Spike Factory (BTD6)

Overview

BTD4

BTD5

BTD6

BTDB2

Spike Factory
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Release Date	June 13th 2018
Class	Support
Unlocked at	Level 22-24 and Level 26
Cost	Default: $850 (Easy) $1,000 (Medium) $1,080 (Hard) $1,200 (Impoppable) First Last Line of Defense: $700 (Easy) $850 (Medium) $930 (Hard) $1,050 (Impoppable)
Activated Ability(s)	Spike Storm
Targeting Options	Normal. If Smart Spikes purchased, then Close, Far, and Smart are available.
Hotkey	J
Other Names	Spactory, Spac, Spact
Statistics
Damage	1
Pierce	5
Attack Speed	1.75s
Range	34, 42 at x-x-1
Status Effects	Requires upgrades
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Camo Detection	Yes
Footprint	Medium Large (8)
Default Damage Type	Passive
Related Towers
Spike Factory (BTD4), for the BTD4 counterpart Spike Factory (BTD5), for the BTD5 counterpart Spike Factory (BTDB2), for the BTDB2 counterpart

“	Automatically generates piles of Road Spikes on the nearby track. Excellent last line of defense.	”
	~ In-game Description

The Spike Factory is a Support-class tower that was released in the initial release of Bloons TD 6. The tower retains its name and role from the Bloons TD 4 and 5 Generation, with significant additions. It did not receive any teasers prior to release, but it was first shown when the game was available to select YouTubers several days before BTD6's official release date.

Spike Factory produces spike piles sporadically around its range onto nearby bloon track. Spike piles have a set amount of spikes, equivalent to pierce of each spike pile. By default, Spike Factory spike piles have 5 pierce, but upgrades such as Bigger Stacks increases their pierce. Each spike pile is produced every 1.75s and lasts for up to 50 seconds. Spikes disappear after ending a round, but spike piles can last longer by purchasing Long Reach and its later upgrades. Powerful upgrades include hard-shelled spiked balls, deadly mines that explode upon spike depletion, a wave of shredding spikes, and near-permanent spikes.

It costs $850 on Easy, $1,000 on Medium, $1,080 on Hard, and $1,200 on Impoppable.

Description

The Spike Factory is a white-colored machine with four "feet", the front two "feet" larger than its back two, and a spout on its "head". The front of the Spike Factory has an icon depicting a circle with three tacks inside. On the right side from the perspective of the player, its steam channel is located there.

In a similar manner to prior installments, the Spike Factory shoots out clumps of five spikes at a rate of one spike pile every 1.75 seconds. Compared to other towers that transitioned from Bloons TD 5 to Bloons TD 6, the Spike Factory is one of few that has both its original upgrade lines intact. Spikes by default last for 50 seconds or 1 round, whichever comes first. Spikes can last for more time or more rounds with most Path 3 upgrades.

Path 1 is primarily based upon making stronger spike piles. Bigger Stacks increases number of spikes per pile from 5 to 10 (or 50 to 90 with Perma-Spike). White Hot Spikes allows popping of any bloon type, including Frozen and Lead, increasing power of spikes further. Spiked Balls (returns from Spiked Ball Factory) replaces usual spikes with spiked balls, dealing even more damage to all bloon types while further increasing pierce, especially versus Ceramics and Fortified. The Spiked Mines upgrade adds powerful explosions into each spiked ball that activate upon depletion. The new Tier 5 upgrade surpassing the upgrade now creates even more powerful mines at a much slower rate, capable of wiping out crowds of stronger bloons with ease.

Path 2 focuses on aggressive production, starting with faster production with its first two upgrades, Faster Production and Even Faster Production, and then leading to MOAB SHREDR (returns from MOAB-SHREDR Spikes) for increased damage to MOAB-class, and its final upgrades Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes increasing the Spike Factory's potential for widespread area damage. The Carpet of Spikes upgrade bases upon the old Spike Storm upgrade from BTD4 by making each spike storm automatic while dealing even more damage overall.

The new Path 3 is a more tactical one, providing a variety of utilities that improve spikes overall. This includes providing increased area of coverage to a targeting priority to spikes that last longer before timing out and even pass over to the next round. Long Reach increases the range of the Spike Factory and increases lifespan of spikes. Smart Spikes (formerly named Directed Spikes) adds target priorities to the Spike Factory, increasing its reliability on multi-lane maps, and adds a brief but quick boost of attack speed whenever a round begins. Long Life Spikes takes the long lifespan spike further by allowing spikes to carry over rounds and last even longer on the track. Deadly Spikes increases the round lifespan further and deals extra damage. Perma-Spike takes the spike longevity concept even further by manufacturing high-damage spikes with very long lifespan but at a much decreased production speed.

Spikes by default last for 1 round or 50 seconds, whichever comes first. These spikes will last even longer with Long Reach, Long Life Spikes, Deadly Spikes, and Perma-Spike upgrades. With Long Life Spikes, each spike pile will last for 2 rounds or 140 seconds, whichever comes first. Deadly Spikes increases the spike pile duration to 3 rounds or 140 seconds, whichever comes first. For Perma-Spike, each spike pile will last for 4 rounds or 300 seconds, whichever comes first.

At later freeplay rounds, some extremely fast bloons would be able to pass over spike piles without contacting them, as in one frame they would be in front of a spike pile and then the next frame they would be behind the spike pile.

Items for the Spike Factory are available in the Trophy Store. The "Spike Factory Pineapples" cosmetic changes the Spiked Balls, Spiked Mines, and Super Mines so that they resemble Exploding Pineapples.

Target Priorities

The base Spike Factory defaults to Normal, which sets it to produce spikes in a pseudo-random formation, it will always target the same set of spots, using the same placement sequence in a loop. It gains extra target priorities once the Smart Spikes upgrade is bought.

