Wild Canyon

Wild Canyon is the second stage of the Hero story and Knuckles' first stage in Sonic Adventure 2. It appears to be base off a canyon and desert.

The music for this stage is "Kick the Rock!" performed by Hunnid-P and Tomoya Ohtani.

History
Knuckles the Echidna must find three shards of the Master Emerald, having recently shattered it due a verbal fight with Rouge the Bat and the appearance of Dr. Eggman. The stage takes place in the desert close by where Eggman's secret base is. It is equivalent to Rouge's stage, Dry Lagoon where she also searches for the pieces of the Master Emerald.

Layout
Like all of Knuckles' stages, this level is a treasure-hunt stage. Knuckles finds himself in a dry canyon area with high winds. He must find three pieces of the Master Emerald. This zone seems to be in a Egyptian ruin somewhere in the desert as it has quite a few of Egyptian statues and secret rooms to dig into. But what is the most in interesting thing in the zone is the giant wind tunnel that Knuckles can use to go to the top part of the level but Knuckles has to go down a hole to get back down.

Level Up Item
The Level Up Item for this stage is the Mystic Melody, which is required for completing the third mission of most stages. It is hidden in a chamber which can only be accessed by digging through a special wall located above a statue's head. Knuckles must have the digging tool to reach the area.

Find the three missing pieces of the Master Emerald
Knuckles must simply find the missing pieces of the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald pieces could be found:
 * In the lower room in the first area right in one of the breakable boxes nearby.
 * In the lower room in the wind tunnel leading to the upper part of the stage.
 * In the area that leads to the giant stone head. Master Emerald pieces could be found on the nose of the giant stone head, on top of the giant stone head, or near some G.U.N. robots near the giant stone head.

Collect 100 Rings
Finding 100 Rings in this level is fairly easy as rings and ring capsules are littered around the stage. If Knuckles already has the Shovel Claw, he can dig in some places to randomly find ring capsules buried underground.

Find the lost Chao
Note: Knuckles must already have gotten the Ancient Melody, the Shovel Claw, and the Hammer Gloves in order to complete this mission. In the first area, Knuckles must climb up and head over to a spot with metal boxes blocking the way. Knuckles can destroy them with the Hammer Gloves and can then dig through the painting. Knuckles will end up in a secret room with the Ancient Shrine where he can play his Ancient Melody to activate it. Knuckles will then warp into another secret room with the lost Chao inside.

Find the missing Master Emerald pieces within 2:00
This mission isn't difficult due to the small size of Wild Canyon. Knuckles shouldn't waste too much time reading a lot of hint televisions or fighting off G.U.N. robots.

Complete Hard Mode
Note: Knuckles must have the Sunglasses Level Up Item from Meteor Herd first in order to complete this mission. The three Master Emerald pieces are hidden in three set locations:
 * The first one is located in the area with the Lonely Statue. Knuckles must climb up and glide toward it to get the Master Emerald piece.
 * The second one is located in the upper area behind a painting. After digging through the painting, Knuckles must put on his Sunglasses to reveal a trail of rings. The rings well lead to a particular painting that Knuckles can dig through to get the second Master Emerald piece.
 * The third one is located back in the main area near the airlift. Knuckles must climb onto one of the pillars around it and put on his Sunglasses to reveal a spring. Knuckles can simply use the spring and it will lead him directly to the third and final Master Emerald piece.

Trivia

 * By digging into a wall on the right side of the room with the walls, it is possible to get the lost Chao without the Mystic Melody. This is necessary for the fifth mission.
 * If the player looks closely at the hieroglyphics, you'll notice a picture of Sonic, or most likely, the Sonic Team logo. There is also one that resembles a Chao.
 * If the player digs in the nose of the Egyptian head on the top level of the stage, there is a hidden spring.
 * In the Dreamcast version, if the player jumps onto the wind tunnel and looks above the canyon, there is a Big the Cat sighting over the canyon wall. However if the same process is done again, Big won't be there. This is the only Big sighting which was not reinserted into the HD port of the game.
 * If one looks closely at the beginning cutscene where Knuckles and Rouge argue about the Master Emerald, they can see that it takes place in a part of Hidden Base.