Joseph Joestar/Abilities and Powers

Joseph inherited the Ripple and its capabilities from his grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, as well as his mother, Lisa Lisa. In addition, he uses techniques commonly present in stage magic to confuse his foes. After his Ripple training, Joseph frequently combines his Ripple with other objects to perform complex and creative attacks. Later in Part 3, he shows that he is able to pass the Ripple through his Stand, Hermit Purple. However, as he grew older, due to neglecting his Ripple training, he became unable to do the same things he was capable of when he was younger and ended up aging at a relatively normal pace.

During his battle with the Pillar Men, Joseph had demonstrated several techniques similar to his grandfather's.
 * Ripple Hair Attack (波紋ヘア・アタック): Joseph infuses his Ripple into strands of hair to make them hard enough to block incoming projectiles. Joseph used the ability to create a wall of Ripple in order to block bullets fired by Santana after ripping Stroheim's hair off.
 * Overdrive: Much like any other Overdrive, the technique sends a large pulse of Ripple through an object. During his fight with Esidisi, Joseph used it to send the Ripple through the thread of his hat into Esidisi's body.
 * Rebuff Overdrive: Joseph charges Ripple into his elbows and delivers a powerful strike. This was used during Joseph's fight with Wamuu to retaliate his falling attack.
 * Zoom Punch (ズームパンチ): Similar to his grandfather's move, Joseph uses the Ripple to dislocate his shoulder and arm to strike opponents at a longer range.
 * Ripple Overdrive (波紋): Joseph channels a large amount of the Ripple into his whole arm and delivers a powerful chopping attack. This slowly transfers the Ripple blast through the point hit, making it advance until blowing up when Joseph had touched. Joseph used it against Kars in a duel and exploded his arm, destroying the Lightblade that could cut through anything without fail up until that point.
 * Ripple Beat: Joseph charges his hand with Ripple and strikes his opponent with a chop. This attack is not capable of harming Joseph himself even if he directs it to himself, as the Ripple used is his own.  

In order to come up with a special attack, Joseph invented a fighting style that involved infusing the Ripple into a pair of normal American. Once infused, the Clackers become a lethal weapon, as the user is able to rip through an opponent's skin using them, and from there the Ripple can enter the body, thus inflicting massive damage. Because of their shape and aerodynamic design, someone who is trained in the Clackers' use is able to easily maneuver them around their body, even having the ability to make them seemingly disappear by hiding them behind their back.
 * Clacker Volley (クラッカーヴォレイ): Joseph chucks the Clackers into his opponent's direction. This can be done a number of ways, but to produce the best and most surprising effect, he can hide them behind his back. From there, Joseph can slingshot them from behind his back at the enemy in all directions.
 * Clacker Boomerang (クラッカーブーメラン): Joseph throws both pairs of Clackers into a beam or pillar behind the opponent. This is in order to fool them into assuming he missed. One is thrown into the partition, causing one side of it to be lodged in place. The other side grabs onto the second pair of Clackers, and essentially flings them back towards the opponent from behind, much like how a boomerang works.

Other than his Clackers, Joseph has used a number of other weapons and tools in conjunction with the Ripple and his strategic wit.
 * He used Ripple to pop the cap off of a cola bottle at a corrupt police officer and two tequila bottles' corks against a pair of Nazi soldiers, in the form of high speed projectiles.
 * He used a Tommy gun to shoot Straizo and then strike him with the stock charged with the Ripple. This was followed by secretively attaching a grenade to Straizo's scarf, the pin of which was attached by strings to the pins of several other grenades Joseph had managed to plant on Straizo's back.
 * He used the yarn of a wool hat (which is highly conductive of the Ripple) to form a net underneath the spike-filled arena to use against Esidisi.
 * He wielded a large sledgehammer in the chariot race against Wamuu, which he slathered in oil to improve its conduction of the Ripple. Joseph also used a heavy crossbow to fire a Ripple-charged iron ball at the wall of the arena, where it rode around the entire wall before launching off and hitting Wamuu from behind.

Joseph's Stand, Hermit Purple, manifests itself as a tangle of thorny vines, which Joseph can wield as both a weapon and a hazardous defense. Furthermore, it has been shown to conduct the Ripple, which makes Hermit Purple one of the more effective Stands against those weak to it such as Vampires. Joseph develops the Stand after DIO pierces Jonathan's body with the Arrow, upon which it responded to DIO and Enya awakening The World.

One of its special abilities (shared with The World) is to use cameras, televisions and other things to perform a form of fortune telling referred to as spirit photography. When introduced, it was demonstrated that he had to smash an expensive Polaroid camera to do this, and the camera would dispense a picture of DIO. Later on he is seen using televisions for this ability without having to damage them.