• Normal: Targets spike piles in a somewhat sporadical way, spreading spikes as evenly as possible within its range.
• Close: Targets the closest region(s) of track within range.
• Far: Targets the furthest region(s) of track within range.
• Smart: Prioritizes the track with the Bloon the farthest through it, then targets the spot on that track closest to the exit.

Alternate attacks have a different set of target priorities:

• Spike Storm ability will target all areas of the track on screen, with the only exception when crosspathed with 0-4-2.
• 0-4-2 Spike Storm (with Smart Spikes) ability will only target lanes that are currently being used in a particular round.

Spike Factories naturally can ignore Line of Sight due to their lobbing attack. Similar to Alchemist potions, most Spike Factory spikes cannot deal air damage mid-way through flight. Instead, these spikes leap over until they eventually reside to their intended spot. Spikes produced right above the Spike Factory, however, will register for collision until the spikes move linearly outwards.

Stockpiling

The nature of the Spike Factory is to produce stockpiles of spikes. This allows it to build up spikes over time and therefore improve its primarily cleanup role. Spikes do not last infinitely, however, meaning that spikes will begin to deplete as rounds progress and spikes expire automatically once round lifespan is reached at the end of the round. More durable spikes can withstand longer periods of time before they begin to deplete or last for a longer number of rounds. Giving spike piles with extra time lifespan and round lifespan are both accessible via most Path 3 upgrades.

Maximum stockpile potentials of main spike attacks are listed below, ignoring start-of-round benefits from Smart Spikes or any external benefits:

Stockpile Maximization (main spikes)
Upgrade	Spike Count	Damage	Attack Cooldown	Time Lifespan	Max Spike Piles	Max Spikes	Max Damage
0-0-0	5	1	1.75s	50s	~28.57	~142	~142
0-1-0	5	1	1.4s	50s	~35.71	~179	~179
0-2-0	5	1	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~255	~255
0-0-1	5	1	1.75s	100s	~57.14	~285	~285
1-0-0	10	1	1.75s	50s	~28.57	~285	~285
1-1-0	10	1	1.4s	50s	~35.71	~357	~357
1-2-0	10	1	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~510	~510
1-0-1	10	1	1.75s	100s	~57.14	~571	~571
0-1-1	5	1	1.4s	100s	~71.43	~357	~357
0-2-1	5	1	0.98s	100s	~102.04	~510	~510
3-0-0	14	2 5 () +1 ()	1.75s	50s	~28.57	400	800 2000 () +400 ()
3-1-0	14	2 5 () +1 ()	1.4s	50s	~35.71	500	1000 2500 () +500 ()
3-2-0	14	2 5 () +1 ()	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~714	1428 3570 () +714 ()
3-0-1	14	2 5 () +1 ()	1.75s	100s	~57.14	800	1600 4000 () +800 ()
4-0-0	14	2 8 () +1 ()	1.75s	50s	~28.57	400	800 (+?) 3200 (+?) () +400 ()
4-1-0	14	2 8 () +1 ()	1.4s	50s	~35.71	500	1000 (+?) 4000 (+?) () +500 ()
4-2-0	14	2 8 () +1 ()	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~714	1428 (+?) 5712 (+?) () +714 ()
4-0-1	14	2 8 () +1 ()	1.75s	100s	~57.14	800	1600 (+?) 6400 (+?) () +800 ()
5-0-0	14	50 60 () +15 ()	3.5s	50s	~14.29	200	10000 (+?) 12000 (+?) () +3000 (+?) ()
5-1-0	14	50 60 () +15 ()	2.8s	50s	~17.86	250	12500 (+?) 15000 (+?) () +3750 (+?) ()
5-2-0	14	50 60 () +15 ()	1.96s	50s	~25.51	~357	17850 (+?) 21420 (+?) () +5355 (+?) ()
5-0-1	14	50 60 () +15 ()	3.5s	100s	~28.57	400	20000 (+?) 24000 (+?) () +6000 (+?) ()
0-3-0	5	1 5 ()	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~255	255 1275 ()
1-3-0	10	1 5 ()	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~510	510 2550 ()
0-3-1	5	1 5 ()	0.98s	100s	~102.04	~510	510 2550 ()
0-5-0	5	3 7 ()	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~255	765 1785 ()
1-5-0	10	3 7 ()	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~510	1530 3570 ()
0-5-1	5	3 7 ()	0.98s	100s	~102.04	~510	1530 3570 ()
0-0-3	5	1	1.75s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
1-0-3	10	1	1.75s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-1-3	5	1	1.4s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-2-3	5	1	0.98s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-0-4	5	2	1.75s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
1-0-4	10	2	1.75s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-1-4	5	2	1.4s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-2-4	5	2	0.98s	140s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-0-5	50	10	4.85s	300s	TBA	TBA	TBA
1-0-5	80	10	4.85s	300s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-1-5	50	10	3.88s	300s	TBA	TBA	TBA
0-2-5	50	10	2.71s	300s	~110,7	~5535,05	~55350,5

For Spike Storm abilities, these spike stockpiles are treated differently. More specifically, the number of spike piles on screen is irrelevant compared to the total spikes on screen due to the fact that determining the number of maximum spike piles is extraneous information. Rather, it is better off looking at the maximum damage potential, average damage potential, and ability's uptime. Average damage potential is increased by shorter bloon tracks and can be affected by ability uptime. Ideally, Spike Storm abilities deal the most damage on shorter maps, maps with single entries and single exits, and maps with intersecting lanes (e.g. Logs, End of the Road, Winter Park); Blons would be the theoretical best case scenario.

The spikes also last shorter than the ability cooldown, the only exception being with the Carpet of Spikes passive ability. Activated ability has 40s cooldown, and 15s passive cooldown for Carpet of Spike's passive ability.

