| “ | Rocket Storm ability: Launches a powerful storm of rockets in a wide cone | ” |
| ~ In-game description |
Rocket Storm is the fourth upgrade of Path 2 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD 6. Activating the ability produces waves of purple missiles for 7.5 seconds, producing waves (15 by default) of 10 missiles in a wide area that deal 5 damage each to up to 8 bloons, split among 0.5s each wave. Ability missiles are spawned out at a 90° maximum spread (36° with 1-4-0), move erratically, but do not travel past obstacles. Cooldown for the ability is 40 seconds. In addition, the upgrade improves the main rocket attack by giving +2 pierce to both the rockets and explosions, totaling 8 pierce for both. As the rocket itself uses up 2 pierce per bloon, the number of explosions per main rocket increases from 3 to 4. Blast radius for the main rockets are 8 (12 with 0-4-2), and 8 for the ability missiles.
When crosspathed with Focused Firing, the ability missile spread is reduced by 60%. Crosspathing with Powerful Darts increases ability rocket pierce by +2.
This upgrade costs $4,715 on Easy, $5,550 on Medium, $5,995 on Hard, and $6,660 on Impoppable.
Description[]
Overview[]
Rocket Storm ability activated
Rocket Storm drastically alters the appearance of the Dartling Gunner, converting adding several additional barrels for rockets in the center of the launcher itself. The gunner now wears an all-black full body suit with green-tinted lenses, mouth vent, and emblem shaped like a cut gem.
The ability's rockets are black with purple fins and tip. The ordinary rockets from Hydra Rocket Pods each remain black with green fins and tip. Both types of rockets are 2D models in-game.
Crosspathing with path 1 adds the red circle and gold lining, crosspathing with path 2 adds the tripod and paints it blue.
Rocket Storm gains +2 pierce (and thus +1 explosion count) for its rockets, for 8 and 4, respectively, as well as the Rocket Storm ability. Focused Firing has a further unique interaction combined with Hydra Rocket Pods' unique crosspath effects, that being 60% reduced ability rocket spread, or 36° maximum spread.
This ability produces waves of 10 rockets, each dealing 5 damage, for 8 seconds, for a total of 15 waves, 1 wave every 0.5 seconds. The rockets are spawned with a 90° maximum spread and have Erratic movement, swinging wildly as they fire. The rate of producing ability missiles is affected by speed buffs, allowing for more waves to potentially be spawned.
Targeting Priorities[]
Rocket Storm customly aims based on direction and angle of where the Dartling points towards. It shoots straight movement projectiles controlled in a aim-based mobile style guided by touch-based mobility, albeit with some erratic angular deviation.
- Normal: Rotates towards the direction of where the player last tapped. On desktop versions, always rotates towards direction of the cursor inside the game.
- Locked: Locks the Dartling in place. By default, locks at center of map, but can be adjusted in the same way as a Mortar Monkey. On desktop versions, using a hotkey to switch to Locked will default to wherever the mouse currently is pointing.
Ability rockets not only have erratic angular deviation, they also erratically move in a serpentine motion as they travel through the air.
Since all Dartlings already attack based on custom aim, Dartlings don't receive Camo Prioritization even with Advanced Targeting.
Costs[]
- Updated as of Version 42.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.
| [Module | Data] | Purchase | Sell | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costs | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable |
| Upgrade (X-4-X) | $4,715 | $5,550 | $5,995 | $6,660 | - | |||
| Total (0-4-0) | $10,530 | $12,400 | $13,395 | $14,880 | $7,371 | $8,680 | $9,377 | $10,416 |
| Crosspath (1-4-0) | $10,785 | $12,700 | $13,720 | $15,240 | $7,550 | $8,890 | $9,604 | $10,668 |
| Crosspath (2-4-0) | $11,550 | $13,600 | $14,690 | $16,320 | $8,085 | $9,520 | $10,283 | $11,424 |
| Crosspath (0-4-1) | $10,655 | $12,550 | $13,555 | $15,060 | $7,459 | $8,785 | $9,489 | $10,542 |
| Crosspath (0-4-2) | $11,675 | $13,750 | $14,850 | $16,500 | $8,173 | $9,625 | $10,395 | $11,550 |
This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: 
Military Conscription, 
Advanced Logistics, 
Better Sell Deals
Strategy[]
Summary[]
In general, Rocket Storm is a decent midgame upgrade due to the ability providing a burst of power. As the ability is affected by buffs and the main attack also benefits greatly from additional buffs, it is extremely useful to add Stronger Stimulant, Jungle Drums and Pat Fusty or Gwendolin buffs onto the Rocket Storm. It can be used in many situations, including as damage or cleanup depending on the situation. As its cooldown is fairly fast, the Rocket Storm can be used multiple times on most rounds.
