5555555 4444 GGGG
55 44 44 GG GG eeee ssss
555555 44 44 GG ee ee aaaa rr rrr ss
555 44444444 GG GGGG eeeeee aa aa rr rr ssss
55 55 44 GG GG ee aa aa rr ss
55555 4444 GGGG eeee aaa aa rrrr ssss
And how to use and abuse them all
_______________________________
/ SONIC RIDERS \
/ ADVANCED GEAR GUIDE \
\ Written by WtR_Flash /
\_______________________________/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For online Paper Mario 2 guides and more, visit Welcome to Rougeport Guides:
-->
http://rougeport.jonnys-place.com <--
************
PLEASE NOTE: This guide desperately needs to be cleaned up a bit. See Update
Log for more details.
************
Utilize your browser's search function (typically accessed with Ctrl+F) and
the search keywords to jump sections quickly:
__________ _________________
| Contents \_____________________| Search Keywords \________________________
|================================|==========================================
|A. Update Log ---------------- | -CAPTAIN'S LOG-
|B. Intro --------------------- | -WHASSUP-
|C1. The Why's and How's ------- | -RIDING CLASSES-
|C2. Buying/Unlocking Gear ----- | -WORK FOR IT-
|D. Gear List ----------------- | -RACER'S CATALOG-
| 1. Hoverboards ------------- | [-SONIC SURFER-]
| 2. Bikes ------------------- | [-NO WHEEL TUESDAY-]
| 3. Skates ------------------ | [-SK8RS-]
|E. Special Thanks ------------ | -THNX YOU-
|F. Contact Info/Legal Crap --- | -LINKS AND CRAP-
|===========================================================================
_______________ _________________
_____________________________/ A. Update Log \__/ -CAPTAIN'S LOG- \_________
============================================================================
Tuesday, October 17, 2006: You should already be aware of this if you go to
my site and read my pseudo-blog, but i'm notoriously lazy. I've been meaning
to tidy up the blemishes I left behind in this thing for quite a while. For
starters, it's become apparent to me just how incredibly unbalanced this
game is, and how little all the intricate details matter when no one seems
to take it seriously enough for competitive play. (I know I don't.) That's
sorta stifled my will to update, but nevertheless, I can't very well neglect
this poor thing, can I?
It would have been as simple as moving some stuff around and doing a few
rewrites here and there. Really would have been, except in early September,
I got an email from a fellow by the name of Coran Sloss. All those weeks of
testing I commited and he may have noticed something that slipped by me all
that time:
************
"Hi,
I'd just like to point out that when you say that cream is far worse than
any other flying character you're wrong! Don't get me wrong, I HATE cream
but she does have her redeeming features:
-more acceleration than rouge, not much, not even 1 points worth but some
-light weight: you know how the light board is light? well so is cream, you
only need to pull of a small trick and she can get to most shortcuts
-the light weight also means she corners much more easily and has less
trouble getting to those badly placed flying pads (E.g. 2nd one in red
canyon)
-light weight also means that the turbulence has far more effect on cream
The down side to light weight:
-characters with low weight lose momentum quicker and so can't sustain any
good speed
while on the subject of character weight rouge seems to be abnormally heavy
making it hard for her to fly and also making her slow round corners, not to
mention her immense difficulty getting to high up places"
************
There you have it. I could feel myself sink I as read that. "No! I tested
this game to death! To DEATH! Please, no more!" It's like that guy from the
CDW ad!
We've been emailing back and forth since then and he's come up with some
compelling examples of what effects the invisible weight atrribute have,
like handling on ice, cornering, grinding speed (which i'm pretty sure he's
wrong about here, but still), boost attributes...holy crap.
As of this writing, I have no time to test any of this. I'll be halfway
across the country starting on the 24th and for two weeks afterward. After
that...i'm still not sure :p I've got a site to build and another site to
work for. When obligations clash like that, my schedule is as predictable as
the weekly Mega Millions drawing. But I will give it a try after the
vacation's over, and sooner or later i'll get this big hunk of text as
accurate as I can. (Of course, don't be expecting the "sooner" part to carry
much weight...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, May 28, 2006: Version 1. That should be it for this behemoth,
barring any little details i'm still missing. I've given up trying to find
Sega Carnival's 100-ring capsule and have concluded that there isn't one, so
i'm calling off the hunt there. It took some extra time to complete this
after I discovered something fairly critical I had missed, which forced me
to do some tedious re-writing. Other than that and some confusion over how
the Light Board works, i'm done and can put the bloody game behind me for a
while. Hallelujah.
Saturday, April 22, 2006: Don't come looking for new content yet. I've been
too busy to finish this and have had little desire to play Riders for a
little while now. You have to admit, it gets pretty forgettable after you've
unlocked everything. Anyway, in the 23 days i've left this incomplete guide
idle, all I have to show for it right now is a contact info update. I've
since received some helpful e-mails that cleared up some errors on my part
(and not-so-helpful fan mail), but I haven't bothered to correct anything
yet. I'll see what I can do when my other nagging obligations clear up.
Thursday, March 30 2006: Version .9. Due to allergies I have been stricken
with out of the blue and lack of desire to get this entire thing 100%
complete prior to the first release, i've decided do what's important and
get it up early. Everything is in place sans a few of the data fields in the
Gear list. Getting the entries for those fields requires some meticulous
testing that I have not bothered to complete yet. The remaining 90% of the
guide is set, though, so have at it.
__________ ___________
_______________________________/ B. Intro \__/ -WHASSUP- \__________________
============================================================================
I'm the kind of writer who flies by the seat of his pants. I start a guide
based on whatever idea suddenly occurs to me, I work on a guide whenever i'm
in the mood to continue working on it - ultimately, i'm indecisive and lazy.
It's fun :) If circumstances were different you would be looking at a full
walkthrough for Mega Man X (SNES), but at some point while writing it, I
lost all desire to continue it. Something clicked in my head that said "Hey
stupid, this isn't any fun." Magnum P.I.'s little voice in his head
commanded him to follow up on hunches. If the switches in my head tell me to
find another subject, well, let's just say those switches are mighty hard to
un-flip.
Bored and drowsy yet? Liar, I bet you didn't read that :p If you did, you
have as much time on your hands as I do, at least.
Anyway. Compiling a list of the Extreme Gear in Sonic Riders seemed like a
nice way to kill time and get in that obligatory guide for something other
than Paper Mario 2 that I needed to write. It seemed as simple as getting a
detailed list together and explaining the bare-bones mechanics of the system
at first, but to my suprise, there is quite a bit of hidden cake underneath
this icing. Then the guide sort of grew to the point that it wasn't just an
Extreme Gear list anymore. And it just gets better and better.
Before this guide gets anywhere, I must make note that I hold no regard for
spoiling any part of the game, and that the version of the game i've been
playing was the GameCube version. Controls, obviously, vary from system to
system, but i'll generalize it for the sake of clarity with terms such as
"jump button" and the like. I also assume you have a grasp of the game's
basics - if you don't, get busy playing and get over that steep, steep
learning curve. Now, let's get this show going:
_________________________ __________________
________________________/ C1. The Why's and How's \__/ -RIDING CLASSES- \___
============================================================================
Knuckles: Still, how can a plank like that just float?
Tails: That's easy to explain! According to the Kutta-Joukowski Lift
Theorem, the control surface flow is balanced by the inverse
kinetics of the- *on and on*
Knuckles: *mind a-splode* STOP! I get it, okay?! It just floats, and that's
good enough for me!
:p I'll have more to say about that at the very bottom of the guide. I won't
get that nerdy on you with how to effectively use gear, but there's some
basic terminology i'll be using throughout the guide that you should be
aware of:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
=======================
Extreme Gear Dictionary
=======================
Air - Somehow, in Riders, they've managed to fudge with the english language
so much that some words have several different definitions at once.
Typically, Air refers to your fuel, and when you see the word capitalized,
that's the context i'm putting it in.
Speed - This can mean a couple of things: the character type Speed, and the
numerical representation of how fast you're going. In regards to the latter,
it's shown at the bottom of your Air gauge. It's more than likely not miles
per hour, because i'd like to see you try to walk backwards at 20 MPH. The
average is approximately 158.6...any gear that struggles to go much higher
than 150 is pretty slow.
Flight - The flying character type. Referred to ingame as "Fly" type.
Power - This can either mean the character type Power, or the Power rating
for a gear.
Drifting - The game calls it "Air Sliding", in which you use the shoulder
buttons while steering to cut a sharp turn. It's called Air Sliding because
your gear shoots out a stream of air to improve your steering while doing
it. Do this long enough, and when you release the button, you get a speed
burst...so it sort of has a "slingshot" feel to it. I just call this
maneuver "drifting", because that's basically what it is.
Charging - Holding the jump button allows you to charge up for a more
powerful jump. This has no bearing on your jump height - you always make
spastic hops on your own - but the more you charge up before you leap off of
a ramp, the farther you fly. (Another critical factor is when you launch
off; let go at the tip of the ramp for as much air as that ramp will give
you.) Note that if you charge up long enough, you start slowing down quite a
bit, so get the timing right and practice tricky jumps. The Hovercraft board
lets you maintain speed, the trade-off being that the wretched thing is nigh
impossible to control.
"Getting hit" - Refers to someone nailing you a boost attack. All your rings
go flying, and you usually come to a halt, forcing you to get back up to
speed again. Some gears are simply too prohibitively slow accelerating to
wait for reaching max speed again, so you'd have to boost to fix it and blow
a chunk of air in the process that could have been used better elsewhere. In
short, getting hit stinks, try to avoid it.
"Speed Burst" - A quick boost in speed that doesn't quite have the same
effect as hitting the boost button.
