Spoilers ahead to those sensitive to them.

There are only three constants in life: death, taxes, and game patch data containing hints at upcoming content. It wasn’t long before the community (specifically Bluwolfblitz on Twitter in this case) began dissecting the game’s new files and discovered new animations, textures, and weapon models for Sonic’s soon-to-be-playable buddies.

The full thread is available here with screenshots, videos, and textures, but there are a few worth highlighting:

Each of the three have some form of weapon associated with them, Amy fighting with both Tarot cards and her iconic hammer, Tails getting a “Cyblaster” gun or turret, and Knuckles either punching or taking the form of a drill.

The series, thoroughly doubling-down on Amy as a fortune teller, has incorporated her deck into an attack. The cards have the same texture as those in the IDW comics, Sonic Origins, and the upcoming reproduction set releasing this November.

Far from the days of Sonic Adventure 2’s wall crawling, Knuckles’ climb animation here is much more aggressive. He’ll also squat down in idle like a stereotypical anime delinquent. (And really, is Knuckles anything but?)

And finally, Tails does what Tails does best, fly in ways that defy physics and poke at invisible machines. Without context, we don’t know the constraints to his flight yet, but one must imagine it would be quite useful on the more vertical islands.

Finally, it appears that each character may get their own skill tree. Sonic’s tree in the game totals to 15 moves (many of which are combat finishers), and Tails, Knuckles, and Amy appear to have the same quantity as Sonic himself if the 1-15 labels are any indication. It’s probably safe to assume the numbers are placeholders.

As a caution, Bluwolfblitz notes that the update also contains much of the third update’s script text. They’ve opted not to share them, but for those wary of story spoilers, the info will likely be out there elsewhere.