| “ | Bombardment Ability: Unleashes a rapid fire attack in a slightly wider area. Main attack does more damage to BADs and Boss Bloons and upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks. | ” |
| ~ In-game description |
Artillery Battery is the fourth upgrade of Path 2 for the Mortar Monkey in Bloons TD 6. Alongside inheriting black-popping and various extra damage benefits from Heavy Shells, it gains 3x attack speed, can deal extra damage to BADs and Bosses, and receives the Bombardment ability. Bombardment adds +15% blast radius and even further 4x attack speed for 8 seconds, with a cooldown of 60 seconds.
It attacks much faster than Heavy Shells, creating an attack every 0.27s. With the Bombardment ability active, it increases to every 0.0674s, almost the speed of a Super Monkey. Inheriting properties from Heavy Shells, explosions deal extra damage to Ceramics (+3), Leads (+1), Fortified (+1), MOAB-class (+1), and stunned bloons (+2), and can also pop Black Bloon properties (including Black and Zebra Bloons, and visible DDTs). To compensate for the impossibility to stun BADs and Bosses, it deals +1 damage to all unstunnable blimps, increased to +2 if a Pop and Awe is on screen.
Crosspathing with Burny Stuff improves burn damage from 1 damage to 3 damage per tick.
This upgrade costs $4,675 on Easy, $5,500 on Medium, $5,940 on Hard, and $6,600 on Impoppable.
Description[]
Overview[]
Artillery Battery with and without the Bombardment ability
Artillery Battery now features three black barrels on the Mortar, each barrel with two yellow stripes each. Upgrading its artillery from a single-barreled mortar cannon to become triple-barreled, the monkey operator presses buttons very quickly, and holds the button on its remote if the Bombardment ability is activated. The monkey operator now wears a dark grey military-style officer uniform. The officer uniform purely consists of a dark grey army beret, a dark grey blazer, and a white shirt inside with a black tie. The blazer has two yellow cuffs at the end of each sleeve. On the army beret, the yellow chevron remains as with all its previous upgrades.
In the upgrade portrait, the monkey operating the Mortar is angrily trying to push a button while jumping up.
Artillery Battery gains triple the attack speed alongside previous benefits from its previous upgrade, Heavy Shells. It also unlocks the Bombardment ability, which quadruples the attack speed and adds +15% blast radius while active for 8 seconds, with a cooldown of 60 seconds. It also deals +1 bonus damage against the BAD and Boss Bloons, increased by +1 when Pop and Awe is on screen, for a total of +2 against blimps immune to stuns with Pop and Awe's passive buff.
Activated Abilities[]
Bombardment Ability
Artillery Battery gains the Bombardment Ability. When activated, it attacks 4x faster and gains +15% blast radius for the duration of the ability.
Artillery Battery's ability lasts for 8 seconds, and its cooldown is 60 seconds. Its ability cooldown can be reduced by Monkey Knowledge, Relic Knowledge, and the global Energizer buff, and it can be reset by Striker Jones' Artillery Command ability or Geraldo's Rejuv Potion.
Targeting Priorities[]
Mortar Monkey has only one target priority, "Set Target". This allows the Mortar Monkey to land shells within anywhere inside the target reticle. Tapping on the "Set Target" button prompts the player to change the target position of where the Mortar Monkey will land its shells. By default, once the Mortar Monkey is bought, the Mortar Monkey's target reticle is placed near the start of the first bloon track.
If Striker Jones's Level 7+ Target Focus ability is activated, all Mortar Monkeys are automatically set to Follow Touch / Follow Mouse temporarily, unless manually re-targeted via Set Target, and snap back to their old Set Target option once the ability is finished.
Full Popology[]
- Updated as of Version 41.3
- Base stats
- Explosion:
- Lobbed projectile, normal type, targets at a custom-aimed location with deviation of 18, 0.5s deployment cooldown, 0.27s attack cooldown, 20 blast radius, 2 damage, +3 bonus Ceramic damage, +1 bonus Fortified damage, +1 bonus Lead damage, +1 MOAB-class damage, +2 bonus stunned damage, +1 bonus unstunnable blimp (BADs and Bosses) damage, 25 pierce.
- Ability stats
- Bombardment:
- Passive, attacks 4x faster (0.0675s) and +15% blast radius for duration. Duration of 8 seconds. Cooldown of 60 seconds.
- Crosspathing interactions
- 1-4-0: Blast radius of Explosion increases from 20 to 28, and Explosion pierce increased from 25 to 45.
- 2-4-0: Explosion damage increased from 2 to 3.
