First Strike Capability (BTD6)

BTD5

BTD6

BTDB2

First Strike Capability
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Tower	Monkey Sub
Unlocked at	20,000 XP
Cost	$11,050 (Easy) $13,000 (Medium) $14,040 (Hard) $15,600 (Impoppable)
Special Ability	First Strike Capability
Targeting Options	First, Last, Close, Strong, (Ballistic Missiles obey Target Priority, First Strike Ability locked to Strong)
Camo Detection	Restricted (darts and ballistic missiles, upgradable to 2/4/0 and requires another camo detection tower around the map) Yes (first strike missile)
Popology
Damage Type(s)
Dart: Normal Single Projectile Moderate Seeking Missile: Explosion Lobbed Throw Area of Effect Extra Damage to Ceramics Extra Damage to Blimps
Ability	Strike Hit: Normal Camo affected Lobbed Throw Impact Extra Damage Strike Explosion: Normal Camo affected Burst Area of Effect Extra Damage
Statistics
Damage	1 (homing dart) 1 (ballistic missile, bloons) 6 (ballistic missile, Ceramics and MOAB-class) ≤10000 (first strike missile, targeted strong bloon(s)) 350 (first strike missile, splash damage)
Pierce	5 (homing dart) 100 (ballistic missile) 1 (first strike missile, targeted strongest bloon) 80 (first strike missile, splash damage)
Attack Speed	Fast (darts, every 0.75s, excluding additional upgrades) Moderately Slow (ballistic missiles, every 1.5s)
Range	50 (main attack and ballistic missile, excluding additional upgrades) Infinite (first strike attack)
Status Effects	N/A
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Path Upgrades
← Previous	Ballistic Missile
← Previous	Ballistic Missile
Current	First Strike Capability
Current	First Strike Capability
Next →	Pre-Emptive Strike
Next →	Pre-Emptive Strike
Path Info
Path	2
Path	2
Upgrade Tier	4
Upgrade Tier	4
Related upgrades
First Strike Capability (BTD5), for the BTD5 counterpart MOAB Assassin, a Bomb Shooter upgrade
[Source]

“	First Strike Ability: A devastating missile strike targeting the largest bloon on screen, plus splash damage.	”
	~ In-game description

First Strike Capability is the 4th upgrade for Path 2 for the Monkey Sub in Bloons TD 6. This upgrade grants an ability that deals up to 10,000 damage to the strongest bloon on screen, capable of fully annihilating any bloon up to ZOMGs or DDTs, or even BADs if in critical condition, along with a large explosion of blast radius 75 that deals 350 damage onto up to 80 bloons caught inside the blast radius. The First Strike Capability ability has a 60 second cooldown.

It costs $11,050 on Easy, $13,000 on Medium, $14,040 on Hard, and $15,600 on Impoppable.

Description

Appearance

TBA [insert appearance of First Strike]

When crosspathed with Path 1, the monkey wears a green beret. Advanced Intel lets the operator peek into binoculars. When crosspathed with Path 3, the submarine gains a second gun, and with Airburst Darts the submarine's back side is painted yellow.

In the upgrade portrait, the monkey folds his arms and stares at the player's direction. His eyebrows are scrunched downwards, possibly implying anger or righteousness.

Mechanics

TBA

Targeting Priorities

First Strike Capability targets bloons using the standard target priorities. It has multiple types of attacks that are shot in different styles.

• First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
• Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
• Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
• Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.

Darts are shot in a straight movement and automatically home at bloons with moderate seeking, having a tight seeking curve while traveling but does not make sharp turns. Ballistic missiles are shot in a lobbing style, launching in the air and crashing onto a target according to target priority prior to launching. First Strike ability missiles target in the same way as ballistic missiles, except are locked on Strong and can attack anywhere on screen.

When given Advanced Intel, both the darts and missiles can specifically target within the range of any tower on screen, and is capable of detecting Camo Bloons if another tower on screen can. However, adding Advanced Intel does not add Camo Prioritization, despite being a potential option for camo detection.

Strategy

Costs

Updated as of Version 31.0

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable
Upgrade Cost (x-4-x)	$11,050	$13,000	$14,040	$15,600
Total Cost (0-4-0)	$TBA	$15,475	$16,710	$TBA
Total Cost (1-4-0)	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA
Total Cost (2-4-0)	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA
Total Cost (0-4-1)	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA
Total Cost (0-4-2)	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA	$TBA

Summary

First Strike Capability's main role in the game is to destroy large-health targets with its activated ability, which sends out a powerful missile onto the strongest bloon on screen. In practice, First Strike is primarily used to annihilate, or at least cripple, the Round 100 BAD. Timing of the ability is highly important, as a single use of the ability is capable of fully annihilating a BAD along with its insides if the BAD is at very low health when struck by the missile. Although primarily used against BADs, First Strike is also useful at fully annihilating spaced ZOMGs, even on CHIMPS Mode.

