Bloons TD 6 - Update Notes! Version 35.0
[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/zWyCqR1juZA]https://youtu.be/zWyCqR1juZA[/previewyoutube]
As an already highly niche tower, adding a little more niche than 'just ceramics' by helping Ultra-Juggernaut with a small amount of endgame DDT AoE. Also, we’re already fairly happy with the SMFC abilities, but at T4 it feels clunky and outdated that the ability can only influence a max of 10 dart monkeys at a time when casting the ability multiple times in quick succession from multiple T4s so we are removing that limitation. We discussed whether the SMFC change would reduce the specificity of which Monkeys are affected but the benefits seemed greater, so we’ll be looking for feedback from folks who enjoy dart multitude builds.
Upon closer inspection, Recursive Cluster has been hitting pierce in the 100’s, far more than was really intended for it so we are pulling back on this but adding in some fortified bonus to cancel out this large weakness the upgrade has.
We were unsure this rework would make it in at all until late and didnt want to mess around too much further before release, so we plan to make further refinements to the numbers in order to bring power properly in line with what we would like - however the long awaited mechanic rework for Relentless & Super Glue is here and we feel it is a promising start. Relentless Glue now brings some AoE stun on layer popping and glue track puddles has been reworked into a dps enhancement for the top path Bloon Solver instead of a hyper niche bottom path stalling bonus (the more ceramics the merrier!). Glue Gunner has also had a number of price changes aimed at improving the middle path / crosspathing while avoiding improving MOAB Glue. We’ve already found interesting uses for the top path change so keen to hear about your cool use cases.
While there is some level of strategic placement to the 420 crosspath, Maim MOAB has high effectiveness for unlimited range slowing without any necessary spam use so is seeing a small price increase with a larger reduction on the T5 cost. Bouncing bullet synergises too effectively with some buffs too early, and we don’t want to raise the price here and make the saveup from T2 to 3 any more tedious so the number of bounces is going down but remaining unchanged at T4. Full Auto Rifle gains 1 more MOAB damage bonus to improve it as a stepping stone into the T5.
You guys seem to think this would be nice, so here it is.
You asked for it (and we’ve always wanted it), so … our first Paragon Synergy!
While we wanted to initially ensure general farming achievability of the (still very high) price compared to how good we actually felt the Doomship was due to the target goal of giving it an intentional ability niche and the jump it would be as most expensive paragon, but after seeing the results of its power we're happy to take this up now
ComCom is both lacking in pierce damage, and favors the 105 crosspath more than we’d like. This goal for this change is to improve the overall single target power for the missile AoE without such a high pierce number, with only a smaller damage buff for the main darts so existing pierce benefits that can be applied for the main attack remain valuable
While admittedly difficult to handle at T3, the recent changes made to attempt to give Buckshot an easier growth into BADS overall backfired and were a failure. Looking back, the difficult T3 required attention but was still not bad if used correctly and the improved handling at T4 was far worth this effort in the end. That seemed fine enough before and we don't like how it has ended up so walking those changes back. We have to admit when we miss and thanks for continued discussion on bottom path.
Arcane Spike is seeing 1 damage shifted from MOAB bonus to regular damage to improve layer skipping issues. Dragon’s Breath range is being fixed to actually match the tower radius, but now xx2 crosspath will also improve range and can bring it back to what it was. Necromancer strategies are very dependent on where your Zombie Bloons spawn which would enable more strategies with more range, but then too much range is very harmful making the spawn location difficult to place & forcing you to often place these towers in silly locations which makes the shimmer not work well. Allowing Necro to select a spawn point addresses this issue and we hope provides some interesting micro uses, so please share any cool ones.
We want the base Super Monkey to feel like more of a ‘weak for the cost’ stepping stone into T3s that feel more like T4s; but the base upgrade really does feel very outdated on this idea, and big crosspath problems exist due to this so we are moving some attack speed out from 2xx into the base upgrade. Robo path T3 feels a little too expensive compared to bottom path’s, and the T5’s ability doesn’t feel like enough of a step up from T4 for the much greater cost it has so some adjustments are also being made here, as after all this is Super Monkey, right?
Ninja's x5x ability side-benefit of buffing all x3x ninja doesn't quite pack enough punch
Permanent Brew is strong in the right use, but just to let it live up to more of its potential without requiring a chinook we are improving its range. Transforming Tonic has been compared to being a worse but more expensive Turbo Charge, and that seems like a fair complaint. T5 has good niche uses, but T4 isn't worth the cost right now so we’re adding more juice to the tonic.
Many people seem to feel that moving to a big damage bonus on the basic main attack has lost this tower's identity in the vines. We are reworking this a little, with the main attack & Bramble piles having their damage contributions tweaked to have value over multiple x4xs but not far exceeding them on the main attack anymore, and the main actual increase in DPS output is being shifted into the small center track vine damage zone in hopes of making placement more impactful.
For sake of consistency we want Monkey Bank to increase in cash generation when used with sources that externally buff generation so everything works as expected, however along with this buff the current power of IMF loan on this path already feels too strong so we are lowering that power for IMF Loan in exchange.
Spiked Mines explosion radius doesn’t hit too much since it’s almost always centered just in front of the ‘first bloon in a pack’ to hit it in most effective use cases, and Super Mines price is coming down a little to pull it slightly forward into more challenge viability. We also felt like a massive ceramic bonus on Super Mines could both help it annihilate super ceramics, and give it fun niche uses against ceramics in general for challenges and Bosses. Carpet of Spikes still fails to see love over multiple T4's, so rather than making it cheaper we like an all-round increase to the MOAB bonus.
Village Call To Arms doesn't have a place in current high level meta gameplay as grouped clusters of equal towers are never really ideal. As it stands, the village radius is not a large enough area to get lots of benefit to all of the towers that you would be spreading out and maintain any uptime on them. A seemingly huge change but perhaps not in practical use, so we will be looking for feedback on this and whether this reduces placement skill or the need for multiple Villages.
Sentry Champion’s pierce crosspath does not feel like it has enough of an edge to compete with the deconstruction crosspath. Engineer Ultraboost is limited to viable use in high-farming situations due to its cost, and while the buff is great when applied to strong towers, we find it too expensive for an upgrade that only adds a buff to other towers, especially in games where cost is the primary focus.
For now with a noteworthy direct comparison to Brickell and the use cases for these two heroes we have done a price swap keeping the lesser of the two at the lower price point. However as 750 would put gwen on the same cost as Striker Jones and we want starts with base 4 heroes to stay more diverse we have taken her down a little extra on top of that.
As the upper end of heroes have crept up and up for awhile now, we want to reign in some of these top heroes slowly. Church’s pierce at all levels is going down to make his absolute coverage of ceramic children harder
Since his addition to the game Pat Fusty has been a very strong top tier hero between his powerful roar buff and ability to stall large groups of strong targets for a long time. This feels slightly out of hand (couldn’t resist), so we’re taking his slap attack’s pierce down at all levels to reduce this stalling potential without changing the buff.
Brickell has shown exceptional high level performance, while not fitting in as any intended strong early solo carry. Her base cost has been increased so she won’t come into early play, and Lv20 Mega Mine is having its damage taken down to not quite decimate late game somuch. In return she will have much more pierce, and as it is mainly a niche utility we also want Blast Chain to be available more often.
Psi felt too easily able to keep up with early waves given their strong endgame, and given the improved attack rate was then unchanged from level 2 to 20, we have shuffled around the Lv2 and Lv5 upgrades to address this. Psi from Lv5 onwards is unchanged from before.
We just wanted to give some QoL
We feel like the T3 Lych health/difficulty sticks out as a larger obstacle compared to other bosses, and other tiers of Lych, so we are lowering the multiple T3 health values
Elite Bloonarius’ ‘bleed’ Bloons effect becomes heavily outscaled in the higher elite tiers, dissolving into the stratosphere before having any meaningful impact. To correct, we are improving the types of Bloons that come out at these points to maintain appropriate Bossness.
