Dartling Gunner (BTD6)

Pre-BTD6

BTD6

BTDB2

Dartling Gunner
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6 (v22.0)
Release Date	December 3rd 2020
Class	Military Monkey
Unlocked at	500,000 Pops since Level 20
Cost	Default: $720 (Easy) $850 (Medium) $920 (Hard) $1,020 (Impoppable) Advanced Logistics: $685 (Easy) $805 (Medium) $875 (Hard) $970 (Impoppable) Military Conscription: $480 (Easy) $570 (Medium) $615 (Hard) $685 (Impoppable) Both: $450 (Easy) $535 (Medium) $570 (Hard) $630 (Impoppable)
Activated Ability(s)	Rocket Storm M.A.D Emergency Unlock with M.K.
Targeting Options	Normal, Locked, Target Independent with B.A.D.S.
Hotkey	M
Other Names	Dartling
Statistics
Damage	1
Pierce	1
Attack Speed	Fast (every 0.2s)
Range	Infinite (dart attack) 20 ("display" range, BTD6)
Status Effects	Requires upgrades
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Camo Detection	Yes (x-1-x)
Footprint	Medium (7)
Default Damage Type	Sharp
Related Towers
Dartling Gun (BTD4), for the BTD4 counterpart Dartling Gun (BTD5), for the BTD5 counterpart Dartling Gunner (BTDB2), for the BTDB2 counterpart

“	Uses a dart-shooting machine-gun. Aims wherever you point on the screen.	”
	~ In-game Description

The Dartling Gunner is a Military-class tower that arrived in the 22.0 update of Bloons TD 6. It was confirmed to arrive to BTD6, renamed from "Dartling Gun" to "Dartling Gunner", as described by an official Ninja Kiwi teaser on their YouTube account, named "HE. IS. BACK! (Bloons TD 6)" posted on November 26, 2020. Likewise, on November 26, 2020, a gameplay preview was posted of the Dartling Gunner arriving in BTD6, featuring a number of different upgrades of the Dartling Gunner. Later on, several YouTubers were granted permission for early-access material to play the Version 22.0 update containing the Dartling Gunner.

Unlike the previous versions of the Dartling Gun in the BTD4 and BTD5 generations, the Dartling Gunner comes with its own target priorities ("Normal" cursor tracking and "Locked" fixed targeting), but no longer detects camo by default. Instead, it now requires Advanced Targeting, a camo detection upgrade. Likewise, Dartling Gunners have a slight delay in rotation speed, in similar fashion to BTD5 Flash, rather than spinning instantaneously like in BTD4 or BTD5 Mobile.

Similar to the Monkey Sub in BTD5 Mobile and the Beekeeper in BTD4 Mobile, Dartling Gunner is not unlocked by level, but rather by getting 500,000+ individual pops (not damage) on any map. Difficulty does not matter, although the game recommends Medium, Hard, or Freeplay Mode. However, the player must reach at least Level 20 for pops to count.

At base, the Dartling Gunner fires darts every 0.2s, equivalent to 5 shots per second, but only deal 1 pierce. Each shot has a projectile deviation angle of 23° by default, for 11.5° per side. It can turn at a rate of 180° per second. The Dartling Gunner can receive upgrades that greatly assists its role as a fast-firing aimable tower, including firing laserbeams, shooting Bloontonium missiles, and becoming a multi-layered buckshot-firing turret. Each dart has practically infinite projectile lifespan, unless upgraded to Buckshot.

It costs $720 on Easy, $850 on Medium, $920 on Hard, and $1,020 on Impoppable by default.

Description

The base Dartling Gunner wears a green military helmet and carries a Dartling Gun. The gun appears similar to a handheld mini-gun. It is an all around tower that handles rushes of smaller bloons at a base level.

Path 1 focuses on focused firing, as indicated by increased accuracy and energy-related upgrades. The first upgrade, Focused Firing, decreases the projectile deviation of the darts, increasing the overall accuracy of the Dartling Gunner. The next upgrade is the first energy-related upgrade, Laser Shock; this upgrade adds an electric shock effect to the Dartling Gunner's projectiles so they deal an additional 1 damage to Bloons 1 second after they have been hit, as well as making Bloons take +1 damage from any other Dartling Gunner with the Laser Shock upgrade. Laser Cannon increases its overall damage by replacing darts with lasers. Plasma Accelerator increases accuracy even further by replacing lasers with a focused beam of plasma, with increased damage at the end point. The final upgrade, Ray of Doom, generates a persistent and extremely powerful laser beam with infinite range, capable of wiping out most Bloons without a problem. Furthermore, upgrading to this path increases the DPS of the Laser Shock upgrade.

