Favors and Restrictions

Favors and Restrictions is a term that refers to the choice of towers that a player can use on a certain tile. Towers that are favored are discounted by 15% in both the base cost and upgrades, while towers that are restricted are forbidden from use in a particular terrain. Other towers remain unaffected, unless affected by a Special Mission.

The Favors and Restrictions may change depending on the type of terrain, as seen in a specific tile info. The Favors and Restrictions may alter the strategies necessary for completing a particular tile.

Tips on each tower
In each terrain, Favors and Restrictions may affect how a player can use a certain strategy. A player may prefer to use a certain tower, but the player's tower for producing their strategy may be restricted. Different strategies may be used to counter in different ways if a specific tower is restricted.

Dart Monkey
Although not many players would primarily use the Dart Monkey, it can still be used in large groups and be upgraded to counter bloons in many ways. Such examples include Juggernaut helping pop lead and crack ceramics, being upgraded to 2/x to counter Camo Bloons, and Super Monkey Fan Club summoning Super Monkeys from fellow Dart Monkeys temporarily.

Other flexible towers that can co-operate and work together with their variety of upgrades include the Tack Shooter, the Bomb Shooter, the Ninja Monkey, the Monkey Buccaneer, and the Spike Factory, although sometimes they may need to rely on other towers to counter their own weaknesses.

Tack Shooter
Tack shooters are great popping power for the first few rounds, especially in curves and loops on Hills Terrain, where they're favored. If you have enough money, a 4/x Tack shooter will shred through leads and ceramics, but even an x/3 tower will do the trick, popping all of those pesky yellows and pinks that slip through your first line of defenses. The x/3 tower does not, however, pop leads or ceramics very well.

The Ring of Fire (4/x tower) can also pop frozen bloons, making it a deadly combination when placed next to an ice tower.

If the Tack shooter is restricted, then that probably means that every other tower other than the banana farms are available. Usually tack shooters are restricted because the path is very windy and circular. 2/x mortars targeted in the middle of these circular portions and/or 2/2 ice towers make for great popping power that almost equals that of a tack shooter.

Sniper Monkey
Sniper Monkeys are never restricted on any terrain, except on certain special terrains such as the Wattle Trees mission. They're favored on Heavy Forest Terrain but don't have much use unless you're in in Contested Territory. They are sometimes useful to pick off camo-lead bloons if no other upgrades to pop camo-lead have been purchased yet.

Ninja Monkey
Ninjas are a popular tower in the early game because they shoot fast and are able to have homing shuriken with the Seeking Shuriken upgrade. Much of the time, they are helpful for all but powerful Regrow Bloons, because of their superior camo detection and homing capabilities. Placing them in large numbers allows them to pop just about any bloon well, other than powerful Regrow Bloons and Lead Bloons (the Leads may be countered with Bomb Shooters or Monkey Apprentices, while the Regrow Bloons may be countered with Boomerang Throwers). They're very useful in Forest Terrain where they're favored

However, they are restricted in water-based tiles (i.e. the Lake and River tiles), apart from Special Missions. The power of popping many bloons with many Ninja Monkeys can be replaced upgraded Buccaneers, especially with at least Grape Shot. As for the homing powers, Monkey Subs may do the trick (mobile only).

Boomerang Thrower
Using a 4/x Glaive Lord near a curve could pop a lot of bloons. If you combine this with an arctic wind, then you have infinite(?) popping power (not effective against MOAB class bloons). In desert terrains, they're favored and in snow and volcano terrains they're restricted.

Bomb Shooter
Bomb Shooters are favored on Desert Terrain, but restricted on almost all water-dominant terrains. In the Desert Terrain, since Super Monkeys and Spike Factories are restricted, they can be helpful for getting rid of MOAB-class bloons, especially with large groups of MOAB-Maulers. Their splash effect is also good for removing groups of MOAB-class.

Ice Monkey
Ice Monkeys are usually favored in cold terrain, but restricted in hot/tropical terrains (except for Desert Terrain, strangely), but usually the favored tower in these types of terrain (Mortar Monkeys and Glue Gunners) can replace the Ice Monkey. Tack Shooters can also replace Ice Monkeys.

Glue Gunner
Glue Gunners are favored in Jungle Terrain, but restricted in Desert Terrain. In the Jungle Terrain, Glue Gunners can be replacements for Ice Monkeys and Monkey Apprentices for Lead popping power. In the Desert Terrain, since Glue Gunners and Spike Factories are restricted, you can use the Bomb Tower or the Boomerang Thrower for Lead popping power instead.

