Contested Territory/Strategies

This page contains strategies and tips for Contested Territory.

Tips

 * Plan for late game. Use Banana Farms and Monkey Villages. Remember that in the higher tiers of CT, the bloon rushes aren't hard in the early rounds, especially for experienced players, making farming a profitable strategy for late game. Mass as much farms as you can during round 1-17, but don't forget to have ceramic popping power and be ready to fend off MOABs in rounds 18-21 which is where they first appear.
 * Invest, in your city, in your banks to enable the purchase of more potent upgrades for your villages, in contest farming and attacks. The player that can, early, get and use upgrades such as sniper 2/x, sniper x/4. Banana Farm 4/x and Super Monkey 4/x will typically be able to out-compete other players. Even if you have fully upgraded banks, special buildings like the Banana Research HQ and Temple Complex have higher costs than you can bank when they first become available. Cash rewards can be used to make up the difference. There are various ways to do this but I paid for my Banana Research HQ with full banks after delaying clicking the thumb four my fifth tier 4 upgrade to enable timely access to the lucrative "May The 4s Be With You..." cash reward and paid for my Temple Complex with full banks, getting cash rewards from a CT Milestones event, cashing Monkey Knowledge packs until getting a $20,000 Bonus card and completing a few My Tracks defenses.
 * It can help to get ample towers of the few types that you choose to use to both break MOABs and to then deal with smaller bloons.
 * Be ready for camo leads on rounds 15-17.
 * Watch out for random ceramics on early rounds, but those can be easily countered with 3/2 or 4/2 Ninja set on "strong".
 * It can be very useful to sell 1-3 3/0 farms to get a Banana Research Facility (BRF).
 * Players are still advised to include multiple BRFs in their defense set-ups. (This is the best way to gain Max Temples and level 36-40 cities can have up to 6 of them)
 * If the terrain forbids the use of farms, use Supply Drops with High Energy Beacon if your city is highly leveled, or else it would be very hard to reach high rounds. Click here to see a sniper farm demonstration by YouTuber ISAB. Snipers can be utilized by using Supply Drop Farming, which its purpose is to lengthen rounds to provide more opportunities for Snipers to send Supply Drops. You can also use the Bloon Trap, particularly useful source of income in the early game.
 * As of 14/10/14 and on mobile, you can also use Bloon Traps, which is much cheaper than Supply Drops in-game.
 * This is an especially on mobile, where the Bloon Trap never receives any cash reduction and always give $500-700 per trap, making it very efficient for early rounds.
 * Bloon Traps can be made even more efficient by placing them within range of a Monkey Town, as they benefit from its income buffs, giving anywhere from about $750 to over $1000 when full.
 * Though in late game on the Flash version, as each pop worth less money, Bloon Traps lose their effectiveness. So it's advised to sell them by round 20-25 to either invest them in farms or defense.
 * Be as efficient as possible with temples. As you do not get back sacrificed towers, it is best to use as few towers as possible in sacrifices and make sure you do not sacrifice towers that may be very helpful later on.
 * It is safe to sacrifice as much Ice (on Flash. On mobile, some Ice can be saved for Absolute Zero MOAB slowing), Glue, and Apprentices as possible, as they are not very useful against blimps. On Flash, Mortars and Bomb Shooters should be sacrificed wisely, as while the temple gets more MOAB popping power from missiles, the Pop and Awe ability proves extremely useful for stunning DDTs. On mobile, Mortars and Bomb Shooters can be sacrificed at will due to the lack of DDTs. For the extra tower used for blade sacrifices, it is best to sacrifice Dart Monkeys or Boomerang Throwers, as they do very little to blimps on later rounds.
