Crosspathing/Dartling Gunner

In Bloons TD 6, it is important to choose the best crosspathing for a specific tower in order to receive the best benefits out of that tower type. Towers have special roles to play for each stage of the game. The Dartling Gunner in its core is to provide a constant stream of damage.

Introduction
Dartling Gunners shoot continuously in a straight line rather inaccurately. It initially has 1 pierce and struggles with even basic grouped greens. However, the darts have infinite range, besides third path and shoots rather fast, even without upgrades. Just like Dart Monkey, each path is about optimizing one or two specific aspects. Path 1 is all about powerful damage-over-time effects and pierce. Path 2 is all about combining bloons specialization (it can pop all types of bloons) with damage. Path 3 is mix between the other paths, mixing damage with Pierce. Crosspaths play a role into Dartling Monkeys, as all of the upgrades change the way the Dartling Gunner shoots its projectiles.

Tier 2 and below



 * 0-0-0: The non-crosspathed Dartling Gunner is mainly to catch spaced bloons from a long distance. However, a non-crosspathed Dartling Gunner is still very weak. You should crosspath with Dartling Gunner at all times since a 0-0-0 Dartling Gunner can't even handle grouped green despite have good attack speed.
 * 1-0-0: This increases the accuracy of the darts the Dartling Gunner shoots, enabling the Dartling Gunner to shoot at bloons that are farther away more accurately.
 * 0-1-0: This allows the Dartling Gunner to hit camo bloons.
 * 0-0-1: This increases the turn speed of the Dartling Gunner which could make a difference at catching bloons that are about to reach the exit.
 * 1-1-0: Combines the increased accuracy with the ability to pop camo bloons.
 * 1-0-1: Combines the increased accuracy with the ability to turn faster.
 * 0-1-1: Combines the ability to hit camo bloons with the ability to turn faster.
 * 2-0-0: Bloons hit by this crosspath will have a damage-over-time effect for 1 second, dealing one damage.
 * 0-2-0: Increases the attack speed of the Dartling Gunner.
 * 0-0-2: Increases the pierce to 3. Combined with the already fast attack speed of the Dartling Gunner, it can effectively handle group bloons much better.
 * 2-1-0: It is basically a Laser Shock Dartling that can hit Camos.
 * 2-2-0: Combines the damage-over-time effect with the increased attack speed and camo detection.
 * 1-2-0: Combines increased attack speed with high accuracy.
 * 0-2-1: See 0-2-2
 * 1-0-2: 2-0-2
 * 2-0-2: Combines the damager over-time effect with the increased pierce and turn speed. This actually is the best early-game option for Dartling Gunner if the player only plans on using the Dartling Gunner that way. However, if the player decides to use Dartling Gunner as a late game option, then both Path 1 and 3 would benefit the most using Path 2.
 * 0-1-2: Basically a Powerful Darts Dartling with camo detection. It is worth going for 0-2-2 for better attack speed, though 0-1-2 is useful if needing early grouped popping and early camo detection.
 * 0-2-2: Combines the camo detection and faster firing rate with the faster turning speed and increased pierce.

Laser Cannon



 * 3-0-0: Laser Cannon makes the Dartling Gunner produce lasers with 4 pierce by default at the same rapid-fire rate, as well as improves the Laser Shock effect slightly. Crosspath with 3-2-0 is the best recommendation, as this provides both camo detection and faster firing rate, maximizing DPS and countering Camo Bloons.
 * 3-1-0: Gives the Laser Cannon with camo detection, which helps it to counter Camo Bloons.
 * 3-2-0: Laser Cannon with this upgrade will have camo detection, thanks to the Advanced Targeting upgrade, and it deals much more overall DPS.
 * 3-0-1: It is wasteful to simply want faster rotation speed of the Dartling Gunner's turning rate, as the 3-2-0 crosspath's faster attack speed makes up for the slow rotation speed. The 3-0-1 Laser Cannon's further upgrade, 4-0-1 Plasma Accelerator, is also not worth it because the 4-0-1 Plasma Accelerator's powerful beam already compensates a Plasma Accelerator's slow turning speed, and the attack speed via 4-2-0 Plasma Accelerator is far better. If planning to go late-game, do not choose this, as camo detection and faster firing provided benefits that Plasma Accelerator needs more than just faster turning speed.
 * 3-0-2: This Dartling Gunner has 6 pierce instead of 4, for only +50% pierce. It is normally not worth unless the player must use a 2-0-2 Dartling to survive earlier rounds. The 3-0-2 Laser Cannon is wasteful if planning to further upgrade to 4-0-2, as the pierce for Plasma Accelerator jumps up very significantly to the point in which the extra pierce that comes with powerful darts is redundant.

