Egg Pawn

The Egg Pawn (エッグポーン) is a recurring enemy in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a mass-produced model of Badniks created by and based on Dr. Eggman. They serve as Eggman's main force of weapon robots in his army.

Although each one of them may be weak, the Egg Pawns' immense numbers make them perhaps the greatest threat in Eggman's army. They also come in different varieties, each having its own unique abilities.

Appearance
The Egg Pawns are humanoid robots primarily based on Dr. Eggman. The typical Egg Pawn is primarily orange in color, with a round body and a dome-shaped head that come together in an egg-like shape. It also has blank blue eyes, a sharp yellow nose, a wide glowing panel for a mouth, and a black lower section on its torso.

The very first few generations of Egg Pawns had gray cable-like limbs with four-fingered hands, vermilion/orange feet, yellow cuffs around their wrists and ankles, and short shoulder guards. Later generations of Egg Pawns received additional armor, like thicker forearms and armored legs, but less articulate shoulders. Those that later appeared during the Lost Hex incident and several subsequent events were designed with more soft shapes and more colors, but otherwise remained the same.

During the Infinite incident, the Egg Pawns received a more modernized and militaristic design. These Egg Pawns had spherical white-gray bodies with no heads, thin black limbs with red joints, and light gray visors on the front with two red eyes. They also had light gray feet with soles, and armored light gray forearms with no hands, although they had a cannon on their right arm.

Sonic Heroes
The Egg Pawn model first debuted in Sonic Heroes. They serve as the most common enemy in the stages and also may come equipped with a variety of weaponry, including the Egg Spear, Egg Gun and Egg Bazooka. Egg Pawns that are not carrying ranged weapons will charge at the player while the ones that do will attack the player from a fixed position. Occasionally, the Egg Pawns will simply stand still and not attack despite noticing the player.

Some Egg Pawns have shields that can temporarily negate the damage they receive which come in three different styles: smooth shields, spiked shields and heavy metal. The smooth shields are the most common and can usually only take one hit from a Power Formation attack before it is destroyed. The spiked shields can take a few more hits to he destroyed and playable characters that are send flying into them by attacks will be stunned briefly when touching them. The heavy metal shields are the most sturdy and takes approximately six hits from a Power Formation attack to destroy it. Alternatively, the player can use the Tornado Jump or a Homing Attack with three Power Cores to just blow the shields away.

The silver Egg Pawns in the heavy armor are known as "Solid Pawns" and require a Power character to defeat.

Shadow the Hedgehog
The Egg Pawn appeared again in Shadow the Hedgehog, where they work on Dr. Eggman's side in the war against the Black Arms and in the doctor's hunt for the Chaos Emeralds.

In this game, the Egg Pawns wield weapons similarly to those in Sonic Heroes; Shadow can pick these up after defeating them and use them himself. They also wield shields, though only one type of them, unlike in Sonic Heroes, which take one hit to destroy with the Homing Attack. However their shields cannot be destroyed by guns as they can deflect all manners of projectiles, except the Satellite Gun.

Sonic Rush
Egg Pawns also serve as enemies in Sonic Rush. This time, they had different color schemes to match the weapon (or, in some cases, no weapon) they carried. Unlike in this game, they're powered by Animals. They also seem to run much faster in this game.

Sonic Rivals series
Egg Pawns return in both Sonic Rivals and its sequel Sonic Rivals 2 as common enemies in their stages. They are unarmed but merely damage the player by simply charging into them. Their artwork from Sonic Heroes are also seen as collectible cards.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
The Egg Pawns also appear in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games as enemies that the player can shoot in the Dream Shooting competition. In this game, Egg Pawns are similar to Goombas from the Super Mario series.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Egg Pawns also appears as goalies in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. They are color coded for what team they're on. Additionally it can be unlocked as a costume and appears in Dream Fencing.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
In Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the Egg Pawns retain their design from Sonic Generations albeit with different color schemes, ranging from blue to maroon. They appear during certain events, like Rugby.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
Egg Pawns also appear in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing where they act as obstacles. They usually move around on certain parts of racetracks, and jumping around. If a racer hits one, he/she will spin out. If a racer boosts right into an Egg Pawn, it will be gone for a few seconds before coming back. They are seen in Casino Park and Final Fortress racetracks.

Sonic Colors
The Egg Pawns also appear in the Wii and DS exclusive Sonic Colors as common stage enemies. Much like in Sonic Heroes, their design in each Act is based on every area. They have undergone a general redesign; they are more overtly mechanical, with jointed limbs, and are generally slightly shorter and stockier.

The Egg Pawns also appear in the Sonic Simulator on the Wii version of the game. Like in Shadow the Hedgehog, they can wield shields which take multiple hits to be destroyed, though one hit from the Stomp can take them out. In the simulator, they can also be destroyed by environmental objects, like Spheres.

Sonic Generations
In Sonic Generations, the Egg Pawns appears in Stages such as Seaside Hill, Tropical Resort, and Planet Wisp. In this game, they are equipped with weapons based on what era they appear in: Egg Pawns in Seaside Hill wield spears and blasters, while those on Planet Wisp carry pickaxes they can throw in front of them as boomerangs.

In the Challenge Act Rouge: The Temptress, the Egg Pawns wields shields which can block any of Sonic's attacks. To make them vulnerable, the player has to use Rouge's character skill which makes them lower their shields.

