| “ | Heavy shells do extra damage to Ceramic, Lead, all Fortified Bloons, and all stunned bloons. Can also pop Black Bloons. | ” |
| ~ BTD6 description as of Version 17.0 |
Heavy Shells is the third upgrade of Path 2 for the Mortar Monkey in BTD6. It allows the mortar to pop black bloons as well as deal +1 damage to all Fortified, +1 damage to all Leads (including DDTs), +3 damage to Ceramic Bloons, +1 damage to MOAB-class, and +2 damage to stunned bloons.
It costs $765 on Easy, $900 on Medium, $970 on Hard, and $1,080 on Impoppable.
Appearance[edit | edit source]
With the Heavy Shells, it changes the appearance of both the monkey and the mortar cannon. The monkey is now an officer in a green military-style shirt and green beret, paired with a black-barreled mortar cannon with two yellow stripes around it. The monkey stands by its barrel to continually press buttons. In the official artwork, the monkey points with its right index finger.
Strategy[edit | edit source]
Summary[edit | edit source]
Heavy Shells is quite expensive for a single tower with moderately slow attack speed and low accuracy, but it becomes a good low-cost option at countering early Ceramics, as well as good support at destroying groups of Black Bloon layers in earlier rounds. In addition, it has a unique synergy with stun attacks by dealing more damage to bloons inflicted by a stun status effect. Similar to most Mortar Monkeys, targeting Heavy Shells along bends will optimize the accuracy of its explosive attacks.
Heavy Shells is usually a stepping stone to Artillery Battery in most cases, but it does a good job as a stepping stone compared to other upgrade alternatives, due to being able to damage any non-camo bloon type, global range potential, and decent pierce.
Tips[edit | edit source]
- Since Burny Stuff no longer can apply napalm onto Black Bloons without MIB support, Heavy Shells is a must-need if wanting to pop Black Bloons with a Mortar Monkey.
- This is a rather low-cost upgrade that can be used to reliably break down early Ceramic Bloons into easy-to-pop chunks.
- There are certain attacks that can stun bloons, which in turn will trigger the extra damage to stunned bloons from Heavy Shells.
- These include but are not limited to:
- Bloons only: Shell Shock, Bloon Impact, Flash Bomb.
- Blimps only: Maim MOAB, Cripple MOAB.
- All: Pop and Awe ability, Bloon Crush, Tsar Bomba ability, the Vine Rupture ability (MK only) from Spirit of the Forest, Cave Monkey, the lotuses on Lotus Island, Rocket Storm with the Gorgon Storm MK active.
- When it comes to maximizing the extra stun damage, the best options to pair with include Bloon Impact and Shell Shock versus bloons or Maim MOAB versus MOAB-class bloons.
- These include but are not limited to:
- The best crosspath for Heavy Shells is 2-3-0. Heavy Shells benefits better from the increased damage given by the Bloon Buster upgrade. There is little need to add Burny Stuff because Heavy Shells already reliably pop Black Bloons, and Increased Accuracy is not as helpful as Bigger Blast due to the fact that Heavy Shells already has a decent attack speed.
Version History[edit | edit source]
- 7.0
Heavy Shells with Burny Stuff will now (correctly) add Burny Stuff to Black Bloons.
- 8.0
Heavy Shells now deals +1 damage to MOAB-class.
- 17.0
Heavy Shells now deals +2 damage to stunned bloons
- 21.0
Explosion random deviation radius increased (18 --> 30)- Attack speed decreased (1.07s --> 1.08s), due to Mortar Monkey attack speed reworks
- 22.0
- Reverted random deviation radius change
Gallery[edit | edit source]
Add a photo to this gallery
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- There is used to be a bug where a 0/3/2 Mortar Monkey could not apply napalm to Black Bloons despite the Heavy Shells upgrade allowing to pop Black Bloons. This was fixed on Version 7.0; Black Bloons popped by a 0/3/2 Mortar Monkey will now turn into Pink Bloons with the Burny Stuff effect instead of without the Burny Stuff effect.
- Heavy Shells changes the Mortar Monkey's activation process into pressing a button on a special handheld remote instead of a ground-level lever.
- Prior to Version 17.0, the description was "Heavy shells do extra damage to Ceramic, Lead, and all Fortified Bloons. Can also pop Black Bloons." but was changed because of the added bonus stunned bloon damage mechanic.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
