Ice Monkey

"Freezes nearby bloons with every pulse. Frozen bloons are immune to anything sharp."

- BTD4 Description

"Pops and freezes nearby Bloons for a short time. Frozen Bloons are immune to sharp damage. Can't freeze White, Zebra, or Lead Bloons."

- BTD6 description

 is a tower that appeared in all BTD series. It is called Ice Ball in BTD2 and BTD3. In BTD5 and all following sequels it is a monkey, but it is called Ice Tower in BTD1, BTD4, BTD5 and BTDB. In Bloons Monkey City and in Bloons TD 6, it is called an Ice Monkey.

It attacks by freezing the bloons for roughly half a second at first. It has a short range when not upgraded, but is still effective at delaying bloons. Without any upgrades or Specialty Buildings, it is completely ineffective against White Bloons, Zebra Bloons, and MOAB-Class Bloons.

Frozen bloons cannot be popped by sharp objects, and must be blasted or "vaporized" using a tower such as, but not limited to, the Bomb Tower, Super Monkey with Laser Vision, Monkey Apprentice's Dragon's Breath, or sunrays shot by a Sun God. Whirlwinds and tornadoes can immediately thaw frozen bloons, though they will still be blown back. MOAB-Class bloons cannot be frozen by the Ice Tower (exceptions in Bloons Tower Defense 6) but can be damaged with the Snap Freeze upgrade.

The Ice Tower is a very useful tower because of its abilities once it has been upgraded to the Arctic Wind. In the higher rounds, it is recommended in several guides to have at least one Arctic Wind, as it can slow many bloons down to a crawl.

As of Bloons TD 6, the Ice Monkey can now pop bloons without being upgraded, like the Snap Freeze did in previous games. However, it is more expensive in compensation. It now costs $425 on Easy, $500 on Medium, and $540 on Hard.

Bloons TD 1
Cost: 850

Long Freeze Time
Effect: Freezes bloons for longer.

Cost: 450

Wide Freeze Radius
Effect: Increases freeze radius.

Cost: 300

Bloons TD 2
Cost: 385 (Easy), 435 (Medium), 440 (Hard)

Long Freeze Time
Effect: Freezes bloons for longer.

Cost: 270 (Easy), 305 (Medium), 310 (Hard)

Wide Freeze Radius
Effect: Increases freeze radius.

Cost: 180 (Easy), 205 (Medium), 210 (Hard)

Bloons TD 3
Cost: 360 (Easy), 435 (Medium), 460 (Hard)

Longer Freeze
Description: Bloons stay frozen for longer. Freezes bloons for longer.

Cost: 215 (Easy), 255 (Medium), 270 (Hard)

Perma Frost
Description: Slows down bloons even then after thawing out. Slows down bloons when the freeze time is "time out".

Cost: 215 (Easy), 255 (Medium), 270 (Hard)

Wide Freeze Radius
Description: Increases freeze radius. Ice Tower gets a bigger range.

Cost: 170 (Easy), 205 (Medium), 215 (Hard)

Snap Freeze
Description: Freezes so violently that sometimes pops bloons once before freezing! Some bloons are popped before freezing.

Cost: $245 (Easy), $295 (Medium), $315 (Hard)

Bloons TD 4
Hotkey: I 

The Ice Tower and all of its upgrades (left to right) in BTD4.

Bloons TD 5
Cost: $255 (Easy), $300 (Medium), $325 (Hard), $360 (Imppopable)

Pierce: Can freeze up to 50 bloons

Path 1


Path 2


Bloons Tower Defense 6
The Ice Tower makes a comeback in BTD6 as the Ice Monkey. The differences is that it now can pop bloons as a base tower, as if it always had Snap Freeze. However, alongside already not being able to pop White and Zebra Bloons by default, it cannot freeze or pop Lead Bloons without the Metal Freeze upgrade. Also, it no longer has infinite pierce, having only 40 pierce as a base tower. But because it can now pops bloons as a base tower, it costs $425 on Easy, $500 on Medium, $540 on Hard, and $600 on Impoppable.

