Carpet of Spikes

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Carpet of Spikes is the fifth and final upgrade of Path 2 for the Spike Factory in Bloons TD 6. It enhances the pierce and damage of all its spikes, its ordinary spike-dispensing attack is much faster and reaches further, and allows the Spike Factory to automatically shoot out Spike Storms every 15 seconds. The automatic "Carpet of Spikes" spike piles will last longer, and will continually maintain its ever so deadly spike carpet. Its original Spike Storm ability is still kept, and shares the same activation button as other Spike Storms on screen, but its own activated ability cannot be activated while the Carpet of Spikes is in the process of storming spikes.

All spikes deal +7 damage to MOAB-class bloons, plus more base damage. Both the regular spikes and ability spikes deal 3 damage (10 to MOAB-class). Both the main ability spikes and passive ability spikes last for 18-22 seconds (27-33 seconds with 0-5-1) or 2 rounds, whichever comes first. All spikes gain +5 pierce, increasing to 10 pierce or 15 with 1-5-0. Regular spikes are now dispensed every 0.525s instead of 1.05s, on top of a base range increase from 34 to 50.

This upgrade costs $34,850 on Easy, $41,000 on Medium, $44,280 on Hard, and $49,200 on Impoppable.

Description

Overview

Carpet of Spikes expands the four vents on each corner of Spike Storm into four additional spike ports; these are purple with black metal surrounding them, and they each share the same swirling pattern of the main port. The main body itself also loses the metal bands near the port.

Taking inspiration from the BTD4 Spike Storm, the Carpet of Spikes regularly sets a thick carpet of spikes over the whole track. It regularly summons a passive Spike Storm ability: this version occurs every 15 seconds, and its spikes, along with those of its activated ability, last 18-22 seconds; they also still last between rounds.

Carpet of Spikes also increases the base spike damage by 2, on top of the extra MOAB-class damage acquired from previous tiers of upgrades, which totals to 10 MOAB-class damage per spike; its base attack speed also doubles (0.525s attack cooldown as opposed to 1.05s) and it gains +16 base attack range, for 50 total. The ability spikes, both passive and active, deal 3 damage, or 10 to MOAB-class. All spikes also gain +5 pierce, including those of the passive and active Spike Storms.

Note that the passive ability's cooldown is still considered ability cooldown; thus it can be buffed by Energizer, but not speed buffs like Jungle Drums.

As with Spike Storm, Long Reach increases ability spike lifespan by 100% and Smart Spikes causes the ability to only target active lanes.

Activated Abilities

See also: Activated Abilities (BTD6)#Carpet of Spikes

Carpet of Spikes gains a passive ability that automatically creates Spike Storms every 15 seconds. It also keeps the old Spike Storm ability, identical to the previous iteration except spike damage and lifespan are increased. The Carpet of Spikes' Spike Storm ability is shared with the other Spike Storm abilities. Spikes produced from ability and passive ability last for 18-22 seconds.

Like Spike Storm, Carpet of Spikes' Spike Storm produces spikes around the whole screen at 200 spike piles per second for 1 second. Unlike most abilities, Spike Storm spikes cannot be buffed by attack speed bonuses. The 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes crosspath is special in that its ability can benefit by targeting only paths with active lanes. Ability spikes last for 18-22 seconds, or 36-44 seconds with Long Reach. As a duration-based ability, the Carpet of Spikes' Spike Storm ability cannot be re-activated on the same Carpet of Spikes until the duration has ended. Carpet of Spikes' Spike Storm ability has a cooldown of 50 seconds.

The Carpet of Spikes' Spike Storm Ability can gain reduced cooldowns from Global Ability Cooldowns (Monkey Knowledge), Abilitized (Relic Knowledge), and the global Energizer buff. Its ability can be reset with Geraldo's Rejuv Potion.

Targeting Priorities

Carpet of Spikes defaults on Normal targeting priority, which dispenses the spikes onto nearby bloon track in a semi-sporadical behavior. If given Smart Spikes, it will also receive Close, Far, and Smart.

• Normal: Targets spike piles in a somewhat sporadical way, spreading spikes as evenly as possible within its range.
• Close: Targets the closest region(s) of track within range.
• Far: Targets the furthest region(s) of track within range.
• Smart: Prioritizes the track with the Bloon the farthest through it, then targets the spot on that track closest to the exit.

Spike Storm's active and passive abilities are targeted across the whole screen and on the track. With 0-5-2, the tracks targeted are reduced to only the active lanes.

Full Popology

Statistics

Updated as of Version 44.0

Base stats

• Spike Pile:
  • Lobbed spike pile, sharp type, detects and deploys on nearby track, 50 range, 0.525s attack cooldown, 3 damage, 7 bonus MOAB-class damage (10 MOAB-class damage), 10 pierce. Lifespan of 50s.
• Passive Storm Spike Pile:
  • Lobbed spike pile, sharp type, detects and deploys on all available track, infinite range, 0.005s non-buffable attack cooldown, 3 damage, 7 bonus MOAB-class damage (10 MOAB-class damage), 10 pierce. Occurs every 15s, spike pile lifespan of 18-22s.

