Spike Factory (BTDB2)

BTDB2

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“	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 Battles 2.

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 40 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.

The base price for Spike Factory is $600. It is unlocked by spending 1000, unlocking all upgrades up to Tier 4, plus another 1500 to unlock all its Tier 5 upgrades.

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 vent 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. Spikes by default last for 50 seconds. Unlike BTD6, spikes will not disappear at the end of the round, regardless of upgrades. Spikes can last for more time 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 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 Tier 5 upgrade upgrade 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 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.

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. Long Reach increases the range of the Spike Factory and increases lifespan of spikes. Smart 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 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 50 seconds. 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 150 seconds. Deadly Spikes increases the spike pile duration to 150 (???) seconds. For Perma-Spike, each spike pile will last for 300 seconds (???).

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 time passes and spikes expire automaticall once their lifespan is reached. More durable spikes can withstand longer periods of time before they begin to deplete. Giving spike piles with extra time lifespan is accessible via most Path 3 upgrades.

Upgrades[]

Path 1[]

	Bigger Stacks COST: $600 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Creates larger piles of spikes per shot. Effect: Spike piles gain +5 pierce. For Perma-Spike, gains +40 pierce.

	White Hot Spikes COST: $600 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Cuts through Lead Bloons and Frozen Bloons. Effect: Can pop Frozen and Lead Bloons.

	Spiked Balls COST: $2,700 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Produces spiked balls that do extra damage to Ceramic and Fortified bloons. Effect: Pierce of each spike pile increases from 10 to 14, and increases damage from 1 to 2, plus even more to Ceramic and Fortified (+1 to Fortified, +6 to Ceramic).

	Spiked Mines COST: $9,500 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Spiked mines explode violently when they lose all their spikes. Effect: Increases Ceramic damage bonus from +3 to +6. Mines produce large explosions that deal 10 damage with 60 pierce upon depletion of its spikes or by expiration, plus a burning effect that deals 1 damage per 2 seconds for up to 6 seconds. If expired by time, produces double explosions.

	Super Mines COST: $90,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (T5 Spactory Unlocks)
	Description: Creates gigantic exploding spiked mines that can wipe out almost anything. Effect: Reduces production speed to every 3.5s, but spews out powerful super mines that produce mini-explosions for every worn out spike and create massive explosions once fully depleted. Increases spike damage from 2 to 50, and deals +20 damage to Ceramics and +15 damage to Fortified. Create explosions every time a spike wears out (20 damage, +10 to Ceramics, +5 to Fortified, 30 pierce) and produces 1000 damage, 80 pierce explosions once the super mine fully depletes its spikes. If expired by time, produces double the massive explosions.

Path 2[]

	Faster Production COST: $500 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Rapidly increases production rate. Effect: Produces spikes +25% faster (0.80x attack cooldown).

	Even Faster Production COST: $500 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Increases production rate even more. Effect: Produces spikes +42% faster (0.70x attack cooldown).

	MOAB SHREDR COST: $2,500 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Super-Hard-Rending-Engine-Driven-Razors shred MOAB-Class Bloons. Effect: Spikes deal +4 damage to MOAB-class bloons. Cannot do bonus MOAB-class damage to Bonnie's BEAST.

	Spike Storm COST: $6,200 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Spike Storm ability: Shoots out a thick layer of spikes over the entire track. Effect: Ability produces a wave of 200 spike piles over the entire track. Storm spikes last for up to 10 seconds, 15 with Long Reach. Ability behavior modifies with the Smart Spikes upgrade. Ability can produce spike piles faster but cannot accept external pierce buffs.

	Carpet of Spikes COST: $40,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (T5 Spactory Unlocks)
	Description: Regularly sets a carpet of spikes over the whole track. Effect: Every 15 seconds, produces an automatic Spike Storm. Spikes also deal 3 more damage to all bloons, storm spikes deal much more damage, and storm spikes last for 20 seconds instead of 10, or 30 with Long Reach. Also reduces attack cooldown by 50%.

