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Shattering shells strip special Bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons. Burny stuff melts through 5 layers with each shot and burns MOAB-class Bloons for extra damage.
”
~ In-game description
Shattering Shells is the fourth upgrade of Path 3 for the Mortar Monkey in Bloons TD 6. In addition to a powerful burn, the Mortar now removes Camo, Regrow, and Fortified properties from Bloons. This includes Blacks and Zebras with Camo, Regrow, or Camo Regrow, even if it cannot damage them. In addition, it now deals 5 burn damage (8 with Bloon Buster) and 25 to MOAB-Class Bloons (or 33 with 2-0-4) instead of 1 to any bloons per 1.25s for 3.75s.
Shattering Shells explosions are able to remove Camo Bloon properties from bloons including DDTs, all Regrow Bloon properties, and Fortified Bloon properties from all bloon types except ZOMGs and BADs, and requires Paint Stripper to remove fortification from DDTs. Degrow pierce calculations occur after the explosion damage, matching pierce of the main explosion, which is still 25 pierce (45 with 1-0-4).
This upgrade costs $8,075 on Easy, $9,500 on Medium, $10,260 on Hard, and $11,400 on Impoppable.
Shattering Shells applying deeply penetrated napalm and stripping Camo, Regrow, and Fortified properties from bloons and blimps up to BFBs
Shattering Shells changes the mortar cannon's barrel into a vase shape, the entire barrel dark red, and the base becomes light grey. On the barrel is a yellow flame pattern with orange outline, the pattern placed just below the tip of the barrel. The monkey now wears dark red goggles, as well as retaining grey gloves, a grey headset, and red helmet with a flame symbol. On the upgrade portrait, the monkey crosses its arms and smiles, leaning towards the barrel as it fires a burst of flames.
Shattering Shells applies a higher-damage burn, especially onto MOAB-class bloons, and removes all Camo and Regrow properties from bloons, and Fortified properties from all bloons up to BFB, and also Fortified from DDTs if given Paint Stripper. The special property removal of Regrow and Fortified are done by the main explosion, while the pre-existing non-damaging secondary flare has a separate wider radius for removing Camo properties from all bloon types.
Targeting Priorities[]
Mortar Monkey has only one target priority, "Set Target". This allows the Mortar Monkey to land shells within anywhere inside the target reticle. Tapping on the "Set Target" button prompts the player to change the target position of where the Mortar Monkey will land its shells. By default, once the Mortar Monkey is bought, the Mortar Monkey's target reticle is placed near the start of the first bloon track.
If Striker Jones's Level 7+ Target Focus ability is activated, all Mortar Monkeys are automatically set to Follow Touch / Follow Mouse temporarily, unless manually re-targeted via Set Target, and snap back to their old Set Target option once the ability is finished.
Full Popology[]
Updated as of Version 47.2
Base stats
Explosion:
Lobbed projectile, explosion type, detects camo, targets at a custom-aimed location with deviation of 8, 0.5s deployment cooldown, 2.0s attack cooldown, 20 blast radius, 2 damage, 25 pierce. Applies Burn status effect, dealing 5 damage or 25 MOAB-class damage every 1.25s for 3.75s. Explosion removes Regrow and Fortified properties (Fortified removal maximum: BFB). Upon expiry, create Flare.
1-0-4: Blast radius of Explosion increases from 20 to 28, blast radius of Flare increases from 52 to 72, Explosion pierce increases from 25 to 45, and Flare pierce increases from 80 to 90.
2-0-4: Explosion damage increased from 2 to 3, and Burn status effect deals 8 damage per tick instead of 5, or 33 MOAB-class damage per tick instead of 25.
0-1-4: Explosion attack cooldown reduced from 2.0s to 1.5s
0-2-4: Explosion attack cooldown reduced from 1.5s to 1.08s.
Monkey Knowledge Interactions
Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
Extra Burny Stuff: Napalm from Burny Stuff will reduce the combustion interval by 0.25 seconds, pop Bloons every second instead of every 1.25 seconds.
The prime value of Shattering Shells comes from defortifying MOAB-class bloons, particularly from high-HP rounds especially from the notorious Round 98. Although not a single-handed game-changer, it can greatly reduce the difficulty of specific rounds where the main bloon reinforcements come from fortification. Its potential is greatest in Rounds 81+, where the accelerating scaling of blimps and presence of Fortified Super Ceramics both become significant issues. The de-fortifying attack is one of the only that scales up with MOAB health, meaning it can easily obtain a lot of extra pops simply from stripping Fortified MOAB-class properties, especially in late-game freeplay; the tower and its upgrade Blooncineration can easily have millions of pops like a BMA.