Ability stats

• Spike Storm Ability:
  • 50s cooldown, 16.6667s initial cooldown. When activated, activate Storm Spike Pile for 3s duration. Cannot be activated while Passive Storm Spike Pile is active, or if the Spike Storm Ability is already active.
• Active Storm Spike Pile:
  • Lobbed spike pile, sharp type, detects and deploys on all available track, infinite range, 0.005s non-buffable attack cooldown, 3 damage, 7 bonus MOAB-class damage (10 MOAB-class damage), 10 pierce, spike pile lifespan of 18-22s.

Crosspathing interactions

• 1-5-0: Pierce of Spike Pile, Passive Storm Spike Pile, and Storm Spike Pile increased from 10 to 15.
• 2-5-0: Damage type of Spike Pile, Passive Storm Spike Pile, and Active Storm Spike Pile changed from sharp to normal.
• 0-5-1: Lifespan of Spike Pile increased from 50s to 100s, and lifespan of Passive Storm Spike Pile and Active Storm Spike Pile increased by 100% (36s-44s).
• 0-5-2: At the start of a round, Spike Pile attack is 4x faster (0.245s) for 3s, does not affect Passive Storm Spike Pile or Active Spike Pile. Passive Storm Spike Pile and Active Storm Spike Pile only targets currently active lanes.

Attack Interactions

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Support

Updated as of Version 40.0

Base attack(s)

• Spike Pile
  • Normal
  • Camo Detection
  • Single Projectile
  • On Track
  • Spike
  • Lobbed Throw
  • Erratic Movement
  • Extra Damage to Blimps (+7)
  • Extra Damage (3)
• Passive Storm Spike Pile
  • Normal
  • Camo Detection
  • On Track
  • Spike
  • Lobbed Throw
  • Beyond Range
  • Erratic Movement
  • Extra Damage to Blimps (+7)
  • Extra Damage (3)

Abilities

• Storm Spike Pile
  • Normal
  • Camo Detection
  • On Track
  • Spike
  • Lobbed Throw
  • Beyond Range
  • Erratic Movement
  • Extra Damage to Blimps (+7)
  • Extra Damage (3)

Costs

Updated as of Version 46.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: First Last Line of Defense, Better Sell Deals

Strategy

Summary

Carpet of Spikes is specifically designed for widespread area damage, and its main strength comes from regularly spreading high-damage spikes across the map to severely weaken MOAB-class bloons, especially strong singular bloons. Its main weakness comes from wasting damage on much weaker bloons; try to pair it with towers specifically designed to counter weaker bloons, especially versus Super Ceramics. Provided it is supported by effective Super Ceramic counters, Carpet of Spikes is a strong option for high damage to high-HP blimps as well as general blimp damage. It has exceptionally high DPS for its cost at single-target damage, especially on single-blimp rounds such as Round 100.

Tips

• It is often best to go for Path 1 instead of Path 3, as the Bigger Stacks upgrade greatly increases the total general popping power of Carpet of Spikes by about +50% from base pierce. Not only that, but White Hot Spikes can also be bought to pop DDTs. This is generally more important than the benefits provided from Long Reach or Smart Spikes, although 0-5-1 has the lead for total stockpiling potential.
  • With that said, a 0-5-1 Carpet of Spikes will almost always have two-layers of spikes on the field.
  • 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes perform significantly better on multi-lane maps that contain alternating lanes, with best examples being Muddy Puddles, Bloody Puddles, and Erosion, but this loses out on the White Hot Spikes upgrade for the cheap lead-popping. Add MIB, Gwendolin, or a well-placed Embrittlement to allow a 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes to affect DDTs.
• Although Carpet of Spikes ability spikes deal a great amount of base damage in addition to extra MOAB-class damage, Carpet of Spikes isn't very reliable at general bloon types. It is usually better to go for multiple Spike Storms, as using many more Spike Storms is usually more efficient against MOAB-class bloons than a single Carpet of Spikes for the total price.
  • However, Carpet of Spikes is much more reliable versus Super Ceramics compared to an equivalent number of Spike Storms.
• Due to its expertise towards shredding MOAB-class bloons, pair a Carpet of Spikes with cleanup options on weaker bloons, preferably those that specialize at crowd control; this is so that the special spike carpets becomes less wasted on regular bloons.
  • Good anti-bloon popping power includes The Bloon Solver, The Biggest One, or Prince of Darkness. Likewise, Spirit of the Forest's widespread vines serve a similar role to Carpet of Spikes but focused as a cleanup option on weaker bloons, nicely fulfilling the roles of each other
  • Superstorm's blowback to all non-BAD bloon types controls the progression of bloons throughout the track. This helps more evenly spread damage across the entire track as well as stopping a number of bloons from reaching too far along the track.
  • Lord of the Abyss has fairly strong grouped-popping power but has short range. However, it has the benefit of a huge synergy with Carpet of Spikes' DPS, as its +40% pierce buff affects every spike pile, in addition to the added grouped damage from its own tentacles.
• The special "Carpet of Spikes" passive ability is considered an automatically activated ability, so it is affected by the cooldown reductions of Energizer, for a faster rate of carpet production.
• The activated ability and passive ability cannot benefit from attack speed buffs. It is better to provide damage buffs.
• Similarly to high-projectile towers like The Tack Zone, Carpet of Spikes benefits hugely from buffs from Pat Fusty's Rallying Roar or from any bloon debuff towers like Super Brittle or Cripple MOAB. This is because each individual spike counts as a single hit, so a single spike pile counts for multiple hits, and therefore a spike pile's total damage can be highly amplified with bloon debuffs.
• Like Spike Storm, Carpet of Spikes has a great synergy with Call To Arms and Homeland Defense, as it gains a considerably high overall DPS, despite not receiving attack speed boosts for its abilities. However, Carpet of Spikes has a greater synergy with these towers by amplifying its main attack greater.
• In terms of potential versus Boss Bloons in Ranked Boss Races, Carpet of Spikes works best versus Normal T1 Reality Warper Phayze, provided its spikes can reach Phayze across multiple stages of the map. Phayze doesn't produce minions, and its lack of any gimmicks aside from camo and movement, which Carpet of Spikes can take advantage of. Carpet of Spikes is also fairly effective against Gravelord Lych for similar reasons, assuming that Resurrected Blimps do not approach too far along the track.
• Carpet of Spikes does better the less track space there is on a map. This is because it is forced to shoot all of its spikepiles onto the track and thus can create a more dense spike pile if there isn't a lot of track area. This also means it's more likely to use all of its spike piles, since the bloons don't have to go as far to get hit by all of them.
  • An ideal map for Carpet of Spikes under this scenario is Blons, the shortest single-lane map.

