Flying Battery Zone

Flying Battery Zone
Second Zone, Sonic & Knuckles
Number of Acts: 2
Sub-boss: Gapsule
Sub-boss for Act 2: Barrier Eggman (S&K)
Boss: Hang Mobile
Maximum rings, Act 1: 299 + 30
Maximum rings, Act 2: 259 + 20

Flying Battery Zone is the second zone in Sonic & Knuckles (the eighth zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles). It is entered when Sonic or Knuckles latch themselves to the airship as it passes through Mushroom Hill. Both characters spin through a hatch to leave the base for Sandopolis Zone.

This level was originally meant to be between Carnival Night Zone and Icecap Zone in Sonic 3, but it was moved over to Sonic and Knuckles to balance out the amount of full levels in the games (6 Levels Sonic 3, 6 Levels S&K, not counting Hidden Palace and Doomsday, which are actually sublevels.) A custom icon has been found in S3, so it can be assumed it was very near completion before it got scrapped.

The level itself is Robotnik's flying skyship. It comes after Mushroom Hill Zone when playing Sonic & Knuckles or Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Flying Battery Zone has three bosses: one in act one, two in act two.

The first boss is an animal capsule with a boss in it. Get on top of the button on its head. When its eyes flash, move off the button and it will hit itself. Repeat this five more times to defeat it.

The second boss is another self-defeating boss, yet an "homage" to a similar boss from a previous game. You just have to avoid the laser as the cage gets smaller and it will eventually defeat itself. You will then be forced to race upward away from an upward-moving platform to avoid being crushed.

The third boss is Eggman swinging on a pair of chains. Avoid being hit by the spiky arms and bursts of flames it shoots, and when the ship starts swinging up and down, use this chance to hit it. It takes eight hits to defeat. An interesting note about this boss is that it is the only time Knuckles fights the original Dr. Eggman (at every other boss point in his story, he faces the EggRobo instead). This was most likely an accidental oversight.

At the end of the boss, the character runs down the hallway and hits the panel off the ship. This panel was intended to be the snowboard for Sonic in Ice Cap Zone, but the idea was scrapped when the level was moved to Sonic & Knuckles.

Instruction Manual Description

“	Go flying on Robotnik's warship. Watch where you step—sneaky traps are everywhere!	„

Sonic Team Commentary (from Sonic Jam Strategy Guide)

“	This zone has particularly distinctive music, doesn't it. With Sonic 1 and 2, we were working with Nakamura-san, so we couldn't get any extra music, but since with 3 we had the music done in-house, we were able to have a whole lot of music made up for us. We picked out from that selection the music that fit each zone best.	„
— Takashi Iizuka

Enemies

• Blaster - Badnik that fires small projectiles
• Technosqueek - Small robotic rodent

These enemies also show up in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 US Manual, further proof that this level was intended to originally be in Sonic 3.

Trivia

An alternate level icon for Flying Battery Zone can be found in Sonic the Hedgehog 3: