Crossbow Master (BTD6): Difference between revisions

'''Crossbow Master''' is the {{BTD6|Dart Monkey}}'s path 3 tier 5 [[upgrade]] in ''[[Bloons TD 6]]''. The Dart Monkey gains +4 [[pierce]] (total of 8), +20 [[range]] (80 range, ~77.78% increase compared to base tier), +100% attack speed (0.2375s attack cooldown), +2 [[damage]] (total of 8), and the {{BTD6 dt|Normal}} damage type. Additionally, each crit does 80 damage per shot and occurs every 5th shot.

With Path 1 upgrades, [[Sharp Shots (BTD6)|Sharp Shots]] and [[Razor Sharp Shots (BTD6)|Razor Sharp Shots]] both grant +8 pierce each, the latter granting a total of +16 pierce; they have 16 and 24 pierce, respectively.

With {{BTD6 mk|Master Double Cross}}, the player is allowed to place or upgrade to a second Crossbow Master, allowing two Crossbow Masters on the field at the same time.

 

With {{BTD6 mk|Crossbow Reach}}, range is increased from 80 to 83.

Crossbow Master is one of the worst Tier 5 towers in general gameplay. On easier [[Beginner]] maps, it can carry a defense to round 80, yet too expensive for this role for how many weaknesses it has throughout the game. During the mid-game, it pierce caps too often versus Ceramics on dense rounds such as 63, not helped by the exact amount of damage it deals two-shotting them into Blues, creating many more Bloon clumps that severely worsen its cleanup. It relies heavily on straight lines, and can still miss even with optimal placement. Its value diminishes signficantly beginning on round 81 because of the high health of {{BTD6|Super Ceramic}}s. It falls off heavily on [[Advanced]] and [[Expert]] maps, and even some trickier [[Intermediate]] maps like [[Chutes]] and [[Rake]].

On Boss contexts, Crossbow Master is usually one of the lowest priority choices for accumulating pops for the [[Apex Plasma Master]], as the other two Dart T5's are better at accumulating pops despite fulfilling completely separate roles. Likewise, although {{BTD6 mk|Master Double Cross}} does boost the initial degree for an Apex Plasma Master, it can only boost up to 10 more degrees than normal for more cost than spamming many 2-3-0 [[Triple Shot (BTD6)|Triple Shot]], making this niche not impactful enough for Least Cash or Least Tiers Bosses, and often too unnecessary in [[Boss Rush]] where getting the Paragon earlier would generally be better.