Crisis City Buggy Movement

Normal strats are safe but boring. Go fast. Kill your runs. Do boost strats. Here's how:

CC is mostly about knowing how to maneuver the buggy so that you maintain your momentum when landing without spinning out. In general, you need the front tires to hit first, and you want them angled down. If you're hitting a slope, you also want to tilt the buggy so that you're kinda meeting it, kinda like this

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717524446453170218/unknown.png

It may be beneficial to release "A" for a sec after landing, but once you get confident in fast buggy movement that becomes less important
Anyway, your goal is to basically boost off cool down, so the path looks like this:
Boost here while going very slightly right

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717524724116095005/unknown.png

(Make sure you hold the A button after a boost btw)
It'll come off cool down around here. Boost again and start tapping the control stick (up) left. Your goal is to drive over the left corner of the ramp

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717524926172758137/unknown.png

There are a few launch angles you can get. The better ones send you straight down to that dip, but as long as you actually go left it should be manageable. Here I want to angle my tires down and the buggy right

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717525097136652388/unknown.png

I land here after that. There's a chance I wipe out, so I want to try and ease myself down and right so that I'm lined up to just go forward

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717525252393009192/unknown.png

You'll probably come down off the slope, so you'll technically be in the air. Just angle the buggy down a bit so that the front tires hit and you'll be fine

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717525689255067718/unknown.png

Boost when you've comfortably landed and just go forward. If you don't boost a car will probably land on you and kill the buggy. You can potentially boost twice here, but the second boost doesn't really do much afaik (it's like right before the boost pad, and sometimes it'll cause you to whiff it entirely lol)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717525925084004372/unknown.png

It doesn't particularly matter if you have a really sus angle there. As long as you can clip the boost pad with literally any part of the buggy it'll autocorrect your position
You can either land with the front or back tires here. Both will prevent a bounce and can retain your momentum if done correctly, but I prefer going with the front. Back tires can put you in a wheelie which sometimes causes you to crash into the bit in front of you, though they'll keep your momentum more often. Front tires sometimes stop your momentum (though you can just boost to pick it back up somewhat), but if you sweetspot it you'll keep your momentum while wheelie'ing with the front tires

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717526523644608523/unknown.png

Unlike the back tires, you have full control of the buggy as long as the front tires are on the ground, so you can boost while going right
You can do a boost here, though I typically don't. If you do, just keep landing mechanics in mind (tire angling)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717526762271014912/unknown.png

When you get to this part, tap X a few times to break (it slows you down MUCH faster than "B")

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717526897130602587/unknown.png

Your angle should look like this. Go for a boost

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717527155659243570/unknown.png

Tap left to straighten yourself out and avoid this geyser, though. If you hit it, just angle the front tires down

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717527263498993675/unknown.png

You can do a second boost here if you want, but you'll need to slow down a lot with X. I typically avoid it if I have an angle like this. Sometimes you'll have a good line up to double boost, though, which would make this spot a triple boost.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717527358701043732/unknown.png

Instead, I hold "A" all the way through. You'll kinda launch

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717527456700956732/unknown.png

Start angling the buggy down left, might wanna release "A" for a sec when you land

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717527533180158002/unknown.png

(You want to gently land tho. I slacked after releasing pause and crashed because I had too harsh of an angle)
You should land something like this. Pray that your buggy has enough health because you're going to take 2 unavoidable phantom hits to the health bar through here. If you did the previous sections correctly you'll be fine, otherwise your buggy will probably die right as you exit the halfpipe.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717528025259966556/unknown.png

Anyway, boost. You should be able to do 3 with the last one happening just as you exit the halfpipe
Angle is important. You want to be on the right side, of course, but how high up matters. If you're higher up the buggy will be airborne longer, but if you go a bit lower you can angle the buggy to land and preserve momentum which can be a bit faster I believe

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717528292793647145/unknown.png

This one was pretty slow overall, but ggs. You landed

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/182206591607635969/717528384519012432/unknown.png

(Last screenie got through with a 51.7)
If everything goes correctly you should consistently get through with ~50s
48s are possible on incredibly good runs, mid 49s are doable. 
Iirc, you're on very good pace if you hit the second rail around 38 seconds
It can take a fair bit of practice, but it's super worth.

