Throws special brew to nearby Monkeys giving them extra damage, range, and attack speed.
”
~ In-game description
Berserker Brew is the third upgrade of Path 1 for the Alchemist in Bloons TD 6. An Alchemist with this upgrade will throw a buffing potion every 8 seconds at a nearby monkey which grants it +1 damage per hit, +10% range, +2 pierce, and +11.1% attack speed (x0.9 attack cooldown). The Berserker Brew potions last for 5 seconds or after 25 attacks (6 seconds or after 40 attacks with 3-2-0) from the targeted tower, whichever comes first. The chosen target is the closest buffable tower that does not already have the buff or the buff cooldown. Towers require 5s (4s with 3-2-0) before being able to be buffed again by any Alchemist (only affects Berserker Brew and Stronger Stimulant); cooldown starts as soon as they receive the buff.
Unlike Acidic Mixture Dip, Berserker Brew is a separate potion that is always thrown to the tower closest to the Alchemist. It works independently from the Acidic Mixture Dip potion that this Alchemist comes with. Berserker Brew cannot target other Alchemists, towers that can't attack, nor sub-towers (like Geraldo's Shooty Turrets), or towers that only operate sub-towers (such as Etienne or Beast Handler, including the 0-0-0 Beast Handler).
Upon upgrading to Berserker Brew, the Alchemist will gain a wooden barrel on its back, along with a wooden spoon on its right hand. It also gains an orange cloak instead of a purple cloak and orange goggles instead of pink goggles. Upon upgrading along Path 2, it will gain white gloves if upgraded to Stronger Acid or black gloves and black mouth mask if upgraded to Perishing Potions. Upon upgrading along Path 3, its eye goggles will become one single uniform eye goggle if upgraded to Faster Throwing and its eye goggles turn blue once upgraded to Acid Pool.
Berserker Brew allows the Alchemist to throw two different support potions at target towers, a separate Acidic Mixture Dip potion that allows popping of Leads and DDTs as well as deal +1 damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class, along with a new Berserker Brew potion that grants the target tower +1 damage per hit, +10% range, +2 pierce, and +11.1% attack speed (0.90x attack cooldown). Berserker Brew potions will last for 5 seconds or after 25 attacks from the targeted tower, whichever comes first. Brews are improved with 3-2-0, lasting for 6 seconds or after 40 attacks from the targeted tower, whichever comes first. There is a cooldown of 5.0s (4.0s with 3-2-0) before a new brew can be reapplied to the same tower.
Targeting Priorities[]
Berserker Brew targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. It lobs potions at bloons based on current targeting.
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.
Alchemists with this upgrade can throw buff potions at nearby towers, giving them tower buffs. Acidic Mixture Dip is thrown on a random tower and prioritizes those without an AMD buff. Berserker Brew potions always target on Close relative to the Alchemist, and ignores already brewed targets or those who have very recently been brewed.
Costs[]
Updated as of Version 44.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.
Berserker Brew is one of the most cost-effective ways to greatly empower a nearby tower, improving the attack speed, pierce, and damage of the affected towers. In fact, Berserker Brew is arguably among the strongest upgrades in the entire game, as increasing the effectiveness of a single tier 3, 4 or 5 tower is extremely powerful. In particular, it is one of the best options when paired with towers that attack relatively slowly but possess a high number of projectiles, such as Bloonjitsu, Triple Guns, and Recursive Cluster. The powerful brew effects can be enhanced even further when upgraded to its next upgrade Stronger Stimulant, and the same upgrade provides overall higher brew uptime for most towers.
Tips[]
Berserker Brew is a separate potion from both the main attack and Acidic Mixture Dip. Do not expect that it will always guarantee giving Acidic Mixture Dip to every time it throws potions at the target tower.
The best synergies with Berserker Brew are generally towers that shoot high quantities of projectiles but attack relatively slow. Those include: Bloonjitsu, Recursive Cluster, Druids, Grape Shot/Hot Shot Buccaneers.
Towers which shoot multiple projectiles at once only count as a single attack. So, towers which shoot fast, but fires multiple projectiles at the same time (Such as Sun Avatar (BTD6) and The Tack Zone) are extremely effective with Berserker Brew.
However, because the buff to attack speed is multiplicative, the power a faster Monkey would gain from Berserker Brew would be greater than a slower one, albeit for a shortened duration.
Avoid buffing low tier Super Monkeys, as they have few shots per attack instance, have low total pierce, and high attack speed.
As Berserker Brew's buff potion is only thrown to the closest tower, place the Alchemist as close to the favorable target tower as possible.
If purely using Berserker Brew, the 3-2-0 Berserker Brew is significantly more effective than 3-0-1, otherwise go for whatever would be the effective crosspath with Stronger Stimulant. 3-0-2 Berserker Brew is no more useful than 3-0-1 Berserker Brew because Acid Pool does absolutely nothing to the buff potions and deals measly situational damage.
Due to being able to be fully discounted, multiple 3-x-x Alchemists can more more useful than 4-x-x Alchemists in specific situations, such as for buffing an equivalent number of Spiked Balls on multi-lane maps such as on #Ouch. This is especially useful in CHIMPS games, where every dollar counts.
Buffing with separate 3-x-x Alchs for Spiked Balls ensures that they gain separate AMD buffs, and the relatively slow attack speed of Spiked Balls makes the AMD uptime comparatively high.
