[center]General Mechanics[/center]
Spin/Fire Dash: Hold down then tap A to charge a rev. Release down to shoot forward. Sonic and Blaze both work the same way with this aside from the actual speed, with the exception that Sonic damages enemies while revving, while Blaze doesn't. This is mostly outclassed by the boost, though it's useful for killing enemies since boosting into enemies gives them an extra animation of flying off the screen before actually being counted as destroyed.
Slope Jump: A recurring mechanic in most 2d sonic games. If you jump while running uphill, you gain a lot of height but not as much distance as jumping on flat ground. The opposite is true, if you jump while running downhill, you don't jump with much height but you jump far and horizontally. Landing on downhill slopes tends to also help break speed cap, so you want to do this with downhill slope jumps as much as possible, especially for Blaze.
Loop Jump: When running right through a loop, if you jump from the upper-left corner and land on the bottom-left corner, you'll gain a burst of speed. This breaks speed cap for both characters and dramatically increases their speed. You want to do this as much as possible.
Rails: Rails are much better programmed in this game than the advance series, fortunately. You'll almost always land on a rail (unless you try to land on a rail spiral, then you'll miss it). After the first time you ride a rail, if you jump off, you won't land on the same rail anymore. The exception is most rails in Altitude Limit. Also, you can trick on Rails by tapping B or R. Sonic/Blaze's speed will increase if you complete a 3-trick combo on rails. Note that the only way to jump off rails is to press A in Rush Adventure.
[center]Boost[/center] Press and hold Y to boost on the ground (you cannot initiate a boost in air).
When initiating a boost, Sonic/Blaze's speed is instantly set to their corresponding boost speed. Restarting boost can be useful because you do decelerate in boost state in some cases (e.g. running uphill), and you want to reset it to that higher boost speed.
You can also do a boost-jump, where you jump immediately after initiating a boost. This carries the initial boost speed into the jump and, when combined with a slope jump, gives you extra speed and/or height in the jump itself. Sonic gains a lot more from boost-sloope-jumps than Blaze since his boost gives a lot more speed (and thus more height/speed).
You generally have more air control while in boost state. This is important in making certain gaps. It also gives you extra distance/height if you combine boost with tricks.
[center]Trick System[/center] Similar to the trick mechanic from Sonic Advance 2 and 3, both Sonic and Blaze can trick whenever they do one of the following then press R:
-Hit a vertical or diagonal spring -Run off a jump ramp -Go through a trick hoop -Fly off the end of a grind rail
Note that these aren't the only scenarios to enter "trick mode", but these are the most common.
There are three kinds of tricks: upward, diagonal, and forward. You can do these by pressing R while holding up, up+right or up+left, and only right or left, respectively. These are primarily used to give Sonic/Blaze extra distance or height to reach other areas or just to go faster. See character section for details.
[center]Combo System[/center] Every time Sonic/Blaze enters a "trick state", you can press B to add a combo. Each combo adds a bit to the boost gauge. You can then press A to do a combo finisher, which ends the current combo then gives a significant increase to the boost gauge depending on the length of the combo. You cannot start a new combo after a finisher until you either hit another trick trigger (e.g. ramp or hoop) or do an R trick (which counts as a combo finisher).
You can start a new combo after an R trick. For example, you can run off a ramp, do a 3 combo (BBA), do a diagonal trick, then another 3 combo (BBA), which should almost immediately fill the entire boost gauge.
You generally want to have the longest combo possible then barely end it with the finisher to get as much boost as you can out of it. Sometimes it's worth taking a bit of extra time to boost your combos for extra boost, but other times you want to end the combo early then R trick to land and continue quickly. Whichever option is best comes down to a case-by-case scenario, and is generally determined by how much boost meter you need later.
[center]Sonic[/center] Sonic overall is faster than Blaze. His boost speed and speed cap are significantly higher than hers. This means he gains a lot more height and distances from slope jumps than Blaze does, giving him access to some shortcuts she can't. Sonic's tricks are more suited for speed overall than Blaze's, but less suited for accessibility/shortcuts.
