First, thanks to the following:

• DJGrenola, Mike, Nate, Radix, and anyone else who plays a part in maintaining SDA.
• Those at SDA and The Sonic Center who supported or motivated me in making this run. Particular credit to those who also made speedrunning efforts in this game: Petrie911, who submitted a Dark story run; Paragod ("X9"), who first attempted the Hero story run; and Stefan ("Slisenberger"), who also planned a Hero run for a while.
• Various Sonic Adventure 2 players at TSC - for contributing tips and strategies, and motivating me to keep improving my times.

When I first thought about doing a single-segment speedrun in Sonic Adventure 2, I was already familiar with individual level time attack from competition at The Sonic Center. At first, though, I didn't take the idea too seriously. I didn't think it would be feasible to play the entire story at an impressive speed, without dying or generally messing up badly, while somehow drawing good luck in the hunting levels. A couple of not-so-serious run attempts seemed to confirm my presumptions. But I think Petrie911's Dark story run largely changed my mind. He didn't have to sacrifice much speed for safety in his run, and he even managed to make the hunting levels mostly impressive. I figured that I might achieve similar levels of consistency if I put in a lot of effort.

In the end, I only omitted a few major tricks to be on the safe side. The two biggest ones were on boss fights. In the Egg Golem fight, you can perform a "superbounce" (see the Pyramid Cave comments) off of the low inside railing of the platform to immediately reach the Golem's head. The technique can speed up the fight by up to 30 seconds, but it's quite a difficult maneuver that I have to pull off five times - and a miss usually ends in a fall to the lower level, which wastes time and looks foolish. Against Shadow 2, I know of a method to get one hit right after the other, saving up to about 12 seconds if everything goes right. But the difficult timing and camera make the method very inconsistent for me. There's also the spindash through the loop in City Escape which probably saves 4-5 seconds. I'm pretty sure anything else I knowingly avoided wouldn't save more than 2 seconds.

But there's something else where I inevitably "lose" a lot of time: random emerald piece locations in Knuckles' levels. In a single-segment speedrun, there's no way that I'm going to hope for near-optimal locations, or abuse death to reset the locations until they're optimal. The best I can do is learn most of the different possible locations, so that I can usually read one hint monitor and know where to go. Obviously, times can vary significantly, as some locations are farther away than others. But I think most of my hunting runs end up in a respectable time range, considering the randomness.

So, on to the level details:

• City Escape - 2:07:60 (My best with this strategy is 2:02)

  An okay showing for the first level. Maybe the last part doesn't look so good as I fly off of a lot of hills, though - that's largely my fault for not having a winning strategy there.

  At 1:13, spindashing through the loop could save some seconds, as rolling down the building is much faster than running or falling down. However, it's not part of my plan, as I haven't figured out how to consistently spindash through the loop without falling off.

• Big Foot - 0:35:29 (0:22) This boss fight is kind of unforgiving when I'm not able to bounce. I have trouble jumping onto the crates here, partly due to the camera... I messed it up, and that little time loss was enough to let the boss pass me. He managed to pass me a second time before I finished him. It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't so good either.

• Wild Canyon - 0:40:44 (0:22)

  The first hunting level, which means some more distance from my best time is acceptable. The emerald piece locations were good, but I messed up a little. Just before landing at piece 2, I was already thinking about getting a hint for piece 3. But I barely missed piece 2 and somehow didn't realize I missed it before I used up the nearby hint. This run does get better, really!

• Eggman 1 - 0:12:90 (0:12)

  I didn't intend to punch Eggman away for the third hit, but I was able to get the fourth hit quickly anyway, so no harm done.

• Prison Lane - 1:44:00 (1:38)

  The first half of the level was pretty good; I pulled off the first jump-on-the-lowering-railing trick, which is just after the first checkpoint. If you're wondering why I'm jumping and lasering halfway up the big elevator 'ride', I'm trying to aim at a door trigger enemy in the next passageway.

