Boomerang Thrower

"Throws a boomerang in an arc back round to the monkey. Each boomerang can pop 3 bloons."

- Bloons TD 5 Description The Boomerang Thrower is a tower that made its debut in BTD2. It is called Boomerang in BTD2 and BTD3, and Boomerang Thrower in BTD4 and BTD5, BTD Battles, and Bloons Monkey City on all platforms. As of the BTD6 generation, it is known as the Boomerang Monkey, named to be consistent with most other monkey-based towers. It has also made appearances in non-tower defense games across the Bloons franchise as a whole.

The Boomerang Monkey throws a returning projectile every 1.33 seconds, following an curved offset path in front of it. Each boomerang can pop up to 4 bloons (2 in BTD2 and BTD3, 3 in BTD4 and BTD5).

Game appearances
The Boomerang Monkey has appeared in at least 16 Bloons games:

Bloons TD 4
In only BTD4, the Boomerang Monkey's final upgrade directly references the Star Wars media franchise. It throws lightsabers and is referred to as a "jedi" in-game.

Bloons TD 5
In the BTD5 generation, the monkey has two upgrade paths, both of which return in the sixth generation. The first path includes upgrades that directly change the behavior of its projectiles and emphasizes popping tons of individual bloons at once, whereas the cybernetic second path lets it attack superfast.

Bloons TD 6
The Boomerang Monkey returns in Bloons TD 6 as an unlockable Primary Monkey after the player reaches Level 2-6. It can now pop up to 4 bloons per shot, as well as swap throwing hands at anytime, by default. The monkey has several new and preexisting upgrades to deal more damage to MOAB-class bloons specifically. On its new third upgrade path, it switches to straight-line kylies able to pushback blimps with subsequent upgrades.

Bloons series
In Bloons (and all subsequent games) the Dart Monkey will turn into if it pops a Boomerang Bloon.

The and the boomerang in the Bloons series stay roughly the same, with some slight tweaks in each game. In Bloons, the Boomerang Thrower is just a Dart Monkey with a large boomerang. In Bloons 2, the Monkey gets its iconic yellow outfit, and the size of the Boomerang is reduced, but it also moves faster. In Bloons 2 Spring Fling, the boomerang has flowers on it, and in Bloons 2 Christmas Pack the boomerang is either painted like a candy cane or is a candy cane.

Premium Upgrades

 * Double Ranga


 * Cost: 20 Ninja Kiwi Coins
 * Description: The new Double Ranga technique allows all of your boomerang throwers to hurl 2 boomerangs instead of 1! (Btd5 flash, steam, mobile, and deluxe Exclusive)

Differences between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile

 * Glaive Ricochet can spawn multiple glaives when under the influence of a Monkey Village with the Monkey Fort upgrade or the M.I.B. Call to Arms ability.
 * Glaive Lord doesn't deal as much damage to M.O.A.B. Class Bloons.
 * Base cost of the Boomerang Thrower is more expensive ($380 → $400).
 * Glaive Lord's orbiting glaives cannot pop Frozen and Lead Bloons unless you upgrade the tower to Sonic Boom and Red Hot Rangs, respectively.
 * Turbo Charge no longer plays a sound when the ability is activated.

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)
Boomerang Thrower is often used for its anti-Regrow capabilities and as a fair early-game starting tower (somewhat expensive to get up but can defend pretty much everything up to round 8 by itself). Its slight flexibility also allows it to be useful for dealing with many types of bloons. It is often paired with the Ninja Monkey or another Camo-popping tower for combating camos.

With its buffs, it is now more suitable for early-game and early-mid-game. This is especially true for Turbo Charge and Glaive Lord as both can be used in emergencies against camo bloons, especially against Camo Leads and camo bloon rushes. Popular loadouts include Buccaneer Farm Boomerang, Heli Farm Boomerang, and Ninja Farm Boomerang. Boomerang Farm Spike Factory has also seen some use, though it's more of a "fun" loadout rather than a serious one. Boomerang COBRA Village used to be a popular loadout in normal arenas but it eventually fell out of use (mainly due to the COBRA nerfs).

