Fang the Sniper

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Fang the Sniper
Primary ability	Tail Bounce
Secondary ability	Gunslinger

This article is about the playable character. For the Boss object from Arid Canyon Zone Act 3, see Fang (Boss).

Fang the Sniper, also known as Fang the Hunter and Nack the Weasel, is a minor antagonist who has made several appearances in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is a treasure hunter who seeks out whatever valuable treasures he can find in exchange for monetary gain. In SRB2, he appears as the boss of Arid Canyon Zone Act 3, where the player fights him on the train from the end of Arid Canyon Zone Act 2. After defeating him, he is then unlocked as a playable character.

As a playable character, Fang's primary ability is his Tail Bounce, which lets him reach higher areas, bounce on spikes and lava, and break crumbling floors. Instead of a Spindash, he can lock on to enemies and shoot them with his Pop Gun. He can't roll under small gaps and will often be forced to take alternative routes, making him a great choice for more experienced players.

Boss

Main article: Fang (Boss)

Fang is fought as the boss of Arid Canyon Zone Act 3, where he can be seen scavenging through a box of scrapped robot parts. His attack pattern consists of him bouncing around the arena, then attacking with either a bomb or three shots from his pop gun. The time between bounces and attacks gets slightly longer the more hits he takes, and his bouncing can be interrupted by a well-timed attack. After five hits, he'll destroy the roof of the train car with bombs and go into a pinch phase where he drops a bomb with every bounce. Once he is defeated, he bounces off the train car and hits an oncoming sign, never to be seen again for the rest of the game.

If the player chooses to play as Fang, instead of him spawning inside the cargo a grayscale clone will be projected above the open crate (presumably by some random piece of barely-functional equipment inside it). This clone fighter also has different behaviour upon defeat, simply fading away into nothingness. This is a reference to Sonic the Fighters (Sonic Championship in the USA), in which fighting the character you are playing as will result in them being colorless.

Abilities and techniques

Fang using his Tail Bounce.

Fang's double jump ability is the Tail Bounce, which allows him to bounce on stationary spikes, lava, and other damaging floors without getting hurt and break crumbling floors. It can also defeat enemies or pop monitors. If the Tail Bounce is used on a slope, Fang will be launched in the direction the slope is facing. Fang's Tail Bounce allows him to reach areas otherwise inaccessible to less vertically gifted characters, but it is not as useful to scale vertical areas as Tails's flying or Knuckles's climbing. This makes bouncing a useful tool for skipping over sections of a level, which requires precision and knowledge of the level layout in order to optimally maintain speed and height.

Fang shooting a Spring Shell with his pop gun.

Instead of a Spindash, Fang can lock on to nearby enemies or monitors and shoot with them with his pop gun by pressing Spin, as long as he is standing still. It can only be used on the ground and is Fang's primary method of dealing with enemies or bosses. It can also be used to attack other players in Match gametypes, but its slower fire makes it less efficient than regular rings. The pop gun is best used for dealing with bosses, as it can take them out quickly and negates the need to approach closely.

Fang has rather few tools for maintaining speed, and as such he is mostly frowned upon in speedrunning. However, he can still take advantage of his abilities and the level layout to go through certain sections moderately fast. Tail bouncing into a downwards slope will grant you additional momentum, and, depending on how steep the angle is, can send Fang rocketing forward. His bounce also cancels his vertical momentum, making bounce cancels a vital tool for precision platforming. Furthermore, due to a glitch in how the game reads button inputs, pressing jump and spin at the same time will make Fang shoot a cork and jump at the same time, skipping his shooting animations. This is dubbed as the "pop shot", and it's an advanced technique that massively helps Fang's manouverability on the ground. A good example of the pop shot is when hitting Super Sneakers Monitors; since you regain control much faster, you can get a running start that you otherwise wouldn't be able to achieve.

Gallery

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  Fang being surprised by the player.

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  Fang laughs after throwing a bomb.

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  The player jumping onto Fang to attack him.

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  Fang falling.

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  Fang fights a grey scale duplicate of himself in reference to Sonic the Fighters.

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  Fang's character select sprite.

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  Credits artwork.

Technical information

Movement:
Speed	Fast (36)
Acceleration	Low (40)
Thrustfactor	High (5)
Accelstart	Low (96)
Jump height factor	High (1.1)
Rough jump height equivalent	Two 64x64 blocks of terrrain
Abilities:
Primary ability	Tail Bounce
Tail Bounce rough height equivalent	-Four and a half 64x64 blocks of terrain -Nine 32x32 blocks of terrain
Secondary ability	Gunslinger