Path 2 focuses on countering special Bloon types, combining offense with Bloon specialization. The first upgrade on this path is the camo-detecting upgrade, Advanced Targeting. The next upgrade is Faster Barrel Spin, increasing its offensive potential by significantly improving its fire rate. Hydra Rocket Pods swaps regular darts for depleted Bloontonium missiles that damage any Bloon type and produce multiple explosions per shot. Rocket Storm adds the ability to produce waves of missiles that bombard the whole map when activated. The final upgrade, M.A.D, converts the Dartling Gunner into a potent anti-MOAB unit, attacking slower but dealing massive damage to MOAB-class bloons.

Path 3 focuses on increasing the power of the Dartling Gunner's gun at close range along with allowing it to fire at multiple targets at once with later upgrades. Faster Swivel increases its mobility by allowing it to adjust to different angles at a quicker speed. Powerful Darts increases the pierce and projectile speed of the darts, allowing it to become more potent at close range. Buckshot converts the Dartling Gunner into a slower but more powerful buckshot-shooting gunner, dealing much more damage from the swarms of buckshots as well as knockback at the cost of range and attack speed. Bloon Area Denial System overall quadruples attack speed by converting the gunner into a tall four-barreled turret, which also grants a new target priority called "Independent Targeting" that allows the darting gunner's four barrels to be set to first, close, last, strong. (May not be in correct order) The last upgrade, Bloon Exclusion Zone, further upgrades the turret into a six-barrel turret that shoots many more projectiles per shot with greater damage and attack speed.

Target Priorities

The Dartling Gunner has two target priorities by default: Normal and Locked. The Dartling Gunner gains access to a new target priority called Target Independent once it is upgraded to Bloon Area Denial System (and also its upgrade Bloon Exclusion Zone).

• 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.
• Target Independent: Barrels alternate in standard target priorities from top to bottom, and back to the top again for every cycle.
  • Bloon Area Denial System alternates between First, Last, Close, Strong
  • Bloon Exclusion Zone alternates between First, Last, Close, Strong, First, Strong.

Upgrades

Path 1

	Focused Firing COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360 UNLOCK: 150 XP
	Description: Increases accuracy of the Dartling Gun. Effect: Decreases angular deviation from 23° to 9.6°, reducing projectile deviation by 60%. Also increases projectile lifespan for all Buckshot projectiles by +40%.

	Laser Shock COST: $765 / $900 / $970 / $1,080 UNLOCK: 600 XP
	Description: Laser tipped shots shock bloons into popping again 1 second after being struck. Effect: Every point of damage applies an extra electric shock damage-over-time onto affected Bloons. Dartling Gunners with this upgrade also deal bonus damage to shocked Bloons.

	Laser Cannon COST: $3,100 / $3,650 / $3,940 / $4,380 UNLOCK: 2,600 XP
	Description: Rapidly fires much more powerful laser blasts that can pop frozen Bloons. Effect: Converts into a laser attack that deals increased damage and pierce. Damage improves from 1 to 2, pierce from 1 to 6, and additionally improves duration of Laser Shock effect.

Plasma Accelerator COST: $9,435 / $11,100 / $11,990 / $13,320 UNLOCK: 12,500 XP

Description: Concentrates a powerful beam of energy to a single point. Effect: Generates a powerful beam of energy towards a single point instead of shooting fast lasers, popping bloons that make regular contact with them. Any remaining pierce from the beam itself is used to inflict greater damage at the endpoint. Affected bloons additionally will be affected by an even longer-lasting Laser Shock effect.

	Ray of Doom COST: $68,000 / $80,000 / $86,400 / $96,000 UNLOCK: 75,000 XP
	Description: Creates a solid line of annihilation. You can erase most Bloons at your leisure. Effect: Produces an endless death ray that rapidly destroys bloons, inflicts huge damage, and pierces up to 1000 bloons instead of 50. Deals an additional +55 against the first bloon damage. Laser Shock deals much more damage.

Path 2

	Advanced Targeting COST: $215 / $250 / $270 / $300 UNLOCK: 130 XP
	Description: Allows Dartling Gunner to hit Camo Bloons. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Faster Barrel Spin COST: $810 / $950 / $1,025 / $1,140 UNLOCK: 700 XP
	Description: Makes gun fire much faster. Effect: Attacks +50% faster (0.66x attack cooldown).

