First Strike Capability (BTD6)

For other uses, see First Strike Capability (disambiguation).

First Strike Capability

First Strike Ability: A devastating missile strike targeting the largest Bloon on screen, plus splash damage.

Tower	Monkey Sub — Path 2 — Tier 4
XP cost	20,000
Cash cost	$11,050 — Easy $13,000 — Medium $14,040 — Hard $15,600 — Impoppable

← Ballistic Missile

Pre-emptive Strike →

First Strike Capability is the Monkey Sub's path 2 tier 4 upgrade in Bloons TD 6. It grants Monkey Sub the First Strike ability, which when activated launches a missile at the strongest Bloon on screen, dealing 10,000 damage to it and creating an explosion which deals 350 damage with a pierce of 80 and blast radius of 65. The first strike missile can damage all Bloon types and can see Camo Bloons even if the Monkey Sub cannot. Since the explosion also damages its main target, the main target takes a total of 10,350 damage from First Strike. This ability has a cooldown of 60 seconds and an initial cooldown of 20 seconds.

Stats

For a complete list of Monkey Sub stats, see Stats:Monkey Sub (BTD6).

This data was last updated for: version 55.1

Tower
Display range 50 units Footprint radius 7 units Targeting options First Last Close Strong

Attack
Cooldown 0.75s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 25, 8.1 Targeting Depends on targeting option Targeting range 50 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Projectile Pierce 5 Damage 1 Damage type Normal Speed 170 units/s Seeking distance ∞ units Seeking angle 180° Seeking rotation speed 360 °/s Lifespan 1.5s Radius 2 units Filters Cannot hit Camo

Ballistic Missile
Cooldown 1s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, -6, 11.2 Targeting First / Last / Close / Strong Targeting range 50 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Ignores blockers
Explosion Pierce 40 Damage 3 Damage to Ceramic (excl. Ceramic Armor Shell) +3 Damage to MOAB-Class +3 Damage type Explosion Lifespan 0.1s Persists between rounds 1 Radius 18 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers

Ability
Cooldown 60s
Missile Pierce 1 Max pierce 1 Damage 10,000 Damage type Normal Lifespan 0.1s Radius 5 units Filters Can only hit the target Ignores blockers Damage soaks through MOAB-Class layers Explosion Pierce 80 Damage 350 Damage type Normal Lifespan 0.1s Radius 65 units Ignores blockers Damage soaks through MOAB-Class layers

1-4-0

Tower
Display range 50 units → 60 units

Attack
Targeting range 50 units → 60 units

Ballistic Missile
Targeting range 50 units → 60 units

2-4-0

Attack
Can now target in range of other towers with shared range (including Camo)

Ballistic Missile
Can now target in range of other towers with shared range (including Camo)

0-4-1

Attack
Cooldown 0.75s → 0.375s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 25, 8.1 ↓ 2, 25, 8.5 (side 1) -2, 25, 8.5 (side 2)

Ballistic Missile
Cooldown 1s → 0.875s

0-4-2

Attack
Projectile Max pierce ∞ → 1 Airburst dart Count 3 Pierce 5 Damage 1 Damage type Normal Speed 340 units/s Lifespan 0.2794s Radius 3 units Filters Cannot hit Camo

Costs and sell values

Note: this list does not factor in Monkey Knowledge or other discounts.

Tiers	Total cost				Sell value
	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable
0-4-0	$13,105	$15,425	$16,660	$18,510	$9,174	$10,798	$11,662	$12,957
1-4-0	$13,215	$15,555	$16,800	$18,665	$9,251	$10,889	$11,760	$13,066
2-4-0	$13,640	$16,055	$17,340	$19,265	$9,548	$11,239	$12,138	$13,486
0-4-1	$13,485	$15,875	$17,145	$19,050	$9,440	$11,113	$12,002	$13,335
0-4-2	$14,335	$16,875	$18,225	$20,250	$10,035	$11,813	$12,758	$14,175

Strategy

First Strike Capability's ability does incredible single-target damage for a long cooldown. It stands out in CHIMPS due to its ability being able to completely one-shot a highly-damaged Round 100 BAD. Purchase it during Round 99 to get the ability off cooldown, especially when using it on medium-to-long maps for two ability usages. In Boss Events, First Strike is a strong choice for instakills against Bloonarius, instakills against Vortex, and breaking the Primary layer of Dreadbloon in Timed Bosses, but it faces competition from Spike Storm for the latter. First Strike is serviceable at one-shotting single ZOMGs, but its long cooldown prevents it from eliminating all ZOMGs in later rounds.

Unlike other single-target specialists, such as Spike Storm and MOAB Eliminator, First Strike requires water placement and is not dependent on synergies to maximize its single-target damage, though it does appreciate from water cooldown reductions via Bloontonium Reactor or Energizer. Using Bloontonium Reactor also allows double ability usage against Round 100 on shorter maps, such as Quad.

Crosspathing doesn't affect the First Strike's ability, so a crosspath is often unnecessary unless progressing to its T5 or from the T3. As First Strike lacks any improvements to its main attack, simply crosspath First Strike based on Ballistic Missile.

