Crossbow Master

"Crossbow Master shoots really fast and devastates most Bloon types with ease."

- BTD6 description

 is the fifth upgrade of Path 3 for the Dart Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It increases the Dart Monkey's attack speed to every 0.16s (6.25 shots per second), increases critical hit frequency to 4-8 (with equal chance for any per-shot numbers between this range, inclusive, every 6 shots on average) instead of 8-12 from Sharp Shooter, increases the range to 240% of a 0-0-0 Dart Monkey, and slightly increases projectile speed. Additionally, this upgrade increases the pierce of each shot to 10, +6 when upgraded with Sharp Shots and +7 on top of that when upgraded with Razor Sharp Shots. Upgrading to Crossbow Master also allows the Dart Monkey to pop Lead Bloons, making it able to damage any bloon type.

It costs $19,975 on Easy, $23,500 on Medium, $25,380 on Hard and $28,200 on Impoppable.

Description
Alongside shooting arrows that deal 6 damage, the Crossbow Master's arrows fires arrows much faster, gains much more pierce, and apply critical hits at a much faster rate. More specifically, it attacks one shot every 0.16s (or 6.25 shots per second), pierces up to 10 bloons per shot, and crits will occur every 4-8 shots.

Crossbow Master will shoot a critical damage arrow once every 4-8 shots, and each critical damage arrow is denoted by an orange aura at the back of the arrow and the orange word "CRIT" (or language variant) above bloons struck by them. The frequency of critical damage arrows is determined by a pre-determined count for the number of per-shots made, with a plus-or-minus of 2 from the pre-determined crit frequency average, for an average of every 6th shot.

Appearance
Upgrading to Crossbow Master changes the Sharp Shooter's crossbow design to a black-and-yellow high-tech design. The Crossbow Master now wears a dark yellow visor with a full-black hood and several yellow pockets. It loses its purple wristbands and eyeband, but keeps its quiver from Sharp Shooter. Like most Tier 5s, its appearance is unaffected by crosspaths.

Appearance
TBA

Statistics
TBA

Damage Types
TBA

Costs

 * Updated as of Version 30.0

Summary
Crossbow Master is a well-rounded upgrade that is able to act as a good source of overall DPS. The random critical hits now activate much quicker on top of its much improved attack speed, allowing a few of these critical hits to easily wipe out a decent number of Super Ceramics and shred weaker MOABs. Because of its relatively high pierce and high damage from each of its relatively frequent random critical hits, it is recommended to place the Crossbow Master along straight lines in order to make the most use of its high pierce.

Although the Crossbow Master doesn't necessarily require external buffs in order to perform well, it pairs very well with Overclock in order to increase its powerful random but consistent critical hit rate even more. Although it has only 66% uptime, adding an active Overclock will rapidly improve the Crossbow Master's overall performance by applying critical hits more often, especially versus Super Ceramics. Other useful support towers include Stronger Stimulant, for the increased attack speed to apply critical hits at a faster rate, and Primary Training, to make its projectiles move faster and therefore increase accuracy.

In addition to being a rather cost-effective Tier 5, there is a Monkey Knowledge Point called "Master Double Cross" that allows for two Crossbow Masters on the map at once, which adds an extra dimension of the overall power of Crossbow Master. With this one MK Point, this allows the option to place each Crossbow Master on different areas of the map for even more attack coverage, or they can be placed together in similar locations to produce even more bloon destructive power. In fact, this also makes it easier to get a higher-degree Apex Plasma Master, the Dart Monkey Paragon.

Tips

 * Most of the time, a 0-2-5 Crossbow Master is better than a 2-0-5 Crossbow Master, as its higher attack speed generally performs higher DPS unless the bloons are densely packed. However, sometimes the extra pierce can be useful, especially if the Crossbow Master is placed in a location where it can hit many bloons in a straight line and make the most of its crit shots.
 * For instance, 0-2-5 is better versus Round 80 because it can pop the ZOMG layer faster and deal with the BFBs underneath better. On the other hand, 2-0-5 is better versus densely grouped rounds such as on Round 63, 76, or 78, because a 0-2-5 can end up getting overwhelmed with the density of the bloons and a 2-0-5 will have less trouble with breaking apart bloon clumps.
 * On easier maps, a single Crossbow Master can solo up to round 80.
 * Even though it can pop lead bloons and therefore DDTs, it will have a hard time against DDTs due to their fast speed and high health.
 * Regardless of crosspathing choice, to make the most of Crossbow Master, place it such that it can shoot along straightaways.
 * Crossbow Master is mostly a mid-game carry style tower, as it is very good against the pre-super ceramic rounds but heavily falls off past Round 80 when super ceramics take much more time for the crossbow master to pop, not to mention it falls off even harder in the 90s, when rounds become simply too heavy for the Crossbow Master to make much impact. For this reason, it is highly recommended to use Crossbow Master not for solo DPS, but instead to help save up for a more powerful Tier 5 that can scale well in late game, most commonly Sky Shredder or Apache Prime.
 * Contrary to popular belief, a Crossbow Master's DPS is relatively consistent due to the high frequency of shots, rather than completely random due to crits, because the Crossbow Master is guaranteed to get a crit at most on the 8th shot after a previous crit, and on the 4th at the least. The DPS ranges between 71.875 and 106.25, with the average being 83.333.

Trivia

 * When supported by a True Sun God with support sacrifices, an Ezili sacrificial totem, a Primary Mentoring Village and a Stronger Stimulant Alchemist, a Crossbow Master can have its range roughly equal to the entire map.
 * According to Ninja Kiwi's 30th July 2021 blog, Crossbow Master wears an eyepiece for optimal aiming purposes and visual aesthetics.