Strategy:Dreadbloon (BTD6)

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Dreadbloon is a boss that forces a diverse defensive setup to handle the immunity phases that switch between Primary, Military, Magic and Support, meaning single tower defenses will not be able to defeat it. The constantly spawning Dreadrock Bloons need an immediate answer as they have high health and the same immunity as Dreadbloon. They act as an extra defensive setup for the boss as they have higher priority when towers are set to Strong targeting, making those towers attack those Bloons instead of the Boss. This conserves Dreadbloon's Ceramic Shield meaning it will keep spawning Dreadrock Bloons.

The main difficulty of Tiers 1 and 2 comes from the Dreadrock Bloons and not from the Boss itself, this gradually switches to Dreadbloon in the later tiers with its massive health and the risk of running out of time. As two or more powerful towers are typically needed, defensive setups in the early tiers are more expensive compared to other bosses, so players can exploit Dreadbloon's speed and the lack of Dreadrock Bloons during the Primary immunity phase to keep farming and defeat the Boss later.

Typical defensive setups for Dreadboon are two or more towers that can cover each others immunity phase, ideally they should be able to defeat the Dreadrock Bloons by their own. The Ceramic phase is the bulk of Dreadbloon's health and doesn't have any notable properties other than receiving extra damage from some attacks that have bonus damage against Ceramic Bloons. The Lead phase is more difficult, as it not only gives it the corresponding damage type immunity, but also reduces the damage Dreadbloon receives by 1 (or more in the later tiers of Elite), this means towers like Overdrive will need additional support to be able to damage Dreadbloon during this phase.

This strategy page only covers dealing with Dreadbloon itself and not the farming required to afford the defenses; for such guide, consult Strategy:Boss Bloon Event. The tower selection also assumes all challenge modifiers are at standard values.

Normal Dreadbloon

Dreadbloon

Tier 1

With support for the immunity phase, the following towers can defeat the other three phases and the Dreadrock Bloons (or most of them) by their own, it is recommended to have two of these towers with different categories for the complete defense:

Primary

• 0-2-5 Crossbow Master.
• 5-0-2 Glaive Lord.
• 0-2-5 The Tack Zone or 4× 0-2-4 Overdrive with the support of a 4-0-1 Stronger Stimulant and 4-2-0 Embrittlement. is important to have a second tower to handle regular spawns while Dreadbloon is directly over the Tack Shooters as the projectiles will be destroyed while the Alchemist buff is offline and will not damage anything.

Military

• 2-0-5 Elite Defender.
• 4-2-0 Aircraft Carrier.
• 2× 4-1-0 Operation: Dart Storm.

Magic

• 2× 4-2-0 Arcane Spike.

Support

• 3× 2-4-0 Spike Storm, space their abilities to deal with the Dreadrock Bloons.

• 2-0-5 Sub Commander or 2× 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Darts with 4-0-1 Stronger Stimulant support. 0-2-5 can also work if Dreadbloon can stay long enough in its range.
• 2-5-0 Pirate Lord if Dreadbloon can stay long enough in its range.
• 3-2-0 Sun Avatar or 2-3-0 Tech Terror with the support of a 4-0-1 Stronger Stimulant and 4-2-0 Embrittlement if Dreadbloon can stay long enough in its range.
• 2-0-3 Dark Knight, use the Darkshift to chase Dreadbloon around the map.
• 4-0-0 Orca, at least 48 Beast Power is recommended.

There are other towers that can deal with Dreadblon but are weak to the Dreadrock Bloons, these include MOAB Assassin, First Strike Capability and Sticky Bomb. If using such towers, make sure to have enough defense for the spawns, a Primary tower is recommended in this case.

Tier 2

Primary

• 5-0-2 Glaive Lord.
• 2-0-5 The Tack Zone and several Overdrive with the support of a 4-0-1 Stronger Stimulant and 5-2-0 Super Brittle.
• X-5-X Golden Justice.

Military

• 5-2-0 Carrier Flagship.
• 5-2-0 Sky Shredder.
• 2-5-0 M.A.D.

