Arid Canyon Zone Act 1

Single Player levels
MAP13: Arid Canyon Zone Act 1
GFZ MAP01 MAP02 MAP03	THZ MAP04 MAP05 MAP06	DSZ MAP07 MAP08 MAP09
CEZ MAP10 MAP11 MAP12	ACZ MAP13 MAP14 MAP15	RVZ MAP16
ERZ MAP22 MAP23	BCZ MAP25 MAP26 MAP27
Bonus stages
Special Stages
Capture the Flag stages
Match stages
Auxiliary stages

MAP13, Arid Canyon Zone Act 1, abbreviated as ACZ1, is the first act of Arid Canyon Zone, the fifth zone in Sonic Robo Blast 2 v2.2. It takes place in a dried-out canyon with a highway running through it, featuring rope pulleys that the player can hang on to, Dust Devils that launch the player greater distances, and TNT Barrels that explode when jumped on. The stage layout consists mostly of large and open outdoor rooms, which often feature several death pits, occasionally interspersed with underground caves. Tumbleweed is a common scenery element, and cacti are common hazards.

Three enemies are introduced in ACZ1: The Green Snapper is a turtle enemy with spiky feet that can only be defeated by carefully jumping from above. The Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard is a vulture-like enemy that lines up vertically with the player and then dashes at them. The Minus tunnels underground until it reaches the player and then jumps out of the ground.

Walkthrough

First section

You start the level at the bottom of the canyon, on a highway that is blocked off early on by a wall of rock. To proceed, turn left past some crates and rings will lead you to the zone's first Dust Devil, a tornado that launches you great distances when jumped into. The more momentum you have, the further the Dust Devil will take you; in this case, walking straight into the Dust Devil will be enough to launch you to the top of a small house, which has a Super Ring Monitor on top. Avoid the horizontal springs behind the monitor marked by warning signs, and turn right and jump over the death pit, again marked by warning signs, to proceed.

The next area features the zone's first instance of rope pulleys, which are its other main gimmick. Rope pulleys can be grabbed onto by jumping, and they will allow you to ride over gaps, but will take you back in a circle if you stay on for too long. To exit a rope pulley, you can either press jump to jump off, or press spin to hop off without jumping. To proceed through the first rope pulleys, jump onto the lower rope pulley at its lowest point to be carried over to the pulley's highest point. On the first pulley's highest point, you can then jump onto the second pulley's lowest point. When you reach the second pulley's highest point, jump off and turn left to reach an area with a path split between characters who can and can't spin. As most characters, spin dash up the slope to the right and springs will direct you to another path split, where you can either go forward to take the pulley path, or turn left to take the highway path. As a character who can't spin, break the wooden floor behind the slope to uncover a set of red springs and begin the non-spin path (which can also be accessed by Tails or Knuckles).

Pulley path

The pulley path begins in an outdoor sandy area, which is shortly followed by a downward rope pulley over a death pit. Jump onto the pulley, then turn left and jump on the next one to enter a cave that contains the first Star Post. In the cave, you need to proceed through a set of wooden platforms hanging from ropes over a death pit, then turn around and go up a slope while avoiding the Minus that burrows underneath. Jump onto the diagonal yellow springs at the end of the slope, and those will take you to a set of diagonal red springs that will lead you back outside.

After entering the next outdoor area, turn left and you will see another Dust Devil. Jump into the Dust Devil to enter another Dust Devil and then reach the next area. As Sonic, however, you can thok into the Dust Devil to skip the second one and go straight ahead, but be careful to aim yourself in the correct direction. After the Dust Devil, turn right to see another rope pulley, this time with a cactus underneath. Touching a cactus will damage you, so when riding on this pulley, you will need to jump over the cactus right before you hit it and then continue riding. After you make it to the end of the pulley, the second Star Post is to your left. Behind the Star Post is a Green Snapper and a flat gray rock too high to jump to with a tall block of wood underneath. Walk through the block of wood as any character to unbalance the rock, making it fall over on the side facing you so that it is now a slope you can walk on. Jump off that slope to the next platform, then jump over a set of spikes marked with a warning sign to reach a path split that begins the zone's second section.