	Hydra Rocket Pods COST: $4,080 / $4,800 / $5,185 / $5,760 UNLOCK: 2,700 XP
	Description: Shoots depleted bloontonium missiles that can damage all Bloon types and trigger multiple explosions. Effect: Hydra Rocket Pod missiles damage any bloon type and produce up to 3 low-pierce explosions by default. Gains even more explosions with pierce buffs.

	Rocket Storm COST: $4,715 / $5,550 / $5,995 / $6,660 UNLOCK: 14,000 XP
	Description: Rocket Storm ability: Launches a powerful storm of rockets in a wide cone. Effect: Ability generates waves of erratically moving rockets that deal 5 damage per shot onto up to 8 bloons per explosion. Main attack gains more pierce for its main attack, increasing pierce of explosions by +2 and increasing number of explosions by +1.

	M.A.D COST: $51,000 / $60,000 / $64,800 / $72,000 UNLOCK: 60,000 XP
	Description: Moab Assured Destroyer. Slower firing mega missiles do extreme damage to MOAB-class Bloons. Effect: Main attack deals 3 damage each plus an extra +550 to MOAB-class and increases pierce to 12, but attacks over twice as slow and alternates attacks between two arms. Ability gains extra pierce and deals more damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class.

Path 3

	Faster Swivel COST: $130 / $150 / $160 / $180 UNLOCK: 110 XP
	Description: Gun can swivel much faster. Effect: Dartling Gunner rotates towards the pointer twice as fast.

	Powerful Darts COST: $1,020 / $1,200 / $1,295 / $1,440 UNLOCK: 650 XP
	Description: Darts move faster and can pop 3 bloons each. Effect: Darts gain +2 pierce per shot, pop Frozen, and increases projectile speed and projectile size by 50%. For Hydra Rocket Pods, gains +2 pierce and one more explosion plus extra blast radius, most other Tier 3 crosspaths and above receive +50% pierce overall.

Buckshot COST: $2,890 / $3,400 / $3,670 / $4,080 UNLOCK: 3,000 XP

Description: Shoots blasts of deadly buckshot instead of darts. Effect: Blasts out slow bursts of deadly buckshot instead of spinning rapid-fire darts. Buckshot balls deal 4 damage, pierces through 4 bloons per buckshot, and can knock back bloons. Accuracy decreases and projectiles have much shorter lifespan. With Laser Shock, improves Laser Shock to deal 2 damage per tic instead of 1, and take +2 extra damage from Dartling Gunners with Laser Shock.

	Bloon Area Denial System COST: $10,200 / $12,000 / $12,960 / $14,400 UNLOCK: 15,000 XP
	Description: 4-barreled auto-cannon that can be set to attack automatically. Effect: Upgrades into a tall 4-barreled auto-cannon that alternates attacks per cannon, allowing it to attack 4x faster than normal. Can be set to attack automatically. With Laser Shock, improves Laser Shock to deal 3 damage per tic instead of 2, and take +3 extra damage from Dartling Gunners with Laser Shock.

Bloon Exclusion Zone COST: $49,300 / $58,000 / $62,640 / $69,600 UNLOCK: 55,000 XP

Description: Upgraded to 6 barrels and massively increased damage. Bloons are excluded from existence. Effect: Further upgrades into 6 barrels for even faster attack speed and gains even more buckshots per cannon. Buckshots deal 8 damage instead of 4, and pierce 6 bloons instead of 4. With Laser Shock, improves Laser Shock to deal 6 damage per tic instead of 3, and take +6 extra damage from Dartling Gunners with Laser Shock.

Total Costs

Easy:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	255	765	3,185	9,350	68,000
	Cumulative Cost	975	1,740	4,925	14,275	82,275
	Base Sell	178.5	535.5	2,229.5	6,545	47,600
	Cumulative Sell	683	1,218	3,448	9,993	57,593
Path 2
	Base Cost	210	805	4,335	4,460	51,000
	Cumulative Cost	930	1,735	6,070	10,530	61,530
	Base Sell	147	563.5	3,034.5	3,122	35,700
	Cumulative Sell	651	1,215	4,249	7,371	43,071
Path 3
	Base Cost	125	1,020	2,890	13,600	45,900
	Cumulative Cost	845	1,865	4,755	18,355	64,255
	Base Sell	87.5	714	2,023	9,520	32,130
	Cumulative Sell	592	1,306	3,329	12,849	44,979

