I originally transcribed this arcane knowledge from a handful of public video sources. The authors of these sources may have been venerable and well meaning autistic savants, but unfortunately they're the sort of unseemly nerds who most neurotypical types would choose not to lend their ear to for even a fleeting moment.
I pine for the return of og internet culture, where these sorts of outcasts knew their place in the social hierarchy. I recall a time not long ago when their nasally voices, offputting quirks, and horrible fashion choices were all effectively cloaked by their maticulously rendered, all-text publications. By presenting themselves only in the most flattering light, nerds of Ye Olde Network secured a great deal of influence and respect in spite of their parlell status as hopelessly inept pariah.
Resources designed to inform others cannot reach their idealogical prime when they are haphazardly stained by the influences of individuality. So firstly, and in the interest of allowing our superior intellects and obsessively channeled skills to speak for themselves once more; I will not be linking to any of the sources referred to in the making of this document. This does not cause me even the slightest pang of guilt, and this is due to my second reasonig: knowledge "discovered" in a game was preprogrammed, intentionally or not, and can ultimately be verified simply by replaying it.
The game is thus my primary and ultimate source for everything hence. This is save for a few techniques with communally derived nicknames, which I've wrapped in quotes. With this my obligation to the speedrunning community has been fulfilled, and you are free to seek the originating cesspit -rife with degenerates of every sort- albeit at your own peril.
Teams start each act with no levels. Power cores are a consumable item used to increase the level of a single character on the team, up to a limit of 3. Cores are obtained in the following ways:
There are also stage specific level up opportunities like the trolley carts found in Seaside Hill, Rail Canyon, and Haunted Mansion. Like checkpoints, these will generate a core for the active team formation.
Levels increase the power and utility of each character's main attack method.
"Here we go!"
Positioning and number of teammates will change which version of Rocket Accel you get.
Getting the AI to cooperate and line up when you need them to can be a struggle. Running around in a tight circle or wiggling the control stick in a zigzag pattern appears to be chief among the more consistent methods.
Gain additional height at the end of the move by holding the A button.
Quickly perform the move while clipping into an object or surface to animation cancel.
Ring detection is a bit broken at higher speeds. In addition to being lined up exactly right, short hopping before a ring trail greatly improves chances of a light dash chain terminating succesfully.
"Leave it to me!"
Switching from speed to flight formation can cause the power character to ocassionaly snap to the speed character before the flying character can. Should this happen, you'll notice that all forward momenetum is lost. To avoid this one should make a habit of switching to power formation first.
Whee!! Whee!! Wh-
Using Thunder Shoot while flying causes the flight meter to stop decreasing for a brief moment.
While in flight, pressing 'a' the frame you hit the ground will propel you upwards normally while consuming no flight meter whatsoever. The frame window is extended while standing on top of objects (eg. cages, crushers).
Press 'a' just as the flight gauge is about to completely deplete to squeeze a bit more distance out in the form of a Flight Accel. This last ditch manuever can also break through the normal flying height limit if timed correctly.
Being mid Thunder Shoot while hitting a flight ring will completely reset the flight meter, potentially doubling your airtime. This only works on specific animation frames where the flight character is either about to kick or in the process of kicking another teammate.
"Got it!"
While standing or walking while in power formation, teammates will automatically use homing attack on nearby enemies.
Pressing b once has the power character lunge forward with a punch, and if not in the fighting stance already will activate it. While in the fighting stance both teammates will be curled up into balls centered on the power character's fists.
This move will automatically activate when jumping while in Fighting Stance. To get it to come out in Neutral Stance, press b while jumping.
Both teammates will orbit around the power character with an active hitbox. The team will return to Neutral Stance upon landing.
Pressing b during Fire Orbit will cause the power character to hover in place briefly. If either teammate is close enough, they'll also be launched at an angle directly towards the ground or at any nearby enemies. In addition to massive single target damage the move provides a very small amount of forward momentum.
Brings both teammates in for a three man glide no matter how far away they happen to be. The repositioning effect is useful for setting up close range Fire Orbits, and the glide just so happens to preserve momentum far better than a normal jump would.
Tilting the control stick while using Combination Strike will lock-on to enemies. However, it also causes the power character to lunge forward with each strike, even if not currently locked on to anything.
Neutral sticking increases your control and dps substantially. By not holding the stick at all you give up automatic targeting, but in return the lunge distance with each attack is cut in half. Mashing the 'b' button rapidly while neutral sticking will reduce that distance even further, while also causing your strikes to come out at a much faster rate.
