The Pit


 * For the location in the Archie Comics, see The Pit (Archie).

The Pit is the fourth area of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. Surrounded by a jungle, the Pit is a highly polluted and industrial dig site for Lyric the Last Ancient and his Destruction Troops. Roaming the underground of this area in search for the Chaos Crystals are Lyric's Driller Worms.

While Lyric's forces were on a mad hunt for the Chaos Crystals, Team Sonic came to the Pit to find a Crystal there. After going their separate ways and reuniting, the team found and claimed the Crystal from a Driller Worm.

Overview
The Pit is an extremely contradicting environment. The outer landscape is a tropical and life-rich jungle, located in a distant mountainous archipelago of islands where large palm trees and grass grow in abundance on top of the rocky cliffs. Ancient buildings resembling watchtowers can also be seen on each island.

The central landscape of the Pit is but a nightmarish dig site of dark violet dirt and rocks, canyon-like passages with no flora excluding dead tree stubs and roots. The area is also extremely polluted, having pools of green waste flowing through it. Underground there are large tunnels made from Driller Worms and even an underground complex from the Ancients. In the center of the Pit though lies its namesake; an immense and vast artificial hole dug into the ground which is near the size of a valley.

The Pit's main section is heavily industrialized and fortress-like, though much of it is not up to date and rusty. Scaffolds and supports made from different-plated metal align the walls, and there are metal fences, mine carts, mine tracks and digging machinery everywhere. The Pit's center is the heaviest industrialized area and resembles a processing plant with pipes, gears, tanks and smelting forges of enormous proportions along with conveyor belts, heavy duty machinery and lava pits.

Story
About a thousand years ago, the Ancients hid away their red Chaos Crystal in the Pit so that Lyric would not be able to find it.

A millennium later, Lyric send his Driller Worms to the Pit to search for the Chaos Crystal. Not long after, Team Sonic arrived in the Pit to find the Crystal as well, after crashing in the outskirts in the Riptide. To cover more ground, Tails and Amy continued up along the ridge while Sonic and Knuckles cut through the dig site. Along the way, Sonic and Knuckles had some quality time together and an encounter with the Driller Worms before they met Amy and Tails again and learned the latter pair had gotten the easy route. Just then, a large fan activated and blew the team down a route that took them to the Chaos Crystal. Before they could get the Crystal though, a Driller Worm appeared and took it. However, Team Sonic defeated the robot and reclaim the Crystal.

A while later, Lyric and Dr. Eggman came to the Pit and found the remains of the Driller Worm. While Eggman feared retaliation from Lyric, as the doctor claimed earlier he killed Team Sonic, the snake remained silent, much to Eggman's relief.

Gameplay
In the Pit, the player has to travel through the dig site into the heart of the Pit. Like other areas in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, the Pit includes a speed level section, where the player runs down a long path with speed-enhancing gimmicks while avoiding hazardous obstacles, and as well slower-paced areas for exploration and combat. It also features standard puzzles the player must solve with the Enerbeam mechanic and Buttons.

Despite all characters being playable, the Pit only has gimmicks for Sonic and Knuckles' character actions. These gimmicks include Spin Ramps, a Spin Ball and Air Targets for Sonic, and Climbable Walls and Ceilings and diggable ground for Knuckles. Hazardous obstacles found in the Pit include burning furnace floors, small sockets on all kinds of surfaces that spew fire in different intervals, glowing shredders that some instances move and bottomless waste floods and lava pits. There are also ground-bound mines that detonate either instantly when attacked or delayed when approached. Additionally, there are moving conveyor belts that can make it more difficult for the player to navigate and can even pull them into fire.

Description
In the Pit, the player's objective is to find the red Chaos Crystal. At the beginning of the level, the player must first complete a speed level section with all four characters available. After that, the player has to go through a forest until reaching the Pit's dig site. From here, the player can only use Sonic and Knuckles.

From here, the player enters an enclosed area where they must complete an Enerbeam puzzle that will place a mine cart with a Bounce Pad on a path. The player must then move the mine cart down the path, while using its Bounce Pad to cross obstacles, to a floating platform on a pool. The player must then cross the pools using paths above which can be reached with the mine cart's Bounce Pad. On the other side, pull the floating platform with the mine cart over and move the mine cart to the cliff side which must be scaled using the mine cart's Bounce Pad. Up there, the player must defeat the Crab Excavator and then enter a hole leading underground.

From within a secret chamber, the player must follow the Driller Worm's tunnel outside to an obstacle-filled path through the complex. Once through that path, the player will arrive at a gate. Open the gate and press the Button behind it to unlock a small speed level section. Beyond this section, the player must defeat waves of enemies to unlock a Bounce Pad to the upper levels where the player must solve a puzzle to open another small speed level section. After the speed level section, the player has to go through one more industrial section with hazards and puzzles to reach a platform with a gate, above a lava pool where some enemies must be defeated. The player then has to open the gate and destroy some red lights within to open a path to Tails and Amy. From there, the player takes control off all four characters again and has to complete another speed level section to reach the Driller Worm boss battle.

Collectibles

 * Crowns: 22
 * Shinies: 3
 * Robot Scrap Chests: 19