Guide to Mach Speed Sections (Sonic)

So I don't think anyone has properly explained Mach Speed Sections before so here I go:

Okay so there are three speeds you can have while in a Mach Speed Section:

1. Starting base speed (happens off start no matter what direction you're holding, will revert to this speed after: being hit in any other speed level, after taking a jump panel, not holding a direction for too long in any other speed state) - you can tell when sonic has this by looking at how far out he extends his arms

2. Increased speed (happens after holding forward while in speed level one for long enough, or if you hold forward off a ring dash, will revert back to level one if you stop holding forward or take a jump panel or get hit) - is significantly faster than level 1 speed, you can tell when sonic has this when his arms are behind him and not out wide

Both of those are intended by the devs
The subtle glitchy one is level 3

3. Speed Cap Break (happens immediately after ring dashing if you don't hold a direction on the control stick) this one is a spectrum, it happens because ring dashing is faster than level 2 and the game forgets to cap your speed when you don't hold a direction on the stick. Thus, if you don't hold a direction out of a ring dash your speed will start at level 3 and descend slowly to two, once it gets to two, if you still aren't holding a direction it will revert you to speed one.
This slow descent from 3 to 2 is because sonic gradually loses speed on the ground, you can sort of solve this problem by jumping since sonic does not lose speed while in the air but jumping all the time in mach speed sections usually isn't the best idea.

As for a visual cue for if you have speed 3, there isn't one, its sort of a feel thing, if you want proof that its faster play radical train and use speed 3 while chasing the train, you will almost catch up to it before the game realizes and makes the train accelerate.

"OK trips how do I use this to my advantage to go fast?" you say. Good question, complicated answer.

The general way to use speed 3 to your advantage is, whenever you get the chance to ring dash, do it and don't hold a direction immediately after for a little bit. This isn't always the case, especially in places where you're prone to get hit right off a ring dash or if you have to go ridiculously out of your way to get a ring dash but in general we try to ring dash as often as we can. 

This is made even more troublesome because in speed three you will not be able to turn (because that would involve holding a direction). That makes it very difficult to keep speed three going often, as there are usually a lot of obstacles in mach speed sections and above all else you really don't want to have speed 1.

For example, in places like wave ocean, we do a lot of short speed 3s, we will ring and not hold a direction for just a little bit and then turn before we are reverted to speed 1 so that we keep speed 2 while also getting to the next closest ring trail, it makes the routing quite interesting.

Arguably the biggest time saves from speed 3 usages are in Radical train right before you chase the train, with a well timed jump you can stay in the air for an extremely long time while in speed 3 thus keeping you at max speed. It is very easy to see how much faster this is when you see the train shoot forward, not expecting you to be going as fast as you are.

If you're wondering what the best mach speed routes are to maximize the usage of speed 3, watch sharu's WR runs on Radical train wave ocean crisis city and kingdom valley for reference, these runs are all very recent and have fantastic mach speed strats. 

Wave Ocean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amU7aeiaxEE
Crisis City:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ-tw71jNLo
Radical Train:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htufHFteiNU
Kingdom Valley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWTsWoEzfbU

Some of those strats are pretty tough and there are parts that I personally have not yet tested for consistency (namely using the cave in Wave Ocean and pretty much everything about Crisis City. If you want strats that I can guarantee are consistent then watch the 59:46 No MSG run's mach speed sections.

Having good mach speeds is a very subtle thing and takes a decent amount of practice but I guarantee it will save you at least 30s maybe more if you understand the mechanics.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few more notes:
- Ideally you should always have speed 2 when you don't have speed three, HINT: THIS MEANS HOLD FORWARD THROUGH THE ENTIRE MACH SPEED SECTION, the only time you should spend not holding forward should be during and immediately after a ring dash.
- In Crisis City having speed 3 means things will fly at you with more velocity than is intended, this means they are prone to flying in more random directions and hitting you, which would take you back down to speed one, thus screwing you over pretty hard. As a newcomer, not dying in Crisis City is your number one priority so as a default I would just try to not get hit as much as possible and ignore using speed three. Being at speed 3 is only a bit faster than 2 but 2 is WAAAY faster than 1, so avoid being in speed 1 as much as you can. This means immediately after getting hit (which you definitely will eventually), you should find a ring trail ASAP and get back up to speed 2. If you keep doing that and stay at speed 2 for most of the time, you should have a decently fast mach speed time. I still have yet to find a consistent route through crisis city that will allow you to maximize speed 3 usage while also avoiding getting hit. That being said, I have yet to test out sharu's new crisis city route, so that might turn out to be consistent, who knows.
- Being in speed 2 makes it more difficult to get the Jump at the end of Wave ocean (the timing is more strict), this gives you two options, either slow yourself down to speed one right before the jump panel or try to hit it with speed 2. If you try the first option you will lose time right before the jump panel and during the jump if you get it (since the jump itself will be at speed 1) but it will still save time over missing it. If you want to try the second option I've found entering the loop AS FAR AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN TO THE LEFT helps a lot with consistently getting the jump. Some people time their jump input but the more popular method is just mashing for it (which I recommend)

tl;dr - mach speed sections are more complicated than you think ;)

IL Time Comparison Pastebins

In my free time I've been compiling these, I think they're a pretty nice resource for both top runners and new runners alike to see what is and isn't possible in each story.

