Glaive Dominus

"The Bloons will look upon my Glaives, and they will know fear."

- BTD6 description

Glaive Dominus is the Paragon upgrade of the Boomerang Monkey that was added to Bloons TD 6 in the 27.0 update. Combining major features from the Glaive Lord, Perma Charge, and MOAB Domination, the Glaive Dominus throws super-fast, ricocheting glaives that deal massive damage to MOAB class bloons over time. Orbiting the Glaive Dominus are three large glaive rings which spin faster when bloons are nearby. In addition, the Glaive Dominus will periodically throw heavy, knockback glaives at MOAB class bloons which explode upon impact. All of these attacks deal enormous damage to all bloon types (including camo), with bonus damage to Boss Bloons, MOAB class bloons, and Fortified Bloons.

The Glaive Dominus is obtained by having one of each tier 5 boomerang monkey and purchasing the upgrade which subsequently consumes all boomerang monkeys on screen. The "power" or degree of the Glaive Dominus ranges from 1-100 and is determined by total cost, pop count, upgrades, and number of boomerang monkeys sacrificed as explained here. As with all Paragons, the Glaive Dominus cannot receive buffs from any external sources (aside from bloon debuffing status effects such as the "Cripple MOAB" or "Super Brittle" debuff). Additionally, Glaive Dominus is unobtainable in Sandbox Mode but can be created in Challenge Editor.

It costs $340,000 on Easy, $400,000 on Medium, $432,000 on Hard, $480,000 on Impoppable.

Description
The Glaive Dominus is a cloaked, tribal-cybernetic master who wields a powerful arm to rapidly fire ricocheting glaives and knockback Kylie boomerangs. In addition, there are three massive glaive rings orbiting the Glaive Dominus at all time. The hood of the paragon is stitched in deep shades of magenta with frills at the edge of the cloak that resemble a peacock's tail. The orbital glaives, bionic eye and arm all have bright green centers, representing a machine core to the Glaive Dominus. In this way, the Glaive Dominus incorporates the technological, tribal, and spiritual visual elements from all three of its constituent towers. The Glaive Dominus performs a head-roll and looks side to side as part of its idle animations.

Every 20 degrees, the Glaive Dominus gains a more ornate appearance with different hood diamond colors, spikier tails, the tails of the cloak gaining spikes and changing color, the technological eye gaining a flame effect, and horns appearing on the cloak.

Like other paragons, these visual elements are derived from the constituent tier-5 towers, for example: the Glaive Lord's rotating rings, the Perma-Charge's cybernetic enhancements, and the Moab Domination's tribal appearance. Likewise, the name "Glaive Dominus" is formed from the Glaive in "Glaive Lord" and Domination in "MOAB Domination". There is no clear incorporation of the name "Perma-Charge".

Creating the Glaive Dominus
A base Glaive Dominus can be created by having one of each tier 5 Boomerang Monkey on screen, at which point, the upgrade icon for the Glaive Dominus will become available on any of the tier 5 Boomerang Monkeys. Purchasing the upgrade will change the selected Boomerang Monkey into the Glaive Dominus, while sacrificing every other Boomerang Monkey on screen (including those belonging to co-op players). Only one Glaive Dominus may exist at a time.

Degree Requirements and Attack Statistics
''Note: Much of this information relates to complex leveling formulas that were uncovered by reddit user u/epicalex4444. If you simply wish to know the max degree requirements for a Glaive Dominus in single-player, click here. For the maximum degree in co-op click here.''

In addition to cosmetic changes every 20 rounds, increasing degrees will elevate the damage output of the Glaive Dominus. The degree itself is dependent on total pop count, tier 5 upgrades, non-tier 5 upgrades, and the total cost. This is evaluated using "power" which is outlined below:


 * Each tier 5 boomerang monkey will contribute 10,000 power (for a maximum of 90,000 power). Excludes the first three tier-5 boomerang monkeys.
 * Each non tier 5 boomerang monkey upgrade will contribute 100 power (for a maximum of 10,000 power). Excludes the first three tier-5 boomerang monkeys.
 * Every $25 spent on sacrificed boomerang monkeys will contribute 1 power (for a maximum of 10,000 power). Excludes the first three tier-5 boomerang monkeys.
 * Every 180 pops achieved by sacrificed boomerang monkeys will contribute 1 power (for a maximum of 90,000 power).  Includes the first three tier-5 boomerang monkeys.

