Tack Shooter (BTD5)

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Overview

Pre-BTD4

BTD4

BTD5

BTD6

BTDB2

Tack Shooter

General Information

Appearances

See #Game appearances

Unlocked at

Rank 2

Cost

See #Tower Costs

Final upgrades

20

Special Abilities

Blade Maelstrom

Camo detection

No

Tier-4 Upgrades

55

Battle Score prerequisite

0

Specialty Building

Tack Research Center

Footprint

6

Hotkey

T (BTD4), W (BTD5), R (BTD6)

Statistics

Range

Short (144 px)

Pierce

1 (increases to 2 with blade shooter, 3 in Battles Mobile)

Damage

1 (per tack, spray of 8)

Attack Cooldown

Slow
(Fires 8 tacks 0.6 times per sec excluding bonuses gained from Monkey Lab and/or Upgrades)
(Fires 8 blades 0.65 times per sec excluding bonuses gained from Monkey Lab)

“	Shoots 8 tacks spread in all directions, each tack can pop 1 bloon.	”
	^{~ Bloons TD 5 Mobile description}

The Tack Shooter (BTD5) is a tower that appears in Bloons TD 5. The Tack Shooter is a pink and grey mechanical device that shoots a volley of tacks in eight directions. As of BTD3, upgrading the Tack Shooter can change the types and numbers of projectiles shot from it. For instance, the Blade Shooter and Ring of Fire upgrades modify it to shoot blades or flame rings respectively, instead of tacks.

Although it has a short range, these towers are very effective at thinning out crowds of Bloons at corners and intersections. They are also relatively cheap, making them useful in early rounds. Each individual tack that the Tack Shooter fires has a popping power of 1, which changes with various upgrades. Tack Shooters have a slow rate of fire, (0.6 shots per second) compared to other towers initially, which limits their strength.

Upgrades[]

Once again, the Tack Shooter along with all towers in BTD gets a huge improvement, with two paths of powerful upgrades.

Path 1[]

	Faster Shooting COST: $180 / $210 / $225 / $250 UNLOCK: 85 XP
	Description: Shoots tacks faster. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Even Faster Shooting COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360 UNLOCK: 770 XP
	Description: Further increases attack speed. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Tack Sprayer COST: $425 / $500 / $540 / $600 UNLOCK: 2,842 XP
	Description: Sprays out 16 tacks per volley instead of the usual 8. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Ring of Fire COST: $2,125 / $2,500 / $2,700 / $3,000 UNLOCK: 13,545 XP
	Description: Upgrade to a fast firing burst tower that shoots a deadly ring of flame instead of tacks. Effect: Shoots out rings of quick flames instead of tacks. Also gains extra range.

Path 2[]

	Extra Range Tacks COST: $85 / $100 / $110 / $120 UNLOCK: 305 XP
	Description: Tacks have increased range. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Super Range Tacks COST: $190 / $225 / $245 / $270 UNLOCK: 1,260 XP
	Description: Tacks have further increased range. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Blade Shooter COST: $580 / $680 / $735 / $815 UNLOCK: 4,785 XP
	Description: Converts the tower into a blade shooter that shoots out razor sharp blades that are harder for bloons to avoid. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Blade Maelstrom COST: $2,295 / $2,700 / $2915 / $3,240 UNLOCK: 21,938 XP
	Description: Blade Maelstrom Ability: covers the area in an unstoppable storm of blades. Effect: Self-explanatory

Differences Between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile[]

Ring of Fire has a slower attack speed (2.3 shots per second → ?).
Ring of Fire attack range can be extended past 4/1. This was a bug in BTD5 Flash.
Blade Maelstrom ability can pop camo bloons if the tower is under the influence of a x/2 Monkey Village.
Blade Maelstrom no longer plays a sound when the ability is activated.
Blade Maelstrom still disperses blades even if sold during the duration of the activated ability.
Blade Maelstrom disperses blades clockwise instead of counterclockwise.

Version History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)[]

Tack Shooter hasn't seen as much use in Battles Mobile compared to Flash, possibly due to a less effective Ring of Fire and players only being able to choose 3 towers reliably as opposed to 4. Tack Shooter overall isn't used often as one of three main towers, due to its inability to pop camo bloons, despite being useful early-game. On most occasions when using a Tack Shooter, however, players tend to use Blade Maelstrom in emergencies of rushes such as Regrow Rainbow Rush of Death/Doom. Popular loadouts include Tack Farm Mortar, Tack Farm Sub, Tack Village Chipper, and Tack Farm Wizard.

Tack Shooter has overall been buffed via game updates.

4.3

“	The Tack Shooter's second upgrade path is rarely seen in arenas, especially in Ceramic Crucible and above. We've reduced the prices of the first three upgrades on that side to help make the tower more worthy of that valuable space in your loadout.	”
	^{~ "BTD Battles 4.3 Update Balance Changes"}

Extra Range Tacks price decreased ($100 → $75).
Super Range Tacks price decreased ($225 → $175).
Blade Shooter price decreased ($680 → $600).
Blade Maelstrom price increased ($2700 → $2800). However, it should be noted that due to the previous 3 upgrades all getting price buffs, this nerf is completely negligible since the overall cost to get a 0/4 Tack Shooter is cheaper ($4065 → $3910).

