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BTD6

Many, many tacks.
~ In-game description

The Tack Zone is the fifth-tier Path 3 upgrade for the Tack Shooter in Bloons TD 6. As its name implies, The Tack Zone further increases the strength of its incredibly fast-shooting tack attacks, allowing it to inflict even stronger MOAB-class destruction. The Tack Zone doubles density of the Tack Shooter's projectile volleys from 16 to 32, and each individual tack does +1 damage to MOAB-class bloons, alongside increases to attack speed, range, and projectile speed, as well as a further pierce increase if given the 0-2-5 crosspath. Like most Tack Shooter upgrades, it still cannot detect Camo Bloons or damage Frozen Bloons or Lead Bloons without support. And similar to Overdrive, its preceding upgrade, The Tack Zone excels against MOAB-class bloons and becomes more effective against grouped bloons.

At base, The Tack Zone's base range increased from 23 to 30, and attack speed increased by +54% (equivalent to a 0.65x attack cooldown reduction), attacking every 0.2275s (0.1706s or 0.1278s with respective Path 1 crosspaths). With the 0-2-5 crosspath, the pierce of each tack increases to 8 instead of 2 and range to 50.

This upgrade costs $17,000 on Easy, $20,000 on Medium, $21,600 on Hard, and $24,000 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

Placeholder other

The Tack Zone

This upgrade is significantly wider and taller than its predecessor, adding 16 more barrels for a total of 32. The main body colors that were dark gray are now black. The top emblem's red two crossed tacks is replaced with a white skull and crossbones with red eyes. The crossbones symbol uses the end of tacks to form the cross shape. There is a red line accent along the edge of the top ring and dome where they meet.

The Tack Zone attacks +33% faster than an Overdrive, attack cooldown reducing to 0.2275s by default (0.1706s with 1-0-5, 0.1278s with 2-0-5). In addition, the 0-2-5 crosspath gains even more pierce, with all other crosspaths remaining at 2 pierce. Base range increases from 23 to 30, which is a +7 range increase. Additionally, it deals +1 MOAB-class damage, befitting with its single-target prowess.

There are special crosspathing interactions with 0-2-5, giving a substantial range and pierce increase. With this specific crosspath, range is increased to 50 and pierce to 8.

Targeting Priorities[]

The Tack Zone shoots a spray of projectiles in an radial spray. Technically, the Tack Shooter is locked on the Close targeting priority. However, for simplicity reasons, Tack Zone has no targeting priorities.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 39.2
Base stats
  • Tacks:
    • Projectile, sharp type, 32 per shot, 30 range, 0.2275s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 2 MOAB-class damage, 2 pierce.
Crosspathing interactions
  • 1-0-5:
    • Attacks faster, 0.1706s (-25%) instead of the initial 0.2275s.
  • 2-0-5:
    • Attacks even faster, 0.1278s (-25%) instead of 0.1706s from the previous 1-0-5.
  • 0-1-5:
    • Base range increased to 34 (+4).
  • 0-2-5:
    • Base range increased to 50 (+16).
    • Tacks gains an extra +6 pierce which sums up to 8 pierce.
Monkey Knowledge interactions

Attack Interactions[]

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Primary
Updated as of Version 37.3
Base attack(s)
  • Tacks:
    • Sharp Type (pops Black, White, Purple) Sharp
    • Orbital Spray (spray of 32) Orbital Spray (32)
    • Straight Attack Straight Attack
    • Extra damage versus MOAB-class Bloons (+1) Extra Damage to Blimps (+1)

Costs[]

Updated as of Version 41.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.
[Module | Data] Purchase Sell
Costs Easy Medium Hard Impoppable Easy Medium Hard Impoppable
Upgrade (X-X-5) $17,000 $20,000 $21,600 $24,000 -
Total (0-0-5) $20,510 $24,130 $26,060 $28,955 $14,357 $16,891 $18,242 $20,269
Crosspath (1-0-5) $20,635 $24,280 $26,220 $29,135 $14,445 $16,996 $18,354 $20,395
Crosspath (2-0-5) $20,890 $24,580 $26,545 $29,495 $14,623 $17,206 $18,582 $20,647
Crosspath (0-1-5) $20,595 $24,230 $26,170 $29,075 $14,417 $16,961 $18,319 $20,353
Crosspath (0-2-5) $20,785 $24,455 $26,415 $29,345 $14,550 $17,119 $18,491 $20,542

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: ComeOnEverybodyIcon Come On Everybody!, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

The Tack Zone is a highly versatile tower that should not be underestimated for its relatively low range. The sheer number of projectiles per shot alongside a relatively fast attack speed makes The Tack Zone very powerful when synergized with the right towers. Even though it is most optimally placed around tight bends, it is still very powerful when placed in any region of the map where MOAB-class bloons congregate the densest, as their huge hitboxes render them more susceptible to the frequent swarms of tacks shot out at once. With correct placement, all 32 high-damage tacks will hit the same blimp meeting the center of The Tack Zone, resulting in it being an effective choice against such bloons.

