| “ | Shoots further and deploys sentries in a much larger area. Sentries have longer range | ” |
| ~ In-game description |
Larger Service Area is the 1st upgrade of Path 2 for the Engineer Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It increases the range of the Engineer from 40 units to 60 units. In addition, sentries spawned by this Engineer gain +4 range, and newly placed Bloon Traps with this upgrade can be repositioned to any valid location within range and refresh any repositioned traps.
This upgrade costs $210 on Easy, $250 on Medium, $270 on Hard, and $300 on Impoppable.
Description[]
Overview[]
Engineers with Larger Service Area sport an orange cap and a yellow pencil over its left ear; the pencil remains constant on a crosspath, if shifted slightly depending on the upgrade.
Larger Service Area increases range of the Engineer by +20. This increases the deployment of any sentries and traps too, and also allows traps to be repositioned within valid range. New sentries from the Engineer gain +4 range too.
Targeting Priorities[]
Larger Service Area targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. It shoots straight movement projectiles.
- First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
- Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
- Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
- Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.
Costs[]
- Updated as of Version 42.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.
| [Module | Data] | Purchase | Sell | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costs | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable |
| Upgrade (X-1-X) | $210 | $250 | $270 | $300 | - | |||
| Total (0-1-0) | $550 | $650 | $700 | $780 | $385 | $455 | $490 | $546 |
| Crosspath (1-1-0) | $975 | $1,150 | $1,240 | $1,380 | $683 | $805 | $868 | $966 |
| Crosspath (2-1-0) | $1,315 | $1,550 | $1,670 | $1,860 | $921 | $1,085 | $1,169 | $1,302 |
| Crosspath (0-1-1) | $930 | $1,100 | $1,185 | $1,320 | $651 | $770 | $830 | $924 |
| Crosspath (0-1-2) | $1,115 | $1,320 | $1,420 | $1,585 | $781 | $924 | $994 | $1,110 |
This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: 
Better Sell Deals
Strategy[]
Summary[]
Larger Service Area is a lot more useful in this game compared to BTD5, as it is now far cheaper, is a Tier 1 upgrade rather than Tier 2, and the Engineer's sentry spawning algorithm is now smarter. The extra range bonus from Larger Service Area is still massive for its cost, making it have the greatest valuable in combination with upgrades specifically targeted at improving the Engineer itself rather than its sentries.
Tips[]
- Pairing the Larger Service Area upgrade with Double Gun allows the Engineer to reach further, allowing the fast pinning attacks to reach considerably further, although this misses out on the Sentry Gun upgrade.
- Generally speaking, this upgrade is usually not very necessary unless it is to improve coverage for the Engineer's nailgun. Even in BTD6, this upgrade does not do very well in combination with sentries.
- 0-1-0 can still be used for reaching across long parts of the track, especially Quiet Street's gaps. Affording the upgrade mid-R6 CHIMPS can be hard, however.
Version History[]
Larger Service Area may have a generous range bonus, but it was arguably a detrimental upgrade for sentry spawns in most scenarios. While keeping the use of extra range for purely deploying attacks from further, the price has been slashed down and a minor bonus range crosspath benefit to sentries had been added.
- 20.0
| “ | Continuing our efforts to make crosspaths meaningful and fit the style of each path more solidly, a number of crosspath and base level balance shifts were made. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
Larger Service Area now grants +4 range to all sentries deployed by the Engineer.
- 21.0
| “ | Engineer is quite poor in terms of crosspathing, so we've added crosspath benefits to Cleansing Foam as well as an overall price buff to the middle crosspathing upgrades. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Cost of Larger Service Area decreased ($550 → $250).
- 27.0?
- Added "Sentries have longer range" at the end of the sentence.
- 29.0
| “ | [...] For the sake of further improved crosspath potential, we have also re-envisioned the 'Larger Service' crosspath as giving smarter service as well in the form for targeting for Bloontrap & Cleansing Foam | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Larger Service Area crosspathing |
- Larger Service Area now adds selectable placement for Bloon Traps with this upgrade. Special targeting allows for placement anywhere within direct range.
- 30.0
| “ | To add a bit of quality of life solving problems with trap needing to fill once before moving to target location, Bloontraps placed off-track never being able to fill, and maybe even to just add some interesting micro, any Bloontraps will now become expired after a short delay when their Engineer has a new target set. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Larger Service Area with Bloon Trap now refreshes traps upon pressing a new location; picking new target expires current trap and places new one.
Gallery[]
Official artwork[]
Trivia[]
- A "service area" in the context of mechanical engineering likely refers to the space at which mechanic work can be operated, which makes sense considering that the Engineer Monkey is mostly a mechanical engineer.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||