Airburst Darts (BTD6)

"Airburst darts split into 3 on impact for massively increased popping power. Further enhances Bloontonium Reactor."

- In-game description

Airburst Darts is the second upgrade of Path 3 for the Monkey Sub in Bloons TD 6. Upon initial impact, the homing dart will split into three airburst darts (4 with the Quad Burst MK). Each airburst dart can pop up to 2 bloons each (+3 with Barbed Darts, +1 with Naval Upgrades).

In addition, Airburst Darts further improves attack speed for submerged attacks from Submerge and Support and above by +33% (attack cooldown multiplied by 0.75x) for a total of +57% attack speed. For Ballistic Missile, the missiles do not gain an increase of attack speed, only receiving a bonus of ~14% (0.875x attack cooldown) from Twin Guns.

It costs $850 on Easy, $1,000 on Medium, $1,080 on Hard, and $1,200 on Impoppable.

Summary
The Airburst Darts upgrade is an incredible source of early-game popping power, soloing not just early grouped bloons but also early Fast Bloons, Black Bloons, and White Bloons. It pairs well with Advanced Intel to maximize its deployment of these powerful attacks.

Because any darts shot by the Sub seek out bloons, there's a very high chance the Airburst Darts will hit other bloons, clearing up grouped balloons that Twin Guns may fail against.

As for the further bonus attack speed for alternate attacks provided by this upgrade, it is helpful with Submerge Subs for much faster decamo and Reactors if faster rate of damage is desired. Airburst Darts is also helpful for improving the performance of Ballistic Missiles within specific range for fighting single-target bloons.

Tips

 * This upgrade is very useful for early-game, and can solo up to Rounds 15 with ease, and can make rounds up to Round 27 much easier, especially with the Advanced Intel crosspath.
 * Adding a Berserker Brew nearby will make all of its airburst darts much, much stronger.
 * Ballistic Missile does not benefit the extra attack speed for the missiles, but Airburst Darts can be added to make it easier to destroy MOAB-class bloons, particularly single-target bloons.
 * Airburst Darts are not necessarily needed for the best decamo via Submerge and Support, but with this crosspath a 3-0-2 Submerge and Support can catch almost any camo to strip off in time.
 * Adding Airburst Darts for Bloontonium Reactor creates a near solo against bloons up to Rainbow.
 * Use 2-0-2 Airburst Darts for the greater range coverage via Advanced Intel. 0-1-2 Airburst Darts is stronger in short-range, but this improvement doesn't prove very significant except against moderately dense rushes.

Trivia

 * The cost of the Airburst Darts upgrade in BTD6 on Medium Difficulty is the same as the cost of the Airburst Darts upgrade in BTDB Mobile.
 * On Version 18.0, the description added additional information about the added buff to the Airburst Darts crosspathing interaction with Upper Path 1 and Upper Path 2.
 * 2-0-2 Airburst Darts is one of three Tier 2 upgrades in BTD6 to have an official 2MPC, the second being 2-2-0 Super Monkey and the third being 2-0-2 Monkey Ace.