Knuckles the Echidna

**Knuckles the Echidna** (ナックルズ・ザ・エキドゥナ, *Nakkurusu za Ekiduna*), is a fictional character and protagonist from the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series series. He is an anthropomorphic, wild and tough echidna whom is famous as a treasure hunter and a master of martial arts. He is also the current guardian of the Master Emerald, a powerful ancient relic which is his solemn duty to protect from anyone who wants to abuse it. He is also the sole remaining descendant of the Knuckles Clan and one of the surviving echidnas in the world. His primary ability and dominant traits are his superhuman strength, his arms are so powerful that he can shatter rocks, and the two spike-like features on his knuckle gloves on each of his hands, from which his name is derived from, which he can use to dig with and climb up walls. He can also trap the wind under his dreadlocks to glide through the air.

A loner by nature, Knuckles is independent, headstrong and serious, yet gullible and short-tempered to a fault. He is fully devoted to his duty, spending most of his time on Angel Island protecting the Master Emerald, and rarely cares for anything that is not important. When his friends and others are in need of his help, however, Knuckles can always be relied on being willing to leave his post and prove himself a true and good-hearted hero. He is also one of Sonic's oldest friends and rivals.

"*I am the **last** Guardian of Angel Island. Protecting the Master Emerald is my purpose! This floating island is my life! So I'll probably be on it forever, guarding the Master Emerald again. I may not know the whole story behind this, but perhaps it's better that way.*"

—Knuckles the Echidna.

## Appearance

*Voice actor (4Kids):* Dan Green (English), Nobutoshi Canna (Japanese), Sébastien Desjours (French), Not Known (Italian), Claus-Peter Damitz (German), Sergio Mesa (Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Portuguese), Radosław Kaliski (Poland), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (China), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Polish), Dmitriy Filimonov (Russian), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese)
*Voice actor (Studiopolis):* Travis Willingham (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (French), Maurizio Merluzzo (Italian), Not Known (German), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Dutch), Markus Niemi (Finnish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (China), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Polish), Daniel Eldarov (Russian), Not Known (Swedish), Gilles Shalhoub (Arabic), Miron Aharonovich (Hebrew), Not Known (Latin Spanish), Leonardo Serrano (Brazilian Portuguese)

### Appearance

Knuckles is a mobian red echidna. He bears a white crescent mark on his chest, a trait tied-in the original continuity-to his station as Guardian. Officially, he's slightly taller than Sonic. He wears white gloves similar to boxing gloves and has two spiked knuckle-claws on each hand. He wears green, yellow and red footwear with a metal "Lego" plate atop each shoe.

#### In Present Time

Knuckles' eyes had changed in color into purple eyes.

#### Possible Future

* Hair Color: Red (with White crescent mark)
* Fur Color: Peach
* Eye Color: Violet (originally black)
* Age: 16
* Height: 110 cm. (3' 7")
* Weight: 40 kg. (88 lb.)

## Personality

Personality-wise, Knuckles is serious, aloof, stubborn and does not adapt easily. Headstrong and inflexible, Knuckles prefers to do things his own way which causes him to clash with others. Regardless, he is very strong-willed, seldom wavering in his determination.

Unlike the rest of Sonic's group, Knuckles walks his very own path and is able to fight many people on his own, due to his brute strength and competence at martial arts. He also never gives up once he has a goal to accomplish, especially when its about finding the Master Emerald which is his job/duty to protect it. When on a serious mission, Knuckles is extremely self-sufficient and only says a few words.

Knuckles grew up believing in honesty, and holds a strong and steadfast belief that there is good in everyone, which always lets him give people (especially Eggman) second chances. However, this makes him very naive, quite gullible and easily misled, which has given him a history of being tricked by Eggman.

Though he is cool and determined in battle and most stressfull situations, Knuckles has an extremely short temper which leads to aggression, and is difficult to talk to or reason with when he is angry. Though his wild-temper has often been known to get him into trouble, Knuckles uses his anger to fight off his enemies.