4.3.1

“	Other than to use the Blade Maelstrom ability, the Tack Shooter's second upgrade path is rarely wandered down by Battles players. The feeling here is that the Tack Sprayer upgrade is, currently, more reliable than its opposite number, so we hope this increase in pierce will correct that and give players more of a choice when it comes to picking which path to take.	”
	^{~ "BTD Battles Update 4.3.1 Balance Changes"}

Blade Shooter pierce increased (2 → 3).

6.14

Ring of Fire pierce increased (60 -> 80)

6.15

Tack Sprayer attack speed increased by +10%
Tack Sprayer price increased ($500 -> $600)

6.18

Tack Sprayer price decreased ($600 -> $500)

Tower tips[]

Breaking a massive number of Lead or Ceramic Bloons is not impossible. Tack Shooter's 4-2 upgrade can take off all layers of a group of Lead Bloons and does heavy damage on Ceramic Bloons, whilst 2-4 upgrade, especially its ability, can massively break off the shell of a group of Ceramic Bloons with only 1 blade if too close, then entirely pops away all layers of it with only a few blades not over than 6-10.
In order to counter this, buying an Arctic Wind and combining it with a Ring of Fire will decimate Bloons.
If dealing with a group of MOAB-class Bloons, its ability can shred them off no matter how many times you activated it's ability (best record is activated once can completely pop it away, with 15% chance), especially when they're too close.
At the start of the turn, if you want to pop multiple layers of bloons, best use 3-2 upgrade at first. It's because by popping the bloons with 1 tack may pop away a layer, they can easily hit another tack since they can still travel, resulting in another pop (the best record is 3 layers per shot, with 8% chance).
- But if players want to deal with gaps, 2-3 upgrade will fit into it since blades are larger than tacks that can easily hit bloons.
The 3-# can do lots of damage to MOAB class bloons since it's a volley of 16 tacks (but not all of it) can easily hit the big hitbox of MOAB class bloons
- Because of this, upgrading to a 4-# does less damage since it doesn't equal to 16 tacks. However, it can pop more bloons which balances it out.

Quotes[]

“	Monkey-operated Tack Shooters can clear bloons on all sides, especially useful at track corners and curves. Powerful upgrades include: Tack Sprayer, Ring of Fire, Blade Maelstrom.	”
	^{~ BMC Flash description}

“	Shoots volley of tacks in 8 directions. Can upgrade its shoot speed and its range.	”
	^{~ Bloons TD 1 description}

“	Shoots 8 tacks spread in all directions, each tack can pop 1 bloon. Has short range and medium-slow fire rate.	”
	^{~ Bloons TD 5 description}

“	Monkey-operated Tack shooters can clear on all sides, especially useful at track corners and curves.	”
	^{~ Bloons Monkey City description}

Gallery[]

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Bloons TD 5 Flash[]

Bloons TD 5 Mobile[]

Trivia[]

The Tack Shooter is one of only 2 towers to have its BTD4 3rd and 4th upgrades to be on completely separate paths in BTD5. A player could have Blade Shooter or Ring of Fire in BTD5, but not both. It shares this trait with the Mortar Tower. This has happened again in the transition from BTD5 to BTD6, as Ring of Fire and Tack Sprayer are on separate paths. Both transitions involved the Ring of Fire.
If you have Monkey Fort, Tack Awesomizer, and a Tier 3 Tack Research Center, a single Tack can pierce through 3 bloons (4 every second shot).
- In Bloons TD 5 Mobile, you can get a Tier 4 Tack Research Center, making the tack pierce through 4 bloons.
The Tack Shooter range is as short as the Ice Tower range.
In the artwork for BTD5, the upgrade Faster Shooting gives the shooter 3 tack icons on the top. It actually keeps the crossed over tacks on the top in the game. Vice-versa when you get Even Faster Shooting.
The Tack Shooter's attack method and appearance bears a resemblance to the Gloom-Shroom from the Plants Vs. Zombies games. The Gloom-Shroom, however, is much cheaper and much more powerful.
The cost of the Ring of Fire has been nerfed to make it more expensive in Bloons Monkey City Mobile. This also applied to BTD5 Mobile, but it has been reverted back to its former cost.
Ring of Fire cannot attack in a larger range when influenced by Monkey Beacon. The range will increase and the Ring of Fire will start attacking bloons once they get in that range, but the fire can't reach them until they get to the original range. This does not apply to the mobile versions of BTD.
In BTD5, Tack and Blade Shooters are depicted with only six shooters in their portraits, and Tack Sprayers only depict 12 shooters.
In BMC, the My Monkeys panel states the Tack Shooter as "Monkey-operated".
- This knowledge is even further supported from one of the Monkey Mastery upgrades in Bloons TD Battles 2.
- However, Battles 1 implies it is operated by clockwork.
The Tack Shooter portraits in BTD5 Flash-Gen games and both Bloons Monkey Cities are very similar with tiny differences.