Heavy Shells

BTD6

BTDB2

Heavy Shells
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Tower	Mortar Monkey
Unlocked at	2,300 XP
Cost	$765 (Easy) $900 (Medium) $970 (Hard) $1,080 (Impoppable)
Targeting Options	Set Target
Camo Detection	No (requires x-5-x ability)
Popology
Damage Type(s)
Normal Lobbed Throw Area of Effect Full Range Erratic Movement Extra Damage to Lead Extra Damage to Fortified Extra Damage to Ceramics Extra Damage to Blimps Extra Damage to Stunned
Statistics
Damage	1 (explosion, bloons) +1 (explosion, lead property bloons) +3 (explosion, ceramics) +1 (explosion, fortified bloons) +1 (explosion, MOAB-class) +2 (explosion, stunned bloons) +1 (explosion, 2/3/0)
Pierce	40 (explosion, 0/3/x) 45 (explosion, 1/3/0 or 2/3/0)
Attack Speed	Moderate (explosion, every 0.81s)
Range	Infinite (recticle) ~20 (blast radius, 0/3/x) ~35 (blast radius, 1/3/0 or 2/3/0) 30 ("display" range)
Status Effects	N/A
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Path Upgrades
← Previous	Rapid Reload
← Previous	Rapid Reload
Current	Heavy Shells
Current	Heavy Shells
Next →	Artillery Battery
Next →	Artillery Battery
Path Info
Path	2
Path	2
Upgrade Tier	3
Upgrade Tier	3
[Source]

“	Heavy shells do extra damage to Ceramic, Lead, all Fortified, and all stunned bloons. Attacks faster and can also pop Black Bloons.	”
	~ In-game description

Heavy Shells is the third upgrade of Path 2 for the Mortar Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It allows the mortar to pop Black Bloon properties as well as deal +1 damage to all Fortified, +1 damage to all Leads (including visible DDTs), +3 damage to Ceramic Bloons, +1 damage to MOAB-class, and +2 damage to stunned bloons (including pinned bloons). Additionally, it further increases attack speed by +33%, from every 1.08s to 0.81s.

Crosspathing with Burny Stuff improves burn damage from 1 damage to 2 damage per tick.

This upgrade costs $765 on Easy, $900 on Medium, $970 on Hard, and $1,080 on Impoppable.

Description

Overview

Heavy Shells damaging Black Bloons

With the Heavy Shells upgrade, it changes the appearance of both the monkey and the mortar cannon. The monkey is now an officer in a green military-style shirt and green beret, paired with a black-barreled mortar cannon with two yellow stripes around it. The monkey stands by its barrel to continually press buttons on its handheld remote, instead of pushing a ground-level lever. In the official artwork, the monkey points with its left index finger.

Heavy Shells allow the Mortar's explosions to damage every kind of bloon, including Black Bloons and the like. It also deals extra damage to Ceramics, MOABs, Leads, Fortified or Stunned bloons. By pushing buttons instead of operating levers, the monkey can activate mortar shells quicker by +33%. Explosives from the Heavy Shells produce tangerine-colored explosive clouds.

Targeting Priorities

Mortar Monkey has only one target priority, "Set Target". This allows the Mortar Monkey to land shells within anywhere inside the target reticle. Tapping on the "Set Target" button prompts the player to change the target position of where the Mortar Monkey will land its shells. By default, once the Mortar Monkey is bought, the Mortar Monkey's target reticle is placed near the start of the first bloon track.

If Striker Jones's Level 7+ Target Focus ability is activated, all Mortar Monkeys are automatically set to Follow Touch / Follow Mouse temporarily, unless manually re-targeted via Set Target, and snap back to their old Set Target option once the ability is finished.

Full Popology

Updated as of Version 39.0

Base stats

• Explosion:
  • Lobbed projectile, normal type, targets at a custom-aimed location with deviation of 18, 0.5s deployment cooldown, 0.81s attack cooldown, 20 blast radius, 2 damage, +3 bonus Ceramic damage, +1 bonus Fortified damage, +1 bonus Lead damage, +1 MOAB-class damage, +2 bonus stunned damage, 25 pierce.