Alternatively, Shattering Shells can be used as a niche support tower against rounds with fortification on earlier rounds, specifically starting from Round 62, and against rounds with Regrow Bloons. As a bonus, its improved napalm can provide a limited amount of assistance to break down high-health ordinary bloon targets, alongside inflicting gradual high damage to MOAB-class bloons. When it is used for its mid-game niche, it is usually to go for Blooncineration.
Tips[]
Since Shattering Shells causes the Mortar Monkey's shots to remove Camo, Regrow, and Fortified, it is a good idea to have a Mortar Monkey with this upgrade aim at the start of the track so it can remove the Fortified status from incoming MOAB-Class Bloons to make them easier to take down. DDTs, ZOMGs and BADs are immune to having their Fortified property removed, although Blooncineration can strip off the Fortified property off DDTs.
If many Fortified ZOMGs approach the battlefield, placing the targeting reticle where the parent Bloon would pop can help to remove fortifications on the resulting children.
Being able to specialize against Fortified Bloons, it is an excellent choice to combatting rounds 97 and 98, though the ZOMG layer with its own fortification needs to be popped first.
Regrow Bloons also lose their properties when hit by Shattering Shell's blast, allowing for it to assist in beating difficult rounds such as 76 and 79.
It is generally not necessary to crosspath this Mortar, but if needed, a faster-firing 0-2-4 Shattering Shells is generally more useful than the increased explosion radius and mere one extra damage the 2-0-4 Shattering Shells brings. 0-1-4 Shattering is generally sufficient anyway, but 0-2-4 makes micromanaging it a lot easier on maps with multiple opposing entrances such as Dark Castle, #Ouch, or Quad.
There are a few niche cases where the top path may be superior over the middle crosspath. For instance, a 1-0-4 can better hit bloons along wide corners such as Moon Landing's craters or Spillway's radial center. 2-0-4 allows it to reliably wipe out Ceramics with all its burning effects instead of just down to Reds, which is notable on Round 63 if using Shattering Shells to wipe out grouped bloons, provided its slow attack speed can hit them.
There are exactly 11 rounds in a standard game that contain Fortified MOABs and/or Fortified BFBs, up to Round 100: Rounds 62, 75, 79, 82, 86, 89, 92, 93, 96, 97, and 98.
Round 97 has Fortified ZOMGs, but popping the ZOMG layers will open Fortified BFBs, to which the Shattering Shells can remove.
On ABR, there are 36 rounds that contain Fortified MOABs and/or Fortified BFBs, up to 100: Rounds 40, 50, 52, 53, 55, 57, 60, 62, 64, 65, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, and 100.
Rounds 97 and 100 contain Fortified ZOMGs and the Fortified BAD, respectively, and both contain Fortified BFB offspring that the Shattering Shells can defortify (though for the Fortified BAD, the Fortified ZOMGs must be popped to open Fortified BFBs).
Because there are a lot of Fortified Bloons in Alternate Bloons Rounds, Shattering Shells is very strong in this game mode.
On single-entrance maps, Shattering Shells can be used to take care of dense Ceramic rounds such as Round 63, Round 76, and Round 78, if and only if it can hit dense groups of Ceramics without other towers popping them too soon. Be sure to prepare some micromanagement to carefully hit each wave of Ceramics, allowing Shattering Shells to obliterate them after some time delay.
If using Shattering Shells to damage MOAB-class bloons as a mid-game carry on Rounds 50 onwards, try to alternate between MOAB-class bloons and Ceramics, to maximize the numbers of bloons affected by the stronger burn effect.
Bugs[]
Current
none (so far)
Patched
[22.1] Shattering Shells incorrectly could not pass defortification through layers. This is related to an attempted bug fix to Sticky Bomb to consistently destroy blimps when mixed with other status effects. Fixed in 22.2, where all Sticky Bomb bug fix attempts in 22.x series were reverted.
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
Since its introduction in the game, Shattering Shells plays an important role for reducing the strength of late-game Fortified rounds. Overall, its cost-efficiency at defortifying has been nerfed, but later buffed to deal stronger burn damage, smoothening the transition into Blooncineration. It has developed to gain a better niche for a mid-game support.
