Bloons Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Bloons Wiki

Shoots 16 darts per volley, and twice as fast.
~ In-game description

Operation: Dart Storm (sometimes shortened to ODS, O:DS, or Dart Storm) is the fourth upgrade on the first path for the Monkey Ace in Bloons TD 6. It shoots 16 darts per volley and shoots darts and anti-MOAB missiles (from Fighter Plane) twice as fast. Volleys of darts are shot every 0.63s instead of 1.26s, while the twin anti-MOAB missiles are shot every 2.0s instead of 4.0s. Additionally, anti-MOAB missile explosions deal 24 damage per missile instead of 18, and retains 4 pierce.

This upgrade costs $2,550 on Easy, $3,000 on Medium, $3,240 on Hard, and $3,600 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

Placeholder other

Operation: Dart Storm shooting darts and anti-MOAB missiles

Operation: Dart Storm changes the monoplane of the Fighter Plane into a military-style delta wing twinjet aircraft with a pointed nose with an unseen icy-blue wraparound visor. Like other Tier 4 Monkey Ace upgrades, the monkey pilot is no longer visible. The aircraft also features canards and canted twin vertical stabilizers. The paintwork of the aircraft is mostly black.

Befitting with the upgrade name, the Operation: Dart Storm improves the rate of the darts and also increases effectiveness of its anti-MOAB missiles from the Fighter Plane upgrade. It doubles the Ace's attack speed, makes it spray 16 darts instead of 12, and increases missile damage.

Targeting Priorities[]

Like all Monkey Aces, Operation: Dart Storm uses flight patterns as its targeting priority settings.

  • Circle: Flight pattern becomes a circular path around the runway.
  • Figure Infinite: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the infinite symbol (∞). As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
  • Figure Eight: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the number 8. As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
  • Wingmonkey: Instead of a fixed flight path, the Monkey Ace will attempt to fly as close to the path as possible, similarly to an Aircraft Carrier Plane. Available only via the Wingmonkey MK.
  • Reverse Flight: Shown by an icon of a reverse aircraft, the Ace will reverse direction of flight. Unlike other target priorities such as Change Hands, there is a cooldown of 5 seconds before being able to reverse flight direction again. It can be coupled with all flight options except Wingmonkey.

ODS's anti-MOAB missiles only targets MOAB-class bloons and homes weakly at them.

ODS can also receive the Centered Path targeting option when given the 4-0-2 crosspath.

Costs[]

Updated as of Version 41.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.
[Module | Data] Purchase Sell
Costs Easy Medium Hard Impoppable Easy Medium Hard Impoppable
Upgrade (4-X-X) $2,550 $3,000 $3,240 $3,600 -
Total (4-0-0) $5,180 $6,100 $6,585 $7,320 $3,626 $4,270 $4,610 $5,124
Crosspath (4-1-0) $5,350 $6,300 $6,800 $7,560 $3,745 $4,410 $4,760 $5,292
Crosspath (4-2-0) $5,645 $6,650 $7,180 $7,980 $3,952 $4,655 $5,026 $5,586
Crosspath (4-0-1) $5,605 $6,600 $7,125 $7,920 $3,924 $4,620 $4,988 $5,544
Crosspath (4-0-2) $6,070 $7,150 $7,720 $8,580 $4,249 $5,005 $5,404 $6,006

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: MilitaryConscriptionIcon Military Conscription, AdvancedLogisticsIcon Advanced Logistics, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Operation: Dart Storm combines the potential of extra darts with improved anti-MOAB missiles, thereby making the Monkey Ace more reliable against both bloons and MOAB-class bloons. This makes it a decent upgrade for the mid-game, chipping down blimp health while also providing cleanup against bloons.

Tips[]

  • This upgrade is useful for wiping out many bloons on screen while also being a great option for beating MOAB-class bloons, especially for earlier rounds. On its own, it can wipe out the outer layers of regular MOABs and Fortified MOABs before Round 81 with ease.
  • The best crosspath for DPS is typically the 4-0-1 ODS, or 4-0-2 if there is exceptionally good central coverage on the given map. 4-2-0 is useful if camo detection is required, since ODS cannot detect camo without support unlike in BTD5 when it was the upgrade after Spy Plane.
  • Just like other high-projectile towers, pairing it with Berserker Brew or Stronger Stimulant improves its radial dart attack, raising its overall reliability and effectiveness in the mid-game.
  • Do not rely on a 4-2-0 Operation: Dart Storm to handle Camo Leads, as pineapples from the Exploding Pineapple upgrade are not deployed twice as fast and due to the random nature of pineapples in general.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Operation: Dart Storm has not changed very much since it was first released, since it already attacks anti-MOAB missiles fast enough to take down early MOABs with ease, but it is overall a little weaker versus single-target blimps. It also got indirectly buffed by a base Monkey Ace dart projectile size buff.

17.0
  • BUFF Fighter Plane anti-MOAB missile pierce increased (1 → 4).
  • NERF Fighter Plane anti-MOAB missile deals less damage (25 → 18).
23.0
  • BUFF Monkey Ace dart projectile size increased (2 → 3).
26.0
As Dart Storm currently feels like a lossy stepping stone the damage has been increased.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Operation: Dart Storm homing missile damage increased from 18 -> 24
28.0
Monkey Ace has had an overall rework to a lot of different upgrades in order to highlight the x1x Exploding Pineapples upgrade as a buff to all explosives, [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Exploding Pineapples crosspathing buff
  • BUFF 4-1-0 Dart Storm missiles pierce increased from 4 -> 6
  • BUFF 4-1-0 Dart Storm missiles radius increased from 30 -> 34.5
30.0
More of a straight quality of life, Ace has gained a new special toggle button to allow it to turn back and fly in reverse on any selected flight pattern. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Reverse Flight
  • BUFF Monkey Ace can now toggle flight direction for any pattern.

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Trivia[]

  • The name of the upgrade is likely to either be a reference to Dark Storm or Operation: Desert Storm.
  • Despite its predecessor Fighter Plane and successor Sky Shredder both bearing close resemblance to real life fighter aircraft like the P-63 and the F-22 or J-20 respectively, the jet looks similar to the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, a slow-moving stealth jet used in bombings rather than aerial combat.
  • The Operation: Dart Storm upgrade was formerly the fourth sequential upgrade in BTD4, the third upgrade of Path 2 for BTD5, and now is back to being the fourth upgrade of Path 1 in BTD6.
  • Operation: Dart Storm is the 51st upgrade to be on the official community 2MPC challenges.
  • Although not very useful, Operation: Dart Storm does not double the rate of pineapples dropping via the Exploding Pineapple upgrade.
  • Operation: Dart Storm is overall more expensive in BTD6 than in BTD5 and lacks built-in camo detection. However, darts also attack twice as fast and already comes with the Rapid Fire upgrade.
  • The Operation: Dart Storm seems to be the plane that drops off the crate for Supply Drop when you use its ability.
Advertisement