Magic

• 5-2-0 Archmage.
• 2-5-0 Wizard Lord Phoenix.
• 5-0-2 Grandmaster Ninja with some 0-3-2 Shinobi Tactics, supported by a 4-0-1 Stronger Stimulant and 5-2-0 Super Brittle, is important that the second attacking tower can deal damage during the Primary phase as Super Brittle can't remove the Lead property yet, otherwise a Monkey Intelligence Bureau is necessary.
• 0-1-5 Avatar of Wrath, with Monkey Intelligence Bureau support.

Support

• 2-5-0 Carpet of Spikes.
• 5-2-0 Sentry Champion.

If the player can afford them Ray of Doom, Flying Fortress, Tech Terror and Megalodon are also viable options.

• 2× 0-2-5 Crossbow Master.
• 0-2-5 MOAB Domination.
• 0-5-2 Perma Charge.
• 5-0-2 Inferno Ring.
• 5-0-2 Cripple MOAB.
• 2-5-0 Pre-emptive Strike, use an ability for the Ceramic Shield and let the Ballistic Missile deal with the rest of it while it recharges to use a second one for the normal health bar.
• 2-0-5 Sub Commander, with Monkey Intelligence Bureau support in addition to 4-0-1 Stronger Stimulant.
• 5-0-2 Apache Prime.
• 2-0-5 Comanche Commander.
• 5-0-2 The Biggest One.
• 2-0-5 Blooncineration.
• 2-0-5 Bloon Exclusion Zone with Monkey Intelligence Bureau, set its targeting to independent to deal with Dreadrock Bloons, otherwise it can be switched to manual.
• 2-0-4 Dark Champion.
• 2-5-0 Popseidon with good ability timing to deal with Dreadrock Bloons.
• 4-0-0 Orca with max Beast Power (64).
• MOAB Eliminator, First Strike Capability, Special Poperations, Pop and Awe and Master Bomber can defeat Dreadbloon but need support for the Dreadrock Bloons.

Tier 3

Using three or more of the Tier 2 options is recommended because there are very few towers that can deal with three phases on their own, among them are:

• 2-5-0 M.A.D.
• 5-2-0 Ray of Doom.
• 2-0-5 Flying Fortress.
• 4-2-0 Sun Temple with 1-1-1-0 sacrifices.
• 2-0-5 Legend of the Night.
• 5-2-0 Super Mines.
• 5-0-0 Megalodon, maximum Beast Power is recommended.
• Overdrive / Destroyer / Armor Piercing Darts / Shinobi Tactics / Sun Avatar / Spike Storm spam or Avatar of Wrath + Poplust with the usual buff (ex. Permanent Brew, Homeland Defense, Primary Expertise) and debuff towers (ex. Super Brittle, Glue Storm, Cripple MOAB). A 4-2-0 Sun Temple with only Support sacrifices is also a very good tower to help these strategies.
• Any Paragon.

Tier 4

For this tier multiple of the Tier 3 defenses can be used but a Paragon or VTSG is a stronger options. Any Degree 1 Paragon can deal with Dreadbloon and the Dreadrock Bloons at this stage, but Degree 20+ is recommended. The immunity phase can be covered by one or more of the Tier 3 defenses. The Paragon or VTSG can be kept for Tier 5.

Tier 5

A second Paragon from a different category is the most common defense, the most important aspect at this point is the position of the paragons, for example, Primary Paragons should not be at the very start of the track as they can't damage Dreadbloon and by the time that phase is finished the Boss might be out of range, making the Paragon pointless.

Depending on the Map and position, Degree 20 Apex Plasma Master and Crucible of Steel and Flame might not be able to beat the Dreadrock Bloons alone, so is recommended to have additional attack towers for cleanup or enough lives and let them leak as the Paragons can deal with the Ceramic Shield very quickly so not many of them will spawn. Degree 1 Master Builder is in a similar position, it will need enough rounds to self-ultraboost to deal with the spawns when paired with a non-Primary tower.

Elite Dreadbloon

Elite Dreadbloon

Tier 1

With support for the immunity phase, the following towers can defeat the other three phases and the Dreadrock Bloons (or most of them) by their own, it is recommended to have two of these towers with different categories for the complete defense:

Primary

• 3× 0-4-2 Turbo Charge, 4 if possible. Space their abilities to deal with Dreadrock Bloons
• 0-2-5 The Tack Zone with 2× 0-2-4 Overdrive or 8× Overdrive with the support of a 4-0-1 Stronger Stimulant and 4-2-0 Embrittlement.

