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BTD6

Rapidly fires darts and bombs, dominating most Bloon types easily.
~ In-game description

Spectre is the fourth upgrade of Path 3 for the Monkey Ace in Bloons TD 6. The Spectre keeps the Neva-Miss Targeting homing darts, but also fires a single stream of rapidly alternating darts and bombs. These homing darts and bombs slightly seek at bloons. It fires 15 times per second (one projectile every 0.06s, or 0.045s with Rapid Fire). Additionally, each of the Spectre’s Neva-Miss homing darts deals 3 damage.

Each dart from the projectile stream deals 4 damage and has 10 pierce, while each bomb deals 3 damage and has 20 pierce (35 pierce with Exploding Pineapple) with a blast radius of 20 (+3 with Exploding Pineapple). Additionally, darts deal +1 damage to Ceramic Bloons and bombs deal +3 damage to Ceramic Bloons. However, unlike in BTD5, the Spectre's bombs do not harm Black Bloons, so it cannot damage DDTs without a Monkey Intelligence Bureau or similar upgrades, even if it has camo detection. The Neva Miss Targeting darts remain the same, lacking any lead-popping to counter DDTs without support. Also, the Spectre upgrade is now split from the Rapid Fire upgrade path, which may potentially force either external camo detection for an attack speed bonus or internal camo detection in exchange for no additional attack speed bonus.

This upgrade costs $19,890 on Easy, $23,400 on Medium, $25,270 on Hard, and $28,080 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

Spectre is a much larger plane than its predecessor, changing it from a biplane to a large black monoplane with four red engines, while retaining the signature red and blue roundels. Its artwork shows it dropping twin lines of bombs painted green with yellow stripes, similar to Mortar Monkey shells, however, in-game it actually fires the orange-striped darts of its previous upgrades and dark grey bombs bearing a red nose.

Spectre rapidly shoots alternating darts and bombs that deal greater damage, including extra Ceramic damage. These darts and bombs have slight homing.

Targeting Priorities[]

Like all Monkey Aces, Spectre uses flight patterns as its targeting priority settings. It can also access Centered Path targeting option due to being an upgrade from the respective upgrade that grants it.

  • Circle: Flight pattern becomes a circular path around the runway.
  • Figure Infinite: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the infinite symbol (∞). As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
  • Figure Eight: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the number 8. As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
  • Centered Path: Flight path becomes a large circular path, centered around the center of the map by default. The center of the flight path can be changed manually. Can be accessed by purchasing the Centered Path upgrade, and once upgraded the Ace defaults to this target priority.
  • Wingmonkey: Instead of a fixed flight path, the Monkey Ace will attempt to fly as close to the path as possible, similarly to an Aircraft Carrier Plane. Available only via the Wingmonkey MK.
  • Reverse Flight: Shown by an icon of a reverse aircraft, the Ace will reverse direction of flight. Unlike other target priorities such as Change Hands, there is a cooldown of 5 seconds before being able to reverse flight direction again. It can be coupled with all flight options except Wingmonkey.

Spectre's alternating dart-and-bomb attacks is locked to First, and both the darts and bombs can home weakly at bloons.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 41.3
Base stats
  • Monkey Ace moves in a fixed pathway around its base, flying above all obstacles. Creates Barrage projectile from center of Monkey Ace and targets the first bloon.
    • Circle: circular loop of 80 radius, center is the runway
    • Figure-Eight: figure-eight loop of (40, 40) radii, center is the runway
    • Figure-Infinite: figure-infinite loop of (40, 40) radii, center is the runway
    • Centered Path: circular loop of 90, center defaults in center of map or any user-set center
  • Homing Dart:
    • Projectile, sharp type, spray of 8, 1.68s attack cooldown, moderate homing, 3 damage, 8 pierce. Projectile lifespan of 600.
  • Barrage:
    • 0.06s attack cooldown, locked on First, alternates between launching Dart and Shell.
  • Dart:
    • Projectile, sharp type, infinite range, applies weak homing, 0.06s attack cooldown, 4 damage, 1 bonus Ceramic damage (5 total Ceramic damage), 10 pierce. Locked on First, alternates every odd shot.
  • Shell:
    • Projectile, explosion type, infinite range, applies weak homing, 20 blast radius, 0.06s attack cooldown, 3 damage, 3 bonus Ceramic damage (6 total Ceramic damage), 20 pierce. Locked on First, alternates every odd shot.
Crosspathing interactions
  • 0-1-4: Shell pierce increased from 20 to 35, blast radius of Shell increased from 20 to 23.
  • 0-2-4: Gains camo detection, Dart, Shell, and Homing Dart gain +1 damage to Camo Bloons.
  • 1-0-4: Barrage attack cooldown (alternates between Dart and Shell) reduced from 0.06s to 0.045s. Homing Dart attack cooldown reduced from 1.68s to 1.26s.
  • 2-0-4: Homing Dart projectile count increased from 8 to 12.

