A look into Boss Bloons

In this guide, we will be taking a look into the boss bloons of BTD6 so far, and we will attempt to break down and understand each and every boss, from general to specific

Introduction

As mentioned above, this guide is meant to help give an understanding to bosses in BTD6 thus far.
I will go from how bosses work in general to how each one specifically behaves. Since there are multiple guides out there on how to beat bosses (especially on how to speedrun them) THIS GUIDE WILL NOT BE ON HOW TO BEAT A WEEK'S BOSS, there are plenty of those already. If anything regarding that, I will only give a recommendation on what tower(s) to use for each Tier of the boss.
With that out of the way, let's get started

Boss Bloons in general

Boss Bloons are special MOAB-class bloons that appear only on boss events. They are the biggest, slowest, and toughest type of bloons in the game. They have similar properties as a BAD, except they are immune to everything. Bosses cannot be slowed (with the exception of a Time Stop), cannot be insta-killed, and are immune to "downgrade" abilities. (Like Grand Sabotage and Ezili's MOAB Hex) Should a boss leak, it's game over, regardless of lives or if you have LotN. Raw damage is the only to defeat a boss bloon.

Tiers

Boss bloons are not just a one-time fight and done. There are 5 Tiers (or phases if you prefer) when fighting a boss. Stars on the top left of the boss' healthbar show which Tier you are fighting

Tier 1


Tier 2


Tier 3


Tier 4


Tier 5

Tier 1 appears on Round 40, Tier 2 on Round 60, Tier 3 on Round 80, Tier 4 on Round 100, and Tier 5 on Round 120. Each Tier has more health and is more powerful than the last one. The boss also cosmetically changes with each Tier. Popping the Tier 5 boss, will show a victory screen saying you have truly defeated the boss.

Skulls

If you look at a boss' healthbar, you will notice some skulls on it. When a skull is reached, the boss' special ability will be triggered. What the ability does and how many skulls there are depend on which boss you are fighting. Along with the Tiers, the skulls become more and more dangerous.






Skull triggered on the healthbar

Elite Bosses

After you have defeated a boss, you will unlock it's Elite version (which is the true fight if you ask me)
Elite bosses both look different from Normal, and they are vastly much more difficult. Elite bosses not only have more health, but most of them have a total of 7 skulls on their healthbar, and yes the skulls too are more dangerous with Elite. Certain Elite bosses move faster than their weaker Normal counterparts.
Elite bosses also have a much, much higher health scaling formula that they all generally follow which is listed below

Tier 1 is always set in advance

• T1 X 6 = T2
  
• T2 X 6 2/3 = T3
  
• T3 X 4 = T4
  
• T4 X 5 = T5

* The list above is an approximate scaling formula for the Elite bosses. Only two boss bloons follow this formula on the dot

Paragons, the Anti-Boss Bloon towers

In case you do not know this information, paragons are made for fighting bosses. They do extra damage to the boss, and that extra damage increases exponentially for Elite bosses. In this guide, I will give a suggestion on which 4 paragons I believe is best for countering a certain boss. I will give why I believe that paragon is best for countering that specific boss as well.

Note: When covering the Anti-Boss bloon paragons for each said section, it will be based on how well the paragon can counter the boss's mechanics/tricks. If it were based on dealing raw damage, you'd see the same 4 paragons every time.

Extra Info

When playing in co-op, bosses will gain more health. An extra 20% for every extra player, combining to a max of +60% health. This health increase is to help balance out the boss since more heroes, farming towers, and T5 towers (which contribute A LOT of extra power to paragons) can be placed down

Boss bloons can be affected by game modes just like the normal bloons. In comparison to Medium difficulty, if you play against a boss on easy mode, the boss will move slower. Hard or Impoppable mode, the boss moves faster.
A boss' health can also be affected by Double HP MOABs mode, so the boss too will have twice as much health as usual

During certain boss events, Boss bloons may have modifiers applied only to itself. For example, a boss could move faster or slower than usual, or it may even have less health.

Boss bloons will also subtly change the map they are on with 2 signs. Some sort of aura signaling their imminent arrival can be seen around the map. They will also have certain objects at the spot they will spawn in on the track. What these two signs are depend on which boss you are fighting.

Fun Facts: When a boss event is active, a silhouette of that boss can be seen in the background of the main menu

Boss Bloons also have their own themes that play once they are on screen. Some of them have unique themes, others share their themes.

With that info out of the way, let's now talk about each boss specifically.

Bloonarius the Inflator

Bloonarius (AKA Big Boi) was the first boss added to BTD6 in update 27.0
It is big, incredibly slow, but very tanky.




A silhouette of Bloonarius seen in the background of the main menu during its boss event



When you are about to fight Bloonarius, the map will be raining and some green fungi can be seen at where it will spawn on the track. Such can be seen below
Once Bloonarius spawns, its theme, Primal One, will play

Now, Normal Bloonarius, as seen above in the previous picture, may not seem like much, but it is to be taken very seriously. While it may be the slowest and "easiest" of the bosses, it is still a difficult bloon to take down.

