The Blue Rose is Nero's personally designed long-ranged weapon. It is a unique revolver with an over and under barrel style, this design allows it to fire two magnum rounds with each pull of the trigger.[2] The two bullets do not fire simultaneously, the top barrel fires first penetrating armor then the bottom barrel fires damaging the inside of the target. Nero is the only member of the Order of the Sword known to wield a firearm because they believe guns to be dishonorable.[3]
Appearance
The Blue Rose seems to be a heavily modified Smith and Wesson Model 500 double-action revolver. Nero had this weapon customized for special purposes with the following:
- It has a traditional 6-shot cylinder as opposed to the Model 500's original 5-shot cylinder.
- Further modifications the gun has are targeting sights, and porting on each barrel to reduce recoil and muzzle flip.
- An obvious extra barrel underneath allowing for a double shot.
- The cylinder has also been modified with a left-handed crane and cylinder release tab, as Nero shoots with his left hand (as seen on the Guns and Swords video).
- The gun also has a molded wooden grip and an intricate blue rose design carved into the arm of the cylinder crane (hence the name).
The Blue Rose of Devil May Cry 5 is heavily redesigned: it is still built on the same base weapon, but lacks the original's decorative engraving. The barrels are now octagonal in profile with six small compensator ports per barrel rather than two large ones, the blue rose marking is just above the trigger rather than on the cylinder crane, and the gun has blue illumination on the front sight.
File
Devil May Cry 4
- Library - Arms - Nero's Arms
- BLUE ROSE
- A unique, specially constructed revolver with two barrels, allowing two shots to be fired nearly simultaneously. A product of Nero's own hand.
Devil May Cry 5
- Devil May Cry 5 promo site[4]
- Piercing coaxial hand cannon
- This six-chamber revolver fires two bullets at a time from upper and lower barrels. Good for long-range attacks to keep foes in check and combo strings going. It also allows Nero to fire special multi-hit bullets with the powerful Color Up skill.
- Nico's Note - The Art of Devil May Cry 5
- All this gear I've made? They're my babies. Hell yeah, I got favorites - I'm sentimental that way. I s'pose Nero feels the same about Blue Rose. Gotta respect his work on that sassy gal and I've been tuning it up ever since we met. Y'see, before I bolted together replacement parts for Nero's arm, I was mostly in the firearms biz. Truth be told, I was practically born with gun oil for blood. I blame my Gramma - she was doing all this loooong before I ever came along.
- Nico's Weapon Report - Blue Rose
- Red Queen and Blue Rose... Lookin' at these two monsters, I can't tell if you're genius or just freakin' crazy.
- A six-chamber revolver that fires two shots at a time? What kinda whackjob thinks up something like that?
- And the way the bottom shell breaks through the armor first, only for the top shell to follow up and pierce the target's body... Who the hell came up with that crazy idea!? ...Ahhh, who am I kidding'? I love it!
Gameplay
Like Dante's own Ebony & Ivory the Blue Rose can be charged by Nero channeling energy from the Devil Bringer into the revolver. This charge ability has three levels when fully upgraded, each requiring more power to be channeled from Nero's demonic arm. They are represented by the Devil Bringer glowing different colors, with a level one charge being blue, level two purple, and level three red. At level three charge there will be an initial explosive impact, followed by a second explosion after a short delay, both having AoE damage and a tendency to knock enemies into the air. The firing animation has quite a low priority, and it is readily possible to "waste" a charged shot if Nero is doing something else when the button is released.
As charging shots is important for Nero, it is quite common for players to modify the controls for him. An effective setup is to place shoot on 
, 
or the equivalent, allowing it to be held constantly while still having the thumb free to manipulate the controller's face buttons.
When the Blue Rose is fired while Nero is in his Devil Trigger form, he creates Summoned Swords similar to Vergil's. They can be summoned even when he can't fire the gun itself, for example during a cinematic Buster.
In the Automatic Mode, Nero can fire up to six shots per second.
