| Blood Berry | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Blood Berry PR Illustration | |||
| Type | Beam katana | ||
| Creators | Wolf Vann | ||
| Owners | Travis Touchdown | ||
| Cost | Unknown, however it has been known to be sold through online auctions | ||
The Blood Berry (ブラッド・ベリー, Buraddo Berii) is Travis Touchdown's beam katana in the No More Heroes series. It is a seemingly primitive model that Travis obtained through an online auction, and is a trademark weapon only seen with him, along with the Tsubaki MK-III.
The name likely comes from Travis' love of the anime Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly, as the show's main character names are Strawberry, Blueberry, and Cranberry, and may also metaphorically refer to Travis' starting days as a hitman, since winning the Blood Berry, started Travis's career. According to supplemental materials, it is a beam katana created by Wolf Vann, the same developer of the Cross Sword used by Henry Cooldown.
When activated, the frame of the Blood Berry is extracted along with the blade, and the receiver is headed by a blade attachment in the form of a pointed spike. The Blood Berry is one beam katana that cannot function properly without a receiver, and so this blade attachment allows the beam katana to penetrate matter it normally cannot by having a standard, dull receiver. The Blood Berry is also the only recognized beam katana to contain a guide bar in its design.
Despite its construction, its output differs from game to game; No More Heroes featured it as a weak initial weapon with poor features, with Desperate Struggle featuring it with considerable attack power. Nonetheless, its battery usage and slow recharge mechanics shows its vintage. In Travis Strikes Again it reappears as Travis' only weapon, but with considerable improvement in performance and recharge time. Blood Berry returns as Travis' main weapon in No More Heroes III. In the third game, it now has the ability to grow stronger and manifest smaller blades the more Travis hits somebody without taking damage. Blood Berry now also turns red and extends its length when Travis deals a Death Blow.
In the Trading Card Game[]
There is one trading card featuring the Blood Berry in the Design Materials set, "BLOOD BERRY".
Trivia[]
- A trading card which features concept art of the Blood Berry reveals that early in the development of No More Heroes it had no proper name, being referred to as simply "Travis's Early Beam KATANA."
- On the Famitsu No.X-2 T-shirt in No More Heroes, two Blood Berries serve as crossbones beneath a skull, with the caption "Too fast to live, too young to die."
- The designer of the Blood Berry is not clarified in the series. Artist Miwa Shirou illustrated pieces of the Blood Berry among other beam katanas in Dr. Naomi's workshop for an EROTICA Portrait card, but this is her only connection to the Blood Berry to date.
- The Travis Mii costume for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate uses the Blood Berry.
- So far the Blood Berry is the most iconic Beam Katana, being featured in 5 games inside and outside the franchise to date.