Spyro: Year of the Dragon

Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Developer: Insomniac Games Publishers: SCEA (US), SCEE (EU) Platform: PlayStation Released in US: November 1, 2000 Released in EU: November 10, 2000 This game has unused areas. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused sounds. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Spyro: Year of the Dragon is the last game of the original Spyro trilogy and it was also the last Spyro game developed by Insomniac Games. In this game it's Spyro's duty to (once again) save a foreign world by defeating an evil sorceress and reclaiming all the stolen dragon eggs... also something something Year of the Dragon.

Developer Messages

Located in the main directory of the disc is a file called 'SPYRO3.TRD'. It contains the following text:

Now is the winter of our discontent...
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Call me Ishmael...
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan...
Call me Jonah.  My parents did...
Gaily bedight a gallant knight...
Beware the ides of March...
Tyger tyger burning bright...
...
I always get the Shemp...

This text is also present in the files for both predecessors. (in the "DRAGON.TRD" and "SPYRO2.TRD" files respectably)

'Shemp' is referenced multiple times in the Spyro series, starting with the boss in the first game called 'Dr Shemp' and later the name of a skateboard trick in the third game. It is thought to be an in-joke by the developers whenever an unexpected error occurred, or when one of the developers messed up, and in either case they would "get the Shemp". It was likely added to reduce any leftover space on the disc, which is further supported by its inclusion in the files of the playable Crash Bandicoot demos accessible in the series.

Brian Allgeier, we love you.

Grouped in with the epilogue text within the Atlas is this sneaky message by Insomniac Designer Head Brian Allgeier, who at the time of Spyro 3's development was a level designer at the company.

Unused Text

The very last egg, no really it is.

Where do you think you're going with that egg. You just put that back this minute.

You can't trust anyone these days.

A (rather long) string of text which appears to have been inserted purely for the sake of humour and doesn't occur at all in the game (because of its length, which is far too long to fit properly into an Atlas description.)

Stop, thief.

Possibly tied to the above string, again rendering it as part of the developers' quirky sense of humour.

fuckety fuck fuck

A slightly ruder text string. A similar string is used in an earlier prototype of the game as an error handler, so it's possible that this was either used for debugging or error handling, too.

Dialogue oddities

Hunter

If the player completes both of the skateboarding egg challenges in Sunny Villa and then talks to Hunter, he will say the following:

You can go for the course record now, if you want. Whenever you hop on a skateboard, a timer will start.
Score as many points as you can until the timer expires or you wipe out. Good luck!

While this is mostly true, wiping out doesn't end your run, as your run is only over when you run out of time. This line of dialogue is simply a leftover from an earlier version of the game, as in two different demos of the game, wiping out causes the timer to stop and your points to reset to zero, meaning that even if you had broken the course record during the run it wouldn't have been counted unless you didn't "survive" until the time was up. The difficulty of this may have been what motivated the change.

Most notably, while Hunter still says exactly the same dialogue, the audio file for the dialogue is missing. Given how late in development the demos were, it's possible that they changed the challenge after the dialogue had been added, but weren't able to re-record the line due to time constraints.

Sparx

Sparx also has dialogue left over from an earlier version of the game. In Honey Speedway, Sparx says the following:

Honeycomb Speedway is home to the fastest racing bees in the world. It's also one of the only speedways that operates at night!

"Honeycomb Speedway" is the early name for Honey Speedway, and it can be found in unused text strings in the earliest demo of the game.

Unused Dialogue

The game has a hidden Dialogue test mode used to listen to voice lines from the current level. It can be accessed by pressing Square, Square, Circle, Circle, Square, Square, Circle, Circle in the pause menu and can be exited by inputting the cheat a second time.. Text indicating the chosen NPC and sound clip will appear below the pause menu. Up and Down can be used to select the voice clip you want to hear.

Due to the way audio streams are stored in this game, the voice clips override the music track. Once you play a voice clip and leave the menu, it will loop infinitely in place of the music track for that level until you leave the area. There are several instances where the dialogue test allows the player to listen to unused dialogue.

Most of the unused character dialogue is also present in text format in the code, but some of the dialogue is only present in the form of unused audio. It is worth noting that all the unused lines received translations in the PAL version.