  The part after the last checkpoint is tricky. The plan is to jump onto the lowering railing, turn around and shoot the door trigger enemy at the upper back corner of the room, then proceed across the next railing to the final passageway. I managed to shoot the door trigger enemy, but then I fell and walked into a robot.

• Metal Harbor - 1:34:99 (1:31)

  This level went nicely with only one real mistake. During the ascent to the rocket, I bumped into the railing and stopped, which unfortunately cost about 2 seconds.

• Shadow 1 - 0:16:32 (0:12)

  Basically, Shadow has to be hit from behind, or he'll block my attack like he did after the second hit. That final hit looked a bit risky - I'm glad the railings stopped me there.

• Green Forest - 1:39:77 (1:38)

  Just a really clean performance! I'm proud to have it in a single-segment run. I guess the main thing that prevented me from getting 1:38 was the small mistake around 0:15-0:16.

• Pumpkin Hill - 0:58:84 (0:35)

  I'm content with a sub-minute time here. I had to think a little bit about the piece 2 hint, which is why I was moving confusedly at first. On the way to piece 3, I used the rocket so that I wouldn't have to climb up the pumpkin monolith, though I'm not sure whether it actually saved time.

• Mission Street - 2:21:39 (2:20)

  I get the very useful Booster upgrade in this level. It's not just useful for long jumps; by hovering immediately after I jump, I propel myself slightly higher in the air than I would with a simple jump. I use this high hover to get over the barrier of cages before the big bridge.

  I usually finish close to my best time, as the moving platforms at 0:43 and 1:33 limit how quickly I can go. If I catch those platforms in time, then all that matters is the part from 1:39 to the end.

• Aquatic Mine - 1:10:09 (0:29)

  Oh dear... I stumbled around a lot in the first 16 seconds. At least I had no navigation issues after that, though. I know water level 3 isn't needed for that first emerald piece, but level 3 is generally more useful than level 2, so I went for the level 3 switch. And it turned out that the second piece required level 3, so I got that one fairly quickly. The third piece was a bit of bad luck. As far as I know, it requires water level 1 ('Path to the abyss' does, 'Entrance to the abyss' doesn't), and thus I had to go through the slow swimming, unfortunately.

• Route 101 - 2:16:22 (2:14)

  The idea here is to keep your vehicle in a 'sliding' state where your steering is looser. If you're not sliding, then your speed slowly climbs or drops to a 'normal' speed. When you're sliding, this doesn't happen; your speed only changes from slopes, collisions, and boosts. I use sliding to maintain gained speed from boosts and downhill slopes, and to help with sharp turns. I keep wiggling around because letting go of the steering for a second gets you out of the sliding state.

  That said, I was somewhat shakier than usual, but the final time was good. There were two particularly scary spots, though. Before the second checkpoint, I tried to swerve right to the balloon, but I moved too late and very nearly hit the taxi - that would've slowed me down significantly until the next set of rings. And those double right-angle turns... I didn't know you could hit a wall like that and not spin out! I'm supposed to lightly hit the bottom of the "U" so I don't bump the next wall at such a scary angle.

• Hidden Base - 1:57:70 (1:52)

  The Laser Blaster upgrade makes this level a bit easier and faster: it increases the explosion radius of my shots, so that shooting one dynamite pack in a group of three takes out the whole group. However, the Laser Blaster is in Prison Lane and requires the Bazooka from Eternal Engine, so there's no way to get it in this run. This means I have to lock on to each dynamite pack individually. Much of the dynamite early on can be skipped, though.

  I like the strategy for the little maze (about 1:12 to 1:19) - it's always nice to skip a big block like that. Overall, this run looks fairly smooth except for the part where I ran into the monkey. Against my better judgment, I tried to squeeze by without jumping...

• Pyramid Cave - 2:07:92 (2:02)

  With the Bounce Attack, I'm able to perform the so-called superbounce, a trick that lets me bounce much higher than normal. To superbounce, move toward a wall at high speeds, then just before reaching it, jump and bounce. The faster you're going, and the sooner you bounce after your jump, the higher you'll go. I superbounce twice in this level, once just after getting the Bounce Bracelet.

