Powerful Darts (BTD6)

BTD4

BTD5

BTD6

BTDB2

Powerful Darts
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Tower	Dartling Gunner
Unlocked at	650 XP
Cost	$1,020 (Easy) $1,200 (Medium) $1,295 (Hard) $1,440 (Impoppable)
Activated Ability	N/A
Targeting Options	Normal, Locked
Camo Detection	Restricted (requires 0-1-2)
Popology
Damage Type(s)
Shatter Single Projectile Aim-Based Mobility Full Range Erratic Movement
Statistics
Damage	1 (dart, e.a.u.)
Pierce	3 (dart, e.a.u.)
Attack Speed	Fast (dart, every 0.2s e.a.u.)
Range	Infinite (dart, e.a.u.)
Status Effects	N/A
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Path Upgrades
← Previous	Faster Swivel
← Previous	Faster Swivel
Current	Powerful Darts
Current	Powerful Darts
Next →	Buckshot
Next →	Buckshot
Path Info
Path	3
Path	3
Upgrade Tier	2
Upgrade Tier	2
Related upgrades
Powerful Darts (BTD5), for the BTD5 counterpart Powerful Shots, for the BTD4 counterpart
[Source]

“	Darts move faster and can pop 3 bloons each.	”
	~ In-game description

Powerful Darts is the second upgrade of Path 3 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD 6. It increases projectile speed and size of the Dartling Gunner's projectiles by +50%, increases pierce from 1 to 3, and gives frozen-popping for all its attacks. Pierce bonuses granted by Powerful Darts roughly increase by +50% for most Tier 3 and above upgrades (+3 for Laser Cannon, +100 for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom), among other bonuses such as +50% explosion radius for main rockets from Hydra Rocket Pods and above.

This upgrade costs $1,020 on Easy, $1,200 on Medium, $1,295 on Hard, and $1,440 on Impoppable.

Description

Overview

Powerful Darts

Powerful Darts changes the muzzle of the minigun into a singular barrel with three (or four with Advanced Targeting) holes, as well as recoloring the tripod to blue instead of black. In addition, the Dartling Gunner gains one yellow stripe (or green stripe with Faster Barrel Spin and later upgrades) each on opposite sides of his helmet. Darts are colored blue and all projectiles produce trails as they glide through the air.

Powerful Darts adds +2 pierce to the Dartling Gunner, for 3 total, and grants it Shatter type, allowing Frozen popping. It also increases projectile size by 50%, from 2 to 3.

Powerful Darts has several unique interactions when used as a crosspath:

• For upgrades along Upper Path 1, they receive +50% projectile size (beam width for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom, specifically from 2 to 3 for Plasma Accelerator and 6 to 9 for Ray of Doom, and focal point size for Plasma Accelerator, from 4 to 6) and a large amount of extra pierce (+3 for Laser Cannon, for +50%, and +100 for Plasma Accelerator and higher)
• For upgrades along Upper Path 2, the Hydra missiles gain +1 explosion count (as a result of gaining +2 pierce for its main rockets), in addition to +2 pierce per explosion, and +50% explosion radius (from 8 to 12).

Targeting Priorities

Powerful Darts customly aims based on direction and angle of where the Dartling points towards. It shoots straight movement projectiles controlled in a aim-based mobile style guided by touch-based mobility, albeit with some erratic angular deviation.

• Normal: Rotates towards the direction of where the player last tapped. On desktop versions, always rotates towards direction of the cursor inside the game.
• Locked: Locks the Dartling in place. By default, locks at center of map, but can be adjusted in the same way as a Mortar Monkey. On desktop versions, using a hotkey to switch to Locked will default to wherever the mouse currently is pointing.

Since all Dartlings already attack based on custom aim, Dartlings don't receive Camo Prioritization even with Advanced Targeting.

Full Popology

Updated as of Version 44.2

Base stats

• Dartling persistently aims towards the pointer whenever active; aims towards where last tapped (Mobile versions) or current location of cursor inside the game window (Desktop and Console versions). Rotation speed of 440 degrees per second. Creates Dart projectiles from centre of Dartling, with 23° deviation from the centre.
• Dart:
  • Projectile, shatter type, 0.2s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 3 projectile size, 3 pierce. 470 projectile speed, 0.851063848s projectile lifespan.

Crosspathing interactions

• 3-0-2: Pierce of Laser increased from 6 to 9
• 4-0-2: Pierce of Laserbeam increased from 50 to 150, which also affects the maximum pierce of Endpoint.
• 5-0-2: Pierce of Laserbeam increased from 1000 to 1100, does not affect Zap.
• 0-3-2: Pierce of Missile and Blast both increased from 6 to 8, blast radius of Blast increased from 8 to 12, but Missile projectile radius remains at 3.
• 0-4-2: Pierce of Missile and Blast both increased from 8 to 10, blast radius of Blast increased from 8 to 12, but Missile projectile radius remains at 3. Pierce of Storm Missile Blast increased from 8 to 10, but blast radius of Storm Missile Blast remains 8.
• 0-5-2: Pierce of Missile increased from 12 to 14, pierce of Blast increased from 8 to 10, blast radius of Blast increased from 8 to 12, but Missile projectile radius remains at 3. Pierce of Storm Missile Blast increased from 18 to 20, but blast radius of Storm Missile Blast remains 8.