So, in total, a maximum of 110,000 power is obtainable in single-player and 200,000 power is achievable in co-op.

Now, degree roughly scales with the natural logarithm of power. So, there is no unique set of upgrades, prices, etc. that will place the Glaive Dominus at a certain degree. In addition, the attack speed, pierce, damage, ceramic damage, normal boss damage, and elite boss boss damage each scale differently with the degree. The approximate power levels for the Base, Max Single Player, and Max degrees are listed, alongside the associated damage statistics and some general guidelines on which sacrificial investments to make. A more thorough explanation of each Glaive Dominus degree may be found here.

Degree 1 (Base)

 * 75 Range (constant for all degrees)
 * Same footprint as a boomerang monkey. (same for all degrees)
 * 1 Glaive Lord, 1 Perma Charge, 1 MOAB Domination needed (same for all degrees)

Main Glaive:
 * 75 range
 * Attacks every 0.04s
 * 100 pierce, 20 damage
 * 100 Boss Bloon damage, 120 Elite Boss damage
 * Normal damage type, camo

Glaive Ring:


 * 60 range
 * Damages every 0.1s
 * 1000 pierce, 20 damage
 * 40 ceramic damage, 40 MOAB damage, +2 fortified damage, 200 Boss Bloon damage, 240 Elite Boss damage
 * Normal damage type, camo

Anti-MOAB Glaive:


 * 100 range
 * Attacks every 2.5s
 * 300 pierce
 * 0 damage, 20 MOAB damage, +0 Boss Bloon damage, 40 Elite Boss damage, creates explosion on impact (NOTE: only targets blimps)
 * Normal damage type, camo
 * Explosion - 100 damage, +0 Boss Bloon damage, 120 Elite Boss damage, 20 pierce, normal damage type, camo

Degree 76 (Single Player Max)
Sacrifice Requirements:


 * At least 107,681 Power needed
 * $250,000 in Boomerang Monkeys
 * 100 non-tier 5 upgrades
 * 16,200,000 combined pops achieved
 * Buying 46, 39, 36, or 33 (2-4-0) Turbo Charges on Easy, Medium, Hard, or Impoppable respectively should be able to achieve Degree 76.

Main Glaive:


 * 75 range
 * Attacks roughly every 0.0248s
 * 100 pierce, 42 damage
 * 235.2 Boss Bloon damage, 470.4 Elite Boss damage
 * Normal damage type, camo

Glaive Ring:


 * 60 range
 * Damages roughly every 0.062s
 * 1000 pierce, 42 damage
 * 77 ceramic damage, 77 MOAB damage, +3.5 fortified damage, 571.2 Boss Bloon damage, 1,142.4 Elite Boss damage
 * Normal damage type, camo

Anti-MOAB Glaive:


 * 100 range
 * Attacks roughly every 1.551s
 * 300 pierce, 8.75 damage
 * 42 MOAB damage, 67.2 Boss Bloon damage, 134.4 Elite Boss damage, creates explosion on impact (NOTE: only targets blimps)
 * Normal damage type, camo
 * Explosion - 182 damage, 291.2 Boss Bloon damage, 582.4 Elite Boss damage, 110 pierce, normal damage type, camo

Degree 100 (Max)
Sacrifice Requirements:


 * 200,000 Power needed
 * 12 tier 5 Boomerang Monkeys (only doable in 4 player co-op)
 * $250,000 in Boomerang Monkeys
 * 100 non-tier 5 upgrades
 * 16,200,000 combined pops achieved
 * Having 9 additional tier 5 boomerang monkeys and buying 32 (2-4-0) Turbo Charges with 16,200,000 combined pops across all Boomerang Monkeys should comfortably get Degree 40 on all difficulties.

