Glacial Trail

For the BMC Special Mission, see Glacier.

[Source]

Glacial Trail is an Expert Map in Bloons TD 6. added in Version 40.0, on December 5th 2023, along with Corvus.

Overview

Glacial Trail is set in a glacier with various icicles around the place. It is a single-lane map that has two loops. Limited land space exists, and the only openly available land is some isolated snowy cliffs that are enclosed by Line of Sight icicles, along with ice sheets that have little vision of the path. There is some water on the bottom-left to place water towers, such as Monkey Buccaneers and Monkey Subs, albeit too deep to actually see over. A monkey inside a floating icecube had written the number "10" in permanent marker, marking a clue to a unique game mechanic: the environmental snowstorms.

The most notable part of Glacial Trail is the recurring environmental snowstorms. Each tower will freeze for 2 rounds, repeating once every 10 rounds after it is placed. This applies to all towers (including fire-based towers), with the exception of Ice Monkeys. While frozen, the tower is effectively stunned, like a Vortex stun, preventing any non-passive interactions of that tower from taking action, and cannot be tapped just like Covered Garden's glass windows. The ice cannot be broken by force, and the only way around it is to wait up to 2 rounds before the towers naturally thaw out. The placement and timing of the snow-storming is dependent on a on-round basis; for instance, placing Corvus on Round 1 causes him to be frozen on Rounds 10-11, then Rounds 20-21, then Rounds 30-31, and so on.

Behavior and Interactions

• Passive influential buffs such as Village will still occur while the tower is frozen.
• Frozen towers cannot activate their abilities, and any actively running abilities will be paused until the ice thaws.
• Tapping on the tower is disabled if it is frozen. Attempting to interact with it will make no sound.
• Ice Monkeys are immune to being frozen.
• When frozen, Heli Pilots will be stuck in place until thawed. If they already are attempting to move to a specific location, such as via Follow Touch, they will commence once unfrozen.
• Frozen Downdraft and MOAB Shove Heli Pilots do not operate their blowback and knockback.
• Frozen Monkey Aces can still fly around but will not attack.
• Geraldo has various interactions related to the freezing mechanic. His sub-tower items behave as if they are any ordinary sub-tower. Also, his round duration for items will not be delayed.
  • He will not restock for the rounds he is frozen on.
  • Despite not appearing frozen, Geraldo's Shooty Turrets, Pet Rabbit, and Genie Bottles will still be frozen during the rounds in which Geraldo himself is frozen (no matter when the items were placed)
  • Gerry's Fire will be frozen when the tower that has the Gerry's Fire gets frozen.
  • The Rare Quincy Action Figure and the Paragon Power Totem do not have attacks, but their animations will appear frozen and you will be unable to interact with them during the same rounds.
  • The attack of the Creepy Idol is not frozen either, although you will be unable to interact with the Idol during Geraldo's frozen rounds.
• Contributing Beast Handlers still count as Intel range if frozen, and still contribute to beast power even if frozen.
• End-of-round cash generators such as Benjamin and Merchantmen still will generate end-of-round cash if frozen.
• All Banana Farms cannot produce bananas, banana crates, or market bananas (i.e. Marketplace and above spawned "bananas").
• Some towers and heroes do not properly show frozen status.
  • Etienne's Drones do not appear frozen, nor does Etienne, even though both are frozen.
  • Geraldo's items do not appear frozen, even though all affected items are frozen.
  • Corvus's Spirit does not appear frozen, even though it actually is frozen.
• Like all instances of hero disabling interactions, leveling a hero to a particular level will stop changing their status (including granting global buffs, ability duration, etc.).
  • For Etienne, if he levels to Level 8 while being frozen, he will be unable to grant his global camo detection buff if he keeps freezing for the next round. Any other round when he levels to Level 8 is unaffected.

Rewards

Monkey Money Rewards

	Easy[?]	Medium[?]	Hard[?]	Impoppable[?]
First Time	$300 $330 $450 $495 $525 $577	$500 $550 $750 $825 $875 $962	$800 $880 $1200 $1320 $1400 $1540	$1200 $1320 $1800 $1980 $2100 $2310
Completed	$60 $66 $90 $99 $105 $115	$100 $110 $150 $165 $175 $192	$160 $176 $240 $264 $280 $308	$240 $264 $360 $396 $420 $462

Strategy

Main article: Glacial Trail/Strategies

WIP This section or article is currently a work in progress (WIP), and therefore under construction. Please bear with us while our editors improve the page.