The theme of Bloonarius is spawning bloons. As it takes damage, it hurls bloons all over the track and when a skull is reached, it unleashes a rush of bloons that plan to ruin your run. I should note that all bloons that come from Bloonarius do not count towards income when popped





Bloonarius "bleeding" green bloons and regurgitating ceramics at a skull

Normal

Tier 1 of Bloonarius has 20,000 health, hurls green bloons as it takes damage, and rushes you with a thick swarm of ceramics at each skull. A good tower to counter Tier 1 is Tack Zone.

Tier 2 has 75,000 health, hurls yellow bloons, and rushes you with an even thicker swarm of ceramics. Tack Zone is still good against Tier 2.

Tier 3 has 350,000 health, hurls pink bloons, and rushes with MOABs at each skull now. MAD is a good counter to Tier 3

Tier 4 has 750,000 health, hurls zebra bloons everywhere, and will rush you with a thick swarm of ZOMGs at each skull. Preferably this point on out, you'd want a paragon.

Tier 5 has 3,000,000 health, hurls Rainbow bloons, and will send out a BAD at each skull.

Elite Bloonarius

For Elite, Bloonarius becomes a far more monstrous and intimidating bloon, complete with even a mouth ready to devour monkeys.
Bloonarius moves about the same speed, but it still gains all the other "improvements" Elite bosses get.

Tier 1 has 50,000 health, hurls out pink bloons when taking damage, and will rush you with a thick swarm of ceramics at each skull. Tack Zone still works against Tier 1, but some extra help would go a long way

Tier 2 has 300,000 health, hurls Rainbow bloons, and rushes you with a very compact group of BFBs. MAD with any cleanup tower will work

Tier 3 jumps to 2,000,000 health, now shooting out ceramics, and spawning 1 BAD and several DDTs at each skull. At this point, you'll for sure want a paragon or VTSG.

Tier 4 has 8,000,000 health, hurls MOABs, and will now rush you with many fortified DDTs and 2 fortified BADs

Tier 5 has a whopping 40,000,000 health, now hurls DDTs all over the track, and will shoot out 4 fortified BADs

Best Anti-Bloonarius Paragons

The paragons in consideration here are chosen based on how well they can counter Bloonarius' mechanic of spawning bloons and cleaning them up. In my opinion, the 4 best paragons for countering Bloonarius are Mega Massive Munitions Factory


The Glaive Dominus


Apex Plasma Master.




and The Ascended Shadow.

MMMF has the permanent Carpet of Spikes so it ca easily handle the bleed bloons from Bloonarius while still dealing absurd damage
Not only do the APM and GD have extremely high pierce, but both can have their projectiles bounce off something to hit the other bloons Bloonarius spawns (The GD is better at the cleanup since he's made for group damage) The Ascended Shadow is good at the cleanup as well because of its seeking shurikens plus the global slowdown on the bleed bloons.

Gravelord Lych

Lych (AKA Scary Boi) was the second boss added to BTD6 in update 28.0 and is the first boss original to this game.




Lych's silhouette in the background of the main menu during its event





When Lych is coming, a spooky greenish aura can be seen around the map and gravestones show where it will spawn on the map
Lych's theme, Onslaught, plays once it spawns in


Lych is larger and faster than Bloonarius, but has less health. That doesn't make it easier though, as there is a lot to this boss

There are 2 themes to Lych. Draining power from others and reviving the "popped". One thing to remember when fighting Lych is, hence the name, it will steal buffs from your monkeys, briefly stunning them and healing itself. Selling a tower while Lych is on screen will also heal it. This alone changes the strategy you must use to defeat it, although keep in mind, not all buffs can be stolen from Lych. It's ability to revive the "popped" only happens at a skull. During a skull a lot happens. Lych becomes ethereal (really just invincible). Lych revives all recently popped MOAB-class bloons except BADs. Revived bloons also have more health and move faster, but do not spawn children when popped.




Lych turned ethereal at a skull with a revived MOAB, seen with green chains around it






Lych will also send out the mini boss, Lych-Soul, at each skull, draining lives every 4 seconds for as long as it is on screen. Lych-Soul cannot be instakilled, but can be slowed/stalled by paragons, something that wasn't possible until Update 37.0




Lych-Soul seen separately






Lych cannot be attacked until Lych-Soul and all the revived MOAB-class bloons are popped.

Normal

Tier 1 Lych has 14,000 health and sends out Lych-Soul, draining 1 life, and will revive any recently popped MOABs at each skull. Lych-Soul has 1,280 health and all revived MOABs have 4 times as much health and move 1.6 times faster

Tier 2 has 52,500 health and sends out Lych-Soul, draining 2 lives, and will revive any and all recently popped MOABs at each skull. Lych-Soul has 3,050 health and revived MOABs have 6 times as much health and move 1.7 times faster.