They're updated fairly regularly (and have been for almost 5 years now) so they should be pretty reliable

Sonic (No MSG) - https://pastebin.com/9xfVJmtD
Shadow (No MSG) - https://pastebin.com/WKmmCEz2
Silver (No MSG) - https://pastebin.com/ANqkeK1S
Sonic Any% - https://pastebin.com/pxuNvzh1

Livesplit IGT Timer Setup

Before you start, it's recommended you a layout that can display IGT. This one works well as a start, if you don't have one.  http://www.speedrun.com/tools/IGT_3nkic.rar (taken from the Sonic Adventure 2 Resources Page)

Right Click Your Livesplit and go to "Edit Splits".  Make sure that your game is properly set ( Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)/Category Extensions).  If it is, a new option will pop up that says "Autosplitting/In-game time available". Click "activate" and it will download the file you need/install everything on that end automatically.

Hit "settings", and it should look like this:

https://i.imgur.com/v8NmMks.png

Make sure to uncheck the "start" checkbox.  You still start, split, and reset manually, it just keeps track of in-game time.  

If you have a build at or older than December 2020 (latest stable xenia release is January 2021) then check the "Legacy mode" box. If you're having issues with either, feel free to join the '06 discord and I (@Labrys#2006) will be happy to help with any issues you might have with the autosplitter.

No Major Glitches Guide

It is well established that this game may contain a few glitches. One may want to play the game without the use of game-breaking glitches. If that be the case, then No Major Glitches is the category for you!

Since the rules on here state only the broad categories which are banned, below are the documents listing the rules and banned tricks for each of the three stories.

# Basic information on the categories

-If you perform a glitch and it **doesn't** help you, you are free to continue on.
-If you perform a glitch and it **does** help you, you must restart the level or die to restart at the last checkpoint.
-If you can't restart or die, you must reset the run.

-All characters used in a run must follow the ruleset from their main story. 
E.g. Sonic in Silver's Kingdom Valley must use Sonic NMG Ruleset. Rouge in Last Story must follow Shadow NMG Ruleset.


# Sonic's Story NMG Rulesets: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hnUnQ-KuO6NKcYa6WO2XGvMTkN4TOlufMW12rj_GNpk/edit?usp=sharing

# Shadow's Story NMG Rulesets:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6sJv83HrwSG7V0jUJpnRNB688c6c-wJ0679ZMQdNvA/edit?usp=sharing

# Silver's Story NMG Rulesets:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I_IfHA9zCeS9-Rf5ObNjz_Y6E7aVx-MQzElCaTj0V_E/edit?usp=sharing

# Last Stories NMG Rulesets:
TBA

Save Editing / New Game Plus Tutorial

Setting Custom BGM (Xenia)

We allow runners on Xenia to replace their background music to whatever they like for runs (note: this is strictly for background music, not sound effects). Here's a quick rundown of how to do it.

First off, you'll need to convert the song you want to a WAV format. Start by getting it in an MP3 format; there are plenty of in-browser tools online that can convert a youtube video of your choice.)
Once you've done that, you'll want to place it in a folder then download the 06 toolkit, linked here:
https://github.com/HyperBE32/Marathon/releases

Once you've installed it, open it up and open the folder where you've placed your High Quality Jams
https://prnt.sc/11sbtwr

Then open up Sonic Sound Studio
https://prnt.sc/11sbu9f

Screw around with this to convert your MP3 to a WAV.
https://prnt.sc/11sbww4 (ignore the ones already in xma format).

