Arctic Knight is the Mermonkey's path 2 tier 4 upgrade in Bloons TD 6. In addition to the Ice Jet ability, tridents deal base 8 damage instead of 4, deal double base damage to MOAB-class, and grow in power faster (75% instead of 50%, 112.5% instead of 75% with 2-4-0). Wavelets also do 8 damage instead of 4.
The Ice Jet ability stops the trident attack, instead rapidly throwing ice balls for 3 seconds, with 45 seconds ability cooldown. By default, they attack targets anywhere on screen based on targeting priority. A targeting reticle can be placed anywhere on screen to only aim towards a specific point.
This upgrade gives the trident attack the following benefits over Riptide Champion:
Increased base damage from 4 to 8, deals +4 damage to frozen Bloons and +8 damage to MOAB-Class Bloons.
Trident wavelets do 8 damage instead of 4, deals +4 damage to frozen Bloons and +8 damage to MOAB-Class Bloons.
Grows faster, by +75% instead of +50%, or +112.5% instead of +75% with 2-4-0.
Like previous upgrades, tridents grow in projectile radius and damage at a steady rate, and create two wavelets at 180° apart that deal non-scaling damage and lose projectile size as they travel. Tridents have 25 pierce.
Ice Jet
Ice Jet is Arctic Knight's Activated Ability. When activated, the Mermonkey stops throwing tridents and instead rapidly shoots ice balls for 3 seconds, at a rate of 0.1s per ice ball (affected by attack speed buffs), randomly spread over a 30° angle. Each ice ball deals 20 damage that doesn't soak through layers (meaning the extra damage only matters for Bloons with more than 1 health), has 240 pierce, and freezes non-MOAB-Class Bloons for 3 seconds. They can bounce off obstacles, but not the edges of the map, and can rehit Bloons after bouncing. They last for up to 10 seconds on screen normally and can carry over one round. The ability has a 45-second cooldown.
The ice balls deal frigid-type damage, but can pass through White and Zebra Bloons (without affecting them) instead of disappearing on contact, though they are neutralized by Purple Bloons as normal. If the tower has a buff that allows the ice balls to damage Bloons with White properties, such as Monkey Intelligence Bureau, then they will collide with White and Zebra Bloons as normal.
By default, this ability targets Bloons anywhere on-screen (even behind line of sight blockers) and prioritizes First, Last, Close, or Strong according to the tower's current targeting mode. The player can use the tower's Monkey Special to set a target position anywhere on-screen, which causes Ice Jet to aim at that marker instead. Using the Monkey Special again removes the marker and prevents it from being set again for 5 seconds afterwards. If the tower has a marker, then the ability is usable without requiring a Bloon to be on-screen, but if it does not have a marker, then the ability cannot be used if there are no Bloons on-screen, and if the tower does not have Camo detection, then Camo Bloons do not allow the ability to be used.
Crosspathing with Trident Swiftness increases the projectile speed of the ice balls by +50% while retaining their lifespan, thus increasing their total distance by the same amount.
Crosspathing with Echosense Precision reduces the random spread of the ice balls from 30° to 10° and allows the ice balls to hit Camo Bloons.
Arctic Knight excels on maps with obstacles, especially standing out on Dark Dungeons, because the Ice Jet ability can maximize its pierce and hit many more times on bloons. Its main attack does decent damage and freezing, though most of its power still comes from its ability. However, both its tridents and Ice Jet leave behind many White and Zebra Bloons so it should be combined with quick-attacking frozen-popping towers, such as Juggernaut.
Both crosspaths help improve the Arctic Knight, however only 0-4-1 affects the ability by granting innate camo detection and greater accuracy of the Ice Jet. In most situations 0-4-1 is still preferred in most cases, because the seeking tridents help catch faster Bloons more reliably. 2-4-0 is still helpful if it uses pierce often, where the seeking matters less.
