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BTD6

Regularly sets a carpet of spikes over the whole track.
~ In-game description

Carpet of Spikes is the fifth and final upgrade of Path 2 for the Spike Factory in Bloons TD 6. It enhances the pierce and damage of all its spikes, its ordinary spike-dispensing attack is much faster and reaches further, and allows the Spike Factory to automatically shoot out Spike Storms every 15 seconds. The automatic "Carpet of Spikes" spike piles will last longer, and will continually maintain its ever so deadly spike carpet. Its original Spike Storm ability is still kept, and shares the same activation button as other Spike Storms on screen, but its own activated ability cannot be activated while the Carpet of Spikes is in the process of storming spikes. With 0-5-1 crosspath, all storm spikes that were passively or actively generated last for 30 seconds.

All spikes deal +7 damage to MOAB-class bloons, plus more base damage. Both the regular spikes and ability spikes deal 3 damage (10 to MOAB-class). Both the main ability spikes and passive ability spikes last for 18-22 seconds (27-33 seconds with 0-5-1) or 2 rounds, whichever comes first. All spikes gain +5 pierce, increasing to 10 pierce or 15 with 1-5-0. Regular spikes are now dispensed every 0.49s instead of 0.98s, on top of a base range increase from 34 to 50.

This upgrade costs $34,000 on Easy, $40,000 on Medium, $43,200 on Hard, and $48,000 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

Spikemiddle (5)

Carpet of Spikes triggering its passive ability

Carpet of Spikes expands the four vents on each corner of Spike Storm into four additional spike ports; these are purple with black metal surrounding them, and they each share the same swirling pattern of the main port. The main body itself also loses the metal bands near the port.

Taking inspiration from the BTD4 Spike Storm, the Carpet of Spikes regularly sets a thick carpet of spikes over the whole track. It regularly summons a passive Spike Storm ability: this version occurs every 15 seconds, and its spikes, along with those of its activated ability, last 18-22 seconds; they also still last between rounds.

Carpet of Spikes also increases the base spike damage by 2, on top of the extra MOAB-class damage acquired from previous tiers of upgrades, which totals to 10 MOAB-class damage per spike; its base attack speed also doubles (0.49s attack cooldown as opposed to 0.98s) and it gains +16 base attack range, for 50 total. The ability spikes, both passive and active, deal 3 damage, or 10 to MOAB-class. All spikes also gain +5 pierce, including those of the passive and active Spike Storms.

Note that the passive ability's cooldown is still considered ability cooldown; thus it can be buffed by Energizer, but not speed buffs like Jungle Drums.

As with Spike Storm, Smart Spikes increases ability spike lifespan by 50%, causes the ability to only target active lanes, and allows the ability to receive 4x attack speed if it triggers within 3 seconds of the start of a round.

Targeting Priorities[]

Carpet of Spikes defaults on Normal targeting priority, which dispenses the spikes onto nearby bloon track in a semi-sporadical behavior. If given Smart Spikes, it will also receive Close, Far, and Smart.

  • Normal: Targets spike piles in a somewhat sporadical way, spreading spikes as evenly as possible within its range.
  • Close: Targets the closest region(s) of track within range.
  • Far: Targets the furthest region(s) of track within range.
  • Smart: Prioritizes the track with the Bloon the farthest through it, then targets the spot on that track closest to the exit.

