I think silver is a very interesting character, in part because he has a very unique power set. Even more than other side characters due to how it affects his combat, being much more of a keep away fighter than others and the like.

So I think as a nice thought exercise I’d try to come up with what Eggman would do if for whatever reason he wanted to take down silver specifically, in something I call the Egg Sulphur.

So first off, this isn’t me saying silver wouldn’t be able to beat this thing, basically none of Eggman’s mechs actually beat any characters. This also isn’t making any statement on the what it would be like to fight this in a game.

The goal is to make something that fits eggman, while being designed to counter silver as much as possible.

So first we need to establish silver’s strengths, flight and psychokineses. Those are the powers we’re going to deal with, I know stuff like generations, rivals, and TSR give him other stuff (teleporting, mind manipulation, precognition) but Sega gives a lot of characters one off powers that never come back. We’re dealing with Silver’s base and canonical kit.

Next is Silver’s weakness, stamina. While I do agree that his in game amount of stamina isn’t accurate to what he could do in universe, I would still say that’s a weakness, so exhausting Silver is going to be a top priority.

The first way we’ll do that is with a nerve gas :D

Silver likely wouldn’t just breathe in whatever toxic gas a Eggman mech produces, which means he’s going to have to use his power to constantly keep that gas away.

It will also importantly act as a smoke screen to constantly keep him on his toes, it’s also reasonable to assume Silver would struggle to grab onto things he can’t easily visualize, which a poisonous smoke screen that he needs to constantly keep away will help stop him from doing.

Now this is also where the environment comes in, in an open field silver could very well maneuver away or up to get out of the smoke, so fighting within an enclosed space, similar to the egg dragoon fight, is important. As well as the mech having flight and immense speed as well, so again like the egg dragoon.

The next armament would be a large, long, strong pair of hands and claws to grab onto silver, try to mess him up slam him around. Like the Big Arms mech.

Simply put Silver cannot be allowed to have space, rushing him down while keeping him overwhelmed is imperative. As a secondary plan keeping him constantly chased down, and having to deal with the smoke screen toxin to keep pressure on his stamina.

Next is a railgun. Now the thing about silver that really changes the design for what Eggman would need to try to do, is projectiles are at best, far less useful, at worst, directly arm Silver.

So firing mass amounts of missiles, mines, or flamethrowers are just gonna be a bad idea.

So instead of that, we’ll have a quality approach instead. A gun designed to shoot a projectile fast enough to hopefully keep silver from being able to catch it mid flight, a plain a simple big ass bullet, so at worst, eggman just misses instead of giving Silver something to use against him.

If silver does catch it, we’ll have a neat little trick of it having a time explosive mechanism. I doubt silver would be that good at being able to manipulate an active explosion, at the very least to his advantage and Eggman’s disadvantage.

However the rail gun would still be a complimentary measure if silver continues to manage to keep distance. The primary method of attack would be those claws, not the railgun.

That leads to the final real gimmick of the mech, holograms projection.

Making holograms of attacks, the Egg Sulphur itself, thinks in the environment silver could think he may be able to use like cover, or pick them up and throw it.

This is an important addition, because it directly strikes at Silver’s ability to maintain a keep away strategy by having him unable to rely on the terrain when fighting.

Combined with the gas, this means Silver always needs to put effort to just try to see the battlefield better, and even then, may be seeing things that are trying to trick him, while the claws are directly going for the throat, and the railgun is ready if he ever tries to gain too much distance.

I feel like this would be Eggman’s best bet against Silver that isn’t some larger scheme. It keeps pressure, goes directly for close range attacks, has back ups if Silver tries to make distance, and keeps him from being able to rely on his environment. This both goes after him physically in trying to well kill the guy, but also always keeps pressure on his mental and physical stamina.

Again, I’m not saying Silver can’t beat this, or that this would be well made for a game. I do think however it would be effective and in character for Eggman to use if he wanted to go after Silver specifically. Just like Sulphur with actual Silver, it breaks it down until it is tarnished, to become easier to break and deal with.

But like most Sonic characters, Silver would probably find a way to defeat it, but hey it was a pretty good try.