In Devil May Cry 5, the Blue Rose is altered, in part due to Nero losing access to the Devil Bringer. In this game Blue Rose's basic fire is slower, and Nero has a new move called "Color Up" wherein holding the Shoot button will load special high-powered ammunition into the gun to then fire a "High Shot" which deals damage for a short period of time and can stun smaller enemies. Performing Color Up fills a Bullet Gauge under Nero's DT Gauge, and the next three shots fired will be the high-powered ammo or High Shots. Like the Exceed gauge, the shots do not "go away," instead being retained until Nero has fired them, and Nero can top up the bar by performing Color Up again even if he has shots remaining. Color Up can be upgraded to increase damage and the speed at which the special ammunition is loaded.
Normally, Color Up will fire its first High Shot when the player releases the shoot button after finishing the loading animation, but the player can retain all three shots by using a Devil Breaker, the Buster or the Air Provocation and releasing the button during the animation.
Upon finishing the game once, the player unlocks the classic Devil May Cry 4 Charge Shot, where the fully charged bullet deals heavy damage and explodes a second time after a few seconds. However, the Charge Shot has limited range and will explode in mid-air if fired from too far away. Charge Shot combines with Color Up, and will always start with Nero reloading his gun for Color Up. There are no longer three distinct colours from his Devil Bringer to indicate charge level, instead being three subtly different shades of blue along his left arm. The Bullet Gauge will also glow with deeper shades of blue for each charge level reached. The main visual method of determining the charge level is how much of Nero's arm the charge effect covers: a level 1 charge will cover just his hand, level 2 half of his forearm, and level 3 goes all the way up to his elbow.
Nero using Tomboy on Blue Rose at full charge.
When used in concert with the Devil Breaker called Tomboy, the device unfurls to turn Blue Rose into what appears to be a Gauss rifle with multiple accelerator coils lined up in front of the barrel. To perform this, Tomboy needs to be activated: a press of shoot will then unfurl the accelerator. Nero cannot move while it is deployed, and as with all Tomboy attacks he cannot lock on, instead having to aim manually, using either the left or right analog stick. Unlike the beam attacks of Gerbera and Double Kalina Ann, Blue Rose's aim will be inverted if the camera controls are inverted. A large glowing point-of-impact indicator assists in aiming, with a larger circle surrounding it showing the width of the blast. Nero can fire repeated blasts from the weapon, or charge it up for a more powerful shot. This ability is independent of Blue Rose's own charge mechanics, and so does not require Charge Shot to be unlocked or levelled up in order to function. Holding the shoot button will charge up the shot: firing at full power will not destroy the Devil Breaker, but does automatically cancel aim mode. Deactivating Tomboy or pressing the jump button will also get Nero out of this mode.
All shots fired from Blue Rose combined with Tomboy will pierce through multiple enemies if they are lined up.
Movesets
| Action | Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PS3 | Xbox 360 | ||
| Normal Shot |  |
 |
Fires two nearly simultaneous shots thanks to the Blue Rose's double-barrel construction. |
| Charge Shot | (hold and release, 1st shine, Blue) |
(hold and release, 1st shine, Blue) |
By channelling the power within the Devil Bringer, these shots slam powerfully against their target. Levels 2 and 3 speed up the increase the power and damage of the shots. |
| Action | Command | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Xbox One | PC | ||
| Normal Shot | Press |
Press |
Press  |
Use to fire the weapon you have equipped. You can also fire in mid-air.
|
| Color Up | Press and hold , then release when your left arm glows. |
Press and hold , then release when your left arm glows. |
Press and hold , then release when your left arm glows. |
Load up special bullets with more power than regular bullets. Hold to fill up the Bullet Gauge, letting you fire three shots once the gauge is full. Levels 2 ( 1800) and 3 (35000) speed up the reload and increase the power and damage of the shots.
|
| High Shot | Press with stock in the Bullet Gauge |
Press with stock in the Bullet Gauge |
Press with stock in the Bullet Gauge |
Fire special bullets more powerful than your regular ammo. Multiple hits will stun the enemy. |
| Charge Shot | Press and hold , then release when your left arm glows. |
Press and hold , then release when your left arm glows. |
Press and hold , then release when your left arm glows. |
7000 Channel the power from your body into the Blue Rose to fire powerful shots that sends foes flying. Hold while attacking to build up charge. Levels 2 (18000) and 3 (45000) speed up the charge and increase the power and damage of the shots.
|
Other Appearances
According to the Devil May Cry 4: Deadly Fortune novel, both Red Queen and Blue Rose melted away while Nero was trapped in the Savior's core. Because of that, he fought Sanctus using only the Yamato and Devil Bringer.