Spike Storm's active and passive abilities are targeted across the whole screen and on the track. With 0-5-2, the tracks targeted are reduced to only the active lanes.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 40.0
Base stats
  • Spike Pile:
    • Lobbed spike pile, sharp type, detects and deploys on nearby track, 50 range, 0.49s attack cooldown, 3 damage, 7 bonus MOAB-class damage (10 MOAB-class damage), 10 pierce. Lifespan of 50s.
  • Passive Storm Spike Pile:
    • Lobbed spike pile, sharp type, detects and deploys on all available track, infinite range, 0.005s non-buffable attack cooldown, 3 damage, 7 bonus MOAB-class damage (10 MOAB-class damage), 10 pierce. Occurs every 15s, spike pile lifespan of 18-22s.
Ability stats
  • Active Storm Spike Pile:
    • Lobbed spike pile, sharp type, detects and deploys on all available track, infinite range, 0.005s non-buffable attack cooldown, 3 damage, 7 bonus MOAB-class damage (10 MOAB-class damage), 10 pierce. Ability duration of 1s, cooldown of 45s, spike pile lifespan of 18-22s.
Crosspathing interactions
  • 1-5-0: Pierce of Spike Pile, Passive Storm Spike Pile, and Storm Spike Pile increased from 10 to 15.
  • 2-5-0: Damage type of Spike Pile, Passive Storm Spike Pile, and Active Storm Spike Pile changed from sharp to normal.
  • 0-5-1: Lifespan of Spike Pile increased from 50s to 100s, and lifespan of Passive Storm Spike Pile and Active Storm Spike Pile increased by 50%.
  • 0-5-2: At the start of a round, Spike Pile attack is 4x faster (0.245s) for 3s, does not affect Passive Storm Spike Pile or Active Spike Pile. Passive Storm Spike Pile and Active Storm Spike Pile only targets currently active lanes.

Attack Interactions[]

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Support
Updated as of Version 40.0
Base attack(s)
  • Spike Pile
    • Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal
    • Also affects Camo Bloons Camo Detection
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • On-Track (stays onto track until depleted or expired) On Track
    • On-Track Spike (lasts for up to 50s or 1 round, whichever comes first) Spike
    • Lobbed Throw Lobbed Throw
    • Erratic Movement (moves straight in any direction within its range, directed onto any nearby track) Erratic Movement
    • Extra damage versus MOAB-class Bloons (+4 -> +8) Extra Damage to Blimps (+7)
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (1 -> 4) Extra Damage (3)
  • Passive Storm Spike Pile
    • Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal
    • Also affects Camo Bloons Camo Detection
    • On-Track (stays onto track until depleted or expired) On Track
    • On-Track Spike (lasts for up to 20s or 2 round, whichever comes first) Spike
    • Lobbed Throw Lobbed Throw
    • Full Map Range (unspecified description of how the tower can attack beyond basic range) Beyond Range
    • Erratic Movement (moves straight in any unrestricted direction, directed onto any nearby track) Erratic Movement
    • Extra damage versus MOAB-class Bloons (+8) Extra Damage to Blimps (+7)
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (1 -> 3) Extra Damage (3)
Abilities
  • Storm Spike Pile
    • Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal
    • Also affects Camo Bloons Camo Detection
    • On-Track (stays onto track until depleted or expired) On Track
    • On-Track Spike (lasts for up to 20s or 2 round, whichever comes first) Spike
    • Lobbed Throw Lobbed Throw
    • Full Map Range (unspecified description of how the tower can attack beyond basic range) Beyond Range
    • Erratic Movement (moves straight in any unrestricted direction, directed onto any nearby track) Erratic Movement
    • Extra damage versus MOAB-class Bloons (+8) Extra Damage to Blimps (+7)
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (1 -> 3) Extra Damage (3)

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 (X-5-X) $34,000 $40,000 $43,200 $48,000 -
Total (0-5-0) $42,415 $49,900 $53,895 $59,880 $29,691 $34,930 $37,727 $41,916
Crosspath (1-5-0) $43,095 $50,700 $54,760 $60,840 $30,167 $35,490 $38,332 $42,588
Crosspath (2-5-0) $43,605 $51,300 $55,410 $61,560 $30,524 $35,910 $38,787 $43,092
Crosspath (0-5-1) $42,540 $50,050 $54,055 $60,060 $29,778 $35,035 $37,839 $42,042
Crosspath (0-5-2) $42,880 $50,450 $54,485 $60,540 $30,016 $35,315 $38,140 $42,378

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: FirstLineOfDefenseIcon First Last Line of Defense, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Carpet of Spikes is specifically designed for widespread area damage, and its main strength comes from regularly spreading high-damage spikes across the map to severely weaken MOAB-class bloons, especially strong singular bloons. Its main weakness comes from wasting damage on much weaker bloons; try to pair it with towers specifically designed to counter weaker bloons, especially versus Super Ceramics. Provided it is supported by effective Super Ceramic counters, Carpet of Spikes is a strong option for high damage to high-HP blimps as well as general blimp damage. It is exceptionally high DPS for its cost at single-target damage, especially on single-blimp rounds such as Round 100.

