===================================================================== -- SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 - LARGE RING GUIDE -- JANUS OPERATIVE janus79057@hotmail.com Version 2.0 5th June 2005 ===================================================================== - CONTENTS - I. Introduction II. Large Ring Locations III. Special Stages IV. Closing Notes ===================================================================== - I. INTRODUCTION - This Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in-depth FAQ was written in one day on the 25th March, 2002 and then revised three years later on the 5th June, 2005. Inspired by a topic requesting help on the Genesis message board at GameFAQs, I set to work on an FAQ that would describe exactly where to find those gigantic rings that are hidden in Sonic 3's massive levels and, once found, whisk you off the cool three- dimensional special stages. ===================================================================== - II. LARGE RING LOCATIONS - You'd think that with them being so big and shiny, the large rings concealed in secret chambers throughout the game would be pretty easy to find. And some are; occasionally the game will even throw you right into a room with a large ring (think of the first part of Angel Island, Act 2). But, other times the gateways to the special stages are hidden with greater secrecy and if you look hard enough you will be able to find more than one giant ring in nearly every level. Of course, you haven't actually looked hard enough if you're reading this (why else would you be reading this?). But that's okay! Hopefully, this FAQ will point out the locations of every single ring, enabling you to access the crazy yellow coloured power of Super Sonic sooner on in the game rather than later! --------------------------------------------------------------------- ANGEL ISLAND ZONE Getting four chaos emeralds from the first zone is easy! -- Act 1 -------------------- The first ring is simple to find. At the top of the first hill you come to, where a mean rhino-like bot storms up and down and two set of imposing spikes stand, there is a platform that collapses as you walk over it. Just drop down, turn around, and spin into the grey rock that blocks the entrance to the chamber with the ring. Easy! The second ring is slightly less easy to locate, but it's pretty straight-forward once you realise where it actually is. After the flame-oh-bot (can you tell that I'm making up names!) comes down and turns the environment into a fire hazard, proceed to your right until you reach a set of springs (two facing up, two facing down). Now, instead of choosing the springy route, drop down off the platform you are on and, like with the first ring, turn around and spin into the rock that blocks the ring room. Only this ring chamber is a little taller (as it puts you back to the position you where in after you watched the flame-oh-bot desecrate the landscape. Just bounce on the spring and you'll fly into the ring! -- Act 2 -------------------- I'm not sure if things can get much easier. The game practically forces you to enter the first special stage by throwing you down a tunnel, across the weak platforms and into the ring room. Towards the end of act 2 (after the spike traps with the extra life), there's a large U-shaped bend that is filled with water. Going over this feature are some disappearing platforms that take you further into the level (or, more precisely, onto a platform that'll break if you hang about for too long). Instead of going higher, you want to drop down into the U-bend and spin up and down the sides. Eventually you'll gain enough height to be able to roll into the ring chamber on the right side of the U-bend. --------------------------------------------------------------------- HYDROCITY ZONE Ring rooms are built into tall walls in this watery zone! -- Act 1 -------------------- The first giant ring can be tricky to locate and find, as you only have one shot at it. There's a section in the level where, after using a lengthy sequence of conveyer belts and fans, you reach a high-up slope that propels you into a loop-the-loop and, in turn, a short tunnel that takes you up a very tall wall. (There's one of those extra-speed-hand thingys in case you don't have enough speed from the lope-the-loop.) At the top of this wall, you'll see one of those rail-track-like platforms leading off. Stand on the very first bit of this platform and it'll break, sending you downwards. Now you need to push left to get as close to the wall on the left as possible, and with a bit of luck you'll land just on the edge of the entrance to the ring room that is situated halfway up the wall on your left as you fall down from the collapsing platform. Right near the end on the act, before the final star post, there is a place where two rail-track platforms (as I vaguely refer to them as) converge. At the base of the lower rail-track platform, there's a ring room built into the nearby wall (it's on the left as you come down the rail-rack). It's relatively easy to locate this last ring, since it's on the same height as the ground, and sometimes you'll even find it by accident (if you spin dash after you come up out of the underwater section where fans propel you up to the surface, you fly straight into the room). -- Act 2 -------------------- There's a point about half-way through this act, when you fly down a water slide (well, they look like water slides!) and at the bottom is a speed boost hand-out-of-the-ground machine. Use this speed boost to spin up the wall next to you, then land on the moving grey-coloured block that should be directly above you. Wait until the grey block gets close to the left wall, and once it does, jump off at the left wall. Hopefully, you'll land in the entrance to the first giant ring! The next ring is slightly harder to get. Near the end of level, you're thrown through a loop-the-loop and down a spiralling water slide. The speed you gain