Cannon Ship (BTD6)

"Adds a powerful cannon that shoots out powerful bombs."

- In-game descripton

Cannon Ship is the third upgrade of Path 2 for the Monkey Buccaneer in Bloons TD 6. It is a returning upgrade from BTD5. Alongside burning grapes (from the Hot Shot upgrade), it adds powerful independent cannonball attack that shoots exploding frag bombs, producing 8 frags per explosion once detonated. Explosions deal one damage and pop up to 28 bloons per shot within a blast radius of 40. Fragments deal 1 damage each, and they pop up to 1 bloon each. Unlike BTD5, the Cannon Ship does not have automatic camo detection because Crow's Nest is now a Path 3 upgrade. Like all Buccaneer upgrades, the ship can shoot cannonballs both forwards and backwards if it detects bloons behind it.

It costs $765 on Easy, $900 on Medium, $970 on Hard, and $1,080 on Impoppable.

Description
Cannon Ship upgrades the ship by adding a mast and sail, modifying its bow into a pointy shape, and adding a raised quarter deck. The monkey now gains an eyepatch on its left eye and a pirate hook on its right hand, in addition to having its usual pirate hat. Inside the ship's deck is a load of cannonballs.

The artwork is slightly erroneous. The Buccaneer in the artwork has its hook on its left arm instead of its right. The monkey's eyepatch covers its right eye instead of its left eye as it does in-game.

Summary
Cannon Ship is a low-price upgrade for the Monkey Buccaneer designed primarily for adding extra grouped bloon popping power. It is normally bought as a stepping stone towards Monkey Pirates, but it has one specific niche in Race Events in the form of a 2-3-0 ship for more popping power from a 0-1-0 Buccaneer.

Tips

 * Unless Camo Bloons are an issue, use the 2-3-0 crosspath over 0-3-2 upgrade for double darts and grapes and faster cannon attacks.
 * Admittedly, a 0-3-2 Cannon Ship can work greatly in Alternate Bloons Rounds, thanks to Long Range buffing the grape pierce and providing reliable early game camo. It can also be later upgraded to 0-4-2 to trivialize Round 40 and 60 + generally decrease the amount of fortified BFBs.
 * Although Hot Shot already provides lead-popping power for the Buccaneer, the Cannon Ship upgrade can be used to provide extra popping power versus grouped bloons. Upgrade to Monkey Pirates for even more grouped popping power.
 * For better performance, place the Cannon Ship such that it is able to shoot from both sides.

Trivia

 * One 0-3-0 Cannon Ship costs exactly the same amount as the equivalent non-crosspathed Cannon Ship in BTD5 Flash. This is because the Grape Shot upgrade costs $50 more in BTD6, the Hot Shot upgrade replacing the upgrade where Crow's Nest was costs $250 more, but the Cannon Ship upgrade itself costs $300 less than in BTD5.
 * Cannon Ship is the only Path 2 Buccaneer upgrade where upgrading it along Path 1 also changes the color of the rims of its cannon barrels. This is likely an unintentional change, as the color of them are supposed to be for Long Range instead.