As part of its regularly-scheduled promotional programming, the turn of the new year brought with it a new character for Sonic Runners: the Werehog from Sonic Unleashed. Now with the campaign's conclusion putting his unlock probability to normal odds, four new vehicle-based Buddies — RC Bomber, RC Fighter, RC Hovercraft and RC Helicopter — have taken its place as priority unlocks.
Having the RC Bomber will initiate a screen wipe of all visible enemies when certain combo benchmarks have been reached, while the other three boost the effect of specific Color Powers. For this week only until January 25, there is increased probability of landing on these in the Premium Roulette, after which they will be bunched in with the other unlockable Buddies at a normal unlock rate.
In addition, from this point forward, the three Team Chaotix characters — originally added to the game in March of last year — have been removed from the Premium Roulette to become permanent unlocks. Similar to Amy's unlock conditions, you'll need to spend 200 Red Star Rings or 2,000,000 Rings for either Espio, Vector or Charmy to join your character roster. Short of spending upwards of $20 in microtransactions, both criteria are hard to reach through in-game rewards so you'd better save your resources!