Military

• 2-0-5 Elite Defender.
• 5-2-0 Carrier Flagship.
• 4× 4-1-0 Operation: Dart Storm.

Magic

• 2× 4-2-0 Arcane Spike.

Support

• 3× 2-4-0 Spike Storm, space their abilities to deal with the Dreadrock Bloons.

Since the defenses are more expensive than other Tier 1 bosses, it might be useful to stall Dreadbloon to conitnue farming and work towards the Tier 2 defenses.

• 12× 0-3-1 MOAB Mauler.
• 2× 0-2-5 Crossbow Master.
• 5-0-2 Glaive Lord.
• 0-5-2 Perma Charge
• 2-5-0 Pre-emptive Strike
• 0-2-4 Spectre.
• 1-5-0 Spirit of the Forest.
• 5-2-0 Sentry Champion.
• There are other towers that can deal with Dreadblon but are weak to the Dreadrock Bloons, these include MOAB Assassin, First Strike Capability, Dark Knight and Sticky Bomb. If using such towers, make sure to have enough defense for the spawns.

Tier 2

It is recommended to have multiple of the options listed (3-4), with preference to those marked in bold or the ones that will be sacrificed to a Paragon later, to always have multiple of them ready for the Dreadrock Bloons. As affording the complete defense at once might not be possible, it is still useful to stall Dreadbloon. If the player can also afford them it is very useful to get the usual buff (ex. Permanent Brew, Homeland Defense, Primary Expertise, Overclock) and debuff towers (ex. Super Brittle, Glue Storm, Cripple MOAB).

Primary

• 5-0-2 Glaive Lord.
• The Tack Zone / Overdrive spam.
• 5-0-2 Ring of Fire.

Military

• 5-2-0 Carrier Flagship.
• 5-1-0 Sky Shredder.
• 2-0-5 Flying Fortress.
• 5-2-0 Ray of Doom.
• 1-5-0 M.A.D.

Magic

• 5-2-0 Archmage.
• 2-5-0 Wizard Lord Phoenix.
• 2-0-5 Master Bomber.
• 5-0-2 Grandmaster Ninja and Shinobi Tactics spam.

Support

• 5-2-0 Super Mines.
• 2-4-0 Spike Storm spam.
• 2-5-0 Carpet of Spikes.
• 5-0-0 Megalodon, 84 Beast Power is enough, but is recommended to go for maximum power.

• 2× 0-2-5 Crossbow Master.
• 0-5-2 Perma Charge.
• 0-2-5 MOAB Domination.
• 5-2-0 Cripple MOAB.
• Sub Commander / Armor Piercing Darts (BTD6) or Destroyer spam, specially when paired with Admiral Brickell.
• 2-0-5 Pre-emptive Strike.
• 2× 2-0-4 Spectre.
• 5-0-2 Apache Prime.
• 2-0-5 Comanche Commander.
• 3-2-0 Sun Avatar spam.
• 2-5-0 The Anti-Bloon.
• 2-0-4 Dark Champion.
• 0-1-5 Avatar of Wrath + 5× 0-1-4 Poplust, with Monkey Intelligence Bureau support.
• 5-2-0 Sentry Champion.

Tier 3

Tier 3 is usually defended with a Primary Paragon with an additional tower that can deal with the immunity phase at the beginning. Any of the 3 Primary Paragons can clear this tier at Degree 1, but is recommended to get Degree 40+ if it is intended to stay until Tier 5 as it is the required Degree needed to beat Dreadrock Bloons at that stage. Otherwise, sell the Paragon to recover farms after the fight and build another in the next Tier. The Primary Paragon should not be built in the front of the track as it will not damage Dreadbloon and there is a risk of being out of range when the Skull is triggered.

The immunity phase can be defeated with the following towers:

• 2-0-5 Flying Fortress with Permanent Brew / Monkey Intelligence Bureau / Overclock support.
• 5-2-0 Ray of Doom with Permanent Brew / Overclock support.
• 1-5-0 M.A.D.
• 4-2-0 Sun Temple with 1-1-1-0 sacrifices for a VTSG later.
• 2-0-5 Legend of the Night.
• 0-1-5 Avatar of Wrath + 5× 0-1-4 Poplust with usual buff/debuff support.
• 5-2-0 Super Mines if the regular rounds can be defeated before they reach the tower to make all mines hit the boss.
• 5-0-0 Megalodon with maximum Beast Power.
• Spam strategies (Destroyer / Armor Piercing Darts / Shinobi Tactics / Sun Avatar / Spike Storm) with with usual buff/debuff support.

