Tack Shooter (BTD6)

Overview

Pre-BTD4

BTD4

BTD5

BTD6

BTDB2

BCS

Tack Shooter
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6 (v1.0)
Release Date	June 13th 2018
Class	Primary Monkey
Unlocked at	Level 2-6
Cost	$220 (Easy) $260 (Medium) $280 (Hard) $310 (Impoppable)
Activated Ability(s)	Blade Maelstrom Super Maelstrom
Targeting Options	None First, Last, Close, Strong with Inferno Ring
Hotkey	R
Other Names	Tack
Statistics
Damage	1 (per tack, spray of 8)
Pierce	1 (per tack, spray of 8)
Attack Speed	1.12s
Range	23
Status Effects	Requires upgrades
Tower Boosts	Requires upgrades
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Camo Detection	No
Footprint	Small (6)
Default Damage Type	Sharp
Related Towers
Tack Shooter (pre-BTD4), for the pre-BTD4 counterpart Tack Shooter (BTD4), for the BTD4 counterpart Tack Shooter (BTD5), for the BTD5 counterpart Tack Shooter (BTDB2), for the BTDB2 counterpart

“	Shoots a short range volley of sharp tacks in 8 directions.	”
	~ In-game description

The Tack Shooter is a Primary-class tower in Bloons TD 6 that shoots tacks out of its barrels in 8 directions per volley. The tower, despite having short range, is excellent in clearing out crowds of bloons when placed near corners or intersections. It also deals a relatively high amount of DPS to MOAB-Class Bloons at higher tiers.

The tower retains its name and role from previous game generations, along with significant additions. Like most Primary Monkeys, the Tack Shooter was featured in a teaser prior to the game's release.

At base, a Tack Shooter has a short range of 23, second-lowest to the Ice Monkey. However, its tacks can extend beyond this range a bit before despawning. Every 1.12s upon detecting a bloon within its range, the Tack Shooter shoots a volley of 8 tacks, one in each cardinal and ordinal direction. Each tack can pop a single bloon; multiple tacks can hit the same bloon at very close range.

It costs $220 on Easy, $260 on Medium, $280 on Hard, and $310 on Impoppable.

Description

Tack Shooter

The Tack Shooter returns once more in the sixth iteration of Bloons TD, continuing its service as a cheap, area denial-focused tower. Compared to BTD5, the placement of some upgrades have been re-arranged to take advantage of the new three-path upgrade system. Base Tack Shooter still retains the distinctive pink-painted equally distributed 8-barreled cylindrical turret that it always had since the launch of the Bloons TD series, plus two black-colored tacks for its emblem on the roof of the turret.

The first path is, like many other towers, a powerful offensive focus, gaining Hot Shots that let it pop Lead Bloons, the Ring of Fire to pop many bloons at a time, and the powerful Inferno Ring's meteors. The second path is untouched, still focusing on area support with conversion into a Blade Shooter. Later upgrades unlock the Blade Maelstrom, an ability which can easily thin out hordes of Bloons across the map. The third path is solely focused on increasing the number of tacks the Tack Shooter can output, with every tier multiplying tacks per shot and/or increasing its fire rate.

This tower is not to be underestimated for its low prices: it is highly capable of cheap crowd control that can extend mid to late-game, and third path upgrades increase the number of tacks that can hit one bloon at a time, with MOAB-Class Bloons and their bulky frames being highly susceptible to multi-hits in particular. A Blade Maelstrom given camo detection can easily destroy any wave of tightly packed ceramics with its ability, outside of Freeplay Mode rules. Overdrive and The Tack Zone can decimate MOAB-class bloons with ease due to their high attack speed and large number of projectiles. These last two upgrades are especially strong when paired with an upper top path Village and Alchemist buffs.

The Tack Shooter is categorized as a Primary class tower and as such can receive the added benefits of Primary Training and its subsequent upgrades.

Target Priorities

With the exception of the Inferno Ring, Tack Shooters have no alternative targeting options, due to its zone-type main attack style. However, as of Version 33.0, Inferno Ring gained targeting priorities for its meteor like any other tower with target priority.

• First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
• Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
• Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
• Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.

