Necromancer: Unpopped Army

BTD6

BTDB2

Necromancer: Unpopped Army
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Tower	Wizard Monkey
Unlocked at	10,000 XP
Cost	$2,380 (Easy) $2,800 (Medium) $3,025 (Hard) $3,360 (Impoppable)
Activated Ability	N/A
Targeting Options	First, Last, Close, Strong, Camo Priority If purchased, Wall of Fire will default to Close.
Camo Detection	Yes (can decamo)
Other Names	Necro, Necromancer
Popology
Damage Type(s)
Energy Camo affected Single Projectile Straight Attack
Other(s)	Shimmer: Normal Camo affected Area of Effect Decamo Undead Bloons: Normal Camo affected On Track Spawn Undead Movement Extra Damage
Statistics
Damage	1 (bolt, weakest, e.a.u.) 3 (bolt, strongest, e.a.u.) 0 (shimmer) Undead Bloons: 2 (undead bloons, spray of 1-5, <200 graveyard space) 3 (undead bloons, spray of 1-5, 200-399 graveyard space) 4 (undead bloons, spray of 1-5, >400 graveyard space)
Pierce	8 (bolt) 200 (shimmer) 2-11 (undead bloons, spray of 1-5, randomized, uses 1-10 graveyard units)
Attack Speed	Moderate (every 1.1s, bolt) Slow (every 2.5s, shimmer) Undead Bloons: Gains +10% attack speed per 100 graveyard units stored, up to +50% for Necromancer Moderately Slow (every 1.5s, undead bloons, spray of 1-5, slowest speed, depends on graveyard space) Moderate (every 1.0s, undead bloons, spray of 1-5, fastest speed, depends on graveyard space)
Range	60 (bolt) 80 (shimmer) 60 (undead bloons) 70 (graveyard filling)
Status Effects	Decamo (shimmer)
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	Graveyard units (generates graveyard units by popped bloons within graveyard range, uses 1-10 per undead bloon attack, can store up to 500 units, spending it creates undead bloon attacks)
Path Upgrades
← Previous	Shimmer
← Previous	Shimmer
Current	Necromancer: Unpopped Army
Current	Necromancer: Unpopped Army
Next →	Prince of Darkness
Next →	Prince of Darkness
Path Info
Path	3
Path	3
Upgrade Tier	4
Upgrade Tier	4
[Source]

“	Reanimate recently popped enemies as servants to destroy the Bloons.	”
	~ In-game description

Necromancer: Unpopped Army (also known as Necromancer or Necro) is the fourth upgrade of Path 3 for the Wizard Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It causes all bloons popped near the Wizard to become Undead Bloons that travel towards the entrance and deal damage to bloons they touch (including Purple and Lead Bloons). Every summon produces between 1-5 Undead Bloons that each have a random amount of pierce between 2-11, consuming as many graveyard units as the total bonus pierce (between 1-10 graveyard units per Undead Bloon). Each Undead Bloon deals 2 damage, move at the speed of standard Red Bloons, and last for up to 10 seconds. Adding Guided Magic improves lifespan of all summoned undead bloons by +42%, increasing total distance from 175 to 250 units. Level 11+ Ezili increases the pierce of undead bloons by +50%, which is applied before other buffs to pierce.

The undead bloons are stored in a personal graveyard, local to each Necromancer, and graveyard units are collected by popping bloons within an unbuffable 70 range of the Necromancer. Necromancer can store up to 500 accumulated bloons popped for up to 2 rounds. Starting from Round 81+, popped Super Ceramics give 7-13 graveyard units.

Undead bloons spawn +10% faster for every 100 graveyard units, up to +50% faster with a graveyard of 500. Additionally, all the Wizard's attacks (including crosspaths Fireball and Wall of Fire) deal +1 damage per 200 graveyard units in the personal graveyard. Undead bloons can be controlled by manual location targeting for spawn point, and can be un-targeted by simply cancelling the manual targeting selection menu.

This upgrade costs $2,380 on Easy, $2,800 on Medium, $3,025 on Hard, and $3,360 on Impoppable.

Description

Overview

Necromancer producing Undead Bloons

Unlike the appearance of the Shimmer predecessor, the Necromancer's cloak is almost entirely black, with purple trims on the sleeves and the hood. The hood now is adorned with a skull that has glowing green eyes, and the Necromancer's skin has also become entirely green (although most of its face is hidden by mummy bandages). The Necromancer also wields a skull-topped staff, which seems to be telekinetically controlled.