(Let me not make this repetitive)
Tier 3 has 220,000 health. Lych-Soul now drains 5 lives and has 7,000 health. Revived bloons have 7 times as much health and mover 1.8 times faster

Tier 4 has 525,000 health. Lych-Soul drains 10 lives now and has 14,500 health. Revived bloons are 8 times as tough and move 1.9 times faster

Tier 5 gains 2,100,000 health. Lych-Soul drains 17 lives and has 47,000 health. Revived bloons are 9 times as beefy and move twice as fast

Elite Lych

Lych becomes a living nightmare for it's Elite version, as it now not only drags a mace ready to end some monkey lives, but even has 3 eyes now. Lych now moves a bit faster and Lych-Soul becomes much more difficult to pop.

Tier 1 has 30,000 health, sending Lych-Soul as each skull who will slurp 11 lives from you and has 1,600 health. Revived bloons have 7x as much health and move 1.8x faster

Tier 2 has 180,000 health. Lych-Soul has 5,600 health and steals 12 lives. Revived bloons have 8x as much health and move 1.9x faster

Tier 3 has 1,100,000 health. Lych-Soul gains 25,000 health and will steal 15 lives. Revived bloons have 9x as much health and move twice as fast

Tier 4 has 4,800,000 health. Lych-Soul now has 100,000 health and will steal 20 lives from you. Revived bloons have 10x as much health and move 2.1x faster

Tier 5 has a ridiculous 24,000,000 health. Lych-Soul now has 485,000 health and will liberate 27 lives. Revived bloons have 12x as much health and move 2.2x faster

Best Anti-Lych Paragons

These paragons have been chosen based not only on how well they can destroy/stall Lych-Soul, but also for dealing significant damage to Lych. Those paragons I believe to be:
The Master Builder

The Ascended Shadow

The Goliath Doomship.

and The Glaive Dominus

The Master Builder's Mega Sentries not only can consistently deal major damage to Lych regardless of map, but when sold or replaced, the detonation of the Mega Sentry could one-shot even T5 Elite Lych-Soul at a high enough degree. Let's not forget that when it reaches a high enough attack speed, he can permastall Lych-Soul. The Ascended Shadow was especially made to counter Lych (It says so in the 28.0 update patch notes) Plus the permanent sabo effect is great for those revived bloons, especially DDTs. Unfortunately however, this paragon cannot stall Lych-Soul despite being able to on normal bloons (probably a bug) The Doomship's carpet bomb deal can so much damage at a high-enough degree, you can pre-emptively use the ability to deal HUGE damage to Lych and still insta-kill Lych-Soul on even T5 Elite. Finally, because of his Anti-MOAB Glaive, the Dominus excels at stalling Lych-Soul since he's the only paragon that can sends bloons backwards.

Vortex: Deadly Master of Air

Vortex (AKA Speedy Boi) was added in update 31.0 and is the 3rd boss in the game. Whilst its map-dependent, Vortex can either be the easiest or one of hardest boss in the game.



Speedy Boi's silhouette in the main menu when its event is active





Vortex establishes its presence with a stormy atmosphere and swirling leaves. Electrified crystals also show where it will spawn on the track
Primal One will play when Vortex is in the playing field

Vortex is the fastest boss in the game and has more health than Lych, but less than Bloonarius. Since storms seem to be the theme with this boss there are 2 big things with this boss.
Vortex will drastically speed up any bloons behind it until they catch up to it. All bloons will move 2.5 times as fast (Strangely it seems this doesn't change with Tiers or Elite). This makes Vortex an absolute pain to deal with on multi-lane maps since the bloons will keep their extra speed all the way through. Vortex will also emit a pulse about every 5 seconds, destroying any projectile and non-power attack on the track. This makes Spike Factory almost useless against it.
At each skull Vortex will stun any towers too close to it and move backwards up the track. Vortex will also simultaneously create a shield around itself deflecting any projectiles, making it nearly invincible for 6 seconds. However, certain attacks can penetrate the shield.






Vortex with its shield up, having stunned 2 towers at a skull, which can be seen with electricity above them

Normal

Tier 1 STARTS with the same amount of health as Bloonarius at 20,000. Any towers it stuns shall remain stunned for 16 seconds. Stun range is 60 units

Tier 2 then gets 62,800 and stuns towers for 19 seconds and the range of the stun has been slightly increased to 65 units

Tier 3 has 294,000 health and stuns towers for 21 seconds and the stun gets a range of 70 units

Tier 4 has 628,000 health and will stun towers for 24 seconds, stun's range has been increased to 75 units

Tier 5 has 2,512,500 health and stuns towers for 27 seconds, stun now has 80 units in range

Elite Vortex

Vortex is looking big and bad in it's Elite version. It has not only gained jet engines to move even faster, but even more eyes, as if 5 wasn't already enough...

While some of you (if you have played Vortex before) may have thought Normal Vortex was a pain, I hope you're ready for Elite as I find this to be one of the hardest bosses in the game so far. Elite Vortex does move faster and the stuns become a lot more unforgiving.