When excluding external buffs, the following are the stats for Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes abilities:

Stockpile Maximization (Spike Storm abilities)
Upgrade	Spike Count	Damage	Attack Rate	Time Lifespan	Total Spikes	Max Damage	Uptime
0-4-0	5	1 +4 ()	200x	10s	1000	1000 5000 ()	25%
1-4-0	10	1 +4 ()	200x	10s	2000	2000 10000 ()	25%
0-4-1	5	1 +4 ()	200x	15s	1000	1000 5000 ()	37.5%
0-5-0 (passive)	5	3 +4 ()	200x	20s	1000	3000 7000 ()	133%
1-5-0 (passive)	10	3 +4 ()	200x	20s	2000	6000 14,000 ()	200%
0-5-1 (passive)	5	3 +4 ()	200x	30s	1000	3000 7000 ()	200%
0-5-0 (ability)	5	3 +4 ()	200x	20s	1000	3000 7000 ()	50%
1-5-0 (ability)	10	3 +4 ()	200x	20s	2000	6000 14,000 ()	50%
0-5-1 (ability)	5	3 +4 ()	200x	30s	1000	3000 7000 ()	75%

For all explosions from Spiked Mines and Super Mines, but not including napalm:

Stockpile Maximization (explosions)
Upgrade	Burst Type	Damage	Pierce	Attack Cooldown (spikes)	Time Lifespan (spikes)	Max Explosives	Max Damage
4-0-0	Depleted Explosion	10	40	1.75s	50s	~28.57	4000 (single) 160,000 (grouped)
4-1-0	Depleted Explosion	10	40	1.4s	50s	~35.71	5000 (single) 20,000 (grouped)
4-2-0	Depleted Explosion	10	40	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~7140 (single) ~285,600 (grouped)
4-0-1	Depleted Explosion	10	40	1.75s	100s	~57.14	8000 (single) 32,000 (grouped)
4-0-0	Automatic Explosion	10	40	1.75s	50s	~28.57	8,000 (single) 320,000 (grouped)
4-1-0	Automatic Explosion	10	40	1.4s	50s	~35.71	10,000 (single) 40,000 (grouped)
4-2-0	Automatic Explosion	20	40	0.98s	50s	~51.02	~14,280 (single) ~57,120 (grouped)
4-0-1	Automatic Explosion	20	40	1.75s	100s	~57.14	16,000 (single) 64,000 (grouped)
5-0-0	Mini Explosion	1000	60	3.5s	50s	~14.29 * 14	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-1-0	Mini Explosion	1000	60	TBA	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-2-0	Mini Explosion	20	30	TBA	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-0-1	Mini Explosion	20	30	TBA	100s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-0-0	Depleted Mega Explosion	1000	60	3.5s	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-1-0	Depleted Mega Explosion	1000	60	TBA	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-2-0	Depleted Mega Explosion	1000	60	TBA	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-0-1	Depleted Mega Explosion	1000	60	TBA	100s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-0-0	Automatic Mega Explosion	2000	60	3.5s	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-1-0	Automatic Mega Explosion	2000	60	TBA	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-2-0	Automatic Mega Explosion	2000	60	TBA	50s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)
5-0-1	Automatic Mega Explosion	2000	60	TBA	100s	TBA	TBA (single) TBA (grouped)

Upgrades

Path 1

	Bigger Stacks COST: $680 / $800 / $865 / $960 UNLOCK: 170 XP
	Description: Creates larger piles of spikes per shot. Effect: Spike piles gain +5 pierce. For Perma-Spike, gains +35 pierce.

	White Hot Spikes COST: $510 / $600 / $650 / $720 UNLOCK: 600 XP
	Description: Cuts through Lead Bloons and Frozen Bloons. Effect: Can pop Frozen and Lead Bloons.

	Spiked Balls COST: $1,955 / $2,300 / $2,485 / $2,760 UNLOCK: 2,400 XP
	Description: Produces spiked balls that do extra damage to Ceramic and Fortified bloons. Effect: Pierce of each spike pile increases from 10 to 11, and increases damage from 1 to 2, plus even more to Ceramic and Fortified (+1 to Fortified, +3 to Ceramic).

Spiked Mines COST: $8,075 / $9,500 / $10,260 / $11,400 UNLOCK: 15,000 XP

Description: Spiked mines explode violently when they lose all their spikes. Effect: Increases Ceramic damage bonus from +3 to +6, and Fortified damage from +1 to +3. Pierce of each spike pile increases from 11 to 18. Mines produce explosions that deal 10 damage (+2 to Ceramics, +3 to Fortified) with 30 pierce upon depletion of its spikes or by expiration, plus a burning effect that deals 10 damage per 2 seconds for up to 6 seconds. If expired by time, explosions deal double damage (20 damage).

Super Mines COST: $106,250 / $125,000 / $135,000 / $150,000 UNLOCK: 32,500 XP

Description: Creates gigantic exploding spiked mines that can wipe out almost anything. Effect: Reduces production speed to every 3.5s, and increases spike damage from 2 to 50. Creates mini explosions every time a spike wears out (20 damage, 30 pierce), and causes 1000 (2000 if the mine expires over time) damage, 60 pierce explosions once the super mine fully depletes its spikes or expires. Increases damage to Ceramics and Fortified massively (+30 to Ceramics and +15 to Fortified per spike, +15 and +5 per mini explosion, +500 and +250 per main explosion). Napalm DoT increases from 10 to 2500.

Path 2

	Faster Production COST: $510 / $600 / $650 / $720 UNLOCK: 180 XP
	Description: Rapidly increases production rate. Effect: Produces spikes +25% faster (0.80x attack cooldown).

	Even Faster Production COST: $680 / $800 / $865 / $960 UNLOCK: 650 XP
	Description: Increases production rate even more. Effect: Produces spikes +33% faster (0.75x attack cooldown).

	MOAB SHREDR COST: $2,125 / $2,500 / $2,700 / $3,000 UNLOCK: 2,500 XP
	Description: Super-Hard-Rending-Engine-Driven-Razors shred MOAB-Class Bloons. Effect: Spikes deal +7 damage to MOAB-class bloons.