  The section after the 0:44 checkpoint went particularly well. Spindashing straight onto the second rail and grabbing the key quickly are both tricky maneuvers. Later on I had two or three minor mistakes, but all of the loop skips were successful.

• Death Chamber - 1:12:57 (0:59)

  The hunting level that tests me the most. It's a big test of hint memorization because many of the rooms are very similar to each other. Even when I do know where to go, the quickest route from one point to another isn't always obvious. Navigation wasn't difficult this time, though, and I got very lucky with the third key! It might seem strange that the game allowed keys 2 and 3 to be so close. In reality, those locations are quite far apart; the wall painting to key 3 is a teleport of sorts.

• King Boom Boo - 0:46:25 (0:45)

  I'm happy as long as I only flip the hourglass once, which I did. It's somewhat simple, but messing it up means around 40 seconds are lost!

• Egg Golem - 0:56:87 (0:52)

  My non-superbounce strategy went as planned. I stalled a little while going up the first time, so that the platforms on the Golem's back would be more favorable the second time. Maybe I didn't need to stall, though, as the Golem's reaction time was slightly slower than usual throughout the fight. I don't know why he was slower; I know he slows down if you restart the fight a few times, but I certainly didn't do that.

• Eternal Engine - 3:03:79 (2:51)

  There were more little mistakes than I would've liked. At least it didn't affect my time up until the 1:27 checkpoint. It's possible to catch those moving platforms a cycle earlier, but it's difficult enough that I don't expect to. At the end, I only really try to aim for the two bottom corner targets. Still, I tend to end up shooting everything else before nailing the bottom-right one, like I did here.

• Meteor Herd - 0:47:12 (0:37)

  The locations and execution were great. The piece 2 hint mystified me for a few seconds, but after a bit of thought I proceeded to collect the piece very quickly.

• Rouge - 0:16:89 (0:15)

  I'm usually pretty tense before this fight starts. If I don't get the first hit quickly, Rouge sometimes starts running away, making it difficult to hit her. If I don't finish the fight within 20 seconds, the floor opens and the fight takes to the steel beams, where it's much harder to find and hit Rouge. So I go for the first hit with no rings and a shifting camera, which obviously has its own risk. Fortunately, all went smoothly here.

• Crazy Gadget - 1:56:94 (1:50)

  There are a lot of fancy moves in this level, and accordingly, a lot of chances to mess up. However, the run went very well with just a couple of trouble spots. The 0:27 checkpoint was kind of scary; I usually jump dash to get onto the rail initially, and I was thrown off when I just landed on it. At 1:17, I was trying to jump directly from that part to the light dash chain over the acid, but I jumped a little too early and messed it up.

  The trick at the end is quite interesting. The bottom of the goal ring box is not solid, so I'm able to enter the goal ring box from there without destroying the barrier. Only thing is, the fall-out death sequence starts when I 'enter' the space under the goal ring box. However, I touch the goal ring well before the death sequence completes, so I don't actually die.

• Eggman 2 - 0:18:94 (0:16)

  This fight seems pretty fearsome in a single-segment run, as Eggman's giant laser can down half of my life with a single hit. However, the strategy I use works pretty well, and it went exactly as planned in this run. I get hit by a regular shot before Eggman fires his laser, so I can escape the laser's reach while I'm still flashing.

• Final Rush - 2:32:07 (2:22)

  This fast and dangerous level has lots of potential for showing off. However, it's also right near the end of this single-segment, so I was quite nervous here. I pulled off most of the risky tricks, but I made a few mistakes as well. It's good that I survived, but it's still slightly disappointing because most of my practice runs (somehow) end up around 2:25 or so.

• Shadow 2 - 0:30:05 (0:28)

  Fortunately, there's not much pressure in this last fight. I time each approach so I'm dodging Shadow's attack as I move toward him. I also stop before a break between platforms so that the breaks don't interrupt my approach. The fight went just as planned.

