Learn all about the characters from Bullet ❤ from their unique style of play to their diverse backgrounds.
When I recently received the cubed storage box to organize all my Bullet games and expansions. I don’t think I realized just how many had been released and how many characters there are to choose from. After counting my components, I found thirty-nine (39) characters from 7 different game boxes and 3 standalone expansions. There is a character from a standalone expansion that was also in one of the game boxes, but I only counted it as a part of that box.
There are too many characters to talk about in the same article so I will be splitting them across multiple posts! The first group of gals I am going to talk about is the original crew. These would be the characters that could be found in Bullet ❤. I decided to do a high-level overview of each character before going into more detail makes the most sense.
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Here’s a quick overview of the 8 characters in the box group together by difficulty (as determined by the game)
Easy
Adelheid Beckenbauer
Adelheid likes to play with music and in this case that means the colors of the bullets. Since she is so reliant on color for her patterns, she also has a power that allows her to flip the bullets over and effectively make them wild bullets (can be any color). One other thing that stood out is that Adelheid can move bullets up within her sight. While all can be manipulated, going upwards is not a common trait.
Ekolu Kapakahi
Being part triangle, Ekolu’s patterns all target to make a triangle of some sort. To help with this, Ekolu can pull a bullet from the center and put it anywhere within her sight. While this does make the board more crowded, it also helps fulfill patterns and clear bullets. It’s a balance of making sure the benefits outweigh the risk.
Esfir Volkova
Esfir is all about creating lines and has a range of patterns that involve color position and bullet number. She does have the ability to move bullets up or rapidly down which gives her options. Her main power is her increased hand size, which is also another way to get more options.
Ling-Ling Xiao
Ling-Ling is an interesting character because her thing is doing math. And yes, she does require you to do rapid math during the three-minute period. When completing a pattern, the final result of the pattern with depend in the value on the bullets withing a section marked with a plus (+). The total value of the pattern will determine how many bullets get cleared and where they get cleared from. She also has an ability to increase the value on the pattern by one.
The game has marked this character as easy. I think that is highly reliant on the player’s ability to do mental math quickly.
Hard
Mariel Martin
Mariel puts herself into the fight with the Mariel marker (it is a bullet with her face on it). Mariel can jump around the board and help with patterns as she is no color, no number bullet. She also pushed bullets with a little too much since her move ability will push the bullet as far as possible (it hits another bullet or an edge). To have even more control over the board, Mariel can use her ability to remove a bullet orthogonally to her.
Rie Akagi
Rie like to live to the extreme, she has the fewest lives out of all the characters. She has some protection from bullets with the same color as the pattern on the top of the discard pile. This is very draw dependent whether that’s the bullet or the pattern or the ability to clear the right pattern.
Senka Kasun
Senka is one of my favorite characters but I’m a sucker for a loner with a hood. Her main specialty is using two crosshair markers. These markers act like bullets on your sight but have no color or bullet number. They are mainly used in patterns to clear other bullets, but only one is needed for each pattern. Most of Senka’s patterns clear bullets adjacent to a crosshair marker.
Young-Ja Kim
Young-Ja is the most interesting character to me. Her patterns do not clear bullets. Instead, they push the bullets around and try to push the bullets off sides of the board. Pushing bullets into other bullets will cause those bullets to move as well. There is quite a bit of movement on her board. Keeping relative bullet position of all the moved bullets is something I know I struggle with. But she does push them all over the place (except down).
Full Profiles
That’s my quick overview of the characters. But there is a more in depth lore for each of the characters:
Adelheid Beckenbauer
Race: Human (Romanian)
Occupation: Musician, Composer Power: Musical Alchemy
Birthplace: Transylvania, Romania
Current Location: Eisenach, Germany
Age: 18
Height: 5’8″
Likes: Her replica antique violin, composing music, her boyfriend Claude
Dislikes: Black coffee, current music trends, traffic
Adelheid practices a very common power on Earth known as Musical Alchemy-the manifestation of magical powers via sound. The power is dictated by the genre of music performed. Adelheid practices an old world genre of music discovered after studying many archaeological finds. This classic style allows her to tap into primal elements, weaving torrents of fire or sheets of ice into her surroundings. Most practitioners of Musical Alchemy only have enough will to subtly affect those around them-putting an idea in someone’s head or changing the colors on a dance floor. Hearing a live performance from Adelheid could literally chill listeners to the bone or cause them to spontaneously combust, so she normally releases her songs on digital media.
Her success under the alias Bach allowed her to abandon her educational pursuits to focus fully on her career as a musician. She lives a quiet life with her cat Beethoven and her boyfriend Claude. Eventually she’d like to try her hand at other artistic pursuits, perhaps that game thing that Claude busies himself with. For now, she’s content with perfecting her current craft and coming up with a composition that will “move the world”.
Gameplay (Difficulty: Easy)
With her hi-tech music equipment and unique sound, she can tune bullets to any color she chooses, allowing her to compose the configurations on her patterns much easier than other heroines. Playing correctly can allow you to keep these wild bullets in play for multiple rounds, increasing your capability to finish multiple patterns at once.
