Dark Mage

"'Dark Mages are students of the dark library from which new students of the Prince of Darkness derive their magic. Some have turned to join our cause, personal strife caused by the harrowing Prince, and have accepted to help us claim his library so that none may learn of his dark arts again.'"

Dark Mages are a special tower that the player gets three of in Stage 2-S (The Dark Below) in Campaign Mode within Bloons TD 7: Dark Times. Their primary purpose is use within the Bone Weaver boss fight, but they can also assist throughout the stage in various ways. For the purposes of certain upgrades or Hero effects that are based on tower type, Dark Mages are considered Magic towers.

Base Level

 * Health: 20 (can be resurrected for $1000 x upgrade level)
 * Cost: N/A (Three are automatically received at the start)
 * Attack Type: Dark Mages do not attack at base level.
 * Attack Speed: Dark Mages do not attack at base level.
 * Range: Slightly larger than a 0/0/0 Monkey Wizard.

Instead of being bought, three Dark Mages already stand on the field when the mission begins. Each one stands on a slightly elevated stone platform, one along each of three paths from the center where the bloons spawn. The track curves in an arc around each of their platforms once for each path. Dark Mages do not actually attack at Base Level, and their services must be bought for a fee in the form of one of three upgrade paths. Their upgrade system behaves a bit differently and will be explained later.

Dark Mages appear as monkeys in draping black robes, their faces masked by very droopy hoods that would appear to block their vision. From their large empty sleeves, purple gloved hands dual grasp a long metal staff with two horns at the end curving around a purple gem.

Upgrading
The upgrade system of the Dark Mages are a tad different from that of the universal towers. They still have three paths, but buying into one path closes off the other two for the Dark Mage entirely. In turn, the path chosen for a Dark Mage also closes off that path for the other two Dark Mages. Thus, only one Dark Mage can pursue each type of 'Arcana' as they are called. As an added note, each path only has three upgrades.

Soul of Revenge
"Pursuing the path of retribution, the Dark Mage channels its fury at the Prince into power!" -Description

Every 1.5 seconds, the Dark Mage will fire a purple homing blast into the closest bloon, dealing 2 layer of damage and siphoning its power. This can pop Lead Bloons but not Purple Bloons. Every 20 pops the Dark Mage is responsible for, it will attack 0.05 seconds faster, capping at 0.8 second. Resets at the end of every round.

Costs $500 on Medium

Fury Storm
"When enough energy is channeled, the Dark Mage can wield incredible magic." -Description

The Dark Mage's attack damage becomes 4 and it now pierces 3 bloons. Every 200 pops the Dark Mage is responsible for, it will call down a rain of dark fire. When this occurs, it will stop attacking for about a second, raise its staff upward, and in its range five black meteors engulfed in purple flames will land on the track. These explode on impact, popping 2 layers from bloons in the explosion radius of a Cannon with Bigger Bombs. They will leave behind small smoldering purple fires that will last up to 8 seconds and pop up to 20 bloons before fading.

Costs $1500 on Medium

Forgotten Curse
"Having mastered the path of vengeance, the Dark Mage inflicts a terrible curse of distress and malaise upon all who stand in its way..." -Description

The Dark Mage's attack now fizzles into four smaller seeking projectiles once it runs out of pierce (which increases to 5). These projectiles pop 1 additional layer and have a pierce of 2. On top of that, the small projectiles inflict a curse effect on bloons that upon death of their Red Bloons causes them to turn into a green soul that moves backwards along the track. Once these come in contact with a bloon, that bloon will start popping a layer every 0.5 seconds until death and then those bloons themselves become a soul. Can lead to many chains of souls whittling away at bloons easily. These souls cannot impact Marrow Minions, Super Skeletons, or the Bone Weaver, all spawned during its fight.

Costs $3000 on Medium

Soul of Disdain
"Harnessing the power of cunning, the Dark Mage lets its foes never know what hit them!" -Description

The Dark Mage's range expands triple-fold, consuming a large portion of the map. The Dark Mage fires a single thin pink laser from its beam every 2.5 seconds that pops 4 layers. Is so concentrated, it can even pierce Purple Bloons! However, when overwhelmed by crowds, the Dark Mage proves ineffective. Good at single target sniping.

