Comanche Defense

"Automatically calls in mini Comanches when they're most needed."

- Upgrade Description for the Comanche Defense in BTD6

 is the third path fourth-tier upgrade of the Heli Pilot in Bloons TD 6. With this upgrade, the Heli Pilot is able to summon up to three mini-Comanches that move in depending on how far bloons reach in terms of bloon track progress. The mini-Comanches come with fast-shooting three-spray darts and a missile per mini-Comanche with 100 pierce each that deal +2 damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class. Darts from mini-Comanches pierce up to 4 bloons per dart.

The Heli Pilot itself receives various upgrades to greatly enhance its DPS. Each missile is shot every 1.0s instead of 3.0s, has 30 pierce and 3 damage on top of +2 damage to Ceramics and above, while retaining 18 blast radius. Darts deal 2 damage and pierce up to 3 bloons each.

Whenever bloons reach a certain percentage of the map, the main Comanche Helicopter calls in a number of mini Comanche Helicopters armed with missiles and darts to aid it in battle. If bloons reach 25% of the map, one mini-Comanche is summoned, two if bloons reach 50% of the map, and three if bloons reach 75% of the map. After 15 seconds from being first summoned, the mini-Comanches will leave the screen immediately, unless the bloons again reach their thresholds, where the duration will simply reset. There is a cooldown of 25 seconds before the mini-Comanches can become summoned again, unless reset by bloons reaching a certain threshold.

It costs $7,225 on Easy, $8,500 on Medium, $9,180 on Hard, and $10,200 on Impoppable.

Appearance
TBA

Statistics
TBA

Damage Types
TBA

Costs

 * Updated as of Version 30.0

Summary
The Comanche Defense requires a good backup defense in order to be usable. While the 18.0 update spawn mechanics do make it more controllable as to when the mini helicopters spawn, it still tends to be weak if not all three Comanches are on screen. A significant portion of the Comanche Defense's power is in the summoned Comanches, which makes it somewhat lackluster for its price tag whenever they're not present. It is a usable stepping stone to Comanche Commander, particularly if the correct synergies are utilized, advancing the mid-game on single-lane maps and maps with only one active lane per round (e.g. High Finance, Infernal). However, it is a poor option on most maps with multiple lanes, and can be substituted by alternate options.

Similar to Comanche Commander, Comanche Defense is a decent synergy with Pat or Gwen, but it is very dependent on those two Heroes to become at least somewhat powerful, not to mention that there is some downtime between mini-Comanche spawns.

Compared to Apache Dartship, Comanche Defense's DPS has a wider DPS potential. While all mini-Comanches are present, the total DPS is superior compared to an Apache Dartship even ignoring price differences. That being said, Comanche Defense's wide DPS spectrum does make an improperly utilized Comanche Defense lose all its value. Trading off reliable DPS for a less costly defense, for both the saveup to the respective Tier 4 and Tier 5, Comanche Defense can be usable in mid-to-long maps such as Bazaar and Chutes when combined with other support DPS.

Tips

 * The Comanche Defense is most powerful when the smaller Comanche helicopters are around. Without the mini-Comanches, the main helicopter deals more damage than MOAB Shove, but has no extra knockback or other utility.
 * As the smaller Comanche Helicopters automatically pursue the bloons, the Pursuit upgrade is unnecessary, and the main helicopter can be placed somewhere else depending on your needs.
 * The smaller helicopters do gain the extra projectiles from Quad Darts, faster movement speed from Bigger Jets and camo detection from IFR.
 * Quad Darts will usually be the choice of crosspath due to it adding much more power to the Comanche.
 * For its price, one 2-0-4 Comanche Defense is actually quite strong in the mid-game, even versus grouped Ceramics and groups of MOAB-class bloons, punching above its weight while all three mini-Comanches are active. Once the mini-Comanches are on cooldown, the Comanche Defense underperforms for its cost.

Extra Notes (Version History)

 * Version 21.0 cut the price of MOAB Shove, and Ninja Kiwi made their intentions of giving "[MOAB Shove] and Comanche more of a kickstart".

Trivia

 * This, along with its next upgrade can call mini Comanche helicopters which are based on the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter.
 * Despite the mini Comanches being called "mini", they have more power than the original Comanche helicopter.
 * Prior to Version 18.0, the old mini-Comanche summoning mechanic was as follows: "Whenever the RBE on the map is greater than 2000 RBE, the main Comanche Helicopter calls in 3 mini Comanche Helicopters armed with missiles and darts to aid it in battle. However, this passive ability has a cooldown of 25 seconds. After 10 seconds from being summoned, the Comanches will leave the screen immediately. The mini-copters can spawn once more per round if the round lasts longer than 25 seconds."
 * The description was also originally "Automatically calls in 3 more Comanches when they're most needed." and then changed to the current description, for similar reasons.