CAUTION! zone - When you no longer have enough Air to boost without running
out of gas in doing so, your Air gauge turns orange, starts beeping, and
says CAUTION!. Your boost ability is taken away and your gear starts having
spasms (seriously) until you can get out of the, er, orange. This becomes
the DANGER!! zone when the needle's dancing on the letter E, so to speak. I
trust that you know what happens if you run out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
===================================
Before you mix and match at will...
===================================
If you've seen the Nintendo Power/Play interviews, you know what Takashi
Yuda has said about the characters: that they're only differentiated by
type. This is not entirely true.
The Gear system seems simple enough. Select your character, select the gear
you're going to have them use, and go. It is that simple if you haven't
unlocked or bought any gear yet. Once you start getting gear for everybody,
and trying all manner of gear/character combos, the stats for both
characters and gear come into play.
First, you can see the star ratings assigned to each character and gear, but
the game doesn't make any effort to clarify what they relate to. Aren't you
glad you're reading this?
DASH: Rates acceleration. The higher it is, the faster you get going -
usually. For some reason, the game does a sloppy job effectively rating a
gear's acceleration.
LIMIT: Rates top speed. Anything lower than 3 stars means that gear is
pretty slow, but most of the time, for a reason.
POWER: Off-road performance. This rates how fast you can go when you ride
over rough terrain (such as the grass in Metal City). Normally you won't be
treading off of the main course surface, so this sounds like a pointless
rating, but it it also rates how far you hit someone away when you bump into
another racer/someone bumps into you. If you have a higher power rating than
the guy you bump into, you shove them aside. It may also be a combo of power
and how fast you're going.
CORNERING: More stars here equals better steering. For most all gears, it
doesn't get any higher than 2. A select few go up 3. It sort of makes sense
considering what you're racing with.
The star ratings aren't an accurate means of pinpointing how fast a gear can
go or accelerate, they just give you a general idea. In other words, only
the Cornering rating is absolute; the Dash and Limit ratings are ballpark
guesses, as is Power (the half of it that judges your off-read speed). I'll
run down the detailed stats in the gear list.
You might be wondering why each character needs stats of their own. Let us
introduce the twist: the character you choose has direct influence on the
stats of the gear you pair them with; specifically, how fast a gear can go
and how fast it accelerates. There's also slight changes to the Power and,
in the case of Tails, Cornering stats. Most important is how much velocity
the thing will carry you down the track at, so i'll delve into that first.
Essentially, it's not much different than the character/kart system from
Mario Kart DS (where certain characters increased or reduced the weight
rating of whatever kart you gave them). The chart:
_____________________________________________________________
| CHARACTER | TYPE | TOP SPEED LOSS | OTHER CHANGES |
|===========|=======|================|========================|
| Sonic | Speed | None | None |
| Tails | Fly | -12 speed | Power -1, Cornering +1 |
| Knuckles | Power | - 7 speed | Power +1 |¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
| Amy | Speed | - 4 speed | None |
| Jet | Speed | - 2 speed | None |
| Storm | Power | - 4 speed | Power +1 |
| Wave | Fly | -12 speed | None |
| Eggman | Power | - 4 speed | Power +1 |
| Cream | Fly | -14 speed (!) | Power -1 |
| Rouge | Fly | -11 speed | None |
| Shadow | Speed | None | None |
| NiGHTS | Fly | -12 speed | None |
| Aiai | Power | - 7 speed | None |
| Ulala | Speed | None | None |
| E-10000G | Power | None | None |
| E-10000R | Speed | - 7 speed | None |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
And statistics because they're fun:
-- Only Sonic, Shadow, Ulala, and E-10000G leave the top speed alone. If
you're not using them, you take a hit in speed, period.
-- None of the unlockable characters sans Eggman and Cream affect Power.
-- Tails is the only character who affects a gear's Cornering. If a gear
already has sky high top speed and Power stats but bad acceleration and
Cornering, it's practically made for him. Most notably: Faster, Heavy
Bike, and Cover-F.
-- The "default" gears (character-exclusive ones that come with them) all
have the same ratings. Naturally, their "real" stats are whatever the
character's stats are. Eggman and Shadow don't have real default gear -
most everybody can use the Darkness skates and the E-rider bike. (In both
of the Battle modes, characters are only allowed to use their default
gear, and all have the exact same stats.)
-- Cream is unequivocally the worst character in the game, no contest. She
severely weakens whatever you give her. What do you expect, she sucks to
begin with :(
-- Wave is also useless next to Rouge, unless you want cooler boost attacks.
-- Speed characters don't have as much an impact on top speed as others,
save the embarassment that is E-10000R. Power characters are next lowest
in that regard with E-10000G coming out on top in speed, second only to
Storm (who gets to use everything instead of just boards). All of the
Flight characters are much slower than everyone else, and only Tails
makes up for it.
-- You read that right: E-10G is supposed to be the inferior robot model
here, and his "older brother" E-10R is slower despite the type
difference. I don't get it. Were they thinking Arby's when they designed
how the characters handle?
Characters also influence the star ratings. This is less important than how
much they kill your top speed, considering that two of the ratings don't
mean anything, but sometimes you've got to take into account the changes
they make to Power and Cornering. How it works is, the game changes the
ratings for a gear according to how their stats vary from what I like to
call "the standard". For comparison, the standard ratings stacked against
Eggman:
___________________________________
| "The Standard" | Eggman's stats |
|-----------------|-----------------|
| Dash: *** 3 | Dash: *** 3 |
| Limit: **** 4 | Limit: *** 3 |
| Power: *** 3 | Power: **** 4 |
| Corner: ** 2 | Corner: ** 2 |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
If the standard looks familiar, it is; those are the ratings given to all
the Speed characters. His Limit is 1 point lower, while Power is 1 point
higher. That difference carries over to whatever gear you give him. Now
let's see how the Cover-P bike performs in comparison:
___________________________________
| Cover-P w/ | Cover-P w/ |
| "The Standard" | Eggman's stats |
|-----------------|-----------------|
| Dash: **** 4 | Dash: **** 4 |
| Limit: ***** 5 | Limit: **** 4 |
| Power: *** 3 | Power: **** 4 |
| Corner: *** 3 | Corner: *** 3 |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Again, Limit down by 1, Power up by 1. So any character that has the
standard ratings can use the board as-is, while anybody else will have their
stat difference alter the board's performance accordingly.
Finally, according to final_lap, some characters also differ in how long
their boosts last. I don't know if there's any truth in that, and I don't
care to do enough testing to find out, but from what little I know about
boost lengths, I can say that I wouldn't count on it.
___________________________ _______________
_______________________/ C2. Buying/Unlocking Gear \__/ -WORK FOR IT- \_____
============================================================================
The game starts you off with only the bare-bones equipment - one default
board for each of the 7 default characters. It's a good start, but to
progress with less hassle in modes like World GP, you need either the skill
to use the default boards to their limits or better gear. Here we focus on
getting it all unlocked (or what's worth unlocking).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
======================================
The Gear Exchange - You want HOW much?
======================================
The Shop option on the main menu is where 31 of the best and worst gear in
the game is stowed. And a seedy shop it is. It's actually the Chao Black
Market from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, housed within the same gritty,
makeshift sports locker and now run by a sk8r Chao with goggles and bandana.
I guess the old market was run out of business after patrons lost interest
in their bland-tasting geometric fruit selection and ridiculous attempt at
running a haberdashery (Hollowed-out watermelon hats, now 50% off! You look
totally not like a clown wearing them! Really! Ok, 60%!).
..anyway, the selection at the shop increases as you progress. You start
with a wide array of boards, which expands to include the remaining 5 pairs
of skates when you unlock Shadow (read: clear the Heroes story), and then 7
of the 10 bikes when you unlock Eggman (read: clear Babylon story). Finally,
clear all the missions in Mission Mode to add 4 special (and relatively
expensive) Sega-themed gears.
Obviously, currency comes in the form of the rings you collect from races -
whatever rings you have on hand at the end of each race accumulate and can
be spent here. All of the available gear is priced in increments of 100
rings, which is the most you can get from any race, except under special
circumstances which i'll get to mentioning in a couple pharagraphs.
First, here is the complete sales chart for the shop, each gear being listed
in order of how much of a hole you'll burn in your bank account by buying
it. Gears marked with *s are worth going out of your way to get (in my view,
at least). Major thnx to SuperLocke44 for providing all the prices:
_____________________________ _____________________________
| GEAR ---------------- RINGS | | GEAR ---------------- RINGS |
|==>> Hoverboards >>==========| |==>> Skates >>===============|
|Beginner --------------- 300| |Advantage-S ------------ 1000|
|High Booster ----------- 300| |Advantage-F ------------ 1000|
|Accelerator * ---------- 500| |Advantage-P ------------ 1000|
|Power Gear ------------- 500| |Grinder * -------------- 2000|
|Auto Slider ------------ 600| |Cannonball ------------- 3500|
|Faster * --------------- 800| |==>> Sega >>=================|
|Light Board * ---------- 1000| |The Crazy (board) ------ 2000|
|Access ----------------- 1500| |Hang-On (bike) * ------- 2000|
|Hovercraft ------------- 1500| |Opa Opa (board) * ------ 2500|
|Speed Balancer --------- 1500| |Super Hang-On (bike) * - 2500|
|Slide Booster ---------- 2000| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
|Air Broom -------------- 2500|
|Berserker -------------- 2500|
|Trap Gear -------------- 2500|
|Gambler * -------------- 4000|
|==>> Bikes >>================|
|Cover-S * -------------- 500|
|Cover-F * -------------- 500|
|Cover-P ---------------- 500|
|Heavy Bike * ----------- 800|
|Air Tank --------------- 1000|
|Destroyer * ------------ 3500|
|Omnipotence ------------ 5000|
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Subtotal: If you buy the gear recommended with *s, excluding the Gambler
board and Sega gear, it comes to 9,600 rings (96 races normally).
