User:Polavux/Strategy:Gwendolin (BTD6)

Gwendolin is a Hero that specialises in fire-based attacks, with high pierce but cannot pop Purples without significant upgrades. [some more lede basic descriptions in one paragraph to introduce the topic]

General tips

• Set Cocktail of Fire's target point to where it can cover as much of the path as possible, such as inside a small loop or bend, or at an intersection to cover Bloons on multiple paths at once.
• To maximize Cocktail of Fire's duration for a specific blimp or long wave of Bloons, set the target point a short distance in front of it before activating the ability.
• Because Cocktail of Fire counts as an attack and inherits any buffs Gwen currently has that affect projectiles (such as increased damage and pierce), using it while Gwen has an Acidic Mixture Dip and/or Berserker Brew buff creates a wall of fire that has boosted stats on every damage tick, while only consuming one charge from each buff.
• Avoid using Cocktail of Fire if Purple Bloons are on the way and you aren't going to pop their outer layers before they neutralize the wall of fire. This becomes unnecessary starting at level 16.
• To take full advantage of Heat It Up, position Gwen somewhere that allows Heat It Up to reach ideal spots for towers and lets her attack constantly to keep cycling it.
• Giving Gwen attack speed buffs lets her apply Heat It Up even more frequently.
• Selecting a tower buffed by Heat It Up makes it easier to see when it expires, which is useful to know for reapplying the buff with Firestorm.

Roles

Standard modes

Gwen is an earlygame damage dealer and Lead-popper who transitions into more of a support tower in the mid-lategame. Her earlygame is a lot better on maps where Cocktail of Fire can cover all active lanes, but her mid-lategame support works well on pretty much any map where she can attack constantly. She excels in the lategame of Impoppable and CHIMPS as a way to handle DDTs without MIB. While not affordable at the start in some modes, her fast level rate gets her to important level thresholds even if placed late.

In the earlygame, Gwen's main attack is lackluster for her cost, but it pops Leads and has significant power spikes at levels 6 and 8. Her main source of DPS early on is Cocktail of Fire, which has multiple use cases. It can thin out dense rounds; it can clean up stragglers by targeting the furthest point down the track; it can take out some early Camos if needed; and it can clean up Ceramics left by early MOABs. Heat It Up doesn't trigger frequently enough for it to be reliable until later in the run, but for extra optimization, it is possible to micro tower targeting and Bloon popping to get it to activate at specific moments, and the pierce buff and AoE can come in clutch.

Gwen's strength from the midgame onwards lies in HIU-buffing other towers, which Firestorm also does starting at level 10. Besides that, level 9 allows her main attack to deal decent DOT to blimps after a few levels of ramping up, and the cocktail remains useful for dense Ceramics if Alch-buffed. Firestorm's map-wide damage has its uses, but the main purpose of the ability is re-applying HIU to bridge its downtime when needed. The fire damage can help remove RBE from dense rounds, but it can't clear Ceramics out by itself, and it doesn't do much to MOAB-Class Bloons. It becomes much better at screen clearing and blimp damage starting at level 16, but she can't reach that in time for rounds 76 and 78 without Monkey Knowledge and extra XP from higher map difficulties.

In the lategame, Gwen usually reaches level 17 in time for the DDT rounds. HIU and Firestorm can negate the need for other DDT support, such as Monkey Intelligence Bureau or Glue Strike, both by allowing towers to damage DDTs and increasing the damage they deal to DDTs to pop them quickly. Her main attack becomes fairly powerful for blimp damage at level 19.

Important rounds to use abilities on

• 15: Use cocktail when the first Yellows come in range of the target point to pop them and the Pinks.
• 24: Use cocktail to pop the Camo if needed.
• 36: Use cocktail to break down two waves of Pinks.
  • Which waves to cover depends on the strategy; using it for the second two waves pops more Bloons on its own, but using it for the first two waves helps save abilities and attacks that build up over time (like Spike Factories) for the third wave.
• 40: Use cocktail to break up the insides of the MOAB after it pops.
  • If necessary, to save cooldown time, use the ability before the MOAB pops and target the point where it will be when it spawns the Ceramics.
• 63: Cocktail → Firestorm → Cocktail covers all three Ceramic waves.
• 76 and 78: Cocktail is usually good enough for the Ceramic waves if it can cover all paths, but Firestorm covers the entire map.
• 90, 93, 95, 99, and 100: Use Firestorm for the DDTs when needed.
  • If timed correctly, main attack HIU → Firestorm HIU → main attack HIU lasts long enough for all the DDTs on 95.
  • Firestorm may not recharge in time for 98 if used for the DDTs on 95 without stalling or Monkey Knowledge.

Towers to support

Towers with high projectile counts, low base pierce, low damage, and a weakness to DDTs benefit the most from Heat It Up. Unsurprisingly, most of the towers she synergizes with also benefit a lot from Berserker Brew. Gwen also passively buffs some towers with Pyrotechnics Expert, but it's very situational because most of the towers it benefits are ones that don't benefit much from HIU, and its stat buffs are very minor until the lategame.

Strategy	Notes
Overdrive + The Tack Zone + Primary Training
Shinobi Tactics + Grandmaster Ninja	Heat It Up and Cocktail of Fire help with dense Bloons and Leads before the Shinobis really ramp up, but Gwen's main role is buffing Grandmaster Ninja for DDTs in the lategame. It may be worth getting Berserker Brew before Bloonjitsu and placing it near Gwen for its synergy with cocktail and HIU. For extra optimization, Shinobis can decamo and distract Bloons for Gwen so she gets more value out of cocktails and cycles HIU more consistently, especially during Camo-only stretches.
Sky Shredder
Comanche Commander	Heat It Up isn't the strongest Hero buff for ComCom, but it alleviates the need for MIB or Glue Storm (Glue Strike is usually sufficient). Since Alch buffs don't affect the mini-Comanches, Berserker Brew isn't as useful in a ComCom-focused strategy compared to other Gwen synergies.
Signal Flare	Pyrotechnics Expert makes Signal Flare a little more reliable as a source of decamo. Signal Flare can work as the sole camo support in Gwen strategies, though it still requires a lot of micro on maps with multiple disconnected paths.
Inferno Ring	Inferno Ring is the only tower that benefits a lot from both Heat It Up and Pyrotechnics Expert, making its meteors more deadly and allowing its AoE to cover a bigger area. Position Berserker Brew so it prioritizes buffing Inferno Ring over Gwen if needed.

Other modes

Mode

Tips

Race Event / Time Attack

If given a choice for a Hero, Gwen is one of the best options for getting a run started, by activating her level 3 ability and then selling her to get money back. Target the cocktail inside a bend or intersection, then send to round 20 or 24 shortly before it recharges (usually around 5–8 seconds, depending on the difficulty and length between the target point and the entrances) to maximize it. Normally, sending past round 24 early ruins the strategy because of Purple Bloons, but in CT Time Attack, it's possible to keep going with Royal Treatment. Rosalia has higher highs in this role, but Gwen is easier to use, is more consistent at aiming, and doesn't leave behind Black and Zebra Bloons. Firestorm is surprisingly underwhelming as a screen-clear and usually isn't worth keeping Gwen for.