Tier 1 has 41,800 health and will stun towers for 18 seconds (range of stun grows at the same rate for Elite)

Tier 2 has 251,000 health and stuns for 21 seconds

Tier 3 has 1,675,000 health and will stun any close towers for 24 seconds

Tier 4 gains 6,700,000 health and the stun lasts for 27 seconds

Tier 5 has an insane 33,500,000 health and the stun is now a brutal 30 seconds

Best Anti-Vortex Paragons

This is a tough one to consider since in their own ways, all paragons are really good at countering Vortex, but I'll explain the best 4 and then say why the others are great as well.

By the way, the top 4 paragons were chosen because they deal significant damage to Vortex at a safe distance.

The 4 best paragons for Vortex altogether are the Goliath Doomship

The Master Builder

Nautic Siege Core

and Navarch of the Seas

Since all of these paragons have global range, they can attack Vortex from anywhere on the map and don't need to worry much about getting stunned. That automatically puts the Goliath Doomship at #1 since it could even be placed in the very corner and still attack Vortex to the full extent without ever getting stunned. Plus its carpet bomb ability can bypass Vortex's shield if timed right. With those in mind, however, the Master Builder arguably shines as strong because of its ability to place and detonate its Mega Sentries, which cannot get stunned by the way, anywhere on the map as long as he doesn’t get stunned himself. Plus there's the fact that the detonation of its Mega Sentries too can penetrate Vortex's shield. With Advanced Intel, Nautic Siege Core can safely attack Vortex from even the back of the map without getting stunned, plus if you time it right, his Final Strike Ability can strike Vortex immediately upon its spawn. The Navarch's 3 mini-space planes allow it to constantly deal good damage to Vortex from across the map at a safe distance.

Now the reason I say the AS, GD, MP, and APM are also good at countering Vortex, but not as good as the Doomship, NotS,NSC, MB, is because of the following. The AS sticky bomb can attach to Vortex anywhere on the map and does the most damage overall for the paragon. (Plus the AS permanent sabo is perfect for slowing those speedy bloons), but the other 4 paragons can easily out-DPS the AS' sticky bomb. The Magus' Phoenix Explosion ability applies a strong DoT on Vortex that not even its shield can protect it from, plus Arcane Metamorphosis can bring extreme damage if needed. However, once Vortex is out of range, the Dark Phoenix (which does have global range) deals very negligible damage.
As for the GD and APM, they both can penetrate Vortex's shield.
If the APM is close enough to Vortex when it brings it's shield, his juggernauts can bypass the shield and damage Vortex. (Although, in the 32.0 update, NK buffed Vortex for its stun range to increase with Tiers, possibly to specifically counter this cheesy trick, so this may no longer work)
As for the GD, his Anti-MOAB glaive completely ignores the shield and will bypass it every time.

Dreadbloon: The Armored Behemoth

Dreadbloon (AKA Rocky Boi) was added to BTD6 in update 34.0 and is the 4th boss in the game.
While not original to this game, Dreadbloon is one of the the most creative bosses in BTD6.


Dreadbloon's silhouette in the main menu when its event is active




Swirling rocks and dust clouds indicate Dreadbloon is nearby underground. Some rocks will show where it will burrow out.
Primal One will play once Dreadbloon has revealed itself, although honestly, I wish that this fanmade theme created by Pizet played instead:
https://youtu.be/F3_87yTeFL4

Back on topic, Dreadbloon isn't very large, fast, or tanky surprisingly. In fact it moves the slowest (under one condition) and has the least amount of health DISPLAYED on its healthbar, but this is a little deceiving. I'll get to why later but right now I will explain what makes it Dreadbloon very unique. It has 3 very special tricks. When it spawns in, its healthbar will be covered with rocks along with the boss itself.







Armored Dreadbloon with its corresponding healthbar






This "armor" slows the boss down to an incredibly slow speed (roughly about one-third of its base speed) and has a ceramic property to it. It must be destroyed before Dreadbloon can be damaged, but don't get too excited once you have accomplished this. Dreadbloon will then speed up to that faster than Bloonarius, but slower than Lych when its armor is gone. It also has a lead property to it, meaning only lead-popping towers (or towers buffed with M.I.B.) can damage it. By the way, this special lead property reduces all damage by 1, so towers dealing one damage will do nothing. With that in mind, there is one more VERY important fact with this boss. It is immune to tower categories. Not tower types, tower CATEGORIES (Primary, Military, Magic, and Support) This means that towers belonging to said category will do NOTHING to Dreadbloon. This immunity applies to Paragons as well.
This is a property with the boss that changes at every skull, at which a lot happens.

When one is hit, Dreadbloon's immunity property switches to the next category, and since Dreadbloon always spawns with Primary immunity, the order will always be Primary, Military, Magic, and Support.
Dreadbloon will rebuild its rock armor and slow down again at a skull, but this time while its armor is up, it will constantly summon Dreadrocks.





