When did you get all the Super Emeralds? (S3&K)

I get it all for the first time in MHZ.. after playing full game with normal emeralds, and 2-3 super emeralds, lol
I think, now I can collect all chaos emeralds before CNZ (or before FBZ, when I play in S3 Complete), and collect all Super emeralds in LRZ, because I'm not so much time plays in SK special stages

 

I think the earliest I ever got them was on Flying Battery, but the first time around it was on Lava Reef Act 2, and somehow I knew it was the last chance.

 

In 1997.

Seriously though, it depends. I usually get most of them in MHZ, but not all, and since I usually cba to do the spike thing in FBZ, I usually get the remaining ones in SPZ or LRZ, I rarely go out of my way to hunt for big rings.

 

I usually get five in MHZ (you need to backtrack to get more) and then the last two in FBZ by pushing the spikes.

The first time I played I didn't get them all, and the first time I did was like 3 in MHZ, 2 in FBZ, 1 in SZ, and 1 in LRZ.

I have done the "get them all in MHZ" route but I don't like it too much because you have to take a much longer journey to do it.

 

I always get all the Super Emeralds by the end of Mushroom Hill (well assuming I'm going after them at all), but I know I cut it much closer to the end when I was younger and less skilled. But those blue spheres maps don't offer a ton of challenge to me these days because I've must have done each of them up to 100 times now in my life. Another reason I get them all in MHZ, I don't have a great grasp of where all the rings are in FBZ or SOZ, even after all these years. LRZ rings are easy enough to find.

New Blue Spheres in Origins on the other hand, that presents a challenge. I don't have those down to muscle memory

 

I haven't yet. Maybe someday.

 

My brother never managed to get them before Flying Battery.
Even with maps available now, he never tried to learn them all, so he took a bit longer.

 

I always opted to skip them. It never made sense to me to forfit Super Sonic for Hyper Sonic. You could still transform into an invulnerable Super Sonic and just avoid big rings. I always played like this. I think I got the super emeralds my first play of the game ever but noticed you couldn't turn super after you got the first Hyper Emerald as a kid, I was like "ahh what the hell mate?".

 

I've don't think I've ever gotten the Super Emeralds in a single run. If I do bother to get them at all (last time was years ago), it's from beating the game and grinding them in a cleared save. (And I almost always play in no-save, so that's not really an option.) 3K is long enough as is, so going through the whole ordeal to get a Hyper form that's only marginally better than Super, makes little sense when I can just keep a fast pace as Super and still get Doomsday and a not-bad ending.

It's actually worse. If you ever enter a rainbow ring while holding any non-zero number of Chaos Emeralds, the ones you bring inside grow big and sit in Hidden Palace, preventing you from transforming* into your regular Super form on that save permanently, even if you don't beat any Super Emerald special stages.

*outside of Doomsday... if you clear all 7 Chaos Emerald special stages you can just enter Doomsday as Super and get a non-bad ending, regardless of how many are converted to Super Emeralds.

 

I used to only know one super ring in FBZ (end of the first act), so I would usually get them by Sandopolis, which has a lot of giant rings. But, I wasn't always so good at Blue Spheres, so I've gotten as down to the wire as Lava Reef Zone Act 2, or even beaten the game without getting all the super emeralds.

 

I usually get the majority in Mushroom Hill and then just grab the rest in Flying Battery. Occasionally I'm a dumbass and have to get one or two in Sandopolis, but that's the exception not the rule.

 

I usually get them in Sandopolis. I'll grab a couple in Mushroom Hill, but I just skip grabbing any in FBZ; stage is just more fun that way.

 

I became very consistent with time:

• In the "Sonic 3" part of the game:
  • As Sonic and/or Tails: 4 Chaos Emeralds in Angel Island Zone, the remaining 3 in Hydrocity Zone.
  • As Knuckles: 2 Chaos Emeralds in Angel Island Zone, 3 in Hydrocity Zone, the remaining 2 in Marble Garden Zone.

• In the "Sonic & Knuckles" part of the game, I get everything in Mushroom Hill Zone.

 

Way back in the day, when I was very young, I used to just complete the games without getting the emeralds. I sucked at video game, you see. Eventually though, when I first did finally get all the emeralds, it ended up being in Sandopolis act 2 from the last big ring right before the boss. And then my Genesis had a stroke while fighting the boss and my saves had reset to the Sonic 3 ones, so my initial Hyper experience lasted all of maybe 2 minutes. I don't remember where I got my first last Chaos Emerald though, it's been too long and I have no defining memory to go with it.

Nowadays I always get my Chaos Emeralds by the end of Hydrocity and Super Emeralds by the end of Mushroom Hill.

 

The first time I ever completed a save file in S3K was as Knuckles, and I only ended up with 5. I probably played S3 and S&K vanilla enough times to know what to do to get that far.

Now I just try and get them all in Mushroom Hill and be done with it. I believe there are exactly seven Big Rings Sonic and Tails can access (without glitching), and then an extra three for Knuckles (you can even backtrack to Sonic's early part of the level and access the Big Ring that Knuckles closes the door to). If I fail one of the special stages, I'll just clean up in Flying Battery. Very rare I have to do anything in Sandopolis or Lava Reef.

 

Most recently it was MHZ, but usually it’s FBZ. I don’t know the placements by heart so there’s typically 1 in Mushroom Hill I can’t find as Sonic and I end up just finishing the stage, but I was pretty determined to search.

As a kid, I think I would grab the last one in LRZ1 from the ring in the room to the right of the ascending crusher platform - where you go through the wall at the peak of its ascent. This was probably a result of being to bad to clear Blue Spheres levels on my first try rather than not locating them though.

It’s pretty crazy that I keep finding new rings decades later. Some of them are remarkably well hidden.

 

Never. I think the Super Emeralds and Hyper Sonic are both lame, and they're not required for the good ending. I've mentioned before that I really don't like special stages, and if a game's going to lock the true final boss behind them then you BET I'm going to half-ass it. I really appreciate that Origins agrees with me, I've never been so un-frustrated with special stages and if they ever rerelease any other Sonic games it is now required that they bring the coins back for this specific purpose.

 

I don't have the locations super committed to memory, but: I can get all the -Chaos- Emeralds by Carnival Night Zone at the latest, and I can get all the Super Emeralds by LRZ at the latest (which isn't saying much since that's the last opportunity to get them, but to be fair, it more often averages to be in Sandopolis than LRZ, this is just if I forget/rush too much).

 

Doing too many special stages (which I don't even enjoy playing) too fast, not to mention trawling the whole zone for them, really kills the pacing for me. As a result, I pace my emerald collection throughout the whole game. As a result I tend to get the last emeralds in Lava Reef.