 * Abilities can be more useful than the alternative path. For example, Pop and Awe's stunning ability can save you from lots of BFBs, DDTs, or MOABs, but The Big One is ineffective against MOAB classes.
 * Sell and rebuy abilities if you have to. This is especially useful for Pop and Awe, Ground Zero, and Spike Storm.
 * Don't be scared of losing a few lives, or even all but one life (unless you have the Egg Scrambler or Golden Egg Scrambler). The Spike Factory + Farm strategy is useful for good income. Although early rushes will hurt you, they won't end your game, and the money in the late game more than makes up for it. Once you reach late game, lives will barely matter as anything that would leak at that point would result in loss of the game.
 * Remember, CT is the freeplay mode of Monkey City and as always, the 2 only ways to end freeplay mode are to quit or lose all your lives.
 * Watch out for DDTs on the Flash version. They first appear on rounds 30-33, with lots more later on. Some even appear at the beginning of certain rounds and will try to rush you in large numbers. Make sure to get some DDT popping towers beforehand, like a Spectre supported by a 2/3 Monkey Village.
 * The Sabotage Supply Line ability of the x/4 ninja is very effective against DDTs and MOAB class bloons in generally by slowing them down to half speed at a low cost. The Pop and Awe ability is also very effective as the ability can stall all DDTs on screen for 5 full seconds, giving your towers plenty of time to damage them.
 * No DDTs spawn on the mobile version. They are replaced with sheer amounts of ZOMGs that usually start coming on rounds 30-40.
 * Don't be afraid to use Bloonstones. A well-timed Monkey Boost costs 5 (10 on mobile), but winning the territory gives you 50 (25 on mobile).
 * Collect your money if you hold it. Contested Territories are a very good source of income because they don't have a maximum capacity, unlike Banana Farms (in your city). They also give faster income than farms.
 * If you lose control of the CT to either the bloons, another player, or by the contested territory fail glitch, all city cash that were in stock beforehand will be lost, so players should collect it frequently if they are competing against worthy opponents and before the bloons or the glitch can regain control.
 * Lag will likely become common in the later rounds, so be careful or your Flash Player, computer, or app can crash, cancelling the run.
 * On flash, reloading your browser, clearing your browser cache, or rebooting your computer prior to starting may help prevent lag. If it fails, use a high-end computer.
 * On mobile, it is recommended to play on high-end devices.
 * Start a round on normal speed instead of fast forward so certain rushes don't surprise you and run through your defense.
 * Important upgrades for late game on each version includes:
 * Flash: Temple of the Monkey God (with Dark Temple Idol to get Temple of the Vengeful Monkey), Banana Research Facility, Spiked Mines, Artillery Battery (Pop and Awe ability), Sabotage Supply Lines, Overclock, M.I.B. Call to Arms, Cripple MOAB
 * Mobile: Bloon Trap, Temple of the Monkey God (with Dark Temple Idol to get Temple of the Vengeful Monkey ability), High Energy Beacon (to reduce Temple of the Vengeful Monkey ability cooldown), M.I.B. Call to Arms, Super Wide Funnel, Sabotage Supply Lines, Absolute Zero (slows MOABs on mobile), Overclock, Cripple MOAB, Blade Maelstrom (BTD5) (Good cleanup), Arctic Wind (BTD4-BTD5) (Good cleanup).