Knuckles holds a special loneliness as he is the last of his tribe of Echidnas that lived on Angel Island for generations and believes that he will never see any one like him in his lifetime. Despite of this though, he believes that he is the only person who can carry out the task of protecting the Master Emerald to ensure no one abuses its power.

Despite his solitude, temper and blunt honesty, Knuckles is quite understanding and kind, and respects those who are nice in return, but keeps to himself. However, he shows alot of empathy, especially for people he believes need some comfort. Knuckles is also extremely selfless, heroic, and valiant, willing to put his safety on the line to save people's, and even his adversaries', lives.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Relic the Pika
* Fixit
* Team Sonic
	+ Sonic the Hedgehog (Best friend and rival)
	+ Tails the Fox (Best friend)
* Thomas Jones
* Team Rose
	+ Amy Rose the Hedgehog
	+ Big the Cat
	+ Cream the Rabbit
	+ Cheese the Chao
* Vanilla the Rabbit
* Chaotix
	+ Vector the Crocodile
	+ Espio the Chameleon
	+ Charmy the Bee
* Moss the Sloth
* Team Might
	+ Mighty the Armadillo
	+ Ray the Flying Squirrel
	+ Sticks the Badger
* Honey the Cat
* Christopher Thorndyke
* Chuck Thorndyke
* Helen
* Hawk (Great Friend)
* Tikal the Echidna
* Chaos
* Doctor Cadberry
* Cosmo
* G.U.N.
	+ Topaz
	+ Team Dark
		- Shadow the Hedgehog
		- Rouge the Bat (also rival)
		- E-123 Omega
* Team Sol
	+ Silver the Hedgehog
	+ Blaze the Cat
* Shade the Echidna
* Chip
* Mike the Ox
* Resistance
	+ Nicole the Lynx
	+ Rotor the Walrus
* Lumina Flowlight
* Freedom Fighters
	+ Sally Acorn
	+ Antoine D'Coolette
	+ Bunnie Rabbot
* Cliff
* Q-N-C
* Perci
* MAIA
* Admiral Beaverton
* FriendBot
* Og
* Mighton
* Bolts
* Team Cybonic
	+ Cyber Amy
	+ Cyber Knuckles
	+ Cyber Sonic
	+ Cyber Sticks
	+ Cyber Tails
* Chumley

### Family

* Pachacamac the Echidna (Ancestor)
* Tikal the Echidna (Ancestor)
* Tikal's Grandmother (Ancestor)
* Athair the Echidna (great-grandfather)
* Unnamed great-grandmother (deceased)
* Sabre the Echidna (grandfather; deceased)
* Unnamed grandmother (deceased)
* Locke the Echidna (father; deceased)
* Lara the Echidna (mother)
* Wynmacher the Echidna (step-father)
* Knecapeon Mace the Echidna (half-brother)

### Neutral

* Team Hooligans
	+ Nack the Weasel
	+ Bean the Duck
	+ Bark the Polar Bear
* Thrash the Tasmanian Devil
* Void
* Emerl/Gemerl

### Rivals

* Shadow the Hedgehog
* Sonic the Hedgehog (Friendly Rival)
* Rouge the Bat
* Storm the Albatross

### Enemies

* Eggman Empire
	+ Dr. Eggman
	+ Decoe
	+ Bocoe
	+ Bokkun
	+ Jack Robotnik (arch-enemy)
	+ Orbot
	+ Cubot
	+ Metal Series
		- Metal Sonic
	+ Eggman Army
		- Infinite
		- Thunderbolt the Chinchilla
* Chaos (formerly)
* Biolizard
* Destructix
	+ Scourge the Hedgehog
* Metarex
	+ Dark Oak
	+ Yellow Zelkova
* Black Arms
	+ Black Doom
	+ Eclipse the Darkling
	+ Dark Arms
* Solaris
	+ Iblis
* Dr. Julian Snively
* Ifrit
* Nocturnus Clan
	+ Pir'Oth Ix
* Dark Gaia Creatures
* Doctor Eggman Nega
* The Time Eater
* Lyric the Last Ancient
* Hard Boiled Heavies
	+ Heavy King
	+ Heavy Gunner
	+ Heavy Magician
	+ Heavy Shinobi
	+ Heavy Rider
* Walter Naugus
* T.W. Barker
* Lightning Bolt Society
	+ Dave the Intern
	+ Willy Walrus
	+ Weasel Bandits
	+ Tree Spy
* Nominatus
* Froglodites
* Dixon
* Charlie
* Mark the Tapir
* Dreamcaster
* Belinda
* Morpho
* Hypnobot
* Bike Chain Bandit

