X-Hunters

The X-Hunters, known as Counter Hunters (カウンターハンター) in Japan, is a group of three Mavericks from Mega Man X2 formed to counter the Maverick Hunters. They recovered Zero's parts to revive him as a Maverick. After defeating two of the eight Maverick bosses, they will contact Hunter Base, each challenging Mega Man X to duel. They will then randomly appear in hidden rooms in one of the six remaining stages; if defeated, X will recover one of Zero's parts. They also appear as individual bosses in the final stages.

Members

 * Violen
 * Serges
 * Agile

Room locations

 * Wire Sponge: Small path under the first elevator.
 * Morph Moth: Small path near the ladder after the first sub-boss, requires Air Dash from the Leg Parts or a charged Speed Burner.
 * Flame Stag: Make the second Beetron break the highest breakable wall.
 * Magna Centipede: In the room with falling blocks, run to the door at the bottom right before it's blocked.
 * Overdrive Ostrich: Use Spin Wheel on the first wall.
 * Bubble Crab: Above the area the Sea Canthller stops, must get there first or destroy Sea Canthller beforehand.
 * Wheel Gator: Use the last elevator until the end to find a door.
 * Crystal Snail: Use the Ride Armor to fly up and break the crystal walls to the left of the spike pits.

Production Notes
Developer Comments "When figuring out the limits of the CX4, a female X-Hunter was removed from what were called the 'Four Guardians' at the time. Violen also lost his second form. We just didn't have the resources to make that all happen." -Yoshihisa Tsuda

Archie Comics
The X-Hunters reappeared as a group in the Worlds Unite crossover event, having been three of many Mavericks recreated by Sigma-1. After attacking the Sky Patrol, they and most of their comrades departed for other worlds. They briefly invaded the world of Monster Hunter, but were brought down by the inhabitants, X, and Sticks the Badger. Based on dialogue from X and the X-Hunters, their previous encounter had been enough of a challenge that X was horrified that Sigma brought them back, and that apparently, Zero had been involved somehow in stopping them.

Trivia

 * All three X-Hunters make brief cameo appearances during the opening cutscenes of Mega Man X3 (Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and PC versions) and Mega Man X5.
 * The theme for Gate's Laboratory in Mega Man X6 is a remix of the third X-Hunter stage theme.
 * Keisuke Mizuno, an Illustrator from Capcom, made a design for a forth member of the X-Hunters which was later made by TruForce Collectibles for NYCC 2015 as an exclusive figure. His backstory is that it was a prototype created by Dr. Wily based off Mega Man's stolen blueprint. But, with the development of Zero taking form, this prototype was discarded and forgotten. During the formation of the X-Hunters, the prototype was discovered and finished by a mysterious man, giving the robot specs higher than those of Mega Man X and was given the name X-Kai. He was made the leader of the X-Hunters.
 * The concept behind X-Kai was that in the R20 Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works, the X-Hunters were originally four members, but the fourth character was cut from the game due to ROM capacity. It is worth noting that the original fourth member was going to be a female. Keisuke Mizumo stated that X-Kai was created because he was "amazed that Capcom didn't make a villain that looked exactly like Mega Man X."
 * Oddly enough, there is already a Mega Man X lookalike villain, called "X".