Medium:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	300	900	3,750	11,000	80,000
	Cumulative Cost	1,150	2,050	5,800	16,800	96,800
	Base Sell	210	630	2,625	7,700	56,000
	Cumulative Sell	805	1,435	3,060	10,760	66,760
Path 2
	Base Cost	250	950	4,800	5,550	60,000
	Cumulative Cost	1,100	2,050	6,850	12,400	72,400
	Base Sell	175	665	3,360	3,885	42,000
	Cumulative Sell	770	1,435	4,795	8,680	50,680
Path 3
	Base Cost	150	1,200	3,400	12,000	58,000
	Cumulative Cost	1,000	2,200	5,600	17,600	75,600
	Base Sell	105	840	2,380	8,400	40,600
	Cumulative Sell	700	1,540	3,920	12,320	52,920

Hard:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	325	970	4,050	11,880	86,400
	Cumulative Cost	1,245	2,215	6,265	18,145	104,545
	Base Sell	227.5	679	2,835	8,316	60,480
	Cumulative Sell	871.5	1,550.5	4,385.5	12,701.5	73,181.5
Path 2
	Base Cost	270	1,025	5,185	5,995	64,800
	Cumulative Cost	1,190	2,215	7,400	13,395	78,195
	Base Sell	189	717.5	3,629.5	4,196.5	45,360
	Cumulative Sell	833	1,550.5	5,180	9,376.5	54,736.5
Path 3
	Base Cost	160	1,295	3,670	12,960	62,640
	Cumulative Cost	1,080	2,375	6,045	19,005	81,645
	Base Sell	84	906.5	2,569	9,072	43,848
	Cumulative Sell	728	1,634.5	4,203.5	13,275.5	57,123.5

Impoppable:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	360	1,080	4,500	13,200	96,000
	Cumulative Cost	1,380	2,460	6,960	20,160	116,160
	Base Sell	252	756	3,150	9,240	67,200
	Cumulative Sell	1,272	1,776	4,170	10,260	77,460
Path 2
	Base Cost	300	1,140	5,760	6,660	72,000
	Cumulative Cost	1,320	2,460	8,220	14,880	86,880
	Base Sell	210	798	4,032	4,662	50,400
	Cumulative Sell	924	1,722	5,754	10,416	60,816
Path 3
	Base Cost	180	1,440	4,080	14,400	69,600
	Cumulative Cost	1,200	2,640	6,720	21,120	90,720
	Base Sell	126	1,008	2,856	10,080	48,720
	Cumulative Sell	840	1,848	4,704	14,784	63,504

Strategy

See also: Dartling Gunner (BTD6)/Strategies

Summary

Dartling Gunner customly aims in a specific direction as aided by user input, at the disadvantage of generally low accuracy and inability to ignore obstacles. It has expensive upgrades built generally for DPS, including some powerful options in its Tier 4 and 5 upgrades. Its lower-tier upgrades are built much for bringing in early-game popping power, lacking much long-ranged specialization until Tier 3.

Tips

• Try to use Normal if possible, allowing a less tedious way to follow the Dartling's positions towards the bloons as much as possible. Use Locked only if fully assured of a particular effective straightaway.

Additional Strategies

• Crosspathing/Dartling Gunner

Monkey Knowledge

This section displays Monkey Knowledge that has effects on Dartling Gunner and its changes when compared to one by default:

• Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
• Emergency Unlock: Unlocks special ability that boost the Dartling Gunner swivel speed for a short time.
• Gorgon Storm: Rockets spawned from the Rocket Storm ability can stun any bloon including MOAB-class for 0.5s per rocket. The same applies to M.A.D.
• Cross the Streams: Where two Plasma Accelerator or Ray of Doom beams meet, they will create a temporary pool of plasma similar to the Alchemist's Acid Pool. These pools have a special Damage Over Time effect.
• Military Conscription: First military tower costs only ⅔ of the original cost.
  • Dartling Gunner base cost from $720, $850, $920, and $1,020 → $480, $570, $615, and $685 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
• Advanced Logistics: All Military Monkeys base costs reduced by 5%.
  • Dartling Gunner base cost from $720, $850, $920, and $1,020 → $685, $805, $875, and $970 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
    • If Military Conscription is also enabled, the final cost will be $450, $535, $570, and $630.
• Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
• Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
  • Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
• Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
• Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.