Highway path

The highway path begins with following the route of the highway, where you need to watch out for Green Snappers and TNT Barrels. Not long after beginning the highway path, the first Star Post is right in the middle of the road. Much like the start of the level, the road is soon interrupted by a rocky wall, but this time, the wall can be broken by TNT barrels that automatically explode if you come close. Approach the wall to set off the TNT, then back off so you don't get hurt. After the wall blows up, you can continue on the highway. The road makes a U-turn and shortly following a barrel that spilled some slippery oil, it is cut short by a wooden gate that Sonic and Tails can't break, but Knuckles can. It is at this point where the characters' paths diverge: most characters can turn left from a gap in the highway's rails and jump to an orange ledge, then jump from there to a gray rocky area, but Knuckles cannot jump high enough from the ledge and the brown walls in this area cannot be climbed.

As most characters, the path continues from the rocky area with a series of gray platforms that collapse a few seconds after being stood on. Make long jumps from platform to platform: first straight ahead, then with a right turn, then with a left turn, and finally straight ahead back onto stable ground. The jumps are long enough that as Sonic, it may help to thok and then backpedal, though you can also just keep your momentum from jump to jump. After reaching the next stable ground, go onto an upward rope pulley straight to your left, and hop off above a set of red springs by pressing spin. The red springs should take you to a high-up horizontal yellow spring if you stay still, but if you go further into an area with three Super Ring Monitors, you can turn around and jump to proceed with the route as usual. After the horizontal yellow spring, this highway path merges with the pulley path at the rope pulley that is partly blocked by a cactus.

As Knuckles, the path continues from the breakable gate into a very dark tunnel that has the end blocked off by spikes. Turn right before the end of the tunnel to see an orange wall that you can climb, with two Super Ring Monitors and an Eggman Monitor at the bottom. The wall has retractable spikes that appear and disappear in patterns, so you need to be careful progressing through it and go up spiked areas only right after they retract. Some of the retractable spikes can be climbed around, but at the very top of the wall, there are three sets of retractable spikes that you must make through at the right time. The middle spikes at the top appear when the side spikes disappear, and vice versa. After making it to the top of the wall, you will reach a flat orange rocky area on the other side. From the flat area, you can see rings in the air arranged in groups of three, indicating which direction to glide in order to proceed. The path of rings will lead you to a Dust Devil. Jump into the Dust Devil to fly over the cacti behind it and reach the second Star Post. Glide a bit further from there, and you will reach an area with a breakable block of wood under a rock, much like the end of the pulley path but lower down. The rock brought down by the breakable wood leads you directly to the second section's path split.

Non-spin path

This article or section contains a spoiler, an unlockable, or a secret. Please leave the page if you do not wish to view spoilers.

The non-spin path is designed to be traversed as Amy Rose and Fang, the two playable characters who cannot spin dash. Taking the non-spin path all the way through will allow you to bypass all of the other path splits up to the highway that leads to the zone's final area, but if you fall off at any point, you will be sent to an earlier point in one of the other paths and lose a large amount of time.

This path begins by jumping on the red springs uncovered by breaking the wooden floor. After jumping on the springs, turn left and proceed through a high-up cliff until you see a large gap that Amy and Fang must use their abilities to traverse. As Amy, hammer the diagonal yellow spring surrounded by spikes to clear the gap; as Fang, do a tail bounce following the rings across the gap. After the gap, turn left, avoid the following Green Snapper, and jump over another gap to reach a Dust Devil and clear yet another large gap. Following the gap cleared by the Dust Devil is the first Star Post. After the Star Post is a curved slope with lots of cacti on the sides. Go through the slope carefully without hitting the cacti, then at the end of the slope, keep your momentum and jump over a bar of spikes onto the next area. If you miss the jump, you will be sent to the beginning of the pulley path. If you continue, the next challenge involves platforming through gray rocks on top of narrow pillars moving like a see-saw over a death pit. Turn left to jump onto the first rock, then wait for the rock's slope to face the second rock. Jump onto the second rock, then wait for its slope to be steep enough to allow you to reach the next stable ground.

The next area of stable ground is another area that Amy and Fang must clear in different ways, this time a tall jump. As Amy, go down and hammer onto the yellow springs to proceed. As Fang, do a tail bounce over the gap, since a regular jump won't reach high enough. After clearing the gap, jump over a set of cacti to reach the second Star Post. Following the second Star Post is a rope pulley; ride that pulley all the way, then hop off by pressing spin. Once you hop off the pulley, you are faced with a gap marked with spikes that Amy and Fang can once again clear in different ways. As Amy, hammer on the spikes on the other side of the gap; as Fang, a tail bounce will again allow you enough height to dodge the spikes. After the spikes is a set of gray platforms that collapse if you stay on for too long, so swiftly hop through those and then turn left to see a diagonal red spring. A Minus is digging underground by the red spring, so jump on the spring before it can get to you. The spring will take you to a Dust Devil surrounded by cacti; if you manage not to get hit by the surrounding cacti, the Dust Devil will take you down to a lower area that contains the third Star Post.

