Dartling Gunner (BTDB2)/Strategies/Countermeasures

Hydra Rocket Pods

The Dartling Gunner is a versatile tower that can counter various bloon types. It is not as powerful as they are in BTD6, given the new competitive circumstances, but they are quite the middle ground powerful tower in this game as of currently, making it somewhat of a challenge to fight against a Dartling user. Dartling's general weakness is grouped bloons, so try to overwhelm the opponent before they can afford the better grouped-popping Dartling upgrades.

General

Attributes	Dartling Gunner countermeasures
Role	Dartling Guuner in offense form mostly as the main DPS in a Battles Setting with good spaced and grouped popping power due to its high attack speed and pierce.
Attack Speed	Dartling Gunner has a very quick attack speed even as a base tower. It can be further increased with Faster Barrel Spin. Some upgrades slow down a Dartling Gunner's attack speed, specifically Buckshot and M.A.D.
Damage	Buckshot deals high damage per buckshot. Rocket Storm's bursts of rockets deal a lot of damage per rocket. With the MAD, the Dartling Gunner can do monstrous damage to blimps.
Pierce	Dartling Gunner's pierce is high for its attack speed, making it hard to overwhelm a Dartling Gunner player in the early game. Starting from Laser Cannon and Hydra Rocket Pods, the pierce of the Dartling Gunner increases drastically. Powerful Darts are a cheap option to further increase the pierce of the Dartling Gunner.
Range	The darts that the Dartling Gunner fires have infinite range, but its "dummy" range is very short.
Support	Dartling Gunner have no buffing options as they are pure DPS towers. In terms of how they play in battle, Dartlings tend to act as the main DPS towers in general throughout all stages of the game.
Power	Overall, a Dartling Gunner is powerful in the early and late-game but weak in the mid-game.

Upgrade-specific

Path 1

Upgrade	Dartling Gunner countermeasures
Focused Firing	Increases the accuracy of the projectiles that the Dartling Gunner shoots. It is often to narrow down darts within a confined straightaway, such as along the straight lines on Garden. Other than that, it's mostly a stepping stone for Laser Shock. The increased dart accuracy makes Dartling stronger against straight lines but does nothing if all darts use up all pierce. Grouped bloons from Blue and spaced bloons starting from the White range should let the opponent take further action.
Laser Shock	Laser Shock basically acts as a +1 damage on multiple hits, making them much stronger against MOAB-class bloons or just single-targets in general. Laser Shock DoT does not stack. It does deals extra damage, making it a little stronger against spaced bloons.
Laser Cannon	Laser Cannon's laser blasts deal more damage to bloons and it's DoT is much stronger in general. Laser Cannon trades off sharp damage for energy damage, making it weak against Purples, particularly densely packed Regrows.
Plasma Accelerator	Plasma Accelerator makes regular bloons except for ceramics and above cannon fodder for it with its high pierce, further improved DoT effect, and contact damage.
Ray of Doom	Strong, high-HP blimp rushes is the only way to kill an opponent that has Ray of Doom due to its insane pierce, DoT, and attack speed, even without middle path. A correctly targeted Ray of Doom is practically invincible against leaking MOABs and Ceramics.

Path 2

Upgrade	Dartling Gunner countermeasures
Advanced Targeting	This upgrade allows the Dartling Gunner can pop camo bloons for a very low cost. With that being said, it's still a popular stepping stone for Hydra Rocket Pods.
Faster Barrel Spin	This increases its already fast attack speed. Almost always seen due to its next upgrade. Faster Barrel Spin is often paired with other upgrades to optimize the power of an upgraded Dartling, though it is sometimes seen alone just to shoot faster.
Hydra Rocket Pods	As of Version 1.0.6, Hydra Rocket Pods is no longer bugged with Laser Shock to stack on top of each other, making the 2-3-0 crosspath much more susceptible to regrow rainbows rush with this crosspath. Hydra Rockets is an expensive upgrade that requires a lot of investment by the opponent, making them much stronger at beating grouped targets including Blacks and Zebras but weak against high-HP targets like MOABs. An opponent who buys Hydra Rocket Pods before Round 13 likely used most, if not all, of their money to defend. Use this opportunity to build up further defense.
Rocket Storm	Rocket Storm's waves of rockets easily clean up regular Bloons and deal considerable MOAB damage with a smart use of micro, making a kill of the opponent less easy with regular Bloons. Rocket Storm can still target bloons that are far away but struggle to catch them with all missiles. Fortified Ceramics spawned from blimps is detrimental to a poorly positioned Rocket Storm.
M.A.D.	Even though the MAD deals massive damage to MOAB class bloons, sending a Blimp rush of any kind is the best way of at least forcing the opponent to spend more on defense due to the MAD being completely useless in dealing with the ceramic bloons inside. At worst, the opponent defended the rush but spent way more defense. At best, the opponent dies in the rush due to its aforementioned weakness.

