There are many items you will encounter throughout the game that Sonic and his friends can use to their advantage. Below is a short summary of the most common ones you will find.

	Ring The main lifeline for Sonic & Co. Your collection of rings will scatter when hit, but as long as you have one, you cannot be killed (except from a pit or crusher).
	10 Ring Box Adds 10 rings to your cache
	Whirlwind Shield Protects you from one hit. Press the spin button while jumping to perform a second jump. Beware, though, as the second jump stops you from spinning.
	Attraction Shield Protects you from one hit. This will attract nearby rings. Don't go too deep in the water, or you'll short it out!
	Force Shield Protects you from two hits. It has a reflect ability that is automatically activated when it gets hit.
	Elemental Shield Protects you from one hit. This protects you from the elements, keeps you from drowning, and creates a flaming trail when you spindash that will damage your enemies!
	Armaggeddon Shield Protects you from one hit. When you get hit, the shield will explode, wiping out all enemies within its blast radius, destroying the shield. The explosion can be triggered by pressing the spin button while jumping as well.
	Invincibility Makes you invincible for 20 seconds.
	Super Sneakers Increases your speed for 20 seconds.
	One-Up Gives you an extra life. In Match and Capture The Flag, it gives you 100 rings.
	Teleporter Scramble In multiplayer, this will scramble the positions of all players in the game.
	Recycler In multiplayer, this will scramble all of the players' powerups. This includes ammo, powerups, and weapons.
	Eggman Harms your player. Watch out!
	Random Item What's in the box? Only way to find out is to open it!
	Warp Token At the end of the act, you will be taken to a special stage, giving you the chance to snatch one of the Chaos Emeralds back from Dr. Eggman's grasp! There are at least one of these in each act.
	Emblem These are hidden in every act, except ones where you have to confront Eggman. Different ones appear depending on which character you play as. Getting enough of these will unlock special bonuses! You may obtain more by meeting special criteria, such as completing the game with all of the chaos emeralds. When you've picked up these emblems, they will disappear. If you find them again in a new game, they will be faded, indicating that you have already obtained that emblem. Check the statistics to see which emblems are missing from your collection.
In the multiplayer Capture The Flag game mode, there are team based rings and monitors.

Multiplayer Items

In certain multiplayer games, you can use the following match weapons to change the kind of rings you throw. Make sure you grab the weapon, the ammo, and have rings or else it won't fire.

Red Ring (Default Weapon)

This is your default weapon. It can't be dropped and it uses normal rings for ammo.

Automatic

Hold down the THROW key for a constant stream of rings.

Bounce

When fired, the bounce ring acts like a normal red ring, except that it will bounce off walls, ceilings, and floors for a bit before disappearing. Great for firing around corners and in small rooms.

Explosion

When this ring hits a wall, it scatters rings everywhere in a fireworks-like display. Players hit directly by the black ring get knocked back farther than normal.

Grenade

Fires a grenade that explodes by proximity. Great for guarding CTF bases and for chucking in places where you expect the opponent will run.

Rail

Snipe at your enemies with this instant-hit weapon! Players hit with this weapon get knocked back farther than normal.

Scatter

Fires 5 rings that spread out as they go farther. The distance the opponent flies when hit varies depending on how far the shot traveled in the air. At point-blank range, scatter will send the opponent flying across the stage, leaving their items easily taken.

WARNING!

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If you are hit while carrying any of these special rings, they will be dropped. Pick them up quickly to keep your opponents from stealing them!