Perfect Bonus Collection

Mystic

Member
Those of you in #srb2fun are probably familiar with recent attempts to try to perfect every stage in the game. I've done it in every stage where it's currently possible, and am moderately curious how many others have bothered with such an insane task of trying to collect every ring in the game.

While a lot of the stages are generally pretty easy to perfect, I've been noticing a few are just absolutely brutal to the point of being one of the hardest challenges available in SRB2. It's also notable that most stages are impossible to perfect as Sonic, so these challenges require you to play as Tails or Knuckles. Be especially careful with the Attraction Shield, as it's attraction isn't quite perfect and that can lead to problems, especially in cramped quarters like zoom tubes. Perfect bonus is also wonderful for getting insanely high scores for score attack purposes, so it's a good idea to clear out enemies and 1-Ups while you're at it for massive scores.

Some notes by stage, along with the perfect requirement:

  • Greenflower Zone Act 1 (285) is trivially easy and can be done as all three characters.
  • Greenflower Zone Act 2 (339) is also pretty damn easy, although doing it as Sonic requires some pretty insane bounces.
  • Techno Hill Zone Act 1 (597) just requires backtracking the character route you didn't take.
  • Techno Hill Zone Act 2 (737) is large and takes forever but is generally simple. Make sure to check every slime puddle for ring boxes. A notably easy to miss ring box is hidden right before the big "Egg" sign in a tiny pool near the electric floors.
  • Deep Sea Zone Act 1 (762) requires playing as Knuckles because there are rings on his route. Otherwise it's pretty trivial.
  • Deep Sea Zone Act 2 (576) requires playing as Knuckles because there are rings on his route. The underwater waterslide is a one-way passage; there are 335 rings before the waterslide and 5 rings on it. There are also quite a lot of rings hidden in the block room so you'll probably want to actually clear it to make sure you don't miss any.
  • Castle Eggman Zone Act 1 (497) is trivial, although Tails is HIGHLY recommended over Knuckles because Knuckles's route is stupidly hard currently.
  • Castle Eggman Zone Act 2 (1247) is large and somewhat tedious, but it isn't particularly difficult. Knuckles is required because of the hidden passage from the water switch room to the dining room. The other hidden passage for Knuckles actually has zero rings, but if you're going for a high score you'll want to grab the 3 1-Ups in it.
  • Arid Canyon Zone Act 1 (705) has nothing notable preventing a perfect, but a lot of easy to miss rings. A notable spot is the hidden Armageddon Shield with eight rings in the quicksand area near the start.
  • Red Volcano Zone Act 1 (431) has a hidden route that was added in the patch cycle that's rather hard to reach. It's easiest to bring the Elemental Shield from the end all the way back, but it's also possible to just get hit with a shield and dash in with the temporary invincibility. Otherwise the stage is pretty easy.
  • Eggrock Zone Act 1 (620) is actually far worse than ERZ2. Tails is preferable because you can break the Knuckles route exit with a spindash and fly back along Knuckles's route with attraction. The zoom tube on the left route that leads to the space room on the left route is one-way. Because of the way the routes are structured, I suggest taking the left route first to the zoom tube, backtracking all the way back to the start, and then taking the right route to the end, detouring into the space room for the last few rings. Be aware that there are rings on the speed gauntlet, which is very hard as Tails or Knuckles, even with the Super Sneakers box hidden before it. This stage requires Attraction for a significant amount of stuff, so be very careful not to let Attraction break.
  • Eggrock Zone Act 2 (712) is pretty brutal, but with only two routes and a loopback from the end to the beginning, all you have to do is complete the stage twice without losing your rings. Note that there aren't any rings in the disco room so you shouldn't enter it.
  • Eggrock Zone Act 3 (134) has an Attraction Shield hidden behind a pillar near the Tails/Knuckles Super Sneakers box. It's also notable that the timer disappears after clearing the race, so it's easier to just clear the race and then backtrack onto the race track and collect every ring on the track before entering the zoom tube to the boss. Obviously even with the shield you need to be good at the boss or you'll lose your rings.
  • Pipe Towers Zone (422) has three one-way passage pipes. At the transitions, you should have 163, 248, and 313 rings respectively. Other than the one-way passages this is trivial.
  • Aerial Garden Zone (1921) is absurdly large and filled with little hidden alcoves that often contain rings. As the guy who made this stage it's a bit hard to me to make a list of easy to miss rings, since I hid them all, but there are no one-way passages so there shouldn't be a huge issue other than just the pure size of the level.
  • Azure Temple Zone (906) requires Knuckles because of rings hidden on his route. Multiple routes cannot be backtracked and therefore must be done in order. Complete the puzzle route before the current route or it will become impossible to backtrack. The Armageddon Shield secret contains twenty rings, so that's necessary as well. While people frequently forget, remember that you can move many of the gargoyles to disarm them for backtracking purposes. I have a replay of my successful run uploaded on the record site here which would be quite helpful for anyone who wants to see what the sanest path through everything is, as even doing everything I could this is easily the hardest thing I've ever attempted in SRB2.
  • The other boss stages have no perfect bonus, but they do count towards the cumulative total rings on the statistics screen. They're all trivial once you know how to beat the boss easily.
    • Greenflower Zone Act 3 (12)
    • Techno Hill Zone Act 3 (8)
    • Deep Sea Zone Act 3 (12)
    • Castle Eggman Zone Act 3 (12)
    • Eggrock Core Zone (5)
The maximum total of rings is 10940. Getting the total to that means you've collected every ring in the game.
 
