(EDIT) This run was cancelled due to improvements that were found half an hour after submission. You can see a better version here: https://tasvideos.org/7924S
This run aims to complete the game as fast as possible while also getting all 6 Chaos Rings for the Good Ending.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.8
- Complete the game as fast as possible
- Collect all 6 Chaos Rings
- Optimize for In-Game Time (IGT)
Comments
This run is pretty complex, so I'm going to explain some things about certain game mechanics to the best of my knowledge.
Knuckles' Chaotix is a very unique game, mostly due to the infamous "rubber-band" physics, and the lack of Sonic and Tails in gameplay (aside from a teaser in the good ending). The game has five playable characters: Mighty the Armadillo, Knuckles the Echidna, Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, and Charmy the Bee. The primary character is also tethered to a partner, which can include the previous five characters, along with two others: Heavy, and Bomb. For this run, I chose Knuckles for the main character and Espio as the partner.
The way the game works is after completing the introduction level (and the first Special Stage if you collected 50 rings), you are sent to a character select screen. After selecting a main character, you are then taken to the hub world. This hub world has two important things here:
- A claw machine, with which you have to choose your partner. You can also change your partner with the "Combi Catcher" again if you want to.
- A roulette, which you have to use to play the many stages the game has to offer.
The game has 5 total "attractions" (they're not called zones, sorry hib) which each have 5 levels, totaling to 25 levels that need to be completed, excluding the introduction level Isolated Island. Levels 1-4 are normal levels, in which you can collect 50 rings, bring them to the signpost, and enter the big ring that shows up. Level 5 is also a normal level, but instead of ending with a signpost, there's a little cutscene of Robotnik showing up, then a boss battle ensues. Once all the attractions have been completed, after making your way back to the roulette, Metal Sonic will show up, and then the final boss will begin.
If you bring 50 or more rings to the end of a level, you can enter a big ring and start a Special Stage. Special Stages are in most Sonic games, and are used to collect the Chaos Emeralds for a good ending or to unlock Super Sonic (or Hyper Sonic if you're playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles). In Knuckles' Chaotix, you start in a hexagonal 3-dimensional tube, and are tasked with collecting a certain number of blue spheres. In the first Special Stage, you have to collect four, and in the second you have to collect six, and so on. After reaching the first goal with four blue spheres, you are tasked with collecting four more. Your character is also stuck constantly moving forward (like Sonic 3 & Knuckles) and you have to traverse the 3D path while collecting rings and avoiding hazards. If you run out of rings, fall off the stage, or reach the goal without enough blue spheres, the game will kick you out of the special stage, and you will have to collect another 50 rings and try again. Once you turn in four blue spheres the second time, you will be awarded with a Chaos Ring. There are 6 in total, making it six Special Stages that need to be beaten. After collecting them all, once you defeat the final boss, you will get to see the good ending.
The rubber band physics are very... interesting. It's a simple concept:
- Holding B will make your partner stand in place and scream "HOLD" at you. You can run either left or right away from your partner to build up speed, then let go and go super fast in the other direction.
- Alternatively, you can come up to your partner, and press and hold B. This will make your character pick up your partner, and by holding a direction (i.e. up and right, or just left) and letting go of B, your character will throw your partner in the appropriate direction. This is useful, as letting go of directional input and holding B after throwing your partner up into the air can allow you to get a lot of height and a ton of speed.
- There's a certain mechanic to the rubber band physics that I like to call the "leader system." Basically, if you're holding B, your partner will become the leader, and you will go wherever your partner goes, regardless if you try going to the right or going down, etc. If you're holding a directional input while in the air, your main character will become the leader, and your partner will behave the same way. Going completely neutral (not holding B or any d-pad input) will make neither of you the leader, and you will both fly around like crazy, but you won't actually go anywhere. Understanding the way the rubber band physics work is key to abusing it to fly around the levels at insane speeds.
- If you press A, your partner can be called back to you, which is helpful if your partner gets stuck somewhere. The downside is this action costs 10 rings to use, and this opens up the ability to go into having "negative rings" if you have less than 10 rings on you.
