Sonic Generations

Welcome to the walkthrough for Sonic Generations, a celebration of the series' highlights throughout the years since the original game first released. To get the most out of the game, you might want to brush up on the series if you haven't already and play a bunch of the older games. If not, that's fine; the game makes you feel nostalgic regardless of whether or not you've played some of the original levels used for Generations.

Getting all of the achievements in this game is unusually easy, compared to the two other "Modern Sonic" games released before this one. Acquiring S Ranks is much easier than it has ever been in the series, and you'll probably finish everything in about 25 hours or so. You can do everything in whichever order you choose, with the most time-consuming thing being the collectables, in the form of Red Star Rings. Even these aren't too much of a hassle to find, and you may even find some joy in collecting them.

I highly suggest reading the General Hints & Tips page instead of skipping over it, as there are some fairly important notes about S Ranks and other things that you should know before you put too much effort into some stages. Videos for anything you'd ever need to see to play the game are included in playlist links throughout the walkthrough. This includes S Ranks on boss battles and Challenge Acts, although those aren't necessary for any of the achievements.

Note: People generally say that the keyboard controls for this game aren't the best. You might want to use a controller instead.

There are two playstyles in this game; one of them belongs to Classic Sonic, which is just the traditional sidescrolling style seen in any of the 16-bit games in the Sonic series' beginnings, as well as titles like the Sonic Advance series and Sonic Mania. The other playstyle is nearly identical to that which was introduced in Sonic Unleashed; speed is finally a priority again after the more slow-paced Sonic Adventure era of games. Neither of these two types of gameplay take long to get used to.

Obtaining S Ranks is incredibly easy to do, especially compared to both Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Unleashed. You actually only have to get 18 S Ranks; this means getting an S Rank on all of the nine Zones' two Acts, and you won't have to get them on the 90 Challenge Acts and seven boss battles. All you have to do is get a good time, as well as carry a decent number of rings with you as you finish the stage, which should give you an A Rank if you were good enough. A Perfect Bonus, awarded by not dying during the level, will turn that A into an S, so it's required for you to not lose any lives while trying to get those S Ranks. There are also harder versions of boss battles that you can play, but these aren't necessary either.

The game starts off with a 2D version of Green Hill Zone. In this first Act, as well as all other Act 1 stages in the game, you'll be using "Classic Sonic", defined from this game onwards as the Sonic from the original platforms from the SEGA Genesis. Descriptions for all of the levels in the game will detail any small troubling bits in the stages if necessary, as well as some tips on how to get an S Rank in all of them. Getting an S Rank is generally a very trivial task, as this game is very lenient on giving them to you. If your time alone doesn't give you an A Rank, then the number of rings you have at the end of the level probably will. Dying by any means will void you of your Perfect Bonus, which is necessary to transform that A Rank into an S Rank.

Sonic Generations | Act Missions (S Rank)

Green Hill Zone

One of the easiest levels to S Rank, the first Act of Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog shouldn't be any trouble to you. You should be familiar with most of the level if you've ever played any other Sonic game in your life, since they almost always use at least some aspect of Green Hill Zone in their first level. If you don't get one your first time through the game, you can always come back and get it later.

• Bright Star

  Got Rank S in an act.

  
  

• The Opening Act

  Completed the first stage.

  
  

After getting through the first Act, a pitch-black monster will arrive out of a wormhole in Classic Sonic's world. After this, Modern Sonic is treated to a birthday party, where Tails presents him with a chili dog, his favorite food. It isn't too long before everyone at the party is also sucked up by this villain. The Time Eater knocks Sonic back before he can get close, and wakes up in a white void after passing out.

This is the hub world of the game, where you'll be able to access every Act, Challenge Act, and Boss Battle in the game. You can test out two of Modern Sonic's moves now: jump after being in mid-air to do a homing attack, introduced in Sonic Adventure, and hold A to do a boost, from Sonic Unleashed. Once you're ready, head to the white structure in the middle of the small amount of space you can move in to play the next level.

With this different play style, you'll spend a good chunk of the level facing Sonic's back instead of his side. Boost whenever you can to crash through enemies and gain tremendous momentum, but keep an eye on your boost meter. Defeating enemies and collecting rings will slowly refill your meter, so if you feel like you might run out, look around for a quick pickup.

• GREEN HILL Restored!
  
  

Once you're back in the white void, Tails will be freed from his statue-state. Tails won't find Green Hill Zone familiar (after all, his debut game was the one after Sonic 1. Tails will unknowingly talk to Classic Sonic before you're allowed to continue your journey in the White Space.

Now that you're free to move around, you might want to head left of Green Hill Zone and check out the Skill Shop and the Collection Room. More on both of these areas are on the Skills & Collectibles page. You could even head over to the Red Star Rings page and clean up Green Hill Zone for good if you wanted to, since those collectibles should now be available for you to find.

Chemical Plant Zone

For the first Act, you'll have more options on which way you can go; this is decided at the start of the level, where the two paths first intertwine like DNA. The high path is generally faster, and leads to more Red Star Rings as well, so you might want to go up there this time. Blue chemicals spill out of the pipes from time to time, but you're given a slight warning on when this happens if you watch the pipes they come out from. If you find yourself swimming around in the pink liquid in the lower parts of the level, keep an eye out for streams of bubbles, which restore your air supply when they create an overly large pocket of air for you. For an S Rank, you really should go with the high path by jumping on the moving platforms at the start of the level. It's not too difficult to get the desired rank here, but if you're new to the series, it might take one or two tries.

• Shooting Star

  Got Rank S in acts three times.

  
  

This Act is a lot more open than Green Hill Zone's second Act, and you'll see that very early into the level. The level is fairly easy to get through, which is to be expected near the start of the game, but you can also kill two birds with one stone as you get your S Rank and follow a specific path throughout the plant so you don't touch any of the pink chemicals for the entire level. Since putting that path into words would be near impossible, here's a video showing you how to do it.

• Walk on Water

  Cleared CHEMICAL PLANT without entering the water.

  
  1 guide

• CHEMICAL PLANT Restored!
  
  

Once you finish Act 2, Tails will remark that the chemical plant gives him an uneasy and familiar feeling, and after Modern Sonic agrees, Amy will be freed from her statue form (assuming you've already finished Act 1). Now it's time to play the third Zone of the game.

Sky Sanctuary Zone

Although there are more opportunities for you to fall off the stage, getting an S Rank (let alone getting through it) still shouldn't prove too troublesome. You should perhaps go through the level a few times so you get a good feel for it, and then go for an S Rank once you've figured out how the stage works. There are also three ways to end the level; all three are just about the same length in terms of how long it takes to finish, but more on these are on the page for the Classic Red Star Rings. Each of these three paths lead to a specific RSR, so you may want to keep track of which path you take on your first time through the level so you can use the other two later.

• Walk on Air
  
  

Once again, the level is a bit more open, so while it's technically easier for you to fall off and lose a life, it shouldn't really happen too frequently if you pay attention, especially if you have hints turned on to show you where the level drops off. Getting an S Rank, at least for me, was actually easier to accomplish than it was for Act 1, but this might not be the case for you.

• SKY SANCTUARY Restored!
  
  

Now that you've cleared all of the three Acts, three Boss Gate Keys should have appeared in the White Space above the three Zones. To collect these keys, play at least one Challenge Act from each Zone. This will unlock the first story-required boss battle in the game, but you can also fight another major enemy above Chemical Plant Zone before doing so. There are ten Challenge Acts per Zone, five for each Sonic, so you'll want to switch between the two of them to access them all. You don't have to get an S Rank on any of the 90 total Challenge Acts, but you will have to finish all of them at some point; you may as well just finish all of the 30 available to you now so you don't have to later.

Sonic Generations | Boss Battles (S Rank)

You'll have to fight all six bosses in the three portions of the White Space in order to fight the final boss, so you'll have to hit up Metal Sonic at one point or another. However, if you haven't read the General Hints & Tips page, winning on the harder difficulties for each of the bosses isn't required at all; if you're interested in avatar items, the six related to this game are only given to you by beating all of these fights on both difficulties.

Metal Sonic

As stated earlier, Metal Sonic will be hiding out in a little room above Chemical Plant Zone, guarding the purple Chaos Emerald. Classic Sonic will take him on in a long strip of collapsing platforms, supposedly a portion of Stardust Speedway. Metal Sonic puts up a much easier fight than he did back on Little Planet in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, but it's also fairly easy to lose a life here. If you want to go for an S Rank (which is unnecessary), you'll have to refrain from dying in an entire session of playing this battle.

Metal Sonic will have four attacks, which you'll have to avoid while the floor behind you constantly starts to collapse. After each attack, he'll become vulnerable, so speed up to him and jump at him to inflict damage. His first attack is an electric charge forwards; just jump over him to avoid it. Next is an electric surge, which consists of him hovering above the floor and releasing beams of electricity after charging them up. This too should be easy to avoid. A third attack, similar to the first in nearly every way, will only ask of you to jump onto the small stream of platforms directly above the ground to avoid the tackle. The final attack that Metal Sonic uses will be a bit different, although he'll still be vulnerable afterwards for some reason. He'll start to fling large chunks debris onto the speedway; avoiding these is made easy by watching the shadows on the ground and stepping out of the way, but don't forget to stay ahead of the collapsing panels behind you.

If you wanted to beat Metal Sonic on Hard mode, it should be roughly the same experience. You might want to wait until you have some more music tracks to select from, though, just to make things more interesting; you unlock a remix of the US version of Stardust Speedway (Bad Future) after finishing 16 Challenge Acts and ringing their bells, so that'd be the most appropriate choice for a song. There are three changes to the Metal Sonic fight when playing on Hard. The first change is that he's faster, which is to be expected, but the other two are an increase in power for his moves. His electric surge will now occur three times before he tires out, and Metal Sonic will now toss six streetlights at you, a noticeable increase from the amount thrown on Normal. Getting an S Rank, if you wanted one, is expected to take a few tries.

• Scrap Metal
  
  

Death Egg Robot

Upon entering a long, dark chamber with glass resting on both sides, Sonic will check out his weirdly contorted reflection before Eggman taunts him. Classic Sonic, after hearing him, leaps into the giant door, leaving Modern Sonic behind. Eggman will have prepared for this battle with one of his signature Death Egg Robots.

It should only take four hits to defeat this giant machine aboard the Death Egg, and it's actually pretty easy to fight. The first half of the fight will be between you and Eggman, who will use one of two attacks. First, an arm will launch towards you (you're given a good amount of time to avoid it), and then the Death Egg Robot will jump into the air in an attempt to crush you. Dash underneath the legs when this happens, and hit the Death Egg Robot straight in the butt. Do this twice, and the two of you will change locales. In this smaller room, Eggman will continue to use his mech's fists to punch you and any platforms around you. Quickly find a switch to activate a nearby bomb, and lure Eggman into hitting it. If you've done this right, his arm will become incapacitated, and you'll be able to run up it to attack the cockpit. Do this a mere two times to stop the doctor in his tracks and destroy this Death Egg Robot.

Fighting the Death Egg Robot on hard isn't all that different, at least not noticeably. The mech will now take four hits to the backside before the second phase of the fight starts now, as opposed to the standard two hits, but that's really all there is to it. As soon as the battle starts, stay relatively close to the DER so it attacks the ground right in front of it, and then dash underneath it so you can hit its backside. You'll want to dash under it again, which will happen very quickly after you land a successful hit; run underneath the feet of Eggman's machine as it turns back around to face you, and you'll now be granted a free hit against him. Eggman won't be able to do anything to stop you, and you can continue this process throughout the entire first half of the fight. If you decide not to pursue this method of defeating this boss, you should still be able to get an S Rank by just knowing the fight and beating it quickly.

• Sunny side up
  
  

After defeating Eggman, the Time Eater will appear to suck him away before you can even get a good look at him. It seems he isn't behind this scheme after all. Classic and Modern Sonic & Tails will finally realize the predicament they're in before the Time Eater opens up more of the White Space to explore. Once you're back in control of Sonic, the game will give you the green Chaos Emerald as a trophy for beating the previous boss.

