Central Market

"Earns heaps of money each round and gives Merchantmen +10% income."

- BTD6 description

Central Market is the fourth upgrade of Path 3 for the Banana Farm in BTD6. It greatly increases the amount of money per round by increasing the value of each banana to $70 instead of $20, providing up to $1120 per round (+$140 per Path 1 crosspath). In addition, it increases the income of Merchantmen by 10%, which can stack up to 10 times. Central Market's income bonus does not stack on top of Trade Empire's income bonus but can co-exist.

It costs $12,750 on Easy, $15,000 on Medium, $16,200 on Hard, and $18,000 on Impoppable.

Costs

 * Updated as of Version 29.4

Summary
Akin to its prior upgrade, the Marketplace, Central Market makes it easy for a player to accumulate money to spend within the round with no input outside the purchase of the base Banana Farm and subsequent upgrades. The primary extra benefit for this upgrade comes from the increased value of each banana.

Consequently, the second perk for the Central Market is its ability to increase Merchantmen (and subsequent fourth and fifth tier upgrades) by a 10% margin. This has the ability to increase the gains of Merchantmen the equivalent of the Trade Agreements without having the Monkey Knowledge allocated to that piece of knowledge, as well as increasing the high profits of Favored Trades and Trade Empire by a considerable amount. This effect also stacks with other Central Markets up to 10 times, allowing for the money-generating properties of the bottom path Buccaneer to become even more potent.

Tips

 * The desired crosspath for the Central Market ultimately depends on whether you have the More Valuable Bananas Monkey Knowledge enabled or not. If you are playing with it turned off, then crosspath with the top-path upgrades. If you are playing with it turned on, then crosspath with the mid-path upgrades.
 * 20 groups of $70 bananas from 2-0-4 give $1400 per round, while 16 groups of $87 bananas from 0-2-4 without the "More Valuable Bananas" MK gives $1394 per round. Adding that MK increases 0-2-4 Central Market's income per round to $1456 per round.
 * If you can, be sure to deploy as many Merchantmen as possible. If you don't have any available water, you can put down some Portable Lakes to place Merchantmen in, though do be wary of the cost this will have on your Monkey Money and whether it is worth it.
 * While Central Market can provide effective income if used with Merchantmen, it is overall the worst Tier 4 Banana Farm on its own. Despite having a better return value than the Banana Research Facility, it produces the lowest income of all the towers, thus making it a poor choice in the long run.
 * The 18.0 update made Overclocking this tower much more useful, as Overclock doubles the number individual payments per round, but does not affect end-of-turn payments.

Version 18.0 and later
Without cross-pathing:

With 2-0-4 cross-pathing:

0-2-4 cross-pathing WITHOUT More Valuable Bananas Monkey Knowledge:

0-2-4 cross-pathing WITH More Valuable Bananas Monkey Knowledge:

Comparative to earlier versions of the game, a basic Central Market without crosspathing is overall worse than it used to be, as it produces less overall money. This only further stresses the benefits from crosspathing. Even though the numbers show there to be no difference between a 2-0-4 and 0-2-4 without Monkey Knowledge, it is better to choose the top path upgrades in this scenario as the additional cash will multiply in the long run.

Before Version 17.0


Trivia

 * Central Market, along with prior and subsequent upgrades Marketplace and Monkey Wall Street, take clear inspiration to the original versions of Banana Farms from Bloons TD 4.
 * For a time, the 10% income increase of Merchantmen, Favored Trades and Trade Empire was bugged and did not function in the slightest. This was fixed in Version 5.0.
 * Although the Merchantmen buff was buffed in Version 17.0, the description has not yet been changed to mention the maximum stacking of 10 times.
 * Central Market shares its name with a high-end grocery chain based in Texas.