Note that the Gorgon Storm Monkey Knowledge applies stunning to the Rocket Storm ability, which could potentially be viable in stall strategies.
Tips[]
- The ability can benefit from crosspathing. Adding Focused Firing decreases the ability missile spread, although the ability missiles are still fairly random. Adding Powerful Darts increases pierce of each ability rocket by +2.
- 1-4-0 crosspath offers better single-target and single-area damage by focusing its ability rockets at bloons more accurately. However, the ability rockets do not inflict Laser Shock effect with the 2-4-0 crosspath. The 0-4-2 crosspath is more effective at increasing the pierce of each ability rocket, making it a better choice if the screen is crowded full of bloons.
- The better Rocket Storm crosspath depends mostly on the damage role of the Hydra Rocket Pods attack. Since the Rocket Storm's main rocket attacks gain extra pierce and one more explosion, the main attack is simply an improved version of Hydra Rocket Pods at straightline explosive damage. The 2-4-0 crosspath is more accurate and consistent, while the 0-4-2 crosspath lacks extra accuracy but has overall greater damage potential due to the bonus pierce and extra explosion for the main attack. The trend should be fairly similar for the ability.
- Rocket Storm ability can stun bloons including MOAB-class if Gorgon Storm MK is bought and active. Stunned bloons become stunned for ~0.5s per hit.
- Like Turbo Charge, further increasing attack speed of the Rocket Storm allows more than 15 waves of 10 rockets to be released for the duration of the ability. For instance, with Overclock it can send up to a total of 26 waves of 10 rockets for the 8-second duration instead.
- The Rocket Storm ability will be the most effective when large groups of regular bloons appear. Point the Rocket Storm Dartling in the desired direction while its ability is activated.
- The rockets from the ability have 8 blast radius each. This is especially noticeable when paired with the "Gorgon Storm" MK.
Other strategies[]
- Main article: Rocket Storm/Strategies
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
Rocket Storm received mostly nerfs overall, although in earlier updates it received a quality-of-life change that made 1-4-0 Rocket Storm more usable as a focused-firing option. That being said, it received a small price nerf in Version 25.0 due to dominant mid-game power compared to other Dartling Gunner upgrades oriented for mid-game, and later received a harsher nerf that increased the cooldown for its ability. Rocket Storm got nerfed once again in Version 29.0 and 30.0, the second update of which reduced its ability damage and duration.
- 22.0 (Dartling Gunner update)
- Initial release.
Old Bloons TD 5 Bloon Area Denial System now changed into a cheaper upgrade without the triple rocket main attack but with a different rocket ability system.
- 23.0
| “ | As our most recently added tower we are very happy with all the excitement surrounding this beloved monkey tower and the general middleground play position. We're happy enough with its time in the wild to make some first impression changes here which we hope you'll continue to enjoy. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to multiple Dartling upgrades |
- 140 Rocket storm ability spread reduction increased (-30% → -60%).
- 25.0
| “ | Dartling Gunner's Rocket Storm is currently overperforming versus Buckshot, so we made slight adjustments to the price of these upgrades. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Rocket Storm vs Buckshot |
- Rocket Storm price increased ($4800 → $5100).
- 26.0
| “ | Storm is currently too powerful as just a 'spam whenever it's ready' without much thinking really required, its cooldown is being lowered [sic] so that it remains quite powerful but may require more timing. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Rocket Storm ability cooldown increased from 30s -> 40s
- Ninja Kiwi's quote is factually incorrect; it's meant to be "its cooldown is being raised" or "its uptime is being lowered".