Path 1 is focused mostly upon brittling the bloons, making them as vulnerable by cold as possible. Permafrost slows down bloons by 50%, thereby making them more vulnerable to other towers due to the slower speeds of affected bloons. Metal Freeze allows Leads to become affected by all attacks by the Ice Monkey. Ice Shards causes affected bloons to spawn deadly ice shards that create a chain reaction of ice shards if popped by another tower other than other Ice Monkeys. Further Path 1 upgrades expand to increasing vulnerability of affected bloons; Embrittlement brittles affected bloons to deal extra damage while frozen, while Super Brittle causes affected bloons to deal even more extra damage while affected.

Path 2 is focused more upon increasing the area effectiveness of the cold. Enhanced Freeze becomes an upgrade that both increases freeze time for affected bloons and increases attack speed of the Ice Monkey. Deep Freeze allows two layers to be soaked in cold instead of one. Arctic Wind will slow all bloons up to Ceramic down by 50%, increasing pierce while simulatenously allowing non-water towers to become placed nearby the Ice Monkey. Snowstorm increases the radial Arctic Wind effect and freeze coverage, along with an ability that freezes all bloons on screen briefly. Absolute Zero further increases the freeze range, increasing Arctic Wind effect to a 60% slow down, increasing pierce again, along with substantially enhancing the main ability's freeze effects.

Path 3 is focused more upon increasing the blast effects of the Ice Monkey. The first two upgrades, Larger Radius and Re-Freeze, focus on increasing range and allowing re-freezing of already frozen bloons, respectively. The further upgrades, Cryo Cannon, Icicles and Icicle Impale, are focused upon modifying the Ice Monkey into a projectile-based attack tower. Cryo Cannon changes the Ice Monkey to shoot iceballs instead of creating radial ice attacks. Icicles adds sharp icicles on affected bloons that act as Road Spikes. Icicle Impale allows the Ice Monkey to attack and slow MOAB-class bloons.

The Ice Monkey is a Primary class tower.



Path 1


Path 2


Path 3


Differences Between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile
The Ice Tower has more differences between its Flash and Mobile counterparts compared to other towers.

Absolute Zero ability now slows all MOAB-class Bloons on screen to half speed.

Arctic Wind can slow down camo bloons if the tower is under the influence of a x/2 Monkey Village.

Ice Shards and Arctic Wind can be used together.

Ice Tower's freeze effect can't hit Frozen Bloons.

When a Rainbow Bloon is popped by a 2/x Ice Tower, the Zebra children will not be frozen or affected by Permafrost. In the case of a 2/3 Ice Tower, they do not release shards. This happens even if the tower is under the influence of an x/3 Monkey Village.

Snap Freeze can now damage MOAB-class bloons.

Shards of Ice Shards are now smaller than normal.

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)
Ice Tower has mixed popularity. While it is often not used due to hindering towers that can't pop frozen bloons, whenever it is used the Ice Tower is most often used for its Absolute Zero upgrade, which in this game can slow down M.O.A.B. Class Bloons to half speed, similar to Sabotage Supply Lines but at a lower cost. However, the other upgrades are almost never as frequently used, therefore many of the upgrades other than Absolute Zero have been buffed through various updates. Some fairly popular load outs that use the Ice Tower are Dart Farm Ice, Apprentice Farm Ice, Ninja Village/Mortar/Farm Ice, Dartling Farm Ice, and Heli Farm Ice.

Strangely enough, the Ice Tower has received very few buffs or nerfs. While it technically has received more buffs than nerfs, the Absolute Zero nerf is more prevalent compared to its buffs received. Ice Tower's freeze effect now hits Frozen Bloons, though freezing the same bloon multiple times will not stack freeze time. Juggernaut can pop frozen bloons. Viral Frost can now pop White and Zebra bloons.
 * 3.5
 * 3.6
 * 4.6

Absolute Zero price increased ($2000 → $3500).

