Monkey Ace

"The only unit that moves, the Monkey Ace patrols the skies above the action, regularly strafing the area with powerful piercing darts."

- Bloons Tower Defense 4 Description

"Monkey Aces are best suited to more spread out tracks where they can inflict the most poppage."

- Round 38 on Bloons Tower Defense 4

"Patrols the skies above the action, regularly strafing the area with powerful darts in 8 directions."

- Bloons Tower Defense 5 Description

The Monkey Ace is a moving unit operated by a monkey that debuted in Bloons Tower Defense 4. It also appears in its Expansion, Bloons Tower Defense 5 and Bloons 2. In BTD4 and BTD5, it costs $765 on Easy, $900 on Medium and $970 on Hard. It will automatically fire at the Bloons. When the player places it on the screen, it will automatically fly in a figure eight form, and has infinite Range. However, in BTD5, the player can switch the Monkey Ace's route between an 8 shape, an &infin; (infinity symbol) shape and an O shape. The O shape is usually most efficient, as the monkey ace does not move out of the screen (unless you place it near a corner).

The monkey ace is mainly used to spot Camo Bloons, but when there is water in a map that is close to the entrance, some players prefer to add battleships instead. This is a better Camo-detector because it goes all around the map, but it is a lot weaker to start with because it does not aim directly at the bloons (until the player gets it to at least tier 3).

In Bloons TD 4, the Monkey Ace can be placed anywhere. However, in Bloons TD 5, the Monkey Ace has a runway, so the player has to place the runway on land.

Rate of fire (BTD4): Un-upgraded: 25 SPM (shots per minute) Rapid Fire: 40 SPM Operation: Dart Storm: 50 SPM

Bloons Tower Defense 4 Upgrades
Pineapple Express - Drops highly explosive Pineapples $170/$200/$215 Spy Plane - Allows towers near Monkey Ace to detect Camo Bloons $300/$350/$380 Rapid Fire - Increases attack rate $595/$700/$755 Operation: Dart Storm - Shoots more darts and Pineapples at a faster rate $2975/$3500/$3780

Total Selling Price: $4805/$5650/$6100

Bloons Tower Defense 5 Upgrades
 

Bloons 2
Monkey Aces make another appearance here. They pop Bloons that they fly through. The player must pop a Monkey Ace Bloon to give the monkey 2 flags, allowing the player to send them to pop Bloons. If the Monkey Ace hits a wall, it will explode, and the pilot will parachute down. The explosion will not pop any Bloons. When the Reverse Gravity Bloon is popped, the plane flies upside down, and the pilot parachutes up when it crashes.

Glitches

 * Use of the Supply Drop Ability from the Sniper Monkey, placing the Monkey Ace, then upgrading it to Operation: Dart Storm (Note: Don't upgrade the Monkey Ace to the Operation: Dart Storm upgrade before the player uses the Ability), will make a surprise. What surprise?


 * On the Country Road track on BTD5, if you place the Monkey ace on the center and switch from "vertical 8" circling to "round" circling, sometimes the Ace will indefinitely fly towards the top right.
 * If you keep switching around the path of the Monkey Ace, it might go out of the screen. Occasionally it will come back, but it can be really irritating for people if it doesn't. One way to get it back is to save and quit, then Load the game.
 * Monkey Ace landing sites can be placed more closely together when below other landing sites than when on top. The landing sites also go slightly right when placed down.

Trivia

 * This tower seems to be based off of the Sopwith Camel, a British World War One fighter plane.
 * In Bloons TD 5, the Rapid Fire upgraded plane is very similar to the P-38 Lightning, while the Operation: Dart Storm and Ground Zero are like the B-2. In addition, Spectre is just like the real AC-130.
 * In Bloons TD 5, the Pineapple Present does not drop faster for 2 upgrades (Rapid Fire and Operation: Dart Storm).
 * This is the first moving tower in the BTD series, with the second being the Heli Pilot.
 * This tower is deadly in mass amounts, especially if upgraded to tier 3.
 * Unlike the Hydra Rocket Pods upgrade with the Dartling Gun, the Spectre still shoots darts.
 * An Operation: Dart Storm appears dropping a crate of cash in BTD5, when the player activates the Supply Drop ability.
 * Coincidentally or intentionally, the German word for 'Plane' is 'Flugzeug', and the hotkey to select the Monkey Ace is F.
 * In Bloons TD 4, the pineapples will drop every time the plane shoots, no matter what upgrade. While in Bloons TD 5, it will normally just drop one Pineapple every 3 seconds regardless of further upgrades.
 * It is possible to beat all rounds in Bloons TD 4 by filling the screen with monkey aces; however, this will create lots of lag and takes a long time.
 * The Premium Upgrade Grilled Pineapples makes the Pineapples that the Monkey Ace drop explode after 1 second as well.
 * Ground Zero, one of the last upgrades for Monkey Aces, is pretty useful in further levels since 2 of them can instantly pop B.F.B.s, just leaving you with the M.O.A.B.s. The player will still need a way to pop Z.O.M.G.s, though.
 * In BTD5, the icon for the monkey ace upgrade Spectre shows the ace dropping 2 bombs with words on both bombs that are hard to read, the first saying "From: Ace" and the second saying "To: Bloons".
 * Both of the final upgrades are based off of real planes, both nicknamed after ghosts.
 * In BTD5 Deluxe, the Ground Zero Ability does 1,000 damage instead of 350, instantly popping B.F.B.s. It also does 1,000 damage in BTD Battles.
 * The name and shape of the "Spectre" Upgrade are references to the Gunship AC-130H Spectre.