Bloons TD 6 v30.0 - Update Notes
Key New Features
- Co-op Split Editing! We’ve wanted this for a long time and have had bits of it working, but we’re pleased to start the 2022 updates with this great quality of life feature.
- Players creating Co-op lobbies can now choose which Co-op split to use for the match
- Not content with just the change in splits, we’ve added 2 new splits (Radioactive and Stairs) that will make their way into Co-op Challenges and even Boss Events, and of course also be an option for player-created Co-op games. We’re hoping to see some awesome content creator games and challenges come out of this!
New Awesome
- New Map, Sunken Columns - absolutely a rock hard tribute to one of the new maps in Battles 2 but custom made for all the sight, overblockers, and co-op nuances of BTD6
- New Hero Skin, Psimbals - you thought playing several instruments was difficult? Try playing them telekinetically at the same time! A very different take on Psi - hope you enjoy!
- New Achievements
- Sticky Situation - Glue 500,000 Bloons
- Big Spender - Spend 1,000,000 cash in one round
- The Daily Reid - Win 365 unique daily challenges
- I'll Be Back - Spend 1,000 MM on Continues or Checkpoints
- New Monkey Knowledge
- Bionic Augmentation - Allows Turbo Charge ability to grant boomers camo vision
- Bonus Glue Gunner - Instead of a free Dart Monkey, you may now choose to start with a free Glue Gunner instead.
- X-ray Ultra - Allows Ultravision super monkeys to see, target and shoot through blocking objects.
- New Trophy Store Items
- Heroes: Striker Jones - german shepherd pet, ETn Beam Down placement
- Monkeys: Necromancer Wizard Chomp Zombies projectile swap, Heli Pilot Hummingbird pet
- Bloons: BAD Whale skin
- Co-op: Thinking Monkey emote
- Game & UI: Flower Patch road spikes skin, Monkey Boost - Sugar Rush, Avatar 57 - Explorer Monkey Sub, Avatar 58 - Fusty Ice Cream
- Limited Time only {trophy items if there’s a seasonal}
- Bloon decal - daisy chain circlet
- Druid Spring avatar
- Obyn Peace emote
- So Buzzed profile banner
- Competition Winner banners
- Doodle Brilliance banner by bonbonni (*Now chompypaw)
- Arcanum Necronicom by _Concilliabule_
Big Changes / Additions
- Sound controls - By popular request (and sometimes demand), you now have more audio control over your Heroes and chaotic critters.
- Pet sounds can now be toggled separately to other sound effects.
- Additionally Hero Voices has instead been moved over into its own slider.
- Trophy Store filters - If your Trophy Store inventories are like some of ours, we all know some organization was due.
- Added subcategory filters to each store section and the inventory to help find what you’re looking for
- Clarifying as this was not mentioned in the Preview Notes - the Trophy Store will now be unavailable for use whenever mods are active. Removing any mods from the install directory should restore it again. To be clear the goal here is purely to prevent players from bricking their accounts if they do mod, not to detract from modding.
Bug Fixes & General Changes
- Optimizations made to the trophy store for loading & performance
- Added a timer to the freeplay/restart/continue buttons in co-op. This delay will be shown on the buttons
- Strong target option should now prioritize fortified bloons correctly if they also have regrow
- Heroes can no longer receive customized names
- Resolved some boss leaderboards not always displaying the right medals from your profile
- Added individual reset buttons for each Odyssey island within the editor
- Resolved some Height/terrain inconsistencies with placement/visibility
- Resolved some edge of map tower footprint size issues
- Going AFK for a long time on a pause screen should no longer eventually break the UI
- Hitting Home on ‘waiting to rejoin co-op game’ should now prompt ‘are you sure?’