## Powers and Abilities

### Strength

"*Knuckles never runs from a fight!*"

—Knuckles the Echidna.
Knuckles' trademark ability is his immense superhuman strength, which is so vast that he can pulverize massive boulders, punch through solid steel, and lift objects several times his size and weight with ease. By comparison, Knuckles' strength is stated to equal Sonic's speed; considering Sonic's measured footspeed, which range between Mach 1-5, it would mean that Knuckles is capable of lifting 100-500 metric tons. This makes Knuckles one of the physically strongest characters in the series. Knuckles' strength seems to lie in his upper body, particularly in his arms and fists, the latter of which are noted to be as hard as rocks.

Another testament to Knuckles' strength is that by punching the ground, he can create fissures, tremors, and even small volcanic eruptions. Additionally, he can punch with his fists or throw objects through the air with such force that they ignite from friction. He can even launch punches with such force that they cause air molecules to split and create explosions of enormous power.

### Abilities

#### Physical Abilities

Knuckles is shown to possess the ability to run at breakneck speeds, enough to let him keep up with both Sonic and Tails' running speed. He is even able to run fast enough to create afterimages of himself. Even so, he is not quite as fast as Sonic at his maximum speed, as Knuckles is noted to run fairly slow by comparison. Additionally, while Knuckles is capable of executing rapid punches in quick succession within a split-second, he has been noted to have slow movements in combat.

Knuckles possesses near-maximized physical endurance and durability to match his astounding strength. He can thus take just as much punishment as he can dish out and has achieved numerous feats of impressive durability. These include surviving a bomb exploding right in front of him through sheer toughness, and going through atmospheric reentry and then land on the ground unharmed.> Also, despite the force of the impacts Knuckles' fists receive when punching at high forces, he is never phased by the recoil, regardless of what he hits or how hard he is hitting. Knuckles additionally has enough stamina to hold out against an army of enemies without rest.

Unlike Sonic, Knuckles is a very experienced swimmer. Due to his interest of being a treasure hunter, he can swim to incredible depths and with both great speed and skill. Knuckles is also a proficient burrower, able to dig into any wall or floor and excels at tunneling through subterranean regions at great speed.

Knuckles is also shown to have sharp reflexes and acrobatic skills, enough to let him do special tricks and movements while in mid-air, pull off various Spin Attack maneuvers at high speed, and grind along rails just as fast as Sonic while doing tricks and evading obstacles. Additionally, Knuckles can jump several stories into the air from a standstill position. While not being quite as acrobatic as Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles makes up for his lack of agility through his wide range of movement abilities. By stretching his arms and legs outwards while airborne, Knuckles can catch the air under his dread-lock-like spines to ride on air currents, allowing him to expertly glide long distances through mid-air. Also, by using the spikes on his fists, Knuckles can scale any kind of surface with ease.

Knuckles has the uncanny ability to sense the chaos energy of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, or similar objects like Sol Emeralds, and can track down their "signals" which makes him a living Emerald Detector. Like Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles can also harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to empower himself.

### Combat Skills

Being the guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles is a very powerful fighter. He is a master in a number of martial arts, focusing on hand-to-hand combat, and is capable of taking on even the most powerful of opponents without rest, such as when he was able to take down several of the military-trained Nocturnus Clan soldiers. Even more so, he has been able to fight Sonic the Hedgehog to a standstill on several occasions. Also, in *Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood*, Tails noted that anyone to beat Knuckles in a fight must be very powerful, a testament to his fighting abilities.