• TOTAL - 32:04:96 (no deaths!)

There were some slow spots like Big Foot and Aquatic Mine, but the luck in the hunting levels was above average (mostly due to Death Chamber and Meteor Herd), and most of the levels and boss fights were actually pretty smooth. Most importantly, I didn't die! At this point, I think the run is generally solid and would be tough to improve. If I try to improve it, it won't be until I learn a few more things, like how to go faster in City Escape.

I hope you find this speedrun entertaining!

I began working on this run quite a long time ago. My first candidate run was over 42 minutes, so you can see how far I've come. I chose the Dark Story because, in general, I like its levels better. With the sole exception of Final Chase (oh how I loathe thee), the Dark story levels are all better than their Hero counterparts. Two fewer total stages and one fewer hunting stage also make for a run less prone to random chance errors, which is always nice.

So, now for the acknowledgements. I'd like to thank...

• Everone at The Sonic Center, for their excellent guides and videos.
• yoshifan, for his tips on Cosmic Wall and Iron Gate.
• X9, Stanski, Silsenberger, and all the other people in the Sonic Adventure 2 topic for their support.
• nate and B-man, for making anri-chan, the program I used to encode this run.
• and Radix and mikwuyma for creating and maintaining this awesome site.

And now, on with the individual level comments!

• Iron Gate-2:08.19-Some minor errors at the beginning and on the last security door to shoot. The level 5 security door skip went perfectly though (thanks to yoshifan for pointing this out). I missed the A by only 20 points, too (not that it matters).

• Hot Shot-23.12- A below-average Hot Shot, though the no-cycle strategy went off without a hitch. Keep in mind that my best time is 22:77, though, so the difference between best and below average is less than half a second...

• Dry Lagoon-51.65-Fairly good placement on this one, which is largely the determiner of hunting stage times. If you're wondering what I'm doing at the beginning, I'm searching known second and third emerald locations near the start. Thankfully it didn't stick me with Oasis Jail or a similar one this time, as it had been doing.

• Sand Ocean-2:27.30-This is one of my favorite looking stages, and it's hard as hell to do right. My previous bests were around 2:38, but I recently discovered that a speed shoes at the second check allows you to beat the platforms near the last spinner and secure a 2:27. This was not the first route change in this level, as I researched the best route extensively, and I still suspect there is a better way. This level is also where many runs ended, as the timing in this level is very precise, and one false move usually leads to death. By the way, there's also a ridiculously difficult 5 second timesaver on the last spinner that I didn't include because it just wasn't worth the risk.

• Radical Highway-2:07.09-I'd just like to say that this is a most impractical highway, and that this level went very well. I especially liked the moment during the double loop skip when the music stopped as I was making that jump. Very dramatic. Anyways, the only problems are that I picked the spring instead of the ramp right before the second rocket, and I got shot off the loop at the end (which is completely random). Otherwise, very good.

• Egg Quarters-59.94-Wow, excellent placement of keys. The first key being in the Blue room would have been better, but otherwise, just about perfect. Note that you have to collect the Pick Nails, as there is always one buried emerald in story mode, unlike in the level select. Oh, and check out that sub-1:00...

• Lost Colony-2:33.69-A solid level. This is my best time for this level in any speedrun attempt, but there's not any really "wow-ing" tricks in it. You lose about 5-10 seconds by not having the Jet Engine or the Large Cannon. There's also a ~8 second timesaver that is exclusive to the Dreamcast version, performed by hovering through the non-solid walls around the goal instead of breaking the cages with the rockets. There's a funny story about this level, too. One of my attempts ended here because, trying to get a head start in the level, I held forward on the control stick from the beginning. I just walked off the starting platform and died. D'oh!

• Weapons Bed-1:35.57-This level has some neat shortcuts you should really see. The only one I don't take is right after the second-to-last checkpoint, where some quick box jumping will save you the small detour to the left. Still, a very solid level.

• Tails 1-13.50-The strategy here is to hit Tails with cannon shots as quickly as possible, and no punches. Incidentally, 13.50 is my personal record.