Now that you've beaten the Genesis Era of the game, it's time to take a trip back to the Dreamcast days, the beginning of Modern Sonic as we know him. Instead of seeing Act 2 stages as "classic stages reworked", it will now be the other way around; Act 1 will take ideas from the originals and implement them into a "Classic" style of level. The first level comes from Sonic Adventure, the first truly 3D Sonic title.

Sonic Generations | Act Missions (S Rank)

Speed Highway Zone

Just like the original, there are lots of pits in this level, so be careful when jumping over any gap that you aren't familiar with yet. There are a few different paths leading up to a rocket that takes you to the second portion of the level; from there, it's also a bit difficult to point out where the high and low paths start, but the level isn't difficult to warrant any kind of special advice. Getting an S Rank should be very much within your grasp as long as you don't die during your run.

• Blazing Meteor

  Got Rank S in acts seven times.

  
  

Similar to Act 2, there are a lot more places to die in this level than you've seen before. Getting an S Rank boils down to knowing the level and not dying, but you can still manage to get one on your first time through.

• SPEED HIGHWAY Restored!
  
  

After finishing both Acts, Cream the Rabbit, and her pet Chao named Cheese, will be freed next.

City Escape Zone

This level fortunately gives you a break on the pitfalls, but replaces that hazard with the infamous GUN truck from Sonic Adventure 2. Aside from trying to avoid being run over by the GUN crew, the first Act might even be considered easier than Speed Highway Zone's first Act.

Act 2 is the same in regards to bottomless pits; there are far less of them, and the platforming itself is very simple to do. The only thing that should be barring you from an S Rank is the accidental slip into the abyss, costing you your run, but replaying the level wouldn't take much time to do anyway.

• CITY ESCAPE Restored!
  
  

Rouge the Bat is up next on the list of ex-statues. This master thief must have some good information about Red Star Rings in the stage that you may have missed.

Seaside Hill Zone

Act 1 of Seaside Hill Zone is fairly expansive, with multiple different paths that you might switch between at an instant. The S Rank is easy to get regardless of this, as all of the paths are still very quick.

Act 2 feels a lot more open than any other level has so far. Once you come across a three-way fork in the path, predated by an alternating signal that switches between yellow and green, time your move wisely so you can go with whichever path you choose. The yellow path, if you drive to the left of the final ramp, can net you a nice Red Star Ring, so you might want to go that way first. The S Rank restrictions are very loose, and you should get it without any snags.

• Blue Comet

  Got Rank S in acts 12 times.

  
  

• SEASIDE HILL Restored!
  
  

Once you've cleared Seaside Hill Zone, the gang will realize a little bit more of the situation they're in, as well as release Espio from his stone prison. The ninja will warn you to keep on your toes.

Sonic Generations | Boss Battles (S Rank)

Shadow the Hedgehog

Mimicking a scene from Sonic Adventure 2 is this fight against Shadow, who debuted in the same game. To win, you just have to collect two of the energy cores moving around the stage before Shadow gets two of them himself. Once that happens, you'll be chasing Shadow on a much flatter piece of terrain. Run into meteors to send pieces of them at Shadow to slow him down, and then stay on his tail to drain rings from him until he runs out. It's a very easy battle, and you'll probably S Rank it unless Shadow gets charged up before you do.

The differences in Hard mode are pretty obvious when you start the level up; reaching the fully charged state now requires three energy cores, and Shadow will be a lot better at reaching them than before. Despite this, the time bonus is so crazy that you'll easily get the 50,000 points necessary for an S Rank even if Shadow gets to use his fully charged attack. If he does so, all you have to do is dodge his Chaos Spears and do the same for a Chaos Control attack. It's very easy to dodge everything.

• Shadow Boxing
  
  

After defeating Shadow, you'll get the yellow Chaos Emerald, which just so happens to be the fourth one. At least he knows where it is now.

Perfect Chaos

This boss battle is super, super simple. Perfect Chaos can only withstand four hits on Normal difficulty, and the first three are performed by just jumping around chunks of the road and boosting across stretches of water. Once you land the third attack, the background music will change from a slight remix of Open Your Heart to the music that plays at the end of the original battle in Sonic Adventure. All that's left to do now is jump across a few more pieces of the city and make it to the top of Perfect Chaos, and perform one last homing attack to do him in. Again, S Ranks, aren't necessary, but you shouldn't be surprised if you get this one without trying.

Perfect Chaos still takes just four hits to defeat on Hard, and the fight really isn't that different, especially since Perfect Chaos doesn't really have any noticeable attack patterns. For some reason, it felt like I was running out of boost a lot faster on Hard than on Normal, so if this happens to you, the only real threat barring you from an S Rank is falling into the water below.

• Perfect Punisher
  
  

After defeating Chaos, the blue Chaos Emerald will be bestowed upon you for your efforts, and the last three Zones will open up for you to explore. The Time Eater will also briefly appear, and will react quite negatively to the energy given off by one of the remaining frozen Chaos Emeralds.

Now that you've made it to the Modern Era (if you can call 2006 modern), you'll start playing through some levels of some more recent games. That's right, the first Modern Era stage comes from none other than 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog, or Sonic 06, which is what everyone calls it anyway. Don't worry, the Generations version of Crisis City is much more "stable" than it was in the game it came from, so you shouldn't encounter many glitches, if any at all.

Sonic Generations | Act Missions (S Rank)

Crisis City Zone

Both Acts of this Zone allow you to fall off to your death pretty easily; this is mostly due to the state of the city being in ruins, so it's not particularly out of place. Be careful in Act 1, especially when the fiery tornado (Iblis) starts causing a large amount of wind to push you backwards.

You'll have to be just as cautious in Act 2, but the end will instead be a dash straight towards Iblis. There's an achievement for not getting hit by any debris it throws at you; this is thankfully much easier than it is do in the original game, and all you have to do is sit it out at the start of the path and wait for the debris to despawn. You could also just run forwards as it's coming at you, as the game intended, but the former idea is obviously much safer and easier.

• Look Both Ways
  
  

• CRISIS CITY Restored!
  
  

Rooftop Run Zone

This is the first level where things will definitely increase in difficulty, at least in terms of getting an S Rank. The majority of the stage is fairly easy to navigate once you get some practice with it, but the end is the most frustrating. As you climb the clock tower, you'll eventually reach its face, and will have to land in the very center of the clock. You'll have to avoid enemy fire AND bombs placed around the clock by jumping between pegs on the clock's hands. I suggest only making a break for the center once you're at 12 o' clock, and falling straight down into the middle.

Act 2 is about as difficult as Crisis City Zone, where the biggest hazard is falling off into the abyss. This means that practice makes perfect once again, so don't expect to get it down on your first try. Using the high paths save a lot more time than you'd think; the lower paths tend to be pretty long here.

• ROOFTOP RUN Restored!
  
  

Planet Wisp Zone

Planet Wisp's Act 1 isn't really that hard, but it's focused around a gimmick from Sonic Colors. It's quite likely that you're completely unfamiliar with Color Power, because Sonic Colors was only available for the Wii and DS. It's still a simple concept to learn. The Spikes power-up covers you in pink quills that allow you to stick to walls, and can be used to spin pink gears and break pink boxes. Most of the stage takes place in a factory centered around this power-up, so it's still possible to get an S Rank with over 6 minutes on the clock. If you're a bit over, you might want to hang onto your rings as a backup score bonus.

Act 2 isn't that bad either. The Rocket Color Power is the primary focus of the level, and it's only used to travel straight upwards. It's mainly used to break orange panels with the rocket symbol on them, but it can also be used to return to the high path if you fall off. Once again, the time limit has been drastically expanded to compensate for how long the level is.

• Big Bang

  Got Rank S in all acts.

  
  

• PLANET WISP Restored!
  
  

Sonic Generations | Boss Battles (S Rank)

Now that the rest of the Chaotix team is free, it's time to finish up the last of the boss battles. You'll also get the Red Chaos Emerald just for clearing both Acts of Planet Wisp Zone.

Silver the Hedgehog

Silver will be hanging out above Crisis City Zone, waiting for you to fight him. The battle is so easy that you don't really need to boost until the very end, and I actually suggest that you do this. The main part of the battle mostly consists of homing in on objects Silver is carrying in order to reach him, running up a pile of cars, avoiding stuff coming down on you, or dodging psychokinetic attacks. As a final hurrah, he'll take all of the debris in the area and mash it all into a giant ball that crushes you if you slow down too much. The only way to speed up to Silver so you can hit him, as far as I can tell, is to boost towards him, so that's why you really need to preserve your boost power. If you're at this part of the fight and don't have any boost, don't bother continuing; it's no use.

Hard mode isn't different enough to warrant a lot of description on what changes. His attack where he takes three pieces of junk to throw onto the ground now has all three pieces falling down at once, so you need to stay between them in order to avoid taking damage. Silver is just overall harder to hit, and that's all that can be said for what makes this fight more challenging than before.

• Silver Got Served
  
  

You'll earn the white Chaos Emerald for defeating Silver, and if you've beaten all the other bosses up to this point, there should only be one Chaos Emerald left to complete the collection.

Egg Dragoon

Somehow, Eggman will be piloting his Egg Dragoon, much to the confusion of the Sonic's. It's got a much more challenging attack pattern, ranging from launching drills, fire-laser beams, and an ice cannon. The points in which you attack him are very obvious, so there's no need to repeat that here. There's also a skydiving section of the fight where you have to rush down to the Egg Dragoon in order to land a hit, which is also self-explanatory. You should have a little over four minutes to use up if you want to get an S Rank.

Hard mode is the most difficult battle out of the six standard bosses you can fight. Sometimes your wall jumps will fail to work properly, which makes things even more frustrating. Not only does Eggman fire ice shots much faster in 2D than before, but the Egg Dragoon seemingly tanks tons of hits. The last attack you need to perform will be in the descending column, where you need to dive towards the Dragoon. This is where things get most annoying, just because victory is slightly out of reach. The drills that the Egg Dragoon launches arrive towards you much faster and in quick succession, and predicting where groups of rings will be is near impossible. Good luck if you want to get an S Rank, you're going to need it.

• Boom Boom Dragoon
  
  

• Treasure Hunter
  
  

After defeating Eggman once again, the Sonic's and Tails's will meet up, very confused as to why Eggman was here in the first place. As soon as they mention that he was kidnapped much earlier, he's hoisted away by the Time Eater. Defeating Eggman grants you the cyan Chaos Emerald, and the fight against the Time Eater will open up. You won't be able to fight it until you have all seven Chaos Emeralds, though. Place all the Chaos Emeralds in the gears around the end of the White Space to open the fight.

Time Eater

Once the guilty part of this entire situation has revealed themselves, it won't be long until you have to fight the Time Eater. There's an achievement for finishing the fight without being hit even once, so the strategy for the Normal fight will explain this in detail, although there won't be too much to explain.

This fight lets you switch between dimensions, and the Time Eater will do the same. The easiest way out of almost every attack is to switch as soon as the attack almost connects, or when the attack starts to occur. Since both Sonic's are in a Super state, you need to continuously collect rings in order to retain that form, so keep an eye out for big clusters of rings. Getting hit once will void the achievement, but you can restart the fight whenever you get hit to try again. It costs you a life every time you do this, but that's not a problem thanks to Omochao selling them for 500pts a pop. Collecting 100 rings in this fight, like any other level, will also give you an extra life. The Can't Touch This achievement isn't as bad as it might seem at first; you might just need to keep practicing the fight until you finally pull it off.

The harder version of the battle isn't actually too bad. The homing attack now launches about three sets of five spears, as opposed to the usual one or two, but aside from that, there aren't really too many noticeable changes.

• Can't Touch This

  Took no damage while defeating the final boss.

  
  2 guides

• All Stages Clear!

  Cleared Sonic Generations.

