Burning hot grape shot can pop Lead Bloons and set Bloons on fire.
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~ BTD6 description
Hot Shot is the second upgrade of Path 2 for the Monkey Buccaneer in BTD6. It allows the Buccaneer to shoot flaming grapes instead of normal ones; these grapes pop Lead Bloons and can cause a burning effect similar to Mortar Monkey's Burny Stuff upgrade and some of Gwendolin's attacks. The burn effect does 1 damage every 1.5 seconds for 3 seconds, The grapes will no longer pop Purple Bloons, though, since they primarily deal fire damage, which Purples are immune to.
After buying this upgrade, the Monkey Buccaneer's grapes turn orange. The grapes shot from the tower look the same as Grape Shot, except the grapes are on fire. If the top path or bottom is upgraded, the grapes stay orange.
One 0-2-2 Hot Shot is useful at popping Camo Leads with ease.
Purchasing Hot Shots is very handy as a crosspath for Merchantmen, as it makes them useful at popping Camo Leads and most bloons between Rounds 20-30 on its own, given slight support from other towers.
Since 17.0, Double Shot now also multiples the number of grapes of a Buccaneer, including hot shots, making it extremely powerful as a crosspath for top path upgrades.
The grapes from Hot Shot cannot pop Purples even though the grapes visually appear to be literally purple grapes with flames. This is contrary to other upgrades such as White Hot Spikes or the Tack Shooter's Hot Shots upgrade.