The main glitch that I abuse in the run is what's commonly called a "zip." A zip usually refers to being ejected in a certain direction out of a wall if a player somehow managed to get inside one. You've most likely seen this in other classic Sonic runs, like Sonic 2, or Sonic 3 & Knuckles. You clip into a wall, and hold a direction opposite to where you want to go horizontally. So say, you were inside of a wall and wanted to go left. You would have to hold right since the wall is trying to eject you backwards out of the wall. However, in Knuckles' Chaotix, the zip mechanics are very different. In this game, if you clip into a wall far enough, the game will automatically drag the player up and to the right through the wall. Otherwise the game will know to push you up and left out of the wall and you'll get nowhere. In a speedrun, runners will usually use Knuckles' glide ability to clip into walls, which is done by starting a glide one frame before you would hit a wall, but then letting go of C to cancel the glide, which will make Knuckles stand inside the wall and be shot either up and left out of the wall, or up and right through to the other side. In some cases, this can be a frame perfect, one frame C press, and in some cases you have a little leeway to hold it for longer. This is also commonly done by clipping into the top right corner of a wall, but it also can be done with straight walls and even slopes, although it is much more difficult.
There is also another glitch I do in the run, called the Negative Ring Glitch. Basically, if you have negative rings when the score tally shows up (meaning you have time to call back your partner after hitting the signpost to reach negative rings without losing time), the score tally will be skipped, saving a lot of time over having to wait it out. However, this only works if your Secret Bonus, which you get for finding either hidden monitors, or finding the Bonus Game big rings, is 0.
Noteworthy Moments:
Stages I collected 50 rings in:
- Botanic Base 1
- Amazing Arena 1
- Amazing Arena 3
- Techno Tower 4
- Speed Slider 1
These stages were the best candidates for getting 50 rings without having to go too far off the pre-planned path and lose a bunch of time.
Amazing Arena 3
I had to actually delay entering AA3 for one important reason: the day/night cycle. Now what do I mean by that?
Knuckles' Chaotix runs on a day/night cycle, starting at Morning after clearing the intro level and changing after every two levels to Day, then Evening, then Night. But this day/night cycle isn't just for showing off some cool palettes. It also affects level layouts and even boss difficulty. The "boss difficulty" part is important for Amazing Arena.
Amazing Arena is a special level, as it's not one where you can just fly straight to the signpost and move on. You also have to hit a switch to turn the lights on, otherwise if you don't, the level will be marked as Failed and you will have to redo the level. There is also a miniboss before the end of each level (except for level 5) that you would normally have to fight and defeat. Realtime runners will always use the partner throwing ability to fly past the trigger for the boss, which is faster than fighting it. I also do this in the run, but in AA3, I go for the miniboss here because it awards 60 rings upon defeat, which is a guaranteed big ring at the end of the level.
The miniboss is affected by the day/night cycle in terms of how many hits before it is defeated. At Night, it takes four hits to be defeated. At Evening, it takes three, and at Day, it takes two. But at Morning, it only takes one hit to beat it. This is the best outcome, since you don't have to waste time waiting for invulnerability timers.
Other comments
I want to thank Hagenburg (the RTA world record holder as of me writing this) and wurzelfreak for helping me out with routing, suggesting improvements to my route, and inspiring me to submit this here. I also want to thank Hibnotix, for inspiring me to start making runs of Chaotix!
I am unsure of any major improvements other than some better optimizations in levels and special stages, different routing throughout the levels, or changing one of the levels in which you get 50 rings.
Technical Information
Emulator Used:
- BizHawk 2.8
ROM Checksum
- SHA1: 0c2fff7bc79ed26507c08ac47464c3af19f7ced7
BIOS Used:
- 32X M68000 (USA).bin (CRC32: 5C12EAE8)
- Sega 32X BIOS (1994)(Sega)(Master SH2).bin (CRC32: DD9C46B8)
- Sega 32X BIOS (1994)(Sega)(Slave SH2).bin (CRC32: BFDA1FE5)