  
  

Now that everything is returned to normal, Sonic's birthday party can continue. Classic Sonic will show off what he's learned so far before the Classic duo return to their time period. The credits will roll shortly after, but if you wanted to make them run faster, you can hold S. After the credits, you'll be treated with a great cutscene with the two doctors.

After finishing both Acts to all three Zones in an "Era", 15 Challenge Gates will appear in the White Space, with five for each Zone. Switching from Classic to Modern Sonic, and vice versa, will also swap the Challenge Acts available to you, meaning that there are actually 30 different challenges unlocked whenever this happens. For the sake of getting all the achievements, you will have to complete all 90 of them, but the ranking you earn is inconsequential. You could intentionally do terribly, but as long as you finish, it will be beneficial towards your completion. Most of these S Ranks aren't hard to get anyway, so tips on getting them will be provided as well.

Sonic Generations | Classic Sonic Challenges (S Rank)

Green Hill Zone Challenge 1: Doppelganger Race!

For this challenge, you just need to beat the Doppelganger that appears in a race to the finish. If you've had any decent amount of practice trying to get the Greased Lightning achievement (earned by finishing the level in under a minute), you should have no problem with both beating the doppelganger and getting an S Rank, especially since the limit for an S Rank is 20 seconds past that of what the achievement asks you to do.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 2: The Buzz Bombers' Revenge!

You'll now have to complete a good chunk of the level, now with some paths just completely unavailable, but with a new twist: those hornet-like enemies you've seen from playing through the stage before. It's not exactly challenging, but the addition of new wooden structures and blocked paths will still make things interesting.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 3: Knuckles: Horde of Enemies

Knuckles will challenge you to a race in Green Hill Zone, and will usually burrow underground to get ahead. Like with the first Challenge Act, you can check how far you two are in the level by looking at the top of the screen. Beating Knuckles is pretty easy, but getting an S Rank might take a few tries. If you decide to go for it, practice is going to be the most useful thing you can do; play through the challenge a few times so you can get used to the level and where things are.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 4: Swingset Circus

The fourth Challenge Act contains a large quantity of swinging platforms, which you've most likely seen in a brief area as part of the main Act. You'll have to navigate through these pendulum footholds to reach the end. If you decide not to bother with picking up the time bonuses, you should be able to get an S Rank pretty easily.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 5: High Speed Challenge

The last challenge Green Hill Zone has to offer you will let you toy around with speed power-ups. Lots of these are scattered throughout the Act, and will help you get to your destination faster. Again, your ranking doesn't matter when it comes to achievements, but getting an S Rank definitely requires that you find and use these power-ups effectively.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 1: Tails: Toxic Skies

For this challenge, Classic Tails will help you out whenever you need to scale tall distances, or excessively long ones. Unlike the original games, Tails won't become exhausted after a short amount of time, so you can have him fly through the entire level if you wanted to. If you want to go for an S Rank, you might not want to do that for some portions of the first half of the challenge, because Tails may be slower in some places.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 2: Which Switch is Which?

The chunk of Act 1 that this challenge takes place in has now been fitted with numerous switches, and objects that react to those switches. All you have to do here is activate them to continue through the level, so you shouldn't have any trouble here.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 3: Aqua Shield Challenge

The third Challenge Act will unlock a new Skill once you beat it, and it's pretty useful for platforming. All you have to do is use the abundant Aqua Shield pickups to get through the level by busting through objects and reaching new heights by bouncing with the bubble you're in. An S Rank isn't too out of the way, either; you might even have 15 seconds left on the clock at the end of the challenge.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Aqua Shield Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 2500 points. As long as the shield is active in a level, you'll be able to breathe indefinitely underwater and use it to bounce higher.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 4: Doppelganger Race!

Another race against a transparent foe. By now, you should be well-acquainted with the level, and finishing before your doppelganger shouldn't be a concern whatsoever. Even the S Rank time qualification isn't all that challenging if you know what you're doing and stick to the higher paths.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 5: Invincibility Challenge

Chemical Plant's final challenge is going to be a pretty easy one. A bunch of invincibility pickups are going to be scattered around a good portion of the level, and all you have to do is hit them so you can safely make it to the next one, and so on, until you reach the end.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 1: Doppelganger Race!

Every Zone has a Doppelganger Race, and they're all the same thing: Get to the end in a certain amount of time. That certain amount of time is how long it takes for the doppelganger to finish, but since it's so slow, there's really no need to worry about that. The S Rank is very lenient too; I personally finished with about 40 seconds left on the clock.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 2: Eggrobo Rush

The Egg-Robos (or Eggrobos) have swarmed Sky Sanctuary, and the stage has changed as well. Many of the enemies have been placed in positions so that their lasers will directly run right into you if you're hanging on to certain poles, so don't assume any non-moving poles are safe.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 3: Aerial Paradise

This challenge centers around the red orb-teleporter structures seen around the sanctuary. This time, there are tons of these things all over the place. Don't worry, none of the teleporters will send you backwards; if you ever see one, jump into it, and you'll be pushed further into the maze.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 4: Ring Time Challenge

For this Challenge Act, you're given a taste of the Ring Time Skill, which turns enemies into rings for a short time. You'll also need to pick up and keep 80 rings by the end of the level. There are plenty of rings, and plenty of enemies to turn into rings, so there's really no need to stop and pick up every single one. Just use Ring Time whenever possible and you'll be fine.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Ring Time Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 3500 points. Using the skill temporarily creates a weird aura around you that turns all the enemies on screen into rings for a short time.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 5: Amy: Topsy Turvy

If you've played the third Challenge Act in Green Hill Zone, then you'll be familiar with what this challenge is about. Amy is going to be racing you instead, but you're also going to be restricted to using the spinning mechanisms found in Sky Sanctuary. They control very easily, and Amy shouldn't be moving too fast anyway. I don't know if this happens all the time, but for me, Amy got stuck about 1/5 of the way through the race, and remained there for the rest of the challenge. Hopefully the same happens to you as well, making things even less complicated.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 1: Cream: Chao Hunt

All you've got to do here is race Cream to the end of the level, but you'll also need to collect at least 11 Chao along the way. This is really easy to do, and once you have 11, you can start to make a mad dash towards the end. Getting an S Rank might take some practice, though; I found myself cutting very close to the time limit.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 2: Hot Pursuit

If you've already played through the previous 15 challenges for Modern Sonic, you should have come across a sprinkler spraying rings all over the place in Chemical Plant Zone. The same type of machine will be spraying bombs on you here; it must have some kind of grudge. You'll have to dodge the bombs and make it to the end as fast as you can.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 3: High Speed Challenge 2

Similar to the fifth Challenge Act for Green Hill Zone, a bunch of speed power-ups will be laid across an altered Speed Highway Zone. Use them to reach the goal as fast as you can. An S Rank should become a lot easier to obtain after you learn the course.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 4: Resisting Arrest

Tons of the police car enemies will be patrolling the second part of the level, which has changed to accompany the number of enemies. Getting to the end is pretty easy, and so is earning an S Rank. You could be hit by four or five police cruisers and still make it with ten seconds on the clock at the end of the challenge.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 5: Doppelganger Race!

You'll have to race the embarrassingly slow doppelganger once again. There's not much to say for this Challenge Act, other than that the course is exactly the same as it is in the standard Act for this Zone.

City Escape Zone Challenge 1: Lord of the Board

This challenge focuses on the skateboard power-up, which appears only in this level (unless you use the respective Skill in a Skill Set). You've got to shred as much as you can to reach the end of the level faster than you normally would. Don't be afraid to make big leaps of faith forward whenever you're at a high point in the level; if you haven't been doing that, now would be a good time to test out how useful it can be in certain situations.

City Escape Zone Challenge 2: Thunder Shield Challenge

Similar to the Aqua Shield Challenge, you're going to have to utilize the Thunder Shield to pass through a good chunk of the city by using the shield's double jump capabilities. This shield also attracts rings, which is pretty convenient. This is a particularly difficult S Rank to earn, and you'll have to really be smart about how you jump. You could alternately just check out the playlist link at the top of the page if you really wanted the S Rank here.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Thunder Shield Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 4000 points. As long as the shield is active in a level, you'll be protected from any electrical attack and attract rings towards you, and you'll also be able to double jump.

City Escape Zone Challenge 3: Rouge: The Bombadier

Rouge's going to be dropping a TON of bombs all over the level, but fortunately all you have to do here is get to the end alive. This challenge can be much more frustrating than most of the others before this one; S Ranking it is a whole different level of anger-inducing mania.

City Escape Zone Challenge 4: Doppelganger Race!

Another time attack-ish type of Challenge Act. It's super easy to beat the doppelganger; even getting the S Rank for this challenge shouldn't be a concern.

City Escape Zone Challenge 5: Rite of Spring

Here, you'll find that the original start of City Escape Zone has been fitted with springs and alternate pathways. This Challenge Act isn't really so bad; since springs send you in the direction you're supposed to be going, there's really not much room for you to mess up in.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 1: Rescue the Animals!

If you've ever played any of the original Sonic games (or Sonic Adventure, Sonic Mania, and other titles), you should find this challenge's goal very familiar. A bunch of capsules are laced throughout the Zone, which all contain the same number of animals. You'll have to jump on the top of them to release the creatures inside, and do so until you've freed at least 140 in total. If you're going for an S Rank, you'll have to really know the level and get to the tops of these capsules as quick as you can.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 2: Doppelganger Race!

The sixth of the easiest type of challenge. Like the five before it, this one needs no introduction either.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 3: Espio: Way of the Ninja

Some grappling points have been added to Seaside Hill this time. Espio can use his gear to swing on these to help you get ahead, so call on him whenever prompted, and hold that button until you're at the peak of your swing (you can swing faster by moving back and forth). The end of the challenge can be pretty annoying if you're aiming for an S Rank, but if not, there are checkpoints that will remove this problem completely. The last bit of the level asks you to swing in a chain of grappling points, and sometimes you just can't see them right away.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 4: High-Speed Hijinks

If you've done the challenges for the previous Era, you should have seen this kind of challenge in Sky Sanctuary for Modern Sonic. All of the platforms and enemies, as well as their projectiles, have doubled or so in speed, making things a lot more interesting. Fortunately, the enemies here aren't really all that deadly to begin with, so this speed increase won't make things too much different when fighting them.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 5: Underwater Challenge

Like the title of this challenge suggests, most of the level will be taking place underwater, so you need to get to air bubbles in a timely manner as you traverse the stage. The underwater fans vary in usefulness; sometimes they make you rise very slowly, while other times they shoot you up at a good speed. Jumping from the ground and into the stream of water in front of a fan tends to work fairly well in making yourself get pushed forward properly.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 1: Doppelganger Race!

From here on out, the Challenge Acts start to actually get fairly difficult, especially if you're going for S Ranks for whatever reason. The doppelganger is likely going to be right on your tail for most of the race, as opposed to leagues behind you.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 2: Goal Post Juggle

One of the most tedious levels to S Rank. You have to jump and hit a goalpost to make it move a little bit forward, and you need to push it all the way to the end of the stage so you can actually finish it. Keeping it on the ground for too long will make it settle, and if it manages to do so, you'll gain five seconds against your time. Completing the level without worrying about the ranking is still probably going to be at least a little bit frustrating.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 3: Vector: Through the Storm

For this friend challenge, Vector will help you get ahead by tossing you as if it were an Olympic sport. Call on him whenever you can't seem to travel ahead, and aim up your shot so you can go wherever you need to.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 4: Flame Shield Challenge

This challenge centers around the Flame Shield Skill, which you can purchase after you finish the level. This acts just as you'd expect it to, preventing damage from fire (which there is plenty of), but you can also use it to perform a meteor-like charge forward. The time for an S Rank is a bit tight, but it's nothing a couple rounds of practice can't accomplish.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Flame Shield Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 4500 points. As long as the shield is active in a level, you'll be protected from any fire-based attack. You can also perform dashes in mid-air.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 5: Ring Time Challenge 2

This is going to be just like the other Ring Time challenge in Sky Sanctuary Zone; whenever your current use of the skill wears off, immediately use it again. The enemies should all give five rings each, is there's no need to go out of your way for any.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Ring Time Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 3500 points. Using the skill temporarily creates a weird aura around you that turns all the enemies on screen into rings for a short time.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 1: Doppelganger Race!