Upgrades

Path 1

	Faster Shooting COST: $125 / $150 / $160 / $180 UNLOCK: 150 XP
	Description: Shoots tacks faster. Effect: Attacks +33% faster (0.75x attack cooldown). Abilities from Blade Maelstrom and Super Maelstrom gain +17.9% attack speed (0.85x attack cooldown).

	Even Faster Shooting COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360 UNLOCK: 550 XP
	Description: Shoots tacks even faster. Effect: Attacks an additional +33% faster (0.75x attack cooldown). Abilities from Blade Maelstrom and Super Maelstrom gain further +17.9% attack speed (0.85x attack cooldown).

	Hot Shots COST: $510 / $600 / $650 / $720 UNLOCK: 2,400 XP
	Description: Shoots superhot tacks that do extra damage and can pop Lead Bloons. Effect: Pops Frozen and Lead, tacks deal +1 damage.

	Ring of Fire COST: $2,975 / $3,500 / $3,780 / $4,200 UNLOCK: 9,500 XP
	Description: Damages many more Bloons with a deadly ring of flame instead of tacks. Effect: Instead of tacks, creates bursts of flame that deal 5 damage per shot against up to 30 bloons. Attacks +100% faster (0.315s attack cooldown) but can no longer pop Purples. More pierce via Super Range Tacks, and more damage via Path 3 crosspaths.

Inferno Ring COST: $38,675 / $45,500 / $49,140 / $54,600 UNLOCK: 32,500 XP

Description: Deadly inferno of flame roasts Bloons into oblivion. Effect: Powerful bursts of flame deal 8 damage, plus an extra +4 damage to MOAB-class, and attacks much faster. Range is increased from 23 to 35, pierce from 30 to 45. Also creates explosive burning meteors that deal 700 damage each onto a specific target, creating an explosion that sets bloons on fire, dealing 50 damage per second.

Path 2

	Long Range Tacks COST: $85 / $100 / $110 / $120 UNLOCK: 140 XP
	Description: Tacks fly out further than normal. Effect: Adds +4 range and increases projectile speed.

	Super Range Tacks COST: $190 / $225 / $245 / $270 UNLOCK: 500 XP
	Description: Even longer range tacks that can pop more Bloons. Effect: Adds +3 pierce and another +4 range. Ring of Fire and Inferno Ring add +15 pierce to their main attack, and Inferno Ring's meteor gets an additional +1 pierce. The Tack Zone receives +8 pierce and +16 range instead of the default stat increases.

	Blade Shooter COST: $465 / $550 / $595 / $660 UNLOCK: 2,300 XP
	Description: Switches tacks out for sharp blades that can pop up to 5 additional Bloons. Effect: Adds +15 range. Instead of tacks, dispenses large shattering blades that pop up to 8 bloons instead of 4, including Frozen Bloons.

	Blade Maelstrom COST: $2,295 / $2,700 / $2,915 / $3,240 UNLOCK: 9,000 XP
	Description: Blade Maelstrom ability: Covers the area in a storm of blades. Effect: Ability distributes two spinning waves of higher-damage blades in a clockwise direction for 3 seconds. Main attack deals 2 damage instead of 1.

	Super Maelstrom COST: $12,750 / $15,000 / $16,200 / $18,000 UNLOCK: 28,000 XP
	Description: Even more powerful Maelstrom ability and lasts longer. Effect: Ability distributes four spinning waves of high damage, higher-pierce blades in a clockwise direction for 9 seconds. Main attack pops Lead and does 5 damage.

Path 3

	More Tacks COST: $95 / $110 / $120 / $130 UNLOCK: 150 XP
	Description: Shoots 10 tacks instead of 8, plus increases Ring of Fire damage. Effect: Shoots 10 tacks per shot instead of 8. Ring of Fire gains +1 damage instead of more tacks. Blade Maelstrom ability fires blades counter-clockwise instead of clockwise and lasts 0.5 seconds longer. Super Maelstrom ability lasts 1.5 seconds longer.

	Even More Tacks COST: $95 / $110 / $120 / $130 UNLOCK: 490 XP
	Description: Shoots out 12 tacks per shot and increases Ring of Fire damage further. Effect: Shoots 12 tacks per shot instead of 10. Ring of Fire gains an extra +1 damage (total +2). Blade Maelstrom ability duration increased by a further 0.5 seconds. Super Maelstrom ability duration increased by a further 1.5 seconds.

