User blog:Qwertyxp2000 the second/Balance change suggestions for 31.0

Balance change suggestions from a dev's point of view.

Dart Monkey
Juggernaut's ricochet niche is too difficult to use because juggernauts currently cannot rehit the same bloon more than once unlike Ultra-Juggernaut. For the Juggernaut upgrade only, regular juggernauts can now re-hit the same bloon more than once after bouncing off walls, similarly to Ultra-Juggernaut's main ultra-juggernauts.


 * Juggernaut balls can now re-hit the same bloon if the ball rebounds a surface.

Boomerang Monkey
While Press is strong as its own upgrade, Kylie Boomerang falls too far behind to be worth using outside of upgrading into Press. The contact rate for Kylie Boomerang's main attack has been increased while dealing extra damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class, working into the "heavy" boomerang theme, along with a price shift between Kylie and Press to balance out power scaling. Meanwhile, Domination's top crosspath currently has next-to-no-use while the middle crosspath gives all the benefit, so to make up for this its damage potential is increased per boomerang with top path.


 * Kylie Boomerang main attack contact damage cooldown reduced (0.3s --> 0.2s). Does not affect Press's special knockback boomerangs.
 * 2-0-3 Kylie Boomerang main attack contact damage cooldown reduced (0.3s --> 0.1s). Does not affect Press's special knockback boomerangs.
 * Kylie Boomerang main attack deals +2 damage to Ceramics and +2 damage to MOAB-class
 * Kylie Boomerang price decreased ($1300 --> $1200)
 * Description updated: "Throws heavy Kylie boomerangs that follow a straight path instead of curved." to "Throws heavy Kylie boomerangs that follow a straight path instead of curved. Deals extra damage to Ceramics and MOABs, and can rehit the same bloon more than once."
 * MOAB Press price increased ($2200 --> $2400)
 * All previous 2-0-5 MOAB Domination benefits are moved into 1-0-5.
 * [bug fix] The new 1-0-5 will now give +10 pierce instead of losing 10 pierce.
 * 2-0-5 MOAB Domination now also gives +100 explosion damage, adds +10 pierce (60 pierce) for explosion, and doubles napalm damage per tick (50 --> 100)

Bomb Shooter
We want to reduce much burden of Maulers being the bane for balancing lower-tier Bomb, particularly its low pierce and high costs for their current lower-tiers. The increased base pierce while keeping pierce bonuses similar should balance out top-vs-bottom choices, while the reduced lower-tier costs with price shifting into Mauler should settle the dominant power of spamming Maulers while making it easier to use Bomb in the early-game. To make up for these changes for Mauler, the Tier 2 crosspaths will also benefit Maulers. Cluster Bombs currently overperform versus Really Big Bombs, especially given its lack of Black weakness, and so we're reducing its cluster pierce and benefits with top path. We have also got rid of black-popping for Recursive's tertiary clusters because it simply performs too well on its own, even without Striker Jones, compared to any other grouped-popping option. Eliminator is starting to see more use in CHIMPS games, and it fits fairly well in its late-game role aside from its cost, so we've lowered its price slightly and increased its base MOAB-class damage.


 * Base pierce increased (14 —> 24). Also affects up the Path 1. Does not affect Cluster Bombs and above.
 * Mauler price increased ($1100 --> $1350)
 * Base Bomb Shooter price decreased ($525 --> $425)
 * Extra Range price decreased ($200 --> $125)
 * Bigger Bombs cost decreased ($350 --> $300)
 * Heavy Bombs cost decreased ($650 --> $600)
 * Mauler with Heavy Bombs adds +9 MOAB-class damage on top of base Mauler bonus
 * Mauler with Frag Bombs deals +4 MOAB-class damage per fragment
 * Cluster Bombs secondary clusters base pierce decreased (10 --> 7). Does not affect Recursive Cluster.
 * 1-0-3 Cluster Bombs secondary clusters pierce bonus decreased (+6 --> +3). Does not affect Recursive Cluster.
 * 2-0-3 Cluster Bombs secondary clusters pierce bonus decreased (+16 --> +8). Does not affect Recursive Cluster.
 * Recursive Cluster's tertiary clusters no longer pop Blacks without support
 * MOAB Eliminator price decreased ($25,000 --> $22,500)
 * MOAB Eliminator base MOAB-class damage increased (+99 --> +199)

