Paragon Tower 2
Analisa Wisdom
Paragons, also known as Tier 6 or 5-5-5 Towers, are the final upgrade tier that was introduced to Bloons TD 6 in Version 27.0. Paragons are meant to be a superpowered upgrade of a tower, borrowing some features from all three upgrade paths of a specific tower to deal enormous damage to all bloon types (including camo), with bonus damage to boss bloons, and more. As such, they are among the most powerful upgrades in Bloons TD 6.[1]
By default, towers can only be upgraded to Paragons in normal game modes and Challenge Editor. Unlike the Vengeful True Sun God, Paragons can be obtained in sandbox mode once said Paragon has been created by the player in a regular game. They can also be created in C.H.I.M.P.S.[2]
Only one Paragon of each unique type of tower may exist at a time (including in Co-Op), but the sacrificial Tier 5 towers can be rebought after creating the Paragon regardless of gamemode. The number of active Paragons per save in Boss Bloon Events has a varying limit, with the default limit being four. All other game modes have no limit to the numbers of active Paragons.
The designs of each Paragon merge visual elements from the three contributing Tier 5 towers, while still retaining a look that is largely independent from any of the sacrificial towers. In addition, the name of the Paragon usually derives from some combination of the constituent Tier 5 towers, though not necessarily. Paragons appear larger in size compared to the base tower (but the footprint is unchanged) and gain more striking adornments every 20 degrees.
Paragons are created by placing all three Tier 5 Upgrades of a desired tower and upgrading any of the Tier 5 towers to the paragon upgrade. Paragons provide the highest raw power compared to their non-Paragon counterparts. However, Paragons utilize a very distinct system of optimized power, relying on a series of investments, quantitatively high numbers of towers and their upgrades, a high monetary investment, and a large accumulation of pops and/or income (if applicable). Paragons are unable to be affected by most tower interactions. All Paragons have limited interactions that are generally exclusive to them, most notably extra damage to Bosses and absorbing Paragon Power Totems owned by Geraldo.
If a particular tower type has an available Paragon, the upgrade menu for that tower type will have an icon of a Paragon next to it. To unlock the Paragon upgrade for an eligible tower, all Tier 5 Upgrades for that tower must be unlocked first, alongside sufficient XP to unlock the Paragon upgrade itself. The Paragon upgrade is hidden from view until unlocking all Tier 5 upgrades of that tower type. Once available, however, the Paragon panel is revealed, a purple panel containing a single Paragon icon in the middle. The name of the Paragon reveals itself, and the player may select the icon to view its description, often a "mysterious" ambiguous description. The upgrade portrait for that Paragon remains hidden until finally unlocked.
After obtaining the unlock for the Paragon, the entire upgrade menu background for that tower type changes from blue to purple permanently. A special Paragon transformation sound effect also plays, alongside the Paragon icon in the upgrade menu opening up and revealing the upgrade portrait for that Paragon. Unlocking the Paragon upgrade for each of the eligible towers is the final milestone to unlocking all upgrades.
Each Paragon sacrifices all towers of their type, including the required Tier 5 towers, merging them into a single powerful tower via a transformation. Immediately following is an animation consisting of an ascended purple monkey T-posing, followed by blue orbs containing souls (which are the constituent towers to be merged into the singular entity) moving telekinetically toward it, accompanied by the sounds of magic pulling their powers together. After starting a transformation into a Paragon, it takes about three seconds before the transformation finishes. Once fully transformed and summoned, it can be interacted with and can begin attacking. Finally, there is a display of a purple text representing the value of the Paragon's Degree (which ranges between 1 to 100) and a left-adjacent Paragon icon, which appears briefly for visual purposes. When interacted, the Paragon's menu becomes permanently transformed, converting the upgrade menu into a merged purple display of the Paragon's upgrade icon and description, although the pop count will still contain the statistics of the current tower without accounting for its constituent towers. Additionally, the amount of sellback is not merged into the Paragon, only giving back the sellback of the chosen Tier 5 and the Paragon upgrade combined.
Starting from v39.0, Paragons can directly receive a cash injection before being built for more Paragon Power. The amount of cash you can put into it scales with the cost of the Paragon upgrade itself, and also comes with a 5% markup compared to placing down sacrificial non-tier 5 towers.