	Spike Storm COST: $5,950 / $7,000 / $7,560 / $8,400 UNLOCK: 11,000 XP
	Description: Spike Storm ability: Shoots out a thick layer of spikes over the entire track. Effect: Ability produces a wave of exactly 200 spike piles over the entire track. Storm spikes last for around 10 seconds, 20 with Long Reach. Smart Spikes upgrade modifies behavior of the spike locations to target only active lanes.

	Carpet of Spikes COST: $34,850 / $41,000 / $44,280 / $49,200 UNLOCK: 35,000 XP
	Description: Regularly sets a carpet of spikes over the whole track. Effect: Every 15 seconds, produces an automatic Spike Storm. Spikes also deal incredible damage to bloons and MOAB-class, gains increased pierce, attack speed and range for main attack, and storm spikes last for around 20 seconds instead of 10 (40 instead of 20 with Long Reach).

Path 3

Long Reach COST: $125 / $150 / $160 / $180 UNLOCK: 120 XP

Description: Increases range for spike pile drops, plus piles last longer. Effect: Increases tower radius by 8, and ordinary spike piles last for 100 seconds instead of 50 seconds. Spike Storm ability spikes last for 100% longer, for an average of 20 seconds instead of 10, or 40 seconds for Carpet of Spikes ability spikes. Increases explosion blast radius of Spiked Mines and Super Mines (main explosion in Super Mines' case) by 33%.

	Smart Spikes COST: $340 / $400 / $430 / $480 UNLOCK: 550 XP
	Description: Spike Factory gains special targeting priority and accelerated production at the start of each round. Effect: Gains the Close, Far, and Smart target priorities. In addition, attacks 4x faster for the first 3s of a round. Spike Storm ability spikes land only on lanes that are being used by Bloons in that particular round.

	Long Life Spikes COST: $1,105 / $1,300 / $1,405 / $1,560 UNLOCK: 2,100 XP
	Description: Spikes last much longer and can carry over one round. Effect: Spikes last for 140 seconds instead of 100 seconds, and spike piles last for 2 active rounds (can carry over 1 round).

	Deadly Spikes COST: $3,060 / $3,600 / $3,890 / $4,320 UNLOCK: 9,000 XP
	Description: Extra deadly spikes can pop through 3 layers per spike and last another round. Effect: Spike damage increased from 1 to 3, and total active rounds for spike piles increased from 2 to 3.

	Perma-Spike COST: $25,500 / $30,000 / $32,400 / $36,000 UNLOCK: 29,500 XP
	Description: High damage spikes become almost permanent. Effect: Spike piles have 10 damage per spike, 50 pierce per spike pile, total active rounds increased from 3 to 4, and lasts for 300 seconds instead of 140. Reduces production speed to every 6.06s, but increases start-of-round duration to 10s.

Paragon Upgrade

	Mega Massive Munitions Factory COST: $680,000 / $800,000 / $864,000/ $960,000 UNLOCK: 1,000,000 XP
	Description: A factory of explosive spike Bloon annihilation. Effect: Generates a permanent carpet of stalagmites, and regularly generates long-lasting super-duper mines that explode spike piles on nearby track when detonated. Spike Boost ability: Boosts attack speed briefly, once per round. Mine Barrage ability: drop small deadly mines across the track.

Total Costs

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	$800	$600	$2300	$9500	$162500
	Cumulative Cost	$1800	$2400	$4700	$14200	$176700
	Base Sell
	Cumulative Sell	$1260	$1680	$3290	$9940	$123690
Path 2
	Base Cost	$600	$800	$2500	$5000	$40000
	Cumulative Cost	$1600	$2400	$4900	$9900	$49900
	Base Sell
	Cumulative Sell	$1120	$1680	$3430	$6930	$34930
Path 3
	Base Cost	$150	$400	$1400	$3500	$30000
	Cumulative Cost	$1150	$1550	$2950	$6450	$36450
	Base Sell
	Cumulative Sell	$805	$1085	$2065	$4515	$25515

Strategy

See also: Spike Factory (BTD6)/Strategies

See also: Crosspathing/Spike Factory

Summary

Spike Factories produce spikes that can be stockpiled to pop a greater number of bloons, which allows them to excel at their primary purpose, which is to protect exits. As a camo popper, it can also be used to catch a few early Camo waves. Several Spike Factory upgrades offer the strength to act as an offensive option, destroying bloons quickly for piling up DPS, although most Spike Factory upgrades are geared towards a defensive option to clean up any stragglers.

Tips

• Try to place Spike Factories near the track if possible, and preferably targeting only a concentrated area of lane.
• Assuming all non-Camos are beaten, a 0-0-0 Spike Factory can solo all Camos until Round 42, but cannot do so on Reverse Round 37 due to the Camo Whites coming first.
• Spike Factories work very well with pierce buffs. The extra pierce from external buffs acts as lumping extra damage per spike puke. Good examples of pierce synergies include Level 8+ Striker Jones, Call To Arms, and Mermonkey’s Upper Path 1 upgrades.

Monkey Knowledge

This section displays Monkey Knowledge that has effects on Spike Factory and its changes when compared to one by default:

• One More Spike: Spike Factory stacks get +1 spike.
  • Spike stacks have increased pierce from 5 to 6.
  • Bigger Stacks from 10 to 11.
  • Spiked Balls from 12 to 13.
  • Spiked Mines from 18 to 19.
  • Carpet of Spikes from 10 (15) to 11 (16)
  • Perma-Spike from 50 (90) to 51 (91).
• First Last Line of Defense: Purchased price of first Spike Factory each game is $150 less.
  • The first Spike Factory will cost $700 on Easy, $850 on Medium, $930 on Hard, and $1,050 on Impoppable.
• Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
• Very Shreddy: MOAB-SHREDER spikes deal +1 extra damage to MOAB-Class Bloons.
  • Each spike deals 6 damage for a total of 36 damage per stack (because the Monkey Knowledge "One More Spike" must be unlocked first), originally deals 5 damage up to 25 damage per stack.
• Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
  • Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
• Hi-Value Mines: Spiked Mines cost reduced by 1500.
  • Cost reduced from $8,075, $9,500, $10,260, $11,400 to $6,575, $8,000, $8,760, $9,900 on each difficulty.
• Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
• Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.