The Alchemist immediately throws a Berserker brew to the closest monkey when upgraded. Thus, in races, fast race times will often involve buying Berserker Brew near a good candidate (such as Juggernaut, Glaive Ricochet, and Cluster Bombs, selling the alchemist, then purchasing another upgrade on a tower, to make use of the strong buff provided, while getting enough cash for key upgrades.
For the base Berserker Brew's brew to naturally wear out by number of shots faster than the brew downtime, the target must be have an attack cooldown of up to 0.2s while the brew is active; with the brew's +11% attack speed included, the unbrewed attack cooldown must up to 0.2222s. Since the value of the brew downtime is equal to that of the timed duration of the brew, use similar values for calculating timed duration of brew.
With 3-2-0 crosspath, this requirement decreases to 0.10s while the brew is active, with the unbrewed attack cooldown up to 0.1111s.
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
Berserker Brew's supporting role to increase damage, attack speed, range, and pierce is seen as a valuable asset on many CHIMPS games. While not as overpowered as it was when it was first released, Berserker Brew is still a very popular supporting tower on CHIMPS, second to its upgrade Stronger Stimulant. Although not as broken as Stronger Stimulant when it was first released, Berserker Brew formerly had an extreme synergy with fast-attacking towers until the Version 6.0 nerf. Later updates buffed the Berserker Brew's crosspathing benefits by a noticeable amount.
5.0
[Bug fix] Berserker Brews no longer apply range buffs twice.
6.0
Brew lasts for the next 30 attacks or the current timed duration (5 seconds), whichever comes first. In addition, any Berserker Brew potions that expired cannot be reapplied to the target tower until the 5-second duration is over.
Alchemist is already widely used, but we thought of an interesting way to add some more crosspath value and wanted to take the chance to perform a small rebalance at the same time.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
3-0-x and 3-1-0 Berserker Brew buff shots per brew reduced from 30 → 25
320 Berserker Brew buff shots per brew now adds +10, for a total of 35 shots
320 Berserker Brew duration increased from 5s → 6s
320 Berserker Brew re-application cooldown reduced from 5s → 4s
24.0
“
Alchemist has been given a small push towards the current underused Brew crosspath. Previously this crosspath only applied a benefit to Brew & Stimulant but now along with a buff to that, Acidic Mixture Dip will also gain a slight benefit from the crosspath.
[...] Acidic Mixture Dip stacking from multiple alchemists / stalling tactics too effectively lowered use of other lead counter options in a way we didn’t like, so the maximum stacks here without Permabrew has been reduced considerably.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Berserker Brew's Acidic Mixture Dip max number of stacks reduced from 200 to 40
39.0
“
Alchemist 220 stands out a little too effectively in the crosspath efficiency of Acidic Mixture Dip uptime combined with the reduced forced downtime at 320 and so is being reduced. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Berserker Brew's x-2-x crosspath pierce for AMD reduced from 13 to 12
41.0
“
Acidic Mixture Dip is a strong offender removing many weaknesses in the game for exceptionally low of a cost. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Berserker Brew's Acidic Mixture dip max stacks reduced from 40 to 30
42.0
“
As groups of Berserker Brew seem proportionally too good compared to upgrading to Stronger Stimulant in some cases, we are slightly shifting price down into T3, keeping the total price of Stronger Stimulant the same but adding up more if choosing to spam T3 Brews. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Berserker Brew price increased from $1,250 to $1,300
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
33.0
[Undocumented] Description changed from "Special brew gives Monkeys extra damage, range, and attack speed. Lasts longer." to "Throws special brew to nearby Monkeys giving them extra damage, range, and attack speed."
Berserker Brew giving a Spike Factory +2 pierce (w/ and w/o comparison)
Berserker Brew effect on a 0-1-1 Ice, demonstrating the bonus speed altering the x-1-x Ice freezing uptime
Berserker Brew effect on a 0-2-2 Ice, for comparison with 0-1-1
Without BBrew, FSCerams slightly inch forward of 4-1-0 between freezes, but with BBrew allows permafreeze
Enough XP to unlock Berserker Brew
Official artwork[]
Upgrade portrait
Upgrade icon
Instamonkey icon
Projectiles[]
Berserker Brew's brew potion
Trivia[]
Berserker Brew potions will appear as an orange splash upon impact on the target tower.
The in-game files for the brew sound effects imply that Berserker Brew was going to use those sound effects, but instead only Stronger Stimulant and Permanent Brew uses those sound effects.
Berserker Brew and other Alch buffs cannot buff other Alchemists.
The only upgrade portrait that clearly depicts the Acidic Mixture Dip chemicals aside from the Acidic Mixture Dip upgrade itself is Berserker Brew's upgrade portrait.
Ninja Kiwi Blogs[]
According to Ninja Kiwi's December 3rd 2021 blog, they describe Berserker Brew's taste as "RAGE INDUCING!!!!".
When asked on the 6th May 2022 blog about whether Berserker Brew is made of pickles, given the logic of Jar of Pickles adding damage, Ninja Kiwi stated that Berserker Brew contains ingredients for pickling.
According to Ninja Kiwi's 23rd June 2022 blog, Berserker Brew tastes similar to fruit juice.