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This contains the general tricks that can be done across all teams. While a few of them are considered useless in terms of speed, you should know ALL of the tricks, in case one happens to you during a run and you're confused as to what happened (though this only applies to tricks, not mishaps). If you're confused about certain names of moves, or are generally unfamiliar with the mechanics of the game, refer to the Basics section. While it's more of an in-depth manual, certain things are explained that the manual does not.

Door Skip[]

  1. If you Rocket Accel towards a door and switch to flight formation, sometimes the flight character will force you through the door while attempting to catch up with the power and speed characters. This happens because the flight character barely goes through the door, bring the power and speed characters along with him/her. 
  2. For some doors, such as many of the ones in Mystic Mansion and one in Bingo Highway, only require a specific amount of speed and rolling at a specific spot in the door. These door skips are MUCH easier and a lot more consistent than the main method listen above, as they aren't very precise.
  3. The first door in Hang Castle has a special method of getting through as Team Rose (explanation currently needed).

Laser Skip[]

  1. Like the Door Skip, you can get past a set of lasers by Rocket Acceling into it and switching to flight formation. However, you take damage in the process, so it's less consistent, though sometimes it's more consistent. Unfortunately, you cannot carry over the speed of the Rocket Accel with this method because you take damage.
  2. Cause damage to the speed character while in a different formation -> Callback using flying or gliding -> Switch to speed formation -> Rocket Accel into the corner where the lasers and wall intersect. If done correctly, you'll go right through the lasers. As Sonic and Dark, using Fireball Jump in power formation helps damage the speed character.

Note: when a teammate takes damage, they stay invincible longer than if they are the leader, allowing you to do method 2.

Geometry Abuse (Jumping)[]

When you jump against certain walls, they will push you upwards, gaining height. This only works in select few places, but there's an abundance of these jumps in Seaside Hill, for example. The more speed you have when you collide with the wall, the higher you go.

Loop Skips (Non-TAS)[]

Some loops within levels throughout Sonic Heroes can be skipped, even if you're not supposed to. The methods for skipping these loops varies depending on the loop. Some are easier than others.

Pinball Table Character Switching (should be moved to Basics)[]

Whenever you switch formations on a pinball table, rather than continuing from your current location in said formation like you normally would, you will continue from whatever location the character you switched to is at. This effect can be abused quite heavily, especially in Casino Park where you can launch a character of the side of a pinball table and then switch to them to skip a part of the level.

Note: This effect will remain active even after the character you're switching to is no longer on the pinball table or has never been on one in the first place as long as the character you're controlling at the time of the formation switch is on the Pinball table. All character must leave the pinball tables for this effect to end.

Kick / Twirl / Star Cancel[]

While in speed formation, if you pause during a roll, let go of the action button and unpause you will continue to roll without doing the attack the speed character uses. While it costs time RTA, in ILs, it can be considerably useful as Team Rose.

Slot Glitch[]

If you fly above the entrance of a small slot machine and Thundershoot one of your teammates into a boost pad on a pinball table, your teammate will go into the slot machine. If you're positioned correctly right above the entrance your teammate will get stuck in the slot machine trying to return to you and will repeatedly enter and leave the slot machine resulting in an infinite amount of rings.

Note: The ring counter only goes up to 999, but you still gain rings, so if you get hit and lose your rings, the counter will still go up until the amount of rings gotten is collected.

Pinball Table Jumping[]

When above a pinball table while in flight formation and come into contact with said pinball table, you have a short amount of time to jump off of it or perform a Flight Accel Jump off of it. The interval depends on the position of the power character. It tends to work of the power character is swung slightly backwards, then moves forward to touch the pinball table, rather than a normal descent onto it.

Flight Accel Jump[]

While in flight formation, you can use the Flight Accel on the frame at which you land, you will be shot up in the air with more height than a jump and can start flying immediately afterwards. While this trick is timing-based, we believe that the area you're in (or the surface you're doing the glitch off of) can affect the consistency of this trick, as it's easy in certain areas while being difficult/inconsistent in others.

Flight Accel Boost[]

While flying, when the meter in your Flight Gauge runs out and if you aren't at max height, doing a Flight Accel right before the gauge fully runs out to gain an extra height boost. This can be useful for getting to areas just out of reach.

Note: if you are at maximum height on the frame the gauge runs out, you won't get the height boost, so be sure you're under that limit. You also will rarely see this in SS. Mainly in ILs where it's needed.