The forced slowdown of Dreadbloon during the ceramic shielded phase has caused a lot more games to end due to running out of time, with average players seeing this as a rest period. We are reducing the amount of slowdown at all tiers to raise up the threat level more in this phase.
New Zealand has had a heck of a start to the year, with record breaking rain that brought flooding to large parts of Auckland and Cyclone Gabrielle then tearing through two weeks later. Ninja Kiwi’s Auckland office was again flooded, so the BTD6 team is back working from home and yet again delivering updates under exceptional circumstances. We are weary and wary of work from home after Covid lockdowns, but we continue to hope for remnants of southern hemisphere summer and to put all of our creative energy into great updates and new features, so we hope you enjoy update 35.0 and are excited about what’s ahead.
As we said last year, this is our planning, not our promises. We’ve started the year with even more granular planning with wider input across the team, and still things won’t always pan out. We appreciate your patience and understanding when that happens!
New Awesome
- New Hero Skin: Kaiju Pat
- The Bloons are already frightened by Pat’s immense stature, so wait until they encounter his monstrous Kaiju form! Art team inspiration made this one come to life, and yes it does feel great in co-op games with Sentai Churchill. And in High Finance! Kaiju Pat plays even better with Big Monkey Towers, so if you don’t have that in your main menu Settings Extras, this is a great excuse to go get the Chunky Monkey Achievement.
- 2 New Maps
- Middle of the Road - is it wrong that we like the desert ghost town setting? Somewhere before the End of the Road, this beginner map takes the Bloons on a good long mosey around town.
- Dark Dungeons - this community designed 200k Reddit competition winner certainly lives up to the challenge of making a hard map. Added to the Expert category, we changed the proportions for gameplay, riffed on the statue idea, and added traps as any dungeon needs but hopefully did justice to the inspired original submission by u/Lars_Overwick.
- New Trophy Store Items
- Heroes: Biker Bones Infernal Rift placement & upgrade animation - we had fun with this one!
- Monkeys: Sniper Chameleon pet, no camouflaging that cuteness!
- Game & UI: Banner 26 - Glue Storm banner, Avatar 69 Bloonarius, Avatar 70 Studious Patch, Avatar 71 Just A Little Monkey, Avatar 72 Happy Banana Farmer
- Competition Winning items
- Banner 27 - Wizard Lord Phoenix banner by u/Flipp_Flopps
- Banner 28 - Farm Chicken banner by u/WhereThighs
- New CT Team Store items
- Base Props: Cosy Beanbag Monkey
- Icons: Year of the Rabbit icon, Buzzy Bee icon
- Frames: Year of the Rabbit frame, A Kiwi Summer frame
Game Changes / Additions
- Round 100 & every 100 rounds Instamonkey rewards now reflect the game mode for Primary/Military/Magic only modes, granting an instamonkey for that same category. We’re still looking for more ways to focus instamonkey rewards, and we’re hoping this helps improve some collections
- Boss Speed/Health edits have event modifier icons
- From v35 onwards a pseudo-offline mode can now be selected to continue playing if you are unable to update to the latest game version - this has been a much requested feature so we’re pleased that it’s in!
- Added ‘Damage Done To Bosses’ profile stat
- Added Jukebox shuffle option to the in-game pause menu, also with jukebox enabled songs are now shuffled once on entering a map and stay in that new order until you exit and start a new game - another much requested feature and we love it, too, so keep up the feedback, it really does help!
- Added a spicy new indicator to the main menu background for when a boss event is active - so spice
- Added a Retry Last Round ‘continue’ option for CT & Boss for a MM cost with no bonus cash granted.
- Improved co-op stability - this was on our list for later this year but we were able to dedicate time to it now and from our testing have improved the game experience in normal gameplay and Boss Events, so we look forward to feedback here. Note there is still a slowdown issue that can occur, so if your game does appear to be running slowly especially with fast forward on, try turning FF off and on again to see if it stabilizes at the correct speed. We know that sounds like an IT support joke, but don’t tell us you don’t do this regularly on your own device/rig. Anyway, hoping you’ll see co-op stability improvement, and we’ll keep working on more stability and to fix that slowdown!