Achieving the topmost speed requires moving in a straight line directly parallel with the camera. The gain here is only slight, so depending on your goals this may not be worth obsessing over.
As a general rule, you'll always want to hold b while on rails to gain speed up to the normal cap. Mashing is not only never required; it is striclty detrimental to your speed gains.
Holding L+R will lock the camera in position.
Character gravity is altered to keep them fixed to certain surfaces, such as rails, and takes a moment to normalize. Reset gravity manually by doing a quick 90" turn in the air, or by using the Triangle Dive.
When teammates get damaged they are normally incapacitated and unable to act for a few seconds. They can be instantly revitalized by using either Combination Strike, Triangle Dive, or Thunder Shoot, or by either flying or rolling.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, your point character or teammates will take critical damage. This is indicated by the presence of a white smoke trail and accompanying voice sample expressing agonizing pain. Characters damaged in this way cannot be switched to or recover using any of the methods outlined in the previous section.
This mechanic seems to be exclusive to team boss fights from my experience. Your entire team can be stunned in this manner, potentially leading to an unavoidable ringout situation.
In addition to their screen clearing cinematics, each Team Blast has a unique passive effect which is either extremely powerful or noteworthy in some fashion.
This section covers exploits, which are new kinds of novel interactions which arise from using a game's intended mechanics to achieve unexpected results. These will greatly enhance the return on fun you experience playing most games, and Sonic Heroes is no exception.
This engine exploit will allow you to gain substantially more speed while grinding.
To execute, you need only quickly and repeatedly switch between speed and power formation while grinding; causing the two characters to propel each other forward with thier bounding boxes.
This trick works because the game's logic dictates that the teammate's bounding boxes should repel each other to mantain a certain distance whenever possible. A large degree of base acceleration is also retained via the speed character continuously resetting their grinding animation.
Speed gained using this method caps at a point far beyond the normal limit. Even more speed gains can be had by succesfully rail switching into a booster.
Springs normally have a lock trigger than prevents players from acting until their scripted animation has completed. Pressing the 'a' button on the frame you make contact with the spring will bypass this lock, allowing complete freedom of movement.
Switching to the power character during a light dash chain will retain some momentum from said light dash.
After hitting 'b' in the air to initiate a Belly Flop, switch to the speed character to carry the power character's vertical momentum forward. Alternatively, simply use a Triangle Dive when the flop is close to connecting with solid terrain.
Note that both variations of this technique will only work on stage geometry and not objects.
First and foremost, Omega is clumsy. His lunge animation during Combination Strike covers the most distance of all power characters, to a dangerously extreme degree. You'll need to exercise much greater caution while using the move around ledges or while on small platforms to avoid falling off.
If that wasn't enough, he's also oddly finnicky. Double Rocket Accel is less consistent whenever Omega's weird hitbox gets involved, to the extent that you may want to consider slower but more reliable methods of crossing large chasms.
Hold 'a' after a jump to execute the Hammer Twirl, which will allow Amy to hover horizontally for a time while preserving momentum.
An exploit means Hammer Twirl can be activated a second time while airborne. To initiate, continue holding 'a' while simultaneously pressing 'b' to send out a Hammer Tornado as soon as the first Hammer Twirl animation ends. By continuing to hold the 'a' button you will immediately enter a second Hammer Twirl as soon as the Tornado animation concludes.
This section contains only footnotes and will not be expanded further. I find game breaking tricks like these are more of a novelty and not suited for proper skill-oriented play.
Performing a belly flop with either Big or Vector while flipped upside down (eg. while travelling through a scripted loop). This causes the character to travel upwards briefly, during which time you want to perform a series of glide cancelled flops to extend the duration of your flipped gravity indefinitely and gain the practical benefits of flight. This is done by pressing a to initiate a glide while continuing to hold b, which if done correctly will cancel the belly flop before the game logic has a chance to right your gravity and send you plummeting. You can also control your flight trajectory through a convoluted method that I won't get into here.
A technique where the flying character is teleported a huge distance across the level by having the speed character take damage whilst in flight formation, then positioning the flight character so that they are between a wall and the speed character, then pressing jump. Getting the speed character knocked out of formation requires injuring the power character first, then waiting a certain amount of frames (Team Sonic has no wait period) prior to injuring the speed character.