Air Dash/Spring Cancel[]

While in flight formation, Thundershoot right before an Air Booster or spring to cancel its intended animation, giving you freer and faster movement as well as faster falling speed. You can also fly after this.

Catch-Up Flight[]

If you switch to flight formation and the flight character hasn't caught up to the speed and power character, if you start flying, your previous speed will be carried over in the direction the flight character was going while trying to catch up to his/her teammates.

Solo Flight[]

If the flight character happens to be alone, he/she can start flying with carry over speed until the power and speed character come back, if they are able to come back, that is. If they do come back, you will lose all momentum previously obtained.

Flight Extend[]

If you Thundershoot while flying, the Flight Gauge stops depleted for a short period of time, allowing you to gain some extra distance during flight. The amount of distance is relative to the speed at which you're currently going.

Note: If you Thundershoot while tapping the stick at the same time, moving in small increments, you can travel really far distances you normally couldn't. It's very useful in Ring Attacks and general glitching for this game.

Thunderboost[]

If you Thundershoot at the same time you are level with a ledge, trying to get on it, you'll gain a huge speed boost.

Note: this trick is very inconsistent and you'll seldom see it in runs.

Teammate Callback Variant (Thundershoot)[]

As stated in the Basics section, one of the methods to call back your teammates is by flying while in flight formation. This also applies to Thundershooting. If you decide to Thundershoot as soon as one of your teammates lands on an object or surface that will cause damage to him/her, they will immediately come back, allowing you to do things like walk on trains in Rail Canyon.

Glide Cancel[]

If you glide while holding the action button, the gliding animation gets cancelled immediately. While this trick is useless on its own, there's a specific trick that requires this called Power Flying.

Ultra Glide[]

This nifty trick is a PC-exclusive. In the event that your gravity has been altered (usually for compensation to keep you on loops, uneven ground, or preventing you from doing certain shortcuts while on rails, gliding with the power character causes the game to launch you into the direction of gravity. This trick works quite well with Power Flying.

Fun fact: A very similar version of this game mechanic is actually present in the Sonic Heroes Prototype 10.8 This can be described as a "watered-down" version of what exists in said prototype. Although there are minor differences.

Team Blast Glitch[]

While on the ground and in flight formation, press the action button at the SAME time you switch characters. The result is a glitched Thundershoot that fills your gauge. The amount filled is dependent on how much you're moving. If you aren't moving at all, you fill nearly one-third of the gauge. If you're moving decently fast, you'll barely fill up the gauge at all.

Please note that this easier method does not work on the PC version of the game which does not recognize 2 simultaneous inputs (except for up/down/left/right) when pressed on the same frame. The alternate method which does work on the PC however involves flying, switching formations in mid-air, and making a thundershoot on the frame you land, it is much harder to perform and doesn't work as reliably.

Team Blast Activation Cancel[]

If you try using Team Blast while performing another action (while on the ground), such as switching characters or attacking (exceptions being moving and jumping), it will cancel your Team Blast entirely. The effects vary for each team. While this isn't useful during a speedrun, it's nice to know this can happen so you avoid doing it, or if you do it on accident, you know what happened instead of being left in the dark.

Rails - Character Switch Acceleration[]

While on rails, if you hold the action button down and rhythmically switch between the power and speed character, you can accelerate much more quickly than normal. Take note that this deals with accleration and prevention of deceleration, not speed. The amount of times you should switch varies depending on the rail and position on said rail. Sometimes, timing the switching properly can allow you to avoid set speed caps, allowing you to hit the general speed cap on rails.

Note: on Gamecube, you will have to use an overhand (or claw) grip on the controller, while it's optional on other versions as the button layout allows sliding.

Pinball Table Launching[]

Sonic_Heroes_(GC)-_Pinball_Mechanics_Exploit_(Pinball_Table_Launching)

Sonic Heroes (GC)- Pinball Mechanics Exploit (Pinball Table Launching)

When in power formation, throw your teammates off the level with either a Glide or a Fire Dunk. After 3 seconds your teammates will return automatically, so before that happens attack onto a pinball table. The attack will call your teammates back to you to get into the Fighting Pose, but they since you're on a pinball table they can't get into position on your arms/mouth/shoulder and instead fly past you into the air. If you then switch to one of the other formations (flight formation is recommended) while you're still on the pinball table you will switch to their location high up into the air. The longer you wait before attacking onto the pinball table, the more height you get (provided it's still within the 3 second time limit)

Gravity Jump[]

Rails have a (on a technical level normal) strange mechanic where they often have gravity changed due to the fact that they combine the use of splines to keep the character off the rail. More often then not, jumping off of them and rail switching will allow you to keep this gravity for a set amount of time depending on the rail and direction of gravity. 

