Chao Key Glitch

Video explanation by DarkspinesSonic

Chao Key Glitch refers to a scenario where a Chao Key does not reach its intended position in the top-left of the screen after you’ve collected it. There are two methods of achieving this, one by collecting a Chao Key as the screen fades to black following level completion and another by collecting a Chao Key when the distance between the Chao Key and the camera is significantly far enough to prevent the Chao Key from reaching its final destination and render the 2D Chao face, instead remaining a 3D model of the Chao Key. The latter method however is only possible on versions that display at a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The significance of the Chao Key Glitch is that it enables a “wrong-warp” upon completing the level, which by default sends you to a previous-inaccessible “Test Level”. It is however possible to influence the destination of the wrong-warp by changing an in-game value that is dependent on the last level you completed in a best-2-out-of-3 matchup in Multiplayer Mode.

Essentially this makes City Escape, Metal Harbor, Green Forest, Final Rush, Sky Rail, Radical Highway, White Jungle, Final Chase, Wild Canyon, Pumpkin Hill, Death Chamber, Meteor Herd, Dry Lagoon, Eqq Quarters, Security Hall and Mad Space accessible to every character upon achieving the Chao Key Glitch. Attempts to access Tails and Dr. Eggman’s stages via this method will wrong-warp characters to the actual battle arena seen in multiplayer mode as oppose to the stages that those arenas are based within.

Every character has a method of enabling the Chao Key Glitch, the easiest being Dr. Eggman where the first Chao Key Box in Cosmic Wall is in a location where the camera is naturally far away from you and simply collecting the Chao Key should achieve the Chao Key Glitch.

DarkspinesSonic has a variety of videos demonstrating how to achieve the Chao Key Glitch with the other characters: Sonic | Tails | Knuckles | Shadow 1/2 | Rouge.

When activated in Story Mode a wrong-warp still occurs; however rather than replace the event of transporting you to the Chao Lobby it acknowledges the completion of the stage and attempts to forward you into the subsequent event in the story (an event in this case being stages, boss battles and cutscenes). As a result you further yourself along the sequence of events in Story Mode, but rather then go to the next stage, fight the next boss or watch the next cutscene you instead wrong-warp to the stage pre-determined by the aforementioned in-game value that can be influenced through Multiplayer Mode.

If it is possible to “complete” the level you’ve wrong-warped to with the character you activated the Chao Key Glitch with then the game acknowledges that as a completion of an event and will again forward you along the sequence of events. The Any% category takes advantage of this by continually activating the Chao Key Glitch with Shadow in Security Hall and completing the level by taking damage and spawning a Goal Ring in Rouge’s starting position of the level (itself where a Back Ring would spawn as intended if damage is taken during Mission 2 or Mission 3 of Security Hall). Forwarding events beyond the credits of Dark Story automatically sequence breaks the game into the events of Last Story.

Hover Jump

The hover jump is an exploit of the Booster and the Jet Engine upgrades obtained by Tails and Dr. Eggman respectively that allows them to gain additional height on their jumps as well as instantaneously enter a state of hovering which can be used to cover longer distances with the upgrade. It is executed by quickly double tapping the jump button and holding the second input, activating the hover upgrade during the ascent of your jump and providing extra height. It is also possible to pause buffer the two inputs and better guarantee the execution of a hover jump in cases where a failed attempt could impact your speedrun.

This technique is used extensively as it provides multiple time saves throughout all of Tails’ and Dr. Eggman’s from Mission Street and Lost Colony onwards respectively. A useful place to practice is in Mission Street just before the large bridge where you’re required to use a missile to destroy some obstructing barred boxes. Although you can utilise the enemy behind the barred boxes and damage boost up and over them, a well executed hover jump can send you over them as well providing you don’t make contact with the boxes during your ascent.

Note: Owners of the Nintendo GameCube version of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle may find that they had frequently executed hover jumps with seemingly little effort. This is down to a commonly acknowledged bug where the game repeated inputs, including the A button used for jumping which in turn activated the hover upgrade immediately after a jump. This was the same bug that made Sonic and Shadow automatically use their homing attack instead of jumping.

Infinite Animal Usage Glitch

Video demonstration by Bertin

Infinite Animal Usage Glitch refers to a glitch that allows multiple uses of a Chao Animal (as well as Chaos Drives) in the Chao World. The intended way of offering a chao a Chao Animal is to pick up a Chao Animal and walk into the chao who will then take the Chao Animal away from you, snuggle against it and inherit the benefits from it before discarding the Chao Animal. At this point the Chao Animal can no longer be picked up and therefore you can no longer offer it to chao, however by dropping a Chao Animal very closely to a chao it is possible for the game to acknowledge the offering of a Chao Animal to a chao without the chao truly obtaining the Chao Animal. As a result the chao receives the benefits of the offering yet doesn’t discard the Chao Animal, allowing you to pick it up again.

This glitch is hugely beneficial to the 180 Emblems category as it allows you to maximise a chao’s Swim, Fly, Run and Power stat level (as well as the hidden Luck and Intelligence stats) whilst waiting for the evolution of other chao. Although Chaos Drives can also be used infinitely it is better to use Chao Animals as they provide an increase in more than one stat and also cater for the hidden Luck and Intelligence stats unlike Chaos Drives.

Super-bounce

The super-bounce is an exploit of the Bounce Bracelet obtained by Sonic in Pyramid Cave which shifts Sonic’s acceleration from a spin-dash into vertical movement, essentially catapulting Sonic into the air. It is exclusive to Sonic as his Dark Story counterpart Shadow does not obtain an upgrade that mimics the Bounce Bracelet.

It is executed by spin-dashing into a wall and quickly initiating a bounce attack (jump > action button) as soon as you come into contact with that wall. The speed at which you approach the wall as well as the quickness of the bounce attack contribute to how high your super-bounce will go. A good place to practice is in Pyramid Cave in the corridor shortly after where you obtain the Bounce Bracelet. The game requires you to pick up a key and place it on a platform which unlocks the door in front of you; however it is possible to clip through a non-solid wall above the door with a well executed super-bounce