Spectre

"Flying fortress of bloon doom."

- BTD5 Description

Spectre is the final upgrade for Path 1 of the Monkey Ace in Bloons TD 5. It costs $15300 on Easy, $18000 on Medium, and $19440 on Hard. It makes the plane continuously fire bombs and darts very quickly instead of firing eight darts. It can pop lead bloons and black bloons.

Upgraded 4/2 to Spectre and Spy Plane, Spectre can target any bloon or MOAB class bloon and excels at destroying ceramic, rainbow, and other bloons that result from MOAB class bloons. Spectre is about equal in destroying normal bloons (everything up to ceramic) as the Sun God (Super Monkey upgraded 3/2) is. A Sun God is slightly better at destroying MOAB class bloons, however, and should not be replaced by the Spectre during games for this reason (also, Monkey Temple upgrade is the most powerful in the game, although probably far too expensive at 100,000 for normal games). For best results using Spectre in later rounds, make sure to have a Robo Monkey or two up front to take out MOABs, BFBs, and ZOMGs, although 3 of these can pop a ZOMG and its children.

With a recent update, the Mortar Shells from the Spectre pops 2 layers of Bloons instead of 1. As a result, the Spectre is now hands-down the most cost efficient tower against non-MOAB class Bloons. Just one of these can kill infinity Rainbows (hold down the spawn Rainbow key in sandbox) and two of these can kill infinity Ceramics.

It doesn't have target priority and just shoots whatever's closest. To counteract this, it's better to place it off to the side so that the Bloons are always coming towards it. That way, it will generally target "First". Take note, however, that it stops shooting if the plane flies too far off-screen.

Trivia

 * The Spectre is based on a real US gunship, the AC-130 Spectre.
 * It shoots a lot faster than the previous upgrades (300 spm).
 * If you look carefully at the logo, you can see the words "from ace" and "to bloons" are tagged on the first and second bombs.
 * If the Spectre does not have the Spy Plane upgrade, it can still target Camo Bloons although it will not pop them.
 * On Mar 22, 2012, Spectre bombs can pop Black Bloons and Zebra Bloons.
 * Spectre does not have target priority even though its projectiles home on Bloons. It attacks as if its target priority was "close"
 * One Spectre can take down a M.O.A.B. and its children with ease (good at defeating the children due to the bombs' area effect) but they are still not a good tower for later rounds as when you have many slow moving B.F.B.s or M.O.A.B.s on screen, it will target a single M.O.A.B.-class bloon for a very long time and not be effective against the lesser bloons. However if you have a Sun God or Robo Monkey up front, you can set it on strong and enjoy its power against the MOAB-classers while the Spectre whittles away at the lesser bloons.
 * 3 Spectres are sufficient to pop a entire Z.O.M.G.
 * Unlike the Neva-Miss Targeting upgrade from the Monkey Ace, projectiles will not turn and follow bloons when they miss.
 * One Spectre can easily take down Ceramic Bloon rushes.
 * Only one Spectre can beat a current easy game, even on medium. It can't beat alone on Switch, Castle, Drag Strip, Death Valley and on extreme tracks. Try it if you have Cash Injection.