Gyrfalcon

Gyrfalcon
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Tower	Beast Handler
Unlocked at	250 XP
Cost	$160 (Easy) $190 (Medium) $205 (Hard) $230 (Impoppable)
Targeting Options	First, Last, Close, Strong Beasts Targeting Merge
Camo Detection	No
Other Names	Falcon, Gyr
Popology
Damage Type(s)
Sharp
Statistics
Damage	1 (normal bloon) +1 (regrow bloon)
Pierce	3
Attack Speed	1s
Range	60 (control beast range)
Status Effects	blowback (drag bloons depends on targeting track to position)
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Path Upgrades
Current	Gyrfalcon
Current	Gyrfalcon
Next →	Horned Owl
Next →	Horned Owl
Path Info
Path	3
Path	3
Upgrade Tier	1
Upgrade Tier	1
[Source]

“	Command a noble little bird of prey that can grab and move Bloons to the drop-off target. Bloons up-track of the target get scratched.	”
	~ In-game description

Gyrfalcon is the first upgrade of Path 3 for the Beast Handler in Bloons TD 6. This upgrade removes the Beast Handler's melee attack, instead commanding a Gyrfalcon to fly towards Bloons on the track, carrying them to a new location or simply scratching them. As an airborne creature, the Beast Handler requires nearby track to position the Gyrfalcon directly above nearby bloons. Gyrfalcons can be merged with other higher tier bottom path Beast Handlers but cannot merge with other Gyrfalcons. When initially summoned, the bird spawns to a random location within the Beast Handler's range.

The Gyrfalcon Handler controls a Gyrfalcon, which flies above nearby track, carrying up to 3 standard bloons with its claws, each dealing 1 damage in the process and +1 to Regrow Bloons (to reduce opportunities for regrow farms). If the detected bloons are further along the track by percentage, the Gyrfalcon will grab them and fly towards the selected targeted reticle to drop them off; otherwise, it will simply "peck" the bloons. After performing either attack, the Gyrfalcon undergoes an attack cooldown of 1.0s. While traveling, any caught bloons are inflicted equivalent damage every 1.0s. Caught bloons will only spawn one child. Gyrfalcon has a flight speed of 110 units per second, and doubles it while swooping towards bloons.

Gyrfalcon cannot target Lead, Ceramic, non-visible Camo, or MOAB-class bloons, although supporting it with lead-popping (such as a MIB) allows Gyrfalcon to pop and drag Leads, although only up to 2 Leads at a time.

This upgrade costs $160 on Easy, $190 on Medium, $205 on Hard, and $230 on Impoppable.

Description

Overview

Gyrfalcon and its handler

When upgraded, the Gyrfalcon Handler controls a Gyrfalcon, and the handler begins to wear clothing of the Native Americans. The handler receives a white feather on his head. The stick has green grips and a white feather. Wrapped around the handler’s neck is a green “handler scarf”.

Gyrfalcon

Gyrfalcon is large white falcon. It is based on a real eponymous species of falcon. It will fly around the range of its handler, and detect bloons on the path to pick up or scratch.

The Gyrfalcon upgrade gives the Beast Handler an option to select a point on the track. The Gyrfalcon itself attempts to grab any bloon up to a Rainbow with its claws every 1 second with a flight speed of 110 and pierce of 3, and if caught, moves it to the designated point. Bloons caught by the grab will take additional damage every 1 second equivalent to its base attack's damage value. If granted Lead-Popping Power, Lead Bloons consume two pierce. The Gyrfalcon will continue to chase the targeted bloon until it successfully grabs it or it leaves the map. Any bloons moved will retain Freeze and Glue effects, unlike Blowback effects. In addition, it is able to move bloons on multi-lane maps to a different track, and if its designated point is an intersection, then bloons will be moved to a random track in that intersection.

Targeting Priorities

As an upgraded Beast Handler, the Gyrfalcon Handler controls a flying beast. It controls a single Gyrfalcon. The beast of the Gyrfalcon can be merged into stronger-tier flying beasts to transfer energy, empowering the stronger flying beast in the process. This system utilises the Merge button to select a valid Beast Handler given sufficient energy capacity.

The Gyrfalcon follows along the lanes in a semi-Pursuit targeting, similarly to Etienne’s drones, and adheres to standard targeting priorities.

