Bomb Shooter (BTDB2)

Pre-BTD6

BTD6

Bloons Pop!

BTDB2

Bomb Shooter
General Information
Game	Bloons TD Battles 2 (v1.0)
Release Date	November 30, 2021 (11:00 AM UTC)
Class	Primary Monkey
Unlocked at	Unlocked by default
Cost	$525
Activated Ability(s)	MOAB Assassin MOAB Eliminator
Targeting Options	First, Last, Close, Strong
Hotkey	Depends on loadout (W, E, R)
Other Names	Bomb, Cannon
Statistics
Damage	1
Pierce	14
Attack Speed	Moderately Slow (every 1.5s)
Range	40
Status Effects	N/A
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Camo Detection	Limited (x-x-5 passive)
Footprint	Medium (7)
Default Damage Type	Explosion
Related Towers
Bomb Tower (BTD5), for the BTD5 counterpart Bomb Shooter (BTD6), for the BTD6 counterpart

“	Launches a powerful bomb at the Bloons. Slow rate of fire but affects a radius around the explosion.	”
	~ In-game Description

The Bomb Shooter is a Primary-class tower released in the initial release of Bloons TD Battles 2. It is the Battles version of the Bloons TD 6 Bomb Shooter (refer on this page). It is unlocked when first starting the game, alongside Dart Monkey, Tack Shooter, and the hero, Quincy.

It uses slow firing, heavy bombs which deal area damage and naturally pop Lead Bloons. However, the base tower is useless against Black, Zebra, and DDTs due to their immunity to explosions, and it possesses the major weakness of having no upgrades that give Camo Detection to its main attack. Interestingly, both the Bloon Crush and MOAB Eliminator can directly pop Black Bloons with their explosions without need for Striker Jones Level 5+ or a MIB. Additionally, the Frag Bombs upgrade allows all explosions to pop Black properties, even with its subsequent upgrades.

Bomb Shooters fire exploding bombs every 1.5s with a blast radius of 12. Bomb explosions pop up to 14 bloons each. Bomb Shooter can be upgraded to improve its explosive power, its respective paths granting massive bloon-stunning explosions, fast firing MOAB-destroying missiles, and clusters of grouped-popping explosions.

The base price for Bomb Shooter is $525. It is unlocked by default, unlocking all upgrades up to Tier 4, plus another 1500 (or $2.99 USD) to unlock all its Tier 5 upgrades.

Description

The Bomb Shooter in Bloons TD Battles 2 is similar in appearance and upgrade progression to its Bloons TD 6 counterpart. Just like in the preceding games, it shoots somewhat slowly, shooting one bomb at a time with a small explosion. Like in BTD4 and BTD5, the base Bomb Shooter takes on the appearance of a traditional renaissance-style cannon with two wooden wheels, one on each side.

Compared to previous games, it now has considerably less popping power per explosion, though that pop limit change is less significant compared to other towers, such as that for the Ice Tower/Ice Monkey and Bloontonium Reactor, which previously had infinite pierce in BTD5 and earlier BTD games.

The first upgrade path for the Bomb Shooter deals with the size and quality of the bombs, eventually allowing the bombs to stun and push back bloons. Bigger Bombs increases blast radius and pierce of the explosions, while Heavy Bombs lets bombs deal extra damage to bloons. The Really Big Bombs combines the stat bonuses of the first two upgrades to produce huge damaging explosions that deal more damage and pop many more bloons. Bloon Impact allows stunning of bloons and popping of any bloon type, while the Bloon Crush upgrade can stun blimps and stuns regular bloons for much longer.

The second path makes the Bomb Shooter shoot missiles that can be made to deal more damage to MOAB-Class bloons. The Faster Reload upgrade increases attack speed of the Bomb Shooter by a fair amount. Like the earlier versions, Missile Launcher increases projectile speed, attack speed, and range of the Bomb Shooter, although it does not grant extra pierce. MOAB Mauler and MOAB Assassin upgrades both deal extra damage to blimps and ceramics, while the MOAB Assassin upgrade grants an ability to instantly deal extra damage to the strongest blimp. MOAB Eliminator increases that ability to deal even more damage with a shorter cooldown.

