C.H.I.M.P.S.

C.H.I.M.P.S. is a brand new game mode in Bloons TD 6. The abbreviation stands for "No Continues, no Hearts Lost, no Income, no Monkey Knowledge, no Powers, and no Selling", being "the true test of a BTD master".

Rules
C.H.I.M.P.S. is positioned in the Hard difficulty (but, instead of starting at round 3, starts at round 6 like in Impoppable mode), unlocked after completing Impoppable difficulty. Each letter stands for a certain rules and overall, the player is not allowed to:
 * Continue the challenge after they lose, meaning you cannot pay with Monkey Money to continue.
 * Lose any lives, only set to 1, similar to Impoppable, although no extra lives can be gained either
 * Gain money other than through popping bloons or getting money at the end of rounds. Banana Farms and other money generating towers become useless providing $0, and no extra money was received through any other means. However:
 * Before the 1.5 update, Monkey Town was able to give extra cash per bloon pop.
 * Before the 1.7 update, the mode did not give extra cash at the end of each round.
 * Before the 3.0 update, Druid's "Jungle's Bounty" Ability gave $200 every time it is activated.
 * Currently, Obyn Greenfoot's Wall of Trees ability can give cash if bloons are captured, however it does not grant any extra cash other than what the bloon originally had. Specifically, it gives $0 per Bloon entering the tree and $1 per RBE value on each banana (with cash-limitators included of course), thereby equaling the same amount of money as if all popped without Wall of Trees.
 * Gain bonuses through the newly introduced Monkey Knowledge abilities and skill tree
 * Use Powers, such as Monkey Farmers, Portable Lakes, Monkey Boosts, Road Spikes, or Camo/Glue Traps
 * Sell their towers; towers are placed permanently and cannot be altered, except you can reposition them via Support Chinook. The Nature's Ward Totem from Obyn Greenfoot cannot be sold either.
 * Note that if a Nature's Ward Totem is placed where a tower would be moved, it would be sold providing no money. This also applies to a Sun Temple or a True Sun God's Sun Avatar spawns, also applies to a Marine from Special Popperations. Presumably, this would also happen if moved onto an Engineer's Turret when added.
 * Even though not mentioned in the description, Premiums are not allowed to be used.
 * Double Cash is among the banned Premiums, so avoid wasting real money trying to beat CHIMPS with Double Cash because it simply won't work.

Rewards
Beating any CHIMPS map will reward the same amount as would for Impoppable. However, this amount cannot be increased even if Mo' Monkey Money is unlocked in the Monkey Knowledge (because MK is disabled). Winning first time will also reward a small skull-shaped medal beside the Impoppable Medal. The skull can be red or black depending on whether CHIMPS is completed with or without loading the player's save game, with the black medal being regarded as "better".

If all medals are completed on a single track, the player is given a golden border around the track display border. Completing CHIMPS with the black medal will turn this border to a lustrous black color.

Tips
There are some useful tips regarding playing CHIMPS mode:


