Ray of Doom (BTDB2)

BTDB2

“	Creates a solid line of annihilation. You can erase most Bloons at your leisure.	”
	^{~ BTDB2 description}

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Ray of Doom is the 5th upgrade of Path 1 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD Battles 2. It operates like its modern BTD6 counterpart.

It is a much more powerful version of Plasma Accelerator, creating a nearly endless giant laserbeam (except Line of Sight obstacles) that deals extremely high damage, focusing damage on the bloons closest to it and spreading the rest of its damage throughout, allowing it to evaporate strong and weak bloons with relative ease. Ray of Doom now gains the normal damage type, allowing it to damage any bloon type including Purple Bloons.

The solid beam of destruction deals 35 damage per 0.20s, plus effectively an additional +55 against the first bloon zapped (or up to 3 of the first targets with 5-0-2 crosspath), and the Laser Shock status effect deals 20 damage per 1.0s for 5.0 seconds. The RoD's intense laser can also pierce up to 1000 bloons, which for most cases is never pierce capped. Its base beam width is 6, improved to 9 with the 5-0-2 crosspath.

It costs $80,000, and is unlocked with the other Dartling Gunner tier 5 upgrades for 1500.

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Ray of Doom is an expensive grouped option that excels against lower class Blimps and Ceramics. Its strongest points include its extreme pierce as well as accurate group-popping along straight lines, making it incredible for cleanup.

Tips[]

5-2-0 RoD is significantly better for general DPS; its much higher DPS is far more important than faster swivel and a negligible pierce increase. However, 5-0-2 has a niche purpose that serves as grouped anti-BAD damage, rather than universal cleanup.
If your opponent sends an all out ZOMG rush, then this would a great upgrade to get since the strength of right ZOMG rushes comes from the sheer number of Bloons clogging pierce. The arbitrary high pierce of the ROD will ensure that this will never happen and will easily destroy the rush, especially when paired with buffs such as Monkey Boost or Overclock.
It is not possible to pierce-buff the first-target bonus damage benefit of Ray of Doom, except via crosspathing with 5-0-2.

Version History[]

Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)

Ray of Doom pierce decreased (1000 -> 50)
- Note: At the time, Ray of Doom's pierce failed to increase compared to Plasma Accelerator

1.0.6

Ray of Doom costs less ($95,000 → $80,000)

1.1.0

75,000 XP → 37,500 XP

1.5.0

No longer requires 37,500 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 Dartling Gunner upgrades.
Now requires 1500 to unlock all Tier 5 Dartlings instead of 37,500 XP.

2.0.0

Ray of Doom's Laser Shock now actually deals +20 shocked damage

2.0.4

Ray of Doom damage increased (25 → 30)

“	[...] Furthermore, we reduced Laser Shock’s cost to make it a more viable early game option, and we improved Ray of Doom’s damage since that has always been a little underwhelming.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

2.1

Ray of Doom pierce decreased from 50 to 40, due to Plasma Accelerator

2.2

5xx Ray of Doom: now deals +55 bonus damage to the first target hit

“	Ray of Doom is designed to be a high-pierce tower that effectively deals with large amounts of grouped bloons. However, due to this, it performs incredibly poorly against individual tough bloons, such as a single BAD. We felt that it should perform better against these types of bloons considering its extremely high price tag, therefore we added this change to improve its single target damage considerably.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.1

Pierce increased from 40 → 1000
Damage increased from 30 → 35

“	We noticed that Ray of Doom’s pierce was remaining at 40 (the pierce that 4xx has), however this was never intended. We have brought its pierce up to its intended value and given it another small damage buff on top.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}