- Co-op resync should no longer mix up tower locations on Sanctuary
- Resolved some issues with UI being offset incorrectly on some devices/resolutions
- Translated Odyssey descriptions should no longer M̶̩̅e̷̮͑̾ŗ̴̠̗̃̂͝ą̸͔͎͙͆̕̚-̷̛̼̜͝{̶͙͈̖͑0̶̧̣̻̟̓͐}̸̙̊́̋̓
- Boss menu can no longer be entered without an internet connection
- Resolved some issues with players from previous versions seeing extremely buggy profiles when looking at player profiles that have equipped new items from future versions. This fix will not apply to anyone playing before v30
- Reworked how co-op resyncs interact at defeats
- Resolved an issue displaying player removed messages in co-op multiple times
- User ID now included on some menu screens
- Resolved an issue that could be causing the Alchermistman and Bloonacleboy achievement to not save completion
- Resolved some tower buffs preventing Bloons from becoming frozen
- Game no longer softlocks on Review Map screen when you hit Escape key before the Review Map UI transition completes.
- Resolved a number of minor crashes
- Resolved a crash that could occur when selling Ezili to place multiple times
- Resolved an Odyssey crash that could occur when excluding all towers
- Resolved a crash that could occur from opening multiple deep links in a row
- Resolved an issue with Strong targeting working incorrectly with Camo Prio
- Resolved cases in which the remove disconnected player button would persist on co-op UI even though that player disconnected voluntarily
- Resolved an issue that could prevent players re-joining co-op games after a crash
- Resolved a number of different Locs issues
Bomb Shooter
- x2x Should no longer become ‘lower’ and lose vision over objects
Ice Monkey
- 4xx Ice Monkey should no longer slow & remove camo from White Bloons without being able to damage them
- 5xx Super Brittle debuff duration corrected from 2s -> 3
- x3x Arctic Wind :| - that is all.
- x5x Absolute Zero now has an ability icon for the buff it grants other Ice Monkey
- x5x Absolute Zero ice monkey buff is now correctly drained by Lych
Glue Gunner
- 2xx Corrosive Glue and above now allows the top path of Glue Gunner to be targeted by Acidic Mixture Dip, as the acid DoT does benefit
- xx5 Super Glue can target Glued Bloons again
Monkey Sub
- x4x First Strike Capability ability initial impact damage is now dealt before splash damage
Monkey Buccaneer
- Resolved a number of platform issues with Navarch
Wizard Monkey
- Missing sell/upgrade animations fixed
Druid
- Missing sell/upgrade animations fixed
- x5x Vine Rupture ability should now be influence by Challenge Editor cooldown slider
Engineer
- Resolved a save loading bug that could cause Foam to target the center of the map from any location
- x3x Cleansing Foam should now count damage when popping lead bloons
Gwendolin
- Lv3 Cocktail of Fire now extinguished by purple bloons
Obyn Greenfoot
- Resolved a save loading bug that could cause Wall of Trees to target the center of the map from any location
- Resolved some issues with buff applications not working correctly in all cases
Benjamin
- Resolved some visual issues with Matrix Placement FX
Desktop Version
- Resolved a launch softlock on Chromebooks
- Resolved an issue once again allowing scroll wheel to be a bindable hotkey
- Added new Tower Special hotkey (PageDown by default) this will activate tower unique functionality like Boomerang arm swap & Camo Prio
Balance Changes
Dart Monkey
Juggernaut relying on ricochets felt too niche in the current game, sadly excelling in far too few situations, so instead the Ceramic damage strength has been increased leading a little better into the T5 and benefiting it in more general straight line situations. Crossbow Master is pretty much around the entry level T5 that we want, but a little too expensive for something that brings no extra utility.
- 4xx Juggernaut ceramic bonus increased from +2 -> 3
- xx5 Crossbow Master price $25,000 -> 23,500
Boomerang Monkey
To buff Glaive Lords middle crosspath as a choice & utilize more of an attack that is mostly rendered useless by this tier, the base damage of the thrown ricochet attack has been increased. Bionic Boomerang’s price has been lowered to make this upgrade slightly more approachable, but Turbo Charge’s price increased as we’re ok with the higher tiers on this path. Finally MOAB Dom’s price has been reduced a little, while this upgrade mostly fits as an early freeplay support/carry this price buff will make it more affordable before then and slightly benefit saveup for the paragon.
- 5xx Glaive Lord main attack damage increased from 1 -> 8
- x3x Bionic Boomerang price 1600 -> 1450
- x4x Turbo Charge price $4000 -> $4200
- 005 Moab Domination price reduced $60k -> 50k
Bomb Shooter
Has strong meta usage, Mauler as a moab focus upgrade no longer needs the bonus to ceramic crutch
- x3x MOAB Mauler ceram bonus reduced 1 -> 0
Tack Shooter
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.
