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BTD6

For the BTD5 upgrade of the same name, see Cripple MOAB (BTD5).
Crippled MOABs are immobilized for longer and take extra damage from all other attacks.
~ In-game description

Cripple MOAB is the fifth upgrade of Path 1 for the Sniper Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It massively increases damage of the Sniper, additionally allowing each shot to temporarily stun and cripple MOAB-class Bloons (7.0s for MOABs, 6.0s for BFBs, 3.0s for ZOMGs, 4.0s for DDTs, and 0.75s for BADs and Boss Bloons), causing them to become vulnerable to +5 damage for the stun duration (or debuff duration for BADs and Bosses). Each shot deals 280 damage per hit instead of 30, plus +15 to Ceramics. With Shrapnel Shot, each shrapnel piece deals 12 damage instead of 6 from Maim MOAB, and can apply both stun and debuff for roughly 66% of the full "crippling" rate (4.5s, 4s, 2s, 2.5s, 0.5s, respectively).

This upgrade costs $27,200 on Easy, $32,000 on Medium, $34,560 on Hard, and $38,400 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

Cripple moab bad visual

Cripple MOAB shooting at a BAD, adding a brief debuff to it

Cripple MOAB greatly expands the ghillie suit, which now encompasses the entirety of the Sniper Monkey's body, completely obscuring its head in shadow. Only the monkey's eyes remain uncovered. The rifle is now dark grey with a green camo pattern on the receiver, scope, and barrel.

Cripple MOAB applies a unique visual effect on BADs and Bosses, seeing as it does not stun them: this effect takes the form of several red Xs. On all other MOAB-class bloons, the usual white hovering stars float above the affected MOAB-class bloons, indicating the stunning effect.

Cripple MOAB greatly increases the base damage of the Sniper Monkey to 280 instead of 30, and massively improves the stun time, while also inflicting a Debuff on affected MOABs. This debuff causes them to take +5 damage from all attacks for the entire duration. The effects last following MOAB-Class Bloons on blow:

  • MOAB: 7 seconds
  • BFB: 6 seconds
  • ZOMG: 3 seconds
  • DDT: 4 seconds
  • BAD and Boss: cannot be stunned but still can be debuffed, lasts for 0.75 seconds

As with Maim MOAB, Shrapnel Shot gains the ability to stun and cripple MOABs, and the shrapnel's damage increases to 12 per chunk.

If crosspathed with the Shrapnel Shot upgrade, from shrapnel MOAB Stun effect or debuff only has about for 66% of the full duration:

  • MOAB: 4.5 seconds
  • BFB: 4 seconds
  • ZOMG: 2 seconds
  • DDT: 2.5 seconds
  • BAD and Boss: 0.5 seconds

Targeting Priorities[]

Cripple MOAB targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. It shoots a snipe attack.

  • 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.

Can receive Camo Prioritization with Night Vision Goggles, allowing it to prioritize Camo Bloons over other types.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 40.2
Base stats
  • Bullet:
    • Snipe projectile, normal type, infinite range, 1.59s attack cooldown, 280 damage, 15 bonus Ceramic damage (295 total Ceramic damage), 1 impact. Stuns and cripples affected MOAB-class bloons (MOABs: 7s, BFBs: 6s, ZOMGs: 3s, DDTs: 4s, BADs and Bosses: 0.75s).
Crosspathing interactions
  • 5-1-0: Gains camo detection.
  • 5-2-0: Bullet creates Shrapnel, which are normal damage type, spray of 5, 6 damage, 2 pierce, and inflicts stun and cripple to affected MOAB-class bloons for roughly 66% duration (MOABs: 4.5s, BFBs: 4s, ZOMGs: 2.0s, DDTs: 2.5s).
  • 5-0-1: Bullet attack cooldown reduced from 1.59s to 1.11s.
  • 5-0-2: Bullet attack cooldown reduced from 1.11s to 0.779s.
Monkey Knowledge interactions
  • EliteMilitaryTrainingIcon Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
  • CeramicShockIcon Ceramic Shock: Ceramic Bloons shot by all Snipers are slowed down for 2 seconds.
  • CheaperMaimingIcon Cheaper Maiming: Maim MOAB cost reduced by $1,000.
    • $4,250, $5,000, $5,400, and $6,000 reduced to $3,250, $4,000, $4,400, and $5,000 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
  • FlankingManeuversIcon Flanking Maneuvers: Attacks 10% faster when set targeting priority to "Last".
  • MilitaryConscriptionIcon Military Conscription: First military tower costs only ⅔ of the original cost.
    • Sniper Monkey base cost from $300, $350, $380, and $420 → $200, $235, $255, and $280 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
  • AdvancedLogisticsIcon Advanced Logistics: All Military Monkeys base costs reduced by 5%.
    • Sniper Monkey base cost from $300, $350, $380, and $420 → $285, $330, $360, and $400 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
      • If Military Conscription is also enabled, the final cost will be $185, $215, $235, and $260.
  • MonkeyEducationIcon Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
  • BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more. Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
  • VeteranMonkeyTrainingIcon Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.

