Smart Spikes (BTD6)

For the upgrade in Bloons TD Battles 2, see Smart Spikes (Battles 2).

Smart Spikes

Spike Factory gains special targeting priority and accelerated production at the start of each round.

Tower	Spike Factory — Path 3 — Tier 2
XP cost	550
Cash cost	$340 — Easy $400 — Medium $430 — Hard $480 — Impoppable

← Long Reach

Long Life Spikes →

Smart Spikes (Directed Spikes prior to version 14.0) is the Spike Factory's path 3 tier 2 upgrade in Bloons TD 6. It gains a tower buff at the start of each round that quadruples its attack speed for 3 seconds. If crosspathed with Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes, their abilities will only dispense spikes on paths that currently have Bloons on them, and their abilities will dispense more spikes if they're triggered while the buff is still active. The buff can be absorbed by Lych. The Spike Factory also gains four new targeting options in addition to the default random behavior, which is labeled as Normal in the options:

• Close — Dispenses spikes on the nearest section of track within range.
• Smart — Targets whichever track has the Bloons that are closest to reaching the exit (or has Bloons at all), and dispenses spikes on the point closest to the end of that track. If it cannot reach any paths that have Bloons on them, it will dispense spikes on the points closest to the ends of each track within its range, keeping their coverage roughly even.
• Set Target — Dispenses spikes to any location within range, the target point can be selected by clicking the Set Target button on the tower's menu and it can be set outside the track.
• Automatic — Changes behavior depending if there are Bloons in range, if there are, the Spike Factory will target its spikes towards the Bloon that is closest to the exit ("First" targeting). Otherwise it will drop the spikes in the closest point to the front of the track within range, also, if there is more than one track in range, the spikes will be divided in a similar way to the Smart targeting.

Stats

For a complete list of Spike Factory stats, see Stats:Spike Factory (BTD6).

This data was last updated for: version 55.1

Tower
Display range 42 units Footprint radius 8 units Targeting options Normal Close Smart Automatic Set Target

Attack
Cooldown 1.75s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 0, 12.13 Targeting Depends on targeting option Targeting range 42 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Ignores blockers
Projectile Pierce 5 Damage 1 Damage type Sharp Lifespan 100s Radius 6 units Rehit interval 0.001s Ignores blockers

Start-of-round buff
Cooldown modifier ×0.25 Lifespan 3s

1-0-2

Attack
Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 0, 12.13 ↓ 0, 0, 16.09
Projectile Pierce 5 → 10

2-0-2

Attack
Projectile Damage type Sharp → Normal

0-1-2

Attack
Cooldown 1.75s → 1.4s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, 0, 12.13 ↓ 0, 0, 12.19

0-2-2

Attack
Cooldown 1.4s → 1.05s

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
0-0-2	$1,320	$1,550	$1,670	$1,860	$924	$1,085	$1,169	$1,302
1-0-2	$2,000	$2,350	$2,535	$2,820	$1,400	$1,645	$1,775	$1,974
2-0-2	$2,510	$2,950	$3,185	$3,540	$1,757	$2,065	$2,230	$2,478
3-0-2	$4,465	$5,250	$5,670	$6,300	$3,126	$3,675	$3,969	$4,410
4-0-2	$12,540	$14,750	$15,930	$17,700	$8,778	$10,325	$11,151	$12,390
5-0-2	$118,790	$139,750	$150,930	$167,700	$83,153	$97,825	$105,651	$117,390
0-1-2	$1,830	$2,150	$2,320	$2,580	$1,281	$1,505	$1,624	$1,806
0-2-2	$2,510	$2,950	$3,185	$3,540	$1,757	$2,065	$2,230	$2,478
0-3-2	$4,635	$5,450	$5,885	$6,540	$3,245	$3,815	$4,120	$4,578
0-4-2	$10,585	$12,450	$13,445	$14,940	$7,410	$8,715	$9,412	$10,458
0-5-2	$45,435	$53,450	$57,725	$64,140	$31,805	$37,415	$40,408	$44,898

Strategy

This section was last updated for: version 52.1

Smart Spikes allows Spike Factory to focus spikes onto specific regions, and its start-of-round speed boost improves short-term production. For lower tiers, a 1-0-2 Spike Factory can be used as a cheap option to catch stray Bloons. Spiked Balls and Spiked Mines may prefer this crosspath on longer maps while Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes mainly use it to control where the spikes from their abilities land on maps with alternating lanes. MOAB SHREDR can use Set Target to focus its blimp damage bonuses to minimize wastage on non-blimps and is a strong choice in Boss Rush. Specific to Boss Rush, both MOAB SHREDR and Super Mines prefer this crosspath, because the start-of-round boost occurs often enough every Boss kill that it outpaces Even Faster Production. However, Super Mines prefers the middle crosspath outside of Boss Rush due its higher DPS when ignoring the start-of-round boost.

