Riptide Champion

Riptide Champion

Mermonkey draws energy from the sea. Tridents can pop Lead Bloons, grow in power as they travel, and crash with devastating force.

Tower	Mermonkey — Path 2 — Tier 3
XP cost	2,500
Cash cost	$1,700 — Easy $2,000 — Medium $2,160 — Hard $2,400 — Impoppable

← Tidal Chill

Arctic Knight →

Riptide Champion is the Mermonkey's path 2 tier 3 upgrade in Bloons TD 6. It throws single freezing tridents that grow in size and damage as they travel, each producing two opposing wavelets laterally from the initial projectiles after expiring. Additionally, the tower gains +4 base range (from 28 to 32), and slower projectile speed, but attacks every 1.5 seconds instead of 1.2 seconds.

The trident deals 4 damage, +2 Frozen damage, and scales damage at a steady rate of 50% per second as it travels (75% per second with 2-3-0) as it travels. Projectiles are capped at ×2 scaling (×3 with 2-3-0), but expire earlier. Tide splits have 4 damage and do not scale damage, unlike the trident, and lose projectile size as they travel. Bloons are frozen for 1 second, with 50% penalty against Ceramic Bloons (0.5 seconds).

Mechanics

Trident

Tridents grow in projectile radius and damage at a steady rate of 50% per second and create two wavelets at 180° spread that deal non-scaling damage and lose projectile size as they travel. Tridents have 25 pierce, 4 damage, +2 damage to frozen Bloons, and 1.5385 seconds projectile lifespan. It has a projectile speed of 130.

With Trident Swiftness (2-3-0), projectile speed increases to 195 but lasts 1.0256 seconds, resulting in about the same projectile distance, and scales damage at 75% per unit time, resulting in the same damage when expired by time.

With Echosense Precision, the Trident now seeks at a turn rate of 169°/s.

Stats

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

This data was last updated for: version 55.1

Tower
Display range 32 units Footprint radius 8 units Targeting options First Last Close Strong

Attack
Cooldown 1.5s Offset (X, Y, Z) -0.5, 3.4, 7 Targeting Depends on targeting option Targeting range 32 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Projectile Pierce 25 Damage 4 Damage to frozen +2 Damage type Frigid Speed 130 units/s Lifespan 1.5385s Radius 1 unit Filters Ignores White if its damage type cannot damage it Cannot hit Camo Freeze Multiplier ×0 Duration 1s Layers ∞ Split projectile Count 2 Angle 180° Pierce 25 Damage 4 Damage to frozen +2 Damage type Frigid Speed 100 units/s Lifespan 2s Radius 1 unit Filters Ignores White if its damage type cannot damage it Cannot hit Camo Freeze Multiplier ×0 Duration 1s Layers ∞

Buff when in water
Range modifier ×1.35

1-3-0

Attack
Cooldown 1.5s → 1.2s Offset (X, Y, Z) -0.5, 3.4, 7 ↓ -0.5, 3.4, 8.2

2-3-0

Attack
Cooldown 1.2s → 0.825s
Projectile Speed 130 units/s → 195 units/s Lifespan 1.5385s → 1.0256s

0-3-1

Attack
Offset (X, Y, Z) -0.5, 3.4, 7 ↓ -0.5, 3.4, 8.2 Filters Can now target Camo
Projectile Seeking distance 80 units Seeking angle 360° Seeking rotation speed 169 °/s Filters Can now hit Camo Split projectile Filters Can now hit Camo

0-3-2

Echosense Network
Range modifier +7.5% Max. stacks 10
Has global range

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
0-3-0	$2,315	$2,725	$2,945	$3,270	$1,621	$1,908	$2,062	$2,289
1-3-0	$2,440	$2,875	$3,105	$3,450	$1,708	$2,013	$2,174	$2,415
2-3-0	$2,650	$3,125	$3,375	$3,750	$1,855	$2,188	$2,363	$2,625
0-3-1	$2,485	$2,925	$3,160	$3,510	$1,740	$2,048	$2,212	$2,457
0-3-2	$2,725	$3,205	$3,460	$3,845	$1,908	$2,244	$2,422	$2,692

Strategy

This strategy section is empty or incomplete. See the strategy guidelines for more information on how to write strategy sections. The editor who added this notice elaborates: Check again if crosspath prefs for top vs bottom are still true as of v51.0 with pierce buff

This article or section is outdated and needs to be updated to reflect recent updates or newly available information. You can help out by editing this article. The editor who added this notice elaborates: big Riptide nerfs

This section was last updated for: version 52.2

Riptide Champion's cheap cost gives it an edge at mid-to-late-game cleanup and support, freezing Super Ceramics while dealing high general damage in all stages. It's particularly effective in groups, being able to focus one area at a time, and can bolster DDT damage. Its only major downsides are being unable to pop Whites and Zebras, requiring additional cleanup, and adding an anti-synergy with sharp attacks.

The third-path crosspath is preferred to let the homing scale its damage more reliably, with Echosense Network potentially giving it massive range. However, the first-path crosspath's speed bonuses are used if Riptide Champion must deal with denser groups and cannot use the homing effectively.