Path 3

Upgrade	Dartling Gunner countermeasures
Faster Swivel	Don't worry if you see this upgrade, mostly as a stepping stone for Powerful Darts and its upper-tier upgrade and due to just being a convenience for the opponent.
Powerful Darts	Increases its already high pierce. It sees its highest usage in the early-game, which once bought makes the opponent more durable against grouped waves.
Buckshot	Buckshot is slow, but it is not to be underestimated; it's got knockback, making non-blimp rushes harder to progress, as well as high damage with large sprays of buckshots. Don't send ceramics with this upgrade as they will get knocked back pretty far, weakening the rush that you sent.
Bloon Area Denial System	BADS is an expensive but reliable option against general damage and bloon knockback. Don't expect Ceramics from popped blimps to get by a BADS, as its higher attack speed greatly increases its reliability.
Bloon Exclusion Zone	Bloon Exclusion Zone has very high DPS for an expensive price. It is normally seen in the very late-game as general cleanup and damage. It has got much higher pierce, attack speed, projectile count, and damage per projectile, but it still has vulnerability against DDTs, though the opponent may add anti-DDT defense anyway by that point.

Crosspath-specific

Crosspath

Dartling Gunner countermeasures

2-3-0

As previously mentioned, this crosspath takes advantage of a bug that makes the laser shock stack on top of each other, increasing the damage of Hydra Rocket Pods beyond what was originally intended. Combined with its multi-explosion mechanic and its fast attack speed, large rushes of weaker bloons are countered very easily. However, it's very expensive so one could force the opponent on other upgrades or towers with fast and deadly rushes before the upgrades is usually bought. This bug is patched in Version 1.0.6 so laser shock no longer stacks DoT damge. Watch for the red dot on the Dartling's helmet; this is a clear sign of a 2-3-0 Hydra Rocket Pods.

Synergy-specific

First	Second	Dartling Gunner countermeasures
Hydra Rocket Pods	MOAB Press	Hydra Rocket Pods combined with MOAB Press is almost unstoppable against small quantities of blimps, as well as having quite strong bloon damage. There is almost no window to kill the opponent here; just focus on building income by this point until Round 26. If the opponent doesn't have Turbo Charge too, you could try an all-out rush by boost-sending very large groups of Grouped Fortified MOABs with intentional spacing, which should work on shorter maps.
Hydra Rocket Pods	Spiked Balls	Spiked Balls' high damage and high pierce makes it able to tank spaced MOABs and even spaced Fortified MOABs easily, while Hydra Rocket Pods greatly reduces wastage on regular bloons below Ceramic in particular. If the opponent has more than one Spiked Balls at full stockpiles, it's better to just get the income lead until BFBs and ZOMGs unlock. Bear in mind that the opponent could have other options available too. A fully stockpiled Spiked Balls can tank multiple DDTs well, but sending an all-out Fortified DDT rush won't necessarily be enough for Spiked Balls, and Hydra Rocket Pods does worse against Fortified DDTs than equivalent number of normal DDTs for the same cost.
Hydra Rocket Pods	Maim MOAB	Assuming proper targeting options and crosspathing depending on circumstances, an opponent with both Hydra Rocket Pods and Maim MOAB is set against normal MOAB and Fortified MOAB sends and dish out the insides well. Unless they have a backup option in addition, this combo will fail against very long lines of grouped blimps, as well Fortified BFBs and above, especially ZOMGs, DDTs, and BADs. If the opponent looks to be overgreeding, send a small rush and hope for them to bring another tower out, unless they have a farming option other than eco.
Rocket Storm	Maim MOAB	Same as Hydra + Maim, except with Rocket Storm. Unlike the aforementioned combo, it has a powerful cleanup option that renders grouped MOAB rushes useless. Don't assume bloons underneath can kill the opponent, as they could time the ability very well to wipe out the insides.
Rocket Storm	DJ Benjammin'	DJ Benjammin' plus Hydra Rocket Pods is a deadly combo that is cheap but defends grouped rushes with ease by using the Good Vibe ability, basically doubling damage output of Hydra Rocket Pods. An opponent who has both Hydra Rocket Pods and DJ Benjammin' should not be rushed with grouped bloons; prepare for a rush of their own instead.

Other Advice

• If you see the opponent's Dartling Gunners having their respective unique cosmetics, the opponent has unlocked all upgrades for Dartling Gunner. In that case, prepare for all possible upgrades.

See also

• Dartling Gunner Strategies
  • General Strategy
  • Optimization Strategy
  • Countermeasures Strategy

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