| “ | Each attack freezes all Bloons everywhere for a short time. Snowstorm freezes all Bloon types for even longer while greatly increasing attack speed of all Ice Monkeys for the duration. | ” |
| ~ In-game description |
Absolute Zero is the fifth and final upgrade of Path 2 for the Ice Monkey in Bloons TD 6. Unlike in Bloons TD 5, Absolute Zero's attacks are based upon the Arctic Wind upgrade instead of Ice Shards. Compared to the Absolute Zero's previous upgrade, Snowstorm, this upgrade comes with a much more powerful freezing ability that freezes and damages all bloon types for a full 10 seconds, and activating the Absolute Zero ability grants all Ice Monkeys on screen with +50% more attack speed for 10 seconds, and its ability cooldown is 25 seconds instead of 30 seconds. With this upgrade, there is 5 seconds less initial cooldown.
Additionally, its main attack can freeze up to 300 bloons instead of 45, it has +10 increased range compared to Snowstorm for a total of 40 units for the freeze attack and 45 units for the slowdown aura and frozen water platforms, it can directly attack MOAB-class bloons (but not freeze them), and both its main primary attack and ability can penetrate 8 layers instead of 3. Additionally, the main attack applies a non-damaging freeze to 999 bloons on screen by 0.6s and 1 layer, and affect any non-blimp and Frozen bloon type. The freeze aura now slows all visible non-blimps by 60% instead of 40%, and all visible blimps by 30%.
When crosspathed with Permafrost, every attack to MOAB-class bloons will apply a 25% speed reduction on hit (including with the ability), and Permafrost on bloons penetrate 8 layers instead of 3.
This upgrade costs $13,600 on Easy, $16,000 on Medium, $17,280 on Hard, and $19,200 on Impoppable. If Level 13+ Silas is present, this upgrade will cost $10,200 on Easy, $12,000 on Medium, $12,960 on Hard, and $14,400 on Impoppable. Also, if there aren't four T5 Ice Monkeys already, a second of this upgrade can be bought.
Quick Answers
What is the difference between Absolute Zero's attacks in BTD6 and BTD5?
How does the Absolute Zero ability enhance the attack speed of Ice Monkeys in BTD6?
What makes the Absolute Zero upgrade more powerful than the Snowstorm upgrade in BTD6?
What types of bloons can Absolute Zero freeze and damage in BTD6?
How long does the freezing effect of Absolute Zero last in BTD6?
Description[]
Overview[]
Absolute Zero
The Absolute Zero Ice Monkey now wears a blue, tribal mask with two circular eye-holes, a white glow coming from behind them. It wears a scarf and a coat similar to that of the previous upgrade, with a white fluffy hood, although the coat and scarf are now blue like the mask. Its hands and feet are now white with icicles hanging off of them. In-game, it stands on a white pedestal with a blue border, in a 10-pointed star shape, resembling a snowy mountain.
Absolute Zero greatly improves all its freezing attacks and its ability, with temporary boost itself and all other Ice Monkeys with extra attack speed. The aura also slows MOAB-class by a reduced amount. The main attack applies another independent freeze across all other bloons on screen by a much shorter time and onto fewer layers.
Activated Abilities[]
- See also: Activated Abilities (BTD6)#Absolute Zero
Absolute Zero Ability
Absolute Zero is an entirely new upgrade in BTD6, improving on the potency of the Snowstorm upgrade. The ability freezes all bloons on screen, including frozen-immune, camo, and MOAB-class (but not BADs or Bosses) for the full 10 seconds duration. The freezing soaks up to 8 layers, not including MOAB-class. In addition, all Ice Monkeys attack 50% faster for 10 seconds.
Cooldown is 20 seconds. Due to the way that most types of Tier 5 abilities with lower cooldowns work in the game, there is no initial cooldown for Absolute Zero's ability. The total uptime of the freeze is 50%, as is the global Ice Monkey buff.
Unlike the Snowstorm ability, the Absolute Zero ability is not an "instant" ability, but rather a "duration" ability; it cannot be re-activated if the monkey is already in an act of freezing bloons and still having its global Ice Monkey buff.
Absolute Zero's ability cooldowns can accept cooldown reduction buffs from Primary Mentoring and Primary Expertise, as well as the global Energizer buff. It can also accept the cooldown reset of Geraldo's Rejuv Potion. It also accepts cooldown reduction bonuses from Monkey Knowledge and Relic Knowledge.