Spring Glitch[]

If a single spring has been hit, there's a small window of time where you can actually run right through it. You can also go right through certain springs if you jump or switch formations at about the same time you hit said spring. This is a common occurrence in Chaotix's Bullet Station, but it can actually be useful in a few places. 

Early Start Glitch[]

  1. If you're playing as Chaotix in a mission where being detected ends in failure, in a timed mission OR if you're playing a Team Sonic Extra mission, if you die during the mission failure screen fadeout, the you will be able to move as soon as the screen starts fading in, rather than after the fade in. For the Chaotix missions where you can't be detected, make sure to time the death so the dialogue ends before you die.
  2. This method is an XBOX version exclusive. If you die immediately after a restart, the glitch comes into effect. This only works at mission start, as you select Restart. This is quite useful for the XBOX exclusive Team 2 strat as Chaotix.

Note: certain starts to levels negate this effect. Mainly ones that have you moving automatically, like Seaside Hill for all teams excluding Chaotix and Bullet Station as all teams excluding Sonic. However, this does not affect Checkpoints. Also, this is done from the characters "dying twice", which can easily be observed when dying to the energy storage tank in Power Plant in Super Hard Mode.

Storage[]

This trick causes you to do an action that's supposed to be performed on the ground while you're in the air. It's caused by the AI trying to push you with the Rocket Accel, confusing the game into thinking you're on the ground while in the air. There are team-specific tricks that are caused by this. Storage Kick, Light Speed Jump, and Leaf Swirl Cancel.

Mid-Air Rocket Accel[]

Similar to Storage, this trick is done by jumping at the exact same time your teammates cause you to do a Rocket Accel. Unfortunately, it's practically useless.

Sonic_Heroes_-_Bop_Boost_Glitch_Tutorial

Sonic Heroes - Bop Boost Glitch Tutorial

Bop Boost[]

A glitch that allows you to travel at extreme speeds in a straight line in the air. The key part of this glitch that makes it work is getting the speed character damaged as the power character hits the ground while in flight formation. This will knock the speed character out of the flight formation totem, but the game will still think the totem is complete. Some visual results of this glitch are that the speed character will keep tracking the flight character's movement despite being stunned in place and that the speed character will still get an aura around him when you jump. If you start a flight when the speed character is in this state you will get pulled towards the stunned speed character's location, this is because the power character is programmed to grab onto the speed character whenever a flight is started. However, if you put a wall in between the flight and speed characters and then start a flight you will instead be launched away from the wall at a very high speed, this will always happen perpendicular from the wall that's in between the flight and the speed character (this can change mid Bop Boost). The speed of the Bop Boost is determined by the distance between the flight and speed characters when you initiate the flight and the duration of the Bop Boost is determined by when the speed character manages to recover and rejoin formation, so the faster you initiate flight after getting the speed character damaged, the longer the duration.

The most common setup for the Bop Boost involves getting the power character damaged to give him invincibility frames and during that time starting a flight close to the ground while leaning towards the enemy to get the speed character damaged right as you land. Due to the varying size of power characters the amount of leaning you'll have to do varies per team. The exception to this is Team Sonic who can't do this setup due to knuckles' small size relative to the other power characters. Instead they can jump above a robot and as they are close to hitting it on the head start a flight, this will damage Knuckles, but make him recover instantly and on the way down knock Sonic out of the totem. This setup only works on normally sized Egg Pawns and the hands of the giant hammer robots.

Mishaps[]

Here's a list of the tricks that hurt speedrunning more than help it. There are a few that are quite useful in overall glitching, though.

Power-in-Flight Formation (Locked Flight Character)[]

  1. As any team other than Sonic while in flight formation, go onto a rail, jump so that the power character is under the rail, but the others are above it, and fly.
  2. While in flight formation, Thundershoot right as you land and as one of the characters returns to his/her position in flight formation.

This glitch can be used to abuse draw distance, as it centers around the leader, while the camera centers on the moving character. This is used in Rose Power Plant RA and Chaotix Egg Fleet RA.

Flight Bump[]

Sometimes in flight formation, your teammates will come back to formation and bump the flight character, losing all momentum. This works similar to the Infinite Flight Glitch and, theoretically, can cause IFG to work with the other teams, but, currently, we don't know what causes this, so we cannot test anything at this very moment.

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