Achievements

$40K	Josh's Constant FIRST RELEASED: Version 14.0
	Description: B-B-Beat any Expert Map on CHIMPS with $40,870 or more spent on 1 Spike Factory.
	Rewards: 0-0-3	Notes: Intended solution is 0-2-5 Perma-Spike, but possible with Carpet of Spikes or Super Mines (however, Super Mines is not affordable in practice).

Version History

Differences Between BTD5 and BTD6

Listed are comparisons of the Spike Factory in BTD6 compared to BTD5. Takes into account Flash and Mobile versions.

• Bigger Stacks costs less ($700 → $650).
• White Hot Spikes costs less ($900 → $800).
• Spiked Mines no longer has increased attack speed.
• Faster Production costs less ($800 → $700).
• Even Faster Production costs less ($1,250 → $900).
• MOAB SHREDR (old MOAB-SHREDR Spikes) no longer has increased attack speed.
• Spike Storm costs less ($6,500 → $5,000).
• Spike Storm now has an initial cooldown before initial use.
• Spike Factory will not dispense spikes if not in range of any track, rather than dispense spikes randomly around itself. Nerf due to MOAB-Class Bloons large hitbox.

Balance Changes

Initial release (compared to BTD5)

Note: Lists all balance changes implemented for the Spike Factory when it was first released in Bloons TD 6 (June 14th 2018) in comparison to Bloons TD 5. Takes into account Flash and Mobile versions of Bloons TD 5.

• Bigger Stacks costs less ($700 → $650).
• White Hot Spikes costs less ($900 → $800).
• Spiked Mines no longer has increased attack speed.
• Faster Production costs less ($800 → $700).
• Even Faster Production costs less ($1,250 → $900).
• MOAB SHREDR (old MOAB-SHREDR Spikes) no longer has increased attack speed.
• Spike Storm costs less ($6,500 → $6,000).
• Spike Storm now has an initial cooldown before initial use.
• Spike Factory will not dispense spikes if not in range of any track, rather than dispense spikes randomly around itself. Nerf due to MOAB-Class Bloons large hitbox.

2.0

• Permaspike price increased ($22,000 → $25,000).
• Permaspike produces spikes 50% slower than normal.

3.0

• Apopalpyse Mode will no longer remove Spike Factory spikes until the time limit is reached.
• Spike Factory spikes will fade away as their lifespan ends rather than disappearing out of existence.
• Spike Factories can no longer throw spikes further outside of the track than the actual bloon exit point is.

4.0

• Spike Factory #/5/# Carpet of Spikes redesigned. Rather than 1 activation at the beginning of the round, it will trigger 1 free spike storm cast every 20 seconds

6.0

• Super Mines attack speed increased by 20%.

7.0

• Spiked Balls price reduced ($2,400 → $2,200).
• Spiked Mines price reduced ($14,000 → $12,000).
• Super Mines can now pop all bloon types.
• Super Mines pierce increased (40 → 60).
• MOAB SHREDR price reduced ($3,000 → $2,500).
• Spike Storm price reduced ($6,000 → $5,000).
• Carpet of Spikes price reduced ($50,000 → $42,000).
• Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes abilities now deals +1 damage to MOAB-class (as intended).
• Carpet of Spikes +1 damage to all attacks is now applying correctly to the ability and periodic storm for a total of 2 damage to regular bloons and 5 damage to MOABs.

8.0

• Spiked Balls now deals more damage to Ceramics (3 → 4; essentially +3 damage compared to against normal bloons).
• Spiked Mines explosion damage increased (4 → 5).
• MOAB SHREDR damage to MOAB-class increased (4 → 5).
• Carpet of Spikes damage to MOAB-class increased (5 → 6).
• Permaspike with Bigger Stacks now has larger stacks (60 → 70; effectively now up to 800 damage per spike pile for Permaspike with Bigger Stacks).

10.0

• Super Mines base spike damage increased (1 → 10).

11.0

• Super Mines attack speed increased by 20%.
• Spike Storm ability now (correctly) has +1 MOAB-class damage from an earlier MOAB-SHREDR blimp damage buff.

12.0

• Spiked Mines explosion damage increased (5 → 10).
• Super Mines explosion damage increased (350 → 1,000).
• Perma-Spike duration decreased (350s → 300s).
• Perma-Spike price increased from ($25,000 → $30,000).
• Perma Spike max rounds reduced (4 → 3).

14.0

• "Directed Spikes" renamed to "Smart Spikes".
• Smart Spikes attack rate increased by x4 for the first 2.5 seconds of each round.

19.0

• 3-x-x Spiked Balls damage increased (1 → 2).

20.0

“	Bigger balance shifts including Super Mines were not feasible for this update, but we did make a meaningful price reduction.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 5-x-x Super Mines Price reduced ($175,000 → $162,500).
• x-5-x Carpet of Spikes now correctly gains +2 damage to all, not just 1.

21.0

“	Since launch xx2 has never brought enough to the table as a crosspath. Working into the long life trend of the bottom path we felt that introducing longer life at a 'cross-pathable stage' may work in some new niche. Along with this we made a couple small tweaks buffing what should be the 'strength areas' of a few of the more underperforming high tier Spike upgrades.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 4-x-x Spiked Mines blast radius increased (15 → 19).
• x-x-1 Long Reach lifespan increased (70 → 100).
  • 041 Spike Storm lifespan will increase by 50% with this change.
• x-x-4 Deadly Spikes last for 1 more round before expiring.
• Bottom Path upgrade changes do not affect Long Life Spikes or Perma-Spike.
• x-5-x Carpet of Spikes passive cooldown reduced (20s → 15).
• Descriptions changed.