Bug Fixes & General Changes
- A number of localization fixes
- A number of device/resolution specific UI fixes
- Resolved a minor rounding error in freeplay HP formula
- Resolved some crashes that could occur due to network issues
- Resolved an issue where challenges using a specific hero could also force the skin
- Advanced Search in Team Browser will now save when something is unchecked
- A number of description updates for different Towers and Heroes
- Small Monkeys mode now again works for all Air Towers
- "Event ends in" timer no longer displays incorrectly when race or boss leaderboards are viewed from the victory panel after playing the race/boss event
- Boss Event - Dreadbloon will no longer spawn primary immune Rock Bloons when loading a freshly spawned boss save
- Boss Event - Dreadbloon Ceramic Shield now correctly scales with playercount
- Boss Event - Dreadbloon no longer moves at full speed after loading into a save with an active armored state
- Boss Event - Reloading a Dreadbloon save should no longer show ceramic armor visually when the boss is not actually armored
- Boss Event - Top 50% badge now has a description
- Odyssey Event - Resolved an Odyssey creation verification skip that could occur
- Contested Territory Event - Air and Sea relic now displays the correct reduced prices on all difficulties
- Contested Territory Event - Corrected CT recap display order to match timestamps
- Dart Monkey Snowballs trophy item now shows critical snowballs instead of darts on crits for xx4
- 3xx Spiked Balls no long bounce back from the top of the stairs aiming down on Midnight Mansion
- Patched this out of the game https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/751258548217970712/1046645803722219560/djsdu8ghwenmat.gif
- xx5 Elite Defender now displays art assets for its buff state
- x4x MOAB Takedown will no longer crash when attempting to hook Rock Bloons
- Ace ‘centered path' markers now visually update immediately after setting new points
- xx2 Resolved an issue where reversing flight path before purchasing Centered Path would prevent the centered path target from flying in the correct direction
- Resolved an issue with Door Gunner ignoring helipads as blocking objects for dropoffs
- Heli 'patrol point' markers now visually update immediately after setting new points
- Resolved a number of projectile size inconsistencies across tiers & crosspaths
- xx4 Necromancer; resolved a crash that could occur with 2 or more necromancers on certain maps
- 4xx and 5xx Super Monkey again show cash earned counters after producing cash
- xx3 Lead to Gold lead damage bonus will now correctly apply to Dreadbloon’s Lead layer
- x4x IMF loan name corrected to IMF Loan
- Resolved a bug that caused Collecting All from multiple x3x Banks or higher to only target repayment back towards a single active IMF Loan
- Candy Corn and Christmas Present trophy skins can no longer be selected at the same time since only one can apply
- 1xx Sentries will again correctly place on Covered Gardens
- xx4 Blawntarp should benefit correct from xx3 Village’s cash increase
- xx4 Bloontrap cash earned stat in all game modes should now account for Half Cash/ CHIMPS / cash that would have been earned from the base pop
- Lv10 Wall of Trees cash earned stat in all game modes should now account for Half Cash/ CHIMPS / cash that would have been earned from the base pop
- Resolved a rare crash that could occur with Etienne’s Drone Swarm
- Resolved some visual issues with dart monkeys converted to super monkeys by worn heroes cape
Platform Specific fixes
- Steam: Game no longer crashes when spamming the ESC key from the trophy store
Balance Changes
Dart MonkeyAs an already highly niche tower, adding a little more niche than 'just ceramics' by helping Ultra-Juggernaut with a small amount of endgame DDT AoE. Also, we’re already fairly happy with the SMFC abilities, but at T4 it feels clunky and outdated that the ability can only influence a max of 10 dart monkeys at a time when casting the ability multiple times in quick succession from multiple T4s so we are removing that limitation. We discussed whether the SMFC change would reduce the specificity of which Monkeys are affected but the benefits seemed greater, so we’ll be looking for feedback from folks who enjoy dart multitude builds.