A lone Dreadrock




These special bloons each have a Strong taunt, meaning towers set to Strong will target them instead of Dreadbloon. If a Dreadrock leaks, it won't immediately end your game unlike Lych-Soul but will instead steal a certain amount of lives depending on which Tier. They also have similar properties as all bosses whereas they cant' be slowed, but they can be instakilled (most towers with instakill attacks can do this except the Navarch for an unknown reason). Dreadrocks have the same tower category immunities as Dreadbloon itself. So does the armor as well.

Normal

*Now before I begin with the stats of Normal, I must explain its deceitful health. While the numbers displayed are relatively low for a boss, you must remember its armor which has half the health for every Tier and since Dreadbloon has 3 skulls which makes it total for 4 armor phases, Dreadbloon actually has triple the health displayed on the screen. I will showcase its true health with TH

Tier 1 has 7,500 health (TH 22,500) Dreadrocks have 300 health and take 5 lives if leaked

Tier 2 has 25,000 health (TH 75,000) Dreadrocks have 600 health and will cost you 10 lives

Tier 3 has 120,000 health (TH 360,000) Dreadrocks have 900 health and take 15 lives

Tier 4 has 260,000 health (TH 780,000) Dreadrocks now jump to 9,000 health and take 20 lives

Tier 5 has 1,000,000 health (TH 3,000,000) Dreakrocks now have 22,500 health and take away 25 lives
(With Dreadbloon, the only difference with Tiers is health and lives lost to Dreadrocks)

Elite Dreadbloon

It become clear why Dreadbloon has its name for Elite. If you knew that thing was underground coming to get you, you too would dread it.

Elite Dreadbloon does move faster but surprisingly, doesn't gain any more skulls. Perhaps this was done to avoid repeating category immunities.
The Dreadrocks now have a pinkish tone to them and are WAY more brutal.




An Elite (or enchanted) Dreadrock






Tier 1 has 15,000 health (TH 45,000) Dreadrocks have 600 health and cost 20 lives if leaked

Tier 2 has 90,000 health (TH 270,000) Dreadrocks have 2,500 health and take 30 lives

Tier 3 has 650,000 (TH 1,950,000) Dreadrocks have 10,000 health and take away 50 lives

Tier 4 has 2,625,000 health (TH 7,875,000) Dreadrocks have 22,000 health and cost 75 lives

Tier 5 has massive 12,500,000 health (TH 37,500,000) Dreadrocks have 45,000 health and take away an insane 100 lives

Best Anti-Dreadbloon Paragons

Since Dreadbloon has a permanent 1 damage reduction on it (most likely to get buffed in an update) and has the tower category immunites, Paragons that deal massive damage and are all in separate categories are good against it. So after a bit of thought I have deteremined that the best paragons for Dreadbloon are:

The Master Builder


The Goliath Doomship
]

Ascended Shadow

The Glaive Dominus

The fact that they are all different category paragons is why, collectively, they are very decent. Individually, they all shine for different reasons. Since the Master Builder is a Support paragon, it can always deal damage to Dreadbloon until the last skull where it is now useless, prompting you to sell it, which not only detonates all of its Sentries, but also gives a ton of money to use for a new paragon or something else. Since the Doomship does BIG damage (hundreds of damage per single projectile, and that doesn't include the carpet bomb) the damage reduction means nothing against it. The Ascended Shadow's Sticky bomb also negates the damage reduction since it does tens even hundreds of thousands of damage. While the Dominus doesn't do as much damage as the previous paragons, it excels in dealing with those Dreadrocks and the fact that after the first skull, it can keep attacking Dreadbloon.

Honorable Anti-Dreadbloon Paragon Mentions

While the previously mentioned paragons are the ones I consider to be best against Dreadbloon, there are two other paragons that I feel are also worth mentioning.

They will be the Nautic Siege Core


and the Crucible of Steel Flame


There are two reasons I chose Nautic Siege Core as an honorable mention. One, you can submerge it to buff other paragons with reduced ability cooldown during military immunity. 2. As Dreadbloon is reaching the next skull to switch to Magic immunity, you can time his Final Strike ability to hit Dreadbloon as soon as possible.

The Crucible also has a few reasons. First, due to how slow Dreadbloon is when its armored, the paragon can deal tons of damage when Dreadbloon is directly over it. Second would be Meteor Impact. With the large AoE it has and the massive damage it does, it negates Dreadbloon's damage reduction and can help deal with any leaking Dreadrocks. Third would be for the same reason as why the Dominus was listed. Since it's a Primary paragon, after the first skull is hit, it can always attack Dreadbloon

Reality Warper Phayze

Phayze (who I will call Glitchy Boi for now) is the fifth boss added to BTD6 in update 38.0. Phayze is the second boss original to BTD6 and is the most unique one yet in terms of design. (In all honesty, it doesn't even look like a bloon)



Phayze in the background whilst its event is active




Tears of reality itself around the corners of the map indicate Phayze is hiding somewhere in plain sight. Flashing, alternating eyes locate where it will show itself upon spawn
Phayze's theme, The Reality Warper, plays once it reveals itself
Let's delve into this enigmatic bloon.