Since Bloon Impact lost its innate black-popping, it has been left behind in competition with Cryo Cannon, and Impact crosspathing with bottom path has very little impact to its stalling power, so we've doubled the stun time of Impact on top of a smaller increase to Crush.
 * Bloon Impact stun time increased (1s --> 2s)
 * Bloon Crush stun time versus bloons increased (2s --> 3s)

Tack Shooter
Ring of Fire does not have enough mid-game grouped value while working poorly into the late-game, so its attack rate has been increased to make it a little more worth the purchase as a short-ranged burst damage. Inferno Ring is an expensive late-game option with a very large power gap from Ring of Fire, so to make up for this expensive investment we have added further crosspathing benefits to its attacks by further benefiting the main meteor earlier in the crosspaths and also affecting the meteor explosion with a similar formula. We're also experimenting with giving Inferno Ring additional sprays of fireballs that have similar style of attack to its existing meteor but in a spray.
 * Ring of Fire attack cooldown reduced (0.47s --> 0.42s; 0.75x --> 0.60x)
 * Inferno Ring's meteor benefits have been extended
 * All previous crosspath benefits now are pulled into 5-1-0 and 5-0-1, respectively.
 * 5-2-0 Inferno Ring meteor pierce bonus increased (+1 --> +2)
 * 5-0-2 Inferno Ring meteor damage bonus increased (+300 --> +500)
 * Inferno Ring's meteor explosions now benefit via crosspaths
 * Meteor explosion gains +5 pierce per Path 2 crosspath
 * Meteor explosion deals +50 damage per Path 3 crosspath
 * Inferno Ring now gains sprays of exploding fireballs.
 * 1.25s attack cooldown, spray of 8, 5 damage, 1 pierce. When a fireball expires, whether via pierce or projectile expiry, it creates an explosion that deals 5 damage and hits up to 18 bloons at a blast radius of 10. Fireballs follow standard damage types of Wizard fireballs (i.e. on-hit = fire, boom = explosion)
 * 5-0-1 and 5-0-2 increase number of fireballs by +2 each
 * 5-1-0 and 5-2-0 increase pierce of fireballs by +1 each

Ice Monkey
TBA

Glue Gunner
Glue Strike will now temporarily stop all special properties on affected bloons while the glue lasts, which should open synergies with towers that already pop Lead or otherwise have weakness to other bloon types. Since Relentless Glue always felt extremely niche and doesn't work well as a stepping stone to Super Glue nor work reliably against MOAB-class, Relentless Glue will now also apply on-track glue blobs upon attacking any bloon. Also, since Super Glue keeps gettings its pierce clogged by regular bloons and not really stalling blimps well enough, we've changed Super Glue to no longer target bloons affected by the superslowdown without 2-0-5 crosspath. On the other hand, we have converted the 2-0-5 path into a DPS option that deals further damage, as the 0-2-5 crosspath simply has much more use at the moment.


 * Glue Strike now weakens Purples, Blacks, Whites, and Frozen, in addition to Leads. Also affects Glue Storm.
 * Relentless Glue causes bloons hit by the Glue Gunner to immediately produce glue blobs in addition to producing more glue blobs upon popping the outer layer. Also affects Super Glue.
 * Super Glue no longer targets "superslowed" bloons except with 2-0-5. This allows it to hit more blimps at once.
 * 2-0-5 Super Glue now deals a stronger damage-over-time (1 damage per 2.0s --> 10 damage per 2.0s)
 * 2-0-5 Super Glue on-hit damage increased to 1 base damage to bloons and 51 base damage to MOAB-class instead of just 50 MOAB-class damage.