- 5xx Ultra-Juggernaut mini-balls ceramic damage bonus increased 2 > 3
- 5xx Ultra Juggernaut main projectile now deals bonus damage to lead +20
- x4x SMFC multiple simultaneous ability uses is no longer limited to 10 maximum conversions
Upon closer inspection, Recursive Cluster has been hitting pierce in the 100’s, far more than was really intended for it so we are pulling back on this but adding in some fortified bonus to cancel out this large weakness the upgrade has.
- xx4 Recursive Cluster second cluster pierce multiplier x6 > x3
- xx4 Recursive Cluster gains bonus damage to Fortified +1
- xx5 Bomb Blitz gains bonus damage to Fortified +5
We were unsure this rework would make it in at all until late and didnt want to mess around too much further before release, so we plan to make further refinements to the numbers in order to bring power properly in line with what we would like - however the long awaited mechanic rework for Relentless & Super Glue is here and we feel it is a promising start. Relentless Glue now brings some AoE stun on layer popping and glue track puddles has been reworked into a dps enhancement for the top path Bloon Solver instead of a hyper niche bottom path stalling bonus (the more ceramics the merrier!). Glue Gunner has also had a number of price changes aimed at improving the middle path / crosspathing while avoiding improving MOAB Glue. We’ve already found interesting uses for the top path change so keen to hear about your cool use cases.
- 5xx The Bloon Solver upon destroying a Bloon now drops puddles of acid on the track that deal 1 pierce of 20 damage to whatever hits it (we will likely lower damage but increase pierce to help improve crosspathing of the pools)
- x2x Glue Splatter price reduced from $1800 > 1650
- x3x Glue Hose price reduced from $2900 > 2500
- x4x Glue strike price reduced from $3850 > 3450
- x5x Glue Storm duration increased from 15s -> 20
- xx1 Stickier Glue price increased from 120 > 280
- xx4 Relentless Glue no longer drops any puddles on the track
- xx4 Relentless Glue on any glued layer popping stuns Bloons (non-moabs) in the area with a small splat (pierce 3, radius 12, 0.5s duration)
- xx5 Super Glue on any glued layer popping stuns any Bloons or MOABs in the area with a small splat (pierce 3, radius 12, 0.5s duration)
While there is some level of strategic placement to the 420 crosspath, Maim MOAB has high effectiveness for unlimited range slowing without any necessary spam use so is seeing a small price increase with a larger reduction on the T5 cost. Bouncing bullet synergises too effectively with some buffs too early, and we don’t want to raise the price here and make the saveup from T2 to 3 any more tedious so the number of bounces is going down but remaining unchanged at T4. Full Auto Rifle gains 1 more MOAB damage bonus to improve it as a stepping stone into the T5.
- 4xx Maim MOAB price increased from $5000 > 5400
- 5xx Cripple MOAB price reduced from $34,000 > 32,000
- x3x Bouncing Bullets bounce pierce 4 -> 3
- x4x Supply Drop bounce pierce remains 4 (unchanged)
- xx4 Full Auto Rifle moab bonus increased from 1 > 2
- xx5 Elite Defender moab bonus remains at 2
You guys seem to think this would be nice, so here it is.
- x5x First Strike main ballistic attack splash radius increased from 18 > 24
You asked for it (and we’ve always wanted it), so … our first Paragon Synergy!
- Navach of the Seas buff to Monkey Ace attack speed now applies to the Goliath Doomship
While we wanted to initially ensure general farming achievability of the (still very high) price compared to how good we actually felt the Doomship was due to the target goal of giving it an intentional ability niche and the jump it would be as most expensive paragon, but after seeing the results of its power we're happy to take this up now
- Goliath Doomship price increased from $800,000 > 900,000
ComCom is both lacking in pierce damage, and favors the 105 crosspath more than we’d like. This goal for this change is to improve the overall single target power for the missile AoE without such a high pierce number, with only a smaller damage buff for the main darts so existing pierce benefits that can be applied for the main attack remain valuable
- xx4 Comanche Defense missile pierce reduced from 100 > 80
- xx5 Comanche Commander dart damage 3 > 4
- xx5 Comanche Commander missile damage 3 > 7
- xx5 Comanche Commander missile moab bonus 2 > 5
- xx5 Comanche Commander mini's missile dmg 2 > 5
- xx5 Comanche Commander mini's missile moab bonus 2 > 5
While admittedly difficult to handle at T3, the recent changes made to attempt to give Buckshot an easier growth into BADS overall backfired and were a failure. Looking back, the difficult T3 required attention but was still not bad if used correctly and the improved handling at T4 was far worth this effort in the end. That seemed fine enough before and we don't like how it has ended up so walking those changes back. We have to admit when we miss and thanks for continued discussion on bottom path.
