SA Hunting Tips

These are tips that apply when speedrunning Knuckles's stages in Sonic Adventure.

Random pieces will end a lot of runs from the start. There are 21 possible piece locations in each level. They're separated by piece number (a spot that holds piece #1 will always be #1, never #2 or #3), with one piece getting 12 of the locations, one getting 6, and one getting 3. (Exception: Casinopolis has only 14 piece locations, divided 6-5-3.) For speed purposes, one of the locations for each piece (usually the closest) will be the "best" one, the only one worth playing once you're aiming for a record. This means that a given run has a 1-in-216 chance (1-in-90 for Casinopolis) of being the best layout. These levels will require you enter and leave quite a few times just because the piece layout isn't perfect, and nothing you do can get you the record on this layout. It's tough, but it's something you have to put up with on Knuckles stages.

When you get just the right layout, you get to keep it. In the sequel, piece locations changed with every life, so if you missed a piece when it was in the right spot you might not see it again for a few dozen tries. Not so here. The pieces stay in the same spots after a restart; you have to quit and re-enter to change the layout. I wouldn't necessarily call it better than SA2's system, or worse; but rather just "different" (you did have to put up with re-entering the stage over and over until you hit your 1-in-216 shot to get to this point, right?) Once you have the right pieces, you can take as many tries to get them as you want, making sure your lines are completely flawless, and the pieces will still be there each time.

Restart locations can be good or bad. After getting a piece, if you die, or pause and choose restart, you don't necessarily go back to the beginning. Each piece has a designated restart point, where you pick up on a new life after getting that piece. It tries to be as close to the piece as is safely possible (for a piece that's inside an enemy, it can't respawn you on top of that enemy for obvious reasons). For some pieces, though, you'll get moved a considerable distance in some direction from the piece to start subsequent lives. This can be beneficial for a speedrun, as in Sky Deck, or it can be detrimental, as with piece #3 in Speed Highway. Take note of where pieces drop you off, and if it's good, then by all means just restart. If it's bad, then you have to be careful, as you only get one shot at the next piece without blowing your chances at a record.

Radar is good. It's always good to know the piece locations from memory, of course, but the radar can show you whether the run is worth playing, or if you should throw it out. For pieces that aren't visible (such as by being inside an enemy), the radar makes it so that you don't have to hit the enemy, possibly in a suboptimal time, to know if the piece is in the right place. And unlike the sequel, radar can be active on all three pieces at once, not just one at a time. Use it to your advantage.

It can take several tries to get your lines right; come prepared. Even when you do get lucky and find the perfect layout, you may not complete it on your first try. You can practice lining everything up, and taking the fastest paths, but it costs a life for each restart. I recommend bringing a good number of lives with you, which can be done via Adventure mode (rather than Trial, which always starts you with just 5 lives). It's possible to dig up rings for lives in either mode, but this gets very time-consuming. When you have your layout, be ready to spend as many lives as it takes to weed out your errors.

Now you have some tips that can help you. But the biggest tip of all--know where the desired piece locations are. Of course they vary from stage to stage, and the locations are listed on the levels' pages (Speed Highway, Casinopolis, Red Mountain, Lost World, and Sky Deck)