Tips[]

  • It is often best to go for Path 1 instead of Path 3, as the Bigger Stacks upgrade greatly increases the total general popping power of Carpet of Spikes by about +50% from base pierce. Not only that, but White Hot Spikes can also be bought to pop DDTs. This is generally more important than the benefits provided from Long Reach or Smart Spikes, although 0-5-1 has the lead for total stockpiling potential.
    • With that said, a 0-5-1 Carpet of Spikes will almost always have two-layers of spikes on the field.
    • 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes perform significantly better on multi-lane maps that contain alternating lanes, with best examples being Muddy Puddles and Bloody Puddles, but this loses out on the White Hot Spikes upgrade for the cheap lead-popping. Add MIB or Gwendolin to allow a 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes to affect DDTs.
  • Although Carpet of Spikes ability spikes deal a great amount of base damage in addition to extra MOAB-class damage, Carpet of Spikes isn't very reliable at general bloon types. It is usually better to go for multiple Spike Storms, as using many more Spike Storms is usually more efficient against MOAB-class bloons than a single Carpet of Spikes for the total price.
    • However, Carpet of Spikes is much more reliable versus Super Ceramics compared to an equivalent number of Spike Storms.
  • Due to its expertise towards shredding MOAB-class bloons, pair a Carpet of Spikes with cleanup options on weaker bloons, preferably those that specialize at crowd control; this is so that the special spike carpets becomes less wasted on regular bloons.
    • Good anti-bloon popping power includes The Bloon Solver, The Biggest One, or Prince of Darkness. Likewise, Spirit of the Forest's widespread vines serve a similar role to Carpet of Spikes but focused as a cleanup option on weaker bloons, nicely fulfilling the roles of each other
    • Superstorm's blowback to all non-BAD bloon types controls the progression of bloons throughout the track. This helps more evenly spread damage across the entire track as well as stopping a number of bloons from reaching too far along the track.
  • The special "Carpet of Spikes" passive ability is considered an automatically activated ability, so it is affected by the cooldown reductions of Energizer, for a faster rate of carpet production.
  • The activated ability and passive ability cannot benefit from attack speed buffs. It is better to provide damage buffs.
  • Similarly to high-projectile towers like The Tack Zone, Carpet of Spikes benefits hugely from buffs from Pat Fusty's Rallying Roar or from any bloon debuff towers like Super Brittle or Cripple MOAB. This is because each individual spike counts as a single hit, so a single spike pile counts for multiple hits, and therefore a spike pile's total damage can be highly amplified with bloon debuffs.
  • Like Spike Storm, Carpet of Spikes has a great synergy with Call To Arms and Homeland Defense, as it gains a considerably high overall DPS, despite not receiving attack speed boosts for its abilities. However, Carpet of Spikes has a greater synergy with these towers by amplifying its main attack greater.
  • In terms of potential versus Boss Bloons in Ranked Boss Races, Carpet of Spikes works best versus Normal T1 Reality Warper Phayze, provided its spikes can reach Phayze across multiple stages of the map. Phayze doesn't produce minions, and its lack of any gimmicks aside from camo and movement, which Carpet of Spikes can take advantage of. Carpet of Spikes is also fairly effective against Gravelord Lych for similar reasons, assuming that Resurrected Blimps do not approach too far along the track.
  • Carpet of Spikes does better the less track space there is on a map. This is because it is forced to shoot all of its spikepiles onto the track and thus can create a more dense spike pile if there isn't a lot of track area. This also means it's more likely to use all of its spike piles, since the bloons don't have to go as far to get hit by all of them.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Carpet of Spikes has been buffed overall, with primary intention of converting it into a much stronger automatically generating Spike Storm. While still considered less efficient than multiple Spike Storms at handling MOAB-class bloons, Carpet of Spikes has now received purpose in certain niche scenarios. It wouldn't be until Version 31.0 when Carpet of Spikes would start to receive a steady flow of damage and pierce buffs which has made it more worth it over multiple Spike Storms. Version 40.0 slightly toned back its power in order to not dominate over options but still keep its power.

