Bloons Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Bloons Wiki

Throws a flash bomb that stuns multiple Bloons.
~ In-game description

Flash Bomb is the third upgrade of Path 3 for the Ninja Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It gives the monkey an additional explosive attack that stuns bloons. Flash bombs damage bloons, including those with Black Bloon properties, and stun all affected bloons for 1.3s. Each flash bomb deals 3 damage and has 30 pierce, and blasts within a 40 radius. One flash bomb is thrown with every fourth shuriken, which occurs every 2.8s (every 1.68s with Ninja Discipline).

If given Distraction, flash bombs can apply 30% chance to blow back bloons, stunning the targets first before applying the blowback effect.

This upgrade costs $1,910 on Easy, $2,250 on Medium, $2,430 on Hard, and $2,700 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

Placeholder other

Flash Bomb Ninja

The Flash Bomb upgrade gives the Ninja Monkey a red tusked mask, reminiscent of a Japanese oni, and replaces the shuriken mask symbol with red clouds that also resemble horns. The bombs are small red old-fashioned bombs, similar to those from Really Big Bombs but much smaller in both size and proportions.

Every 4th shot of a shuriken, the Ninja will throw a flash bomb that pops and damage any type of bloon and stunning them for a short time. In addition to shurikens and flash bombs, it regularly dispenses caltrops on nearby track.

Targeting Priorities[]

Flash Bomb targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. Its main attack shoots straight movement projectiles.

  • 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.

Both shurikens and Flash Bombs are shot in a straight movement, and follow targeting of the Ninja. Caltrops are locked on Normal targeting priority, which dispenses the caltrops onto nearby bloon track in a semi-sporadical behavior.

All Ninja Monkeys can access Camo Prioritization. While Camo Prioritization is active, it allows all its attacks to prioritize Camo Bloons over other types.

Costs[]

Updated as of Version 41.0. 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-X-3) $1,910 $2,250 $2,430 $2,700 -
Total (0-0-3) $2,885 $3,400 $3,670 $4,080 $2,020 $2,380 $2,569 $2,856
Crosspath (1-0-3) $3,140 $3,700 $3,995 $4,440 $2,198 $2,590 $2,797 $3,108
Crosspath (2-0-3) $3,435 $4,050 $4,375 $4,860 $2,405 $2,835 $3,063 $3,402
Crosspath (0-1-3) $3,180 $3,750 $4,050 $4,500 $2,226 $2,625 $2,835 $3,150
Crosspath (0-2-3) $3,605 $4,250 $4,590 $5,100 $2,524 $2,975 $3,213 $3,570

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

In a similar way to the BTD5 counterpart, the BTD6 Flash Bomb has considerably low rate of stunning Bloons, however it has considerably high pierce at the downside of only dealing 3 damage at a slow rate at a rather high pricetag. Compared to other grouped stun options, specifically Shell Shock and Bloon Impact, Flash Bomb is cheaper than Bloon Impact but more reliable than Shell Shock, as well as affecting camo by default, although slower than either of the two upgrades. Given its low speed but high synergy potential, Flash Bomb is a fairly niche upgrade in practice, unless heavily involving Ninja Monkeys, especially when relying primarily or solely on Ninja Monkeys. In fact, armies of Shinobi Tactics in combination with Flash Bomb greatly benefit the capability for Flash Bomb to take care of large groups of bloons, especially Super Ceramics and heavy mid-game rounds.

Tips[]