Costs $500 on Medium

Reflection Beam
"A bit of sharpshootery and a dash of trickery..." -Description

From whatever angle the Dark Mage's attack bounced off of its target, the laser will rebound accordingly, piercing up to 10 bloons it comes in contact with for 1 layer. Once rebounded, the laser reaches to the end of the map in whatever direction it reflects. As an added bonus, the Dark Mage now has a 15% base chance to dodge attacks made against it.

Costs $1500 on Medium

Rebounding Ray
"How many times can it bounce? Let's find out..." -Description

Bloons the laser comes in contact with after reflection will cause the laser to bounce again and reset and reset the ten pierce limit. The laser also has up to three rebound saving graces off the edges of the screen, just to give it even MORE chances to hit bloons. The Dark Mage can now throw purple magical orbs once every few seconds in a small area it that causes a large cloud of purple smoke to appear. This cloud does no damage, but slows down enemies to 75% of their normal speed, prevents them from using attacks, and if the laser attack just happens to bounce into it, eight radial beams will be sent out in all directions, but no longer rebound. The stats of these radial beams are identical to how they bounced in Reflection Beam. The smoke does not effect the Bone Weaver nor the Super Skeletons.

Costs $3000 on Medium

Soul of Empathy
"Projecting a magical aura of emotion, the Dark Mage strikes its opponents with the worst kind of effect... feelings." -Description

The Dark Mage releases a dark blue ring of energy around it every three seconds that pops up to 10 bloons in range of one layer. This wave cannot pop Leads or Purples, but does have immense crowd control.

Costs $500 on Medium

Pathological Fear
"Laced in terror were his whispers and in his lies did horror lay." -Description

The shockwave released by the Dark Mage is now a pale lime green. It can now pop up to 20 bloons at once, fires every 2.5 seconds, and has a 10% chance of causing bloons struck by it to start going the other way on the track for 1 second. However, once scared once, they cannot be scared again. The chance for this fear effect to work on Marrow Minions is also 10%, Super Skeletons only 5%, and it does not work on the Bone Weaver.

Costs $1500 on Medium

Heartstopping Terror
"The very presence of this dark scholar breeds nightmares and induces horrific visions." -Description

The shockwave is now a darker shade of green and its pierce once again increases, to 30. While in the range of the Dark Mage, Regrow bloons are unable to regrow, and after 5 seconds will lose the property entirely. The fear chance for bloons increases to 15%, but remains their same values for each of the special skeletal minions and Bone Weaver. While under the effects of the fear effect, they will run away 2x faster. A single bloon, its children, or the skeleton minions can now be scared up to 3 times before their fear chance becomes 0.

Costs $3000 on Medium

Bone Weaver Fight
During the Bone Weaver fight, Dark Mages are instrumental to victory. In order to get past the first phase, a Super Skeleton minion spawned by it must be killed while within one of the Dark Mage's ranges. Once this happens, the green magic inside of the Super Skeleton will be channeled into the Dark Mage's staff and blasted at the Bone Weaver for 300 damage and temporarily stunning it. However, each Dark Mage can only do this once and all three have to do it to progress the fight to Phase 2.

During Phase 2, their use in this fashion is not required, but still helpful. Super Skeletons are still spawned occasionally by the Bone Weaver from the exits turned entrances. If one dies in the range of a Dark Mage, they can harness its power to dish out an easy 100 damage, but this will be far less likely and once again, is not required to defeat it in Phase 2.

Additional Notes

 * Dark Mages are only exclusive to the Boss Stage in Arc 2 of Campaign Mode, The Dark Below.
 * Their upgrading system is unique since you cannot mix paths nor have Dark Mages with the same path.
 * Unlike most towers, Dark Mages do not change in appearance with upgrades. Their very nature of attack should determine which is which since all three will behave differently due to the upgrade system.