Necromancer: Unpopped Army summons an army of Undead Bloons from bloons that were popped within a wide region surrounding its range. Stored bloons end up in its personal graveyard. Undead Bloons deplete continuously over time, lowering graveyard count by deviating values based on the fluctuating pierce values and quantity of the Undead Bloons. After accumulating a large quantity of Undead Bloons, the Necromancer starts to send Undead Bloons faster, and even increase damage of its attacks. Each Necromancer can store up to 500 graveyard units.

For further details about Necromancer's Undead Bloon mechanics, refer to the #Necromancy section.

Targeting Priorities

Like most towers, Necromancer: Unpopped Army's main attack has the four standard targeting priorities for BTD6, those being First, Last, Close, and Strong; this also applies to its Fireball, should it choose 0-1-4 crosspath.

• 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.

Additionally, it also has Camo Prioritization, and its Shimmer defaults to Close in regards to determining pierce consumption. If crosspathed for 0-2-4, its Wall of Fire defaults to Close.

The Undead Bloons it spawns, meanwhile, are an On-Track item with Undead Movement, and default to Smart targeting, spawning as close to the exit as possible. Zombie bloons travel 175 units before despawning.

Full Popology

Statistics

Updated as of Version 44.2

Base stats

• Bolt:
  • Projectile, energy type, camo detection, 60 range, 1.1s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 8 pierce. Projectile size of 4, projectile speed of 400, projectile lifespan of 0.4s.
• Shimmer:
  • Zone, normal type, camo detection, 60 range, 1.25x radius (75), 2.5s attack cooldown, 0 damage, 500 pierce, decamos all affected bloons. Lifespan of 0.05s.
• Reap:
  • Passive, 70 unbuffable range, collect 1 graveyard unit for every bloon pop within range, or 7-13 if the popped bloon is a Super Ceramic. Store graveyard units into Graveyard.
• Graveyard:
  • Passive, capacity of 500 graveyard units. Stored graveyard units have a lifespan of 2 rounds.
• Summon Undead Bloon:
  • Ignores Line of Sight, 60 range, 3.0s passive attack cooldown. Check Graveyard for sufficient graveyard units. Deploys spray of 1-5 Undead Bloon at back of the track or from targeted reticle located on nearby track. Assign a random pierce value beteween 2-11 (+1 to +10) for Undead Bloon. Consume graveyard units equal to bonus pierce.
• Undead Bloon:
  • Backwards-moving on-track projectile, normal type, camo detection, 2 damage, 2-11 pierce (depends on assigned pierce value). 25 projectile speed, 3 projectile size, 175 max projectile distance.
• Necromancer Strength:
  • Passive. Regularly check graveyard units in Graveyard.
    • For every 100 graveyard units, increase attack speed of Summon Undead Bloon by +10%, up to +50% (500 graveyard units).
    • For every 200 graveyard units, increase damage of Undead Bloon and Bolt by +1, up to +2 (400 graveyard units).

Crosspathing interactions

• 1-0-4: Bolt and Shimmer ignore Line of Sight. Bolt projectile lifespan increased from 0.4s to 0.8s and has weakish homing. Undead Bloon max projectile distance increased from 175 to 250.
• 2-0-4: Bolt damage increased from 1 to 2 and gains increased projectile size.
• 0-1-4: Gains an improved Fireball attack that can be affected by Necromancer Strength.
  • Fireball: Projectile, fire type, 60 range, 2.2s attack cooldown. Upon collision, produce Fireball Explosion.
  • Fireball Explosion: Burst, explosion type, 10 blast radius, 1 damage, 20 pierce.
• 0-2-4: Gains an improved Wall of Fire attack that can be affected by Necromancer Strength.
  • Wall of Fire: Spawn, fire type, 60 range, 15 radius, 1 damage, 15 pierce, 0.15s rehit cooldown, 0.15s pierce refresh, 6.5s attack cooldown. Lasts for 4.5s. Locked on Close targeting. Can accept Necromancer Strength.

Monkey Knowledge interactions

• Lingering Magic: Projectiles fired from all Wizard Monkey have longer lifespan.
  • Bolt without 1-x-x lasts 20% longer, from 0.4 seconds to 0.48 seconds.
• Magic Tricks: Guided Magic and Intense Magic cost 25 less.
  • Intense Magic cost reduced from $255, $300, $325, $360 to $230, $275, $300, $335 on each difficulty.
• Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
• Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more. Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
• Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.

