Sharp Shooter

BTD6

BTDB2

BCS

Sharp Shooter
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Tower	Dart Monkey
Unlocked at	12,000 XP
Cost	$1,740 (Easy) $2,050 (Medium) $2,215 (Hard) $2,460 (Impoppable)
Activated Ability	N/A
Targeting Options	First, Last, Close, Strong, Camo Prioritization
Camo Detection	Yes
Popology
Damage Type(s)
Sharp Camo affected Single Projectile Straight Attack Critical Hits For further details, see #Attack Interactions
Statistics
Damage	6 (ordinary hit) 50 (critical hit, occurs every 10 shots)
Pierce	4 (0-x-3) 7 (1-0-3) 12 (2-0-3)
Attack Speed	Moderately Fast (every 0.6s, e.a.u.)
Range	60
Status Effects	N/A
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Path Upgrades
← Previous	Crossbow
← Previous	Crossbow
Current	Sharp Shooter
Current	Sharp Shooter
Next →	Crossbow Master
Next →	Crossbow Master
Path Info
Path	3
Path	3
Upgrade Tier	4
Upgrade Tier	4
[Source]

“	Sharp Shooter attacks faster and does powerful Crit shots every few shots that do a lot more damage.	”
	~ In-game description

Sharp Shooter is the fourth upgrade of Path 3 for the Dart Monkey in Bloons TD 6. It increases the damage of Sharp Shooter arrows from 3 to 6, increases projectile speed from 400 to 600, attacks twice as fast (every 0.475s instead of 0.95s), and every 10 shots, it shoots deadly critical arrows that deal 50 damage each. Each arrow has 4 pierce (7 with Sharp Shots or 12 with Razor Sharp Shots), like its previous upgrade Crossbow. Range remains at 60.

Critical arrows are distinguished by their red-orange trail and the generated "CRIT" text on affected targets.

This upgrade costs $1,740 on Easy, $2,050 on Medium, $2,215 on Hard, and $2,460 on Impoppable.

Description

Sharp Shooter dealing 6 damage and triggering critical hits occasionally

Overview

This upgrade changes the original crossbow design to a more advanced design. The crossbow now gains a purple-lensed scope and the entirety of the body of the crossbow is metallic. This upgrade also gives the Dart Monkey black boots and a black cover for its tail. It also gains a quiver fully black similar to the BTD5 Triple dartwith the quiver being looped around with a purple band altho it is absent in the portrait.

Although the upgrade portrait shows a black tail, the in-game model's tail is brown instead, and the same colour as the regular fur. This is likely for the sake of the crosspath models.

This upgrade allows the Dart Monkey to shoot stronger arrows that can deal 6 damage, move faster through the air, and fires arrows much faster. It also allows the Dart Monkey to shoot arrows that deal critical damage (50 damage). In this way, the Sharp Shooter can pop an entire Ceramic Bloon in a single shot with a single critical arrow.

Sharp Shooter will shoot a critical damage arrow once every 10 shots, and each critical damage arrow is denoted by an orange aura at the back of the arrow and the orange word "CRIT" above bloons struck by them.

Sharp Shooter shoots every 0.475s at base, with more from Path 2 upgrades. Range remains at 60.

Targeting Priorities

Sharp Shooter targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. It shoots straight movement projectiles.

• First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
• Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
• Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
• Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.

Sharp Shooter can access Camo Prioritization, allowing all its attacks to prioritize Camo Bloons over other types when this secondary targeting option is active.

Full Popology

Statistics

Updated as of Version 49.2

Base stats

• Dart:
  • Projectile, sharp type, camo detection, 60 range, 0.6s attack cooldown, 6 damage, 4 pierce, 600 projectile speed, projectile lifespan of ???s. Every 10th shot, substitute damage of Dart with Crit (50 damage).

Crosspathing interactions

• 1-0-4:
  • Dart pierce increased pierce increased from 4 to 7, compared to 0-0-4.
• 2-0-4:
  • Dart pierce increased pierce increased from 7 to 12, compared to 1-0-4.
• 0-1-4:
  • Dart attack cooldown reduced from 0.475s to 0.40375s, compared to 0-0-4.
• 0-2-4:
  • Dart attack cooldown reduced from 0.40375s to 0.31667s, compared to 0-1-4.

