Super Maelstrom

"Even more powerful Maelstrom ability and lasts longer."

- In-game Description

Super Maelstrom is the final Path 2 upgrade for the Tack Shooter in Bloons TD 6. Super Maelstrom enhances the ability significantly by increasing duration (9 seconds instead of 3 seconds), damage (2 damage instead of 1), pierce (500 instead of 200), and distribution area of the Blade Maelstrom ability (four sawblade spinners instead of two sawblade spinners along a more curved arc). It also allows both the tower's regular attack and ability to pop Lead Bloons and deal 2 damage per blade. Its ability will emit blades every 0.0333 seconds with 500 pierce instead of 200. Cooldown for ability remains at 20 seconds. Neither the basic attack nor the special ability can pop Camo Bloons without support.

It costs $12,750 on Easy, $15,000 on Medium, $16,200 on Hard and $18,000 on Impoppable.

Appearance
Super Maelstrom gains two separate sawblades, one on top and one at the bottom. The blades it shoots now come out from the middle of the two metal plates which cover the two sawblades. There is a strong metal grip at the ground, holding the tower in place and a blue blade logo on top.

Statistics
The following is a list of statistics of a Tack Shooter with Super Maelstrom. It includes its base statistics and all associated crosspathing interactions. Expand the box on the right to see further information.
 * Updated as of Version 27.3


 * Base stats


 * Ability stats


 * Crosspathing interactions

Damage Types

 * See also: Damage Types/Bloons TD 6/Primary

The following are a list of wiki-written damage types associated by a Tack Shooter with Super Maelstrom. These damage type statistics include how it attacks and how these attacks would affect bloons. Expand the box on the right to see further information.
 * Updated as of Version 27.3


 * Base attack(s)


 * Ability

Costs

 * Updated as of Version 29.4

Summary
Super Maelstrom is an effective low-cost tower for providing high popping power for popping bloons. It becomes most effective on Race Events that enable Tack Shooters, as many rounds can be sent at once for the Super Maelstrom ability to obliterate the vast amounts of bloons coming out in order to gain a significant amount of damage with one single ability usage. It becomes an excellent almost-solo tower with Pat, easily melting dense RBE rounds. Similarly, it benefits hugely from towers that add bloon vulnerability, especially Super Brittle.

Tips

 * The blades of its ability have 500 pierce and thus can tear through even grouped Ceramic Bloons if they are close enough to the tower. This also applies to Blade Maelstrom too, though the Super Maelstrom has advantages that Blade Maelstroms lack.
 * The Super Maelstrom ability can be affected by any type of buff that would normally apply to it. The most beneficial buffs it is able to receive and optimize its performance are: extra damage, extra attack speed, reduced ability cooldowns, and projectile speed, in that order.
 * Placing a Super Maelstrom such that it is placed right underneath the hitbox of blimps can allow the ability to inflict heaps of damage.
 * Just like The Tack Zone, it is important to utilize the "death zone"; this is the point of origin where bloons will be dealt the greatest damage. The center of the Super Maelstrom should be just below the dark blue circle on its blade symbol.
 * Pair with damage buffs such as Level 3+ Pat Fusty or bloon debuffs such as Super Brittle for even more damage with the ability. Overclock is a good idea to apply onto too, as this will greatly increase the maximum numbers of blades sent during the Super Maelstrom ability, but for the best results it should only be applied once preparing for a Super Maelstrom activation.
 * The ability is affected by any upgrade that grants extra attack speed, such as Jungle Drums or Overclock. Therefore, with any attack speed buff it will unleash many more blades per second. Stronger Stimulant is not recommended for this, as each individual spray of the ability will consume each unit of Alch buff, but Permanent Brew can work.
 * Like The Tack Zone, Super Maelstrom pairs exceptionally well with Pat Fusty, whose Rallying Roar ability heavily amplifies total damage of the ability, thereby shredding rounds with ease once both Super Maelstrom and Pat's Rallying Roar abilities are activated simultaneously. Combining this with Overclock will optimize the Super Maelstrom ability's damage potential.
 * Pat + Super Maelstrom is much stronger than Pat + Tack Zone if proper stalling, bloon stacking, and ability timing are all done correctly.
 * Its tendency to leak means that it tends to be seen with other cleanup towers such as Perma-Spike. However, proper techniques to optimize Super Maelstrom can help make it the cleanup tower.
 * Crosspathing does not affect Super Maelstrom ability so it is usually not the best choice to crosspath it, but 2-5-0 is usually the better crosspath if a crosspath needs to be bought.
 * During the course of the ability, up to 270 groups of 4 blades are shot. This is because blades are shot every 0.0333s, equivalent to 30 attacks per second.
 * Therefore, if all blades hit the same target, it will do up to 2160 damage to that bloon, excluding buffs such as Stronger Stimulant or Pat Fusty's Rallying Roar.
 * With an active Level 14+ Rallying Roar, the total damage potential on single-target bloons increases to 5400 instead of 2160, assuming his ability lasts more than the duration of Super Maelstrom. This alone doesn't mean much, but this is an ability with extremely high pierce, so this will do far more impact onto very densely packed bloons. For instance, a Fortified BFB has around 1624 health on Round 98, so a well-placed and well-timed Super Maelstrom ability should pop open incredibly high numbers of them within a short time.

Sounds
When activating Super Maelstrom Ability:
 * [Spraying]

Trivia

 * The Super Maelstrom upgrade costs ~53.57x more than the base tower ($280), but only on Medium.
 * It is the third/fourth (tied with Ultra-Juggernaut) cheapest tier-5 alone, and only costs $2,000 more than the 1st on Medium. Also, it is almost the cheapest in the game with its total cost, $18,855 on Medium (Ultra-Juggernaut is cheaper, at $17,660 total on Medium).
 * Is one of the few towers that can be afforded in a normal Deflation mode, the others being Ultra-Juggernaut, Elite Defender and Tack Zone (through both of the last two require specific MK).
 * Super Maelstrom's artwork uses a similar style to BTD5's Blade Maelstrom artwork.