Bloon Exclusion Zone

"Upgraded to 6 barrels and massively increased damage. Bloons are excluded from existence."

- In-game description

 (also known as BEZ) is the fifth upgrade of Path 3 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD 6. Compared to Bloon Area Denial System, it increases the attack speed by +50% (every 0.25s, or 0.167s with 0-2-5) by shooting from a total of 6 barrels instead of 4, increases projectile number from 6 buckshots to 12, increases pierce from 4 to 6, and overall damage of each buckshot increases from 4 to 8. The two top barrels additionally are tall enough to ignore almost all forms of Line of Sight.

When set to Target Independent, the Bloon Exclusion Zone now sets barrels to, in order from top to bottom: First, Last, Close, Strong, First, Strong.

It costs $49,300 on Easy, $58,000 on Medium, $62,640 on Hard, and $69,600 on Impoppable.

Summary
Bloon Exclusion Zone is a powerful option for popping grouped bloons and single-target bloons due to its high projectile count and high damage. Bloon Exclusion Zone doesn't necessarily require support to become usable in a real game, but for the best results, it should be buffed with supports that greatly benefit high-projectile towers. Because it shoots lots of projectiles per shot, it benefits a lot from Alchemist buffs, most specifically Stronger Stimulant, as well as from Pat Fusty.

Tips

 * Bloon Exclusion Zone does not pop Lead Bloons by default, as it has the shatter damage type, so adding a Monkey Intelligence Bureau is a good idea.
 * It requires camo detection or the Advanced Targeting upgrade to pop camo.
 * The 0-2-5 Bloon Exclusion Zone is the better upgrade, as the higher attack speed gives the Bloon Exclusion Zone with more overall DPS than simply increasing the accuracy of its projectiles.
 * Just like Bloon Area Denial System, Bloon Exclusion Zone greatly benefits from Alchemist buffs, especially Stronger Stimulant. It attacks quite fast, but still slower than a lower-tier Dartling Gun, so a Bloon Exclusion Zone actually will have nearly 100% uptime with Stronger Stimulant.
 * However, Acidic Mixture Dip will run out between shots. For better damage vs DDTs, consider stacking 4-5 Acidic Mixture Dip alchemists next to this tower. This gives it more damage and is cheaper than an MIB.
 * Because of how many projectiles it produces per shot, Bloon Exclusion Zone is a good candidate with Pat Fusty, although with Pat Fusty multiple Bloon Area Denial Systems might benefit better from him.
 * It produces many projectiles per shot, and because of this, it should be placed a little closer to the entrance, as it deals the most damage versus MOAB-class bloons. Add some space so that it is able to clean up Super Ceramics too.
 * When fighting against small groups of weaker bloons, the sheer amount of projectiles will simply wipe them out clean. It takes many more hits for Bloon Exclusion Zone to take down higher-HP MOAB-class, especially BADs, but it does a decent job otherwise. Its main weaknesses, however, are densely grouped MOAB-class and DDTs.
 * By placing the Bloon Exclusion Zone near the bottom of the gear on Geared, it can be seen that it has slightly more range than its previous upgrade, the Bloon Area Denial System.

Trivia

 * An "exclusion zone" is a terrestrial region where human access is forbidden.
 * The first Dartling Gunner 2TC was achieved by Dablooon, with 0-2-5 Prince of Darkness + 0-2-5 Bloon Exclusion Zone.
 * At $58,000 for the upgrade alone, Bloon Exclusion Zone was the most expensive upgrade in the game that retains the sharp damage type until Version 29.0 where it now has the Shatter damage type.
 * The 2-0-5 and 0-2-5 Bloon Exclusion Zone both tied as the most expensive tower in the entire game that only has the sharp damage type.
 * That status has now been passed into 0-2-5 Avatar of Wrath.
 * The top 2 barrels possess high ground.
 * Bloon Exclusion Zone is the only Tier 5 Dartling without an appearance in the Dartling Gunner trailer video.
 * In one of the Dartling Gunner concept artworks, Bloon Exclusion Zone had a helmet similar to Elite Defender. It was later adapted into the Bloon Exclusion Zone's helmet by adding goggles into the operator's helmet.