Monkey Knowledge interactions

• Increased Lifespan: Projectiles shot from Dart Monkey have increased lifespan.
• Extra Dart Pops: Increase projectile pierce by 1, from 3 to 4 by default.
• Crossbow Reach: Increases range of the Sharp Shooter by 3, from 60 to 63.
• Bonus Monkey!: Each game starts with a Free Dart Monkey.
• 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 45.0

Base attack(s)

• Dart:
  • Sharp
  • Camo Detection
  • Single Projectile
  • Straight Attack
  • Extra Damage (6)
• Crit:
  • Sharp
  • Camo Detection
  • Single Projectile
  • Straight Attack
  • Extra Damage (50)
  • Critical Hit
  • Per-Shot Basis (every 10 shots)

Costs

Updated as of Version 50.0. 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-4)	$1,740	$2,050	$2,215	$2,460	-
Total (0-0-4)	$2,645	$3,115	$3,360	$3,740	$1,852	$2,181	$2,352	$2,618
Crosspath (1-0-4)	$2,765	$3,255	$3,510	$3,910	$1,936	$2,279	$2,457	$2,737
Crosspath (2-0-4)	$2,935	$3,455	$3,725	$4,150	$2,055	$2,419	$2,608	$2,905
Crosspath (0-1-4)	$2,730	$3,215	$3,470	$3,860	$1,911	$2,251	$2,429	$2,702
Crosspath (0-2-4)	$2,890	$3,405	$3,675	$4,090	$2,023	$2,384	$2,573	$2,863

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

Strategy

Summary

Sharp Shooter serves as an alright early-midgame tower at a low cost, but it faces a lot of competition. Sharp Shooter can still miss its shots and its crit rate is slow. In addition, its low pierce means that it can at times struggle to deal with the children leftover after a higher-tier Bloon is popped. Sharp Shooter is suitable in the middle early-game in combination with other towers in the saveup to Crossbow Master, which before then serves to chip off stronger bloons and deal limited single-target damage.

Tips

• This upgrade can be useful for chipping away at Zebra, Rainbow and Ceramic Bloons while easily eliminating anything below them.
• It can also be effective against the MOAB on Round 40, being able to deal large amounts of damage through its Crit Shots, although this can be difficult to utilize.
• Due to its low pierce, it is best to pair it with a tower with some minor cleanup to help deal with weaker bloons that get past it.
• While the Sharp Shooter already attacks faster by default, most cases will favour the 0-2-4 crosspath for further increased attack speed, compared to 2-0-4 which should only be used for maximizing raw pierce. The raw pierce amounts offered by 2-0-4 is equal triple the base pierce, not to mention that extra pierce can be received from external sources (e.g. Alchemist buffs and Primary Training, and passive upgrades through Monkey Knowledge such as the Extra Dart Pops).
• Because the crit rate is constant starting from Version 33.0, the crit shot essentially occurs every 6.0s without Path 2 crosspaths or external speed buffs.
• Sharp Shooter's base 3 pierce is not enough for a single lucky shot to one-shot MOAB children. This can be rectified by adding the pierce crosspath or any external pierce-granting buffs.

Achievements

	Not Lacking Critical Information FIRST RELEASED: Version 29.0
	Description: Get 25,000 Critical hits
	Rewards: 0-0-4 0-3-0

Bugs

Current

• [???, possibly since 1.0] Sharp Shooter crits do not receive damage buffs correctly. All constant damage buffs are not applied to the crits, while extra damage to certain bloons (MOABs, Camos, Ceramics, Leads, Fortified, etc) are applied. Debuffs still increase damage.

Patched

• [34.0] If a projectile reskin is being used, crit shots use the standard dart projectile instead of the reskin. Patched in v35.0, although the projectile trail still uses the regular trail.

Version History

Balance Changes

Sharp Shooter has been greatly buffed, with a majority of these being base damage buffs and attack speed buffs. These changes help shape it as a more cost-effective as a mid-game tower, hybridizing high base damage with moderately fast attack speed and infrequent single-target damage but low base pierce.

4.0

• Sharp Shooter now deals more damage per shot (4 → 5)

12.0

• Sharp Shooter now deals more damage per shot (5 → 6)

20.0

“	Dart Monkey at its core is an early game focus tower, so we added some projectile speed options to try and help with its tendency to miss faster Bloons. [...]	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Sharp Shooter projectile speed increased from 300 to 400. Crossbow Master remains at 450 speed.

22.0

“	We're happy enough with most of Dart Monkey's bottom path, but the T4 stepping stone has always felt pretty undesirable for the price point compared to T3 so we have just increased the attack rate slightly at tier 4	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Sharp Shooter attack speed increased (0.95s → 0.85s). Does not affect Crossbow Master.

23.0

“	While we're happy with Dart Monkey being a more niche or early use tower, [...] , and we've tweaked sharpshooter slightly to provide similar power but with more of a speed focus to enable more distinct crosspath choice between speed and pierce.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Sharp Shooter attack rate increased (0.85s → 0.75s)
• Sharp Shooter damage decreased (6 → 5)

24.0

“	The previous sharpshooter rework caused more trouble than intended in setups without much other cleanup by popping Black Bloons into large clusters of reds which then clogged up the pierce. We decided to keep the buffed attack speed value as well as adding back the stronger damage value.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Sharp Shooter damage increased (5 → 6)

28.0

“	Instead of saying the same thing each time; many specific crosspaths that add a 'camo specialty' to a tower end up being viewed as rather inferior crosspaths due to camo being quite available to pick up through other methods. To give these upgrades more use even with other forms of camo reveal in play, we have added a brand new Camo Prioritization option that is added to the towers when taking this crosspath. When enabled this filter combines the selected target method with Camo Prioritization (e.g. Strong Camo would work through all Camos in strength order, then revert to normal Strong until any new Camos show up). Individual Monkeys are called out below.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to "Camo Prioritization" target option

• Affected by Enhanced Eyesight adding a Camo Prioritization filter.