Update history

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

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Version 44.1

“

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

”

•  Sub-projectiles can now freeze Bloons in addition to the main projectile

Version 45.0

“

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.
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost reduced ― $2,800 → $2,300
  •  Overall cost reduced by $625 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
•  Pierce increased ― 8 → 12

Version 47.0

“

Middle path pierce was lacking all through to T5, so pierce is now being matched to T5 across the path.
— Update notes

”

•  Trident: Pierce increased ― 12 → 18
  • Note: Popseidon unaffected
•  Split projectile: Pierce increased ― 12 → 18
  • Note: Popseidon unaffected

Version 48.0

“

Middle path is seeing a consistency improvement for Freeze Duration & White Bloons
— Update notes

”

•  Trident: Freeze duration increased ― 0.3s → 0.8s
•  Split trident: Freeze duration increased ― 0.3s → 0.8s

Version 49.0

“

Riptide Champion’s damage type is being made consistent with the rest of the path to grant Mermonkey earlier Lead popping [...]
— Update notes

”

•  Overall cost reduced by $300 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
•  Resolved a build order issue that could override higher tier Mermonkey buffs (bug fix)
•  Damage type changed ― Energy → Frigid
• Description changed ― Mermonkey draws energy from the sea. Tridents grow in size and power as they travel, and crash with devastating force. → Mermonkey draws energy from the sea. Tridents can pop Lead Bloons, grow in power as they travel, and crash with devastating force.

Version 51.0

“

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 [...]
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost reduced ― $2,300 → $1,900
•  Trident: Pierce increased ― 18 → 25
•  Range bonus when placed in water increased ― +25% → +35%

Version 52.0

“

Last update many players felt blindsided when Brickell stopped applying her buff to Mermonkeys since there was no mention in the balance changes section. We would like to apologize for that - it was tasked internally as a bug as it was indeed unintended to work that way. We then left the issue alone for a long time, mostly due to other more pressing matters, and this issue fell through the cracks. In retrospect, it would have been better to treat this as balance rather than a simple bug fix due to how much time had passed. Reading through your feedback, we did consider just reverting the change, however the bigger issue that the feedback reinforced to us was that players considered Mermonkey to be so bad that it was only a "good" tower when used in combination with a single, water-only hero. This sort of forced synergy goes against our design intentions - namely that Mermonkey being our signature amphibious tower should be able to stand on its own without being balance-locked to an interaction with a single hero. With all that in mind, we feel Mermonkey's highest priority right now is large sweeping buffs to each of the paths, so most of the following changes are our first step towards this starting from the low tier crosspaths.
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost reduced ― $1,900 → $1,100
  •  Overall cost reduced by $975 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
•  Trident: Projectile speed increased ― 100 units/s → 110 units/s
•  Trident: Projectile lifespan decreased ― 2.0s → 1.8181s
  • Note: Maximum distance traveled by the projectile unchanged. Popseidon side tridents are also affected.

1-3-0

•  Trident: Attack cooldown reduced ― 1.02s → 0.96s (attack speed increased by 6.25%)
  • 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.

2-3-0

•  Trident: Attack cooldown reduced ― 0.804s → 0.66s (attack speed increased by 21.82%)
  • 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.
•  Trident: Projectile speed increased ― 150 units/s → 165 units/s
•  Trident: Projectile lifespan decreased ― 1.3333s → 1.1212s
  • Note: Maximum distance traveled by the projectile unchanged. Popseidon side tridents are also affected.

0-3-1, 0-3-2

•  Trident (seeking): Turn rate increased ― 130°/s → 143°/s (undocumented)

Version 53.0

“

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

”

•  Upgrade cost increased ― $1,100 → $1,400
•  Range reduced ― 35 units → 32 units

Version 54.0

“

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

”

•  Upgrade cost increased ― $1,400 → $2,000
  •  Overall cost increased by $625 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
•  Main attack: Freeze duration for Rainbow Bloons and below increased ― 0.8s → 1s
•  Main attack: Freeze duration for Ceramic Bloons decreased ― 0.8s → 0.5s
•  Trident: Projectile speed increased ― 110 units/s → 130 units/s
  • Stacks with 2-X-0 Trident Swiftness crosspath ― 165 units/s → 195 units/s
•  Trident: Projectile lifespan decreased ― 1.8182s → 1.5385s
  • Stacks with 2-X-0 Trident Swiftness crosspath ― 1.2121s → 1.0256s
  •  Overall projectile distance remains unchanged (200 units) for all crosspaths
•  Trident: Attack cooldown increased ― 1.2s → 1.5s (attack speed reduced by 20%)
  • Stacks with 1-X-0 Trident Efficiency crosspath ― 0.96s → 1.2s
  • Stacks with 2-X-0 Trident Swiftness crosspath ― 0.66s → 0.825s

0-3-1, 0-3-2

•  Trident: Turn rate increased ― 143°/s → 169°/s

Gallery

For more Mermonkey images, see Gallery:Mermonkey.

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