22.0

“	We quite liked how the lifespan changes for xx1 spikes went previously, though this still wasn't enough to make the path competitive and increasing this number further wouldn't have much of an impact since most earlier rounds aren't long enough. Spiked Balls strats have also felt too strong compared to higher tiers on top path, so touching on all of these issues slightly the base lifespan of spikes has been reduced, ceramic bonus increased on 4xx, and a new bonus added to 5xx. We have also made changes to give more purpose to 042 Spike Storm and allowed x5x Carpet of Spikes to save its cooldown so it is no longer required to avoid saving to be used in reliable strategies.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Base spike lifespan reduced (70s → 50s).
  • x-x-1 spike lifespan remains at 100s.
• 1-x-x Bigger Stacks cost increased ($600 → $800).
• 2-x-x Red Hot Spikes cost reduced ($800 → $600).
• 4-x-x Spiked Mines ceramic damaged increased (+3 → +6).
• 5-x-x Super Mines spikes now trigger a smaller explosion of radius 20, pierce 10 and damage 10.
• 0-4-2 Spike Storm targets only active paths.
• x-5-x Carpet of Spikes saves cooldown of passive ability when saving.

23.0

“	Like a few other towers before it, the attack speed crosspath for Spike Factory has outshined the others. We have reworked the lower Spike Factory tiers to distribute this power more evenly while keeping high tier factories at a similar level of power.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Base Spike Factory cost increased ($800 → $1,000).
• Faster Production cost decreased ($700 → $600).
• Even Faster Production cost decreased ($900 → $800).
• Spike Factory base attack rate increased (2.2s → 1.75s).
• Spike Factory attack speed bonus decreased (0.6x → 0.8x, or +66% → +25%), for less attack speed (1.32s → 1.4s).
• Spike Factory attack speed bonus increased (0.75x → 0.70x, or +33% → +42%), for more attack speed (0.99s → 0.98s).
• Carpet of Spikes price reduced ($42,000 → $40,000).
• [undocumented] Base Super Mines attack speed increased (4.4s → 3.5s).
• [undocumented] 5-1-0 Super Mines attack speed decreased (2.64s → 2.8s).
• [undocumented] 5-2-0 Super Mines attack speed increased (1.98s → 1.96s).
• [undocumented] 0-1-5 Perma-Spike attack speed decreased (3.6s → 4.8s).
• [undocumented] 0-2-5 Perma-Spike attack speed decreased (2.7s → 3.36s).

24.0

“	Spiked Balls are used quite a lot, but we like their overall position right now so they have had only a slight bump up in price, along with a bigger decrease to the price of T4 Spiked Mines. In addition, Permaspike's neglected crosspath has had a small pierce increase as currently their only real use is under custom challenge rules.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 3-x-x Spiked Balls price increased ($2,200 → 2,300).
• 4-x-x Spiked Mines price reduced ($12,000 → 11,000).
• 1-0-5 Permaspike pierce increased (70 → 80).
• [undocumented] "Smart" targeting priority now places spikes as far back on the track as it can rather than as far forward to the first bloon.

26.0

“	Pierce amounts for Spiked Balls and Mines fits their use cases too awkwardly due to super ceramics. Considering the power of Spiked Balls, their pierce has been reduced slightly to add value to the pierce focussed higher tier in addition to a price cut for Spiked Mines.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spiked Balls pierce reduced from 17 to 14. Also affects later upgrades.
• Spiked Mines price reduced from $11,000 to $9,500.

27.0

“	Due to a number of performance concerns, the ability for the Spike Storm factory will no longer be able to benefit from a denser storm of spikes via stacking speed buffs on the base tower.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spike Storm ability no longer benefits from increases to rate of fire.

28.0

“	Some minor changes to a few upgrades on Spike Factory evening out some aspects of it.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 1-0-5 Permaspike pierce increased from 80 -> 90
• Super Mines price reduced from $162,500 -> $150,000
• Super Mines 'Small Explosion' pierce increased 20 -> 30

29.0

“	While we feel speed interactions for Spike Storm was a necessary evil for performance related concerns, we did not want to kill off self synergy contained local to the tower, so we are trying out an exception to this rule for the 042 crosspath. Additionally, due to the large annoyance in using spike storm in bosses due to the persistent rounds a boss will last for, Spike Storm will now be allowed to carry over one round before being cleaned up.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 042 Spike Storm ability will benefit from the xx2 crosspath start of round speed increase
• Spike Storm ability spikes now carry over one round.

“	Super Mines gets damage - to stand it out in Bosses more.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Super Mines base spike damage increased from 10 to 50
• Super Mines base spike ceramic bonus increased from +6 → +20
• Super Mines base spike fortified bonus increased from +1 → +15
• Super Mines mini explosion damage increased from 10 to 20
• Super Mines mini explosion gains a Ceramic bonus of +10
• Super Mines mini explosion gains a Fortified bonus of +5
• Super Mines large explosion no longer receives +2 damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class
• Super Mines large explosion fortified bonus increased from +1 → +250

“	Editorial: There is no such thing as any kind of 'max spike limit' and never has been. Just putting this out there, as we don't know who started that rumor but certainly don't need to keep spreading it.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

31.0

“	To help make the tradeoff of building one T5 over multiple T4 not be as hard a choice, the basic attack on Carpet of Spikes has had power increased significantly over rate, range & damage.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Carpet of Spikes range increased from 34 -> 50
• Carpet of Spikes main damage increased from 3 -> 4
  • Note: This only affected main attack but not the ability
• Carpet of Spikes main attack delay reduced 0.98s -> 0.33s