- 4xx Ring of Fire attack delay reduced from 0.5355 -> 0.4725
- 5xx Inferno Ring still sets attack delay to a flat 0.1
- 520 Inferno Ring, Super Range grants meteor base pierce 1 -> 2
- 502 Inferno Ring, Even More Tacks grants meteor dmg 700 -> 1000
Ice Monkey
Cryo Cannon has pulled far ahead of similar cheap Bloon control options, while leading into the also quite cheap Icicles which for most of the game offers more Bloon shredding support for cheaper than those other options.
- xx4 Icicles price increased from $2000 -> 2750
Sniper Monkey
Elite Sniper bouncing bullet jump distance has been reduced so that it can't quite bridge small track splits so easily, however to change up use this lost distance has been added back to crosspathing. Elite Defender falls off a lot after midgame & really lacks any true cross pathing choice, so it has had some MOAB damage added to the base attack with the amount improved from crosspathing.
- x3x Bouncing Bullet - bounce distance reduced slightly 50 -> 40
- 230 Bouncing Bullet distance increased back distance: 40 -> 50
- 004 Full Auto Rifle gains MOAB bonus to initial hit 0 -> +1
- 005 Elite Defender gains MOAB bonus to initial hit 0 -> +2
- 105 Elite Defender gains MOAB bonus to initial hit 0 -> +3
- 205 Elite Defender gains MOAB bonus to initial hit 0 -> +4
Monkey Sub
Previously the rate increase to Ballistic Missile from crosspath was reduced due to Airburst having enough value on it’s own. This reason still applies as Airburst provides a significant power boost just on it’s own, so all rate increase has been removed from Airburst and applied directly to the base Ballistic Missile to help crosspath diversity slightly.
- 030 Ballistic Missile attack rate 1.105 -> 0.9945
- 032 Ballistic Missile no longer adds 10% rate
Monkey Buccaneer
Some parts of the new Buccaneer paragon were balanced more around a Degree 100 level without properly scaling, so we have fixed up some of this to better fit scaling up to 100 reaching those values, and moved the ability for it and any possible future paragons to also scale in cooldown based on the Degree.
- All Paragon Ability Cooldowns will now increase rate in a similar formula to attack speed
- Navarch passive grapple hook rate: 0.02 -> 0.06
- Navarch active grapple hook cooldown: 20 -> 30
Monkey Ace
More of a straight quality of life, Ace has gained a new special toggle button to allow it to turn back and fly in reverse on any selected flight pattern. As Ground Zero stands out in power, & enough so to make the upgrade to Tsar Bomba questionable, some upgrade cost has been moved out of Tsar Bomba into Ground Zero to make Ground Zero more expensive while not changing Tsar much other than a slight overall cost buff. While Flying Fortress has started to see use in Boss events this feels like more of a cash dump than actual value in the tower. As Spectre value already drops off the later any game gets, the saveup into a ‘better version’ also drops off in value, and so the price should reflect that better.
- 000 Monkey Ace can now toggle flight direction for any pattern.
- x4x Ground Zero price increased from $14,000 -> 18,000
- x5x Tsar Bomba price decreased from $35,000 -> 30,000
- xx5 Flying Fortress price 100k -> 85k
Heli Pilot
Comanche Defense mostly suffered during downtime and so the base Heli at T4 has had some general improvements made to power, but the mini helis have also gained a pierce increase to provide the darts with some improved crowd control
- xx4 Comanche Defense main heli Missile rate increased 3s -> 1
- xx4 Comanche Defense main heli dart damage increased 1 -> 2
- xx4 Comanche Defense mini heli pierce increased 3 -> 4
- xx5 Comanche Commander main heli dart damage increased 2 -> 3
Mortar Monkey
Mortar top path feels too weak for the lead up to the Tier 5, so it along with the T5 have had some general number increases. Additionally the 302 crosspath has failed to ever see a great deal of use compared to much faster firing, to make it easier to to use up power from the DoT this path will now burn through faster
- 2xx Bloon Buster price reduced $650 -> 500
- 3xx Shell Shock price reduced $1100 -> 900
- 4xx The Big One damage increased 5 -> 7
- 5xx The Biggest One center AoE damage increased 20 -> 25
- 5xx The Biggest One outer AoE ceram damage 10 -> 20
- 302 Shell Shock allows burn from this tower to tic twice as fast (also expires twice as fast)
- 402 The Big One, Burny Stuff damage over time increased from 3 -> 5
Dartling Gunner
Dartling’s Ray of Doom is far too expensive for general use, so before looking at any further power related buffs we’re lowering the price. Middle Path rocket storm is too strong for something also so buffable so is getting some number changes. Additionally Rocket Storm has always fired through blockers as we didn’t want to cripple placement too much, at this point we feel like it should be strong enough of an upgrade to have to deal with the placement problems that come with blocking objects. Finally as the Laser Shock crosspath is not so favorable for Buckshot path dartlings, we have doubled down on the ‘Focus’ of Focussed Firing to also increase projectile travel distance.
