Pierce

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Map buff icon for Pierce in BTD6

Pierce is the maximum number of Bloons that a single projectile can collide with. Most projectiles disappear if all of their pierce is consumed. All projectiles have a pierce stat, though it does not serve a function for certain projectiles, such as collectables.

Prior to Bloons TD 5, a projectile's pierce was determined solely by its base pierce and any pierce modifiers from upgrades. BTD5 introduced the Monkey Fort upgrade for the Monkey Village, which increases the pierce of other towers. In some games, external pierce modifiers (such as buffs, Specialty Buildings in Bloons TD 5, and equipment in Bloons Adventure Time TD) behave differently from pierce modifiers provided by upgrades.

Pierce is commonly referred to as "popping power" in in-game text, especially prior to Bloons TD 6, though this term has other meanings depending on context.

Mechanics

Expiration

Most projectiles expire immediately upon consuming all pierce. Certain projectiles have effects that trigger when they run out of pierce (such as a bomb projectile spawning an explosion projectile). Some projectiles do not expire when they run out of pierce (such as most area-of-effect style projectiles), though they become unable to collide with any more Bloons if they have zero pierce remaining.

Non-integer pierce

This section 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: Confirm whether this is true outside of Bloons TD 6

In the case where a projectile's pierce isn't whole number, it will be rounded down and the decimal value will stored and transferred to the next projectile. For example, if a projectile has 1.4 pierce, the first two attacks will have 1 pierce and the third will have 2 pierce with 0.2 piercing carrying over into the next attack. So the projectiles pierce will go through a cycle of 1, 1, 2, 1, and 2 pierce before repeating. With towers that fire multiple projectiles in one attack, such as the Tack Shooter, the carryover will occur in a single attack. (e.g. with 1.5 pierce, half the tacks in a volley will have 1 pierce and the other half 2)

Pierce penalty

A pierce penalty is a property of some projectiles in Bloons TD 6 and Bloons TD Battles 2 that causes them to consume more than 1 pierce on contact. This usually only applies to specific Bloon types (for example, Bloon Master Alchemist's shrink potion has 200 pierce, but each MOAB-Class Bloon consumes extra pierce, as a way of limiting its effectiveness against them). A few projectiles, like Hydra Rocket Pods's missiles, consume extra pierce on contact with any Bloon type, as a way of making them benefit less from flat pierce buffs.

Pierce caps

Starting in Bloons TD 5, some projectiles have a limit to the amount of pierce they can gain from external pierce modifiers. This is most often used by projectiles that spawn other projectiles on contact with the first Bloon (such as bombs that spawn explosions), and is usually equal to the projectile's unmodified pierce. Some projectiles have a pierce cap that is different from its normal pierce, such as Ricardio's projectiles in Bloons Adventure Time TD.

In some cases, for balance reasons, pierce limits are applied to some or all projectiles from an attack that produces additional attacks. For example, in BTD6, Bouncing Bullet's shrapnel from the main shot and each bounce can benefit from pierce buffs, but not the bullet itself. In BTD6 and Battles 2, the shards from Ice Shards have a pierce limit, but not for the freeze wave that applies the shards.

In the mobile versions of Bloons TD 5 and Bloons Monkey City, most projectiles that spawn other projectiles on contact with Bloons do not have pierce caps, causing them to pierce through Bloons and spawn projectiles on each collision if given pierce buffs. For example, Hydra Rocket Pods's missiles spawn an explosion on each hit, and Glaive Ricochet's glaives spawn a ricocheting glaive on each hit. This is fixed for Bomb Towers and Monkey Subs in all games, and for Glaive Ricochet in BMC only. In the mobile version of Bloons TD Battles, almost all of these occurrences are fixed, with the only exceptions being the Temple Of The Monkey God's missile, glue, and ice attacks.

