Icicles (BTDB2)

BTD6

BTDB2

“	Frozen bloons grow sharp icicles that can pop bloons that touch them.	”
	~ BTDB2 description

Icicles onto bloons, dealing damage to Greens

Icicles is the 4th upgrade on Path 3 of the Ice Monkey in Bloons TD Battles 2. It is similar to its BTD6 counterpart, with some differences.

These icicles are sharp (plus lead-popping with 2-0-4), deal two damage at any Bloon that touches them, and pierce up to 3 bloons. The icicle planted status effect lasts for up to ~2 seconds, and the icicles attached target only non-frozen bloons. Inheriting the properties of Cryo Cannon, its ice blasts deal 2 layers of damage too. Attack speed is not increased compared to Cryo Cannon; Icicles still attacks every 1.15s (rather than 1.0s in BTD6). Each snowball hits up to 30 bloons.

The icicles that form on bloons are considered the Sharp type, allowing the popping of White Bloons and Zebra Bloons but not Lead Bloons unless crosspathed with Cold Snap upgrade. Icicles are also grown on Bloons that Ice Monkey cannot normally freeze such as White and Zebra Bloons, but not Lead Bloons. Grown icicles can pop Leads if the originating tower had lead-popping by any source at the time of shooting a snowball, which otherwise destroy them completely. Grown icicles are not absorbed by other Frozen Bloons but do ignore them; this is noticeable when Icicles refreezes large clumps of bloons.

This upgrade also allows Ice Monkey to target and attack MOAB-class bloons, dealing +3 damage to them. MOAB-class bloons are not frozen, but icicles can still form on them.

It costs $2,400, and is unlocked with the purchase of Ice Monkey.

Costs

Updated as of Version 1.5.0

Upgrade or Crosspath	Cost	Sellback (70%)
Upgrade Cost (x-x-4)	$2,400	N/A
Total Cost (0-0-4)	$4,950	TBA
Total Cost (1-0-4)	$5,050	TBA
Total Cost (2-0-4)	$5,400	TBA
Total Cost (0-1-4)	$5,175	TBA
Total Cost (0-2-4)	$5,525	TBA

Strategy

Summary

Icicles is a DPS-oriented freezing tower, which comes helpful for both cleanup and just offense. With a combination of its ice blasts and icicles, it can pop a lot of types of bloons, and with 2-0-4 crosspath it also pops Lead and detects Camo, popping just about any bloon type. Provided there is at least one tower that pops White and Zebra, Icicles can easily break down a rush greatly, including Grouped Zebra rushes.

Tips

• 2-0-4 is generally the better crosspath in most scenarios within Battles 2 due to the danger of Camo and Lead. 0-2-4 has superior DPS but lacks any defense against Camo or Lead.

Version History

Because of its versatility as a cheap group-popping with stalling, particularly R13-16 rushes, its price is increased and attack cooldown reduced due to versatility on battle situations. This upgrade is often used with Druid-Sub-Ice and Dartling-Farm-Ice combos to combat mid-game rushes.

Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)

• [bug, maybe this version?] Icicles blasts now directly pops White Bloons and Zebra Bloons
•  ??? Icicles no longer adds Icicle Planted status effect onto White Bloons and Zebra Bloons without support

1.0.4 (?)

• Icicles blasts no longer directly pop White Bloons and Zebra Bloons

1.2.0

• Icicles cost increased ($2000 → $2400)

1.5.0

• No longer requires 9,000 XP to unlock. Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund.

1.7.0

• Icicles attack cooldown increased (1.0s → 1.15s)

4.1

• Now can target MOAB-class bloons, placing icicles on them without freezing them.
• Now gains +3 damage to MOAB-class bloons.

“	Ice Monkey is useful for early game defense and late game support with stalling and debuffing, but provides pretty much no MOAB class damage with any of its upgrades. We would like to give it a bit more to offer by allowing Icicles to attack and damage MOAB class bloons. It won’t deal massive damage to them but it can be greatly buffed by Fusty the Snowman, so we will be curious to see what impact this change has.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

Gallery

Enough XP to unlock Icicles (pre-1.5.0)

Icicles crosspaths

Trivia

• Unlike its BTD6 counterpart, the BTDB2 Icicles inherited the speed nerf of BTDB2 Cryo Cannon. This is noticeable when buying Icicles alongside Cryo Cannon and comparing their attack rates; they both attack after a consistent amount of time, and therefore both share a similar attack cooldown.