Sky Shredder

"The bloons will wish they had never come."

- Official description

Sky Shredder is the final upgrade in Path 1 for the Monkey Ace in Bloons TD 6. It is a much more powerful version of Operation: Dart Storm. It blasts out 32 darts at a time at twice the speed as the previous upgrade. Each dart moves much faster than before and deals 3 damage with 5 pierce (8 pierce with Sharper Darts), and deals +2 damage to Ceramics. Its twin anti-MOAB missiles gained from Fighter Plane deal colossal damage to MOAB-class Bloons, each dealing 150 damage to up to 5 blimps at a time (+2 blimps with Exploding Pineapple), destroying groups of weaker blimps with ease and dealing big damage to stronger blimps. Additionally, all Sky Shredder attacks can damage all bloon types except Camo, including Lead and Black Bloons. Crosspathing with Spy Plane allows it to detect camo and lay waste to any bloon type.

It costs $34,000 on Easy, $40,000 on Medium, $43,200 on Hard, and $48,000 on Impoppable.

However, with Aeronautic Subsidy, It costs $30,600 on Easy, $36,000 on Medium, $38,880 on Hard, and $43,200 on Impoppable.

Appearance
TBA

Summary
The Sky Shredder is highly capable of becoming one of the overall strongest global-ranged towers in the whole game for its price. Even without considerable Monkey Ace micromanagement, the sheer number of darts and missiles ensures that they will both almost never miss bloons and blimps. This allows the Sky Shredder to become an excellent choice on maps that support optimal Monkey Ace flight patterns (such Four Circles, Underground if using Figure-8, or Park Path if using Centered Path). Pairing with Alchemist buffs from Stronger Stimulant is recommended, as it increases the Sky Shredder's damage output by nearly 50%.

Tips

 * When provided camo detection by Radar Scanner or Level 8+ Etienne, it is better to use the 5-0-1 crosspath, as Exploding Pineapple deals very little extra damage compared to extra +3 pierce from Sharper Darts, in addition to the pineapples being extremely unreliable overall. Centered Path is decent, but most of the time it is not needed unless wanting to micro with Centered Path centerpoints.
 * However, if external camo detection cannot be utilized, the 5-2-0 crosspath is still decent. 5-2-0 also comes with additional pierce and blast radius for its missiles, making this crosspath slightly better against denser groups of blimps.
 * Most of the Sky Shredder's popping power comes from puncturing bloons at the center of the map rather than around the center of the map. Unless utilizing the adjustable path centers from Centered Path, Centered Path isn't useful on most maps except a few such as Park Path and Pat's Pond.
 * It may be tempting to use the Wingmonkey MK upgrade if it is unlocked, but in-depth testing shows that Wingmonkey will actually overall decrease damage output of this Ace.
 * The best hero to use with the Sky Shredder is Etienne, as he allows for good midgame saveup, since lategame with Shredder is usually quite easy and there is no need to worry about using a camo village or using the 5-2-0 crosspath.
 * Unlike Apache Prime, Sky Shredder's previous upgrade is a lot cheaper and easier to save up for even when paired with Alchemist. Plus, Etienne helps save money in the mid-game, which allows Sky Shredder to be afforded much earlier before the later stages of late-game approaches. In fact, a 4-0-1 Dart Storm and a 4-2-0 Stronger Stimulant on Hard Mode is exactly $13,100 cheaper than a plain 4-0-2 Apache Dartship on the same mode.

Trivia

 * The artwork for the Sky Shredder implies that all the darts are shot forward, yet in-game they are shot out in a circle formation.
 * This also applies to Operation: Dart Storm.
 * The Sky Shredder flies faster than the other Tier 5 Monkey Aces. This is because of the Fighter Plane's flight speed boost.
 * The Sky Shredder's visual appearance seems to be inspired by the MiG-31 "Firefox", the titular fictional aircraft of the 1982 film starring Clint Eastwood.
 * According to Ninja Kiwi, the canonical reasoning for Sky Shredder's newly received lack of in-built camo detection is because of the Sky Shredder being so "focused" on "making those sick turns" and not observing Camo Bloons, as shown here.
 * The Sky Shredder's upgrade portrait and icon each contain 32 darts.