Apache Dartship (BTD6)

For other uses, see Apache Dartship (disambiguation).

Apache Dartship

Adds a large missile array and powerful machine guns.

Tower	Heli Pilot — Path 1 — Tier 4
XP cost	20,000
Cash cost	$16,660 — Easy $19,600 — Medium $21,170 — Hard $23,520 — Impoppable

← Razor Rotors

Apache Prime →

Apache Dartship is the Heli Pilot's path 1 tier 4 upgrade in Bloons TD 6. It grants Heli Pilot two new attacks, a machine gun and a missile launcher, and enhances its existing attacks. Additionally its flight speed increases by 25%.

The machine gun fires darts which deal 1 damage, have 7 pierce, and have an attack cooldown of 0.05 seconds. These darts cannot damage Lead or Frozen Bloons. The missile launcher fires 4 homing rockets per shot which deal 2 damage, have 40 pierce, and have an attack cooldown of 1 second. These rockets cannot damage Black Bloons. The missile launcher has a range of 84 units, twice that of Heli Pilot's other attacks.

This upgrade reduces the attack cooldown of Heli Pilot's quad darts by 25%, for an attack speed increase of ~33.33%. This upgrade enhances the razor rotors, increasing their damage from 2 to 4 and their pierce from 10 to 20.

Stats

For a complete list of Heli Pilot stats, see Stats:Heli Pilot (BTD6).

This data was last updated for: version 55.1

Tower
Display range 22 units Footprint 27 × 27 units Movement speed 50 units/s Targeting options Follow Touch Lock in Place Patrol Points Pursuit

Attack
Copies of this attack 2 Cooldown 0.4275s Offset (X, Y, Z) 5.6, 20, 4 (primary 1) -5.6, 20, 4 (primary 2) 10, 12.82, 4 (secondary 1) -10, 12.82, 4 (secondary 2) Targeting range 42 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Ignores blockers
Projectile Count 2 Pierce 3 Damage 1 Damage type Sharp Speed 260 units/s Lifespan 1s Radius 3 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers

Machine gun
Cooldown 0.05s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 20, 0.5 Targeting range 42 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Ignores blockers
Projectile Angle 8° Pierce 7 Damage 1 Damage type Sharp Speed 375 units/s Lifespan 0.224s Radius 3 units Filters Cannot hit Camo

Missile array
Cooldown 1s Offset (X, Y, Z) 14, 14, 4 (side 1) -14, 14, 4 (side 2) 5.6, 20, 4 (side 3) -5.6, 20, 4 (side 4) Targeting First Targeting range 84 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Ignores blockers
Projectile Count 4 Pierce 1 Max pierce 1 Speed 135 units/s Seeking distance 375 units Seeking angle 90° Seeking rotation speed 250 °/s Lifespan 1.5481s Radius 3 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers Explosion Pierce 40 Damage 2 Damage type Explosion Lifespan 0.1s Radius 25 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers

Rotors
Cooldown 0.45s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 0, 0 Targeting range ∞ units
Ignores blockers Can fire without a target
Projectile Pierce 20 Damage 4 Damage type Normal Lifespan 0.1s Radius 35 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers

4-1-0

Tower
Movement speed 50 units/s → 80 units/s

Machine gun
Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 20, 0.5 ↓ 0, 0, 0

4-2-0

Attack
Filters Can now target Camo
Projectile Filters Can now hit Camo

Machine gun
Filters Can now target Camo
Projectile Filters Can now hit Camo

Missile array
Filters Can now target Camo
Projectile Filters Can now hit Camo Explosion Filters Can now hit Camo

Rotors
Filters Can now target Camo
Projectile Filters Can now hit Camo

4-0-1

Attack
Targeting range 42 units → 54.6 units
Projectile Speed 260 units/s → 416 units/s

Machine gun
Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 20, 0.5 ↓ 0, 13.7, 0.9 Targeting range 42 units → 54.6 units

4-0-2

Attack
Cooldown 0.4275s → 0.342s

Machine gun
Cooldown 0.05s → 0.04s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 13.7, 0.9 ↓ 0, 0, 0

Missile array
Cooldown 1s → 0.8s

Rotors
Cooldown 0.45s → 0.36s

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
4-0-0	$20,615	$24,250	$26,190	$29,100	$14,431	$16,975	$18,333	$20,370
4-1-0	$20,870	$24,550	$26,515	$29,460	$14,609	$17,185	$18,561	$20,622
4-2-0	$21,380	$25,150	$27,165	$30,180	$14,966	$17,605	$19,016	$21,126
4-0-1	$20,825	$24,500	$26,460	$29,400	$14,578	$17,150	$18,522	$20,580
4-0-2	$21,125	$24,850	$26,840	$29,820	$14,788	$17,395	$18,788	$20,874

