Gamehelpbulleth

Overview

Bullet♥ is a fast bullet-hell duel. Every round you draw bullets from your bag and place them on your Sight board, where they fall into place by color and number. Line them up into the patterns on your cards to clear them, and every bullet you clear is sent to your opponent's Incoming (the next heroine in a free-for-all, your opposite in Teams), to be fired at them next round. If a bullet has nowhere to land it hits your Hitbox and you lose a life. Last heroine standing wins.

Each heroine has her own board, actions, ability and deck of pattern cards.

Setup

Each player chooses a heroine (or chooses randomly).
Your Current (your bag) starts with a set of bullets; each heroine starts with her own life total (usually 4), action points (AP), and a hand of cards.
Shuffle your pattern deck and draw your starting hand.
A shared Center holds the other bullets. The round's Intensity (how many bullets come from the Center into each Incoming) starts low and rises every round.
Some heroines have an extra setup step; the game will prompt you.

A round

A round has three phases. In the Option (action) phase all players act at the same time (there is no turn order).

1. Option (action) phase

In any order, as many times as you can afford:

Place bullets: draw a bullet from your Current at random and place it on your Sight board (see below). You must place every bullet from your Current before you can finish your round.
Use actions: spend AP on the actions printed on your heroine's board: move a bullet, draw a pattern, and so on. Your AP resets every round.
Use patterns: when the bullets on your Sight board match a pattern card in your hand, play it to clear bullets (see Patterns).
Use powerups: play any powerup tiles you own, these are free one time use abilities that are claimed at the end of a round.

When your bag is empty and you are happy with your board, press Finish round. After finishing your round, you claim a powerup tile and wait for other players to finish.

2. End phase

Take an available powerup. These are first come first served so if you finish your round faster, you get better choices.
Draw pattern cards up to your hand size.
The Center's bullets are dealt out into each player's Incoming (the number is the current Intensity).

3. Cleanup phase

Powerup tiles are drawn equal to the number of players.
The Intensity goes up by one (and by one more for each heroine eliminated that round).
Everyone's Incoming bullets are added to their Current (the bag).
Your AP is restored to its max.

Your Sight board

Your Sight board has 5 columns (red, blue, green, orange, magenta) and 6 rows.

A bullet always goes in the column that matches its color.
Its number says how far down it falls: it lands in the Nth empty space of that column, counting from the top.
If the column has fewer than N empty spaces, the bullet falls into your Hitbox: it stays there for the rest of the game and you lose 1 life.
Some heroines can avoid a hit with their ability (for example Rie's Nice Try!); read your heroine's board.
Star bullets activate free abilities on your board each time one is cleared (commonly 1AP).

Patterns

Each pattern card shows a shape on a grid. Place the shape anywhere over your Sight board. Move the pattern around by using the arrows, or clicking on spaces in your sight.
Every marked space of the shape must hold a bullet that fits the card's requirements (color and/or number).
Bullets in spaces marked as cleared are removed when you play the card. They are sent to your opponent's Incoming.
A played pattern goes to your Discard pile. When your deck is empty and you need to draw, shuffle your Discard into a new deck.
Your heroine's ability and cards may change these rules; the text on her board always wins.

Heroines

Each heroine has a unique ability and her own set of actions that cost AP. Hover over the actions and ability on a heroine's board for a short reminder.

Powerups

Powerup tiles give one-time effects: gain 1 AP, clear a bullet in your sight or from the Center (activate star abilities if a star is cleared), draw or recover a pattern, move a bullet to any space, swap two bullets, dump two bullets into the Center, or copy another powerup tile (NOT one of your abilities). A tile is used up when played.

Game modes

Free-for-all (2-4 players): you are on your own. Your cleared bullets go to the next heroine still in the game.
Teams (4 players, 2 v 2): teammates share the fight against the other team and can use Team Actions to send bullets, move bullets or draw patterns for each other. A team loses when both heroines have no life left.
Score Attack (1 player): survive as many rounds as you can; your score is how long your heroine lasts.
Boss Battle (1-4 players, cooperative): the heroines work together against a boss. The bullets you clear go to the boss's Incoming and break its shields. At the end of each round the boss's active patterns are checked against each heroine's Sight board; any pattern a heroine did not complete takes effect on her. Break every shield to win. You can ask an ally to use one of their Team Action tiles by clicking it, and when the boss makes the heroines remove one of its active patterns, you vote on which.

Winning

In a normal duel or free-for-all, a heroine with no life left is eliminated and her bullets return to the Center. The last heroine standing wins.
If the last heroines would be eliminated together, the winner is the heroine with the least amount of bullets remaining in their current. If there is still a tie, Sudden Death decides it.
In Boss Battle, everyone wins together or loses together.

Tips

Watch your opponent's Incoming. Clearing a lot at once can swamp them next round.
Conserve your AP for when you need it most to complete a pattern or avoid disaster.
Try to use as much AP and as many patterns as possible each round, you refill to your max of both each round.
You do not have to use every clear of a pattern, sometimes clearing one or two is necessary!
The highest bullet value in the game is 4, so you are generally safe to keep drawing until a column has 3 bullets in it, at that point you could take damage.
Use the on-screen prompts and hover tooltips; the game tells you what you can do next.