Version History

Balance Changes

Bug Fixes and General Changes

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4.0

• Description changed from "Sets a carpet of spikes over the whole map, every round." into "Regularly sets a carpet of spikes over the whole track."

Extra Notes (Version History)

Sounds

When activating Spike Storm ability or activating its passive ability:

• [Spikes producing]

Gallery

Carpet of Spikes with produced spike piles on the left side

New description of the Carpet of Spikes as of Version 4.0

Carpet of Spikes dealing massive damage to Round 63, with 3 damage per spike

Activating the 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes

CoS dealing 3 damage w/ ability and 4 damage w/ main attack, 0-5-2 for illustration

Carpet of Spikes in V31.1 shooting spikes quickly

0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes using the Smart Spikes start-of-round boost (not ability)

Super-boosted 0-5-2 Carpet of Spikes (pre-27.0)

v38.0 0-5-0 Carpet with 11 pierce (1 extra via One More Spike)

v38.0 2-5-0 Carpet with 16 pierce (1 extra via One More Spike)

v38.0 manually activated 0-5-2 Carpet with 11 pierce (1 extra via One More Spike)

Just upgrading the Carpet of Spikes during round, triggering passive ability immediately

Carpet of Spikes range comparison

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon

Videos

Trivia

• This upgrade, before Version 4.0, formerly allowed the Spike Factory to automatically send a more powerful Spike Storm before every round starts. These spikes would last until the round ends.
• This upgrade is similar to the Spike Storm upgrade in BTD4.
  • This was not the case before the 4.0 update.
  • It is also equally as fast but lasts longer than in BTD4.
  • Since the Spike Factory retains its regular Spike Storm ability as well, it essentially combines the BTD4 and BTD5 variants.
• The Version 20.0 buff to Carpet of Spikes was listed as a bug fix rather than a balance change in the official Version 20.0 patch notes, but due to its significance it has made Carpet of Spikes considerably stronger overall.
• On Logs CHIMPS, a 2-5-0 Carpet of Spikes can solo all of the camo bloons as of Version 20.0, leading to specific 3TC combos to be possible. Carpet of Spikes eventually completed its first 2TC combo in Version 21.0 with both the buffs to Prince of Darkness and Carpet of Spikes.
• The Version 21.0 buff by increasing the automatic spike storm rate to 15 seconds cooldown makes the Carpet of Spikes attack a little more similar to the BTD4 counterpart.
• Version 38.0's flat +5 spike pierce buff for Carpet of Spikes slightly resembles the BTD4 Spike Storm, in which there are 10 spikes per pile produced in the storm of spikes, and the Version 38.0 non-crosspathed Carpet of Spikes roughly resembles the pierce values of the BTD4 Spike Storm.
• Carpet of Spike's passive ability is considered an automatically activating ability. The attack is basically an ability wrapped in a ActivateAbilityAfterIntervalModel.
• The upgrade icon for Carpet of Spikes is a reference to the BTD4 Spike Storm's upgrade icon, which features a similar set of glowing spikes pointing almost uniformly towards the bottom-left. Likewise applies for the passive ability mechanics, and has gained buffs that made Carpet of Spikes more and more similar to the BTD4 Spike Storm.
• This is the only Tier 5 Spike Factory that is not slower than the base tower. In fact, it is the only Tier 5 Spike Factory throughout the entire franchise to attack faster than its predecessors.