Ekolu Kapakahi
Race: 2/3 Human (Hawaiian), 1/3 Geometron (Triangle)
Occupation: High Centroid Triometron Power: Manipulation of Triangles
Birthplace: Unknown, Hawaii
Current Location: Bermuda
Age: 33
Height: 5’1″
Likes: Physical triangles, contemplating the divine shape
Dislikes: Past attempts at understanding the divine shape
Ekolu, and many that came before her, devote their lives to the divine shape of the triangle. Passages teach of the shape that will point one towards divinity if one only knows how to walk its path. She gathers all that will listen, teaching them her beliefs. Her teachings are strict, and any that fail to practice what she preaches suffer the consequences.
Those that have failed in the past, famous mathematicians and philosophers, bring her no end of grief. For too long has the sacred shape been tarnished. Its glory must be restored, by her hand alone. Heeding whispers only she can hear, Ekolu realizes that the time of her ascension is at hand, and her vigilance shall soon be rewarded…
Gameplay (Difficulty: Easy)
Ekolu uses her connection to the sacred shape to cast divine judgment on those who cross her path. If she is able to complete all three patterns each round, all bullets with the number 3 in her sight are sent directly to the opponent. To reflect the shackles of her imperfect form, she must persevere with only 9 patterns, 6 AP, and 3 life.
Esfir Volkova
Race: Human (Russian)
Occupation: Marshal, Russian Armed Forces
Power: Manipulation of Gravity
Birthplace: Lake Vivi, Siberia (Evenkia district), Russia Current Location: Moscow, Russia
Age: 14
Height: 4’6″
Likes: Winning, boxing, borscht
Dislikes: Waiting, losing, invaders
Esfir grew up in a military family, her father being the previous Marshal. When he was killed in action during a particularly large scale alien invasion, the Russian Armed Forces were in a state of disarray. With no one in the chain of command having enough nerve to pull everyone together, Esfir stepped up to take the place her father once held. Though lacking any formal military experience or training, Esfir had two things going for her: an aggressive personality and a new power that would change her life.
Esfir’s power to manipulate gravity sharply turned the tides of battle, reducing the invading force to dust and making Russia’s military might second to none. She remains one of the most powerful individuals on Earth and her words carry just as much weight as her power. Other countries view her reckless, stubborn personality as a danger to the Earth, but all agree that Earth might not be around if it weren’t for her.
Gameplay (Difficulty: Easy)
Esfir’s gravity manipulation is reflected in her unique actions. She can move bullets in her sight much more freely than other heroines. Her Unique Ability allows her access to more patterns than other heroines. These two mechanics make for a very straightforward heroine, giving her a wider range of patterns to choose from, while making it easier to set up for them.
Ling-Ling Xiao
Ling-Ling Xiao
Race: Human (Chinese)
Occupation: Staff, XIAO Technical, Innovations Department
Power: Integration of Technology Birthplace: Beijing, China (Haidan District, Zhongguancun)
Current Location: Beijing, China
(Haidan District, Zhongguancun)
Age: 19
Height: 5’4″
Likes: Her Soligram Generator, designing, progress Dislikes: Import shipping fees,
YNN, Alien Lifeform T-37r
XIAO Technical’s innovations have allowed highly advanced technology to be affordable to the masses. As a member of the Innovations Department, Ling-Ling strives to create technologies worthy of her family name. Her magnum opus is the Soligram Generator ver. 2.23-a device that creates holograms which can solidify into tangible matter. With her power to integrate technologies into her form she is able to use this generator to phase her body and create anything she desires at will.
She rarely leaves her lab, being fully self- sufficient between her own inventions and the constant stream of deliveries, some of which aren’t marked with dubious labels. Her peers view her inventions as impractical at best and try to ignore the endless stream of dialogue and noise coming from her lab at all hours of the day. Peers that visit her talk of nonsensical terms and theorems. Even her eight younger siblings find her overbearing, walking out with a variety of strange “gifts”. Little do they know her eccentricities stem from something much more dire than they could imagine…
Gameplay (Difficulty: Easy)
Ling-Ling views bullets as no more than trivial series of numbers that, when configured correctly, result in nothing more than progress towards a greater goal. The higher the numbers on the bullets she adds, the greater number she clears outside of the shape of her patterns. If she adds too high however, she clears within her pattern, breaking forms she could use as the basis for future patterns.
Mariel Martin
Race: Human (American)
Occupation: Acting Director, Watrous Valmora Municipal Development Department
Power: Function Imparting
Birthplace: San Francisco, California
Current Location: Watrous Valmora, New Mexico Age: 18
Height: 5’6″
Likes: Paper, doing anything, old world movies Dislikes: Papercuts, boredom, rain
Mariel (or Mary, as she prefers) was never content with an average life. School, family, friends…nothing she engaged with staved off her ever-creeping nemesis boredom. At age 14. Mariel decided to leave home, setting her sights towards the vast abandoned expanses of New Mexico. Surely there, in the desolate wasteland left behind from magic missile tests and alien invasions, she’d find the space to do something truly interesting.