- 5xx Ray of Doom price $95k -> $80k
- x4x Rocket Storm ability damage reduced 6 -> 5
- x4x Rocket Storm ability duration reduced 10s -> 8
- x4x Rocket Storm ability no longer ignores blockers
- 103 Buckshot’s Focus Firing crosspath grants distance to projectiles +25%
Wizard Monkey
As base Wizard shines in no way & doesn’t lead into any immediately good cheap lower tiers aside from Wall of Fire, the base price is being slightly lowered at the cost of an increase to Wall of Fire. The role Arcane Spike filled at game launch has been replaced as better synergies were learned & added over time. As it's slightly too expensive at some early key points the price is being lowered to hopefully fit some use in at those points. Wizard Prince of Darkness is annoying to position correctly due to the sudden massive radius increase & it also needs a power nerf. So overall here we are moving all of the range increase down into a lower amount at the T3 so that range positioning is known before buying any necromancer upgrades, as well as moving some of the lifespan of the zombies themselves into the lesser used 1xx lifespan crosspath.
- 000 Wizard price reduced $400 -> 375
- x2x Wall of Fire price increased from $900 -> 950
- 4xx Arcane Spike price reduced from $10,900 -> 10,000
- xx3 Shimmer tower range increased from 40 -> 60
- xx5 Prince of Darkness tower range reduced 80 -> 60
- xx4 Necromancer base Zombie travel distance reduced 250 -> 175
- 104 Necromancer base Zombie travel distance remains at 250
- xx5 Prince of Darkness base MOAB travel distance reduced 300 -> 225
- 105 Prince of Darkness MOAB travel distance remains at 300
- xx5 Prince of Darkness base BFB travel distance reduced 200 -> 150
- 105 Prince of Darkness BFB travel distance increased from 200 -> 225
Super Monkey
We wanted some more meaning to middle path being a pierce choice aside from just being cheaper, so we’ve lowered Plasma Blast pierce but reduced its price. Sun Avatar and Robo Monkey have had small price decreases while Dark Knight has had a small increase to line the T3s a little closer up. Dark Champion has had a ceramic bonus added to deal with super ceramics as it is priced only for use in that lategame range, and Legend has had a price reduction to compensate for a rework to the passive ability preventing chained use in deep freeplay.
- 2xx Plasma Blasts pierce 3 -> 2
- 2xx Plasma Blasts price 4500 -> 3000
- 3xx Sun Avatar $22,000 -> 20,000
- 3xx Sun Avatar pierce is unchanged from the above reduction
- x3x Robo Monkey $8400 -> 8000
- xx3 Dark Knight $5500 -> 5600
- xx4 Dark Champion gains bonus damage to Ceramic -> +2
- xx5 Legend of the Night price reduced $240,000 -> 200,000
- xx5 LotN passive ability cooldown will carry on if the tower is sold and rebought.
Druid
Druid base price has been reduced slightly to fit it in a little better as a starter choice.
Top path has had a number of buffs to help with both price and consistency in control over regular bloons through higher tiers. Superstorm has had a rather big price buff, however to prevent it locking up games in a boring stall state the blowback distance against ZOMGs has been halved.