  • This is the only upgrade for the Ninja Monkey that can allow it to pop Lead Bloons directly, excluding the Ascended Shadow.
  • Flash Bomb is generally considered less powerful than Bloonjitsu; however, Flash Bomb can pop Lead Bloons and stun all bloon types up to Ceramic, which makes it slightly more useful in certain circumstances.
  • Flash Bomb stuns less efficiently compared to Bloon Impact, but Flash Bomb may be more easily purchased, does not need camo support, and it pops Black Bloons.
  • When combined with Counter-Espionage, Flash Bomb provides an effective way of de-camoing large groups of Camo Bloons.
  • The 1-0-3 Flash Bomb is usually the better crosspath for the increased DPS, although 2-0-3 Flash Bomb improves the pierce of the shuriken attack. On occasions where Camo Bloons are a serious issue, the 0-2-3 Flash Bomb can be used to de-camo large groups of Camo Bloons. 0-1-3 Flash Bomb can distract groups of bloons.
  • If going for a Tier 5 Ninja strategy of either kind, Flash Bomb is great support for Round 63 as it can stall the 3 Ceramic waves rather reliably even on maps like Dark Castle and #Ouch if there are at least 12 Shinobi ninjas nearby.
  • It takes 4 nearby Shinobi Tactics to get a 1-0-3 Flash Bomb to permastun bloons, 10 if 0-x-3.
  • Jungle Drums alone isn’t enough to keep up the downtime of stunning with 1-0-3 Flash Bomb’s flash bombs, but the attack speed does increase reliability of stunning from these bombs.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Flash Bomb became cheaper and more effective at stunning, with similarities to its BTD5 Mobile counterpart in terms of raw power, in addition to the added potential for Shinobi synergies. As many other methods of stunning and popping Camo Leads have emerged, Flash Bomb has later been buffed to be cheaper in order to reinforce its specialized niches. Version 41.0 reduced pierce of the Flash Bomb due to getting excessive pierce bonus from Shinobi Tactics buff, as a result it has been shifted to have less pierce but more direct damage.

Initial release (compared to BTD5 Flash)
  • BUFF Flash Bomb stuns bloons for longer (0.25s → 1.0s).
28.0
As ninja is the 'Camo Specialist' and has been since inception, it is the only tower that will unlock Camo Prioritization on the base tower. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
29.0
  • BUFF Caltrops and Flash Bombs now can distract bloons with Distraction
33.0
Sticky Bomb feels like it is in a very strong point right now in a lot of situations, though flash bomb isn’t good enough without a great deal of support leading into it, this shift should open up for challenge viability especially in Alternate Bloon Rounds games.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Flash Bomb price reduced $2750 → $2250
36.0
  • NERF Affected by Caltrops lifespan nerf
38.0
  • BUFF Affected by Seeking Shuriken base range increase
39.0
Flash Bomb’s long time between bombs, without improvements on the main attack leaves this as quite a bad stepping stone, for now due to this long downtime we want to try increasing the stun duration. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Flash Bomb stun duration increased (1.0s → 1.3s)
40.0
For an early game Distraction improvement the consistency of blowbacks is being averaged out more with increased minimum distance but reduced maximum, in many cases there would not actually be 250 units of track length in front of defenses to be blown back across anyway so the overall average distance is slightly lower. More at the mid to endgame we are also weakening distraction distance against Ceramics specifically as by this point Ninja have stacked so much speed and projectiles the consistency doesn’t matter anymore. Finally, distraction values for secondary projectiles are being modified, as Distraction chance as it has existed was never balanced around more than the main attack
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF 0-1-2 Caltrops distraction chance of caltrops reduced (15% → 10%)
  • BUFF 0-1-3 Flash Bomb distraction chance of flash bomb increased (15% → 30%)
41.0
Flash Bomb has pierce too excessive for Shinobi Tactics to do anything for it but then lacks any actual damage output, so this high pierce is trading in for greater damage. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF Flash Bomb's flash bomb pierce reduced from 60 to 30
  • BUFF Flash Bomb's flash bomb damage increased from 1 to 3
41.1
  • BUFF Flash Bomb ninja stun lasts through 2 more layers to match the new damage value.

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Projectiles[]

Trivia[]

  • One 0-0-3 Flash Bomb or any Path 1 crosspathed Flash Bomb costs exactly $550 more than in BTD5 because the previous Caltrops upgrade in BTD6 is $400 instead of $350 for the Distraction upgrade, and the Flash Bomb upgrade got a $500 price reduction in Version 33.0.
  • In BTD5, this upgrade made its first appearance, wearing a red bandana and a black ninja suit. In BTD6, Sharp Shurikens wears this instead.
Advertisement