Sticky Bomb

"Throws powerful timed charges at MOAB-Class Bloons."

- BTD6

Sticky Bomb is the fourth upgrade of Path 3 for the Ninja Monkey in BTD6. It allows the Ninja Monkey to add sticky bombs onto MOAB-Class bloons which explode after 3 seconds, dealing 500 damage to the bloon they are attached to, plus a secondary 100 damage normal-type explosion that hits up to 10 other bloons within a 40 blast radius. Sticky Bombs aim according to the Ninja Monkey's own target settings, though Sticky Bombs will attach to the first MOAB-class bloons hit by them. The range for the sticky bomb attacks is 50% greater than the Ninja Monkey's current range, and they are shot every 5.0s (or every 3.0s with 1-0-4). The Counter-Espionage (0-2-4) crosspath will cause DDTs to lose camo as soon as the Sticky Bomb is attached, the explosion will not remove camo however.

It costs $3,825 on Easy, $4,500 on Medium, $4,860 on Hard, and $5,400 on Impoppable.

Summary
Sticky Bomb is a versatile weapon for the Ninja Monkey, being a high damage projectile that sticks onto any MOAB-Class bloons it hits and goes off on a timer to deal massive damage to said target. While it sounds simple in concept, the execution of the upgrade can be significantly more tricky than expected. The time it requires for the bomb to detonate can lead to several issues if the Ninja is not placed closer to the front as it is to the back of the track, as a normal Ninja being used for Bloon popping power may be, as the less track the bomb has to detonate, the less chance that the resulting Ceramic Bloons or other child bloons will be properly handled.

The sticky bomb itself deals 500 damage upon detonation to its target, making it able to destroy a MOAB upon a successful detonation and cripple slower MOAB-Class bloons, potentially slow enough to have a second bomb applied as well. The secondary sticky bomb explosion can deal some high damage to neighboring bloons close to the exploded sticky bomb, making it easier to destroy groups of nearby higher-HP targets. Sticky Bombs can also be applied to DDTs, though the mechanics of the bomb detonating on a timer and the sheer speed of the DDT make it a difficult choice to justify as a counter-DDT measure.

Unlike the prior upgrade of Flash Bomb, Sticky Bomb serves as a secondary projectile attack separate from the main stream of shurikens and Flash Bombs. This allows the Ninja Monkey to deal consistent damage as well as plop out high burst damage to MOAB-Class bloons, making it a good competitor with the other Ninja Path 1 upgrades in terms of pure offense against both normal bloons and MOAB-Class bloons. Though Path 1 has superior Bloon popping power with Bloonjitsu, Sticky Bomb serves to be the superior MOAB damage source given enough time to work.

Tips

 * It is usually more wise to go for the 1-0-4 Sticky Bomb rather than the 0-2-4 Sticky Bomb, due to the fact that it improves the rate of throwing Sticky Bombs. There is no need for 2-0-4 unless it's for improving the shuriken attack during earlier rounds.
 * 0-2-4 Sticky Bomb might be more useful if utilizing the 0-2-3 Flash Bomb's area-of-effect decamo.
 * Adding many Shinobi Tactics nearby allows the Sticky Bomb's secondary explosion to pop grouped blimps better, especially in the late-game. When used effectively, this can wipe out Super Ceramics decently as a side effect.
 * Note that the Sticky Bomb's secondary sticky bomb explosion cannot hit the same blimp that the sticky bomb projectile was attached to. Therefore, the sticky bomb will always deal 500 damage to single-target blimps.
 * In general, Sticky Bomb is the most efficient way to chip down the health of Boss Bloons, as sticky bombs deal high damage to them at a pretty constant rate while not requiring external buffs to become viable.
 * Sticky Bomb + Blade Maelstorm is an effective countermeasure against Tier 1 Elite Bloonarius. Against normal Bloonarius, however, it is quite risky due to how reliable Sticky Bomb can inflict damage on Bloonarius.
 * Sticky Bomb + MOAB Assassins are an effective countermeasure against Tier 1 Elite Lych and against spawned Lych-Souls. Even just a single Sticky Bomb Ninja is sufficient for normal Lych.

Trivia

 * Although Sticky Bombs cannot be thrown at non-MOAB Class bloons, Bloon Master Alchemist can force a MOAB-Class bloon to become a Red Bloon automatically, allowing a previously attacked Sticky Bomb to be plastered onto the resulting Red Bloon.
 * Before Round 93, a normal ordinary-health DDT can have its DDT layer destroyed by a single Sticky Bomb, ignoring any other damage on the DDT. This is because a DDT on (theoretical) Round 92 has +24% more health than its base 400 health, and a 500 damage Sticky Bomb destroys the DDT into its Camo Regrow Ceramic offspring due to that DDT having 496 health. But a Round 93 DDT will have 504 health, so it would have 4 health remaining after detonation.