8-Second ABS...olute Victory

So you've been wondering. What's 0:08 doing at the top of the list on ZERO's time? Second place (at the time of this writing) is nearly twice as slow!

Let's go over the mechanics of the boss fight. You have a hammer which can be used to knock ZERO around. ZERO has a guiding laser, a spring-action fist, and other such nonsense, but that doesn't matter because you're too good to get hit. Aren't you?

Anyway, the "knocking ZERO around" doesn't do you much good, unless...you manage to knock him into the electric grid that surrounds the playing area. That renders him motionless for a while, during which time you have the opportunity to deal 1 hit of damage (and afterwards ZERO jumps up and fires a shockwave across the ground). You need 3 hits to win the battle and stop the clock.

So with correct timing, 6 hits with the hammer can end the battle:
1. Hit into the electric fence
2. Damage #1
3. Jump over shockwave, hit into fence
4. Damage #2
5. Jump over shockwave, hit into fence
6. Damage #3

It'd be nice to end the battle in 6 swings, and you can get a time around 18 seconds that way, but we're the Sonic Center. Why take 6 when you can do it in fewer?

The key to breaking the time barrier: What if you can achieve the results of actions 2 and 3 above, in a single swing?

There's more to the battle than I presented earlier. When you hit ZERO into the fence, he sticks to it for a brief period, then bounces off. Once the bounce begins, that's when you're first able to register a hit for damage. And if you do hit ZERO in mid-bounce, he stops immediately--no further momentum away from the wall.

If ZERO is close enough to the wall at any given time, the "overheating" animation plays automatically. So if you manage to get a hit immediately after the bounce action starts, not only do you register a hit of damage, but he overheats to get ready for another hit right away! And there's no annoying shockwave you have to jump over!

The first time you get the timing for the double-duty hit correct, the run should be done in about 12 seconds. And that very same first time, you'll know immediately how to get under 9.

You successfully combined actions 2 and 3 into one swing of the hammer, so why not do the same for 4 and 5?

It would seem easy, since you've already done it before--but there's one important thing to know about the second time around. There's a slight lapse that occurred between the time ZERO started his bounce and the time you got your hit in, maybe 0.1 seconds...that's time that ZERO had to move away from the wall. The radius from the wall that it takes to register an overheat is only so big, and you've used up part of that radius the first time--so getting a second successful hit will always require more precision than the first one.

But one of the nice things about boss time attack in this game is that you get unlimited restarts with no fear of running out of lives (enjoy it here; that's not true for the sequel), so you can keep trying until you get it right.

In summary:
1. Have ZERO charge toward you at the start, then run around to the other side.
2. Once he comes to a stop, line up the closest path to the edge and hit ZERO in that direction (Swing #1). It'll have just enough "oomph" to send him flying to the electric wall.
3. You've practiced your timing, so figure out how long it takes before he comes bouncing off the wall, then jump and swing at his head (Swing #2) as soon after that moment as you can (hitting him earlier is no good). You'll deal damage and keep him pinned against the wall.
4. Repeat step 3, knowing that the margin for error is lower this time. (Swing #3)
5. You don't have to be precise this time, since this hit ends the fight and you don't need to keep ZERO pinned to the wall, but you do still have an incentive to strike as soon as possible: the clock stops sooner, and isn't that a good thing? Finish the fool off with another jumping swing. (Swing #4)

So from a 6-swing fight, you've managed to take it down to 4, and cut your time by about half in the process! Not bad for the only boss fight by the slowest character in the game (well, aside from Big, but Big doesn't count for much of anything around here).