• Security Hall-49.79-I still can't believe the perfectness of the emerald placement here. 49.79 is an amazing time for Security Hall, and one that will be hard to equal if I ever try to improve this run. No complaints.

• Flying Dog-49.64-I messed up the instant hit trick, so this ended up being a fairly standard fight. That's really all there is to say.

• White Jungle-1:56.47-Ah, my favorie level, White Jungle. Pretty good time, though about 10 seconds slower than best. The main time loss was in the pit, where it just would not let me somersault under the barriers. Still, there's always the Air Shoes skip and the loop skip right after it, and at least I got sub-2:00.

• Sonic 1-17.79- Go behind him and homing attack him. Once you get the timing down, it's not too hard. Interestingly enough, I actually had quite a few deaths here during attempts, usually due to cheap attacks before I could get rings or getting ringed out.

• Route 280-2:53.89- Another personal best time, and even then I missed getting the first boost in time. This level is all about keeping the powerslides, and not spinning out.

• Sky Rail-59.70- Hey, another barely sub-1:00. This is a short level, and the main attraction is the pumpkin monoliths skip, which allows direct transit from Ghost Train mountain to the top of Church Mountain. It's only possible in the GCN version, too.

• Egg Golem-23.55-Hooray for button mashing! This entire boss is just mash B until he breaks open, then blow him up. The only thing you have to watch out for is when the floor will break, and it's very predictable (always the 4th punch).

• Mad Space-2:07.72-A sub-par time. The emerald placement was fairly mediocre to begin with, but the ~25 seconds I lost because the game was being incredibly picky about digging up that second emerald really did not help. Oh, well, something to improve on next time.

• Knuckles-17.90- The most important thing is to kill him before the floor opens. Luckily, his incredible vulnerability to Drill Drives makes this more than possible.

• Cosmic Wall-5:03.84-Get ready for, by a wide margin, the longest level in the game. The very open nature of the level allows for many shortcuts to be taken, and most of the differences in times for this level come from quickness of execution and how fast one can ascend the platforms before the rail rides. The only main error are the artificial chaos hit in the second open section and the missed jump in the last ascent. Thanks to yoshifan for showing me many of the delicate and subtle maneuvers required for this level. His help easily stripped off 15 seconds. Oh, and check out the score at the end. Even going as fast as I could, I still overshot the A by nearly 25,000 points.

• Tails 2-20.44-This fight is actually a lot like Tails 1. You need 4 cannon hits to take him down, and no punches. The main difference is that one slip-up and Tails will kill you with his giant laser of doom. This boss was another major run-ender.

• Final Chase-3:17.47 + 19.73-That plus means the most horrible of horrible things happened in this level. I died. I've never missed that jump EVER until then. Ugh. Otherwise, a fairly solid level. I skipped a number of shortcuts that tend to have low success rates, and tried (and apparently failed) to play it safe, but still a decent time. Overall, the death in this level is the only thing keeping me from being truly satisfied with the run, though this is not the first time. It seems intent on screwing me over. The second candidate run I had had a death here, too, due to sucky gravity tube physics, and the third had a weird glitch where I got stuck on the final tube for about 7 seconds. This level seems to hate me as much as I hate it.

• Sonic 2- 43.72- not my best, but still good. As you can see, Sonic tends not to block your homing attack if you come in from the side. You can get up to 3 hits this way before he starts blocking those. I only got 2, as he fell behind and initiated the second part of the fight, where you let him chaos control in front of you, then nail him when he starts his special attack.

Total-33:41.70

I may come back to try to improve this, largely because of that annoying death in Final Chase. Mad Space looks to be greatly improvable, though Egg Quarters and Security Hall will probaby never be equaled. Many levels could be cleaned up and made faster, and, with some insane luck and insane, TSC-level skills, this run could probably go sub-30, but I don't think I'll ever be able to manage that. But I look forward to the day when someone decides to take up that challenge and break the 30 minute mark.