You call that a battery?

In lieu of a video for this level, I've come up with this.

Today we're going to speed our way through Flying Battery 1, and learn a few nifty tricks along the way. Ready? GO!

Start with a spindash, hold right through the loop, run through a tube and roll down a hill. That should've taken about five seconds - quickly glance up at the clock now and every so often to see that you're on time. Charge a left-facing spindash, hold it right the way down to the bottom, then you'll want to tap right somewhere during this spindash to ensure you land correctly. You should land on the enemy below and on one of the hooks nearest the one that lowers you to the next level. Keep an eye on your Rings, you should have 17 or 18 as you descend.

Jump over to the next lot of three rings (20/21) then to the flame shield and ten rings (30/31). These rings are crucial, as you will soon discover. You can use the flame attack in midair, so do it.

Jump over to the outdoor section. You want to jump onto the third platform, then to the hooks above you. If you have 31 rings, you can just jump on and off, but if you have 30 you must stay on the hooks until you have 33.

Now jump off and go to 35. From this next platform, jump and flame attack over to the last platform, then mash your jump button and land on the zip-platform. You'll go zooming up the ramp - now you want to jump off, and aim a flame attack left. If you've done this all right, you should have a high 24 by now... can you hit the checkpoint in under 25?

24 or 25 is mostly irrelevant, you'll still get a time under two minutes. Jump into the bonus stage, and make sure you exit with a lightning shield. If you don't, restart. Same goes for if you lose it at any time.

Now for the fun part. From the checkpoint, you want to tap left and then do a one-tap spindash. Let go of left for a little while in these tubes or else you'll run into the edge of the section above. Run up to the left and jump on the fire-spring. Now let it and the zip-platform take you up to four more hooks - this is the first major use of the Lightning Shield here. You want to jump up to the bottom right corner of the chain that the orange platforms move through. From here, double jump to the moving platform, then a single jump to the orange platform, double jump over to the bottom left of the second chain, carefully dodge the fire, double jump over the capsule... and all before the 40 second mark.

But you're not out of the woods yet. That double jump has to land on the fire-spring at the left. Before it launches, you have to run a little to the right, to get enough speed to clear the fan of the first of the spinning poles. Jump up to the second, move up a little and jump again. Now do four very quick jumps to reach the end of this section. Jump over the zip-platform, and you can rest for a few seconds. It's here where we'll meet the bane of time attackers that is the universal timer.

Timed events in most Sonic games occur on two different bases: a fixed timer and a universal timer. Fixed timer events will start at a predetermined position whenever you bring any part of that event onto the screen, but an event on universal timer (ie. most moving platforms) start at a given position at 0 seconds and run through their cycle continuously regardless of your time of entry on the screen. But what happens when you hit a checkpoint?

If you hit a checkpoint and either a) enter a bonus stage or b) die and restart, all universal timer events are reset to 0 seconds. This means that you can modify said events just by taking a bonus stage, or a death.

So when you get to the platform which will descend and take you to the second checkpoint, the universal timer in the level is in fact not on 50 seconds, or whatever time you got there at - it's 50 minus your checkpoint time. In fact, the time you should be spindashing off the platform you're on is 25 seconds. So if you got a 24 checkpoint, that's 49 - and if you got a 25 checkpoint, it's 50. As soon as you see the timer go your number, release a one-tap spindash and jump. That's right, you're going over the platforms, not under.

Jump over the first platform, then jump off it and double jump over the enemies. Then jump up over the second platform and you should get a 51-52 checkpoint.

It's not over yet - not by any stretch. There's only one way up to that platform up there - and it involves you double jumping - not just anywhere, but off that switch just to the right of the checkpoint.

Now once you've done that - jump about halfway down the slope, and jam left. Use your double jump to slam into the spring and be thrown down onto the ramp. If it worked you will run quickly through the loop, through the tube and into the spring at 59 or 1:00.

One more hard part... spindash onto the switch and charge another one. Spindash through here and if you get there before 1:05/1:06... you've done it! Now the universal timer kicks in again and the rocket parts fall perfectly into place for you. After the first one, spindash to pick up another lightning shield, jump over the three pits with spiked balls in them, then to the second rocket part. You should fall through the floor and hit the ramp below at 1:26/1:27. Run through the final tube, off the ramp and - this is the last part - land directly on the capsule. If you did all that correctly, you should finish on a high 1:56 or 1:57, depending on your first checkpoint time.

And now for my usual analysis:

Time: 1:56
Analysis: Not getting any better without crazy TAS crap.