Sniper Monkey (BTD5)

"Armed with a high-tech long range rifle, pops 2 layers off of Bloons with unlimited range."

- Bloons TD 5 description

 is a tower that made its debut in Bloons TD 5. Its first ever appearance was in the Bloons TD 5 trailer that was released on November 29, 2011.

When the "first 20 rounds" game play video was released, it was revealed that the Sniper Monkey fires a powerful bullet to pop 2 layers of bloon at a time, making it the first tower in the Bloons Tower Defense series with the ability to pop multiple layers of bloon without any upgrades. (This ability has been extended to other towers, those being COBRA, Obyn Greenfoot, Pat Fusty, and Admiral Brickell's revolver.) Like the Mortar Tower, it has unlimited range, so it can be strategically placed in locations far from the track. With no upgrades, this tower fires slowly compared to others.

The amount of layers per shot is equal to amount of damage it deals to MOAB Class Bloons.

Game appearances

 * Bloons TD 5
 * Bloons TD 5 Deluxe
 * Bloons TD 5 Mobile
 * Bloons Monkey City
 * Bloons TD 6
 * Bloons Adventure Time TD

Bloons TD 5
The Sniper Monkey makes its first appearance in Bloons TD 5. It also appears in the official trailers for BTD5.

Bloons TD 6
In Bloons TD 6, the Sniper Monkey returns. It... [...]

Bloons Pop!
The Sniper Monkey makes an appearance in the puzzle game Bloons Pop!. It shoots a single bullet that deals 6 damage, and pops lead and camo. These bullets can penetrate through bloons and bounce off obstacles.

Bloons TD 5
These are all the upgrades for the Sniper Monkey. Path 1 refers to the left upgrade path while Path 2 refers to the right upgrade path within the game.

Path 1

 * Note: This section uses Bloons TD 5 Flash descriptions. Costs are shown as they are in Bloons TD 5 Flash.

Path 2

 * Note: This section uses Bloons TD 5 Flash descriptions. Costs are shown as they are in Bloons TD 5 Flash.

Bloons Adventure Time TD
"This crack marksmonkey has been taking pot shots at bloons for years. He always finds his mark."

- BATTD description

Sniper Monkey is a Rare ally in BATTD. He also has unlimited range, shoots slowly, has only one pierce, and can deal multiple damage. He has a few upgrades to enhance the damage, but none for increasing attack speed or granting camo detection to himself.

Pros


 * Infinite range, high damage

Cons


 * Slow attack speed

Statistics


 * Cost: $550
 * Attack Speed: 0.56
 * Damage: 2
 * Damage Type: Sharp
 * Range: 8 (display)
 * Pierce: 1

Differences Between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile

 * Supply Drop Ability no longer includes an initial cooldown.
 * Multiple Snipers set on the same setting target different bloons, preventing aiming contradiction.
 * Cripple MOAB can stun D.D.T.s. (this only applies to BMC Mobile).
 * Semi Automatic Rifle without Full Metal Jacket no longer allows the tower to pop Lead and Frozen Bloons.

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)
The Sniper Monkey is one of the least used towers in BTD Battles Mobile, along with the Glue Gunner, Spike Factory, and Monkey Village. This is mostly because while snipers perform reasonably well versus strong bloons, they are not nearly as effective against grouped bloon rushes and are too expensive to be effective against M.O.A.B. Class Bloons. Because of this, the Sniper has been heavily buffed via game updates. Dart Farm Sniper used to be a semi-popular loadout on short maps such as Indoor Pools and such but players eventually switched to other loadouts such as Buccaneer Farm Apprentice and Engineer COBRA Apprentice.

Quotes
"Sniper Monkeys can pop bloons from any distance and pop several layers at once. Powerful upgrades include: Full Metal Jacket, Faster Firing, Deadly Precision, Cripple MOAB."

- BMC Flash description

"Armed with a high-tech long range rifle, pops 2 layers off of bloons with unlimited range."

- Bloons TD 5 Description

"Can shoot Bloons it can see anywhere on the screen with a long-range rifle, and pops 2 layers off Bloons hit by it."