4.0
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes now send automatic Spike Storms every 20 seconds instead of sending only one Spike Storm immediately per round.
  • NERF Spikes from the automated Spike Storm are no longer permanent.
7.0
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes price reduced ($50,000 → $42,000).
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes abilities now deals +1 damage to MOAB-class compared to normal spikes (as intended).
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes now (correctly) deals +1 damage to MOAB-class, including ability.
8.0
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes deals more damage to MOAB-class (5 → 6).
20.0
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes now correctly deals +2 damage instead of +1 damage.
21.0
Since launch xx2 has never brought enough to the table as a crosspath. Working into the long life trend of the bottom path we felt that introducing longer life at a 'cross-pathable stage' may work in some new niche. [...] Along with this we made a couple small tweaks buffing what should be the 'strength areas' of a few of the more underperforming high tier Spike upgrades
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes main ability spikes and passive ability spikes now lasts 50% longer with Long Reach.
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes passive cooldown decreased (20s → 15s).
22.0
[...] We have also made changes to give more purpose to 042 Spike Storm and allowed x5x Carpet of Spikes to save its cooldown so it is no longer required to avoid saving to be used in reliable strategies.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Smart Spikes crosspath and Carpet of Spikes
  • NERF Base projectile lifespan reduced from 70s to 50s.
  • BUFF 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes ability now only targets active lanes.
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes save cooldown of passive ability when saving.
23.0
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes price reduced ($42,000 → $40,000).
  • BUFF Spike Factory attack speed increased (0.99s → 0.98s).
27.0
Due to a number of performance concerns, the ability for the Spike Storm factory will no longer be able to benefit from a denser storm of spikes via stacking speed buffs on the base tower.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Spike Storm
  • NERF Carpet of Spikes active ability and passive ability no longer benefit from increases to rate of fire.
29.0
While we feel speed interactions for Spike Storm was a necessary evil for performance related concerns, we did not want to kill off self synergy contained local to the tower, so we are trying out an exception to this rule for the 042 crosspath. Additionally, due to the large annoyance in using spike storm in bosses due to the persistent rounds a boss will last for, Spike Storm will now be allowed to carry over one round before being cleaned up.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Spike Storm
  • BUFF 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes now increases attack speed with the Smart Spikes' start-of-round functionality
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes main ability spikes and passive ability spikes now both carry over one extra round.
31.0
To help make the tradeoff of building one T5 over multiple T4 not be as hard a choice, the basic attack on Carpet of Spikes has had power increased significantly over rate, range & damage.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes base range increased from 34 → 50
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes main damage increased from 3 → 4. MOAB-class damage increased from 7 to 8.
    • Note: This only affected main attack but not the ability
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes main attack delay reduced 0.98s → 0.33s
35.0
[...] Carpet of Spikes still fails to see love over multiple T4's, so rather than making it cheaper we like an all-round increase to the MOAB bonus.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes base attack MOAB-class bonus increased +4 → +5
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes passive ability MOAB-class bonus increased +4 → +5
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes ability MOAB-class bonus increased +4 → +5
38.0
[...] A flat pierce increase is added on to middle T5’s base attack to reduce crosspath dependency & improve r100 strength. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes regular and ability spikes now gain +5 pierce
    • Ninja Kiwi claims it only affects the main attack, but testing shows that the +5 pierce also affects ability and passive spikes too.
39.0
The mid spike factory by many players has been ignored outside of few very specific situations for a long time and after fixing some issues, mainly a bug with the shotgunning of projectiles as they spawn, we’re trying a large power increase to more effectively balance the Shredder for its MOAB Damage purpose.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF Carpet of Spikes attack cooldown increased (0.33s → 0.49s)
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes bonus damage to MOAB-class increased (+5 → +9)
  • BUFF Carpet of Spikes ability bonus to MOAB-class increased (+5 → +9)
  • NERF All Spike Factory spikes no longer can damage bloons for exactly 1 frame after being created from the spawning origin.
40.0
[...] Similar to Mortar it’s great to see the fresh love for middle path Spike Factory, however as they are feeling exceptionally good now for the intended pure MOAB damage role we want to cut it back very slightly so it doesn’t stay quite so crazy over our holiday break.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF Carpet of Spikes base attack and ability bonus MOAB-class damage reduced (+9 → +8)
  • NERF Carpet of Spikes main attack damage reduced (4 → 3)
41.0
Middle spactory buffs were a fair amount overdone, cutting back more on this.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF Carpet of Spikes base spike bonus MOAB-class damage reduced from +8 to +7
  • NERF Spike Storm ability cooldown increased from 40s to 45s
  • NERF Carpet of Spikes bonus MOAB-class damage reduced from +8 to +7

