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BTD6

Throws out secondary bombs instead of sharp fragments every shot.
~ In-game description

Cluster Bombs is the third upgrade of Path 3 for the Bomb Shooter in Bloons TD 6. Instead of fragments (from the Frag Bombs upgrade), each bomb produces 8 secondary explosions. Individual clusters and the main explosion both count as individual explosions, potentially hitting the same bloon up to 9 times. Positions of these clusters may change slightly between each other, but they are fairly consistent overall. Each secondary explosion pops up to 8 bloons (14 with Bigger Bombs and 24 with Heavy Bombs) and has a blast radius of 15 (22.5 with Bigger Bombs). These secondary explosions are actually larger than the main explosions. Cluster Bombs do not pop Black Bloon properties.

This upgrade costs $680 on Easy, $800 on Medium, $865 on Hard, and $960 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

Clusterburst

Several clusters from a Cluster Bombs

This upgrade recolors the cannon from black to a light green base and a thinner yellow barrel. The reinforce gains two bands around it.

With path 1 crosspathing, the base gains 1 or 2 dark red stripes. The Bigger Bombs crosspath adds a dark red stripe at the bottom of the nozzle. Heavy Bombs adds another dark red stripe, situated at the posterior of the cannon.

With path 2 crosspathing, the base gains fins (via Faster Reload) and turns light grey (via Missile Launcher).

Cluster Bombs causes every bomb to produce 8 smaller additional explosions, each dealing 1 damage with 10 pierce in an Orbital Spray. Explosions have a blast radius of 15. The cluster explosions gain as much pierce and damage from path 1 crosspathing as the main explosion. Additionally, Bigger Bombs increases their blast radius from 15 to 22.5, or 50%.

Targeting Priorities[]

Cluster Bombs 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.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 40.0
Base stats
  • Bomb:
    • Projectile, explosion type, 49 range, 1.5s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 14 pierce. Blast radius of 12.
    • Upon collision, release burst of 8 Clusters in a radial formation with minor projectile deviation.
  • Cluster:
    • Burst, explosion type, 15 blast radius, 1 damage, 8 pierce.
Crosspathing interactions
  • 1-0-3:
    • Bomb pierce increased from 14 to 20, blast radius from 12 to 18.
    • Cluster pierce increased from 8 to 14, blast radius from 15 to 22.5.
  • 2-0-3:
    • Bomb pierce increased from 20 to 30, damage increased to 2.
    • Cluster pierce increased from 14 to 24, damage increased to 2.
  • 0-1-3:
    • Bomb attack cooldown reduced (1.5s → 1.125s)
  • 0-2-3:
    • Bomb changed to Missile, attack cooldown reduced (1.5s → 1.125s → 0.875s), and projectile speed increased.
Monkey Knowledge interactions

Attack Interactions[]

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Primary
Updated as of Version 36.0
Base attack(s)
  • 1° Bomb:
    • Explosion Type (pops White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Explosion
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • Area of Effect Area of Effect
  • 2° Bombs:
    • Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal
    • Orbital Spray (spray of 8) Orbital Spray (8)
    • Burst (Bursts upon primary bomb explosion) Burst
    • Area of Effect Area of Effect

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-X-3) $680 $800 $865 $960 -
Total (0-0-3) $1,550 $1,825 $1,970 $2,190 $1,085 $1,278 $1,379 $1,533
Crosspath (1-0-3) $1,845 $2,175 $2,350 $2,610 $1,292 $1,523 $1,645 $1,827
Crosspath (2-0-3) $2,395 $2,825 $3,050 $3,390 $1,677 $1,978 $2,135 $2,373
Crosspath (0-1-3) $1,760 $2,075 $2,240 $2,490 $1,232 $1,453 $1,568 $1,743
Crosspath (0-2-3) $2,100 $2,475 $2,670 $2,970 $1,470 $1,733 $1,869 $2,079

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: BudgetClustersIcon Budget Clusters, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Cluster Bombs is an effective early-game option for destroying dense groups of bloons. Cluster Bombs usually performs better than Really Big Bombs in most situations, because the combination of all its secondary explosions cover a wider blast radius while occasionally overlapping damage to the same bloon(s), dealing a lot of damage versus weaker and stronger bloons. In addition, Cluster Bombs surprisingly deals good damage versus MOAB-class bloons for its price, although still weaker than MOAB Mauler in that regard. Compared to Really Big Bombs, however, Cluster Bombs requires crosspaths to truly stand out as a powerful cleanup option; without crosspathing it is fairly weak on its own.

