Wispon

The Wispon is an object that is set to appear in Sonic Forces. Contrary to its name, it is a series of different weapon gadgets that are used by the Resistance's soldiers for harnessing the Wisps' Color Powers, without inducing an actual transformation in the user.

Concept and creation
As a part of the storyline for Sonic Forces, the Avatar was intended to be a regular citizen with no special abilities, like Sonic's speed. To compensate for that, Sonic Team created the Wispon for the Avatar. The Wispon was also given a multitude of applications in gameplay so that the Avatar could have a moveset that offered a gameplay style different from Sonic's.

Appearance
The Wispon is a gadget-like weapon that comes in a number of distinct models:
 * Burst: The Burst Wispon consists of a white barrel with a red capsule-like cap covering the front and a black handle on the rear. The front cap is shaped similarly to a fireball. It also has two thick cables connecting the front cap and middle section, and three black nozzles.
 * Cube: The Cube Wispon has a black grip connected to a blue-colored cube. The cube has a gray line with three black circles on the side. A beige circle in on the front of the Wispon, being held by a gray handle on the front and top of the Wispon.
 * Drill: The Drill Wispon is equipped with a yellow and orange-striped cone up front (akin to a drill head) with a white and black nozzle on the side. The cone is attached to a black foot which has a single grib for holding the Wispon. It also has yellow framework besides the grip for aligning the Wispon along the user's forearm.
 * Lightning: The Lightning Wispon has a beige grip with a black upper attachment. It also has a yellow and beige-colored lightning bolt-shaped cap respectively that are locked onto one another so they form the front cover of this weapon.

Features and abilities
The Wispons can harness the Hyper-go-on from Wisps and use it to channel their respective Color Powers without causing the user to transform. Each Wispon model also possesses an offensive function that matches the respective Wisp used to power it:
 * Burst (Red Burst): Spews a long-ranged flame like a flamethrower.
 * Cube (Blue Cube): Freezes enemies with the slam of a hammer, rendering enemies susceptible to being shattered like glass with an additional hit.
 * Drill (Yellow Drill): Manifests a giant energy drill that can pierce through enemies.
 * Lightning (Ivory Lightning): Generates an electric whip.

Overview
In gameplay, the Wispon is used by the Avatar, where it serves two primary functions: offense and movement controls. When using its offensive power, the Wispon creates a long-ranged attack that can take out multiple foes at once. When using its movement ability, the Wispon triggers an ability reminiscent of a Wisp's Color Power; using the Wispon with a Red Wisp, the player can create bursts to jump through the air (like the Red Burst). The offensive power and movement ability depend on the Wispon model. To use a Wispon in gameplay, the player must press to trigger its offensive power and  to trigger its movement ability.

Before a level, the player can choose different Wispons to customize how the Avatar controls, thereby allowing access to different parts of the levels. The Wispon the Avatar possesses is displayed on the HUD in the lower left corner of the screen during Stages.

To use the Wispon's movement ability during Stages, the player must obtain the Wisp matching the Wispon in use (like a Red Wisp for the Burst Wispon), which will fill up an energy gauge surrounding the HUD's Wispon; obtaining any other Wisp yields no effect. Using the Wispon's movement ability drains the energy gauge, and once it empties, the Wispon's movement ability become unusable (like Color Powers and the Wisp Gauge).

List of Wispons
So far, the following Wispons have been revealed:

While not confirmed, there appears to be Wispons based on the White Wisp, Indigo Wisp and Violet Wisp.

Trivia

 * "Wispon" is a portmanteau of the words "Wisp" and "weapon".
 * According to the leaked Achievements, there are over thirty Wispons in Sonic Forces.
 * The Cube Wispon has similarities to Infinite's red cubes.
 * This could mean that Infinite harnesses Hyper-Go-On energy.
 * Interestingly, the Wispons share a few similarities to the Dark Arms used by Eclipse the Darkling in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series:
 * They are both based off the Wisps (though the Dark Arms are actually a living sub-species of the Black Arms that were "harvested" from the Wisps).
 * Both weaponize the Color Powers of Wisps.
 * Both do not cause an actual transformation in the user (though the Dark Arms do cause partial physical transformations in Eclipse: for example, Cyzer turns his hands into cyan-hued gloves, while Cregal converts them into crimson-hued wings).