Upon arrival all she found was ruins of a lost age, which was expected, but also vast quantities of paper. Whether bound in leather or adorning the walls with multicolored patterns, this old world art form was everywhere, disposed of by a modern era with no need for unnecessary trinkets.
Rebuilding society seemed just as interesting as anything else around, so she started folding paper. Lights for buildings, cars for streets, she didn’t question why any of it worked, she just kept folding. Sitting atop the highest skyscraper in the newly formed city of Watrous-Valmora, she realized that it would take a lot more than this to keep her boredom at bay.
Gameplay (Difficulty: Hard)
Mary gets involved in anything she thinks will keep her busy, so in game she’s more than ready to get into the action by physically putting herself in her own sight. Being able to interact with bullets directly allows her to knock them around her board like a sliding puzzle or just remove them outright if they get too close. She also counts as a bullet in a pinch when you need to complete patterns.
Rie Akagi
Race: Human (Japanese)
Occupation: Kumicho, Akagi clan Power: Fixation of time and space Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Current Location: Tokyo, Japan Age: 22
Height: 5’11”
Likes: Asteroids baseball team, fighting, winning Dislikes: Losing, eggs, cowards
Rie had always been fascinated with the stories of the Yakuza, a famous group of people that existed in Japan’s past. Much of the information about their organization has been lost to time, but what little is still known about their members has made them legendary mythological figures. A united family thousands of members strong, each with the strength of ten men. Rie intends to bring back this organization with her own two hands, gathering the strongest people she can find and putting herself at the head. Why? It seemed like a good idea at the time.
When she’s not forcefully challenging potential candidates, Rie can be found at her local baseball stadium, cheering on her favorite team in the league, the Asteroids. They may not have ever won a game, but she’s sure that this year will be something special. With her involvement in the Yakuza, at least they have some more fans to cheer them on from the stands, whether they want to or not.
Gameplay (Difficulty: Hard)
Rie has the power to fixate her body on a specific point in time or space, allowing her to build up force to unleash powerful attacks or shrug off damage by never having taken it in the first place. Thankfully for her opponents she uses this power subconsciously and is unaware of how it works, so catching her off guard is always a possibility. In game she uses this power to stay in the fight as long as possible. Each of her patterns indicates a color that she is safe from being hit by if that is the top pattern of her discard. She is also the only heroine to be able to recover from damage, forcing players to constantly keep her limited two life in mind.
Senka Kasun
Race: Human (Serbian)
Occupation: Protector (Day), Hitwoman (Night) Power: “Living Dead” – Ability to pull people from the past into the present Birthplace: Rečica (Kladovo), Serbia Current Location: Rome, Italy
Age: 27
Height: 5’5″
Likes: Cigarettes, smoking, old world movies Dislikes: Clients, her reputation, her past
During the day, Senka protects average citizens from extraterrestrial threats as a Protector. In largely populated areas, magic users are often hired to protect people as a backup if conventional weaponry fails. While death has been kept to a minimum in areas where these people are hired, they are still too few to fully stop the destruction that stems from those beyond the stars.
At night, she prowls the criminal underworld as a professional hitwoman. She never meets directly with her clients and always finishes the job within minutes of accepting. Feared by all who know of her skill, she has earned the nickname “The Bauk” after a savage creature from her homeland. Anyone experiencing her Living Dead power quickly meets their end, along with anyone that sees it shortly thereafter.
Gameplay (Difficulty: Hard)
Senka wields her shape-changing bioweapon, Catherine, into the fray, targeting any bullets that come into her sights. She places crosshairs down, which her patterns require as part of their configuration. Each crosshair can form its own configuration, so each pattern can activate multiple times if each of your crosshairs show the correct requirements!
Young-Ja Kim
Race: Human (Korean) Occupation: None
Power: Gwisin Form, Object Possession Birthplace: Yongin, South Korea
Current Location: Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea
Age: 371 (appears 11)
Height: 4’7″
Likes: Her MP3 Player, pranks, screams Dislikes: Silence, oblivious people, ghosts
Young-Ja currently resides in an abandoned hospital in Seoul where she terrorizes any that come near. She derives endless joy from this, coming up with creative ways to utilize her surroundings for new pranks. Her ghostly form and powers make this trivial, utilizing the entire hospital for her mischievous whims. The recent surge of magical powers amongst the people and defense against alien invaders have boldened the populous, causing them to investigate the mysterious hospital haunting. Young-Ja excitedly views this as a chance to test her centuries of skill against a new set of challengers.
In her youth, she was afflicted with a form of bone cancer that required immediate surgery to be rectified. Tragically, the surgery went awry and she was left at death’s door. She awoke in a wheelchair, confused but happy that she seemed to have survived. What pleased her more was her newfound powers that quickly made the hospital deserted. Since then, she has forgotten most of her past, except the thrill of screams around her.
Gameplay (Difficulty: Hard)
Young-Ja plays a very different game than most heroines, using her powers of manipulation to affect bullets in her sight. Each of her patterns have arrows that move bullets in the direction indicated. If a bullet would move out of her sight, it is cleared and sent to the opponent. In this way, she literally throws bullets at her enemies. This unique way of movement allows other bullets to be pushed along with it, affecting large sections of her sight at once to set up for future placements.
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