Teasers

Thumbnail for the first ever Dartling Gunner official teaser

The first teasers of the Dartling Gunner were posted on 26th November 2020, on Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit. All of them featured a sneak peek of the Dartling Gunner.

On November 30, 2020, YouTuber Superjombombo released a new video showing off the tower, alongside many of its upgrades, linked here. Many of its upgrades have been revealed there, but it is also revealed that Dartling Gunner can no longer detect camo by default without a camo detection upgrade "Advanced Targeting". In addition, the Dartling Gunner has a specific rotation speed, akin to how the Heli Pilot must gradually change position when tapped on a new location. Later on, on 1st December 2020 on 5:03pm NZDT, ISAB uploaded a video showing off the tower, but focuses more on the base upgrades and Path 1, as shown here.

On December 1, 2020, the following videos were released, featuring even more depth about the Dartling Gunner, in no particular order:

• Superjombombo's Bloon Exclusion Zone
• Tewtiy's Ray of Doom
• Dablooon's M.A.D
• ISAB's Bloon Exclusion Zone
• Superjombombo's M.A.D

On December 2, 2020, the following videos were released, featuring yet more depth about the Dartling Gunner, in no particular order (videos released after the official release of Version 22.0 are not in this list):

• Tewtiy's M.A.D
• Dablooon's Bloon Exclusion Zone
• Superjombombo's Ray of Doom

On around ~5:00pm NZDT on December 3rd 2020, version 22.0 was officially released, along with the Dartling Gunner.

Achievements

1M	Regifted FIRST RELEASED: Version 22.0
	Description: Pop 1,000,000 Bloons with Dartling Gunners
	Rewards: 200 3-0-0 0-3-0 0-0-3

Version History

Differences Between BTD5 and BTD6

Listed are comparisons of the Dartling Gunner in comparison to how they work in BTD5. Takes into account Flash and Mobile versions.

• Dartling Gunner now comes with Locked targeting by default.
• Dartling Gunner now has a rotation speed rather than instantaneously rotating with the cursor/pointer.
• Base Dartling Gunner costs less ($950 → $850).
• Focused Firing costs more ($250 → $300).
• Laser Cannon costs less ($6,000 → $3,750).
• Ray of Doom costs more ($55,000 → $80,000).
• Dartling Gunner now requires Advanced Targeting to pop camo bloons.
• Faster Barrel Spin costs less ($1,200 → $950).
• Depleted Bloontonium Darts upgrade has been removed (although its functionality has been merged with Hydra Rocket Pods).
• Hydra Rocket Pods costs less ($7,000 → $5,100).
• Bloon Area Denial System ability has been renamed to Rocket Storm.
• Rocket Storm costs less ($20,000 → $5250).
• Rocket Storm no longer fires three rockets at once.
• Powerful Darts costs more ($600 → $1,200).
• New 3rd path Tier 4 upgrade has inherited the name Bloon Area Denial System.
• Crosspath changes across the board for the Dartling Gunner.

Balance Changes

22.0 (Initial release, compared to BTD5)

Note: Lists all balance changes implemented for the Dartling Gunner when it was first released in Bloons TD 6 (December 2nd 2020) in comparison to Bloons TD 5. Takes into account both Flash and Mobile versions.

• Dartling Gunner now comes with Locked targeting by default.
• Dartling Gunner now has a rotation speed rather than instantaneously rotating with the cursor/pointer.
• Base Dartling Gunner costs more ($950 → $1,000).
• Focused Firing costs more ($250 → $300).
• Laser Cannon costs less ($6,000 → $4,250).
• Ray of Doom costs more ($55,000 → $110,000).
• Dartling Gunner now requires Advanced Targeting to pop camo bloons.
• Faster Barrel Spin costs less ($1,200 → $950).
• Depleted Bloontonium Darts upgrade has been removed (although its functionality has been merged with Hydra Rocket Pods).
• Hydra Rocket Pods costs less ($7,000 → $5,250).
• Bloon Area Denial System ability has been renamed to Rocket Storm.
• Rocket Storm costs less ($20,000 → $4,800).
• Rocket Storm no longer fires three rockets at once.
• Powerful Darts costs more ($600 → $1,200).
• New 3rd path Tier 4 upgrade has inherited the name Bloon Area Denial System.
• Crosspath changes across the board for the Dartling Gunner.

