black hole would appear. So if an enemy is giving you a problem, wait until the black holes appear and let them destroy the enemy or enemies in your path, then continue on and hit a switch to make the black holes disappear.
The blue variations of the black holes shouldn't give you too much trouble in the long run, but the red ones are much more dangerous. These are where all these stupid boxes fly out of and try and smack you in the face. The iron crates aren't dangerous at all unless I'm mistaken, the wooden ones (or a pot in silver's area) will do damage to you but can be easily avoided, but the exploding crates are just pains in the asses. You need to be in the air and away from a wall in order to dodge those safely. Or, you can just hide behind something, which leads me to my next point:
The red variations disappear on their own, without the power of the Soleanna stone (that glowing rock that you touch to make all the black holes go away). So, if you just hold out against the barrage of boxes and whatnot being thrown at you, it will eventually disappear. They don't come back, either, which is a plus, so if you decide to backtrack at any time you won't have to worry about those stupid things if you've already dealt with them.
Now, there's three big trouble spots that can cause you to lose all your rings. The beginning in Omega's part, the beginning of Silver's part, and the entire Amy part. Here's the safest way I've found to get through each part-
Omega: The biggest problem here is that all of these enemies and black holes get clustered so close together at the beginning. Start by grabbing the three rings in front of you and heading over the lava and onto the springboard. You get greeted by 4-5 enemies. Mash the attack button and you'll hover in place so that the enemies attacks just go right under you. Try to get the big enemy in the back for points, but if you can't, the black hole will grab it anyways. Continue up the next springboard.
Now, this area's pretty dangerous. There's about five-six black holes scattered about, not including the one red variation that loves to bomb the crap out of you with crates, not to mention craters that magma will shoot out of scattered about, and you are forced to defeat all of the enemies in order to pass. Here's the trick: when you reach your highest point in the jump off the springboard, start mashing the attack button again. Don't come down until every single enemy is destroyed. (You CAN reach all of the enemies, and if you can't, the black holes can.) Once that's done, follow the ring path and head right for the Soleanna stone to avoid more box crap heading for your face.
Silver- The beginning of Silver's part isn't necessarily hard, but it can be stupidly frustrating if you don't manipulate it. First thing to do is to go straight for the first platform you can rise with your telekinesis. Rise it, then you will notice that you are being bombarded by a red black hole. Move back and wait for the hole to disappear. Continue on and head for the Soleanna stone avoiding the black holes along the way. The nice thing about doing it this way is that the black holes will have sucked up the enemies that throw more crap at you, saving you some possible frustration.
Amy- This is the biggest run-killer. It's also near the end of the overall level, creating more wasted time than you'd probably like. This is due to the fact that Amy is not only very slow and can't avoid things easily regardless of how high she can jump, but also because her attacking prowess consists of a tiny hammer that you have to be RIGHT NEXT to someone to hit them with. For some reason, the developers seemed to think that, indeed, this was not a fun mix of skills, and they decided to give her a mechanic that is necessary for dealing with this part of the end-of-the-world: invisibility. Seriously. Hold the attack button and she goes invisible for a bit. The problem is that she stops dead in her tracks once the invisibility ends, which can lead to some problems if you're currently being sucked in by a black hole, but you can solve this by repeatedly jumping so it skips that annoyance.
Anyway, on to the level explanation. You're going to start out near a tower. Grab the rings next to it, then turn around and hide behind the tower. Reason? You're going to get bombarded by two red black holes. Once they disappear, head to the left and make your way to the cliff. Head up, then go to the right and head up the next cliff. The top contains a Soleanna stone and two red black holes waiting for you. If you're on the right-hand side of the stone, the exploding crate that the left red hole threw at you should hit the Soleanna stone and keep you safe. You should still jump anyways because the right one sends something at you as well- a wooden box. Head for that stone and hit it before either hole sends out anything else. Then, go back and grab the other rings that were surrounded by black holes before in front of the tower, then returning to the Soleanna stone.
Next step is to get through the next two open areas. The first one's easy; drop down from the Soleanna stone and beeline for the rings in front of the tower. Then head to the right side of the area over the cliff leading to the next area and hold the attack button so you'll go invisible. This is important to avoid all the red black holes in the next area, seeing as you have basically nothing to put in between you and the boxes. Head for the other rings surrounded by enemies.
While still invisible, make your way to the left of the clearly visible influx of black holes and double jump onto a high cliff to the right of the gap filled with the holes. Now, head to the right and touch the Soleanna stone. There's just one more field area to pass; turn invisible, grab any rings in it, and head to the spring behind the tower. You'll be pit against two enemies - both of which you need to defeat. Go around them for now and touch the Soleanna stone. Turn invisible, then carefully get close and start trying to whack one with a hammer. If you defeat one quickly enough then try going for the other. Don't put yourself through too many risks.
Once both enemies are gone, touch the Soleanna stone again. Turn invisible, and head through the tunnel. Start jumping when you see the Chaos Emerald so that you don't stop and potentially get sucked up by a black hole. Once you grab the Chaos Emerald, well, congrats. :P You still have to deal with Shadow's area though, but at least he can handle himself pretty well (He can homing attack the Soleanna stones).
One last thing that might help is a general ring count at the end of each part for you, so here:
Tails: 145+
Omega: 185+
Knuckles: 190+
Silver: 220+
Rouge: 225+
Amy: 245+
Shadow (end): 420+
Hope this helps!
