As the Black Aliens try to destroy Central City, the capital of United Federation, Shadow can either:
- Aid the aliens in destroying the city by activating the giant bombs (DARK)
- Help Knuckles save the city by cleaning it out of small bombs (HERO)
The only way to get to this stage is by clearing the dark mission in Cryptic Castle. There are no normal missions in this stage and there is an eight minute time limit to clear the stage. Central City is the only stage in Shadow the Hedgehog that does not have a Goal Ring located in it.
Dark Mission[edit]
You'll have to detonate five giant bombs in order to clear the dark mission. Detonate the bombs by blowing damage on them preferably by guns.
Go to the right at the beginning of the stage to meet up with Black Doom. There will be a red bomb a little more ahead. Make it explode and it will reveal a new path. Take it and you'll reach the first giant bomb shortly. Detonate it and move on until you get to a triangle jump section. Use triangle jump to reach the second giant bomb. Detonate it and it will reveal a new path. Take the rocket and go on until you reach an open area. there is a giant bomb on the platform in the middle guarded by GUN robots. Destroy them and detonate the third giant bomb. Then take the tunnel to get to the green river section. Keep going until you see a giant bomb in the middle of the river guarded by GUN robots. After detonating it, make the red bomb at the end of the road explode and use the pole that has appeared to go up. Continue the path until you reach the fifth giant bomb once again guarded by GUN robots. Detonate it to clear the mission.
If you do it with not much hesitation, you'll be able to clear this mission under 8 minutes.
Hero Mission[edit]
To clear this mission, Shadow has to use vacuum guns to suck up 20 of the small bombs that are placed in the city by the aliens.
Go to the left at the beginning of the stage to meet Knuckles. Go a little farther to face the first Black Creature holding a vacuum gun. Defeat it and take the vacuum gun. Continue the path and suck up small bombs in your way. Keep your eyes open and search every corner. Be careful not to blow any damage on the small bombs or they'll explode and won't count. Also, some small bombs explode before you even get the chance to suck them up. There is a dead end at the end of the green river section where a giant bomb is. Make the red bomb explode to reveal a new path to you. Continue the path and suck up small bombs on your way. A little after the fifth giant bomb, you'll see another red bomb on your way. Make it explode and take the newly revealed path. At the end of it, there will be three small bombs. You should have sucked up over 20 small bombs by then.
Scores for A Rank[edit]
- Dark Mission: 28000
- Normal Mission: ---
- Hero Mission: 18000
Key Locations[edit]
- First Key: After the first giant bomb, before the triangle jump section, a helicopter comes down. Take it to reach the roof. Defeat the Black Soldiers and collect the key in the cage.
- Second Key: In the open area section (where the third giant bomb is in the middle), there is a wall of sand bags. Use Chaos Blast near it to wipe out the bags. A key is behind them.
- Third Key: After the forth giant bomb, make the red bomb explode and use the pole to go up. There, defeat the enemies to open the cage and use the spring to reach a platform. From it, jump to the platform on the other side and collect the key on it.
- Fourth Key: There is a cage containing the key near the last giant bomb. Destroy the GUN robots to open the cage.
- Last Key: The fifth key is behind a wall on the left side a little after the last checkpoint. You can destroy the wall with a rocket launcher.
The door is in the green river section, on the other side of the street. An Air Saucer is behind it.