Dragon's Breath (BTD6) (2024)

Dragon's Breath (sometimes referred to as Dbreath) is the third upgrade of Path 2 for the Wizard Monkey in Bloons TD 6. Alongside improving its fiery spells, it adds a new attack that produces a continuous stream of flames at Bloons every 0.125s. The flames pierce through up to 4 bloons (6 with Intense Magic) and deal 2 damage each. Each flame also applies a burn effect, dealing 1 damage per 1.5 seconds for 3 seconds.

In addition, the Dragon's Breath upgrade also improves the Fireball and Wall of Fire. Walls of Fire are now deployed at a faster rate (every 4.5s instead of 6.5s) with no initial cooldown, a pierce refresh rate and contact damage rate of 0.10s as opposed to 0.15s, and increased base pierce from 10 to 20. Fireballs deal 9 damage each with 14 blast radius instead of 10. If Level 5+ Gwendolin is present, the Wizard receives attack speed and radius buffs from her, although its range remains identical.

This upgrade costs $2,805 on Easy, $3,300 on Medium, $3,565 on Hard, and $3,960 on Impoppable.

Description[]

Overview[]

The Wizard Monkey with Dragon's Breath becomes much more fiery in appearance. It gains a red flaming wand and a pair of black boots. Its old grey cloak is replaced with a more detailed red cloak, with a dark red gradient. Its wizard cap now features a golden yellow trim as the hat's secondary color to complement the hat's red primary coloring. Its black pupils become red. Similarly to Wall of Fire, its previous upgrade, Dragon's Breath wears red gloves.

On the upgrade portrait, the Dragon's Breath is blowing fire, and its wand is ignited.

Dragon's Breath gains a rapid spewing of flames; this new attack has a very quick-firing speed with powerful damage, and also applies a fire damage over time effect. Besides this new attack, it also improves Fireball and Wall of Fire attacks from its previous upgrades.

Targeting Priorities[]

Dragon's Breath targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. It shoots straight movement projectiles.

• First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
• Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
• Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
• Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.

Full Popology[]

Statistics[]

Updated as of Version 39.0

Base stats

• Bolt:
  • Projectile, energy type, 40 range, 1.1s attack cooldown, 1 damage, 3 pierce.
• Fireball:
  • Projectile, fire type, 40 range, 2.2s attack cooldown, 9 damage, 15 pierce, 14 blast radius.
• Firewall:
  • On-track item, fire type, 40 range, 4.5s attack cooldown, 1 damage per 0.1s, 20 pierce, ~10 (?) projectile size, 4.5s lifespan. Locked on Close targeting, can be repositioned with Guided Magic.
• Breath Flame:
  • Projectile, fire type, 40 range, 0.125s attack cooldown, 2 damage, ~3 (?) projectile size, 0.4s lifespan. Apply 1 damage per 1.5s for 3.0s DoT fire effect.

Crosspathing interactions

• 1-3-0:
  • Bolt ignores Line of Sight
  • Fireball ignores Line of Sight
  • Firewall ignores Line of Sight and can be targeted separate from other attacks via a reticle
  • Firewall lifespan increased from 4.5s to 6.5s
  • Breath Flame lifespan increases from 0.4s to 0.8s and ignores Line of Sight.
• 2-3-0:
  • Bolt deals 2 damage instead of 1.
• 0-3-1:
  • Bolt pierce increased to 8 (+5), and projectile speed increases
  • Fireball pierce increased to 20 (+5)
  • Firewall pierce increases to 25 (+5)
  • Breath Flame pierce increases to 6 (+2)
• 0-3-2:
  • Base tower gains camo detection, all new attacks can affect camo, and gains Camo Prioritization
  • Base tower gains +10 range

Attack Interactions[]

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Magic

Updated as of Version 36.0

Base attack(s)

• Bolt:
  • Energy
  • Single Projectile
  • Straight Attack
• Fireball (Projectile):
  • Fire
  • Single Projectile
  • Straight Attack
• Fireball (Explosion):
  • Explosion
  • Burst
  • Area of Effect
  • Extra Damage
• Firewall:
  • Fire
  • On Track
  • Spawn
  • Contact Damage
• Breath Flame:
  • Fire
  • Single Projectile
  • Straight Attack
  • Extra Damage
  • Burn
  • Burn Blimps

Costs[]

Updated as of Version 40.0. 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: Magic Tricks, Better Sell Deals

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Dragon's Breath is a good option for mid-game as general cleanup and decent MOAB-class damage, with some decent value in the late-game with multiple of them if using Gwendolin to boost attack speed of its various fiery attacks. It is a highly effective option for damaging various bloon types with the exception of Purple Bloons. Placing a Dragon's Breath along bends or as much coverage across multiple regions of the track will optimize its attacks. Each of the Dragon's Breath fiery attacks are beneficial within moderately short range with its variety of single-target and cleanup options available in its flaming arsenal.