Update history

For a complete list of Monkey Sub changes, see Update history:Monkey Sub (BTD6).

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Version 7.0

•  Dart: pierce increased by 1
  • Note: Does not affect Airburst Darts and above

Version 8.0

•  Ballistic Missile: Cooldown reduced ― 2s → 1.5s

Version 9.0

•  Should no longer crash the game when destroying a BAD (bug fix)

Version 12.0

•  Ability: damage to target reduced ― 16,700 → 10,000

Version 18.0

•  Range increased ― 42 → 60
•  Missile attack: Range reduced ― ∞ → 60

1-4-0

•  Longer Range now applies to the missile attack
  •  Overall range of the attack with this crosspath is reduced ― ∞ → 70 (due to the attack no longer having infinite range by default)

2-4-0

•  Advanced Intel now grants the missile attack infinite range
  •  Overall range of the attack with this crosspath is unchanged (due to the attack no longer having infinite range by default)

0-4-1

•  Twin Guns now reduces the missile attack's cooldown by 12.5%

0-4-2

•  Airburst Darts now reduces the missile attack's cooldown by 25%
  •  Overall reduces attack cooldown by 34.375% (due to changes to Twin Guns)

Version 19.0

•  Range reduced ― 60 → 50
•  Ballistic Missile explosion: Can no longer hit Camo Bloons without Camo detection (bug fix)

0-4-1

•  Ballistic Missile: Attack cooldown increased ― 1.275s → 1.3125s (attack speed reduced by 2.86%)

0-4-2

•  Ballistic Missile: Attack cooldown increased ― 0.75s → 0.984375s (attack speed reduced by 23.81%)

Version 22.0

“

Ballistic Missile previously had far too much attack speed added into the crosspath and was rebalanced for parity, but the overall performance loss from this was too much. Better balance will come from the base rate of Ballistic Missile itself.
— Update notes

”

•  Ballistic Missile: Attack cooldown reduced ― 1.5s → 1.3s

0-4-1

•  Ballistic Missile: Attack cooldown reduced ― 1.3125s → 1.1375s

0-4-2

•  Ballistic Missile: Attack cooldown reduced ― 0.984375s → 0.853125s

Version 26.0

“

As Airburst Darts alone already gives a huge benefit to the tower regardless of not applying any crosspath buff, some of the attack speed benefit this upgrade gave to 032 Ballistic Missile has instead been moved into the base 030 Missile.
— Update notes

”

•  Ballistic Missile: attack cooldown reduced ― 1.3s → 1.105s

0-4-1

•  Ballistic Missile: attack cooldown reduced ― 1.1375s → 0.9669s

0-4-2

•  rate buff to Ballistic Missile reduced from 0.75x to 0.9x
•  Ballistic Missile: attack cooldown reduced ― 0.853125s → 0.8702s

Version 27.0

“

Ballistic Missile’s 230 crosspath has been in a confusing spot for a while where it functioned different to Advanced Intel, so it has been converted to function with Advanced Intel in the same way that any other Sub upgrade would. Additionally First Strike's secondary explosion has had its target count reduced slightly.
— Update notes

”

•  Ability: Secondary AoE pierce decreased ― ∞ → 80

2-4-0

•  Ballistic Missile: Now benefits from Advanced Intel's targeting in the same way as the main attack
  •  Can now detect and hit Camo Bloons in range of towers that have Camo detection
  •  No longer has infinite range; can only target Bloons in range of other towers

Version 30.0

“

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.
— Update notes

”

•  Missile attack: Attack cooldown reduced ― 1.105s → 0.9945s (attack speed increased by 11.11%)
•  Ability: Initial impact damage is now dealt before splash damage (bug fix)

0-4-1

•  Missile attack: Attack cooldown reduced ― 0.9669s → 0.8702s (attack speed increased by 11.11%)

0-4-2

•  Airburst Darts no longer reduces the missile attack's cooldown by 10%
  •  Overall attack cooldown of this crosspath is unchanged (due to changes to the missile attack's base cooldown)

Version 41.0

“

Ballistic Missiles always had excessive pierce for what it is, so this is being cut back on.
— Update notes

”

•  Overall cost reduced by $50 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
•  Ballistic Missile: Attack cooldown increased ― 0.9945s → 1s (attack speed reduced by 0.55%)
  •  Stacks with Twin Guns crosspath ― 0.8702s → 0.875s
•  Ballistic Missile: Pierce reduced ― 100 → 60

Version 45.0

“

Ballistic Missile struggles greatly against standard Bloons since almost all of its power is in the Ceramic/Moab bonus, so we’re also balancing this consistency out with greater damage to standard targets while retaining the same total MOAB-Class power at the cost of pierce.
— Update notes

”

•  Ballistic missile: base damage increased ― 1 → 3
•  Ballistic missile: damage to Ceramics reduced ― +5 → +3
•  Ballistic missile: pierce reduced ― 60 → 40
• No longer displays a Paragon pip without all tier 5 upgrades unlocked (bug fix)

Version 48.0

•  Missile attack: now lands in the place of its intended target instead of the center of the map or over itself when the target is destroyed while the missile is in mid-air (bug fix)

Version 49.0

•  Ballistic missile attack: No longer ignores line of sight blockers (bug fix)
  • Note: Does not affect First Strike or Pre-emptive Strike abilities

Version 49.3

“

Due to a misunderstanding in v49 this was fixed as a bug, but it is intended that Ballistic Missile can be fired over walls so this has been enabled again
— Update notes

”

•  Ballistic Missile attack: Ignores line of sight again

Gallery

For more Monkey Sub images, see Gallery:Monkey Sub.