Hermit Purple is also shown as being able to connect to electronics. Joseph can then check the electronics for tampering, or even control them (such as, he uses Hermit Purple on a TV, and can use it to change channels)

The Hermit card of the Tarot primarily gives a meaning of solitude, introspective, or soul-searching, which could symbolize Joseph's lifelong journey. It also carries a more direct meaning of teaching or advising, which is Joseph's main role in Part 3 on the subject of Stands.

Mastery
Joseph is quite adept at using his Stand, although he does so imperfectly. Joseph notably understands how versatile Hermit Purple's ability is and that it can be used on cameras, TV sets, and even dust to divine information. However during Stardust Crusaders, Joseph brutally breaks cameras to obtain spirit photographies whereas it is demonstrated that a simple tap will grant the same results.

Joseph also manages to exploit the vine-like nature of his Stand to its fullest, using it as a controllable rope to swing from place to place or tie enemies up. By combining it to the Ripple, Joseph also made Hermit an effective but limited defense against DIO.

Joseph is an exceptionally agile fighter, performing acrobatics on a regular basis.

Being quite athletic, Joseph distinguishes himself through feats of agility, in contrast to his grandfather Jonathan Joestar who performed feats of strength. He can for instance perform an aerial cartwheel when Esidisi grips his fist to escape the lock (all the while setting up a string to slice his arm), has performed impressive jumps, for instance pole vaulting into Wamuu's chariot to escape being crushed or a somersault while sliding underneath a layer of oil, and has managed to perform corde lisse tricks against Kars.

As he aged, Joseph's skills in that regard became less relevant, although he was still in shape and could still swing across rooftops with Hermit Purple.

Joseph Joestar's mind is his deadliest and most valuable asset.

Joseph's favorite strategy is to psych out his opponents. To do so, he notably predicts what his enemies will say next or more commonly provokes them to unnerve them and make them predictable in their move. Joseph is incredibly proficient in analyzing the personalities of those he faces and guessing information about them by observing small details about them, then shamelessly exploits any character flaw they have in order to return whatever they will be doing next against them, most commonly their overconfidence. Of note are particular quirks such as Wamuu's pride as a warrior or Kars' obsession for the Red Stone of Aja. However, Joseph is unknowingly as susceptible to these tactics as his opponents, leading him to be psyched out himself by Esidisi. Having great prestidigitation skills, his goofy demeanor serving as the greatest distraction and facade he can rely on, Joseph is able to attack from unexpected angles or make critical moves under the guise of simple stupidity or ignorance; Joseph will often use one obvious strategy hiding another, more advanced one to fool and trap his opponents.

Joseph is maybe the most proficient man in the series at using his environment to his advantage, the Ripple increasing the danger and combative capability of any item he gets his hands on. Among others, Joseph has used mirrors, glass shots, hair, a well, pasta, pigeons, wool hats, icicles, pebbles, and his own plane as tools and weapons to grasp the upper hand, each use having had applied efficiency and imagination. Joseph also keeps a number of tools handy just in case, concealing weapons on his person for when he expects danger.

When cornered, Joseph can still rely on his particularly quick wits to come up with a viable solution in an near-instant. The most successful instance being Joseph using the Red Stone of Aja to amplify Ultimate Life Form Kars' Ripple Attack so as to cause a volcanic eruption and send him into space.

Joseph's tendency to use so many tricks stems from his particular mindset. He considers that in combat, every move is fair-play with the exception of involving civilians and being needlessly cruel. Thus he isn't bound by any code and doesn't hesitate to flee, or cheat if the ends justify the means, as seen against the D'Arby brothers.
 * Near-Death Survival Technique: After he lit his scarf on fire, Joseph told Kars that he was putting his life in danger so he would be pushed beyond his own limits to find a new technique before the flame reached him. This was actually part of a plan to trick Kars, who would be too distracted to notice Joseph's plan to save Lisa Lisa.

The Joestar family's "secret technique". Usually utilized as a last resort, Joseph invented this move to use when battling the enemy seemed hopeless. In reality, it was actually used to stall time in order for Joseph to formulate a plan. It was also used by his grandson Jotaro later in the series during his fight against Rubber Soul.

The secret technique consists of carefully and quickly retreating from the opponent, while keeping a close eye on surroundings for things to use to defeat or assist in defeating them. To the untrained eye, it looks like Joseph is simply running away like a coward, augmented by his panicked shouting when doing so. He will also use this technique to try to lure an enemy away from others.

Joseph is a proficient pilot despite having crashed four times in his life. He is able to fly a large range of planes from a small Cessna to a Junker and once saved the lives of his companions and civilians by controlling the crash of the passenger airplane they were on. It is unknown when and where Joseph learned to pilot, though it is possible that he figured it out in the instances where he was forced to control an aircraft.