Death Chamber is the fourth of five hunting stages in Hero story, and for many the most difficult one. Also the most angering for some players. The level is large, the layout and emerald hints can easily confuse and it has many tight corridors with obstacles that make movement really difficult to optimize.
Level start[]
Jump up to the platform in front of you and turn around to check for the free pieces "Roasted keys" and "Bugs on patrol". Roasted keys can be seen above the huge fire behind the spawn point, and "Bugs on patrol" moves back and forth on the lowest part of the stair shaped ceiling with bugs on it. Get the hint either to the right or the left, hit the hourglass, go through the door that opened upon hitting the hourglass, you'll get to a corridor. On the right wall of the corridor is an entrance that is blocked with wooden boxes, punch through those and collect the upgrade.
The piece "bugs on patrol" can be seen for a couple of frames as soon as you load into the level only if you are playing on 16:9 aspect ratio. Look at about 1/4th of the way down the right side of the screen every time you load into the level for a chance to spot it early. if you do see it, the fastest way to collect it is to jump on the slope on the right side and quickly perform a spiral uppercut. since "bugs on patrol" is a 3rd key, collecting it early will be favorable with death strats, making it possible to collect 2 pieces in the red room.
Level layout[]
Map of the level, along with piece locations. Source: http://www.soniccenter.org/maps/sonic_adventure_2_b
The whole level is made up of 3 triangle shaped rooms in a triangle layout, and a huge round room in the middle of them, called the Pyramid Core. The 3 triangle shaped rooms have different colours, red, blue, and green. You start in the red room. All of the rooms are connected to the pyramid core with narrow corridors and slightly bigger rooms with stairs, pillars and obstacles, like enemies or weight lifts. Red and blue room, as well as red and green room, are connected with machine paths. The machine path between red and blue has 2 puzzles and you have to solve one of them, depending which direction you go through. Many pathways and rooms are blocked with grey doors that open after hitting an hourglass or wooden or metal boxes you can punch through. As well you will often come across certain paintings on the wall that you can dig into and that bring you to a different section of the level or a secret room.
Paintings that lead you to a new section when you dig into them look like this
There are secret rooms located next to the blue room, in the machine path between red and blue, in the machine path between red and green, as well as a small extra area next to the green room. The secret room next to the blue room is small and cube shaped, has 4 short pillars, a small ghost, a treasure chest and a chao key box. It can be accessed by going through the door on the side of the blue room and digging into the painting behind it. Both the secret rooms between red and blue and the secret room between red and green can be accessed by digging into a painting on the wall in the middle of the machine path between the rooms. The rooms are very different though. The one between red and blue is similar to the secret room next to blue, but contains a huge ghost and a golden box instead of a chao key box, while the one between red and green has a look more like the machine paths, with a weight in the middle, a couple holes in the floor with boxes in them, two enemies, and hourglass and a couple of entrances in the wall that are blocked with boxes. Not confusing the secret rooms is a very important part of learning the level.
The pyramid core is a huge circle shaped room with a machine in the middle, a couple of pillars, huge statues on the side and doors leading to the different rooms. Also there is a huge underwater section that can be accessed with mystic melody, opening a door in the floor of the pyramid core, leading to a fourth triangle shaped room, but all of that can be ignored and is only relevant for mission 3 and 5 of the level, therefore there is no need to access it in Hero story
For moving between the coloured rooms, in most cases it is faster to go over the pyramid core and from there go to the room you want to go to instead of taking the machine path that connects the rooms directly. Also you can occasionally come across free pieces in the pyramid core.
Death abuse[]
Due to the level layout and the way the pieces are located, you can death abuse in this stage in order to get more favorable piece layouts. If you get a first piece in the blue room, you can purposely die in order to respawn in the red room. After getting a first piece in the blue room, it is very likely to get a 2nd piece in the red room, right where you respawn. If you don't get a piece when you respawn, you can quickly die again by jumping into the fire behind you. Because of the complex level layout, it saves time on average, even if it needs a few tries to get a piece upon respawn compared to collecting the 2nd piece the intended way.
There are a few other locations outside of blue room that are also likely to spawn a red room or near red room piece. Scorpion tattoo and shoe box are known to frequently spawn red room pieces.
Death abuse can also be useful after getting a first piece in green room, but in this case, it's not useful to repeatedly kill yourself to try and spawn a red room piece, instead it is useful because more locations are easily accessible from the red room, especially with the recently discovered beauty and the beast clipout. Use your best judgement here, if you get a second piece in blue-red hallway after a first piece in green, it is advisable to deathwarp back to red room, as this will almost certainly save time. It is also usually favorable to take any pieces in the red-blue machine's path after a deathwarp from the green room, as you're likely to get a third key in the red-blue secret room, the blue room, or the blue secret room, all of which are close by.
Useful clipouts[]
Green door clip[]
SA2B Tutorial- Death Chamber Door Clips
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Beauty clip (booty clip)[]
SA2B Tutorial- Death Chamber Booty Clip
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Pieces[]
Free pieces (any piece that can be seen early and collected out of order)[]
Roasted keys - Can be seen in the red room when you spawn at the beginning and turn around. It floats above the huge fire behind the spawn point.
Bugs on patrol - Like Roasted keys, can also be seen right at the beginning when turning around. It moves from the left to the right and then back near the ceiling in front of the line of bugs above the spawn point. can also be seen while loading into the stage for a few frames in 16:9 aspect ratio or wider resolutions.
Angel's ring - This piece is circling around the head of the huge stone statue in the pyramid core to the left of the entrance to the blue room. Can be easily seen when approaching the blue room.
Merry go round - Circles through the pyramid core between the pillars in the middle and the huge statues on the side, about on the eye level on the statues. It has a huge moving cycle, but can usually easily seen when you leave the red room and approach the blue room, then it is moving in clockwise direction towards you.
Eggman's Eye level - In front of the statues face between the blue and green room. Can be checked for when approaching the green room.
Ambiguous / similar hints[]
E01 - This is a first piece than can be in two locations. one of them is in the core, the other one is in red-green hallway, closer to green. If you get this piece, you should go towards the core first. If it's not there, you can green door clip to the other location.
Golden goddess - If you get this hint as a first piece, it can either be in the green room or the blue room, in a small cube shaped room next to the corridor between the blue room and the pyramid core. A 2nd hint will tell you where it is. If you get the hint as a 2nd piece, it is always in the blue room, near the ceiling.
Angry man / angry guy - Both pieces are in the black enemies with the spikeballs circling around them. But angry man is in the corridor between the blue room and the pyramid core, and angry guy is the machine paths between red and blue, very close to the red room.
Sniper - The robot on top of the U-shaped platform between the pyramid core and the blue chamber.
Embarrassing Place - Pyramid core behind the butt of The eggman statue between the blue and green room doors closer to green room.
Patterned shorts - Pyramid core behind the Eggman statue between the Red and Blue doors
Peek-a-boo Eggman - Green chamber buried in the Eggman symbol on the ground by the pyramid core path.
Bug's Food - (In one case) Blue Room above one of the bugs near the ceiling.
White Family - The big ghost to the right of the green room (area right before you get to the green room from the red room).
Between 4 pillars - Room to the right of the blue room if it's your first key, blue secret room if it's your 3rd key.