Tack Shooter (BTD5)

"Shoots 8 tacks spread in all directions, each tack can pop 1 bloon."

- Bloons TD 5 Mobile description

The  is a tower that appears in Bloons TD 5. The Tack Shooter is a pink and grey mechanical device that shoots a volley of tacks in eight directions. As of BTD3, upgrading the Tack Shooter can change the types and numbers of projectiles shot from it. For instance, the Blade Shooter and Ring of Fire upgrades modify it to shoot blades or flame rings respectively, instead of tacks.

Although it has a short range, these towers are very effective at thinning out crowds of Bloons at corners and intersections. They are also relatively cheap, making them useful in early rounds. Each individual tack that the Tack Shooter fires has a popping power of 1, which changes with various upgrades. Tack Shooters have a slow rate of fire, (0.6 shots per second) compared to other towers initially, which limits their strength.

Upgrades
Once again, the Tack Shooter along with all towers in BTD gets a huge improvement, with two paths of powerful upgrades.

Differences Between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile

 * Ring of Fire has a slower attack speed (2.3 shots per second → ?).
 * Ring of Fire attack range can be extended past 4/1. This was a bug in BTD5 Flash.
 * Blade Maelstrom ability can pop camo bloons if the tower is under the influence of a x/2 Monkey Village.
 * Blade Maelstrom no longer plays a sound when the ability is activated.
 * Blade Maelstrom still disperses blades even if sold during the duration of the activated ability.
 * Blade Maelstrom disperses blades clockwise instead of counterclockwise.

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)
Tack Shooter hasn't seen as much use in Battles Mobile compared to Flash, possibly due to a less effective Ring of Fire and players only being able to choose 3 towers reliably as opposed to 4. Tack Shooter overall isn't used often as one of three main towers, due to its inability to pop camo bloons, despite being useful early-game. On most occasions when using a Tack Shooter, however, players tend to use Blade Maelstrom in emergencies of rushes such as Regrow Rainbow Rush of Death/Doom. Popular loadouts include Tack Farm Mortar, Tack Farm Sub, and Tack Village Chipper.

Tower tips

 * Breaking a massive number of Lead or Ceramic Bloons is not impossible. Tack Shooter's 4-2 upgrade can take off all layers of a group of Lead Bloons and does heavy damage on Ceramic Bloons, whilst 2-4 upgrade, especially its ability, can massively break off the shell of a group of Ceramic Bloons with only 1 blade if too close, then entirely pops away all layers of it with only a few blades not over than 6-10.
 * In order to counter this, buying an Arctic Wind and combining it with a Ring of Fire will decimate Bloons.
 * If dealing with a group of MOAB-class Bloons, its ability can shred them off no matter how many times you activated it's ability (best record is activated once can completely pop it away, with 15% chance), especially when they're too close.
 * At the start of the turn, if you want to pop multiple layers of bloons, best use 3-2 upgrade at first. It's because by popping the bloons with 1 tack may pop away a layer, they can easily hit another tack since they can still travel, resulting in another pop (the best record is 3 layers per shot, with 8% chance).
 * But if players want to deal with gaps, 2-3 upgrade will fit into it since blades are larger than tacks that can easily hit bloons.
 * The 3-# can do lots of damage to MOAB class bloons since it's a volley of 16 tacks (but not all of it) can easily hit the big hitbox of MOAB class bloons
 * Because of this, upgrading to a 4-# does less damage since it doesn't equal to 16 tacks. However, it can pop more bloons which balances it out.

Quotes
"Monkey-operated Tack Shooters can clear bloons on all sides, especially useful at track corners and curves. Powerful upgrades include: Tack Sprayer, Ring of Fire, Blade Maelstrom."

- BMC Flash description

"Shoots volley of tacks in 8 directions. Can upgrade its shoot speed and its range."

- Bloons TD 1 description "Shoots 8 tacks spread in all directions, each tack can pop 1 bloon. Has short range and medium-slow fire rate."

- Bloons TD 5 description "Monkey-operated Tack shooters can clear on all sides, especially useful at track corners and curves."

- Bloons Monkey City description

Trivia

 * The Tack Shooter is one of only 2 towers to have its BTD4 3rd and 4th upgrades to be on completely separate paths in BTD5. A player could have Blade Shooter or Ring of Fire in BTD5, but not both. It shares this trait with the Mortar Tower. This has happened again in the transition from BTD5 to BTD6, as Ring of Fire and Tack Sprayer are on separate paths. Both transitions involved the Ring of Fire.
 * If you have Monkey Fort, Tack Awesomizer, and a Tier 3 Tack Research Center, a single Tack can pierce through 3 bloons (4 every second shot).
 * In Bloons TD 5 Mobile, you can get a Tier 4 Tack Research Center, making the tack pierce through 4 bloons.
 * The Tack Shooter range is as short as the Ice Tower range.
 * In the artwork for BTD5, the upgrade Faster Shooting gives the shooter 3 tack icons on the top. It actually keeps the crossed over tacks on the top in the game. Vice-versa when you get Even Faster Shooting.
 * The Tack Shooter's attack method and appearance bears a resemblance to the Gloom-Shroom from the Plants Vs. Zombies games. The Gloom-Shroom, however, is much cheaper and much more powerful.
 * The cost of the Ring of Fire has been nerfed to make it more expensive in Bloons Monkey City Mobile. This also applied to BTD5 Mobile, but it has been reverted back to its former cost.
 * Ring of Fire cannot attack in a larger range when influenced by Monkey Beacon. The range will increase and the Ring of Fire will start attacking bloons once they get in that range, but the fire can't reach them until they get to the original range. This does not apply to the mobile versions of BTD.
 * In BTD5, Tack and Blade Shooters are depicted with only six shooters in their portraits, and Tack Sprayers only depict 12 shooters.
 * In BMC, the My Monkeys panel states the Tack Shooter as "Monkey-operated".
 * This knowledge is even further supported from one of the Monkey Mastery upgrades in Bloons TD Battles 2.
 * However, Battles 1 implies it is operated by clockwork.