The main islands all have something similar
People are making their way through Sonic Frontiers: so I decided to take a note of anything that might be even remotely tricky. While running through most of the open world is self-explanatory (and easy to do because of the degree of control you have over Sonic), there’s a few errant puzzles here and there that folks might Google.
Here’s a quick rundown of the water draining area.
Drain the water to move on puzzle solution
After reaching the second island and speaking to Knuckles several times, you’ll come across a giant drain. The objective marker will aim at a turret, but you can’t otherwise interact with it: which might be confusing at first.
To fix that, walk around the water away from the turret, and use the Cyloop (Triangle/Y) to create a ring around the artillery shell on the pedestal. It’ll magically float above Sonic’s head, and a timer will appear: asking you to load the turret and fire it in time.
Just quickly walk over to the turret, and the shell will load in. Aim up and look directly at the structure attached to the chain/plug, and fire right into the center of the “eye.” The area will drain and the story will move on!
