Joe was a key character appearing in SteamWorld Dig. He owned Joe's Mining Inc. in Tumbleton, and spent much of his life exploring it before his death.
Personality[]
Not much is known about Joe and his personality. As Lola mentioned, Joe was a "quiet fellow", much like Rusty. When he visited her bar, he was mostly alone.
History[]
Life in Tumbleton[]
Joe lived in Tumbleton for some years before the events of SteamWorld Dig. He spent most of his time underground. When he went to the surface, he would spend most of his time in Lola's bar, taking notes by himself. Lola said that Joe's Mine wasn't very successful since he seemed to have been busy working other things instead of mining.
He also stored some of his strange findings in Cranky's shop. Teleporters that Cranky sells in his shop are described as "Joe's strange devices", which means that he used them together with other Vectron tech. He seems to have gotten a lot of knowledge of the world before the Steambots, because he mentioned things like how Shiners ruined the world to Cranky.
It appears that Joe used the final days to build the upgrade machines in several caves within his mine so that his nephew Rusty could find them later.[]
Lola mentioned that Joe wasn't looking well shortly before his death. Shortly before he died, he sent Rusty the deed of the Mine. It is revealed at the end of the game that he willingly merged with Voltbot and became part of the Vectron hive-mind.
Legacy[]
Rusty went to Tumbleton to visit his uncle and ask him why he sent him the deed, since Rusty felt like he wasn't a miner.
Dorothy discovered Joe's body before she met Rusty. Rusty also finds Joe's body, and continues Joe's work with his uncle's old pickaxe.
Rusty's mining then brought economical growth into the town, enabling the return of the old residents of Tumbleton.
Trivia[]
- According to Image & Form, a prequel to SteamWorld Dig was in development starring Uncle Joe, but it was put on hold and development began on SteamWorld Heist. It is unknown if the project will ever be released.
- Unused dialogue in the game files change the perspective of Joe. While he talked to Rusty, he told him that he thinks that Steambots are weak and that the learned in Vectron a lot about Voltbots and how to become one. He also said that Steambots need to be destroyed. While some parts of this dalogue are fitting into the canon of the Series, the dialogue itself is not canon.
- In SteamWorld Heist, the Voltron escape pod displays "old joe" in binary on the monitor in the background.