Team Types

Sonic Advance 3 allows you to pair any of the 5 characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and Amy) with any other. This means there are 20 possible teams in the game, all of them with their unique traits. For the purpose of brevity, each character will have appropriate abbreviations when naming a team.

• Sonic = S
• Tails = T
• Knuckles = K
• Cream = C
• Amy = A
• Any character = ?

While the tag actions depend solely on the support character (the list of tag actions are here), the lead character also gains or trades abilities depending on who they are paired with.

Teams are categorized by speed, power, and flight. This is shown in the upper-left corner of the screen during standard gameplay with either a S (Speed), P (Power), or F (Flight).

The type of team is determined by if sonic or knuckles are in your team, as they have the dominant traits. If Sonic is in the team, then the team is automatically speed. If Sonic is NOT in the team, but Knuckles is, then the team is automatically power. If neither Sonic nor Knuckles are in the team (in other words, if Cream or Tails are in the team and Sonic and Knuckles are NOT), the team is flight.

• Speed teams can enter boost mode, either by running for a period of time, hitting a boost pad, or using Sonic's Tag Action
• Power teams can break power barriers, and also take 2 hits to destroy some normal barriers instead of 4.

The "exceptions" to the above rules are S+K and K+S. These are speed teams, but they also have power attacks because both sonic and knuckles are in the same team, so this team has traits from both speed and power.

The team type is honestly a meaningless label aside from the rules above. For example, while S+T can enter boost mode, they can still fly using Tail's air tag action.

Sonic & Tails

• Boost Mode
• Tails Tag Actions
• Can trick off springs and ramps
• B on ground = skid attack

This is a well-balanced starting team that adapts well to many scenarios casually. Access to boost mode, along with Tail's height-reaching tag actions and tricks off springs, makes this a team well suited for speedrunning vertical levels with boost pads. A key example is Ocean Base 1.

Sonic & Knuckles

• Boost Mode
• Knuckles Tag Actions
• B on ground = long-lasting power skid attack
• B in air = insta-shield
• Up+B in air = upward air dash attack
• Down+B in air = bounce attack

Sonic gains a lot of interesting aerial attacks when paired with Knuckles. None of these attacks are power-type, though he can toss Knuckles to break power barriers. The Up+B in air attack is useful for gaining a bit of extra height when used at the peak of Sonic's jump. Unfortunately for speedrunning levels, while this team has access to boost mode, it's completely outclassed by other S+? teams. However, this team is well-suited for some bosses thanks to the extra reach from the Up+B attack, along with insta-shield and his skid attack. Examples include Ocean Base's boss, and Altar Emerald's boss.

Sonic & Cream

• Boost Mode
• Cream Tag Actions
• B on ground = skid attack
• Side+B in air = sideways air dash attack
• A in air near enemy = homing attack
• Can breath underwater

This team has a lot of neat properties. Access to boost mode and Cream's air tag action makes this a very versatile team. While S+T and S+A are more suited for vertical levels, and T+S is more suited for horizontal, S+C is the in-between team which can reach both high heights at decent horizontal speeds. This makes this team one of the best for navigating larger levels that have a lot of walls, like Chaos Angel 1 and 2.

S+C's aerial side attack is useful for gaining a bit of extra distance or getting a bit of extra horizontal momentum out of a jump. Breathing underwater, while useful casually, shouldn't really be a big deal for speedrunning, but it doesn't hurt.

Of course, having access to cheese makes this a decent team for bosses too.

Sonic & Amy

• Boost Mode
• Amy Tag Actions
• Does not automatically spin jump
• B on ground = hammer
• B in air = spin

Many people think being paired with Amy is a detriment to the lead character but this isn't necessarily true. The fact that the main character straight jumps, and also can spin in the air at all gives you a lot of extra control in the air, which is very useful.

Having boost mode and Amy's tag actions makes this team well-suited for vertical levels. While S+T generally excels a bit more for climbing, S+A gains a hammer that Sonic can use on springs, giving this team a useful niche.