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BTD6

Faster firing magic does huge damage to most Bloon types.
~ In-game description

Arcane Spike is the fourth upgrade of Path 1 for the Wizard Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It increases damage of Wizard's magic bolts and shoot them twice as fast as Arcane Mastery (every 0.275s instead of 0.55s). Each bolt deals 16 damage to MOAB-Class Bloons, deal 6 damage to standard bloons, and can pop Lead Bloons.

This upgrade costs $8,500 on Easy, $10,000 on Medium, $10,800 on Hard, and $12,000 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

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Arcane Spike

Arcane Spike's bushy moustache-and-beard and bushy eyebrows are now grown longer and turn white instead of dark brown. The wooden stick turns to metal with 3 blue orbs, one at the end is larger than the other two. The blue orb at the end is shining blue light. Arcane Spike wears a belt around the chest area, a purple cape, and a yellow crescent in front of its hat. Arcane Spike's left hand also glows with blue light.

In the upgrade portrait the wizard is holding the staff in its right hand but in-game the tower holds it in its left hand.

Its upgrade icon is three magic bolts piercing a MOAB which describes its speciality, that is, being better at popping MOAB-class bloons than normal bloons.

Arcane Spike further improves the power of its bolts. Attack speed is further increased by +100%, each attack also increased damage, and bonus damage to any MOAB-Class Bloons. Each bolt can now also damage Leads.

Targeting Priorities[]

Arcane Spike targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. It shoots straight movement projectiles.

  • First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
  • Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
  • Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
  • Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.

Costs[]

Updated as of Version 41.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.
[Module | Data] Purchase Sell
Costs Easy Medium Hard Impoppable Easy Medium Hard Impoppable
Upgrade (4-X-X) $8,500 $10,000 $10,800 $12,000 -
Total (4-0-0) $10,430 $12,275 $13,255 $14,730 $7,301 $8,593 $9,279 $10,311
Crosspath (4-1-0) $10,685 $12,575 $13,580 $15,090 $7,480 $8,803 $9,506 $10,563
Crosspath (4-2-0) $11,365 $13,375 $14,445 $16,050 $7,956 $9,363 $10,112 $11,235
Crosspath (4-0-1) $10,685 $12,575 $13,580 $15,090 $7,480 $8,803 $9,506 $10,563
Crosspath (4-0-2) $10,940 $12,875 $13,905 $15,450 $7,658 $9,013 $9,734 $10,815

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: MagicTricksIcon Magic Tricks, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Arcane Spike excels at dealing high damage to MOAB-class bloons. It becomes an effective option at handling mid-game bloons with its effective cleanup and can easily break apart multiple groups of MOAB-class quite accurately. Arcane Spike struggles versus grouped bloons, but MOAR Glaives can be paired to handle regular bloons prior to Round 81, and 0-1-2 Ice Monkeys from Round 81+ versus Super Ceramics. Pairing with Alchemist buffs, specifically with Berserker Brew or Stronger Stimulant, can reliably improve its overall performance throughout all stages of the game.

For late-game, it is good at handling MOABs and DDTs. Pairing with the main DPS towers plus support such as MOAB Glue and MOAB Press can give Arcane Spike an easier time handling groups of weaker blimps. It can also handle smaller groups of Super Ceramics adequately, although it benefits from support by the stalling power of 0-1-2 Ice Monkeys.

Tips[]

  • A 4-0-2 Arcane Spike is generally more effective than the 4-2-0 Arcane Spike because the Arcane Spike bolts have relatively low pierce, so adding Intense Magic will significantly increase the pierce of the bolts from 7 to 12. In this way, the Intense Magic upgrade is usually better than adding new weapons that do not buff the original energy bolt.
    • The Wall of Fire is a decent choice for additional cleanup, but it wastes the damage potential of each Arcane Spike bolt, as well as the fact that the Walls of Fire from an Arcane Spike are no stronger than a lower-tier Wizard with the Wall of Fire upgrade.
  • Arcane Spike is fast enough to become maximized by Stronger Stimulant without simultaneously being too fast enough to consume all of the strong brew before the duration period ends. This is because it shoots every 0.275s by default, compared to 40 shots for the whole 5-second duration that the strong brew would need either of to wear out.
  • Having a Stronger Stimulant Alchemist nearby a couple of 4-0-2 Arcane Spikes can wipe out Round 95 with relative ease.
  • Sometimes having multiple 4-0-2 Arcane Spikes is better than a single Archmage, as they synergize better with Stronger Stimulant, deal decent overall damage and cleanup, and does not rely on saving up a significant portion of money. However, Archmage comes with the benefit of being a singular tower with greatly increased attack speed and damage, which allows it to perform far better than multiple 4-0-2 Arcane Spikes when paired with Overclock.
  • A 4-0-1+ Arcane Spike can solo a Fortified BFB on Logs and possibly Cubism. It can solo a regular BFB on nearly all beginner maps as well.
  • On Hard, a 4-x-x Arcane Spike bought by Round 40 consumes a huge portion of the money budget without farming. If possible, farm early-game so it can be afforded by Round 40 in time to pop the MOAB easily.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Arcane Spike is slightly stronger than it was when it was first released, mainly because of pierce buffs. It got a small price nerf, but reverted much later due to the redundancy of the price nerf as more players leaned away from Arcane Spike in strategical play, as well as the fact that the price nerf made Round 40 Arcane Spike much harder to afford on Hard in particular.

2.0
  • BUFF Arcane Spike bolt has more pierce, from Arcane Mastery buff (2 → 6).
19.0
  • NERF Arcane Spike price increased ($10,000 → $10,900)
21.0
  • BUFF Arcane Spike bolt has more pierce (6 → 7, from base Wizard buff).
30.0
The role Arcane Spike filled at game launch has been replaced as better synergies were learned & added over time. As it's slightly too expensive at some early key points the price is being lowered to hopefully fit some use in at those points. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Arcane Spike price decreased ($10,900 → $10,000)
35.0
Arcane Spike is seeing 1 damage shifted from MOAB bonus to regular damage to improve layer skipping issues. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Arcane Spike base damage increased 5 → 6
  • NERF Arcane Spike MOAB-Class Bloon bonus damage decreased +11 → +10
    • Total MOAB-Class bloon damage remains at 16, as base damage is increased by 1.

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

14.0
  • Change Description was changed from "Magic does extra damage to MOAB-class bloons" to Magic does huge damage to most bloon types.
18.0
  • Change Description was changed from "Magic does huge damage to most bloon types." to "Faster firing magic does huge damage to most bloon types."

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Trivia[]

  • A Monkey Knowledge perk called Arcane Impale allows the tower to do 1 extra damage to Ceramic and MOAB-class Bloons.
  • The upgrade icon is visually similar to the Soul Spear spell from the Dark Souls series.
  • The Arcane Spike Wizard appears on the Bloons TD 6+ animated cover art. The monkey appears to be looking around side to side in a rather angry expression. Its arms alternate going up and down, and its feet move accordingly to the direction of vertical levitation. Its cape and beard also wave while it levitates.
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