Guards

Guards are the common enemies seen throughout the Sly Cooper series. They often work for the local boss, though in some cases, they are simply individuals who view the Cooper Gang as an enemy.

Flashlight guards
These guards rely on a flashlight to help them spot enemies. They all have some sort of projectile weapon, the most common being a firearm. Flashlight guards appear in every location throughout the series, with the only exception being the Krakarov Volcano. In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, flashlight guards are killed with one hit, but will instantly discover Sly even from behind if he gets close enough to them. They attack with a homing shot that will not miss unless blocked by an object or wall. The homing shots also have their own AI, so any remaining shots that are in the air after a decoy is destroyed will turn and fly at the player. After obtaining Bruce O'Coop's Computer Hacking technique, Sly will be able to look through his binocucom to view additional information about each guard.

In Sly 2: Band of Thieves, flashlight guards patrol at ground-level and take multiple hits to be killed. If they are hit before detecting the player, they will be knocked out for a few seconds; at this point, they can still be stealth-killed. When hit otherwise, they are knocked back but will immediately kick and fire their weapon in retaliation. The kick attack can be avoided if the player is far away enough, but the projectile attack is extremely accurate. At very close range, they will use a melee attack instead. As they are typically deadlier than other guards, flashlight guards carry more valuable loot; they also will not detect the player if they stand fairly close without touching them unlike in the prior game to enable the ability to pickpocket properly.

Flashlight guards in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time are similar to those in Sly 2, with minor differences: they take more hits to defeat but will no longer be knocked back via having super armor, allowing for more damage to be dealt to them in a shorter time but can easily armor through various attacks with their own.

Carmelita Fox appears as a special flashlight guard several times throughout the series. Unlike other flashlight guards, her patrol route is much larger. She is also less accurate with her shots, though the player needs to be aware of being in the range of said shots if they stay in the same direction when running from her (more so in Sly 3). She also will hunt for Sly more persistently compared to other guards along with being equipped with a high jump to catch Sly at higher elevations, especially in scripted portions of certain jobs where it becomes impossible to hide from her as she will always track Sly to his hiding spot throughout those said portions of the game (otherwise she will go back to her patrol route as normal in other situations). In Sly 3, she also gains a spinning kick attack at close range to use in tandem with her pistol (also usable in her playable segments).

Like all guards in Sly 2 and 3, Carmelita also can sometimes have coins that can be pick-pocketed; depending on how a save flie is loaded at the time, Carmelita may also spawn with valuable loot. Carmelita also cannot be defeated as she is immune to flinching and seems to have infinite hit points towards various damaging hazards and/or attacks.

Non-flashlight guards
These guards do not use a flashlight, and their range of vision is greater than that of flashlight guards. They utilize either projectile or melee attacks. They come in two different types.

The first kind of non-flashlight guard is a stationary guard, which can only be seen in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. These guards always stand in one position, and many of them do not approach Sly unless he alerts them, but it depends on the range of their attacks. They are always killed with a single hit (except for swamp monsters).

The other kind of non-flashlight guard is rooftop guards. They appear in Sly 2: Band of Thieves and onward. As their name suggests, they almost always patrol atop buildings' roofs. Most locations feature two or more different types of rooftop guards, but the only location with one type of rooftop guard is Arpeggio's blimp from Sly 2. Like flashlight guards, many rooftop guards kick back in retaliation after being hit. In lieu of a kick attack, some carry bullhorns to call other enemies in the area. If the player goes somewhere that a rooftop guard cannot, the guard will throw small stones that slightly injure the player in most versions of the game (this is no longer done in Thieves in Time). In Sly 3, rooftop guards can dodge cane swings.

Miscellaneous guards
Miscellaneous guards are those which are unique in behavior or combat but remain hostile toward the player. In behavior, they often lack anthropomorphic traits and instead act like normal animals. In other cases, they are not animals at all. In combat, they may be easier or harder to defeat than normal guards, or require special means to take down. Some of them are indestructible and must be left alone at all costs. This type of guard appears in every game.

In the case of Carmelita in the first game, she acts as one of these types of guards mainly in scripted level segments, where she often attacks from areas that cannot be as easily reached by Sly. At the end of each segment however, certain events occur where she will be unable to chase down Sly any further.

Behind the scenes
During the development of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, team members originally referred to flashlight guards as "smart guards." In the bonus commentary for "A Rocky Start," designer Travis Kotzesbue said he had given pet names to most of the guards, and these pet names were what became the aliases for the guards in the binocucom.

There was a flashlight guard who was supposed to be in Raleigh's stage but was cut from the final game. It carried a bow and arrow, and its victory dance involved it spitting green goo on the ground.

According to audio from the Sly 2 demo disc, a new type of flashlight guard would have been introduced in the job "Theater Pickpocketing." These guards would have had red flashlight beams. They would have all been in radio contact with each other, and being seen by one would have alerted all of them.

Guardias