	Tack Sprayer COST: $380 / $450 / $485 / $540 UNLOCK: 2,450 XP
	Description: Sprays out 16 higher pierce tacks per volley. Effect: Shoots 16 tacks per shot and gains +1 pierce.

	Overdrive COST: $2720 / $3,200 / $3,455 / $3,840 UNLOCK: 8,750 XP
	Description: Shoots incredibly fast. Effect: 3x attack speed.

	The Tack Zone COST: $17,000 / $20,000 / $21,600 / $24,000 UNLOCK: 26,500 XP
	Description: Many, many tacks. Effect: Shoots 32 tacks per shot, and attacks +66% faster than before (x0.6 attack cooldown). Adds +7 range and does extra damage per shot to MOAB-Class Bloons.

Paragon

Crucible of Steel and Flame COST: $170,000 / $200,000 / $216,000/ $240,000 UNLOCK: 500,000 XP

Description: Shooting blades of Bloon immolation! Effect: Constantly fires a short-ranged 4-spray maelstrom of white hot blades that emit 6 heated tacks when expired. Maelstrom Ability: Maelstrom projectiles last twice as long and pierce massively increased, and produces an aura of blue flames while active. Meteor Impact Ability: Blasts a gigantic meteor to a target, exploding over an enormous area and breaking into a ring of 32 homing fireballs.

Total Costs

Easy:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	125	255	510	2,975	38,675
	Cumulative Cost	345	600	1,110	4,085	42,760
	Base Sell	87.5	178.5	357	2,082.5	27,072.5
	Cumulative Sell	241.5	420	777	2,859.5	29,932
Path 2
	Base Cost	85	190	465	2,295	12,750
	Cumulative Cost	325	515	980	3,275	16,025
	Base Sell	59.5	133	325.5	1,606.5	8,925
	Cumulative Sell	227.5	360.5	686	2,292.5	11,217.5
Path 3
	Base Cost	85	85	380	2,720	17,000
	Cumulative Cost	325	410	790	3,510	20,150
	Base Sell	59.5	59.5	266	1,904	11,900
	Cumulative Sell	227.5	287	553	2,457	14,105

Medium:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	150	300	600	3,500	45,500
	Cumulative Cost	430	730	1,330	4,830	50,330
	Base Sell	105	210	420	2,450	31,850
	Cumulative Sell	301	511	931	3,381	35,231
Path 2
	Base Cost	100	225	550	2,700	15,000
	Cumulative Cost	380	605	1,155	3,855	18,855
	Base Sell	70	157.5	385	1,890	10,500
	Cumulative Sell	266	423.5	808.5	2,698.5	13,198.5
Path 3
	Base Cost	100	100	450	3,200	20,000
	Cumulative Cost	380	480	930	4,130	24,130
	Base Sell	70	70	315	2,240	14,000
	Cumulative Sell	266	336	651	2,891	16,891

Hard:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	160	325	650	3,780	49,140
	Cumulative Cost	460	785	1,435	5,215	54,355
	Base Sell	112	227.5	455	2,646	34,398
	Cumulative Sell	322	549.5	1,004.5	3650.5	38,048.5
Path 2
	Base Cost	110	245	595	2,915	16,200
	Cumulative Cost	410	655	1,250	4,165	20,365
	Base Sell	77	171.5	416.5	2040.5	11,340
	Cumulative Sell	287	458.5	875	2915.5	14,255.5
Path 3
	Base Cost	110	110	485	3,455	21,600
	Cumulative Cost	410	520	1,005	4,460	26,060
	Base Sell	77	77	339.5	2,418.5	15,120
	Cumulative Sell	287	364	703.5	3,122	18,242

Impoppable:

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	180	360	720	4,200	54,600
	Cumulative Cost	515	875	1,595	5,795	60,395
	Base Sell	126	252	504	2,940	38,220
	Cumulative Sell	360.5	612.5	1,116.5	4,056.5	42,276.5
Path 2
	Base Cost	120	270	660	3,240	18,000
	Cumulative Cost	455	725	1,385	4,625	22,625
	Base Sell	84	189	462	2,268	12,600
	Cumulative Sell	318.5	507.5	969.5	3,237.5	15,837.5
Path 3
	Base Cost	120	120	540	3,840	24,000
	Cumulative Cost	455	575	1,115	4,955	28,955
	Base Sell	84	84	378	2,688	16,800
	Cumulative Sell	318.5	402.5	780.5	3,468.5	20,268.5

Strategy

See also: Tack Shooter (BTD6)/Strategies

Summary

Tack Shooter generally has very low range with high DPS within. Depending on its upgrades, the Tack Shooter benefits much with external damage buffs, as most of its upgrade paths have plenty of projectiles.