Targeting Priorities[]
Absolute Zero's main attack produces freezing blasts in a zone-like style, and can target any bloon type including MOAB-class bloons. Technically, the Ice Monkey is locked on the Close targeting priority. However, for simplicity reasons, this monkey has no targeting priorities.
Absolute Zero's ability targets all bloon types across the whole screen, and because it has infinite pierce this attack has no specific targeting priority.
Full Popology[]
Statistics[]
- Updated as of Version 51.2
- Base stats
- Freeze:
- Zone, cold type, detects centerpoint hitbox, 40 range, 1.8s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 300 pierce, freezes for 2.2s and penetrates eight layers. Blast radius matches current range. Can attack but not freeze MOAB-class bloons. Upon freezing all bloons, apply Ultrafreeze.
- Ultrafreeze:
- Zone, cold type, whole screen, burst, 1 unbuffable damage, +3 damage to Ceramics, 999 pierce, freezes for 0.6s and a single layer of bloon.
- Aura:
- Zone, cold type, detects partial hitbox, 45 range, 0 damage, infinite pierce, slows affected bloons by 60%, affected MOAB-class slowed by 30%.
- Frozen water:
- Zone, passive type, converts water into frozen water within 45 range excluding external buffs, allowing land towers to be placed on it.
- Ability stats
- Absolute Zero:
- 25s cooldown, reduce 10 seconds initial cooldown from Snowstorm Ability, for 5 cooldowns if bought from x-4-x. When activated, activate Absolute Zero.
- Absolute Zero:
- Whole screen, normal type, 1 damage, +4 Frozen Damage, freezes for 10.0s. Can target MOAB-class bloons. Applies Snow Buff.
- Snow Buff
- All Ice Monkeys on screen gain +50% attack speed (0.6666x attack cooldown) for 10 seconds.
- Crosspathing interactions
- 1-5-0: Freeze and Snowstorm adds Permafrost that affects up to eight layers. Permafrost can slow blimps by 25%.
- 2-5-0: Freeze and Snowstorm pop Lead and Camo Bloons and apply Permafrost to Lead Bloons and DDTs, Aura slows Lead and Camo Bloons by 60%, and DDT for 30%
- 0-5-1: Range of Freeze increased from 40 to 47, range of Aura from 45 to 52, and increases Frozen water radius from 45 to 52.
- 0-5-2: Damage type of Freeze changed from cold to glacier. And Damage type of Ultrafreeze changed from normal (except frozen) to normal.
- Monkey Knowledge interactions
Icy Chill: Range increased from 40 to 43.- Hypothermia: Increases duration of Absolute Zero's ability freeze and its global Ice Monkey buff by 1 second.
- Come On Everybody!: Upgrade cost and crosspaths of Snowstorm are 5% cheaper if all Primary Monkeys on screen are Tier 3-4.
- Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
- Better Sell Deals: Base sellback increased from 70% to 75%.
- Veteran Monkey Training: Attack cooldown reduced by 3%.
- Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.
Attack Interactions[]
- See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Primary
- Updated as of Version 36.0
- Base attack(s)
- Freezing:
- Cold
- Area of Effect
- Freeze (2.2s)
- Ultrafreeze:
- Cold
- Whole Screen
- Burst
- Extra damage to Ceramics(+3)
- Freeze (0.6s)
- Aura:
- Cold
- Area of Effect
- Slowdown (-60%)
- Slowdown (blimps) (-30%)
- Infinite Pierce
- Ability
- Absolute Zero:
- Normal
- Whole Screen
- Extra Damage to Frozen(+4)
- Freeze (10s, 8 layers)
- Blimp Freeze (10s, 1 layer)
- Infinite Pierce
- Storm buff:
- Passive
- Target Tower
- Tower Buff
- Charge
- Whole Screen
Costs[]
- Updated as of Version 51.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.
| [Module | Data] | Purchase | Sell | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costs | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable |
| Upgrade (X-5-X) | $13,600 | $16,000 | $17,280 | $19,200 | - | |||
| Total (0-5-0) | $20,100 | $23,650 | $25,540 | $28,380 | $14,070 | $16,555 | $17,878 | $19,866 |
| Crosspath (1-5-0) | $20,225 | $23,800 | $25,700 | $28,560 | $14,158 | $16,660 | $17,990 | $19,992 |
| Crosspath (2-5-0) | $20,520 | $24,150 | $26,080 | $28,980 | $14,364 | $16,905 | $18,256 | $20,286 |
| Crosspath (0-5-1) | $20,225 | $23,800 | $25,700 | $28,560 | $14,158 | $16,660 | $17,990 | $19,992 |
| Crosspath (0-5-2) | $20,395 | $24,000 | $25,915 | $28,800 | $14,277 | $16,800 | $18,141 | $20,160 |
This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: 
Come On Everybody!, 
Better Sell Deals
Strategy[]
Summary[]
Absolute Zero has a large slow aura that allows it to act as decent bloon support. Its ability can freeze MOAB-class bloons for a respectable amount of time, reducing their speed to a near halt temporarily. In addition, the large range of the tower can allow for a larger amount of land towers to be placed on water.
