M.A.D

"Moab Assured Destroyer. Slower firing mega missiles deal extreme damage to MOAB class Bloons."

- In-game description

 (MOAB Assured Destroyer, mostly abbreviated as MAD) is the Tier 5 upgrade of Path 2 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD 6. Its much larger missiles now deal extreme damage to MOAB-class bloons (3 damage to bloons and +550 extra damage to MOABs). However, it attacks much slower and missile shots alternate between each arm, reducing its overall accuracy. It fires missiles every 0.4s alternating between each arm, and each missile has 12 pierce each and explodes up to 6 times due to its multi-explosion mechanic.

In addition, the M.A.D improves its Rocket Storm ability further, shooting 17 waves of larger missiles for 8 seconds, with 0.467s between each wave, and allows each rocket storm missile explosion to damage up to 16 bloons instead of 8. Every ability missile deals 5 damage per missile, but also deals 9 Ceramic damage and 23 MOAB-class damage, which cleans up both Super Ceramics and MOAB-class quite effectively.

It costs $51,000 on Easy, $60,000 on Medium, $64,800 on Hard, and $72,000 on Impoppable.

Appearance
TBA

Summary
The M.A.D is extremely effective at demolishing MOAB-class bloons. Even a single hit to MOAB-class bloons can fully eliminate the layers off MOABs and DDTs, (that is, before freeplay ramping) and it can quickly destroy much stronger bloons, even BADs.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, it is much, much weaker versus regular bloons, due to its much slower attack speed, even to the extent that its main attacks are weaker than Hydra Rocket Pods versus anything that is not a MOAB-class bloon. In a real game, pair a M.A.D with good counters to Super Ceramics or anything that doesn't have great MOAB-Class damage with the some examples being Prince of Darkness, The Bloon Solver, The Biggest One, and Ray of Doom.

Where there are excessive amounts of cash, the M.A.D is a good option to speed up the process of anti-stalling for purposes of quicker Round 100 Insta Reward runs, because of its extremely high MOAB-class damage without need for an ability. On CHIMPS games, however, it will be very difficult to afford the M.A.D upgrade until at least Round 90 or so, so a cheap but effective defense with Rocket Storm is necessary before then.

Tips

 * The M.A.D is extremely effective against MOAB-class bloons, but it is absolutely underwhelming versus Super Ceramics. It is vital to provide the M.A.D with support versus regular bloons.
 * Unlike the previous upgrades, the M.A.D. may benefit better with 2-5-0 than 0-5-2. Although extra pierce is desirable at demolishing groups of blimps, the powerful missiles are rather inaccurate and slow. Aiming at specific targets would benefit far better with Focused Firing. Not only that, the extra shock damage from Laser Shock will help pop regular bloons as well.
 * Not too many buffs are required to maximize the performance of the M.A.D, but basic attack speed buffs like Jungle Drums, Berserker Brew, and Overclock are often sufficient enough to maximize its massive MOAB-class damage potential.
 * Only target the M.A.D. at MOAB-class bloons, as this allows it to work with its strengths. The only exception is to clean up Super Ceramics with the ability if there is no other available tower suited for cleanup.
 * Note that even though this tower has exploding missiles, its AOE is minimal.
 * The M.A.D can be considered the second strongest late-game DPS tower, surpassed only by the VTSG. A fully buffed M.A.D while in Rocket Storm, with all rockets striking the same target, will achieve hundreds of thousands of DPS, perhaps even stronger than Paragons due to Paragons being unable to receive buffs.
 * M.A.D is the perfect option for taking down higher-tier Boss Bloons due to their huge hitboxes and the M.A.D's immense blimp damage. While very expensive, it is very cost-efficient; it's cheaper than many other single powerful towers while dealing huge single-target damage to blimps. It still remains useful even at the final tiers of bosses.
 * M.A.D is an excellent option against Tier 2 Elite Bloonarius because of its extreme single-target MOAB-class damage and the large hitbox size of Boss Bloons. Pair with something to handle any skull sends, as MAD Rocket Storm ability is not sufficient for handling with offspring.

Sounds
When activating M.A.D. Rocket Storm Ability:
 * [Rocket firing]

Trivia

 * The unabbreviated name for the M.A.D is "MOAB Assured Destroyer"; this is a reference to "mutually assured destruction", a form of military strategy involving the threat of full-scale destruction against both opposing sides, usually by both enemy sides gaining access to powerful nuclear weaponry.
 * The D of M.A.D is not abbreviated with a period, unlike the M. and A.
 * The M.A.D, the pilot, and the mech itself are all strong references to Vile and the Ride Armor in the Megaman X Series.
 * Through hacking, the M.A.D is revealed to be the shortest of the Tier 5 Dartling Gunners in terms of 3D height. This was shown on this section on one of ISAB's videos.
 * The missiles from the M.A.D are all 3D projectiles, while the missiles from Rocket Storm are all 2D.
 * Technically speaking, the bonus extreme blimp damage for the main missile only applies on the initial hit of each missile explosion. So therefore, each main missile shot can apply the extreme blimp damage to up to 6 blimps, inflicting a total of around 3300 damage per shot, assuming it does not have pierce buffs via extra explosions.
 * M.A.D's second 2MPC on an Expert Map is on Dark Castle, achieved on 20th May 2021.