Attack Interactions

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Magic

Updated as of Version 34.3

Base attack(s)

• Bolt:
  • Energy
  • Camo Detection
  • Single Projectile
  • Straight Attack

Costs

Updated as of Version 44.0. 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-X-4)	$2,380	$2,800	$3,025	$3,360	-
Total (0-0-4)	$4,440	$5,225	$5,645	$6,270	$3,108	$3,658	$3,952	$4,389
Crosspath (1-0-4)	$4,565	$5,375	$5,805	$6,450	$3,196	$3,763	$4,064	$4,515
Crosspath (2-0-4)	$4,945	$5,825	$6,290	$6,990	$3,462	$4,078	$4,403	$4,893
Crosspath (0-1-4)	$4,695	$5,525	$5,970	$6,630	$3,287	$3,868	$4,179	$4,641
Crosspath (0-2-4)	$5,375	$6,325	$6,835	$7,590	$3,763	$4,428	$4,785	$5,313

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: Magic Tricks, Better Sell Deals

Necromancy

Undead Bloon

Necromancer: Unpopped Army can summon Undead Bloons (sometimes informally referred as "Zombie Bloons"), which move backwards along the track to damage the enemy bloons. In order to produce Undead Bloons, it relies on accumulating graveyard units to build up its stockpile of Undead Bloons, which can be obtained by having bloons popped within 70 range. Upon gathering an adequate number of graveyard units, it consumes some of its graveyard units to create Undead Bloons. A single Necromancer can stock up to 500 graveyard units, each unit lasting up to 2 rounds before automatically depleted.

Undead Bloons travel at the speed of Red Bloons and last for 175 units (250 with Guided Magic) along the track before expiring. Undead Bloons deal 2 damage and have between 2 to 11 pierce, the pierce amount proportional to the graveyard space used up. Undead Bloons can pop all bloon types including Lead and Purple. With Level 11+ Ezili, Undead Bloons gain +50% pierce.

Undead Bloons can also increase the Necromancer's own power. Undead Bloons are summoned +10% faster for every 100 graveyard units, up to +50%. All Necromancer attacks deal more damage upon reaching every 200 graveyard units, for up to +2 damage.

The Necromancer's Undead Bloon system involves units of collected popped Bloons, called "graveyard units", to generate Undead Bloons.

Graveyard Units

See also: Undead Bloon

Graveyard Unit Counter

Graveyard units represent the mana of that Necromancer, which increases if bloons are popped within its collection range and decreases over time as Undead Bloons are produced or by round-based expiry. Undead Bloons and graveyard units are related but represent distinct entities; Undead Bloons are just the product of graveyard units.

Accumulation

The Necromancer receives graveyard units when bloons are popped within 70 range of the Necromancer (these do not have to be popped by the Necromancer itself). Each layer popped gives 1 graveyard unit; for instance, popping a MOAB only gives +1 graveyard unit, but popping an entire Rainbow Bloon gives +46 graveyard units. However, from Rounds 81+ when Super Ceramics arrive, popping a Super Ceramic layer gives between 7-13 graveyard units, inclusive, to compensate for the fewer child bloons per Super Ceramic. Each Necromancer's graveyard can only hold up to 500 units.

Depletion

Every time a Necromancer summons undead bloons, it will randomly consume 1-10 graveyard units. 1 to 5 undead bloons are summoned at a time, each consuming the previously mentioned quantities of graveyard space. Each undead bloon has 1 base pierce and gets bonus pierce equivalent to how many graveyard units were consumed.

For every 100 units in a Necromancer's graveyard, he summons undead bloons +10% faster, up to 50% faster at the max 500 graveyard units. Each undead bloon also gets 1 bonus damage for every 200 graveyard units (up to +2 at 400-500 graveyard units) that the Necromancer had right before he summoned the bloon.

Graveyard units stored in a Necromancer last for up to 2 rounds before being automatically depleted.

Strategy

Summary

Necromancer: Unpopped Army is one of the strongest towers for its cost. It can deal serious damage if it can amass undead bloons, but it is less effective against waves of MOAB-Class Bloons, since each one generates very few undead bloons when popped. It is one of the best towers in the earlier mid-game as a cleanup option. Pairing it with nearby towers for extra damage helps optimize the Necromancer's overall performance and keep its graveyard full more often. If placed in a good position with supporting damage, one Necromancer can easily reach well over 100,000 pops by round 100.