10.0
Cost of Shattering Shells has increased ($10,000 → $11,000)
21.0
Attack speed without Path 2 upgrades increased (2.2s → 2.0s)
Attack speed with Faster Reload increased (1.54s → 1.25s)
Attack speed with Rapid Reload decreased (1.07s → 1.08s), due to Mortar Monkey attack speed reworks
27.0
“
[...] Signal Flare has had its camo revealing aspect reworked to make it more generally useful.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Signal Flare
[Undocumented] Shattering Shells no longer requires Paint Stripper to remove DDT camo properties. Inherited from the Signal Flare buff.
28.0
“
Bottom path Mortar burns have been reworked to burn faster and last longer at all upgrades; the Extra Burny Stuff MK has been tweaked in order to keep it's [sic] benefit the same comparatively to the new & improved base values.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Burny Stuff DoT duration increased from 3s → 3.75s
Burny Stuff DoT tic interval reduced from 1.5s → 1.25s
MK: Extra Burny Stuff buff amount reduced 0.5s → 0.25s
[Undocumented] Now requires Paint Stripper Monkey Knowledge to decamo DDTs
[Undocumented, possibly a bug]Paint Stripper allows Shattering Shells to defortify DDTs
29.0
Affected by 1-0-3 Signal Flare gaining bigger decamo blast
33.0
“
[...] Other similarly priced decamo options are able to decamo DDTs, so Signal Flare feels like a far lesser choice here having this basic decamo utility locked behind Monkey Knowledge, so that’s being freed up.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Shattering Shells burn DoT damage increased from 1 to 5
Shattering Shells can now decamo DDTs without needing Paint Stripper MK
Shattering Shells can now be buffed by Level 5+ Gwendolin's Pyrotechnics Expert buff
34.0
“
[...] likewise 205 Mortar is not often used as base damage isn't relevant for Blooncineration compared to attack speed, following along with the idea of Top Path improving burny stuff damage in addition to base hit damage both of these paths will now benefit from increase burn DoT in such a way.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to 205 Blooncineration
2-0-4 Shattering Shells DoT damage increased from 5 to 8
37.0
“
[...] As the camo property has grown quite weak and currently Signal Flare is considered the best decamo tool, we want to push back slightly on its cost and by reducing the blast radius of the decamo area while emphasizing crosspathing for effectiveness there.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Shattering Shells price reduced from $11,000 to $10,900
Overall price change is $0 due to the Signal Flare price increasing by $100.
Shattering Shells decamo radius reduced from 50 to 43
1-0-4 Shattering Shells decamo bonus pierce increased from +5 to +10
We’re looking to shakeup mortar in a couple small ways this update, along with Striker Jones changes noted further on for ‘multi-mortaring’ synergy. From the base level Mortar has far more pierce than should ever be necessary at low rounds but doesn’t hit beefy enough for the low fire rate, so we are trading up some base pierce for damage, instead moving this lost pierce up into crosspath. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Shattering Shells base damage increased (1 → 2)
Shattering Shells base pierce reduced (40 → 25)
41.0
“
[...] Signal flare is too effective a cheap full map de-camo though a little unreliable due to the lower rate & low radius of de-camo, cost is increasing a little but also with greater radius for the de-camo area to improve reliability and a power buff at Shattering Shells for there to be more of a reason to path through Signal Flare rather than stop at it.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Shattering Shells camo removal radius increased from 43 to 52
1-0-4 Shattering Shells camo removal radius increased from 63 to 72
Shattering Shells price reduced from $10,900 to $10,500
Overall price adjustment is -$300 due to Signal Flare increasing by +$100.
0-0-4 Shattering Shells bonus MOAB-class DoT damage increased from +5 to +10
2-0-4 Shattering Shells bonus MOAB-class DoT damage increased from +10 to +15
45.0
“
[...] We had been happy with Shattering Shells for a while, but as the game has evolved outright removing Fortification isn't as valuable anymore, so the price feels high for such a specific role compared to other supportive options.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Shattering Shells price reduced from $10,500 to $9,500
47.0
“
Improvements made for the underused damage over time crosspaths, and improved damage for the T4 as it’s effective at what it does but not so versatile outside of shredding metal bands.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Shattering Shells burn damage-over-time versus MOAB-class increased from +10 to +20
Due to a bug, this did not affect 2-0-4 Shattering Shells until Version 47.1 (+15, supposed to be +25)
47.1
[bug fix] 2-0-4 Shattering Shells burn damage-over-time versus MOAB-class increased from +15 to +25
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
7.0
Description changed from "All special Bloon properties are destroyed off each Bloon struck by the shattering shells." to "Shattering shells strip all bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons."