Crosspathing interactions

• 1-3-0: Blast radius of Explosion increases from 20 to 28, and Explosion pierce increased from 25 to 45.
• 2-3-0: Explosion damage increased from 2 to 3.
• 0-3-1: Explosion target deviation decreased from 18 to 8.
• 0-3-2: Explosion applies Burn status effect, dealing 1 damage every 1.25s for 3.75s.

Attack Interactions

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Military

Updated as of Version 39.2

Base attack(s)

• Explosion:
  • Normal
  • Area of Effect
  • Full Range
  • Erratic Movement
  • Extra Damage to Lead (+1)
  • Extra Damage to Fortified (+1)
  • Extra Damage to Ceramics (+3)
  • Extra Damage to Blimps (+1)
  • Extra Damage to Stunned (+2)

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-3-X)	$765	$900	$970	$1,080	-
Total (0-3-0)	$2,080	$2,450	$2,645	$2,940	$1,456	$1,715	$1,852	$2,058
Crosspath (1-3-0)	$2,505	$2,950	$3,185	$3,540	$1,754	$2,065	$2,230	$2,478
Crosspath (2-3-0)	$2,930	$3,450	$3,725	$4,140	$2,051	$2,415	$2,608	$2,898
Crosspath (0-3-1)	$2,250	$2,650	$2,860	$3,180	$1,575	$1,855	$2,002	$2,226
Crosspath (0-3-2)	$2,675	$3,150	$3,400	$3,780	$1,873	$2,205	$2,380	$2,646

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: Military Conscription, Advanced Logistics, Better Sell Deals

Strategy

Summary

Heavy Shells is quite a good low-cost option at countering early Ceramics, as well as good support at destroying groups of Black Bloon layers in earlier rounds. In addition, it has a unique synergy with stun attacks by dealing more damage to bloons inflicted by a stun status effect. Similar to most Mortar Monkeys, targeting Heavy Shells along bends will optimize the accuracy of its explosive attacks.

Heavy Shells is usually a stepping stone to Artillery Battery in most cases, but it does a good job as a stepping stone compared to other upgrade alternatives, because it is able to damage any non-camo bloon type, has global range potential, and possesses decent pierce and attack speed.

Tips

• The best crosspath for Heavy Shells is 2-3-0. Heavy Shells benefits better from the increased damage given by the Bloon Buster upgrade. There is little need to add Burny Stuff because Heavy Shells already reliably pop Black Bloons, and Increased Accuracy is not as helpful as Bigger Blast due to the fact that Heavy Shells already has a decent attack speed to offset some of the missed shots.
• Since Burny Stuff no longer can apply napalm onto Black Bloons without support from MIB or similar, Heavy Shells is required if wanting to pop Black Bloons with a Mortar Monkey.
• This is a rather low-cost upgrade that can be used to reliably break down early Ceramic Bloons into easy-to-pop chunks.
• There are certain attacks that can stun bloons, which in turn will trigger the extra damage to stunned bloons from Heavy Shells.
  • These include but are not limited to:
    • Bloons only: Shell Shock, Bloon Impact, Flash Bomb.
    • Blimps only: Maim MOAB, Cripple MOAB.
    • All: Pop and Awe ability, Bloon Crush, Tsar Bomba ability, Admiral Brickell's Mega Mine ability against surviving targets, the Vine Rupture ability (MK only) from Spirit of the Forest, Cave Monkey, the lotuses on Lotus Island, Rocket Storm with the Gorgon Storm MK active, Psi's Psychic Blast ability, Tyrannosaurus Rex's Stomp ability, Giganotosaurus's Stomp ability.
  • When it comes to maximizing the extra stun damage, the best options to pair with include Bloon Impact and Shell Shock versus bloons or Maim MOAB versus MOAB-class bloons.
• Using the Heavy Shells on Race Events and Time Attack are usually best for the black-popping and quicker attack speed, alongside respectable Ceramic damage plus the smooth transition into Artillery Battery.

Version History

Balance Changes

Additional specialization is given to Heavy Shells to reduce the Mortar Monkey's general blimp weaknesses and increase synergy possibilities, and these buffs have passed on to subsequent upgrades at different extents. Also, in 37.0, a speed buff is added to Heavy Shells to reduce the gap in power between it and Artillery Battery.

