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Total Transformation
The Alchemist is a potion-brewing specialist, and comes with various upgrades that act as support for the defense. Alchemist notably has a buffing option via Acidic Mixture Dip, Berserker Brew, and Stronger Stimulant. Experienced Alchemist users are difficult to beat due to utilizing synergy, which forms the basis of Alchemists. It is key to break the holes of these synergies by taking advantage of the opponent's weaknesses.
Alchemists serve mostly in a support role. Their offense at early tiers is to chip away at grouped bloons. At higher tiers, their roles are more specialized in particular roles that other towers lack.
Alchemists are noteworthy for their buffing potential but they can also support other defenses by other means.
Alch abilities have a rather low uptime but can be sold and rebought immediately to pull their abilities up again.
Alch buffs give nearby towers with extra attack speed.
Damage
Alchemists corrode bloons over time, making them strong against early-game grouped rushes to an extent.
All Alchemist upgrades pop Leads and can grant other towers with lead-popping via Acidic Mixture Dip
Perishing Potions deals extra damage to MOAB-class and even more to Fortified MOAB-class. It can also defortify Fortified Leads and Fortified Ceramics.
Unstable Concoction deals extreme damage to nearby bloons if the affected blimp(s) pops.
Lead to Gold one-shots Leads and Fortified Leads, as well as dealing more DDT damage.
Alch buffs give nearby towers with extra damage.
Pierce
Alchemist's direct pierce is moderate for an area-of-effect.
Alch buffs give nearby towers with extra pierce.
Overall, Alchemist's pierce is quite respectable.
Range
Alchemists have moderate range but attacks are thrown in a lobbing motion, slightly altering how they directly attack bloons.
In terms of synergy, Alch buffs are monstrous with those that produce multiple projectiles per shot in a spray, such as Tack.
Unstable Concoction's support role is to obliterate blimps into large groups into much weaker bloons.
Total Transformation can buff towers up to Tier 3 into vicious laser-shooting monsters. There are quirky synergies with this upgrade that greatly enhance its total power.
Power
Overall, a Alchemist is powerful in the mid-game and late-game thanks to its brewing potential, as well as in the late-game with Concoction as a source of supporting damage.
Acidic Mixture Dip can be stacked so that it lasts for many more shots. Most players using this upgrade are trying to prepare against a DDT send. Finding a way to force the towers to attack is a fine option.
Players who exclusively use this as the only lead-popping can be taken advantage of. Mixing in Leads with other bloon rushes is an example of this.
Berserker Brew gives a wide variety of buffs to the closest tower, granting them with bonus attack speed, pierce, damage, and range. Look for the tower it is buffing and act accordingly; countering the synergy is key.
While extremely expensive, it is the most potent of Alch buffs possible, making them last indefinitely, which makes the opponent's defense especially difficult to crush through once brewing enough effective towers within direct range.
It takes considerable time to permanently brew all towers within range. Use the time to make a counter-rush while the opponent awaits permanent buffs.
Perishing Potions deals huge Fortified damage, a fair amount of MOAB-class damage, and defortifies Leads and Ceramics. Multiple regular blimps is generally better, as Perishing Potions can be spammed to deal far more damage to Fortified blimps.
Perishing Potions also enhances duration and lifespan of AMD and brews, starting with 2-2-0. Be ready to counter both Alch buffs and Perishing Potions if they have this crosspath.
An extremely potent upgrade that coats blimps in an explosive substance. If the opponent manages to destroy the affected blimps, they will need to manage with the innards. Unless their defense is ready to cope with tonnes of weaker bloons, sending a very large send should overwhelm them and their Unstable Concoction Alchemists.
Very fast and deals a lot of laser-firing damage instantly. It is expensive for them but proves to be effective against spaced sends. Denser packed sends would generally suit better here.
Total Transformation has high synergy potential but loadout selection for optimizing this upgrade is very limited. Expect Druids or Ninjas with this combo.
Most players use this upgrade to increase the rate of AMD or to increase uptime for brews. Knowing this, prepare the distribution of support potions much quicker.
Acid Pool is rarely relied upon in gameplay, though generally used to clean up at hard-to-reach areas. In practice, this is mostly a stepping stone for Lead to Gold; anticipate for this.
Rubber to Gold produces goldifying potions that gain money per bloon layer popped. The opponent may try to discourage you from sending out eco bloons.
Rubber to Gold is normally seen in gameplay during a currently stalemate situation, often beyond Round 17.
If wanting to send eco bloons to accelerate income, use Grouped Pinks instead of Grouped Whites or any other stronger bloons. Most Rubber to Gold users like to set them on Strong to make the most of its income production.
Bloon Master Alchemist is much stronger in Battles 2 than in BTD6 due to the different systems in how money is generated compared to BTD6.
Bloon Master Alchemist is extremely potent against ZOMGs. Avoid sending ZOMGs at all. Mixing in BADs with DDTs is the best option against a BMA user.
Its shrinking potions do not care whether blimps are fortified or not. Multiple of the same blimp is generally better, as shrink potions have a piercing cap.
Crosspath-specific[]
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Crosspath
Alchemist countermeasures
2-0-1
This is the most common crosspath for an AMD spammer due to its highly cost-effective price for pure buffing. If this crosspath appears, the opponent is most certainly trying to AMD spam.