List of external pierce modifiers

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Bloons TD 5

Source	Applies to	Modifier
Dartling Ammo Dump tier 4	Dartling Guns	+1
MIB Call To Arms ability	Towers in range	×2
Monkey Fort	Towers in range	+1
Monkey Lab (Popping Power category)	All towers	×2
Spikes R Us tier 4	Spike Factories	×1.5
Tack Awesomizer	Bloonberry Bushes, Road Spikes, Spike Factories, Tack Shooters	×2
Tack Research Center tier 3 and 4	Tack Shooters	+1

Bloons TD 6

• Sun Temple and True Sun God Support sacrifices (sacrifice Tier 5+)
• Brew from Berserker Brew, Stronger Stimulant, and Permanent Brew
• Abyss Dweller, Abyssal Warrior, and Lord of the Abyss
• The Final Harmonic's Trance buff (Magic towers only)
• Primary Training, Primary Mentoring, and Primary Expertise (Primary towers only)
• Call to Arms and Homeland Defense abilities
• Gwendolin level 4+ Heat It Up
• Striker Jones level 8+ local buff
• Striker Jones level 20 Artillery Command ability (Bombs and Mortars only)
• Ezili level 7+ Sacrificial Totem sub-tower (even more pierce for Wizard Monkeys only)
• Geraldo's Sharpening Stone (Sharp damage types only)
• Certain Artifacts
  • Alchemic Engineering (Engineer Monkeys only)
  • Discord (Military towers only)
  • Elite Military Inspiration (Military towers only)
  • Essence Of Bloonarius (tier 3 and below only)
  • Fata Morgana (Mermonkeys only)
  • Frosted Tips (Dart Monkeys only)
  • Full Broadside (Monkey Buccaneers only)
  • Get to the Chopper (Heli Pilots only)
  • Grand Magic Inspiration (Magic towers only)
  • Greater Primary Inspiration (Primary towers only)
  • Heroic Edge
  • Mystic Twister (Magic towers only)
  • Pincushion Flyby (Monkey Aces only)
  • Primary Specialist (non-Primary towers only)
  • Pure Damage
  • Support Specialist (non-Support towers only)
  • Swelling Spikes (Spike Factories only)

Bloons TD Battles

Source	Applies to	Modifier
Cripple	All opponent towers	×0.75
MIB Call To Arms ability	Towers in range	×2
Monkey Fort	Towers in range	+1
Pop Boost	All own towers	×2

Bloons TD Battles 2

• Sun Temple and True Sun God Support sacrifices
• Brew from Berserker Brew, Stronger Stimulant, and Permanent Brew
• Primary Training, Primary Mentoring, and Primary Expertise (Primary towers and Pat Fusty only)
• Call to Arms and Homeland Defense abilities
• Gwendolin level 4+ Heat It Up
• Scientist Gwendolin level 4+ Heat It Up
• Striker Jones level 8+ local buff (Bomb Shooters only)
• Striker Jones level 20 Artillery Command ability (Bombs and Mortars only)
• Biker Bones level 8+ local buff
• Ezili level 2+ local buff (Wizard Monkeys only)
• Ezili level 7+ Sacrificial Totem sub-tower (even more pierce for Wizard Monkeys only)
• Smudge Catt Ezili level 7+ Scratching Post sub-tower
• Adora level 2+ local buff (Super Monkeys only)

Bloons Monkey City

• Monkey Fort
• Monkey Knowledge
• Special Items

Bloons Adventure Time TD

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Characters

• Max's Poptimization (Sharp attacks only)

Weapon

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Trinkets

• Candycorn Spear (further pierce bonus only affects Princess Bubblegum)
• Cheesy Dog (Hot Dog Knights only)
• Flower Crown (Allies only)
• Gauntlet of Bones (melee only)
• Super Porp
• Whistling Book
• Captain Tree Trunks' Eyepatch (only Captain Cassie and Captain Tree Trunks' Cutlass users)
• Death's Drums
• Finn's Crossbow (ranged only)
• Pirate Hat (further pierce bonus only affects Captain Cassie)
• Power Ring of Pierce
• Red Bow Tie
• Cla Blade (even more pierce with Rence Hilt)
• Fire Crown (Allies only)
• Iceberg Blade
• Little Dude
• Thief Crossbow
• Basketball (requires neighboring Ice King or Marceline)
• Blazing Feet (only if the other Wizard Powers are equipped)
• Enchanted Boomerang (further pierce bonus only affects Dart users)
• Eye Flail
• Mystery Cave Pick (melee only)
• Red Cowboy Boots
• Treetrunk's Apple Knife
• Trident
• Doom Gauntlets
• Box of Dirt