Sniper based strategies from your three monkey campaign beginning, by GregKaye

 * Sniper monkeys can help with major challenges in low-level tiers: popping lead bloons, reducing the ability of regrow bloons to respawn (which, in the sniper's case, is done by removing several bloon layers in each hit) and the later challenge of popping MOABs.
 * Different strategies can be taken to clearing up the remaining bloons and, perhaps, also for adding to the heavy work done by the snipers.
 * One option prior to level 5 (not an extremely good one) would be to upgrade ninjas and, by level 6, you could place up to 4 ninjas with the potential of upgrading them to a moderately strong 2/2.
 * Alternately you might leave off buying non-sniper upgrades prior to getting to level 5. Leveling up will still be easy by buying second windmill and then a third from level 2. If your land has its river in immediate striking distance, then buying a watermill is also an option, You'll then have power to buy snipers or any other tower that awards 1 xp for every 2 units of cash. (Higher value towers, giving more experience, can either help you level up more quickly or allow you to avoid building on decorative tiles like woodlands).
 * Snipers can be used on all standard BMC tracks and it may be worth waiting to at least get the 1/x upgrade before your city makes its first entry into contested territory events. You could make some contested territory progress even with just 3 or more 0/0 Dart Monkeys and 3 1/0 snipers provided that a non-hills track permits entry for the DMs.
 * After seeing the track. you could then decide whether to invest in an initial dartling, buccaneer, spike factory, a couple of ice monkeys and/or make a belated investment in ninjas. Towers like dartlings can also help with the initial break up of bloons but the main task will be to clear up the leftovers from the snipers. Mortars may also help especially in the early to mid-stages of games. Dart Monkeys have limited use especially before level 10 when triple darts and the junior juggernaut can be bought.
 * Prior to getting to level 5 extra cash can be earned, on top of your bank capacity, through replays of tiles with the My Tracks function which is available from city level 1 in BMC on the app, From city level 2 city provides immediate funds for 2 DMs at the beginning of a track
 * Resource building banks can help you get higher level upgrades such as sniper upgrades to 2/x and x/3 and village upgrades to 2/x. (Monkey Fort is also valuable for towers like dartlings but, according to the sandbox on the browser version of BTD5, it does literally nothing for snipers).
 * Depending on bloon spawning patterns. villages may be added early into games on the basis of tower combinations such as dartling upgraded to 0/1 with added support of a 1/0 sniper or a 0/0 spike factory with added support of a 2/x ice and 1/x sniper/s.
 * Ice Monkeys can be of use, at the beginning of tracks, to slow bloons down and, further along the tracks, in snapping into their lower layers. At the beginning of the tracks, snap freeze (or any other light form of tower attack, can cause, say, rainbow regrowth bloons to become a special type of problem. A use of a 1/1 ice monkey in a bend toward the beginning of a track may provide time for snipers, from 1/x to 2/1, to cut regrowths etc. down to size.
 * City cash should be less problematic because, unless other players have followed similarly supported sniper based strategies, you'll typically have the option to keep control of contested territories.
 * The Semi-Automatic Rifle can provide an early alternative to Moab Maulers. From level 12, the x/3 sniper upgrade takes 24 hours, while the x/3 bomb shooter upgrade needs 36, and it doesn't require the 6 hour build time of the Anti MOAB Research Lab from level 10.
 * Snipers will dominate especially up to the level 9-12 bracket of contested territory events and can be relied upon further while you shore up your end of track security.
 * Snipers can facilitate the use of an entire track length without limits such as due to MOAB Mauler range and sniper based defenses can be developed at the end of tracks within the supported environs of a single village.
 * Level 12 opens up a wide range of upgrade options and this includes for any of your wind and watermills.
 * Unless you have targets such as to get to higher level rounds in milestone events there may be no need to prematurely enter higher tiers. In the level 13-16 tier it may be more difficult, on some tracks, to compete with players who, at level 15, may both have highly upgradable towers and in-game farms enabled. It can be possible to camp at, say, level 12 by buying upgrades but without clicking on the thumbs up until you decide or otherwise have to level up.