Total: If you buy EVERYTHING on this list, the grand total is 51,300
rings (513 races normally!).
"My god, the monotony!", right? Fortunately they weren't stupid enough to
not include methods of expediting the process. First, World GP mode offers a
very nice payload if you do well: if you win the cup with 48-50 points
(close to the max, so you have to go for the win every race), you get a gold
emblem and score a fat 500 ring bonus. Add that to the possible 500 total
rings you can get from the 5 races themselves, and you'll be able to afford
the mega-pricey Omnipotence bike in only 5 runs of either World GP. (Which
would be a huge waste of time considering that Omnipotence is kind of a
polished turd, but again, statistics are fun.) If you end up with less
points and get a silver emblem, it's worth 400 rings...even less will net
you a bronze worth 300.
The other way to haul in the moolah would be to shell out 4,000 rings for
the Gambler board. It doesn't look like you're getting your money's worth at
first...it's a clunker in the stats department, eats more Air when you
boost, and takes away your character's type attribute so that all shortcuts
are off-limits. The "gamble", then, is trying to win with it. Place 1st
somehow, and the rings you finish with will be doubled - for a max of 200
rings per race.
Trying to run a full 3 lap affair with the Gambler is torturous. You'll
barely be able to maintain a lead and it takes longer than it's worth. So do
what everybody always does in situations like this in video games: abuse it
to its' cheapest. Go into Free Race mode, set the number of laps to 1, and
select a track where you can easily grab the course's 100-ring capsule and
still make it back around to the finish first. (Thanks to Knux Chao for this
tip.) Speaking of those capsules...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
==========================================
100-ring capsules - The magic number index
==========================================
Every course (sans Babylon Guardian and Sega Carnival) has two special
power-up capsules hidden on the track in obscure, out-of-the-way places: Max
Air and 100 rings. They both max out the properties their namesakes claim
to, and while they both look identical from a distance - large and gold-
rimmed - there's only one of each, and the 100-ring capsules are usually a
bit less of a strain to find or access.
If you're going for as many rings as possible with either of the two methods
I laid out above, you'll want to know where these godly power-ups are
hidden, so i've put together this handy reference with the help of several
people: Setnaro X, Sketchie, Cervosi, bigblued89, and Master_Espeon provided
locations and directions for getting them that I had missed. Your effort is
mucho appreciated. Plugging aside, here it is:
------------
METAL CITY:
Do front flips on the first jump to get to the upper route. Of course, you
must charge up enough to fly that far. Just after the line of power-up
capsules, it's up in the air on the left side of the road, but it's
suspended too high up to get with a jump. Notice, however, the line of rings
leading up to a suspicious arrow board just nearby. Line up with it, charge
up a jump and leap into the board to be carried to the capsule. Should you
miss it, just forget about it, as 100 rings are a total breeze to get on
this track through other means.
NIGHT CHASE: (Power character recommended)
When the path splits into two short tunnels, take the right one. Shortly,
you'll hit a wide-open area, but stay on the right side of the road. Watch
for the second ramp on the side (immedeately after the intersection), then
charge up a jump as you approach. Jump off the side of the ramp near the end
of it with backflips. Nail it just right, and you'll hit the capsule. Why a
power character? Johnny Law and his squadron get in the way otherwise, as
does the traffic at the intersection.
SPLASH CANYON:
Easiest one to reach, by far. In the first wide turn, stay on the outside,
near the rail shortcut. When you hit the wide-open area, stay on the right
side, and note the three waterfalls. The capsule is just behind the second
one, but the waterfall completely conceals it. (Rainbow effect?) Just stay
to the right, near the rock wall and you'll see it. Or ride straight into
the second waterfall and hope you hit it. The latter method takes practice
and good aim. This is the track you want to use the Gambler board on.
RED CANYON:
Quite nearly as easy as Splash Canyon's, only this is close to the end.
After you exit the cave by jumping through the waterfall, you'll ride down a
slope. You should see the capsule sitting out in the open at the bottom-left
of the slope.
EGG FACTORY:
Most conveniently, if you watch the course intro, it will show you exactly
where this one is. But it doesn't help. Following the sharp hairpin turn
after the bit with the lava draining from the ceiling, you go up a slope and
find yourself in a wide turn with a fast-rotating mechanism on the inside of
the turn. The capsule, annoyingly enough, is just within the radius of the
mechanism. Worse yet, it's sitting RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF THE TRACK, and the
mechanism's pods will likely whack you away in a direction you'd prefer not
to go as you try to grab the capsule, unless your timing is spot on. Not
worth the frustration.
ICE FACTORY:
Fortunately, this one's a snap. Not far after the fast ride along the
conveyor hook, you make a sharp turn and see the same mechanism from Egg
Factory, except this one is frozen and thus stopped. The capsule is
inbetween the first and second pods and needs some precision turning to get,
but at least you have no danger of careening off the track against your
will.
GREEN CAVE: (Flight character recommended)
There are two ways to go about this, but without a flight character, you may
have to get lucky. With one, just hit the first flight shortcut, then take
note of the dash rings: there are 4 in this shortcut. Use the first one, fly
under the second, and land on the cylindrical vine beneath the third. This
vine eventually takes you to the capsule. (Mess it up, and you'll likely
plummet off the track, but you SHOULD respawn right at the flight ramp.) For
other characters, you must rely on someone else's turbulence. Ride the wave
of anybody who's taken the right-side vine, then try to trick off of the
side. Hopefully, you'll land on the vine above.
WHITE CAVE:
This one is impressively well-hidden, and kind of a bitch to describe, so
pay attention. Following the first major jump, you'll be racing through the
inside of a massive, hollowed-out tree. When you see the first set of two
dash panels on the floor, go to the left of them, then stay to the left of
every rock and set of dash panels that you see. It should sort of lead you
upside down. Now, as you pass underneath (or perhaps overtop of) the dash
ring for the flight shortcut, drift to the left, falling out of the tree. If
you did it right, you should flip as you "fall" and land on a cylindrical
vine that you couldn't otherwise reach. Steer to the top of the vine to find
the capsule.
SAND RUINS: (Flight character recommended)
As you're approaching the second big jump, and at about the point where
there is a line of power-ups beforehand, a column will fall on the left,
making a convenient lesser jump for you. Charge up a jump as much as you can
and backflip off of it to land on the upper path, with the capsule. You want
to be on the rightmost side of the jump, else you'll miss the capsule.
That's the hard way to do it, but if you're using a flight character, simply
take the flight shortcut just after landing from the first big jump. Follow
all the dash rings, and you should land at - or most likely on top of - the
capsule easily.
DARK DESERT:
Requires turbulence riding. Hang back enough before you get to the tunnel
after the series of lesser jumps early on. Land from the last of those
jumps, and try to get into someone's turbulence before you enter the sharp
turn ahead. Trick off of the left edge of the turbulence as you go into the
turn to go through the ceiling (!?) and land in a secret alcove with the
capsule.
BABYLON GARDEN:
When you get out of the lengthy curve following the fighter jet ride, you go
down a slope and witness a jet blast a gaping hole in the track ahead of
you. There's a small jump just in front of the hole, so charge up as you
approach, and front-flip off the edge of the jump. You've got to charge up
pretty substantially to get launched up high enough to reach it, and lining
up with the capsule is equally as tricky at first.
SKY ROAD:
After the second big jump (and if you don't take the turbulence shortcut
created by a fighter jet), you go around a quick, sharp corner, down a
slight slope and hit a wide straightaway with no guardrails. You will see
the 100-ring and Max Air capsules suspended way up above here, but they're
impossible to reach on lap 1, so keep racing. The second time you come by
here, a jet will blast a huge chunk of track away underneath the ring
capsule, but also create a small ramp in front of the hole with which to
reach it. So cut the inside of the corner with a drift, and when you release
the shoulder button, start charging a jump - you will have little time to
prepare for the ramp to appear. Aim for the center of the edge of the ramp,
and front-flip. This may take several attempts.
DIGITAL DIMENSION: (Flight character recommended)
When you enter "heaven", head for the left side of the building ahead.
Beside it, there's a short stairway with the capsule smack in the middle of
it, but just ahead is the ramp for a flight shortcut. If you're not using a
flight character, you must boost beforehand so that you shoot over the gap
in the track to safety.
BABYLON GUARDIAN:
There isn't one, nor are there any rings at all unless you're using Chaos
Emerald/The Crazy.
SEGA CARNIVAL:
Not here either; only the Max Air capsule is present. Why one capsule is
there but the other isn't is beyond me.
SEGA ILLUSION:
Very tricky. When you reach the Chu Chu Rocket! board near the end, start
charging up a jump. Just ahead, the path splits: three arrow panels straight
ahead, and three to your immedeate left. You need to take that hard left
turn and jump over all of the green and red panels, else you get carried
towards the finish. Aim for the glowing gold panel and hit it, and you'll
get the capsule as you go.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
===========================================
Story mode - Awful voice acting, cool rides
===========================================
Gamespot calls Story mode "useless". Hey Alex Navarro, the same can be said
about your reviews. If you don't suck, it can be beaten altogether in less
than a day, and for doing so, four gears (and several more in the shop) are
awarded to you:
__________________________________________
| GEAR | TYPE | CLEAR THIS STORY |
|==========================================|
| Blue Star II | Board | Heroes |
| Darkness | Skates | Heroes |
| Magic Carpet | Board | Babylon |
| E-rider | Bike | Babylon |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
============================================
Mission mode - Collect junk to recieve scrap
============================================
Furthermore, wrapping up the story opens up the biggest time-waster in the
game, Mission Mode. It's engineered for you to hone your skills and get your
head around the unusual mechanics, which would have been nice if they called
it Training Mode and made it available from the start instead of leaving us
to struggle along in Story mode first, and instead of hiding an incredibly
uninformative "tutorial" (for lack of a term that would better describe it,
or at least one that's not overly profane) video in a place that not very
many people would think to look.