Level	Character	Dialogue	Audio	Notes
Sunrise Spring	Sheila	Thanks for freeing me. Why don't you come visit me in my home world?		Since a cutscene plays immediately after freeing Sheila in which she thanks Spyro and enters the portal, this dialogue is never used in-game. It's possible that this dialogue was used when the cutscenes hadn't been implemented yet. There's also an unused dialogue trigger that can be reactivated by hacking, which causes Sheila to greet Spyro, use this dialogue and turn around and run into her portal.
Sunny Villa	Hunter	Now that you've mastered the basics, let's see you do some stunts! Try using the ✕ or △ button to jump off ramps and turn in the air...		Hunter says this in the earliest demo of the game instead of his "course record" dialogue.
Sunny Villa	Hunter	This is the most fun I've had since we chased King Flippy on the manta ray.		Hunter says this in the earliest demo of the game instead of his "course record" dialogue.
Buzz's Dungeon	Sheila	If you can charge toad boy into the lava, I think I can finish him off.		Probably cut dialogue intended to aid the player. Such unused dialogue can only be found in the first two boss arenas.
Midday Garden	Sgt. Byrd	Thanks for freeing me. Why don't you come visit me in my home world?		As before, there's never any need for this dialogue. The text string is identical to the others. Again there's also an unused dialogue trigger that can be reactivated by hacking, which makes Sgt. Byrd use this dialogue, turn around and waddle into his portal.
Enchanted Towers	Jasper	And now, for my latest experiment: 'Blast-Sculpting'! I shall attempt to carve an image of you with a single explosive detonation...		In the 2018 Insomniac Live Spyro: Year of the Dragon speedrun developer John Fiorito recalls that the NPCs in Enchanted Towers had to be "toned down" - this is probably a remnant from before they were changed.
Enchanted Towers	Jasper	Not too bad, eh? Very post-neolithic, wouldn't you say?		More dialogue from the earlier version of the Enchanted Towers NPCs. This dialogue may suggest that originally the Sorceress statue at the end of the level wouldn't have been completely destroyed - since total destruction is required to enter the skateboarding area, the portal may have been moved, too.
Bamboo Terrace	Shui	Thank you for offering to help Spyro, but surely even you wouldn't be able to defeat all those rhynocs until the power up is active.		While the dialogue suggests the superflame gate would have needed to be activated à la Spyro 2, curiously early screenshots - most likely from before the audio dialogue was recorded - suggest there wasn't originally a power up gate at all, and Spyro would have powered up upon stepping onto the boat.
Spike's Arena	Sgt. Byrd	If you charge into the lava boulders after I drop them, they'll explode against anything they hit.		Probably cut dialogue intended to aid the player. Such unused dialogue can only be found in the first two boss arenas.
Spike's Arena	Sgt. Byrd	Whenever you get low on health, just toast a chicken or two, and you'll soon be ship shape.		More dialogue intended to help the player.
Evening Lake	Bentley	Thanks for freeing me. Why don't you come visit me in my home world?		As before, there's never any need for this dialogue. The text string is identical to the others. There is an unused dialogue trigger for this text, but for some reason the audio dialogue doesn't play when it's triggered.
Evening Lake	The Professor	Oh dear... Oh dear, I've been trying to build a rocket to take you to Midnight Mountain, but I appear to have misplaced my plans! Now I can't even remember where I was working...		There are no text strings representing this dialogue.
Evening Lake	The Professor	Don't worry about me, I'm just gathering my thoughts- eh, let's see... I was working on the plans, some ninjas appeared... eeh, geh, then everything gets fuzzy.		There are no text strings representing this dialogue.
Midnight Mountain	Agent 9	Thanks for freeing me. Why don't you come visit me in my home world?	N/A	Unlike the rest of the "Thanks for freeing me" dialogue, there's no audio component - yet ironically, in the original release, this dialogue actually isn't unused, though it only occurs under strange circumstances detailed below. In later versions of the game this dialogue goes completely unused.

