Lead Balloon

Description

The Lead Balloon is an enemy which only appears on Hardcore mode. While it has low health for its debut, it is quite fast. While the Lead Balloon is in the air, it cannot collide with units, or be detected by most ground towers and units.

It is also a Lead enemy, meaning it cannot be damaged by towers without lead detection. This severely reduces the amount of towers that can harm the Lead Balloon. With its balloons popped, it is no longer a Flying enemy. However, despite having no visible metal coverings, it is still a Lead enemy.

The Lead Balloon can be spawned from the Mystery upon its death in Hardcore mode, wave 40 onwards.

Appearance

The Lead Balloon is a faceless humanoid with reflective dark green skin, and a reflective dark grey torso and legs. It has three lead balloons tied to its back, which, after taking enough damage, pop into yellow particles and drops it lower to the ground. When it loses all shield health, all the balloons would have popped and the Lead Balloon would become grounded, removing its flying attribute and making it walk along the path.

Strategy

• While the Lead Balloon is floating, the Lead Balloon is a lead and flying enemy. This limits the towers that can both detect and damage the Lead Balloon.
• Multiple Level 3+ Rangers or Level 1+ Pursuits are the best option to deal with the Lead Balloon, with or without its balloons.
  • Both the Pursuit's gun and bombs have lead detection, making it also a very good option to deal with Lead Balloons.
    • Do keep in mind that the Pursuit may target the wrong enemy instead of the Lead Balloon due to its flight path.
  • Level 4 Snipers can also be used to kill the Lead Balloon despite their low DPS, but you need a large amount of them.
  • A few Level 5 Electroshockers can also be used to clear out Lead Balloons fairly well as it can hit up to eight enemies with decently high DPS.
• The Ace Pilot and Mortar can detect and damage the Lead Balloon with its splash damage.
  • However, the Ace Pilot's projectiles explode on the ground, limiting the damage dealt to the Lead Balloon. It will also have a hard time to hit Lead Balloons when they are grounded due to the enemy's fast speed.
• The Engineer can be used to deal with this, but do note that only the tower itself can detect and damage them. None of the Engineer's sentries can detect it, with only War Machine Sentry being able to damage it.
• Weirdly, the Elf Camp's units can handle this enemy quite well, despite being unable to collide with it.
• The Hunter, Executioner and the Archer are able to detect the Lead Balloon, but are unable to damage it.
• Units cannot directly damage the Lead Balloon while its floating, though explosions from some of the units may indirectly hit it.
• The Shotgunner and Swarmer are unable to detect the Lead Balloon while its floating, but are able to damage it.
  • This will only occur if there are other enemies near the Lead Balloon.
• Once the Lead Balloon's shield health has been depleted, all of its balloons would have popped.
  • Once this happens, any tower can detect the Lead Balloon, but cannot damage it if they do not have lead detection.
  • Be aware that its speed increases significantly while on the ground.

Gallery

Miscellaneous

Lead Balloon on its Index icon.

Trivia

• The Lead Balloon may be a reference to the Lead Bloon in the Bloons Tower Defense series.
• During Hardcore Testing BETA, the Lead Balloon's balloons did not pop as it had no shield health.
• Oddly, when the Lead Balloon's balloons pop, it is no longer a flying enemy, yet is still considered a lead enemy, despite not having any metal coverings.

Update History

• 29 October 2020 - Overhaul v1.0.0
  • Lead Balloon added.