Bullet♥︎

To set up, each player selects a unique heroine, taking their heroine page, action page, and a sight board (shared among all players). Ensure the heroine page is on the heroine side, not the boss side. Each player places an action marker on the '7' space of their action board. Players then take their unique deck of pattern cards, shuffle it, and draw three face-up cards (Esfir Volkova draws four due to her special ability). Any boss pattern cards are discarded. The intensity track is placed where all players can see it, and the intensity marker is placed on the '4' symbol. Finally, each player takes a black current bag, and 10 random tokens are drawn from the central white bag and placed into each player's current bag.

The primary objective of Bullet♥︎ is to be the sole survivor among all heroines. Players must strategically manage and clear incoming bullet tokens from their personal boards. If bullets reach the bottom of a column on a player's board, they inflict damage, reducing the player's life points. The game ends for a player if they lose all their life points. The last heroine remaining in the game is declared the winner.

During a round, players act simultaneously. The main action involves drawing one bullet token from their current bag and placing it on their board. Each bullet has a color, symbol, and number, indicating which column it enters and how many empty spaces down it moves (skipping over already placed bullets). After placing a bullet, players can pause to use action points (AP) to activate unique actions on their action board or play pattern cards. Actions can manipulate bullets on their board (moving them left, right, or down) or draw new pattern cards. Pattern cards have specific bullet configurations that, if matched on the board, allow players to clear those bullets, sending them to an opponent's incoming area. Players continue drawing bullets and taking actions until their current bag is empty or they decide to stop.

The game is a last-heroine-standing competition. If only one player remains alive at the end of a round, they win. In the event that multiple players are eliminated simultaneously in the same round, the winner is determined by who has the fewest bullet tokens remaining in their current bag. If there's still a tie, the tied players enter a 'sudden death' mode where they repeatedly draw and place one bullet at a time until one player takes damage, eliminating them and declaring the other tied player(s) as winners. If all tied players take damage simultaneously in sudden death, it's a joint victory.

A round concludes when all players have emptied their current bags, or when the designated timer (if used) runs out. At the end of the round, any bullets in a player's incoming area are added to their current bag for the next round. All action markers are reset to their maximum value (typically '7'). Players then draw new pattern cards from their personal decks until they reach their hand size limit (typically three, or four for Esfir Volkova). The intensity track marker is advanced by one space, increasing the difficulty for the next round. If any players were eliminated during the round, the intensity track is increased by an additional point for each eliminated player. The game continues with subsequent rounds until a winner is determined.