32.0

“	Super Mines DoT damage is entirely insignificant for the price range of this tower.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Super Mines DoT damage per tic of damage increased 1 -> 500

33.0

“	Spike Factory 4xx feels it needs a small boost in order to really start feeling worth upgrading to rather than getting multiple T3s in the lategame due to the improved Spiked Mines pierce not being as needed for Super Ceramics.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spiked Mines spikes and explosions bonus to fortified increased 1 -> 3

35.0

“	Spiked Mines explosion radius doesn’t hit too much since it’s almost always centered just in front of the ‘first bloon in a pack’ to hit it in most effective use cases, and Super Mines price is coming down a little to pull it slightly forward into more challenge viability. We also felt like a massive ceramic bonus on Super Mines could both help it annihilate super ceramics, and give it fun niche uses against ceramics in general for challenges and Bosses. Carpet of Spikes still fails to see love over multiple T4's, so rather than making it cheaper we like an all-round increase to the MOAB bonus.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spiked Mines explosion radius increased 19 -> 30
• Super Mines small explosion radius increased 20 -> 30
• Super Mines price reduced $150,000 -> $125,000
• Super Mines DoT damage increased 500 -> 1000
• Super Mines spikes ceramic bonus 20 -> 30
• Super Mines mini explode ceramic bonus 10 -> 15
• Super Mines big explode ceramic bonus 0 -> 500
• Carpet of Spikes base attack moab bonus 4 -> 5
• Carpet of Spikes passive ability moab bonus 4 -> 5
• Carpet of Spikes ability moab bonus 4 -> 5

36.0

“	Spiked Balls provides incredibly powerful cleanup in all stages of gameplay, and we like the use here but for a cheap T3 it doesn't drop off enough lategame with the lower pierce requirements there. Permaspike, while admittedly not often utilized to its max potential, has sat in a dominant high end position for a long time so we are shifting it away from such high pierce into more damage per pierce.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spiked Balls pierce reduced from 14 → 12
• 0-x-5 Permaspike pierce reduced 50 → 25
• 1-0-5 Permaspike pierce reduced 90 → 45
• Permaspike damage increased 10 → 15

37.0

“	We’ve heard the feedback, so Spiked Mines get a tweak to get more mines exploding but with less pierce on each, to overall increase quality of life in more frequent use but less wasted pierce. This will help out with some of the problems it has scaling into late game super ceramics.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spiked Mines spikes pierce increased 12 → 20. Also affects Super Mines
• Spiked Mines explosion pierce reduced from 40 → 30, does not carry over to Super Mines
• Spiked Mines napalm DoT damage increased 1 → 10
• Super Mines napalm DoT damage increased 1000 → 2500

38.0

“	Further balance for 401 crosspath, while this does already see some niche use it made sense to include increased explosion radius with the larger tower range. A flat pierce increase is added on to middle T5’s base attack to reduce crosspath dependency & improve r100 strength. Finally, we enjoyed the hard hitting nerf to Permaspike’s early game, but admittedly this change didn’t really change much of anything for its endgame power while impacting pre r80 rounds far more, so we’re redoing the nerf into a pure attack speed nerf along with an increased benefit to the start of round rate buff to reduce the necessity in playing slowly with it	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 4-0-1 Spiked Mines explosion blast radius: 30 → 40
• 5-0-1 Super Mines large explosion blast radius 100 → 133
• Smart Spikes passive ability duration 2.5s → 3s
• Carpet of Spikes main attack gains +5 pierce
• Permaspike pierce increased 25 → 50
• Permaspike pierce increased 45 → 90
• Permaspike damage reduced 15 → 10
• Permaspike attack rate reduced 4.85 → 6.0625
• Permaspike start of round buff duration 2.5s → 10s

39.0

“	The mid spike factory by many players has been ignored outside of few very specific situations for a long time and after fixing some issues, mainly a bug with the shotgunning of projectiles as they spawn, we’re trying a large power increase to more effectively balance the Shredder for its MOAB Damage purpose.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• All Spike Factory spikes no longer can damage bloons for exactly 1 frame after being created from the spawning origin.
• MOAB SHREDR bonus damage to MOAB-class increased (+4 → +9)
• Spike Storm ability bonus damage to MOAB-class increased (+4 → +9)
• Carpet of Spikes attack cooldown increased (0.33s → 0.49s)
• Carpet of Spikes bonus damage to MOAB-class increased (+5 → +9)
• Carpet of Spikes ability bonus to MOAB-class increased (+5 → +9)

40.0

“	Small spike pierce reduction for the Spiked Mines as it’s finally coming into a strong spot on its own. Similar to Mortar it’s great to see the fresh love for middle path Spike Factory, however as they are feeling exceptionally good now for the intended pure MOAB damage role we want to cut it back very slightly so it doesn’t stay quite so crazy over our holiday break.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spiked Mines spikes pierce reduced (20 → 18)
• MOAB SHREDR bonus MOAB-class damage reduced (+9 → +8). Also affects Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes.
• Carpet of Spikes main attack damage reduced (4 → 3)

41.0

“	Middle spactory buffs were a fair amount overdone, cutting back more on this.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• MOAB SHREDR bonus MOAB-class damage reduced from +8 to +7
• Spike Storm ability bonus MOAB-class damage reduced from +8 to +7
• Spike Storm ability cooldown increased from 40s to 45s
• Carpet of Spikes bonus MOAB-class damage reduced from +8 to +7