 * To compete in contested territories, it helps to efficiently develop combinations of upgrades and towers that give you a high potential to pop bloons but to do this while remaining in lower tiers. Investment in upgrades is better than spamming buildings. It's not that there's a problem with lots of buildings. You just need to be able to beneficially use the towers to their full potential in your games. If you've more unit buildings than you've towers that you efficiently use in games, then you've more than you need, Why not leave some green space in your cities and remain competitive.
 * As contested territory events, in the app version of BMC, are conducted on a succession of two-day contests, there are some advantages in deferring entry into higher tiers especially while occupation-based rewards can still be targetted.
 * Generally, there are advantages in just getting experience by building on things you actually want and use. Quests, for instance, can be fun, but they won't add to the total of your potential firepower.
 * However, to give others a chance, it's optional to let other players first fight it out and let the highest or most quickly performing player to hold onto the territory for a term before you then take over. Using the spy facility to look at an earlier state of your opponent's cities may give you an idea of how much competition they might give once they are more fully funded might give. Given time, my habit is to initially play just until the first round of taking the territory and then giving other players a chance to take over.
 * From level 12 Moab Maulers may be a preferred successor to snipers, at least on non-water-based tiles, for popping MOABs. Super Monkeys' have a similar requirement for an Anti MOAB Research Lab just to build their villas but you'll need level 15 to get plasma blasts and level 16 before have the opportunity to cover twelve of your tiles with just two Super Monkey Villas and their upgrade building. So what does this get you? For similar in game costs, Plasma Blasts are better than Semi-Automatics at clear up of smaller bloons and do a bit better with MOABs but that's just for as long as smaller bloons don't get in the way and while the MOABs remain in range. Two 2/2 Supers (costing $29,000) will do almost as well as five 2/3 snipers (costing $35,500) in attacking unobstructed MOABS. Super! If you are able to unlock Monkey Subs, then 2/3 subs provide efficient options including for MOAB popping. In BTD5M's sandbox, on Ice Flow, the 2 2/2 Super Monkeys that could be used from Level 16 were outperformed by the 6 2/3 Monkey Subs that may potentially be used by Level 15 and for a lot less in-game cash. Other advantages are that the Sub Weapons Research building only requires one tile while the Submarine Births, while not on land, also require fewer tiles than Super Monkey Villas. If city and gameplay space is less of a problem, 2 2/2 Super Monkeys will also be outperformed, for similar in-game cost, by 14 2/3 Dart Monkeys. (As a side note: BMC has a habit of promoting the use of DMs and Supers before they are relatively useful. It insists you buy DMs from the game's beginning and then quests you to upgrade and accommodate more monkeys getting to level 10 when third-tier upgrades are available. Similarly with Super Monkeys, even though third-tier upgrades are only available from level 18, you'll receive a quest to unlock them five levels earlier). Strategic uses of Spike Factories, for popping MOABs, may sometimes be found. Use them on later sections of track that run in parallel, over, or across earlier later sections of track runs. Use them on tracks like clover, fireworks and tunnels.
 * One major value of buying the Anti MOAB Research Lab is the (quest inclusive) 750 experience point boost toward level 15 that it provides. However, with semi-automatics still doing a reasonable job MOAB popping, another upgrade priority remains the development of abilities the clear up of smaller bloons. Useful upgrades include: Ice shards to drastically reduce the number of otherwise fast-moving bloons and Flash Bomb (24 hours from lev. 10) and Arctic Wind (24 hours from Lev 12) to slow them down. The Flash Bomb upgrade can be bought with an amount of cash that can be stored in just four banks and it can work well with Level 12's quick to upgrade glue splatter. Flash Bombs can also keep bloons in that kill zone that you've set up as targetted by 2/2 mortars and bomb shooters and around which you've arranged your 2/2 ice towers.
 * In Contested Territories, with great power - comes great amounts of in-game spending. Level 15 brings the chance to use farms that you can immediately upgrade to third tier. At level 18, however, the first cash related special building you can buy.is Radio Comms Support for the Sniper, Supply Drop Special Ability. Players that can survive to use this ability in early rounds will gain great advantage in their territorial contests.
 * To progress in the game you will have to buy certain upgrades at some time. However, you could level up quickly by just buying towers and this has the advantage of getting you quickly to levels 5/10/15 etc. where you can buy extra farms. Alternatively, you can invest early in upgrades and perhaps get your extra money from CT. Both options can work but the second may get you more conquests along the way.