Tips

• Always provide another offensive tower nearby, whether it is another Necromancer or any other suitable tower. This reduces leaks while the Necromancer is summoning undead bloons and contributes to the Necromancer's graveyard.
  • This is especially useful on rounds where there are not many low-tier bloons for the Necromancer to begin summoning and snowballing from.
• Position the Necromancer on areas of the track where the player wants the bloons to spawn by placing only that track within its range.
• When placed near the start of the track lane, Necromancers can be used as effective anti-stall on single-lane maps. For even better performance, add even more Necromancers, a Prince of Darkness, Alchemist buffs, plus other towers that deal effective MOAB-class damage (e.g. MOAB Maulers).
• Unlike ability-based towers, Necromancers benefit the most from anti-stalling. This is because anti-stalling a round will minimize the depletion of the graveyard and therefore store more undead bloons for later rounds.
• Since all the Necromancer's attacks deal bonus damage with a fuller graveyard, it is usually better off going for 0-2-4 rather than 2-0-4 to boost Wall of Fire. Additionally, greater damage within the Necromancer's direct range means the graveyard can be filled faster.
• Undead bloon spawning always ignores line of sight, even if the Necromancer itself cannot see over the walls. Undead bloons only require an overlapping track space to spawn from.
• Necromancers should be placed where the majority of attacking towers, in order to gain as many undead bloons as possible from the nearby popped bloons.
• By default, the target marker (via the green target button) is absent, causing the Necromancer to default its Undead Bloons to spawn at the point(s) closest to the exit(s) of the nearby track(s). Using the target marker forces all Undead Bloons to move to a particular spawn point.
  • In order to reset the target marker automatically, the Necromancer must be buffed by any range buff and target a region of track that would be outside its range if the range buff would wear out. An easy way to do this is via Berserker Brew and Stronger Stimulant, since these buffs last only temporarily.
  • Manually removing the target marker is easy; just close off the tab in the target reposition menu.

Achievements

250K	Oathbreaker FIRST RELEASED: Version 21.0
	Description: Reanimate 250,000 bloons to fight on your side using the Necromancer Wizard
	Rewards: 250 0-0-4

Version History

Balance Changes

Necromancer has been buffed by a significant amount since it was first released. Additional undead bloon spawns, a slight overall cost reduction, extra damage, and reworked local graveyard mechanics are all important factors to shaping it into a very strong option for mid-game damage when paired alongside additional towers.

4.0

• Necromancer now summons 2-5 undead bloons instead of 1-3 undead bloons per summon.

11.0

• Necromancer costs less ($3500 → $2800)

13.0

• Necromancer undead bloons now deal +1 damage.

18.0

• Necromancer Wizards now each have their own personal 'graveyard' of 500 capacity rather than 1 shared pool of 2000.
• Necromancer Wizards will display their current graveyard size above their portrait next to their pop count. Any Bloons popped within the Shimmer radius of a Necromancer can be absorbed into that graveyard, but 1 pop will not fill more than 1 graveyard.
• Necromancer Wizards will now be able to retain any Bloons in their graveyard for 1 extra round before expiring.
• Necromancer Wizard's Zombie lifespan increased from 8s → 10s.
• Necromancer Wizard's Zombie spawn rate is increased by a flat 10% for every 100 Bloons in the grave reaching a maximum of double attack speed at 500 capacity.

21.0

“	Though it was never a goal for the base tower to be great, given the additional purple weakness since BTD5 and how poorly it currently performs we feel it deserves to take rank as the cheapest magic tower along with a small buff. [...] Finally, Unpopped Army changes are also here! We wanted to cover all of the usability issues with this upgrade while also powering it up and expanding more on the mechanic that makes it so unique. We hope this will be enough to make Wizard very useful in a number of ways, but will be keeping a watchful eye on how it plays out.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to base Wizard and Necromancers

• Necromancer: Unpopped Army now gains a bonus to graveyard after round 81 to make up for the total decrease in child Bloons that are created from Super Ceramics (about 10 per pop).
• Necromancer: Unpopped Army targeting has been reworked to function in a smarter way, summoning Zombie Bloons further back to avoid them spawning behind Bloons, and also on multi-lane tracks targeting the lanes that are likely to leak sooner.
• Necromancer: Unpopped Army now enhances the damage of all of its attacks by 1 for every 200 souls in its Graveyard.
• Main bolt has more pierce (7 → 8, inherited from the base Wizard pierce buff).

23.0

• [bug fix] Fixed obscure bug whereby undead bloon count slightly drops for undead bloons accumulated on the previous round. Also applies for Prince of Darkness.
• Indirect buff, as Prince of Darkness's damage stacks per graveyard units has increased, but not for Necromancer (+1 damage per 200 graveyard units).

