Snipe Anteator

**Snipe Anteator**, known as **Snipe Ariquick** (スナイプ・アリクイック *Sunaipu Arikuikku*) in Japan, is an anteater-based Reploid and member of the Red Alert syndicate in *Mega Man X7*.

He appears to be a rather wise, old figure within the ranks of Red Alert, with plenty of knowledge to spare about the Maverick Hunters and Axl.

## Strategy

Some of the challenge in this battle stems from the long, but narrow battlefield, and the close, overhead camera angle that makes dodging attacks difficult. Anteator himself is a slow, easy target, but this is balanced out by his tendency to quickly shift his position out of reach when damaged, fire off attacks in rapid succession and liter the battlefield with hazards.

Anteator gains use of certain attacks in stages as his health drops to certain amounts:

* **Spiral Claw:** Anteator claps his claws together, sending a pair of spiraling energy through the column. They can expand to cover most of the column's width, but start decreasing in size and dissipate as they reach the far ends. This attack is dodged by simply jumping over them, moving as far to the sides of the column as possible, or by sometimes standing at one of the far ends. Anteator uses this attack at the start of the battle and will use it repeatedly until he has suffered enough damage.
* **Soldier Ant:** Anteator spreads these small ant-shaped proximity mines around the column in sets of three. The mines are stationary, but one must be wary of the large blast radius of their explosions. The mines will also detonate on their own after remaining undisturbed for some time. Like Spiral Claw, Anteator will use this attack exclusively until he has suffered enough damage.
* **Homing Missile:** Anteator generates a large cannon on his back and fires missiles in sets of three. Due to the long, but narrow space to maneuver, these missiles can be difficult to avoid.
* **Laser Pod:** When Anteator's health is knocked down to half, he will summon up to six airborne sentry guns that follow behind him. They can not be destroyed, and their quick shots are difficult to dodge. As Anteator's health drops even lower, the pods fly around independently of him and out of reach, firing off shots wildly.
* **Dead End Kiss:** As Anteator wanders about, he will occasionally stop and lash out with his tongue. If it connects, he will hold the character briefly, before retracting his tongue and inflicting a small amount of damage. The attack has considerable range, spanning the length of the entire column.

Anteator's weaknesses are X and Axl's Moving Wheel or Zero's Zankourin, but his tendency to move around the column makes it difficult to hit him with either. Other attacks such as Volt Tornado or Raijinshou, and the characters default weapons are more effective against Anteator damage wise. Especially X's charged buster shots, as they can strike Anteator through the column and do sizable damage.

## Data

### Stage Enemies

* Ball De Voux (normal type and shot type)
* Cyber Stone
* Kyuun B
* Musharoid

### In-battle quotes

* *"Army ants!"*
* *"Go get him!"*
* *"Homing cannon!"*
* *"Lasers ON!"*

## Other Media

Snipe Anteator appeared in the *Rockman X7 4Koma Manga Kingdom* shorts.

### Archie Comics

Snipe Anteator appears in Worlds Unite as part of Sigma-2's Maverick army, recreated using the power of the Genesis Portals and Unity Engines.

## Gallery

Snipe Anteator's 3D model made by us from Team Villalba for Mega Man X7, really, with some 3D modeling studio, would we do this?
## Trivia

* Snipe Anteator has a brief appearance in the last issue from Dreamwave Productions' *Mega Man*comic.
* Snipe Anteator's 3D model shows two thin tubes extending down his snout. These tubes are not seen on his artwork. His polar opposite is Tornado Tonion, who has a red nose on his artwork that is not present on his 3D model.
* Snipe Anteator is the only boss in *X7* that does not go into hit stun after being hit with the right weapon, making a "perfect victory pattern" impossible. Other bosses in the *X* series to also have this include Storm Eagle and Flame Mammoth from the first game.
* Snipe Anteator is the only Maverick in *X7* (and, perhaps, the last Maverick in the entire *X* series) to make any mention of Zero's original purpose as a Maverick, and/or make any reference to Dr. Wily, as he states that Zero has forgotten his "true mission".