Arctic Wind (BTD6)

"Greatly increases pierce & gains a super cold aura that slows Bloons and freezes water nearby."

- In-game description

Arctic Wind is the third upgrade of Path 2 for the Ice Monkey in Bloons TD 6.

In BTD6, this upgrade is substantially different from the BTD4-BTD5 counterpart. Unlike earlier games, Arctic Wind doesn't come with extra range (although its succeeding upgrade Snowstorm does), it slows nearby frozen-vulnerable bloons by 50% (instead of everything Ceramic and below by 66% in earlier games), allows nearby land towers to be placed on water within range of the Arctic Wind, and has increased but limited pierce, increasing pierce from 40 to 100.

Arctic Wind and fellow higher-tier middle path Ice Monkey upgrades have a unique capability of allowing any tower, including land towers, on top of nearby water. This also includes Sun Temples, the True Sun God and all Paragons which do not collapse into the water on which they are created. If used to place a Support Chinook or Special Poperations Heli Pilot on water and is moved by that helicopter, both towers will be sold, even if there is no selling allowed in the current game. Any land towers standing on frozen water, except the Sun Temple, True Sun God, and any Paragon, will be sold if the Arctic Wind freezing the water is sold, sacrificed, or moved elsewhere.

It costs $2,465 on Easy, $2,900 on Medium, $3,130 on Hard, and $3,480 on Impoppable.

Appearance
This upgrade gives the Ice Monkey an orange jacket with a fur-lined hood and a red scarf. It loses its red earmuffs and red beanie from Deep Freeze.

Summary
One of the main uses of Arctic Wind is to expand land on maps where there are bad land spots, particularly Peninsula and Spice Islands. Its range can be further increased with a Primary Training Village and by upgrading Arctic Wind to the Snowstorm upgrade. Not only will land towers be able to be placed in the radius of an Arctic Wind, water towers may also be placed in the radius of an Arctic Wind too.

The slowdown from Arctic Wind has been nerfed considerably in BTD6; it now only deals a 50% slowdown, and without MIB support, White and Zebra Bloons are immune. However, it still remains a viable option for slowing down large hordes of other incoming bloons without relying on projectile attacks or abilities.

Tips

 * Try using a 0-3-2 Arctic Wind to utilize the extra coverage of the slowdown aura and the ice platforms. In fact, adding Larger Radius provides roughly +25% range for the Ice Monkey, a considerably large amount in many situations, especially without the "Icy Chill" MK.
 * Because Arctic Wind's slowdown aura cannot slow down Whites or Zebras, additional support such as a Glue Gunner with Glue Splatter or Glue Hose may be required to provide the necessary extra slowdown.

Bugs
Due to the nature of the water-freezing portion of the Arctic Wind's radial arctic wind, it has caused numerous bugs, often a number of them game-breaking. The following bugs have been so far discovered:


 * On Version 16.1 (?), there was a critical game-breaking bug where selling a tower placed on top of an Arctic Wind on certain maps with an unplaceable land spot on the very centre of the map would sell more than once.

Trivia

 * In BTD6, it will create a ice platform to put land towers in water. It can be really useful in maps with lots of water. If the Arctic Wind is sold, everything on top of its ice platform will be sold as well.
 * This is functionally similar to Pontoons.
 * Carrier Flagship also provides space for land towers, though it only gives two medium-sized platforms.
 * Ninja Kiwi regretted the inclusion of Arctic Wind platforms.
 * Arctic Wind is the only Tier 3 Ice Monkey to perform idle animations of lower-tier Ice Monkeys.