Lyric's Weapon Facility

Lyric's Weapon Facility (ウエポン・ファクトリー) is the third area of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. Presumably the Abandoned Research Facility, one thousand years into the past, it is a futuristic marvel of a weapon production facility controlled by Lyric the Last Ancient, which is both breathtaking and yet a terrifying example of Lyric's ideal world of only soulless metal.

After developing a vendetta against nature, Lyric had this facility mass-produce Sentinels to wipe out all life on earth. However, Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower, having traveled through time, came to the facility and put a stop to his operations.

Overview
Lyric's Weapon Facility takes place entirely within an enclosed factory that is plainly put a marvel of engineering. The place is a sterile environment made of grey, cold and streamless metal and is lit up by white lights. The architecture of Ancients is shown in their runes and markings adorning the walls and floor. The facility is likewise crammed with countless forms of advance machinery, including control panels, laser grids for welding metal, engines along the walls, large tubes along the walls and through the rooms, conveyor belts, transports for glowing metal plates, and platforms-like gears that are several meters in diameter. There are also a few gabs covered by black fog. Supposedly, this place is run entirely by robots, the majority of which include Minions and a number of MAIA units.

Lyric's Weapon Facility holds a few significant rooms. There is a brightly lit control room with robot arms for operations, screens showing schematics for Sentinels and a device similar to the time machine in the Abandoned Research Facility. There is also a security room next door to the control room and a map room that previously contained the map for the Chaos Crystals. The most significant one however, is an immensely large cylinder-shaped room containing a partially built Sentinel in the process of being constructed which towers over the room like a skyscraper.

Story
A thousand years ago, Lyric's Weapon Facility was used by Lyric to create an army of Sentinels to rid the world of organic life and then rebuild it as a place of nothing but metal. Eventually. Lyric found a hidden map showing the locations of the Chaos Crystals and stored it inside this facility.

With MAIA's help and directions, Sonic and Tails traveled from the future to Lyric's Weapon Facility to find Lyric's map. Due to an error however, Tails got trapped on a dangerous conveyor belt which Sonic had to save him from. The duo soon found the MAIA from this time and explained how her future self had send them there to find the map they sought so they could stop Lyric in the future. MAIA understood and she made a deal: if they could clear a path for her to a Sentinel which she could use to stop Lyric, she would take them to the map room. Sonic and Tails therefore snuck into the Sentinels' construction room where they saw Lyric reviewing his plans with Q-N-C.

Making their way to the Sentinel, Sonic and Tails got MAIA to the robot. MAIA then took control of it and guided the heroes to the map room before starting to trash the facility. When Sonic and Tails got to the map room, they met Lyric. Telling Lyric they had "unfinished business," Sonic distracted him long enough for Tails to download the map on the AVA. As the heroes escaped, Sonic trapped Lyric in the map room and it was all clear to him: the reason Lyric knew him when they first met was because of this encounter, thus creating a stable time loop. Promising Lyric they would meet again in a thousand years, Sonic returned to his time with Tails where they regrouped with Knuckles and Amy.

Gameplay
In Lyric's Weapon Facility, the player moves through several control rooms and scales a Sentinel on the way to the map room. Like the other areas in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Lyric's Weapon Facility 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 the normal puzzles the player must solve with the Enerbeam mechanic and Buttons. There are also elaborate tiles puzzles where the player must find and step on a white tile, for then to press a series of blue tiles correctly to proceed.

Due to Sonic and Tails being playable for this level, Lyric's Weapon Facility contains gimmicks for their character actions, such as Spin Ramps for Sonic and Tails Vents and Buddy Bot sockets for Tails. Damage-inducing environmental hazards found in this level besides bottomless pits include burning floors, weights crushing ground in intervals and moving red laser grids that either make a path more dangerous or block it. There are also moving conveyor belts that can make it more difficult for the player to navigate and can even pull them into lasers.

In once place, there is a trash compacter that can work both with and against the player: enemies send in there will be destroyed, but if the player enters them they will be defeated instantly, regardless of Rings. Additionally, there are force fields that can block the player's paths: the blue ones are harmless, but the red ones cause slight damage to both player and enemies upon contact.

Description
In Lyric's Weapon Facility, the player's objective is to find the map for the Chaos Crystals. At the start of the level, the player can only control Sonic who must free Tails from inside a conveyor belt nearby. First, the player has to destroy a nearby control panel to get the conveyor belt moving. With hot-glowing metal plates moving in on Tails, the player must move down a path while solving puzzles to lower force fields and activate gimmicks that in turn lets Tails get closer to the exit and as well activate gimmicks the player can use to proceed. Once Tails is freed, the player can control him too.

After freeing Tails, the player has to move down the path to the control room to meet MAIA. There, the player then has to clear out a wave of enemies to gain access to a room next door where the player must solve three tile puzzle while fighting enemies and dodging lasers. Once cleared, the player opens a new path in the control room which they must return to, upon where they must defeat more enemies to lower a force field blocking the path. The player then has to Zip-line into the Sentinel's construction room where they see Lyric.

Inside the room, the player has get to the head of the large robot. To do that, the player must use the puzzles, scaffolds and Ener-Rails surrounding the robot. On the way, after getting through a section of scaling, the player must defeat a wave of enemies. At the top, the player has to get through a speed section to the Sentinel's head. After MAIA has taken control of the Sentinel, the player briefly rides an elevator behind the walls where they must make their way to an elevator shaft which the player must scale using Bounce Pads. Once reaching the top where Sonic and Tails face Lyric, the level is complete.

Trivia

 * Inside a hidden room above the security room for Lyric's Weapon Facility, the player can find a young version of Old Tucker who the player must interact with to complete Old Tucker's side-quest which is given in Cliff's Excavation Site. Doing so will award the player with a Power Glyph.
 * The game hints to Tucker's presence by Sonic saying "We should check out the area around the security room" when entering the security room.
 * Lyric's Weapon Facility is the only level in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric that is not a hub world where the player can obtain a Power Glyph.