Like in Crisis City, the doppelganger is actually fairly okay at going through the stage. It kind of hits a snag about halfway through the level, but it's still nothing to laugh at like it was in the Genesis and Dreamcast levels.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 2: High-Rise Balloon Climb

This is another Challenge Act that, if you're shooting for an S Rank, will be incredibly difficult if you're not using any Skills. If you do decide to use Skills, go with the Thunder Shield. The way the challenge works is that you progress by hanging on to the handles at the bottom of the air balloons that rise along the stage. It's a simple concept, but the timer is not generous at all when it comes to the S Rank cutoff.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 3: Dash Ring 1-2-3

This is just like the challenge of the same name for Modern Sonic, where all you have to do is pass through all of the boost rings to reach the end. Other rings won't appear until you pass through the one before it, so there's really not much of a chance of you missing any of them.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 4: Charmy: Don't Bug Me!

Charmy has decided to make the most annoying version of the Zone possible by placing tons of water spouts and other hazards all cross the level, and he'll tend to activate them when/before you get close to them. Getting caught by any of them is sure to slow you down.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 5: One Ring Challenge 2

Similar to one of Modern Sonic's challenges, you're only provided with one ring at the start of the level, and you've got to make it to the end. You don't have to keep the ring, and you can take a hit as long as you have the ring on you, so this isn't as hard as it may seem.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 1: With Your Powers Combined

Now that you (probably) have done the challenges for the three elemental shields that you can use, this challenge will test your resourcefulness in using these shields to progress through the level. It's a pretty simple concept, but if you ever get stuck, try to remember the secondary effect each shield has.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 2: Doppelganger Race!

The final race against the doppelganger is about as hard as it was in the last two Zones, which is to say that it's not that difficult unless you want an S Rank. The faker hits a snag around the 3/5 mark of the level.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 3: Goal Post Juggle 2

Fortunately, this juggling Act is a lot more forgiving and a lot easier than the one in Crisis City. The S Rank time has been expanded to two minutes, so you might even get one of those without having to try too hard.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 4: Chase After Blaze

Blaze is going to be flying around the interior of the factory seen in the original Act, and you have to catch her by using the Spikes power-up effectively. It's not really that hard, but two things stand in the way. The first is that the flaws of this power-up really shine here, and you'll probably get caught on various things and might be sent the wrong direction at times. The other problem is that Blaze can be pretty hard to keep track of, but you just need to keep your eyes on the whole screen to fix that problem.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 5: Rescue the Animals 2!

Another challenge where you have to rescue animals inside large capsules, just like you have to do in Seaside Hill Zone. It's not too hard to do, but it can be if you want to get an S Rank. There are just enough capsules in the level that let you miss just one, so if you miss two of them, you'll have to restart.

• Halfway Point

  Cleared half the missions.

  
  

As with Classic Sonic's Challenge Acts, you'll want to finish all 45 of Modern Sonic's side missions as well. Your ranking on these doesn't matter at all, but some tips will be provided for obtaining S Ranks anyway.

Sonic Generations | Modern Sonic Challenges (S Rank)

Green Hill Zone Challenge 1: Look Out Below!

Ironically, the first Challenge Act for Modern Sonic consists entirely of 2D platforming. The catch is that a fair amount of the platforms you'll be running across will collapse after a short amount of time, so you'll have to move quickly. If you're aiming for an S Rank, the best thing you can do is practice; you'll be cutting it close with the time limit.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 2: Tails: Way Past Fast

Tails will ask for a race, with him in his airplane against you on foot. You start at around the middle of the level, and just have to make it to the end before he does. This is a lot easier than it sounds, and you've got a good chance of S Ranking it on your first try.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 3: Doppelganger Race!

This type of Challenge Act is pretty much just a time attack, but with a time limit, since you obviously need to beat the doppelganger to the end of the level. Since getting an S Rank on the actual Act 2 of Green Hill Zone is very easy, there shouldn't really be any reason for you to be extremely good with the level, so finishing under 02:20 for an S Rank here might take a few tries depending on how familiar you are with this Act already.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 4: Jump Rush

You'll now play through a souped-up portion of the level, which now has a bunch of ramps and obstacles scattered across it. Playing through it can be pretty fun, but the S Rank is actually a bit challenging. You'll need to become familiar with the new structures and learn when to use them, or avoid them.

Green Hill Zone Challenge 5: 300% Boost Gauge Challenge

The last Green Hill Zone challenge will be a bit different in that completing it will unlock a Skill for sale. You start off about halfway through the level and need to get near the end, but there are now two conditions. The first change is that the level has slightly changed, which is to be expected; the second change, which is the point of this Challenge Act, is that your Boost Gauge is three times as big as usual, but it can't be refilled. You're going to have to boost carefully so you still have a fair amount as you progress through the level.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Boost Gauge Up Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 2200 points. As you could easily have guessed, this Skill increases the length of your Boost Gauge.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 1: One Ring Challenge

At the start of this challenge, you will be presented with a single ring. This is going to be the only ring in the entire level, so it'd be wise to take your time and/or be aware of your surroundings. If you have hints from Omochao turned on, he'll say something about taking good care of the ring you have; despite what he says, you can lose the ring and still finish the level, it's just going to be a lot more dangerous. As you might imagine, finishing under the S Rank time constraints is very frustrating.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 2: Doppelganger Race!

The typical "speed run" challenge, which is present in every Zone. If you've played this level enough times and have already gotten the Red Star Rings, you should know the level by now to the point that the doppelganger isn't even an issue.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 3: Amy: Taking the Leap Together!

Amy's going to help out here, and you can ask her to use her Piko Piko Hammer to send you flying into the air. Call on her whenever you need to, and then get the timing right on the meter that appears to launch yourself upward. There's a 20 second time bonus just under the goal ring, so if you're going for an S Rank, you can take a bit of a breather.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 4: Grappling with Grabbers

For this Challenge Act, a bunch of those spider enemies (Grabbers) are going to be all over the place, and the level is going to have a few different structures compared to how it usually looks. Getting through to the end isn't really asking for much, because it's a very simple layout.

Chemical Plant Zone Challenge 5: Underwater Ring Machine

In the Mega Mack (the pink liquid) of the chemical plant, a friendly sprinkler machine will be tossing rings all over the place. You're going to need at least 100 by the time you get to the goal ring, so make sure you pick up as many as you can and watch out for spikes and enemies. The S Rank here is definitely the hardest one so far; the sprinkler moves faster or slower depending on whether or not you're ahead of it, so you have to find a balance of staying behind and speeding up to collect your 100 rings within the time limit.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 1: Knuckles: Buried Treasure

Knuckles, an expert at finding things buried underground, has modestly hidden a bunch of medallions with his face on them, and will offer to help you find at least 35 of them to complete this challenge. Just call on him whenever you're above a patch of buried medallions, and he'll bring them up to the surface for you. The markings on the ground will let you know whether there's one, three, or five all within the same hole, and there are plenty in the level, so don't bother with any single medallions unless you're somewhere close to having all 35. If only he was this good at finding things in the Sonic Adventure games. There are also some time bonuses stuck underground as well, but again, those are only going to be useful if you want to get a good ranking on this mission.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 2: 200% Boost Gauge Challenge

This is going to be just like the challenge of the same style from Green Hill Zone. The sanctuary will have a slightly different layout to keep you on your toes, and due to the weird nature of the level, you probably won't have enough room to use most of your boost unless you really try to waste it all.

If you didn't finish the 300% Boost Gauge Challenge from Green Hill Zone, finishing this Challenge Act will probably unlock the Boost Gauge Up Skill in Omochao's shop as well. You'll have to finish both of these challenges anyway, so it doesn't matter all too much.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 3: Balloon Bonanza

As you may have guessed by the title of the mission, a bunch of balloons are just floating around, waiting to be popped. The main idea here is to use them to get around more quickly. It's much more fun than challenging or frustrating.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 4: Doppelganger Race!

The usual doppelganger race mission. For me, my doppelganger actually got through 3/5 of the level when I finished, so it's technically "more difficult" than before, if I was still doing as well in this Zone than I was in the two previous ones. Regardless, this Challenge Act nothing to worry about.

Sky Sanctuary Zone Challenge 5: High-Speed Hijinks

Have you ever wondered how this game would be if the enemies were a real threat? Here's a little dip in the water of what that'd be like. Everything in the level; the enemies, their lasers, and the platforms (but not the timer); has been moved to double speed, turning the Egg-Robos into deadly laser turrets. Stay sharp and watch out for anything that moves, because unless it's a platform or a pole, it's probably going to be an issue. The challenge itself isn't necessarily hard, but you might die your first time through, due to not having seen the game at this high of a speed before.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 1: Overdrift

A whole bunch of rings are laid across the roads, and the goal ring is quite a distance away. To get to it in under a minute (if you want an S Rank), you'll have to run or drift into the rings so you can refill your boost meter, and try to boost for the entirety of the challenge.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 2: Hot Pursuit

Another sprinkler is going to drop rings all over the stage, and you need to reach the goal ring with 100 of them intact. The catch this time is that the sprinkler is going to drop considerably more bombs than it did in Chemical Plant Zone, so you'll really have to keep an eye on it.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 3: Doppelganger Race!

Another race against the doppelganger. It should be pretty obvious by now that nothing really changes between this Challenge Act and the standard Act 2 level.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 4: Drill Baby Drill

This is going to be the easiest of the five Challenge Acts for Speed Highway. All you have to do is stomp down onto boxes below you, while also avoiding bombs and the like. If you hit one, it's super quick to recover any rings you've lost, since there shouldn't be much room for them to fly off in anyway. It'd be very surprising if you didn't get an S Rank on your first try.

Speed Highway Zone Challenge 5: Espio: Master of Camouflage

Espio is going to challenge you to a fight, which consists of him throwing shuriken at you while remaining invulnerable until his camouflage wears off. The only way to make this happen is to attack the various spotlights around the Zone and hope that they shine on him before he teleports somewhere else. Moving platforms and other obstacles make things more interesting along the way towards the goal ring. Getting an S Rank is a pain here, but the overall difficulty isn't that bad.

City Escape Zone Challenge 1: Cream: Helping Hand

Cream and her Chao will be holding the only rings in the level, and they're also the only way to restore boost. Be very careful to avoid the bombs around town, and reach the end of the level as soon as you can; each bonus that you don't use (visible around the top left of the screen) will give you a nice five-second time bonus as you cross the finish line.

City Escape Zone Challenge 2: Dash Ring 1-2-3

There are now 35 boost rings placed around the Zone, with some appearing only after you've used the one before it. Since the one before it would send you into the next anyway, that's not really going to be a problem. You will have to go through all of the boost rings, but they're directly in the path of the Act; missing one is going to be pretty hard to do.

City Escape Zone Challenge 3: Topsy-Turvy

Replacing the boost rings from the previous Challenge Act are some giant rotating wheels, as well as some athletic poles. It's pretty straight-forward, just get through the obstacles quickly. The S Rank will take some practice, though.

City Escape Zone Challenge 4: High-Speed Hijinks 2

Like the same type of challenge in Sky Sanctuary Zone, all of the enemies and platforms will double in speed.

City Escape Zone Challenge 5: Doppelganger Race!

The fifth of nine doppelganger races for Modern Sonic. Beat the transparent Sonic and you'll finish the mission.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 1: Rouge: The Temptress

All of the enemies in this Challenge Act are equipped with shields, protecting them from any of your attacks. The only way to make them put these shields down is to have Rouge entice them with her looks, putting them in a trance for a few seconds. Attacking an enemy will activate an energy field, and create more platforms for you to continue. Some of these, though, can be skipped entirely by just using the amount of ground you already have to make it ahead. The last part of the challenge consists of about 15 enemies in three groups; attack them until the pyramid of energy fields below the goal ring creates a path up for you to reach the top.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 2: Doppelganger Race!

