Sonic and Knuckles FAQ/Walkthrough For Sega Genesis Version 3.1 Written by CNash January 2001 This is a FAQ and walkthrough for Sonic and Knuckles, on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive. This FAQ is much nicer to read in Wordpad or Write, than in your browser or Notepad. Copyright Blurb: This FAQ must not be re-typed, corrected, added to, or changed in any other way without express permision of CNash. If you wish to link to this FAQ, don't link to the copy archived at GameFAQS or About, instead, e-mail me first at chris_1256@yahoo.com, then download it and store it on your own system. If you want to include this FAQ on a magazine cover disk or in the text of a magazine itself, e-mail me and we'll talk shop. --------------------------------------------------- Contents -------- i.) What's new in this version? 1.) Introduction 2a.) Special Attacks 2b.) Character-specific special attacks 3.) Zone Guides: a.) Mushroom Hill b.) Flying Battery c.) Sandopolis d.) Lava Reef e.) Hidden Palace f.) Sky Sanctuary g.) Death Egg h.) Doomsday 3.) Linkup Capabilities 4.) Special and Bonus Stages 5.) Cheats 6.) The FAQ in a FAQ. 7.) Credits and copyrights. i.) What's new in this version? ------------------------------- Sorry about the long wait for an update. -Added Mushroom Hill Secret Area solution (thanks to Russ). -Added #4 in the "FAQ in a FAQ" section. -Added a lot of stuff to the "Cheats" section. -Added passwords for extra special stages. -------------------------------------------------- 1a.) Special Attacks: ---------------------- Spin Dash: Hold Down and press Jump. You'll start spinning in place. To blast off, release Down, and to get more power, repeatedly tap the Jump button. -------------------------------------------------- 1b.) Character-specific special attacks: ---------------------------------------- Sonic: Force Fields: Do a double jump (press A, B or C twice quickly) and you'll perform a special attack related to the shield you hold. You can also do this without any shield at all! Knuckles: Fly and Bash: Do a double jump and you'll start flying. You can then simply fly through robots or over obstacles. Wall-Climber: Fly into a wall to grab onto it and press Up or Down to move along it. Wall-Basher: Simply run into any breakable wall to knock it down. Sonic can do that too, but he has to use the Spin Dash. Another important point to note is that Knuckles has a slightly lower jump than Sonic. This creates problems when the cart is linked to Sonic 2. See 'Linkup Capabilities' at the end of the Zone Guide. ---------------------------------------------------- 2.) Zone Guides: ---------------- a.) Mushroom Hill (1) Quite simple. Get the hang of Sonic's attacks and learnhow to go around loops (use the Spin Dash) and get away from vines (again, use the Spin Dash). Practice climbing and gliding (for Knuckles) Pull-up machines can be tackled by, um, pulling down! The Mini-Boss: Woodcutter. Dodge his flying logs, then hit him from the side. Made easier by use of the Fire Shield, as you can simply stand below him and hit. (If you don't use the shield and try this, you'll get hurt by his engine(?) flames). Mushroom Hill (2) Like the first act, but Knuckles makes an appearance and blows you up to another season (presumably Fall). If you're Knuckles, you can go past the switch and get into Fall later. This level is quite overabundent with special stage Giant Rings, and it is possible to get about four of the seven emeralds required. Cross seasons again and you'll see a transmitting device of some sort. Bounce on it and keep bouncing, as the device is resting on Dr. Robotnik's head! The Boss: Dr. Robotnik. Take the number of hits you got in after the transmitter was destroyed, and subtract it from eight. This will give you the number of hits needed to destroy this boss. (I got it down to three, email me if you get any more). The boss itself is a simple case of dodge the spiky mines. Between jumps, hit him the calculated number of times and he slams into a tree. Now, free the animals and jump onto the Flying Battery... ---------------------------------------------------- b.) Flying Battery (1) Both of these are quite hard levels. First, get used to running on the purple machine-loops, and work your way through the battery. To get rid of the missiles while you're in the open air, go to the far right end and let three missles slam into the floor, creating a hole. The Mini-Boss: The animal-trap that isn't. This thing looks like a standard animal cage, but once you push it's button it'll grow arms and eyes. The trick to do this is to stand on the button, then wait until his eyes flash and quickly jump off. Do this about 5 or 6 times. Flying Battery (2) More or less the same as act 1, but a one new point to note. Beware of the first animal trap that you encounter, as it contains robots! The Boss: Dr. Robitnik. The first phase of the doc's attack uses a powerful laser-death beam