In this post, we’ll take a closer look at The Emperor in Bridge of Western, including its design, attacks, bullet control, and overall performance. I’ll go through each ability shown in the showcase and share my thoughts on how useful it actually looks in a real fight.
Bridge of Western Emperor Guide – Abilities, Bullet Control
The Emperor immediately stands out because of its design. When it appears, you get a pretty unique look, including a face that I hadn’t seen before. The Stand also has a very strong gun-focused theme, which fits the way most of its abilities work.
From the showcase, The Emperor is mainly built around firing bullets and controlling them after they have been launched.
At first glance, it looks simple, but the ability to manipulate bullets in the air gives it a little more depth.
M1 Attack: Bullet Shots
The Emperor’s basic M1 attack allows you to fire bullets rapidly.
You can spam several bullets in succession, with around six bullets being fired during the demonstrated attack. It feels similar to a barrage, except instead of throwing punches, you are basically unloading bullets at your opponent.
This makes the M1s fairly straightforward to use. You don’t need to perform anything complicated, so you can simply aim and keep firing.
For basic damage and pressure, this looks pretty useful.
R Move: Bullet Control
The more interesting part of The Emperor is its R move.
After you fire the bullets, you can press R while they are still in the air to control their movement. This allows you to move the bullets around instead of having them simply travel in a straight line toward your target.
Seeing the bullets move around in the air is definitely one of the coolest parts of the showcase.
You can potentially use this to change the direction of your shots and try to catch an opponent who moves out of the original trajectory.
However, there is one major problem.
The movement looked quite difficult to control, and the player demonstrating it mentioned that the ability was very buggy. Because of that, I’m not sure how practical this will actually be when players start using The Emperor normally.
Can You Curve the Bullets?
During the showcase, I wanted to see whether the bullets could actually be curved toward another player.
The idea sounds really good on paper. You could shoot a bullet past someone, then control it in the air and try to bring it back toward them.
We tried doing exactly that.
It took quite a bit of effort to get the bullet into the right position. Even after several attempts, getting the bullet to move exactly where you wanted was extremely difficult.
When it finally started moving in the right direction, you could see the potential of the ability, but it also showed how hard it might be to use consistently.
Personally, I think this is going to be one of those abilities that looks amazing when someone masters it but feels frustrating for the average player.
T Move: Barrage and Dash
The T move gives The Emperor another offensive option.
The attack starts with a barrage of bullets and then follows it up with a dash forward.
I actually like this move more from a practical gameplay perspective because it combines offense and movement. You aren’t simply standing in one place firing bullets; you can attack and then quickly move toward your opponent.
It should also make the move feel more active compared with the basic M1 attacks.
The Emperor’s Damage
Even though The Emperor doesn’t seem to have extremely complicated abilities, its damage still looks pretty good.
The basic bullet attacks can put out solid damage, and the barrage-style attacks give you multiple ways to pressure an opponent.
So while I wouldn’t say The Emperor has some completely insane or game-changing ability, I wouldn’t underestimate it either.
The damage is definitely one of the stronger points shown in the showcase.
Is The Emperor Hard to Use?
This is probably the biggest question after watching the showcase.
If you’re just using the basic attacks, The Emperor looks fairly easy to understand. You aim, fire your bullets, and use the barrage and dash when you want to put more pressure on someone.
The difficult part is the bullet-control mechanic.
Trying to manually move a bullet around in the air and accurately curve it toward another player looks extremely challenging. I honestly don’t know how many players will consistently land those shots.
It may become much easier once players spend more time practicing it, but based on this showcase, it definitely has a learning curve.
Does The Emperor Have Crazy Abilities?
For me, this is where The Emperor feels a little underwhelming.
The Stand looks cool, and the bullet-control mechanic is interesting, but it doesn’t seem to have the same kind of crazy or memorable abilities that immediately make you say, “I need this Stand.”
At the end of the day, it’s still The Emperor, and most of its gameplay revolves around shooting and controlling bullets.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes a simple kit with good damage can be extremely effective. But compared with some of the other new Stands, I don’t think The Emperor is going to be everyone’s favorite.
My Thoughts on The Emperor
After seeing the full showcase, I’m still not completely sure how I feel about The Emperor.
I really like the concept of controlling bullets after firing them. That’s easily the most interesting part of the kit, and I can imagine experienced players doing some really impressive things with it.
At the same time, the mechanic looked difficult and somewhat buggy during the showcase. If the bullet control remains difficult to use, most players may simply rely on the easier attacks instead.
The damage is good, the design is cool, and the moves are fun, but I don’t think The Emperor is bringing back the same feeling that Bridge of Western Prime had.
That said, the game is still fun, and people clearly continue to enjoy Bridge of Western. The Emperor could become much more interesting once players have had time to properly learn its mechanics.
Overall, The Emperor looks like a solid but fairly straightforward Stand.
Its biggest strength is the ability to control bullets in mid-air, while its biggest weakness is that this mechanic appears difficult to use consistently. The M1 attacks and T move are much easier to understand and still provide decent damage.
If you enjoy skill-based mechanics and want to spend time mastering bullet movement, The Emperor could be a lot of fun. If you prefer simple and powerful abilities, you may find the kit a little less exciting.
For me, it’s not a bad Stand at all, but I’m still waiting to see what players can actually do with it once everyone gets their hands on it.
And of course, a huge shoutout to Sam for helping with the showcase. He’s an OG Bridge of Western player, and without the showcase we wouldn’t have gotten a look at how The Emperor works.
If you enjoyed this guide, let me know what you think about The Emperor and which of the new Stands is your favorite.