Sniper Monkey
Reviewing crosspathing choices once again for Shrapnel Shot, Deadly Precision Shot never felt worthwhile on its own because it lacks utility and doesn't do enough damage to meet its core damage bonus. We've upped the Deadly Precision damage by adding a little more shrapnel damage plus a large boost in Ceramic damage per shrapnel. The bonus MOAB-class damage for Full Auto and Elite Defender was nice to start off, so we've adjusted a few more values to push the top path a little more, and work with synergies more equally versus the Shrapnel path.
 * Deadly Precision Shrapnel deals more damage (4 --> 5). Does not affect Maim Shrapnel.
 * Deadly Precision Shrapnel deals +3 damage to Ceramics. Also affects Maim Shrapnel.
 * 1-0-4 Full Auto Rifle bullet damage to MOAB-class increased (+1 --> +2), for 6 MOAB-class damage instead of 5.
 * 2-0-4 Full Auto Rifle bullet damage to MOAB-class increased (+1 --> +3), for 10 MOAB-class damage instead of 8.
 * Elite Defender base bullet damage to MOAB-class increased (+2 --> +3), for 5 MOAB-class damage instead of 4.
 * 1-0-5 Elite Defender bullet damage to MOAB-class increased (+3 --> +5), for 9 MOAB-class damage instead of 7.
 * 2-0-5 Elite Defender bullet damage to MOAB-class increased (+4 --> +7), for 15 MOAB-class damage instead of 11.

Elite Sniper currently excels too far above multiple Supply Drops, so we've lowered its speed bonus but increased top path's max bounce distance further to make up for this loss in speed and add a small buff to other bouncy Snipers.
 * Elite Sniper speed bonus decreased (+150% --> +66%)
 * Bouncing Bullet with Full Metal Jacket max bounce distance increased (40 --> 50)
 * Bouncing Bullet with Large Calibre max bounce distance increased (50 --> 60)
 * Elite Sniper price decreased ($13,000 --> $12,500)
 * According to QuincyBot from Discord,  equals $20,224.2, which means the cumulative cost should barely not overflow $20,200 if using Commerce. Likewise,   with Business is $20,283.3, which is still below.

The last set of buffs to Full Auto Rifle and Elite Defender dealing extra MOAB-class damage per bullet hit felt nice to have. We would like Full Auto Rifle to benefit from the bonus MOAB-class damage a little more, while Elite Defender specialises against MOAB-class further, so we’ve shifted some speed benefit from Elite Defender into the Full Auto upgrade, as well as further buffing MOAB-class damage for Elite Defender to compensate for the power shift and focus it better as a MOAB specialiser.
 * Alternate Full Auto and Elite Defender buffs


 * Full Auto Rifle speed benefit increased (2x —> 3x). Speed of Elite Defender remains unaffected.
 * Full Auto Rifle costs more ($4250 —> $4750)
 * Elite Defender base MOAB-class bonus increased (+2 —> +4)
 * 1-0-5 Elite Defender MOAB-class bonus increased (+3 —> +7)
 * 2-0-5 Elite Defender MOAB-class bonus increased (+4 —> +10)

...
TBA

Monkey Ace
Pineapple crosspathing feels like it only has a minor benefit to Fighter Planes and Spectres, so we have given alternate explosions some more stat benefits. We also let this crosspath provide popping of all bloon types with missiles for an alternate approach at non-T5 Ace optimization. Spectres with Lots More Darts have made little sense, especially given the recent rework causing the pierce benefit to have drastically less effect, and so the Lots of Darts benefit will now actually increase dart counts for real. Flying Fortress had recently got a price decrease to pull it better into its upgrade progression compared to Spectre. This is still true as of now, so has gotten a further drop in price to reflect this.


 * 3-1-0 Fighter and 4-1-0 ODS anti-MOAB missiles deal +8 damage to MOAB-class per missile.
 * 3-1-0 Fighter and 4-1-0 ODS anti-MOAB missiles damage type changed (Explosion --> Normal)
 * 5-1-0 Sky Shredder anti-MOAB missiles deal +25 damage to MOAB-class per missile
 * 0-1-4 Spectre bombs deal +1 damage and +1 Ceramic damage.
 * 0-1-4 Spectre bombs damage type changed (Explosion --> Normal)
 * 0-1-5 Flying Fortress bombs deal +2 damage and +2 Ceramic damage.
 * Flying Fortress price decreased ($85,000 --> $75,000)
 * 2-0-4 Spectre produces 1 separate dart-only stream equivalent to a base Spectre's dart streams without the bombs
 * 2-0-5 Flying Fortress produces 3 separate dart-only streams equivalent to a base Flying Fortress's dart streams without the bombs
 * Lots of Darts no longer adds extra pierce to Spectre or Flying Fortress darts