Paragons can become stronger by having a higher Degree. Having a higher Degree increases many of its base statistics, particularly pierce, attack speed, damage, and ability cooldowns (if applicable). Higher Degrees are obtained by having more towers and upgrades of the same type, more collective pops and/or generated cash, and a greater monetary investment.
First, ensure that the Paragon has been unlocked using Experience Points on the tower's upgrade page. Then, a Paragon can be created by having one of each tier 5 tower for a specific monkey on screen, at which point, the upgrade icon for the Paragon will become available on any of the tier 5 towers. Before finalizing the purchase, the player will be prompted to boost the Paragon directly with in-game cash if they want.
Purchasing the upgrade will change the selected tower into the Paragon, while sacrificing every other tower of that type on screen (including those belonging to co-op players). In addition, all Paragon Power Totems will be consumed by that Paragon. Only one Paragon of a specific tower may exist at a time, even in co-op.
In addition to cosmetic changes every 20 degrees, higher degree Paragons deal increased damage. The degree is determined by an internal value known as "power", which itself is dependent on total pop count and cash generated, Tier 5 upgrades, non-Tier 5 upgrades, cost, and number of sacrificed towers as follows:
Choose a Paragon degree between 1 and 100 and it will convert into an intended Paragon power equivalence in-game. Although this program is only designed to calculate between Degree 1-100, you could try this program to test theoretical analysis for Degrees 101 or higher.
After choosing a Paragon degree, adjust the base statistics (damage, pierce, attack cooldown, and similar attributes) according to those of the Degree 1 Paragon. Currently, this program has an incomplete analysis of bonus damage values, and has yet to incorporate boss-specific total damage.
Bonus Damage: The bonus damage of each attack (against MOABs, Ceramics, Camos, etc.) scales with degree according to the formula below. Add it to the regular damage to calculate total damage where applicable.
Elite Boss Bloon Damage (pre-39.0): Total damage done to Elite Boss Bloons per degree for each attack is ideally equal to twice the Total Boss Damage. However, this only ever applies to Degree 1-19.
The degree of a Paragon can be increased by purchasing up to 9 extra Tier 5 towers, 100 upgrade tiers (non-T5 towers), $250,000 spent, 16.2 million pops/$4.05 million cash generated, and unlimited power totems in the towers sacrificed. These are listed, generally, in order of easiest to most difficult to achieve. The main takeaways of these equations are that there are diminishing damage returns for higher degree Paragons. So, in general, it is more efficient to go for several mid-tier Paragons, as opposed to one max degree Paragon.
Listed are some general guidelines on how to make select 20 degree increment Paragons. Do not need to worry about the power needed unless buying Paragon Power Totems. In general, it is best not to use Paragon Power Totems until all other sacrifice requirements have been maxed out.
For most Paragons, excluding Apex Plasma Master (max level being 79), Degree 76 was the highest degree possible in single-player mode as surpassing 110,706 power required a 4th Tier 5 tower, which was only possible in co-op. However, the introduction of Geraldo's Paragon Power Totems circumvents this need. Still, the Paragon Power Totem is less efficient than garnering the previous sacrifices. Use the power totem only if going past the max single player degree.
Note: For historic reference, and for BTD6 XBox users (which use the old pre-39.0 Paragon leveling sytem), the following is just a pre-39.0 information about the old max Paragon degree without Co-Op or Geraldo.
Paragons combine all three attacks of their constituent Tier 5 towers to deal immense damage to all bloon types. However, the high cost of these upgrades and inability to receive buffs makes them difficult to justify in the presence of cheaper combinations of towers (such as Ultraboost and Flying Fortress). As a result, the main use cases for Paragons, as of now, are during late game and Boss Events.
The first Paragon to be revealed was the Paragon Dart Monkey, the "Apex Plasma Master", as part of the second teaser for Paragons. The same teaser also features a mysterious language whose letters arrange to form the word "paragon". The second Paragon revealed was a merge for the Boomerang Monkey, the "Glaive Dominus", as seen in the third teaser for Paragons; this teaser features the same mysterious language writing seen in the Dart Monkey Paragon teaser.
Ninja Kiwi confirmed on their 16th July 2021 blog that the There Can Be Only One MK would remain the same. Unlike VTSG, the Super Monkey Paragon is expected to not need Monkey Knowledge, will not require Sacrifices for the Temple and True Sun God upgrades, and can allow The Anti-Bloon and Legend of the Night to be spawned after its own upgrade. Potentially, the VTSG can be summoned after the Super Monkey Paragon is upgraded.
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