After the third Star Post, take a diagonal yellow spring to another area with collapsing gray platforms. This area is right above one of the last portions of the Super Sneakers path and merges with the path shortly after, so if you fall off the platforms, you will need to hurry through a path of automatically exploding TNT packs until you see springs that take you to a Dust Devil. After clearing this area, turn right to see a diagonal red spring that can take you to the highway. As Amy, you can skip a portion of the highway by hammering the red spring; either way, the spring is the same one that leads to the final highway portion of the Super Sneakers path before the zone's final area.

Spoilers end here.

Second section

The zone's second section begins with a path split, where you can go two ways from a set of horizontal red springs facing you. You can turn right to start the TNT path, or turn left to start the Super Sneakers path.

TNT path

The TNT path begins with two sloped platforms over death pits that you can easily clear if you get through them quickly. After those platforms is a set of TNT barrels with an explosive pack that blows up if you come too close. Jump over the spikes surrounding the pack before the explosion goes off, destroying a set of wooden pillars holding up a giant rock. The giant rock closes the spike gap, making the area impossible for Sonic to backtrack from. To progress forward from here, jump over another gap marked with a warning sign to encounter another TNT-based challenge: a Minus is burrowing under the ground in a patch of land filled with TNT barrels, so you need to swiftly go through that area without jumping into the TNT. Take a set of diagonal red springs at the end of the area to reach a small ledge with an Eggman Monitor on it. Turn left from that ledge onto another small brown ledge, then turn right from there to reach an upwards rope pulley. Ride the pulley and press spin to hop off without jumping, then turn left and jump on a diagonal red spring to reach the next area much higher up.

After the diagonal red spring, turn left and jump through a path of rings to reach a set of floating wood planks. Be careful not to fall off, and turn left to reach a diagonal yellow spring. From there, spin onto the horizontal yellow springs in front of you to go down a steep slope that ends with another set of TNT that explodes if you come too close. Turn right after reaching the TNT to reach red springs at the end of a flat wooden plank. The plank becomes sloped when the TNT goes off, allowing the red springs to take you to the third Star Post. From the Star Post, progress through a downward sloped area and walk your way through the parts that are not filled with cacti. Take a U-turn onto an upward slope, which leads you to a gray rock moving like a see-saw. Jump onto the rock, then wait for the upper part of the slope to face left so you can enter the next stable land. After this point, you have two options for paths you can take, one of which is exclusive to characters that can spin. You can either roll under a narrow gap in front of you to take horizontal springs that propel you down a large slope, or turn left onto an orange area marked by cacti and stand on the gray ground with a Super Ring Monitor behind it to be taken down into a set of cacti on slopes that leads to a chain of Dust Devils. If you take the Dust Devil chain, then after each Dust Devil, you should position the camera so that you are facing the next one, or else you will fall off into a death pit. Both paths will lead you to the steep downhill that ends the zone's highway. Follow the highway and turn right and then left to reach the fourth Star Post, which begins the zone's final area.

Super Sneakers path

The Super Sneakers path begins with a walkway with cacti on the sides, followed by a jump over a gap onto a rightward rope pulley. Ride the pulley, then jump off to reach a fenced patch of land with a golden Super Sneakers Monitor. Since the monitor is golden, its power-up can be reused as many times as you want. As Sonic, you will need to use the monitor to proceed through the following section of long jumps and platforming. After popping the monitor, go up through the platforms in the circular direction the rings point you. There is a Dust Devil along the way, and the final jump is off a sideways curved slope that you must keep your momentum on. If you miss a jump and end on a lower area, try to find the golden monitor so that you can try again. If you make it all the way through the fast-paced platforming, you will reach the third Star Post.

