User:Polavux/Strategy:Gwendolin (BTD6)

Basic tips

• Set Cocktail of Fire's target point to where it can cover as much of the path as possible, such as inside a small loop or bend, or at an intersection to cover Bloons on multiple paths at once.
• To maximize Cocktail of Fire's duration for a specific blimp or long wave of Bloons, set the target point a short distance in front of it before activating the ability.
• Because Cocktail of Fire counts as an attack and inherits any buffs Gwen currently has that affect projectiles (such as increased damage and pierce), using it while Gwen has an Acidic Mixture Dip and/or Berserker Brew buff creates a wall of fire that has boosted stats on every damage tick, while only consuming one charge from each buff.
• Avoid using Cocktail of Fire if Purple Bloons are on the way and you aren't going to pop their outer layers before they neutralize the wall of fire. This becomes unnecessary starting at level 16.
• Giving Gwen attack speed buffs lets her apply Heat It Up more frequently.
• Selecting a tower buffed by Heat It Up shows when it expires, which is useful to know when to activate Firestorm to reapply the buff.

Roles

Standard

Gwen is an earlygame damage dealer and Lead-popper who transitions into more of a support tower in the mid-lategame. Her earlygame is a lot better on maps where Cocktail of Fire can cover all active lanes, but her mid-lategame support works well on pretty much any map where she can attack constantly. While not affordable at the start in some modes, her fast level rate gets her to important level thresholds even if placed late. Heat It Up excels at supporting towers with high projectile counts, low base pierce, low damage, and a weakness to DDTs. She also passively buffs some towers with Pyrotechnics Expert, but it's very situational because most of the towers it benefits are ones that don't benefit much from HIU. Since HIU is her main source of strength later on, it's important to position Gwen where HIU can reach ideal spots for towers and where she can attack frequently enough to keep cycling it.

In the earlygame, Gwen's main attack is lackluster for her cost, but it pops Leads and has significant power spikes at levels 6 and 8. Her main source of damage at this point is Cocktail of Fire, which has multiple use cases. It can thin out dense rounds like 10, 15, and part of 36; it can clean up stragglers by targeting the furthest point down the track; it can take out some early Camos if needed; and it can clean up Ceramics left by early MOABs. Heat It Up doesn't trigger frequently enough for it to be reliable until later on, but for extra optimization, it is possible to micro to get it to activate at specific moments, and the pierce buff and AoE can come in clutch.

Gwen's main purpose in the midgame is HIU-buffing other towers, which Firestorm also does starting at level 10. Besides that, level 9 allows her main attack to deal decent DOT to blimps after a few levels of ramping up, and the cocktail remains useful for dense Ceramics if Alch-buffed. For round 63 specifically, Gwen can cover all three Ceramic waves by using the cocktail on the first and third waves and Firestorm on the second wave.

Firestorm's map-wide damage has its uses, but the main purpose of the ability is re-applying HIU to bridge its downtime when needed. The fire damage can help remove RBE from dense rounds, but it can't clear Ceramics out by itself, and it doesn't do much to MOAB-Class Bloons. It becomes much better at screen clearing and blimp damage starting at level 16, but she can't reach that in time for rounds 76 and 78 without Monkey Knowledge and playing on higher map difficulties.

In the lategame, Gwen usually reaches level 17 in time for the DDT rounds. HIU and Firestorm can negate the need for other DDT support, such as Monkey Intelligence Bureau or Glue Strike, both by allowing towers to damage DDTs and increasing the damage they deal to DDTs to pop them quickly. Her main attack becomes fairly powerful for blimp damage at level 19, though this can cause issues on round 98 if she pops the blimps too quickly and spawns too many Ceramics; without stalling or Monkey Knowledge, Firestorm can't recharge in time for this round if used for the DDTs on round 95.

Towers to support

Strategy	Notes
Perma Charge
The Tack Zone
Shinobi Tactics + Grandmaster Ninja	Heat It Up and Cocktail of Fire help with dense Bloons and Leads before the Shinobis really ramp up, but Gwen's main role is buffing Grandmaster Ninja for DDTs in the lategame. It may be worth getting Berserker Brew before Bloonjitsu and placing it near Gwen for its synergy with cocktail and HIU. For extra optimization, Shinobis can decamo and distract Bloons for Gwen so she gets more value out of cocktails and cycles HIU more consistently, especially during Camo-only stretches.
Sky Shredder
Comanche Commander
Signal Flare	While not usually the most consistent camo solution, Pyrotechnics Expert makes Signal Flare a little more reliable.
Inferno Ring	Inferno Ring is the only tower that benefits a lot from both Heat It Up and Pyrotechnics Expert, making its meteors more deadly and allowing its AoE to cover a bigger area. Berserker Brew should prioritize buffing Inferno Ring over Gwen if possible.

Other modes

Mode

Tips

Race Event / Time Attack

If given a choice for a Hero, Gwen is one of the best options for getting a run started, by activating her level 3 ability and then selling her to get money back. Target the cocktail inside a bend or intersection, then send to round 20 or 24 shortly before it recharges (usually around 5–8 seconds, depending on the difficulty and length between the target point and the entrances) to maximize it. Normally, sending past round 24 early ruins the strategy because of Purple Bloons, but in CT Time Attack, it's possible to keep going with Royal Treatment. Rosalia has higher highs in this role, but Gwen is easier to use and doesn't leave behind Black and Zebra Bloons. Firestorm is surprisingly underwhelming as a screen-clear and usually isn't worth keeping Gwen for.