hanging from the ceiling. This is deja-vu time for Sonic 2 players, as it is identical to the one he used in Wing Fortress Zone, but this time you can't destroy it. Just dodge it's beams and it'll destroy itself! The second phase, after avoiding getting crushed by the platform, is a new machine, the spiky flame-thrower. Avoid the spikes and the flames and hit him when he swings up. This is slightly harder for Knuckles. (Note: If you use Tails, you can hit the death-ray by using your tails, but you can't destroy it that way). ----------------------------------------------------- c.) Sandopolis (1) This is, I think, the second hardest level in the game. Timing is essential when attacking the Skorp (the thing with the tail), and don't stay in the quicksand too long (duh!) Mini-Boss: The Rocky Bear Thingy Don't try and hit it, just lure it over to the quicksand pit on the left and it'll fall in. Sandopolis (2) Inside the pyramid, use the light switches to get rid of the ghosts (for a while). If they get very large, they'll start attacking you, and they're invincible! Try and keep one step ahead of the pouring sand. The Boss: Dr. Robotnik (again!) When is he ever going to quit? He's back, and he's brought a big spiky Egyptian laser shooting thingy. Dodge the spikes, hit once to reveal Robotnik, and once more to damage it. Do this eight times. ------------------------------------------------ d.) Lava Reef (1) The reason I like this zone is because of it's cool music, and not it's hot lava. Fire shields are good here. Break through the rocks, learn how to cope with the overhead spike smasher things and go off to face the mini boss, which is: Mini-Boss: The Laser-aided Big Hand. For each laser cannon, hit three times. The hand can only be hit when it's closed (i.e. after trying to hit you), and then only from above. Lava Reef (2) First take a good look at the flame throwers, and how they work. They'll cause you problems later. Now avoid (if you can) the spinning spiky landmine things on a pole (they have a belt of spiky things that rotate round a big pole). If you don't have a single clue what I'm talking about, forget it. The Boss: Dr. Robotnik (who else?) Starts off by launching missles and destroying platforms. Make sure it's not the one you're on. After the starpost, jump on the platforms and take the last one down to the boss, picking up goodies on the way. Don't try and get the boss directly, this is one of the 'dodge the spikes and it'll destroy itself' bosses. Simply let the mines slam into his evil machine. After the points tally has run down and the fire turns blue, it's safe to walk on it. Go on through. (If you're Knuckles, you don't have to face a boss at all!) ---------------------------------------------- Past this point, Sonic and Knuckles' levels are completely different. I'll start with: e.) Hidden Palace (Knuckles) Just jump down the stairs and onto the teleporter. Hidden Palace (Sonic) Jump up the stairs and collect rings. The Boss: Knuckles. Finally, something different! Don't hit Knuckles head on, jump on him from above about eight times and dodge his flying and spinning attacks. After saving him from Dr. Robotnik, he'll be your friend and open doors for you. ------------------------------------------------- f.) Sky Sanctury (Knuckles) This is the final level for Knuckles. Let the machine grab you, then watch as RoboSonic completely misses you and destroys the flying robot. The Big Boss: RoboSonic. This is an exact replica of Sonic, but robotized. Snash it's face in eight times, then it'll start flashing. Don't let your guard down, as it's not over yet! RoboSonic will then jump on the big Emerald, and turn into Super RoboSonic! While it's gold it's invincible, so always dodge it's tackles and power balls and hit it three times once it goes back to blue and needs a recharge. After you've hit it about five times it'll shoot rings at you, but these rings hurt you! Avoid them and hit hit three more times to finally destroy him and finish the game. Sky Sanctury (Sonic) Not the last level for Sonic. Go up the clouds and towers, beware of the animals coming out as they're followed by a robot, and then find a blast from Sonic's past! 1st Mini-Boss: Deja-vu, Sonic 1 style! This boss is the RoboSonic in a machine exactly the same as the Sonic 1 Green Hill boss. Avoid the ball and hit it. Fairly simple. Up the towers again, for a second match-up! 2nd Mini-Boss: Deja-vu, Sonic 2 style! This is the same as the Sonic 2 Metropolis Zone boss. Hit it eight times, destroy the baby Robo-Sonics and hit it once more to destroy it. Once more, climbing up the clouds to face the last incarnation of RoboSonic: The Boss: RoboSonic. Just hit it's face eight times to destroy it. Very easy. ---------------------------------------------- g.) Death Egg (1) Very hard to get the hang of. Try and master upside-down walking, and the 3-2-1 neon race tracks. The Mini-Boss: The Eye. Up till now, all the