Caltrops is the 2nd upgrade of Path 3 for the Ninja Monkey in Bloons TD Battles 2. Like its BTD6 counterpart, it drops caltrops that act like Spike Factory spikes. However, caltrops are reworked to become significantly slower but deal much more damage. Caltrops deploy ever 9s (1-0-2 decreases it to 5.6s, 5-0-2 down to 4.5s), and last up to 25 seconds. Caltrops have 6 pierce each and cannot be buffed by external pierce buffs. It is much cheaper than in BTD6.
Crosspathing interactions with Caltrops can improve its power. 1-0-2 and 5-0-2 increases attack speed. 3-0-2 increases caltrops damage from 3 to 5, and 5-0-2 additionally increasing Caltrops damage to 25 instead of 5.
Stockpiling damage from a Ninja Monkey is nice to have. It also gives a very slight DPS boost for the Ninja, especially during the early-game. It also helps clear out some stronger waves of bloons. Rely on the shurikens for the main source of popping, and caltrops for situational cleanup and burst damage.
Tips[]
1-0-2 also increases rate of dropping Caltrops.
Version History[]
Caltrops was well-known for its cause of high lag with Ninja loadouts, particularly in combination with the maxed Shinobis. It has been given a series of reworks that converted it into a slower-firing attack with high burst damage.
Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)
Released
1.0.4
xx2 Caltrops price decreased ($400 → $350)
1.0.6
xx2 Caltrops lifespan decreased (70s → 25s)
1.1.0
xx2 Caltrops price decreased ($350 → $300)
1.7.0
Gains Camo Prioritization.
3.1
xx2 Caltrops price decreased ($300 -> $250)
Overall price decrease is $100, due to base Ninja buff.
“
Ninja Monkey is a little bit lacking in early game popping power, only being effectively utilised when paired with another tower like an Alchemist. We have made some price cuts and improvements so that its early and unused upgrades are slightly better.
Note: Ninja Kiwi reduced the damage (40 -> 30) and increased the attack speed (2.8s -> 4.5s) of 502 caltrops before the update launched.
“
The basic Caltrops change has been made so that they can pack more of a punch, since previously they often got disregarded as being insignificant. Additionally, they were known for contributing towards lag, especially if you had lots of them, so hopefully the slower attack rate will offer a slight improvement in this area. For 5xx Grandmaster Ninja, we’ve made 2 interesting crosspath changes. [...] For the bottom crosspath, although already the preferred choice, we wanted to buff it up anyway so that 5xx would be stronger overall now, since previously it was often more efficient to buy multiple 4xx Bloonjitsu Ninjas instead of a 5xx. The 5xx upgrade provides more shuriken and higher damage on them, yet Caltrops did not benefit from either of these things, so it provided negligible damage relative to the shuriken. It has received a massive damage buff so that it can now scale up with the shuriken and play a greater role in Grandmaster Ninja’s overall firepower.
[..] As for Grandmaster Ninja, we liked giving the crosspaths much more utility in the previous update, however it needs some adjusting - Caltrops was a little bit too powerful and Distraction could not compete.
”
~ Ninja kiwi
3.3
Basic pierce increased from 2 to 3
Caltrops damage now increased with Double Shot and Bloonjitsu.
“
We have increased Ninja’s early-game potential since it stood out as a tower with relatively low DPS in the early game, always depending on another tower to deal the damage or to buff it. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
3.3.2
Caltrops: Caltrops can no longer receive any pierce buffs
4-0-2 Caltrops: caltrops damage 10 -> 5
“
Ninja Monkey has spiked up in popularity since the last update, with the Ninja + Alchemist combo standing out as overly strong in all stages of the game. We have made quite a few changes to address this, such as [...]. Caltrops no longer benefit from pierce buffs which nerfs their interaction with Alchemist’s buff, and Bloonjitsu’s caltrops have additionally been nerfed. Bloonjitsu already stood out as a super effective upgrade even in the late game (when surrounded by Shinobi buffs), so the added caltrops damage is unnecessary.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Gallery[]
Lots and lots of caltrops by bottom path Ninjas paired with Shinobi
xx2 Caltrops price decreased ($400 → $350)
xx2 Caltrops lifespan decreased (70s → 25s)