Because the Absolute Zero improves its range, potency of its slowdown aura, and pierce, it is essentially a stronger version of Snowstorm and Arctic Wind, however considerably more expensive than many other options in its roles (e.g. Bloon Impact for bloon support and Bloon Sabotage for global slowing), and even faces competition from its own predecessors. The special attack speed buffs for Ice Monkeys with the Absolute Zero ability can be useful, but this one benefit remains limited to niche strategies involving heavy Ice Monkey defenses.
Tips[]
- With Permafrost crosspath, Absolute Zero's attacks can apply a permanent slow effect (including the ability); however, Larger Radius and Re-Freeze enables Absolute Zero to permanently keep bloons in place and have larger range. Both are acceptable crosspaths depending on the player's needs.
- As Absolute Zero is much more powerful in Bloons TD 6, it can freeze MOAB-Class Bloons for a short time, slowing them down by an extreme amount. This is especially useful versus DDTs.
- Considering that Absolute Zero reduces the speed of Bloons and MOAB-class Bloons by a percentage of their speed and not by an absolute value (as is for many stalling towers), it still is a good tower in the late game, especially since it has a very low price tag compared to other Tier 5s in the game.
- Even though the 2.0 update buff allowed Snowstorm to freeze MOAB-class, although for a much shorter time, the Absolute Zero upgrade is more useful because the slow effect lasts much longer. Also, Absolute Zero does not need crosspathing to affect Leads; there was a secret Version 25.0 nerf to Snowstorm that prevents its ability to affect Lead without Cold Snap (previously named Metal Freeze) or other lead-popping power.
- The freeze effect is shorter than Bloon Sabotage, but it gives a much better speed reduction than Bloon Sabotage's 50%. This may come in useful on short rounds. On the other hand, Bloon Sabotage can slow entering bloons but Absolute Zero cannot.
- The Ice Monkey speed buff effect works well alongside the other Tier 5 Ice Monkeys. If possible, set up Super Brittle and Icicle Impale for maximum effect.
- Note that MOAB-class Bloons affected by the ability count as frozen, so plan accordingly.
- There is no initial cooldown for the Absolute Zero. Freely buy, use the ability, and sell at will, but keep an eye out on remaining money.
- While external buffs to range will increase the size of the visual effect of Absolute Zero, the hitbox of the ice platform will not increase (although the Larger Radius upgrade will increase the platform's hitbox).
- Placing Absolute Zero on water will allow it to benefit from buffs to water-based Monkeys, notably Energizer which allows Absolute Zero's ability to reach 100% freeze uptime (though keep in mind it cannot actually permafreeze bloons, as the freeze does not soak through all layers).
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
Absolute Zero's main attacks have become stronger across later updates. Its ability has received an additional effect that grants a bonus Ice Monkey attack speed boost. The main ability between Version 23.0 and 24.2 unintentionally ruined buy-and-resell freeze strategies while buffing the cooldown for Snowstorm, so Version 25.0 reverted the ability duration buff and instead reduced the ability cooldown to bring back buy-and-resell strategies.
- 2.0
- Absolute Zero pops more bloons per freeze. (30 → 300)
- 7.0
- Cost of Absolute Zero decreased. ($32,000 → $26,000)
- Absolute Zero has more range. (20 → 40; essentially twice the radial range of a normal Ice Monkey)
- Absolute Zero Arctic Wind effect increased (50% → 60%)
- 17.0
- Permafrost can now apply to MOABs if crosspathed.
- Absolute Zero attack and ability freeze +2 additional layers.
- Absolute Zero when ability is active all Ice Monkeys gain +50% attack speed.
