Heli Pilot (BTD5)

"Hovers wherever you direct it. Shoots from twin heavy dart guns."

- Bloons TD 6 description

The  is a tower first released in Bloons TD 5 Mobile. The Heli Pilot is an aircraft, like the Monkey Ace, that shoots 2 darts directly in front of it. The Heli Pilot is operated by a monkey. Although the Heli Pilot does hover above the ground, it does not fly automatically like the Monkey Ace and has a helicopter pad instead of a runway, rather, is free to move about the entire map based on the targeting system chosen by the player.

The Heli Pilot is an expensive tower and costs $1275/$1500/$1620/$1800 Cash to place on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable respectively. In BTD6, this is increased to $1360 on Easy, $1600 on Medium, $1730 on Hard, and $1920 on Impoppable.

Targeting System
The Heli Pilot has four moving systems (one of which is unlocked with an upgrade). Lock in Place is a moving system that will make the Heli Pilot stay in one spot based on its current position. Follow Touch is another targeting system which makes the Heli Pilot follow where you touch or where your cursor is (depending on platform), like the Dartling Gun. Patrol is a targeting system that makes the Heli Pilot move from one point to another, which are selected by the player. The final targeting system, Pursuit, is the only targeting system that is not readily available at the start and must be purchased. Pursuit will make the Heli Pilot follow and attack the bloon farthest through the map.

Bloons TD 5
The  is a tower first released in Bloons TD 5 Mobile. The Heli Pilot is an aircraft, like the Monkey Ace, that shoots 2 darts directly in front of it. The Heli Pilot is operated by a monkey. Although the Heli Pilot does hover above the ground, it does not fly automatically like the Monkey Ace and has a helicopter pad instead of a runway, rather, is free to move about the entire map based on the targeting system chosen by the player. The Heli Pilot is an expensive tower and costs $1275/$1500/$1620/$1800 Cash to place on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable respectively. This tower has many powerful upgrades and helpful additions never before seen in any tower, including Razor Rotors, and Support Chinook. 

Total Costs


Quotes
"Powerful attack helicopter armed with twin dart shooters and multiple patrol options"

- Bloons TD 5 Mobile Description

"Powerful attack helicopter armed with twin dart shooters and multiple patrol options"

- Official Description in BTD5 Mobile

Strategy

 * The three upgrade paths all have their own strengths and weaknesses.
 * The first path focuses on an aggressive offense, with its final upgrades Apache Dartship and Apache Prime. With 3 or more Heli Pilots with Razor Rotors, one will never worry about MOABS, and 6 or more can single-handedly bring down a BFB. Apache Dartship less so, as it bring firepower by using more darts.
 * The second path is pure support, with Downdraft blowing back Bloons, and its special abilities allowing the player to tacticallly reposition towers, provide supply drops with cash and lives (and deploy Marines with Special Poperations).
 * The third path is more of a defensive tower, with MOAB Shove helping to stall MOAB-Class Bloons in the same way Downdraft does with standard Bloons; however the later upgrades allow for the summoning of additional pilots, allowing the Pilot to multitask.

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)
Heli-Pilot was hardly used, mostly because it was too expensive to use as an one-for-all-uses tower for the early-game to early mid-game when compared to towers like the Dart Monkey. Even so, a large number of buffs has allowed Heli-Pilot to be a more usable tower for the early-game, the mid-game, and even the mid-late-game. Most especially is in Version 4.6, where Path-2 upgrades Downdraft and Support Chinook have gotten significant buffs, as well as where Pursuit and Razor Rotors is significantly cheaper.

Overall, the Heli Pilot has been significantly buffed via game updates and has become drastically more used, with some considering the loadout Heli-Pilot Farm Ace to be the new meta. Other popular loadouts for Heli Pilot include Heli-Farm-Wizard (either as a Wizard start or a Heli start), Heli-Farm-Ice, Heli-Farm-Bomb, and Heli-Farm-Boomerang.

Trivia

 * The Heli Pilot and Monkey Ace are the only towers that use aircraft.
 * This is currently the only tower that can have two different abilities without the use of a Specialty Building, or by other means.
 * The Apache Dartship has no visible space for the rocket launcher.
 * The Apache Gunship, and Support Chinook are real helicopters, still in use to date. The Comanche is also a real helicopter, however it was cancelled before mass production began.
 * The Heli Pilot's landing pad doesn't change appearance with any of the upgrades.
 * In BTD6, the Heli Pilot is currently the only tower (excluding Heroes) which can have 3 different abilities at a time. (4 if the Door Gunner monkey knowledge is involved).
 * The missiles fired by Apache Dartship home in on bloons, and have infinite range.
 * In BTD5 Deluxe, the Support Chinook's tower moving ability is useless with the premium upgrade Monkey Tycoon activated, as the player can sell and place towers in a different location without losing any money. This is unless the player wants to exploit Tower Stacking.
 * If the Support Chinook moves a Monkey Ace's landing strip, the plane will continue to circle around the place where the landing strip was before it got moved.
 * If the Support Chinook moves a Portable Lake (special agent in BTD5) with water-towers on it, the towers will remain in the same place before the pool was moved; allowing the player to place near-unlimited water towers
 * The same works with pontoons.
 * As mentioned before, the Heli Pilot is a BTD5 Mobile, Steam, Deluxe, and Xbox exclusive tower. It is only unavailable in the Flash version.
 * Heli pilot is the one of two towers in Bloons TD 5 that has its path 1 tier 2 upgrade cheaper than tier 1 upgrade. The other tower to do so is the Monkey Buccaneer.
 * Monkey Aces (including those from Aircraft Carriers,) Radadactyls, and other Heli Pilots all push Heli Pilots.
 * Therefore, two Heli Pilots in pursuit mode would push each other continuously.
 * In Bloons Monkey City Mobile, there is a special mission where you must rescue an endangered Heli Pilot in order to unlock it in the player's city and can be usable in game by paying $1000 to repair it.
 * Its pad size takes up slightly less space than the Banana Farm.
 * The 4/0 Apache Dartship has red lines on the end of its wings, while the 4/2 does not.
 * The Heli Pilot's helicopter pad does not change in BTD5 when upgraded, but it does in BTD6 once upgraded to tier 4.
 * All of the 4th and above tiers have names of American Indians (Apache Indians, Chinookan Indians, and Comanche Indians.)
 * A single 0-0-0 Heli Pilot can defeat a M.O.A.B by itself on Logs, but only on Easy with lots of RNG. Mana Shield and other Monkey Knowledge (preferably the middle tree in military) will make this easier to do.