Mortar Monkey
They are never restricted when playing on tiles surrounding the city. They are helpful in the Volcano Terrain, especially when Monkey Villages are restricted, as Mortar Monkeys are favored there and 2/3+ Mortar Monkeys are used to remove the Camo status out of Camo Bloons.

Dartling Gun
The Dartling Gun can replace the Super Monkey when it is restricted. It has high fire rate, and the player can control where it shoots. However when it is restricted on mountain terrains, use Super Monkeys instead.

Spike Factory
If a player wanted to use a solo Spike Factory in the early rounds as part of his/her strategy but finds it is restricted from use, a solo 2/2 Ninja Monkey could be used instead. If countering Hard and Heavy, add a Bomb Shooter or Monkey Apprentice near it.

Monkey Buccaneer
The Monkey Buccaneer is never directly restricted on any type of terrain. But if there are tracks that lack water, then Ninja Monkeys and/or Dart Monkeys can be used for Bloon popping power, and the Bomb Shooter can be used for Lead popping power and MOAB popping power.

Monkey Ace
The Monkey Ace is an extremely powerful tower in late-game tiles and contested territory. However, it is restricted on Mountain, Cave, and Badland tile types. It's not great in early round play, but the Spectre upgrade devastates MOAB class bloons and crowds. Neva-Miss Targeting is also a viable option in earlier play as it can shoot anywhere on the map, though it's fairly expensive.

Monkey Apprentice
Monkey Apprentice in Volcano Terrain can make good use of getting rid of pesky Lead Bloon populations, since they are favored on this terrain. When restricted, such as in by a Jungle Terrain, Lead Bloons can be countered by buying a 2/x Spike Factory, which can clean up a fairly good amount of mess made by bloons.

Super Monkey
The Super Monkey is highly popularized for use of popping MOAB-class bloons easily, especially in the very difficult tiles when many players plan to use TOTMGs and Technological Terrors. If the Super Monkey is restricted, one may like to use a wide variety of towers for their defense. Use of many MOAB-Maulers and use of other towers to wipe up the Ceramic Bloons left over is a good alternative to Super Monkeys. Note that on every terrain that Super Monkeys are restricted the Spike Factory is restricted as well.

Monkey Village
The Monkey Village doesn't have any favors, but is restricted in the Volcano Terrain. You can use Banana Farms to earn extra money in place of using the Monkey Village to lower the prices. With the other abilities though, you can use Overclock instead of M.I.B Call To Arms, and Dragon's Breath instead of (part of) the Energy Beacon, otherwise there is no other tower to fill in the other abilities (Meerkat Spies does not appear in Bloons Monkey City and Volcano Terrain does not have water, meaning you cannot use the Bloontonium Reactors for lower ability cool down timers).

Banana Farm
The Banana Farm is favored on 1 terrain, the River Terrain, and restricted in a total of 4 different types of terrain (6 if you are including Bloondunes). Instead of making more bananas for money, you can lower the prices of a tower using a Monkey Village. Monkey Town farming can be utilized to replace Banana Farms although limited to higher rounds.

Monkey Engineer
Monkey Engineers are favored in the Caves terrain, but it is restricted in terrain such as River terrains. On Bloon Dunes, Monkey Engineers are favored on High Desert and Badlands terrains too.

Heli-Pilot
The Heli-Pilot is a versatile tower, great for getting bloons out of range of other towers. Its more powerful upgrades (Apache Dartship) are comparable in power to the Monkey Ace's Spectre, devastating MOAB class bloons and crowds. Follow Mouse/Follow Touch upgrades are good if you need to take manual control of the Heli-Pilot to direct it to a problem area. The Pursuit upgrade is great if you want to set it down and forget about it.

Monkey Sub
Monkey Subs have no specified favor or restriction of any terrain, but they cannot be used in terrains where there is no water. You can instead use the Ninja Monkey for the homing attack, and use the Bomb Shooter, or Flash Bomb, for Lead Popping Power. You can use MOAB Assasins for MOAB annihilation.

Bloonchipper
A good thing to utilize for Bloonchippers is for them to suck up the strong bloons, particularly the Ceramic Bloons and MOAB-Class(4/x), and let other towers to clean up the mess made from them. A Sniper Monkey can make a good substitute when the Bloonchipper is restricted on the Lake Terrain.

Use in each terrain
Each terrain is built slightly different and there may be some strengths and weaknesses that may be posed in each one. Utilising the favors and countering the restrictions is helpful for passing a terrain with ease. This section may also be helpful to show which towers would suit well in which terrain, so that you, the reader, will know which strategies to use and adapt whenever Favors and Restrictions affects a player's normal strategy.