Plasma Accelerator



 * 4-0-0: Instead of inaccurate lasers, Plasma Accelerator offers maximum accuracy, high pierce, and offers high damage when not reaching its pierce cap. Crosspathing optimizes its damage potential.
 * 4-1-0: Gives the Plasma Accelerator with camo detection, which helps it to counter Camo Bloons.
 * 4-2-0: Not only does it pop camo bloons by default, thanks to the Faster Barrel Spin upgrade (which has camo detection via Advanced Targeting), it deals much more overall DPS. The extra attack speed refreshes each tick of damage faster, allowing it to activate its damage quicker.
 * 4-0-1: Spins faster, but the micromanagement ease for a Plasma Accelerator rarely matters in most occasions, especially because adding Faster Swivel wastes potential for faster internal attack speed.
 * 4-0-2: Doesn't provide faster projectile speed due to the instantaneousness of the laser beam attack, but this crosspath does provide roughly +50% more pierce for the Plasma Accelerator, 75 instead of 50. However, this benefit usually doesn't matter more than the +50% faster attack speed from the 4-2-0 crosspath. Camo detection is also required for this crosspath.

Ray of Doom



 * 5-0-0: Ray of Doom is a powerful ray of deathly rays. When it comes to cases where a 5-0-0 itself is better to start off, only start with 5-0-0 just to start with Ray of Doom on the get-go. If saving for a Ray of Doom in a real game, start off with 4-2-0 Plasma Accelerator to do the saveup for the later Ray of Doom. This will save a long way, and a big difference for sure.
 * 5-1-0: Helps hitting with Camo Bloons and affecting invisible DDTs. Ray of Doom can pop any bloon type, so there is no need to worry about Camo Purples. That being said, get 5-2-0 for the better DPS.
 * 5-2-0: Generally the better crosspath due to gaining an enormous amount of DPS bonus from the +50% attack speed increase.
 * 5-0-1: Spinning faster is helpful, but the faster attack speed via 5-2-0 is far more important and valuable in the long-run.
 * 5-0-2: This crosspath is effectively useless due to the fact that the pierce upgrade only adds +25 pierce to an already 1000 pierce attack.

Hydra Rocket Pods



 * 0-3-0: Hydra Rocket Pods offers the cheapest lead-popping via a Dartling Gunner. Crosspathing isn't too important, but is helpful for making the most of the Hydra Rocket Pods' multi-explosive attacks.
 * 1-3-0: Increases accuracy so that its multi-explosive shots can more reliably align along straightaways, optimizing its pierce potential.
 * 2-3-0: Laser Shock doesn't apply to explosions, so it is often redundant to add Laser Shock unless on single-target bloons.
 * 0-3-1: Increases turning speed so that Hydra Rocket Pods can hit multiple straightaways quicker when chasing bloons. Mostly a stepping stone to 0-3-2.
 * 0-3-2: Increases pierce potential for its explosion. Where there are bloons everywhere on screen, 0-3-2 is the best option for Dartling Gunner's pierce potential, alongside 0-4-2.

Rocket Storm



 * 0-4-0: For only an extra $5510 on Hard, the Rocket Storm ability packs a punch against rushes and lower-level MOAB-Class Bloons alike. This strength is especially amplified with the Gorgon Storm knowledge point, which grants it the ability to stun bloons and blimps hit by the storm. Crosspathing is useful for this upgrade but not essential.
 * 1-4-0: Generally the best crosspath in many situations, as this thins out the Rocket Storm ability to become more concentrated on strong targets and allows the Rocket Storm to be effective at long range.
 * 2-4-0: Like Hydra Rocket Pods, Laser Shock does almost no use for Rocket Storm, as only the main rocket hits apply Laser Shock effect, and not any explosions apply that status effect. Sauda can trigger her bonus damage when a bloon is affected by Laser Shock, a valid status effect according to Sauda, so this crosspath isn't all that redundant.
 * 0-4-1: Not very helpful, due to the already-large spread of the rocket storm.
 * 0-4-2: Increases the amount of explosions from the rocket pods and the pierce of all explosions. However, due to the ability's large default spread, many of the higher-pierce ability explosions will miss. This crosspath is mostly used for Race Events, as pierce matters significantly, if not paramount, in those situations.

