Total Transformation

"Transforms five Monkeys nearby into crazy attack monsters for 20 seconds."

- BTD6 upgrade description

Total Transformation (generally shortened to TT5) is the final upgrade of Path 2 for the Alchemist. It allows the ability to affect an additional 5 other monkey-based towers into vicious attack monsters that deal massive damage, but cannot pop Purple Bloons. Additionally, the ability no longer undergoes an initial cooldown prior to initial use upon upgrading. The ability lasts 20 seconds with a cooldown of 40 seconds. Additionally, there is no initial cooldown for it.

It costs $38,250 on Easy, $45,000 on Medium, $48,600 on Hard and $54,000 on Impoppable.

Appearance
When this upgrade is purchased, the Alchemist undergoes a large visual change. The Alchemist is permanently transformed into a monster (note that this change is purely visual and the Alchemist will not attack like when its ability is in use) and the Alchemist's coat is further ripped, removing the sleeves. When the ability is activated, both the goggles and the coat are removed.

Monster Potency
Only monkey-based towers may be affected by Total Transformation, up to Tier-3. The towers completely unaffected by Total Transformation are:
 * Tack Shooter
 * Bomb Shooter
 * Monkey Sub
 * Monkey Buccaneer
 * Monkey Ace
 * Heli Pilot
 * Mortar Monkey
 * Dartling Gunner
 * Spike Factory
 * Banana Farm
 * Monkey Village
 * All heroes
 * All sub-towers
 * All placeable powers
 * Cave Monkey

The monsterized versions of the towers do not inherit extra range; instead, they will have a fixed amount of large but limited range. Affected towers cannot inherit the power to pop Purples, regardless of whether they can originally pop Purples or not. Affected towers also do not inherit camo detection from the original towers, and require external camo detection such as from Radar Scanner in order to pop camo bloons. Unlike Total Transformation itself transformed towers can't shoot through walls and also don't inherit such ability from the original tower. Most external buffs, including tower-exclusive buffs (i.e. only applies to Shinobi Tactics, Poplust, Elite Sniper, and an active Absolute Zero ability), can stack on top of the transformed monster stats, with exception of Super Monkey Fan Club and Plasma Monkey Fan Club. Any towers that are affected cannot be upgraded until the ability ends.

Summary
Total Transformation is expensive but highly effective in combination with particular towers. Because Druids of Wrath and Shinobi Tactics can stack their respective tower-exclusive buffs, transformations of either of these towers will become extremely powerful. Certain towers should be well away from the Total Transformation so as to not interfere with optimal transformation strategies, specifically MOAB Glue and Tier 3 Super Monkeys.

Tips

 * Crosspathing does not matter much for Total Transformation, as its ability is unaffected by crosspaths. However, for its other attacks, specifically the Unstable Concoction attack, crosspath with Path 1 for the higher splash radius and popping power.
 * Pair it with transformed Druid of Wraths supported by Poplusts, as the attack speed bonuses provided by the Druid of Wrath and Poplust effects stack with the attack monster forms.
 * Each transformed Druids of Wrath supported by Poplust attack 3.5x faster at maximum and gain up to +75% pierce.
 * Total Transformation can also be paired with transformed Shinobi Tactics, as the attack speed and pierce bonuses granted by other Shinobis can stack with the attack monster forms.
 * However, the transformed Shinobi Tactics will no longer give the buff to other towers while transformed, which means that 25 Shinobi Tactics are required for full power of the combo.
 * Make sure no MOAB Glue or Tier 3 Super Monkeys are nearby the Total Transformation, because otherwise it will transform those towers instead of the more desired tower(s).
 * If impossible to let the MOAB Glue go away from the Total Transformation, it's entirely possible to just upgrade it to Relentless Glue, but that usually isn't worth the purchase.
 * Note that like PMFC, the transformation has infinite range, which could help with controlling what towers get transformed.
 * One 0-5-0 Total Transformation costs roughly $58,080 on Hard Mode, which is worth noting in case budgeting on CHIMPS Mode is important to have.
 * Compared to Plasma Monkey Fan Club, another transforming ability, Total Transformation:
 * Affects less towers.
 * Works on more types of towers.
 * Has more synergies with Druids of Wrath and Shinobi Tactics.
 * Has a shorter cooldown with more uptime, and a longer ability duration.
 * Does not come with an initial cooldown.

Sounds
When activating Total Transformation Ability:
 * [Transforming]

Trivia

 * Prior to version 11.0, the Total Transformation ability could be overridden by other transformation abilities such as SMFC and PMFC; it was useful to use them outside of each other.
 * It was possible to transform PMFC Plasma Monkeys to make incredibly powerful monsters that destroy bloons. This was due to the fact that the game believed that they are both Alchemist Monsters and Plasma Monkeys multiplying fire rate of the Alchemist Monster and the Plasma Monkeys while also having the damage of the Alchemist Monster AND Plasma Monkey at the same time. This combo also worked with virtually anymore buff in the game.
 * It had been confirmed by Ninja Kiwi that this was a bug but later deemed to be intended. In version 11.0 the Alchemist Monster no longer stack with other buffs, removing the combo. However, the combo with Super Monkey Fan Club still worked until version 12.0.
 * A transformed attack monster always has the footprint of an Alchemist.
 * This means that a transformed Super Monkey can fit on a Carrier Flagship if a Support Chinook moves it on, and the Super Monkey will stay on the Flagship even when the ability wears off. This has been patched in version 3.0.
 * After Version 8.0, when all farming-only abilities (including Tier 5 upgrades in this case) are required to undergo a full initial cooldown duration, the Total Transformation ability is one of four abilities that, when bought, has the cooldown up immediately. The others are Pirate Lord, MOAB Eliminator, and Absolute Zero.
 * However, Total Transformation is the only tower upgrade to do so regardless of whether the prior Tier 4 ability was in cooldown or not.
 * On the Version 22.0, Ninja Kiwi considers Total Transformation has received "some use" by players, likely because they have seen how well Total Transformation + Druids of Wrath or Total Transformation + Shinobi Tactics strategies were utilized on CHIMPS.