Monkey Knowledge interactions

• Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
• Emergency Unlock: Unlocks special ability that boost the Dartling Gunner swivel speed for a short time.
• Military Conscription: First military tower costs only ⅔ of the original cost.
  • Dartling Gunner base cost from $720, $850, $920, and $1,020 → $480, $570, $615, and $685 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
• Advanced Logistics: All Military Monkeys base costs reduced by 5%.
  • Dartling Gunner base cost from $720, $850, $920, and $1,020 → $685, $805, $875, and $970 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
    • If Military Conscription is also enabled, the final cost will be $450, $535, $570, and $630.
• 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/Military

Updated as of Version 42.2

Base attack(s)

• Dart:
  • Shatter
  • Single Projectile
  • Aim-Based Mobility
  • Full Range
  • Erratic Movement

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-2)	$1,020	$1,200	$1,295	$1,440	-
Total (0-0-2)	$1,865	$2,200	$2,375	$2,640	$1,306	$1,540	$1,663	$1,848
Crosspath (1-0-2)	$2,120	$2,500	$2,700	$3,000	$1,484	$1,750	$1,890	$2,100
Crosspath (2-0-2)	$2,885	$3,400	$3,670	$4,080	$2,020	$2,380	$2,569	$2,856
Crosspath (0-1-2)	$2,075	$2,450	$2,645	$2,940	$1,453	$1,715	$1,852	$2,058
Crosspath (0-2-2)	$2,880	$3,400	$3,670	$4,080	$2,016	$2,380	$2,569	$2,856

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

Strategy

Summary

Powerful Darts allows the Dartling Gunner's darts to reach its located target sooner by increasing its projectile speed. Additionally, the benefit of additional pierce makes the Dartling Gunner much stronger against early-game. The combination of these two benefits for the Dartling Gunner make this tower become highly effective as a solo early-game option.

As for crosspathing of Tier 3 and above upgrades, Powerful Darts takes the trade-off of granting more pierce in exchange for either: improved accuracy and shocked statuses, or innate camo detection and attack speed. In general, the pierce bonus is the main aspect to consider. If large swarms of bloons are on screen, the pierce crosspath via Powerful Darts may be situationally better than the other crosspaths.

Tips

• Powerful Darts is an effective early-game solo option, as it helps tackle the lower Dartling Gunner's main weaknesses against early-game grouped bloons.
• Compared with other early-game solo towers at similar price points, especially 2-0-2 Airburst Darts or 3-0-1 Double Shot Ninja, a 1-0-2 Powerful Darts has much longer range, is excellent along straight lines, but it has no camo potential.
• Combining Powerful Darts with Focusing Firing will further improve accuracy by a slight amount, as the darts will reach to their destined locations sooner.
• There is a special crosspath benefit with Powerful Darts and Hydra Rocket Pods by adding +1 explosion and +2 pierce for the explosions. Likewise, there is a special crosspath for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom that adds +100 pierce instead of +2 pierce, though for the latter it is very insignificant.

Version History

Balance Changes

Powerful Darts was changed slightly since first released in BTD6, initially with a nerf in price. It now also grants frozen-popping, likely inspired by its Battles 2 counterpart. More changes were added specifically for crosspathing balance versus more popular crosspaths.

22.0 (Dartling Gunner update)

• Released.
• Cost of Powerful Darts increased ($600 → $1200)

29.0

“	The bottom path Bloon Exclusion Zone on the Dartling has had a lot of talk about damage types, with points raised on the viability here due to the high price. It did recently get a strong buff from the T3 up, but in order to work more into other synergies we have decided to finally do a damage type change here as well, starting from early on in the path.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to BEZ and Powerful Darts

• Powerful Darts damage type from Sharp to Shatter

29.2

• [bug fix] Powerful Darts no longer prevents Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom with this upgrade from popping Leads.

31.0

• Powerful Darts now increases projectile size and explosion radius of various upgrades
  • Powerful Darts normal projectile size increased from 2 to 3. Does not affect Hydra Rocket Pods missile (3, 3).
  • 0-3-2 Hydra Rocket Pods explosion size increased from 8 to 12
  • 4-0-2 Plasma Accelerator focal point size increased from 4 to 6
  • 4-0-2 Plasma Accelerator beam width increased from 2 to 3
  • 5-0-2 Ray of Doom beam width increased from 6 to 9

44.0

“	402’s pierce increase is extremely hard to justify over fire rate which increases single target & grouped damage at the same time, so we’re giving it more pierce than it knows what to do with. Faster Swivel while a nice quality of life doesn’t add any power so also ends up difficult to justify on its own, we don’t expect this will change that too much but even faster swiveling should be much nicer for when you do desperately need that accuracy.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Powerful Darts adds further bonus pierce to Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom
• Powerful Darts turn rate increased from 360 to 440.

Gallery

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

0-2-2 Powerful Darts shooting at a MOAB

Enough XP to unlock Powerful Darts

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamomkey icon

Teaser

Teaser of Powerful Darts as seen in the official Dartling Gunner teaser

Trivia

• Powerful Darts costs twice as much in BTD6 compared to in previous generation games.
• This upgrade and Ray of Doom are the only returning Dartling Gunner upgrades to change tier between BTD5 and BTD6.
• Powerful Darts is the third upgrade in BTD6 to cost $1,200 on Medium for the upgrade cost alone, the second being Really Big Bombs since Version 7.0 (until it received a price buff later on), and first being Ultravision.
• The buff in Version 29.0 that gives frozen-popping is likely inspired by the existing BTDB2 counterpart of this upgrade, which also gives frozen-popping.

Errors

• On the Version 29.2 patch notes detailing about the bug fix of Powerful Darts unexpectably preventing lead-popping for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom, the upgrade name for Powerful Darts is incorrectly written with an "F" instead of a "D", resulting in a misspelling that jokingly implies the act of producing odorous flatulence. This misspelling is likely a typo, though it has never been corrected.