Upon spawning in, Phayze has a Reality Shield.
Phazye's healthbar with a full Reality Shield


Phayze is the slowest boss in the game disregarding armored Dreadbloon, but the boss can counter this with its Reality Shield. This shield allows Phayze to move faster than usual, destroying it will cause Phayze to slow down. The Reality Shield allows Phayze to move even faster at later Tiers, but there's much more to it than that. Phayze also has an innate camo property, thus only camo-seeing towers and those buffed with camo detection can harm Phayze (although you can also decamo the boss too), but you'll prefer the former over the latter because every 24 seconds, Phayze causes a Radar Jam.

When such happens, Phayze disables all camo detection buffs for 12 seconds and is immune to being de-camoed for the same length of time








Dart Monkey being affected by Radar Jam









Phayze will also pulls all bloons on screen towards it when Radar Jam triggers and gives them all camo properties as well. With all of that in mind, towers with innate camo detection are best against Phayze as Radar Jam gives towers with no innate camo detection only 50% uptime on it.

When Phayze reaches a skull, it does several things. First, it rebuild its Reality Shield. Second, it briefly becomes invincible as it warps forward up the track (8% of the track to be precise). Third, it tears open a portal at its original position for the normal bloons, making them spawn there instead of the beginning of the map like normal.




Phayze dashing at a skull, leaving a portal behind for bloons to spawn




Lastly, and perhaps most important, at each skull, Phayze emits a stacking slow aura to all towers on screen increasing their attack cooldown, causing them to attack slower and slower at each skull until it is defeated.

Normal

*Just like Dreadbloon, Phayze's true health is deceiving because of its Reality Shield. The shield accounts for 1/4th of Phayze's health and since it has a total of 4 shields, Phayze actually has double the health displayed on boss meter for Normal. Remember, there is a stacking slow aura at each skull. For practical reasons, I will show the stats of the bonus speed and each slow aura, in order of each skull, as percents.

Tier 1 has 10,000 HP (TH 20,000) The Reality Shield lets Phayze move 30% faster and the slow aura at each skull is in the following: Skull 1: 10%, Skull 2: 15%, Skull: 3 20% (This remains the same for all Tiers)

Tier 2 has 37,500 (TH 75,000), moves 35% faster with shield

Tier 3 has 175,000 HP (TH 350,000) moves 40% faster with the shield

Tier 4 has 375,000 HP (TH 750,000) gains 45% shield speed

Tier 5 has 1,500,000 HP (TH 3,000,000) +50% shield speed

Do those True Health numbers look familiar to you?

Elite Phayze

Phayze decides its time to stop playing nice in its Elite form. This time, Phayze is ready to show you why it's the most powerful bloon, both cosmetically and practically.

This here just may be the hardest boss in BTD6. The Reality Shield allows Phayze to move even faster than Normal, but its base speed remains the same. Whilst Phayze does gain more skulls, meaning more dashes forward, it actually gets 5 instead of the normal 7. This was most likely done to prevent it from dashing way too far down the track, but even then, it still gets quite far. The stacking slow aura it emits at each skull also gets way more brutal than before because now, it changes with each Tier

*since there's actually 6 Shields this time, Elite Phayze has 2.5x the health shown on the healthbar. Skulls will be shown in order with #

Tier 1 has 20,000 HP (TH 50,000) +45% shield speed (Skulls: #1 10%, #2 15%, #3 20%, #4 25%, #5 30%)

Tier 2 has 120,000 HP (TH 300,000) +50% shield speed (Skulls: Same as T1)

Tier 3 has 800,000 HP (TH 2,000,000) +55% shield speed (#1 20%, #2 30%, #3 40%, #4 50%, #5 60%)

Tier 4 has 3,200,000 HP (TH 8,000,000) +60% shield speed (#1 30%, #2 45%, #3 60%, #4 75%, #5 90%)

Tier 5 has a ludicrous 16,000,000 HP (TH 40,000,000) +65% shield speed (#1 40%, #2 60%, #3 80%, #4 100%, #5 120%)

As you should see by now, Phayze's true health is exactly the same as Bloonarius

Best Anti-Phayze Paragons

The dashes and the slowing aura are the only things to consider here as all paragons see camo bloons. Given the former, paragons with long/global range attacks are ideal, but considering the latter, paragons that have very high attack speed can counter it better. But there is one true weakness and second one to Phayze that will determine my picks the most. Its slow aura does not affect abilities and seemingly sub-towers too. So with all that in mind, I feel the 4 best paragons for Phayze are:

