User:Qwertyxp2000 the second/Spike Factory

"Generates piles of road spikes around the track automatically. Leftover spikes disappear at the end of each round."

- Bloons Tower Defense 4 Description

"Generates piles of road spikes on bits of nearby track. Each pile can pop 5 bloons, and unused spikes disappear at end of each round."

- Bloons Tower Defense 5 Description

"Automatically generates piles of Road Spikes on the nearby track. Excellent last line of defense."

- Bloons Tower Defense 6 Description

The Spike Factory is a tower that makes its first appearance in an update of Bloons TD 4 on September 8, 2011. It makes a return in an update of Bloons TD 5 Flash on the March 13, 2012 update, and later elsewhere in the rest of the BTD5 generation games. It returns once more since the initial release of Bloons TD 6, on June 13, 2018, and is categorized as a Support Monkey.

The main role of the Spike Factory is to produce spike piles across its range to pop bloons. In this way, many of its upgrade serve in primarily cleanup roles. In addition, the Spike Factory can pop camo bloons by default, making it an effective option at countering early-game camo bloons.

The cost of the base Spike Factory varies in many games:
 * BTD4: $595 (Easy), $700 (Medium), $755 on Hard.
 * BTD5 Flash: $640 (Easy), $750 (Medium) or $810 (Hard).
 * BTD5 Mobile: $640 (Easy), $750 (Medium) or $810 (Hard), $900 (Impoppable).
 * BTD6: $680 (Easy), $800 (Medium), $865 (Hard), $960 (Impoppable).

Bloons TD 4
Before being upgraded, the Spike Factory shoots out clumps of five tacks at a rate of one shot nearly every three seconds (per second if fast-forwarded). These clumps always land in corners and disappear at the end of each round. If the Spike Factory is not placed in range of a corner, then the Spike Factory will act as if it is not in range of the track at all, and shoot spikes randomly in all directions. This tower will shoot randomly in its range and will not aim for bloons.


 * Faster Production
 * Description: Makes the factory produce spikes much faster
 * Cost: $595 on Easy, $700 on Medium, and $755 (Hard).
 * Other details: Gains a US Army private symbol. Upgrade costs as much as itself.


 * Bigger Stacks
 * Description: The factory creates double size spike stacks.
 * Cost: $510 on Easy, $600 on Medium, and $650 on Hard.
 * Other details: Gains a US Army corporate symbol. Pierce of each spike is increased from 5 to 10.


 * White Hot Spikes
 * Description: White hot spikes can pop Frozen and Lead Bloons.
 * Cost: $295 on Easy, $350 on Medium and $380 on Hard.
 * Other details: The tower turns purple.


 * Spike Storm
 * Description: Every 15 seconds the factory generates a storm of short-lived spikes, filling up the entire track.
 * Cost: $5950 on Easy, $7000 on Medium and $7560 on Hard.
 * Other details: The tower turns red.



Bloons TD 5
In Bloons TD 5, all upgrades have gained two separate paths of four upgrades. Path 1 refers to the left side of the upgrades, while Path 2 refers to the right side of the upgrades.

The base Spike Factory dispenses spikes every ~2.3s. These spikes will last for up to 70 seconds (20 seconds in BTDB Mobile) and will last until used up or expired. Alongside Ninja Monkey and Dartling Gun, Spike Factory can detect and pop Camo Bloons by default. There is no limit to how many spikes are on screen, but with the lifespan mechanic in place, spikes do not last forever, unlike in BTD4. The presence of many spikes on screen can cause lag, however, regardless of game.

With the correct upgrades, the Spike Factory is a very versatile tower, and it becomes more true in Bloons Monkey City, due to the extra cash provided at the start of each game, accompanied by the Spike Factory's potential to stockpile high-pierce spikes versus the earlier stages of the game. It can be further upgraded to deal even more damage to Ceramics and MOABs through the Spiked Ball Factory and MOAB-SHREDR upgrades, respectively, allowing it to support other towers in later stages of the game. The final two Tier 4 upgrades, Spiked Mines and Spike Storm, all are useful at combatting larger groups of bloons, and can even handle with chipping down MOAB-class bloons decently. Unlike Ninja Monkey or Monkey Buccaneer, it is not dependent on Monkey Intelligence Bureau to pop leads.

Differences between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile
Spike Factory and its upgrades have a slower attack speed.

Spiked Balls pop more bloons (16 → 20).

Spiked Mines have smaller explosions and pops less bloons (20 → 16).

