Ring of Fire (BTD6)

BTD4

BTD5

BTD6

BTDB2

Ring of Fire

General Information

Game

Bloons TD 6

Tower

Tack Shooter

Unlocked at

9,500 XP

Cost

$2,975 (Easy)
$3,500 (Medium)
$3,780 (Hard)
$4,200 (Impoppable)

Activated Ability

N/A

Targeting Options

None

Camo Detection

No (requires situation 5/x/x)

Other Names

ROF

Popology

Damage Type(s)

Fire

Area of Effect

Extra Damage

Statistics

Damage

5 (flameburst, normal bloons)
6 (flameburst, 4/0/1)
7 (flameburst, 4/0/2)

Pierce

30 (flameburst, 4/0/x and 4/1/0)
45 (flameburst, 4/2/0)

Attack Speed

Fast (flameburst, every 0.315s)

Range

23

Status Effects

N/A

Tower Boosts

N/A

Income/Life Boosts

N/A

Path Upgrades

← Previous

Current

Next →

Hot Shots

Ring of Fire

Inferno Ring

Path Info

Path

Upgrade Tier

1

4

[Source]

“	Damages many more Bloons with a deadly ring of flame instead of tacks.	”
	^{~ In-game description}

Ring of Fire is the fourth upgrade of Path 1 for the Tack Shooter in Bloons TD 6. It exchanges the hot tacks from Hot Shots with deadly flame rings. These rings shoot at a +100% faster rate (every 0.315s) and deal 5 damage each (+1 per bottom path crosspath) to up to 30 bloons per fire blast (+15 with Super Range Tacks crosspath). If Level 5+ Gwendolin is on screen, it receives attack speed and radius buffs from her, although its range remains identical.

Although weaker against MOAB-class bloons compared to the previous upgrade, it is extremely powerful versus regular grouped bloons prior to the rise of Super Ceramics. It cannot pop Purple Bloons, a weakness that only itself and Inferno Ring possesses, at least for the Tack Shooter.

This upgrade costs $2,975 on Easy, $3,500 on Medium, $3,780 on Hard, and $4,200 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

This upgrade increases the diameter of the base, decreases its height, and is now black. The overall tower's color changes from a gold-yellow to a blood-orange, while its eight black ported barrels glow white hot from the heat. The extruded features that hold the barrels are colored yellow at the end. An additional orange flange is added between the black base and tower. The rounded top is removed and replaced with an indefinitely blazing fire, revealing a hollow interior.

The middle crosspath increases the Tack Shooter's height and adds claw-like protrusions to its base. The bottom crosspath adds extra turrets on the side, increasing to 10 with More Tacks, and to 12 with Even More Tacks.

Ring of Fire exchanges the Orbital Spray for a Zone attack that affects the entirety of its range; it also deals +3 damage (for 5) with 30 pierce, and +100% faster attack speed (0.315s second attack cooldown)

Crosspathing is significantly different compared to before; now Super Range Tacks grants +15 pierce on top of its range buff and both bottom path upgrades grant +1 damage instead of +2 projectile count.

Targeting Priorities[]

Ring of Fire shoots flame rings in a zone-like style. Technically, the Tack Shooter is locked on the Close targeting priority. However, for simplicity reasons, Ring of Fire has no targeting priorities.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 39.0
Base stats

Fire zone:
- Zone, fire type, 1 per shot, 23 range, 0.315s attack cooldown, 5 damage, 30 pierce.

Crosspathing interactions

4-1-0:
- Base range increased to 27 (+4).
4-2-0:
- Base range increased to 31 (+4).
- Fire zone pierce increased further to 45 (+15) instead of 30.
4-0-1:
- Fire zone deals 6 (+1) damage instead of 5.
4-0-2:
- Fire zone deals 7 (+1) damage instead of 6.

Monkey Knowledge interactions

Fast Tack Attacks: Tack Shooter attack speed increased by 8%.
Increased Lifespan: Projectiles shot from Tack Shooter have increased lifespan.
Come On Everybody!: Primary towers attack 5% faster if all are below tier 3, and cost 5% less if all are tier 3 or 4.
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/Primary

Updated as of Version 36.2

Base attack(s)

Fire zone:
- Fire
- Area of Effect
- Extra Damage (5)

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 (4-X-X)	$2,975	$3,500	$3,780	$4,200	-
Total (4-0-0)	$4,085	$4,810	$5,195	$5,770	$2,860	$3,367	$3,637	$4,039
Crosspath (4-1-0)	$4,170	$4,910	$5,305	$5,890	$2,919	$3,437	$3,714	$4,123
Crosspath (4-2-0)	$4,360	$5,135	$5,550	$6,160	$3,052	$3,595	$3,885	$4,312
Crosspath (4-0-1)	$4,180	$4,920	$5,315	$5,900	$2,926	$3,444	$3,721	$4,130
Crosspath (4-0-2)	$4,275	$5,030	$5,435	$6,030	$2,993	$3,521	$3,805	$4,221

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: Come On Everybody!, Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

The specialty of Ring of Fire is its incredible grouped damage, trading its low-pierce tacks with higher pierce rings that attack twice as fast, making it valuable in the mid-game for destroying various types of non-Purple Bloons. Sacrificing its high single-target MOAB-class damage for much stronger grouped damage, the Ring of Fire is an effective method for countering grouped bloons. Although quite effective against mid-game bloons, it does fall off greatly in late-game, requiring many more shots to destroy Super Ceramics. It has synergy with Level 5+ Gwendolin by providing extra attack speed and bigger blasts, which can make it more reliable for grouped popping power and general destruction, but typically running Gwendolin is unnecessary unless progressing towards Inferno Ring.

