Can hit MOAB-class Bloons. All hit Bloons become brittle, take extra damage while frozen, and lose Camo properties.
”
~ In-game description
Embrittlement is the fourth upgrade of Path 1 for the Ice Monkey in Bloons TD 6. This upgrade causes bloons frozen by this Ice Monkey to take extra damage from all attacks (+1 damage) for a duration of 2s, including sharp objects, and for the same duration. Bloons damaged by an Embrittlement temporarily lose their immunities to any attack via the Brittle status, and it can be refreshed regardless of crosspaths. As it inflicts a shardable status effect (via Ice Shards) and can hit its own Frozen Bloons regardless of crosspaths, it can self-shard the bloons. In addition, this upgrade allows the Ice Monkey to strip off camo and regrow properties from any non-blimp bloon damaged by its freeze or shard attacks. MOAB-class bloons can be directly hit by freezing too, but only get affected by its damage debuff and brittle effect. The main freeze deals 1 base damage and shards deal 2 damage, as inherited by Ice Shards.
This upgrade changes the Ice Monkey's skin color from blue to red. It replaces the three rhombi decoration with a lightning bolt and two ice shards arranged like eyebrows. Its fists gain an icy texture. The monkey looks slightly angry.
When hitting a bloon it can damage, the affected bloon will be deal extra damage and become vulnerable from all damage types. Additionally, each hit also strips off Camo and Regrow properties. It also can produce shards in the same manner as its previous upgrade, Ice Shards.
Targeting Priorities[]
Embrittlement produces freezing blasts in a zone-like style. Technically, the Ice Monkey is locked on the Close targeting priority. However, for simplicity reasons, this monkey has no targeting priorities.
Full Popology[]
Statistics[]
Updated as of Version 36.0
Base stats
Freeze:
Zone, metal freeze type (pops all except Frozen and White), detects partial hitbox, 25 range, 2.4s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 40 pierce, freezes for 1.5s, removes Camo and Regrow properties permanently. Can target MOAB-class bloons. Blast radius matches current range. Can detect Camos.
Applies Permafrost status effect, slowing down affected bloons by 50%.
Applies Shardable to affected bloons, which release a spray of 3 Shards in a 120° formation if popped, duration equal to freeze length.
Apples Embrittlement, causing affected bloons to become vulnerable to +1 damage from all damage types for 2.0s.
Shards:
Shrapnel, shatter type, 3 impact pierce, 2 damage. Can hit Camos.
Crosspathing interactions
4-1-0: Attack cooldown reduced from 2.4s to 1.8s, freeze duration increased from 1.5s to 1.75s.
4-2-0: Freeze duration increased from 1.75s to 2.2s, freeze penetrates two layers, Freeze pierce increased from 40 to 45.
4-0-1: Range increased from 25 to 32.
4-0-2: Damage type of Freeze changed from metal freeze (pops all except Frozen and White) to metal glacier freeze (pops all except White).
Monkey Knowledge interactions
Icy Chill: Freeze radius slightly increased. Increases by +3.
So... Cold...: Ice Monkey's Permafrost upgrade slows by 60%. Increases effect from 50% to 60%.
Come On Everybody!: Primary towers attack 5% faster if all are below tier 3, and cost 5% less if all are tier 3 or 4.
Embrittlement's main role is to weaken groups of bloons or MOAB-class bloons. When placed along a bend, and grouped with many towers, it can help reduce the strength of large groups of bloons, although its rather slow attack speed may cause it to occasionally miss a few bloons. The fact that bloons frozen by the Embrittlement no longer temporarily gain immunity to sharp objects means that it will not hinder nearby towers with the frozen immunity added onto bloons. Embrittlement is also a viable option to countering Camo and/or Regrow rounds, although not the most reliable.
Tips[]
Since Version 17.0, Embrittlement grants camo stripping to the Ice Monkey. It is the only Primary Monkey to decamo bloons, which ends up being extremely useful in many situations, such as against Round 78. However, it can miss fast bloons because of its short range. To circumvent this, place it on a bend or curve to try and maximize the time Embrittle has to apply its debuff
With Embrittlement, there is no downside to placing towers that shoot sharp-based projectiles, because bloons frozen by Embrittlement are not affected by the frozen immunity. In fact, adding any other tower near the Embrittlement is beneficial, because it allows the shards to activate more often.
Embrittlement is one of the more cheaper but reliable ways of popping Golden Bloons, as a 4-2-0 Embrittlement is capable of permanently freezing Golden Bloons before round 81 as it is capable of bypassing the camo, lead, and purple immunities the Golden Bloon may have. However, it requires a MIB to pop the Golden Bloons past round 81, which contains the zebra property.
