Tack Shooter

The  is a tower in the Bloons Tower Defense series that first appeared in the original Bloons Tower Defense. It appears in every BTD game. The Tack Shooter is pink and grey mechanical device that shoots a volley of tacks in eight directions. As it continues to upgrade, the Tack Shooter undergoes several aesthetic changes.

Although it has short range, these towers are very effective at thinning out crowds of Bloons at corners and intersections. These towers are relatively cheap, making them useful in early rounds. Each individual tack that the Tack Shooter fires has a popping power of 1. This 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.

Tack Shooters were previously called Tack Towers in Bloons Tower Defense. This was changed in later BTD games for unknown reasons, possibly for tower name variety.

Bloons Tower Defense
The Tack Shooter, along with the Dart Monkey, Ice Tower, Bomb Tower, and Super Monkey, is one of the towers featured in the original Bloons Tower Defense. These 5 towers also appear in every subsequent BTD game. As with every other tower, the Tack Shooter has one upgrade on two different paths: Faster Shooting and Extra Range Tacks. Unlike BTD3 and future BTD games, the Tack Shooter does not change appearance regardless of upgrades.

As mentioned before, it is best to place Tack Shooters at the corners and intersections of the track to have maximum poppage. This tower performs best in groups. It is best to purchase Tack Shooters during later rounds, as starting the game with Tack Shooters will cause a money issue later in the game. Adding Tack Shooters to your defense can really help out with popping all Bloons, and it is a good idea to include them in your defense.

There is a glitch with the Tack Shooter, involving the Tab button on the keyboard. Said glitch actually allows one to win using only Tack Shooters, a feat Ninja Kiwi deems impossible. 

Bloons Tower Defense 2
The Tack Shooter appears in Bloons Tower Defense 2. There are no new upgrades for the Tack Shooter, or most towers as a matter of fact. The Tack Shooter undergoes no change between BTD and BTD2, in terms of functionality and appearance.

Tower Costs


Bloons Tower Defense 3
The Tack Shooter appears in Bloons Tower Defense 3. As with all other towers, the Tack Shooter has two upgrades on two separate paths. The first path focuses on offensive upgrades, while the second path focuses on range upgrades. The second upgrade for the first path is the new addition to the Tack Shooter: the Blade Shooter. The Blade Shooter greatly increases the popping power of the Tack Shooter. Besides the Blade Shooter upgrade, there has been no major change in the Tack Shooter since BTD2, appearance-wise and function-wise.

Tower Costs


Bloons Tower Defense 4
In Bloons Tower Defense 4, the Tack Shooter, along with every other tower, gets a huge improvement.

Tower Costs


Bloons Tower Defense 5
Once again, the Tack Shooter along with all towers in BTD gets a huge improvement, with two paths of powerful upgrades.

Tower XP


Path 1


Path 2


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.

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 whenever using 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.

Tack Shooter has overall been buffed via game updates. Extra Range Tacks price decreased ($100 → $75).
 * 4.3

Super Range Tacks price decreased ($225 → $175).

Blade Shooter price decreased ($680 → $600). Blade Maelstrom price increased ($2700 → $2800). However, it should be noted that due to the previous 3 upgrades all getting price buffs, this nerf is completely negligible since the overall cost to get a 0/4 Tack Shooter is cheaper ($4065 → $3910). Blade Shooter pierce increased (2 → 3).
 * 4.3.1

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 leads and ceramics.
 * 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 layer 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 another pop (best record is 3 layers per shot, with 8% chance).
 * But if you want to deal with gaps, 2-3 upgrade will fit into it since blades are larger than tacks that can easily hit bloons.

Bloons Tower Defense 6
The Tack Shooter returns once more in the sixth iteration of Bloons Tower Defense, continuing its service as a cheap, area denial-focused tower. Compared to BTD5, the placement of some upgrades (Tack Sprayer and Ring of Fire) 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, and the powerful Inferno Ring. The second path is untouched, still focusing on conversion to shooting many blades and an enhanced Maelstrom at Tier 5. The third path is solely focused on increasing the amount of tacks the Tack Shooter can output, with each tier multiplying tacks per shot.

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 MOAB-class bloons and their bulky frames being highly susceptible to multi-hits in particular.

The Tack Shooter is categorized as a Primary class tower. It can receive benefits from the first path upgrades of the Monkey Village, Primary Training, and beyond.

Path 1


Path 2


Path 3


Trivia

 * The Pre-Round Comments in Bloons TD 1 say that beating the original Bloons Tower Defense with only Tack Shooters is impossible. Despite this, the task has been done many times before.
 * Also, in BTD1/2, the player can create hypersonic tack shooters by pressing tab and repeatedly purchasing Faster Shooting. It will be able to shred most bloons easily.
 * 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 yet again in the transition from BTD5 to BTD6, as Ring of Fire and Tack Sprayer are on separate paths.
 * The icon for Bloons Tower Defense (iPhone/iPod) is a Tack Shooter.
 * 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).
 * The Blades spin if the Blade Shooter is shooting.
 * No upgrade allows the Tack Shooter to detect camo, and therefore makes it unable to pop camouflaged leads.
 * The Tack Shooter range is as short as the Ice Tower range.
 * The x's on the menu's (like the tracks menu) look like tacks.
 * An update to the Ring of Fire increases its rate of fire to shoot 2.3 times a second.
 * 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 bears a resemblance to the Gloom-Shroom from the Plants Vs. Zombies games.
 * 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's been reverted back to its old 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".