Hi Sonic 2 community,

I was wondering if there are any strategies for defeating Robotnik in Metropolis Zone quickly without taking damage as Sonic, as all the regular runs damage boost through the orbiting capsules and make use of CPU controlled Tails. For context, currently I'm working on a speedrun of Metropolis 3, and in the run I will be collecting all the rings. Preferably I'd like to still have all 223 rings at the end of the act. The only strat I know is to do the battle as 2P Tails, who can damage boost as he doesn't lose rings if he gets hit, however not only is it still rather slow, but also would invalidate the run from submission to speedrun.com under the current ruleset.

I'd greatly appreciate any insight from the community!