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BTD6

Darts move faster and can pop 3 bloons each.
~ In-game description

Powerful Darts is the second upgrade of Path 3 for the Dartling Gunner in Bloons TD 6. It increases projectile speed and size of the Dartling Gunner's projectiles by +50%, increases pierce from 1 to 3, and gives frozen-popping for all its attacks. Pierce bonuses granted by Powerful Darts roughly increase by +50% for Tier 3 and above upgrades (+3 for Laser Cannon, +25 for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom), among other bonuses such as +50% explosion radius for main rockets from Hydra Rocket Pods and above.

This upgrade costs $1,020 on Easy, $1,200 on Medium, $1,295 on Hard, and $1,440 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Appearance[]

Powerful Darts changes the muzzle of the minigun into a singular barrel with three (or four with Advanced Targeting) holes, as well as recoloring the tripod to blue instead of black. In addition, the Dartling Gunner gains one yellow stripe (or green stripe with Faster Barrel Spin and later upgrades) each on opposite sides of his helmet. Darts are colored blue and all projectiles produce trails as they glide through the air.

Mechanics[]

Powerful Darts adds +2 pierce to the Dartling Gunner, for 3 total, and grants it Shatter type, allowing Frozen popping. It also increases projectile size by 50%, from 2 to 3.

Powerful Darts has several unique interactions when used as a crosspath:

  • It grants top path upgrades +50% projectile size (beam width for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom, specifically from 2 to 3 for Plasma Accelerator and 6 to 9 for Ray of Doom, and focal point size for Plasma Accelerator, from 4 to 6) and +50% pierce (+3 for Laser Cannon, +25 for Plasma Accelerator and higher)
  • It grants mid path upgrades +1 explosion count (as a result of gaining +2 pierce for its main rockets), in addition to +2 pierce per explosion, and +50% explosion radius (from 8 to 12).

Targeting Priorities[]

Powerful Darts customly aims based on direction and angle of where the Dartling points towards. It shoots straight movement projectiles controlled in a aim-based mobile style guided by touch-based mobility, albeit with some erratic angular deviation.

  • Normal: Rotates towards the direction of where the player last tapped. On desktop versions, always rotates towards direction of the cursor inside the game.
  • Locked: Locks the Dartling in place. By default, locks at center of map, but can be adjusted in the same way as a Mortar Monkey. On desktop versions, using a hotkey to switch to Locked will default to wherever the mouse currently is pointing.

Since all Dartlings already attack based on custom aim, Dartlings don't receive Camo Prioritization even with Advanced Targeting.

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-2) $1,020 $1,200 $1,295 $1,440 -
Total (0-0-2) $1,865 $2,200 $2,375 $2,640 $1,306 $1,540 $1,663 $1,848
Crosspath (1-0-2) $2,120 $2,500 $2,700 $3,000 $1,484 $1,750 $1,890 $2,100
Crosspath (2-0-2) $2,885 $3,400 $3,670 $4,080 $2,020 $2,380 $2,569 $2,856
Crosspath (0-1-2) $2,075 $2,450 $2,645 $2,940 $1,453 $1,715 $1,852 $2,058
Crosspath (0-2-2) $2,880 $3,400 $3,670 $4,080 $2,016 $2,380 $2,569 $2,856

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: MilitaryConscriptionIcon Military Conscription, AdvancedLogisticsIcon Advanced Logistics, BetterSellDealsIcon Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Powerful Darts allows the Dartling Gunner's darts to reach its located target sooner by increasing its projectile speed. Additionally, the benefit of additional pierce makes the Dartling Gunner much stronger against early-game. The combination of these two benefits for the Dartling Gunner make this tower become highly effective as a solo early-game option.

Tips[]

  • Powerful Darts is an effective early-game solo option, as it helps tackle the lower Dartling Gunner's main weaknesses against early-game grouped bloons.
  • Compared with other early-game solo towers at similar price points, especially 2-0-2 Airburst Darts or 3-0-1 Double Shot Ninja, a 1-0-2 Powerful Darts has much longer range, is excellent along straight lines, but it has no camo potential.
  • Combining Powerful Darts with Focusing Firing will further improve accuracy by a slight amount, as the darts will reach to their destined locations sooner.
  • There is a special crosspath benefit with Powerful Darts and Hydra Rocket Pods by adding +1 explosion and +2 pierce for the explosions. Likewise, there is a special crosspath for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom that adds +25 pierce instead of +2 pierce, though for the latter it is very insignificant.

Version History[]

Powerful Darts was changed slightly since first released in BTD6, initially with a nerf in price. It now also grants frozen-popping, likely inspired by its Battles 2 counterpart.

22.0 (Dartling Gunner update)
  • Released.
  • NERF Cost of Powerful Darts increased ($600 → $1200).
29.0
The bottom path Bloon Exclusion Zone on the Dartling has had a lot of talk about damage types, with points raised on the viability here due to the high price. It did recently get a strong buff from the T3 up, but in order to work more into other synergies we have decided to finally do a damage type change here as well, starting from early on in the path.
~ Ninja Kiwi, referring to BEZ and Powerful Darts
  • BUFF Powerful Darts damage type from Sharp → Shatter
29.2
  • BUFF [bug fix] Powerful Darts no longer prevents Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom with this upgrade from popping Leads.
31.0
  • BUFF Powerful Darts now increases projectile size and explosion radius of various upgrades
    • BUFF Powerful Darts normal projectile size increased from 2 -> 3
    • BUFF 0-3-2 Hydra Rocket Pods explosion size increased from 8 -> 12
    • BUFF 4-0-2 Plasma Accelerator focal point size increased from 4 -> 6
    • BUFF 4-0-2 Plasma Accelerator beam width increased from 2 -> 3
    • BUFF 5-0-2 Ray of Doom beam width increased from 6 -> 9

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Teaser[]

Trivia[]

  • Powerful Darts costs twice as much in BTD6 compared to in previous generation games.
  • This upgrade and Ray of Doom are the only returning Dartling Gunner upgrades to change tier between BTD5 and BTD6.
  • Powerful Darts is the third upgrade in BTD6 to cost $1,200 on Medium for the upgrade cost alone, the second being Really Big Bombs since Version 7.0, and first being Ultravision.
  • The buff in Version 29.0 that gives frozen-popping is likely inspired by the existing BTDB2 counterpart of this upgrade, which also gives frozen-popping.

Errors[]

  • On the Version 29.2 patch notes detailing about the bug fix of Powerful Darts unexpectably preventing lead-popping for Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom, the upgrade name for Powerful Darts is incorrectly written with an "F" instead of a "D", resulting in a misspelling that jokingly implies the act of producing odorous flatulence. This misspelling is likely a typo, though it has never been corrected.


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