- xx3 Buckshot pierce reduced from 6 > 4
- xx4 BADS cost reduced $16000 > $12000
- xx5 BEZ cost increased $54000 > $58000
Arcane Spike is seeing 1 damage shifted from MOAB bonus to regular damage to improve layer skipping issues. Dragon’s Breath range is being fixed to actually match the tower radius, but now xx2 crosspath will also improve range and can bring it back to what it was. Necromancer strategies are very dependent on where your Zombie Bloons spawn which would enable more strategies with more range, but then too much range is very harmful making the spawn location difficult to place & forcing you to often place these towers in silly locations which makes the shimmer not work well. Allowing Necro to select a spawn point addresses this issue and we hope provides some interesting micro uses, so please share any cool ones.
- 4xx Arcane Spike damage increased 5 > 6
- 4xx Arcane Spike moab bonus reduced 11 > 10
- x3x Dragon's Breath flame attack matches tower range properly > 40
- xx2 Monkey Sense increases wizard range from 40 > 50
- xx3 Shimmer range remains unchanged at 60
- xx4 Necromancer gains a spawn point target for zombies that the player can set
We want the base Super Monkey to feel like more of a ‘weak for the cost’ stepping stone into T3s that feel more like T4s; but the base upgrade really does feel very outdated on this idea, and big crosspath problems exist due to this so we are moving some attack speed out from 2xx into the base upgrade. Robo path T3 feels a little too expensive compared to bottom path’s, and the T5’s ability doesn’t feel like enough of a step up from T4 for the much greater cost it has so some adjustments are also being made here, as after all this is Super Monkey, right?
- 000 Base attack speed increased from 0.06s > 0.045
- 2xx Plasma Blasts attack speed remains the same 0.045 > 0.03
- x3x Robo Monkey price decreased $8000 > 7000
- x5x Ability damage increased from 5200 > 10400
- x5x Ability crit damage increased from 7,800 > 15,600
- x5x Ability pierce reduced to 2000
Ninja's x5x ability side-benefit of buffing all x3x ninja doesn't quite pack enough punch
- x5x Grand Sabo buff range bonus increased 5 > 10
- x5x Grand Sabo buff moab bonus increased 1 > 2
Permanent Brew is strong in the right use, but just to let it live up to more of its potential without requiring a chinook we are improving its range. Transforming Tonic has been compared to being a worse but more expensive Turbo Charge, and that seems like a fair complaint. T5 has good niche uses, but T4 isn't worth the cost right now so we’re adding more juice to the tonic.
- 5xx Permabrew range increased 45 > 65
- x4x Transformation transformed alchemist damage 2 > 3
Many people seem to feel that moving to a big damage bonus on the basic main attack has lost this tower's identity in the vines. We are reworking this a little, with the main attack & Bramble piles having their damage contributions tweaked to have value over multiple x4xs but not far exceeding them on the main attack anymore, and the main actual increase in DPS output is being shifted into the small center track vine damage zone in hopes of making placement more impactful.
- x5x Spirit of the Forest base attack damage reduced from 20 > 6
- x5x Spirit of the Forest bramble vine refresh rate increased from 0.3s > 0.1
- x5x Spirit of the Forest bramble vine lifespan increased from 4.5s > 9
- x5x Spirit of the Forest closest track ring moab/ceram bonus 20 > 30
For sake of consistency we want Monkey Bank to increase in cash generation when used with sources that externally buff generation so everything works as expected, however along with this buff the current power of IMF loan on this path already feels too strong so we are lowering that power for IMF Loan in exchange.