The Goliath Doomship


Magus Perfectus


The Master Builder


and Nautic Siege Core

All of these paragons have long-to-global range attacks, but they've been chosen for more than that. The Doomship's Carpet Bomb already does the most damage for this paragon anyway and since it's a plane and has global range, it can always do maximum damage to Phayze. Plus if the Navarch is on screen, it can receive its Carrier Flagship buff to help mitigate Phayze's slow aura a little bit. Magus Perfectus already has global range and a sub-tower in the form of the Phoenix, but its main focus are its 2 abilities. The Phoenix Explosion DoT and the revived ZOMGs on Phayze will deal consistent damage at all times regardless of the slow aura. The Arcane Metamorphosis, which is its strongest ability, makes the paragon temporarily have among the highest attack speed of the current paragons in the game. The Master Builder is currently the only paragon that directly counters Phayze's slow aura since it gains more and more attack speed each round and let's not forget the Mega Sentries which is not only his sub-tower but already the main DPS for the paragon against bosses when they're detonated along with the fact they're the global range part of the paragon. Finally, Advanced Intel gives the Siege Core global range, but where he really shines is being able to buff other towers and paragons with ability cooldown reduction

An honorable mention will be the Ascended Shadow since he does extra damage to camo bloons allowing him to deal even more damage to Phayze.

Blastapopulous: Demon of the Core

Blastapopulous (AKA Fiery Boi [unofficial] but I prefer to call him Blastie) is the sixth boss added to BTD6 in Update 45.0. It is the last returning boss from Bloons Monkey City and oh boy, he's back with a vengeance.

Hot smoke in the corners of the map with floating embers makes it known that the demon is lurking nearby, ready to strike. Lava rocks will show where Blastie will menacingly rise from the hottest depths of the Core

Onslaught plays once the battle commences.

Blastie is the most complex boss yet in BTD 6, if you thought Phayze and Lych were gimmicky, wait until you face this guy. Blastie has a natural Purple property, burns off any DoT effects on it every 2 seconds (including sticky bombs), reduces range of all towers by 15%, and makes all abilities recharge slower... and that's not everything.

Blastie also has a Heat mechanic to it displayed on a special Heat Bar below its healthbar



Empty Heat Bar

This Heat Bar fills up as Blastie takes damage. Once it reaches full, Blastie will "Overheat", stunning all of your towers on screen for 4 seconds while also simultaneously halting ability cooldowns for the same amount of time before increasing them by 10 seconds, but that still isn't all. For the next 20 seconds, all projectiles life-span will be reduced to only 0.2 seconds. This means that a projectiles will burn up within that time. Only projectiles from paragons are unaffected.


Full Heat Bar with stunned towers shown by fire above them

The rate at which the Heat Bar fills depends on how many projectiles are hitting Blastie, but remember that Purple property it has? That also matters a lot for the Heat mechanic because if a tower that can't pop purples tries to attack Blastie, it will fill up the Heat Bar 3x faster than any other projectile would, even if buffed by MIB so avoid this as much as possible. Fortunately, Blastie's heat can be managed. The Heat bar passively drains if Blastie is not taking any damage, but it is better handled with Ice Monkeys. An attack from an Ice Monkey will actually reduce heat from Blastie in the same manner that other projectiles will increase its heat, the specifics of which will be touched on later. In fact, Ice Monkeys are also even immune to Blastie's "Overheat"





Ice Monkey unaffected by "Overheat" stun





But that's still not everything, I didn't talk about the skulls yet, which it has 4 of instead of 3. At each one, Blastie briefly becomes invincible, the Heat Bar will increase by 25% and it will launch out 3 meteors and pyroclastic rocks.

These meteors will target the closest, farthest, and most expensive towers on the map. When they each reach their target, it will be stunned for a set amount of time, but there isn't only that. The tower will also be put into a lava pool, which will inflict the tower with 20% less range, -33.33% attack speed, and its ability cooldown will be frozen. This all last for 15 seconds of which the tower also can't be sold.

Then there's the Pyroclastic rocks. These rocks will land within a small radius of Blastie, acting as indestructable walls that also block Line of Sight no matter how elevated a tower is. As an added note, If a tower is unlucky enough to have one of these rocks land directly on top of it, it can block all of its sight, in a way completely stunning the tower until the rocks expire, which they do within 24 seconds






Three towers in lava pools with Pyroclastic Rocks blocking Line of Sight






With all of that is there anything good to say about this boss? Well, I can say that it's the second slowest boss in the game....

Normal

Before we get into the Tiers, let's talk about the specifics to the Heat mechanic. As I've said, it works based on how many projectiles hit the boss. It doesn't matter how much damage it does, all "regular" attacks will increase the heat by 1 per projectile. The only exception to this would be Spike Factory since each spike pile can "rehit" a target with its pierce. Attacks that are weak to Purple bloons, even when buffed by MIB, will increase Blastie's heat by 3 per projectile so it really is best to avoid these to prevent high heat buildup. Most Ice attacks however, will reduce the heat by 5 per attack/projectile. Why do these specific numbers matter? Because Blastie has a certain amount of total heat it can take before overheating, each of which is Tier-specific

Tier 1 has 17,500 HP, increases ability cooldowns by 10%, meteors stun for 2 seconds, and has a heat capacity of 1,750

Tier 2 65,000 HP, cooldowns increased by 15%, meteors stun for 2 seconds, heat capacity of 6,500

Tier 3 300,000 HP, cooldowns increased by 20%, meteors stun for 3 seconds, heat capacity of 30,000

Tier 4 650,000 HP, cooldowns increased by 25%, meteors stun for 3 seconds, heat capacity of 65,000

Tier 5 3,000,000 HP, cooldowns increased by 30%, meteors stun for 3 seconds, heat capacity of 300,000

Elite Blastapopulous

Blastie's true rage comes forth for Elite, even hotter than ever before. There's no doubt in my mind that Blastie is the true leader of the Bloons, especially given this form.

