Homeland Defense

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Homeland Defense is the fifth and final upgrade of Path 2 for the Monkey Village in Bloons TD 6. It is an improved version of the Call To Arms ability that increases attack speed and pierce of every single tower on screen by +100% for 20 seconds, as opposed to a +50% attack speed and pierce bonus for 15 seconds. The ability cooldown remains at 45 seconds.

This upgrade costs $34,000 on Easy, $40,000 on Medium, $43,200 on Hard, and $48,000 on Impoppable.

Description

Overview

Homeland Defense is a white pentagon-based building with a large beacon on the roof that constantly sweeps back and forth. The top layer or floor of the building has three opaque, light blue windows on each side, and the front of the building has a pair of similarly colored doors. In front of the door is a small set of stairs made up of only two steps; to the left of those is a sign which likely contains writing on it denoting the name of the building, similarly to government buildings in various countries. Grass lines the outside, and extends slightly farther than the two rings of colored brick or marble that surrounds the middlemost sections of Homeland Defense. Its overall design is most likely a nod to the United States' Pentagon building, the headquarters of the Department of Defense (DoD). Its name is likely a reference to both the DoD and the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS.

Homeland Defense improves its own Call To Arms ability rather drastically. The global buff is increased to give all towers on screen +100% attack speed and +100% pierce instead of +50%, and last 20 seconds instead of 15. Just like Call To Arms, Homeland ability's buff constitutes as Charge, an applied buff rather than influential, and hence can be sapped by Gravelord Lych. The other buffs from this Village constitute as Influence, which are passive influential buffs.

Activated Abilities

See also: Activated Abilities (BTD6)#Homeland Defense

When activated, all towers on screen gain +100% attack speed and +100% pierce for up to 20 seconds. Cooldown of 45 seconds. It doesn't stack with Call To Arms' ability, but overrides it while Homeland Defense's ability is active.

As a duration-based ability, its ability must finish running before it can be activated again when its cooldown is reset.

The Call To Arms 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

Homeland Defense supports nearby towers with influential tower buffs, with exception of its ability which is a charge tower buff. Because it also has Grow Blocker, it can attack any Regrow Bloon within its range, defaulting on Close for calculation purposes. Homeland Defense's "rallying" buff is a tower buff that targets all towers in the whole screen. However, for simplicity reasons, Homeland Defense has no targeting priorities.

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: Flat Pack Buildings, Better Sell Deals

Strategy

Summary

Homeland Defense is quite a formidable support tower due to its solid 100% buff to attack speed and pierce. Its global effect allows it to work well even with multiple towers requiring buffs. The main use cases for Homeland Defense are non-Lych Boss Events and super late-game Freeplay runs, as it has a global universal buff with a high magnitude of empowerment, though it does see use in 2MPC challenges and on CHIMPS runs involving Sentry Champion.

The inconvenience of using Homeland Defense comes from it being a huge part of the player's budget but only being active 44% of the time. Compared to Permanent Brew, Homeland Defense lacks in uptime and its more damage-oriented buff, but Permanent Brew's benefits outweigh Homeland Defense's benefits for most towers. However, Homeland Defense synergizes well with towers dependent on Sub-Towers, whereas Alch buffs have little to no benefit for sub-towers.

Tips

• Homeland Defense doesn't stack with Call To Arms and instead overrides it if both are active.
• Homeland Defense is sometimes used in 2MPC to buff the tower without stealing pops.
• Homeland Defense has a unique synergy with Sentry Champion, because it both doubles their spawn rate and attack speed.
• Placement for Homeland Defense is not too important, but try placing it in range of as many towers as possible. If multiple Call To Arms are within range of many towers on screen specifically for uptime purposes, placing a Homeland Defense in an awkward spot will suffice.
• Crosspathing does not matter very much for Homeland Defense, as its ability is not at all affected by crosspaths. But generally speaking, a 2-5-0 Homeland Defense is better than 0-5-2, as adding Jungle Drums can further increase attack speed of nearby towers.
• A cost-effective strategy for Ranked Boss Bloon Events is to activate the ability, then sell the Homeland Defense for a Cripple MOAB. This tends to be a very effective strategy against Tier 2-3 Bosses.
• To maintain consistent uptime, prepare a Call To Arms, sell the Homeland Defense once its effect wears off, and upgrade the Call To Arms to instantly reapply the buff to all towers.

Version History

Balance Changes

Bug Fixes and General Changes

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9.0

• Description updated to "20 seconds" to reflect new ability duration.

19.0 (?)

• Description changed from "Ability affects ALL Monkeys and for 20 seconds." to "Ability now increases attack speed and pops by 100% for all Monkeys for 20 seconds."

Extra Notes (Version History)

Sounds

When activating Homeland Defense Ability:

• [Synchronized drum hitting and sword drawing]

Gallery

In-game model

An active Homeland Defense ability

Enough XP to unlock Homeland Defense

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon

Buff icon

Trivia

• Homeland Defense's ability cannot be reactivated until it expires, unlike Call to Arms, where multiple can be activated at once.
• Between Version 9.0 and 18.0, the old description was "Ability affects ALL Monkeys and for 20 seconds." but was since changed to clarify the boosted ability bonuses.
• It is one of the two abilities that create a flash effect when activated, with the other one is Tsar Bomba.
• The upgrade description for Homeland Defense lacks a period at the end of the description.
• Its Pentagonal shape likely is deprived from The Pentagon, the location of the United States Department of Defense.