8.0
Stripped Fortified Bloon health of the current layer now adds to the damage count.
23.0
Stripped Fortified Bloon health of all layers now adds to the damage count, not just the current layer.
32.0 (confirmed in 32.4?)
Added "special" into "Bloon properties".
34.0
Changed "Shattering shells strip all special bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons." to "Shattering shells strip special bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons, and burns MOAB-class Bloons for extra damage."
38.0
Descripition changed from "Shattering shells strip special bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons, and burns MOAB-class Bloons for extra damage." to "Shattering shells strip special Bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons. Burny stuff melts through 5 layers with each shot and burns MOAB-class Bloons for extra damage."
Extra Notes (Version History)[]
Gallery[]
Crosspathing (Top: Path 2, Bottom: Path 1)
Shattering Shells defortifying all Fortified BFBs on Round 98, as of Version 23.0
Shattering Shells removing camo and regrow from Camo Regrow Ceramics
Description as of Version 32.4
Shattering Shells dealing 5 burning damage without MK
Shattering Shells dealing 5 burning damage with MK
2-0-4 Shattering Shells defortifying Ceramics and dealing 8 burning damage
Shattering Shells defortifying MOABs
Shattering Shells defortifying BFBs
Enough XP to unlock Shattering Shells
Official artwork[]
Artwork
Upgrade icon
Instamonkey icon
Videos[]
Regrow Shattering weird interaction with damage amounts
Shattering Shells failing to degrow Ceramics with 2 (or less) HP, but 3 HP is fine
Shattering Disaster 39.1
Another Shattering Shells low-HP Ceramic failure to degrow Ceramics
Shattering R63 Degrow test
Shattering Shells degrow test on R63 All Regrow (40% and 30% Ceramic HP), showcasing degrow pierce interactions with 2 damage explosion
One more Shattering Degrow test
Shattering Shells degrow test on R63 All Regrow (20% Ceramic HP), showcasing degrow pierce interactions with 2 damage explosion
Trivia[]
Shattering Shells, alongside its subsequent upgrade Blooncineration, are the only versions of the Mortar Monkey which fire using non-cylindrical mortars.
In Bloons Monkey City and its mobile version, the Signal Flare upgrade with certain Monkey Knowledge Packs can remove regrow properties. It is likely Shattering Shells removing regrow properties was inspired by this feature from Bloons Monkey City.
Shattering Shells initially did not add stripped Fortified Bloon health to its damage counter. This feature has since been added in Version 8.0.
Prior to Version 23.0, only the fortified health stripped off was added to the total counter, but this formerly did not include the blimp children.
Before the change, if a Shattering Shells defortified all Fortified BFBs on Round 98, it would have gained around +32,640 damage count (as all 30 Fortified BFBs on Round 98 have roughly 2176 health each for their outer layers, and defortifying them strips up to 1088 health each).
Since Version 23.0, given the total Fortified health stripped off the four descendant Fortified MOABs and 16 descendant Fortified Ceramics, an extra +2048 damage count is added per Round 98 Fortified BFB stripped. The total damage count gain for defortifying all 30 Fortified BFBs now becomes +94,080.
Previously, starting from Version 34.0, Ninja Kiwi changed the description of Shattering Shells to mention extra MOAB damage from the napalm, which was false. This was corrected in Version 37.0 where Shattering Shells was given a buff to deal extra MOAB-class burning damage.
After Version 39.0 buffed the base damage of the explosions, Shattering Shells cannot degrow multi-offspring bloons. This also affects non-Freeplay Ceramics with less than 3 HP, with 3 or higher HP Ceramics still being able to be degrown. This isn’t a bug, but rather a result of the multi-layer damage messing up with Degrow calculations that occur after, not before, the damage of the explosions.
Due to a false positive in the word filters, "Shattering Shells" is a filtered name or description. This was discovered and posted on r/btd6 on the post You can't name a challenge as "Shattering Shells".
Paint Stripper to remove fortification from DDTs. Degrow pierce calculations occur after the explosion damage, matching pierce of the main explosion, which is still 25 pierce (45 with 1-0-4).
Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
Military Conscription, 
Advanced Logistics, 
Better Sell Deals
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