The usual. No tricks to this one, just get to the end before your double. I actually had a hard time with this S Rank for some reason, but again, you don't need S Ranks anyway.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 3: Trick Island

A whole bunch of rainbow rings and trick boosters are going to be all over the place in this portion of Seaside Hill. You just need to perform 35 tricks total, which is super easy if you just hold either or the entire time you're supposed to be performing tricks. You might even get the Trickstar achievement here.

• Trickstar

  Executed a trick with a seven-step combo or longer.

  
  1 guide

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 4: Surf, Sea, and Sand

For this multi-terrain challenge, you'll start off with some platforming around the water, followed by some more in a more "safe" area. After you reach the end of that, it's just a simple kart ride to the finish; the catch is that lines of spike balls are going to be posing a threat to you, and since you can't exactly go back to pick up your old rings, it's very possible to lose the entire run of this challenge here. You'll be very close to the end after you make it past a pair of fire traps.

Seaside Hill Zone Challenge 5: Terror From the Deep

The last Challenge Act of this Era is going to be a fairly simple concept, but may be a little difficult to S Rank. You just need to get to the goal ring at the end of the beach, but a lot of the water has been marked off due to giant choppers moving in to infest the once-safe area. You can temporarily boost through these places to cut corners if you really wanted to, but that can be avoided. Large trails of rings should prove as the main source of refilling your boost gauge in this mission.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 1: Power Stomp Challenge

This challenge focuses around the Power Stomp Skill, which attacks enemies farther away when you stomp down near them. You just need to traverse the course that emphasizes this Skill to pass. It shouldn't cause you any trouble.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Power Stomp Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 800 points. When you stomp with this Skill active, a big shockwave will attack foes in a wide radius.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 2: Doppelganger Race!

The doppelganger is much better at being good at the game in the Modern Era; I personally found that he was about on par with me up until 3/5 or so of the way through the level. You should have around four minutes or more to beat finish the level.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 3: Switcheroo

This is another frustrating challenge that has an emphasis on switches. They'll generally be grouped together and have different effects on the hologram platforms in the area. The S Rank basically requires that you know what every switch does, so good luck to anyone trying to get it.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 4: Blaze: Piercing the Flames

Crisis City got even hotter, and has large columns of fire spewing out of seemingly-nowhere. Call on Blaze, and she'll be able to extinguish them for you. Unlike most friend abilities, Blaze can be quickly called upon over and over again, so keep that in mind when you run through the city.

Crisis City Zone Challenge 5: Four-Way Cannon Cavalcade

Like the first challenge for Crisis City, this Challenge Act features a common level piece that functions as a cannon only after you point it in the right direction. Finishing the level requires minimal patience (waiting for things to move out of the way), while the S Rank asks of you to move unreasonably quick. Spouts of fire make particular portions of the level very frustrating.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 1: Barrel Ring Bonus

Robots will be guarding golden barrels which hold around 15 rings each on average, and you've got to finish the level with at least 250 of them with you. This can be quite tedious if you're impatient or if you move too slowly, and especially so if you want to finish in under a minute for the S Rank. Try not to spend too long on collecting any one barrel's set of rings.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 2: Doppelganger Race!

As with the previous Act, the doppelganger has definitely stepped up its game, but for some reason always gets stuck on some part of the level. For me, he got snagged at around the 2/5 mark; it might not be the same situation for you, but if not, he'll probably get stuck somewhere else anyway.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 3: Rooftop Rail Grind

Sonic must have a thing for boarding in cities, because this mission consists of boarding-only gameplay (the original Crisis City had a boarding section as well). The city has been adjusted to fit the needs of a board, and has several ramps that you can perform tricks on to get much further ahead. Try to do that when you can to really make short work of things.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 4: Endless Boost

Before you get too excited about having an unlimited supply of boost, there's one drawback that you need to be aware of. This Skill prevents you from collecting rings, so that means that you die in one hit. You'll have to get through the entire level without being hit once. It's purely a means of trial and error, so don't feel too bad about dying and having to restart.

Completing this Challenge Act will unlock the Endless Boost Skill in Omochao's shop, and it costs 3000 points. With this Skill, your Boost Meter will never deplete, but you can't get any rings. This also means that you'll die in one hit.

Rooftop Run Zone Challenge 5: Vector: Pick Up the Beat

This is by far one of the most frustrating challenges in the game. Vector will be sending a blue note towards you, which you have to home in on and hit, so it can be sent back to him. After about eight bouts of this or so, the note will turn yellow and become faster. Eight more hits, and the note will yet again become faster, and turn red to signify this. One trick that works fairly well after the yellow section starts is standing on the ground in front of Vector and constantly performing homing attacks on the note before it goes out of reach. The drawback to this is that if you mess up, you're going to have to turn around to home in on the note really fast before it touches the ground.

While many Modern Era Challenge Acts are really frustrating to S Rank, this one is just as annoying just to complete. Fortunately, you should earn an S Rank by simply finishing the level, because the game literally doesn't give you enough time to fail unless you really stretch out the first third of the challenge.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 1: Doppelganger Race!

Beating the doppelganger for the last time should be around the same level of difficulty as it has been for the other two Modern Era Zones, but the real frustration comes from trying to S Rank this due to the time limit only giving you five minutes. If you want the S Rank, you'll have to know the level very well.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 2: Cart Challenge

For this challenge, you just need to get to the goal ring by using the carts that travel throughout the factory. This should be a simple level concept to understand, especially since you had to do this in order to finish the original Act.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 3: Charmy: High in the Sky

As with every character, if you haven't noticed, there is a challenge in which they help you, and a challenge where you compete against them. This is Charmy's helping Act, and he's actually pretty useful. Calling on him creates a whirlwind platform underneath you that you can use to get ahead; you can even spin dash off of it and skip a lot of space, then call on Charmy again to prevent yourself from falling into a pit.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 4: Action Master

After having made countless simplistic stages for Challenge Acts, the team behind this game finally got to make something crazy, and that's this level. Practically every element of the previous stages are here; wall-jumping panels, boxes, ring trails, and all sorts of other stuff makes this challenge a very high-action test of skill.

Planet Wisp Zone Challenge 5: Orange Rocket, Blast Off!

The last Challenge Act focuses on the Rocket power-up, so get used to watching Sonic slowly break through three panels. The goal ring is on top of a set of panels that moves around a giant room, with two more sets doing the same thing; you'll have to time your launch to get to the ring by breaking through the panels underneath it. While it is possible to just barely skim the side of the goal ring, this is likely not going to happen, so just focus on the panels beneath it.

• Bonds of Friendship

  Completed all of Sonic's friends' Challenges.

  
  

• Mission Accomplished!

  Cleared all the missions.

  
  

You may have first noticed some Red Star Rings in some levels of the game as you played through each Act for your first time. There are 90 of them in total, 45 for each Sonic, of course, and all of them are required to unlock an achievement. For Classic Sonic, you might want to play the specific Challenge Act from City Escape Zone to get the Thunder Shield Skill, which will grant you a double jump; this will make getting some of the Red Star Rings a bit easier to obtain. Although a text guide can be more useful for some, it should be easier for you to just watch a video on where these special rings are.

Sonic Generations | Red Star Rings

Green Hill Zone

These rings will not appear until you beat Green Hill Zone (Act 2) for the first time.

Right at the start of the level, you should come across a bridge with three fish jumping over both sides. In the middle of these two sets of fish is the first (1/5) Red Star Ring, sitting in plain sight.

Shortly after this, you'll reach a point where you have to hit two crab enemies to encounter a flying purple bug. Wait until it's close to the high ledge to the right of it and jump onto the bug to gain enough height to reach the ledge. Simply continuing on this path will give you the next (2/5) Red Star Ring, just sitting inside a corkscrew.

Continue across the large jump (which you get across by use of a spring), and drop down below after hitting a checkpoint. If you're going the right way, you should be underground, and will have to use a moving wooden platform to get across a few sets of spikes. Jump on the springs on the other side of these spikes, which will place you just before a breakable rock and a curving tunnel. The ground just outside of this tunnel collapses shortly after touching it, so you'll want to jump as soon as you're in the middle of it to get over a spring that'd otherwise send you backwards into the hole below. If you've managed to do that right, you'll be very close to the third (3/5) Red Star Ring.

Continue forwards and jump onto another wooden platform that swings to the right. Yet another platform is at the end of its swing, but the (4/5) Red Star Ring above them is a higher priority than successfully jumping to it.

After traversing this area and running down a curving bridge, some more springs will launch you up in the air towards a yellow bug and a small ledge for you to stand on. Try to land from the spring onto this small ledge; you can return to the spring if you miss. From here, use the bug to gain some height and get to the higher ledge to the right of it, just like with the second Red Star Ring. Just ahead of here is another bug and a yellow spring hidden in a tree. Defeat the enemy if you wish, but you can just ignore it and jump into the spring from a higher position to the left. The final (5/5) Red Star Ring will be waiting for you up there, and with it, you'll get an achievement for finding it.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Treasure Scanner Skill, which will let you see hidden items and springs easier.

• Jump for Joy!

  Found the spring hidden in GREEN HILL Act 1 and reached the goal with a Red Star Ring.

  
  

Chemical Plant Zone

To get all five rings on this level, you'll have to go through both the higher and lower paths. This shouldn't be too bad, though, since it's not exactly a long level. The high path has three of the five collectibles, so we'll start there. Once the level begins, use the moving platforms just ahead to get to the higher of the two twisting tubes to ensure that you're on the high path. Very shortly after you take the path up, you should find the first (1/5) Red Star Ring between two sets of pipes carrying blue chemicals.

Continue past a checkpoint gate and stay high; you'll know you're going the right way if you come across two vertically shifting platforms with two ring containers and a speed power-up to the right of them. Use the platforms to reach the path up ahead and jump to the stationary platforms to the left. These ones won't move or collapse or anything, so you don't need to rush any jumps. The second (2/5) Red Star Ring will be up in the air between two sets of platforms.

Keep moving with this high path, and you'll be pushed down a waterfall tube after reaching a checkpoint gate. Jump near the end of the waterfall to avoid a gap at the end of it. This is a continuation of the high path, so messing up the jump would void your chances of getting the third high path RSR. After a long vertical climb using platforms and yellow springs, the last (3/5) Red Star Ring of this run will be in plain sight near the last spring.

Now that those three RSR's are out of the way, it's time to get the other two. Avoid the high path at the start of the level and use the low one, hitting a red spring shortly after using it. This should take you to the left, where you'll find a (4/5) Red Star Ring floating above a pipe.

After a bit more of moving through the level, you should be back at the high path, where the first checkpoint gate was during the previous playthrough. Continue on this path until you get to the area the second RSR was at, but jump into the water this time. This drop should take you to a small pit of water with a yellow spring to the right of it. After climbing a few sets of yellow blocks, use the upcoming red spring to move upwards, and make a small jump up the curved corner ahead to reach another closed-off pipe. Break it open and you'll be taken to a pink-chemical-filled room. Simply continuing to the other side should allow you to see the last (5/5) Red Star Ring at the end of this chamber. Collect it and finish the level to complete your collection.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Breath Holder Skill, which allows you to stay underwater for longer.

Sky Sanctuary Zone

This set of Red Star Rings will require you to beat the Act on all three separate paths, which each have their own RSR at the end. The first two RSR's, however, are obtainable without any hassle. Just at the start of the level, you should come across two partially blue square stone platforms, which are placed a bit to the right after a set of spikes on the ground. Jump from the second one to a cloud, which gives you enough height when bounced on to reach the first (1/5) Red Star Ring.

After using a teleport to reach a higher area, you should eventually find a yellow spring, guarded by a standard Egg-Robo. This spring takes you to another cloud, and the second (2/5) Red Star Ring will be floating in the air up in the chain of clouds ahead.