The third path deals with the quantity of the bombs and bombs that split into other bombs. The first two upgrades both provide extra range, with Extra Range providing purely extra range and Frag Bombs coming with a spray of 8 sharp fragments. Cluster Bombs changes the fragments into extra explosions for wider damage coverage, while Recursive Cluster allows those extra explosions to spray out extra explosions every other shot. Bomb Blitz increases damage plus the potential to deploy a global range explosion if bloons leak or lives are lost.

Bomb Shooter is a Primary Monkey.

Target Priorities

The base Bomb Shooter uses the standard target priorities: First, Last, Close, Strong.

• 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.

MOAB Assassin and MOAB Eliminator abilities will always target on Strong, and Bomb Blitz's passive ability lacks a noticeable target priority because of its true infinite pierce and whole screen effects.

Upgrades

Path 1

	Bigger Bombs COST: $350 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Shoots larger bombs, they have a larger blast area and more popping power. Effect: Explosions have much greater blast area (12 to 18) and pop +6 bloons.

	Heavy Bombs COST: $650 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Heavy duty bombs can smash through 2 layers of Bloon at once and pop more Bloons. Effect: Explosions deal +1 damage and pop an additional +10 pierce. However, secondary clusters only gain +6 pierce.

	Really Big Bombs COST: $1,200 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Huge bombs deal greater damage in a large area and allow Frags to pop more Bloons. Effect: Explosions have even greater blast area (18 to 27), deal 3 damage instead of 2, and +20 pierce. With Frag Bombs, increases the amount of frags by 4 to a total of 12 and improves frag pierce by 1, damage by 3, and lifespan by +10%.

	Bloon Impact COST: $3,600 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Explosions become so violent Bloons are stunned for a short time when they are hit. Range is increased and frags are even more effective. Effect: Explosions stun affected bloons for 1.0s. Gains +3 range. With Frag Bombs, further increases the amount of frags by 4 to a total of 16 and lifespan by a further +20%.

	Bloon Crush COST: $55,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (T5 unlocks)
	Description: Bloon shattering explosions do massive damage and can stun MOAB class Bloons. Effect: Explosions deal even more damage, pop Black properties, and stun both MOAB-class and bloons for 1.75s. With Frag Bombs, frags deals 30 damage, pierce increased to 20.

Path 2

	Faster Reload COST: $250 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Reloads faster. Effect: Attacks +33% faster (0.75x attack cooldown).

	Missile Launcher COST: $400 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Exchanges bombs for missiles, which fire faster, fly faster, and increase range. Effect: Attacks +25% faster (0.80x attack cooldown) on top of the previous upgrade, gains +4 range, and gains extra projectile speed.

	MOAB Mauler COST: $900 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: MOAB Maulers do much more damage to MOAB class Bloons. Effect: Explosions deal 19 damage to MOAB-class. Also gains +5 range.

	MOAB Assassin COST: $3,200 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Assassinate MOAB ability: Special missile does massive damage to MOAB-class Bloons. Attack range and MOAB-class damage also increased. Effect: Ability targets the strongest blimp on screen and deals an instant 750 damage to the target. Main attack deals 31 damage to MOAB-class and 5 damage to Ceramics, and gains +5 range.

	MOAB Eliminator COST: $25,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (T5 unlocks)
	Description: Assassinate ability does 6x damage with a short cooldown. Effect: Ability targets the strongest blimp on screen and deals an instant 4500 damage to the target with 3x faster ability cooldown. Main attack deals 200 damage to MOAB-class and damages Black properties.

Path 3

	Extra Range COST: $200 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Increases attack range. Effect: Gains +7 range.

	Frag Bombs COST: $300 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Explosions throw sharp fragments that can pop more Bloons including Black Bloons. Effect: Explosions produce sharp fragments that pop up to 1 bloon each. Frags and explosions can also pop Black Bloons. Improves frags with higher-level Path 1 upgrades.

	Cluster Bombs COST: $900 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Throws out secondary bombs instead of sharp fragments every shot. Effect: Each main bomb explosion produces secondary explosion that pop up to 8 bloons per secondary explosion. Secondary explosions cannot hit the same targets more than once, but the main explosion and secondary clusters can hit the same bloon, up to twice. Can pop Black Bloons.

	Recursive Cluster COST: $3,200 UNLOCK: Default
	Description: Every second shot the cluster bombs send out more cluster bombs for even more destruction. Effect: Every second shot, each bomb explodes up to three times, the third explosions are duplicates of the secondary explosions but much larger blast radius, and pops up to 48 bloons per tertiary cluster. Can pop Black Bloons.