Compared to Wall of Fire, its preceding upgrade, Dragon's Breath provides a wider variety of benefits to improve its consistent damage. Each fiery attack has its own specialties that make Dragon's Breath stand out: the much higher damage fireballs pack a hefty punch against high-health bloons, wiping out up to Rainbows in a single shot, the blaze attack cleans up against bloons quite quickly with higher uptime, and the flame attack has general single-target damage and decent bloon damage. The popularity of Dragon's Breath in Race Events has also increased due to its significantly higher damage stats than the previous upgrade.

Tips[]

• In terms of crosspaths, 0-3-2 is generally better as an all-around option for the extra pierce and innate camo detection. Flames do not gain +1 damage from top-path upgrades, but flames from top-path upgrades do pass through walls, and there is a special interaction where flames will last twice as long with Guided Magic, in addition to benefits for its other fiery attacks. For most purposes, the bottom path is preferable, as the benefits provided by Guided Magic are rather situational.
  • The pierce bonus for the Dragon's Breath attack is from 4 pierce to 6 pierce, a +2 pierce bonus instead of +5 for most other attacks. Even still, this makes a big difference versus grouped bloons. The Wall of Fire attack only gains +5 pierce to its already 20 pierce, but it gives +5 pierce to a 15-pierce fireball attack.
  • 1-3-0 Dragon's Breaths can deploy its faster Walls of Fire onto specific regions of the track, the breath attack has longer lifespan, and all of its attacks can pass through walls, making it a potentially viable sidegrade on maps with many large or immovable obstacles. 2-3-0 Dragon's Breath makes little difference compared to 1-3-0 because it only affects its measly bolt attacks.
  • 0-3-2 Dragon's Breaths are a potent tower in Apopalypse mode and Race Events due to being able to pop large quantities of all bloons except purples and dealing with Leads, Zebras and below super quickly, even if they are semi-grouped. However, a large rush of ceramics can still easily overwhelm the Dragon's Breath. Also, the increased range provided by 0-3-2 allows more coverage of the breath and fireball attacks in particular.
• In a similar way to maximizing Dragon's Breath in BTD5, place a Dragon's Breath along a region of the map with more track area, to maximize its flame attacks against stronger bloons. Unlike in BTD5 though, Dragon's Breath comes with Wall of Fire, making it more useful against Ceramics overall due to the general cleanup utility of such an attack. Because Walls of Fire are placed towards the closest location of the Wizard by default as of Version 25.0, placing a Dragon's Breath near a very close intersection will optimize both of these attacks.
• Dragon's Breath is strong against rounds with moderate numbers of spaced Ceramics, but heavily struggles on dense Ceramic rounds such as Round 63 or Round 78. In those cases, this is where its successor upgrade Summon Phoenix comes in handy.
• In terms of hero synergies, the obvious candidate is Gwendolin's Level 5+ buffs, giving extra attack speed and radius size for Dragon's Breath. However, Dragon's Breath can be usable with Striker Jones, since his Level 5+ buffs allow fireballs to damage black properties, including dense clumps of layered bloons and DDTs.

Version History[]

Balance Changes[]

Dragon's Breath had been buffed in BTD6 to become a much stronger option at fire damage. Alongside a price cut to the upgrade itself, the Dragon's Breath's main fire breath attack was improved to become more useful versus ordinary bloons, as well as for other fire attacks in later updates. Crosspathing benefits were also implemented to give the upgrade more crosspath variety outside of 0-3-2 for popping camo. The Wall of Fire nerfs combined with Dragon's Breath buffs has slowly made the power gap between both upgrades larger.

Initial release (BTD5 comparison)

• Cost of Dragon's Breath decreased ($4,200 → $3,600).
• Some upgrade paths have been changed, affecting some upgrade choices.
• Dragon's Breath no longer has Monkey Sense by default.

7.0

• Cost of Dragon's Breath decreased ($3,600 → $3,000).

8.0

• Dragon's Breath now deploys Walls of Fire faster (5.5s → 4.5s).

8.1

• Dragon's Breath range now (correctly) increases with Wizard Monkey upgrades.

10.0

• Dragon's Breath now applies a burn Damage Over Time equal to Mortar's Burny Stuff to any Bloon it touches.

18.0

• 1-3-0 Wizard now uses tower targeting priority to guide the Wall of Fire.
• Wall of Fire pierce decreased (20 → 15). Requires Intense Magic for 20 pierce Walls of Fire.

20.0

• 0-3-1 Dragon's Breath crosspath benefits now increase pierce of Dragon's Breath from 4 to 6.

