Claris's first Dream, Spring Valley is a world of lush vegetation, where you can walk on natural stone bridges and through deep ravines. Strong breezes send you to stone paths, or up to a snowy mountain peak. There are waterfalls, hills that 'spring' up from under your feet, and treasures hidden in small trees, while a giant tree lies at the heart of the dream.
The first mare of Claris' first dream, used by Sonic Team as the Time Attack stage in Xmas Nights.
At first play, this mare seems a limited 28 link lap, but by either using air braked paraloops (see Gameplay Overview section for more details) to shave a second off each lap time, or flying backwards for a possible infinite link, your score can jump by over 4k. Once practised, it can be a very reliable level.
You may want to be wary of the marans in this mare - though only Shleep, they can knock you off course. Make sure to be dashing in that first area.
Below are two videos, the first showing a complete run of the extremely hard backwards link as well as a good route for pre mare 1 chip collection. The second focuses on the backwards link, slowing it down to see how it works.
Gusts of wind and annoyingly placed Nightmarians can cause difficultly in this mare, though links of 25 and 40 are possible with practise. Also, the biggest paraloop in the entire game can be done - by using the dash panel around the giant tree at the end of the mare, though be careful as this might catch the odd Nightopian or two (losing your SV4 star bonus).
As Ben found out, you can use air braked paraloop around the first cluster of items (just after the gusts) to shave seconds off your lap time, while still maintaining the link in the first section. If you're not using ABPs then dont bother paralooping that part.
Dont forget to pick up the dash refill token in the group of stars up right of the capture - the later mares will be very difficult if you dont.
With 2 stunt ribbons per lap, you'll need to concentrate on saving your time for those. Look out for the chip cage only reachable if you miss out the first dash panel.
Below is a video by Tab showing a Three lap strategy using the stunt ring once before bonus time and 5 times in bonus time.
Below is a video by Pete, showing the stunt ribbon glitch to full affect (see the Gameplay Overview sections for details).
