Blastapopoulos

Blastapopoulos turns the usual boss logic around. Hitting it as hard and fast as possible is exactly what overheats it, and an overheat stuns your entire defense and turns your projectiles to dust for 20 seconds. The winning approach is steady direct damage, a little cooling, and towers spread out so its fireballs and rocks only hurt a few of them.

Why Blastapopoulos is dangerous

• Overheat stuns everything. Too many hits in a short time fill the heat gauge, stun every tower for 4 seconds and cripple projectiles for 20 seconds.
• Your whole defense is weaker. All towers lose 15% range, and abilities recharge 10% to 30% slower depending on tier.
• Purple property. Fire, plasma and energy attacks cannot damage it unless they can pop Purple, which shuts out most Wizard Monkey attacks.
• No damage over time. Burn, acid and stuck-on effects are wiped every 2 seconds. Sticky Bomb is useless because its bomb is purged before it explodes.
• Skull fireballs and rocks. Three of your towers are stunned and slowed at every skull, and a ring of rocks blocks shots from outside.

Damage sources that work

• Direct hit damage from Sniper Monkeys, Dartling Gunners, Bomb Shooters and other non-DoT towers.
• Cold damage helps twice. Cold and glacier attacks lower heat instead of raising it. Icicle Impale keeps heat in check, and Absolute Zero or Popseidon's ability removes a big chunk at once.
• Embrittlement and Super Brittle add on-hit damage amplification and nudge the heat down a little, even if they are not strong coolers.
• Infinite-range hitscan towers such as Sniper Monkeys ignore the range reduction, just do not let them hit too fast.
• Apex Plasma Master bounces its shots off the Pyroclastic Rocks for huge damage, especially from inside the ring.
• What does not work: stuns, slows, knockback, percentage damage, Sticky Bomb, Ascended Shadow talismans and other delayed or damage-over-time effects.

Best towers and setups

Tiers 1 and 2

• Elite Defender and other Sniper Monkeys: map-wide damage that ignores the range loss. Watch the heat gauge if you stack many.
• Dartling Gunners: flexible aim and solid single-target damage. Buckshot suffers from the shortened projectile life during overheats.
• Icicle Impale (Ice Monkey, bottom path tier 5): damage plus heat reduction from both its blast and its icicles.
• Embrittlement or Super Brittle to boost everything else.

Tiers 3 to 5

• Paragons for boss damage, but expect the most expensive one to be a fireball target. Apex Plasma Master is especially strong here.
• Absolute Zero for big heat dumps right before a skull.
• Several Sniper or Dartling groups spread around the map so one fireball cannot shut down your main damage.

Heroes that help

• Benjamin works well as a decoy: placed far from Blastapopoulos's lane, he is often the target of the "furthest tower" fireball instead of a real damage dealer. His income also helps.
• Heroes that deal plain direct damage fit better than heroes whose attacks are fire, plasma or energy, which add extra heat and cannot hurt Purple.

Powers and Monkey Knowledge

• Abilities are weakened, so Tech Bot and ability-based plans lose value here.
• Monkey Boost speeds up attacks, but use it with care because more hits mean more heat.
• MOAB Mine handles the blimps on modified rounds.

Tier-by-tier plan

1. Early rounds: build your defense with direct-damage towers and avoid relying on Wizards or damage-over-time effects.
2. Tier 1 (round 40): heat cap is only 1,750, so a stack of fast multi-hit towers overheats it quickly. Keep the hit rate moderate and add some cold damage.
3. Tier 2 (round 60): spread your towers so the three fireballs and the lava pools hit as little as possible. Place Benjamin or a cheap tower far away as a decoy.
4. Tier 3 (round 80): move boss damage to Paragons or tier 5 towers. Plan heat dumps (Absolute Zero, Icicle Impale) for the moments before a skull.
5. Tiers 4 and 5: heat from normal attacks matters less because the gauge is huge, while skull heat (+25% each) matters more. Focus on raw damage and placement.

Normal vs Elite

• Normal has 4 skulls, 6 rocks per skull and a 10-second ability penalty on overheat.
• Elite has 7 skulls, 8 rocks per skull and a 15-second penalty. Its heat gauge is the same size as Normal's even though its health is much higher, so Elite overheats much more often. Expect several overheats per tier and build to survive them.

Counters to each ability

• Heat: keep your hit rate steady, mix in cold damage, and save Absolute Zero or Popseidon's ability for emergencies.
• Range loss and slower abilities: prefer infinite-range towers and towers that do not depend on abilities.
• DoT purge: use direct damage; Final Harmonic can trigger its damage before the purge, but needs MIB to hit Purple.
• Fireballs: spread out your expensive towers and use a far-away decoy for the "furthest" target.
• Pyroclastic Rocks: keep some damage inside the ring or use attacks that ignore line of sight; raised terrain from a Carrier Flagship does not help.

Common mistakes

• Building a Wizard Monkey defense. Almost all Wizard attacks are fire, plasma or energy, so they heat it up and cannot pop Purple without help.
• Using Sticky Bomb, the classic boss tower, which does nothing here.
• Stacking every fast-firing tower in one spot and overheating it constantly.
• Putting all expensive towers next to each other, so one fireball and lava pool cripples the whole defense.

Frequently asked questions

How much health does Blastapopoulos have?

Normal Blastapopoulos has 17,500, 65,000, 300,000, 650,000 and 3,000,000 health for tiers 1 to 5. Elite has 43,000, 270,000, 1,700,000, 7,000,000 and 35,000,000.

What happens when Blastapopoulos overheats?

All towers are stunned for 4 seconds, ability cooldowns increase by 10 seconds (15 on Elite), and for 20 seconds every projectile only lasts 0.2 seconds.

Why does Sticky Bomb not work on Blastapopoulos?

Blastapopoulos purges damage-over-time and stuck-on effects every 2 seconds, so the sticky bomb is burned off before it explodes.

What is the best tower against Blastapopoulos?

Sniper Monkeys such as Elite Defender, Dartling Gunners and Icicle Impale work very well. Paragons, especially Apex Plasma Master, are the late-tier answer.

Can Wizard Monkeys pop Blastapopoulos?

Mostly not. Blastapopoulos has the Purple property and most Wizard attacks are fire, plasma or energy. Necromancer's undead bloons and the Magus Perfectus are the exceptions.

How do you cool Blastapopoulos down?

Hit it with cold attacks. Icicle Impale lowers heat steadily, while Absolute Zero and Popseidon's ability remove large amounts instantly.