If you make it to the top of the circular platform just ahead of the checkpoint gate, you may as well try to use the Egg-Robo ahead to reach the next cloud before it disappears. This leads to the high path (remember, you need to play all three paths at least once), but you can always just do that later. For now, we'll follow the lowest path. Continue through the level until you get to this point:

As you can see here, this rotating stone platform has a nicely sized hole in it. Falling through starts the low path, leading to its (3/5) Red Star Ring. Playing through the level the exact same way, except not falling down to the path below, will send you to the middle (4/5) Red Star Ring at the end of the level. For the last one, return to the place below, which will be earlier in the level than the split in the picture above.

If you can make it to the top of the rock platform Sonic is on in this picture, you could try to jump onto the Egg-Robo and use the momentum to reach the cloud ahead, leading to the high path. This cloud in particular disappears quickly, though. If you can't make it, don't worry; there's an easy way around it. Drop down to the little mechanical circular platform on the low/middle route, and use it to rise up and to the left until you reach the high path. It's a pretty sneaky maneuver, and allows you to completely disregard the previously mentioned Egg-Robo and cloud. As long as you don't drop down to the two lower paths, you'll end the level by collecting the fifth and final (5/5) Red Star Ring for this Zone.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Twin Spin Attack Skill, allowing you to attack in mid-jump.

Speed Highway Zone

This set of RSR's will require two runs of the level. Run through Speed Highway until you ride a rocket to another part of the level; none of the Red Star Rings appear before that point, so you can just rush the first third of the Act. Drop down as soon as you can after the checkpoint gate and jump up some vertically moving platforms until you can jump into a hallway on the right. This should take you to a fairly wide drop down, with a single enemy in the air. Try to hit it and stay on the left side of this drop, and use the curved piece of the landscape to jump into a tall column with yellow windows. A (1/5) Red Star Ring will be floating in the air very shortly after you land, and the second (2/5) Red Star Ring will be just up ahead, under a bell. You can't miss these two; they're in plain sight.

After riding the helicopter, take the high path by using a booster, and you'll see another (3/5) Red Star Ringat the end of the jump, to the left of the high path's checkpoint. Both the higher and lower path meet up together immediately after the checkpoint, so if you accidentally take the lower path, you should be able to jump behind the higher checkpoint to get it. The last (4/5) Red Star Ring of this run appears in front of another boost ring at the very end of the level, and it doesn't seem to be missable.

For the last (5/5) Red Star Ring, ride the rocket and get to the area described above, where there's a large gap with an enemy, and yellow windows to the left. This time, stay to the right side and drop down as far as you can; you'll know you're going the right way after you use two yellow construction pieces to fling yourself towards a new checkpoint. After ducking under a low roof, the last RSR will reveal itself to you, and will be floating next to some spike balls.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Power Sneakers Skill, which just makes you run faster. These are pretty useful, so if you don't tend to use Skills, you may as well at least use this one.

City Escape Zone

For the first (1/5) Red Star Ring, you're going to want to take the high path all the way through to the next checkpoint. Find a yellow spring near the start of the level that takes you to a balcony in the backdrop, and continue on that path until you get to a rooftop. You should automatically curl up in a ball and grind down the following rooftops, and get the first RSR by doing so. Once the GUN truck is side-by-side with you, stay ahead of it and try to get to the floating (2/5) Red Star Ring before the truck destroys your chances of getting it. You'll then want to scale the platforms to the right of this area and acquire the skateboard power-up as soon as you can; the truck will come back around to destroy it as well, so you'll have to be quick about it. Try to jump into the boost rings past the next checkpoint, and then jump from the platform they send you to into the next (3/5) Red Star Ring. Stay on the high path here (this is the most frustrating part of the RSR run, if not getting to the high path in the first place) and press when prompted to on the ramps; doing so twice will take you to the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring. The GUN truck should chase you directly from behind soon; make a mad dash to the right and into the boost ring up a few ledges so you can reach the platforms on the right before they get run over. The last (5/5) Red Star Ring will be fairly close to where you land after you use the boost ring; if you miss the chance to get it, you might still be able to drop down the sides of the ledges of the platforms to reach it. These five Red Star Rings can be quite a pain to get, and Act 2 isn't much of a fun experience, either.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Boardmaster Skill, granting you a skateboard whenever you feel like it.

Seaside Hill Zone

At the start of the level, you'll come across your first enemy. Defeat it and stay on the far left side of the ledge just ahead of where it once was, then charge up a spin dash and jump as far to the right as you can. If done correctly, you'll land next to two ring containers and a speed boost. Continue using the high path to get shot through a cannon, and stay on the high path until you drop down to the right of the first (1/5) Red Star Ring and an extra life.

The platforms you've likely landed on move up and down periodically, and it's a bit of a ways until this water section ends from here, so you should return to the air from where you are after you collect this ring. Very soon after you make it out of the water, a mechanical fish will occasionally jump out and snap its jaw a few times. You're going to have to jump into it when it's at a proper height to use it for momentum to reach the small platform ahead, leading to another cannon. Riding this one will shoot you directly into the second (2/5) Red Star Ring. From there, any path you take should lead to the same checkpoint; the only difference is the amount of time it takes to get there, with the highest path being the shortest.

Past the next checkpoint is a moving orange/white platform. Jump to it when it's at the right side of its horizontal movement cycle so you can get the proper distance require to reach the next two platforms, and use the cannon ahead. All of these three platforms will quickly collapse after being touched, so you'll have to be quick about it. Wait for the enemy past a yellow spring to use its electric attack before using it to continue to the right (don't fall into the cannon below) to use yet another cannon to progress into the level. You'll land in a circular pit, and the next (3/5) Red Star Ring will be sitting high up on the right side. Charge up a spin dash to reach it, and then use the platforms to the right of it to reach the cannon above where the RSR used to be.

Once you land, another collapsing platform will be moving up and down above some water coming out of a tunnel. Either stand on the platform for a little while or just run underneath it so you can use the cannon on this alternate path, taking you into an underwater section after going through a loop. Two flimsy poles will help you break your momentum, and the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring is going to be hiding in the path of a spike ball; time your release of the pole wisely, so that you pass through the RSR and avoid the spikes.

During the final portion of the level, where several circular boulders will start to chase you towards the goal post, some boost rings will appear after you have to climb a few sets of square blocks. Use these, and the next set of boost rings ahead, so that you land on some more orange collapsible panels. There are two more different sets of boost rings very shortly after this, and you'll need to use the higher ones; these will send you through a corkscrew with the last (5/5) Red Star Ring at the end of it, and the end of the level will follow immediately after you get it.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Invincible Start Skill, which lets you start levels with a bit of temporary invincibility. It doesn't seem all that useful, since the start of any level isn't supposed to be all-too-difficult anyway.

• Secret Sleuth
  
  

Crisis City Zone

At the start of the level, you'll soon encounter a lone flying enemy. Jump towards it and attack it, and bounce up to the higher path to the right. There's going to be a curve up ahead, and you'll need to dash as fast as you can upwards to reach an even higher path, where the first (1/5) Red Star Ring resides.

Later in the city, after climbing the remains of a circular tower, you'll ride a rail leading down to a downward-sloping building that's been toppled over. At the end of this run, some collapsible platforms will start to shake before falling down; jump on the platform to the far right as soon as you can, and ride this high path all the way until you reach a weird angled piece of concrete with a fire spout at the bottom. Safely drop down once the fire recedes, and jump past the small curved piece past it. At the end of this short piece of land, you should be able to see a very small platform to the right; Make your best attempt to jump to it, and then use the moving platforms to the right of it to reach a red spring, leading to the second (2/5) Red Star Ring. This is an extremely frustrating set of jumps to make, and missing it (or falling at any point before reaching the next RSR) means that you'll have to return to the last checkpoint or restart the level.

After a little while, you'll come across your first set of floating debris. A small chunk of pavement will be continuously rising up and down, just to the right of the second piece of debris and to the left of a flying enemy. Hop on top of it, and you'll be able to jump from there to the third (3/5) Red Star Ring towards the next building.

Within a few seconds of moving through the building (whichever path you take to get inside), Sonic will trigger the power of Iblis (the fiery tornado), who will start causing gusts of wind. Carefully make your way to the lower portion of the building and time your jumps wisely, so that you can collect the next (4/5) Red Star Ring without falling off to the right to your doom.

The final (5/5) Red Star Ring is going to be much more within plain sight than the other four have been. After making your way across more debris, you'll eventually have to use either a yellow spring, or the two bouncy springboards to the right of it. The RSR is going to be directly to the left of the cannon just ahead, and its' not much of a challenge to get to.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Hercules Muscles Skill, letting you push movable objects faster. Too bad this isn't Marble Zone.

Rooftop Run Zone

Start the level as usual and pop the first set of balloons that sends you towards a purple enemy. Just above him is a green platform, with another one that moves to the right of it. Jump from the moving platform to the concrete one to the right, and then use the enemy nearby to bounce into another set of balloons to land on a basket. Jump to the next basket as you approach it, and quickly jump from it towards the first (1/5) Red Star Ring.

After reaching a checkpoint by using three sets of balloons, a purple enemy will be guarding a basket; defeat him and hop on top. To get this next RSR the way you're intended to, you need to jump from this basket to the next, but I have never been able to get the timing right myself. If you mess this up, don't worry about it, because you can just go backwards to get to it. Run over to the other side of the room and get on a green platform to the right of a red one. These will collapse after a while, so you'll want to time your jumps as you stay aware of the giant blades' swings. As long as you get to the second (2/5) Red Star Ring, you won't have to repeat the level for this one section.

When you enter the large barrel warehouse, pass the checkpoint inside and continue to the right until you reach two green platforms moving up and down. Scale these two, and you'll have bypassed the much harder way to get the (3/5) Red Star Ring floating above a button. Pressing it opens up a room with a yellow spring that you can use as a shortcut.

Outside of the building, you'll eventually be shot upwards with a red spring to a green platform that hosts a set of balloons and a giant blade. Use the balloons to get through the opening in the building to the right and drop down immediately. Once you enter the base of the giant clock tower, climb up it and you should find the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring naturally as you ascend; just make sure you don't use the yellow spring to the right of it until you grab it.

When you finally reach the clock's face, use a spring on the right side to get onto a set of platforms that leads to an enemy. This enemy is the only way you can reach the last (5/5) Red Star Ring, so be careful when you use it to gain the extra height.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Long Spin Dash Skill, which gives your Spin Dash more distance.

Planet Wisp Zone

Time to get the last of Classic Sonic's collectibles. Upon starting the level, do a spin dash to run up to the side of a set of spikes. Jump over them and defeat the enemy, and then defeat the one just up ahead. Stand on the far left side of the platform that the second enemy was on and charge a spin dash to make it as strong as you can, then jump as soon as you release the move. This should cause you to bop another enemy and hit a decoy spring; keep holding right to fall onto a small collapsible platform, and quickly jump up to the small room to the right. Grab the Spikes power-up and use it to safely traverse the gap to the right and grab the first (1/5) Red Star Ring.

Once you use a yellow spring at the top of the next room, use a spin dash and jump as soon as you can, just like before, to use the high path as soon as you enter the building. This should take you to a room with two enemies and another (2/5) Red Star Ring, and getting to it should be pretty self-explanatory.

To the right of this room is a big gap and a collapsible panel just in sight above it; jumping to it is the most difficult part of getting the five RSRs, so you might have trouble with this. When you make it to the other side, quickly stay to the right on stable ground. The panel will return after a few seconds, so you can jump on top of it once more to continue ahead. The third (3/5) Red Star Ring floats above a quarter-circle piece in a corner, and you can only get to it by spin dashing up to it. When you get it, use the high path by jumping across the small set of collapsing panels to the right and bopping an enemy, then use a set of moving green platforms to reach another Spike power-up. With this, you can get to the (4/5) Red Star Ring above you by sticking to the walls.