Use cases for each targeting option are as follows:

• Normal: Spikes are randomized thus losing consistency, but may be easier to determine the health of a stockpile.
• Close: Focusing near the Spike Factory without needing to modify a reticle (unlike Set Target).
• Smart: Allows auto-switching between active lanes to target towards the exit(s).
• Set Target: Allows for any specific location in range. Can be placed off the track to specifically hit only MOAB-Class Bloons, or to micromanage different locations of spikes. Care should be taken when a temporary range buff (e.g. Berserker Brew) is active, as setting the Spike Factory's targeting too far may cancel its set targeting due to gaining only temporary range.
• Automatic: Anti-stalling. It can also be used as a less micro-intensive option (compared to Set Target) to chase MOAB-Class Bloons.

Update history

For a complete list of Spike Factory changes, see Update history:Spike Factory (BTD6).

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Version 2.0

• Far targeting no longer causes the game to crash if it cannot reach the track (bug fix)

Version 14.0

•  Now gains a 4× attack speed buff for 2.5 seconds at the start of each round
• Name changed ― "Directed Spikes" → "Smart Spikes"
• Description changed ― "Spike Factory gains special targeting priority." → "Spike Factory gains special targeting priority and accelerated production at the start of each round."

Version 21.0

“

Since launch xx2 has never brought enough to the table as a crosspath. Working into the long life trend of the bottom path we felt that introducing longer life at a ‘cross-pathable stage’ may work in some new niche.
— Update notes

”

•  Projectile lifespan increased ― 70s → 100s
  • Note: X-X-3 unaffected

0-4-2, 0-5-2

•  Ability: Projectile lifespan with Long Reach increased ― 9s–11s → 15s–16.5s (50% longer)

Version 22.0

0-4-2, 0-5-2

•  Smart Spikes now causes the ability to only target active paths (e.g. Bloody Puddles)

0-5-2

•  Smart Spikes now causes the passive ability to only target active paths (e.g. Bloody Puddles)

Version 23.0

“

Like a few other towers before it, the attack speed crosspath for Spike Factory has outshined the others. We have reworked the lower Spike Factory tiers to distribute this power more evenly while keeping high tier factories at a similar level of power.
— Update notes

”

•  Overall cost increased by $200 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
•  Base spike factory rate increased ― 2.2s → 1.75s

0-1-2

•  Rate reduced ― 1.32s → 1.4s

0-2-2

•  Rate increased ― 0.99s → 0.98s

Version 24.0

•  Smart targeting now places spikes as far back on the track as it can, rather than directly in front of the Bloon closest to leaking (undocumented)

0-4-2, 0-5-2

•  Now correctly works on splitting tracks (bug fix)

Version 29.0

“

While we feel speed interactions for Spike Storm was a necessary evil for performance related concerns, we did not want to kill off self synergy contained local to the tower, so we are trying out an exception to this rule for the 042 crosspath.
— Update notes

”

0-4-2, 0-5-2

•  Ability: Now benefits from Smart Spikes' speed buff

Version 32.0

•  Selling this tower now allows other towers to inherit the start-of-round buff (bug)

Version 32.2

•  Resolved xx2 Spike Factory buff applying to other towers & allowing extra buffs to be applied (bug fix)

0-4-2, 0-5-2

•  Smart Spikes start of round buff no longer applies to Spike Storm (undocumented)

Version 38.0

“

Further balance for 401 crosspath, while this does already see some niche use it made sense to include increased explosion radius with the larger tower range.
— Update notes

”

•  Start-of-round buff duration increased ― 2.5s → 3s

4-0-2

•  Explosion: Radius increased ― 30 → 40

5-0-2

•  Large explosion: Radius increased ― 100 → 133
•  Small explosion: Blast radius increased ― 30 → 40

Version 39.0

•  Spike Factory no longer can shotgun spikes for exactly one frame after spawning (bug fix)

Version 43.0

“

Spike Storm is now exceptionally strong so the ability cooldown is increasing a small amount along with the T5 cost. This comes along with a crosspath rebalance granting more 042 lifespan.
— Update notes

