“ | Adds a spray of 5 sharpened grapes to the ship. | ” |
~ In-game description |
Grape Shot is the 1st upgrade of Path 2 for the Monkey Buccaneer in Bloons TD 6. It adds a grapeshot attack shot every 1.3s by default, shooting 5 grapes (or 6 with Big Bunch MK) that each pop up to one bloon (+1 with Long Range, +1 with Naval Upgrades). Grapes have a spread fixed at 100° at maximum. Like the Buccaneer's darts, the Buccaneer can shoot grapes from both sides if bloons are detected behind it.
Crosspaths benefit the grapes: +33% attack speed from 1-1-0, +1 grape from 2-1-0, and +1 pierce from 0-1-1. Destroyer with this crosspath shoots grapes 5x faster, while Aircraft Carrier modifies the radial dart attack of its planes to shoot sprays of grapes. Favored Trades slightly increases grape attack speed.
This upgrade costs $465 on Easy, $550 on Medium, $595 on Hard, and $660 on Impoppable.
Description[]
Overview[]

Grape Shot
Grape Shot adds a stack of grapes to its ship. When Destroyer or Aircraft Carrier are crosspathed with Grape Shot, the flag and the edges of the naval ship turn purple. When crosspathed with Merchantman or Favored Trades, the monkey will store grapes underneath some cover.
When idle, the Grape Shot Buccaneer uses the same idle animations as the base Monkey Buccaneer. The pirate looks through a telescope, peeking through it towards the player's left and right sides and then placing it down.
Grape Shot shoots a spray of 5 grapes every 1.3s. The spray of 5 grapes can also be shot in both directions (depending on whether there are bloons in the sight of both directions of the Buccaneer or not), the tower shoots five grapes instead of four, and the grapes only hit up to one bloon per shot (two with the Naval Upgrades MK). Crosspathing with Long Range adds +1 pierce to every grape. Also, since Crow's Nest has moved to Path 3, Hot Shot is the new upgrade after Grape Shot, a cheaper alternative to Lead-popping power from the Buccaneer. In addition, Grape Shot will also shoot from behind if the Buccaneer detects the presence of bloons from behind, allowing twice as many grapes to be shot out at once.
Targeting Priorities[]
Grape Shot targets bloons using the standard target priorities. It shoots darts that are shot in a straight movement. It can also utilize multiple targeting to shoot projectiles from both ends of the boat if it detects bloons on its opposite side.
- 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.
Grapes follow the targeting of the main Buccaneer, and are also shot in a straight movement including the opposite side if applicable.
If given the Crow's Nest upgrade, all its attacks can prioritize Camo Bloons over other types, which is provided by the Camo Prioritization targeting.
Full Popology[]
Statistics[]
- Updated as of Version 40.2
- Base stats
- Dart:
- Projectile, sharp type, 60 range, 1.0s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 4 pierce. Can shoot a second copy of Dart at 180° from first Dart if bloons are detected behind.
- Grape:
- Projectile, sharp type, 60 range, 1.3s attack cooldown, spray of 5 in a 100° spread with equal distribution, 1 damage, 1 pierce. Can shoot a second copy of Grape at 180° from first Grape if bloons are detected behind.
- Crosspathing interactions
- 1-1-0: Dart attack cooldown reduced from 1.0s to 0.75s, Grape attack cooldown reduced from 1.3s to 0.975s.
- 2-1-0: Dart projectile count increased from 1 to 2 and shot in a straight spray. Grape quantity increased from 5 to 6, total spread unchanged at 100° but spread per projectile changed from 20° to 16.67°.
- 3-1-0: Dart attack cooldown reduced from 0.75s to 0.15s, Grape attack cooldown reduced from 0.975s to 0.195s.
- 4+-1-0: Adjusts Aircraft Radial Dart to fire 6 projectiles in a 90° angle instead of 8 projectiles in a 360° angle.
- 0-1-1: Dart pierce increased from 4 to 6, Grape pierce increased from 1 to 2.
- 0-1-4: Dart attack cooldown reduced from 1.0s to 0.5s, Grape attack cooldown reduced from 1.3s to 0.75s.
- 0-1-5: Dart damage increased from 1 to 2 and adds +1 damage to MOAB-class and +1 damage to Ceramics, Grape damage increased from 1 to 2 and adds +1 damage to MOAB-class and +1 damage to Ceramics
- Monkey Knowledge interactions
Naval Upgrades: All Monkey Buccaneers get +1 pierce.
Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
Big Bunch: Grape Shot shoots 6 grapes instead of 5.
Flanking Maneuvers: Attacks 10% faster when set targeting priority to "Last".
Military Conscription: First military tower costs only ⅔ of the original cost.
- Monkey Buccaneer base cost from $425, $500, $540, and $600 → $285, $335, $360, and $400 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
Advanced Logistics: All Military Monkeys base costs reduced by 5%.
- Monkey Buccaneer base cost reduced from $425, $500, $540, and $600 → $405, $475, $515, and $570 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
- If Military Conscription is also enabled, the base cost will be $265, $310, $335, and $370.