The Tack Zone benefits greatly from buffs that grant bonus damage, attack speed, pierce, and range, in that order. Its base range without range upgrades is decent, but some of its tacks may often miss a few bloons without boosted range. The Tack Zone especially pairs well with Stronger Stimulant, as its brews have just over 100% uptime, and any additional attack speed boosts will not render the brews redundant. Other useful buffs include: Jungle Drums (+15% attack speed), Primary Training (+10% range and +1 pierce), Primary Mentoring (+5 range on top of previous range buffs), and Overclock (+66% attack speed ability).

A notable combo that is often used on budget CHIMPS attempts (commonly referred to as 'Pat Zone') is to use this tower with Pat Fusty, as it benefits from his Rallying Roar, dealing massive damage to bloons and MOABs extremely quickly. Not only that, but the stuns and knockback allow bloons to be kept within the Tack Zone's range.

Tips[]

  • 2-0-5 Tack Zone is usually the better crosspath due to its higher single-target blimp damage, as the attack speed boost helps increase its DPS.
    • 0-2-5 Tack Zone's only benefits include larger range and pierce, but the lack of bonus attack speed means that its DPS tends to fall behind compared to 2-0-5. In addition, external buffs help to patch the 2-0-5's short range and lower pierce.
  • Both crosspaths of The Tack Zone strongly depend on external buffs to optimize its performance. More specifically for the 2-0-5 Tack Zone with Stronger Stimulant and Primary Mentoring, as these buffs address for The Tack Zone's low pierce and range.
  • A good synergy is with Pat Fusty's Rallying Roar ability. This combo alone can easily obliterate bloons extremely efficiently for a relatively low cost.
  • Geraldo is another hero that pairs well with The Tack Zone, being able to give it numerous worthwhile buffs such as Sharpening Stone, See Invisibility Potion and Jar of Pickles. Jar of Pickles is only recommended for if Fortified Bloons are the main problem, due to the hefty attack speed reduction.
  • 'Tack Brittle' is another powerful combo, pairing the tower with Embrittlement or Super Brittle to let it bypass its weaknesses to frozen, lead and camo, while also amplifying The Tack Zone's damage output and slowing down MOAB-class bloons. One Embrittlement by itself is cheaper than a MIB, but is not 100% reliable when it comes to catching DDTs.
    • For more reliable DDT countermeasures besides a MIB, try pairing The Tack Zone with 2-4-0 Spike Storms (which also pair well with Pat Fusty), the Prince of Darkness or other anti-DDT towers.
  • Like Overdrive, The Tack Zone's "death zone" is offset slightly above the center of its hitbox. The "death zone" is the central point where all 32 tacks will spawn from, rather than directly out of each visual barrel. To find the "death zone" of this Tack Shooter, look for the y-axis position of its middle barrels and locate the circle's center from there; it should be located where the mouth of the skull icon would be.[1]
  • For Boss Bloon Events, The Tack Zone is outclassed by multiple Overdrives against Tier 1 Bosses in terms of cost efficiency, but works well for Tier 2 and later Bosses as close range space becomes more valuable and money more plentiful.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Since its popularity after Version 12.0 hugely increased its total attack speed, alongside various synergies from its prime partners such as Pat Fusty and Super Brittle, The Tack Zone has risen as a popular method for handling MOAB-class bloons in combination with multiple supports. After the release of Boss Bloons, it has become a meta option for handling most Boss Bloons including Bloonarius and Lych. In terms of balance changes, The Tack Zone has evolved to become a much stronger MOAB-class option but rely much greater on support to gain its maximum potential, and received much more defined crosspathing choice for both crosspaths.