If using debuff support for the Primary phase Super Brittle and Glue Storm are not effective during the primary immunity phase.

Tier 4

To defend this tier is common to use a Paragon from Military, Magic (VTSG can replace it) or Support category in addition to the Primary paragon. The new paragon needs Degree 20+ at this stage and can be kept for Tier 5 if the player wants to. Positioning might be the hardest part of the final tiers as the Paragons need to be in the correct spot to deal maximum damage to Dreadbloon and not lose a lot of time during the immunity phase or end up out of range.

For example, if the Primary Paragon is too far into the back of the track, is recommended to use a Magic or Support Paragon over a Military one in the front of the track to trigger more Skulls before their immunity phase is reached as it might be a lot of dead time between the start of the Military immunity phase until Dreadbloon reaches the Primary Paragon's range.

Tier 5

Adding one or two Paragons from the remaining categories is the final additions for the defense. The Primary Paragon should be sold if its Degree is less than 40 for farming setup and rebuilt later, this is important to be able to defeat Dreadrock Bloons and defend an entire Skull without additional support. If the players chooses to get a single Paragon, Degree 20 is enough in most cases, but Degree 40+ is recommended (Goliath Doomship can be 20 Degrees lower). Also if going for a Master Builder, it is always useful to buy it several rounds before the boss spawns to allow some time for the self-ultraboost ability.

Boss Rush

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Tips and recommendations

• Players should be careful about stalling Dreadbloon for too long as it has similar health to Bloonarius, and considering the Ceramic Shield, they are likely to run out of time.
• There are a few tricky rounds in the early game, examples include:
  • Lead defense needs to be ready in Round 26 instead of 28, it also needs to be stronger as the Leads in 28 and 30 are Fortified, meaning a single 0-0-0 Bomb Shooter cannot pop them anymore. A 0-0-0 Alchemist can pop the layer in most situations, and it can be useful to quickly upgrade it to 1-0-3 Lead to Gold earlier than usual as rounds 31, 34, 38 and 39 contain many Lead Bloons in addition to the regular set and can produce extra income.
  • Ceramics will start appearing in Round 35 instead of 38 and will be Fortified, 39 will also have some additional Ceramics. Regular defensive setups should be good enough at this point to handle them, but players should be careful when the entire defense is composed of a Bloon Trap, if the trap is down at the wrong time the Ceramics might pass and depending on the map and Engineer's position, they risk leaking.
  • The entire Round 46 is replaced by a Fortified MOAB. If Dreadbloon is already defeated, this means the MOAB defense should be ready 4 rounds earlier than usual and be stronger as every other MOAB from this point is also Fortified. Round 46 also needs attention while the Boss is on the screen as the defense could be distracted attacking Dreadbloon and the Dreadrock Bloons, ignoring or not damaging it enough.
• In Boss Challenge / Boss Bloon Events it is recommended to use Primary towers to defend the Dreadrock Bloons, as they will never have Primary immunity, in Tiers 3 or higher a Degree 40+ Apex Plasma Master / Crucible of Steel and Flame or Degree 20+ Glaive Dominus is enough to defeat any Dreadrock Bloon for the rest of the fight, even for Elite Dreadbloon (Normal can be done with 20 less degrees).
• It is useful to save more lives than usual against Dreadbloon as there is always risk of leaking a few Dreadrock Bloons, especially when the Ceramic Shield is regenerated and will spawn more than normal.
• When needed, switch the targeting of your towers to deal with the Boss, its spawns or the regular Bloons, all 4 options have uses.
• A Support Chinook is always a nice tower to have in the early and mid tiers to move towers around as they might end in a bad position to damage Dreadbloon.
• Dreadbloon's speed can be exploited by spam strategies in many maps, using all buff/debuff support in addition to a Sun Temple with Support sacrifices can be extremely effective. If the player is careful with the immunity phase, such strategies can easily beat Normal Dreadbloon and even Tier 4 Elite.

Gallery

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