R Action: Tap R in the air to Air Dash. Sonic shoots forward and descends immediately. This increases his horizontal speed in the air a little bit, and also resets his vertical speed so he starts descending immediately. It's useful if you want Sonic to stop ascending then immediately fall. It's also useful in the opposite scenario, where you want him to gain extra air distance and slow his descent by resetting his downward speed. Overall, it's more useful than Blaze's air action for general speed since he descends immediately, but Blaze's is better for maintaining height. This turns into the homing attack if there are any enemies nearby, which is almost always a liability because of how it kills all of his speed. Avoid this if there are any enemies on screen, as Sonic will almost always try to homing attack even if you're holding the opposite direction.
Up Trick: Sonic does a light jump in the air straight up and his horizontal speed comes to a complete stop. This is near useless because he doesn't gain much height out of this, he doesn't have much air control, and this is almost completely outclassed by his diagonal trick. The main use for this is to completely set his horizontal speed to 0. Blaze's Up Trick is much better both with vertical distance/speed, and air control.
Diagonal Trick: Sonic does a light jump in the air diagonally, maintaining some of his horizontal speed. This is the ideal trick to use if Sonic needs a bit of height, since he retains much of his horizontal speed. He still doesn't jump anywhere near as high as Blaze's trick, but it's just enough for most routes.
Forward Trick: Sonic kicks forward with an extra burst of speed and resets his vertical speed. This has the same function as air action where his vertical speed resets, so it's useful both for halting upward momentum and also resetting downward momentum to gain extra distance. He retains all of his horizontal momentum when using this trick. If used just at the landing point of a rail, Sonic gains a lot of extra speed on the rail, though not as much as Blaze.
[center]Blaze[/center] Blaze is overall slower than Sonic since her boost and speed caps are significantly slower than Sonic's. The main method to break her speed cap is via her forward trick exploit (explained below) or by using timed loop/ slope jumps and landing on downhill slopes to gain extra speed. This is especially important for Blaze. Her tricks are less suited for overall speed, but more suited for raw distance and shortcuts.
R Action: Tap and hold R in the air to start hovering. This resets Blaze's vertical speed to 0 then starts to descend slowly. She does maintain her horizontal speed, though she doesn't really gain any extra boost. Because each tap of R resets her vertical speed, you can reach farther distances by just tapping R repeatedly instead of holding it the entire time, which resets her vertical speed repeatedly. However, note that each extra tap of R does slow her down horizontally a bit, so you want to balance this out. Overall, Blaze's hover is more useful than Sonic's for maintaining height, but less suited for actual speed because she starts descending more slowly than Sonic, and doesn't gain horizontal speed.
Up Trick: Blaze shoots upward very high. This resets her horizontal speed to 0, though she has immediately air control after initiating it. This is very useful for not just pure vertical distance and speed, but because she still retains a lot of air control, she can accelerate horizontally very easily after initiating this trick. It's much more useful than Sonic's Up Trick, though her diagonal trick is generally more useful.
Diagonal Trick: Blaze shoots diagonally very high and far. She maintains some of her speed from initiating the trick. It's basically the best trick in the game for accessing shortcuts due to how far it goes, and is what makes her stand out from Sonic.
Forward Trick: Blaze shoots forward quickly in a straight line. This is useful for gaining extra raw distance and quickly landing. Unlike Sonic's Forward trick, Blaze does not gain any extra speed from it, and she actually resets it at the end of her trick. However, this trick has an important exploit where if she initiates this trick at the lowest possible pixel against a landing spot or an uphill slope/rail, the cooldown will be cancelled and her trick's momentum will carry into her running animation. This allows her to break her speed cap and is key in going fast with Blaze.
[center]Differences from Rush Adventure[/center] -Individual combos in Rush Adventure don't increase the boost gauge much, compared to Rush. Combo finishers are much more important here than in Rush. -Movement tricks in Rush Adventure count as combo finishers, while they don't in Rush. -Sonic's forward trick in Rush Adventure has a different animation and moves a bit farther than in Rush. It still serves a similar purpose though. -In Rush adventure, the B button no longer jumps off of rails, instead it tricks. You have to press A to jump now, whereas in Rush, both B and A worked.