Grass Terrain
In this terrain, there are no towers restrictions. However, they may like to utilize the favor of the Monkey Ace or the Bloonchipper (Mobile only) if they wish. This terrain usually has only one exit, one entry and many curves and bends on the way. Such features make it not only suitable for Bloonchippers and Monkey Aces, but also to Tack Shooters and Spike Factories, and also to powerful long-range towers such as Super Monkeys. The nature of the number of "8" formations and wide O-shaped paths in Grass Terrains makes it a very good place to put Monkey Aces and Summon Phoenix around.

A good thing to utilize for Bloonchippers is for them to suck up the strong bloons, particularly the Ceramic Bloons and MOAB-class (if upgraded to Super Wide Funnel), and let other towers to clean up the mess made from them. Combinations of Bloonchippers on setting Strong and Monkey Aces around the suitable areas may make a good tactic. 4/2 Bloonchippers would reduce the MOAB-class into smaller parts so that the 4/2 or 2/4 Monkey Aces can deal with the smaller clumps, though the Ground Zero Ability may blitz the Packed MOABs into dust (or into Ceramic Bloons in Freeplay Mode or post-Round 30 in Contested Territory).

Hills Terrain
The Tack Shooter and Heli Pilot (Heli pilot on mobile only) is favored, but the Dart Monkey is restricted. Many tiles with this terrain have many nice corners for Tack Shooters to be placed. However, there are often tunnels on this terrain. This terrain also has much open space for Sniper Monkeys, Mortar Towers, Heli-Pilots and Banana Farms to be placed around. Specific tracks of this terrain may not suitable for Spike Factories due to the fact about multiple paths affecting their performance.

When Dart Monkeys are unavailable, groups of Tack Shooters may help, with the help of 2/3 Mortar Towers and some 2/2 Monkey Villages for the Camo Bloons. There may also be good opportunity to place Heli-Pilots (Mobile only) around the track to exploit bloon damage, particularly with 2/3+, 3/2 or 4/2 Heli-Pilots. May also be cheaper to receive more lives and cash through Support Chinook.

Forest Terrain
The Ninja Monkey is favored; the Tack Shooter and Banana Farm are restricted. The single entry and exit plus the commonly occuring medium-sized corners will suit Spike Factories. (Such corners would've suited Tack Shooter well, but unfortunately, it is restricted.) There are also several large open spaces around the Forest Terrain, making it fairly suitable for Mortar Monkeys, Monkey Aces and Heli-Pilots, which all have a large footprint.

Farming may be difficult without the Banana Farm, but several other types of cash generating towers can replace them easily. Regrow Farming, Supply Drop Farming and Bloon Trap Farming is still eligible. As for the utilisation of the favored towers, massed groups of Ninja Monkeys may be able to counter well early in the game, unless there are Regrow Rushes or large numbers of Lead Bloons. When supplimented by 2+/2+ Monkey Apprentices and 3/2 Boomerang Throwers, it is enough to counter all non-MOAB-class effectively.

Heavy Forest Terrain
The Sniper Monkey is favored; the Tack Shooter, Banana Farm and Heli-Pilot are restricted. Just like the Forest Terrain, there are some areas with open space. There are also some areas far from the center of the track where Sniper Monkeys can be placed that larger-footprinted towers cannot be placed, mostly because of the trees that affect tower placement. More large curves appear in these sorts of track. This terrain also almost always has one entry and exit, with the exception of the "Butterfly" track.

Farming is even more limited, being limited to only Bloon Trap Farming and Supply Drop Farming. With Sniper Monkeys in favor of this terrain, the Supply Drop Farming process can be utilised. As well as this, grouped Sniper Monkeys with completely different target settings may help single out powerful bloons and weaken the Bloon Rush structure, though other towers are needed to help completely destroy the Bloon Rush.

Desert Terrain
The Bomb Shooter and Boomerang Thrower are favored; the Spike Factory, Glue Gunner and Super Monkey are restricted. Most of the time, Desert Terrain appears to have a rather simple type of path, sometimes having only completely square corners and straight paths. Though this may suit Spike Factories, they are unfortunately restricted. However, some tracks do have curves and more than one entry and exit. Many nice small corners for low-range towers to be placed.

Most of the time, Desert Terrain appears to have a rather simple type of path, sometimes having only completely square corners and straight paths. Though this may suit Spike Factories, they are unfortunately restricted.

Where Super Monkeys cannot be used, Dartling Guns in many directions may be used instead. The use of mass-MOAB-Maulers may still help against MOAB-class, with the help of Monkey Villages as well (such as DDTs). Do try to utilise the use of the Bomb Shooter and Boomerang Thrower to counter Bloon Rushes. If a player usually uses solo Spike Factories as part of his/her starting strategy, a solo 2+/2 Ninja Monkey or solo 2/2 Monkey Apprentice could replace it. Replacement of Glue Gunners can be done similarly by Ice Monkeys and possibly more effectively with the favored Bomb Shooter and Boomerang Thrower with Sonic Boom.

