The Guardians littered around the islands of Sonic Frontiers are interesting challenges. Some want to test your speed, and some want to put Sonic through a quick time event with a brawl at the end. The Sumo is here for a good old-fashioned cage brawl.
Once the Sumo knows you’re near, it readies up with an arena ring stacked with lasers. But if you prepare yourself for a smackdown, you may still come away from this scrap without a single ring lost and a Portal Gear to show for it.
Homing Attack Into The Ropes
When the Sumo Guardian spots you, you’ll notice little holes forming a ring around him. Once you get closer, these holes will open up to form pillars, and wrapping around the pillars will be blue rings that form a wrestling arena. The ring is not just a gimmick to fit the Guardian’s name, this ring will be the only way Sonic can do any damage to the Sumo. There will be a homing attack icon over the Sumo, but if you try and homing attack it directly the Sumo will instantly set up a barrier. This will not damage you, but it will stop you from doing anything to the Sumo. What you’re supposed to do is homing attack into the ring.
While stuck in the ring, you can then aim Sonic into a direct path to the Sumo. This time you’re attack will land, but you still won’t do any damage. The only way to damage the Sumo is to send him into the purple electricity that will appear while Sonic bounces from the ring.
When struck by the electric bits of the ring, the Sumo will instantly lose a chunk of its health. The Sumo will also be stunned, leaving Sonic free to perform a combo against it. Spamming homing attacks off the ring is certainly possible, but the electricity can also hurt Sonic, so you would need to both spam as much as you can while being slow and careful. Even though the game will paint a line for you to show you where Sonic will bounce, it can be difficult to plan this out. There’s a secondary option to this, a method that will stun the Sumo without hurting it and allow Sonic more bounces off the ring.
Cylooping The Sumo
If Sonic can manage to form a Cyloop around the Sumo, this will stun the Guardian. Follow up with a homing attack and Sonic will bounce wildly around it and the arena, earning a Phantom Rush and usually guaranteeing the Sumo hits the electric walls.
There will be no forced aiming and Sonic will be safe from the purple electricity as it will be temporarily turned off. The difficult part of performing the Cyloop is that the Sumo will actively stop you from finishing it. The Sumo’s attacks will differ depending on how much health it has. At the beginning of the fight, the Sumo will attack Sonic by lifting its arms and slamming them down. After it has taken a good deal of damage, it can suddenly remove an arm and use it as a spinning pillar that will move around the arena. Both attacks will damage Sonic and make him lose rings, as well as completely erase a current Cyloop, starting you from the very beginning. The best recommendation is a wide berth around the Sumo, if you try this too close the Sumo will likely manage to slam down on you. Once it can start sending its arms out as spinning pillars, simply wait until they have moved far enough away from the Sumo before you start the Cyloop, and again keep a wide turn as it can still slam its arms down on you.
Just Stay Focused
Whenever the Sumo is not stunned, focus everything on making it stunned. As long as it can move, it can attack, and it is completely invincible. Stunning the Sumo Guardian is not simply a good way to put hits in while avoiding any backlash, it is the only way to end the fight. Be prepared to think on your toes despite how obvious the cyloop stun may sound. While it is a great way to ensure the Sumo will be sent into an electric wall, it’s just as likely you will not have enough space. Sonic Team’s design made most of the Guardian tower over the hedgehog, and while Sumo is one of the smaller Guardians he throws his weight around to give a claustrophobic feeling to the fight.
If you cannot form a loop, just bolt into the ring and hope you can align a shot. If you can form a loop, form a loop and keep an eye on where the Sumo begins to move. The Sumo Guardian will be an intense match unless Sonic is incredibly over-leveled, and even if he is, be warned that being over-confident is exactly the kind of thing the Sumo is counting on for you to lose.