Heli Pilot
Shove's missile deals too little damage to be worth using for defensive purposes while doing too much damage that it harms stalling. We've greatly increased the pierce of the missile to give it some actual niche purpose at cleanup. As a DPS-oriented tower, Comanche Defense does not benefit from the middle path much unlike its previous upgrade; Bigger Jets will give a lower Comanche cooldown and higher max uses per round, so that middle path feels better than just camo detection. Also, since for a long time Comanche Commander doesn't actually "upgrade" all types of weapons, we have upped all attacks coming from Comanche Commander to benefit larger stats, which should buff it a fair bit while also keeping within the nature of the upgrade.


 * MOAB Shove missile pierce increased (10 --> 70).
 * Comanche Defense missile pierce increased (30 --> 100). Also affects Comanche Commander.
 * 0-1-4 Comanche Defense's mini-Comanche summon cooldown reduced (25s --> 15s)
 * 0-1-4 Comanche Defense's mini-Comanche summon max uses increased (2 --> 4)
 * Comanche Commander's main missile damage increased by +1
 * Comanche Commander's mini-Comanche missile damage increased by +1
 * Comanche Commander's main missile damage increased by +1
 * Comanche Commander's Shove effect backwards effect increased by 0.20 (e.g. BFBs from 0.00 speed to -0.20 speed)

Downdraft's blowback feels inconsistent in how much each individual bloon is blown, but still feels too reliable at catching many bloons for its price compared to any other blowback option at similar price, so Downdraft's minimal blowback has been increased but rate of blowback decreased at T3. To switch this up, adding Quad Darts crosspath now adds a little more consistency to blowback.
 * Downdraft minimum blowback increased (10 --> 200)
 * Downdraft minimum blowback with Quad Darts increased (10 --> 250)
 * Downdraft maximum blowback remains 300.
 * x-3-0 Downdraft blowback rate decreased (0.15s --> 0.20s)
 * 0-3-2 Downdraft blowback rate decreased (0.12s --> 0.16s)
 * x-4-0 Chinook blowback rate increased (0.15s --> 0.125s)
 * 0-4-2 Chinook blowback rate increased (0.12s --> 0.10s)

Razor Rotors has no crosspathing benefits outside of 3-2-0 for popping Camo Leads. Working into the underlying idea that crosspaths diversify choices based on situation, we have given Razor Rotors the benefit from crosspaths. Bigger Jets will give more pierce to rotors, following the idea of improving helicopter-related functionalities. As an underused attack, Razor Rotor is given further benefits with higher tiers.
 * Razor Rotors with Faster Firing now benefits from Faster Firing's attack speed buff for the rotor.
 * Razor Rotors with Bigger Jets now gains +7 pierce for the rotor.
 * Apache Dartship's razor rotor base damage increased (2 --> 5)
 * Apache Prime's razor rotor base damage increased (2 --> 20)
 * Apache Dartship's razor rotor deals +5 damage to MOAB-class
 * Apache Prime's razor rotor deals +20 damage to MOAB-class

As Faster Darts is all about "faster projectiles", we have let this upgrade affect all projectile-based attacks instead of just main darts. Its price is also lowered to make this upgrade more within reach for niche use.
 * Faster Darts now increases projectile speed of all projectile-based attacks
 * Faster Darts cost decreased ($250 --> $150)

Marine will receive a pierce buff with Quad Darts, as the top crosspath currently doesn't benefit from top path outside of convenience purposes and is currently outclassed by the speed benefit of bottom path.
 * 1-5-0 Special Poperations' Marine pierce increased (20 --> 30)

Apache Dartship is difficult to use compared to other very expensive T4 options with a mobility option, mainly due to its price and lack of specialization aside from high DPS. Apache Prime strategies feel difficult in the saveup for the T5, particularly compared to Sky Shredder which is cheaper and has a more universal synergy potential. To make it easier to save up for its T5 and compete with both Spectre and ODS, we have upped the damage of each missile for both Apache Dartship and Apache Prime by a reasonable amount.
 * Apache Dartship rocket damage increased (2 --> 3 4)
 * Apache Dartship rockets gains +3 +4 damage to MOAB-class
 * Apache Prime rocket damage increased (2 --> 10). Keeps the +15 MOAB-class benefit.