Attack Interactions[]

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Military
Updated as of Version 36.2
Base attack(s)
  • Bullet:
    • Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • Snipe Snipe
    • Impact Impact
    • Full Map Range (unspecified description of how the tower can attack beyond basic range) Full Map Range
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (20 -> 30) Extra Damage (30)
    • Extra damage versus Ceramics (unspecified damage) Extra Damage to Ceramics (+15)
    • Stun (MOAB-class Bloons, unspecified alt effect variant) Stun MOAB (MOAB: 3.0s, BFB: 1.5s, ZOMG and DDT: 0.75s)

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 (5-X-X) $27,200 $32,000 $34,560 $38,400 -
Total (5-0-0) $36,245 $42,650 $46,065 $51,180 $25,372 $29,855 $32,246 $35,826
Crosspath (5-1-0) $36,455 $42,900 $46,335 $51,480 $25,519 $30,030 $32,435 $36,036
Crosspath (5-2-0) $36,835 $43,350 $46,820 $52,020 $25,785 $30,345 $32,774 $36,414
Crosspath (5-0-1) $36,625 $43,100 $46,550 $51,720 $25,638 $30,170 $32,585 $36,204
Crosspath (5-0-2) $37,005 $43,550 $47,035 $52,260 $25,904 $30,485 $32,925 $36,582

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: MilitaryConscriptionIcon Military Conscription, AdvancedLogisticsIcon Advanced Logistics, CheaperMaimingIcon Cheaper Maiming, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Cripple MOAB specializes at crippling single-target blimps, especially for ZOMGs, BADs, and most particularly Boss Bloons. Its main benefit is not from its increased damage, but from helping other towers apply extra damage to blimps affected by the Cripple MOAB. In combination with towers with high projectile count and high attack speed, affected blimps will become destroyed a lot more quickly. Its infinite range is a major benefit to its overall performance.

Tips[]

  • Cripple MOAB by itself will not deal much damage. It will reach its optimum when paired with fast towers such as Super Monkeys, or towers that shoot multiple projectiles per shot such as Overdrive, since they will help quickly damage crippled MOAB-class bloons.
    • Similar strategies that Super Brittle would require to optimize its strengths can also be applied to Cripple MOAB, although Cripple MOAB has the advantage to attack at any range.
  • Unlike Maim MOAB, it is far more important to set Cripple MOAB to Strong, unless it is for stunning blimps closer to the exit. The combined stun and debuff effects last a considerably long time on affected blimps, so there should be less worry for blimps to start moving again. If paired with an Elite Sniper, setting Cripple MOAB to Elite will usually be better.
  • As of Version 20.0, the debuff effect of Cripple MOAB for all MOAB-class Bloons below a BAD lasts longer than the base tower attack speed. Using the 5-0-2 crosspath allows almost full uptime at crippling BADs, while any crosspath will always cripple the same blimps as long as it hits them consecutively each shot.
  • Normally, the optimal crosspath for Cripple MOAB should be based on the defense's needs. Because it can permanently stun and debuff any blimp below BAD regardless of crosspaths, the 5-2-0 Cripple MOAB is a good choice for combating rounds before Round 100, as it can apply those effects to multiple blimps per shot, naturally detect DDTs, and can deal more damage via its improved shrapnel. The 5-0-2 Cripple MOAB is still superior at applying a near-permanent debuff to BADs, as it attacks fast enough to apply almost full crippling uptime.
    • However, a 5-X-0 Cripple MOAB can shoot every 0.811s if adding both Jungle Drums and Overclock, which means the uptime versus BADs can actually be almost on level with an unbuffed 5-0-2 Cripple MOAB's stun uptime. That is equivalent to just over 92% uptime compared to the 96% uptime from a raw 5-0-2 Cripple MOAB. In either case, including an Elite Sniper will exceed 100% uptime.
  • Cripple MOAB's debuff can be stacked with Super Brittle and the Glue Storm ability, for a total of +11 damage to affected blimps.
  • Cripple MOAB can apply its debuff to Dreadbloon across all stages except the military immunity. Outside of the Military immunity, the Cripple MOAB's blimp debuffs increase the power of strategies reliant on damage increases.
  • Cripple MOAB can be used as a support tower. Try Buffing it with Elite Sniper, Jungle Drums, Ultraboost, or Alch-buffing it to have full uptime to cripple an air blimp.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Cripple MOAB's main role was to inflict vulnerability for single-target MOAB-class. However, initially dealt very little damage to the blimps themselves, and it did little effect to BADs due to how short they had applied debuff for. Cripple MOAB had been buffed in many updates, with extra damage, lower cost, extra stun time, and 5-2-0 interactions improving its performance in many different ways.