Attack Interactions[]

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Military
Updated as of Version 41.3
Base attack(s)
  • Homing Dart:
    • Sharp Type (pops Black, White, Purple) Sharp
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • Moderate Seeking Moderate Seeking
    • Flying Flying
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (3) Extra Damage (3)
  • Dart:
    • Sharp Type (pops Black, White, Purple) Sharp
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • Weak Seeking Weak Seeking
    • Per-Shot Basis (Alternates with Shell) Per-Shot Basis (alternates with Shell)
    • Path-Based Mobility (The location at where the projectiles will spawn depend on where the Monkey Ace was when the attack was made Path-Based Mobility
    • Flying Flying
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (4) Extra Damage (4)
    • Extra damage versus Ceramics (+1) Extra Damage to Ceramics (+1)
  • Shell:
    • Explosion Type (pops White, Purple, Lead, Frozen) Explosion
    • Single Projectile Single Projectile
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • Weak Seeking Weak Seeking
    • Per-Shot Basis (Alternates with Dart) Per-Shot Basis (alternates with Dart)
    • Path-Based Mobility (The location at where the projectiles will spawn depend on where the Monkey Ace was when the attack was made Path-Based Mobility
    • Flying Flying
    • Area of Effect Area of Effect
    • Extra damage to all bloon types (3) Extra Damage (3)
    • Extra damage versus Ceramics (+3) Extra Damage to Ceramics (+3)

Costs[]

Updated as of Version 41.0. 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) $19,890 $23,400 $25,270 $28,080 -
Total (0-0-4) $23,625 $27,800 $30,025 $33,360 $16,538 $19,460 $21,018 $23,352
Crosspath (1-0-4) $24,175 $28,450 $30,725 $34,140 $16,923 $19,915 $21,508 $23,898
Crosspath (2-0-4) $24,725 $29,100 $31,425 $34,920 $17,308 $20,370 $21,998 $24,444
Crosspath (0-1-4) $23,795 $28,000 $30,240 $33,600 $16,657 $19,600 $21,168 $23,520
Crosspath (0-2-4) $24,090 $28,350 $30,620 $34,020 $16,863 $19,845 $21,434 $23,814

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: MilitaryConscriptionIcon Military Conscription, AdvancedLogisticsIcon Advanced Logistics, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Due to the Spectre's high pierce and damage, as well as its global range and flight, the Spectre excels in the mid-game for the purpose of dispatching heavy threats of bloons and inflicting high general damage. Its global range makes it viable on maps that offer a lot of length for Spectre to utilize, maximizing use of its rapid-fire shots to continuously barrage at bloons. Spectre can very quickly dispatch heavy bloon rounds such as Rounds 63, 76, and 78, and clear out high-density bloon formations with ease. However, Spectre tends to fall off in the late-game, even with its increased damage to Ceramics that aim to dispatch Super Ceramics. Additionally, it isn't very effective against Fortified Bloons, since much of its power relies on demolishing swarms of weaker bloons quickly, rather than gradually breaking up tougher layers.

In the late-game, specifically Rounds 81+ from which Super Ceramics replace ordinary Ceramics, the Spectre changes its role from a mid-game breezer into a general high DPS tower, no longer trivially demolishing bloons in less than a second; It is, however, very inefficient for its price at this role, so it is not advised to purchase Spectre past Round 80 outside of going into Flying Fortress.

Note that the Spectre may still miss bloons due to the long travel time of its projectiles; adding slowdown support such as Bloon Sabotage or Glue Hose, or simply micromanaging the Spectre's flight to keep it closer to its targets, will help the Spectre not miss so often. It is possible to use the Spectre as a main DPS tower even late-game with a lot of support, although it is frequently outclassed by towers such as Sky Shredder paired with Stronger Stimulant and Apache Prime in this regard.