Embrittlement can be used as a cheap debuff source in combination with high-projectile options like Overdrive and Sun Avatars, as the Version 28.0 buff allows it to target and debuff blimps. It can also kind of assist against DDTs too, to a small extent.
The most optimal Embrittlement crosspath is usually 4-1-0, which increases uptime of the debuff and brittling, with the 4-2-0 being enough for 100% uptime of the freeze attack provided consecutive hits. The 4-0-2 crosspath is required to synergize with other Ice Monkeys, which otherwise prevents the Embrittlement from targeting already frozen bloons.
Embrittlement can only debuff Dreadbloon if it can deal damage to it. Thus, if Embrittlement is bought during the lead phase of Dreadbloon, it will not apply its debuff. It also cannot circumvent the Primary class immunity from Dreadbloon. Buying it while the ceramic armor shield is active will let it consistently apply its debuff even when it hits the lead phase, because it benefits from the +1 damage to reapply the debuff when the shell breaks.
The Embrittlement is an amazing tower to place as a Door Gunner to the Special Poperations, especially against Boss Bloons, as his +1 damage buff can be used to insert a global buff by following the bloon, allowing easy damage to early tiers.
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
Embrittlement has been buffed to become specialized as a bloon countermeasure. Since gaining brittling of MOAB-class bloons, it has become a staple for defeating early-tier Boss Bloons in conjunction with multi-projectile attackers such as Overdrive.
2.0
Embrittlement base pierce increased (30 → 40), due to Ice Monkey pierce buffs.
17.0
Embrittlement range increased (20 → 25)
Embrittlement now grants the Ice Monkey to detect camo
Embrittlement now also removes camo & regrow properties from anything hit
21.0
Embrittlement now (correctly) allows all projectiles to damage bloons frozen by Embrittlement
23.0
Embrittlement costs less ($3,000 → $2,200)
25.0
[Undocumented] Embrittlement now strips off Camo and Regrow from White and Zebra Bloons.
[Undocumented] Ice Shards and above now always require Re-Freeze in order to pop Frozen Bloons and therefore activate their own shards regardless of adding a nearby MIB or not. This includes Super Brittle.
[Undocumented, bug] Embrittlement no longer applies +1 damage vulnerability.
[Undocumented] Embrittlement no longer lets Whites or Zebras frozen without MIB even if layers were skipped in doing so.
25.1
[Undocumented] Embrittlement now can directly pop bloons affected by brittling effect
[Undocumented] Embrittlement now does 2 damage to a bloon struck by the +1 damage vulnerability to bloons
28.0
“
Embrittlement being a 'camo reveal' has not been viable due to the price, so T2 Metal Freeze has been granted camo detection to allow this tower to somewhat hold off camos while it saves up to become a reveal. Additionally Embrittlement will now be able to target and debuff MOAB Bloons for the smaller damage bonus without needing to be upgraded to T5. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
All Embrittlement attacks can directly affect Camo Bloons.
[Undocumented] Embrittlement will now decamo DDTs.
[Undocumented] Embrittlement no longer can benefit from its own effects, such as its +1 damage bonus and the Brittle status, nor can it affect effects from other Embrittlement Ice Monkeys. As a result, it can no longer activate its own ice shards. Does not affect Super Brittle.
[Undocumented, likely a bug] Embrittlement's brittle effect no longer allows Ice Monkeys to damage bloons. This includes 4-0-2 Embrittlement, which has Re-Freeze.
29.0
401 & 501 Ice Monkeys should now be able to stack their debuffs correctly without the Larger Radius crosspath overwriting the effect.
[Undocumented] Embrittlement Ice Monkeys can now affect themselves again.
[Undocumented] Embrittlement no longer blocks other Ice Monkeys from attacking affected bloons.
30.0
[Undocumented] Embrittlement no longer decamos Camo Whites or Camo Zebras without a MIB
34.0
“
Ice Monkey base pierce is too high, very easily countering large numbers of strong Bloons early, mid or late in the game for small investment, leading to very low tiers of ice monkey (below t3) being highly effective spam options over upgrading your ice. We are reworking some of this base pierce to require crosspath investment and buffing the damage Ice 3xx Ice Shards to compensate for some of its reduced pierce.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Ice Shards
Embrittlement base freeze pierce reduced 40 → 30. Does not affect 4-2-0.
Embrittlement base shard damage increased 1 → 2.
39.0
“
We’re happier with more recent freeze changes succeeding in some of the intentions of older nerfs, given the base tower value in races being hit far more than intended we’re going back over the pierce for Ice Monkey base & middle crosspath. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Embrittlement base pierce increased (30 → 40), due to Ice Monkey pierce buffs.
