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Revision as of 09:18, 29 September 2025 by Qwertyxp2000(talk | contribs)(→Weapon: I think that's all the weapons. lemme know if "pops" or more are what I am missing for "pierce" weapons)
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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.
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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