Medium level adaptive strategy by EPICI

 * Start with a farm and spike factory.
 * Be as greedy as possible with your farms, if you lose, restart and redirect money to the spike factory.
 * At some point you will have a 2/0 farm and 2/2 spike factory, which should be good for the first several rounds.
 * Get 3/0 farm or another 2/0 farm after.
 * Get a 0/0 village and a ninja. If there are lots of leads get a 2/3 or 3/2 boomerang.
 * Get ninja to 4/2 if you have the upgrade. Otherwise, get it to 3/2.
 * Get more farms as high as you can, and at the same time get MOAB Maulers.
 * Optimally somewhere between round 30-40 you should have a village at 2/3 (for DDTs) all bombs placed as 2/3, multiple 4/2 ninjas (3/2 if you don't have the upgrade yet), all spike factories placed (optimally 2/3) and all farms at max level.
 * What you get next to add to your defense is up to you. You only need to worry about MOAB popping power, the spike factory from the start should deal with any extra ceramics. Get a 3/2 ice tower if you are worried about bloon popping power.
 * strategy_with_no_temple by a 25LV player

Random's Strategy (No temple required, middle level)

 * I start kind of normal, with a 0/0 spike factory and a farm, 1/0. A simple way to mop up early rushes is a 3/0 engineer placed on Strong, and then adding a 2/3 Boomerang to clear up any rushes.
 * Add more farms (I cap it at 4 with BRFs, but go up as high as you want if you don't have BRF), and upgrade it to 2/0. Add a Monkey Village around your defense, upgrade it to 1/0, collect farms money, and build another spike factory in the radius of the village (which should now be 1/1). Use a ROF to mop up any bloons that might rush through.
 * Upgrade the spike factory to 1/2. At around round 17, build a MOAB mauler and upgrade one of the farms to Banana Republic. Save money for your BRF if possible,
 * Continue to build MOAB Maulers and start working towards more BRFs. Make sure you get your MIB before Round 30 to counter DDTs. Add some backline defenses, including glue hose, ice shards/Arctic wind, Bloonjitsu, etc. to counter the ceramics spawning out of the MOAB class bloons.
 * Work your way to MOAB Assassins (on strong to kill ZOMGs) and get some more spike factories to do faster damage. By this time, if you can, you should get a Spectre or Ground Zero (within MIB radius) to counter the DDTs.
 * Get your spike factories to 4/2 or 1/3 if you don't have spiked mines. Build a Super Monkey just for kicks, it won't do a whole lot of damage to the ZOMGs but can end MOABs and BFBs.
 * Good luck!

Anonymous strategy

 * Be sure to use 3, for this will let you can get a Bloon trap on R3.
 * Be sure to collect the trap as much as possible.
 * Build more traps, 2~3 is enough (for defending, build a 3-2 spactory! if you failed here, build 3~6 triple darts)
 * At R17~R30ish, build a super wide funnel for early MOAB-class.
 * At R30 and past, build spectres and/or apache dartships, spike storms, or MOAB maulers for ZOMGs.
 * Keep playing, place all your monkeys, your trap(s) can gain 20000$ per round.
 * Tested and survived 65+ rounds, if useless, try wait for a good map or change the order of tower-placing.

Mobile strategy by TCreopargh
Note: The game will be very likely to crash and glitches will be more often in the mobile version late-game. On round 60, fps will be very low even on good devices. So if you have no tough competitors, stop your game around round 60. If you go higher, the game may stop and lose your progress so you must play it again.
 * Preparations: build all Sniper monkeys, Bloonchippers, Super Monkeys and Monkey Engineers buildings available.
 * Start with one crate, then place a Ninja Monkey and upgrade it to 3/2, remember not to place it too close to the entrance. For rivers and lakes, place a 3-2 Monkey Buccaneer instead.
 * Place a Monkey Apprentice in front of the ninja. In 5 rounds you can upgrade it to 2/2.
 * Place a Monkey Engineer near the beginning of the track. Don't make its range cover another part of the track to make traps catch bloons easily. For rivers, use Banana Farms for income.
 * Once you have enough money, upgrade the engineer to 3/1 then 4/1. Do not upgrade it to x/2. Tap on the trap once it's full. If you lost a few bloons, upgrade the ninja to 4/2.
 * Add more 4/1 engineers until all of them are placed, place all of them near the beginning of the track, By round 17, upgrade the ninja to 4/2. By round 20, place a 4/2 Bloonchipper near your engineers.
 * If you have enough money, place a Monkey Village in an empty space and add 2-4 Sniper Monkeys around it and use their abilities once they are ready. Upgrade the village to 4-2 if possible. When the first BFB appears, place a 3-2 Super Monkey.(2-3 if you have researched Technological Terror)
 * Add more Snipers and Super Monkeys in the next few rounds, Place a 4-2 Ice Monkey on a suitable place and add 4-2 Tack Shooters or 4-2 Boomerang Throwers near it to deal with bloons released by MOABs. For lakes, place the Super Monkey early and use 2-4 Monkey Subs to deal with ZOMGs.
 * If you've researched Temple Of The Monkey God, around round 45 you should have 300,000 money. That's enough for a strong Temple. Build it in a suitable place.
 * You can use 2-4 Monkey Engineers to make your temples attack faster. Try monkey boosts to make them attack incredibly fast!

