Heart of Vengeance (BTDB2)

BTDB2

“	Gains 20% attack speed and 1% for every life lost from the starting value after the upgrade. Maxes at 100% and diminishes if lives are restored.	”
	^{~ BTDB2 description}

Heart of Vengeance is the 2nd upgrade of Path 3 for the Druid in Bloons TD Battles 2. It gives the Druid automatic 20% attack speed (rather than 10%, as in its BTD6 counterpart), and adds a 1% attack speed buff for each 1 life lost from when the upgrade is bought. The attack speed buff is capped at 100%, meaning that the maximum attack speed buff is attained when 80 net lives are lost. This buff will reverse if lives are gained. The upgrade ignores any lives above the starting lives in the current game.

Secondary attacks such as Lightning from Heart of Thunder are also affected by this, making the casting of them faster.

It costs $400.

Strategy[]

Summary[]

This upgrade adds an interesting dynamic that no other upgrade in the game does. It incentives the player using Heart of Vengenance to lose lives in order to gain a 1% attack speed bonus for every life lost, which is what most players try to avoid. Note that 10 less lives have to be lost for the 100% attack speed bonus compared to BTD6; on a full 150 lives, leaking down to 70 lives maxes out the Vengeance boost for Vengeance Druids placed before any change in lives.

Tips[]

In terms of crosspathing, 0-1-2 offers the most single-target DPS for Upper Path 3 upgrades, while 2-0-2 can be useful for when the player wants to stop losing lives in order to not accidentally lose the game. 1-0-2 is also more effective against grouped than 0-1-2, and also transitions into 2-0-2.
It is advised to get as many 0-0-2 Druids as possible as fast as possible, as this means that more Druids will get the attack speed buff while not in danger of dying. Alternatively, keep on 0-0-2 Druid and use it to get a Druid of Wrath to excel the early rounds before Round 11.
Note that this mechanic is hard to utilize mid-game and beyond due to either the opponent sending eco bloons that are totally not going through or rushes that are supposed to kill the player and are too large to leak lives and survive.
- During the later stages of the game, the player running a Submerge and Support or Bloontonium Reactor decamo strategy may want to manually unsubmerge to intentionally leak stray Camos and acquire any missing lost lives this way.
Players that care about First Blood might want to stay away from this upgrade as properly optimizing this mechanic almost certainly means that the player will lose lives first.

Version History[]

The popularity of Druid primarily comes from the sheer power of Heart of Vengeance's maximization of attack speed from losing lives. The starting amount of vengeance is increased but cost also raised to account for the greater power of that upgrade.

Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)

Gives 20% initial attack speed bonus instead of 10% initial attack speed bonus.

1.9.0

Heart of Vengeance costs more ($300 → $400)

Trivia[]

Heart of Vengeance is the only Druid upgrade below Tier 3 that always costs more than its BTD6 counterpart regardless of version of BTD6.