- x3x Monkey Bank will now increase in cash generation with external buffs
- x4x IMF Loan cash granted $10,000 > 9000
- Backroom Deals monkey knowledge IMF Loan bonus cash reduced from 2000 > 1000
- xx5 Monkey Wall Street range increased from 40 > 60
Spiked Mines explosion radius doesn’t hit too much since it’s almost always centered just in front of the ‘first bloon in a pack’ to hit it in most effective use cases, and Super Mines price is coming down a little to pull it slightly forward into more challenge viability. We also felt like a massive ceramic bonus on Super Mines could both help it annihilate super ceramics, and give it fun niche uses against ceramics in general for challenges and Bosses. Carpet of Spikes still fails to see love over multiple T4's, so rather than making it cheaper we like an all-round increase to the MOAB bonus.
- 4xx spiked mines explosion radius increased 19 > 30
- 5xx Super Mines small explosion radius increased 20 > 30
- 5xx Super Mines price reduced from $150,000 -> 125,000
- 5xx Super Mines DoT damage increased from 500 > 1000
- 5xx Super Mines spikes ceramic bonus 20 > 30
- 5xx Super Mines mini explode ceramic bonus 10 > 15
- 5xx Super Mines big explode ceramic bonus 0 > 500
- x5x Carpet of Spikes base attack moab bonus 4 > 5
- x5x Carpet of Spikes passive ability moab bonus 4 > 5
- x5x Carpet of Spikes ability moab bonus 4 > 5
Village Call To Arms doesn't have a place in current high level meta gameplay as grouped clusters of equal towers are never really ideal. As it stands, the village radius is not a large enough area to get lots of benefit to all of the towers that you would be spreading out and maintain any uptime on them. A seemingly huge change but perhaps not in practical use, so we will be looking for feedback on this and whether this reduces placement skill or the need for multiple Villages.
- x4x Call to Arms ability influence increased from Radius > Map
Sentry Champion’s pierce crosspath does not feel like it has enough of an edge to compete with the deconstruction crosspath. Engineer Ultraboost is limited to viable use in high-farming situations due to its cost, and while the buff is great when applied to strong towers, we find it too expensive for an upgrade that only adds a buff to other towers, especially in games where cost is the primary focus.
- 501 Sentry Champion turret pierce increased 6 > 7
- x5x Ultraboost price reduced from $105,000 > 72,000
For now with a noteworthy direct comparison to Brickell and the use cases for these two heroes we have done a price swap keeping the lesser of the two at the lower price point. However as 750 would put gwen on the same cost as Striker Jones and we want starts with base 4 heroes to stay more diverse we have taken her down a little extra on top of that.
- Gwendolin price reduced from $900 > 725
As the upper end of heroes have crept up and up for awhile now, we want to reign in some of these top heroes slowly. Church’s pierce at all levels is going down to make his absolute coverage of ceramic children harder
- Lv1 Pierce per explosion reduced from 15 > 12
Since his addition to the game Pat Fusty has been a very strong top tier hero between his powerful roar buff and ability to stall large groups of strong targets for a long time. This feels slightly out of hand (couldn’t resist), so we’re taking his slap attack’s pierce down at all levels to reduce this stalling potential without changing the buff.
- Lv5 Slap knockback pierce reduced from 10 > 8
- Lv15 Slap knockback pierce reduced from 20 > 16
Brickell has shown exceptional high level performance, while not fitting in as any intended strong early solo carry. Her base cost has been increased so she won’t come into early play, and Lv20 Mega Mine is having its damage taken down to not quite decimate late game somuch. In return she will have much more pierce, and as it is mainly a niche utility we also want Blast Chain to be available more often.