- 23.0
- [Undocumented] Absolute Zero ability now has an initial cooldown of 50% the original cooldown (due to the cooldown buff on Snowstorm)
- 23.2
- Absolute Zero ability cooldown decreased (40s → 30s)
- [Undocumented] Absolute Zero ability initial cooldown reduced to 33% (20s → 10s)
- 24.0
| “ | Small tweaks to the benefit of still under-utilized T5 Ice Monkey upgrades. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to AZ and Brittle |
- Description changed from "Ability is so cold it fully freezes all Bloon types including cold immune, camo, and MOAB-Class." to current description.
- Absolute Zero's Ice Monkey buff now lasts longer (10s → 15s)
- 25.0
| “ | By buffing Snowstorm to have the same cooldown as Absolute Zero we unintentionally ruined a certain style of player-made challenge based on Absolute Zero timing. We have reworked the buff from v24 in order to keep the same freeze uptime but allow this type of challenge to be possible once again. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Absolute Zero ability cooldown decreased (30s → 20s)
- [Undocumented] Absolute Zero now has no initial cooldown instead of 10s initial cooldown.
- Absolute Zero ability duration for both freeze duration and buff decreased (15s → 10s)
- 27.0
| “ | Snowstorm's duration has been improved to give it more bang for its buck as an alternate option to Ninja's Bloon Sabotage, and Absolute Zero's price has been reduced to bring it more within reach for a support upgrade. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Absolute Zero price reduced ($26,000 → $20,000)
- 30.0
- Ice Monkeys affected by Absolute Zero's speed buff now have an icon indicating this
- Absolute Zero's speed buff now absorbed by Lych
- 31.0
- [Undocumented bug] Absolute Zero permafrost slowdown increased (25% → 50%)
- 31.2
- [Undocumented bug] Absolute Zero permafrost slowdown increased (50% → 75%)
- 32.1
- [Undocumented bug] [Bug fixed] Absolute Zero ability no longer applies an excessively strong permafrost effect
- 33.0 (?)
- [Undocumented bug] [Bug fixed] Absolute Zero main attack no longer applies an excessively strong permafrost effect
- 36.0
| “ | Arctic wind felt extremely overbuffed with the slowing field going from 40 to 50%, but we like seeing the use on it go up so we want to meet halfway on that & keep the higher slow at T5. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Indirect buff, as Arctic Wind aura slow was nerfed without changing Absolute Zero.
- 39.0
| “ | We’re happier with more recent freeze changes succeeding in some of the intentions of older nerfs, given the base tower value in races being hit far more than intended we’re going back over the pierce for Ice Monkey base & middle crosspath. Snowstorm continues to outshine any similar supportive options while being generally cheaper & more versatile. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Absolute Zero cost decreased ($20,000 → $19,200)
- Overall price change is $0 due to the Snowstorm upgrade cost increasing by $800.
- 40.0
| “ | [...] Arctic Wind it feels was heavily underrated before it’s [sic] large slow aura increase, with so many players now working out how good it is and how much better an upgrade it leads into than any similar options we feel this aura needs to be reduced again although it will remain the same at T5. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Indirect buff, as Absolute Zero slow zone unchanged at 60% while Arctic Wind aura slow is nerfed.
- 45.0
| “ | [...] While we’re still considering future plans here, increasing layers frozen from 5 > 8 at least means that Absolute Zero’s freeze can now last through all standard Bloon layers from a single application. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Absolute Zero attack and ability freeze layers increased 4 to 8.
- 47.0
| “ | A long time coming - Absolute Zero will finally be able to slow MOAB-Class Bloons within its radius, and additionally the main attack while it can’t initiate attacks without Bloons in radius will freeze non MOAB-Class Bloons over the entire screen for a short time! [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Absolute Zero wind slow aura will now slow visible MOAB-class bloons in radius by 20%
- Absolute Zero’s attack now gains a second radius freezing one layer of non-MOAB Class Bloons anywhere on the map for 0.75s
- 48.0
- Absolute Zero aura slowdown versus MOAB-class increased from 20% to 30%
- 50.0
| “ | Well it seems we made Absolute Zero kinda good finally… With the powerful synergies that have now come out here, along with Silas arriving this update bringing even more Ice Monkey synergies, we are reducing some of the constancy here. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- x-5-x Absolute Zero main attack global freeze duration reduced from 0.75s to 0.6s
- x-5-x Absolute Zero ability cooldown increased from 20s to 25s
- [undocumented] Absolute Zero ability initial cooldown increased from 0s to 5s
- 51.0
| “ | [...] Absolute Zero on the other hand has enjoyed being busted lately, and thanks to a crosspathing bug fix also included this update will be getting even better, since it’s currently freezing everything imaginable we’re counter-balancing that with a nerf of increased damage and higher cost. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Absolute Zero cost increased from $16,000 to $19,000
- Absolute Zero ultrafreeze no longer freezes Camo, Lead or White properties without buffs
- Absolute Zero ultrafreeze now does 1 damage
- Absolute Zero ultrafreeze now does +3 Ceramic damage
- Absolute Zero ability now does +4 Frozen damage
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
 |
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it. |
- 50.0
- Description changed:
- Ability is so cold it freezes all regular Bloons for longer, including White, Zebra, and Camo, slows MOAB-class longer, and greatly increases the attack speed of all Ice Monkeys for the duration.