Mortar Monkey
Heavy Shells has insufficient intrinsic value outside of the Artillery Battery upgrade, so its price is being lowered to make multiple Heavy Shells more worth the investment. Since the Burny crosspath has no real benefit with Heavy Shells, Heavy Shells will also benefit from burning bloons, hopefully adding some more synergy potential with other Mortars as well as the potential for self-synergy. While the 3-0-2 Burny reworks worked very well for making the slower-firing path more competitive, other variants of non-fast Burny Stuff doesn't feel worth the use, so we have upped the damage per tick when adding Bloon Buster, including 2-0-5 Blooncineration. Also, since Blooncineration deals so much MOAB-class damage but not enough against regular bloons, the rate of damage has been reworked for an overall buff against both Ceramics and MOAB-class.
 * Heavy Shells price decreased ($900 --> $750)
 * Heavy Shells now deals +1 damage to burning bloons.
 * Pop and Awe now deals +4 damage to burning bloons.
 * 2-0-2 Burny Stuff now deals 2 damage per tick instead of 1. Does not flow into 3-0-2 Shell Shock and above.
 * Blooncineration burn tick cooldown reduced (0.75s --> 0.5s)
 * 2-0-5 Blooncineration now deals 150 MOAB-class damage per tick instead of 100.
 * 2-0-5 Blooncineration now deals 10 non-blimp damage per tick instead of 5.
 * Blooncineration without Bloon Buster now deals 70 MOAB-class damage per tick instead of 100.
 * Overall rate against MOAB-class is an extra 6.667 damage per second, excluding Extra Burny Stuff benefit.

Dartling Gunner
Dartling's early-game isn't really strong for its price and low pierce, and the pierce path hasn't been so favorable for higher-tiers, so we have decided to increase its base pierce and pierce benefits. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Ray of Doom has so much pierce at base that the pierce crosspath has virtually no meaning, so it will receive a special crosspathing benefit that increases its base damage. Lastly, Buckshot's current pierce amounts currently cause shots to become easily soaked by bloons it has damaged, its slow speed being a major downside; this great pierce increase should help rectify it.


 * Dartling Gunner base pierce increased (1 --> 2). Does not affect Laser Cannon or Hydra Rocket Pods.
 * Powerful Darts base pierce bonus increased (+2 --> +4).
 * Plasma Accelerator base pierce bonus increased (+25 --> +50).
 * 5-0-2 Ray of Doom gains +25 damage
 * Buckshot pierce increased (4 --> 8)
 * BEZ pierce increased (6 --> 10)

Wizard Monkey
The base Wizard Monkey's current stats being a slower but slightly higher pierce Dart Monkey that pops Frozen doesn't quite sit right, especially given Engineer has similar pierce but a much greater attack speed, and Wizard. We've reduced the base cost of the Wizard to add more options for Wizard early-game combos as well as made its Tier 1 spells all affordable at the start of Hard. Since Arcane Blast currently only affects the Wizard's bolts, which currently doesn't do anything special for the Wizard especially beyond the first few tiers, it will now give extra attack speed to all spells in variable ways. While Arcane Spike is quite balanced at the moment, Archmage is still quite underappreciated by experienced players. Archmage has been given a significant range buff to help it work better on a greater variety of maps while still keeping a fairly high amount of potential DPS. Summon Phoenix and Wizard Lord Phoenix are also given some slight crosspathing interactions, as these abilities currently had none.