mini-bosses have been a bit cheesy, but the eye is quite hard. You might end up using nearly all your lives on it, but by this time you'll have collected so many continues that you won't care anymore. Hit the eye until all the spiky things have been destroyed, then stay on the spinning platforms and dodge the death ray, hitting the eye periodically. Death Egg (2) Exactly the same as act 1, but more in the open air. The Mini-Boss: Dr. Robotnik. Did I say Mini-Boss? Yes, that's right, there are *two* Mini-Bosses in the Death Egg. You can't hit it directly, this boss is mastered by use of the anti-gravity booths. Let the bombs rain down upon the evil sphere, as you reverse the gravitational flow. Note that they can only damage the machine if the spikes are facing it. The Boss: Evil Robotnik Emerald-Powered Machine. Make a big effort on your first try if you have rings availible, because if you die the first time you won't have rings the second time. Run ahead of it and destroy the fingers, Lava Reef style. Now dodge the flamethrower and hit it. Next, hit the emerald and dodge the beam by jumping at exactly the right moment. Timing has to be impeccable on this zone, as one false move can cost you your life! Do this a sufficient number of times, then hit Robotnik in his flying machine a further five times to complete this boss. ----------------------------------------------- If you have collected all the emeralds, read on! It's not over yet! If you haven't, you can miss out this next bit. h.) Doomsday Zone (Super Sonic, all Emeralds only). This is a flying boss, and you can't die! But keep an eye on your ring counter, as it's slowly ticking away, and when it reaches 0 you'll drop out of the sky! And to make matters worse, there is still the zone clock to watch! Collect rings to boost your time, dodge rocks and missles as they slow you down. When you catch up to the machine, let the missles hit the cockpit. Remember that you must do this very fast. Now dodge more missles. Finally, fly into his cockpit another eight times. ---------------------------------------------------- 3.) Linkup Capabitities ----------------------- One of the great features of Sonic & Knuckles is that you can link Sonic 1, 2 or 3 to it and play new levels. Sonic 1 "What?" I hear you cry, "You can't link Sonic 1 to Sonic & Knuckles! You get all that No Way stuff!" Now this is probably the worst-kept secret in the whole of video gaming, but if you link S&K to Sonic 1 and press A+B+C together, you'll get to play with secret Special Stages that aren't in the actual game! You can also do this with any other Sega cartridge, and the stage differs with each cartridge! I'm told there are over 32,000 seperate special stages on the Sonic 1 cartridge alone. But you do get a password so you can continue later. And here are a few I've collected: Level 1 : Stage Code 000016643: Code: 3659 8960 3263 Level 11: Stage Code 021486153: Code: 3454 5429 0879 Level 12: Stage Code 023633104: Code: 2765 3348 7551 Level 22: Stage Code 045102489: Code: 3408 2377 9263 Level 23: Stage Code 047249440: Code: 4053 1539 7567 The passwords and stage codes are structured so that you can't just tap in any number and get a stage - only 999,999,999 passwords actually work out of the 999,999,999,999 passwords you can type in. Actually, for a challenge, put in any cartridge made by Electronic Arts. Their special stages are quite hard, especially the FIFA Soccer series. But NEVER try this with a cartridge with memory back-up as this will totally erase all saved games! This rules out Shining Force, Soliel, PGA Tour Golf and others. Passwords are unaffected. Sonic 2 Once you link S&K to S2, you'll be able to play all of the Sonic 2 stages..with Knuckles! This means you can get to parts of levels that you wouldn't be able to get to with Sonic alone. One downside to this is that Knuckles has a slightly lower jump than Sonic or Tails, which makes some levels harder than they should be, especially Death Egg Zone. Sonic 3 You can now play all the S3 and S&K levels consecutively (one after the other)! And this means you can play S3 levels with Knuckles and S&K levels with Tails! Plus you can save your game. When you collect all the Chaos Emeralds, the Giant Rings start flashing multi-colored. Jump in, and all your emeralds will float up and become gray ememeralds on flowery platforms. Jump on and you'll enter S&K Special Stages. You can choose what order you play them in! --------------------------------------------- 4.) Special and Bonus Stages ---------------------------- The special stages are pretty straightforward. All you have to to is navigate around a giant 3D ball, collecting Blue spheres and avoiding Red ones. If you touch a Red you exit the stage, so beware! And if you touch a Blue, it'll turn Red! A neat trick is to collect around the outside of a square of Blues, and they'll all turn into rings! The star spheres are bumpers which make you change