- 000 Druid price reduced from $425 -> 400
- 3xx Druid of the Storm price reduced from $1850 to 1650
- 4xx Ball Lightning's Storm blowback at T4 improved minimum 100 -> 150
- 4xx Ball Lightning's Storm blowback at T4 improved maximum 200 -> 250
- 4xx Ball Lightning's Storm pierce increased at T4 from 30 -> 60
- 4xx Ball Lightning price reduced from $5100 -> 4500
- 4xx Ball Lightning now has Cold Front MK freeze chance by default
- Cold Front MK now increases chance from 25% -> 100
- 5xx Superstorm price reduced $80k -> 65,000
- 5xx Superstorm blows back ZOMGs for half the distance
Monkey Village
To improve the consistency of Primary Expertise as a long range cleanup the attack rate has been increased.
- 5xx Primary Expertise attack delay 3s -> 2.5
Engineer
To add a bit of quality of life solving problems with trap needing to fill once before moving to target location, Bloontraps placed off-track never being able to fill, and maybe even to just add some interesting micro, any Bloontraps will now become expired after a short delay when their Engineer has a new target set.
- 014 Bloontrap: Picking new target expires current Bloontrap & places new one
Quincy
This upgrade didn’t have enough impact so late in the game and upgrade tree.
- Lv17 now increases Quincy Explosive Arrow frequently from every 3 -> 2 shots
Admiral Brickell
To help Brickell excel a little better at her thematic niche of water support, we have added a small permanent buff to all water in her radius to allow her to give them a bit of extra juice even during ability downtime. Additional minor buffs to her main slow-hard hitting revolver attack as she levels up.
- Lv8 Also grants a permanent +1 pierce to all water towers in radius
- Lv15 Revolver attack damage increased from 7 -> 9
- Lv17 Revolver attack damage increased from 7 -> 11
Looking Forward
Thanks for reading to the end! Along the lines of the Preview Notes and in an effort to share more about what we’re working on next, for BTD6 we’ll plan on including in each major update a few notes about what we’re working on next. We don’t mean to overshadow discussion and feedback on the current update - it’s most important for us to hear what you like and don’t like about what we’ve just released. But we do want to bridge what we included in an update with what the community might have wanted in the update but didn’t get, as maybe what you’re missing is exactly what we’re working on next. In the cases where what you’re keen on is not planned in the next update either, that’s where we can have more good discussions on Reddit and Discord, so looking forward to hearing from you there!
Notes below are our planning, not our promises. Features can be derailed for many reasons, so we won’t be talking dates or commitments, just about what we’re working on, and we hope that is understood and still valuable.
- Update 31
- New Hero - Geraldo the Mystic Shopkeeper! A dynamic and multipurpose support Hero, Geraldo adds items to his shop with each level gained. From Action Figures that gain value to Genie Bottles to pet bunnies that merge and morph, stay tuned for more news about Geraldo.
- New Boss - Vortex! Flying into BTD6 to speed Bloons and stun towers, Vortex will change up Boss strategies yet again!
- Expect a new beginner map, trophy store items, and the usual sweep of fixes and balance changes
- Other things in progress but need to see if they can land in the update - Hero Screen UI revisions, Twitch Drops, Ninja Kiwi Friends system, new Challenge victory conditions (least/target cash used; least/target upgrades used)
- Further Out
- These are elements that will not be in Update 31 but we’d like to see happen this year
- New Bosses and Paragons - we’re absolutely building out the variety here for more dynamic Boss events and Paragon options; Monkey Engineer is next on the Paragon list, representing the Support Category
- Contested Territory - we’re super excited to be thinking about bigger ways to play together and Contested Territory is a great model for making a large scale, team-centered, asynchronous Challenge; we’re not looking to make BMC inside BTD6, nor are we saying there won’t be the spiritual successor to BMC in the future; we just have a great event that is inspired by BMC and we’re digging into it
- Mods - in response to the many questions about Mods over the years and recent direct questions from Tewtiy and others, we are looking into the technical restructuring necessary to properly support Mods while keeping the integrity of the existing game intact, especially leaderboards; we’ll approach this from a multi-year, sequential goal perspective, starting with a Tower Editor/Creator first
Thanks for reading and we look forward to your feedback on Update 30 and our future plans.