The main purpose of Cluster Bombs is to be used for extensive explosion coverage, which allows it to deal good damage against various types of grouped regular bloons. Cluster Bombs becomes exceptionally more powerful with the Path 1 crosspaths, specifically with Heavy Bombs, as its secondary explosions are also affected by the extra damage benefits. Especially when paired with Striker Jones, a single 2-0-3 Cluster Bombs can easily deal great damage versus early mid-game grouped bloons for its price.

Tips[]

  • Use this upgrade to pop many bloons at once. Its primary purpose is to expand its explosion range across many more bloons through the addition of extra explosions.
  • The 2-0-3 Cluster Bombs crosspath is usually better, as its secondary explosions can deal much more damage to bloons that the larger explosions can touch. In most applications, more pierce per explosion is useful to have. 0-2-3 is better when paired with buffs such as Berserker Brew, utilizing the bonus benefits from them much more effectively overall, particularly from the damage and attack speed bonuses.
  • Note that it exchanges its fragment shots from Frag Bombs with secondary clusters. However, Cluster Bombs deals much better damage across wide groups.
  • Cluster Bombs is actually cheaper than Really Big Bombs, although a 2-0-3 Cluster Bombs costs $100 more than a 3-0-0 Really Big Bombs (if BudgetClustersIcon Budget Clusters is enabled, they have the same cost instead). Cluster Bombs can also be further upgraded to Recursive Cluster to create even more widespread explosions overall, a great option for wiping out grouped bloons with further ease.
  • Adding Striker Jones can help the overall performance of Cluster Bombs by granting attack speed bonuses, just as he would for MOAB Maulers and Recursive Clusters.
  • Cluster Bomb spam works well with Primary Expertise due to the support's significant boosts. This combo also pairs well with MOAB Eliminator in addition to Striker Jones.
  • Compared to Recursive, multiple Cluster Bombs are much more consistent at cleanup for a similar cost, even when considering crosspaths. However, the capability to layer-skip is not as effective.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Prior to Version 28.0, which gave Cluster Bomb explosions black-popping power, Cluster Bombs remained fairly similar compared to when it was first released, although with a bit of improvements to bomb crosspathing as well as small pierce adjustments for Bomb Shooters in general. During the release of Version 28.0, the BTD6 community also discovered the Striker + Cluster spam as a viable alternative to Mauler spam; the main difference being Clusters nearby a Primary Expertise and using MOAB Eliminator for destroying BADs.

As Cluster Bombs has seen superiority over Really Big Bombs for a long time, it got a nerf in Version 34.0 targeting Cluster Bomb's cluster pierce in order to balance its total pierce and cleanup potential versus Really Big Bombs.

Version 40.0 reverted the black-popping, likely to improve its value compared to Really Big Bombs and reduce its excessive Race Event strength.

22.0
  • NERF Base primary bomb pierce decreased (18 → 14)
  • NERF Adding Bigger Bombs adds less pierce bonus for primary and secondary explosions (+10 → +6)
  • BUFF Adding Heavy Bombs now adds a pierce bonus for primary and secondary explosions (+0 → +10)
28.0
[...] We've acknowledged that Frag Bombs have felt like an inconsistent crosspath both in what they add to the tower and what they lose when upgraded further on their own path, so now in addition to frags popping Black Bloons xx2+ will allow all attacks from the tower to pop Black.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Damage type changed from Explosion Type (pops White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Explosion to Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal.
34.0
Cluster Bombs has far superior pierce over top path which is the actual pierce path while also providing better overall cleanup power, so for now we’d like to reign those in a little closer.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Cluster Bombs vs Really Big Bombs
  • NERF Cluster Bombs secondary cluster base pierce decreased (10 → 8)
40.0
[...] A while ago Frag Bombs was reworked to give Bomb normal type damage however we were not happy with the results of that change in the end, we didn’t want to go back and remove that again without giving back something nice in return so it has taken a while but now we have decided to go ahead with changing that back along with swapping out Recursive fortified damage for raw damage which we hope also improves crosspathing as the damage crosspath isn’t such a large increase over the base damage anymore.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF Cluster Bombs damage type changed from Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal to Explosion Type (pops White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Explosion.

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Projectiles[]

Trivia[]

  • Cluster Bombs is the cheapest Tier 3 Bomb Shooter upgrade in BTD6, even when accounting collective costs. This was even the case before the MOAB Mauler price nerf.


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