Tips[]

  • On Rounds 81+, where subsequent rounds change Ceramics into Super Ceramics that have a set amount of extra health plus extra speed per round, Spectres tend to fall back on power against fast Super Ceramics. Often, Spectres fail to target properly on specific positions. However, this can be remedied by placing the Spectre's flight path to one that is more closely placed near the targeted bloons.
  • It is usually better off getting 1-0-4 Spectre as opposed to 0-2-4 Spectre. Rapid Fire adds 33% extra attack speed, which makes a big difference thanks to the Spectre's already-high DPS.
    • The Lots More Darts crosspath does not add any extra darts for the Spectre. This is not worth purchasing, unless the player has bought the upgrade while still using Neva-Miss Targeting.
  • Usually, Spectre micromanagement strategies attempt to keep the Spectre shooting down a straight line or hitting multiple bloons to make full use of its darts' high pierce.
  • Pairing the Spectre with Overclock allows it to avoid missing its shots as much. The increased attack speed allows it to adjust to new changes in bloon positions at a much faster rate. Overclock's buff also has full uptime on all Tier 4 upgrades, meaning that the 66% attack speed buff is constant on Spectre.
  • The Spectre appreciates both direct support, in the form of damage buffs from Pat Fusty's Rallying Roar and Permanent Brew, but also bloon control such as MOAB Glue and other Glue Gunners, Bloon Sabotage, or Downdraft. Damage buffs help Spectre to have far more acceptable stats, while crowd control towers help to deal with weaknesses such as DDTs and superceramics.
  • The Spectre's projectiles always target First. During the late-game, focus on destroying any bloons far from or otherwise unfavorable for the Spectre, so it will not waste its shots on missing targets.
  • Make use of the Centered Path flight path to adjust where Spectre will fly around. This will change the angle at which it will make shots; correctly angling the Spectre helps it not miss so often.

Bugs[]

Current

None (so far)

Patched
  • [34.0] The homing change to spectre only affects it if it does not have any crosspaths. Possibly patched by 37.3.
  • [38.0] There was a bug where Spectre can ignore Phayze's active camo immunity with any crosspath. This also included Flying Fortress. This was patched in 39.0.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Before Version 4.0, Spectre was much more powerful than the Apache Dartship for less price. Now, with a very slight nerf to Spectre (but with no change to the Flying Fortress by extension) along with an Apache Dartship price drop has made the Spectre a little more on even grounds. In Version 8.0, Spectre was nerfed in price but with a damage buff to compensate, mainly to counteract the easy Deflation wins.

Version 23.0 introduced a small buff to Spectre darts, while Version 28.0's rework by increasing Ceramic damage over a reduced dart and bomb pierce is an overall buff, as Spectre bombs have huge pierce anyway that giving both dart and bomb attacks with bonus Ceramic damage still makes a big impact on the most dangerous grouped mid-game rounds anyway.

As many other mid-game DPS excel towers and combinations have evolved, the Spectre has seen less usage on CHIMPS outside of special challenges, mainly with the issue of high cost with generally low value in the late-game. In addition, Spectre has seen general reworks to increase its relevance in the late-game and increase value of middle crosspath as a piercing option.

Update 41.0 readded the Neva-Miss radial attack that is normally lost in exchange for direct targeting.