What? The unlockables? You don't want to know. Four out of the five boards
you can get out of this mode are incredibly bad or nigh-worthless. But i'll
tell you anyway, because that one board is great, and I know there are
completionists reading this who want to get every drop of replay value out
of the bottle that is within their skill, me being one of them:
In any of the 3 mission menus, pressing the button assigned to View Treasure
will switch to a view of the treasures you've earned from this mode. What
the game deems "treasure" are the items you can collect from every fifth
mission on each track in Storm's Missions if you're good. In these missions
(which have you doing things like "catch up to and destroy (x target)" or
"fly through (x) number of dash rings"), hidden somewhere amongst the
objects you're supposed to use to clear the mission is one item that looks
like the junk you collect from the junk collection missions. You usually
have to keep doing what you're supposed to be doing for a while before you
can get to it - like in Splash Canyon Mission 5, where the treasure is
sitting on a rail over the raging river, and you must grind with a great
deal of skill/timing to make it to it.
Once you have the treasure, complete the mission and return to the treasure
menu. Whatever it is will be revealed here under one of the four selectable
treasure slots (A/B/C/D). Now, for each slot, there are two items: a wrecked
board in dire need of repair, and the repair manual that shows what parts
you need to be able to fix it. The boards and manuals are considered
seperate treasures, so of course, if you get a manual, you won't get the
board with it.
If i've lost you thus far in these huge paragraphs, it boils down to the
following: play the fifth missions for Storm, get the hidden treasures in
them to collect wrecked boards and the repair manuals for them. That makes
four boards for each treasure slot, but I didn't make a typo when I said
five up there; the last one isn't unlocked by these means. Here's where each
treasure is found (and keep in mind that I haven't tested any of this, so it
all comes second hand from the GameFAQs codes page):
_________________________________________________
| TREASURE ----------- | PLAY THE 5TH MISSION ON: |
|=================================================|
| Fastest board ------ | Metal City |
| Turbo Star manual -- | Splash Canyon |
| Powerful Gear board | Egg Factory |
| Turbo Star board --- | Green Cave |
| Legend manual ------ | Sand Ruins |
| Legend board ------- | Babylon Garden |
| Fastest manual ----- | Digital Dimension |
| Powerful Gear manual | Sega Carnival |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Finding them is only half the work, repairing them is the real chore. As
each repair manual shows, you need a certain number of five different
objects to get the thing fixed. These objects are the junk you collect in
any of the junk missions throughout Mission Mode. They're differentiated
simply by color - leave the technical differences to the tinkering geeks who
fix these things like Tails. They come in Green, Yellow, Red, Blue, and the
exceptionally rare Purple. You can view the junk you've collected in the
View Treasure menu under Junks. If you need more, junk missions can always
be replayed to stock up.
Depending on the track you're doing the junk mission on, there will be more
of a certain color than the others, but there's always only two Red junks
and one Purple junk to be found...except during Jet's junk missions. In
those, all 12 of them are Purple, but the trade-off is that while you're
going about collecting junk, you're also racing Jet, so you've got to keep
pace or you blow the mission. Fortunately, if you're good enough at both of
those tasks (as well you should be to make it that far into the game), it's
not too much of a bother. As for Storm's and Wave's junk missions, here's a
chart of how much of each color junk you'll find on each track, Red and
Purple notwithstanding:
_______________________________
| COURSE ---------- | G | Y | B |
|===============================|
| Metal City ------ | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Splash Canyon --- | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Egg Factory ----- | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Green Cave ------ | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Sand Ruins ------ | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Babylon Garden -- | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Digital Dimension | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Sega Carnival --- | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Night Chase ----- | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Red Canyon ------ | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Ice Factory ----- | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| White Cave ------ | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Dark Desert ----- | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Sky Road -------- | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Babylon Guardian | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Sega Illusion --- | 2 | 3 | 4 |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Once you have enough as dictated by the board's manual, and also have the
beaten-up board in question, select its' treasure slot and confirm that you
want to fix it. (How incredibly redundant, why wouldn't you? Well, maybe
because the developers know these things suck?) Once it's back in working
order, the gear is added to your roster for use anytime. This is what is
needed:
_________________________________________________________________
| BOARD ------- | AMOUNT OF JUNK REQUIRED |
|=================================================================|
| Fastest ----- | 10 Green, 40 Yellow, 10 Red, 20 Blue, 5 Purple |
| Legend ------ | 20 Green, 20 Yellow, 20 Red, 20 Blue, 40 Purple |
| Powerful Gear | 10 Green, 20 Yellow, 10 Red, 40 Blue, 10 Purple |
| Turbo Star -- | 40 Green, 20 Yellow, 10 Red, 10 Blue |
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
More fun with numbers: You always need a medium to large amount of Yellow
junk for each of these, while Red junk is the least consistently necessary.
Well, mathematically. Turbo Star doesn't even need Purple junk, which will
save you some effort.
And what about that fifth board? It's the Chaos Emerald, and you must put in
a great deal of work to get it: earn gold emblems on every single mission
and it's yours. Doesn't matter whether or not you repair the other four
boards, but I think you may have to unlock the Sega tracks first. I can't be
sure about that, though. Just to spoil the so-called suprise early, it's the
board that lets you use Super Sonic, but it's still utter crap. I'll let you
get to its' entry in the gear list before I continue complaining about that.
______________ ___________________
______________________________/ D. Gear List \__/ -RACER'S CATALOG- \_______
============================================================================
Finally, here's the centerpiece of the guide: the gear list. Through
extensive testing, i've devised strategies for using (or not using) all 54
gears. Also listed are unofficial stats such as top speed to make it as
complete as possible. Much free time was burnt up getting all this precious
info, so in reading this, you hereby agree to surrender your soul to me to
make up for the loss. Or at least appreciate my toil :p
This is what you'll find for each listing:
##. [name]
[in-game description]
Dash: * # [in-game rating]
Limit: * # [rating]
Power: * # [rating]
Corner: * # [rating]
Top Speed: ### (0-### in # seconds, ### at level 3) [the fastest it can go,
and how long it takes to get to that point. These values were gathered with
the character that gives it its' best possible stats. Also listed is your
top speed at level 3. Reminder: 158.6 is the average]
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) ###, (Lv2) ###, (Lv3) ### [boost performance at all 3
levels]
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) ##, (Lv2/3) ## [the fastest you can manage when you
stray off-track, which raises as you level up]
Special Attributes: [the gear's gimmicks, if applicable]
Unlock: [what you need to do to get it, in case you missed section C2]
Characters: [who gets to use it]
Notes: [whatever you need to know when using it]
ABOUT LEVELLING UP:
As your level hikes up, your stats recieve slight boosts. Your Power
increases one point at level 2, and Dash/Limit increases at level 3. Also,
the duration of your boost goes up a by a second or two as you level up, but
I won't be listing how long the boosts last - that takes more testing than
i'm willing to endure.
ABOUT ACCELERATION:
You won't find yourself recovering from coming to a standstill often, but
the stats should tell you how quickly it can get moving at a gear's best
speed. I tested most of them on the straightaways at Babylon Guardian,
although for some gears that have a really hard time accelerating on their
own, even those aren't long enough. 20 seconds is as far as you can go
before you hit the wall in a turn, so if I list it as 20+ seconds, you'll
know how miserably slow it is to get going. Average acceleration time is
approxmiately 8.8 seconds (based on what data I gathered with an
undetermined margin of error).
I've split the three gear types into their respective categories. They're
listed in the order that the game presents them: 1-38 are boards, 39-48 are
bikes, and 49-54 are skates. As a reminder, Eggman can only use bikes, Ulala
can't use bikes, and both of the E-10000's can only use boards. Onward, to
knowledge:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|\________________________________________________________________/|
||>>>>>>>>>>>>| D1. Hoverboards || [-SONIC SURFER-] |<<<<<<<<<<<<<||
|/----------------------------------------------------------------\|
1. Blue Star
By Robotnik Corp. Speed-type air board.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Stats: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: N/A
Characters: Sonic only
Notes: Works fine until you get Blue Star II/Cover-S, then it's not good for
much.
2. Yellow Tail
By Robotnik Corp. Flight-type air board.
Dash: **** 4
Limit: *** 3
Power: ** 2
Corner: *** 3
Top Speed: 150 (0-150 in 7 seconds, 165 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: N/A
Characters: Tails only (Because of this, his character stats determine the
board's performance. Yellow Tail's base stats are the standard.)
Notes: Good if you're new to the game, since it has better cornering than
most other gear and slightly longer boosts. When better gear starts rolling
in, ditch it.
3. Red Rock
By Robotnik Corp. Power-type air board.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: *** 3
Power: **** 4
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 155 (0-155 in 6 seconds, 165 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 100, (Lv2/3) 105
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: N/A
Characters: Knuckles only (Because of this, his character stats determine
the board's performance. Red Rock's base stats are the standard.)
Notes: Same story as Blue Star - get used to the Power Type with it, buy
better gear, ditch this.
4. Pink Rose
By Robotnik Corp. Speed type for women.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 158 (0-158 in 7 seconds, 176 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 84, (Lv2/3) 94
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: N/A
Characters: Amy only
Notes: A slower Blue Star with a sissy tone, being ridden by a dippy
stalker. Well, I like her new jumpsuit.
5. Type-J
Babylon Standard. Speed type W (Wave).
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 160 (0-160 in 7 seconds, 178 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 84, (Lv2/3) 94
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: N/A
Characters: Jet only
Notes: He's 2 speed slower than Sonic at any level. Fuel to feed the fire of
the fanboys who insist Sonic can't be outsped, I guess.