Feel free to replace the "TBA" with some basic strategies that optimize the given map

Summary

Glacial Trail looks relatively simple compared to most Expert Maps, and even some Advanced Maps, which means most single-lane map defenses should be able to beat this map relatively easily. Decent curves are a virtue, although there’s very little central space and poor room for Villages, and the outskirts of this map are poor for Snipers but good for Helis and Mortars. However, the real challenge that truly defines its Expert Map status is the gimmick of frozen towers, which can be a major roadblock to success.

When it comes to frozen towers, try to spread out when you place your towers by rounds, even if it comes down to placing a tower mid-round instead of between rounds. Create a stable defense where there’s no single reliance on a single tower type or hero.

Tips

• The Ice Monkey is immune to being frozen. This means a defense primarily of Ice Monkeys is a viable way to counter this map. That said, while Icicle Impale can to a great extent counter the first 99 rounds with appropriate anti-Camo Bloon/anti-White Bloon support, it does not do enough damage to defeat the Big Airship of Doom (BAD), so remember to buy a DPS tower that can work on round 100 on Impoppable/CHIMPS.
• In terms of income generators, some towers are capable of passively generating money, but most towers don't.
  • Benjamin and Geraldo's Rare Quincy Action Figure will still generate money/increase in value while frozen. However, Benjamin's abilities are not able to be activated while frozen, and Trojan will stop attacking if frozen.
  • Banana Farms will not generate bananas, banana crates, or market bananas while frozen. Monkey banks however will continue to generate income, yet be uncollectable the duration of the freeze, making them especially favorable when farming.
• Despite not appearing frozen, Etienne's drones will still be frozen every 10 rounds.
• As there is only one path, the Heli Pilot and its upgrades excels on this map, but relying on them as the primary defense may cause trouble on rounds when they are frozen.
• Sauda unsurprisingly works well on this map, as there is a good tight curve for her to hit the bloons.
• Perma-Spike is a good option on this map, as its spikes last for 4 rounds, which is much longer than two rounds that towers get frozen for. In fact, a minimum of Deadly Spikes is required for spikes to last longer than the frozen tower status,
• A Monkey Village and/or Alchemist can be placed on the bottom right glacier in range of a single tower near the path.
• Spike-o-pult and later Juggernaut are good towers at the end of the second loop, as their attacks can bounce off the obstacles and hit multiple times. Taking 2 of them to mitigate the freezing mechanic of the map is recommended, due to their low cost.
• An Arctic Knight can be placed on the ice cube under the entrance, although the main attack cannot reach the track, aiming the ability to the first loop and watch the blimps disappear. It is especially helpful for round 90+.

Quotes

Version History

Balance Changes

Bug Fixes and General Changes

Sounds

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When a tower gets frozen by the environmental snowstorm:

• [freezing wind]

Gallery

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Able to unlock Glacial Trail

Unlocked Glacial Trail

Glacial Trail during Halloween

Frozen Corvus

Official artwork

Glacial Trail's frozen tower overlay

Trivia

• Glacial Trail is the first non-special Expert Map that is a single-lane map. If including Blons, Glacial Trail is the second single-lane Expert Map.
• The frozen monkey floating on water at the left of the track has the number "10" engraved on it, foreshadowing placed towers will be frozen every 10 rounds.
• Currently in Sandbox Mode, if a tower is placed and the round is switched to one in which said tower would be frozen in a normal game, the tower will stay frozen forever; changing the round does not unfreeze the tower.
• The mechanic of towers being frozen by snowstorm, along with snowy setting makes this map similar to Frostbite Caves from Plants vs. Zombies 2; in that case, chilling winds will freeze plants, rendering them useless.
  • The differences between their respective mechanics are the former's freezing mechanic will naturally thaw out after 2 rounds and cannot be interacted while the latter's freezing mechanic can be interacted, requiring the ice block to be destroyed in order to free the plant and cannot be thawed naturally unless there is a fire plant nearby.
  • Similarly, anything ice-related in both games is immune to the snowstorm, in this case, Ice Monkeys (but sadly Fusty the Snowman would still be frozen). Unfortunately, fire-based towers in BTD6 can still be frozen, unlike in PvZ2, where fire-based plants also gain immunity.