Hardcore Mode/Strategies

This page contains tips and strategies for Hardcore Mode enabled tracks.

Tips

 * Enabling this mode on easier tiles, will provide decent City Cash and extra Bloonstones more easily.
 * Enabling this on some Impoppable and Very Hard tiles, on the other hand, will be frustrating for unprepared players, spawning difficult bloons very early.
 * This mode allows players to "farm" bloonstones on easy and trivial maps. It is very good to farm bloonstones.
 * If you are planning to get a lot of bloonstones, say at least 500, you should enable hardcore mode. It would reduce the time having to get all the bloonstones.

Some Tips
''These are only suggestions for Hardcore Mode, you don't really have to only use these towers and upgrades only. Of course, if you have your own tips and strategies, post it here on the wiki.''
 * It is better to use towers with area damages for the early bloon rushes and a spike factory to handle the early high-ranked bloons. Good towers/upgrades include:
 * Mortar Tower with Rapid Reload, Burny Stuff, Signal Flare (if there's a dense Camo rush) and/or Bigger Blast (in a good position); if you're facing high ranked bloons, then Bloon Buster or The Big One
 * Ice Tower (good for stopping Regrowth Bloons from regrowing) with Snap Freeze, Permafrost, Arctic Wind or Ice Shards (if you want to pop a dense rush of bloons at the same time)
 * Boomerang Thrower with Bionic Boomer and Glaive Thrower (best if placed in a curve or other good throwing positions that gives you the most popping ability); or Glaive Riccochet (if the track you're playing does not have a curve/good place to put your Tower)
 * Glue Gunner with Glue Splatter and Corrosive Glue; Bloon Dissolver (if you're facing Regrowth Bloons or high-ranked bloons such as Ceramic Bloons); or Glue Hose (if there's a super dense rush of Bloons), of course, you can use the Glue Striker and the Ability if you want for extra effect
 * Tack Shooter with Tack Sprayer or Ring of Fire Upgrade (upgrading the range isn't really useful)
 * Sniper Monkey with Semi-Automatic Rifle Upgrade (make sure you also have Full Metal Jacket if you're trying to pop frozen and lead bloons and more layers as well; Point Five Oh is even better); if you're facing high-ranked bloons or blimps, you can have a few Cripple MOABs and Deadly Precisions (better with Faster Firing)
 * Monkey Buccaneer (if you're playing on a lake/river terrain) with Grape Shot and Destroyer upgrade
 * Bomb Tower with Missile Launcher; Cluster Bombs and Bloon Impact (Essential to non-MOAB Class Bloons, MOAB Mauler/Assassin if facing MOAB-Class Bloons)
 * Ninja Monkey with Distraction (Double Shot/Bloonjitsu to send more Bloons back to the towers); Flash Bomb (better if you want to stun bloons)
 * Monkey Apprentice with Lightning Bolt, Fireball; Dragon's Breath (good for any bloon type); Summon Whirlwind (if you want to send the bloons back)
 * Spike Factory with various upgrades to clean up the rest of the bloons (upgrades depending on how much and types of defenses you have and the types of bloons escaping, best to have Bigger Stacks upgraded first)
 * It is not suggested to use unupgraded towers above or single bloon damagers such as Dart Monkeys, Super Monkeys (bad if unupgraded, also expensive), Monkey Aces and also Banana Farms itself (since there are a lot less rounds in Bloons Monkey City tiles (not in Contested Territory) than in BTD5, you don't really get much payoff).

Strategy by Qwertyxp2000 the second
Normally, it would be easier to do Hardcore Mode on easy tiles or non-MOAB tiles. It is super easy to do for White Tiles or lower, as I simply use combinations of 3/2 Ninja Monkeys. For Lead and Rainbow tiles, I added Monkey Apprentices with Monkey Sense and Lightning Bolt. For Ceramic tiles, I add some 3/2 Engineers (for additional popping power plus camo and regrow removal, a 3/2 Monkey Apprentice (for ridding the leads), a 2/3 Sniper Monkey (for ridding the ceramic layer), and 3/2 Ninja Monkeys (for general popping power plus camo popping). You may also use 3/2 Boomerang Throwers for a Regrow remover, if regrows are not your farming strategy. Replace with Monkey Buccaneers if Ninjas and/or Engineers are restricted, and replace with 3/2 Spike Factory plus the optional 3/2 Boomerang Throwers if Apprentices are restricted.

Experimented the Ceramic strategy on Bloon Dunes Level 18, which worked with no lives lost.