Pre-Emptive Strike (BTDB2)

BTD6

BTDB2

“	Automatically triggers an extra anti-MOAB missile whenever MOAB-Class Bloon spawns from the Bloon entrance.	”
	~ BTDB2 description

Pre-Emptive Strike

Pre-Emptive Strike is the 5th upgrade of Path 2 for the Monkey Sub in Bloons TD Battles 2. It is similar to its BTD6 counterpart, except with various stat differences. Ability has no initial cooldown and deals less impact damage, dealing 7000 damage on impact, along with a splash with 200 damage, and cooldown of 30 seconds instead of 45 in BTD6. Also, the pre-emptive missiles deal 800 damage instead of 750 in BTD6. Main ballistic missiles remain similar to BTD6, dealing 10 damage and +15 to Ceramics and above, but only 50 pierce.

It costs $30,000, and is unlocked with the other tier 5 Monkey Sub upgrades for 1500.

Strategy

Summary

A rather expensive upgrade whose main benefit is instantly dealing a lot of damage to incoming blimps. However, its instantaneous damage falls off greatly in the late-game where it is actually affordable, which is generally Rounds 25+ or so. Freeplay ramping actually begins on Round 26, which can cause some trouble for Pre-Emptive Strike's pre-emptive offense, even when supported by Sub Commander. The second benefit is its much improved ballistic missiles, which can be used to dispatch hyperdense Ceramics.

Tips

• Crosspaths can play a role for its main ballistic missile attack, but generally 0-5-2 is better to make use of the much improved missiles.
• On R26, DDTs would have 560 HP, and FDDTs 1120 HP, which is not enough for the missile to destroy FDDTs fully in practical scenarios.

Version History

While it received some indirect nerfs from First Strike, including a minor price increase in 1.3.0, Pre-Emptive Strike has receive numerous buffs.

Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)

• Pre-Emptive Strike ability only has an initial cooldown of 3 seconds, compared to 5 in BTD6.

1.0.4

• Pre-Emptive Strike ability missile impact damage decreased (10k --> 8k)

1.0.6

• Pre-Emptive Strike ability has no initial cooldown
• Pre-emptive Strike ballistic missile does more damage (1 → 10, +5 → +15 for ceramics and higher)

1.3.0

• Pre-emptive Strike anti-MOAB missile does more damage (750 → 800)
• Pre-emptive Strike cooldown reduced (45s → 30s)

1.5.0

• Affected by First Strike and Ballistic nerfs
• No longer requires 22,500 XP to unlock. Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund, as well as unlock all Tier 5 Monkey Sub upgrades.
• Now requires 1500 to unlock all Tier 5 Monkey Sub upgrades instead of XP

1.6.0

• Affected by First Strike and Ballistic nerfs

3.1

• Pre-Emptive Strike cost decreased ($32,000 -> $30,000)
  • Overall price decrease is $1000 due to First Strike increasing by $1000.

“	Sub’s First Strike ability has always been exceptional at dealing with single ZOMGs and BADs. We have opted for a small price increase so that it can still deal its high damage but just slightly less efficiently, and we also made a minor price decrease to Pre-emptive Strike. [...]	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

Gallery

Enough XP to unlock Pre-Empitve

Unlocked Pre-Emptive