Cripple MOAB, like many other Sniper Monkey upgrades, had received crosspathing changes aimed to discourage exclusively Path 3 crosspathing. For this upgrade, 5-2-0 Cripple MOAB now deals more shrapnel damage and can stun and debuff blimps, making this crosspath viable against grouped blimps. The 5-0-2 crosspath remains superior versus BADs, however, but even this crosspath is now much stronger than when the Cripple MOAB was first released.

7.0
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB deals more damage (18 → 60)
8.0
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB costs less ($50,000 → $40,000)
11.0
  • [Undocumented] Applies an "X" mark on a B.A.D. for the debuff duration to indicate the debuff effect that other towers can utilize.
12.0
17.0
  • BUFF 5-2-0 Cripple increases Shrapnel Shot fragment damage (1 → 5)
19.0
  • BUFF 5-2-0 Cripple increases Shrapnel Shot fragment damage (5 → 12)
20.0
This tower felt like it's [sic] strength too heavily required the xx2 upgrade, and that this harmed crosspath choices. So we increased the base attack rate while nerfing the increase from these upgrades. This is a slight overall buff
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring mostly to base Sniper attack speed buff
  • BUFF Affected by base Sniper attack speed buff
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB duration rates for stun/debuff increased
    • M.O.A.B.: 6s → 7s
    • B.F.B.: 3s → 6s
    • Z.O.M.G.: 1.5s → 3s
    • D.D.T.: 1.5s → 4s
    • B.A.D.: 0.25s → 0.75s
21.0
To retain value in more Lead-heavy situations including against DDTs, this upgrade that has always allowed Lead popping to main attack will now also grant this to the Shrapnel from any shrapnel shot snipers mixing in this upgrade
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to 1-2-0 Sniper's shrapnel
  • BUFF Affected by 1-2-0 Sniper buff.
22.0
Trading off rate of fire for shrapnel crosspath doesn't work well for Maim MOAB as it's all about being a stall tower, so instead of focusing on a damage increase here the shrapnel will now apply the benefits of the sniper's stun & debuff to turn this crosspath choice into a question of preference in grouping vs single target. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Maim MOAB and Cripple MOAB with Shrapnel Shot
  • BUFF 5-2-0 Cripple MOAB shrapnel fragments now also benefit from stun and debuff.
23.0
Small improvements for underloved sniper upgrades with respective path specialties intact. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi referring to buffing the "weaker" Sniper upgrades
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB bullet damage increased from 60 to 80.
26.0
Cripple MOAB's price currently limits it mainly to freeplay and so has been reduced.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB price reduced from $40,000 → $34,000
32.0
[...] Maim MOABs grouped stun potential when crosspathed with Shrapnel feels it is overperforming too much so the shrapnel will now have a reduced stun amount compared to the initial target hit
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to 4-2-0 Maim MOAB
  • NERF 5-2-0 Cripple MOAB Shrapnel stun/debuff duration reduced
    • MOAB: 7s → 4.5s
    • BFB: 6s → 4s
    • ZOMG: 3s → 2s
    • DDT: 4s → 2.5s
    • BAD: 0.75s → 0.5s
34.0
  • [Undocumented] Cripple MOAB debuff can still apply against Dreadbloon in Military Immunity.
35.0
While there is some level of strategic placement to the 420 crosspath, Maim MOAB has high effectiveness for unlimited range slowing without any necessary spam use so is seeing a small price increase with a larger reduction on the T5 cost.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB cost decreased ($34,000 → $32,000)
    • Overall cost decrease is $1600 on Medium, due to a price nerf to Maim MOAB.
37.0
This will allow Cripple MOAB to take out regular MOAB layers in one shot until round 100; for such a slow attacking single target tower we feel this will help top path flex, even if mostly for show.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB bullet damage increased 80 → 280
38.0
  • NERF Cripple MOAB can no longer debuff Dreadbloon during Military Immune Phase

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Trivia[]

  • Cripple MOAB is one of the few 4th-tier upgrades from Bloons TD 5 that have been increased to a Tier-5 upgrade, the others being Absolute Zero, Glaive Lord, and Ray of Doom.
  • The Cripple MOAB in BTD6 visually resembles the older Cripple MOAB upgrade from BTD5, except the monkey now wears full black clothing underneath the bush disguise, and its rifle is covered in green tape and comes with a visible infrared light scope (official artwork only).
  • The upgrade icon for Cripple MOAB features a heavily damaged BFB propeller. This can be seen as a reference to the BTD5 Cripple MOAB's artwork.
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