Buckshot Roulette was one of the biggestindie hits of 2024. With the multiplayer mode added later that year, Buckshot became even more fun as playing with real people gave it elements of a social deduction game.
There’s a lot of mental exercise that goes into playing Buckshot Roulette: there’s also a fair bit of luck involved. If you want to win, you’ve got to use the items you’re given like they were the items you wanted. Here are the ones you should want most.
8Inverter
The inverter is one of the most misunderstood items in Buckshot, and not without reason. Its description confuses many would-be shooters on whether it swaps the polarity of the current shell orallthe shells.
The answer is the current shell: if it’s live, the inverter will turn it into a blank, and vice versa. Use this item to upset your opponents' game plan and throw them off the strategy they’ve been forming.
7Jammer
The only thing more important than getting a long turn in Buckshot Roulette is taking turns away from your opponents. The jammer lets you select which of your friends you want to be leftholding the buckfor that turn.
The jammer can be a good way to put anyone who’s been getting ahead at a disadvantage. In Buckshot Roulette, one skipped turn can make all the difference.
The jammer has a single-player equivalent in the handcuffs, which forces the dealer to skip his turn.
6Beer
The beer is a safe item, and one that’s good for reorienting yourself. It racks the shotgun without targeting you or your opponents, and it doesn’t end your turn.
If you lose track of the shells, or you want to make someone else lose count, the beer is a useful item. It’s very subtle in indicating whether the shell you ejected was a live one or not. It also gives you a cool animation.
There’s no limit to how many beers you can drink per turn, and it can be used to empty the shotgun and move to the next clip if you have enough beer cans.
5Cigarette
A game of Buckshot Roulette is one of the few situations where smoking is good for you. Cigarettes restore your health, though you’re able to’t go past the maximum for that round.
A single cigarette can make all the difference between winning the round and being eliminated early: you only have a few charges to begin with, and unlike the expired medicine which can heal you or hurt you, the cigarette is guaranteed togive you your health back.
Expired medicine has twice the healing power of cigarettes, but has a random chance of poisoning you and taking away a charge instead. Using it is a risk, and it is not a desirable item to steal as it can backfire.
4Burner Phone
The burner phone is the magnifying glass with extra steps. It tells you about the state of one random shell in the shotgun at any given time. However, it gives rise to frequent misunderstandings: the phone counts the shells from the point you use it, not from the start of the round.
Unfortunately, if there are too few shells in the shotgun, the burner phone can simply give up on you and not tell you anything. But here’s the clincher: your opponents don’t have to know the phone told you nothing. For all they know, it told you exactly what the next shell was.
3Adrenaline
Griefing is an important part of having a funmultiplayer sessionwith your friends, and the adrenaline item is grief central. Adrenaline lets you steal and immediately use any item on the table.
If anyone has a magnifying glass or cigarette pack, steal it. Not only are you getting to use it for yourself, you’re taking awaytheiropportunity to use it. The adrenaline item doesn’t show you the labels of the other items though, so you need to be familiar with all the items before using it effectively.
2Hand Saw
When you see an opponent use the hand saw, you know they’re going big. The hand saw lets the shotgun do double damage: if you use a magnifying glass before going for the hand saw, you’re golden.
One round of double damage doesn’t guarantee a victory, but it can certainly bring you back from the brink of defeat if you use it on the friend who’s most ahead. Mysteriously, the shotgun regenerates its barrel after your turn ends.
1Magnifying Glass
This is the closest any item in Buckshot Roulette comes to just plain cheating. The magnifying glass is, beyond a doubt, the most useful item in the game. It gives you a peek into the chamber and straight-up shows you what the current shell is.
It’s impossible to fail after using the magnifying glass, so getting it is cause for celebration. The ideal turn in Buckshot Roulette is smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer, racking the shotgun, breaking the magnifying glass, sawing off the barrel and then shooting your opponent in the face.