M.A.D



 * 0-5-0: With the amount of money spent into a MAD, it is most often advised to crosspath it, although crosspaths don't affect it too much, they can be very useful. Note that the MAD attacks slower than most Dartling Gunner upgrades and has a significant accuracy loss.
 * 1-5-0: Best crosspath, thins out MAD storm to make it more concentrated on strong targets and allows MAD to be effective at long range.
 * 2-5-0: Adding Laser Shock is useless in almost every possible scenario, as the only real benefits are giving a DOT effect so Sauda can do more damage to affected bloons and increasing MAD's horrible bloon defense by just a little bit.
 * 0-5-1: Fast swivel speed on a MAD can be good, but it attacks slowly and so the fast swivel cannot be used as effectively as a fast firing Dartling to catch leaks.
 * 0-5-2: Not very effective, as MAD's pierce is already high and increasing the amount of M.O.A.B.s it can obliterate is redundant when accuracy would be better for the ability.

Buckshot



 * 0-0-3: Buckshot exchanges rapid-fire darts with slow-shooting bursts of buckshot, 6 buckshots per shot. Each buckshot deals 4 damage and applies knockback onto non-blimp bloons. Accuracy per buckshot decreases by a large amount too. Adding a crosspath is very recommended, as this can amend its statistical penalties, that being the Buckshot's much slower attack speed and worse accuracy.
 * 1-0-3: Buckshots become much more accurate, focusing each shot into roughly one area. If comfortable with its slow attack speed, this upgrade can be more worthy, but since Buckshot attack rate is quite low for an aim-based tower it may benefit more from the attack speed crosspath. Buckshots can travel further too because they receive extra lifespan from this crosspath.
 * 2-0-3: Buckshots can apply Laser Shock, but the statistical bonus compared to not having this upgrade is low, for only +1 damage. Buckshots already deal quite a lot of damage anyway, so adding Laser Shock to each buckshot is generally not going to do much extra damage.
 * 0-1-3: Simply put, this gives the Buckshot camo detection. This particular crosspath is normally dedicated as a stepping stone to 0-2-3 for the attack speed.
 * 0-2-3: Increases attack speed considerably, from per 1.8s to per 1.2s. It is still slow, but its shots are more consistent, making micromanagement far easier to deal with. Plus, this crosspath's DPS is much higher.

Bloon Area Denial System



 * 0-0-4: Attacks 4x faster, alternating between four barrels. In terms of crosspathing value, damage per second and knockback versus Ceramics and below becomes more consistent even without crosspaths. Therefore, either crosspath can make do without needing to lose opportunity to benefit off the other.
 * 1-0-4: Shots become more consistent, and because BADS attacks decently fast it still has time to attack focused shots at incoming waves of bloons reliably. Buckshots can travel further too because they receive extra lifespan from this crosspath.
 * 2-0-4: As long as the same target is hit consecutively, uptime for the Laser Shock effect is above 100%. However, the +1 damage per buckshot means little compared to the speed from middle path.
 * 0-1-4: Adds important camo detection for hitting various targets except Leads and DDTs.
 * 0-2-4: Better crosspath as it adds 50% firing speed.

Bloon Exclusion Zone



 * 0-0-5: Gains 2 more barrels, gaining +50% attack speed, along with much more and stronger buckshots that deal more damage and pierce. Crosspathing is even more important for Bloon Exclusion Zone. While its attack speed is quite consistent overall, it would normally benefit far more from the Path 2 upgrades instead of Path 1.
 * 1-0-5: Similarly to BADS, except that it already attacks very quickly at base, utilizing the accuracy and higher range from this crosspath but missing the middle path benefits.
 * 2-0-5: As long as the same target is hit consecutively, uptime for the Laser Shock effect is above 100%. However, the +1 damage per buckshot means little compared to the speed from middle path, and while BEZ does shoot more projectiles per shot, each projectile already does a lot more damage anyway that the +1 damage is inferior to the middle path's attack speed benefit.
 * 0-1-5: Adds important camo detection for hitting various targets except Leads and DDTs.
 * 0-2-5: Better crosspath as it adds 50% firing speed.