 * It's often the best choice to start off each CHIMPS mode game with 3 0-0-0 Dart Monkeys on different areas of the track or Obyn Greenfoot, as the Dart Monkeys all have 2 pierce and decent attack speed and Obyn does 2 damage to counter those early Green Bloons.
 * Pick towers that will be useful among all stages of the game and/or not cause a significant cost to the defense.
 * Using 3 0-0-0 Dart Monkeys at the start of the game is useful to start off each game, though it should be noted that some tower placements and/or tower boosts (especially Alchemist potions) may become less viable, so it is noteworthy to find Dart Monkey placements that are both able to defend the early rounds and not deal too much problems for later defenses.
 * It's worth saving money to place any essential towers when they are actually necessary for the defense.
 * If you spend too much money on defense, you will likely fall in a dead end as you'll have little leeway for potential alternate defense planning.
 * If you spend too little money on defense, you will likely lose too early and not likely acquire necessary Activated Abilities in time to defend against difficult rounds.
 * Alchemists, especially Berserker Brew and Stronger Stimulant, are popular towers that can assist going through middle-game (Rounds 40-60), late-middle-game (Rounds 61-80), and late-game (81-100+, though only beating Round 100 is required to win CHIMPS).
 * Memorizing significant rounds is necessary for winning CHIMPS. "Significant" rounds are rounds that both involve a turning point in strategical changes and/or a difficult change in bloon formation.
 * Rounds 6-15 and Round 17 are some of the few early-game traps that often cause inexperienced players to lose on.
 * Round 6 will have several Green Bloons and some Red Bloons on such an early round with only $650; very few strategies are able to defeat such rounds with such little cash.
 * Round 17 contains Regrow Yellows, rendering overly spaced or overly clumped defenses to struggle.
 * Round 24 has a Green Camo Bloon. Non-camo-popping defenses likely will lose on this round.
 * Round 28 has Lead Bloons. Lead-weak or non-lead-popping defenses will likely lose on this round.
 * Round 33, Round 36, and Round 37 are some of the other earlier Camo rounds to prepare for.
 * Round 33 has spaced Camo Yellows, Round 36 has Camo Regrow Greens in between a large wave of normal grouped Pinks, while Round 37 contains Camo Whites on the last wave.
 * Round 38 has the first Ceramics.
 * Round 40 has the first MOAB. The next MOABs appear on Round 50.
 * Round 42 contains Regrow Rainbows and Camo Rainbows, while Round 51 contains many spaced Camo Ceramics. Camo-weak defenses will likely lose on these rounds.
 * Round 50 has two MOABs, one at the start and one after a wave of Ceramics.
 * Round 51 has Camo Ceramics. Camo-weak defenses will likely lose on these rounds.
 * Round 59 contains Camo Leads, forcing people to have a defense that mutually pops both camo and lead or lose the game.
 * Round 63 is accompanied with 3 devastating rushes of tightly-spaced Ceramics.
 * Round 76 has a large group of Regrowth Ceramics, enough to overwhelm many defenses.
 * Round 78 not only has one devastating rush of tightly-grouped Ceramics, there is one more devastating rush of tightly-grouped Camo Ceramics, rendering most popular methods of popping such tightly-grouped Ceramics useless unless nearby reliable camo detection (Radar Scanner often fixes this problem).
 * Beyond Round 80, all Ceramics that spawn from any bloon type become Super Ceramics, variants of normal Ceramics that have 60 health (120 health for Fortified) and spawn only one child per bloon.
 * Round 90 has DDTs, which are very fast and immune to many things. Most defenses not ready for DDTs may likely lose on this round or otherwise end up in a near-loss win of the round, only to get beaten by Round 95.
 * It is recommended to have a Radar Scanner or Monkey Intelligence Bureau nearby, as few defenses are capable of defeating DDTs without sufficient support.
 * Round 95 is one of the most difficult rounds containing DDTs. This is where having a near-indestructible defense and Monkey Intelligence Bureau would become almost certainly necessary, as the many waves of DDTs will often overwhelm most defenses.
 * MOAB Glue under Radar Scanner can slow down DDTs pretty well.
 * Bloon Sabotage is a very important upgrade to deal with DDTs
 * Icicle Impale under Radar Scanner can immensely slow DDTs. When added Acidic Mixture Dip or MIB, it can damage DDTs in the process too.
 * It has also been the death of many "2 tower CHIMPS" challenges
 * Round 98 has full of ZOMGs and Fortified BFBs. Very intensive RBE on this round. Other than Round 99 and 100, Round 98 is often the final straw of defenses lacking enough grouped MOAB-class popping power.
 * Round 99 has Fortified DDTs, enough to break any unprepared defense, even to those defenses that can deal normal DDTs very well.
 * Round 100 contains the infamous B.A.D., which is bad news for all players. The main hazards there include the huge HP of the B.A.D. layer and the sudden fast DDTs that reveal upon popping the BAD layer.
 * Use of a First Strike Capability ability is one of many ways to easily strip off B.A.D. health.
 * 1-4-0 or 2-4-0 Spike Storms may also help strip down the BAD layer well on most maps.

Specific Map Challenges
Only Expert Maps seemed to become the center of attention when it comes to beating on CHIMPS Mode, with exception of Dark Castle, since even harder Advanced Maps such as High Finance are relatively easy compared to all other maps in the game.


 * #Ouch CHIMPS used to be unsolved after the Version 6.0 Alchemist nerfs. However, it was solved officially on the official subreddit on Version 7.0 using the Comanche exploit. Link.
 * On the other hand, #Ouch CHIMPS was resolved in Version 8.1. Link.
 * In Version 8.0, using the Level 9+ Striker Jones exploit, an exploit that allowed Top Path 1 Mortar Monkeys to stun MOAB-class and Druid of the Jungle to instakill MOAB-class layers, Quad CHIMPS was solved on 6th February 2019 by the BTD6 subreddit. Link.
 * Amidst the possiblity discussions about the Version 9.0 Muddy Puddle CHIMPS pathing changes, Youtuber "ISAB" first attempted to beat Muddy Puddle CHIMPS early March 2019. Later, he started streaming at March 17th ~7:00am NZT (Link), streaming for more than 12 hours, alongside one hour's break in between 2:20pm to 3:30pm (despite his promise, he actually went for 1 hour, 10 minutes dinner break). In March 17th 2019 6:41pm NZT, ISAB finished Muddy Puddles CHIMPS. Link.
 * He initially was able to beat Muddy Puddle CHIMPS to r25 as of March 11, 2019.
 * ISAB went to between Round 89-92 on Muddy Puddles CHIMPS on 17th March 2019 2:15pm NZT. There were up to ~1000 viewers watching during his gaming stream. However, he has yet to beat Round 89-92 fully without losing Wall of Trees non-profitable cash or losing to future rounds (especially Rounds 95, 98, 99, and 100).
 * Similarly, ISAB had been beating Rounds 95-99 with high precision, starting on 4:58pm NZT. Link.