21.0

• 030 Dragon's Breath, breath attack gains bonus damage to ceramic +1.
• 130 Dragon's Breath increases lifespan of Dragon Breath 0.4 → 0.8.
• Main bolt has more pierce (2 → 3, from base Wizard buff).

22.0

• Affected by Wall of Fire anti-buy-resell nerfs.

23.0

• Dragon's Breath's Fireball radius increased (10 → 14).
• Dragon's Breath's Fireball damage increased (1 → 3).
• Upgrading to Wizard Lord Phoenix now increases Dragon's Breath damage.

24.0

• Description changed from "Spews endless flames at nearby Bloons." to "Spews endless flames at nearby Bloons and enhances Fireball and Wall of Fire."

25.0

• Affected by Wall of Fire reliability reworks.
• Upgrading to Wizard Lord Phoenix now further increases Dragon's Breath damage.
• [Undocumented] Dragon's Breath's Wall of Fire has no initial cooldown (lowered from 4.5s).

29.0

• Indirect buff, as Wall of Fire at P2T2 reduces blaze pierce refresh from 0.15s to 0.10s.
• Dragon's Breath's Wall of Fire pierce bonus from Intense Magic reduced from +5 → +4
• Dragon's Breath's fireball attack delay reduced from 3s → 2.2s
• Dragon's Breath fireball's damage increased from 3 → 9

30.0

• [Undocumented, likely a bug] Guided Magic now causes Dragon's Breath to pass through walls

31.2

• [Undocumented] Dragon's Breath flames, Wall of Fire, and Fireball attacks are no longer single-layer damage, allowing for damage scaling for Wall of Fire and Dragon's Breath flames on pre-freeplay rounds.

32.0

• 1-3-0 Dragons Breath now (officially) target through walls from Guided Magic
• Affected by 0-1-1 Fireball buff

33.0

• Dragon's Breath flame base damage increased (1 → 2)
• Indirect buff, as it was not affected by the Wall of Fire reduction of rehit rate from 0.15s to 0.10s.
• Dragon's Breath WoF pierce per tick increased (15 → 20)
  • [Undocumented] Intense Magic now increases the pierce of Dragon's Breath's Wall of Fire attack by +5, for a total of 25.
• Dragon's Breath can now be buffed by Level 5+ Gwendolin's Pyrotechnics Expert buff

35.0

• Dragon's Breath flame attack now matches from wizard tower range properly. Base range for the flame attack reduced from 50 to 40.

36.0

• Dragon's Breath flame attack cooldown 0.1s → 0.125s
• Dragon's Breath flames no longer deal +1 damage to Ceramics

38.0

• Dragon's Breath cost increased ($3000 → $3300)

39.0

• Affected by 1-2-0 Wall of Fire lifespan buff

Sounds[]

When a fireball explodes:

• [explosion]
• [explosion]
• [explosion]
• [explosion]
• [explosion]

When deploying a Wall of Fire blaze:

• [flame ignition]
• [flame ignition]
• [flame ignition]
• [flame ignition]
• [flame ignition]

Gallery[]

Multi-layer damage comparisons[]

Official artwork[]

Projectiles[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

• The initial BTD6 Dragon's Breath price is the same as the first price reduction to the Dragon's Breath upgrade in Bloons TD Battles Mobile and the only price reduction on Bloons TD Battles Flash.
• The XP requirement to unlock Dragon's Breath, 2,600 XP, is the same amount as the cost of the Dragon's Breath upgrade in Bloons TD Battles Mobile ($2,600).
• Dragon's Breath is the 74th unique 2MPC tower upgrade listed on the Index 2MPC spreadsheet.^[1] This is also the second debut of a new 2MPC tower on the Version 19.x series, specifically on Version 19.2. It is also a downgrade of the entry for Summon Phoenix done just one day earlier.
• Ironically, real-world ceramics are normally highly resistant to fire, but Dragon's Breath deals extra damage to Ceramics.
  • However, it is also known in the real-world that, more specifically in the context of ceramic pan care, suddenly changing the temperature for a ceramic pan drastically will lead to thermal damage via thermal shock. Combining this with the fact that buildup causes the ceramic material to start peeling off by the use of cooking oil sprays, it could be concluded that Dragon's Breath flames likely utilize a mixture of biological thermal energy and an excess of biological oil-rich fuel emitted from the mouth.
• The Dragon's Breath flame projectiles actually do come from the Wizard Monkey's mouth if observed closely.
• Dragon's Breath is the only Tier 3 Wizard Monkey upgrade that does not increase range.
• Breath flames and fireballs look similar but have differences in dimensions. Fireballs look wider in width than length, relative to the direction shot. In contrast, breath flames look longer in length than width. Phoenix flames are simply larger with similar ratios to the breath flames.

References[]