The base Tack is fairly slow but shoots many projectiles, potentially hitting a few bloons along the way and popping bloons multiple times, making it okay at handling spaced and weakly grouped early-game bloons.

Tips

• Lower-tier Tacks have a very high efficiency for single-target damage against MOAB-class bloons for their cost.

Additional Strategies

• Crosspathing/Tack Shooter

Monkey Knowledge

This section displays Monkey Knowledge that has effects on the Tack Shooter and its changes when compared to one by default:

• Fast Tack Attacks: Tack Shooter attack speed increased by 8%.
• Increased Lifespan: Projectiles shot from Tack Shooter have increased lifespan.
  • x seconds → x seconds.
• Poppy Blades: Blade Shooter upgrade gets +2 pierce.
  • Blade Shooter pops 10 bloons per blade instead of 8.
• Hard Tacks: Tack Shooter tacks can pop Frozen Bloons.
• Big Inferno: Inferno Ring upgrade gets +3 burst radius.
  • Base Inferno Ring range increases from 35 to 38.
• Come On Everybody!: Primary towers attack 5% faster if all are below tier 3, and cost 5% less if all are tier 3 or 4.
• Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
• Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
  • Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
• Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
• Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.
• Paragon of Power: Paragons attack faster if there are no Tier 5 of the same tower.

Version History

Differences Between BTD5 and BTD6

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

• Base cost decreased ($360 → $260)
• Faster Shooting costs less ($210 → $150)
• Tack Sprayer now is an upgrade separate from Path 1 that shoots 33% faster than normal.
• Tack Sprayer costs less ($500 → $450)
• Super Range Tacks now adds +2 pierce, plus more pierce to other attacks.
• Blade Shooter now attacks 17% faster.
• Blade Shooter pops more bloons per blade (2 → 8)
• Blade Shooter costs less ($680 → $550)
• Blade Shooter now damages Frozen Bloons
• Blade Maelstrom ability damage increased (1 → 2)
• Blade Maelstrom ability pierce reduced (infinity → 100)
• Several changes in path placement of the upgrades; some upgrades are moved to different paths. Tack Sprayer now succeeds More Tacks and Even More Tacks, while Hot Shots is the new Path 1 Tier 3 upgrade.
• Ring of Fire now deals more damage (1 → 5), attacks faster (0.8s (???) -> 0.315s) but have less pierce (60 → 30), cost more ($2500 → $3500) and no longer gives extra range.

Balance Changes

Initial release (compared to BTD5)

Note: Lists all balance changes implemented for the Tack Shooter 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.

• Base cost decreased ($360 → $280)
• Faster Shooting costs less ($210 → $150)
• Tack Sprayer now is an upgrade separate from Path 1 that shoots 33% faster than normal.
• Tack Sprayer costs less ($500 → $450)
• Blade Shooter now attacks slightly faster.
• Blade Shooter pops more bloons per blade (2 → 5)
• Blade Shooter costs less ($680 → $550)
• Several changes in path placement of the upgrades; some upgrades are moved to different paths. Tack Sprayer now succeeds More Tacks and Even More Tacks, while Hot Shots is the new Path 1 Tier 3 upgrade.
• Ring of Fire now deals more damage (1 → 2) along with greater attack speed.
• Ring of Fire costs more ($2500 → $4500).

4.0

• x5x Super Maelstrom ability duration increased (TBA seconds → 6 seconds)
• x5x Super Maelstrom damage increased by +1, including for its ability.

6.0

• 5xx Inferno Ring increased damage to MOAB-class (5 → 8).