25.0 (Possibly? 27.3 discovered)

• [Undocumented] 1-0-3 Shimmer now activates over walls

28.0

“	Instead of saying the same thing each time; many specific crosspaths that add a 'camo specialty' to a tower end up being viewed as rather inferior crosspaths due to camo being quite available to pick up through other methods. To give these upgrades more use even with other forms of camo reveal in play, we have added a brand new Camo Prioritization option that is added to the towers when taking this crosspath. When enabled this filter combines the selected target method with Camo Prioritization (e.g. Strong Camo would work through all Camos in strength order, then revert to normal Strong until any new Camos show up).	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Camo Prioritization

• Affected by Monkey Sense providing Camo Prioritization

30.0

“	[...] Prince of Darkness is annoying to position correctly due to the sudden massive radius increase & it also needs a power nerf. So overall here we are moving all of the range increase down into a lower amount at the T3 so that range positioning is known before buying any necromancer upgrades, as well as moving some of the lifespan of the zombies themselves into the lesser used 1xx lifespan crosspath.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Prince of Darkness

• Necromancer range increased (40 → 60)
• Necromancer base Zombie travel distance without Guided Magic reduced 250 → 175. 104 Necromancer base Zombie travel distance remains at 250

32.2

• [bug fix] Resolved a crash that could occur with xx4 Necromancer

33.0

• Affected by Shimmer decamo range bonus

35.0

“	[...] Necromancer strategies are very dependent on where your Zombie Bloons spawn which would enable more strategies with more range, but then too much range is very harmful making the spawn location difficult to place & forcing you to often place these towers in silly locations which makes the shimmer not work well. Allowing Necro to select a spawn point addresses this issue and we hope provides some interesting micro uses, so please share any cool ones.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Necromancer now gains a spawn point target for zombies that the player can set.

38.0

• Necromancer spawn point can now be un-targeted by exiting the manual targeting menu

39.0

“	[...] Shimmer’s range/radius values are being adjusted to match the attack trigger area to the tower’s range but with a far larger radius on the actual effect once it is triggered, this reduces inconsistency where Shimmer would often hit only first camo target to enter radius then be stuck on long cooldown. [...]	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Affected by Shimmer detection/radius rework

Extra Notes (Version History)

• In Version 23.0, although Prince of Darkness's damage stack requirements have been nerfed to per 300 graveyard space instead of 200, this had no effect on the normal Necromancer. This means that the normal Necromancer can still deal 4 damage at maximum capacity. When tested out, a Rainbow Bloon still turns into Yellow Bloons, implying 4 damage has been done by the undead bloons.

Gallery

Crosspathing (Top: Path 1, Bottom: Path 2)

Selected Necromancer's menu with a maxed out graveyard count and its damage counter

Necromancer attacking Black Bloons into Yellows and Blues

Necromancer's new spawning algorithm, spawning undead bloons from the back of the track

Necromancer manual targeting option changing position of Undead Bloon spawning location

Necromancer invalid target on non-track location

Enough XP to unlock Necromancer

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon

Projectiles

Unpopped Bloon that spawns from the Necromancer.

Videos

Does Necromancer deal 4 damage at max stacks?

Proof that ordinary Necromancers' undead bloons at max stacks still deal 4 damage when given full stacks

Trivia

• This upgrade and the Prince of Darkness are the only upgrades that spawn undead bloons.
• Undead bloons are slightly off-center on tracks, similar to Bloons in early games of the BTD franchise.
• Undead bloons are not affected by the Big Bloon Option. This also occurs with the undead MOABs and BFBs spawned by Prince of Darkness.
• Necromancer: Unpopped Army is the first tower to create a Bloon type.
• According to the July 8, 2022 NK blog, what bloon types the necromancers and Prince of Darkness revive depends on what's fallen nearby.
• Several parameters of the attack behaviors are specific to Necromancer's Undead Bloons, represented as Towers.Behaviors.Emissions.NecromancerEmissionModel:
  • minBloonsSpawnedPerWave: 1. The minimum amount of Undead Bloons per attack ("wave") is 1.
  • maxBloonsSpawnedPerWave: 5. The maximum amount of Undead Bloons per attack ("wave") is 5.
  • maxRbeSpawnedPerSecond: 50. 50 is the maximum amount of graveyard unit depletion per attack, yet the calculations for graveyard unit depletion always would max out at 50 regardless.
  • maxPiercePerBloon: 10. The max amount of bonus pierce per Undead Bloon is 10. Minimum wasn't specified but assumed to be 1.
  • "rateStackMax": 5. The maximum amount of rate boosts it can receive is 5, at +50%.
  • "rateRbePerStack": 100. The maximum graveyard units that the Necromancer can store.
  • "damageStackMax": 10. The maximum amount of damage stacks it can receive is 10, for +10 damage.
  • "damageRbePerStack": 200. Threshold for the damage stacks per graveyard unit is every 200, but Necromancer can only realistically achieve +2 damage.
  • "roundsBeforeDecay": 2. Round lifespan of the graveyard units is 2.