23.0

• 4-x-x Plasma Accelerator can now apply Laser Shock with the beam as well as focal point.
• 5-x-x Ray of Doom price reduced from $110,000 → $95,000.
• 1-4-0 Rocket storm ability spread reduction increased from 30% → 60%.
• x-5-x M.A.D price reduced from $65,000 → $60,000.
• x-x-3 Buckshot price reduced from $4,000 → $3,800.
• x-x-3 Buckshot now knocks back non-MOAB class Bloons a small amount on hit.
• Dartlings' range circles no longer provide camo detection to Monkey Subs without Advanced Targeting.

24.0

• Base Dartling cost decreased ($1,000 → $850).
• Plasma Accelerator attack rate increased (0.25s → 0.20s).
• Bloon Exclusion Zone price decreased ($60,000 → $58,000).

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

• Buckshot price reduced from $3,800 → $3,400.
• Rocket Storm price increased from $4,800 → $5,100.

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 to 40s.
  • Ninja Kiwi's quote is factually incorrect; it's meant to be "its cooldown is being raised" or "its uptime is being lowered".

28.0

“	Even though we like the theme of the slow hitting upgrade, Buckshot has struggled to live up to its potential, so attack speed has been further increased through all tiers. Ray of Doom's damage bonuses have been shuffled around in order to not be so weak against Super Ceramics as by the time anyone reasonably affords this SCs are the only ones you'll be seeing.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Buckshot attack cooldown reduced from 1.8s → 1.5s. Also applies to further upgrades.
• Ray of Doom now deals 25 damage per 0.2 seconds to both regular bloons and MOAB-Class Bloons, instead of only doing 5 damage to regular bloons and 25 to blimps.
• Ray of Doom shock DoT damage increased from 15 → 20

29.0

“	The MAD has come to stand out far too much in any Boss situation, often feeling like a crutch that must be used due to how perfectly it fits the Boss situation even though it wasn't appreciated a great deal before that content was added. We've tried to pull it back in this situation with lowered damage per hit while making up for some of this lowered damage with increased pierce.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• MAD damage to MOAB-class reduced from +750 → +550
• MAD pierce increased from 8 → 12

“	The bottom path Bloon Exclusion Zone on the Dartling has had a lot of talk about damage types, with points raised on the viability here due to the high price. It did recently get a strong buff from the T3 up, but in order to work more into other synergies we have decided to finally do a damage type change here as well, starting from early on in the path.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Powerful Darts damage type from Sharp → Shatter

30.0

“	Dartling’s Ray of Doom is far too expensive for general use, so before looking at any further power related buffs we’re lowering the price. 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. Finally as the Laser Shock crosspath is not so favorable for Buckshot path dartlings, we have doubled down on the ‘Focus’ of Focussed Firing to also increase projectile travel distance.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Ray of Doom price $95k → $80k
• Rocket Storm ability damage reduced 6 → 5
• Rocket Storm ability duration reduced 10s → 8s
• Rocket Storm ability no longer ignores Line of Sight blockers
• 103 Buckshot’s Focus Firing crosspath grants distance to projectiles +25%

31.0

“	Ray of Doom suffers from the downsides of being designed as a high piercing tower, for the price this makes it feel far too weak against the round 100 BAD if you invest in it too early without some other forms of single target, to bring back a little of the interesting sort of targeting that the T4 has and help with this single target problem it will now deal a massive damage bonus to the first target hit along the beam’s path.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Ray of Doom now deals bonus damage to the first target hit +55
• Laser Cannon pierce increased from 4 → 6
• 302 Laser Cannon pierce increased from 6 → 9
• Powerful Darts now increases projectile size and explosion radius of various upgrades
  • Powerful Darts normal projectile size increased from 2 → 3
  • 0-3-2 Hydra Rocket Pods explosion size increased from 8 → 12
  • 4-0-2 Plasma Accelerator focal point size increased from 4 → 6
  • 4-0-2 Plasma Accelerator beam width increased from 2 → 3
  • 5-0-2 Ray of Doom beam width increased from 6 -> 9

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. Buckshot pierce has been increased to help make its attacks cut through more for a chunkier hit. Focused Firing’s distance bonus on 203 due to how it is setup with projectile speed dropoff was a bit less than this written ‘25%’ realistically closer to 18.75%, so this number has been increased enough to give it roughly a true 30% increase in distance.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Hydra Rockets price reduced from $5250 → $5100
• Rocket Storm price increased from $5100 → $5250
• Buckshot pierce increased 4 → 6, Buff does not carry over to Bloon Exclusion Zone.
• 2-0-3 Focused Firing increase Buckshot bonus distance 25% → 40%