7.0

• 4xx Ring of Fire damage increased from 2 → 3
• 5xx Inferno Ring damage increased from 2 → 4 (still does +6 damage to MOAB-class)

8.0

• Base Tack Shooter attack cooldown decreased (1.6s → 1.4s).
  • Overall attack speed boost stacks with additional attack speed upgrades (i.e. all Tack Shooter upgrades that increase attack speed: Faster Shooting, Even Faster Shooting, Ring of Fire, Inferno Ring, Blade Shooter, Tack Sprayer, Overdrive, The Tack Zone)
• 5xx Inferno Ring now adds a new special attack: Launches a homing meteor set on Strong (cooldown of 7s, damage of 700, projectile speed of 100, pierce of 1, infinite range)

11.0

• x4x Blade Maelstrom ability duration increased (2s → 3s)
• x5x Super Maelstrom ability duration increased (6s → 9s)

12.0

• 5xx Inferno Ring lava bomb cooldown reduced 7s -> 4s
• xx4 Overdrive (and by extension The Tack Zone) attack speed increased from x2 to x3.

13.0

• xx4 Overdrive cost increased ($2500 → $3200)
• xx5 The Tack Zone cost increased ($20,000 → $24,000)

17.0

• 5xx Inferno Ring Meteor attack now creates an explosion on impact with pierce 10, radius 18, 50 damage, this also applies a DoT of 50 damage per second for 4 seconds.

18.0

• x2x Super Range Tacks pierce increased by +1 (x3x and above remains at 6 pierce)

20.0

• 4+xx Ring of Fire and Inferno Ring now no longer gain bonus pierce from path 3 crosspath
• 4+xx now gain +10 pierce with each path 2 upgrade
• 4+xx now gain +1 damage from xx2 upgrade

21.0

• 4+xx now gain +1 damage also from xx1 upgrade

22.0

• Ring of Fire cost decreased ($4500 → $3500)

23.0

• The Tack Zone damage increased (1 → 2)
• The Tack Zone base range decreased (46 → 30)
• The Tack Zone pierce decreased (9 → 4). Does not affect 0-2-5.
• 015 The Tack Zone range decreased (50 → 34)
• 025 The Tack Zone range decreased (54 → 50)

24.0

• x4x Blade Maelstrom and x5x Super Maelstrom no longer have infinite pierce, now they have 100 and 500 pierce respectively.

25.0

“	Inferno Ring is priced high for a low single-target damage pierce based tower when pierce isn't as important at high rounds, so price has been reduced. We liked Maelstrom's pierce change, however want to ease off a little as higher density rounds feel a lot more position & timing dependent now than they need to be. Similar to Bomb, Tack Zone's innate popping of Lead with obviously sharp projectiles no longer feels fitting and so along with a large price reduction the damage type stays Sharp.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Inferno Ring price reduced from $50,000 → $45,500
• Maelstrom ability pierce increased 100 → 200
• Tack Zone price reduced from $24,000 → $20,000
• Tack Zone damage type changed Normal → Sharp

30.0

“	Ring of Fire doesn't keep up well enough for where it is placed, so the attack speed increase from this upgrade has been bumped up from 15% to 25%. Inferno Ring itself feels ok but for the difficult saveup not so much, so as a bit of a buff we have added crosspathing to the Meteor attack.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Ring of Fire attack cooldown reduced from 0.5355s -> 0.4725s. Inferno Ring still sets attack delay to a flat 0.1.
• 520 Inferno Ring (Super Range) increases meteor base pierce 1 -> 2
• 502 Inferno Ring (Even More Tacks) increases meteor damage 700 -> 1000

33.0

“	The Tack Zone's all-purpose high single target & grouped DPS plus cleanup utility scales too well with so many options, as this is primarily intended to be the single-target damage path. To reinforce this we have traded off damage for a bonus to MOABs in order to nerf its unbuffed cleanup potential, so watch out for cluster and Super Ceramics now. Ring of Fire should pick up in that area for cleanup use & general destruction but it has more pierce than it really needs in most scenarios with other important stats sitting lower to compensate for high pierce, so we have shifted this high pierce more into requiring the pierce crosspath in exchange for more base power and an overall buff. Inferno Ring's meteor will now also follow target priority since that was a fun idea that was worth adding.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Tack Zone damage reduced from 2 → 1, replaced bonus damage with +1 MOAB-class damage
• Ring of Fire attack cooldown multiplier decreased 0.75x → 0.50x, attack cooldown reduced 0.4725s → 0.315s. Does not affect Inferno Ring.
• Ring of Fire base pierce reduced from 60 → 40. Also affects Inferno Ring.
  • 4-1-0 Ring of Fire base pierce reduced from 70 → 50
  • 4-2-0 Ring of Fire base pierce reduced from 80 → 60
• Ring of Fire base damage increased from 3 → 5
• Inferno Ring base damage increased from 4 → 8
• Inferno Ring bonus MOAB-class damage decreased from +6 → +4
  • Overall damage against MOAB-Class increased from 10 → 12.
• Inferno Ring meteor now has basic targeting priorities for meteor instead of locked on Strong