Miscellaneous challenges

 * The first 2 tower completion was attempted by Aliensrock, with the combination of the 5/0/2 Wizard Monkey and Captain Churchill. However, he was not successful.
 * As of February 16, 2019, multiple tower combinations have completed Logs C.H.I.M.P.S. with two towers.
 * These strategies include a 2/5/0 Super Monkey and a 5/0/2 Monkey Sub, a 0/5/2 Wizard Monkey and a 0/2/5 Spike Factory, Obyn Greenfoot and a 2/0/4 Super Monkey, and a 5/2/0 Heli Pilot and a 0/5/2 Wizard Monkey.
 * However, the Super Monkey/Monkey Sub combo might not be possible anymore.
 * As of March 6th 2019, 5/0/2 Ninja and 5/2/0 Alchemist have been used to beat two-tower CHIMPS. The added pierce buffs on the Grandmaster Ninja in Version 9.0 have certainly made this duet combo possible.
 * Similarly, 5/0/2 Archmage + 0/2/5 Blooncineration succeeded because of the Blooncineration buff that allowed burning of DDTs regardless of black popping grants.

Update History
Nerfs and buffs listed here are in terms of causing more difficulty / less difficulty for the player attempting CHIMPS walkthroughs. Any "fixes" or any buffs or nerfs to other towers/heroes that cause very significant influence in improving CHIMPS walkthroughs are also listed here.

Overall, the CHIMPS mode has been nerfed.

Monkey Town no longer gives extra cash per pop.
 * 1.5

End-of-round cash is now earned every round.
 * 1.7


 * 2.0

Perma-Spike price increased ($22000 → $25000).

Perma-Spike fire rate decreased by 66%.

Jungle's Bounty no longer gives bonus cash.
 * 3.0

Unstable Concoction no longer causes affected MOAB-class bloons to damage its own children bloons.

Sun Temples with Support sacrifices no longer produce cash.
 * 4.0

Super Ceramics no longer give the same amount of cash as normal Ceramics.
 * 5.0

Alchemist's Berserker Brews and Stronger Stimulants no longer apply range buffs twice.

Stronger Stimulant now only lasts for up to 50 attacks or the same time duration of 15 seconds, whichever comes first.
 * 6.0

Berserker Brew now only lasts for up to 30 attacks or the same time duration of 7 seconds, whichever comes first.

Gwendolin's Heat It Up will trigger less often and will no longer refresh while Heat It Up is already in effect.

Comanche Commander's mini-helicopters now (correctly) consume Alchemist potions.
 * 8.0

Obyn pops more layers (1 --> 2)

Obyn Level 9+ pops more layers (2 --> 4)

Obyn Level 14+ pops more layers (3 --> 6)

Obyn Level 19+ pops more layers (4 --> 8)

Obyn's Level 2+ Nature's Wrath gives additional pierce to Magic Monkeys (+1 --> +2)

Bloon Impact and Bloon Crush can now refresh their stuns Stronger Stimulant cooldown between expired potions on target stimulated tower decreased (12s --> 5s), to be consistent with Berserker Brew cooldown between expired attacks.
 * 9.0

Ezilis MOAB Hex now jumps between M.O.A.B. Class Bloons if the target is destroyed before the duration wears off

The Biggest One deals 3x more damage to Ceramics and above.

The Biggest One costs more ($24k --> $28k)

Trivia

 * The mode might be based on the common term NAPSFRILLS, which was commonly used in BTD5 that also have similar objectives, being unable to use agents, premiums, speciality buildings, farming, road items, lose lives, or sell a tower.
 * As of March 2019, All of the tracks in the game were completed on normal C.H.I.M.P.S. mode.
 * The hardest maps to clear on C.H.I.M.P.S. Were Muddy Puddles and Quad.
 * Using the Level 9+ Striker Jones exploit, an exploit that allows Upper Path 1 Mortar Monkeys to stun MOAB-class and Druid of the Jungle to instakill MOAB-class layers, Quad CHIMPS has become solved on 6th February 2019 by the BTD6 subreddit. Link.
 * Prior to Version 9.0, only up to Round 9 for Muddy Puddles was possible, due to Round 10 not being possible due to the previous lane-alternation system plus the lack of money for reliable Round 10 defense. This was changed since Version 9.0 with the Muddy Puddles pathing modification update. On March 17, 2019, ISAB became the first one to beat Muddy Puddles on C.H.I.M.P.S.
 * This mode may be considered easier than Half Cash due to the amount of money gained is standard, despite its restrictions. Also, it is possible for C.H.I.M.P.S. mode to be near impossible on a particular map. Half Cash is much more beatable on said track because Premiums, Powers, Monkey Knowledge, etc. are allowed to be used.
 * In most easy tracks, it is also easy to win without the need of extra income capabilities, Monkey Knowledge, Powers, premiums (continues, cash injections, etc.), without need to do any selling, or having to lose lives.
 * On the other hand, harder tracks are a lot more difficult to do without any of the forementioned benefits.
 * There are names for #Ouch, Quad,and Muddy Puddles CHIMPS. They are "#couch", "qimps", and "cuddles" respectively.
 * Youtuber ISAB beat Muddy Puddles CHIMPS as of March 17th, 2019