- 0-4-1: Explosion target deviation decreased from 18 to 8.
- 0-4-2: Explosion applies Burn status effect, dealing 1 damage every 1.25s for 3.75s.
Attack Interactions[]
 |
WIP Beginning to add more and more into this section as time goes past |
- See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Military
- Updated as of Version 41.3
- Base attack(s)
- Explosion:
Normal- Area of Effect
- Full Range
- Erratic Movement
- Extra Damage to Lead (+1)
- Extra Damage to Fortified (+1)
- Extra Damage to Ceramics (+3)
- Extra Damage to Blimps (+1)
- Extra Damage to BADs (+1)
- Extra Damage to Boss (+1)
- Extra Damage to Stunned (+2)
- Ability
- Bombardment:
- Passive
- Self-Buff
- Charge
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-4-X) | $4,675 | $5,500 | $5,940 | $6,600 | - | |||
| Total (0-4-0) | $6,755 | $7,950 | $8,585 | $9,540 | $4,729 | $5,565 | $6,010 | $6,678 |
| Crosspath (1-4-0) | $7,180 | $8,450 | $9,125 | $10,140 | $5,026 | $5,915 | $6,388 | $7,098 |
| Crosspath (2-4-0) | $7,605 | $8,950 | $9,665 | $10,740 | $5,324 | $6,265 | $6,766 | $7,518 |
| Crosspath (0-4-1) | $6,925 | $8,150 | $8,800 | $9,780 | $4,848 | $5,705 | $6,160 | $6,846 |
| Crosspath (0-4-2) | $7,350 | $8,650 | $9,340 | $10,380 | $5,145 | $6,055 | $6,538 | $7,266 |
This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: 
Military Conscription, 
Advanced Logistics, 
Budget Battery, 
Better Sell Deals
Strategy[]
Summary[]
Artillery Battery is a strong option for popping various bloon types throughout the mid-game, and its value can extend into the late-game with its wide variety of damage specializations. It has decent pierce, allowing it to be useful at moderately dense bloons, but at the same time it can deal good damage versus MOAB-class bloons. With the 2-4-0 crosspath, it can be an effective option at handling various non-camo bloon types. However, the majority of its high-damage potential often relies on intense Mortar micromanagement, making it more of a hassle compared to alternate options. The ability can be useful for a burst of damage when needed. While not an ideal choice against single-target blimps, more specifically BADs and Bosses, it can be paired with Pop and Awe to greatly assist against unstunnable blimps.
Tips[]
- Use the 2-4-0 crosspath for greater damage. The 0-4-2 upgrade deals poor damage, and the decreased projectile deviation from Increased Accuracy generally is not as worth compared to the larger blast radius and pierce from Bigger Blast.
- Mortar micromanagement will optimize its performance greatly.
- The ability is mostly useful for emergency purposes, otherwise treat it as if the ability did not exist, due to the long cooldown.
- Striker Jones is recommended so that Artillery Battery can benefit from his Level 10+ Artillery Command ability, among other benefits.
- Because Artillery Battery's ability is a self-buff classified as Charge, it is not recommended to be used for beating Lych, and isn't even effective against Lych for the price.
- Among all choices for damaging BADs with only Mortars, Artillery Batteries with the Pop and Awe buff is the best combination.
- Comparing all types of Boss Bloons that Artillery Battery could utilize its extra Boss damage onto, Artillery Battery works best versus Dreadbloon because it can also inflict some of its other types of bonus damage onto Dreadbloon.
- Artillery Battery is generally outclassed for long-range Boss DPS by Full Auto Rifle. However, Artillery Battery can be used in areas where Line of Sight prevents Snipers from seeing the Boss, notable against Vortex as mortar explosions ignore Vortex's wind shield. For this purpose, Artillery Battery is typically the best option per footprint while its bombardment ability is active, which can be maintained for 8 seconds by default, or up to 24 seconds with two Geraldo Rejuv Potions. Once the ability wears off, Artillery Battery goes from being one of the best towers to one of the worst spammable towers.
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
Artillery Battery mostly has been given more attack speed to benefit its mid-game long-ranged explosive power. It originally lacked an ability, so in version 27.0, it gained the Bombardment ability, quadrupling its attack speed and slightly increases blast radius while active. Version 33.0 imported the bonus damage to BADs and Bosses to allow Mortars to no longer have a significant weakness against those types. The Version 39.0 rework to Mortar has been successful at bringing up the strength of Artillery Battery's mid-to-lategame, though Version 41.0 nerfed the bonus damage to BADs and Bosses in an effort to weaken the Pop and Awe's solo capabilities in return.