If the player chooses to defeat the Sorceress before freeing Agent 9 - something many players would not do - Agent 9 will appear outside his portal. When talking to him, the "Thanks for freeing me" dialogue is shown, but remains silent due to the lack of an audio component for this line. There's some minor version differences here - in the initial release, Agent 9 is seen looking towards the sign next to his portal and upon talking to him Spyro seems to have some trouble finding where to stand as he continuously walks into the sign while the dialogue box is up. In later releases he faces away from the portal and there's no glitching with Spyro's movement. After speaking to him, Agent 9 runs into his portal. It's possible that the devs didn't see a reason to record his dialogue as, by that point in development, the dialogue was intended to be replaced with the cutscene with Moneybags instead, but that doesn't explain why they didn't choose to add the dialogue in later despite fixing his positioning.

Curiously, if the player uses glitches or hacks to defeat the Sorceress without freeing one of the other critters, then their cutscene will play upon approaching their portals. Before the cutscene plays, the animal cage can be seen waiting outside each of their portals but neither Moneybags nor the alternate character is seen.

By using the dialogue test cheat in Evening Lake, two unused dialogue strings of The Professor can be heard. In Fireworks Factory, Greta mentions that the rhynocs stole the blueprints for the Professor's 'wocket' that would you from Evening Lake to Midnight Mountain, but the Professor himself is only seen in-game in Agent 9's Lab. Paradoxically, in Agent 9's sublevel (which can normally only be accessed after the Rocket has been built) Agent 9 mentions that he's helping Handel recover some rocket plans that the Sorceress stole from the Professor.

Unused Sounds

Leftovers sound effects from Spyro 2 can be found in the WAD of the third game, namely the Guidebook page turning sound and the "Level Complete!" fanfare.

The page turning sound effect from the Guidebook.

The fanfare heard after a level is 100% completed.

Unused Music

To do: Gather information on other builds of the game, particularly the original US Version 1.0. Do they contain the Greatest Hits Tracks?

Multiple areas across the game reuse prior level themes in early builds of the game (and in some cases the final build), such as Enchanted Towers playing the same theme used for Sgt. Byrd's Base. Whilst this is a common practice frequently employed in platformers and adventure games, Year of the Dragon is notable for level themes differing depending not merely on the build of the game, but on its region, multiple pieces of music remaining exclusive to NTSC builds of the game and not occurring at all in PAL versions. Even more strangely, some of the corresponding themes are present on the PAL disc, and it is unknown as to why they don't play in-game.

The themes for Evening Lake and the Sorceress' Lair, both used in their intended areas in the Greatest Hits release, are rendered unused in every other variant of the game, including the original US version as well as (unusually) the PAL Platinum release, the latter of which applies the majority of the Greatest Hits edits otherwise. Even more bizarrely, these 2 themes are the only Greatest Hits exclusive themes that can be found on the PAL disc, the others (including the Enchanted Towers Skate Park, Crystal Islands, Haunted Tomb, Lost Fleet and more) not being present at all.

Unused Graphics

To do: Perhaps get direct texture rips of the sprites, or at least screenshots

Unused Shell Fragments

In earlier versions of the game, the egg released gold, intricate fragments upon hatching. These shell fragment textures still exist in the final game, and although they usually go unused, for some reason every egg in the game releases one shell fragment upon hatching that uses the older texture. Usually, the angle and speed that the fragment is released with means it almost immediately clips through the floor, making it hard to see, but for some eggs the fragments are released in such a way that the incorrectly textured piece shoots to the right of Spyro instead of down, and at a speed slow enough to give the player a nice long look at its texture.

The shell can be seen to the left of Spyro.

Power-Up Icons

Through a little bit of hacking, the power-up sprites can be viewed in the pause menu. Only three power-up gates are featured in the final game - superflame, superfly and invincibility. The ice breath power-up from Spyro 2 was removed in Spyro 3, and as a result the ice cube sprite which would normally go atop the power-up meter goes unused. The weird blue ball sprite is also a leftover from Spyro 2, where it represented the underwater variant of the superflame powerup in Aquaria Towers (though the icon would display even if Spyro was not underwater, meaning that this cannot be replicated in Spyro 3 by simply going underwater with the powerup active).

Icy Peak Rhynoc Head

Amongst the graphics used in Icy Peak is a single unused frame of a rhynoc's head. The rhynoc matches the ones seen in the ice dancing minigame, except without a helmet, just like in this early screenshot. A full set of animation frames can be found in the game's second demo, but only one frame remains in the final game.