Strategy

This section was last updated for: version 49.3

Apache Dartship is an expensive T4 that has mediocre stats for its cost, but handily takes down most mid-game rounds with ease if the map has only one active entrance per round. Its rockets are prone to chasing due to slow projectile speed, and its machine gun has low pierce and damage, though its rotor decently handles dense groups of non-Regrow bloons if given enough time. Apache Dartship mostly stands out in CT Least Tiers, where it is an easy-to-use T4 for completing all rounds if beating the previous rounds with a buffed Razor Rotors.

In CHIMPS, Apache Dartship is only used as a stepping stone to Apache Prime, its T5. It pairs well with Rosalia, as she greatly discounts it and the T5.

Like the other top-path Helis, Apache Dartship prefers bottom crosspath's 4-0-2 for optimized DPS; the innate camo detection is only necessary for challenges and external camo detection is obtained elsewhere, and Bigger Jets's faster flight speed is too small to matter on multi-lane maps.

Update history

For a complete list of Heli Pilot changes, see Update history:Heli Pilot (BTD6).

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Version 4.0

•  Upgrade cost reduced ― $20,000 → $15,000

Version 8.0

•  Upgrade cost increased ― $15,000 → $19,500
•  Main attacks: Attack cooldown reduced ― 0.57s → 0.4275s (attack speed increased by 33.33%)
•  Missile attack: Explosion damage increased ― 1 → 2

Version 9.0

•  Upgrade cost increased ― $19,500 → $19,600

Version 11.0

•  Lock in Place and Patrol Points no longer immediately prompt to choose target positions and instead have default positions
•  After changing targeting off of Lock in Place or Patrol Points, changing back returns the target(s) to how it was previously
• "Heli Pilots should no longer cause save files to not load sometimes" (bug fix)

Version 17.0

•  Overall cost increased by $100 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)

Version 20.0

“

Pursuit Razor Rotors has underperformed due to distancing itself far too much, so we increased the range of this attack slightly.
— Update notes

”

•  Rotors: Radius increased ― 33 → 35

Version 21.0

“

Heli Pilot manages on pursuit far too easily without any need to consider Bigger Jets unless camo or downdraft is required. For more crosspath variety than just ‘camo’ we moved more of the base Heli speed out and back into Bigger Jets with an overall buff to Bigger Jets. This should allow Bigger Jets to scale a little better than other helis through early speed ramping.
— Update notes

”

•  Movement speed reduced ― 45 → 40

Version 24.0

“

Razor Rotors doesn’t synergize well with it’s own T2 and is kinda the dunce of T3 Helis
— Update notes

”

•  Rotors: Damage increased ― 1 → 2

Version 31.0

“

Apache Dartship has also fallen off over time as a viable saveup for prime, though it is meant to be reasonably difficult some changes have made this a little more difficult than it probably should be so we have increased the pierce of the machinegun attack.
— Update notes

”

“

Previously Razor Rotor’s used to make the heli pursue for a further distance & this caused it to often fail to reach Lead Bloons with the rotor attack that could pop them. This overall seemed like a design flaw so that back-off distance has been moved up to the T4 instead. Apache Dartship has also fallen off over time as a viable saveup for prime, though it is meant to be reasonably difficult some changes have made this a little more difficult than it probably should be so we have increased the pierce of the machinegun attack.
— Update notes

”

•  Machine gun: Pierce increased ― 5 → 7

Version 33.0

“

Heli’s Razor Rotors don’t scale with higher tiers so improvements have been made specifically to that attack for Dartship & Apache Prime.
— Update notes

”

•  Rotors: Damage increased ― 2 → 4
•  Rotors: Pierce increased ― 10 → 20

Version 35.0

•  Heli 'patrol point' markers now visually update immediately after setting new points (bug fix)

Version 37.0

“

Even with the map-range advantage, rotors are weak compared to any other constant AoE circle like this.
— Update notes

”

•  Rotors: Attack cooldown reduced ― 0.75s → 0.5s (attack speed increased by 50%)

4-0-2

•  Faster Firing now applies to the rotors attack
  •  Stacks with changes to the rotors's non-crosspathed attack cooldown; overall attack cooldown of this crosspath reduced ― 0.75s → 0.4s

Version 41.0

“

Pursuit will now interact with Patrol Points in a limited ‘pursuit between points’, with this now you will be able to make your pursuit heli stay on one side on multi-path maps without getting stuck in the middle. Razor Rotors is fairly good now, but it could still justify a little more power given the weaknesses of the expensive upgrades that it builds into.
— Update notes