- 29.0
| “ | Gorgon Storm clearly released overtuned for a single knowledge point due to the way it works with large numbers of projectiles applying consecutive stuns. It will still be extremely powerful even after this, but should be harder to achieve an actual permastall on MOABs most of the time. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Gorgon Storm |
- Gorgon Storm stun duration on MOAB class bloons reduced from 0.5s -> 0.1s
- 30.0
| “ | [...] Middle Path rocket storm is too strong for something also so buffable so is getting some number changes. Additionally Rocket Storm has always fired through blockers as we didn’t want to cripple placement too much, at this point we feel like it should be strong enough of an upgrade to have to deal with the placement problems that come with blocking objects. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Rocket Storm ability damage reduced 6 -> 5
- Rocket Storm ability duration reduced 10s -> 8s
- Rocket Storm ability no longer ignores Line of Sight blockers
- 31.0
- Affected by 0-3-2 Hydra buffs
- 33.0
| “ | Rocket Storm being cheaper than its T3 when the T3 is more of a decent stepping stone into the good T4 didn’t quite sit right, so these prices have just been swapped. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Rocket Storm price increased from $5100 → $5250
- Overall base price change is $0, as Hydra Rocket Pods price decreased by $150
- 39.0
| “ | Much more of the potential power from this path is obtained at the T4 than the x3x, leaving Hydra Rockets as a mediocre save-up, so more price is shifting up from T3 into T4. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Rocket Storm price increased ($5250 → $5550)
- Overall base price change is $0, as Hydra Rocket Pods price decreased by $300
- 41.0
| “ | [...] Focussed [sic] Firing feels too important for Rocket Storm with how wide the base spread is for the ability, so we're improving base spread significantly. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 0-4-x Rocket Storm ability degree spread reduced from 120° to 90°
- 1-4-0 Rocket Storm ability degree spread reduced from 48° to 36°
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
 |
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it. |
- 22.1
- 041 Rocket Storm ability now correctly turns to targeted area.
- 23.0
- Description changed from "Rocket Storm ability: Sends a powerful storm of rockets in all directions" to "Rocket Storm ability: Launches a powerful storm of rockets in a wide cone"
- 32.2
- 042 Dartling Gunner no longer loses lead popping on the ability
Sounds[]
When activating Rocket Storm Ability:
- [Rockets firing]
Gallery[]
.PNG "2023-01-12 and 2023-01-13 qwertyxp2000 (10).PNG (2.45 MB)")
Official artwork[]
Accuracy Comparisons[]
.png "Rstorm 41 (1).png (1.95 MB)")
.png "Rstorm 41 (2).png (2.05 MB)")
Videos[]
Other languages[]
 |
This list needs more translated terms! There are not enough language variants of the article's subject(s) to complete the translation list. You can help by adding the terms as they appear in other languages to the list below. Documentation on Template:Other Languages may help. |
Updated as of Version 42.1
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| English | Rocket Storm | |
| Danish | Raketstorm | Rocket Storm |
| Spanish | Tormenta de misiles |
Trivia[]
- It can be compared to the BTD5 Bloon Area Denial System, which granted additional projectiles and the ability when upgraded from Hydra Rocket Pods. The BTD6 Rocket Storm adds pierce and ability instead when upgraded from the same previous upgrade.
- In BTD6, the new Bloon Area Denial System is now an entirely different upgrade, only somewhat implementing the concept of additional projectiles from the BTD5 Bloon Area Denial System.
- The Dartling Gunner appears more robotic, akin to Tech Terror. It has a similar mouth piece and glowing eyes but an angrier appearance.
- The helmet and mask of the Rocket Storm becomes more detailed. The mask worn by Rocket Storm bears some resemblance to Darth Vader from Star Wars.
- The Gunner's Rocket storm outfit looks similar to Vile in Megaman X.
- Since Arctic Wind got a price buff in Version 23.0, making Snowstorm more expensive than Arctic Wind, Rocket Storm became the only Tier 4 ability upgrade that is cheaper than its preceding Tier 3 upgrade. This is no longer the case starting from Version 33.0, which swapped prices of Rocket Storm with Hydra Rocket Pods.
- There was a bug with Rocket Storm during Version 22.0: if Rocket Storm was crosspathed with Faster Swivel, the ability was unable to change direction while firing. This did not affect M.A.D. This was fixed in Version 22.1.
- Missiles from the Rocket Storm's main attack and ability are all 2D projectiles. On the other hand, M.A.D's missiles are all 3D.
- Like Bloon Area Denial System, the artwork of this upgrade resembles 0-4-1 Dartling instead of 0-4-0 as the Dartling in the artwork contains a tripod.
- Rocket Storm is the first non-hero tower to intentionally gain an ability cooldown increase. The Absolute Zero ability initial cooldown increase in Version 23.0 does not count because itself did not get an ability cooldown increase but was indirectly nerfed by not being affected by the Version 23.0 Snowstorm buff.
- The sound for the Rocket Storm ability is identical to that from Captain Churchill's MOAB Barrage ability when the Hero Voicelines option is disabled.
- In fact, the internal name for that sound effect is "
ActivatedMoabBarrageNoVO.wav".
- In fact, the internal name for that sound effect is "
- Despite the fact that it looks completely different from the BTD5 Bloon Area Denial System, its BTD5 counterpart, the Rocket Storm actually does a similar pose to it.
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