Bamboo Terrace Counter Icons

A prerelease screenshot of the game indicated that in earlier versions of the game, there was a counter in one of the Bamboo Terrace minigames. A zero is used in place of where the animated icon would go. In the final, no such counter is present, but animation sprites for the an icon matching the minigame do exist.

Spike's Arena Zero

An extra "0" is found in the graphics files for Spike's Arena, after the animation files for the sprite of Spike's head. Like in the screenshot previously mentioned, this was probably used as a placeholder when the animated sprite wasn't complete.

Frozen Altars Cat

In the cat hockey minigame in Frozen Altars, a single sprite of a cat is placed between the animation sprites for Spyro and the rival rhynoc. Once again, this was probably the first animation frame for some sort of counter - given that the game already has counters tracking both the player's and the AI's score in the final game, it's not exactly clear what this would have been used for, or why it became unused.

Sgt. Byrd Texture Oddity

In early pre-release versions of the game, Sgt. Byrd used a texture which more closely matched his official artwork, wearing only a silver studded hat instead of a green hat and a belt. Moreover, The colours of the inside of his mouth and his chest also are different, with the old texture using a solid purple colour inside his mouth and an orange-yellow-white gradient on his chest as opposed to the darker red mouth and the plain white chest seen in his final design. This texture is actually seen in-game, namely in the "Bianca Strikes Back" cutscene, where Sgt. Byrd is briefly seen using his early texture (and what appears to be a much larger model than his playable one) alongside some rhynocs which were originally intended to be used in Sunny Villa as seen in early screenshots. In both NTSC-U versions of the game, Sgt. Byrd is also seen using his earlier model in Midday Garden when he is locked in Moneybag's cage. Later releases used his final texture here instead. Through hacking, it is possible to perform a glitch which causes all the models in a level to appear, and using this glitch reveals that Sgt. Byrd actually has two separate models, placed side-by-side, with one using the earlier texture and the other using the final texture. In later versions of the game, the two models are still present, but both use the final texture, indicating that the older model wasn't removed in later versions, but rather had its texture changed to match that of the later model. Interestingly, in all versions of the game, the signs next to his portals depict him wearing his earlier silver hat.

Something else worth noting is that Sgt. Byrd's design in later Spyro games - namely Spyro: A Hero's Tail - more closely match his earlier appearance.

Unused Areas

Spyro: Year of the Dragon contains several unused areas. It is likely that these areas were meant to be accessible, but never made it into the final game for reasons that are often unknown.

Fireworks Factory Cave

In the level 'Fireworks Factory', there is a hidden cave with a life inside of it that cannot be reached through normal means. The cave is located near the start of the level, and acts as though it was supposed to have a wall that could be busted when rammed into, much like the one in the level Bamboo Terrace. It is possible that the fact that this area isn't accessible was simply an oversight on the developers' part.

Midnight Mountain Island

In the Midnight Mountain Homeworld is a tall island that is far out of the player's reach in normal game play and has three lives on it. This island was originally intended to house the Super Bonus Round portal before it was moved. In the words of senior artist Craig Stitt:

A long time ago the portal to the Super Bonus Round was on that island.
The only way to get to that island was beat the Sorceress in the final
battle. Once you had done that a VERY VERY tall whirl wind would appear
in the room just outside the entrance to the final boss round. This
whirlwind would take you up high enough that you could glide ALL the way
out to that island. If I remember right it was like a 20 or 30 second
glide. It was very cool. I was actually the artist who modeled the level.

Unfortunately, the way vacations that year worked out, I needed to take
mine right before we shipped the game. When I came back I discovered
that the Super Bonus Portal had been moved MUCH closer and that the
super-whirl-wind had been removed (for unknown reasons). Unfortunately,
the artist who made all the changes (as per the programmer's and
designer's request) failed to remove the old island way off in the
distance. Same with the programmer who overlook removing the goodies
that had been placed there.

By the time I was back from vacation the game was done and out the door.

The very tall whirlwind object still exists in the game and can be restored. (Ignore the egg on the island at the end, it was added by the hacker.)

This whirlwind was reimplemented in Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

(Source: Neoseeker)

Dino Mines Arena

An image of the level in a level viewer.