6. Type-S
Babylon Standard. Power type W (Wave).
Dash: *** 3
Limit: *** 3
Power: **** 4
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 158 (0-158 in 7 seconds, 168 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 100, (Lv2/3) 106
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: N/A
Characters: Storm only (Because of this, his character stats determine the
board's performance. Type-S' base stats are the standard.)
Notes: Ever-so-slightly faster than Red Rock, and it has some significance
in the Hero story intro...that's about it.
7. Type-W
Babylon Standard. Flight type W (Wave).
Dash: **** 4
Limit: *** 3
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 150 (0-150 in 7 seconds, 165 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: N/A
Characters: Wave only (Because of this, her character stats determine the
board's performance. Type-W's base stats are the standard.)
Notes: Different handling than Yellow Tail. It's closer towards a standard
Speed type board, but much slower.
8. Temptation
By Robotnik Corp. For women R (Rouge).
Dash: **** 4
Limit: *** 3
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 151 (0-151 in 7 seconds, 166 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Comes with Rouge when she's unlocked
Characters: Rouge only (Because of this, her character stats determine the
board's performance. Temptation's base stats are the standard.)
Notes: Anyone else find its' description funny in its' own weird way? Or i'm
just nuts. Anyway, this is mostly identical to Type-W, except...well, with
what this game deems "sex appeal"?
9. Smile
By Robotnik Corp. Flight type for kids.
Dash: **** 4
Limit: *** 3
Power: ** 2
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 148 (0-148 in 7 seconds, 163 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 79, (Lv2/3) 89
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Comes with Cream when she's unlocked
Characters: Cream only (Because of this, her character stats determine the
board's performance. Smile's base stats are the standard.)
Notes: Cream sucks :( Use someone else. Like a character with RESPECTABLE
qualities.
10. High Booster
Astounding boost ability.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: *** 3
Power: ** 2
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 157 (0-157 in 12 seconds, 175 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 250, (Lv2) 300, (Lv3) 350
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: Mega boost that uses up much more Air
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 300 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: The super boost isn't worth the half of your air gauge you'll drain
when you use it. Some parts of Mission Mode require that you use it (and
those missions aren't fun to get Gold Emblems on).
11. Auto Slider
Auto Air Slides when cornering!
Dash: *** 3
Limit: *** 3
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 157 (0-157 in 8 seconds, 175 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: Can drift simply by doing a sharp turn; drifting uses
less Air
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 600 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: I...guess this was intended to practice drifting with, but it's
actually harder to drift, much less steer, this way. If you're
inexperienced, play Metal City in Time Attack and practice on the two sharp
hairpin turns.
12. Powerful Gear
Heavy Gear. Works well even on poor roads.
Dash: * 1
Limit: **** 4
Power: ****** 6
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 19 seconds)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 155, (Lv2/3) 160
Special Attributes: Doesn't lose speed uphill
Unlock: Repair in Mission Mode - requires 10 Green junk, 20 Yellow, 10 Red,
40 Blue, and 10 Purple
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: The only Mission Mode gear that's worth it. Uphill terrain has no
effect when using this, so you can FLY up slopes when boosting. Use a
default stat character for best results. Just don't get hit, because it
takes its' sweet time recovering from a sharp speed decrease. (Thanks to
final_lap for uncovering this board's trait.)
13. Fastest
Gear with the highest top speed.
Dash: 0
Limit: ******* 7
Power: *** 3
Corner: 0
Top Speed: 202 (0-202 in 20+ seconds, 219 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 230, (Lv2) 240, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: Can only restore Air via Air power-ups, pit stops, or
levelling up
Unlock: Repair in Mission Mode - requires 10 Green junk, 40 Yellow, 10 Red,
20 Blue, and 5 Purple
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Enjoy that exhilirating speed, because with so few ways to refuel, it
won't last. Another reason it won't last is because you'll have your hands
full trying to get a handle on this thing's miserable steering. Its' boosts
are weak, gaining only 10 speed each level and being no faster than 38 over
your top speed at any given time (ironically making its' level 2 boosts the
most effective). A clunker by any faster speed is still a clunker.
14. Turbo Star
Accelerates quickly to achieve top speed!
Dash: ****** 6
Limit: * 1
Power: 0
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 142 (0-142 in 2 seconds [!], 160 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 180, (Lv2) 200, (Lv3) 230
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 70, (Lv2/3) 80
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Repair in Mission Mode - requires 40 Green junk, 20 Yellow, 10 Red,
and 10 Blue
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Once it's done accelerating, it leaves you for dead with that top
speed :( I guess your boosts are pretty effective here, with such a huge
difference between top speed/boost speed, so use them dilligently.
Accelerator's better at this kind of thing.
15. Speed Balancer
Performs well on straight roads.
Dash: ***** 5
Limit: ****** 6
Power: * 1
Corner: 0
Top Speed: 177 (0-177 in 5 seconds, 195 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 75, (Lv2/3) 85
Special Attributes: Severely handicapped steering
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: That description is dead serious. This thing has virtually no
steering ability at all on its' own. It's like being strapped to an ATV and
having the throttle hung wide open. In order to get through even the
slightest of turns this game has to offer, you MUST drift, and that means
rapid Air consumption. Should you dare to attempt this wreckless ride, use
Tails so that you have some sembelance of handling ability.
16. Blue Star II
By Robotnik Corp. Speed type for Sonic.
Dash: **** 4
Limit: ***** 5
Power: ** 2
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 167 (0-167 in 5 seconds, 184 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 210, (Lv2) 235, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 75, (Lv2/3) 85
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Clear the Heroes Story
Characters: Sonic only
Notes: This thing outclasses the original nicely. It's engineered for raw
speed, and there's nothing you can do about the Power and Cornering.
Fortunately, it isn't quite as hard to handle as Speed Balancer.
17. Access
This Gear allows any character that can utilize it to fly.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: *** 3
Power: ** 2
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 6 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 180, (Lv2) 210, (Lv3) 230
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: Enables user to use flight type shortcuts
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,500 Rings
Characters: Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Jet, Storm, Shadow, Aiai, Ulala, E-10000G,
E-10000R
Notes: All it has on Magic Carpet is better acceleration and cornering. The
trade-off doesn't mean much with that kind of top speed and power. On top of
that, it has lacking boosts. Uh, why?
18. Beginner
Consumes little air. Good for beginners.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: *** 3
Power: ** 2
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 157 (0-157 in 13 seconds, 175 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: Uses less Air
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 300 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Ehh, if you're new, then you're probably better off with Tails and
Yellow Tail.
19. Accelerator
By Robotnik Corp. Speed boost enhanced.
Dash: ***** 5
Limit: ** 2
Power: ** 2
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 3 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Don't believe the description, its' boosting ability isn't enhanced
any. It may seem that way because of the sharp contrast between top and
boost speed. Still fairly slow, but faster and more practical than Turbo
Star regardless. Side note: Shadow looks pretty slick paired with this one.
20. Trap Gear
Can execute unlimited Tornadoes!
Dash: **** 4
Limit: ** 2
Power: ** 2
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 147 (0-147 in 4 seconds, 164 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: N/A
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: Can't boost or attack, but dropping a tornado doesn't
cost Air and gives you a quick burst of speed; not selectable for Babylon
Guardian
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 2,500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: If its' top speed weren't in the dumps, this thing would be godly.
Repeatedly crapping tornadoes will shake off any bugs riding your
turbulence, and lets you shoot up steep slopes or quickly recover from
getting hit. Boosting, however, is still the better way of maintaining
effective speed, and getting back into the lead can be tough if you fall
behind for any reason. In any event, it's a fun board. Experiment with it.
21. Light Board
Gear with the lightest weight.
Dash: **** 4
Limit: *** 3
Power: ** 2
Corner: *** 3
Top Speed: 145 (0-145 in 5 seconds, 161 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 190, (Lv2) 220, (Lv3) 240
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 82, (Lv2/3) 91
Special Attributes: The effects of speed boosts linger until interrupted
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,000 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: This board's effect is very weird. I'm having a hard time pinning
down exactly how it works, so drop me a line at section F if you know the
details. What happens is, when you boost, the game locks your acceleration
so that the speed increase is kept after the boost ends, until you hit a
wall or begin charging a jump, or anything to interrupt it. When you get to
level 3, it may also start doing this with drift boosts and the Speed Up
power-up. The funny thing is, i've witnessed myself land from dropping off a
ledge and continue to accelerate rapidly until I hit about 250 speed...or
land from a flight shortcut and get screwed because it won't let me go
faster than 120 (that can be fixed with a jump). It's bizzare. Help me out
here.
22. Slide Booster
Can execute consecutive slides.
Dash: * 1
Limit: ** 2
Power: * 1
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in approx. 10+ seconds*, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: N/A
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 75, (Lv2/3) 85
Special Attributes: Can't boost or attack, but enhances drifting abilities
significantly (see notes); not selectable for Babylon Guardian
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 2,000 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Mario Kart DS and F-Zero GX players are familiar with "snaking", a
technique that has you using repeated drift boosts back and forth down wide
straightaways to rocket down the track. Some call it cheating, but in the
case of this board, it's the only way to keep up. What it does is take away
the time it takes to charge up a drift boost while drifting, so that you get
the speed burst by only having to press and release the shoulder button.
While turning, of course. Furthermore, drifting with this board uses almost
no Air whatsoever. This is how you want to do it:
1) As you head down a straightaway, move to about the center of the track.
2) Move the Control Stick in either direction, then initiate a drift...
3) Quickly move the stick in the opposite direction and release the button,
and we have liftoff.
4) Now start another drift, move the stick, release, drift, ect. Do this all
in quick succession to repeatedly boost your way ahead.