Later on in the level, you'll have to press a switch to activate three moving platforms in a room where a blade continuously moves back and forth. Past this room, after a long curve upwards, a bridge will seal off the level behind you after you reach the top. Jump to the Spike power-up ahead and use it, hugging the ground as you move to the right. This will set you on course to use the lower path and reach the last (5/5) Red Star Ring. In this path, you'll soon find yourself next to three missile launchers, a Spike power-up, and a pink gear. Use the power-up to activate the gear, and jump from the gear towards the final RSR. With the last of the Red Star Rings in hand, you just have to finish the level to complete this half of the collection.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Homing Attack Skill, which lets you do exactly what you think it'd let you do. This Skill requires 100 Skill Points to use, so you can't combine it with anything else.

Modern Sonic's Red Star Rings are just about as easy to get as Classic Sonic's. Like before, if a text guide isn't cutting it for you, it should be a lot easier to see where you have to go instead of reading up on it.

Sonic Generations | Red Star Rings

Green Hill Zone

These rings will not appear until you beat Green Hill Zone (Act 2) for the first time.

At the start of the level, use your boost immediately and hang to the left side until you're launched upwards into the air. The first (1/5) Red Star Ring is hovering high above the ground, and might be hard to direct yourself into. This is actually the most troublesome of the five rings in this Act, so it's very easy to restart the level and try for it again. After continuing ahead, you'll grind on a rail and run through a giant corkscrew, leading to a checkpoint. Slow down here and jump to the thin ledge just above the main path, continuing to move slowly. Jump into the boost ring at the end of this path and use homing attacks on nearby enemies to reach the second (2/5) Red Star Ring sitting on top of a collapsible cliffside.

Once you enter the dark cave with the giant mechanical fish inside, stick to the right side as you approach the end of the rails' paths, because the next (3/5) Red Star Ring will be waiting on the right rail. After exiting the cave, avoid jumping and make sure you run underneath the upcoming grind rail; slow down if you want to, just to make sure you stay under it. This path will eventually take you to a small curving rail with a spring at the end of it, which will take you to another set of rails up ahead. Jump over a small spike trap here to get the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring, easily in plain sight. During the final stretch of the level, stay in the center "lane", and you'll get the last (5/5) Red Star Ring hiding behind three enemies, which are easily defeated by boosting through them.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Acceleration Skill, which increases your speed when you start to run.

Chemical Plant Zone

The very first (1/5) Red Star Ring will appear only a little while after the level starts. Once you curve around a platform that leads to two ramps, try to use the more colorful one on the left. This one will take you to the top of a structure that leads to the first RSR. If you use the ramp on the right, you can still jump from the rail that it sends you onto, and use a homing attack on the pulley that leads to the ring. Just at the top of the upwards slope past this first RSR is a checkpoint, and you'll want to slow down here and make sure you jump to the (2/5) Red Star Ring just at the start of the upper path. Once you have it, drop down to the lower path, because you won't be able to get the third RSR from the high path. This third (3/5) Red Star Ring should be in plain sight, just to the right of the first set of four yellow blocks that form diagonal patterns. Immediately after reaching the next checkpoint, you should enter a water tunnel, followed by a skydiving segment. You'll want to stay to the north as much as possible and line yourself up with a vertical trail of rings; the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring is waiting just at the end of said trail. Now continue through the level until you leave the main building that most of this level takes place in.

Once you use another crane or two to reach a small rooftop, which will have a few enemies and several chemical pipes on top of it, break open the glassy containers on the lowest "floor" of the roof to unveil some springs that send you skyward. Use these springs to latch onto the yellow rail above the roof, sending you straight into the final (5/5) Red Star Ring as well as the goal ring.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Smasher Bonus Skill, which gives you more boost towards your Boost Meter when you defeat enemies.

Sky Sanctuary Zone

Unlike in Act 1, you can get all five Red Star Rings in Sky Sanctuary Zone in one run if you're capable and careful enough. After using a boost ramp at the start of the level, jump to the square platform in the air just ahead and use it to pass through the orange boost rings even further ahead. Using these boost rings will launch you upwards, towards the first (1/5) Red Star Ringsitting on another square platform in front of you. Grab it and continue using the high path to reach three rainbow rings. Use the one on the left, which will send you straight into the second (2/5) Red Star Ring.

Whichever path you choose after this point, you should eventually enter a room with three Egg-Robos; one of these enemies will be up in the air near the center of the room, in front of a fountain with a (3/5) Red Star Ring on top of it. Perform a homing attack on it so you can reach it, then leave the room when you have it. After reaching another checkpoint gate, climb as high as you can with clouds so you pass through another orange boost ring above you. You should be able to jump from the last moving bar (the kind that you can hang onto as they move up and down) to the cloud to the left from here, giving you easy access to the boost ring. This will quickly send you towards another group of boost rings after you leave the grind rail; try to use them and hit the enemies ahead of them to get to the higher path here. If you pulled this off correctly, you should soon find two rainbow rings. Jump into the higher one, and you'll be sent to a few more Egg-Robos guarding the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring. Once you leave this dark room via the red orb at the end of it, pass through the checkpoint and jump onto the zipline. There's actually another zipline you can home onto with a properly timed attack; it might be a bit hard to pull off, but doing it right will give you the final (5/5) Red Star Ring. Finish the level, and you'll make sure these RSR's are safely added to your collection.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Gauge Rebooter Skill, refilling your Boost Gauge after you restart or die in a level.

Speed Highway Zone

This collection of Red Star Rings will require two playthroughs. At the start of the level, boost and then jump off right when the road starts to curve, and try to land on the yellow grind rail ahead. On top of it is the first (1/5) Red Star Ring. After running across a thin bridge between two buildings and being flung with a yellow construction piece, you'll be in a 2D portion of the level. Stick to the left side and use the moving platforms to reach a rainbow ring to jump through. Taking this route leads to a trail of rings that you can use to zip straight into the second (2/5) Red Star Ring. The next (3/5) Red Star Ring is going to appear during the downward-facing police chase. You're actually going to want to not boost here, so you can control your movement better. After the last set of mirrors to dodge, quickly move to the right, and you'll run directly into the ring. The last RSR of this run is somewhat of a pain to get, and shows up near the end of the Act. Past some police enemies is a pulley, and at the top of it are a few boosters. Use the one farthest to the left, because it's directly lined up with the rainbow ring above, and with it is the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring.

For the last Red Star Ring, play through the level again until you get to the end of the vertical police chase. On the floor, jump over the boosters and pass the checkpoint, but stay on the right side until you get to a blocked off path. Break through the wood with an attack or a boost, and follow this path until you reach another 2D section. As soon as you get to it, slow down and keep an eye out for a few walls you can jump between at the start of this portion of the level. Continuing on this path should take you to the final (5/5) Red Star Ring, resting on a rooftop.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Auto-Gauge Skill, which fills your Boost Gauge over time. Even if you don't tend to use Skills all that often, it'd be a crime not to equip this one just for the convenience it provides.

• The Byway or the Highway
  
  1 guide

City Escape Zone

Like the previous level, you'll have to play through at least twice to get all five Red Star Rings. The first one is exceptionally frustrating to get, and is probably the worst one in the entire game. During the skateboard ride, you'll come across a set of two long ramps next to each other; ignore these and head further down the road. Just two corners past this will be another ramp on the right. Use the ramp to reach the two ramps on the roof ahead, and then pray that you can direct yourself mid-flight into the first (1/5) Red Star Ring. This personally took me way too many attempts for me to keep track of; hopefully you can get it much faster. After getting past the first bit of actual platforming, you'll be sent between an awning on the left, and some construction on the right. Stay on the ground and fight the enemies ahead after hitting the set of springs, and then continue moving on the ground; don't use the rainbow ring to the left here. In the small cave ahead, the second (2/5) Red Star Ring is going to be sitting at the bottom of the pulley on the other side. Grab it and make your way to the next bit of 2D platforming.

Take the high path by swinging off the pole at the right time. The rest of the high path leading up to the third (3/5) Red Star Ringshould be easy enough to get across without any further guidance. The fourth RSR will appear during the GUN truck chase. About 2/3 into the chase, the two of you will make a pretty big leap. After this, you'll want to stick to the left until a higher level of the ground appears. You can jump directly onto it if you time it right, but that's fairly unlikely if you've never known about it before. If you miss the jump, just swing over to it as fast as you can, and stay in the center of this thin (and safe) path to nab the next (4/5) Red Star Ring.

The last (5/5) Red Star Ring is much easier to get, and appears just as close to the start of the level as the first one did. Remember that pair of two long ramps that you were supposed to skip before? You're going to want to use them this time, and the wire you end up on will take you straight into the last collectible of this Act.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Quick Slide Skill, allowing you to Quick Step when on a skateboard. If you're unfamiliar with the term, you've likely done a quick step by pressing Q or E when running straight ahead, when the camera is facing Sonic's back.

Seaside Hill Zone

When the level starts, jump through the rainbow ring on the left side, and continue through the stony path to the ramp ahead. If you miss the rainbow ring, you can hit the spring leading up to the platform it's floating over and try again. After jumping over a little ledge and some stone cubes, you'll be able to home in on an enemy to the right, guarding a (1/5) Red Star Ring. Once you get to the next part of the Act, stay to the high path. There are multiple ways to do this, and I actually found it harder to use the lower path on accident, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem. You'll know you're going the right way when you see another orange robot dancing at the top of a ledge. Jump up to it and defeat it, then attack the enemy to its left. Use the momentum from your attack to reach the (2/5) Red Star Ring in front of a wall jump panel, and then wall jump onwards. You should pass through a boost ring to easily get to the next checkpoint, but sometimes it just won't send you there. If it doesn't, it'll just take a few more seconds to use a pair of cannons to reach the checkpoint.

After another ramp, slow down and jump through the rainbow rings at the end of the next chunk of pathway. All three in the group will send you to the same place, so you don't need to worry about jumping in a specific one. Run to the end of the stony walkway by shifting into the different "lanes" when you have to, and use a pulley at the end of this little segment of platforming. After this is a green enemy followed by a spring; wait for it to have just attacked so you can safely engage it, then hit the spring to continue on. Boost as soon as you can here so you can get some more upward momentum, and get closer to the third (3/5) Red Star Ring. The three orange platforms between you and the RSR will collapse shortly after you jump on them, so you'll have to be quick about getting to it. You should be able to home in on the rail underneath the Red Star Ring from the second platform, though, so you can just do that. Traverse the grassy area at the end of this rail to reach a stony path curving to the right.

Stay on the higher path to get the next RSR easier. At the end of both of these paths are some signals that alternate the different events that happen at the end of the paths ahead; you're going to have to use the yellow go-kart paths, so choose one of those paths carefully as the signals alternate. The reasoning for staying on the higher path is that the lower path only has one yellow signal on at a time, where as the high one will always have two on. Go for a bit of karting, and you'll eventually spot a ramp on the left, followed by two sets of spike balls; the first will appear on the right, and the second will be on the left. Past this is another set of ramps, but you're going to want to stay to the left of those to ride a lower path down towards the next (4/5) Red Star Ring. After you pass this part of the level and are running on a wall, stay to the highest point you can so you fly through some boost rings at the end.

The path granted to you in the temple in front of you will start off with some wall jumping panels, along with two shifting stone pillars to the right. Jump on top of these pillars, and then jump again on top of another stone platform with some rings on it. Stay to the right ledge and wait for an electrical enemy to the right to use its attack before jumping into it, then use the height gained from your attack to reach the wall jump panel on the right. Once you use the booster at the start of the curved piece of rock to the left of the panel, you'll be sent up in the air; quickly jump to the ledge to the right, where another stone pillar will slowly be descending towards you. You'll have to be fast and jump underneath the next one, and a much larger moving piece to the right of that one, to reach a rail with a boost ring at the end of it. This boost will take you to another rail, but you're going to want to jump immediately as soon as you touch it, and then boost while in the air so you can get the distance necessary to reach the last (5/5) Red Star Ring. Now that you have it, you'll just have to finish the level.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Direct Jump Skill, increasing the speed of Sonic's wall jumps.