direction (run backwards) and the yellows are springs. Get all the blue spheres and you get an emerald. Bonus Stage #1 is a slot-machine thing. Get inside it and you win rings or mines depending on what your combination of pictures is. To get out, touch a goal tile. Bonus Stage #2 is a weird electro-sphere game. Work your way up the spheres to get to the top, and watch out for the forcefield trying to get you from below. Prizes are in the little spheres, and get better as you move up the playing field. Expect some 1-Ups at the top. The game will warn you with an alarm when the forcefield gets close and if it touches you, you exit the stage. Bonus Stage #3 can only be entered if you link up S&K to Sonic 3, or play Sonic 3 on it's own. First, drop down to the bottom and bounce up on the springs, touching the lever of the machine. A prize will fall out. You have to bounce on the yellow bouncers at the side to work your way up to it. (REP) spheres replace the springs at the bottom. ------------------------------------------------- 5.) Cheats ---------- The secret Level Select To gain a level select, start a game with Sonic and go to a pull-up machine. Grab on and quickly tap in: Left, Left, Left, Right, Right, Right, Up, Up, Up. You should hear the sound of a ring being collected. Now pause the game and press A. This should reset the game to the title screen. Now hold A+Start on the title screen until the level select pops up. You will notice that all the levels from Sonic 3 are there too. This is because Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles was originally going to be one game, but the idea was scrapped in order to get the game out on time. If you select one of the S3 levels you'll go back to Mushroom Hill. At last, a safer way to get to a level select in S3&K! Enter a game with both cartridges linked, and play Angel Island 1. Jump onto a vine, enter the Level Select code above, press A+Start and the extra "Sound Test" option will be there. On both games, press C to change the number under Angel Island 1. This selects your character. 0=Sonic and Tails, 1=Sonic, 2=Tails and 3=Knuckles. Debug Mode To enter Debug Mode (this only works when you have Sonic 3 connected) enter both Level Select codes above, starting with the second one. Once you're at the Level Select screen, hold A while selecting your level. These are your controls: A=Reverse gravity -- B=Enable debug mode -- C=Jump. With debug mode enabled: A=Change sprite -- B=Disable debug mode -- C=Place sprite. Bonus Treat! Remember how you'd get an alarm-sound if you tried to enter zones that weren't for that character? Well now they're all unlocked! This activates some weird quirks: -Enter Sky Sanctuary 1 with Knuckles to have two Knuckles. -Death Egg Zone is now open to Knuckles. -You can play Doomsday Zone with Tails or Knuckles. If you use Knuckles and beat the game, you'll have two Master Emeralds, a blue plane (it's usually red) and a sky-blue colored Sonic driving it! And during the credits, not only is Sonic standing on the plane driven by the sky-blue Sonic, activate debug mode to freeze the words and place more birds and dolphins (but they're glitched). -You can't, however, have Knuckles fighting Knuckles in Sonic's Hidden Palace Zone. ------------------------------------------------ 6.) The FAQ in a FAQ. --------------------- 1.) Can you connect linked cartridges to a Game Enhancing device like a Pro Action Replay or Game Genie? Yes. I have no codes for you yet, but maybe later. 2.) Is it possible to use the Master System Converter or 32X with S&K? I tried to connect my system like this: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Master System) ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Master System Converter ||||||||||||||||||||||| Sonic and Knuckles Cartridge |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Genesis system unit It didn't work. It wouldn't even give me "No Way!" I haven't tried it with a 32X yet, but I doubt it'd work. 3.) Does the "secret area" in Mushroom Hill (2) exist? How do I get to it? Yes it does. My previous method of getting there was incorrect, sorry about that. According to Russ, you must use the left side of the last pull-up machine in the zone, and then the red spring will take you to it. The area contains some rings and the fire and lightning shields. 4.) How do I get into the special stages? This question was sent to me by Billionaire4000, but his return e-mail didn't work, so I hope they're reading. To get to the special stage, you must find giant rings. Once you find one, jump into it and then see chapter 4 for more info. 7.) Copyrights and Credits -------------------------- Thanks to Russ for his method of getting to the MH2 secret area. Remember, if you want to correct me on anything I've said, or give me new info, the address to e-mail is: chris_1256@yahoo.com. Heed the words of the Copyright Blurb, and farewell! All work copyright CNash, 2000.