Tips

• First Strike Capability is very useful to counter the Round 100 BAD (along with the Round 99 BAD in ABR) during the BAD's final stages.
  • A single First Strike activation can be either used to cripple the BAD or to cleanly kill the BAD.
    • To kill the BAD without any children, the player must wait until the BAD is weakened slightly after the last stage.
    • It is also to be noted that DDTs are undesired, in which case the ability can be activated earlier.
  • A double First Strike activation does the same thing as above, although it is easier to time and works with more strategies.
    • On longer maps, this can be done with one First Strike, but by buying either: another First Strike, Bloontonium Reactor or Energizer, this strategy can be carried over to shorter maps.
• If needing to get First Strike Capability for the Round 100 BAD on CHIMPS Mode, buy it prior. It's better not to wait until Round 100 to buy First Strike Capability. Readying it on rounds 98 or 99 is optimal.
• Since the ability is not at all affected by crosspaths, First Strike Capability does not require crosspaths to function as a counter to high-HP blimps. If crosspath is needed, however, opt for whatever would be best for the Ballistic Missile attack.
• First Strike Capability can be used to deal huge damage against earlier tiers of Bloonarius. However, it is ineffective at dealing with its children, as Bloonarius Minions are briefly immune to all attacks during their first few seconds of spawning, and the ability cannot be used to deal with spawned BADs due to the fixed Strong targeting always targeting Bloonarius.
• Despite dealing huge damage, First Strike cannot bypass Gravelord Lych's skull health, which renders First Strike less useful until higher tiers.

Version History

Traditionally for handling bigger blimps, the First Strike is a popular option in BTD6 for this role. The ability gained a sizable cost decrease and can now penetrate blimp layers when the target's health is low enough, although it has gained a damage nerf added later on due to its single-target dominance in CHIMPS strategies. It remains a popular option for taking down big blimps especially BADs on Round 100.

2.0

• Price of First Strike Capability decreased ($20,000 → $13,000)

8.1

• First Strike Capability ability now can instakill all Bloons in explosion radius up to ZOMGs instead of just stripping them into children layers (specifically MOAB-class Bloons, BFBs and ZOMGs used to become MOABs upon ability impact). Also does an additional 350 damage to all bloons in its explosion radius.

12.0

• First Strike Capability ability missile deals less damage (16,700 → 10,000)

18.0

• First Strike Capability's ballistic missiles can deal 2x more damage if nearby Sub Commander. Doesn't affect First Strike Capability ability missiles.
• First Strike Capability's base range increased (42 → 60)
• First Strike Capability's ballistic missiles are now limited to base range, unless Advanced Intel is purchased.
• Adding Twin Guns increases ballistic missile rate from 1.5s to 1.275s
• Adding Airburst Darts increases ballistic missile rate from 1.5s to 0.75s
• Ballistic Missiles now deal more damage to Ceramics and MOABs (5 → 6)

19.0

• First Strike Capability's Ballistic Missile range reduced from 60 → 50
• First Strike Capability's 0-4-1 Ballistic Missile crosspath's fire rate reduced from 1.275 → 1.3125
• First Strike Capability's 0-4-2 Ballistic Missile crosspath's fire rate reduced from 0.75 → 0.984375
• First Strike Capability's x-4-x Ballistic Missile's splash should no longer hit Camo without Camo Detection

21.0

• Description change to reflect the presence of splash damage in the ability.
  • Changed from "First Strike ability: A devastating missile strike on the largest Bloon on screen." to "First Strike Ability: A devastating missile strike targeting the largest bloon on screen, plus splash damage."
  • Undocumented in Patch Notes.

22.0

“	Ballistic Missile previously had far too much attack speed added into the crosspath and was rebalanced for parity, but the overall performance loss from this was too much. Better balance will come from the base rate of Ballistic Missile itself.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Ballistic Missile

• First Strike Capability's Ballistic Missile attack now attacks faster (1.5s → 1.3s). Also affects crosspaths.

26.0

“	As Airburst Darts alone already gives a huge benefit to the tower regardless of not applying any crosspath buff, some of the attack speed benefit this upgrade gave to 032 Ballistic Missile has instead been moved into the base 030 Missile.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Ballistic Missile

• Affected by Ballistic Missile attack speed crosspathing reworks, slightly nerfed 0-3-2 but all other crosspaths attack faster

27.0

“	Ballistic Missile's 230 crosspath has been in a confusing spot for a while where it functioned different to Advanced Intel, so it has been converted to function with Advanced Intel in the same way that any other Sub upgrade would. Additionally First Strike's secondary explosion has had its target count reduced slightly.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Affected by 2-3-0 Ballistic Missile range rework
• First Strike ability secondary AoE pierce lowered from infinite -> 80
  • This "slightly" decreased target count written by NK is false. It was formerly infinite pierce.

30.0

“	Previously the rate increase to Ballistic Missile from crosspath was reduced due to Airburst having enough value on it’s [sic] own. This reason still applies as Airburst provides a significant power boost just on it’s [sic] own, so all rate increase has been removed from Airburst and applied directly to the base Ballistic Missile to help crosspath diversity slightly.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Ballistic Missile

• Affected by Ballistic Missile attack speed crosspathing reworks

Bug fixes

8.0

• No longer freezes the game when the ability hits a Black Bloon.

9.0

• No longer crashes the game when the ability destroys a BAD.

Sounds

When activating First Strike Capability:

• [Launching]

Gallery

BTD6 Artwork

BTD6 Crosspathing (top path 1, bottom path 3)

4 First Strike Capability Monkey Subs against a Fortified BAD

First Strike looking around

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait for First Strike Capability

First Strike Capability official upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon for First Strike Capability

Videos

First Strike with infinite pierce

Proof that First Strike had infinite pierce, tested in Version 26.1

Trivia

• The monkey piloting the submarine resembles Sean Connery acting as Marko Ramius in "The Hunt for Red October". Like the actor, the monkey wears a black ushanka and has a white beard.
• On custom challenges where all Regrow Bloons are enabled, using the First Strike Capability ability such that a blimp spawns Regrow Bloons will cause all of those Regrow Bloons to only regrow back to the layer they become. This phenomenon happens with all other abilities that penetrate through multiple blimp layers.