34.0

“	Laser Cannon feels it needs a small price buff. BADS on the bottom currently feels like it brings far too much power to carry the midgame for cheap so price is being shifted around from the T5 down into the T4.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Laser Cannon price reduced $4250 → $3750
• Bloon Area Denial System price increased $12000 → $16000
• Bloon Area Denial System price reduced $58000 → $54000

35.0

“	While admittedly difficult to handle at T3, the recent changes made to attempt to give Buckshot an easier growth into BADS overall backfired and were a failure. Looking back, the difficult T3 required attention but was still not bad if used correctly and the improved handling at T4 was far worth this effort in the end. That seemed fine enough before and we don't like how it has ended up so walking those changes back. We have to admit when we miss and thanks for continued discussion on bottom path.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Buckshot pierce reduced 6 → 4
• BADS cost reduced $16000 → $12000
• BEZ cost increased $54000 → $58000

38.0

“	We weren’t quite ever able to take Laser Shock in the direction we initially hoped to, and due to this the 203 crosspath has fallen behind in value and overall use, so we are improving some crosspath values here to fix up damage with bottom path Buckshocks	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 2-0-3 Buckshot shock bonus damage increased from 1 → 2
• 2-0-4 BADs shock bonus damage increased from 1 → 3
• 2-0-5 BEZ shock bonus damage increased from 1 → 6

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

• Hydra Rocket Pods price reduced ($5100 → $4800)
• Rocket Storm price increased ($5250 → $5550)

41.0

“	Laser Cannon is not a great stepping stone for Plasma Accelerator, we think these are ok though so adjusting prices between them slightly. 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

• Laser Cannon price reduced from $3750 to $3650
• Plasma Accelerator price increased from $11,000 to $11,100
• 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

23.0

• Can no longer shoot over walls when locked on top of them.
• Lock Targeting Reticle now scales in size to reflect accuracy changes.
• 4-x-x Plasma Accelerator no longer creates Plasma Pools when beams are obstructed but would be crossing streams if they were not.
• Base tower description changed from "Uses a dart-shooting machine-gun. Aims wherever you last tapped on the screen." to "Uses a dart-shooting machine-gun. Aims wherever you point on the screen."

23.2

• Dartling Gunner 4xx Plasma Accelerator beam no longer unintentionally double stacks the tower's MOAB Damage bonus.

24.0

• Laser Cannon tooltip changed from "Rapid fire laser blasts can pop frozen Bloons." to "Rapidly fires much more powerful laser blasts that can pop frozen Bloons."
• Hydra Rocket Pods tooltip changed from "Shoots depleted bloontonium missiles instead of darts, which can pop black and lead Bloons." to "Shoots depleted bloontonium missiles that can damage all Bloon types and trigger multiple explosions."
• Rocket Storm tooltip 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."
• M.A.D tooltip changed from "Moab Assured Destroyer. Each missile does extreme damage to MOAB class bloons." to "Moab Assured Destroyer. Slower firing mega missiles do extreme damage to MOAB-class Bloons."

25.0

• 3-x-x Laser Cannon path once again has a sell animation.

38.0

• 2xx Dartling lock target no longer layers underneath Boss Bloons

Gallery

All Dartling Gunner upgrades, excluding crosspaths

Dartling in the reveal teaser

Dartling Upgrades

Dartling Gunner unlock artwork on 16:9 screens

Dartling Gunner unlock artwork on 4:3 screens

Dartling Gunner concept art (Link)

Present requiring unlock at Level 20

Dartling unlock counter

Dartling Gunners pointing at the center of Park Path

Unupgraded Dartling Gunners failing to hit Camo Yellows, darts phasing right through

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Instamonkey icon

Promotional artwork

Dartling iPhone case artwork

Videos

HE. IS. BACK! (Bloons TD 6)

