Aircraft Carrier (BTD6)

"Launches waves of fighter planes that strafe their targets and fire missiles at MOAB class Bloons."

- In-game description

Aircraft Carrier is the fourth upgrade of Path 1 for the Monkey Buccaneer in BTD6. Along with keeping its old Destroyer attacks, the Aircraft Carrier now comes with three mini aircraft planes that rapidly shoot darts radially and forwards as well as regularly shooting anti-MOAB missiles similarly to the Fighter Plane upgrade. These missiles are shot every 3.0s per plane, deal 15 damage, have 3 pierce, and have a blast radius of 30. The darts from the mini Aces pop up to 9 bloons per dart (+1 with 4-0-1) and deal 1 damage.

Because of how large the Aircraft Carrier is, it can no longer be carried by Support Chinooks.

It costs $6,120 on Easy, $7,200 on Medium, $7,775 on Hard, and $8,640 on Impoppable.

Appearance
Aircraft Carrier upgrades into a stationary aircraft carrier with a singular runway covered by a hanger, with a blue flag atop the island. The edge of the entire ship is adorned with a red trim. The accompanying biplanes have a green, blue, and yellow color scheme. Its guns are now below the runway at the bow and it will not rotate whenever it attacks, but it still shoots its Destroyer attacks as normal.

Summary
For greater mobility of damaging bloons, Aircraft Carrier is a viable option. The planes can deal high MOAB-class damage via anti-MOAB missiles, while the darts act as a source of cleanup and extra damage. The darts from the planes can be unreliable though, and they cannot be buffed by an Alchemist.

Tips

 * If possible, crosspath the Aircraft Carrier with 4-1-0 for the added grape attack, which will allow it to perform much more damage overall. If lead-popping is required, or extra napalm is a useful addition, go for 4-2-0. A 4-0-2 Aircraft Carrier is still a very viable choice if there are many camo bloons on screen. 4-0-1 Aircraft Carrier is also useful for the increased projectile speed and slightly more pierce for all of the aircraft projectiles.
 * Similar to Destroyer, pair with Berserker Brew or Stronger Stimulant for much improved overall damage, especially for a 4-1-0 or 4-2-0 Aircraft Carrier. This is particularly good at enhancing the relatively low pierce of the fast-shooting grape attacks. Assume that this is simply for the main Destroyer attacks though, since Alchemist buffs will have no effect for the mini planes, as all Alchemist buffs cannot affect sub-towers.

Trivia

 * When BTD6 was first released, the Aircraft Carrier upgrade costed $9,000, just like in the latest version of Bloons TD Battles Flash.
 * As of Version 12.0, the BTD6 Aircraft Carrier upgrade costs half of the BTD5 Aircraft Carrier upgrade's cost.
 * In BTD6, an Aircraft Carrier's range is the same size as the Destroyer's range. Unlike in BTD5, this upgrade does not grant Advanced Intel infinite range.
 * Unlike in BTD5, the Aircraft Carrier retains the Destroyer's attacks.
 * Despite the fact that in the upgrade portrait, the Aircraft Carrier has it's turrent at it's front, it somehow manages to shoot behind and at the sides of the Aircraft carrier in a perfect circle in game.