”

•  Rotors: Attack cooldown reduced ― 0.5s → 0.45s (attack speed increased by 11.11%)
  • Stacks with X-X-2 Faster Firing crosspath ― 0.4s → 0.36s
•  Patrol Points with Pursuit now acts as a range in which the Heli Pilot can pursue inside, instead of causing the Heli Pilot to move between points constantly

Version 45.0

“

Among technical players we’ve received feedback that the massive range of the Heli’s missiles causes problems with controlling what heli’s choose to attack & when so we’ve reduced the range of these missiles to a more reasonable number, this is still double the range of the Heli so the missiles will continue to fire first before other attacks but not quite from so far away.
— Update notes

”

•  Missile: Targeting range reduced ― 173 → 84
  • Note: Reducing targeting range of missile will reduce opportunities to waste projectile lifespan on chasing Bloons.

Version 47.0

“

We’re raising move speed for Apache Dartship up to match Prime to improve skillful use in some more difficult situations mainly assisting on spread path maps
— Update notes

”

•  Flight speed increased ― 40 → 50
  • Note: Does not affect Apache Prime (50)

4-1-0, 4-2-0

•  Flight speed increased ― 70 → 80 (undocumented)
  • Note: Does not affect Apache Prime (80)

Version 56.0

“

Is there a way i can convince rohan to edit the update notes post on reddit to add those undocumented heli cost changes
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost increased ― $19,600 → $20,000
  •  Overall cost is unchanged (due to cost changes for previous tiers)

Gallery

For more Heli Pilot images, see Gallery:Heli Pilot.

Screenshots

• 
  Apache Dartship with no crosspath
• 
  Apache Dartship with 410 crosspath
• 
  Apache Dartship with 420 crosspath
• 
  Apache Dartship with 401 crosspath
• 
  Apache Dartship with 402 crosspath
• 
  Apache Dartship helipad
• 
  Apache Dartship using its attacks

Assets

• 
  Portrait
• 
  Upgrade icon
• 
  Insta Monkey icon

In other languages

Language	Name / Description	Notes
Arabic	سفينة أسهم آباتشي إضافة مجموعة صواريخ كبيرة ومدافع رشاشة قوية.	—
Danish	Apache Dart-heli Tilføjer et stort missilbatteri og kraftige maskingeværer.	—
German	Apache-Wurfpfeilschiff Fügt ein großes Raketenarsenal und wirkungsvolle Maschinengewehre hinzu.	—
Spanish	Dardicóptero Apache Agrega una gran variedad de misiles y ametralladoras poderosas.	—
Spanish (LA)	Dardicóptero Apache Agrega una gran variedad de misiles y ametralladoras poderosas.	—
Finnish	Apache-tikka-alus Lisää suuren ohjuspatterin ja tehokkaat konekiväärit.	—
French	Pales scalpeuses Ajoute un large éventail de missiles et de mitrailleuses puissantes.	—
Italian	Elicottero Apache Consente di aggiungere missili e potenti mitragliatrici.	—
Japanese	アパッチダーツ機 大きなミサイル配列とパワフルなマシンガンを追加する。	—
Korean	아파치 다트술 대형 미사일 대열과 강력한 기관총을 추가합니다.	—
Dutch	Apache-pijltjesschip Voegt een grote rakettenwerper en krachtige machinegeweren toe.	—
Norwegian	Apache-dartskip Legger til et stort utvalg av missiler og kraftige maskingevær.	—
Polish	Rzutkolot Apaczów Dodaje szereg rakiet i potężne karabiny maszynowe.	—
Portuguese (Brazil)	Nave Lança-Dardos Apache Adiciona um conjunto de mísseis e poderosas metralhadoras.	—
Russian	Дротиковый корабль Добавляет несколько ракет и мощные пулемёты.	—
Swedish	Apache-pilskepp Lägger till ett stort missilarsenal och kraftfulla kulsprutor.	—
Thai	อาปาชี่ดาร์ทชิป เพิ่มแผงมิสไซล์ขนาดใหญ่และปืนกลอันทรงพลัง	—
Turkish	Apaçi Ok Uçağı Büyük füze dizisi ve güçlü makineli tüfekler ekler.	—
Chinese (simplified)	阿帕奇飞镖舰 增加大型导弹阵列和强力机枪。	—
Chinese (traditional)	阿帕奇飛鏢機 增加一個大型飛彈陣列和一支強大機槍。	—
This list was last updated for: version 43.1