4.0
  • NERF Spectre attacks 16.67% slower than normal.
8.0
  • BUFF Spectre darts deal more damage (1 → 2)
  • BUFF Spectre bombs deal more damage (2 → 3)
  • NERF Spectre costs more ($18,000 → $24,000)
23.0
[...] In addition to this we are experimenting with adding a small amount of homing to the spectre upgrade as rapid fire missing is not the intended design.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Spectre darts now have a slight homing effect.
  • BUFF Spectre dart projectile size increased (2 → 3)
27.0
Now allows you to find your center. Very zen.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Centered Path
  • BUFF Affected by Centered Path special targeting buff
28.0
Monkey Ace has had an overall rework to a lot of different upgrades in order to highlight the x1x Exploding Pineapples upgrade as a buff to all explosives, in addition to this Spectre has been reworked to have less base pierce but a higher damage bonus to Ceramic Bloons in order to make the new option of a pierce crosspath more viable while also allowing it to carry on better into the endgame against Super Ceramics.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to both Exploding Pineapple rework and Spectre rework
  • BUFF Spectre dart damage deals +2 damage to Ceramics, for 4 damage versus Ceramics instead of 2.
  • NERF Spectre dart pierce reduced from 30 -> 15
  • BUFF Spectre bomb damage deals +2 damage to Ceramics, for 5 damage versus Ceramics instead of 3.
  • NERF Spectre bomb pierce without Exploding Pineapples reduced from 60 -> 30
  • NERF 0-1-4 Spectre bomb pierce reduced from 60 -> 45
  • BUFF 0-1-4 Spectre bomb radius increased from 20 -> 23
30.0
More of a straight quality of life, Ace has gained a new special toggle button to allow it to turn back and fly in reverse on any selected flight pattern. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Reverse Flight
  • BUFF Monkey Ace can now toggle flight direction for any pattern.
32.0
Neva-Miss has been generally over performing for quite a cheap T3, increasing price here slightly but not carrying that increase up through higher tiers.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to Neva-Miss Targeting
  • BUFF Spectre price reduced from $24,000 -> $23,400
    • Change Overall price is $0 due to $600 price increase to Neva-Miss Targeting.
  • BUFF [bug fix] Spectre no longer misses bonus ceramic damage on darts
33.0
To help you work towards the new Ace Paragon we have reduced Spectre’s lategame ceramic weakness with improved targeting for the bomb projectiles & a large increase to their bonus Ceramic damage to help out later on, to change focus on these projectiles we have also shifted damage around for the darts to deal single target with the bombs providing ceramic AoE cleanup. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • Change Spectre darts & bombs now both have a weaker homing effect
    • NERF [undocumented] Spectre darts angular speed decreased (80 → 20)
    • NERF [undocumented] Spectre bombs angular speed decreased (0 → 10)
  • BUFF Spectre darts deal more damage (2 → 3)
  • NERF Spectre bombs deal less damage (3 → 2)
  • BUFF Spectre bomb damage deals more bonus damage to Ceramics (+2 → +4)
34.0
[...] Same as mentioned above for the flagship, we are experimenting with new homing changes for the Spectre & Flying Fortress to improve their feeling. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Spectre's projectiles now use a new homing style that matches similarly to Goliath Doomship
37.0
Spectre is shifting a little of the ceramic bonus around into basic all damage at the cost of reduced pierce, which should make up for lack of single target damage while also making the pierce crosspath more necessary when being used for cleanup focus.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Spectre Dart damage increased 3 → 4
  • NERF Spectre Dart ceramic bonus reduced +2 → +1
    • Change Overall damage of the darts against Ceramics remains at 5.
  • NERF 0-x-4 Spectre Dart pierce reduced 15 → 10
  • NERF 2-0-4 Spectre Dart pierce reduced 18.75 → 12.5
  • BUFF Spectre Bomb damage increased 2 → 3
  • NERF Spectre Bomb ceramic bonus reduced +4 → +3
    • Change Overall damage of the bombs against Ceramics remains at 6.
  • NERF x-0-4 Spectre Bomb pierce reduced 30 → 20
  • NERF 0-1-4 Spectre Bomb pierce reduced 45 → 35
41.0
[...] Neva-Miss itself is too fun and cool to be lost completely on the very next upgrade so it's coming back to Spectre as an additional attack, as this main attack is back again 204 no longer needs to give an additional conflicting crosspath benefit. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF Spectre now keeps the original Neva-Miss Targeting attack alongside its rapid-fire dart-and-bomb barrages, additionally increasing damage of its Neva-Miss Targeting darts from 1 to 3.
  • NERF 2-0-4 Spectre no longer gains +25% pierce for darts

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]


Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Projectiles[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • The nerfed attack speed Spectre with Rapid Fire shoots at approximately the speed of the Spectre in BTD5.
  • Use of a 0-2-4 Spectre formerly was a simple go-to strategy for almost all Deflation Mode maps, but this was no longer possible in Version 8.0, where the Spectre's price was increased, but it also received increased overall damage to compensate.
  • The BTD5 Spectre upgrade uses an ambiguous description ("Flying fortress of bloon doom"), but in BTD6, the description for the Spectre is fully described in terms of how it attacks ("Rapidly fires darts and bombs, dominating most Bloon types easily").
  • The darts from the Spectre are 2D models, while the bombs are 3D models.
  • It is believed the model for the Spectre has a small resemblance to the AC-130. This is further suggested by the name as older AC-130s were known as Spectre Gunships.
  • There are three window panes on the BTD6 Spectre, while the BTD5 Spectre in both the Flash and Mobile versions had only one wider pane.
  • A "spectre" is a type of ghost or a phantom. Alternatively, it means a "mental image of something unpleasant or menacing" (Dictionary.com definition) or "the idea of something unpleasant that might happen in the future" (Cambridge Dictionary definition). Regardless of how the word "spectre" may be interpreted, the Spectre's dark color scheme and high DPS closely matches the level of ferocity that its name may suggest.
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