Sniper Joe

Sniper Joe (スナイパージョー) was originally an unknown type of mass-produced humanoid robots created by Dr. Light based on Proto Man. Dr. Wily modified the robots for combat, creating the Joe series, which resemble Proto Man in his Break Man form. They appear as enemies in almost every game from the original Mega Man series, giving Mega Man a difficult time getting through as an obstacle. They mainly fight with a shield and a blaster, but some variations also operate vehicles and have different attacks.

Sniper Joe
Sniper Joes will stand in front of Mega Man protecting themselves with an indestructible shield, sometimes shooting between 1 to 3 bullets or jumping. If Mega Man tries to pass by them in the first Mega Man game, they will chase him, jumping to stay in front of him. They can only be damaged when they are jumping or shooting. They appear in Bomb Man's stage. In the remake Mega Man Powered Up their shields can be knocked off.


 * In Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge, most Sniper Joes are stationary, but some are able to jump around the area. They appear in the stages of Cut Man, Ice Man, Fire Man and the Wily stages.


 * Sniper Joes appear in early scenes of Episode 2 from Super Adventure Rockman. Some are seen helping Dr. Wily build Ra Thor, and three Sniper Joes try to ambush Mega Man, but Proto Man warns him and defeat the Joes.


 * Sniper Joes are typically the same size as Mega Man, however they are shorter than him in Mega Man: The Wily Wars due to not being resized.


 * Purple and Red variants of this Sniper Joe appeared in the PC games Mega Man and Mega Man 3 respectively.

Returning Sniper Joe
Returning Sniper Joe (帰ってきたスナイパージョー) is a Sniper Joe that always shoots three bullets and cannot jump. They pilot armors in Mega Man 2. They only appear without the robot armor in the first and fourth Wily Castle stages in Mega Man 2. They are orange in Mega Man 2 and lilac in Mega Man: The Wily Wars.

Hits Data Chart
Amount of shots/hits from Special Weapons it takes to destroy a Returning Sniper Joe.

Sniper Armor
Sniper Armor (スナイパーアーマー) is a Sniper Joe that pilots a lilac jumping machine equipped with a machine gun that was originally created by Dr. Light. Destroying the armor will cause the "Returning Sniper Joe" in it to attack on foot. In Mega Man 2, they appear in Flash Man's stage, one is in Heat Man's stage, two are in Quick Man's stage, and are both with and without the walking armor in the final stages. In Mega Man: The Wily Wars, they appear in Wily Tower 2.

A single Sniper Armor appears in the Wily Stage (reuse of Quick Man's Stage) in Mega Man on the Game Gear.

As the walking machine was created by Dr. Light, it's believed that it would have been used as an "Item-4", which is sustained by this image of Mega Man using the armor, with a "4" in front of it. It could also be that Mega Man took the armor directly from a Sniper Joe.

Hits Data Chart
Amount of shots/hits from Special Weapons it takes to destroy a Sniper Armor.

Hammer Joe
Hammer Joe (ハンマージョー) is an armored Sniper Joe that looks similar to Air Man that swings a ball and chain and throws it at enemies. Unlike normal Sniper Joes, he can only be hurt when his eye is open. Another weak spot is at his legs. In Mega Man 3, they appear in Snake Man's, Spark Man's, Needle Man's and Hard Man's stages, as well as Shadow Man's Doc Robot stage and Dr. Wily's stages 1 and 3.

In Mega Man II they appear in Needle Man's and Hard Man's stages, as well as the Wily Stage.

In Mega Man III they appear in Snake Man's, Spark Man's and Drill Man's stages, as well as the last Wily Level.

In Mega Man: The Wily Wars, they appear in Buster Rod. G's, Hyper Storm. H's and the third Wily Tower's stage.


 * Hammer Joe also has cameo appearances in a field from Mega Man's Soccer and in the game Capcom World 2.

Hits Data Chart
Amount of shots/hits from Special Weapons it takes to destroy a Hammer Joe.

Skeleton Joe
Skeleton Joe (スケルトン・ジョー) are Sniper Joes in the form of skeletons that throw bones. They appear in Skull Man's stage and the first level of Dr. Cossack's Citadel in Mega Man 4. They can only be destroyed with a charged shot from the Mega Buster or Pharaoh Shot, or by using the Flash Stopper. Other weapons will only dismantle them and they will reassemble themselves in a short time. Dive Missiles will not home in on Skeleton Joes, and Rain Flush cannot even dismantle them. They also appear in the Rockman Megamix manga as Skull Man's henchmen.

Hits Data Chart
Amount of shots/hits from Special Weapons it takes to destroy a Skeleton Joe.

Apache Joe
Apache Joes (アパッチジョー) are purple Sniper Joes that ride in a small helicopter in Napalm Man's Stage and in the final stages of Mega Man 5.

They also appear in Napalm Man's Stage in Mega Man for the Game Gear.

Hits Data Chart
Amount of shots/hits from Special Weapons it takes to destroy an Apache Joe.

Rider Joe
Rider Joe (ライダージョー) is a Sniper Joe that appears while Mega Man is on the marine bike in Wave Man's stage (in Mega Man 5 and Mega Man for the Game Gear), also using a marine bike that can shoot. They can come from the front and behind.

Crystal Joe
Crystal Joe (クリスタルジョー) are Joes in Mega Man 5 that charge up to create crystal shards that they will launch. They are indestructible when they are charging and can only be destroyed when they are attacking. They appear in Crystal Man's stage and the second Proto Man Castle stage.

Hits Data Chart
Amount of shots/hits from Special Weapons it takes to destroy a Crystal Joe.