Spike Factory produces one pile of spikes immediately upon placement, instead of delaying for a few seconds.

Spiked Mines do not explode when they disappear after time.

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)
The Spike Factory's been noticeably buffed via game updates in the form of price reductions to its upgrades and itself. Despite this however, it continues to be one of the least used towers in the game along with the Glue Gunner and the Sniper Monkey, due to how heavily it struggles versus grouped bloons. The only loadouts that use the Spike Factory are Engineer Farm Spike Factory, Boomerang Farm Spike Factory, and Tack Farm Spike Factory.

Due to prevention of lagging other players' devices, Ninja Kiwi has nerfed the Spike Factory to produce much less spikes than normal by decreasing its spike pile lifespan dramatically.


 * Initial Release

Spikes have a much shorter lifespan (70 seconds → 20).


 * 3.1

White Hot Spikes price decreased ($900 → $600).

Spiked Ball Factory price decreased ($2400 → $2200).

Spiked Mines price decreased ($14000 → $12000).

Spike piles no longer spawn onto unused track in Defend Mode.
 * 3.4


 * 3.7

Tower price decreased ($750 → $700).

Faster Production price decreased ($800 → $700).

Even Faster Production price decreased ($1250 → $1150).

Tower price decreased ($700 → $600).
 * 4.6

Bigger Stacks price decreased ($700 → $550).

White Hot Spikes price decreased ($600 → $500).

Faster Production price decreased ($700 → $600).

Even Faster Production price decreased ($1150 → $900).

Spiked Mines cost decreased ($12,000 → $10,000)
 * 6.0

Bloons TD 6
Akin to prior installments, the Spike Factory shoots out clumps of five tacks at a rate of one shot in approximately 2.3 seconds (per second if fast-forwarded). Compared to other towers that transitioned from Bloons Tower Defense 5 to Bloons Tower Defense 6, the Spike Factory is one of few that has both its original upgrade lines intact.

Path 1 is primarily based upon making stronger spike piles. Bigger Stacks increases number of spikes per pile from 5 to 10 (or 50 to 70 with Perma-Spike). White Hot Spikes allows popping of any bloon type, including Frozen and Lead, increasing power of spikes further. Spiked Balls (returns from Spiked Ball Factory) replaces usual spikes with spiked balls, dealing even more damage to all bloon types while further increasing pierce, especially versus Ceramics and Fortified. The Spiked Mines upgrade adds powerful explosions into each spiked ball that activate upon depletion. The new Tier 5 upgrade surpassing the upgrade now creates even more powerful mines at a much slower rate, capable of wiping out crowds of stronger bloons with ease.

Path 2 focuses on aggressive production, starting with faster production with its first two upgrades, Faster Production and Even Faster Production, and then leading to MOAB SHREDR (returns from MOAB-SHREDR Spikes) for increased damage to MOAB-class, and its final upgrades Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes increasing the Spike Factory's potential for widespread area damage. The Carpet of Spikes upgrade bases upon the old Spike Storm upgrade from BTD4 by making each spike storm automatic while dealing even more damage overall.

The new Path 3 is a more tactile one, providing a variety of utilities that improve spikes overall. This includes providing increased area of coverage to a targeting priority to spikes that last longer before timing out and even pass over to the next round. Long Reach increases the range of the Spike Factory and increases lifespan of spikes. Smart Spikes (formerly named Directed Spikes) adds target priorities to the Spike Factory, increasing its reliability on multi-lane maps, and adds a brief but quick boost of attack speed whenever a round begins. Long Life Spikes takes the long lifespan spike further by allowing spikes to carry over rounds and last even longer on the track. Deadly Spikes increases the round lifespan further and deals extra damage. Perma-Spike takes the spike longevity concept even further by manufacturing high-damage spikes with very long lifespan but at a much decreased production speed.

Similar to BTD5, spikes by default last for 1 round or 70 seconds, whichever comes first. These spikes will last even longer with Long Reach, Long Life Spikes, Deadly Spikes, and Perma-Spike upgrades. With Long Life Spikes, each spike pile will last for 2 rounds or 150 seconds, whichever comes first. Deadly Spikes increases the spike pile duration to 3 rounds or 150 seconds, whichever comes first. For Perma-Spike, each spike pile will last for 3 rounds or 300 seconds, whichever comes first.

Spike Factory is classed as a Support Monkey. 