34.0

• Inferno Ring's meteor now starts on First instead of Close

36.0

“	Tack Shooter lacks any significant crosspathing choice due to the overwhelmingly large rate increase from top path making it almost always too good an option, we are reducing this crosspath rate benefit but moving that amount back up to the T3.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Even Faster Shooting attack cooldown bonus -40% → -25%. Does not affect Hot Shots, which gains attack cooldown bonus -20% (remains at 0.63s cooldown).

37.0

“	Blade Shooter has always struggled to find much value without MK or as a step to Maelstrom, so to give it build value on its own we feel like this should be a part of the base value on the upgrade.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Blade Shooter pierce increased 6 → 8

38.0

“	Tack Zone has so much base pierce the increase from 025 is rendered irrelevant no matter how large the upgrade bonus, so to fix this we must make the base pierce value low enough to actually struggle sometimes & we will give back extra attack rate to the base upgrade to compensate for this. Ring of Fire also generally has too high a pierce amount for how effective it is at utilizing its full pierce value. Maelstrom crosspathing? Why not, feels that this could be cool to try out, and more consistency on bottom crosspath may be able to make it the preferred ability crosspath while top path which already improves the base tower more will give back the massive pierce amount for times where the greater punch per use is required.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• xx5 Tack Zone rate increase from previous tier 25% → 35%
• xx5 Tack Zone pierce reduced from 4 → 2
• 400 Ring of Fire pierce reduced from 40 → 30
• 410 Ring of Fire pierce reduced from 50 → 30
• 420 Ring of Fire pierce reduced from 60 → 45
• 040 Blade Maelstrom pierce reduced from 200 → 120
• 140 Blade Maelstrom pierce reduced from 200 → 160
• 240 Blade Maelstrom pierce remains at 200
• 041 Blade Maelstrom changes rotation direction to counter-clockwise
• 041 Blade Maelstrom duration increased from 3s → 3.5s
• 042 Blade Maelstrom duration increased from 3s → 4s
• Super Maelstrom pierce reduced from 500 → 300
• 150 Blade Maelstrom pierce reduced from 500 → 400
• 250 Blade Maelstrom pierce remains at 500
• 051 Blade Maelstrom duration increased from 9s → 10.5s
• 052 Blade Maelstrom duration increased from 9s → 12s

41.0

“	Inferno Ring didn't need the pierce reduction that was last applied to Ring of Fire so we're adding this back. The recent ability crosspathing for Tack Shooter was fun but feels too lopsided as pierce concerns are very niche on Maelstrom, instead we want to shift this entire focus around for top path to be the rate crosspath for more damage in a shorter amount of time and leaving bottom mainly about greater overall uptime.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 5-0-x Inferno Ring pierce increased from 30 to 45
• 5-2-0 Inferno Ring pierce increased from 45 to 60
• Blade Shooter damage type changed from Sharp to Shatter
  • Note: This change blocks Flint Tips, and since Blade Shooter naturally gets frozen-popping when MK is enabled, it has no difference on MK-enabled Race Events. However, it now has natural synergy with freezing sources, especially Ice Shards.
• Super Maelstrom ability damage type changed from Normal to Shatter
• Blade Maelstrom ability pierce increased on all crosspaths to match 2-4-0 crosspath
  • 0-4-x Blade Maelstrom ability pierce increased from 120 to 200
  • 1-4-0 Blade Maelstrom ability pierce increased from 160 to 200
• Super Maelstrom ability pierce increased on all crosspaths
  • 0-5-x Super Maelstrom ability pierce increased from 300 to 500
  • 1-5-0 Super Maelstrom ability pierce increased from 400 to 500
• Blade Maelstrom attack cooldown reduced for all crosspaths but Path 1 crosspaths now offer extra attack speed. Also affects Super Maelstrom.
  • 0-4-x Blade Maelstrom ability attack cooldown increased from 0.03s to 0.045s. Also affects Super Maelstrom.
  • 1-4-0 Blade Maelstrom attack cooldown increased from 0.03s to 0.0383s, reducing attack cooldown by 15%. Also affects 1-5-0 Super Maelstrom.
  • 2-4-0 Blade Maelstrom attack cooldown increased from 0.03s to 0.0325s, reducing attack cooldown by 15%. Also affects 2-5-0 Super Maelstrom.