Background
Blue roses, which cannot occur naturally, have long been a symbol for striving for the miraculous or impossible. They are also linked to (divine) beauty or impossible love. This may refer to the love Nero has for Kyrie, who might feel their love is divine as well as something that could never be, due to him being a demon and her membership of the Order of the Sword. Ironically, since Sparda is considered the Devil May Cry universe equivalent of Jesus Christ or God, it could be argued that this divine love was enabled by Sparda.
Furthermore, since demons are said to be incapable of love, Nero (as a demon) nonetheless experiences love, which could be seen as miraculous. This mirrors how Sparda is seen as a miraculous character, as the love he had for a human woman was not supposed to be attainable. The blue rose could also symbolize hope, as in hope for humans and demons to unite.
Blue flowers are sometimes used to signify great faithfulness and loyalty. In the poem Blue Roses by Rudyard Kipling, blue roses are searched for far and wide, despite their nonexistence. The search for blue roses signifies a lasting, faithful love in the face of adversity.
Appearances in Other Media
Last Cloudia
The Blue Rose appears in Last Cloudia, and can only be wielded by Nero.
Trivia
- Curiously, when the Blue Rose is not in use, it is not shown to be holstered anywhere on Nero's body. It is implied that the holster is on his left thigh, as he will spin the gun and make a motion of holstering it on that side (for example, during the concluding scene of Mission 6). However, the gun is never shown to be there during cutscenes or gameplay, and it instead appears and disappears in Nero's hand as he uses it.
- Unlike Dante, Nero can be seen to reload his gun after he finishes firing; however, for gameplay purposes, he can fire limitless shots without needing to reload. If one stands idle after shooting, Nero will flick Blue Rose to the side and empty the cylinder.
- As explained in Deadly Fortune the idea behind the double barrel is that the rounds fire with a very slight timing offset: the first bullet is designed to penetrate the thick demon hide followed by the second bullet to deal actual internal damage. The idea of hitting the same spot with two bullets to compromise armor that one bullet could not may be inspired by the Russian AN-94 assault rifle's two-round burst function.
- In the introductory credits before Mission 01 of Devil May Cry 5, this is actually shown on the sixth shot Nero fires: the hollowpoint fired from the lower barrel (on top because the gun is fired upside-down) is slightly ahead of the black AP projectile from the top barrel. Presumably the idea of this is that the kinetic impact of the hollowpoint will compromise the Demon's hide enough for the AP projectile to punch right through, though logically it would be the armor piercer that would penetrate and compromise the hide first to allow the HP to expand inside vulnerable flesh, as AP may overpenetrate soft targets resulting in minimal damage to vitals whereas HP may overexpand on hard targets and fail to penetrate.
- Double and even triple-barrel revolvers are not actually fictional: there are a number of examples of pinfire revolvers with multiple barrels mostly made in France in the 19th century. The French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux, inventor of the pinfire cartridge, is particularly associated with them. However, these would have all of their barrels at the 12 o'clock position with a multi-layer cylinder rather than firing shots from barrels at 12 and six o'clock as Blue Rose does.
Gallery
References
- ↑ CAPCOM: Devil May Cry 5 Official Site, Character - Nero
- ↑ Devil May Cry 4, Nero's Arms File — Blue Rose: "A unique, specially constructed revolver with two barrels, allowing two shots to be fired nearly simultaneously. A product of Nero’s own hand."
- ↑ The Art of Devil May Cry 4 (2008), pp. 10, Blue Rose: "While Nero's firearm, the Blue Rose, doesn't deal as much damage as his sword, it is most effective when used for long-range attacks. What makes this revolver especially useful is Nero's customization of adding a stacked double barrel. This addition gives the Blue Rose its ability to take out multiple enemies at once or fire through a foe's armor. Interestingly, Nero is the only knight permitted to use a revolver because the Order of the Sword feels that the sword is the only true, honorable weapon."
- ↑ CAPCOM: Devil May Cry 5 Official Site, Character - Nero