#### Fighting Style

When in battle, Knuckles makes use of his powerful arms and fists to take on his foes, with his specialty lying in punching moves where he uses his spiked fists for some devastating effects. In terms of fighting style, Knuckles' focuses specifically on power, using robust and forceful punches, such as power-packed jabs or piercing uppercuts to deal damaging blows to his opponents. Once he catches an opponent in his combos, he will keep them trapped by keeping up his strikes, not allowing his opponents a chance to counterattack. For stronger strikes, Knuckles tend to build up momentum with his fists by swinging them around, before hitting his opponent with full force. In his Major Eruption move in *Sonic Battle*, Knuckles takes advantage of his burrowing abilities, hiding underground and hitting opponents with an uppercut as he leaps out when his opponent least expects it.

Despite being a powerhouse in close combat, as stated by Sonic, most of Knuckles' fighting moves are slow and easy to read, making Knuckles more vulnerable to the fastest characters who can read his moves and rapidly counterattack

#### Techniques and Moves

Knuckles' various moves and techniques revolve around his trademark Punch Attack, where he attacks his opponents with various punching combos, including surrounding his fists with fire. His Spiral Upper allows him to strike foes above him with a spinning uppercut, and his Drill Claw sends him spiraling down on his foes from above. Similar to those, he also has his Screwdriver which allows him to home directly at his enemies. For wider impacts, Knuckles can use his Hammer Punch or Knuckle Slam to create wide tremors or explosions that effect everything within their effect range.

Knuckles has also been shown being able to use Sonic's trademark Spin Attack and Spin Dash where he curls tightly into a concussive ball while in locomotion to damage, mow down, or burrow through obstacles and foes. He does, however, not use these moves or their variants, such as the Homing Attack, as often as Sonic and Shadow do.

When gliding, Knuckles can also use his Grinding/Gliding Knuckles Attack in conjunction with his movements, using the spikes on his fists to damage any foes he comes into contact with during his descend. With his Maximum Heat Knuckles Attack, Knuckles glides through the air at high speeds, destroying any foes within his attack range.

### Attacks

* Air Mole Bomb
* Attack Support 8
* Boost Mode
* Chao Attack
* Climb
* Dash
* Dash Punch
* Deep Impact
* Dig
* Double Punch
* Drill Claw
* Enrage
* Fire Combination
* Fire Dunk
* Fireball Jump
* Fist Screw
* Gail Meteor
* Glide
* Gravity Control
* Gravity Dive
* Grind Step
* Grinder Attack
* Grinding Knuckles Attack
* Ground Shaker
* Guard
* Hammer Attack
* Hammer Punch
* Hard Line (requires Shadow and Shade)
* Homing Attack
* Jump Dash
* Kick Dash
* Kn. Air Hook
* Kn. Straight
* Knuckle Slam
* Knuckles Chop
* Knuckles Dash
* Knuckles Express (requires Shadow)
* Knuckles Guard
* Knuckles Heal
* Knuckles Jump
* Knuckles Punch
* Knuckles Run
* Knuckles Sandwich (requires Sonic and Amy)
* Knuckles Style
* Knuckles Upper
* Major Eruption
* Maximum Heat Knuckles Attack
* Megaton Hook
* Meteor Crush
* Meteor Punch
* Mid-Air Trick Actions
* Mole Bomb
* Power Flash
* Punch Attack
* Quake Punch
* Revolver Slam (requires Sonic)
* Roar
* Rock Free Fall
* Screwdriver
* Solid Knuckle
* Sonic Overdrive (Team Blast requires Sonic and Tails)
* Spin Attack
* Spin Dash
* Spin Jump
* Strength Support 3
* Spinning Back Punch
* Spiral Attack
* Spiral Upper
* Swim
* Tag Action
* Thunder Arrow
* Triangle Dive
* Trounce Support
* Uppercut
* Volcanic Dunk

### Skills

* Super strength
* Super Speed
* Enhanced durability
* Climbing
	+ Wall climbing
* High acrobatic skills and reflexes
* Burrowing
* Limited geokinesis
* Gliding
* Grinding
* Hand-to-hand combat skills
	+ Martial arts skills
* Treasure hunter skills
* Chaos Powers
	+ Controlling the Master Emerald
	+ Sensing the Chaos Emeralds
	+ Harnessing chaos energy
		- Hyper Mode initiation
		- Super transformation
			* Super Knuckles transformation
			* Hyper Knuckles transformation
* Extreme Gear skills
* Hyper-go-on usage