And then from WAV to XMA
https://prnt.sc/11sbxuj

Once you've got your song in XMA format, the toolkit is no longer needed. Copy the XMA and find your xenon folder for 06 
https://prnt.sc/11sbyir

Open up sound and yeet your music into here
https://prnt.sc/11sbza2

The way things are named is pretty logical internally. I'd recommend making a backup of whatever song you're going to replace, but once that's done, rename your Custom Tunes(TM) to whatever song you're replacing and enjoy.
If it doesn't work the first time, try it again. If Xenia's crashing, try it again. I got this to work on a nearly two year old build, so it should be perfectly fine for anyone reading this.
https://youtu.be/CHr1y72iHTc

Shadow's Story (No MSG) Full Speedrun Tutorial

Hey guys, 

For any of you who have run one of the other hedgehogs and just need a break, or are thinking about getting into 06 but find sonic tougher than you thought, pick up shadow :D. He is the fastest and easiest category to learn and to top it all off, there is now a full tutorial for the run up on my youtube channel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmVm2esplcY

I do not claim my movement to be the best in certain stages, particularly Dusty Desert, and so it is best to watch the other really good runs of this category such as 47:18 by DsS and 47:01 and the new 46:58 WR by Yish as well as this tutorial to get a fully rounded knowledge of what is and isnt fast. There are many little things that they do that are faster than what I do and you should make note of that, in terms of movement (which is almost all that shadows story is) you can learn something new from EVERY single runner so make sure to watch a lot of the runs on the leaderboards. Thats about it.

Have fun learning shadow!

Silver's Story Tutorial (No MSG + Any%) by Otonyshi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID2mDzrsWxM

Sonic 06 180 Gold Medal Notes

UPDATE (2/7/2021): To see a 2021 AGM update from me may sound more exciting than it is. No new changes  other than I've changed my Google Drive link to direct download links to a .docx and .pdf version of my notes. Reason for this is I will be deleting my Google Account so the link will probably become inactive. If you need a way to view the .docx file, I recommend a free word processor, such as LibreOffice. Either that or you can just view the PDF format.


My notes that I've been compiling for the past few months for the 180 Gold Medals run and that I used in my run. Probably not the most optimal in some ways, so feel free to download the Doc and edit it to your liking.


Notes:
https://ln2.sync.com/dl/c8b38b930/bp338krr-u5wzdipr-gydtb9gc-byzm93d6 (.docx format)

https://ln2.sync.com/dl/7778477d0/tencawgr-fif7xeug-vg2ei7wh-aztc3jbw (.pdf format)


My run (as of April 9th, 2016): 
https://www.twitch.tv/yish_/v/59787752

Sonic NCW Tricks (w/ input display)

https://youtu.be/S8WXBspjTYM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDDFoiiiOBU

Sonic NMG Egg Wyvern Tutorial

https://youtu.be/3EqHo879ATg
Make sure to check the description of the video for a typed out guide with timestamps. Hope this helps!

Sonic's Story (No MSG) Full Speedrun Tutorial

Here it is, links are in the description, enjoy :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pW7MnysN9k

Sonic's Story (No MSG) IL Time Comparison Pastebin

This is a document of all of the best No MSG runs as well as a theoretical perfect run

http://pastebin.com/9xfVJmtD

Use this to compare your "in practice" IL times to WR easily to see if there's any one level you're getting bodied in 

The theoretical perfect run with fast loads gets you a 56:42 at the moment, with slow loads that means that a 57 is well within the realm of possibility (albeit very very hard). I wonder who will be the first to get it.

Wave Ocean Skip Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohkfwXBW83w
Wave Ocean Skip, more widely known as "Cave Skip", allows us to skip a significant chunk of the level through a trick called "Loop Launching".  A lot of people have trouble with this variant of this skip, so I decided why not try and help with that!

Nombre	Autor
Crisis City Buggy Movement	GordonRamsay 4 years ago
Guide to Mach Speed Sections (Sonic)	tripl3ag3nt 9 years ago
IL Time Comparison Pastebins	tripl3ag3nt 5 years ago
Livesplit IGT Timer Setup	Labrys 4 years ago
No Major Glitches Guide	Ghastslayer 2 years ago
Save Editing / New Game Plus Tutorial	Lokester 3 years ago
Setting Custom BGM (Xenia)	GordonRamsay 4 years ago
Shadow's Story (No MSG) Full Speedrun Tutorial	tripl3ag3nt 9 years ago
Silver's Story Tutorial (No MSG + Any%) by Otonyshi	CriticalCyd 6 years ago
Sonic 06 180 Gold Medal Notes	Yish 4 years ago
Sonic NCW Tricks (w/ input display)	Lokester 2 years ago
Sonic NMG Egg Wyvern Tutorial	Nick867 3 years ago
Sonic's Story (No MSG) Full Speedrun Tutorial	tripl3ag3nt 8 years ago
Sonic's Story (No MSG) IL Time Comparison Pastebin	tripl3ag3nt 7 years ago
Wave Ocean Skip Tutorial	Nick867 4 years ago