from this slide forces you to spin up high between two close together walls. One you're at this height, you need to land on the spinning blue columns that move up and down next to both ides of the wall. Once you're on the column that goes up the right-hand wall, wait until it is as high as possible, then jump up and into the entrance to the ring room (situated just above the column, but it's easy to see the opening). --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARBLE GARDEN ZONE Steep slopes are hard to climb, but big rings are easy to find! -- Act 1 -------------------- At one point in this stage you reach slope with a ball and chain swinging vertically over it. Proceed past this section, down another slope and over a platform with three sets of spikes. Now jump over the gap that separates the platform you're on from another one to your left and carry on going until you reach a fast- sneakers power-up. Smash this monitor, then pin dash into the plain column in the wall on your left. It should break, letting you enter the ring room. In the middle of this level you'll come down a slope with a row of spikes at the bottom. Jump onto the moving platform and then the spinning platform to get past these spikes. Then, while on the spinning platform (or rotating platform), jump off into the ring room built in to the wall on the left. -- Act 2 -------------------- When you come down the first large blue pole in this level, jump off to the right of it. Now, go to the edge of the platform you're on and drop off it. Turn around and head towards the large column in the left wall. Spin dash them and they'll break, allowing you to get inside the ring room. Later on in the level you'll reach one of those large vertical shaft that are ascended by using those spinning blue discs. This particular vertical shaft is the tallest in the level, and it can't be accessed without the blue disc, as there's a strong column (too strong for Sonic and Tails, anyway). Though instead of spinning up the shaft after breaking the column, jump off the disc and head straight on, past the crushing spike machine, and eventually you'll reach what seem to be a dead end. But you can actually walk through the all into the... ring room! --------------------------------------------------------------------- CARNIVAL NIGHT ZONE Lots of spinning involved here! -- Act 1 -------------------- The first giant ring can be found two ways. Either follow the route that begins when you jump on the balloon and find the ledge with three ten-coin power-ups near the beginning of the level and you'll eventually reach the ring room. Or zoom up the first vacuum tube (it sucks you up, like a vacuum!) and jump on the jelly platform by the big black ball that you can walk on. Once you're on the jelly platform, use it to get a little higher, then jump into the left wall and you should land inside the entrance to the ring chamber. The second ring is trickier to get. At one stage in the game you go along a series of high platforms separated by steep drops, with those spinning red blocks. Coming out of this section, you fly down a slope and often you'll go straight into one of those spiralling orange tubes. But, if you avoid this orange tube and carry on past it, you fly into one of those long white columns that twirl you around. Jump from the first spinning column to the second spinning column (it'll be on the right of the first column). Then, jump into the gap in the right-hand wall and you'll be in the ring chamber. -- Act 2 -------------------- Again, there are two ways to get this ring. You can jump off the swirling red and white pole onto the platform just above it at jut the right time, but this is near impossible so I don't know why I'm mentioning it! The best way is to use the jelly platform to reach the platform, near the start of the level, with a cannon on it. Instead of using the cannon, though, jump into the secret passage built into the wall to the left of the cannon. Smash the power-up monitors here and fall down through the gap. But make sure to move very close to the left side so you land on the ledge by the side of the ring chamber, otherwise you'll fall straight through the ring room and back to the bottom of the swirling red and white pole! About half way through the level, you come to a corridor with three expl-oh-do bots (silvery electric things). Near the corridor is a spinning red column. Use this column to reach the platform above it, with the fire and ten-ring power-up (push up when the column moves up and down when it moves down to get it to move higher). Then jump off this platform and into the gap on the left wall and you'll be in the ring chamber. Near the end of this level you'll fly up a vacuum tube and arrive in an area with those spinning, 'tinging' bouncy circles and a load of strategically placed balloons. You need to use these balloons to bounce yourself up the narrow gap (use the speed from the vacuum tube to reach the first one) and then you will be able to enter the ring room at the very top of the right wall. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ICECAP ZONE Find giant rings and listen to the best platform game tune ever! -- Act 1 ------------------- Near the really small ice-oh-chuck boss and the frozen switch at the start of the level is a small gap in the wall on the right (or is it a wall? I guess it's more of an ice barrier thing... but I'll just use wall!). Go in this gap and find the ring. Simple! The next ring is harder to get. It's located on the never-ending slope, just after the slope with the big ice barrier that you need to break through on the right. You should be able to see the small blue square marking the entrance, and if you'd you can just keep going past it until you see it. Anyway, you need to jump just as you get onto the correct slope, and hopefully you'll fly into the ring room. But you do have an infinite number of chances to get it right, as the sequence continually loops! -- Act 2 -------------------- About