Tack Shooter (BTD6)

"Shoots a short range volley of sharp tacks in 8 directions."

- In-game Description

The Tack Shooter is a Primary-class tower in Bloons TD 6 that shoots tacks out of its barrels in 8 directions per volley. The tower despite having short-range efficiency, is excellent in clearing out crowds of bloons when placed near corners or intersections. It also deals a relatively high amount of DPS to MOAB-Class Bloons, especially against the bigger blimps when they totally eclipse the player's view of the tower. The tower retains its name and role from previous game generations, along with significant additions. Like most Primary Monkeys, the Tack Shooter was featured in a teaser prior to the game's release. At base, a Tack Shooter has a short range of 23, second-lowest to Ice Monkey. However, its tacks can extend beyond this range a bit before despawning. Every 1.4s upon detecting a bloon within its range, the Tack Shooter shoots a volley of 8 tacks, one in each cardinal and ordinal direction. Each tack can pop a single bloon; multiple tacks can hit the same bloon at very close range.

It costs $240 on Easy, $280 on Medium, $300 on Hard, and $335 on Impoppable.

Description
The Tack Shooter returns once more in the sixth iteration of Bloons TD, continuing its service as a cheap, area denial-focused tower. Compared to BTD5, the placement of some upgrades have been re-arranged to take advantage of the new three-path upgrade system.

The first path is, like many other towers, a powerful offensive focus, gaining Hot Shots that let it pop Lead Bloons, the Ring of Fire to accurately pop many individuals bloons at a time, and the powerful Inferno Ring. The second path is untouched, still focusing on area support with conversion into a Blade Shooter. The third path is solely focused on increasing the amount of tacks the Tack Shooter can output, with every tier multiplying tacks per shot and/or increasing its fire rate. This tower is not to be underestimated for its low prices: it is highly capable at cheap crowd control that can extend mid to late-game, and third path upgrades increase the amount of tacks that can hit one bloon at a time, with M.O.A.B. Class Bloons and their bulky frames being highly susceptible to multi-hits in particular. A Blade Maelstrom given camo detection can easily destroy any wave of tightly packed ceramics with its ability, outside of Freeplay Mode rules. Overdrive and The Tack Zone can decimate MOAB-class bloons with ease due to both their high attack speed and large numbers of projectiles. Thise last two upgrades are especially strong when paired with an upper top path Village and Alchemist buffs.

The Tack Shooter is categorized as a Primary class tower and as such can receive the added benefits of Primary Training and its subsequent upgrades.

Target Priorities
Tack Shooters have no alternative targeting options, due to its zone-type main attack style. Inferno Ring's meteor is fixed to Strong, on the other hand, and cannot be changed.

Total Costs
TBA

Monkey Knowledge
This section displays Monkey Knowledge that has effects on Tack Shooter and its changes when compared to one by default:
 * FastTackAttacksIcon.png Fast Tack Attacks: Tack Shooter attack speed increased by 8%.
 * IncreasedLifespanIcon.png Increased Lifespan: Projectiles shot from Tack Shooter have increased lifespan.
 * x seconds → x seconds.
 * PoppyBladesIcon.png Poppy Blades: Blade Shooter upgrade gets +2 pierce.
 * Blade Shooter pops 8 bloons per shot instead of 6.
 * HardTacksIcon.png Hard Tacks: Tack Shooter tacks can pop Frozen Bloons.
 * BigInfernoIcon.png Big Inferno: Inferno Ring upgrade gets +3 burst radius.
 * Base Inferno Ring range increases from 35 to 38.
 * ComeOnEverybodyIcon.png Come On Everybody!: Primary towers attack 5% faster if all are below tier 3, and cost 5% less if all are tier 3 or 4.
 * MonkeyEducationIcon.png Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
 * BetterSellDealsIcon.png Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
 * Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
 * VeteranMonkeyTrainingIcon.png Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
 * GlobalAbilityCooldownsIcon.png Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.

Trivia

 * All of the Tack Shooter's tier 3 upgrades in BTD6, except Blade Shooter, were originally introduced as a predecessor to Ring of Fire. As for Blade Shooter, Ring of Fire itself was originally introduced as Blade Shooter's successor.
 * The first true nerf for the Tack Shooter in BTD6 was in Version 13.0, where Overdrive and The Tack Zone both received price nerfs.
 * Though lacking official usage statistics to back it up, 2-0-4 and 2-0-5 appear to be the most common upgrade combinations for the Tack Shooter and rightfully so for their incredible MOAB-class DPS potential.
 * Due to the Tack Monkey avatar and the Tack Shooter's idle animation when Monkey Mastery is unlocked in Bloons TD Battles 2, it is confrimed that there is actually a Monkey operating the tack shooter from the inside.
 * Monkeys operating the inferno ring or ring of fire don't get burnt because they use heat resistant padding.