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

4.0
  • Change Description changed from "Sets a carpet of spikes over the whole map, every round." into "Regularly sets a carpet of spikes over the whole track."

Extra Notes (Version History)[]

  • In Version 40.0, Ninja Kiwi made a note about Carpet of Spikes, "x5x Carpet of Spikes all is how it should be". This is their vague statement that the Carpet of Spikes affecting ability spikes was kept, despite unintentionally also affecting the ability rather than just the main attack as they claimed.

Sounds[]

When activating Spike Storm ability or activating its passive ability:

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • This upgrade, before Version 4.0, formerly allowed the Spike Factory to automatically send a more powerful Spike Storm before every round starts. These spikes would last until the round ends.
  • This upgrade is similar to the Spike Storm upgrade in BTD4.
    • This was not the case before the 4.0 update.
    • It is also equally as fast but lasts longer than in BTD4.
    • Since the Spike Factory retains its regular Spike Storm ability as well, it essentially combines the BTD4 and BTD5 variants.
  • The Version 20.0 buff to Carpet of Spikes was listed as a bug fix rather than a balance change in the official Version 20.0 patch notes, but due to its significance it has made Carpet of Spikes considerably stronger overall.
  • On Logs CHIMPS, a 2-5-0 Carpet of Spikes can solo all of the camo bloons as of Version 20.0, leading to specific 3TC combos to be possible. Carpet of Spikes eventually completed its first 2TC combo in Version 21.0 with both the buffs to Prince of Darkness and Carpet of Spikes.
  • The Version 21.0 buff by increasing the automatic spike storm rate to 15 seconds cooldown makes the Carpet of Spikes attack a little more similar to the BTD4 counterpart.
  • Version 38.0's flat +5 spike pierce buff for Carpet of Spikes slightly resembles the BTD4 Spike Storm, in which there are 10 spikes per pile produced in the storm of spikes, and the Version 38.0 non-crosspathed Carpet of Spikes roughly resembles the pierce values of the BTD4 Spike Storm.
  • Carpet of Spike's passive ability is considered an automatically activating ability. The attack is basically an ability wrapped in a ActivateAbilityAfterIntervalModel.
  • The upgrade icon for Carpet of Spikes is a reference to the BTD4 Spike Storm's upgrade icon, which features a similar set of glowing spikes pointing almost uniformly towards the bottom-left. Likewise applies for the passive ability mechanics, and has gained buffs that made Carpet of Spikes more and more similar to the BTD4 Spike Storm.
  • This is the only Tier 5 Spike Factory that is not slower than the base tower. In fact, it is the only Tier 5 Spike Factory throughout the entire franchise to attack faster than its predecessors.
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