half way through the level there's a loop-the-loop that sends you flying through a tunnel which, in turn, sends you flying through two more loops. Finally, you'll end up on a platform with an ice-oh-chuck enemy. Proceed along this route until you reach a platform with ro-bo-penguins on. Next to this platform is a small iceberg type ledge that moves down when pressure is applied to it. Simply jump on it and wait until it goes underwater, then jump off into the right-hand wall and you'll find the big ring room. To get back up to the surface after you've won (or lost) an emerald, fall straight down the side of the wall and you should land on a red spring that'll send you high above the water. The final giant ring is right at the end of the level. After you spin round a series of loop-the-loops you'll race up a small ramp (past an ice-oh-chuck; blink and you'll miss it!) and into a catapult type device. Use this catapult to reach the platform above you on the right and you'll soon see the ring chamber. --------------------------------------------------------------------- LAUNCH BASE ZONE Your last chance to witness Super Sonic! -- Act 1 -------------------- There's this big ugly grey cylinder early on in this level, and you need to get underneath it. That isn't too hard a challenge, admittedly. Anyway, now go left towards the wall and jump into the tunnel built into the wall to access the first giant ring. On coming out of one of those tubes proceed into the speed boost thing on the ground. (There's a frog sitting on a red frame above this speed booster if you're not sure where I mean (yes, a bloody frog. You can tell that this is the last level). You should race right into a spinning machine that'll take you to a high ledge. Instead of jumping right here (like you're meant to), jump left and you'll land on a narrow ledge. This is the entrance to the ring room. Later on in the level you'll see another ugly grey cylinder with two non-ice-oh-chucks on. Again, you need to be on the bottom of the cylinder so jump down and land on the platform below it (there will be one of those flame spitting machines on your right). Now, go left and jump across the gap into the ring chamber to get the final giant ring for this act. -- Act 2 -------------------- Jump off the pipe at the very start of the stage and then down and off the platform you land on. Now you'll be underwater -- just head left and you'll see the tunnel leading to the ring chamber. For a final level, this ring is extremely easily found. Further into the level, you'll come to a section with a hoop that pushes you up a wall and onto a platform with spikes that appear and then disappear. From this platform jump into the spinning machine and let it take you to the edge of the ledge, now jump onto the platform and run back towards the gap and leap into the left wall. You should land in the entrance to the ring room. In this level you'll eventually come to a section with two ugly grey cylinders, one above the other. There are lots of non-ice-oh- chucks here, too. But anyway, you need to land in the middle of these ugly grey cylinders on the platform near the right wall. From here you'll see the nest ring chamber. The forth ring is right next to the third. Just jump down underneath the bottom ugly grey cylinder and go right along the pipe you land on. You'll easily notice the tunnel to the ring room, as it stick out of the wall. ===================================================================== - III. SPECIAL STAGES - Hopefully this guide takes you up to every large ring in Sonic 3, but what's inside of those shiny giants? I'll tell you what's inside! Impressive three-dimensional worlds filled with different coloured spheres. Your goal in these stages is simple: collect all the blue spheres and never touch the red ones. Additionally, hurtling into the grey spheres will end you hurtling back in the direction you came from, as these are springs that should be avoided, unless you like spiralling out of control (but, hey, you might!). As the time you spend in the stage increases, the speed of Sonic also increases, making control even more frustrating. So, it's a good idea to collect all the orbs as fast as you can. One way of doing this is by running through all the blue spheres on the outside of collection of spheres that has an area greater than 2 by 2. Doing this will turn all the blue orbs in the centre to rings, and they'll automatically be added to your total. Collect all the blue orbs in all seven of the game's special stages and you'll have seven Chaos Emeralds. Now if you collect more than 50 rings in a level you can transform into the invincible (but not uncrushable or... er, unfalloffaledgeable) SUPER SONIC! This section only really scratches the surface of these clever challenging, and often frustrating special stages. For more in-depth look at the actual special stages (as opposed to finding the gateway to the special stages) read TurboKiller's guide at GameFAQs. He also updated his guide to include the locations with the information from my guide, too. I figured I'd leave mine up because it is listed specifically under the Sonic 3 page, though. Here's a link: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/game/6742.html ===================================================================== - IV. CLOSING NOTES - I've revealed 28 ring locations in this guide, so that's plenty of chances for you to obtain the seven Chaos Emerald. However, if there's a ring location I've missed, then please let me know where it is by emailing me at janus79057@hotmail.com. I haven't exactly been receptive to emails in the past (I've basically ignored them because I couldn't be bothered to update the guide), but as of the 5th June, 2005, I'm willing to update with additions! This file is Copyright 2002-2005 by Janus Operative, and may be freely distributed as long as proper credit is given to the author. =====================================================================