| “ | We’ve been continuing to add extra content to Bloons TD 4 for a couple of months now, a couple of really cool new tracks and now an all-new never before seen tower type. The Dartling Gun is unique among towers as it doesn’t target Bloons at all, rather it follow the mouse and sprays darts wherever you point. This opens up some rather special tactical play. | ” |
| ~ Bloons Tower Defense 4 – All-New Tower People, All-new. |
The Dartling Gun (BTD4-BTD5) is a tower operated by a monkey in Bloons TD 4 released in an update on May 5, 2011. It is also a tower in Bloons TD 5, Bloons TD Battles, their Mobile counterparts, and Bloons Monkey City.
The Dartling Gun shoots darts at wherever your mouse cursor is pointing. This is the only tower to date that is controlled by the player without clicking. In Bloons Tower Defense 5, this tower costs $810 on easy, $950 on medium and $1025 on hard.
The Dartling Gun can be upgraded in many factors, such as attack speed and popping power. For example, it normally pops 1 bloon per dart, but when upgraded, it can pop 3 with Powerful Darts, 13 with the Laser Cannon, 100 with the Ray of Doom, and has about 40 popping power from the explosions from Hydra Rocket Pods or BADS.
Upgrades
Progression of the Dartling Gun from left to right
BTD4
Purchase: 1065/1250/1350.
- This upgrade reduces the gun's spread. Cost: $215/$250/$270
- This upgrade slightly increases the gun's fire rate, darts shot fly across the screen 20% faster and can pop 3 bloons each. Also reduces the spread of the gun a little more. Cost:$510/$600/$650
- This upgrade increases the gun's rate of fire. The monkey's camo hat turns blue. Cost: $2125/$2500/$2700
- Unlocked at Rank 33
- This upgrade enables the Dartling Gun to shoot lasers, similar to the Laser Vision upgrade for the Super Monkey but can also pop leads. The monkey's hat turns red with this upgrade. Shoots nearly as fast as the Sun God. Cost: $12750/$15000/$16200
BTD5
Path 1 upgrades
Path 1
1. Focused Firing ($215/$250/$270)
- Greatly reduces the spread of the gun, therefore making it more likely to pop bloons.
2. Faster Barrel Spin ($1020/$1200/$1295)
- Makes Dartling Gun shoot much faster (more than twice as fast). Causes shots to spread slightly.
3. Laser Cannon ($5100/$6000/$6480)
- Converts the gun into a super powerful laser cannon that can pop 13 bloons with each shot. Also shoots faster and pops frozen bloons. However, It still can't pop lead bloons unless influenced by a MIB or has the Depleted Bloontonium Darts upgrade.
4. Ray Of Doom ($46750/$55000/$59400)
- Shoots a straight, solid beam of bloon annihilation, destroying almost all bloons that it touches.
- It is similar to Death Ray Vision for Bloons Super Monkey.
- Surprisingly, the Ray of Doom is not able to pop lead bloons unless it has the Depleted Bloontonium Darts upgrade or is influenced by an MIB.
Path 2 upgrades
Path 2
1. Powerful Darts ($510/$600/$650)
- Faster darts that can pop 3 bloons each.
2. Depleted Bloontonium Darts ($850/$1000/$1080)
- Can pop any type of bloon. This includes lead bloons and frozen bloons.
3. Hydra Rocket Pods ($5950/$7000/$7560)
- Shoots missiles that explode on impact, making it like a rapid-fire Bomb Shooter of sorts. These missiles have sharp tips that can pop black bloons and zebra bloons.
4. Bloon Area Denial System ($17000/$20000/$21600)
- Shoots 3 Hydra Rockets at a time.
- Rocket Storm Ability- shoots missiles to the nearest 100 bloons on screen (Ouch).
Tier 4 upgrades are unlocked at rank 38.
Trivia
- In BTD5, a single Ray of Doom can completely destroy a ZOMG all by itself on Space Truckin'.
- In BTD5, a single Dartling Gun upgraded with Faster Barrel Spin can destroy a ceramic all by itself on Monkey Lane.
- In BTD5, each Hydra rocket pods can pop 40 bloons with its explosions, U4 rockets are the same.
- It is one of the only 3 towers that have increased power when upgraded to the 4th tier of the right path than just obtaining an ability. The other towers being the Super Monkey (The Technological Terror has stronger plasma shooters than a Robo-Monkey) and the mortar (the artillery battery triples the firing rate of the mortar).
- This tower is unavailable in the Bloons Tower Defense 4 Track Editor This is probably because this tower is not the original in the BTD4 with the Spike Factory.
- In BTD4, there is no hotkey for the Dartling Gun. In BTD5, its hotkey is N.
- Dartling Guns have a target priority system like any other tower in BTD4, but as the tower's aim is controlled by the cursor, the target priority system has no influence whatsoever.
- In BTD4, the Dartling Gun is the one of the four towers that can pop a Camo Bloon without any upgrades, the other three being the Mortar Tower, Monkey Ace, and the Spike Factory. It is guided by the player, however, and the Mortar Tower aims at a place determined by the user, and the Monkey Ace flies around and shoots randomly, and the Spike Factory throws spikes onto the road at a certain rate.
- In BTD5, the Spike Factory, the Dartling Gun and the Ninja Monkey, a tower new to the Bloons TD series, are the only towers that don't need an upgrade to pop a Camo Bloon. The Monkey Ace now needs the Spy Plane upgrade and the Mortar Tower now needs the Signal Flare upgrade.
- The Dartling Gun is based on the real-life gatling gun.
- In BTD 4 Expansion, the Dartling Gun's logo in the "shop" is a Dart Monkey along with the Spike Factory.
- Only Tier 2 Dartling Guns have different colours for each path. However, Tiers 3 and 4 look different on either path but the guns are the same colour.
- The width of the Dartling Gun increased dramatically from BTD4 to BTD5.
- In BTD4 Dartling Gun has 3 barrels similarly to the real GAU-19 (3 Barrel Version) and in BTD5 it has 6 barrels similar to the real Minigun.
- If the player wishes not to control the Dartling Gun, it is a good idea to put the cursor in the beginning of the track and exit the screen, since you cannot aim outside the game screen. However, if you do this, you will have to use Hotkeys to control gameplay unless you want to keep setting the cursor and moving it off the screen.
- The Tier 3 Dartling Ammo Dump allows the Dartling Gun to aim at a specific spot, which removes the burden of having the cursor remain in one place.
- It is one of the only towers not to have a shooting option, due to the fact the cursor controls it.
- Two 4/2 Dartling Guns can outmatch a 4/2 Super Monkey if the latter has no sacrifices, though the two cost about the same.
- The difference between BTD5 and BTD5 iOS's Dartling Gun's shooting method is when will it starts to shoot.
- BTD5's Dartling Gun shoots when bloons appear, it stops firing when no bloons appear in the middle of a round, or when a round ends.
- BTD5 iOS's Dartling Gun shoots even when bloons stop appearing in the middle of a round compared to BTD5.