Gunner Joe
Gunner Joe (ガンナージョー) is an enemy in Mega Man IV that appears in the stage where Mega Man chases after Wily in space.

Piriparee
Piriparee (ピリパリー) appears in Mega Man V. They basically use electricity, and appear in the Wily Star. They are invincible while charging their attacks. There is also a similar enemy in Jupiter's stage called Biribaree.

Cannon Joe
Cannon Joe (キャノンジョー) is a Joe inside a stationary cannon that can shoot to the sides. They appear in Blizzard Man's stage (on the submarine) and in the first Wily stage from Mega Man 6.

Sniper Joe 01
Sniper Joe 01 (スナイパージョー０１) is the Sniper Joe from Mega Man 7 that acts like the original Sniper Joe. It is notorious for being defeated with only four shots from the Mega Buster.

Truck Joe
Truck Joe (トラックジョー) is a Sniper Joe in a big spike-fronted truck. They appear twice as the sub-boss of Turbo Man's stage in Mega Man 7, one of them appearing near the beginning. If Noise Crush is used on them, they will pause to cover their ears. If the player can get Mega Man behind the truck, the Truck Joe will put the truck into reverse gear and back up the vehicle with one hand on the seat as they look back, similar to a human doing the same. This makes Truck Joe one of the most expressive generic enemy units in the Classic series. Truck Joes' personalities, like their driving, can be a bit rough, but actually they are not such bad guys.

The Truck Joe (or perhaps Track Joe since the two are pronounced the same in Japanese) also appears in Mega Man: Battle & Chase as one of the extra opponent racers. He has a hidden boss incarnation called Black Joe (ブラックジョー), who is a member of the Black Troop. Their cars are able to drop mines.

Joe Classic
Joe Classic (ジョー・クラシック) is a Joe with an appearance similar to the Sniper Joes from the first Mega Man game. They act similar to Sniper Joe 01, and throw grenades. Mega Man can also shoot through their shields at point-blank range.

Machine Gun Joe
Machine Gun Joe (マシンガンジョー) is a red Sniper Joe from Mega Man 9 that has rapid fire. It fires in bursts of eight bullets. Laser Trident can pass through their shields, while the Jewel Satellite and Proto Shield can reflect their bullets back to them. They appear in Tornado Man's stage and the second and third Wily Stages. It is possible to ignore its shield with the Mega Buster by attacking them at point blank range.

Returning Machine Gun Joe
Returning Machine Gun Joe (帰ってきたマシンガンジョー) is a variant from Mega Man 10. They fire six shots in bursts of three. In Hard Mode, they can jump around. Their shields can be knocked off easily with the Bass Buster, Water Shield, and Screw Crusher, although hitting the shield rapidly with four shots from any weapon (pausing to eliminate shots when need be) will do the trick. They can also be easily defeated using the Mirror Buster, as the bullets just backfire. They appear in Nitro Man's stage, Wily Castle 1, Wily Castle 3, Special Stage 1 and Special Stage 2. In Hard Mode, they also appear in Pump Man's stage and Wily Castle 2.

Scuba Joe
"Scuba Joe" is an unnamed underwater Sniper Joe from Mega Man Rush Marine.

Harpoon Joe
"Harpoon Joe" is an unnamed underwater Sniper Joe from Mega Man Rush Marine that uses harpoons to attack.

Samurai Joe
"Samurai Joe" is an unnamed Sniper Joe variety from Street Fighter X Mega Man. He spins his bow staff and deflects all oncoming bullets. He opens for a second and then proceeds to roll around causing damage on contact. Usually purple Samurai Joes are in the same area as a Nurikabe, and only in Ryu's stage.

Sniper Joe in Mega Man Network Transmission
Sniper Joes appear as viruses in Mega Man Network Transmission. When they do not have their shield up, they either shoot three shots consecutively or charge up one shot.

Hammer Joes also appear as viruses. They act in this game the same way as they do in Mega Man 3.

Other media
Sniper Joes appear in the Mega Man comic series by Archie Comics and in several manga. Like in the games, they were derived from the design of Blues, as Blues had been the prototype to a military-grade robot.

They debuted in Issue 2 of the comic, where Mega Man encountered one while on his way to a construction site to confront Bomb Man. Dr. Light, when seeing the Sniper Joe, initially mistook him for Blues, and was shocked at his apparently working with Dr. Wily. However, he eventually got a closer look and saw it was actually a Sniper Joe, and told Mega Man to retreat for the moment, while also becoming a bit confused as to how Dr. Wily got a hold of Sniper Joes.

In the Proto-Type arc, which served as Proto Man's backstory, the Sniper Joes were mentioned to be a simpler version of Blues' design, due to the testing reaching an unexpected development regarding an unstable power core in Blues. In addition, their name was mentioned to have been given by Dr. Wily (then Dr. Light's lab partner) in reference to the Army, which he referred to as "Army Joes."

The Sniper Joes also appeared in Jasco's Universal Fighting System TCG Mega Man series, with one artwork depicting a Sniper Joe being hit with an uppercut from Proto Man (alluding to the latter's distaste for the Sniper Joe line).

Trivia

 * Altered variations of Sniper Joes appear in the Mega Man X series. Hoganmer holds an indestructible shield and attacks with a chain mace, and Disk Boys attack by throwing spiked disks at Mega Man X.
 * Sniper Joes may have been replaced by Pantheons and their multiple forms in the Mega Man Zero series. In the  Mega Man ZX series, Pantheons have been replaced as the standard enemy by Galleons.

Similar enemies
Enemies similar to Sniper Joes.
 * Armor Soldier
 * Picket Man
 * Hoganmer
 * Disk Boy 08
 * Gorbesh
 * Pantheon
 * Variant
 * Galleon