Snowpanther's strategy

 * Start by getting a 3/2 spike factory.
 * Then get a mortar and upgrade it to 2/3.
 * Later get an ice monkey and upgrade it to 2/3.
 * Then get a 2/3 bomb tower.
 * After that get a 3/2 glue gunner, and a 3/1 ace.
 * When MOABs begin to come, sell the glue and ice tower and buy a 3/1 bomb tower.

Anonymous strategy

 * Start with ninjas and apprentices.
 * Get some 0/2 or 2/2 bomb towers.
 * Keep upgrading these towers.
 * Eventually, get a 3/2 ice tower near the end of the track.
 * Sell all the ninjas and apprentices and get a 2/3 village supporting the ice tower.
 * Make more and more bombs, and get them to 2/3.
 * Make sure you have many banana farms.
 * If you have extra money, get more MOAB-class poppers like MOAB assassins and 2/3 Spike Factories.

Strategy by stijnswag (for lvl 21 and higher)
With this strategy I managed to get to round 57 but I had to stop because of all the lag
 * Start with a 2/1 glue gunner at the start set to strong and a 0/0 spike at the end and get a banana farm.
 * Once you upgrade the banana farm to 2/0 upgrade you spike factory to 1/0.
 * Buy another farm and upgrade it to 1/0 and then upgarde your glue gunner to 2/2.
 * Keep getting farms untill ceramics show up buy a 1/2 sniper set to strong and an 1/1 ice tower near the glue gunner if that happens.
 * At round 16 you should save your money to buy a 4/* bloon chipper.
 * If you have 4/* farm unlocked you can use the banana glitch that makes BRF drop 13 crates instead of 5 if you start the round with a 3/* farm and upgrade it once you start the round you could keep doing this if you have auto-start off and keep reselling your BRF's
 * Upgrade your glue gunner to 3/2 and your spike factory to 2/2 when you feel like it.
 * When multiple bfb's come get another 4/* bloonchipper.
 * Get as much bloonchipper as possible and the you should pick some spot at the end of the track where you can place all your 2/3 spike factories, also place an 3/2 ice tower and a few 3/2 glue gunners. Which will make the bloons slower than the moabs which makes it more efficient for killing moab-class.
 * After that place all you should place all your bomb towers somewhere between the spike factories and the bloonchipper and upgrade them to at least 2/3
 * With your remaing money buy 2/3 ice towers between the spikefactories for easier clearing of bloons and moab class and if you unlocked absolute zero use that to slow down the zomg's
 * Place */4 tack shooters close to the track near the spike factories and use them when bloons are getting too far (the abillity when placed close to moab class can kill them very easilly and another one can be used to clear most of the ceramics)

Mobile Strategy by wyp020610
This strategy is mainly based on Dartling guns. I play BMC mobile with this strategy and can usually out-compete my opponents by a few rounds.

This strategy is usable when you first unlock dartlings and its 0-1 upgrade, and will probably be good until you have a max TOTMG.