Following the Star Post is a long slope that you can spin down (or just run down as a character who can't spin). The momentum from spinning will allow you to roll up onto the wall that follows, and proceed to the next section with a left U-turn. After the U-turn is an area with numerous TNT barrels and warning signs. These barrels are set to explode if you come close, so you must quickly run through the section until you see yellow springs that take you to a Dust Devil. Jump into the Dust Devil, then turn right and jump on the red spring in front of you to reach the fourth Star Post in the middle of the highway. Follow the highway circling around the canyon and be careful not to fall off at the point where the rails are broken on the left side. The highway will pass through a tunnel and then go down a steep slope, where it is soon blocked off by a gate with a wooden pillar behind it. Walk through the wooden pillar, then back off so that you don't get crushed by an anvil. On top of the anvil is a TNT pack that will destroy the wall behind it (though the wall can also be directly destroyed by Knuckles). Continue through the highway and it will go down one more steep slope. At the bottom of the slope, follow the signs to turn right and then left to avoid getting hit by cacti, and you will then reach the fourth Star post that begins the zone's final area.

Final section

After the fourth Star Post, you will reach a large outdoor valley with a death pit and several rope pulleys high above it. As Tails, you can fly over the pulleys to the end, but as most other characters, you must ride the rope pulleys to the left. On the right side, there is a path of rings that directs Knuckles to an efficient route to clear the level.

Rope pulleys

Grab on to the first rope pulley, and when it reaches above the second one, press spin to go down onto it. The third rope pulley isn't directly below the second one, so you have to jump down slightly to your right to reach it. After the fourth rope pulley, you have an option to press spin and continue forward or hop on the ledge to the left. Hop on the ledge, then jump to the next pulley higher up which leads towards a large cave. Near the cave entrance is a ledge that you can use to rest. In the cave, you have to jump across several more rope pulleys until you reach the entrance to a mine, which contains the Level End Sign. Try to be swift on the last few ropes, because a BASH can appear and knock you off if you're too slow. If at any point on this path you miss a jump to another rope pulley, try to use your special ability to reach one of the ledges of the lower path and continue from there.

Lower path

If you went forward from the fourth pulley, a few more pulleys will take you down to a narrow strip to the leftmost wall. Walk uphill across the strip, take the spring in front of you, then jump on the next spring up to a higher ledge. Continue along that ledge and dodge the cacti and TNT barrels. Turn right and jump before the TNT barrels to another ledge platform, then follow the ledge and jump from the upward slope onto a flat orange ledge with a Minus and BASH. Kill the BASH before proceeding, because it could attack you on the last few ropes. After defeating the BASH, jump forward to the rope ahead of you (as Sonic, you may need to thok), then jump down onto the final rope to reach the Level End Sign.

Knuckles' path

As Knuckles, turn right from the bridge and glide through the path of rings until you reach a tall brown pillar that you can climb. Cimb the pillar, then jump off and glide onto the wall behind it with spikes on it. Go around those spikes while climbing the wall, then turn right to reach the Level End Sign.

Points of interest

Shields

• Right before the Star Post near the start of the highway path, go down to your left to find an Attraction Shield down below surrounded by six rings. There are red springs behind that shield that you can use to go back up.
• Shortly after clearing the first gap in the non-spin path, you will see a small house with TNT barrels behind the fence. Behind all those TNT barrels is an Attraction Shield.
• Above the Star Post where the pulley and highway paths merge is a set of wooden planks that has an Attraction Shield on top. [NOTE: how can you get it as Sonic?]
• After the highway and pulley paths merge, break the block of wood and jump from the sloped rock to a wooden bar that contains an extra life, then jump from there (as Sonic, easiest with a thok) to collect a Force Shield right above the TNT/Super Sneakers path split.
• Near the start of the pulley path, a Force Shield can be found next to spikes on top of a house. The shield can also be collected by deliberately missing the jump over a bar of spikes in the non-spin path.
• After reaching the third Star Post on the non-spin path, backtrack up through two sloped platforms with a Minus burrowing through each, then jump over the next gap, turn right, and jump over one more gap until you see a brown crate. Behind that crate is an Armageddon Shield surrounded by two Super Ring Monitors.
• When going down the orange slope on the TNT path, you will see an Armageddon Shield surrounded by two Super Ring Monitors up high at the end. The shield is easily accessible as Tails or Knuckles, but not as Sonic.
• In the underground room near the start of the pulley path, go deep down on the sloped rocks to the right of the hanging wooden platforms and turn around to see a rectangular hole in the wall. Inside that hole is an Armageddon Shield surrounded by rings. If you collect this shield as Sonic, the only remaining way out of this room requires tricky platforming near the death pit and leads to the highway path.
• On the highway that leads to the zone's final room, instead of going straight down, turn right and jump onto an orange ledge with lots of cacti, then turn left and jump onto another ledge with cacti on the edges right above the highway's right turn. On the second ledge, there is a Whirlwind Shield at the end right by the wall.
• While springing out of the underground room in the pulley path, turn left to land on a pillar. From that pillar, swiftly jump to another pillar on the left, then jump again to reach a ledge with a Whirlwind Shield
• At the start of the pulley path, there is a house to the right of the entrance to the cave. Behind the fence is an Elemental Shield between a Super Ring Monitor and a TNT barrel.
• After the first Star Post on the highway path, go to right of the area where TNT packs blow up a wall. A narrow crevice will lead you to an Elemental Shield surrounded by some small cacti.
• When jumping off the horizontal yellow spring that merges the highway path with the pulley path, brake a bit and turn right to reach an orange ledge right above a pulley, containing an Elemental Shield.
• On the TNT path, after riding a rope pulley over a patch of land filled with TNT, instead of jumping on the red spring nearby, walk around the rocky pillar and avoid the cacti until you see an Elemental Shield.