BTD1-BTD5

 * It is possible to stall bloons forever by putting two of these 1/1 that cover the same range, having one under the effect of Jungle Drums, or using a 1/3 Ice Tower. However, this is not possible in the mobile versions of the games as the freeze effect cannot hit frozen bloons.
 * Along with the Monkey Ace, the Monkey Apprentice's Summon Phoenix, the Glaive Lord, the Wizard Lord, Banana Research Facility, Monkey Village, and the Monkey Buccaneer, the Ice Tower is one of the towers with an idle animation (which is the snow around it).
 * An Absolute Zero Ice Tower, however, has no idle animation.
 * The Ice tower is the only tower in Bloons Tower Defense 5 that has its path 1 tier 4 upgrade cheaper than tier 3 upgrade.
 * In BTD5 Deluxe however, the Tier 3 and 4 Bloonchipper's Path 2 upgrades both cost the same as well.
 * In Bloons Tower Defense 4, it is the only tower that does not change its appearance at all until it is upgraded to the fourth upgrade.
 * In BTD5, the ice tower's name does not change in any way when it is upgraded.
 * The Arctic Wind upgrade is very useful in Bloontonium Lab when the tower is placed in the middle.
 * The Arctic Wind in BTD4 has a popping power of 40, so it can freeze 40 non-MOAB-Class bloons per blast.
 * Regen Bloons won't regain layers while frozen.
 * Players can also do Regen Farming using the Ice Tower. This has been disabled in BTD5 and BMC flash.
 * The Ice Tower is the only tower in the series to have a major design overhaul at some point; in BTD1-4, it's seen as a big ball of ice, but in BTD5 onwards it's shown to be a monkey with cryokinetic powers.
 * The monkey actually feels cold when it is upgraded. This is extremely noticeable with Viral Frost, when it shivers visibly on the game screen, or wearing a thick coat with Absolute Zero.
 * Viral Frost and Absolute Zero ability can freeze Camo Bloons without camo detection and pop White and Zebra Bloons (Viral Frost freezes Camos, Whites, and Zebras independently only in Bloons TD Battles Mobile).
 * If Arctic Wind is paired with a Tier 3 Ice Fortress, it can take down an insanely high number of any non-M.O.A.B. Class Bloons.
 * When a Snap Freeze Ice Tower pops the first layer of a Rainbow Bloon it will freeze Zebra Bloons, even though they cannot be frozen normally. If the frozen Zebra Bloons are popped by Sonic Boom Boomerang Thrower then the White Bloon underneath will be frozen if the tower has the Deep Freeze upgrade.
 * Ice Towers used to be used very frequently in Bloons TD Battles to make rounds last forever and give the player using them a massive income, but Ninja Kiwi changed the game so that the next round automatically begins 30 seconds after the last bloon in a round spawns, making this strategy useless. However, some people still use it but include a 2/x ice tower since this "ice-stalling" no longer makes the rounds last forever. This is called "ice shredding" by the fan base.
 * An Ice Tower upgraded to Viral Frost can be very useful against groups of Ceramic Bloons.
 * Unlike Bomb Towers, which will attempt to pop black and Zebra Bloons, Ice Towers will ignore White and Zebra bloons unless it is granted the capability of popping such bloons by use of Monkey Intelligence Bureau or Tier-3 Ice Fortress.
 * The Ice Shards upgrade for Ice Tower is similar to the Frag Bombs upgrade for Bomb Shooter.
 * The official artwork for the Ice Tower was changed in an update. The Ice Shards upgrade reuses the old artwork (with added shards to it), similar to the Monkey Apprentice, whose old official artwork is used for the Monkey Sense upgrade, the Monkey Buccaneer who's old official artwork used for the Longer Cannons upgrade and to the Banana Farm, whose old artwork is used for the More Bananas upgrade.
 * In Bloons Monkey City and Bloons Tower Defense 6, it is called Ice Monkey.
 * The Ice Tower never changes its rate of fire in any of its upgrades, only its freeze length.
 * This is no longer true in BTD6.
 * The Ice Tower will still try to freeze White Bloons and Zebra Bloons in BTD4. In BTD5, it does nothing when they pass by it unless upgraded to Viral Frost or supported with a Monkey Intelligence Bureau.
 * If the Ice Tower gets either of its tier 1 upgrades purchased, the stone below it turns blue. When the tier 2 upgrades are purchased, it will have a snowflake symbol on its head.
 * The BMC artwork for Ice Monkey is similar to the BMC artwork for Monkey Apprentice.

BTD6

 * In BTD6, the unupgraded Ice Monkey has less range than an unupgraded Tack Shooter, making it have the smallest range out of all of the towers (excluding towers whose radius is purely for the sake of displaying a particular tower such as Sniper Monkey, Monkey Ace landing bases, and Heli Pilot helipads).