How to Get Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Origins

Sonic Origins comes out in 2 days and for new players or returning players alike, folks will want to get the fullest experience out of these classic games.  For some, it may have been a while since playing these titles, especially since they go back as far as 31 years as of the 23rd of June.  One of the longest-lasting recurring elements of the Sonic franchise is the concept of the chaos emeralds, which have the properties to control time and space, and if you possess them you can harness their energy to gain unbelievable raw power.  In the original Sonic games, getting these emeralds is crucial to getting the true ending or unlocking entire levels.  Read on for our guide on How to Get Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Origins!

How to Get Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Origins

To get the chaos emeralds in any of the games in Sonic Origins, you have to successfully complete each game’s corresponding Special Stages.  The special stages are accessible for each game via the following methods:

Sonic The Hedgehog

Collect 50 rings and reach the end of each stage, being sure to jump into the giant ring.  Best to not rush through the level if you’re looking to collect these.   The special stage is a maze of bumpers and colorful cubes, the latter you must typically break through after multiple hits to reach the chaos emerald in the center.  There are 6 of these stages to complete.

Sonic 2

Collect 50 rings and stop at a checkpoint, leaping into the star circles that appear above the star post checkpoints scattered across each zone.  The stage featured in this game is a long half-pipe where you must reach 3 separate ring-collecting benchmarks, while dodging spiked bombs along the way.  There are 7 of these stages you must complete to get all the chaos emeralds.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Find the giant rings hidden across the zones, of which there are several in each act.  Of all the special stages this one is the easiest to access, and arguably the most fun to play, with the stage being known as Blue Spheres, where you control Sonic in a 4-directional 3D realm, turning all the blue spheres red.  Once all the blue spheres have been run into, you’ll receive the emerald.  But beware, as time goes on the momentum picks up, and if you hit one red sphere, you lose your chance.  On top of the 7 regular chaos emeralds you must collect, you’ll also encounter the flashing giant rings in Sonic & Knuckles, where you’ll then have to complete more Blue Sphere stages to get the Super Emeralds.

Sonic CD

While not technically chaos emeralds, but rather time stones, the principle is the exact same as in Sonic 1, where you must collect 50 rings and enter the giant ring at the end of the zone.  The featured stage here is a pseudo-3D area reminiscent of the movement in F-Zero where you must jump into all of the purple and blue UFOs scattered across the area before the timer runs out, and contact with water runs down the timer by 10 seconds each time.  There are 7 time stones to collect.

Each of these games features a good ending when you’ve collected each of the chaos emeralds/time stones.  Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles also enable the use of Super or even Hyper variants of the playable characters, featuring faster movements and boosted abilities as long as they continue to collect rings; their supply depletes over time, and at 0 rings, they revert back to normal.

This concludes our guide on How to Get Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Origins!  Be sure to check out our other guides, and our review!

Sonic Origins releases for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Series X|S on June 23, 2022.