Main Glaive:


 * 75 range
 * Attacks roughly every 0.0235s
 * 100 pierce, 50 damage
 * 340 Boss Bloon damage, 680 Elite Boss damage
 * Normal damage type, camo

Glaive Ring:


 * 60 range
 * Damages roughly every 0.0587s
 * 1000 pierce, 50 damage
 * 90 ceramic damage, 90 MOAB damage, +4 fortified damage, 820 Boss Bloon damage, 1,640 Elite Boss damage
 * Normal damage type, camo

Anti-MOAB Glaive:


 * 100 range
 * Attacks roughly every 1.467s
 * 300 pierce, 12 damage
 * 50 MOAB damage, 100 Boss Bloon damage, 200 Elite Boss damage, creates explosion on impact (NOTE: only targets blimps)
 * Normal damage type, camo
 * Explosion - 210 damage, 420 Boss Bloon damage, 840 Elite Boss damage, 140 pierce, normal damage type, camo

Troubleshooting
See Paragons:Troubleshooting

Summary
Glaive Dominus combines the attacks of the Glaive Lord, Perma Charge, and MOAB Domination to fire a relentless stream of ricocheting glaives that have high pierce and damage. Alongside the powerful glaive rings and exploding knockback glaives, the Glaive Dominus excels at stalling long waves of MOAB class bloons. However, there are severe limitations to this paragon. The high cost of the base tower along with sacrifices makes the Glaive Dominus difficult to obtain in early and mid-game rounds, even with a robust farming setup. For late-game and freeplay past round 140, the Glaive Dominus is quickly outclassed by cheaper combinations of towers (such as Ultraboost and Flying Fortress) due to not being able to receive buffs. As a result, the main use case for a Glaive Dominus is during Boss Events and Late Game where the tower can provide significant Boss Damage as well as MOAB stalling power.

During Boss Fights, a degree 20 Glaive Dominus, at minimum, should be created to reap the benefits of the first power spike in damage-vs-degree scaling. This will lead to efficient boss damage with respect to the investment cost of creating the Glaive Dominus. Place the Glaive Dominus in centrally located areas to maximize time spent attacking the Boss Bloons.

For general late-game use, the Glaive Dominus should be placed near the exit or entrance to quickly catch any escaping/entering MOAB class bloons like DDTs. A max degree Glaive Dominus can be created by having 16,200,000 pops, $250,000 spent (excluding the three tier-5 boomerang monkeys), 100 tier 1-4 upgrades, and 9 (3 in single player) tier 5 upgrades among the sacrificial boomerang monkeys.

Tips

 * Even though Paragons cannot be buffed directly, it is worth giving Glaive Dominus support with any type of Debuff status effect (e.g. Cripple MOAB, Super Brittle, Glue Storm). Compared to Apex Plasma Master, Glaive Dominus synergizes better with bloon debuffs because of the much greater numbers of attacks per second.
 * Place the Glaive Dominus in track-central regions during Boss Events as this maximizes time spent attacking Boss Bloons. An example of this would be in the upper right loop on the map Resort. Such an optimal placement is to utilize all the Glaive Dominus' three attacks: main hypersonic glaive attack, glaive ring, and anti-blimp glaives. Highest attention should be prioritized for its main hypersonic glaive attack.
 * Placement matters for Glaive Dominus, as it still is affected by Line of Sight restrictions (The Knockback and Orbital Glaive will still attack through obstacles.)
 * Paragons in general can't be sacrificed to a Sun Temple or True Sun God, so they can be placed close together in centrally-located regions.
 * When there is a choice of map, choose tracks like End of the Road, Carved, and Four Circles as these have entrances and exits close to each other, thus maximizing the Dominus' ability to stall entering and exiting bloons.
 * As most the RBE is concentrated towards the latter rounds, it is still possible to get a high total pop count with boomerang monkeys starting from round 98 or later.

Quotes
"Paragon status granted to Dart Monkey and Boomerang Monkey, unleashing the might of the Apex Plasma Master and the Glaive Dominus!"

Trivia

 * It is the first upgrade to have its description be in the first person perspective.
 * The word "Dominus" is Latin for "Lord", which means the Glaive Dominus and Glaive Lord have almost identical names.
 * The name, red robe and cybernetic enhancement may be a reference to the tech priest domini of Warhammer 40,000.