Path 3[]

	Long Reach COST: $150 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Increases range for spike pile drops, plus piles last longer. Effect: Increases range of the Spike Factory, and ordinary spike piles last for 75 seconds instead of 40 seconds. Spike Storm ability spikes last for 50% longer, for 15 seconds instead of 10, or 30 seconds for Carpet of Spikes ability spikes.

	Smart Spikes COST: $500 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Spike Factory gains special targeting priority and a small speed boost each round. Effect: Gains the Close, Far, and Smart target priorities. In addition, attacks 4x faster for the first 2.5s of a round. Spike Storm ability spikes land only on lanes that are being used by Bloons in that particular round if targeting is set to smart.

	Long Life Spikes COST: $1,200 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Spikes last much longer. Effect: Spikes last for 170 seconds, and the start-of-round speed boost lasts for 5 seconds instead of 2.5.

	Deadly Spikes COST: $3,200 UNLOCK: Requires Spike Factory
	Description: Extra deadly spikes can pop through 3 layers per spike and last even longer. Effect: Spike damage increased from 1 to 3, and lasts for 240s instead of 170s.

	Perma-Spike COST: $30,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (T5 Spactory Unlocks)
	Description: High damage spikes become almost permanent. Effect: Reduces production speed to every 3s. Spike piles have 10 damage per spike, 50 pierce per spike pile, and lasts for 300 seconds instead of 240.

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Spike Factory is a stockpiling expert. The longer that the Spike Factory is left around to pile up more spikes, the stronger it becomes. At maximum stockpiling, it becomes really strong for its price. Part of its design is mostly to secure exits, though it can be used to simply accumulate huge amount of damage when bloons run the spikes over.

Spike Factory dispenses spikes every few seconds. As mentioned before, Spike Factory's stockpile potential makes it optimal for securing exits and tanking spaced bloons. It cannot handle bloons alone, requiring other defenses to handle the bigger and stronger formations of bloons. A major benefit of the Spike Factory is that its spikes will always remain on the track for as long as the lifespans of the spikes aren't reached.

Generally, Spike Factory excels in the mid-to-late-game. Before then, its role is mainly to tank bloons that sneak past the main defenses. Going into mid-game, its stockpiling power shines at its Tier 3 upgrades, particularly with Spiked Balls offering strong short-term stockpiling of general bloon types. Later on, the Spike Factory fulfills roles that break down MOAB-class bloons, such as Spike Storm, and tank much tougher bloons, such as Perma-Spike. Its late-game is quite strong if sufficient funds are saved, as it has many highly synergetic upgrades for pure damage such as Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes, as well as Super Mines for pure raw stockpiles of damage.

Tips[]

Spike Factory isn't very effective of a starting tower, as the player can always send rushes right away on Round 1 to overwhelm it. Instead, use a Spike Factory after a decent starting tower such as the Tack Shooter or Dartling Gunner.
Some maps support Spactory such that only MOAB-class bloons eat up spikes when passing a track. This can be utilized for pure MOAB-class damage, but can also backfire if used for tanking ordinary bloons; however, this is a significant positive for Mortar Monkey strategies, which are generally strong against ordinary bloons anyway.
For early-game Spactories, 1-0-2 is a very cost-efficient upgrade, as the respectable pierce, relatively long lifespan, and capability to target spikes, and the start-of-round production boost are all great assets for its price range.
Spactory's mid-game strength is mostly held by its Spiked Balls upgrade, which is fairly inexpensive and tanks a large quantity of bloons with its high base damage and massive damage to Ceramics.Long Life Spikes also works well for mid-game if frequent spike consumption is less of a problem, as the significantly greater lifespan and higher synergy with buffs makes it an excellent bloon tanker.
A major strength of Spactory comes from its late-game defense versus DDTs and BADs, especially because of Spike Storm.
Before Round 11, a well-prepped Spiked Balls becomes very strong, so it can tank (almost) anything that tries to leak, unless a big rush is sent.
Going into Round 26, about 3-4 Spiked Balls can assist at tanking DDTs. 2-4-0 Spike Storm combined with bloon-popping helps break up DDTs layers, if needed.
Remember that all produced spikes still remain on the track after selling a Spike Factory. You can take advantage of this to keep tanking bloons even after selling a Spike Factory, which is particularly helpful while performing an all-out rush.