43.0

“	Spike Storm is now exceptionally strong so the ability cooldown is increasing a small amount along with the T5 cost. This comes along with a crosspath rebalance granting more 042 lifespan. Long Life Spikes can start creating a nice buildup of spikes in advance but most of the time feels fairly meh as a stepping stone into Deadly Spikes, a little price here is being shifted up to improve standalone upgrade value.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spike Storm cooldown increased from 45s to 50s. Also affects Carpet of Spikes.
• Spike Storm ability spikes duration reduced from 10s-13s to 9s-11s. Carpet of Spikes remains at 18s-22s.
• 0-4-1 Spike Storm duration bonus for ability spikes increased from 50% to 100%. Spike duration increased from 15s-19.5s to 18s-22s.
• 0-5-1 Carpet of Spikes duration bonus for ability spikes increased from 50% to 100%. Spike duration increased from 27s-33s to 36s-44s.
• Carpet of Spikes cost increased from $40,000 to $42,000
• Long Life Spikes cost reduced from $1400 to $1300
• Deadly Spikes cost increased from $3500 to $3600

44.0

“	Spike Factory is currently overperforming on every path, and as it also happens to have one very dominant crosspath choice we’ve opted to nerf that crosspath as an overall nerf to every path. As Spike Storm stands out even moreso than the other paths it is the only one seeing an additional price increase ontop of this.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Even Faster Production attack cooldown multiplier reduced from 0.7x to 0.75x, attack cooldown increased from 0.98s to 1.05s.
• Carpet of Spikes base spikes attack cooldown increased from 0.49s to 0.525s
• 0-2-5 Perma-Spike cooldown increased from 3.3936s to 3.636s
• 5-2-0 Super Mines cooldown increased from 1.96s to 2.1s
• Spike Storm cost increased from $5000 to $6000

45.0

“	Still very strong cleanup, Spiked Balls slowly approaches 10 pierce, while leaving Spiked Mines unchanged for more encouragement to upgrade past it. Permaspike is seeing a small crosspath fix, as the x2x rate change threw this balance out.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spiked Balls pierce decreased from 12 to 11. Does not affect Spiked Mines (18).
• 1-0-5 Perma-Spike pierce decreased from 90 to 85.

46.0

“	While this won’t change the effective DPS of spike storm at all, the ability will now occur over a slightly longer duration to reduce the effective ‘instapop’ on many targets and give more time to see what’s going on.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spike Storm ability spike dispersion cooldown increased from 0.02s to 0.04s but ability duration increased from 1s to 2s. Also affects Carpet of Spikes.

47.0

“	After much deliberation we still don’t particularly feel like making any large overhauls to the popular Permaspike upgrade right now, so we have decided that in order to follow through on this vision the best course of action would be to not do anything. This lack of attempt to make any change should in theory prevent any alterations from occurring to this particular upgrade in this update and thus leaves Permaspike extremely similar as to how it currently is. For now.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Perma-Spike remains unchanged

48.0

“	Spike Storm’s price is being increased with Carpet of Spikes remaining the same total cost, and Deadly Spikes is seeing a damage increase to better lead up into Permaspike. The long awaited Permaspike nerf! Well from the Bloons perspective, since it’s less powerful of a Spike Factory compared to the Spike Paragon it has been effectively ‘nerfed’ by comparison so we have decided to leave everything else about it completely unchanged	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Spike Storm price increased from $6000 to $7000
• Carpet of Spikes price decreased from $42,000 to $41,000 (total price remains unchanged)
• x-x-4 Deadly Spikes damage increased from 2 to 3
• Perma-Spike remains unchanged

Bug Fixes and General Changes

9.1

• Spike Factory smart targeting crash fixed.

12.0

• x-5-x Carpet of Spikes passive storm no longer counts as an 'ability cast' for co-op summary.

19.0

• x-4-0 Spike Storm no longer gains a pointless targeting option.

21.0

• • x-x-1 Long Range description changed from "Increases range over which spikes can be deposited." to "Increases range for spike pile drops, plus piles last longer." to reflect buffs.
  • x-x-4 Deadly Spikes description changed from "Extra deadly spikes can pop through 2 layers per spike." to "Extra deadly spikes can pop through 2 layers per spike and last another round." to reflect buffs.
  • x-x-5 Perma-Spike description changed from "Spikes become almost permanent." to "High damage spikes become almost permanent."
    • All of the description changes were not directly documented in the Patch Notes.

24.0

• 0-4-2 Spike Storm now correctly works on splitting tracks.

Sounds

Most Spike Factories lack a sound, except for explosions from Spiked Mines and above, and abilities from Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes.

When a Spike Factory is placed on screen:

• [construction placement]
• [construction placement]

When activating Spike Storm Ability or producing automatic spike storms:

• [Spikes producing]

Gallery

Entire Spike Factory Upgrade Tree for Bloons TD 6

Spike Factory on Normal targeting

Spike Factory producing spikes, with 4 major concentrated regions

All possible Spike Factory upgrades and crosspaths excluding Tier 5s.

Testing with Cryo Cannon, proof that Spike Factory spikes leap over bloons rather than cut right through them

1-0-2, 1-0-1, and 0-0-1 crosspaths placed together

Spike Factory ready to be unlocked

Projectiles

1 Spike

2 Spikes

3 Spikes

4 Spikes

5 Spikes

6 Spikes

7 Spikes

8 Spikes

9 Spikes

10 Spikes

11 Spikes

12 Spikes

13 Spikes

14 Spikes

15 Spikes

16 Spikes

17 Spikes

18 Spikes

19 Spikes

20 Spikes

Official artwork

Tower portrait

Instamonkey icon

Videos

TBA

Trivia

• The Spike Factory can have problems with extremely fast bloons such as freeplay DDT's in BTD6 (about Round 200+). If Bloons go fast enough, it is possible for them to skip the frame where they come into contact with the spikes and avoid all of its damage entirely.
• Strangely, the cogs of the 4-0-2 and 0-4-2 Spike Factories are the ones that rotate the fastest, despite Smart Spikes being bought just as a crosspath. Every other combination of upgrades involving Smart Spikes has its cogs rotating noticeably slower.
• The community nickname "Spactory" is a portmanteau of "spike" and "factory".