43.0

“	Tack is a very powerful base tower technically, but it is unable to achieve high uptime of that potential power in many early rounds, so some base cost is moving into the cheaper xx1 and xx2 upgrades to make it easier for other towers to start alongside the tack. Additionally, while we’ve held out on this change as there are strong use cases in prior upgrades, Blade Maelstrom lacks the single target punch to last late in Modern Bloons. While it is designed as a high pierce cleanup of low tier Bloons we want to try shifting some pierce to single target damage to feel good for longer.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Tack Shooter price reduced from $280 to $260
• More Tacks price increased from $100 to $110
• Even More Tacks price increased from $100 to $110
• Blade Maelstrom damage from ability increased from 1 to 2. Does not affect Blade Maelstrom main attack blades (1).
• Super Maelstrom damage from ability increased from 2 to 3. Does not affect Super Maelstrom main attack blades (2).
• Blade Maelstrom ability pierce reduced from 200 to 100
• Super Maelstrom ability pierce reduced from 500 to 300

44.0

“	For a tower that functions best close-up anyway increasing range has questionable viability, Tack Shooter’s middle crosspath has always struggled due to this so we’ve decided to try out a more considerable pierce increase.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Super Range Tacks pierce bonus increased from +1 to +3. Does not affect Blade Shooter (8), 4-2-0 Ring of Fire (45), Inferno Ring’s flame ring (60) or meteor (2), but also affects 0-2-5 Tack Zone (8 → 10).
• Inferno Ring's meteor no longer detects camo without support

46.0

“	Every Tack Shooter Tier 3 needed a different attack rate boost, so to tidy this up we’ve moved much of that rate to the base tack shooter. Given the bottom path Tack is slightly nerfed from this rate change, it is seeing additional pierce to make an overall buff. Finally Blade Shooter has always visually increased the projectile size considerably but not actually changed this value at all, Blades will now actually be bigger.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Tack Shooter attack cooldown reduced from 1.4s to 1.12s
• Faster Shooting attack cooldown reduced from 1.05s to 0.84s
• Even Faster Shooting attack cooldown reduced from 0.7875s to 0.63s. Does not affect Hot Shots (0.63s).
• Blade Shooter attack cooldown reduced from 1.19s to 1.12s
  • 1-3-0: 0.8925s → 0.84s
  • 2-3-0: 0.669375s → 0.63s
• Tack Sprayer attack cooldown increased from 1.05s to 1.12s
  • 1-0-3: 0.7875s → 0.84s
  • 2-0-3: 0.590625s → 0.63s
• Overdrive attack cooldown increased from 0.35s to 0.3733s
  • 1-0-4: 0.2625s → 0.279975s
  • 2-0-4: 0.196875s → 0.20998125s
• The Tack Zone attack cooldown reduced from 0.2275s to 0.224s. Total attack cooldown multiplier decreased from 0.65x to 0.60x (attack speed: +54% → +66%).
  • 1-0-5: 0.170625s → 0.168s
  • 2-0-5: 0.12796875s → 0.126s
• Tack Sprayer pierce increased from 1 to 2. Does not affect Overdrive (2).
  • 0-2-3: 4 → 5
• Blade Shooter projectile radius increased from 0 to 4. Also affects subsequent upgrades.
• Blade Maelstrom ability projectile radius increased from 2 to 4. Also affects Super Maelstrom.

