Druid of the Jungle (BTDB2)

BTDB2

“	Calls a vine from the ground to entangle and crush Bloons one at a time. Sometimes a vine will give cash when it pops a bloon.	”
	^{~ BTDB2 description}

Many druids of jungle — Lots of Druids of the Jungle

Golden vines — Druid of the Jungle making $100 from golden vine

Druid of the Jungle is the 3rd upgrade of Path 2 for the Druid in Bloons TD Battles 2. It is similar to its pre-28.0 BTD6 counterpart, in that it does not pull a vine that pop bloons passing it, only instakilling the strongest non-blimp bloon on screen. The rate at which the bloon is "digested" cannot be increased with attack speed buffs, only the cooldown of the attack itself, which is 1.4s at base. The rate at which the instakill vine attack is triggered relies on the digestion time plus the base cooldown.

The calculation for "digesting" the bloon with the instakill vine is different from its BTD6 counterpart as well; vines deal 1 + 13% of the affected bloon's HP every 0.2s to damage each layer. As a result, it takes even more time against multi-HP bloons such as Ceramics, Fortified Ceramics and Fortified Leads. For instance, a normal Ceramic requires 2.47s to fully digest, and a Fortified Ceramic increases that digestion time to 2.82s.

Every 14 seconds, Druid of the Jungle will also use golden vine attack that produces $100 upon destroying the bloon. The digestion formula for that special vine attack is very similar to the normal vine, and it is independently produced from the main vine. This vine cannot benefit from speed buffs, including from Heart of Vengeance.

It costs $450, and is unlocked with purchase of Druid.

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Instantly destroys stronger non-blimp bloons in a single shot, especially effective against spaced Ceramics. However, it is slow and takes much longer to kill Ceramics, and isn't very efficient source of popping power for the early-game, rather more of an additional support damage on mid-game rounds. Also, the vine is still hardcoded to Strong, so setting on other target options can't help it much. It is a handy transition towards Jungle's Bounty.

Druid of the Jungle's income-generation functionality of the special golden vine attack is rather slow but it gives a solid amount of early-game income that is passively generating and yet still accessible in early rounds. However, this particular vine is dependent on bloons on screen, making it less effective in later rounds and especially if the opponent stops sending bloons.

Tips[]

Crosspath the Druid of the Jungle as necessary. 2-3-0 is useful for its improved degrow and the more reliable popping of Leads. 0-3-2 is usable as pure damage but less superior amounts of DPS, unless this is to progress into a 0-5-2 "life-buffed Spirit".
Players facing against Druid of the Jungle may opt for an early Monkey Bank, in which they would go for a low-eco route while exponentially scaling money very soon into the game.

Bugs[]

Current

None so far.

Patched

[1.0] It was plagued with a bug where multiple Druids of the Jungle target the same bloon, which got fixed in Version 1.0.6.
[4.1] Druid of the Jungle had its 4.0.3 cost changes reverted, due to a possible oversight with updating the 4.1 data to include the emergency 4.0.3 update's upgrade price lists. Fixed in Version 4.1.1.

Version History[]

Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)

Druid of the Jungle does not pull vines upon popping a bloon.
[bug] Multiple Druid of the Jungle vines can target the same bloon
Druid of the Jungle no longer has aftervines from instakilled bloons

1.0.6

[bug fix] Fixed Druid vines all targeting the same bloon

1.5.0

Druid of the Jungle vine attack now deals 1 + 13% of the bloons HP per 0.2s. This is so that vines take longer to pop ceramic bloons without affecting their ability to pop regular bloons.
No longer requires 2,000 XP to unlock. Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund.

1.10.0 (?)

Druid of the Jungle cost decreased ($950 → $850)

2.1.0 (?)

Druid of the Jungle cost decreased ($850 → $750)

3.2

Druid of the Jungle cost decreased ($750 → $450)

“	x3x is pretty much always skipped over to get to x4x, rather than being an upgrade that can offer its own merit. Its price has been cut considerably whilst bumping up the x4x cost so that the total cost for a Jungle’s Bounty Druid remains unchanged.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.0.2

Druid of the Jungle now has another vine attack that is identical to its regular one except it gives you $100 every time it pops a bloon and it has an 11 second cooldown between vines

“	We’re introducing this change so that there is a cheaper money generation option available and accessible early on when using Druid. [...]	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.0.3

Druid of the Jungle: $450 → $700

“	Druid and Village have recently received major changes, with the intent of mixing things up by providing new strategies to test out. These changes have indeed shaken up the meta, but we acknowledge that they are quite strong at the moment. With cash production added to Druid of the Jungle, this upgrade offers too much utility for such a cheap price tag, so we have upped the price.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.1

[undocumented bug] Druid of the Jungle cost decreased from $700 to $450

4.1.1

[Bugfix] Druid of the Jungle cost increased from $450 to $700

“	A problem with the 4.1 release meant that these changes we made in 4.0.3 were accidentally reverted. We are setting them back to their intended values.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.1.2

Cash Vine no longer benefits from speed boosts, including from Heart of Vengeance upgrade.
Cash Vine attack rate 11s → 14s

“	It is evident that Druid is too dominant in the current meta and we would like to make some quick changes to address this. We have nerfed Druid of the Jungle’s cash vine attack rate and prevented it from being affected by Heart of Vengeance since this interaction resulted in Druids generating far too much money in the early game. We hope that the combination of these changes is enough to ensure that Druid does not remain quite so oppressive.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Druid of the Jungle's instakilling vine likely was designed in mind for Battles 2 as a purely instakill attack with no secondary benefit.
The Version 3.2 iteration of Druid of the Jungle has a lone upgrade price that almost matches the cost of the base Druid, but only $25 more.
Sam from Ninja Kiwi confirmed that the Druid of the Jungle price change in 4.1 is indeed a bug that they'll fix. In the post "Why is Druid if the jungle $450 again", Sam from Ninja Kiwi responded "Sorry, we’ll get this sorted asap".