Aircraft Carrier (BTD5)

"Launches fast strafing Monkey Ace pilots."

- BMC Steam description

Aircraft Carrier is the final upgrade of path 1 for the Monkey Buccaneer in Bloons TD 5. It costs $12750 on Easy, $15000 on Medium, $16200 on Hard and $18000 on Impoppable. Its description says that it rapidly launches Monkey Ace pilots that strafe the area with darts.

The Aircraft Carrier launches three mini aces that keep on landing and taking off on the Aircraft Carrier. The Monkey Aces can fire in all directions. The Monkey Aces always fly in an O shape and are small. Unlike the usual Monkey Aces, each plane shoots two fast streams of darts from its front each as powerful as a non-upgraded Super Monkey (0/0). These mini Aces also regularly shoot 8 darts in different directions like a Tack Shooter.

In BTD6, this upgrade returns. See more on this page.

Summary
Trading off Destroyer attacks with Aircraft Carrier attacks, these flying aircraft shoot very quickly and produce lots of projectiles, although they are somewhat unreliable.

Tips

 * Note that, in BTD5, this upgrade will make the Buccaneer stop firing darts or dreadnought projectiles. However, if it has the Grape Shot upgrade, it will still shoot grapes.
 * M.I.B. Call to Arms Ability doesn't just allow the Aircraft Carrier to launch Monkey Aces faster, but also allows the Monkey Aces to shoot faster.
 * The Monkey Aces seem to slightly follow bloons, noticeable when changing the Target Priority from "First" to "Last".
 * The Aircraft Carrier has infinite range and can shoot grapes anywhere on the screen. Likewise, if the player has the Pirate Cove Specialty Building at level 3, then the Aircraft Carrier grants camo detection to all towers on the map.
 * The premium upgrade Dreadnought doesn't affect this upgrade, unlike the Destroyer. If the player needs to pop leads, Destroyer is a better choice.
 * It is to be noted that this tower causes huge amounts of lag on low-end devices due to the rapid amount of darts on the screen due to the lag.

Trivia

 * In the artwork, the mini aces have blue nose cones but in the game and on the upgrade icon they have red nose cones.
 * The Monkey Aces always exit to the right.
 * After upgrading, the Buccaneer loses the ability to turn, and will always face right.
 * However, its other attacks can still shoot in all directions.
 * If an Aircraft Carrier is sold while its Monkey Aces are flying, they will keep flying for a while before disappearing.
 * The mini Monkey Aces have no pilots in them.
 * When a level ends and the Monkey Aces fly away, the Aircraft Carrier will still shoot Monkey Aces but will not display on screen.
 * In BMC, the mini aces have a takeoff and landing animation.
 * In Bloons TD Battles, the cost of Aircraft Carrier is reduced to $9000.
 * Traditionally, fighters are used to protect bombers and protect the aircraft carrier in addition to the carriers aa guns, strangely, BTD5 aircraft carriers don't carry bombers on deck.
 * The Aircraft Carrier and the Destroyer have radars that will spin when upgraded to Crows Nest.