There's a strange arena-like area in 'Dino Mines' that can be accessed using a swim-in-the-air glitch. Once executed, the player must swim to a wall past a red building and go behind it, and there will be a portal that is hidden and regularly inaccessible. Once through the portal, the player will be in an empty arena with a platform in the middle. It was likely going to be used for a mini-boss battle to obtain an egg, much like the one in Spooky Swamp.

Earlier versions of the game are missing the "Take it to the bank" egg, with "The Bailey gang's last stand" in its place, supporting the idea that it was originally some kind of battle with the Bailey Gang.

To return to the normal level, there is an invisible portal in the middle of the platform. However, simply exiting the level may prove better, seeing as Spyro has nothing to stand upon exiting, and will fall continuously until game over (yet occasionally the player may end up on the opposite side of the wall standing on the ground however, indicating where the portal once was located.)

Midday Gardens Tunnel

The lower-poly version of the level's geometry, showing the room.

Inside the room where the Balloon/Whirligig/Rocket is found, there is a texture of a locked door paved over what used to be a doorway to another room. Using the swim in air glitch, you can swim away from the door and the level begins to lower its polygon count, that way you can see from a distance a tunnel/corridor appear behind the door. The previous purpose for this unused room is currently unknown. If you get too close to the structure, it will un-draw itself from the level geometry, as if you are far away from it. There is no collision data for it.

Given that the incomplete Whirligig sits right in front of this door until you play every level of Midday Gardens and are able to move to the next level, one could assume that each mode of transportation had its own area and that the transportation modes may have varied on a world-by-world basis, the balloon to midday gardens and back, the whirligig to evening lake and back, and the rocket to midnight mountain and back.

Enchanted Towers Room

The lower-poly version of the level, showing the room and it's entrance.

Inside one of the structures near a minigame portal is an unused room that can't be seen or accessed at all in normal gameplay. It only shows up when the level is in it's lowest polygon count. The purpose of this room is unknown as there is another room in the level for Sgt. Byrd and it still exists in this low-poly geometry and is on a different side of the level.

Country Speedway Doorway

The lower-poly version of the level showing the door in the level.

Though not an unused room or area, there is what is supposedly a door under the entrance to Hunter's area in Country Speedway. The door is perfectly under the entrance and fits the entrance's shape. It may have been for Spyro to charge and as a result, break to allow you to enter Hunter's area. It only is shown in the low-poly model of the level and because of this, doesn't show its texture if there is one.

Scorch's Pit Unused Content

To do: Get a graphic rip or screenshot of the ammunition and enemy.

Unused power-up

2 unused variations of the bullets Bentley provides you with in the Scorch's Pit boss level can be triggered if one hacks the game. The first, symbolised by a spiked snowball rather similar to the Crystal Glacier Talisman from the previous game, acts as a 'smart bomb', killing all other entities on the battlefield (both enemies and chickens, but there is no effect on the boss). The second is a temporary invincibility function, which acts like the power-up usable in Evening Lake and is represented by the same small shield icon which has represented invincibility since Spyro 2. The latter may have been scrapped for a number of reasons, whether due to Scorch's lack of challenge or due to how the invincibility isn't an offensive powerup and as a result may slow the player down, while the former was probably scrapped because it was too damaging and thus is overpowered.

Unused Enemy

There's an unused re-colouration of the fire trolls that doesn't give off a 'steam' effect and is green instead of orange. It doesn't seem to have any sort of attack and it just runs at the player.

Revisional Differences and Glitches

To do: Maybe clean up this section and put everything into a table. Perhaps come to a conclusion about the order of the builds of each version (NTSC 1.0, PAL 1.0, PAL 1.1, NTSC 1.1?). This link might be helpful.

The game had some noticeable changes between the original version (NTSC 1.0 and PAL 1.0) and the Greatest Hits/Platinum versions. The original version was rushed in order for the game to be released before the Year of the Dragon (the year 2000 in this case) ended. Because of this, some music tracks are repeated, since not all tracks were completed in time. The PlayStation Network version is based on the original version. Here is a brief list of the differences. Keep in mind that this list may still be incomplete:

