Buckshot

"Shoots blasts of deadly buckshot instead of darts."

- In-game description

Buckshot is the third upgrade of Path 3 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD 6. Instead of darts, the Dartling Gunner now shoots a close spray of six buckshots with slight random deviation, similar to a Druid's thorns but with more projectiles and the ability to knock back non-MOAB-class bloons for 0.2s by -300% speed, -150% speed for Leads and Ceramics. Each buckshot pops up to 4 bloons per buckshot and deal 4 damage each. However, the Dartling Gunner attacks much slower, from 0.2s to 1.5s (or 0.133s to 1.0s with 0-2-3), accuracy decreases greatly (~30 deviation radius with 0-x-3, ~10 deviation radius with 1-0-3 or 2-0-3), and the projectiles now disappear after reaching 130 units, +25% more with Focused Firing (162.5), from where they spawned from, thereby making it more of a limited range tower. The projectiles from the Dartling Gunner spread as they go forward.

It costs $2,890 on Easy, $3,400 on Medium, $3,670 on Hard and $4,080 on Impoppable.

Appearance
The Dartling Gunner with the Buckshot upgrade now stands on a rotatable platform that mounts a cannon that shoots buckshots. The monkey's larger helmet is blue with yellow fortification bands on each side, and a yellow circle at the center of the helmet. On the middle of the cannon, there is a green band (yellow with Path 1 or purple with Path 2) around it that likely forces out the contents of shotgun shells in the form of buckshot projectiles. Every time the cannon bursts shots, a brief puff of white smoke comes out.

Summary
Unlike other Dartling Gunner options, Buckshot has a large spray of projectiles, much like slightly slower long-range Druid's Hard Thorns with custom aim, and extra damage and pierce, alongside a moderate range. As such, a Buckshot benefits much more from Alchemist buffs compared to alternate Tier 3 Dartlings, especially when interacting with Stronger Stimulant and Acidic Mixture Dip. Because Buckshot's attacks are much slower and have a lower projectile lifespan, it works better as a custom-aimed short-range tower that slowly shoots powerful burst shots. Combining this with Buckshot's in-built knockback and it can be quite valuable in a defense.

Tips

 * Add Berserker Brew or Stronger Stimulant, as it grants much more damage and pierce overall.
 * Buckshot is best crosspathed with Path 2 over Path 1. 0-2-3 Buckshot has more DPS and still lasts considerably long with Alchemist buffs, as it attacks a lot more slowly. Plus, 0-2-3 Buckshot comes with camo detection, but the opposite crosspath does not come with camo detection. 2-0-3 Buckshot is more accurate, and it comes with a shock damage-over-time, making it good at dealing more damage at a single spot or at further distances, but the attack speed of 0-2-3 often outperforms 2-0-3.
 * Because Buckshot has less overall range for its projectiles, Buckshot is more built as a medium-range tower. As such, treat it as an ordinary limited range tower. It's very powerful within short-range though, so don't let the high price and slow attack speed put you off buying this upgrade.
 * The Buckshot's knockback is based on speed percentage rather than a set number of units backwards, acting more similar to Level 5+ Pat Fusty's slap attack than MOAB Press's knockback kylies.

Trivia

 * Buckshot is the second Tier 3 tower in BTD6 that decreases attack speed of the main attack, the other being Spike-O-Pult.
 * The Buckshot Dartling that is featured in the Dartling Gunner trailer is a 2-0-3 Buckshot. This is because of the slight Laser Shock movement wind behind the buckshots, the yellow ring around the gun's black barrel.
 * In one of the concept artworks for the Dartling Gunner, the Buckshot operator wore an old-fashioned cap and manually carried a large three-barrelled handheld cannon.
 * Dartling Gunner is shown to operate a cannon with muzzle. (Possibly shotgun barrel).
 * Buckshot is projectile inside a Shotgun Shell that are shot from shell itself when shotgun is fired, the shell itself is stuck while its contents are released from muzzle.