- Admiral Brickell price increased from $750 > 900
- Lv7 Blast Chain ability cooldown reduced from 60s > 45
- Lv20 Brickell Mega Mine damage reduced from 15,000 > 11,000
- Lv20 Brickell Mega Mine pierce increased from 100 > 150
Psi felt too easily able to keep up with early waves given their strong endgame, and given the improved attack rate was then unchanged from level 2 to 20, we have shuffled around the Lv2 and Lv5 upgrades to address this. Psi from Lv5 onwards is unchanged from before.
- Lv2 No longer increases attack speed from 1 > 0.85
- Lv2 Now increases Bloon destruction rate from 0.2 > 0.15
- Lv5 No longer increases Bloon destruction rate from 0.2 > 0.15
- Lv5 Now increases attack speed from 1 > 0.85
We just wanted to give some QoL
- For quality of life all of Geraldo’s temporary buff effects will now display buff icons to their applied tower with stack count numbers representing their remaining round durations.
We feel like the T3 Lych health/difficulty sticks out as a larger obstacle compared to other bosses, and other tiers of Lych, so we are lowering the multiple T3 health values
- T3 Lych HP reduced 245000 > 220,000
- T3 Mini Lych HP reduced 7900 > 7000
- T3 Elite Lych HP reduced 1,200,000 > 1,100,000
- T3 Elite Mini Lych HP reduced 27,000 > 25,000
Elite Bloonarius’ ‘bleed’ Bloons effect becomes heavily outscaled in the higher elite tiers, dissolving into the stratosphere before having any meaningful impact. To correct, we are improving the types of Bloons that come out at these points to maintain appropriate Bossness.
- T4 Elite Bloonarious bleed changed 25 ceramics > 12 moabs
- T5 Elite Bloonarious bleed changed MOABs > DDTs
The forced slowdown of Dreadbloon during the ceramic shielded phase has caused a lot more games to end due to running out of time, with average players seeing this as a rest period. We are reducing the amount of slowdown at all tiers to raise up the threat level more in this phase.
- All Normal Tiers slow amount during shield 0.2 > 0.3
- All Elite Tiers slow amount during shield 0.2 > 0.35
Looking Forward for 2023
New Zealand has had a heck of a start to the year, with record breaking rain that brought flooding to large parts of Auckland and Cyclone Gabrielle then tearing through two weeks later. Ninja Kiwi’s Auckland office was again flooded, so the BTD6 team is back working from home and yet again delivering updates under exceptional circumstances. We are weary and wary of work from home after Covid lockdowns, but we continue to hope for remnants of southern hemisphere summer and to put all of our creative energy into great updates and new features, so we hope you enjoy update 35.0 and are excited about what’s ahead.
As we said last year, this is our planning, not our promises. We’ve started the year with even more granular planning with wider input across the team, and still things won’t always pan out. We appreciate your patience and understanding when that happens!
- Update 36.0
- Beast Handler: we’ve done a major revamp to the Beast Handler’s UI and beast mechanics for ease of use - still in deep testing and balancing
- Quest System: making its debut for Beast Handler’s unlock, plus additional story quests if time
- Polyphemus map: tying in with both Beast Handler and Lotus Island; Monkdysseus’ journey continues!
- Wizard Paragon
- It is simply too much art and testing to put a new Monkey Tower and a new Paragon into the same update, so Wizard must wait until update 37.0; we know you have been waiting ages for this but the concept art on this is worth it!
- Map Editor
- Great progress already underway on this, with placeable objects and water terrain already working
- Scoping this for an Octoberish release so we have most of the year on it
- Console
- Work from home is having the biggest impact on console but we are making progress toward Xbox submission, with PlayStation following closely
- Other Goals
- New Hero: several ideas in consideration here, for the latter part of the year
- Paragons: one more after Wizard Magus Perfectus
- Bosses: one new Boss plus new victory conditions like Least Tiers and Least Cash to mix up the focus of play (and yes arbitration of ties)
- Teams: one new event, with a completely different cadence and feel to Contested Territories, based on aggregated damage
- Contested Territories: adding themes to CT events, to lean further into certain rules, Bloons, and/or maps
- Creators: looking to expand the Nexus program to more creators in the front half of this year