Sonic Lost World
Egg Pawns make an appearance in Sonic Lost World. During the game, it turns out that all of Eggman's robots, Egg Pawns included, got hijacked by the Deadly Six. Egg Pawns have received a slight, simplified redesign in this game, somewhat resembling their appearance from Sonic Heroes.

No different variants besides regular Egg Pawns are seen in the game, though there are two types of Egg Pawns: those that stay in lines waiting for the player, or those that will start chasing the player around their Zone. They also lack weaponry, meaning they will simply charge Sonic in melee.

In Sonic Lost World, Egg Pawns can be found at Silent Forest, where they can pop out from small holes at the tubular stage and start attacking. They are later seen as guards at Frozen Factory Zone 3 with Crawls and finally on Lava Mountain. It takes two hits from the Homing Attack and Bound Jump to destroy an Egg Pawn, as the first hit only makes it lose balance, and one hit from the Flying Kick.

Sonic Runners
In Sonic Runners, Egg Pawns are one the most common enemies in the flying type characters' stages. In this game, Egg Pawns are either stationary or run back and forth, and are placed either separately or in groups.

Egg Pawns in Sonic Runners come in three types. In addition to the regular Egg Pawns, there are golden ones (dubbed as Golden Pawns in the game's story) which grant three hundred more points when defeated, and black ones called Super Egg Pawns which only Color Powers and power type characters can defeat. All three variations contain Animals inside them and they are featured as part of each episode of the game, as usually being defeated by Sonic, Tails or Knuckles.

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle
In Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, white versions of the Egg Pawns from Sonic Forces appear on the race tracks. In gameplay, they act as stationary obstacles for the player to run into, perpetually charging their arm cannons. When encountered, they can easily be destroyed using the Slide or Spin Jump. When destroyed, the player will be awarded five Rings.

Sonic Forces
The Egg Pawns make an appearance in Sonic Forces. These variants were completely redesigned to have modernized, militaristic designs. In this game, they are the most common enemy encountered, appearing in virtually every stage. These robots were created via the Phantom Ruby when Jackal Squad raided the Arsenal Pyramid.

In gameplay, the Egg Pawns usually remain on standby in the spots they are standing in. When they spot the playable character(s) however, they will take aim for a few seconds before firing a straight-moving energy blast at them. Other than that, they can be destroyed with a single attack.

Personality
While usually acting as Dr. Eggman's loyal foot soldiers, obeying his orders, the Egg Pawns are apparently programmed with some degree of emotions. When Metal Madness appeared, they demonstrated noticeable fear by trying to escape him. They additionally tend to taunt their enemy after scoring a hit. Overall they seem to be rather cowardly when confronted with dangerous foes.

Powers and abilities
Compared to most machines Eggman has produced, the Egg Pawns are weak robots, although they have their numbers to make up for it. They usually also possess no special abilities, relying more on their weaponry and tools. However, the Egg Pawn during the Infinite incident were equipped with arm cannons that could fire small laser blasts.

Weapons and equipment
The Egg Pawns' weapons vary from game to game. Their standard arsenal include lances named Egg Spears, single-shot recoilless rifles named Egg Bazookas, and automatic blasters named Egg Guns. Egg Pawns in Sonic Heroes sometimes carry shields of varying durability.

In Sonic Colors, they have different weapons depending on the stage they appear in. For example, they wield whisks in Sweet Mountain, pickaxes in Planet Wisp, and katanas in Aquarium Park. In a handful of stages, they can also use blasters and various other weapons.

Egg Knight
The Egg Knights are gold-plated Egg Pawns that typically wield lances and lead a small group of Egg Pawns. They have more stamina than ordinary Egg Pawns and are usually found in positions where it is difficult to reach them without alerting any regular Egg Pawns nearby. This is because the destruction of an Egg Knight will result in any and all Egg Pawns in the nearby area being automatically destroyed with it.

Casino version
These are-casino themed Egg Pawns that appear in casino-themed stages. There are three variants known such as the neon blue Casino Managers with black tie suits, neon pink Casino Bunnies, and neon green Casino Clowns that have weird meters above their heads, and typically wield the same weapons that the regular Egg Pawns can wield. They appear in the fifth and sixth stages and third boss of Sonic Heroes (Casino Park, Bingo Highway and Robot Carnival respectively).

Flapper
In Sonic Heroes, there was also another enemy known as the "Flapper". These enemies look similar to Egg Pawns, except they fly. Again, they were featured in Sonic Rush and they also appear in Sonic and the Black Knight as enemies in the Legacy missions.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Egg Pawns were created by Dr. Eggman to replace his decommissioned SWATbots. When the fourth Enerjak surfaced however, the Egg Pawns were destroyed while attempting to subdue the chaos demigod.

After the events of Worlds Collide, the Egg Pawns became nearly identical to their game counterparts. In addition, Breeze Media has bought several outdated Egg Pawns to serve as her staff.

Merchandise
With the Sonic Generations announcement in 2011, Jazwares had made figures of the characters from the game series. A Knuckles figure and an Egg Pawn figure were made by Jazwares.

Trivia

 * The Egg Pawns are one of the most frequently appearing Badniks in the Sonic franchise.
 * The Egg Pawn's foot design from Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations is near identical to Metal Sonic's.
 * The Egg Pawns are very similar to the Eggrobo.
 * In Windmill Isle Act 1 on the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 of Sonic Unleashed, orange-colored Egg Fighters appear, which are very similar to the Egg Pawn's coloration.