Ice Shards (BTDB2)

BTDB2

“	Razor sharp shards fly out when frozen bloons pop.	”
	^{~ BTDB2 description}

Ice Shards is the 3rd upgrade on Path 1 of the Ice Monkey in Bloons TD Battles 2. It causes affected Frozen Bloons to receive a shardable status effect, which triggers 3 shards in a 120-degree formation to release as shrapnel. It doesn't change the Ice Monkey in any other way, besides inheriting the properties from Cold Snap's built-in camo detection, lead-popping power, and the Permafrost upgrade inflicting its eponymous status effect.

Much of its attacks are similar to its BTD6 counterpart in terms of main functionality, although more expensive, freezes more bloons, produces weaker shards, and lacks bonus range. Ice Shards does not inflict shardable status effects onto Whites and Zebras. Thanks to the previous upgrade, Cold Snap, it has the Camo Prioritization option. When compared to the BTDB Mobile counterpart, the Ice Shards monkey has much less freezing pierce, and cannot self-shard due to not having a built-in refreezing functionality nor a fast enough rate to outpace its own freeze durations. However, shards still cannot accept pierce buffs, nor can their damage be increased.

It freezes up to 40 bloons, each bloons affected by shardable status effect once popped produces a spray of 3 shards at equal angles, each dealing 1 damage up to 3 bloons; this works just like the BTD6 pre-34.0 counterpart. It has 20 range, equal to the base Ice Monkey.

It costs $1,800, and is unlocked with purchase of Ice Monkey.

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Ice Shards provides high shredding power, provided assistance from other towers that pop Frozen. Ice Shards is utilized the best when used against large amounts of grouped bloon sends and grouped AI bloons and paired with a defense capable of reliably popping Frozen Bloons. With Version 1.0.6 replacing Metal Freeze with Cold Snap, Ice Shards can now perform even better as its weakness against Camo Bloons no longer being a problem. It still attacks slowly, so it will need additional support to make up for some of its downtime and its incredibly high cost.

Tips[]

3-1-0 is usually better than 3-0-1. 3-0-1 does make it easier to reach certain bends like those on Mayan, and note that Ice Shards itself does not receive extra range until upgraded into Embrittlement. 3-0-2 is utilizable in groups to activate their own shards; desynchronise their attacks for the best results.
Pat Fusty and especially Fusty the Snowman synergizes very well with Ice Shards, who is cheap and can easily trigger shards if nearby, in addition to abilities that can boost damage of the Ice Shards and its many shards.
- Fusty the Snowman has a stronger synergy by also adding bonus attack speed when his Chilling Cheer is activated.
Against an Ice Shards, it is unwise to add eco bloons in combination with added MOAB-class bloon rushes. This is because bloons, including sent bloons, can "feed" the Ice Shards, triggering more damage to the affected bloons including the sent MOAB-class bloons.

Version History[]

Ice Shards has a popular place in Battles 2 in a similar manner to Race Events in BTD6. Its popularity as a grouped rush buster has caused it to receive a series of nerfs. Upon release of Fusty the Snowman, Ice Shards was popularly used to trivialize mid-game rushes, especially in combination with Dartling.