- Bloons TD 6 description

Tower Tips

 * Path 1 Sniper Monkeys are very effective on Strong or Last setting, because this takes max advantage of their high damage.
 * Path 2 Snipers can be used on any setting very effectively.
 * Snipers are good for making space for other towers and can be upgraded to detect Camos and Leads. They can save your life if you ever get Camo Leads as they are the only tower that has cheap anti camo-lead defense other than the monkey apprentice (wizard monkey) which would quickly lose to Blacks due to their quick speed.
 * They can pop Frozen Bloons and Lead Bloons with the Full Metal Jacket Upgrade.
 * The Cripple MOAB Upgrade can be particularly useful against large numbers of MOAB class bloons. Lined shoulder to shoulder against the edge of the path and target assignments set to "Close", Sniper Monkeys with this upgrade can, for a short time, halt the progress of an entire wave of them.
 * Multiple Sniper Monkeys will shoot with the same rhythm at the beggining of each round, so to maximze the effects of Cripple MOAB, each Sniper should be assigned to target a different MOAB class bloon.
 * Unless you are playing the Steam version, try to have multiple Snipers with upgrades and target priorities that vary from each other as multiple Snipers with the same settings are notorious for overshooting their targets, wasting shots.
 * Snipers have unlimited range, and are fairly cheap. This makes them useful early game against any Pink Bloons that may rush past your towers.
 * Place them away from the path, because they have unlimited range they can still hit bloons, so you make room for other towers closer to the path.

Trivia

 * Having 100 4/1 sniper monkeys on first can withstand 8 ZOMG without losing a single life
 * The path 1 upgrade Point Five Oh in Bloons TD 5 is a reference to the bullet caliber .50, which is used in many real sniper rifles (eg. Barrett M107, a .50 Caliber sniper rifle), and the movie Snatch where a character describes his Desert Eagle's caliber using words instead of the numbers.
 * The Sniper Monkey appearing in Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile could be the reason why the app is rated 9+ for Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence. This is supported with Bloons TD Battles iOS and BMC Mobile being rated similarly. The 9+ rating may also be due to the sacrifices from the TOTMG.
 * Ten 3/x Sniper Monkeys can destroy a MOAB in one collective volley and leaves a dense group of blue bloons standing.
 * If you destroy a MOAB with Deadly Precision or Cripple MOAB, after 12 shots 64 blue bloons come out, rather than 4 ceramic bloons. This no longer occurs in BTD6.
 * It is most effective to have a large number of Semi Automatic Rifles set on the first targeting, and a decent amount of Cripple M.O.A.B. set to strongest targeting, so one takes out the M.O.A.B. classes while the other takes down its children.
 * On Park Path, it takes 23 4/1 Cripple M.O.A.B. Snipers to take out a ZOMG and all bloons spawned by it without any bloons leaking. Further testing will be required to identify whether the few leaked bloons with 22 snipers actually get through.
 * On Mobile, after testing on Park Path, a maximum of 14 4/2 Cripple M.O.A.B Snipers will take out a ZOMG and all bloons spawned by it without any bloons leaking on first and no specialty building.Still leaks through with 22 Snipers on flash.
 * Only on the online flash version of Bloons TD 5, Semi-Automatic Rifle can pop Lead and Frozen Bloons even without Full Metal Jacket.
 * This was because you could add 2 Ice Towers to constantly freeze a Red Bloon, and win infinite cash using Supply Drop.
 * The Sniper Monkey is visible in the Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile trailer.
 * Supply Drop is useful for freeplay. Cripple MOAB is good on later levels with strong MOAB-Class Bloons.
 * A 2/0 Sniper Monkey is one of the six towers that are purple, the other 5 are: 3/0 Boomerang Monkey, 2/0 Ninja Monkey, 2/0 Glue Gunner, 0/2 Dartling Gun, and a 1/1 or 2/2 Spike Factory.
 * There is a glitch (Through very rare, maybe more frequent on Semi-Automatic Rifle), where when the first intial layer of the ZOMG is popped, it turns into 16 M.O.A.Bs instead of 4 B.F.Bs.
 * This glitch occurs most often when you pop an M.O.A.B with Cripple MOAB.
 * Sniper Monkeys are left handed.
 * This is one of the few towers that is not restricted in any terrain in Bloons Monkey City.
 * The rifle the Sniper Monkey uses is Bolt Action, as it requires x/3 upgrades to attain a semi-automatic sniper.
 * It is the second tower in the series that shoots from a firearm, the first being the Dartling Gun and the third being the COBRA.
 * In BTD5, the Supply Drop gives a random value between $500 and $1500 when used each time.
 * The Sniper Monkey is one of the few towers in BTD5 that combines the appearance of the upgrades it has, specifically its hat colour and its goggles. This also applies to the Bomb Shooter's Cluster Bombs, as well as Spike Factories which have many combination appearances.
 * Despite the description saying "...2 layers off of any bloon...", the Sniper Monkey cannot pop lead or frozen bloons without the Full Metal Jacket upgrade.
 * It is one of the only 2 towers to have an invisible projectile, the other being the COBRA.