 * Base Wizard price decreased ($375 --> $300)
 * Arcane Blast now increases attack speed of all magical spells including the bolt
 * Bolt (0.75x cooldown): 1.1s --> 0.825s (also passes on to subsequent upgrades)
 * Fireball (0.75x cooldown): 2.2s --> 1.65s
 * Wall of Fire (0.825x cooldown): 5.5s --> 4.5375s
 * Dragon's Breath (0.80x cooldown): 0.06s --> 0.048s
 * Summon Phoenix flame (0.80x cooldown): 0.06s --> 0.048s
 * Wizard Lord Phoenix flame (0.80x cooldown): 0.06s --> 0.048s
 * Archmage range increased (60 --> 90)
 * Intense Magic now increases Summon Phoenix flame pierce by +5 (10 --> 15)
 * Intense Magic now increases Wizard Lord Phoenix flame damage by +5 (20 --> 25)

Given the recurring frustration of unexpected Wall of Fire disappearances, as well as settle its dominance as a crosspath and grouped popping power, T2 Wall of Fire has been reworked to only place one Wall of Fire but last forever until needed to be placed again, similarly to Bloon Trap. Additionally, Guided Wall of Fire will now work similarly to Bloon Trap with Larger Service Area, to reward proper placement of the Wall of Fire. However, at T3, this restriction is removed for an overall buff.
 * Wall of Fire rework (Variant 1)


 * Wall of Fire lifespan remains unlimited until the WoF disappears (Wizard WoF) or is no longer at valid range (in the case of Guided WoF). If the WoF disappears or is out of range, a 1.0s cooldown will start with a minimum of 5.5s before the next firewall. All Firewalls still become removed immediately if parent Wizard is sold.
 * x-2-x Wall of Fire can only apply one Wall of Fire at a time. Firewall count restriction is removed with Dragon's Breath.
 * x-3-x Dragon's Breath can still apply as many Walls of Fire as possible every 4.0s but lifespan becomes 12.0s instead of infinite (12.0s is better than 4.0s lifespan)
 * Wall of Fire's firewall now immediately becomes affected by all buffs (including tick rate via attack speed)
 * Overall a buff, for obvious reasons
 * A nerf if given "anti-buffs" (e.g. Ben Biohack, Time Stop)
 * Can consume Alch buff shots
 * Wall of Fire tick rate reduced (0.15s --> 0.20s). Does not affect Dragon's Breath and above.
 * Wall of Fire firewalls no longer disappear between rounds
 * Active Wall of Fire firewalls added to game saves

Given the recurring frustration of unexpected Wall of Fire disappearances, as well as settle its dominance as a crosspath and grouped popping power, T2 Wall of Fire is reworked to have a higher lifespan but also gain a pierce cap similarly to Spike Factory spikes, while reducing the cost of the upgrade significantly to compensate for the overall damage decrease. We have, however, tried to avoid hurt crosspathing choice with the Arcane path, and have gave that path some more perks with firewalls to get this path more relevance. Also, since timing the firewall to gain buffs on the go felt annoying to play with, firewalls will now immediately react with buffs to the parent Wizard.
 * Wall of Fire rework (Variant 2)


 * Wall of Fire firewalls lifespan increased (4.0s --> 5.5s)
 * x-2-x Wall of Fire firewalls now each have a pierce cap of 100, or 150 with Intense Magic. Pierce cap removed with Dragon's Breath and above.
 * 0-2+-1 Wall of Fire pierce bonus increased (+4 --> +5)
 * 1+-2-0 Wall of Fire firewall lifespan increased (4.0s --> 12.0s 10.0s)
 * Wall of Fire cost decreased ($950 --> $750)
 * Wall of Fire's firewalls now immediately become affected by all buffs (including tick rate via attack speed)
 * Overall a buff, for obvious reasons
 * A nerf if given "anti-buffs" (e.g. Ben Biohack, Time Stop)
 * Can consume Alch buff shots per damage tick
 * Wall of Fire firewalls no longer disappear between rounds
 * Active Wall of Fire firewalls added to game saves

Super Monkey
Since the middle path already gives pierce on top of range, Laser Blasts currently has no real use aside from purely being a stepping stone to Plasma Blasts, even after a previous rework to Plasma Blasts. Some attack speed bonus has been passed into the Laser Blasts upgrade to give it some more raw power and stand out more. On the other hand, Dark Champion is too hurt by the previous rework to Plasma Blasts but the Plasma Blasts upgrade feels too much of a requirement without considering crosspath cases, so the middle crosspath will now give a huge boost in pierce to open up options that work better against hyperdense rounds. Legend of the Night also receives a massive buff to its main attack to compensate for the previous rework and work better as an alternative to the other Tier 5 Super options.


