“ | Spike Storm Ability: Shoots out a thick layer of spikes over the entire track. | ” |
~ BTDB2 description |
Spike Storm is the 4th upgrade on Path 2 of the Spike Factory in Bloons TD Battles 2. It is similar to its BTD6 counterpart, except with key differences. The ability lacks an initial cooldown, and its ability is affected by attack speed buffs, much like BTD6 pre-27.0 Spike Storm. However, as a measure to eliminate empowerment with pierce buff synergies (notably Call To Arms and Homeland Defense) while still synergizing with attack speed buffs such as Monkey Boost, Spike Storm ability cannot be affected by pierce buffs, instead of attack speed buffs. As a result, the 0-4-2 crosspath’s ability also self-synergizes with the start-of-round speed bonus from Smart Spikes.
Spikes deal +4 damage to MOAB-class. The main spike piles are produced every 0.98s. Storm spikes produce spikes at a rate of 200 times per second by default.
Spike Storm ability has a few special interactions with crosspathing. Bigger Stacks increases the pierce of each spike by +5, and White Hot Spikes allows it to damage Frozen and Lead. Long Reach increases the lifespan of the ability spikes by 50% (from 10 to 15 seconds). Smart Spikes makes the Spike Storm ability only target active lanes and self-synergize with its start-of-round speed bonus.
It costs $5,000, and is unlocked with the purchase of Spike Factory.
Strategy[]
Summary[]
Spike Storm is much more powerful in Battles 2 than BTD6, mainly due to the much shorter track length (and therefore denser spike piles) and the removal of an initial cooldown. While its ability cannot accept pierce buffs, its ability has notably high synergy with attack speed buffs. Spike Storm's widespread distribution makes it very effective at weakening DDTs and BADs throughout the screen.
Spike Storm's storms of spikes dish out huge damage to blimps across the map, making immediate blimp damage its expertise. Spike Storm ability is also works against bloons, but other options for cleaning up regular bloons (e.g. Maelstrom) are far more efficient in that way.
Tips[]
- 2-4-0 is generally better than 0-4-2 in most situations. Alternating lanes in BTDB2 are rarely used, making this specialty almost redundant. 0-4-2's ability does get affected by start-of-round benefit, but it's very time-sensitive and hence situational. However, a properly utilised 0-4-2 is much more effective against ZOMGs and BADs, ignoring the lead weakness.
- 0-4-2 is extremely effective versus R22-25 ZOMG rushes.
- In short: Use 2-4-0 for shredding DDTs, 0-4-2 for ZOMGs and BADs.
- In the extreme late-game, Permanent Brew paired with many 2-4-0 Spike Storms (or just 1-4-0) allows for an incredible synergy, shredding massive rushes of DDTs easily while also packing huge BAD damage. However, before then, a defense for handling large amounts of DDTs before then will be difficult without Carpet of Spikes for assistance.
- To maximize damage, activate the ability when blimps are above its sprout. This will act in a somewhat similar way to The Tack Zone's "death zone" and will greatly increase the amount of spikes that will hit a MOAB.
- One ability usage will use up 20 Acidic Mixture Dip stacks, so when being paired with Alch, you can prepare in advance to give spikes additional damage to MOABs and Ceramic Bloons, along with lead popping power.
Version History[]
- Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)
- Spike Storm now has no initial cooldown.
- Spike Storm ability can gain increased rate of production via attack speed buffs
- 1.0.4
- Spike Storm ability no longer affected by external pierce buffs
- Base spike lifespan decreased (50s → 40s)
- 1.5.0
- No longer requires 11,000 XP to unlock. Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund.
- 4.2.1 OTA Update 2
- Affected by MOAB SHREDR damage nerf 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 |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- BTD6 and BTDB2 handle Spike Storm ability's lowered synergy with Call To Arms and Homeland Defense in different ways. BTD6 removes attack speed synergies, while BTDB2 removes pierce synergies.
- In BTDB2, the applicable pierce buffs formerly possible for Spike Storm included: Alch buffs (especially Permanent Brew), Temple buffs, Call to Arms, Homeland Defense, and Gwendolin's Heat-It-Up.
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