Laser Shock

"Laser tipped shots shock bloons into popping again 1 second after being struck."

- In-game description

 is the second upgrade for Path 1 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD 6. This upgrade adds an electric shock effect to the Dartling Gunner's projectiles, causing them to deal an additional 1 damage to Bloons 1 second after they have been hit. In addition, bloons affected by the laser shock status effect will be dealt +1 damage from any Dartling Gunner with this upgrade. When interacting with Hydra Rocket Pods projectiles, the Laser Shock status effect only applies to the initial hit and not its explosions.

It costs $765 on Easy, $900 on Medium, $970 on Hard and $1,080 on Impoppable.

Summary
Laser Shock's unmentioned effect means it serves as an effective +1 damage for most Dartling Guns. However, do note that Laser Shock does not apply this effect to the Hydra Rocket Pods' explosions. With the Laser Shock upgrade, the Dartling Gunner becomes effective at dealing extra damage versus single-target bloons.

Tips

 * If using this upgrade early on, it is best to buy Powerful Darts to crosspath. It also comes with the added bonus of being able to have Focused Firing. However, this path would lack camo detection.
 * Do note that the Faster Barrel Spin is better for Laser Cannon in general, but Powerful Darts is stronger in the save up to Laser Cannon.
 * This upgrade is usually the worse crosspath for Hydra Rocket Pods because only initial hit applies the effect. The created explosions do not apply the Laser Shock effects.
 * For Buckshot and its upgrades, Laser Shock does not lag far behind because of its predecessor Focused Firing, but they still generally appreciate Advanced Targeting and Faster Barrel Spin as it has more potential DPS increase and consistency with its slow attacks.
 * Versus singular MOABs, such as on Round 40, 2-2-0 Dartling takes down the MOAB layer faster but struggles versus the bloons underneath due to insufficient pierce. 2-0-2 Dartling takes down the MOAB layer slower than 2-2-0, but it can almost fully solo the bloons underneath on Monkey Meadow. Other lower-tier Dartling Gunners cannot even take down the MOAB soon enough to take time to destroy the bloons underneath, specifically for the 0-2-2 Dartling.

Trivia

 * The Laser Shock status effect is the second damage-over-time status effect in BTD6 to last for only one tick of damage, the first being Ezili's curse effect. All other forms of damage-over-time status effects last for at least two ticks (e.g. default Burny Stuff lasts 2 ticks over 3.0s by damaging bloons once every 1.5s).