Egg Golem (Hero Story)

Story Mode IL strategies
Egg Golem is the fifth Boss of Hero Story, and is fought with Sonic. This is widely regarded as the most difficult Boss fight in the story, and possibly the entire game. The quickest way to defeat this Boss is to perform superbounces straight up to the weak spot, but this is made difficult by the fact that the platforms you perform them on are very narrow and allow next to no time for the necessary inputs. To get a superbounce on Egg Golem, after charging your spindash, you must: Release it, jump, and then bounce, all before hitting the inner wall. In order to do this in time, the player has no more than 2-3 frames per input, and this is NOT considered an easy strat.

Alternatively, you may superbounce off of a wall created when one of the platforms is lowered, these kinds of superbounces are usually easier to perform. Aim towards the inner corner of the lowered platform to get the camera to follow sonic during a lowered platform superbounce.

Example of a lowered platform superbounce. Notice how it is angled in towards the corner of the wall to get the camera to follow Sonic.

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For those using bounces, it is recommended to use them for only the first three hits, and to go for a headsmash hit and then a regular/arm jump hit. A typical Superbounceless time for Egg Golem is approximately 55 seconds, but this boss can go as low as 24 seconds with three quick bounces and clean execution. The opening cinematic can be skipped by simply pressing A. Example of a good story mode Egg Golem fight with 3 superbounces, a headsmash counterattack, and a spindash jump off of the arm. Note that killing yourself at the end stops the ingame timer sooner, but usually doesn't save realtime, it can also be risky to do in a story run, as egg golem's death animation can be delayed by other animations.

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Non story mode IL strategies
Egg Golem has a strange AI bug that causes him to lag between actions for longer periods of time every time you reset the fight. Because of this, you can get a very low time by resetting the fight roughly 20 times, then hitting him with 5 good superbounces. After the last hit, spindash jump over the edge of the platform and bounce into the sand to kill yourself, this stops the ingame timer sooner. There is very low risk of sonic dying too soon before the fight ends in an IL setting, because Egg Golem doesn't need to stop any animation before starting his death animation.

Example of an Egg Golem IL with 5 superbounce hits and a death strat at the end. World record with this strat is 20.75 by Hunters13, and is very optimised. Any 21 time is very difficult to get.