User blog:The Primordial Clok-Roo/2-Tower CHIMPS Challenge: What I've Tried (And Failed)

If you're familiar with Bloons Tower Defence 6, chances are that you have probably heard of the 2 tower CHIMPS challenge. It's pretty self-explanatory: beat CHIMPS mode using ONLY 2 towers - that's 95 rounds of the first 2 towers you purchase, WITHOUT losing a life.

Several people have tried this challenge and found a few combinations that work. I've been trying my best to get in on the act with combinations that I feel CAN work... But with all of them something doesn't work out.

The following are combinations that I have tried and that I believe have the potential to pull off the fabled 2 tower CHIMPS run, but as of now they cannot.

Quincy + Sky Shredder
This one is probably the one with the most potential to work out of all I have tried. It may seem like it wouldn't be possible, but Quincy plus the Sky Shredder work really well together late game and hold up well in the early game.

And unlike ISAB's Quincy + Anti-Bloon run, you CAN purchase the Monkey Ace and still have enough left over to get Quincy's Level 7 upgrade, unless of course you purchase Exploding Pineapples, in which case have fun micro-ing!

Where this run falls apart, however, is Round 48 onward. 4-2-0 Monkey Ace (Operation: Dart Storm with camo detection) can beat Round 48 just fine, but it REALLY struggles against Round 49. You might have Quincy's abilities, but try saving the Storm of Arrows for the regrow rainbows when you've got ceramics and zebras coming at you thick and fast! They just cannot hold them off together!

So I tried a 4-0-1 Monkey Ace, since Sky Shredder gets camo detection anyway... It fairs better against Round 49 and is enough to clear it AND Round 50 (just), but you are at the mercy of two problems: Quincy is your ONLY lead and camo popping tower, which makes the fortified leads on Round 45 a bit of a hassle. But the even BIGGER problem are the regrow-camo-purples on 48. I just CANNOT clear this round with this set-up; the purples are too spread out for Quincy to hit.

But then, regardless of which set-up you go for, you're going to struggle past Round 93 (you'll more than likely have the Sky Shredder b this point). In theory, you should be able to get this far, but beyond that is no-man's land to me. In fact, I'm not even sure if Quincy and the Sky Shredder can even get past the ZOMG rounds, let alone the DDT rounds.

If you think you can go further than I did using Quincy and the Monkey Ace, go ahead; I'd like to know how you did it and where you placed the towers, as well as what map. (It'll most likely be Logs, but you never know.)

OK, so this combination has the POTENTIAL to beat 2 tower CHIMPS - especially if Quincy gets a much needed power buff... These next two should be able to in theory, but are realistically impossible.

Avatar of Wrath + Homeland Defense
You'd be amazed how powerful an Avatar of Wrath is under the effects of Homeland Defense's ability. It's super-fast and super powerful! It can actually do a real number on MOAB-class Bloons!

Assuming you ever get it set up.

This combination fails instantly at the first MOAB on Round 40. I've tried all I could, and nothing I ever did was able to pop it. And I tried everything!

The first major problem is that you are forced to use a 2-0-X Druid, because you are unable to set-up a Monkey Intelligence Bureau in time for Round 28. Radar Scanner for Round 24? Easy! M.I.B. for 28? Impossible. You're only lead popping power is going to be Heart of Lightning.

And then there's the problem of the Druid of Wrath. If it gained attack speed as it continued to attack, it probably WOULD be able to pop the MOAB and keep going... but it doesn't work like that. It has to POP the Bloon for it to count to its hidden 'wrath' counter,' and because Poplust provides NO benefit, you'll be stuck with your Druid of Wrath for a LOOOOOONG time!

If the Druid of Wrath and Poplust upgrades ever get buffed, I might revisit this. But for now... impossible. (Heck, it can't even beat Round 95 after testing. Go figure.)

Striker Jones + Flying Fortress
OK, you can probably see an immediate problem: there's no way you can afford either of these towers at the start of CHIMPS mode. So to really test this, I set-up a controlled challenge using the editor, simulating a CHIMPS mode run with starting cash of 865 so I could afford the Monkey Ace.. Why the Ace and not Jones? Because "Biker Bones" cannot solo long enough to afford the Monkey Ace, but the other way around can.

Now why this combination to begin with? Simple: so that the Flying Fortress had the popping power to defeat DDT's. DDT's have camo, lead and black Bloon properties, so explosives are useless against it unfortunately. Thankfully, Striker Jones' Level 9 upgrade weakens black and zebra Bloons so that they CAN be destroyed by explosives.

On paper. I did not realize that the Flying Fortress explosives could pop ALL Bloon types. Still, Jones plus Spectre SHOULD suffice, and Jones is actually really good on his own late-game... which brings me to the first problem: overall costs. Unless Striker Jones gets a price discount (which won't help much, really), you won't be starting a proper (and eligible) game anytime soon. And even IF that did happen, I'm not sure you can even AFFORD Flying Fortress in a normal game of CHIMPS mode. You need to amass more than 150,000 cash in total to afford it (that's including the Spectre upgrade, mind). Is there that much money in a standard game? Don't think so...

Secondly, like with the Druid and Monkey Village combo, it's just straight up impossible to beat the Round 40 MOAB. You're stuck with a Level 7 Striker Jones and 0-2-3 Neva-Miss Targeting Monkey Ace You can pop the outer layer, but you get overwhelmed by the Bloons inside. If you can pull this off yourself, I'd like to know how you did it... because I don't think it's possible.

And once again... Flying Fortress gets overwhelmed when the DDT rounds come. Great.

Disclaimer
More to come... potentially.

(Want to try these for yourself? By all means, go ahead! But if you SOMEHOW pull one of these off, be sure to credit me if you were inspired by such.)