Bomb Blitz COST: $38,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (T5 unlocks)

Description: Deals much more damage and, when lives are lost, the Bomb Storm automatically triggers, which destroys all but the biggest bloons. Effect: Deals 5 damage per explosion, pops Black Bloons, creates recursive explosions every shot, and gains a passive ability that deals an instant 3000 damage on screen and wipes out MOABs and below if bloons leak or lives are lost, without losing lives if the passive ability is triggered.

Total Costs

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	350	650	1,200	3,600	55,000
	Cumulative Cost	875	1,525	2,725	6,325	61,325
	Base Sell	245	455	840	2,520	38,500
	Cumulative Sell	613	1,068	1,908	4,428	42,928
Path 2
	Base Cost	250	400	1,100	3,200	25,000
	Cumulative Cost	775	1,175	2,275	5,475	30,475
	Base Sell	175	280	770	2,240	17,500
	Cumulative Sell	543	823	1,593	3,833	21,333
Path 3
	Base Cost	200	300	800	2,800	38,000
	Cumulative Cost	725	1,025	1,825	4,625	42,625
	Base Sell	140	210	560	1,960	26,600
	Cumulative Sell	508	718	1,278	3,238	29,838

Strategy

Summary

Bomb Shooters are proficient at demolishing non-camo bloons of various types. It has a rather sluggish early-game but scales immensely once it gains its true power during the mid-to-late-game. As a group-popping excel with slow attack speed and no practical camo detection, it is best paired with a tower that is capable of dealing with Camos. Bomb is greatly used in the strategy Bomb-Sub-Farm, in addition to other Bomb-centric strategies.

Generally speaking, Bomb Shooter is best paired with Striker Jones or Biker Bones, but it also works great with the Jerichos when used as a part of a healthy three-tower loadout. The Bomb isn't entirely reliant on heroes to become viable, but has high synergy with the two Jones due to the various buffs that these heroes provide. Alternatively, Etienne can be used to provide Camo Detection and an ability to ignore black bloons property.

Tips

• Most maps where Bomb are strong are dependent on the Cluster Bombs viability on those maps.
• MOAB Assassin can be sold and re-bought to instantly refresh its ability.

Further Strategies

• Strategies
  • General Strategy
  • Optimization Strategy
  • Countermeasures Strategy

Monkey Mastery

Monkey Mastery is unlocked once all of its upgrades are unlocked. Monkey Mastery gives customization which is purchased using XP and Monkey Money. Has a total of 9 customizations available.

Item	Type	Description	Cost	Notes
Assemble!	Placement Animation	Primed and ready for action.	600 75,000	Drops Bomb Shooter in a rolling motion from the bottom up. Wheels stick up followed by erecting the head of the cannon to the usual frontal direction.
Mauler Incoming!	Emote	MOABs watch out!	160 20,000	MOAB Mauler missile zooming in the sky and whooshing leftwards.
Lit Fuse	Bloon Decal	Time is running out.	200 30,000	Adds a lit fuse to bloons. The lit fuse is pointing rightwards and glowing at the end.
Mauler MOAB Skin	MOAB Skin	Ironic isn't it?	300 40,000	Player-sent MOABs now look like blue-colored MOAB Mauler missiles.
BOOM!	Avatar Icon	Here comes the MOAB Assassin.	300 40,000	Contrary to the description, this is a MOAB Eliminator on top of a white pow icon with the word "BOOM" in comically positioned positionings, plus a comic background.
Stunt Monkey	Idle Animation	What a dare devil!	450 60,000	Stunt Monkey in a modern racing costume and crash helmet peeks out of base of Bomb Shooter. Doesn't occur if the Bomb Shooter is considered a Missile Launcher.
Named Bomb Shooters	Custom Names	Name your Bomb Shooters!	300 40,000	Default name is Meg.
Self Destruct	Sell Animation	We can't allow the bloons to capture monkey technology.	240 30,000	Bomb Shooters automatically break apart before dissipating into the ground. Missile-launching Bomb Shooters shoot a missile to explode their own bases instead.
Cartoon Explosions	Trail Effect	BANG! POW! BOOM!	450 60,000	Explosions produce various comic explosions with no transparency, plus some colored text. Text includes "BOOM!", "BANG!", "POP!", "KAPOW!", "BOINK!", and "CRASH!".

