Marceline

"Vampire Queen, Demon, Rockstar, Marceline can do it all, and now she's ready to sink her teeth into battling the bloons."

- BATTD Description

"Flies anywhere on the map to attack the bloons."

- Short description

Marceline is a Character that players unlock in Bloons Adventure Time TD. She functions in a similar way to the Heli Pilot when being used in the game, being one of few towers and the only character with this movement capability. She is unlocked by clearing Glob Save the Queen on the Extreme (pre-1.6.2)/Normal difficulty.

She has a alternate version called Hunter Marceline, which requires an in-app purchase of $9.99 USD or spending 75,000 Martian Crystals at the Martian Trader to obtain her.

Description
Marceline is a thin, pale Vampire, wearing a gray tank top, deep blue denim jeans and high red boots. Her hair is pitch black and extends the length of her already tall stature. When attacking the bloons, she swipes viciously at them with her bare hands. When idle, she can be seen playing her equipped musical instrument.
 * Pros
 * Flying, pursues bloons
 * Cons
 * Slow attack speed

Star Boost
Marceline will receive the following permanent boosts as she levels up:


 * 2 stars - Base attack pierce increased by 2
 * 4 stars - Amp range increased by 3
 * 6 stars - Base attack speed increased by 0.2
 * 8 stars - Base attack pierce increased by 2
 * 9 stars - Amp range increased by 3
 * 10 stars - Additional radial soundwave attack added to Amp

Strategy
Marceline is a rather unique character, serving as an active mixture of offensive and support when utilized properly with her attacks and her music serving either function. As an offensive tower, she bares the most resemblance to the Heli-Pilot, with Targeting Priorities directly parallel to Follow Touch/Mouse, Lock in Place, Patrol, and even Pursuit priority without needing to unlock it through an upgrade like with the Heli Pilot.

Unlike the Heli Pilot, however, she is strictly a melee fighter without supporting upgrades or Trinkets, making some strategies that work for a long-ranged tower like the Heli-Pilot less effective for a close-ranged character like Marceline. As such, Pursuit (the second pip in the Targeting Priorities) is the best option for Marceline, especially since most maps only have one entrance and seldom have the Bloons split up until they reach a designated point.

When considering upgrades, Marceline's range of attacks still primarily consists of scratching, but incorporates other aspects like eating the red off of bloons. This upgrade allows her to fare well against group of B.F.Bs, especially those that are released from a popped ZOMG. Telekinesis also allows her to gain an extra ranged utility, pushing bloons back to the start akin to the Downdraft upgrade from the Heli-Pilot, which can be further upgraded to Pyrokinesis, effectively making it both a utility and extra attack.

Unlike most Characters, Marceline starts out with access to two different upgrades as soon as she is placed, in the forms of Shape Shifting and Necromancy. These two force the other to be locked when purchase, so choosing one over the other can be important. Shape Shifting allows for a burst of activity in Marceline and a good passive to when she is not in her bat form, but the Necromancy line is better if price is a concern, being a little over half as expensive than its alternative.
 * Shape Shifting allows Marceline to become a large, powerful bat capable of doing increased damage for a limited time. It also allows the player to purchase Ferocity, an upgrade which increases Marceline's attack speed.
 * Shape Shifting has now been changed with Ferocity in the upgrade tree.
 * Necromancy allows Marceline to summon skeletons armed with crossbows across the map, who are able to attack just like Warrior Bubblegum's Candy Archers. They eventually disappear after some time.

There is a catch with Ferocity and speed increase items on Marceline. Naturally, speed increase items don't work on Marceline. But when she uses Shape Shifting ability, all speed upgrades will temporary activate on Marceline and unleash all that beastly damage she was holding inside herself.