48.0

“	Range fits well for this path, so we’re working this more into the main attack of middle path	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• x3x Blade Shooter range 31 > 46
• x3x Blade Shooter projectile range 49.24 > 64

49.0

“	Middle Tack has always been ability heavy, so the base tower damage is improving with higher tiers to get more than just the ability. Tack Paragon’s abilities on the other hand are both seeing an improvement to help support their roles and highlight that strong ability use case	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• x4x Blade Maelstrom tack damage increased 1 > 2
• x5x Super Maelstrom tack damage increased 2 > 5
• Paragon Meteor Impact ability cooldown 90s > 60s
• Paragon Eruption ability pierce increased 60 > 80

50.0

“	To match the base tacks fired by Tack Shooters the Tack Paragon’s tack nova count is increasing, which along with lower projectile lifespan should tighten up the effective single target damage close to the tower. Eruption ability’s lifespan bonus is also being increased to keep the tower’s long-range buff very similar to how it was before even with the lower starting lifespan.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Paragon blade tack nova projectile count increased from 6 to 8
• Paragon blade projectiles lifespan reduced from 42 to 35
• Paragon tack nova projectiles lifespan reduced from 24 to 18
• Paragon Eruption ability lifespan bonus increased 200% > 250%

51.0

“	As it is primarily a small Bloon cleanup tower path, Super Maelstrom has struggled to keep up in the lategame, mostly because Super Ceramics don’t care how fast you’re spinning if you can’t break them so we’ve added a Ceramic bonus to the attack and ability.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• x5x Super Maelstrom main can now do +5 bonus damage to Ceramics
• x5x Super Maelstrom ability can now do +8 bonus damage to Ceramics

Bug Fixes and General Changes

2.0

• 4+xx Ring of Fire will now be able to pop purple bloons while under an MIB
• xx5 The Tack Zone projectile lifespan now correctly increases with range buffs

9.0

• Blade Maelstrom projectiles are no longer deleted at the end of the round in Race events.

13.0

• 0-2-0 Tack Shooter portrait has been updated to match the 3D art

17.0

• 4-x-x Ring of Fire asset updated
• 5-x-x Inferno Ring asset updated

19.0

• Inferno Ring no longer has 'close' targeting

24.0

• Ring of Fire description changed from "Shoots a deadly ring of flame instead of tacks." to the current description "Damages many more Bloons with a deadly ring of flame instead of tacks."

36.0

• 5xx Inferno Ring targeting priority inconsistency resolved.

43.0

• 5xx Inferno Ring’s fire aura is now visually disabled when VFX slider is set to 0%

Sounds

When a Tack Shooter is placed on screen:

• [construction placement]
• [construction placement]

Gallery

Entire Tack Shooter Upgrade Tree for Bloons TD 6

All Tack Shooter upgrades

Tack Shooter shooting all 8 tacks, one of which hitting a Pink into a Yellow

Tack Shooter shooting

Tack Shooter ready to be unlocked

Official artwork

Tower portrait

Instamonkey icon

Tack Shooter Pin

Coming soon silhouette

Tack Shooter Pin and MOAB Pin

Tack Shooter Pin

Tack Shooter Pin animation

Tack and MOAB Pin tag

Trivia

• The first true nerf for the Tack Shooter in BTD6 was in Version 13.0, where Overdrive and The Tack Zone both received price nerfs.
• Though lacking official usage statistics to back it up, 2-0-4 and 2-0-5 appear to be the most common upgrade combinations for the Tack Shooter for their incredible MOAB-class DPS potential.
• Due to the Tack Monkey Avatar and the Tack Shooter's idle animation when Monkey Mastery is unlocked in Bloons TD Battles 2, it is confirmed that there is actually a Monkey operating the Tack Shooter from the inside.
  • Monkeys operating the Ring of Fire or Inferno Ring do not get burnt because they use heat resistant padding, according to one of Ninja Kiwi's blogs.
  • The Crucible of Steel and Flame Paragon now fully confirms that the Tack Shooter is operated by a Monkey.
• The approximate distance to the Moon is apparently 632,161,111.4 Tack Shooters. Assuming the distance between the Earth and the Moon in is equivalent to real life and that the average distance is used (approximately 385,000 km), this puts the height of the Tack Shooter at roughly 60.9 centimeters / 1'12". .