Aside from the standard four targeting priorities (First, Last, Close, Strong), a Gyrfalcon Beast Handler also has a special targeting button that allows it to select a point anywhere on the track (via the "Target Bird" button). Their bird will attempt to drag any Bloons it attacks towards that position.

• 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.

In a similar manner to Advanced Intel, a Gyrfalcon Beast Handler can share ranges for the Beast Handler that it sacrificed the Gyrfalcon towards. The bird will be able to attack Bloons in all merged Handlers' ranges, and the "Target Bird" reticle can be placed along any valid track location in any of their ranges.

Full Popology

Statistics

Updated as of Version 37.3

Base Stats

• Handler:
  • Passive type, automatically places a Gyrfalcon beast on valid lanes within 60 range. Gyrfalcon flies above valid lanes and gains access to Grab and Peck. Can reposition the reticle of the Gyrfalcon manually; Gyrfalcon initiates Grab towards this location, otherwise uses Peck. Flight speed of 110 units per second and doubles while flying towards the target.
• Grab:
  • Zone, sharp type, can move within 60 range, 10 radius, 1s attack cooldown, 1 damage, +1 Regrow damage (2 Regrow damage), 3 pierce (consumption: (targetable) Leads = 2). Drags affected targets to a new location and deals the same damage every 1s, bloon targets cannot be re-moved until repositioned, but can be targeted by other attacks. Caught bloons will only spawn one child. Cannot target Ceramics and above, and cannot target Leads unless given lead-popping.
• Peck:
  • Zone, sharp type, can move within 60 range, 10 radius, 1s attack cooldown, 1 damage, +1 Regrow damage (2 Regrow damage), 3 pierce (consumption: (targetable) Leads = 2). Cannot target Ceramics and above, and cannot target Leads unless given lead-popping.

Crosspathing interactions

Unlike the majority of towers in BTD6, the Beast Handler does not benefit from crosspathing. Each path spawns or upgrades a beast, rather than directly affecting the other crosspaths.

Merging interactions

• Base Power: 1
• Max Power: 1
• Bonus Stat Changes: None (cannot merge)

Attack Interactions

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Support

Updated as of Version 37.3

• Peck:
  • Sharp
  • Melee
  • Cannot Target Leads
  • Cannot Target Ceramics
  • Target Bloon
  • Extra Damage to Regrows (+1)
• Grab:
  • Sharp
  • Melee
  • Cannot Target Leads
  • Cannot Target Ceramics
  • Target Bloon
  • Extra Damage to Regrows (+1)

Costs

Note: This section does not take into account Beast Handler merges.

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-1)	$160	$190	$205	$230	-
Total (0-0-1)	$370	$440	$475	$530	$259	$308	$333	$371
Crosspath (1-0-1)	$505	$600	$645	$720	$354	$420	$452	$504
Crosspath (2-0-1)	$1,195	$1,410	$1,520	$1,690	$837	$987	$1,064	$1,183
Crosspath (0-1-1)	$520	$615	$665	$740	$364	$431	$466	$518
Crosspath (0-2-1)	$1,225	$1,445	$1,560	$1,735	$858	$1,012	$1,092	$1,215

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

Strategy

Summary

Gyrfalcon is a cheap way for some early-game popping power and minimal but reliable stalling, helping to control a small amount of bloons that try to pass. The capability to fly and grab bloons for a cheap upgrade allows the Gyrfalcon to become useful on map formats containing close-proximity pathways. Also, as the 0-0-1 Beast Handler crosspath is the cheapest Bird Handler, the Gyrfalcon can be used as a cheap merge into various birds along the bottom path of Beast Handler, especially Giant Condor and Pouākai.

In terms of choosing multiple Gyrfalcons over merging into higher-tier birds, multiple Gyrfalcons may work better for picking spaced weaker bloons, although the Gyrfalcons do provide cheap ranged intel for higher-tier birds.

Tips

• A 0-0-1 Gyrfalcon can be a cheap merge for increasing intel of a stronger Bird Handler.
• Multiple unmerged Gyrfalcons could potentially be used to reduce the threat of weaker Regrow Bloons. Gyrfalcons fly within high range, and does increased Regrow damage for a low cost.
• It may be wise to set a Gyrfalcon on Strong to stall out the stronger early-game bloons. Pulling back the Place Beast targeting further along the track also helps initiate more of the scratch attack, rather than a time-consuming pickup over longer distances.
• 1-0-0 into 1-0-1 is a helpful start in CHIMPS to beat the rest of Round 6 in addition to several other rounds, presuming well enough micro.