- Monkey Buccaneer base cost reduced from $425, $500, $540, and $600 → $405, $475, $515, and $570 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
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%.
Attack Interactions[]
- See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Military
- Updated as of Version 40.2
- Base attack(s)
- Dart:
- Grape:
Costs[]
- Updated as of Version 46.0. 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-1-X) | $465 | $550 | $595 | $660 | - | |||
Total (0-1-0) | $805 | $950 | $1,025 | $1,140 | $564 | $665 | $718 | $798 |
Crosspath (1-1-0) | $1,040 | $1,225 | $1,320 | $1,470 | $728 | $858 | $924 | $1,029 |
Crosspath (2-1-0) | $1,400 | $1,650 | $1,780 | $1,980 | $980 | $1,155 | $1,246 | $1,386 |
Crosspath (0-1-1) | $975 | $1,150 | $1,240 | $1,380 | $683 | $805 | $868 | $966 |
Crosspath (0-1-2) | $1,270 | $1,500 | $1,620 | $1,800 | $889 | $1,050 | $1,134 | $1,260 |
This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: Military Conscription,
Advanced Logistics,
Better Sell Deals
Strategy[]
Summary[]
Grape Shot provides a substantial amount of DPS potential for the Monkey Buccaneer, giving it burst damage to deal with faster bloons and chip out more damage to MOAB-class. External buffs and internal crosspathing benefits help maximize the power of grapes, particularly benefits that focus on maximizing attack speed, damage, and pierce. Depending on the choice of stat bonuses, Grape Shot becomes a versatile option at taking out large groups of bloons in the early-to-mid-game in various ways.
Tips[]
- When combined with Double Shot (2-1-0), the Buccaneer shoots 6 grapes (7 with the
Big Bunch MK). This produces many projectiles at a quick rate for a low-tier Buccaneer. Also works well as a crosspath choice.
- This upgrade helps the Monkey Buccaneer immensely when bloons are spaced out, as the darts have a tendency to miss some bloons.
- This upgrade also works very well when bloons are close to the Monkey Buccaneer, as multiple grapes can hit the same bloon.
- "Close" targeting is therefore effective in many circumstances for Grape Shot Buccaneers.
- Make use of the Buccaneer's targeting to try to attack from both sides. When it can attack from both sides, it shoots twice the number of attacks at once, maximizing the potential DPS of the added grapes.
- Long Range increases pierce of grapes by +1, substantially increasing pierce of each grape, allowing these grapes to hit many more bloons. Because of this, Grape Shot is useful as a crosspath for Merchantman to double up as both income and DPS.
- Using Grape Shot as a crosspath to Destroyer substantially increases attack speed of the grape attacks, making it excellent for quick bursts of damage. Similarly occurs for Favored Trades to a lesser extent.
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
The Grape Shot upgrade produces a spray of extra popping power, effective for early-game. When first released, it had one pierce per grape instead of two in BTD5 but costed the same as its BTD5 counterpart. Later on, the cost of the Grape Shot upgrade was bumped up but cancelling it out with a base Buccaneer cost reduction. Therefore, the value of the Grape Shot upgrade was nerfed overall, although Version 17.0 made the 2-1-0 Grape Shot crosspath more effective especially when Alch-buffed and/or upgraded further to Destroyer.
- Initial release (compared to BTD5)
Grape Shot pierce decreased (2 → 1)
- 17.0
2-1-0 Grape Shot now produces double grapes.
- 22.0
“ | Most of the early Buccaneer's strength comes from grapes, so to make it a little easier to start we've moved some cost from the base tower into Grape Shot. [...] | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
Grape Shot costs more ($500 → $550)
In total, cost difference is $0, due to the -$50 for base Buccaneer.
- 28.0
“ | Bottom crosspath feels behind compared to others here, so in addition to the new Camo Prioritization filter Longer Range on this path will now also grant bonus pierce. [...] | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Long Range |
0-1-1 Grape Shot now has 2 pierce per grape instead of 1.
- 37.0
“ | Reworking Grape Shot crosspathing as it gains far too much crosspath value by T2 but then is lacking in purpose at higher tiers, double shot will only work as one extra grape however Destroyer will now apply its full attack rate buff to the grapes and Flagship will equip aspects of Grape Shot on the mini planes. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
2-1-0 Grape Shot bonus projectile benefit decreased (+5 → +1)
3-1-0 Grape Shot speed bonus increased to match Destroyer's dart speed bonus
4-1-0 Grape Shot now changes the radial darts into frontal sprays of grapes
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
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Extra Notes (Version History)[]
Gallery[]

Official artwork[]
Projectiles[]
Trivia[]
- "Grape Shot" is actually a pun for grapeshot - type of ammunition used on real life sail warships.
- According to Ninja Kiwi's 18th March 2022 blog, Grape Shot grapes can be occasionally eaten by Buccaneers, but not Hot Shot grapes.
- According to Ninja Kiwi's 10th March 2023 blog, all grapes used for military usage are frozen and then sharpened with cutlasses, before getting loaded into ships.
- Like in BTD5, but not BTD4, grapes shot from BTD6’s Grape Shot are purple.
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