Sam

Sam is a Monkey Hero in Bloons Adventure Time TD. She is unlocked by completing every level in the Wizard Battle adventure on any difficulty. Sam is a monkey witch who functions very much like the Wizard Monkey from BTD6, attacking with magic and having a lot of upgrades that cast different spells, but not being able to pop Purple Bloons without some help. She attacks somewhat differently from the Wizard Monkey, though; instead of shooting magic bolts, Sam fires a solid beam of magic energy at Bloons. She costs $550 to place.

Upgrades

 * Intense Beams ($700): Sam's magic does more damage to Bloons. [+TBA damage]
 * Concentrated Beams ($900): Advanced magic does even more damage to Bloons. [Further +TBA damage]
 * Double Beams ($1,100): Sam fires magic beams from both arms. [Gains a second beam]
 * Polymorph ($2,500): Turns the largest Bloon in range into a harmless Bloon animal! (Requires Level 3) [Can immediately turn bloons into bloon animals for a short time: bloons stop moving while turned into a bloon animal]
 * Mystic Portal ($1,500): Creates a portal that sends Bloons to the start. (Requires Level 5) [Spawns a portal identical to the one summoned by Magic Door Portal near one(?) exit of the track]
 * Fireball ($350): Sam gains a fireball attack. [an additional attack that explodes upon impact and pops Lead]
 * Student of Ice^ ($550): Sam learns ice magic from Ice King. (Needs Ice King nearby) [Bloons hit by attacks are frozen]
 * Student of Fire^ ($550): Sam learns fire magic from Flame Princess. (Needs Flame Princess nearby) [Bloons popped by her now may create limited lifespan mini fiery traps, setting up in flames other bloons upon them entering it. All character caused burning DoT causes cash generated halved for bloons popped by it, only 1 in 2 bloons giving cash, trinkets and weapons inflicted DoT doesn't suffer from this punishment. Also Banana Replicator doesn't work with any DoT. You could buy this skill later for hard rounds when you are done farming, you don't need to buy it immediately]
 * Meteor Storm ($6,000): Call down a mighty Bloon-popping meteor storm! (Requires Level 7) [Ability: pops every bloon type, including leads and purples, and passes through Line of Sight obstacles. Minimum damage: 1920]
 * Magic Reach ($300): Improved range on all Sam's attacks. [+TBA range]
 * Wizardly Wisdom ($500): Ancient knowledge allows Sam to detect Camo Bloons. [Hidden: Also increases range by TBA]
 * Forked Lightning ($800): Unleashes lightning to zap many Bloons at once. [ additional attack that does energy damage type]
 * Lightning Storm ($2,000): Sam's lightning attack can hit even more Bloons. [Lightning attack has +TBA pierce]

^Sam can only have one combo upgrade at a time.

Star Boost
Sam will receive the following permanent boosts as she levels up:
 * 2 stars - Base range increased by 2
 * 4 stars - Base price reduced by $25
 * 6 stars - Base attack speed increased by 0.1
 * 8 stars - Base range increased by 3
 * 9 stars - Base price reduced by $75
 * 10 stars - Additional base attack: Seeking magical bolt

Quotes
When placed:
 * "Wanna see a magic trick?"
 * "Hey, Bloons! Come out and play! Promise I won't hurt ya."
 * "Magic and mischief, the perfect combination!"
 * "What's up, Sai?" (when Sai the Shadow is placed)

When selected:
 * "Yep?"
 * "Abraca-blammo!"
 * "Presto-poppo!"
 * "Shazam!"
 * "Abracazam!"
 * "*chuckles* Haha!"
 * "Are you trying to get turned into a frog?" (when annoyed)

When upgraded:
 * "Magic!"
 * "Zap!"
 * "Bring it!"
 * "Ice is my thing, sister. Go get your own shtick!"- Ice King, when Sam is upgraded to Student of Ice
 * "Alright Sam, show me what you got!"- Flame Princess, when Sam is upgraded to Student of Fire

When MOAB-Class Bloons appear:
 * "Here I come. So big, so stupid, and so slow..."

When MOAB-Class Bloon is popped:
 * "Awwww, did you pop? Not so big now, huh?"

When bloons leak:
 * "Hey, no fair! There's too many of them!"

When activating ability:
 * "It's time to meteor doom!" (Meteor Storm)

Tips and tricks
Sam is among the towers with the highest range in the game. With just a range weapon and some help of 2 Instrument characters with Lute Suits and PB's range upgrade, she is gonna have all the range she needs. Range upgrades of other kinds would be very good for her as well.