At level 3, you can maintain a speed of about 230 as long as you're doing
this, so shoot for that level ASAP. You can also try variations of this to
get back up to speed quickly after being hit or to bomb through gentle
corners. The disadvantages? Your turning radius when drifting like you
usually would is way too sharp, and snaking is all that keeps you ahead of
people.
* - Without being able to use this thing on Babylon Guardian, I can't figure
out how long it takes to go from 0-152 on it because there are no other
straightways in the game long enough. I would estimate about 10 or more
seconds.
23. Legend
Has high-level air ability.
Dash: * 1
Limit: ** 2
Power: * 1
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 16 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 75, (Lv2/3) 85
Special Attributes: Can go soaring off of large ramps without having to
charge up a jump, but can't restore Air by doing tricks
Unlock: Repair in Mission Mode - requires 20 Green junk, 20 Yellow, 20 Red,
20 Blue, and 40 Purple (!)
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Yes, that happens to be the second worst rating total in the game,
and it's slow as a rock speeding up, but there is some inner decency to this
board. When using it, only choose a standard stat character so you don't
lose precious top speed. As you approach any big ramp, don't reach for the
jump button, just hold Up or Down on the stick (situation permitting) and
the board will do the rest. Keep in mind this only works for large ramps;
smaller ones still must be taken advantage of manually. Tricks are typically
your biggest source of Air income, and Legend steals away that luxury, so be
little more air-conservant.
24. Magic Carpet
Legendary Extreme Gear.
Dash: * 1
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 19 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: Enables user to use flight type shortcuts
Unlock: Clear the Babylon Story
Characters: Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Jet, Storm, Shadow, Aiai, Ulala, E-10000G,
E-10000R
Notes: If anything, it wins in looks. It's one of the few gears that allow
you to mix shortcuts without forcing particularly low stats on you (forget
that cleaning instrument below). The acceleration seriously drags and
handling is a bit stiff, but anybody with some skill can ignore those
blemishes. A lot of my best lap times have been set with this impressive
hovering cloth.
25. Air Broom
This Gear allows any character to grind.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: ** 2
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 6 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: Enables user to use grinding shortcuts
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 2,500 Rings
Characters: Tails, Knuckles, Storm, Wave, Cream, Rouge, NiGHTS, Aiai, E-
10000G*
Notes: Meh. Grinder's got better stats where it really matters (speed). Not
worth the price. Don't ask me how a BROOMSTICK can give you mad grinding
skillz. This is kind of amusing paired with Rouge, but then you're slow as
molasses :(
* - E10G is the only character you can use this with that doesn't steal
speed away.
26. Hovercraft
Gear said to be used on a grand adventure.
Dash: **** 4
Limit: ****** 6
Power: **** 4
Corner: *** 3
Top Speed: 172 (0-172 in 6 seconds, 190 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 210, (Lv2) 240, (Lv3) 260
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 90, (Lv2/3) 100
Special Attributes: Slippery steering that is nigh impossible to control,
but won't lose speed when charging up a jump
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: It's a CLOUD, so guess what that means? No grip whatsoever! This
atmospherical turd steers like you're on ice no matter what. Doesn't matter
that prepping for major air on a jump doesn't slow you down if you can't
halfway control the thing. Should you finish either World GP with this thing
in 1st place, with a perfect score, I will bow to your superiority (or at
least poke fun at your achievement here). Yes, that is a challenge.
27. Chaos Emerald
Emerald holds an ancient power.
Dash: ***** 5
Limit: ****** 6
Power: ***** 5
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 182 (0-182 in 5 seconds)
Boost Speed: (Lv1) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 95
Special Attributes: Enables use of Super Sonic (see notes)
Unlock: Earn Gold Emblems for every mission in Mission Mode
Characters: Sonic only
Notes: The fun thing about having guides of your own is that you get all the
room you need to rant about things that suck, like Super Sonic in this game.
Let's rattle off the list of the advantages he provides, to get it out of
the way:
-- Unlimited air
-- Acceleration, top speed, and off-road performance specs are superb
-- He is endowed with all three character types, making all types of
shortcuts open to you
-- Is invincible (doesn't lose rings or speed if attacked)
-- Your boost attack will power through your victim without interruption,
leaving them dazed and confused at the yellow streak that just mowed them
down
-- He looks cool, more than can be said for his appearances since after
Sonic Adventure 2
-- *gasp* Decent voice clips! (except for that one at the start of the race)
Sound good thus far? That's all the good there is. His steering reeks for a
supposed god character. He can't drop tornadoes or level up (not that he'd
need to, though). And then, there is his reliance on rings. In case you
haven't been following the series for long (and if not, stop reading and go
buy Sonic Mega Collection for any platform that's convenient for you. That's
an order), Super Sonic has always used rings as fuel for his power. Use of
his abilites drains rings, and when he runs out, superhog is back to being
just 'hog. In Riders, they've taken his ring addiction to unhealthy levels
beyond anything previously seen in the series. It charts out like thus:
-- You start the race with 30 rings (wtf, he's supposed to start with 50)
-- You lose 1 ring per second when racing normally
-- Rings are siphoned rapidly while drifting (uh, why?)
-- A whopping 20 rings are required to boost
-- And an additional 10 rings are gone for every character you attack in the
boost (what?!)
-- No rings lost when using speed/flying shortcuts, riding turbulence, doing
a trick, or when in automated areas
Here's the crippler. Run out of rings, and you're back to normal blue Sonic.
They could have left it at that and forced you to collect 30/50 rings again
to get back your shiny self, but no, instead, when you run out, you have to
run the track. Picking up 1 ring will restore you to normal, but you need a
lot more than that to get back into a competetive position, because that's
running on fumes. You might luck out and a power-up will save you...emphasis
on MIGHT. In short, don't run out, or...well, take up an interest in
jogging.
Although, if you do run out, you have one sure-fire means of getting back
into the game lickety-split: falling off the track. You heard me, jump off
the track. You will respawn with 30 rings. Only exploit this hole when your
ring count runs dry. On tracks like Egg/Ice Factory, that may be a frequent
occurance.
Due to this mechanic, you must constantly worry about keeping a flow of
rings coming in while warding off opponents. This utterly ruins what is
supposed to be the best character in the game, because you can't afford to
boost without a large sum of rings on hand. (At least wait until you have
over 50 or so to do it.) Sure, a top speed of 180+ is nice, unless somebody
rides your turbulence and blows you off. Then you have to waste all that
effort and rings to get the lead back. You might be able to compensate by
taking every shortcut you can and seeking out the 100-ring capsules, but the
point is, you can't easily open a nice wide gap between you and 2nd place as
Super Sonic, unless you exert more effort than is safe.
Whether you agree or not, those are the facts, and that is that. Now back to
that other subject you prolly came to this file for:
28. Faster
By Robotnik Corp. Top speed enhanced.
Dash: * 1
Limit: ****** 6
Power: *** 3
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 182 (0-182 in 20+ seconds, 200 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 800 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: The similarties to Fastest end at the attributes, for which this
board has none. That makes it a lot more practical to use. Its' boosts are
moderately effective, at least moreso than its' so-called superior model.
Getting hit can be disasterous in a worst-case scenario, so watch out.
29. Gambler
Gear used by a legendary gambler.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: *** 3
Power: ** 2
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 157 (0-157 in 12 seconds, 175 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 195, (Lv2) 220, (Lv3) 230
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: Can't use any typed shortcuts and boosts use more air,
but if you finish first, you get double rings
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 4,000 Rings (!)
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Use it to get rings quickly for the shop. When you've bought
everything (or at least everything you care to buy), retire it. If you
missed it before in section C2: The strategy for using it is to go into Free
Race mode, set the number of laps to 1, and select Splash Canyon. Grab the
100-ring capsule, then win by whatever means necessary without running out
of air. That's 200 rings a go, which is dandy, but if you're really daring,
try it on World GP mode. If only to see how long it takes for you to give up
in frustration :p
30. Power Gear
By Robotnik Corp. Endurance enhanced.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: **** 4
Power: ***** 5
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 16 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 135, (Lv2/3) 145
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: It's Powerful Gear Lite. If you don't want to slog through Mission
Mode, this is the next best thing (at a low price too).
31. Opa Opa
Gear holds a knight's soul for an attack.
Dash: * 1
Limit: **** 4
Power: ***** 5
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: All boost attacks replaced with one, super powerful
boost attack
Unlock: Complete all missions, then buy it from the Shop for 2,500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Dunno what they were smoking when they gave it a Dash rating of 1,
because it and Power Gear have the same max speed, and this gets you there a
substantial 9 seconds faster. Anyway, your one attack involves you dropping
a 10 ton weight on your unlucky victim, smashing them into a furry piece of
paper in the finest Looney Tunes style and leaving them incapacitated for
several seconds. Fun stuff!
(Bit of nostalgia: Opa Opa, a weird sentient flying ship that first appeared
in the Fantasy Zone series of side-scrolling shooters, has become Sega's
most obscure character ever. He's like an unofficial mascot, and has popped
up out of nowhere for a number of cameos over the years. His "drop a weight
on somebody" attack is kind of his trademark. For Riders, they've compacted
him into a board, and a number of these guys will get in your way at the
start of the Sega Illusion course.)
32. The Crazy
This Gear uses Rings instead of air.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds)
Boost Speed: (Lv1) 230
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 100
Special Attributes: Unlimited Air, but rings are consumed steadily (see
notes) and you can't level up
Unlock: Complete all missions, then buy it from Shop for 2,000 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Via the gear shaped like Axl's cab from Crazy Taxi, everybody can
experience how crappy it feels to be like Super Sonic! ...well, since the
stats are lower than Chaos Emerald, you would assume that the taxation on
your ring count would be lessened, right? To an extent, yes, but it's still
a (censor) to use.
