Heli Pilot (BTD6)

"Hovers wherever you direct it. Shoots from twin heavy dart guns."

- In-game Description

Heli Pilot is a Military-class tower in Bloons TD 6. The tower retains its name and role from the Bloons TD 5 Generation, with significant additions. It did not receive any teasers prior to release, but it was first shown when the game was available to select YouTubers several days before BTD6's official release date.

The Heli Pilot is an aerial tower that shoots darts every few seconds. Due to its expensive cost, the tower however is eminent in both damage efficiency and support capability. It is one of the two towers that can be controlled via the player's mouse/touch, with the other being Dartling Gunner. It is also known as the tower with most special abilities in a single upgrade.

It costs $1,360 on Easy, $1,600 on Medium, $1,730 on Hard, and $1,920 on Impoppable by default.

Description
The Heli Pilot returns in Bloons TD 6, filling in its same role as a mobile tower. It still has its original targeting options, with Pursuit still being unlocked via upgrade.

Path 1 focuses around DPS and offense starting with Razor Rotors able to pop bloons (Including Lead or Frozen) on contact. Apache Dartship extending its arsenal to homing missiles and powerful machine gun with final upgrade Apache Prime increasing the strength of all its weapons massively.

Path 2 focuses on support. Starting with Bigger Jets that allows it to move faster, then IFR, which gives it camo detection, as well as the first two upgrades improve MOAB Shove followed by Downdraft, which pushes back any non-MOAB bloons on contact. Support Chinook gives the tower two abilities, being a crate ability, which gives either bonus lives or bonus cashes followed by the final upgrade Special Poperations allowing the tower to deploy a powerful Marine temporarily.

Path 3 focuses on defense. The first two upgrades started increasing attack speed, then MOAB Shove to reverse or slow their movement. Comanche Defense summons three Mini-Comanches once bloons reach a certain percentage of the bloon track, followed by the final upgrade Comanche Commander, which increases its weapon as well as the Mini-Comanches are now permanent.

Target Priorities
The Heli Pilot's target priority is mainly based on its flight pattern. Unlike the Monkey Ace, the Heli Pilot can move anywhere based on user interaction. By default, its set target priority is Follow Touch (or Follow Mouse on desktop versions). It comes with three target priorities by default: Follow Touch/Mouse, Lock In Place, and Patrol. If target option is changed partway through the Heli Pilot's flight, the Heli will attempt to fly promptly from its old target priority to its new target priority.

The following are a list of target priorities that a Heli Pilot can use:
 * Follow Touch / Follow Mouse: Moves to where the player taps. On desktop versions, Follow Touch instead becomes Follow Mouse, which will make the Heli Pilot move to wherever the cursor is currently at.
 * Lock In Place: Stops the Heli Pilot where it is when the Target Priority is selected. Can be adjusted to choose a different locked location.
 * Patrol: Patrols between two spots chosen by the player. Can be adjusted to choose different points.
 * Pursuit: Equivalent to the target priority First, except the Heli Pilot will follow in front of the bloons while shooting them. It is unlocked with the purchase of the second upgrade on the first path, with the same name as the target priority. Once upgraded to the respective upgrade, it automatically switches to this target priority.

The Heli Pilot's main attacks always default on First based on the range of the helicopter's weaponry. Alternate attacks tend to have different target priorities:
 * Rockets from Apache Dartship and Apache Prime, as well as missiles from MOAB Shove always target First and have extended range.
 * Rotor attacks from Razor Rotors and Downdraft are locked on Close.
 * MOAB Shove's shove effect is locked on Close.
 * Mini-Comanches from Comanche Defense and Comanche Commander both are locked on Pursuit.

Monkey Knowledge
This section displays Monkey Knowledge that has effects on Heli Pilot and its changes when compared to one by default:
 * AirforceUpgradesIcon.png Airforce Upgrades: All Heli Pilots get +1 pierce.
 * Base pierce increased from 3 → 4.
 * EliteMilitaryTrainingIcon.png Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
 * RapidRazorsIcon.png Rapid Razors: Razor Rotors pop Bloons faster.
 * Pops 25% times faster than normal.
 * ChargedChinooksIcon.png Charged Chinooks: Chinook Activated Abilities give 25% more lives and cash.
 * Allows the Support Chinook to drop $2,250 and 12 lives. Also affects Special Poperations as well, producing $5,625 and 31 lives.
 * MilitaryConscriptionIcon.png Military Conscription: First military tower costs only ⅔ of the original cost.
 * Heli Pilot base cost from $1,360, $1,600, $1,730, and $1,920 → $910, $1,070, $1,160, and $1,285 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
 * AdvancedLogisticsIcon.png Advanced Logistics: All Military Monkeys base costs reduced by 5%.
 * Heli Pilot base cost from $1,360, $1,600, $1,730, and $1,920 → $1,290, $1,520, $1,640, and $1,825 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
 * If Military Conscription is also enabled, the final cost will be $845, $990, $1,070, and $1,190.
 * DoorGunnerIcon.png Door Gunner: Enables Door Gunner special ability.
 * MonkeyEducationIcon.png Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
 * BetterSellDealsIcon.png Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
 * Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
 * VeteranMonkeyTrainingIcon.png Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
 * GlobalAbilityCooldownsIcon.png Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.

Sounds
When placing a Heli Pilot:
 * [Spinning rotors]
 * [Spinning rotors]

When activating Supply Crate Ability:
 * [Crate dropping]
 * [Cash collecting]
 * [Lives collecting]

When activating Redeploy Ability:
 * [Helicopter flying]
 * [Picking up towers]
 * [Dropping off towers]

When activating Marine Ability:
 * [Helicopter flying]

Trivia

 * This tower has one of the 6 upgrade paths (specifically path 3) that are made entirely of upgrades that weren't in Bloons TD 5, not counting the Druid and Alchemist which are completely new towers. The other 5 paths are: path 3 of the Ice Monkey, path 1 of the Wizard Monkey, path 3 of the Super Monkey, path 3 of the Banana Farm and path 3 for the Spike Factory.
 * 5 of these 6 are third paths, but it should not be surprising, considering that, excluding the cases where the new upgrades are evenly distributed among the three paths, path 3 introduces Tier 3 and above upgrades that are new to this game.