Shoot with her rock cannon at enemies, block against attacks.
Shoot with her rock cannon at enemies, block against attacks and sidestep to avoid them completely. If the player fires the rock cannon or uses the sidestep too much in a short time, the system will overheat, leaving the player vulnerable to attack until it cools down.
Throughout the game, players can earn abilities that can be equipped to Warrior of Black Rock Shooter and used in battle, each with their own cooldown periods. These include offensive attacks such as a powerful blast, a sniper rifle, or support abilities that can increase Warrior of Black Rock Shooter' stats such as her attack or defense. Certain sections will also see Warrior of Black Rock Shooter ride a motorcycle, in which she can attack enemies on either side of her or use weapons to fire in front of enemies.
There are 2 basic kinds of gameplay: the non-battle part and the battling parts. When not in battle, you walk around the stage to complete a certain misson, be it just reach the destination, defeat the boss monster of the area, activate switches and acess machine terminals, or simply talk to NPCs around. Often, during the course of the mission, you'll eventually run across monsters on the field or guardians (mini-bosses) in order to move on, and by approaching them, you'll enter battle mode.
There, your characters mainly is static on the field and you just control the aiming of your weapon, and by aiming near an enemy, the game automatically locks on to the enemy. Pressing the square button shoots rocks ("bullets") to the enemy. Pressing circle makes your character take an evasive move. Pressing X makes your character enter in guard position as long as you're holding that button. Also, by holding the R button and pressing one of the 4 face buttons, you can use one of 4 skills with Warrior of Black Rock Shooter can learn, with can include increasing ATK, DEF, damage, provide health regeneration or even make an exclusive attack.