Sonic & Knuckles/Items

Sonic & Knuckles contains the same items as Sonic 3. Each shield has a unique power that can be used by Sonic. Knuckles is unable to use these powers as he can glide.

Rings
Rings protect you when you are hit. If you are hit when you are carrying rings, you lose all of them, and if you are hit when you have no rings you lose a life. Additionally, when hit with more than 20 rings, only 20 will appear. At numbers lower than 20, only that number of rings come out. Every 100 rings collected gives you an extra life.

Item Boxes
Sonic/Tails must attack these to get the contents.

Shields
Shields protect you from harm. If the player is hit when in possession of a shield, he loses the shield instead of rings. In Sonic & Knuckles, there are 3 different types of shields. Each shield gives Sonic an extra attack while he has it. All shields can deflect weak projectiles.

Giant Ring
These are hidden around the levels. When a player goes through them he will be taken to the special stage. If all the Chaos Emeralds have been collected, it will give 50 rings instead. 

Chaos Emeralds
There are seven Chaos Emeralds in total. Each Chaos Emerald comes in a different colors: red, blue, green, orange, purple, white, and aqua, respectfully. Collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds will turn Sonic into Super Sonic, and result in a special ending upon the completion of the game. Knuckles can also become Super Knuckles, though he does not change colors.

Star Post
These are placed at random through out most levels. If you die, you restart at the last star post you ran through. If you have 50 or more rings when you pass through a star post, a ring of stars will hover above. You can jump into these to go to the bonus stage.