She's also helpful on Impoppable when you face DDTs or even ZOMGs! Just use Wizard Nunchuks trinket on her. With Meteorite Storm placed a bit far from bloon's entrance with good timing can perma-stun 2 DDTs if bloons don't go in different directions at the same time. Good charecter to help a beginner before 7 star Sai with Robo-Monkey Helmet to brute force DDTs from that point on, until you get into late gane where you don't even need Sai and have all sorts if ways to beat DDTs. Her ability is the only attack of her except fireball that directly pops lead. It deals 80 damage per meteorite, 24 meteorites dropped per ability, 48 meteorites drop if there is a damage up Instrument character with certain conditions applying to trigger this projectiles duplication bug. Ability cooldowns help a lot on her, with COBRA, Cosmic Gauntlets, Baby Tooth, Warpaint Mud, Ninja Headband and Jake licking her once being seemingly enough to make it permanent, taking 2 of the latter to make it permanent doesn't make her a very great late game character.

Aside from cooldown reduction, damage would work great on her, applying on each 24/48(if you use bug) meteorites. As for range upgrade for her, it's decent, but not quite like cooldown. Stats boosters for 2 previously mentioned stats, 1 strong range Weapon, like TCW is gonna do just enough for her range. Pierce for 1 pierce main attack and high pierce other attacks is obviously a bad idea and attack speed that doesn't affect ability damage isn't good either.

Buying any Paths of Sam's ability tree will not affect her ability in any way. If you are absolutely sure, that you can hold bloons only with buying camo detection and Ability on her, you can absolutely not buy the rest. Lightning will help give her some piercing projectile to help her mark MOAB class bloons with TCW to help you farm wish orbs though.

The Doubled Projectiles of Sam's Ability bug. If you place Sam in range of previously placed instrument characters equipped with Lute Suit and weapon that grants damage up to charecters in range of instrument : Devil Monster Bass or The Lover and most importantly give Sam Baker's Shard, amount of projectiles of Sam's Ability will double and each hit of Meteorite will hit for basic ability's 80 damage + 1 per each damage increase Sam has, basically doubling all her damage, but at a cost. Your screen now will be extremely shaky, projectiles will be flying so fast one after another, you barely will see how much damage she does and the game will be freezing slightly, trying to deal with double projectiles you just unleashed. There is a limit to this bug though. Equip just one Weapon, giving damage and the bug will now be gone, no more double damage. . That said, Sam fits more for reducing her own cooldown, protecting her from surface types and debuffs and for adding damage up items, Warpaint Mud (aids to reduce cooldown on Jake, C4 Charlie, Max, Captain Cassie and probably at least to some premium characters, possibly to Juggernaut Max and Warrior PB also ), Wizard Nunchuks and Baker's Shard, especially if you want extra damage from doubled projectiles ability of her.

The Doubled Projectiles of Sam's Ability bug's other limiting factors. It won't activate if you place Sam before an instrument character with Lute Suit and instrument that grants damage to characters around instrument character and ability will function like normal, when instrument character is placed. 2 Instrument characters with Lute Suit and one having Devil Monster Bass, while another having The Lover, both placed before Sam, while Sam ending up in the range of both of them, won't make this bug any stronger, it will just work like it would work with one of them, it will just add 1 more damage to each of her hits for both of them.

Her meteorites can't be good in Martian Games, because BADs move too fast to stay long enough to get hit by them all, and constant screen shaking causes more device freezing when it is used so long as Martian Games needs, especially with the Doubled Projectiles of Sam's Ability bug. She is good tower to play until you get all the better towers. If you want some breakable strong ability like hers, PB and Warrior PB got you covered, their abilities have way higher damage potential, with way better accuracy, way less micromanagement land less lag and it stays true compared to Sam even if you break it on them to the fullest. Sam on other hand is not top 10 f2p charecter list, but she is workable.

A good idea is to get her the TCW to make MOAB-class bloons drop a lot money because at late game players need money due to cash starve and because of high range buff polymorph should be good stunning attack. If she is the only one having stalling item, better Wizard Nunchuks, whatever MOABs class bloons stop after her attack are already tagged by her and can be already popped without bothering it won't drop loot.

She's also a good tower when you buy the Student of Fire upgrade. It pairs well with Ice King's Winter Weather upgrade.

Update History
1.6.2
 * Base attack now lasts for 10 seconds and increases its damage the longer it stays on a single target

Trivia

 * Sam is the only hero in BATTD who attacks left-handed.
 * If a MOAB-Class Bloon is destroyed by a character who is wearing Crystal Mergence of Destruction when Sam is using Polymorph, she will polymorph the children all at once, while they still are not back to their original size.
 * Polymorphed non-MOAB bloons are either left-facing puppies, rabbits, or butterflies.
 * Sam's Polymorph is also built in to the ally Gumbald's main attack.
 * Sam's Meteor Storm ability, despite being a separate attack, independent of her range, does give double cash if Banana Replicator is equipped on her (important as it pops tons of bloons).
 * With Wizard Lord Wand equipped, Sam can infinite blow back a Purple Bloon and stall the round forever. This is called a Purple Bloon Farm.