- Each attack freezes all Bloons everywhere for a short time. Snowstorm freezes all Bloon types for even longer while greatly increasing attack speed of all Ice Monkeys for the duration.
Extra Notes (Version History)[]
- Although not stated in the Version 23.0 patch notes, Absolute Zero had gained a 20-second initial cooldown for its ability. This addition of an initial cooldown was not reverted in Version 23.1 or Version 23.2. It was, however, in Version 25.0.
- For Version 39.0's patch notes, Ninja Kiwi erroneously mentioned Absolute Zero's pierce as kept at 100; this was meant for Snowstorm. Snowstorm appears to be the successor to BTD5 Absolute Zero, having an activated ability that freezes all bloons on screen; this incorrect correlation isn't out of the blue. Regardless, this did not actually affect Snowstorm, but BTD6 Absolute Zero kept its 300 pierce.
- Although Ninja Kiwi claimed the attack speed buff during ability to be +50%, to which is true, they did not use correct attack speed calculations for Path 2 Bomb Shooter buffs.
Sounds[]
When activating Absolute Zero Ability:
- [Blizzard howling]
Gallery[]
Icy Chill (Left: 0-3-0, Middle: 0-4-0, Right: 0-5-0)
Official artwork[]
Assets[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- The previous upgrade, Snowstorm, is a weaker variation of the BTD5 Absolute Zero, being unable to fully freeze White and Zebra Bloons, however this upgrade is better being able to freeze everything excluding the B.A.D., including M.O.A.B-Class Bloons.
- Absolute Zero formerly joined Super Brittle as the Tier-5 upgrades with the smallest range (besides Sniper, Heli, Ace, Mortar, whose displayed range simply does not count as "range"), but this was no longer the case in Version 7.0, since Absolute Zero now has double the range of a normal Ice Monkey.
- Unlike Bloons TD Battles Mobile, Absolute Zero in BTD6 received price decreases and mechanic buffs instead of price increases.
- After Version 8.0, when all farming-only abilities (including Tier 5 upgrades in this case) are required to undergo a full initial cooldown duration, the Absolute Zero ability is one of four abilities that, when bought, has the cooldown up immediately. The others are Pirate Lord, MOAB Eliminator, and Total Transformation.
- Between Version 23.0 and 25.0, this was not true. In Version 23.0 it had half initial cooldown, while 23.1 buffed AZ ability's main cooldown to match Snowstorm, changing AZ's initial cooldown to one-third.
- In the BTD6 subreddit, there was a recurring meme since around the release of Version 8.0 whereby various users suggested a buff to the freezing of its main attack and ability from 2 to 5, writing "Absolute Zero freezes more (2 → 5)".
- In Version 17.0, its freeze penetration has been buffed, but only from 2 layers to 4.
- The attack speed buff is displayed on affected Ice Monkeys with a unique icon, different to the one used for the ability itself. Similarly to the icons for the other Tier 5 upgrades, it depicts a single M.O.A.B. being frozen.
- In BTD6, Absolute Zero is the first upgrade in alphabetical order.
- In real life, the absolute zero is the lowest limit of the thermodynamic temperature scale, with a temperature of zero kelvins or negative 273.15 °C.
- Absolute Zero is the only Tier 5 Ice Monkey upgrade whose upgrade icon lacks a depiction of a MOAB. However, the Absolute Zero buff icon depicts a frozen MOAB.
- The non-MOAB global freezing attack added In Version 47.0 can be seen as Viral Frost, the Path 1 tier four upgrade from BTD5, being implemented into BTD6 after being not included from the BTD6 version of the tower. This is because it serves the same purpose: spreading the freezing effect to bloons well outside of the towers radius. The big difference is that Viral Frost only affects bloons that touched the frozen bloon, while in BTD6, it affects all bloons on screen.
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