User blog:The Primordial Clok-Roo/Bloonchipper BTD6 Concept

Ninjakiwi: We cannot balance the Bloonchipper for BTD6. Me: You wanna bet on that?

Yep, I'm doing it. Just like wit the C.O.B.R.A. page, I've come up with a complete list of 15 unique and balanced upgrades for the Bloonchipper in BTD6. Here's a mock-up of what the tables could look like on this wiki, along with small details to explain the build of the tower along the way and infoboxes for the base tower AND its Tier-5 upgrades.

The Bloonchipper is designed as a Support category tower.

Base Tower
The base Bloonchipper has undergone quite a few nerfs compared to its BTD5 variant. For a start, it can not suck in Frozen, Lead or Ceramic Bloons by default. Plus, it takes a second to shred a Bloon to pieces and sucks in Bloons much faster than that, so it does have the problem of being "backed up" - which is an intentional nerf to balance it. That said, it is still a decent base tower to have for it's price. Most of its early upgrades are also cheaper than the base cost, and can enhance the tower quite handily.

Also, while it says that the pierce of the suck is only 1, remember that it is almost constantly sucking in Bloons. This in turn means it has an invisible pierce cap of whatever the shred pierce is, which denotes the maximum number of Bloons the Bloonchipper can hold ay once.

Path 1
Path 1 is as offensive as you can get. It's whole point is to make shredding more efficient, thereby defeating the Bloons it sucks in quicker. The first three upgrades are all returning upgrades, as is the Tier-5 upgrade. However, most of them have been reworked for balancing purposes. Faster Shred returns from the old BTD5 Path 2 albeit on a new path, and doubles shredding speed to get around the "backed up" problem. Heavy Duty Suction straight up alleviates the problem of Frozen, Lead and Ceramic Bloons, allowing the tower to damage them. It also comes by default with a benefit of stripping the Fortified status before shredding commences. This doesn't make that big a difference, since the children Bloons can't have the Fortified status anyway; it just makes the shredding process more efficient.

Dual Blade Layers is just a copy paste over from BTD5 and grants +1 damage. Nothing else to say, really.

Diamond Tipped Blades is a unique upgrade created for this path and is designed to counter Ceramic Bloons. Any Ceramic Bloon sucked in will be shredded in the same time as any other Bloon, removing one of the more annoying problems with Bloonchippers in BTD5 which was Ceramic Bloons jamming the tower. As an additional bonus, they also shred Bloons quicker. Diamond Tipped Blades provide +8 damage to Ceramic Bloons; and +20% attack speed.

And that leaves us with the legendary Wide Funneled Chipper. Not only did I manage to bring it back, I managed to find a way to balance it! First of all, let's get the good stuff out of the way... This thing is by default POWERFUL! It deals a stagnant 80 damage across the board, meaning that it can one-shot even Super Ceramics with ease! And this same damage power translates onto MOAB-class Bloons. Any Bloon below a BAD will be sucked into the funnel and take damage constantly until it is shredded. In other words, MOAB-class Bloons eat up the entire pierce cap and are not ejected until that layer is destroyed. And in case it wasn't clear, it deals damage... so if a MOAB that had already taken 50 damage is sucked in by the Wide Funneled Chipper, it only needs to take 150 damage to be shredded. What ISN'T mentioned in the Popology, however, is the main balancing mechanic of this upgrade: upon shredding a MOAB-class Bloon, the tower will be disabled for 0.1 seconds for every 20 damage that it dealt. In other words, the tower needs to take half as long to recover as it did to take a layer off a MOAB-class Bloon. This alone balances the upgrade so that it isn't as broken as it was in BTD5 and BMC. Wide Funneled Chipper deals 80 damage; and can now affect MOAB-class Bloons below a BAD. Tower is deactivated for 0.1 seconds for every 20 damage it deals upon ejecting the children of a MOAB-class Bloon.

Path 2
Path 2 is focused more on sucking efficiency, and by extension Bloonchipper capacity. Bigger Chamber simply increases the capacity of how many Bloons it can take in for shredding purposes, from 20 to 50. Improved Suction is simply a renamed version of Suckier, and makes it suck in Bloons 33% faster.

Upscale is a direct improvement to both of the preceding upgrades while also making the Bloonchipper bigger... and able to drag in an extra Bloon each time. In effect, for a slightly cheaper cost, you have bought yourself a second x/2/x Bloonchipper. Upscale provides +1 suck pierce; +25% suck speed and +50 shred pierce.

Supa-Vac returns...! Sort of. The upgrade name is retained for the Tier-5 upgrade, while the Tier-4 ability is named Bloon-Vac. While nothing is done to the Bloonchipper itself, the ability allows it to draw in ALL non-MOAB-class Bloons that come into range for a short period of time. During the ability uptime, the main engine of the Bloonchipper is disabled, so it won't be doing any damage. The best way of describing this ability is with the meme... YOU SHALL NOT PASS! Bloon-Vac ability draws in Bloons below a MOAB for 8s; 1000 pierce; on cooldown for 30s. Tower is 'disabled' during ability duration.

OK, for real this time... Supa-Vac returns! Super-Vac is simply a stronger version of Bloon-Vac, and now affects MOAB-class Bloons up to a BFB - including DDT's. It also lasts longer and has a higher pierce cap for those more densely packed rounds. Supa-Vac ability draws in Bloons below a ZOMG for 10s; 2000 pierce; on cooldown for 25s. Tower is 'dsiabled' during ability duration.

Path 3
Path 3 is mostly focused on providing support... with one BIG exception! For a start, Long Range Barrel increases the range of the Bloonchipper by +10 units. Disorientation, meanwhile, is a bit more dangerous. Bloons ejected by the tower will move 25% slower for 5 seconds - MOAB-class Bloons will move 10% slower for 2.5 seconds with Path 1 cross-pathing. Not only can this amplify the damage output of the Bloonchipper, it also gives other towers more of a chance to attack.

Paint Stripper gives the Bloonchipper its only method of natural Camo detection, so it cannot be cross-pathed with other Tier-3 upgrades or above. This upgrade removes the Camo and Regrow properties from Bloons it sucks in. It won't be able to affect the Bloons that come with the Fortified property without Heavy Duty Suction, so the ability to strip away such property is pointless on the upgrade. Paint Stripper grants camo detection; removes Camo property; and removes Regrow property.

Triple Barrel returns, now as the Tier-4 Path 3 upgrade. And it has been completely reworked to make better use of its three barrels now. Direct upgrades to the tower itself are none. However, each barrel now behaves as its own independent X/X/3 Bloonchipper, with its own maximum pierce cap, shredding power and suction properties inherited from ALL upgrades purchased on the tower. Effectively speaking, everything about the tower gets tripled. In addition to this, Triple Barrel replaces the usual target priorities with two new ones: 'Divide and Conquer' and 'Zone Defense'. Each priority gives each barrel its own targeting system, enhancing the effectiveness of the tower. Divide and Conquer splits the priorities as First, Close and Last. Zone Defense splits the priorities as Strong, Close, Weak.

Now is where things get interesting... and LETHAL! The Incinerator is a pure offense tower. Any Bloon sucked into this thing CANNOT escape! It will be completely destroyed and spawn no children. It's primary function therefore? Eliminating Super Ceramics in Freeplay mode. It also can now suck in ANY Bloon regardless of cross-pathing and now has extra pierce. And remember: that pierce buff effectively gets tripled, as the buff is applied to all three barrels. The Incinerator no longer ejects Bloons and instead damages them constantly until destroyed; +12 pierce; and gains 'Normal' damage type.

NOTE: As the tower no longer ejects Bloons, all status effects are now void.