• In this version, the "START GAME" was replaced by an option that allows the player to change the game's language to either English, French, German, Spanish or Italian.
• A serious bug present in the speedways prevents perfect completion of the game; this was fixed in the Greatest Hits version. If one were to quit the level before obtaining the level's egg then that egg would become completely unobtainable, unless the save file is loaded with a Greatest Hits disc. After saving, the save file is still compatible with the original version of the game. [1]
• A similar glitch is present in the Spooky Swamp stage, where defeating an enemy can result in its gem falling into the water if the player doesn't have Sparx at that point, result in that gem being unobtainable. It is currently unknown whether this was fixed in the Greatest Hits version or not. [2]
• In the original version, the cutscene "Spike is Born" goes unused. It can still be accessed via the cutscene cheat once the game is completed. This was fixed in the Greatest Hits version where it plays directly before the Spike's Arena boss fight.
• The music for Lost Fleet was changed from the music used for "Super Bonus Round" to a remix of Sheila's theme.
• The music for Evening Lake was changed to its intended track. In the original, it erroneously plays the theme of Sunrise Spring.
• All of the speedways except the Harbor Speedway use different music tracks in the Greatest Hits version.
• In the original release, the Sorceress's boss theme goes unused, since it erroneously plays the Sunrise Spring track. This was fixed in the Greatest Hits. (similar case like Evening Lake)
• Dino Mines plays Molten Crater's theme in the original version, and replaced with a unique theme in the Greatest Hits version.
• Enchanted Towers' two subgame areas for Spyro (The Lost Wolf and the Stunt Skateboarding areas.) play the music track for Desert Ruins instead. In the Greatest Hits version, they use a different theme not heard anywhere else in the game; an uncut version of the main theme used in the demos. The main area of Enchanted Towers however still plays Sgt. Byrd's theme however, probably because Sgt. Byrd can be used in the main part of the level.
• Haunted Tomb plays Cloud Spires in the original version rather than its own unique theme that it gets in the Greatest Hits version.
• Crystal Islands plays Seashell Shore's theme in the original version but gets its own theme in the Greatest Hits version.
• In earlier versions of the game, skill points obtained via the skating minigames aren't awarded until after the timer is up, whereas in later versions of the game it is awarded the moment the player obtains a score beating the course record. This may be due to the fact that in unfinished versions of the game, you have to both beat the record and not fall off your board to obtain the skill point, so it makes sense that they would require the player to last the full 2 minutes before awarding the point.

None of these changes are present in the 'Platinum' release, the European equivalent of Greatest Hits, except for the 'Spike is Born' cutscene being present and the speedway bug being fixed. Unusually, the Sorceress' boss theme in the Platinum release still isn't her original theme, but is in fact Spike's Arena.

Anti-Piracy

This game is unique in that it has a lot of anti-crack "booby traps", checking for alterations to the game alongside the existing copy-protection. One wrong bit and the trap is triggered. This deliberately made cracking the game a real pain!

Once the trap has been triggered, all sorts of weird things will happen. Zoe will politely inform you that your game is hacked early on in the game. Random eggs and gems in levels other than the one you're in are removed to render the game unwinnable. The game deliberately crashes in odd and confusing ways. The language in the European version changes randomly... all sorts of "fun" things to make pirates pull their hair out!

Here's an article by one of the developers, explaining the whole process.

Thanks, narc.

List of Anti-Piracy Effects

(Source: PixelButts and 12 hours of logging effects)

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Verify consistency. All of these increase in severity as time goes on as progress is made. This is not a full list, but this should cover most effects.

To do: Clean this section up; remove redundant information and headings; improve the inconsistent sentence structure, grammar and punctuation to make it more easily readable.

General Effects

• PAL copies will have language changes.
• All gems and eggs are still globally tracked as obtained in the Atlas as if nothing is wrong.
• Zoe states the copy of the game is hacked.
• The pausing functionality is completely gone.
• Some enemies don't drop gems (observed this with ninja generators at Fireworks Factory).
• The final boss fight will commence, but will then send you to the first stage with no progress and wiped save data.

Sparx

• Sparx will stay green, affecting Sparx's levels and health bar within the levels.
• Pickups in Sparx's level gain hp but he stays green.
• Eating butterflies while measures are active bring Sparx down 1 hit point from current until he hits green.
• Green Sparx can disappear if a butterfly is eaten. Eating another will bring him back.
• If you have no Sparx and destroy a 1-up butterfly jar you get a gold Sparx instead of green (this might be a bug in the effects of a triggered copy?).

