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Combination attack! Alternates flash bombs that stun many Bloons and shuriken deal increased damage to stunned targets.
~ 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 replaces every fourth shuriken, which occurs every 2.48s (every 1.736s with Ninja Discipline). Shurikens now deal +4 damage against stunned bloons, as part of a self-synergy for the "combination attack", and pierce increases from 2 to 4.

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[]

Flashbomb btd6 demo

Flash Bomb Ninja throwing a stunning bomb that explodes on Leads

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. Ninjas with the Flash Bomb upgrade also gains shurikens more pierce in addition, and its inflict +4 damage to stunned bloons, allowing them to inflict extra damage to targets by itself or other any other form of attack that stuns bloons.

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.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 45.0
Base stats
  • Shuriken:
    • Projectile, sharp type, camo detection, 47 range, 0.62s attack cooldown, 1 damage, +4 stunned damage, 4 pierce, aggressive seeking. Every 4th shot is replaced with Flash Bomb.
  • Caltrops:
    • Projectile, sharp type, camo detection, detects and deploys on nearby track, 47 range, 3.9s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 6 pierce. Lifespan of 35s.
  • Flash Bomb:
    • Projectile, normal type, camo detection, 47 range, replaces every 4th Shuriken, 40 blast radius, 3 damage, 30 pierce. Damaged non-blimp targets are affected with a Stun status effect that stuns them for 1.3s.
Crosspathing interactions
  • 1-0-3: Shuriken attack cooldown reduced from 0.62s to 0.434s, Caltrops attack cooldown reduced from 3.9s to 2.73s, Flash Bomb attack cooldown via every 4th shuriken shot reduced from 2.48s to 1.736s.
  • 2-0-3: Shuriken pierce increased from 4 to 6
  • 0-1-3:
    • Shuriken applies Blowback (non-Ceramics: 100-150 units, Ceramics: 50-75 units) at 15% chance
    • Caltrops applies Blowback (non-Ceramics: 100-150 units, Ceramics: 50-75 units) at 10% chance
    • Flash Bomb applies Blowback (non-Ceramics: 100-150 units, Ceramics: 50-75 units) at 30% chance
  • 0-2-3: Shuriken, Caltrops, and Flash Bomb can decamo bloons that they damage.
Monkey Knowledge interactions

Attack Interactions[]

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Magic
Updated as of Version 45.0
Base attack(s)
  • Shuriken:
    • Sharp Type (pops Black, White, Purple) Sharp
    • Also affects Camo Bloons Camo Detection
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • Aggressive Seeking Aggressive Seeking
    • Per-Shot Basis (Alternates with Flash Bomb) Per-Shot Basis (alternates with Flash Bomb, every non-4th shot)
    • Extra damage to bloons affected by the "stunned" status effect (+3) Extra Damage to Stunned Bloons (+4)
  • Caltrops:
    • Sharp Type (pops Black, White, Purple) Sharp
    • Also affects Camo Bloons Camo Detection
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • On-Track (stays onto track until depleted or expired) On-Track
    • On-Track Spike (lasts for up to 35s or 1 round, whichever comes first) Spike (lifespan: 35s or 1 round)
  • Flash Bomb:
    • Normal Type (pops Black, White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Normal
    • Also affects Camo Bloons Camo Detection
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • Per-Shot Basis (Alternates with Shuriken) Per-Shot Basis (alternates with Shuriken, every 4th shot)
    • Area of Effect Area of Effect
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (3) Extra Damage (3)
    • Stun (standard bloons, Stuns bloons for 1 Stun (1.3s)

Costs[]

Updated as of Version 44.0. 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) $3,180 $3,750 $4,050 $4,500 $2,226 $2,625 $2,835 $3,150
Crosspath (2-0-3) $3,475 $4,100 $4,430 $4,920 $2,433 $2,870 $3,101 $3,444
Crosspath (0-1-3) $3,095 $3,650 $3,940 $4,380 $2,167 $2,555 $2,758 $3,066
Crosspath (0-2-3) $3,435 $4,050 $4,370 $4,860 $2,405 $2,835 $3,059 $3,402

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 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 pierces less and throws explosives 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, which does get improved on this upgrade. 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.
  • The extra stunned damage via the shuriken also synergizes with other forms of stuns, like from Bloon Impact or Maim MOAB. However, aside from its self-synergy with the flash bombs, the extra stunned damage from the shuriken is generally best applied to single-target blimps.

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. Version 42.0 attempted to give some additional stunning self-synergy to improve value of its shuriken.

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.
42.0
Bottom path Ninja never does anything with the main shuriken projectile past the xx1 upgrade leaving it inconsequential on higher tiers. Given that Flash Bombs can feel lacking without heavy support, we’re trying out a change that makes Flash Bomb Ninja scale better with attack speed and pierce as something of a combo-attacker. Overall, this feels pretty ‘right’ for ninjas and more importantly it’s cool and sometimes that’s what matters most
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Flash Bomb main Shuriken attack now deals +3 damage to stunned bloons
43.0
While a great early game option, Ninja generally struggles with dominant crosspathing choices and also has relatively poor base tower value. Without going into every single change, T3s onward remain relatively unchanged with a lot of prices below T3 being moved around from less favorable crosspaths into better/higher tier upgrades. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Flash Bomb base shuriken attack cooldown reduced from 0.7s to 0.62s, 4th shot attack cooldown for flash bomb reduced from 2.8s to 2.48s. Does not affect 1-0-3 (0.434s, 1.736s).
  • BUFF Flash Bomb attack cooldown of caltrops reduced from 4.4s to 3.9s
  • NERF 1-0-3 Flash Bomb attack cooldown of caltrops increased from 2.728s to 2.73s
45.0
To allow Shinobi combos to scale more effectively with the Flash Bomb, the combo-attack pattern is being improved with more base Shuriken pierce & slightly larger bonuses to Stunned & Stickied targets – however the increased range at T4 is being removed. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF xx3 Flash Bomb shuriken pierce increased 2 → 4. Also affects Sticky Bomb and Master Bomber.
  • BUFF xx3 Flash Bomb shuriken bonus to stunned 3 → 4. Also affects Sticky Bomb.

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

41.1
  • BUFF xx3 Flash Bomb ninja stun lasts through 2 more layers to match the new damage value
42.0
  • BUFF Flash Bomb should no longer fail to stun targets if damage is externally buffed
  • Change Description changed from "Throws a flash bomb that stuns multiple Bloons." to "Combination attack! Alternates flash bombs that stun many Bloons and shuriken deal increased damage to stunned targets."

Extra Notes (Version History)[]

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.
  • The updated upgrade description for pluralised "shuriken" is actually valid, as this is just an alternate spelling for the plural of "shuriken".
  • Flash Bomb is the second pre-existing tower to gain bonus stunned damage in an update, the first being Heavy Shells which was the very first to gain bonus stunned damage.
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