Stronger Stimulant

“	Extra strong brew has even more powerful effect on the target. Lasts even longer.	”
	^{~ BTD6 Description}

Stronger Stimulant

Artwork
Icon
Insta

General Information

Game

Bloons Tower Defense 6

Tower

Alchemist

Unlocked at

10,000 XP

Path

Path 1

Upgrade #

4

Cost

BTD6:
$2125(Easy)
$2500 (Medium)
$2700 (Hard)
$3000 (Impoppable)

Special Ability

N/A

Statistics

Damage

1 (attack potion)
1 / 2.0s for 4.0s (corrosion DoT)

Pierce

20 (attack potion)

Attack Speed

Slow (attack potion, every 2.0s, e.a.u.)
Extremely Slow (AMD, every 10.0s, e.a.u.)
Extremely Slow (strong brew, every 8.0s, e.a.u.)

Range

45

Status Effects

Red Acid (1 / 2.0s corrosion for 4.0s DoT, can be overridden by Purple Acid)

Tower Boosts

Lead-Popping Grant (AMD, targets one tower per shot, lasts 10 shots)
+1 damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class (AMD, targets one tower per shot, lasts 10 shots)
+15% range, +3 pierce, +1 layers popped per hit, +17.6% attack speed (strong brew, targets the closest non-brewed tower per shot, lasts 12 seconds or 50 shots)

Camo?

No

Stronger Stimulant is a 4th upgrade on Path 1 of the Alchemist. It is an improved version of the Berserker Brew upgrade, providing bonus range, pierce, and attack speed, to boosted towers for a significantly longer duration. Each brew now grants +3 pierce instead of +2, +17.6% attack speed instead of +11.1%, +15% range instead of +10%, and maintaining +1 layer of damage per hit, and the brew lasts for 12 seconds or 50 attacks (or 13 seconds or 50 attacks with 4-2-0), whichever comes first. Expired brews require 5.0s (4.0s with 4-2-0) before re-brewing the same tower.

It costs $2,125 on Easy, $2,500 on Medium, $2,700 on Hard, and $3,000 on Impoppable.

DescriptionEdit

Stronger Stimulant is an improved version of Berserker Brew; its berserker potions will have a more powerful effect on monkeys, granting +3 pierce instead of +2, +17.6% attack speed instead of +11.1%, +15% range instead of +10%, and maintaining +1 layer of damage per hit.

It also makes the potion last longer (12 seconds or 40 attacks, whichever comes first compared to 5 seconds or 25 attacks). An Alchemist with this upgrade will be able to keep a maximum of two monkeys consistently boosted with Berserker Brew, whereas regular Berserker Brew wears off too quickly to consistently boost even one monkey.

Just as with Berserker Brew, the Perishing Potions upgrade also improves Stronger Stimulant brews, improving the 4-2-0 Stronger Stimulant's brew duration to 13 seconds, per-shot lifespan to 50 instead of 40, and expiry cooldown to 4.0s instead of 5.0s.

Stronger Stimulant will give the Alchemist a more crazy appearance, along with holding two large wooden barrels with a black chimney instead of just one wooden barrel without a chimney. Along with this is that its potions will give a glass-smashing effect upon boosting a monkey. The monkey also gains an X-shaped scar on his forehead and now wears goggles on an aviator's cap. He also seems to have bushy sideburns.

When purchasing the Path 2 upgrades, it will add white gloves if upgraded to Stronger Acid, or black gloves and black mouth mask if upgraded to Perishing Potions. When purchasing the Path 3 upgrades, the Acid Pool upgrade will change the monkey's goggle shape from two eye sockets to a single lengthened socket, while the Faster Throwing upgrade will change the color of the goggles from orange to blue.

TipsEdit

After Version 6.0, this upgrade is best utilized on slow fire rate and/or high-projectile towers such as Bomb Shooters with Recursive Cluster and Ninja Monkeys with Bloonjitsu.
- Prior to Version 6.0, this upgrade was best utilized on high fire rate and/or high-projectile towers such as Sun Avatars. However, this is no longer the most viable option, since the potions now can wear out after a certain amount of attacks from the target tower.
- Note that (as of 13.0), many strategies for CHIMPS mode on Advanced maps still use Stronger Stimulant together with a Sun Avatar.
Purchasing Faster Throwing will allow Stronger Stimulant to maintain up to three monkeys instead of just two.
There are many various good towers that synergize well with Stronger Stimulant, even after the Version 6.0 nerfs:
- Stronger Stimulant can be applied nearby a lone 0-2-5 Perma-Spike in range of a Jungle Drums Village to maximize Permaspike spike production along with virtually full DDT popping power via Acidic Mixture Dip. The Alchemist should only be in range of the Perma-Spike to guarantee full DDT popping power.
- Stronger Stimulant is very useful when paired with Icicle Impale, since it not only increases attack speed significantly (along with increased range, pierce, and damage), its Acidic Mixture Dip potions allow Icicle Impale to pop Leads and DDTs for almost all of the time, even when Icicle Impale is crosspathed with Enhanced Freeze and Deep Freeze.
- When timed well, activated abilities such as Blade Maelstrom ability and Spike Storm ability can become significantly more effective.
On Hard Difficulty, one 4-0-0 Alchemist will cost $5295 ($2700 + $1350 + $380 + $270 + $595). This will be useful information in CHIMPS Mode, as spending budgets are very limited in the game, and every dollar saved would make the difference between losing and winning.

StrategyEdit

Stronger Stimulant is a highly effective tower for empowering multiple nearby towers, greatly improving the attack speed, pierce, and damage of the affected towers. In particular, it is one of the best options when paired with towers that attack relatively slowly but possess a high number of projectiles, such as Bloonjitsu, Triple Guns, Recursive Cluster, Overdrive, and Destroyer with Grape Shot. It can even be viable for boosting towers with higher upgrades such as The Tack Zone or Grandmaster Ninja for a big boost of damage, although the uptime decreases for higher attack speed towers.

For further evaluations on what towers pair best with Alchemist brews, see Alchemist Brewing Strategy.

Update HistoryEdit

5.0

[bug fix] Stronger Stimulants no longer apply range buffs twice.

6.0

Brew lasts for the next 50 attacks or the current timed duration (12 seconds), whichever comes first. In addition, any Stronger Stimulants that expired cannot be reapplied to the target tower until the 12-second duration is over.

9.0

Stronger Stimulant cooldown between expired potions on target stimulated tower decreased (12s --> 5s), to be consistent with Berserker Brew cooldown between expired attacks.

12.0

Alchemist buffs no longer affect sub-towers (i.e. Comanche Commander mini-Comanches, Aircraft Carrier planes, etc.)

20.0

4xx Stronger Stimulant buff shots per brew reduced from 50 -> 40
420 Stronger Stimulant buff shots per brew increased from 40 -> 50
420 Stronger Stimulant duration increased from 12s -> 13
420 Stronger Stimulant re-application cooldown reduced from 5s -> 4

GalleryEdit

TriviaEdit

This upgrade changes the color of the splash that Berserker Brew makes from yellow to fuschia.
This upgrade also adds a glass-smash sound effect upon boosting a tower.
It's been proven that expired Stronger Stimulant potions cannot be reapplied to the target tower until the 12-second duration is over, regardless of how many Stronger Stimulant Alchemists there are around the target tower. Link on Reddit.
Although not addressed directly on the Version 9.0 update patch notes, the Stronger Stimulant gained a buff to the decreased expiry cooldown. This Subreddit link describes scientifically about this very change.