-- Start race with 50 rings (20 more than Super Sonic, strangely)
-- Lose 1 ring every 2 seconds when racing normally
-- Rings are siphoned rapidly while drifting
-- 17 rings to boost or drop a tornado
-- When you attack an opponent, you get 10 rings back (!)
-- No rings lost when using speed/flying shortcuts, riding turbulence, doing
a trick, or when in automated areas
-- Run out of rings, and you're hoofing it until you scoop up a few more
33. Night Sky
From Twin Seeds. Only for a Nightmaren.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 150 (0-150 in 7 seconds, 165 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Comes with NiGHTS when you unlock him
Characters: NiGHTS only
Notes: NiGHTS is almost refreshing to play as, because he/it has no voice
actor. Definitely worth the effort; unfortunately, he knocks off so much
speed that he's worthless next to similarly handicapped characters like
Tails. Use Night Sky maybe once for oohs and ahhs, and never again.
34. BANANA
Banana Gear found on Jungle Island.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 155 (0-155 in 6 seconds, 165 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 100, (Lv2/3) 105
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Comes with Aiai when you unlock him
Characters: Aiai only
Notes: :p A flying banana. And "Jungle Island"? A little creativity in names
goes a long way, Sega. This thing has an even more dissapointing speed
increase at level 3 (only up by 10).
Pardon for the rant, but appreciate whatever dignity Aiai has left now; in a
few months he'll be starring in the worst use of his franchise yet (Super
Monkey Ball Adventure). I guess it's no suprise, since it's a product of
Traveller's Tales...you know, the brits who put out the turdbomb we call
Sonic R; a game so bad and so loved by its' cult of fans that it defies
comprehension. If you liked that game, something is desperately wrong with
you. Then again, people say lots of good things about Lego Star Wars, and TT
made that...
35. E-gearG
Enhanced E-10000G. Production model.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: *** 3
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Comes with E-10000G when you unlock him
Characters: E-10000G only (Because of this, his character stats determine
the board's performance. E-gearG's base stats are the standard.)
Notes: I'm still trying to wrap my head around why E10G is so fast. I mean,
he's supposed to be field filler and all. Sloppy design?
36. E-gearR
Enhanced E-10000R. High-end gear.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 155 (0-155 in 6 seconds, 165 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 100, (Lv2/3) 105
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Comes with E-10000R when you unlock him
Characters: E-10000R only
Notes: For the 50 hours of hard work you put in to unlock this guy, you get
an ugly, fat red robo with the looks of a sheer poser (plus the stats of
one) and a voice that is so sickly and quiet that it's almost impossible to
make out. And in the most absurd oxymoron, he's an intolerably slow Speed
character. Thanks, guys :(
37. Channel5
Channel 5 exclusive. Only for reporters.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Comes with Ulala when you unlock her
Characters: Ulala only
Notes: Well, you're not getting any advice out of me on this one, so...
Ulala's got the fugliest model in the game. Since nearly everybody else has
enormous clay hands and the textures are horribly pixelated up close, this
is no shocker.
38. Berserker
Said to be used by a legendary knight.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: ** 2
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 12 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 190, (Lv2) 210, (Lv3) 230
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: You are always in an attacking stance and can attack
opponents by running into them, but can only restore Air via power-
ups/levelling up, and you can't pit
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 2,500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman
Notes: Why it's all the way down here on the list is beyond me; I didn't
number these things. Anyway, there's nothing this board loves better than a
good fight. That's apparent in its' star trait, but should you start to
stretch out a lead, it will pine for the glory of Sonic spindashing overtop
of Knuckles or Eggman passing gas on Cream (which is technically impossible
on this board, but shut up, this is MY little chunk of fiction), and drag
you down with its' weak stats and extreme tendancy to run out of Air. For
those of you who have a problem reading between the lines, in summarization:
this board sucks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|\________________________________________________________________/|
||>>>>>>>>>>>>>| D2. Bikes || [-NO WHEEL TUESDAY-] |<<<<<<<<<<<<<<||
|/----------------------------------------------------------------\|
39. E-rider
High-performance, but burns too much Air.
Dash: **** 4
Limit: ***** 5
Power: **** 4
Corner: *** 3
Top Speed: 167 (0-167 in 5 seconds, 184 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 90, (Lv2/3) 100
Special Attributes: Uses a LOT more air
Unlock: Comes with Eggman when he's unlocked
Characters: All except Ulala and the E-10000's
Notes: The stats just aren't "high performance" enough to be worth the gas
guzzler it is. Good thing the primary fuel partner of the EX World Grand
Prix isn't UNOCAL 76. If used, boost sparingly, and don't drift for too
long. At level 3, you'll be in the CAUTION! zone after no more than 2
boosts.
40. Air Tank
Has basic attributes, but holds much air.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: ** 2
Power: ** 2
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 12 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 190, (Lv2) 210, (Lv3) 230
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: Holds more Air and uses less, but can't recover it as
quickly
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,000 Rings
Characters: All except Ulala and the E-10000's
Notes: Its' terrible sub-average stats and inability to fill your huge air
gauge quickly enough pretty much squelches any potential this thing had.
Let's see, something positive...it gets some time in the spotlight in
Mission Mode. Does that count?
41. Heavy Bike
Heaviest Gear in existance.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: ****** 6
Power: ***** 5
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 183 (0-183 in 10 seconds, 203 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 210, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 92, (Lv2/3) 103
Special Attributes: Can't ride turbulence due to weight
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 3,500 Rings
Characters: All except Ulala and the E-10000's
Notes: Wow. Faster can suck it; this thing is awesome (and mega unbalanced).
Turbulence has the potential to screw you pretty bad if a wave of it ends
abruptly and throws you into a wall/off a cliff. This eliminates that issue,
so you can focus on simply racing. Just don't use it on Babylon Guardian.
Tails would be best for this one, since the top speed and Power stats are
already sky high, but most people just use it on Eggman for comedic value :p
42. Destroyer
This Gear grants characters "Power"!
Dash: ** 2
Limit: ** 2
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 11 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: Enables user to smash through course obstacles
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 3,500 Rings
Characters: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Jet, Wave, Cream, Rouge, Shadow, NiGHTS
Notes: This gear grants characters "pitiable speed"! Then again, it sort of
works on tracks where Power characters have the run of the course (Night
Chase).
43. Omnipotence
Super Gear. All skills granted to character.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: ** 2
Power: ** 2
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 152 (0-152 in 12 seconds, 170 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: User can take advantage of all shortcuts, but those
shortcuts do not refill your Air gauge
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 5,000 Rings (!)
Characters: All except Ulala and the E-10000's
Notes: Your first assumption would be that it's an ultra mega we're-talking-
a-yacht-here expensive Destroyer for all occasions, and it is, yet it is
useable. You may be able to overcome the sucktacular top speed if you're
really good at chaining shortcuts together. It's easier on some courses (Ice
Factory) and not practical enough on others (Digital Dimension). In any
event, due to the ludicrous price tag and lacking performance power, it's
reserved for experts only. (If you have any doubts about my skill, know that
i've beaten both World GPs with this thing, with perfect scores. As Tails
and Eggman.)
As a side note, Omnipotence bears a very close resemblance to the Sea Fox
from Sonic Triple Trouble and Tails' Adventures. So does Destroyer. A little
past design influence, maybe? Hmm...
44. Cover-S
Speed type enhanced. Accelerate+ Endurance+
Dash: **** 4
Limit: **** 4
Power: **** 4
Corner: *** 3
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 5 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 87, (Lv2/3) 97
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 500 Rings
Characters: Sonic*, Amy, Jet, Shadow*
Notes: Good all-around. The only major flaw is that it relies on your skill
at using grinding shortcuts, and those aren't usually the best.
* - Sonic and Shadow don't slow this bike down, but Amy and Jet do.
45. Cover-F
Flight type enhanced. Accelerate+ Endurance+
Dash: *** 3
Limit: ****** 6
Power: **** 4
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 161 (0-161 in 7 seconds, 176 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 500 Rings
Characters: Tails, Wave, Cream, Rouge*, NiGHTS
Notes: You'd be looking at a badass little scooter that could go 172 at
level 1 if not for the double-digit speed loss every Flight character
strickens you with. Alas, Cover-S outperforms it, yet not by very much.
Heavy Bike is still better, though.
* - Rouge is the one character you can use with this that takes away the
least speed (-11).
46. Cover-P
Power type enhanced. Accelerate+ Endurance+
Dash: **** 4
Limit: ***** 5
Power: *** 3
Corner: *** 3
Top Speed: 163 (0-163 in 5 seconds, 173 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 100, (Lv2/3) 106
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 500 Rings
Characters: Knuckles, Storm*, Eggman*, Aiai
Notes: It has great cornering, but nothing terribly special otherwise. The
lacking speed increase at level 3 hurts it a good deal.
* - Storm and Eggman slow down this gear less than the other two (-4).
47. Hang-On
Collector's Gear. It has great value.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv 2/3) 95
Special Attributes: Replaces stage BGM with the theme from Hang-On
(Arcade/Sega Master System)
Unlock: Complete all missions, then buy it from the Shop for 2,000 Rings
Characters: All except Ulala and the E-10000's
Notes: It's even shaped like the arcade coin-op of the same name. Slick
ride. That old music can get a little grating, though...it seems to have
been shortened from its' original version. In World GP mode, it will play
this theme every race, which can be certified aural torture if you come to
hate the song.
(Bit of nostalgia: Hang-On, released in '85, was Yu Suzuki's first big
arcade success. It was certainly unique, since you controlled it by riding a
mock-up motorcycle attached to the unit and steered by leaning the bike. He
has a talent for creating immersive arcade games like that. It was a huge
hit and also saw a faithful port to the Master System. Following Hang-On,
Suzuki created yet more extravagant/popular arcade cabinets like Space
Harrier, Afterburner, and Outrun. Hang-On had a sequel two years later...)