31.0

• Affected by Enhanced Eyesight projectile lifespan buff

33.0

“	As Sharpshooter’s crit occurrence didn’t feel frequent enough the overall attack rate has been increased also just to lead better into the T5’s already high rate of fire. Along with this all Crossbow criticals have been standardized, overall with T5 criticals occurring more frequently in exchange for a slight reduction in base pierce to improve Sharp Shot crosspath value. [...]	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Sharp Shooter and Crossbow Master

• Sharp Shooter attack rate increased (0.75s → 0.6s)
• Sharp Shooter crit rate changed from 8-12 shots to every 10th
  • Note: This is an overall buff to crit rate, as it a similar amount of DPS with consistent shots.

36.0

“	Current Sharp Shooter niches appear to struggle with some tight placement due to their high range opening up a ranged niche but being extremely tight on that range, given this is actually 'the range path' it feels fair to help this with a little further increased range.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Sharp Shooter range increased from 56 to 60

45.0

“	[...] Bottom path is seeing quality of life changes aimed at improved crosspathing and projectile speed progression as this path focusses [sic] on projectile range and speed.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 1-0-4 Sharp Shooter pierce increased from 4 to 6. Does not affect Crossbow Master (16).
• 2-0-4 Sharp Shooter increased from 6 to 9. Does not affect Crossbow Master (24).
• Sharp Shooter projectile speed increased from 400 to 450. Crossbow Master projectile speed remains 450.
• Sharp Shooter projectile lifespan decreased from 0.291093737s to 0.28125s
  • Note: Still overall buffed by the x-x-2 Dart projectile lifespan bonus, with a longer projectile distance.

47.0

“	Shuffle on lower tier upgrade costs [...] in order to offer these upgrades more value both in and out of Super Monkey Fan Club transformation.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Sharp Shooter cost increased from $2000 to $2050
  • Overall price adjustment is $0 due to Crossbow (-$50)

48.0

“	Bottom path Dart Monkey has trouble with missing targets and tier 4 in particular seems to be a poor stepping stone for Crosspath Master, so Sharpshooter will now grant a large projectile speed boost and has greater of an attack speed increase	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Sharp Shooter base attack cooldown decreased from 0.6s to 0.475s
  • 0-1-4: 0.51s → 0.40375s
  • 0-2-4: 0.4s → 0.31667s
• Sharp Shooter projectile speed increased from 450 to 600
• Sharp Shooter projectile lifespan reduced to match previous total projectile distance

49.0

“	Crossbow’s pierce is being increased to more effectively match the number of Child Bloons that spawn when targets are popped open, the pierce crosspath is being improved even further as this change does effectively nerf the crosspath.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 0-x-4 Sharp Shooter pierce increased from 3 to 4. Does not affect 0-x-5 Crossbow Master (8).
• 1-0-4 Sharp Shooter pierce increased from 6 to 7. Does not affect 1-0-5 Crossbow Master (16).
• 2-0-4 Sharp Shooter pierce increased from 9 to 12. Does not affect 2-0-5 Crossbow Master (24).

Gallery

Sharp Shooter dealing 4 damage (pre-4.0)

Critical Hit activated by random chance

Sharp Shooter with additional upgrades (1st path top, 2nd path bottom)

Sharp Shooter dealing 6 damage and having 60 range

Sharp Shooter range comparisons (pre-45.0)

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon

Other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
English	Sharp Shooter
German	Scharfschütze	Sharpshooter
Polish	Celny strzelec	Accurate shooter
Russian	Меткий стрелок	Accurate Shooter

Trivia

• It is possible to win with up to 44 Sharp Shooters on CHIMPS.
• Sharp Shooter in-game always keeps its eyes open, while in the upgrade portrait the monkey is partially closing its eyes. The act done on the upgrade portrait may just be a pose for making accurate shots.
• A "sharpshooter" is a person who is highly skilled at using firearms or projectile weaponry.
• The name could also be a reference to the fact that it deals sharp type damage and therefore literally "shoots sharps." This is likely a clever use of a double entendre combining a "sharpshooter" as in a person with high skill with firearms and a sharp shooter as in someone who shoots sharps.
• Until Version 33.0, the crit rate was determined by a pre-determined count with per-shot variance based on RNG. The frequency of old algorithm for the critical damage arrows were determined by a pre-determined count for the number of per-shots made, with a plus-or-minus of 2 from the pre-determined crit frequency average, for an average of every 10th shot.
• Until Version 36.0 added a small range buff to Sharp Shooter when compared to Crossbow, Sharp Shooter was the only Dart Monkey upgrade along Path 3 to not involve a range increase. However, the lack of a range increase for Sharp Shooter remains in its BTDB2 counterpart.