Further Strategies[]

Strategies
- General Strategy
- Optimization Strategy
- Countermeasures Strategy

Monkey Mastery[]

Monkey Mastery is unlocked once all of its upgrades are unlocked. Monkey Mastery gives customization which is purchased using XP and Monkey Money. Has a total of 9 customizations available.

Item	Type	Description	Cost	Notes
Delivery!	Placement Animation	Handle with care.	600 75,000	TBA
Super Mine	Emote	Start running!	160 20,000	TBA
Mecha Bloons	Bloon Decal	These bloons will grind some gears.	200 30,000	TBA
Fill 'er up	Idle Animation	Don't want to run out of spikes.	450 60,000	TBA
Furnace	Avatar Icon	Forged in Fire.	300 40,000	TBA
Tune up	Idle Animation	Just some routine maintenance.	450 60,000	TBA
Named Spike Factories	Custom Names	Name your Spike Factories!	300 40,000	Default name is SPIKEBOT 2000.
Mine Malfunction	Sell Animation	It's under warranty.	240 30,000	TBA
Steam Powered	Trail Effect	Old School Fuel.	450 60,000	TBA

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Compared to its Battles 1 counterpart, Spactory has been drastically improved and now has respectable viability. Its spike piles now are able to stockpile to over double what it was able to before, making it incredibly strong against Midgame rushes when set up a few rounds before. It is mainly used as a strong tower later on in the game to deal with ZOMGs, DDTs, and BADs, as well as being a strong failsafe against all other types of rushes. While it was heavily nerfed by no longer having it’s Spike Storm ability being impacted by perice buffs, it remains as a relatively strong tower. Popular loadouts include Boat-Alc-Spac, Ace-Farm-Spac, and occasionally Druid-Spac-Farm/Sub. Hero choice is typically more focused on the overall needs of the loadout and not Spike Factory itself, though Ezili, Benjamin, and Gwen all work particularly well due to the former synerging well with Moab Hex and Spike Storm, and the latter’s damage and pierce buffs respectively work well thanks to how dense Spactory’s piles can get.

Initial release (compared to BTD6 Version 28.0)

Spike Storm, Carpet of Spikes have no initial cooldown.
Spikes no longer have a round limit, only by time.
Spike Factory costs less ($1000 → $800)
Bigger Stacks cost less ($800 → $700)
Even Faster Production costs less ($800 → $700)
Super Mines cost less ($150k → $130k)
Deadly Spikes now increases lifespan of spikes rather than increasing round duration.

1.0.6

Base Spike Factory spike lifespan decreased (50s → 40s)
Spike Storm ability no longer affected by external pierce buffs
Carpet of Spikes damage increased (3 → 6, bonus MOAB damage +4 → +8)

1.1.0

XP requirements for all Tier 5 Spactories halved

1.2.0

5xx $130k->$110k

1.3.0

5xx Super Mines: Base Spike damage increased from 10 -> 50
5xx Super Mines: Base Spike ceramic bonus increased from 6 -> 20
5xx Super Mines: Base Spike fortified bonus increased from 1 -> 15
5xx Super Mines: Small explosion damage increased from 10 -> 20
5xx Super Mines: Small explosions deal an additional 10 damage to ceramic bloons.
5xx Super Mines: Small explosions deal an additional 5 damage to fortified bloons.
5xx Super Mines: Large Explosion fortified bonus damage increased from 1 -> 250

1.8.0

xx5 Perma-Spike: Attack speed increased 4.85 -> 4.5

1.8.2

3xx Spiked Balls: $2.3k -> $2.5k
xx3 Long Life Spikes: $1.4k -> $1k
xx3 Long Life Spikes: Spike duration 140s -> 170s
xx4 Deadly Spikes: Spike duration 210s -> 240s

1.10.0

xx5 Permaspike: damage 10 -> 15

1.10.3

xx5 Perma-Spike: Damage 15 -> 10
xx5 Perma-Spike: Attack Cooldown reduced 4.5 -> 3

“	Acknowledging complaints about the previous pierce buff making Perma-Spike perform worse against ceramics (before round 30), we have reverted this change and given it a rate buff instead.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