River Terrain
The Banana Farm is favoured; the Bomb Shooter, Ninja Monkey and Monkey Engineer are restricted. On this terrain, Monkey Buccaneers can be used and placed in many different ways and places. Due to its nature of large curved sections of the river, Boomerang Throwers will fit well. However, the river is not a good place for Tack Shooters because they cannot usually get close to the corners, only the edge of the river, which doesn't usually have much of the bloon path.

When the power of Bomb Shooters cannot be sufficed, combinations of large numbers of Monkey Buccaneers of Destroyer, Cannon Ship, Aircraft Carrier, or Monkey Pirates may still be tooken advantage of. As for Ninja Monkeys, Monkey Buccanners with Crow's Nest may suffice. If using Monkey Engineer's Cleansing Foam to remove camo, Signal Flare from the Mortar Monkey may be able to replace it well.

Lake Terrain
The Monkey Buccaneer is favored; the Bomb Shooter, Ninja Monkey and Bloonchipper are restricted making it more difficult to get MOAB popping power. However, this is an excellent place to be putting in Monkey Buccaneers to their primary use, because of the large amount of water that such water-based towers can be placed. Also a good place for Monkey Subs. Consider using 3/2 Monkey Buccaneer to shoot super fast for a substitute for the MOAB-Mauler, though Super Monkeys can still be used as well.

Sometimes, there is very little land for towers of large footprint to be placed on, especially if using Mortar Towers or Dartling Guns, which usually would be placed further away from the track.

Jungle Terrain
The Glue Gunner is favored; the Ice Monkey and Monkey Apprentice are restricted. Countering Camo Leads can be countered by using the 2/x Spike Factory instead. It appears that there are a lot of open spaces in most types of jungle terrain accept totem poles, making it suitable for placing certain towers far from the precious strategical land that central-dominant towers would prefer. There is also good space for putting in powerful towers in the center as well.

Mountains Terrain
The Ice Monkey is favored; the Monkey Ace, Banana Farm, Dartling Gun and Heli-Pilot are restricted. There are usually many corners around where Ice Monkeys and Tack Shooters would find pleasing. If wanting to counter Camo Bloons without the Dartling Gun, try having a solo Spike Factory at near the end of the track.

Snow Terrain
The Ice Monkey is favored; the Dart Monkey, Boomerang Thrower, Dartling Gun and Monkey Engineer are restricted. Often, this terrain is situated very far from the center of the city, and will most likely be MOAB-class dominant. Sometimes there are multiple paths, but sometimes there is a single path with a single exit. (insert more tips here)

Volcano Terrain
The Monkey Apprentice and Mortar Monkey are favored; the Ice Monkey, Monkey Village and Boomerang Thrower are restricted. To counter Camo Bloons or DDTs without the Monkey Village would require a 3/x Monkey Engineer or x/3 Mortar Monkey instead. You can also use a 4-2 Spike Factory.

On certain types of volcano terrain, there huge amounts of large open space, but some are confined to a very small amount of space. On all types of volcano terrain, there is much lava, where no towers at all can be placed on.

Arid Grasslands Terrain
As with the Grass Terrain, there are no restrictions. The Monkey Ace is favored. Note that the paths are different and this terrain is only found in BMC Flash. There are not as many nice rounded or "8"-formatted paths, though still fairly suitable for Monkey Ace.

High Desert Terrain
The Monkey Ace and Monkey Engineer are favored; the Spike Factory, Super Monkey, Dartling Gun and Banana Farm are restricted. Only found in BMC Flash. (insert more tips here)

Badlands Terrain
The Sniper Monkey and Monkey Engineer are favored; the Monkey Ace and Banana Farm are restricted. Only found in BMC Flash. (insert more tips here)

Trivia

 * In BMC Mobile, Favours and Restrictions formerly did not apply on "My Tracks", meaning all normally favored towers were at their original prices while all normally restricted towers were not forbidden from use. This had lasted until Version 1.8.0 Christmas 2015 update, which from then on restricted monkeys are now no longer allowed to use and favored monkeys costs 15% cheaper.
 * In BMC Flash, the Monkey Engineer is favored in the Caves Terrain on "My Tracks", but the Monkey Ace and Mortar Monkey are restricted. This does not happen with BMC Mobile.
 * The Dart Monkey, Super Monkey, Spike Factory, Dartling Gun, and Monkey Sub are never favored.
 * The Sniper, Buccaneer, and Monkey Sub are never restricted from n non special mission tracks.