Version History

Balance Changes

Gyrfalcon's strength in the early-game for mobility is quite strong as a T1, and also a cheap merge.

36.0

• Released
• [Bug]: 00x Beast Handler does not benefit from Sharpening Stone whatsoever

37.0

“	As our newest tower to be added to BTD6, we went over feedback for every path and made a large number of adjustments addressing a variety of points.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Gyrfalcon now deals +1 Regrow damage (Makes accidental regrow farms less likely to occur. However, it can no longer produce trivally easy infinite Regrow Farms.)
• [undocumented] Gyrfalcon can no longer accept the Overclock or Ultraboost buffs.
  • Note: Ninja Kiwi incorrectly addressed "5-x-x & x-5-x Beast handler paths are now overclockable", which implies that beasts from Paths 1 and 2 can be buffed from Overclock; from testing, the actual balance change is that birds no longer accept Overclock or Ultraboost buffs, and previously all Beast Handlers could accept the Overclock buff properly and pass them to their beasts, just now water beasts can accept the buff better by increasing rate of the splash. This also affects Ultraboost.

41.0

“	[...] Bottom path birds up to T3 are also just a little too good for the cost and are all going up about 5% with Condor's price being reduced to compensate.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Gyrfalcon price increased from $180 to $190

42.0

“	When first creating Beast Handler we balanced the T1-3 upgrade costs with a goal of creating a decision point between spending free playable space to save on cash or spending more cash to save on playable space. However in practice though some people have come on board with spending their playable space as a resource for more power; actual interest is much more divided between maximizing cost efficiency of these merges or simply using different towers. Given that spam of lower tier handlers already comes with the advantage of allowing them to be repositioned over a larger area, we’re changing our approach with a full cost rebalance across most T1-3 upgrades for exactly equal cost per point of merged beast power, instead leaving the nuance around understanding higher value merges & footprint advantage to depend more on discounts.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Gyrfalcon price increased from $190 to $210

43.0

“	In going over our large list of price changes for Beast Handler’s lower tiers in 42 this change was received very positively, however we did not realize that in making this change we killed off all chance of dual-beast handlers being used as a round 1 starting option for under $650 in hard modes – So we gotta do that math all over again and convert it for difficulty, painful 😀 All T1 beast prices changed to allow 110 & 101 beast handler combos to be placed for under $650 in hard mode, all T2 & T3 prices shifted around to keep these same cost ratios.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Gyrfalcon cost reduced from $210 to $190

Extra Notes (Version History)

• Version 41.0 slightly adjusted the efficiency of 0-0-1 Gyrfalcon for merges, due to various price adjustments.
  • Medium: $430 → $440; 430 / 1 power → 440 / 1 power
• Version 42.0 did adjust the efficiency of 0-0-1 Gyrfalcon for merges, due to various price adjustments.
  • Medium: $440 → $460; 440 / 1 power → 460 / 1 power
• Version 43.0 slightly adjusted the efficiency of 0-0-1 Gyrfalcon for merges, due to various price adjustments.
  • Medium: $460 → $440; 460 / 1 power → 440 / 1 power

Sounds

When upgrading to Gyrfalcon:

• [bird chirps]

Gallery

Gyrfalcon hatched during "The Way of Air" sub-quest for "Epic Beast Quest"

Multiple Gyrfalcons

Front view Gyrfalcon

Back view Gyrfalcon

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon

Trivia

• The Easy price of Gyrfalcon was discovered on Ninja Kiwi's Version 36.0 preview video.
• Gyrfalcon's upgrade sound is named PlaceBeastHandlerBirbFalcon.wav (with "Birb") in the game files. The name "Birb" is likely an Easter egg made by the Ninja Kiwi programmers as a joke name for a "bird". This Easter egg is shared with Horned Owl.
• According to Ninja Kiwi’s 16th June 2023 blog, Gyrfalcons among other birds do more damage to Regrows, due to these bloon types having the inability to regenerate rubber while stuck under sharp talons of the birds.