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The Fortress is a giant flying robot, approximately 80 meters in length[1], resembling a giant, stylized head with numerous limbs attached around it. Its front has a simple face with narrow red and black "eyes" surrounded by four horns; its rear end sports a large red core set in a circular indentation dotted with red and black eye-like details. Three pairs of massive wings protrude from the sides of the Guardian's body, each with a large half-circular indentation that emits purple energy particles.
Fortress is mainly white in color, with red and purple details.
History[]
Sonic Frontiers[]
Fortress is one of many types of Guardians constructed by the Ancients of the Starfall Islands. It appears to be designed for high-altitude aerial bombardments, presumably to deter intruders; its functionality against the Ancients' true enemy appears limited, so it was likely used for defense against planet-side threats.
The Ancients' civilization eventually collapsed, but two Fortress units remained functional to the present day, where they became obstacles to Sonic the Hedgehog during his adventure on Chaos Island. Due to their relatively low speed and airborne nature, Sonic could safely avoid them for the most part, only confronting a Fortress if he required its Portal Gear or to get to Cyberspace 3-7.
Powers and abilities[]
The Fortress is capable of flight and partial reconfiguration, giving it two different forms of attack depending on the situation. While flying over land, it maintains a sleeker hovering state that drops explosive purple energy balls directly below it. If it enters an open-air environment, it spreads its wings and releases rail-like tendrils behind it, sending smaller purple projectiles along them to deter pursuers.
Based on its introductory animation when it detects Sonic, Fortress units may also be capable of short-range teleportation, although they only seem to use this to reorient themselves for a bombing run.
Battle[]
The Fortress can be fought in the open-zone areas of Chaos Island. It serves as one of the zone’s mini bosses.
Boss Guide[]
The Fortress begins the battle high above Sonic, slowly flying overhead and dropping energy bombs below it. Sonic has to avoid the bombs and follow the Guardian as it flies to open air beyond the landmass, at which point it begins deploying Grind Rails behind it. After the first part of the battle, the player has to jump on one of the rails, preferably the middle one. During the Fortress's ascent, it will automatically send Sonic to the rail second from the right, and the player must go back to the middle. After a while, each rail will disappear except for the middle one, and the Fortress will do a barrel roll in midair, causing the rail to do the same. After that, the Fortress will begin launching energy projectiles along the rails, which can be avoided by switching to a different rail.
When Sonic catches up to the Fortress, he has to attack its back-mounted core. Aside from damaging it, this also forces the core to release a platform in front of it, giving Sonic the opportunity to attack it further. If the player chooses not to or doesn't damage it enough, it will use its second and trickier attack pattern, before allowing you to catch up again. Due to its relatively low health, however, this is unlikely to happen. After hitting it enough times, a cutscene shows the Fortress returning to its starting location and exploding, leaving a Portal Gear behind.
The Fortress has similarities to another Guardian variant, Squid, in both appearance and attack patterns. Both are giant flying robots that leave a trail that Sonic can use to pursue them; when struck, they become immobile and deploy a platform to let Sonic attack them conventionally.
Likely due to the different environments in the two areas where you fight them, the two Fortress units have different Grind intermissions(where the Fortress does tricks such as twisting the rail, curving it, or flying up and then down, dragging the rail with it) and secondary attacks.