6.0

• [Undocumented] Heavy Shells with Burny Stuff will not add Burny Stuff to Black Bloons.

7.0

• Heavy Shells with Burny Stuff will now (correctly) add Burny Stuff to Black Bloons.

8.0

• Heavy Shells now deals +1 damage to MOAB-class.

17.0

• Heavy Shells now deals +2 damage to stunned bloons.
• [Undocumented] Description changed from "Heavy shells do extra damage to Ceramic, Lead, and all Fortified Bloons. Can also pop Black Bloons." to "Heavy shells do extra damage to Ceramic, Lead, all Fortified, and all stunned bloons. Can also pop Black Bloons."

21.0

• Explosion random deviation radius increased (18 → 30).
• Attack speed decreased (1.07s → 1.08s), due to Mortar Monkey attack speed reworks.

22.0

• Reverted random deviation radius change.

37.0

“	[...] Mortar consistency is lacking at x3x making it tough to spend on even though x4x is fairly good, so some of the T4 rate is shifting down to help out with this. [...]	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Heavy Shells attack cooldown decreased 1.08s → 0.81s, does not carry over to Artillery Battery.
  • Part of its description also modified slightly: "Can also pop Black Bloons." to "Attacks faster and can also pop Black Bloons."

38.0

• [undocumented bug] Heavy Shells' Lead/Fortified/MOAB-class damage bonuses no longer function

38.1

• [bug fix] Heavy Shells' Lead/Fortified/MOAB-class damage bonuses now function but are now mutually exclusive

39.0

“	We’re looking to shakeup mortar in a couple small ways this update, along with Striker Jones changes noted further on for ‘multi-mortaring’ synergy. From the base level Mortar has far more pierce than should ever be necessary at low rounds but doesn’t hit beefy enough for the low fire rate, so we are trading up some base pierce for damage, instead moving this lost pierce up into crosspath. [...]	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Heavy Shells base damage increased (1 → 2)
• Heavy Shells base pierce reduced (40 → 25)
• Heavy Shells Lead/Fortified/MOAB-class damage bonuses are no longer mutually exclusive

42.0

“	We’re feeling quite happy about the overall state of mortar compared to how it has fared in the past, however the Burny Stuff crosspath is still very hard to justify on middle mortar so along with other DoT attacks in this update we’re trying out a slight increase to damage over time across this path.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 0-3-2 Heavy Shells burn damage over time increased from 1 → 2

Gallery

Crosspathing (Top: Path 1, Bottom: Path 3)

Heavy Shells new description as of Version 17.0

2-3-0 Heavy Shells explosion

0-3-0 Heavy Shells on the side

0-3-1 Heavy Shells dealing extra damage to Leads (pre-39.0)

0-3-2 Heavy Shells popping and applying Burny Stuff to Zebras

Multiple 1-3-0 Heavy Shells taking advantage of Flash Bomb's stun

Enough XP to unlock Heavy Shells

Damage Bonuses since v39.0

0-3-0 Heavy Shells dealing 5 damage to Ceramics since v39.0

0-3-0 Heavy Shells dealing 3 damage to Leads since v39.0

0-3-0 Heavy Shells dealing 4 damage to Fortified Leads since v39.0

0-3-0 Heavy Shells dealing 6 damage to Fortified Ceramics in v39.0

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon

Videos

Heavy Fortified DDT bonus damage stacking (37.3)

Demonstrating dealing bonus MOAB-class, Fortified, and Lead damage to Fortified DDT via Heavy Shells and above

Pin equals stun according to Heavy Shells (39.0)

Pinned Blacks + Whites → Blues (4d), pinned Greens → Nothing (4d, 1 excess), with Heavy Shells

Trivia

• Heavy Shells and its subsequent upgrades were formerly the only towers to specifically deal extra damage to Lead Bloons, until Lead to Gold and its further upgrades received a lead damage buff in Version 23.0.
  • However, a submerged 4-2-0 Monkey Sub does +1 damage to Leads since Version 18.0.
• Heavy Shells and its subsequent upgrades were formerly the only towers to deal more damage to stunned bloons, but this is no longer the case after Sauda was released; her Level 6+ upgrade allows her to deal more damage to stunned bloons. Also, Velociraptor can also deal extra stunned damage.