Gold Beetle

The Gold Beetle (ゴールドビートル, Gōrudobītoru^?) is a recurring enemy in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is a mass-produced robot model deployed by the military organization Guardian Units of Nations, and a part of Beetle series.

Appearance

Nearly identical to Mono Beetles design-wise, the Gold Beetles basically resemble golden balls with dark blue and red outlines, and armor on the front. On top of them, they have a sharp golden cap with a dark blue-striped edge. Below this cap, reaching from just behind the edge of their front armor to far behind their back, they have a horizontal turbine disk with a blue-striped frame. On their "face", they also have a single lens.

Game appearances

Sonic Adventure 2

In Sonic Adventure 2 and its remake, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the Gold Beetle appears once in every stage (except for Route 101, Weapons Bed, Route 280, and Green Hill).

Unlike most other robots deployed by GUN, the Gold Beetles do not have any method of attack, nor do they attempt to attack their foes. Instead, they appear for few seconds when a character comes close and then disappear permanently. They will only reappear if the character loses a life or the player restarts the stage. Destroying a Gold Beetle will award the player one thousand points.

Most of the time their locations in Hard mode are the same as Normal mode (Metal Harbor), but there are cases where they shift positions slightly (Prison Lane) or disappear to a new place altogether (City Escape). Sometimes, it is obligatory for the player to use the Gold Beetle to proceed forward, like in Radical Highway.

Shadow the Hedgehog

In Shadow the Hedgehog, the Gold Beetles appear again as enemies. In this game, they appear in hidden positions in Westopolis, Air Fleet, Iron Jungle, Death Ruins, Prison Island, Digital Circuit, Circus Park, The Doom and The ARK.

In gameplay, the Gold Beetles can move slightly faster than the Gun Beetles and are twice as resilient (requiring two Homing Attacks to be defeated instead of one). However, they cannot teleport and their coloration is not as golden as before.

The Gold Beetles either have fixed positions or fly from afar and toward the screen. Like the Mono Beetle, the Gold Beetle can track the player's movements precisely, and fire almost consecutively at the player while following them.

Sonic Generations (3DS)

In the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Generations, the Gold Beetles can be found in Radical Highway, reverting back to their behavior from Sonic Adventure 2. They appear in places where the player can use the Homing Attack on them to reach higher paths, but if they are given the chance to disappear, the player will lose their chance to reach the path. One of the unlockable missions requires the player to destroy three of them within the time limit.

In other media

Sonic X

Main article: Gold Beetle (Sonic X)

In the anime series Sonic X, the Gold Beetles appeared during the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation saga. In this media, they were constructed after the Perfect Chaos incident to combat Dr. Eggman's forces. A handful of them served as guards of Prison Island.