Quotes
"Boomerang Throwers cut through multiple bloons each throw, especially if their weapon arcs along the track. Powerful upgrades include: Red Hot Rangs, Glaive Ricochet, Bionic Boomer, Turbo Charge"

- BMC Flash description

Trivia

 * The reason why the lightsaber thrower upgrade didn't return to BTD5 is that NinjaKiwi claimed it was infringing the copyright of Star Wars.
 * In BTD4 and its Expansion, the boomerangs, glaives, or lightsabers disappear about 2/3 of the way back if the game is on Fast Forward. This is because, oddly enough, the boomerangs themselves do not move faster on Fast Forward. And even if Fast Forward is off, they will not pop any bloons from where they should disappear in Fast Forward. This does not happen on the iPhone/iPod touch version.
 * The Boomerang Thrower is the only tower with a purple outline in BTD4.
 * Testing shows that contrary to what the description says, the Bionic Boomer will throw boomerangs 3.5x faster and glaives 4.9x faster. The Turbo Charge Ability causes the Bionic Boomer to attack a further five times faster.
 * Glaive Ricochet used to be able to pop literally thousands of bloons per glaive. Its piece was nerfed to 101 in a May 27th update to BTD5, then again down to 40 in Bloons Monkey City. It now sits at 50 pierce in BTD6; its subsequent upgrade doubles its pierce back up to 100.
 * The Boomerang Monkey is one of many towers that does not have an upgrade that increases its range in BTD5, the others being the Spike Factory, Glue Gunner, Sniper Monkey, Mortar Tower, Monkey Apprentice, Dartling Gun, Monkey Sub, Banana Farm, Heli Pilot, and the Monkey Ace.
 * This is no longer true in Bloons TD 6 with an upgrade called Long Range Rangs).
 * However, the Dartling Gun, Sniper Monkey, Heli Pilot, and the Monkey Ace all have infinite range, the Mortar Monkey can shoot at a single place anywhere on the map, and Advanced Intel and Ballistic Missile theoretically do increase the range (Advanced Intel increases the range to the range of any other tower, and Ballistic Missile gives infinite range to the missiles. Also, the Banana Farm doesn't attack.
 * With three Glaive Lords and one Glue Hose, it is possible to beat the M.O.A.B. Madness challenge.
 * Later, this strategy doesn't work anymore.
 * In BTD5, when there are multiple pages of something (such as the tracks), the arrows look like boomerangs.
 * In BTD5 when the Boomerang Thrower has not thrown any Boomerangs or Glaives yet or after upgrade, the Boomerang Thrower take it on his right hand.
 * Bionic Boomers always have a Glaive or Boomerang in his hand even after he has thrown a Boomerang or Glaive.
 * When players upgrade a Boomerang thrower, the arm moves slightly to the right (not with right path tier 3 or 4). After the first attack, the arm returns to normal. This also occurs with the Dart Monkey.
 * In BTD5D, the arm for the Turbo Charge Ability is white, whilst in BTD5 and the mobile version, it keeps Bionic Boomer's.
 * In BTD3, so long as a Boomerang Thrower is holding its boomerang, any bloon that runs into the held boomerang will be popped, essentially giving the Boomerang Thrower a "melee" attack.
 * Glaive Lord's permanent glaives can pop Lead Bloons even without Red Hot 'Rangs upgrade, although this does not apply to BTD5 mobile.
 * Glaive Lord's rang has an infinite pop cap, as long as it still has bloons nearby.
 * A few Bionic Boomers, especially with the Monkey Village's Jungle Drums upgrade, can easily shred a M.O.A.B to pieces.
 * In BTD5, it is the tower with the most different ways it appears with 12 different looks (13 in BTD5D) shown in the 4th picture below.
 * The Glaive Ricochet and Bionic Boomer upgrades are not nerfed in BTD5D, they cost $1100 and $1200 respectively.
 * In BTD4 and all previous games, the Boomerang Thrower only aims the boomerang in a certain way, and so it usually misses some bloons. This can be prevented by buying the Lightsabre Thrower upgrade in BTD4.
 * In BTD5, a Glaive Lord wears the same cloak as a Bloonjitsu, a Viral Frost, and a Super Monkey Fan Club, but with the Super Monkey Fan Club it is bigger and recolored.
 * In BTD2, there is an error in the Boomerang's description, showing Sonic boo o m instead of Sonic boom.
 * In BTD5, on Halloween, the Boomerang looks like a bat.
 * In BMC, while a Glaive Thrower with Red Hot Rangs is holding the glaive it will not appear red.
 * In BTD5, when the tier 3 and 4 upgrades of path 2 and tier 4 of path 1, the Boomerang Thrower loses the jumpsuit.
 * In the upgrade picture for Sonic Boom, it actually shows what the Boomerang Thrower would look like if you have both Multi-Target and Sonic Boom.
 * In BMC though, it still shows 0/1 Boomerang Thrower preview.
 * In BTD5 Mobile, if players upgrade a Boomerang Thrower to 0-3 its boomerang turns brown again. However, getting the 0-4 upgrade fixes this.
 * Boomerang Monkey's (in BTD6) third path gives it an Australian look, seeing as boomerangs are most popular in Australia.
 * However, the monkey throws kylies which predate the returning boomerang in real-world history. Australia is often created for inventing the returning boomerang.