Path 1


Path 2


Path 3
  * Smart Spikes upgrade was renamed from "Directed Spikes" in v14.0

Version History (BTD6)

 * Initial release (compared to BTD5)
 * Bigger Stacks costs less ($700 --> $650)
 * White Hot Spikes costs less ($900 --> $800)
 * Spiked Mines no longer has increased attack speed.
 * Faster Production costs less ($800 --> $700)
 * Even Faster Production costs less ($1250 --> $900)
 * MOAB SHREDR (old MOAB-SHREDR Spikes) no longer has increased attack speed.
 * Spike Storm costs less ($6500 --> $6000)
 * Spike Storm now has an initial cooldown before initial use.
 * Spike Factory will not dispense spikes if not in range of any track, rather than dispense spikes randomly around itself. Nerf due to MOAB-Class Bloons large hitbox.


 * 2.0
 * Permaspike price increased ($22k --> $25k)
 * Permaspike produces spikes 66% slower than normal.


 * 3.0
 * Apopalpyse Mode will no longer remove Spike Factory spikes until the time limit is reached.
 * Spike Factory spikes will fade away as their lifespan ends rather than disappearing out of existence.
 * Spike Factories can no longer throw spikes further outside of the track than the actual bloon exit point is.


 * 6.0
 * Super Mines attack speed increased by 20%


 * 7.0
 * Spiked Balls price reduced ($2400 → $2200)
 * Spiked Mines price reduced ($14,000 → $12,000)
 * Super Mines can now pop all bloon types
 * Super Mines pierce increased (40 → 60)
 * MOAB SHREDR price reduced ($3000 → $2500)
 * Spike Storm price reduced ($6000 → $5000)
 * Carpet of Spikes price reduced ($50,000 → $42,000)
 * Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes abilities now deals +1 damage to MOAB-class (as intended)
 * Carpet of Spikes +1 damage to all attacks is now applying correctly to the ability and periodic storm for a total of 2 damage to regular bloons and 5 damage to MOABs


 * 8.0
 * Spiked Balls now deals more damage to Ceramics (3 --> 4; essentially +3 damage compared to against normal bloons)
 * Spiked Mines explosion damage increased (4 --> 5)
 * MOAB SHREDR damage to MOAB-class increased (4 --> 5)
 * Carpet of Spikes damage to MOAB-class increased (5 --> 6)
 * Permaspike with Bigger Stacks now has larger stacks (60 --> 70; effectively now up to 800 damage per spike pile for Permaspike with Bigger Stacks)


 * 10.0
 * Super Mines base spike damage increased (1 --> 10)


 * 11.0
 * Super Mines attack speed increased by 20%
 * Spike Storm ability now (correctly) has +1 MOAB-class damage from an earlier MOAB-SHREDR blimp damage buff


 * 12.0
 * Spiked Mines explosion damage increased from 5 to 10
 * Super Mines explosion damage increased from 350 to 1000
 * Perma-Spike duration decreased from 350s-> 300s
 * Perma-Spike price increased from 25k to 30k
 * Perma Spike max rounds reduced from 4 -> 3


 * 14.0
 * "Directed Spikes" renamed to "Smart Spikes"
 * Smart Spikes attack rate increased by x4 for the first 2.5 seconds of each round


 * 19.0
 * 3xx Spiked Balls damage increased from 1 to 2


 * 20.0
 * 5xx Super Mines Price reduced from $175,000 from $162,500
 * x5x Carpet of Spikes now correctly gains +2 damage to all, not just 1


 * 21.0
 * 4xx Spiked Mines blast radius increased from 15 to 19
 * xx1 Long Reach lifespan increased from 70 to 100
 * 041 Spike Storm lifespan will increase by 50% with this change
 * xx4 Deadly Spikes last for 1 more round before expiring
 * Bottom Path upgrade changes do not affect Long Life Spikes or Perma-Spike.
 * x5x Carpet of Spikes passive cooldown reduced from 20s to 15
 * Descriptions changed.
 * xx1 Long Range description changed from "Increases range over which spikes can be deposited." to "Increases range for spike pile drops, plus piles last longer." to reflect buffs.
 * xx4 Deadly Spikes description changed from "Extra deadly spikes can pop through 2 layers per spike." to "Extra deadly spikes can pop through 2 layers per spike and last another round."​​​ to reflect buffs
 * ​xx5 Perma-Spike description changed from "Spikes become almost permanent." to "High damage spikes become almost permanent."
 * All of the description changes were not directly documented in the Patch Notes.