Stages that can be completed

Note: This is only counting those that can get the "Level Complete" message even if eggs reset later in time. You might lose access to some stages but they CAN be completed.

• Sunrise Spring Home
• Sunny Villa
• Cloud Spires
• Molten Crater
• Seashell Shores
• Mushroom Speedway
• Sheila's Alps
• Buzz's Dungeon
• Icy Peak
• Country Speedway
• Spike's Arena
• Lost Fleet
• Honey Speedway
• Scorch's Pit
• Haunted Tomb
• Dino Mines
• Harbor Speedway
• Agent 9's Lab
• All of Sparx's stage

Stages of unknown completion

• Fireworks Factory
  • Agent 9's segment locked; getting back to this is not possible at some point due to measures.

Unbeatable stages

• Sorceress Boss Fight
  • During the battle, the game will reset your progress, send you back to the opening homeworld, and clear your save data.

Eggs

• The last egg in all friend stages gets reset periodically (early effect).
• Collecting the above egg(s) adds to total each time. It will be reset at some point in the session or after a reset of the game (sometimes it stays).
• Spooky Swamp is off by 2 eggs.
  • Sheila's segment of this stage is closed off and will not open. This also affects missing gem count.
• Tracking all egg resets is not possible without resetting. Resetting makes more eggs reset. Might not be possible to track all resets.
• Some eggs reset consistently (Last egg before stage exit appears).

Gems

Gems can vary based off a number of unknown factors. Using file number 2 can produce different missing gems compared to file number 1.

Stage	Gems Missing
Midday Garden	1 Gem
Enchanted Towers	3 Gems
Sgt Byrd's Base	6 Gems
Spooky Swamp	215 Gems
Bamboo Terrace	5 Gems
Evening Lake off by	7 Gems
Frozen Alters	10 Gems
Firework Factory	Unknown
Charmed Ridge	6 Gems
Bently's Outpost	10 Gems
Crystal Islands	3 Gems
Desert Ruins	1 Gem

Transportation

• Transportation between worlds will not work unless uncollected eggs from friends are collected (Sheila, Byrd, Bentley and Agent 9).
• Occasionally player will be lifted then returned to where they just came from.
• Rocket can bring you to virtually anywhere, even already defeated bosses.
• Once the rocket is available it change "Midnight Mountain" to "Sorceress' Lair" and instead send you to "Buzz's Dungeon".
  • Exiting Buzz's Dungeon after the above happens you will be placed in the closed doors to the Sorceress' Lair, forcing you to go back to the dungeon.
• After time in Midnight Mountain, returning to the rocket will only leave Sunrise Spring available.
  • If you took the above transport, it will have the rocket and hot air balloon colliding on land, and you'll hop out twice.
  • At this point you can only ride the hot air balloon.
  • If jumping into the hot air balloon at this point you can go back to Midnight Mountain in the hot air balloon (not supposed to happen).
• If you want to go to the other stages, you must "complete" each stage again to get each option back sequentially (Cannot confirm but might be possible. Doublechecking Needed).

Moneybags

• Freeing Sheila cost comes up a second time.
  • Payment is optional.
• Freeing Bentley doesn't penalize your gem count.
• Agent 9 is already unlocked; Moneybags can still be paid.
  • Payment is optional.
• Moneybags "payback" in Midnight Mountains will not return the amount you are supposed to.

Aggressive Measures

• All stages in Midnight Mountain replaced with Sunrise Spring stages.
• Will occasionally return you to the wrong home or stage upon exit of level.
• Will randomly remove you from a stage without warning with the above effect included.

Misc Measures

• The game will lock in a way requiring a reset.
  • Transportation locks (cannot ride your vehicles to travel to worlds).

Sequence Breaking

• Traveling to Sorceress' Lair as described in Transportation, the Atlas will show all stages in Midnight Mountain are fully cleared except Midnight Mountain itself.
  • Sorceress door opening cutscene will try to play if you get close to the doors. They will not open once the cutscene concludes.
  • Resetting the system at this point will take you to the proper location in Midnight Mountain, but Scorch's Pit will be skipped.
  • Returning to Evening Lake and back will proceed as normal.

Music

• The Sorceress' boss fight will not play the correct music track.