Crisis City Zone

After passing through the introduction to the level, a set of boosters will soon appear on the roof of a building. Jump over these, and instead run to the left and up a slanted wall, where you'll find the first (1/5) Red Star Ring. Continue with the level until you get shot up by a spring, and the glass in nearby buildings starts to shatter around you. Enter the next building by homing in on the enemies inside, and slam down on the first chunk of pavement being held up by lava. Immediately to the right of this is a fairly large area with a few flying enemies surrounding a (2/5) Red Star Ring. Time homing attacks carefully so you can reach it, because if you don't have it and have killed all three enemies, you'll have to at least restart the checkpoint. Use springs to enter another building, and after defeating a worm, a set of four wooden boxes in the shape of a square will be blocking the path ahead. Slam down on them as far to the left as you can, and quickly jump to the collapsible platforms to the left to reach the third (3/5) Red Star Ring. From here, you can quickly skip through the building by slamming down on some more boxes, again to the left, and continue to where the fourth RSR is. It should be clearly visible from a much smaller platform that you have to slam down onto, and will be just above it. Wait for the platform to rise on its own so you can reach this (4/5) Red Star Ring, but jump off of it when it starts to shake; it's going to smash the ceiling above when this happens, so hop off until it returns to its normal state. The last (5/5) Red Star Ring will appear during the final segment of the level, where Iblis will be tossing lots of debris in your direction. You can easily take your time during this final stretch, and you really should, because you'll have to go as high as you can along the multiple roads and paths available to you. This last RSR is going to be to the right of a ramp, so you'll have to make sure to avoid it. Hopefully these Red Star Rings weren't too much of a bother to get; at least there weren't ten silver medals hiding in the level instead.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Serial Homing Skill, increasing the speed of a chain of homing attacks. It already seems fast enough as it is, so you might want to use a more useful Skill.

Rooftop Run Zone

The first (1/5) Red Star Ring appears on the very first rail of the level, so it's pretty hard to miss. Regardless of the path you take after that RSR, you'll end up in a large plaza with a little water area in the center. Use the spring to the north of the plaza and use the balloons guarded by blades to continue on the high path. If you get hit by the blades after hitting a balloon, you can still make it; the balloons will reset themselves after a few seconds. As long as you stay on the high path, some boosters will send you through a checkpoint and straight into the second (2/5) Red Star Ring. The third (3/5) Red Star Ring appears shortly after this during the first 2D portion of the Act, and is clearly visible on a wall-jumping panel to the left.

After you run up the giant tower, you'll use a rail to enter another 2D platforming section of the Zone. After using a few groups of balloons to rise upwards, you should find yourself on some stone platforms above three sets of spikes. A vertically-moving platform will help you reach the next tower, where a big spike block should be visible to the right. Jump on top of it and wait for it to return to its original position, and then jump to the next (4/5) Red Star Ring; make sure you don't home in on the rail on accident, or you might miss it. The last (5/5) Red Star Ring shows up during the final stretch of the level, kind of near the start. After you pass through a long spike-trap hall, the final stretch will begin. After a few seconds, some boosters will send you to the right; make your best attempt to stay on the right side as much as possible, and stay slow enough so that you can direct yourself into the last RSR more carefully than you would be able to at full speed.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Trick Mastery Skill, which lets you perform tricks much faster. This would make the Trickstar achievement a lot easier if you don't already have it.

• A Quick Breather
  
  1 guide

Planet Wisp Zone

In the first section of the level, where bright green grass is abundant, keep an eye out for the first (1/5) Red Star Ring after passing through the first cave. It'll be standing on its own little island to the right, and appears before the first set of rails. Once inside the factory, climb the collapsible red platforms to reach a Rocket power-up and use to break the panels above, but make sure to hold right so that you reach the platform to the right after the power-up ends. Use a spring to reach two more green platforms, and another red one to the left. Jump to the red one and quickly grab the next (2/5) Red Star Ring at the height of the platform's ascent.

Past the two green platforms to the right of the second RSR is another platform that you can ride to get to the other side of the room. Make sure you jump up to the high path before the missiles leaves its station. The rest of the high path leading up to a spring can be very difficult to use, because it consists of several collapsing platforms that will send you straight down to the lower path if you're not fast enough to reach the next one. There's not much advise to be given here, except that you'd probably do better off if you saw what the high path looked like, which you can do with the playlist link at the top of the page. After successfully making it to the high path's spring, you'll be sent to another high path; don't boost here, and instead take it easy so you can reach the third (3/5) Red Star Ring at the end without falling off.

Further into the factory, you'll be met with a Rocket power-up, a pulley, and an enemy at the start of a curved path that leads forward. Grab the power-up before you use the curved path, and then hit an enemy standing on the moving platforms that arrive in front of you. Hijack the platform and jump through the boost rings up ahead. This will take you to another stable area, where more platforms will be moving much quicker beneath you. Take care to land on one of these, and make it move faster by boosting (this won't use up your boost meter). After the platform drops, and before a set of boost rings, a few vertical lines of normal rings will indicate that there's something up above. Use the Rocket power-up to reach the rocket panels above you, and you'll grab the fourth (4/5) Red Star Ring in doing so.

The last RSR requires another playthrough. Follow the instructions in the previous paragraph, but instead of using the Rocket power-up, use the boost rings to the left. This will lead to another Rocket power-up. Within a handful of seconds of blasting through the panels above it, you should find the fifth and final (5/5) Red Star Ring at the top of a pulley.

For collecting all five Red Star Rings, you're awarded with the Ring Energy Bonus Skill, which increases the amount of boost that rings give you.

• Color Power!
  
  

• Red Ring Collector

  Got all Red Star Rings.

  
  

As you finish Challenge Acts and collect Red Star Rings, you'll unlock various extras and goodies, which you can find in the room all the way to the left in the hub world. Once you finish a Challenge Act, you'll have to ring the bell and catch up with the note that plays in order to unlock it's prize.

There are a grand total of 130 pieces of art to unlock. Each Red Star Ring grants you either a piece of concept art or a music track. Unlike the concept art, there will be charts for the other sets of collectibles, since some might want certain music tracks or skills before others and will want to hunt those down first.

A noticeable step down in quantity from the artwork, there are 50 music tracks to be unlocked throughout normal gameplay. These tracks come from a variety of different games, and can also be used in levels by changing the music before you start any Act. To unlock music tracks, you need to complete a certain amount of Challenge Acts; the tracks aren't tied to a specific Challenge, so just keep completing them to get them all.

A bit less important are the character descriptions, which you should unlock just by playing the game and rescuing Sonic's friends.

• (Hedge)Hogging It All Up!

  Got all collectibles.

  
  

After finishing Green Hill Zone's two Acts for the first time, you'll be able to check out the Skill Shop, run by none other than Omochao. The points you earn by playing levels depends on how well you perform, so you'll just want to be good at the game to buy all of the various skills he offers. You can create up to five different sets of skills to use in levels, with a maximum of 100 Skill Points available in each one. With each skill ranging in the amount of Skill Points required to use it, you'll want to plan out good combinations. Some skills can only be used by one of the two Sonics, while others can be used by both.

You can also buy extra lives for 500 points each, but you shouldn't really do that until after you have all the skills in the game. Some skills are given to you for collecting all the Red Star Rings in an Act, while others will become available in the shop after finishing a certain Challenge Act. You can play the original Sonic the Hedgehog, located above Green Hill Zone, using the SEGA Genesis Controller for sale. Once you buy the controller, you can then buy an infinite lives "cheat" for the game, if you're actually planning on playing it.

• Mad Skillz

  Got all custom skills.

  
  

As with practically every Sonic game, there are going to be some nice miscellaneous achievements to earn for doing small and occasionally enjoyable tasks. Some may be better off explained with a video, while others are so simple that they might be obtained unintentionally.

Sonic Generations | Misc Achievements

As you progress through the game, you'll release more of your friends from the White Space's effects. Talk to each one at least once outside of the Zone they were trapped next to for this achievement. The achievement for destroying 100 enemies should come naturally, as well.

• Walkie Talkie

  Chatted with all of Sonic's friends you saved.

  
  

• Eradicator

  Defeated 100 enemies.

  
  

For this achievement, you need to perform all of the actions Modern Sonic can do in his stages. All of these actions are things you should end up doing just by playing the game, but here's a list of them anyway, just in case it isn't popping for you in the late game.

• Boosting
• Drifting
• Air Boosting
• Grinding
• Homing Attack
• Light Dash
• Stomp
• Slide
• Rail Switching
• Jumping
• Wall Jumping

• Action Hero

  Performed all of Sonic's actions in Act 2.

  
  

When you pass through a rainbow ring or use specific types off boosters, you'll be able to perform tricks once in the air. You'll want to do seven of these, or at least six with a finisher trick (performed by pressing both keys used to switch lanes). You should very easily get this achievement in the third Challenge Act of Seaside Hill Zone. Just move up and down constantly as you're supposed to be performing tricks, and you'll be able to pump them out a lot faster. If you wanted to get this as early as possible in the game for whatever reason, you can do it in Green Hill Zone in the jump right before you end up inside the dark cave with the giant fish mech.

Once you have all the Red Star Rings in Act 2 of Rooftop Run Zone, you'll get the Trick Mastery Skill. This lets you perform tricks faster, and thus allow you to stuff more tricks into one jump. You might want to get this skill first if this achievement is bothering you.

• Trickstar

  Executed a trick with a seven-step combo or longer.

  
  1 guide

After beating the game and earning the Super Sonic Skill, apply it to a Skill Set and play through a level, preferably one of the two Acts of Green Hill Zone. For this achievement, you'll have to finish a level while in a Super Sonic state. Entering this state only asks for you to have 50 Rings so that you can transform; be cautious throughout whichever Act you play, and to make the achievement as easy as possible, just transform right at the end of the level before you pass the goal post.

• Supersonic!
  
  

For the next two achievements, which you can get at the same time, you'll have to get through Act 1 of Green Hill Zone in under a minute. Doing this requires a very precise path, or at least a close copy of the path generally taken across the community. The video below should give you a good idea of what to do.

• Ring King

  Reached the goal without dropping any of the rings you collected in GREEN HILL Act 1.

  
  

• Greased Lightning

  Cleared Green Hill within one minute.

  
  1 guide

Something similar is required for Act 2 of Chemical Plant Zone, but you'll have to avoid touching all of the pink chemicals for the entirety of the level. Just like the two previous achievements for Green Hill Zone, this is near impossible to put into words, so I've included a video of myself doing what's required of the achievement.

• Walk on Water

  Cleared CHEMICAL PLANT without entering the water.

  
  1 guide

For this achievement, load up City Escape Zone Act 2 and just boost through as many cars as you can in the initial part of the level. It should be really easy to hit 30 of them.

• Demolition Derby
  
  

At the end of Act 2 of Crisis City Zone, the more destructive half of the god Solaris, Iblis, will be hurling some debris of the city towards you. Finishing the level without getting hit gives you the next achievement, and it's incredibly easy to do, especially compared to the original design of this part of Sonic 06's Crisis City. You could boost the entire way forwards until you finish the level, as long as you keep an eye on whatever is ahead as well as debris heading towards you, but why do that when there's an even easier solution? Simply stop boosting and run at your own pace; the debris will land where it's intended to land, and will almost always fade out as it despawns if you've been slow enough.

• Look Both Ways
  
  

Back at the start menu, go to XBox Live and select a 30-second run of any level. The objective of these is to go as far as you can in only half a minute, with your friend's markers placed around the track to show how far they went. Doing only one of these is necessary, so you may as well pick a Green Hill Zone level.

• A 30-Second Test

  Participated in a 30 Second Trial.

  
  

Ranking Attack will ask a bit more of you. This time, you'll have to finish the level, and your finishing time will be uploaded to the leaderboards instead. You'll have to replay all 18 Act missions again, but that shouldn't be too much of a hassle for you. If you want to do this as soon as you can, do so after finishing both Acts of Planet Wisp Zone. For anyone wondering, S Ranks earned in Ranking Attack don't count for the main game, but you do get points based on your score.

• Join the Ranks

  Joined the rankings.

  
  

• Time Attacker

  Played Time Attack on all stages.