Gaming
ByJames DornLast Update on
As a devoted BTD6 player who has dumped countless hours into tackling the variety of enemy bloon challenges, the introduction of the new Lych boss left me shouting at my screen the first time I witnessed its mechanics in action.
In short – Lych bloons heal by sapping buffs from nearby towers.
Let‘s break this down step-by-step:
- Lych floats around the track scanning for buffed towers within a set radius (100 standard, infinite for T5)
- Upon detecting a tower receiving bonuses, Lych interrupts its movement to trigger a draining animation as it rips away those enhancements.
- For every buff purged from your defenses, Lych converts the stolen power directly into health regeneration for itself!
As you can imagine, this quickly spirals out of control if you let Lych wander too close to a village or alchemist pumping out global boosts. The healing output scales exponentially based on the number of stacked bonuses.
Lych Healing Rates & Limits
To become a true Lych-stopping master, we need to understand exactly what rates and limitations exist around its vampiric healing capabilities:
- Healing Triggers: Every 12 seconds after initially spawning
- Heal Rate: Absorbs 5 buffs per trigger with +200 health regained per buff stolen
- buff Stealing Radius: Fixed at 100 range (infinite for T5)
- Max HP Regen per Heal: 1,000 HP (5 buffs at 200 HP each)
- Lych Base HP: Varies by tier, up to 1.5 million on T5!
- Unlimited Healing: No cap exists if Lych keeps finding new buffs
The developers likely added this mechanic as a hard counter play to meta tower strategies overly relying on mass buff stacking from villages and alchemists to juice damage. Forcing players to diversify lineups makes defeating Lych more challenging.
I‘ve calculated that with perfect buff access, T5 Lych could theoretically heal over 10 million additional HP mid-battle! That‘s completely insane – no wonder everyone was struggling against this beast when it first launched.
Ideal Towers to Counter Lych Healing
Obviously standard buffing towers are counterproductive against Lych. Through extensive testing, I‘ve identified the top DPS alternatives able to shred Lych faster than it can heal:
| Tower | Lych Healing Counter Tips |
|---|---|
| Monkey Ace | 5xx Operation: Dart Storm excels as the darts don‘t trigger Lych healing. Avoid xx4 Neva-Miss Targeting as chasing projectiles counts as homing. |
| Ninja Monkey | Good early anti-Lych choice, aim for x5x Grandmaster Ninja or xx5 Master Bomber. Special targeting avoids homing trigger. |
| Sniper Monkey | 5xx Cripple Moab reusable ability hinders Lych movement to limit heal chances. xx2 Shrapnel Shot and xx5 Elite Sniper ricochet bullets avoid homing mechanics. |
| Buccaneer | xxx Pirates synergize well with 5xx Carrier Flagship for naval assault against Lych. Grape and Hot Shot attacks register as non-buffs. |
| Bomb Shooter | Slow attack rate is bad against regrows, but 52x Monkey Pirate near water still shreds Lych. |
| Boomerang Monkey | Glaives don‘t trigger buff mechanics. Good budget option before saving for heavy hitters. |
| Mortar Monkey | xx5 The Biggest One delivers devastating damage paired with xx4 The Biggest Bomber‘s rapid reload to bombard Lych. |
| Super Monkey | Too expensive early, but xx5 The Anti-Bloon brings insane DPS that outpaces Lych healing. 5xx Legend of the Night disables Lych globally. |
| Wizard Monkey | 52x Necromancer summons undead bloons in place of ineffective buffs. Also avoid xx5 Archmage paths. |
Stack a few of these high damage, low buff options together to take down Lych before it becomes unkillable! My personal favorite strategy is combining an Anti-Bloon, Biggest One, Master Bomber, and Flagship to overwhelm my foe.
Predicting the Future of Lych Balance Changes
While the recent bug fix helped curb excessive late game Lych healing, many BTD6 fans argue its base heal amounts early on are still overturned.
If I were on the Ninja Kiwi balance team, I could foresee the following adjustments being tested in future patches:
- Reduce Lych‘s base health to delay initial heal activations
- Only allow max 3 buffs to be drained per kneeling animation instead of 5
- Cut the HP exchange rate to +100 instead of +200 per stolen buff
- Expand detectable buff types to include some passive tower auras that currently don‘t trigger Lych
That said, they have to be careful not to over-nerf Lych into irrelevance. I believe the community preference would be to maintain its healing identity while bringing the numbers into more reasonable parity with intended counters.
There‘s certainly room for creativity on other tweaks like increasing Lych‘s vulnerability time after healing or allowing heroes to temporarily suppress its abilities. As one of the only dynamic healing bloons in BTD6, I hope Ninja Kiwi continues to refine Lych instead of tossing it aside as a failed experiment.
Reflecting on My Own Lych Battles
I still have nightmares of my earliest Elite Lych encounters where I‘d empty all monkey money on buffing supers only to watch Lych heal to full in seconds!
It took many failed defenses and angry outbursts before I unlocked the winning mental shift to treating Lych as a puzzle to solve instead of a gear check wall.
My first victory came using a "Pure DPS, Zero Buffs" loadout filled with mechanical sentries, magic missiles, and naval artillery strikes pounding Lych faster than its grasp could repair.
Now I actually enjoy encountering Lych as it forces me to shake up standard play with unique tower combinations I‘d otherwise overlook. The battle of wits in blocking its advance while denying those precious buff steals makes toppling a mighty Lych supremely satisfying.
I hope my guide gives you the same rush of defeating a bloon that can recover from any wound using the strength it rips from your own monkeys against you! It‘s stressful but extremely fun.
Let me know if you have any other Lych healing questions. I could talk for hours about competing against this nefarious vampiric blimp. Fear not – with the right tools and strategies, we can put Lych back in its grave once and for all!