Although it overall attacks much faster than when it was first released, it gained a variety of nerfs. Initially, it was given a price nerf to account for its massive synergy potential, later reverted and instead require greater synergy from external sources to reach maximum strength. The Tack Zone was reworked to have less base pierce and range in exchange for more damage to balance out with Path 2 crosspathing over the superior Path 1 crosspathing, and later lost its popping of Frozen and Leads. As an outstanding option against Ranked Bosses, The Tack Zone was nerfed to exchange its bonus base damage for bonus MOAB-class damage as a way to encourage other options for cleaning up normal bloons. 2-0-5 was hit again with another speed nerf in v36.0, albeit indirectly nerfed, since the reduced speed from the Even Faster Shooting nerf affects all related crosspaths. 0-2-5 was overall buffed in v38.0 after The Tack Zone lost 2 pierce, no longer gaining a pierce increase without that crosspath, and increasing base attack speed to compensate.

7.0
  • BUFF The Tack Zone attack speed increased (0.45s → 0.394s); attack speed bonus percentages are the same, but with new base Tack Shooter attack speed.
12.0
  • BUFF The Tack Zone attack speed increased by 50% (0.394s → 0.2625s; stacks from Overdrive).
13.0
  • NERF The Tack Zone price increased ($20,000 → $24,000)
23.0
With pierce and range on the base Tack Zone so high that increases weren't noticeable the middle crosspath was underserved. To balance crosspathing we have reworked the base Tack Zone around lower values then improving them greatly for the crosspaths.
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • BUFF The Tack Zone damage increased (1 → 2)
  • NERF The Tack Zone base range decreased (46 → 30)
  • NERF The Tack Zone pierce decreased (9 → 4). Does not affect 0-2-5.
  • NERF 0-1-5 The Tack Zone range decreased (50 → 34)
  • NERF 0-2-5 The Tack Zone range decreased (54 → 50)
25.0
[...] 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
  • BUFF Tack Zone price reduced from $24,000 → $20,000
  • NERF Tack Zone damage type changed Normal → Sharp
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. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF Tack Zone damage reduced from 2 → 1, instead gaining +1 damage to MOAB-class bloons.
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. [...]
~ Ninja Kiwi
  • NERF x-0-5 The Tack Zone base pierce reduced (4 → 2)
  • NERF 0-2-5 The Tack Zone pierce reduced (10 → 8)
  • BUFF The Tack Zone attack cooldown multiplier reduced (0.75x → 0.65x), attack speed bonus increased (+33% → +54%)

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]


Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • There used to be a glitch where range bonuses do not cause the tacks from The Tack Zone to last longer. This has been since fixed as of Version 2.0.
  • As of Version 12.0, Overdrive attacks faster than The Tack Zone without the Version 12.0 Overdrive buff.
  • Just like Grandmaster Ninja in Version 11.0, The Tack Zone in Version 23.0 gained a pierce nerf but a damage buff to compensate. For The Tack Zone's second stat nerf, however, The Tack Zone gained less base range instead of less attack speed.
  • The Tack Zone shoots out 32 tacks at a time, however its upgrade art only has 24 tacks on it. This might be because not all barrels are visible, meaning that the tacks shot by the hidden barrels are also hidden themselves. The upgrade icon has even less tacks, with only 16 (not counting the tacks pointing into the middle skull).

Balance Changes (Trivia)[]

  • With the Version 23.0 base range nerfs to The Tack Zone, the projectile lifespan actually remained unchanged, meaning that the projectiles now last as long as if The Tack Zone did not have the range nerf. However, The Tack Zone now needs the bloons to be closer in order to trigger its tack attacks.
  • The cost for an MIB to address for the Version 25.0 Tack Zone damage type nerf is more than the reduction amount to the price of The Tack Zone upgrade. With the reduced Tack Zone price, the upgrade can be bought sooner when it is most needed, which in some cases can be a buff, but this rework is an overall nerf due to the greater cost and space required to restore its lead-popping and therefore pop DDTs.
    • However, with the addition of Geraldo this damage type change means The Tack Zone is eligible for Sharpening Stone's buffs.
  • Even with various balance changes increasing the non-crosspathed Tack Zone's attack cooldown, the Version 38.0 iteration of 0-x-5 Tack Zone attacks slower than the 2-0-5 Tack Zone when it was first released. For reference, the Version 38.0 0-x-5 Tack Zone attacks every 0.2275s, while the original 2-0-5 Tack Zone when first released attacked every 0.1773s.

References[]


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