BTD5—Spike Factories—which upgrade path does the most damage to MOABs?
MOAB-SHREDR upgrade (2-3) does extra damage to MOAB class balloons. The MOAB-SHREDR upgrade costs ~$3k (after 2-2). The final upgrade to 2-4 doesn't change anything, except giving a special ability (is that correct?)
The spiked mines path (4-2) costs much more, ~$15k past 2-2. They quickly pump out spiked balls that have a final explosion when the spikes run out. They seem much more destructive, but don't have that "extra damage to MOAB class balloons".
My question is, which path does more damage to MOAB class balloons? Could the MOAB-SHREDR upgrade be worth more in damage than the other path, despite being $13k cheaper?
Solution 1:
I found some info on the Wiki and by testing on my mobile(the mechanics should be same on mobile and PC version), so this may be a bit inaccurate, but I think we have a clear winner here:
- The spiked ball factory (4/2 build) produces about 23 spiked mines per 10sec and deals 16 points of RBE (Red Bloon Equivalent) + Explosion (1RBE damage). The spiked ball factory is much better at taking out ceramics, which are dropped from the MOAB.
- The MOAB-SHREDR takes just 5 hits according to the Wiki to take out a MOAB and produces about 16 piles per 10sec.
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The MOAB(this will show what is better for all MOAB-class) has RBE 616, that means that:
The spiked ball factory takes it out in 37 spiked mines, which is equal to about 16 seconds of production.
The MOAB-SHREDR spike factory, taking it out in just 5 hits needs a total of just 3 seconds of production!
This clearly shows what is better at taking out MOAB-class bloons, even though the MOAB-SHREDR suck at cracking ceramics, in which the spiked mines are the winner.
Also, spiked mines may come in handy when it comes to tightly grouped MOAB-class bloons, when the MOAB-SHREDR pop a MOAB and disappear to the ceramics.
So, final answer: MOAB-SHREDR spike factories are about 5 times better at popping just MOAB-class bloons than spiked mine factories!
Hope this helped :)