Trade Empire (BTDB2)

Trade Empire is the 5th upgrade of Path 3 for the Monkey Buccaneer in Bloons TD Battles 2. Like its BTD6 counterpart, it generates money, but it gives $3000 instead of $800 to account for the shorter rounds. In addition, while the Trade Empire is on the screen, all Merchantmen and Favored Trades make extra money (+5% times the number of Merchantmen or Favored Trades, capping at +100% extra). On top of that, all Upper Path 3 Buccaneers (Merchantmen, Favored Trades and Trade Empires) gain +1 damage to all attacks and +1 damage to Ceramics and MOABs.

It costs $23,000.

Summary
The Trade Empire is relatively weak alone, giving 3x more money than Favored Trades while costing 3.6x more, without any improvements to the sellback bonus Favored Trades gives. It does gain a slight boost in damage, but this is very negligible.

The real magic of this upgrade comes from its extra cash and damage for each Merchantman. If the player manages to get a Trade Empire and the maximum of 20 Favored Trades, each of them will generate a whopping $2,000, or $43,000 total! Not only that, but each Merchantman gains a large increase in damage, which adds up. This means that this upgrade is best used on maps with plenty of water like Docks, so that the maximum amount of Merchantmen can be placed.

Tips

 * The 0-2-5 crosspath is generally better on the Trade Empire for the extra damage it provides.
 * Using this upgrade on a map with plenty of water like Docks or Sands of Time will allow it to reach its fullest potential.
 * The Trade Empire becomes more efficient than more Merchantman once you have 5 other Merchantmen.
 * However, the Trade Empire needs 8 other Merchantmen to be more efficient than the Favored Trades buccaneer.