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The Combine Ring[1] (コンバインリング[2],Konbain Ringu?) or Hyper Ring[3] (ハイパーリング[4],Haipā Ringu?) is a Item Box power-up that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. When obtained, it combines the player's collected Rings.
The Combine Ring's icon on an Item Box's screen is represented by a dark blue ring. When obtained, this power-up causes the Rings the player hold upon taking damage to merge together into larger Rings as they are dropped. Should the player then re-obtain such Rings, they will regain Rings equivalent to either the entirely of the Rings they lost or just a portion of it, similar to a Super Ring.
Game appearances[]
Knuckles' Chaotix[]
The Combine Ring first appeared in Knuckles' Chaotix. When picking up the Combine Ring, it will combine all of the player's Rings into one larger Ring. To indicate this, its icon will appear at the bottom of screen and stay there until the player receives damage. Upon taking damage, the playable character will drop the large Ring, which will return all the Rings they just lost upon taking damage. If the player does not obtain the large Ring within a few seconds though, it will burst into the usual shower of Rings that occurs when the player takes damage.
Sonic Mania[]
In Sonic Mania and its expansion Sonic Mania Plus, the Combine Ring is called the Hyper Ring[3] (ハイパーリング[4],Haipā Ringu?). In this game, the Hyper Ring works slightly different compared to how it worked in Knuckles' Chaotix. Instead of an icon appearing at the bottom of the screen when a character is holding a Hyper Ring, the Ring counter on the HUD will turn blue and a blue ring icon will appear next to the Ring counter. Also, instead of combing all the player Rings into one large Ring when taking damage, it combines the Rings into a maximum of eight large Rings, each worth a fraction of the player's total ring count that is returned when they are re-obtained. Eventually though, these Rings will fade away instead of exploding.
Interestingly, if the player has collected more than one hundred rings and has earned an extra life from doing so, they can recollect the larger Rings and earn another extra life from collecting one hundred rings.
Sonic Origins[]
The Combine Ring appears in the Sonic 3 & Knuckles part of Sonic Origins as a Debug Mode-exclusive Item Box. It functions like it did in Sonic Mania, but its HUD palette is buggy in the original release of the game. The HUD palette was fixed in the Sonic Origins Plus release, though the black outlining the icon and ring count will turn white if the player enters their Hyper state.
The Combine Ring was originally meant to debut in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, as evidenced in the concept artwork. An Item Box with the Combine Ring's icon also exists as an unused monitor in the game. However, should the player spawn the blue ring monitor using Debug Mode, breaking it will have no effect. In the 510 prototype, the monitor would simultaneously give the player Invincible and Power Sneakers similar to the "S" monitor, while in the 712 prototype it would function like an invisible shield, allowing the player to take a hit without losing their Rings, and even stack with a regular Shield. In the final game, it only plays the Star Post sound effect.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack for LEGO Dimensions, the Combine Ring's icon would be used for a different Item Box that awards the player with twenty blue Rings when cracked open.
After breaking the monitor, the player activates the Combine Ring. The Combine Ring icon can be seen at the bottom center of the screen to indicate that they are holding it.
Getting hit once by a Badnik or Spikes releases a large ring, which contains all collected Rings in one.
Sonic taking damage while holding a Hyper Ring in Sonic Mania. Note the presence of multiple large Rings as opposed to a single Ring.
Sonic with the Hyper Ring active. Note the blue Ring counter and Hyper Ring icon.