- 6.0 (Mortar Monkey update)
- Changed Artillery Battery into a triple-speed Heavy Shells
- 7.0
- Artillery Battery with Burny Stuff now (correctly) applies Burny Stuff to Black Bloons.
- 8.0
- Artillery Battery deals +1 damage to MOAB-class.
- 12.0
- Artillery Battery attack speed bonus increased (3x → 4x).
- 17.0
- Artillery Battery deals +2 damage to stunned bloons.
- 21.0
- Explosion random deviation radius increased (18 → 30).
- Attack speed decreased (0.2695s → 0.27s), due to Mortar Monkey attack speed reworks.
- 22.0
- Reverted random deviation radius change.
- [bug fix] Artillery Battery now (correctly) benefits from Increased Accuracy.
- 27.0
| “ | Mortar Monkey has been given a T4 ability, since it didn't have one and also to make up for Bloon Impact no longer triggering 'stun debuff' on MOABs when it hasn't actually been stunning them. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Artillery Battery gains a new ability 'Bombardment'. During the ability, 8 seconds attack rate is increased by 4x & blast radius is increased by 15%, cooldown of 60 seconds
- 33.0
| “ | [...] Artillery Battery’s special stun bonus is completely ineffective against targets which are impossible to stun, so it is receiving a small damage bonus to these targets to compensate. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Artillery Battery now deals +4 damage to BADs and Bosses
- 37.0
| “ | [...] Mortar consistency is lacking at x3x making it tough to spend on even though x4x is fairly good, so some of the T4 rate is shifting down to help out with this. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Artillery Battery attack speed bonus reverted (4x → 3x), but total attack speed remaining identical.
- Artillery Battery’s current attack speed is affected by the Heavy Shells attack speed buff in 37.0, adding a 0.75x attack cooldown multiplier.
- 38.0 and 38.1
- Affected by Lead/Fortified/MOAB-class mutual exclusivity bugs and nerfs from Heavy Shells
- 39.0
| “ | We’re looking to shakeup mortar in a couple small ways this update, along with Striker Jones changes noted further on for ‘multi-mortaring’ synergy. From the base level Mortar has far more pierce than should ever be necessary at low rounds but doesn’t hit beefy enough for the low fire rate, so we are trading up some base pierce for damage, instead moving this lost pierce up into crosspath. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Artillery Battery base damage increased (1 → 2)
- Artillery Battery base pierce reduced (40 → 25)
- Affected by Lead/Fortified/MOAB-class mutual exclusivity removal from Heavy Shells
- 41.0
| “ | [...] BAD/Boss damage was used to help prevent middle path falling flat against strong single targets - but the more recent rework did far better at bringing great power to this path so we're cutting back on those bonuses again now. [...] | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Artillery Battery bonus BAD and Boss damage reduced from +4 to +1
- 42.0
| “ | We’re feeling quite happy about the overall state of mortar compared to how it has fared in the past, however the Burny Stuff crosspath is still very hard to justify on middle mortar so along with other DoT attacks in this update we’re trying out a slight increase to damage over time across this path. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 0-4-2 Artillery Battery burn damage over time increased from 1 → 3
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
- 20.0
- Description changed from "Artillery battery has 3 barrels for triple the pain." to "Artillery Battery upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks."
- 27.0
- Description changed from "Artillery battery upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks." to "Bombardment Ability: Unleashes a rapid fire attack in a slightly wider area. Main attack upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks."
- 33.0
- Description partially changed from "Main attack upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks." to "Main attack does more damage to BADs and Boss Bloons and upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks.
Sounds[]
When activating Bombardment Ability:
- [Charging]
Gallery[]
.PNG "Qwertyxp2000 2023-01-17 (2).PNG (2.36 MB)")
Official artwork[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Until version 27.0, Artillery Battery was the only Path-2 Tier-4 tower without an ability.
- Despite having 3 barrels, it can attack 4x faster with its ability. Between Version 12.0 and 36.3, its ordinary shells would attack 4x faster than Heavy Shells, further complicating the logic of improportionally increasing attack speed compared to number of barrels.
- Bombardment ability's sound effect is exactly the same as that of Turbo Charge's activated ability. This sound is shared by Perma Charge's activated ability, as well as Elite Defender's passive ability since 35.0.
- Artillery Battery's original upgrade description has a slight reference to the original Mortar Battery, specifically part about "triple the pain".
- With the 33.0 buff, Artillery Battery, alongside its next upgrade Pop and Awe, is the first (and only) non-Paragon tower that deals Extra Damage to Boss.
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