Favored Trades

"Attacks faster and generates lots of money per round. Monkeys in radius have increased sell value."

- In-game descritpion

 is the fourth upgrade of Path 3 for the Monkey Buccaneer in Bloons TD 6. It allows the tower to reward $500 per round instead of $200, as well as granting itself and all towers in its radius with a 10% greater sell potency. Additionally, all of its attacks are twice as fast, including grapes when crosspathed with Path 2.

It costs $4,675 on Easy, $5,500 on Medium, $5,940 on Hard and $6,600 on Impoppable.

Appearance
TBA

Strategy
Favored Trades can be seen as a souped up, superior income producer to the Merchantman, providing a hefty $500 at the end of each round, a +$300 gain from the bonus granted by a Merchantman. This can be a powerful tool, cementing the Path 3 Buccaneers as a potentially powerful revenue source alongside the typical Banana Farm, as well as benefiting from situations where a Banana Farm cannot be placed in high quantities, where water is abundant, and when the player needs decent fire power to fend off the bloons. With a maxed out Trade Empire, a Central Market, and the Monkey Knowledge Trade Agreements, you can gain $1,012 per Favored Trades. This would total $22,362 across all components, or $26,362 if Monkey Wall Street is used instead of the Central Market.

The more interesting aspect of Favored Trades is that the sell amount for a tower within the range of Favored Trades is increased by 10% of the original tower's monetary price. This can provide a helpful tool outside of C.H.I.M.P.S. Mode or Custom Challenges that ban selling, when considering selling several towers for a superior defense overall can be more easily achieved when more money is refunded.

This can also help assist the practice of selling off Banana Farms whenever the player requires a large portion of money now, providing a greater return as well as making the likelyhood that all the money expended into the Farm is reimbursed by the produce of the Farm as well as the price refunded by an extra 10%. This is especially effective when combined with Banana Salvage and Monkey Knowledge, letting the farm reach maximum sellback value. It should be noted that this effect also applies to the Favored Trades itself. However, multiple Favored Trades do not stack.

While the potential of buying more Merchantmen can be more beneficial than purchasing a Favored Trades, it's secondary perk allows low water maps (specifically those with water near the center) to provide a good bonus for the bulk of the player's defense. Maps like Logs and #Ouch examplify this potential, with a Favored Trades in the center of the map, it can spread its effect to many effective positions for land-based defensive towers.

Efficiency
To purchase one Favored Trades at the lowest price will require getting a 0/0/4 Buccaneer. A 0/0/4 Buccaneer will cost the base Buccaneer tower, Long Range, Crow's Nest, Merchantmen, and the Favored Trades upgrade itself, which will provide the cheapest and most direct route for profit. However, this may change under many circumstances, specifically depending on game mode and whether Trade Empire is active or if the player own a Central Market.

The table below indicates the game mode pricing, as well as the presence of Trade Agreements to indicate two points of Interest, the first where the upgrade effectively paid off from its own cost and the second where it paid off for the entire cost of the tower and subsequent upgrades of a 0/0/4 Buccaneer. The numerical value represents the rounds required to be completed after purchased to reach their goals. These do not consider other Monkey Knowledge such as Advanced Logistics or Military Conscription, as well as assume there is no Trade Empire or Central Market bonuses active and increasing profit in that regard.

For reference:


 * m refers to the quantity of Merchantmen, Favored Trades, and Trade Empires total in play when a Trade Empire's revenue boost is also active. This value can not exceed 20.
 * c indicates the quantity of Central Markets. This value cannot exceed 10.



Costs

 * Updated as of Version 29.4

Additional tips

 * Like Merchantman, use the 0-2-4 Favored Trades to maximize damage output. Stick to 0-0-4 if confident on other defenses, although a Favored Trades will benefit a considerable amount of DPS when adding additional upgrades.
 * Try placing a Favored Trades within range of many of your current defenses so that the defense is able to utilise the extra sellback potency.
 * Paragons can gain extra sellback from Favored Trades too, which can be utilized if selling is ever necessary.

Trivia

 * Favored Trades is the only tower in BTD6 that directly grants sell potency.
 * Favored Trades currently holds the record for the tower with the most buff icons that can be applied to it at 23. These can all be achieved at once only in a Co-Op game with each user having one the following heroes: Admiral Brickell, Gwendolin, Benjamin, Ezili or Pat Fusty. The maximum in single-player is 20. Please note that some of these buff icons are purely visual and their effects do not stack with certain other buffs applied (Overclock/Ultra-boost and Call to Arms/Homeland defense).
 * Favored Trades' sell potency boost is able to apply in Challenge Editor CHIMPS challenges that have selling allowed.