Damage type

Damage types are a game mechanic in the Bloons TD series and in Bloons Pop!. They are a property of damage that determines which types of Bloons the damage can or cannot be dealt to. This mechanic was introduced in the mobile versions of Bloons TD 5, Bloons TD Battles, and Bloons Monkey City as a way of standardising the immunity system used in the Flash versions of these games and in all prior games.

Bloons TD series

Bloons TD 5 (mobile / console) / Bloons TD Battles (multiplatform) / Bloons Monkey City (multiplatform)

Extra damage to Ceramic Bloons and extra damage to MOAB-Class Bloons use separate damage types that can only deal damage to those Bloons. For example, MOAB Mauler's explosion deals 1 Explosive damage and 9 MOABMauler damage, so it deals 1 damage to regular Bloons and 10 damage to MOAB-Class Bloons. Due to a bug, attacks with multiple damage types increase the tower's pop count multiple times.

In BTD5 and BMC (but not BTD Battles), MIB allows Juggernaut damage to apply to MOAB-Class Bloons and allows MOABMauler damage to apply to Ceramic Bloons. This does not apply to the Spike Factory in BMC except for Spike Storm.

Type	Regular	Black	White	Lead	Frozen	Ceramic	MOAB-Class
Piercing
Fire
Explosive
Ice
Plasma
Foam
Juggernaut
MOABMauler

Bloons TD 6

Type				Frozen			Notes
Sharp							Sharpening Stone and Flint Tips only apply to projectiles that deal Sharp-type damage. The former is only usable on towers that use Sharp-type projectiles. The Flint Tips Relic Knowledge causes Sharp damage to apply a damage over time effect. Also creates chain lightning from hit Bloons with Galvanic Conduit's second combo effect.
Shatter							Also deals more damage to Bloons affected by Silas's Rime. Also creates chain lightning from hit Bloons with Galvanic Conduit's second combo effect.
Explosion							Also deals more damage to Dynamite Bloons.
Fire							Also deals more damage to Dynamite Bloons and Bloons haunted by Corvus. Also adds more heat than normal projectiles to Blastapopoulos.
Cold							While Cold and Glacier damage is able to pop frozen Bloons by default, both the Ice Monkey and Cold Sentry are unable to target or damage frozen Bloons. The Ice Monkey can only target and pop frozen with Re-Freeze; Monkey Intelligence Bureau cannot override it. Also deals more damage to Bloons affected by Herald of Everfrost's Snowstorm Roar or Silas's Rime. Also reduces heat from Blastapopoulos.
Glacier
Frigid							Also deals more damage to Bloons affected by Corvus' Haunt, Herald of Everfrost's Snowstorm Roar, or Silas's Rime. Also adds more heat than normal projectiles to Blastapopoulos (though most projectiles that deal Frigid-type damage have special interactions with Blastapopoulos's heat).
Energy							Also deals more damage to Bloons haunted by Corvus. Also adds more heat than normal projectiles to Blastapopoulos. Bloons with Galvanic Conduit's first combo effect attract Energy and Plasma projectiles. Also creates lightning from Bloons hit in range of Stormwrath Archon's lightning rods.
Plasma
Acid							—
Normal							—

Damage types applied by towers

Main article: List of towers and upgrades in BTD6 by damage type

Type	Regular monkeys	Heroes
Sharp	Dart Monkey, Boomerang Monkey, Tack Shooter, Dartling Gunner, Monkey Ace, Ninja Monkey, Heli Pilot, Bomb Shooter, Skywarden, Engineer Monkey, Druid, Sniper Monkey, Monkey Buccaneer, Monkey Sub, Super Monkey, Desperado, Spike Factory, Beast Handler	Quincy, Obyn Greenfoot, Captain Churchill, Admiral Brickell, Etienne, Sauda, Dan D'Monke
Shatter	Dart Monkey, Ice Monkey, Dartling Gunner, Mermonkey, Engineer Monkey, Monkey Sub, Desperado, Tack Shooter, Beast Handler	Sauda, Silas
Explosion	Bomb Shooter, Mortar Monkey, Monkey Sub, Monkey Buccaneer, Dartling Gunner, Monkey Ace, Engineer Monkey, Heli Pilot, Wizard Monkey	Quincy, Striker Jones, Captain Churchill, Admiral Brickell, Etienne, Rosalia
Fire	Tack Shooter, Wizard Monkey, Mortar Monkey, Monkey Buccaneer, Desperado	Gwendolin
Cold	Ice Monkey, Engineer Monkey
Glacier	Ice Monkey	Silas
Frigid	Mermonkey, Skywarden, Druid	Silas
Energy	Wizard Monkey, Dartling Gunner, Heli Pilot, Super Monkey, Engineer Monkey, Skywarden, Beast Handler	Geraldo, Rosalia, Dan D'Monke
Plasma	Wizard Monkey, Druid, Super Monkey, Skywarden, Dart Monkey, Mermonkey, Dartling Gunner, Heli Pilot, Engineer Monkey, Alchemist	Obyn Greenfoot, Adora, Dan D'Monke
Acid	Glue Gunner, Alchemist
Normal	Boomerang Monkey, Druid, Monkey Ace, Heli Pilot, Dartling Gunner, Sniper Monkey, Monkey Sub, Mortar Monkey, Super Monkey, Ninja Monkey, Alchemist, Desperado, Dart Monkey, Spike Factory, Beast Handler	Gwendolin, Obyn Greenfoot, Captain Churchill, Admiral Brickell, Sauda, Dan D'Monke