Invincibility

• On the TNT path, after jumping over the gap following the TNT pack that blocks the area behind you with spikes, go straight ahead by the cacti instead of turning right. Behind a cactus, you will find a small indent in the wall that contains an Invincibility Monitor.
• Right before the Star Post where the pulley and highway paths merge, ride the pulley right above the one partly over cacti to find a spring on top of the other side. Jump on that spring, and ahead of you is an Invincibility Monitor and a Super Ring Monitor.
• On the highway path, right before Knuckles' path splits off from the rest, look to the right of the highway to find an Invincibility Monitor on top of a crate surrounded by cacti.

Super Sneakers

• Right after entering the highway from the Super Sneakers path or the non-spin path, backtrack from the Star Post to set off a TNT pack surrounded by barrels, with a Super Sneakers Monitor inside the cave. Back off after setting it off. then return after the TNT has exploded to collect the Super Sneakers Monitor.
• Near the start of the Super Sneakers path, a golden Super Sneakers Monitor is in plain sight.

Extra lives

• Where the pulley and highway paths merge, destroy the block of wood in front of you, then jump off the now sloped rock right at the end so that you can reach an extra life on top of a wood bar.
• After the first Dust Devil at the beginning of the zone, jump over the fence behind the Eggman Monitor on top of a crate to enter a narrow, sloped cave below. Go up the slope to the left, and at the end of the cave is an extra life.
• Shortly after the highway path's U-turn, turn right and fly high up to find a portion of a higher-up highway, containing an extra life. [NOTE: needs a better description]
• When jumping off the red spring near the end of the Super Sneakers path, an extra life is right next to you on top of a pillar. To collect this monitor, maneuver yourself from the spring in just the right angle so you land on top of the monitor, then pop it without landing on the downward slopes surrounding the monitor and then go straight to the highway.
• On the TNT path, go to the end of the flat wooden plank before the TNT explodes and makes it sloped. The red springs will take you to a cliff up high that contains an extra life.
• On the Super Sneakers path, when spinning down the steep slope that takes you up a gray wall, there is an extra life in plain sight on top of the wall. To collect it, move slightly forward after the slope when you reach your peak height.
• Enter Knuckles' portion of the highway path as Amy, since she can also break the gate that begins the path. Break the spikes straight ahead to reach a room with three Eggman Monitors (once of which you probably just popped) and an extra life.
• On the non-spin path, right before the see-saw rocks on top of pillars, walk a bit past the horizontal yellow springs and jump around the cacti blocking your way to find an extra life.
• As Knuckles, glide to the left of the Star Post that begins the zone's final room and climb all the way down to find a gap in the canyon, then climb up inside the gap to find an extra life hanging on the ceiling. You can break the extra life monitor by gliding into it, then you can go back up by climbing the walls around you. As Tails, you can also access this extra life and break it by hitting it from below while flying, but it is difficult to do so without burning out your flight before you can go back up.
• On the TNT path, right before the path split where you can choose to spin under a gap down a slope or go through a chain of Dust Devils, fly or climb to the right of the cacti surrounding the collapsing floor with a Super Ring Monitor. On top of the high elevation is an extra life.