Blastie does gain the traditional 7 skulls for Elite. At each skull it will now spawn 8 Pyroclastic Rocks and the "Overheat increase" on abilities is now 15 seconds. Otherwise, its mechanics are unchanged, which unfortunately includes its heat capacity, practically meaning the boss WILL overheat, multiple times possibly

Because of this, health will be the only difference in Tiers worth mentioning

T1 43,000 HP

T2 270,000 HP

T3 1,700,000 HP

T4 7,000,000 HP

T5 a bonkers 35,000,000 HP

Best Anti-Blastie Paragons

When it came to choosing the best paragons for Blastie, it's not quite that simple since all of its mechanics must be considered. The heat, DoT removal, reduced range, halting abilities, etc. After some testing and thinking it over, I believe the best paragons for this boss are

Apex Plasma Master


Goliath Doomship


Nautic Siege Core


and Navarch of the Seas



The Apex Plasma Master's greatest strength are walls and upon each skull Blastie's pyroclastic rocks happily act as such, increasing its DPS exponentially, especially if it's inside the ring. The Doomship, being a plane, is totally unaffected by the reduced range and the Pyroclastic rocks and does maximum damage at all times. Nautic Siege Core can invalidate Blastie's "Overheat" upon spawn by having its timer started before it overheats which will still cause Final Strike to impact the boss plus the fallout are of course unaffected by Line of Sight. NSC also counters Blastie's ability cooldown increase with its Energizer buff. The Navarch's mini planes also ignore the Pyroclastic rocks and due to the Navarch's already small range, the reduction of said range doesn't matter as much for it, plus it buffs the Doomship and the Nautic Siege Core.

More Blastie Info

I actually hit the character limit on Blastapopulous' section so here's another to fit some extra stuff on it, mostly regarding paragons

When it comes to reducing Blastie's Heat, middle path Ice monkey is your best friend. One ability use from Snowstorm will reduce Blastie's heat by 500 and each use of Absolute Zero will chunk off 1,500 heat.

Also I forgot to note that Nautic Siege Core also has Advanced Intel to negate the range reduction, I can't fit in the original section now silly me


An honorable mention for an Anti-Blastie Paragon will be the Glaive Dominus


His Anti-MOAB Glaive ignores obstacles so the Pyroclastic rocks won't matter in that regard, his Orbitals also ignore obstacles and even Blastie's range reduction, he buffs the Apex Plasma Master, and he can still be paired with Final Harmonic to detonate his shred DoT on Blastie over and over for the brief seconds it can apply


Now here's something I will do for Blastie that I haven't done for any of the other bosses. Naming the WORST paragons for it. Those will unfortunately be the Ascended Shadow


And the Master Builder


The Ascended Shadow's sticky bomb is unable to detonate on Blastie. Since that is its main DPS against Bosses, this severely hurts its performance and I do not recommend it. The Master Builder is even worse though. All of its Mega sentries (except the blue one) and the sentries they build can't pop purples so they are unable to damage Blastie. Instead, all they will do is make the Heat rack up extremely fast. Detonating them also won't damage Blastie essentially meaning you can only rely on the Master Builder himself for damage, which is very unwise.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you found this guide to be helpful and insightful!

With the addition of Blastapopulous, it's likely that Ninja Kiwi won't be adding anymore, but who knows! Time will tell. Regardless, should a new boss come, I will update this guide to include it. Same case for new paragons that release should I feel it beats out a previous paragon as an Anti-Boss paragon
Leave your thoughts in the comments below

Thanks to crazy man games for providing pictures without the white background

If you want to check out any of my other guides, here's one below

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796933622

[Walter Dim]

I actully think that elite dreadbloon having no more skulls is even more dangerous
It has the primary, military, magic, and support immunities for longer because it has more health
This means that if your oh so unfortunanty happen to use too much of a certain tower type
YER DEAD.

[Red Sword]

Here's Blastapopulous now

[Red Sword]

You can find plenty of farming strats for bosses on YT

[Dinosore]

This is a great post, thanks!
Now all I have to do is figure out a good way to farm the money for my paragon of choice....

[Red Sword]

You're welcome

[8000]

this was fun, thanks :)

[SoopaKat]

i love phayze because it makes peaple buy camo detecting towers

[Red Sword]

I feel you guys will like the changes I've made now

[Red Sword]

Yeah, I know. It'll take some time for me to add it in

[810wowkids]

Phayze is out now :)