”

0-4-2, 0-5-2

•  Ability: Long Reach increases the lifespan of spike piles further ― +50% → +100%
  • With X-4-X crosspath: 15s–16.5s → 18s–22s (due to this change stacking with a nerf to the non-crosspathed lifespan)
  • With X-5-X crosspath: 27s–33s → 36s–44s

Version 49.0

“

This update we’ve finally decided to nerf Permaspike by completely removing the ‘Far’ target priority from the earlier Smart Spikes upgrade. We know that this loss will be incredibly painful to deal with for the many spike factory enjoyers out there, so we have also included a couple other minor QoL adjustments to the Smart Spikes upgrade in a hopeful attempt to offset this.
— Update notes

”

•  Reworked targeting options ― Normal, Close, Far, Smart → Normal, Close, Smart, Set Target, Automatic
  •  Smart Spikes: Adds a "Set Target" option, which allows to select the place inside the Spike Factory's range where the spikes go to.
  •  Smart Spikes: Adds a "Automatic" option, attempts to directly target the first bloon
  •  Removed "Far" targeting option

Gallery

For more Spike Factory images, see Gallery:Spike Factory.

Screenshots

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Assets

• 
  Portrait
• 
  Upgrade icon
• 
  Insta Monkey icon

In other languages

Language	Name / Description	Notes
Arabic	المسامير الذكية يكتسب مصنع المسامير أولوية استهداف خاصة ويعمل على تسريع الإنتاج في بداية كل جولة.	—
Danish	Smarte søm Sømfabrikken får særlig målsøgnings-prioritet og hurtigere produktion i starten af hver runde.	—
German	Clevere Nägel Die Nagelfabrik gewinnt zu Beginn jeder Runde spezielle Zielpriorität und beschleunigte Produktion.	—
Spanish	Clavos inteligentes La fábrica de clavos gana una prioridad de objetivos especial y producción acelerada al inicio de cada ronda.	—
Spanish (LA)	Clavos inteligentes La fábrica de clavos gana una prioridad de objetivos especial y producción acelerada al inicio de cada ronda.	—
Finnish	Älypiikit Piikkitehdas saa erityisen kohdeprioriteetin ja kiihdytetyn tuotannon kunkin kierroksen alussa.	—
French	Herses intelligentes L'usine de herses acquiert une priorité de ciblage spéciale et une production accélérée au début de chaque manche.	—
Italian	Aculei intelligenti Con la fabbrica di aculei si ottiene una speciale priorità nella mira e una produzione accelerata all'inizio di ogni round.	—
Japanese	スマートスパイク スパイク工場が特別ターゲットの優先となり、各ラウンドの開始時に生産が加速される。	—
Korean	스마트 스파이크 각 라운드 시작 시 스파이크 공장이 특수 표적우선순위와 빠른 생산력을 갖습니다.	—
Dutch	Slimme stekels De Stekelfabriek krijgt speciale richtprioriteit en versnelde productie aan het begin van elke ronde.	—
Norwegian	Smartspiker Spikerfabrikken får spesiell målrettingsprioritet og akselerert produksjon ved starten av hver runde.	—
Polish	Sprytne kolce Fabryka kolców zyskuje specjalne priorytety celowania i przyspieszoną produkcję na początku każdej rundy.	—
Portuguese (Brazil)	Espinhos Inteligentes A Usina de Espinhos ganha prioridade de alvo especial e produção acelerada no início de cada rodada.	—
Russian	Умные шипы В начале каждого раунда шиповой завод получает особый приоритет наведения, а его производство ускоряется.	—
Swedish	Smarta spikar Spikfabriken får en särskild målsökningsprioritet och snabbare produktion i början av varje runda.	—
Thai	ตะปูอัจฉริยะ โรงงานตะปูได้รับวิธีเล็งเป้าหมายแบบพิเศษ และเร่งการผลิตเมื่อเริ่มต้นแต่ละรอบ	—
Turkish	Akıllı Çiviler Çivi Fabrikası, her turun başlangıcında özel hedefleme önceliği ve hızlandırılmış üretim kazanır.	—
Chinese (simplified)	智能刺钉 刺钉工厂在每个回合开始时都可优先获取特殊攻击目标和加速生产。	—
Chinese (traditional)	聰明針刺 針刺工廠每回合開始獲得特殊目標優先和加速生產。	—
This list was last updated for: version 43.1