Bloon Trap (BTD6)

"Bloon trap captures Bloons until full. Select to empty full trap for cash."

- BTD6 description

Bloon Trap is the 4th upgrade of Path 3 for the Engineer Monkey in Bloons TD 6. Engineers with this upgrade create Bloon Traps on nearby track. Each Bloon trap can eliminate up to 500 RBE worth of Bloons (even if a bloon would make the trap surpass that value, it will still be eliminated). By default, the Bloon Trap spawns on the closest track to the Engineer. The trap grants a +100% pop income bonus after getting full and expiring. It takes 12 seconds (7.2 seconds with Faster Engineering) to prepare a new trap (does not require the current trap to expire), but it will only deploy at a minimum of 2.8s after the previous trap expires. Adding Larger Service Area allows adjustment of location for all newly deployed traps, and can be changed at any time, but still abiding by the trap cooldown. If collected early by readjusting the trap before it actually becomes full, the trap autocollects for the non-profit amount.

It costs $2,975 on Easy, $3,500 on Medium, $3,780 on Hard, and $4,200 on Impoppable.

Description
The Engineer now wears blue overalls, carries a black radio backpack, wears golden-shaded sunglasses, replaces his red earmuffs with blue earmuffs, and replaces his black cap with a blue double-orange-striped hat. The artwork shows him appearing to be either leaning his right foot onto the trap or kicking the trap with his right foot, and appears to look angry.

Purchasing the Bloon Trap upgrade allows the Engineer to create Bloon Traps. Bloons that come over the Bloon Trap are trapped inside, though no money is awarded for individual bloon consumption. When the trap expires, the player gets +100% cash from the trapped bloons. MOAB-class bloons and Camo Bloons (unless granted camo detection prior to deploying) will simply pass right through the Bloon Trap. Each trap can hold up to 500 RBE worth of bloons (530 with Bigger Traps). Once full, the Bloon Trap will shake to the left and right and emit an off-white colored aura. Bloon Traps deploy every 12 seconds (7.2 seconds with 2-0-4), and once deployed the timer for the trap cooldown begins, although once the trap is used up it will take a minimum of 2.8s to deploy a new trap.

Adding Larger Service Area allows adjustment of location for all newly deployed traps, and can be changed at any time, but still abiding by the trap cooldown. If collected early by readjusting the trap before it actually becomes full, the trap autocollects for the non-profit amount (i.e. the normal cash gain without trapping). The former trap is technically counted as if it were autocollected, and the newly placed trap takes replacement.

Summary
Bloon Trap is a viable option for bloon-popping and income generation. Its production of Bloon Traps is consistent, and traps have a decent holding capacity. It can also be used to stop about-to-leak bloons, or simply to help get rid of bloons at any point. When it comes to income generation, Bloon Trap income is fairly consistent and still usable for income purposes, although somewhat worse at income than its BTD5 counterpart due to its slower trap regeneration and undesirable Pin effect.

Tips

 * Placing Bloon Traps near entrances is a good way to generate money for a low cost.
 * When using the Alchemist's Rubber to Gold, make sure the bloons can be hit by the gold effect before reaching the Bloon Trap, especially Lead Bloons due to the 50$ bonus from Lead to Gold.
 * The cooldown for Bloon Trap is 12 seconds, but if the old Bloon Trap expires after 12 seconds from deploying that Bloon Trap, a new Bloon Trap will immediately spawn at the minimum 2.8s deployment cooldown.
 * Bloon Traps can be saved in save files. Therefore, they will not disappear when the game has been quitted and re-loaded again.
 * Monkey Farmers can actually pick up full traps similar to how they pick up bananas from Banana Farms and crates from Supply Drops, like in BTD5 Deluxe.
 * Use the 0-0-4 Bloon Trap, for as little bloon-popping as possible for maximum income, unless on the occasion where hybridizing offense with income is necessary. Crosspaths can help optimize use of the traps; however, improper use of crosspathing worsens the money-generating functionality of Bloon Trap, as more bloons will simply be popped before the trap fills up.
 * In most situations, the 0-0-4 Bloon Trap is sufficient, unless the Bloon Trap is designed as a pseudo-Spike Factory, in which adding a crosspath can benefit the offensive attacks of the Bloon Trap Engineer.
 * 0-1-4 is generally better if going for pure Bloon Trap income, as 0-1-4 can be used to force traps into locations where they will spawncamp the bloons.
 * Although 2-0-4 Bloon Trap decreases Bloon Trap cooldown from 12s to 7.2s, for the most part the income-generating portion of Bloon Trap worsens, due to the resulting sentries attacking bloons before they run into the trap. The only time it is worth doing using 2-0-4 for income generation is in circumstances where the majority of the DPS and the income both come from Bloon Trap Engineers.
 * Always keep in mind what your goal is for the Bloon Trap when thinking about crosspathing it.
 * Buying and selling an Engineer with the Bloon Trap upgrade can spawn lots of Bloon Traps on the track. Use this to your advantage to ensure bloons do not progress easily.
 * Note that Bloon Trap won't give any money in Deflation Mode. It is entirely possible to buy-and-sell a Bloon Trap Engineer while keeping the Bloon Trap on the track, with the remaining Bloon Trap serving as a not-so-expensive safeguard for an exit.
 * Ensure teammates have alternative money generation available if planning to deploy early on the track in multiplayer. Bloon Traps replace normal per-pop income generation, granting money only to the successful trapper.

Sounds
When a trap is placed:


 * [trap placement]

When a trap opens up, trapping a bloon:
 * [electronic buzz]

When a trap closes, upon not detecting more bloons:
 * [flap closure]

When a trap is collected:
 * [Cash sound]

Trivia

 * The appearance of the trap is likely a reference to the Ghostbusters' Ghost Trap.
 * The upgrade icon shows the engineer either standing on the trap, or violently kicking it.
 * The Bloon Trap creates an eerie electronic humming sound every time it traps a bloon inside.
 * Before update 12.1, if a Bloon Trap Engineer was affected by Gwendolin's Heat it Up ability, the game would crash.
 * Similar to BTD Battles, if the Tower is sold in BTD6, the trap will still remain on the ground and keep trapping bloons. But sometimes it will try to find a newly placed Bloon Trap Tower as if the trap is created by the tower. So the new Engineer cannot generate a new trap unless the trap on the ground is filled, and the pops by the trap will be counted to the Engineer.
 * A Monkey Knowledge Point called "Big Traps" increases the RBE limit to 530, but it erroneously states it can hold 280 RBE.
 * This has been fixed in the 13.0 update.
 * As of Version 13.0, the description was changed from "... Tap to..." to "... Select to...", so as to provide a device-neutral description for the Bloon Trap upgrade.
 * On Version 19.0, all Bloon Trap Engineers always will produce a new trap every time they are upgraded to the Bloon Trap upgrade, rather than only placing a new trap if there are greater than the current numbers of Bloon Traps placed on the map. This does not occur for XXXL Trap. This can be seen here.
 * Unlike most on-track projectiles, the Bloon Trap projectile is actually a 3D model, as revealed by hacking. The same applies to its upgrade, XXXL Trap.