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Crossbow Master shoots really fast and devastates most Bloon types with ease.
~ BTD6

Crossbow Master is the final upgrade on the third path for the Dart Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It increases the Dart Monkey's attack speed to 6.25 shots per second, increases critical hit frequency to 4-8 (compared to 8-12 from Sharp Shooter), and increases the range to 240% of a 0-0-0 Dart Monkey. Additionally, this upgrade increases the pierce of each shot to 10, +6 when upgraded with Sharp Shots and +7 on top of that when upgraded with Razor Sharp Shots. It also allows the Dart Monkey to pop Lead Bloons, making it ideal for stopping hordes of standard bloons.

It costs $21,250 on Easy, $25,000 on Medium, $27,000 on Hard and $30,000 on Impoppable.

Strategy

Summary

Crossbow Master is a well-rounded upgrade that is able to act as a good source of overall DPS. The random critical hits now activate much quicker on top of its much improved attack speed, allowing a few of these critical hits to easily wipe out a decent number of Super Ceramics and shred weaker MOABs. Because of its relatively high pierce and high damage from each of its relatively frequent random critical hits, it is recommended to place the Crossbow Master along straight lines in order to make the most use of its high pierce.

Although the Crossbow Master doesn't necessarily require external buffs in order to perform its best, it pairs very well with Overclock in order to increase its powerful random critical hit rate even more. Although it has only 66% uptime, adding an active Overclock will rapidly improve the Crossbow Master's overall performance by applying critical hits more often, especially versus Super Ceramics. Other useful support towers include Stronger Stimulant, for the increased attack speed to apply critical hits at a faster rate, and Primary Training, to make its projectiles move faster and therefore miss less often.

In addition to being a rather cost-effective Tier 5, there is a Monkey Knowledge Point called "Master Double Cross" that allows for two Crossbow Masters on the map at once, which adds an extra dimension of the overall power of Crossbow Master. With this one MK Point, this allows the option to place each Crossbow Master on different areas of the map for even more attack coverage, or they can be placed together in similar locations to produce even more bloon-destructive power.

Tips

  • For most occasions, it is recommended to upgrade the Crossbow Master to 0-2-5 over 2-0-5 as gaining a 50% attack speed boost is usually better than getting a +13 pierce boost, as it already has a high 10 pierce per shot. On some occasions, however, the extra pierce is far more useful, particularly for late-game.
  • Crossbow Master improves the critical hit attacks of the Sharp Shooter, allowing it to pop 50 layers every 4-8 shots. Because of its increased attack speed, this effect goes off about four times as frequently. If it can land off a few good shots, this makes it an excellent method of dealing with Super Ceramics and MOABs if you are going for a challenge which includes Dart Monkeys.
  • Crossbow Master is highly optimized on straight line paths. This will ensure that as much pierce is used for utilizing those critical hits as possible.
  • On easier maps, getting this upgrade can solo up to round 80.
  • Even though Crossbow Master can pop lead and damage DDTs, it will have a hard time against DDTs due to their fast speed and high health.
  • It's worth taking note that the new changes in Version 18.0 are overall buffs for Crossbow Master, although the opposite crosspath (2-0-5 Crossbow Master rather than 0-2-5) would provide basically the original version of the Crossbow Master.

Update History

Balance Changes

7.0
  • BUFF Crossbow Master's price was reduced from $27,000 to $25,000.
8.0
  • BUFF Crossbow Master's crit rate increased from every 8-12 shots to every 6-10 shots.
12.0
  • BUFF Crossbow Master attack speed bonus increased to 75%
  • BUFF Crossbow Master crit rate increased from every 6-10 shots to every 4-8 shots
18.0
  • BUFF Crossbow Master's base attack speed increased by roughly 50% (0.2375s → 0.16s)
  • NERF Crossbow Master's base pierce reduced from 23 to 10
  • BUFF 105 and 205 pierce bonus increased to +6 and +7, up from +1 and +2
    • While the pierce bonus is a buff, the 205 pierce total was nerfed from the previous 24 and 25 respectively to 16 and 23.
20.0
  • Note: Crossbow Master remained at 450 projectile speed despite its predecessors receiving projectile speed buffs.

Bug Fixes

3.0
  • Master Double Cross (a Monkey Knowledge that allows you to have two Crossbow Masters at once) now works more consistently.
12.1
  • BUFF Crossbow Master's base attack damage (correctly) increased (5 → 6)
    • This was the result of a 12.0 Sharp Shooter buff not being inherited by Crossbow Master until this bug fix.
20.0
  • Master Double Cross no longer allows you to use 1 Crossbow Master in Daily Challenges where this tower is prohibited.

Gallery

Trivia

  • If well placed, the Crossbow Master can pop three or sometimes four BFBs because of the high damage and pierce of its bolts.
  • A Monkey Knowledge perk called Master Double Cross allows the player to place 2 Crossbow Masters at once (when activated). On challenge maps with rules that prevent Dart Monkeys from becoming Crossbow Masters (but do allow them to become Sharp Shooters), this knowledge perk allowed for 1 Crossbow Master to be placed; This bug was fixed on version 20.0.
  • When supported by a True Sun God with support sacrifices, an Ezili sacrificial totem, a Primary Mentoring Village and a Stronger Stimulant Alchemist, a Crossbow Master can have its range roughly equal to the entire map.
  • Before the 4.0 update, the Crossbow Master increased the layers popped by one. This upgrade was granted as a buff to the Sharp Shooter instead, keeping the basic power at 5 layers per shot.
    • In Version 12.0, Sharp Shooter gained yet another +1 damage buff, but Crossbow Master formerly did not gain the +1 damage buff alongside Sharp Shooter, though Crossbow Master had gained a series of other damage buffs to compensate. However, this damage decrease discrepancy was since corrected for the Crossbow Master as of Version 12.1.
  • Ninja Kiwi reworked the Crossbow Master in Version 18.0 in order to let the Path 1 crosspath have a fairer usage over the far more favorable Path 2 crosspath.
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