### Miscellaneous Skills

Knuckles is an expert treasure hunter with infallible instincts (which is referred to as his treasure sense), which is shown during his several hunts for Emerald Shards and can be considered one of the best treasure hunters in the world, if not the best. He can sense the presence of treasure nearby and is even able to pick up its scent and sniff his way to it. While not exactly highly intelligent, Knuckles is well-versed in ancient cultures, ruins, and legends, and is very knowledgeable on the subject, such as when he was able to translate the ancient texts at Gigan Rocks with little effort.

Knuckles has been shown to possess some mystical abilities of his own, possibly due to his close connection to the Master Emerald. In addition to summoning lightning bolts. He displays some limited geokinetic abilities, such as harnessing elemental earth energies to protect or heal himself, or calling forth meteors from above, which is described as "supernatural control of earth". Knuckles is also one of the few who knows how to access and utilize the Master Emerald, allowing him to tap into the gem's powers to utilize its different properties or empower himself.

Knuckles has proven himself to be a skilled Extreme Gear rider, having proven himself a worthy competitor against many of the world's best Extreme Gear riders. To best put his skills in perspective, Knuckles was able to beat Storm the Albatross in a race, who is regarded as a legendary wind Master. When riding his Extreme Gear, Knuckles can bash his way through obstacles effortlessly and engage in close combat with his fellow racers, without losing control. With his Extreme Gear skills, Knuckles can even enhance his physical abilities.

### Transformations

#### Super Knuckles

*Main article:* *Super Knuckles*
In *Sonic & Knuckles* and *Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles*, with the seven Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles is able to become **Super Knuckles**. In this state, all of Knuckles' abilities far surpasses his normal ones, and he is as well able to fly and is nearly invulnerable.

#### Hyper Knuckles

*Main article:* *Hyper Knuckles*
In *Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles*, Knuckles can transform into an extended version of the Super Knuckles, called **Hyper Knuckles** with the seven Super Emeralds. This form basically shares the same abilities and traits as Super Knuckles, except they are all more powerful and upgraded. However, this transformation consumes a lot of energy and requires Rings to be maintained.

#### Color Powers

*Main article:* *Color Power*
By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Knuckles can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Knuckles has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

### Weaknesses

Despite his toughness, Knuckles possesses more strength than his body can handle. For example, when penetrating Yellow Zelkova's armor, Knuckles punched with such force that he partially broke his own hand.

### Equipment

The Shovel Claws are ancient iron claws that Knuckles discovered during his adventure with Hawk. Upon adding it to his possession, Knuckles gained the ability to burrow underground for kilometers, and break solid debris. He has also used it in combat to do sharp uppercuts.

## History

### Past

Knuckles spent most of his life living alone on Angel Island, keeping watch over the Master Emerald. This isolation came to an end when Dr. Eggman arrived on the island following his latest defeat at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog. Knuckles was soon persuaded that Sonic and his sidekick Tails were out to steal the Master Emerald, and opposed their journey across the island starting with ambushing Sonic and scattering his collected Chaos Emeralds. Unbeknownst to him, however, Sonic and Tails were looking to stop Eggman, who had decided to steal the Master Emerald for himself. After a brief scuffle, Knuckles eventually befriended Sonic and Tails after Eggman stole the emerald himself. Knuckles, worn from the battle and from Eggman after trying to stop the thief, showed Sonic and Tails the path to reach Eggman. After Eggman was defeated and expelled from the island, the Master Emerald was safely returned. Dr. Eggman then dispatched his business lackey, Julian Snively, to steal the emerald once again, with the diminutive villain employing an Eggrobo to do so. However, Knuckles successfully recovered the Master Emerald, putting a stop to the doctor's plan for good.

## External links

* Knuckles the Echidna *Wikipedia*
* Knuckles the Echidna *Sonic News Network*