Changes between updates

• Prior to version 25.0 of BTD6, the Cold and Glacier types worked differently:
  • Cold could not pop frozen by default, while Glacier could.
  • Both types could pop Lead by default, but the Ice Monkey's attack had a special property that caused it to ignore Lead Bloons unless buffed.
• The Frigid type was introduced in version 45.0, while its name was first revealed in version 48.0 update notes.
• Plasma and Fire were originally functionally identical and treated as the same damage type by the game's data. In version 52.0, they were separated to allow for different interactions with Glass Bloons (Fire can pop them but Plasma does not) and Dynamite Bloons (Take +1 damage from Fire, Plasma works as normal).
• Normal and Acid were also originally functionally identical and treated as the same damage type by the game's data. In version 53.0, they were separated to allow for different interactions with Glass Bloons (Normal can pop them but Acid does not).

Technical information

Internally, damage and Bloons in BTD6 use bit fields to represent immunities. Damage uses a variable named immuneBloonProperties that lists the Bloon properties that are immune to it, while Bloons use a variable named bloonProperties that lists which properties it has the immunities of. Every damage type maps to a specific set of bits in immuneBloonProperties; the vanilla game never uses combinations of immuneBloonProperties that do not have a corresponding damage type. The game files serialize these bit fields as 32-bit integers.

Plasma and Energy were equivalent to 8 and 9 prior to version 52.0, which made the former functionally identical to the Fire type. Acid was equivalent to 0 prior to version 53.0, which made it functionally identical to the Normal type.

Bloon properties

Immunity	Bit index	Integer value
None	0	0
Lead	1	1
Black	2	2
White	3	4
Purple	4	8
Frozen	5	16
Immune	6	32
Glass	7	64

Damage types

Type	Value
Normal	0
Shatter	1
Explosion	2
Glacier	4
Cold	5
Fire	8
Frigid	12
Sharp	17
Acid	64
Plasma	72
Energy	73

Some attacks have a property that prevents targeting Bloons with specific immunity unless the attacks can damage them. For example, Psi's level 6 and 11 upgrades allow targeting of Lead Bloons and Purple Bloons, respectively, and before those levels needs a buff such as Monkey Intelligence Bureau or certain Relic Knowledge (i.e. Alchemist Touch and Royal Treatment, respectively) to target them. Frozen immunity is the only immunity that has no external buff that lets a non-targeting attack bypass the immunity.

Bloons TD Battles 2

Bloons TD Battles 2 uses a similar system to older versions of BTD6. The Normal type is known as Unstoppable in this game.

Type				Frozen		Notes
Sharp						—
Shatter
Explosion						—
Cold						While Cold and Glacier damage is able to pop frozen Bloons by default, both the Ice Monkey and Cold Sentry are unable to target or damage frozen Bloons. The Ice Monkey can only target and pop frozen with Re-Freeze; it cannot be overridden with Monkey Intelligence Bureau.
Glacier
Energy						—
Plasma						—
Fire
Acid						—
Unstoppable
Cosy						Only used by Fusty the Snowman at levels 2 and up, who adds this damage type to all towers.

Bloons Adventure Time TD

This article is in need of research. You can help out by editing this article or discussing your findings on the talk page. The editor who added this notice elaborates: How do PB and Water Nymph's combined damage types work?

Similar to older versions of BTD6, sources of damage in Bloons Adventure Time TD are able to have multiple damage types. Princess Bubblegum and Water Nymph are able to pop all Bloon types, despite her attack dealing sharp/energy damage, neither of which should be able to pop Lead Bloons.

While most characters and allies list the damage type of their main attack on their profile, some only display "N/A", including all characters and allies with normal, cold, or multi-type damage.

Compared to BTD6, the cold type can pop Lead Bloons, and the glacier type is omitted. While the Acid type does exist in the game's programming, it is completely unused.

Type	Black	White	Lead	Frozen	Purple	Ghost
Sharp
Shatter
Crushing
Explosion
Cold
Energy
Plasma or Fire
Acid or Normal

Bloons Pop!

Bloons Pop! uses a simpler damage type model compared to Bloons TD 6. Since frozen Bloons do not gain any immunities in this game, there are no damage types that are only distinguished by their ability to pop frozen.

The names of most damage types are given for certain monkeys in their Bloonspedia bios, though the name of the normal type is not specified in-game and is only given in internal data.

Type
Sharp
Explosive
Cold
Magic
Normal