Official teaser

Dartling Gunner Unlock Screen

Dartling Gunner unlock screen

Trivia

• Now that the Dartling Gunner has no innate camo detection, Ninja Monkey and Spike Factory are the only base towers capable of popping camo bloons by default.
  • Formerly, the Dartling Gunner could still count as camo detection for Advanced Intel even as a base tower. This was patched in Version 23.0.
• Dartling Gunner is the only tower whose camo detection upgrade precedes a faster attack speed upgrade, and both of those upgrades are below Tier 3.
• Unlike previously leaked towers for Mortar Monkey and Engineer Monkey, the Dartling Gunner's Tier 1 and Tier 2 upgrades were entirely changed compared to the leaked information.
• The "Locked" target priority option used to be exclusive to the Dartling Ammo Dump Specialty Building in BTD5, but this target priority is now available to all Dartling Gunners.
  • The old upgrades for the Dartling Gunner were leaked, which revealed the Path 3 Tier 2 upgrade to be an upgrade called "Lock & Load", which would grant Dartlings with that target priority option.
• The Dartling Gunner is the first non-hero tower to have its own splash screen, the second being the Beast Handler, in the same vein as a Hero.
• The Dartling Gunner is also the first (and so far only) tower in BTD6 to have a specific requirement of pops to unlock, that being 500,000.
• Placement of a Dartling Gunner uses the "drop monkey" sound (e.g. for Dart Monkeys and Engineer Monkeys) rather than the "drop machine" sound (e.g. for Tack Shooters and Mortar Monkeys). This is because the Dartling Gunner lands with its feet, and its gun is not mounted on the ground unlike the Mortar Monkey.
• Despite having a tower name clearly nodding to a Gatling gun, the description says it is a machine gun.
• All Tier 5 Dartling Gunners have completed a 2TC with Prince of Darkness on Logs.
• Unlike BTD5, the Dartling Gunner has the same footprint size as a Boomerang Monkey. In previous games, the old Dartling Gun had a larger footprint.
• When the Dartling Gunner was first released, all non-crosspathed Tier 5 upgrades attacked slower than the base Dartling Gunner, which meant that it was the only tower to match with such criteria.
• In one of the concept artworks for all Dartling Gunner upgrades, the Dartling Gunner had an army beret like the BTD5 Dartling Gun. In addition, all returning BTD5 upgrades were all featured in the upgrades tree with only an increased tier for Ray of Doom and a rename of the P2T4 upgrade to Rocket Storm.
  • The old Hydra Rocket Pods concept art had a noticeable change where its gun appears as an orange assault gatling with hexagonal barrels, and the operator wears earmuffs like Sniper Monkey's Semi-Automatic.
  • Rocket Storm, the new BTD5 Bloon Area Denial System, takes on the appearance inspiration of Sniper Monkey's Full Auto Rifle, and gains even larger barrels and an ammunition tube connected to the operator's backpack.
  • The machine of the Ray of Doom upgrade appeared more like a scientist's powerful machine. More surprisingly, the only protective clothing for the monkey besides the basic white lab coat is a pair of green safety goggles.
  • Depleted Bloontonium Darts, an upgrade which did not make the final cut for the Dartling Gunner, appeared similar to its BTD5 counterpart.
• The Bloon Area Denial System and its subsequent upgrade, The Bloon Exclusion Zone, are the first ones not to be included in the initial release and to possess the Tall attack behavior.
• If the player is below Level 20, tapping on the present, which contains the Dartling Gunner, will show the popup "Unlock at level 20".
• In the Dartling Gunner trailer for BTD6, the music used is "Force Field" by Skrya, licensed by Epidemic Sound Publishing.
• The Dartling Gunner can shoot over walls when locked on top of them (even though the 23.0 patch claims to have fixed this)

Cultural references

TF2 matchmaking loading screen background

• The artwork for the base Dartling Gunner resembles that by Heavy from Team Fortress 2 during the game's matchmaking loading screen.
• Both the Bloon Area Denial System and Bloon Exclusion Zone turret designs have similarities to the Monty Tank in New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS, more specifically the concept of a multi-barrel turret system.

Ninja Kiwi Blogs

• According to Ninja Kiwi's 21st January 2021 blog, Dartling Gunner is the tower who would best enjoy grilled cheese.
• Canonically, according to Ninja Kiwi's 16th September 2022 blog, the Dartling Gunner requires a significant amount of pops to unlock itself, as it feels it is "very specialized" and wants to be "working with an experienced commander".
  • The user asking the question regarding the pop requirements for Dartling incorrectly written "1 million", which is more correctly 500 thousand.
• According to Ninja Kiwi's 10th March 2023 blog, during April Fools, Sniper Monkeys sometimes put bullets into Dartling Gunners' guns, which jams them, to the annoyance of the Dartling Gunners.