Operation: Dart Storm (BTD6)

"Shoots 16 darts per volley, and twice as fast."

- In-game description

Operation: Dart Storm (sometimes shortened to ODS, O:DS, or Dart Storm) is the fourth upgrade on the first path for the Monkey Ace in BTD6. It shoots 16 darts per volley and shoots darts and anti-MOAB missiles (from Fighter Plane) twice as quickly. Volleys of darts are shot every 0.63s instead of 1.26s, while the twin anti-MOAB missiles are shot every 2.0s instead of 4.0s. Additionally, anti-MOAB missile explosions deal 24 damage per missile instead of 18, and retains 4 pierce.

It costs $2,550 on Easy, $3,000 on Medium, $3,240 on Hard, and $3,600 on Impoppable.

Summary
Operation: Dart Storm combines the potential of extra darts with improved anti-MOAB missiles, thereby making the Monkey Ace more reliable against both bloons and MOAB-class bloons. This makes it a decent upgrade for the mid-game, chipping down blimp health while also providing cleanup against bloons. Combining with Berserker Brew or Stronger Stimulant improve its dart damage to bloons by a large margin, thereby improving its overall reliability for the mid-game.

Tips

 * This upgrade is useful for wiping out many bloons on screen while also being a great option for beating MOAB-class bloons, especially for earlier rounds. On its own, it can wipe out the outer layers of regular MOABs and Fortified MOABs before Round 81 with ease.
 * The best crosspath is the 4-0-1 ODS, or 4-0-2 if there is exceptionally good central coverage on the given map. 4-2-0 is useful if camo detection is required, since ODS cannot detect camo without support unlike in BTD5 when it was the upgrade after Spy Plane.
 * Just like many high-projectile towers, pair with Berserker Brew or Stronger Stimulant to optimize the power of each of the ODS's radial dart attacks.
 * Do not rely on a 4-2-0 Operation: Dart Storm to handle Camo Leads, as pineapples from the Exploding Pineapple upgrade are not deployed twice as fast and due to the random nature of pineapples in general.

Trivia

 * The name of the upgrade is likely to either be a reference to Operation: Dark Storm or Operation: Desert Storm.
 * The plane looks similar to the B-2 Spirit Bomber.
 * The Operation: Dart Storm upgrade was formerly the fourth sequential upgrade in BTD4, the third upgrade of Path 2 for BTD5, and now is back to being the fourth upgrade of Path 1 in BTD6.
 * Operation: Dart Storm is the 51st upgrade to be on the official community 2MPC challenges.
 * Although not very useful, Operation: Dart Storm does not double the rate of pineapples dropping via the Exploding Pineapple upgrade.
 * Operation: Dart Storm is overall more expensive in BTD6 than in BTD5 and lacks built-in camo detection. However, darts also attack twice as fast and already comes with the Rapid Fire upgrade.