Version History

Balance Changes

Initially, the Bomb Shooter was considered to be one of the worst towers in the entire game due to its frag bombs upgrade not giving black popping power and thus making Bomb starts incredibly difficult. However, after a few buffs and giving its old black popping power back, it has become stronger than it’s Battles 1 counterpart. Interestingly enough however, it is less popular by a fair amount. In fact, despite it’s strength, it is relatively underutilized, potentially because other meta strategies has overshadowed it and also because of it's lack of versatility on a good chunk of maps. Nonetheless, it’s reliable and cheap midgame defense is considered to be incredibly valuable and is one of the easier ways to defend against rushes, and a skilled player can defend with Bomb as their main tower for up to round 32 before spaced Fortified BADs have too much health to handle alone. The most common Bomb loadouts are Bomb-Sub-Farm and Bomb-Village-Farm, and the hero choice is almost always Striker Jones due to him specializing specifically with them. Ezili can be used to trigger Bomb Blitz with her totem, but this is not a popular strategy.

Initial release (compared to BTD6 Version 28.0)

• Bomb Shooter cost increase ($525 → $600)
• Recursive Cluster cost increased ($2,800 → $3,200)
• Cluster Bombs damage type change from Explosive to Normal is not applied, remaining Explosive.
• Recursive Cluster damage type change from Explosive to Normal is not applied, remaining Explosive.
• Clusters of Cluster Bomb and Recursive Cluster explosions only each count as one explosion and not groups of eight.

1.0.6

• MOAB Eliminator base MOAB-class damage increased (100 --> 130)

1.1.0

• Base projectile speed increased (180 → 240)
• Base tower cost reduced ($600 → 525)

1.1.1

• Frag Bombs and above bomb damage type changed (Explosive → Normal)
• Bloon Crush damage increased (20 → 30)

1.3.0

• Really Big Bombs frag damage increased (1 → 3)
• Really Big Bombs frag count increased (8 → 12)
• Bloon Impact frag pierce increased (1? → 2?)
• Bloon Impact frag count increased (8 → 16)
• Bloon Crush frag's bonus ceramic damage increased (0? → 12?)
• Bloon Crush frag pierce increased (3 → 20)

1.4.1

• Cluster Bombs: $800 → $900.
• MOAB Mauler: Bonus ceramic damage reduced from 1 → 0.

1.5.0

• Bloon Crush stun duration decreased (2 seconds → 1.75 seconds)
• Cluster Bomb secondary bombs' pierce reduced (10 → 8)

1.8.0

• Bomb Blitz: Passive ability damage 2k → 3k.
• Bomb Blitz: No longer requires you to leak a life in order to activate its passive ability.

2.0

• MOAB Eliminator: MOAB class damage from regular attack increased 130 → 200.

3.2.4

• 2-0-3 Cluster Bombs: clusters pierce is increased by 10 → 6 (total pierce 24 → 20)

“	Cluster Bombs has always stood out as a top tier early-mid game tower, leaving very little room for effective rushes against it on certain maps. We have decided to limit the pierce increase that 2xx gives to the clusters since it’s an extremely efficient upgrade, providing a big pierce bonus on top of extra damage.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

4.1

• 5-0-2 Bloon Crush: frags damage increased from 12 → 30
• 5-0-2 Bloon Crush: frags bonus ceramic damage removed (12 → 0)

“	A small adjustment to crosspath balancing to make this option a little bit more enticing.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

4.2

• Bomb Blitz: cost increased $35,000 → $38,000

“	Bomb Blitz is a great option to effectively deal with large rushes like tight MOABs and grouped DDTs. We have upped the price a bit so that it will be a bit more costly to keep on buying and selling it for its ability.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

Bug Fixes and General Changes

1.0.2

• TBA

4.0.3

• Added missing period in MOAB Mauler's description.

Gallery

Lots of 0-0-0 Bombs

Official Artwork

Tower portrait

Trivia

• For the update 1.8.0 Bomb Blitz balance change, it went live in that update, but was not reflected in the patch notes until update 1.9.0.
• Bomb Shooter has had the lowest amount of balance changes done out of any tower.