Trivia

 * In BTD4, sometimes the Spike Storm will only cover 1/4-1/2 of the track, while in BTD5, it covers the whole track, but the spikes disappear faster than in BTD4.
 * However, there was originally a bug where the Spike Storm ability only placed spikes in the Spike Factory's range.
 * The spikes created by the Spike Factory will not be placed on the track if the Spike Factory placed far enough from the track. However, in BTD5 the spikes still have an effect if bloons hit it when being blown back by upgrades such as Distraction.
 * Some players tend to call this tower the "Spactory", which is an abbreviated and shortened version of "Spike Factory".

Specific to BTD4

 * This tower has the same colors as the Dartling Gun in BTD4. Both start out green/yellow at levels 1-3, blue/purple at level 4 and red at level 5.
 * There is no hotkey for the Spike Factory in BTD4.
 * In BTD4, each pile (without upgrades) appears to have 6 spikes, but it will pop only 5 bloons.
 * In BTD4 iOS, there is a glitch that the Spike Factory can produce bigger stacks even without any upgrades.
 * In BTD4 Expansion, the Spike Factory's logo in the shop is a Dart Monkey along with the Dartling Gun.
 * In BTD4, Spike Factories may not place spikes in the track if placed too close to the Bloons' path.

Specific to BTD5

 * It is possible to beat the entire game with only this tower because it can pop Camo Bloons, and with White Hot Spikes, Lead Bloons.
 * This can be made even easier on the mobile version with the maxed specialty building.
 * In BTD5, the player only needs 2 of these to beat Monkey Lane on Easy (even without selling them or using Road Spikes), and having both of them be 4/1 or 4/2 or with Tack Awesomizer is optional.
 * In Bloons TD Battles, after the release of Bloontonium Mine, the Spike Factory was nerfed to fire half as fast compared to BTD5 and BMC with the spikes popping twice as many bloons as before.
 * In BTD5, there is a glitch where when you buy Even Faster Production, it doesn't load the upgraded look unless it is under the range of a monkey village.
 * In BTD5 (not Mobile), the piles with the Bigger Stacks upgrade won't pop the same amount as regular Road Spikes (10 and 11 Bloons respectively).
 * On certain maps where the exit is parallel to the start, spikes that are placed at the exit will only pop MOAB class bloons because of their size. This is a great way to pop the MOAB layer, especially in Bloons Monkey City where many maps are like this.
 * A 2-2 Spike Factory in earlier versions of BTD5 Flash used to look the same as an 1/1 one if upgraded to 1/1, then both tier 2 upgrades were bought. This could be solved by placing a village near the Spike Factory.
 * The Spike Factory is the only tower other than the Boomerang Thrower that has different price in BMC than in BTD5. In BTD5 Mobile however, Boomerang Throwers cost $400.
 * In Bloons TD Battles, Spiked Mines were a great way to freeze the opponent's computer, when spammed, due to the extreme amount of explosions.
 * Upgrading a Spike Factory in both paths gives it a unique appearance, somewhat blending the colors of both upgrades.
 * Upgrading a Spike Factory from 4/0 to 4/2 will turn it orange instead of the usual red, and upgrading a Spike Factory from 0/4 to 2/4 will turn it green instead of the usual blue.Purplespactories.pngDifferentColoredSpactories.png
 * In Bloons Monkey City, the claim of the strength that it "never misses" is not entirely true, because if a Pink Bloon zooms fast enough past the Spike Factory, it cannot spew out the piles fast enough to catch it, unless it is placed far enough from the entrance.
 * In Bloons Monkey City, the range of the Spike Factory is the range it had when placed. This means that when you place a Spike Factory and then a Monkey Village upgraded 1/0, it will only produce spikes inside the original range. If you place the Monkey Village first, the range will be increased.
 * In BMC, 3 4/2 Spike Factories can beat any tiles with only one ending.
 * After a round in BMC, its spikes will disappear, with the exception of an MvM attack, where they will only disappear if they stay too long on the track or are used up.

Specific to BTD6

 * The Spike Factory can have problems with extremely fast bloons such as freeplay DDT's in BTD6 (about Round 200+). If Bloons go fast enough it is possible for them to pass over the spikes but not register hitting them causing the bloons to take no damage.
 * In BTD6, the Spike Factory spikes in Apopalypse automatically disappeared once a round ends, which rendered the Spike Factory much less powerful due to disappearing at the wrong time. This has been fixed, changing the spikes to last between rounds, like in BTD5.