Tips[]

The better crosspath for Ring of Fire depends on the map. Use the 4-0-2 crosspath for wiping out stronger groups of bloons within a close range, but use the 4-2-0 crosspath for greater coverage and higher pierce. Because Ring of Fire has poor base range and is primarily purchased to deal with crowds, in most situations 4-2-0 is usually the better option.
Ring of Fire's grouped popping power for the price point is unparalleled. Its main weakness is its low range, and its inability to contribute meaningful single target damage.
- Because of this, it is a great choice for Bloonarius's bloon swarms or Round 63.
Ring of Fire is rather poor against Super Ceramics, but it is not at all completely useless against them. Paired with Ice Monkeys with Re-Freeze and Deep Freeze, Ring of Fire can deal with larger groups of Super Ceramics pretty effectively, just not very efficiently.
Like all Tack Shooters, place a Ring of Fire along a corner or bend to optimize its attacks.
On certain maps, Ring of Fire has very similar single-target DPS versus Hot Shots.
After the 33.0 buff to Ring of Fire, it has become a top option in Race Events. While its group popping power is great, its MOAB damage is less than satisfactory on maps with few bends, so make sure to accompany it with another way of popping MOABs.
Assuming all tacks hit the target, a 3-0-0 Hot Shots has 25.40 DPS (1 shot/0.63s * 8 tack/shot * 2 damage/tack), whereas 4-0-0 RoF has 15.87 DPS (1 shot/0.315s * 1 ring/shot * 5 damage/ring). Adding Even More Tacks increases 3-0-2 Hot Shots to 38.10 DPS and 4-0-2 RoF to 22.22 DPS.
- The only stipulation to the DPS to single-targets is if all Hot Shots tacks hit the target, as RoF has no trouble with just hitting a target that is within its range.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Buffed to deal more damage and interact with crosspathing more fairly. The current iteration of crosspathing benefits is that middle path hybridizes range and pierce while bottom path adds more damage. It received an overhaul of buffs in Version 33.0 to make it stand out as a grouped mid-game option and compete against Overdrive, which also made it a much more viable option in races; the strength of Ring of Fire was toned down later in Version 38.0.

7.0

Ring of Fire deals more damage (2 → 3)

20.0

“	Inferno Ring has felt very outclassed for a long time, and more recently the tack shooter was reworked to give pierce on x2x which made the old 402 pierce crosspath not make as much sense anymore. We wanted to start work on both these issues together by reworking how Ring of Fire and Inferno Ring interact with crosspaths	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

410 and 420 Ring of Fire now adds +10 pierce with each middle path upgrade
402 Ring of Fire now adds +1 damage (3 → 4)
401 and 402 Ring of Fire now no longer grants bonus pierce

21.0

“	The Ring of Fire & Inferno Ring upgrades recently received a crosspath functional rework, as we're happy with the x2x range/pierce combo now this small follow-up is just to bring a bit more impact to the short-range 402 variant.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

All bottom path upgrades now add +1 damage to the flame ring per upgrade

22.0

“	Ring of Fire doesn't perform well for the price as a low-range AoE tower with no single target advantage. Since we value the original design intent as low range AoE, we've lowered the price to remain a viable choice.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Ring of Fire cost decreased ($4500 → $3500)

30.0

“	Ring of Fire doesn’t keep up well enough for where it is placed, so the attack speed increase from this upgrade has been bumped up from 15% to 25%. [...]	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Ring of Fire attack cooldown reduced from 0.5355s → 0.4725s. Buff does not carry over to Inferno Ring.

33.0

“	[...] Ring of Fire should pick up in that area for cleanup use & general destruction but it has more pierce than it really needs in most scenarios with other important stats sitting lower to compensate for high pierce, so we have shifted this high pierce more into requiring the pierce crosspath in exchange for more base power and an overall buff. [...]	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Ring of Fire attack cooldown reduced from 0.4725s → 0.315s. Buff does not carry over to Inferno Ring.
Ring of Fire deals more damage (3 → 5)
Ring of Fire base pierce reduced (60 → 40)
Ring of Fire can now be buffed by Level 5+ Gwendolin's Pyrotechnics Expert buff

38.0

“	[...] Ring of Fire also generally has too high a pierce amount for how effective it is at utilizing its full pierce value. [...]	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4-0-x Ring of Fire pierce reduced 40 → 30
4-1-0 Ring of Fire pierce reduced 50 → 30
4-2-0 Ring of Fire pierce reduced 60 → 45

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.

24.0

Description changed from "Shoots a deadly ring of flame instead of tacks." to "Damages many more Bloons with a deadly ring of flame instead of tacks."

Extra Notes (Version History)[]

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Assets[]

Trivia[]

With the new price as of Version 22.0, the cost of the Ring of Fire is now the same cost as it is in Bloons Monkey City Mobile, which apparently costs $3,500 to compensate a possible projectile duplication bug from Monkey Fort.
The Tier 3 upgrades Blade Shooter and Tack Sprayer were precursors to Ring of Fire in earlier generations of the Bloons TD series, in BTD4 and during the BTD5 generation, respectively.
Ring of Fire is the only Primary Monkey upgrade below Tier 5 that uses the fire damage type. Although Red Hot Rangs uses fire in its boomerangs, it deals normal damage instead.