Screenshots

• 
  First Strike with no crosspath
• 
  First Strike with 140 crosspath
• 
  First Strike with 240 crosspath
• 
  First Strike with 041 crosspath
• 
  First Strike with 042 crosspath
• 
  First Strike activated ability

Assets

• 
  Portrait
• 
  Upgrade icon
• 
  Insta Monkey icon

Trivia

• The appearance of the monkey piloting the submarine is a reference to the character Marko Ramius in the 1990 American submarine spy thriller film The Hunt for Red October.
• Its capability to one-shot a heavily damaged BAD is featured in the Quest Striken BAD.

In other languages

Language	Name / Description	Notes
Arabic	القدرة على الضربة الأولى قدرة الهجوم الأولى: ضربة صاروخية مدمرة تستهدف أكبر بالون على الشاشة، بالإضافة إلى ضرر تناثر السوائل.	—
Danish	Slå Først Kapacitet Slå Først-evne: et altødelæggende missilangreb mod den største bloon på skærmen, plus stænk-skade.	—
German	Erstschlag-Fähigkeit Erstschlag-Fähigkeit: Ein vernichtender Raketenangriff gegen den größten Bloon auf dem Bildschirm, plus Flächenschaden.	—
Spanish	Capacidad de primer ataque Habilidad de Primer ataque: un misil devastador impacta en el bloon más grande en pantalla y causa daño de proximidad.	—
Spanish (LA)	Capacidad de primer ataque Habilidad de Primer ataque: un misil devastador impacta en el bloon más grande en pantalla y causa daño de proximidad.	—
Finnish	Ensi-iskukyky Ensi-iskukyky: lamaannuttava ohjusisku näytön suurimmalle bloonille plus aluevahinkoa.	—
French	Capacité de première frappe Aptitude Première frappe : une frappe de missiles dévastatrice sur le plus gros Bloon à l'écran, plus des dégâts d'éclaboussure.	—
Italian	Primo attacco Abilità Primo attacco: lancia un devastante attacco missilistico contro il bloon più grande presente sullo schermo, oltre a infliggere danni radiali.	—
Japanese	先制攻撃能力 先制攻撃能力：画面上の最も大きなブルーンに破滅的なミサイル攻撃をし、大きなスプラッシュダメージを与える。	—
Korean	선제 공격력 선제 공격 능력: 화면에서 가장 큰 풍선을 향해 무시무시한 미사일을 날리며, 방사 피해도 줍니다.	—
Dutch	Eerste-aanvalskans Eerste aanval-vaardigheid: een vernietigende raketaanval gericht op de grootste Bloon op het scherm, plus gebiedsschade.	—
Norwegian	Førsteangrepsevne Førsteangrepsevne: Ødeleggende missilangrep treffer den største bloonen på skjermen, og gir omgivelsesskade.	—
Polish	Potencjał pierwszego ataku Umiejętność pierwszy atak: niszczycielska rakieta celująca w największego blona na ekranie plus obrażenia od rozbryzgu.	—
Portuguese (Brazil)	Capacidade de Iniciativa Habilidade de Iniciativa: Um ataque de míssil devastador contra o maior Bloon da tela e dano extra em área.	—
Russian	Мощный верный удар Способность «Первый удар»: снаряд разрушительной силы бьёт по самому большому шару на экране и наносит урон по площади.	—
Swedish	Första insats-förmåga Förstaslagsförmåga: En förödande missilattack mot skärmens största Bloon, plus stänkskada.	—
Thai	เปิดฉากยิงก่อน สกิลเปิดฉากยิงก่อน: ยิงมิสไซล์อันรุนแรงเล็งไปยังลูกโป่งขนาดใหญ่สุดบนจอ พร้อมทำดาเมจเป็นวงกว้าง	—
Turkish	İlk Vuruş Becerisi İlk Vuruş Yeteneği: Ekrandaki en büyük Bloon’a yok edici bir füze saldırısı ve sıçratma hasarı.	—
Chinese (simplified)	先发制人能力 先发制人技能：对屏幕上最大的气球进行毁灭性的导弹袭击，附加溅射伤害。	—
Chinese (traditional)	第一擊能力 第一擊技能：對螢幕上最大的氣球發出致命的飛彈打擊，並造成濺射傷害。	—
This list was last updated for: version 43.1