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While we’re not jumping into any full on balance changes, there’s a few corrections that we wanted to make for type-fixes and other intended play. — Update notes
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Ice Jet: Projectile lifespan is now capped at 15 seconds
Ice Jet: Projectile damage type changed ― Shatter → Plasma
While the Arctic Knight has been popular, Riptide Champion has major pierce issues and is seeing a price reduction as well as a pierce increase to make up for this. Arctic Knight itself is receiving the brand new damage type added this update; as it is gaining a weakness to White Bloons from this and wasn’t too wild before we are increasing the power as well & allowing the ability to carry over 1 round to prevent projectiles timing out immediately when cast at the end of a round. — Update notes
”
Overall cost reduced by $625 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
Pierce increased ― 14 → 15
Ability damage increased ― 15 → 20
Trident: damage type changed ― Plasma → Frigid
Note: Projectile will be destroyed when hitting White properties
Ability: damage type changed ― Plasma → Frigid
Note: Projectile will be destroyed when hitting White properties
While we were happy with Arctic Knight’s Ice Jet being a high pierce MOAB layer removal that could with other tower combinations be upgraded to a more effective full-clear, there is not currently enough varied ways of quickly dealing with White Bloon layers, so for a long cooldown based ability this heavy a weakness is too much for now. — Update notes
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Ice Jet: Projectiles pass through White or Zebra Bloons if they can't damage them, instead of destroying the projectile
Now reduces the lifespan of Ice Jet projectiles by 33% (undocumented)
Note: This means the maximum travel distance of Ice Jet projectiles is now the same as without the crosspath, since this crosspath increases their projectile speed by 50%
[While talking about Riptide champion ...], and the rest of the path is also seeing a damage increase. — Update notes
”
Overall cost reduced by $300 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
Main and split projectiles: Damage increased ― 6 → 8
Main and split projectiles: Bonus damage to MOAB-Class Bloons increased ― +6 → +8
Main and split projectiles: Bonus damage to frozen Bloons increased ― +3 → +4 (undocumented)
Description changed ― Tridents can pop Lead Bloons and grow in power faster. Ice Jet ability: Launches a barrage of bouncing ice balls following target priority, or targeted point. → Tridents grow in power faster. Ice Jet ability: Launches a barrage of bouncing ice balls following target priority, or targeted point.
Mermonkey weren’t[sic] feeling they favoured their natural habitat enough, so their Water Placement bonus is getting a boost. Middle Path Mermonkey just isn’t putting in the work we hoped, so we’re giving a couple price adjustments, a pierce increase across all tiers, and some light ability improvements to make it feel more rewarding. — Update notes
”
Overall cost reduced by $400 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
Ability: Projectiles can now bounce from map borders (undocumented)
Note: X-5-X could already bounce from borders
Trident: Pierce increased ― 18 → 25
Range bonus when placed in water increased ― +25% → +35%
Note: Attack cooldown reduction from 0-0-0 increased from 15% to 20%. The patch notes do not specify that the attack speed buff is only for the main trident attack, all other attacks unchanged.
Note: Attack cooldown reduction from 1-x-x increased from 18% to 25%. The patch notes do not specify that the attack speed buff is only for the main trident attack, all other attacks unchanged.
Riptide Champion as an underappreciated star performed exceptionally well with recent changes which are now being scaled back and Popseidon which was also performing extremely well will likewise be scaled back — Update notes
”
Overall cost increased by $300 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
Mermonkey ended up somewhat underrated and overbuffed, mid tiers for top and middle paths have really stood out here lately and need to be reigned back in line. — Update notes
”
Overall cost increased by $625 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
Tridents grow in power faster. Ice Jet ability: Launches a barrage of bouncing ice balls following target priority, or targeted point.
Ice Jet: Projectile lifespan is now capped at 15 seconds
Ice Jet: Projectile damage type changed ― Shatter → Plasma
Overall cost reduced by $625 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
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Upgrade / ability icon
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