48. Super Hang-On
Collector's Gear. It has great value.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: *** 3
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 85, (Lv2/3) 95
Special Attributes: Replaces stage BGM with the "Outride a Crisis" theme
from Super Hang-On (Arcade/Sega Genesis)
Unlock: Complete all missions, then buy it from the Shop for 2,500 Rings
Characters: All except Ulala and the E-10000's
Notes: Although it looks like it in the menus, the game's wide monitor isn't
attached to the front when you ride this. Too bad, it would make it look
like less of a tricked out mishmash of cardboard boxes. The BGM is much
better than Hang-On's to listen to for extended periods, but oddly quiet...
(Bit of nostalgia: Super Hang-On was released in '87. I know next to nothing
about the original arcade cabinet, but I presume Mr. Suzuki designed it as
well. It was a significant step up from the original, and was ported to the
Genesis two years afterward sporting a deep new career mode. The immersion
factor that the series introduced has since been run through a Xerox by
competitors frequently for their own arcade motobike franchises/snowmobile
racing games/ect. Now then, on with your regularly scheduled Gear list...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|\________________________________________________________________/|
||>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| D3. Skates || [-SK8RS-] |<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<||
|/----------------------------------------------------------------\|
49. Darkness
By Robotnik Corp. Air skate burns less air.
Dash: *** 3
Limit: **** 4
Power: ** 2
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 162 (0-162 in 7 seconds, 180 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 80, (Lv2/3) 90
Special Attributes: Uses slightly less Air
Unlock: Comes with Shadow when you unlock him
Characters: All except Eggman and the E-10000's
Notes: Slick. Not as much as Grinder, but if you can use your one shortcut
type really well, you'll likely never run low on air. Power types work best,
but there are only 3 that can use skates (Knuckles, Storm, Aiai), and Storm
is the fastest of that 3, so only use him.
50. Grinder
This Gear allows any character to grind.
Dash: ** 2
Limit: **** 4
Power: ** 2
Corner: ** 2
Top Speed: 158 (0-158 in 12 seconds, 168 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 95, (Lv2/3) 96 (...)
Special Attributes: Enables user to use grinding shortcuts
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 2,000 Rings
Characters: Tails, Knuckles, Storm*, Wave, Cream, Rouge, NiGHTS, Aiai
Notes: The general concensus is that these skates are among the best gears
to use for World GP mode. As with Darkness, you want a Power character for
max effect, since the combo of Speed and Power shortcuts is generally more
effective than Speed/Flight.
* - Storm is the one character you can use with this that takes away the
least speed (-4).
51. Advantage-S
Speed type custom. Accelerate+ Top Speed+
Dash: * 1
Limit: ******* 7
Power: * 1
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 182 (0-182 in 20+ seconds, 200 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 75, (Lv2/3) 85
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,000 Rings
Characters: Sonic*, Amy, Jet, Shadow*, Ulala*
Notes: It's like they fused Faster and Fastest into a pair of skates refined
for crazy speed and absolutely nothing else. The "Accelerate+" bit is a lie.
Using these is as risky a gamble as Faster, only worse because you're more
prone to getting knocked around with a Power rating of only 1. Why bother?
* - Sonic, Shadow, and Ulala don't slow these skates down, but Amy and Jet
do.
52. Advantage-F
Flight type custom. Accelerate+
Dash: ****** 6
Limit: ** 2
Power: * 1
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 141 (0-141 in 2 seconds [!], 156 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 70, (Lv2/3) 80
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,000 Rings
Characters: Tails, Wave, Cream, Rouge*, NiGHTS
Notes: Again, these skates clone something (poorly), namely Turbo Star. They
look cool on Wave, I guess.
* - Rouge is the one character you can use with this that takes away the
least speed (-11).
53. Advantage-P
Power type custom. Endurance+ Power+
Dash: ** 2
Limit: *** 3
Power: ****** 6
Corner: * 1
Top Speed: 158 (0-158 in 12 seconds, 168 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 200, (Lv2) 230, (Lv3) 250
Off-road Speed: (Lv1/2) 120, (Lv3) 125
Special Attributes: None
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 1,000 Rings
Characters: Knuckles, Storm*, Aiai
Notes: Suprisingly decent. The way your off-road speed increases is odd
(pumping up only at level 3), and may indicate that some other gears do it
that way too, but I haven't the will to find out. Anyway, these skates
aren't bad, but there are better choices for your Megabucks™. *cough
heavybike cough*
* - Storm is the one character you can use with this that takes away the
least speed (-4).
54. Cannonball
Can execute constant boosts!
Dash: 0
Limit: 0
Power: 0
Corner: 0 (no joke)
Top Speed: 132 (0-132 in 10 seconds, 150 at level 3)
Boost Speeds: (Lv1) 170, (Lv2) 180, (Lv3) 200
Off-road Speed: (Lv1) 70 (Lv2/3) 80
Special Attributes: Boosts use up no Air, but they're infintesimally weak
boosts, you can't attack anybody, and can only restore air via power-
ups/pitting/levelling up; not selectable for Babylon Guardian
Unlock: Buy from Shop for 3,500 Rings
Characters: All except Eggman and the E-10000's
Notes: ...holy god. Their idea of "constant boosts" is terribly skewed. You
can only do one boost every 2 seconds, and you have to get to level 3 before
these pitiful speed bursts so much as hit the 200 speed mark. You don't need
me to tell you that they saved the worst for last.
(I know they're supposed to resemble ice skates, but - especially when using
them as Ulala - you look like you're skating with irons attached to your
feet. So that's why they're so horrifically slow!)
___________________ ____________
___________________________/ E. Special Thanks \__/ -THNX YOU- \____________
============================================================================
GameFAQs Sonic Riders community - My laziness and their hard work
researching what I didn't was my boon :p Seriously, the following people
were a major help in getting this thing put together:
knuckles_sonic8 - Was working on a gear guide already but let me get mine
in...too bad Platinum Sonic 10 derailed a few things
*angry glare*
1234567890Chris - Confirmed what the gear stats relate to
Setnaro X ------- 100-ring capsule locations
Sketchie -------- 100-ring capsule locations
Knux Chao ------- Tip on how to use the Gambler board to rake in the rings
Cervosi --------- 100-ring capsule locations
SuperLocke44 ---- Providing an accurate list of what sells for what price in
the shop before anyone else :p
bigblued89 ------ 100-ring capsule locations
Master_Espeon --- 100-ring capsules...can you tell that I put little effort
into looking for these? :p
final_lap ------- Assorted info, such as Powerful Gear's ability
E-mail contributors:
AngelSonic925 --- Was kind enough to send me top speed stats for each gear;
most of them were spot on
metalsonicsword - Tip about the ever-unuseable Hovercraft board
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please do not ask to be added to this. Special Thanks is reserved for
people/things that greatly aid the production of the guide, and those who
submit info/tips/ect. to the guide.
____________________________ __________________
______________________/ F. Contact Info/Legal Crap \__/ -LINKS AND CRAP- \__
============================================================================
REACH OUT AND TOUCH ME...WITHOUT THE TOUCHING PART. EWW, CREEPY
============================================================================
The only easy way to contact me is on message boards, or e-mail. Because e-
mail is the most accessible, here it is first:
flash(at)jonnys-place(dot)com
Now, a few things:
-- Don't send any attachments. If you have to provide something additional,
upload it somewhere else and link to it.
-- Put something like "SONIC RIDERS" in the title so I'll know it's not a
virus/spyware waiting to pounce. (Whoever the hell Richard K. Lee is, I
don't want your Viagra offers.)
-- Make an effort to not send me anything stupid. There will not be a
frequently asked questions section of this guide, so do look it over
before you ask me something dumb or anything already pointed out, because
you won't get an answer.
-- I don't usually respond to fan mail...but, uh, thnx for the comments.
(Unless all you have to say is "IT. ROCKS!!". If so, don't blow 5 seconds
of my life, and yours, sending it.)
-- By the same token, I only really respond to mail that I feel like
responding to. Bear that in mind, along with the fact that i'm
embarassingly slow in checking my mail, so if I decide to respond, it may
be days late :p
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just in case you happen to go to these boards, i'm here too:
Sonic Classic -
http://forums.sclassic.net
Sonic CulT -
http://forums.sonic-cult.org
Jonny's Place -
http://www.jonnys-place.com/forums
The GHZ -
http://www.theghz.com/forums
I can also (occasionally) be found on GameFAQs under the alias WtR_Flash.
============================================================================
LEGAL DRIVEL, NEXT EXIT. BRIDGE ICES OVER IN WINTER
============================================================================
All characters, objects, ect. and related content of Sonic Riders is
copyright Sega. The contents of this document are my sole property and are
not free to be hosted just anywhere without my approval. At present, only
the following sites are authorized to host this document:
Welcome to Rougeport Strategy Guides:
http://rougeport.jonnys-place.com/
(you can always find the latest version here)
Jonny's Place:
http://www.jonnys-place.com/
GameFAQs:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
If you do steal, and I find out, you will comply with my subsequent request
to get rid of the offending content, otherwise I will make your shameful act
public on my site. (If you catch someone stealing my guides, my e-mail is 5
pharagraphs up.) - WtR_Flash/FlashTHD
____________________________________________________________________________
END OF GUIDE. KNUCKLES WANTS TO KNOW HOW PLANKS LIKE THAT CAN JUST FLOAT.
WELL, RED, I'LL MAKE IT SIMPLE FOR YOU: IT'S LIKE ASKING WHY AIR IS
INVISIBLE BUT STILL THERE. THE ANSWER TO SUCH A QUESTION IS BEYOND THE
COMPREHENSION OF YOUR DEFECTIVE BRAIN. IN OTHER WORDS, LEAVE THE SCIENCE TO
THE EDUCATED PEOPLE AND RACE, DAMMIT.