 * Laser Blasts now grants a +25% attack speed bonus, equivalent to 0.80x attack cooldown
 * Plasma Blasts attack speed bonus reduced (0.50x --> 0.625x, +100% --> +60%)
 * Dark Champion with Path 2 crosspath now gives a bigger pierce bonus (+1 --> +9). Also affects Legend of the Night.
 * 0-1-4: 8 --> 16
 * 0-2-4: 9 --> 25
 * Legend of the Night base attack speed increased (0.03s --> 0.01s)
 * Legend of the Night MOAB-class damage bonus increased (+3 --> +25)

Robo Monkey feels either too much of an investment compared to Dark Knight's cheap MOAB-class damage and higher Ceramic knockback while feeling too weak of an investment compared to the high price of Sun Avatar. To finally put Robo Monkey as a viable middleground Tier 3 Super DPS while also balancing both crosspaths well, we have slightly increased its base attack speed, but also raised its price just a little bit to account for this change.
 * Robo Monkey base attack speed increased (0.06s --> 0.05s)
 * Robo Monkey price increased ($8000 --> $8200)

Ninja Monkey
Distraction has always felt like an annoying upgrade due to reliance on two sources of RNG, so we've removed all variance in the quantity of blowback into a standardized amount. Since Submerge and Support has always felt stronger than Counter-Espionage even with a slight cost difference, we've greatly reduced the collective prices of Counter-Espionage to make this decamo option more viable, including base Ninja to make it the true cheapest camo-popper. Caltrops feels inconsistent for its use case, so it is seeing a rework to its pierce versus lifespan. Sharp Shurikens will now apply a minor pierce benefit to certain non-shuriken upgrades, as this upgrade currently sees almost no use with bottom path.


 * Distraction minimum blowback quantity increased from 10 to 200.
 * Distraction maximum blowback quantity decreased from 300 to 200.
 * Distraction costs less ($350 --> $250 $200)
 * Base Ninja costs less ($500 --> $450)
 * Counter-Espionage costs less ($500 --> $375)
 * Sharp Shurikens now adds +2 pierce to Caltrops and +15 pierce to Flash Bombs.
 * Caltrops base pierce increased (6 --> 12 10)
 * Caltrops cost decreased ($400 --> $300)
 * Caltrops lifespan decreased (70s --> 25s)

Banana Farm
Marketplaces have seen resurgence in popularity through balance changes in history affecting Marketplace and other variants of Farm. However, with Marketplace overperforming in direct income efficiency compared to Plantation while also coming with the sellback benefit and life regeneration, the entire Banana Farm tree is receiving a rework centered around Marketplace. Firstly, Marketplace is seeing a minor production nerf, letting Plantation stand out as the top short-term T3 Farming income producer. Secondly, we have reduced the price of Long Life Bananas to overall reduce the cost of the Valuable Bananas path, hopefully reducing bottlenecking of the potentially more-or-less cost-efficient crosspath. Following the change is a price decrease to Banana Plantation to potentially increase its efficiency compared to multiple base Farms. And lastly, we have adjusted the prices of EZ Collect and Banana Salvage as there is clear evidence that Banana Salvage is the more strategical upgrade of the two for all Path 3 crosspathing choices, with EZ Collect merely serving as convenience.

On a side note, since there is currently no adequate intermediate between the cost of most T4 and T5 Farms, Monkey Wall Street is being reduced in price and increased in production value to potentially serve as a bridging gap for that.


 * Base Marketplace banana production decreased (16 --> 14; $320 --> $280). Does not affect Central Market, remaining 16 bananas at base.
 * 1-0-3: 18 --> 16, $360 --> $320
 * 2-0-3: 20 --> 18, $400 --> $360
 * 0-2-3: $400/$416 --> $350/$364
 * Long Life Bananas price decreased ($300 --> $200)
 * EZ Collect price decreased ($250 --> $150)
 * Banana Salvage price increased ($200 --> $300)
 * Banana Plantation price decreased ($3000 --> $2700)
 * Monkey Wall Street price decreased ($60,000 --> $50,000)
 * Monkey Wall Street end-of-round cash increased ($4000 --> $5000)