Transforming Tonic

"Transformation ability: Turns Alchemist into powerful [sic] attack Monster for 20 seconds."

- BTD6

Transforming Tonic (generally abbreviated to TT4) is the fourth upgrade of Path 2 for the Alchemist. It grants an ability that transforms the Alchemist into a vicious monster for 20 seconds, temporarily replacing its main attacks with rapidly shooting blue fiery projectiles from its eyes. The super-powered blue plasma lasers are fired at a rate of ~33.3 times per second, deal 2 damage to up to 6 bloons per plasma laser, and can pop any bloon type except Purple Bloons. Unfortunately, similar to all other Alchemists, camo detection is required to allow popping of Camo Bloons. Lasers cannot pass through Line of Sight, even though its other attacks can. Cooldown for Transforming Tonic is 60 seconds (1/3 uptime).

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

Appearance
With this upgrade, the Alchemist changes quite visually. The Alchemist's coat becomes unbuttoned and ripped, the Alchemist places his goggles onto his forehead and a slightly crazed look can be seen in his eyes. However, the purple stain in his hair is removed.

When the ability is active, the Alchemist transforms into a blue-and-magenta monster, who, despite holding up fists in front of it like Ice Shards or later upgrades, fires blue lasers from its eyes.

Summary
Transforming Tonic gives the Alchemist the needed high DPS that it generally lacks, although limited to the ability. Whenever high DPS is necessary, one use of the ability will give it high damage overall, with an equivalent overall popping power of two Plasma Blasts Super Monkeys with double pierce. The overall price of Transforming Tonic is highly expensive, but it's a cheap option when upgrading from an existing Unstable Concoction Alchemist.

Tips

 * Note that once Transforming Tonic ability is activated, the Unstable Concoction bottles and the Alchemist's basic attacks are voided until the ability wears off.
 * Do not use this against Purple Bloons without support.
 * While Transforming Tonic can see over walls, it cannot shoot over walls. Make sure it is targeting a Bloon within line of sight, so you do not waste any attack power.

Sounds
When activating Transforming Tonic Ability:
 * [Transforming]

Trivia

 * The description for Transforming Tonic is erroneously missing the word "a" between "into" and "powerful attack Monster", making the current description of the upgrade grammatically awkward.
 * Some players colloquially name the Transforming Tonic as "Cookie Monster", even though it bears little resemblance to it physically or behaviorally.
 * On 6th July 2021, the 2MPC combo for Transforming Tonic has been achieved on Logs.

Cultural references

 * This upgrade could potentially be a reference to the popular novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, where a chemist by the name of Dr Jekyll brews a concoction that transforms him into a monster (Mr Hyde).
 * The monster design resembles Pop Fizz from the video game Skylanders. Pop Fizz is a gremlin alchemist and is one of many Magic Skylanders.
 * Alchemist's Transformation takes slight resemblance to Dr. Nitrus Brio from Crash Bandicoot where he can also turn into powerful monster.