2.1

xx3 Long Life Spikes: $1000 -> $600

“	This upgrade simply increases the spike duration without adding any other benefits, so it didn't deserve to be so expensive	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

2.1.2

xx4 Deadly Spikes: damage 2 -> 3

“	This upgrade simply does not provide enough value for its high price tag, especially when Spiked Balls provides a cheaper alternative. We have decided to give this upgrade a major damage buff, which should definitely shake things up.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

3.1

Base: $800 -> $600
3xx Spiked Balls: $2500 -> $2700
xx1 Long Reach: spike duration 100s -> 75 (xx3 unchanged at 170s)
xx4 Deadly Spikes: $3500 -> $3300

“	The duration increase from Long Reach in addition to the start of round speed boost from Smart Spikes has resulted in xx2 being the dominant crosspath choice for Spiked Balls. We have lowered the duration so that there should be more choice between the crosspaths. xx3's duration remains unchanged and xx4 has been buffed so that these upgrades can offer an alternative option.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

3.2

xx3 Long Life Spikes: gains a 4x speed bonus at the start of each round for 2.5 -> 6 seconds (carries over to xx4/5)

“	Spike Factory's bottom path has potential but often is not the best option because it must be bought in advance to build up a decent pile. Since the bottom path is all about longer durations, we've increased the duration of the speed boost at the start of each round, allowing slightly beefier spike piles to be built up in the short term.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

3.2.4

1xx Bigger Stacks: $700 -> $600
x1x Faster Production: $600 -> $500
x2x Even Faster Production: $700 -> $600
xx2 Smart Spikes: $400 -> $500
x4x Spike Storm: $5000 -> $5200

“	Spike Factory still feels a little bit lacking in the early game, so we've made a few price cuts to help with that.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

3.3

xx3 Long Life Spikes: Speed increase at the start of round lasts for 6 -> 5 seconds

“	We liked the previous change to xx3 and are glad to see this upgrade frequently being used now. However, it's a bit too strong and so we would like to slightly lower the duration of the speed boost.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

3.3.2

Even Faster Production: $600 -> $500
Long Life Spikes: $600 -> $750
Deadly Spikes: $3300 -> $3200

“	We're shuffling some prices around primarily to nerf Long Life Spikes, which still remains to be a top tier upgrade.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.0

Spiked Mines: explosion pierce 40 → 60 and explosion blast radius 19 → 28

“	We'd love to see Spiked Mines get some more use, and hopefully this sizeable pierce and radius buff with^sic help with that.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.2

Carpet of Spikes: attack rate increased (0.98s → 0.49s)

“	Carpet of Spikes’ base attack has been buffed so that there is more reason to keep it up, rather than selling it instantly after activating the ability.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.2.1 OTA Update 2

MOAB SHREDR: Bonus MOAB damage no longer applies to Bonnie's B.E.A.S.T.

“	As we describe in Bonnie’s balance changes, the BEAST is proving to be much easier to pop than we anticipated. The Spike Factory is the worst offender for this and the Spike Storm ability is guaranteed to instantly vaporise the BEAST. We prefer not to add special exceptions to the rules but in this case we feel that it’s warranted as trying to nerf the Spike Factory so that it does a fair amount of damage to the BEAST would make it unfairly weaker against everything else.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.3

Super Mines: cost decreased from $110,000 to $90,000
Super Mines: explosion pierce increased from 60 to 80

“	Super Mines is by far the least used of Spike Factory’s tier 5 upgrades, overshadowed by Carpet of Spikes and Permaspike. We are making it more affordable while also buffing its pierce to make it more capable of dealing with its main weakness of tight ZOMGs.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

4.4

Long Life Spikes: $750 → $1200

“	Spike Factory is getting a lot of use right now in several different popular strategies. Similar to how we buffed the Spiked Mines upgrade in 4.3, we are nerfing the bottom path to encourage different uses of the tower.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

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1.0.2

TBA

Quotes[]

TBA

Gallery[]

Official Artwork[]

Trivia[]

On the team screen, which can be shown on the main menu of the game, if the player has Spike Factory in their last game, Spike Factory regularly raises itself in and out, as if it is sentient. The animation is shared on this post on r/battles2.