To start off, a few notes. There's a lot of traps and hazards in this level, but much of the time, you can actually make the hazards eliminate themselves. For example, the enemies. Most of the time they're hanging around a spot where a black hole would appear. So if an enemy is giving you a problem, wait until the black holes appear and let them destroy the enemy or enemies in your path, then continue on and hit a switch to make the black holes disappear.
The blue variations of the black holes shouldn't give you too much trouble in the long run, but the red ones are much more dangerous. These are where all these stupid boxes fly out of and try and smack you in the face. The iron crates aren't dangerous at all unless I'm mistaken, the wooden ones (or a pot in silver's area) will do damage to you but can be easily avoided, but the exploding crates are just pains in the asses. You need to be in the air and away from a wall in order to dodge those safely. Or, you can just hide behind something, which leads me to my next point:
The red variations disappear on their own, without the power of the Soleanna stone (that glowing rock that you touch to make all the black holes go away). So, if you just hold out against the barrage of boxes and whatnot being thrown at you, it will eventually disappear. They don't come back, either, which is a plus, so if you decide to backtrack at any time you won't have to worry about those stupid things if you've already dealt with them.
Now, there's three big trouble spots that can cause you to lose all your rings. The beginning in Omega's part, the beginning of Silver's part, and the entire Amy part. Here's the safest way I've found to get through each part-
Omega: The biggest problem here is that all of these enemies and black holes get clustered so close together at the beginning. Start by grabbing the three rings in front of you and heading over the lava and onto the springboard. You get greeted by 4-5 enemies. Mash the attack button and you'll hover in place so that the enemies attacks just go right under you. Try to get the big enemy in the back for points, but if you can't, the black hole will grab it anyways. Continue up the next springboard.
Now, this area's pretty dangerous. There's about five-six black holes scattered about, not including the one red variation that loves to bomb the crap out of you with crates, not to mention craters that magma will shoot out of scattered about, and you are forced to defeat all of the enemies in order to pass. Here's the trick: when you reach your highest point in the jump off the springboard, start mashing the attack button again. Don't come down until every single enemy is destroyed. (You CAN reach all of the enemies, and if you can't, the black holes can.) Once that's done, follow the ring path and head right for the Soleanna stone to avoid more box crap heading for your face.
Silver- The beginning of Silver's part isn't necessarily hard, but it can be stupidly frustrating if you don't manipulate it. First thing to do is to go straight for the first platform you can rise with your telekinesis. Rise it, then you will notice that you are being bombarded by a red black hole. Move back and wait for the hole to disappear. Continue on and head for the Soleanna stone avoiding the black holes along the way. The nice thing about doing it this way is that the black holes will have sucked up the enemies that throw more crap at you, saving you some possible frustration.
Amy- This is the biggest run-killer. It's also near the end of the overall level, creating more wasted time than you'd probably like. This is due to the fact that Amy is not only very slow and can't avoid things easily regardless of how high she can jump, but also because her attacking prowess consists of a tiny hammer that you have to be RIGHT NEXT to someone to hit them with. For some reason, the developers seemed to think that, indeed, this was not a fun mix of skills, and they decided to give her a mechanic that is necessary for dealing with this part of the end-of-the-world: invisibility. Seriously. Hold the attack button and she goes invisible for a bit. The problem is that she stops dead in her tracks once the invisibility ends, which can lead to some problems if you're currently being sucked in by a black hole, but you can solve this by repeatedly jumping so it skips that annoyance.
Anyway, on to the level explanation. You're going to start out near a tower. Grab the rings next to it, then turn around and hide behind the tower. Reason? You're going to get bombarded by two red black holes. Once they disappear, head to the left and make your way to the cliff. Head up, then go to the right and head up the next cliff. The top contains a Soleanna stone and two red black holes waiting for you. If you're on the right-hand side of the stone, the exploding crate that the left red hole threw at you should hit the Soleanna stone and keep you safe. You should still jump anyways because the right one sends something at you as well- a wooden box. Head for that stone and hit it before either hole sends out anything else. Then, go back and grab the other rings that were surrounded by black holes before in front of the tower, then returning to the Soleanna stone.
Next step is to get through the next two open areas. The first one's easy; drop down from the Soleanna stone and beeline for the rings in front of the tower. Then head to the right side of the area over the cliff leading to the next area and hold the attack button so you'll go invisible. This is important to avoid all the red black holes in the next area, seeing as you have basically nothing to put in between you and the boxes. Head for the other rings surrounded by enemies.
While still invisible, make your way to the left of the clearly visible influx of black holes and double jump onto a high cliff to the right of the gap filled with the holes. Now, head to the right and touch the Soleanna stone. There's just one more field area to pass; turn invisible, grab any rings in it, and head to the spring behind the tower. You'll be pit against two enemies - both of which you need to defeat. Go around them for now and touch the Soleanna stone. Turn invisible, then carefully get close and start trying to whack one with a hammer. If you defeat one quickly enough then try going for the other. Don't put yourself through too many risks.
Once both enemies are gone, touch the Soleanna stone again. Turn invisible, and head through the tunnel. Start jumping when you see the Chaos Emerald so that you don't stop and potentially get sucked up by a black hole. Once you grab the Chaos Emerald, well, congrats. :P You still have to deal with Shadow's area though, but at least he can handle himself pretty well (He can homing attack the Soleanna stones).
One last thing that might help is a general ring count at the end of each part for you, so here:
Tails: 145+
Omega: 185+
Knuckles: 190+
Silver: 220+
Rouge: 225+
Amy: 245+
Shadow (end): 420+
Hope this helps!
The Sonic Center v3.9
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