 * Start with a 0-1 dartling, then upgrade it to 2-2 (1-2 if you don't have 2-x). If there are early leads, then buy 0-2 first; otherwise buy 2-1 first. Then place more 2-1 (or 0-1) dartlings.
 * If you have lots of starting cash, you can place a village before buying your first dartling.
 * Dartlings have problems dealing with fast bloons on early rounds, so you may want to place them on the end of a straight path. Place them close to the exit to help catch leaks.
 * Later you will need a village. It will help discount the dartlings, and its x-1 upgrade synergizes very well with dartlings as they fire very fast.
 * If you have 2-2 upgrades, place a village before buying the second dartling. After upgrading the second dartling to 2-1, buy the monkey fort upgrade. Then try to save up for a 2-3 dartling. If the dartlings start to struggle, then add another 2-1 dartling, and upgrade the village to 2-1.
 * Try to place a 2-1 glue at the beginning of the track, set target to strong. The glue gunner can pop leads, so you don't need to upgrade the dartling to x-2 early. It can't detect camo though. You still need x-2 dartlings for camo leads, or you can just let them leak.
 * The corrosive glue deals damage over time, and most importantly, it splits along with the bloons, even if the bloon is popped by another damage source. This makes them incredibly effective against bloons that have multiple children. The glue can deal with rainbows on its own. It can't pop ceramics on its own. However, you can use the dartlings to crack the ceramic layer, and the glue will finish off the rest of them.
 * Corrosive glue pops as fast as regen bloons could regenerate, and could turn zebras or above into a regen farm. You should quickly shoot at the regen bloons after they are glued. Once they are pinks or below, they won't split when popped, and the glue will effectively prevent them from regenerating. You should still finish them off quickly, as the glue will eventually expire. Upgrading the glue to bloon dissolver can solve this problem, as even regen ceramics can be completely popped rather quickly.
 * In BMC Mobile, both dartlings and glue gunners have a glitch with x-1 village, which makes them far more powerful for their price. The x-1 village increases the pierce of the projectiles by 1. For a x-3 dartling, it doesn't increase the pierce of the explosions, it increases the number of the explosions instead, effectively doubling the firepower. The same applies to a x-2 glue gunner.
 * In addition, the level 2 Monkey Knowledge of dartlings increase the pierce of dartlings by 1, and it also triggers the glitch with x-3 dartlings. This makes 2-3 dartlings very powerful even without a village, and with a village you have 3x the firepower. This also makes 3-x upgrade for dartlings obsolete until you unlock Ray of Doom, but it's super expensive, and 2-4 dartlings could still be more powerful than 4-0 in many cases.
 * Due to the glitch above, a 2-3 dartling will be able to defend against anything below MOAB. Since you would also have one or two 2-1 dartlings, they can even pop a BFB together.
 * As MOABs are usually nowhere close when you first buy a 2-3 dartling, you can sell everything else (except the village), and start farming. The village could also help discount the farm.
 * You can also buy monkey town to vastly increase cash per pop from bloons, if the round number is still low. On higher rounds, cash per pop is severely decreased, and monkey town won't make a difference. It's still useful when upgraded to energy beacon.
 * Banana farms are very helpful for earning cash. Not for aiming dartlings though. However, a 2-3 dartling is powerful enough to hold out against anything, even when its aim is disturbed by banana farms. Of course you can buy a banana farmer to solve this problem.
 * In higher rounds, you should have enough cash to buy all relevant towers and fully upgrade them. It becomes just a matter of combined firepower: How much DPS against ZOMGs can you deal on the given track, provided you have enough cash to buy everything?

Mobile Strategy for dessert territories by ClovenSeeker812
This strategy requires a lot of T4s, namely, Bloonjitsu, Super Monkey Fan Club, Blade Maelstrom, Cripple MOAB, Supply Drop (Optional), Super Wide Funnel, Tempest Tornado, and Glaive Lord

I got past round 50 with this strategy.
 * Start off with a boomerang and a farm, upgrade the farm to 1-0 and the boomerang to 0-2. Add any free dart monkeys.
 * Upgrade the boomerang to a 0-3.
 * Now upgrade the farm to 2-0, then get more 2-0 farms.
 * If camos come out, get a 2-1 ninja or use some road spikes.
 * If you haven't already, get a 2-1 ninja.
 * Now once you have 4 farms, get a village around your towers and upgrade it to 2-3.
 * Get 2 2-3 bomb towers near the village.
 * Now get 3-2 ice next to the village.
 * Now prepare for late game, get 3-2 farms and get 4 4-2 bloonchippers around your village.
 * Spam 2-3 bomb towers around your village.
 * Upgrade your ninja to 4-2
 * Once you do that, upgrade your free dart monkey to 2-4, if you don't have one, get a dart monkey. Then spam 2-3 dart monkeys around the Fan Club.
 * Now get some 2-4 Tack Shooters and 4-2 Snipers. Get then close to the village if you can.
 * Now get some 2-4 snipers to farm while the rounds take longer.
 * After you do that, buy extra defenses (2-3 Glue, 2-3/2-4 Ninja, 4-2 Ninja, 2-3 Heli-Pilot, 2-3 Ice, 4-2 Apprentice, etc.).
 * Sell the 2-4 snipers for 4-2 snipers.
 * Now micro abilities.

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