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While completing Record Attack, I obviously tried to get every ring in each stage. According to the game, the ones in which I was successful are: GFZ1, GFZ2, DSZ1, CEZ1, ERZ3 and AGZ.

Some notable points:

  • AGZ is remarkably easy due to how free the stage is of actual hazards. Just don't fall into a pit and carry around a shield to protect you from the occasional Jetty snipe and it should be easy, if not the most uneventful gaming experience in your life.

  • ERZ2 has a part that really bugs me where you need to jump up to a zoom tube at the end of the timed gravity switch section. If you're not carrying a magnet shield, more often than not the zoom tube will start reeling you in before you're lined up with the rings, meaning the the first ones in the line get left behind. I actually looped around the stage a second time to get those rings and it happened AGAIN. Can we please fix this crap?

  • I think I missed the goal in ATZ by like 30 rings because I absentmindedly forgot to enter a very secluded spin chamber right at the start of the left path. Yes, I zigzagged through the entire stage and dodged all the motherloving Buzz and forgot a fucking closet. It was the last Record Attack I was missing and as soon as it gave me the emblems I promptly quit and never really played again since.
The underwater waterslide is a one-way passage; there are 335 rings before the waterslide and 5 rings on it.
  • This is probably the thing that bugs me the most about the game right now. It's always been a shame you can't backtrack beyond that point, and the spaghetti zoom-tubes were awful and I'm glad we got rid of them, but now there's even no way to get a second shot at the slide. I hope you know the inside of that stupid tunnel like the back of your godforsaken hand, because it only lasts an instant and may or may not irreversibly waste everything you did before you got there.
 
The theoretical maximum total of rings is 10940 but currently several of those rings are impossible to obtain. There's still plenty of insanity working for those willing to try, though =P

Mystic, was that number on purpose? I mean it's about ten times more, but still, 1.09.4, 10940? this has to be a coincidence.
 
[*]AGZ is remarkably easy due to how free the stage is of actual hazards. Just don't fall into a pit and carry around a shield to protect you from the occasional Jetty snipe and it should be easy, if not the most uneventful gaming experience in your life.
Aaaand that's why I don't do perfect bonuses.

I think it would be cool if A) there was a ring counter telling you how many rings are in the stage, and B) you didn't have to KEEP all of the rings with you in order to complete the requirement. I guess I'm just tired of IWBTG difficulty levels though. Maybe have an "Unperfect" bonus for people who collected all the rings but didn't keep them all?
 
Mystic, was that number on purpose? I mean it's about ten times more, but still, 1.09.4, 10940? this has to be a coincidence.
Totally coincidence. In fact I didn't even make the connection until you mentioned it. If I was going to make it a number intentionally it would be a nice even thousand or similarly obvious number like 11111.

I think it would be cool if A) there was a ring counter telling you how many rings are in the stage, and B) you didn't have to KEEP all of the rings with you in order to complete the requirement. I guess I'm just tired of IWBTG difficulty levels though.
The only stage where getting hit and losing your rings is a serious threat is ATZ, in my experience. Pits and crushers are also a hazard in ERZ, but otherwise the challenge is more figuring out where all the rings are than avoiding hazards. Any time you get hit, just backtrack to grab a shield before progressing further. Remember that you're using Tails most of the time as well, who isn't vulnerable to most of the hazards in the game.

I do agree that there should be something in-game that tells you the number, though, perhaps replacing the emblem requirement display after you have the emblem. That's why I figured writing the numbers down for everyone was sorta the first step towards generating interest =P
 
I'm glad to announce that in 2.1.12, we've finally fixed this problem.

srb20020.png


Once we release it, the only thing preventing you from accomplishing all perfect is your sanity.
 
Oh, and to others like me who were trying to beat THZ1 with all rings but were wasting literal hours looking for 20 rings as Knuckles.....
Look behind you before you go in the next section in Knuckles' path.
It will save you innumerable minutes looking for everything for it.
Seriously.
 
allperfect.png



So I did this again in 2.1.25 over the last two weeks for a couple of reasons, and man am I rusty. Five of those hours were spent failing in ATZ because I kept failing basic things. Notable observations from doing this a second time:

  • DSZ1's rings are all over the place and I spent way too long running around in circles not noticing I just missed a couple rings in the area with all the spikes and mines.
  • ERZ1 seems impossible currently if you don't intentionally replace Attraction with the Elemental Shield near the crusher gauntlet after collecting the rings on it. There's a single ring next to the breakable wall exit in Knuckles's route that seems to get permanently stuck out of reach if you have Attraction in that area. Once you collect that ring, you can grab the Attraction Shield that's right next to that location afterwards, as you'll need it for the rest of the act.
  • PTZ's got this one coin block hidden super well in the underground section that's found by turning around at the exit pipe and walking back to the far wall, and then going to the far left corner. There's a super-well hidden hole in the wall there. I may have given up and actually looked at the map in the editor to find it again X_X
  • ATZ is even harder than before because the moving platforms seem to be buggy in 2.1.25. I ended up just gliding around them instead of landing on them whenever possible. The camera adjustments also cause problems in Knuckles's route. Also, why, WHY did I put a ring box along with the Whirlwind box in that moving platform room? Forgetting that was there cost me another hour. I want to go back in time and smack myself on that one X_X
 
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