40.0
“
We want to try out allowing the Ice Shards sub-projectile to benefit from all sources of damage buff, as currently this path gets nice support use sometimes but can’t do much on its own in the base game - along with this the T5 Ice Shards are also generally being improved. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Embrittlement's shard damage is now uncapped, allowing for external buffs
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
20.0
4xx Embrittlement description updated to mention camo & property removal*
Changed description from "Bloons become brittle and take extra damage while frozen." to "Detects Camo Bloons and all Bloons hit become brittle, take extra damage while frozen, and lose Camo properties."
The description technically remains erroneous as it does not mention the removal of regrow properties despite the intention to include it in the patch notes.
24.0
Description changed from "Detects Camo Bloons and all Bloons hit become brittle, take extra damage while frozen, and lose Camo properties." to "Detects Camo Bloons and all Bloons hit become brittle, take extra damage for a short time and losing Camo & Regrow properties permanently."
28.0
Description changed from "Detects Camo Bloons and all Bloons hit become brittle, take extra damage for a short time and losing Camo & Regrow properties permanently." to "Detects Camo Bloons and all Bloons including MOABs hit become brittle, take extra damage for a short time and losing Camo & Regrow properties permanently."
29.0
Description changed from "Detects Camo Bloons and all Bloons including MOABs hit become brittle, take extra damage for a short time and losing Camo & Regrow properties permanently." to "Can hit MOAB class Bloons. All hit Bloons become brittle, take extra damage while frozen, and lose Camo properties."
30.0
4xx Ice Monkey should no longer slow & remove camo from White Bloons without being able to damage them
34.0
[undocumented] Embrittlement and Super Brittle are able to apply their debuffs against Dreadbloon, but only if they deal at least 1 damage. If they try attacking Dreadbloon's lead layer without any damage increase (including their own debuff), they will not apply the debuff.
???
Added hyphen for "MOAB-class" in upgrade description for Embrittlement.
Gallery[]
Crosspathing (Top: Path 2, Bottom: Path 3)
Embrittlement decamoing Camo Ceramics, allowing this Glue Gunner to shoot at the normal Ceramics
Embrittlement decamoing and degrowing Fortified Camo Regrow Ceramics
Embrittlement decamoing and brittling a DDT, allowing Tack Zone to target and damage it
Recently decamoed DDT affected by Embrittlement
Embrittlement decamoing sustained groups of DDTs along a bend
Enough XP to unlock Embrittlement
Official artwork[]
Upgrade portrait
Upgrade icon
Instamonkey icon
Videos[]
Embrittlement 25.1
Embrittlement's various interactions as of Version 25.1
Embrittlement and Cryo 28.1
Odd bug whereby Embrittlement also causes non-Embrittlements to not damage bloons
Embrittlement 30.2 interactions
Embrittlement's various interactions as of Version 30.0
Trivia[]
This upgrade is the only upgrade of the Ice Monkey where the skin color of the monkey is not a cold color (i.e. greens, blues, purples). Instead, Embrittlement's skin color is red.
It is possible that the Embrittlement upgrade's appearance is based off of the Japanese Macaque, a species of monkey that have distinctive red skin and white fur. These monkeys are also called "Snow Monkeys".
"Embrittlement" is an scientific definition used within the material science field that describes a decreased toughness of a material, thereby a loss of ductility, in turn rendering the material to become brittle. Objects that suffer from embrittlement become easier to fracture when forced under pressure, similar to what the Ice Monkey's Embrittlement upgrade does to bloons.
Unlike actual embrittlement, lowering the temperature of a material only temporarily renders a material to become brittle, until the temperature returns to the original amount. This is similar to what happens with the Ice Monkey's Embrittlement upgrade, as bloons will only temporarily gain the embrittlement vulnerability including after thawing.
The phenomenon called embrittlement also alters the properties of a material, which makes sense for both the Embrittlement upgrade setting a +1 damage vulnerability to all affected bloons and stripping off Camo and Regrow properties.
The Version 17.0 buff to Embrittlement whereby it can strip camo is based upon the Tier-4 Ice Fortress upgrade, exclusive to BTD5 Mobile.
This upgrade (alongside Super Brittle, its Tier-5 counterpart) is the first upgrade in BTD6 to receive a camo detection buff.
Despite the buffs on Version 17.0, the description for Embrittlement was not changed to accommodate the new buff functionality until Version 20.0. The description still did not mention the removal of Regrow properties until 24.0.
Because of the Version 25.1 changes to Embrittlement's freezing effects allowing it to cause bloons frozen by it to become vulnerable to any type of freezing regardless of crosspathing, a 4-1-0 or 4-2-0 Embrittlement could near-permanently stall a Ceramic like a 0-1-2 Ice Monkey, except without the extra range but also with the extra damage. A 4-1-0 or 4-2-0 also allowed the embrittlement to trigger its own ice shards quick enough. This was patched in 28.0 secretly, but reverted in 29.0.