There is a good gold grinding combo that can be added to her. Adding the Thief's dagger and the mystery pickaxe, you get 3 gold per attack that causes a bloon to pop (and 1 gold from the pickaxe even if she does not pop any bloons, meaning free gold from leads, ghost, and frozen bloons). the banana replicator is a good addition, and with baker's shard, apple, and the golden viola, she will basically drain the gold as well as red from any bloons she finds. with an addition of Dr. Monkey with his alchemy skill, each round can give you at least 4 digits in cash. Stunning trinkets work really well on her, especially with Ferocity, as the fast attack speed gives a much greater chance to activate the stun. This combo works very well on BFBs.

You could also very well just leave cash farming to Warrior Bubblegum, her weak sword attacks with enough range can gather a lot of cash on track that doesn't separate.

You could also build her with offence in mind once you can use Royal Decree of PB, Dr. Monkeys, COBRAs and Banana Replicators on the right characters. First of all Lute Suit equipped will help you know when her instrument boosts characters or not. She is the least range having instrument user so she is the first character to require Candy Diving Suit. Her instrument is Devil Monster Bass, giving her every possible boost but range, the only thing she doesn't really need, so it's a perfect fit for her.

The only good speed giving item is the one giving her 20% or more speed. Carl the Gem, Apple ( the only useful range increase of her giving item you'll ever need) and Baker's Shard are the only speed trinkets she'll need, because her low speed doesn't benefit when it's boosted, other than by those trinkets and Baker's Shard can never harm especially with character that gets anywhere you want like her.

However, damage trinkets really help her. Vorpal Hand and Dragon Eyes (the only Dragon Eyes you'll need will only be useful on Marceline characters, premium one included) make her able to hit anything, lasers from her gem trinket also can pop ghost/frozen. Hambo isn't a damage trinket, but with 1 COBRA she can make Marceline have little cooldown on her Shapeshifting ability, giving herself almost permanent speed boost and at least one seemingly infinite range attack. Also Hambo has quite a positive effect on cost of abilities of characters in Marceline's range. Engineers Blueprints and Demon Heart are the last trinkets to complete Marceline's journey to 10 stars.

using Telekinesis she can permanently stall a round if she is positioned properly. If you have BMO this can lead to a very high amount of cash generation given you have the patience. Permanently stalling the round can give you time for your abilities to cool down most especially ones that have long cool downs.

Quotes
When placed:
 * "All right, this seems cool."
 * "Popping bloons? What is this, A kids game?"
 * "Sure, I'll stick around and jam."
 * "Prepare to be staked vampire! ... Oh! Wait, that's me!" - Hunter Marceline, when she or Marceline is placed after one another

When selected:
 * "Yo."
 * "*Hisses*"
 * "Hey!"
 * "Let's do this." (normal tone)
 * "Sup!"
 * "I'm game."
 * "Keep tapping me like that and I'm going to bite you!" (when annoyed)

When upgraded:
 * "So much red!"
 * "Finally!"
 * "Yeah, that's cool."

When MOAB-Class Bloons appear: When a MOAB-Class Bloons are popped
 * "You don't scare me; I do the scaring around here."
 * "That was pretty rad!"

When a Bloon leaks:
 * "Uh...hello? Isn't anyone going to stop them?"

When activating ability:
 * [Bones rattling] (when activating Necromancy)
 * "Up and at 'em, boys!" (when activating Necromancy)
 * "Wanna see something cool?" (when activating Shape Shifting)
 * [Windy glistening sound] (when reverting from Shape Shifting)
 * "That was totally cool!" (a short while after Sai activates Sabotage Supply Lines)

Trivia

 * Marceline cannot be tapped/clicked directly. For some reason, tapping/clicking on her base repeatedly annoys her.
 * Marceline shares her unique attack methods with Ghost Princess.
 * Bloons popped by Pyrokinesis damage only drop 1 in 2 cash compared to popping them normally. Trinkets and weapons inflicted DOT don't suffer from this punishment. Also Banana Replicator doesn't work with any DOT. Since Marceline can fly anywhere, she could use this burning damage anytime there is an emergency, no need to hold back from buying it.