Ninja Monkey (BTDB2)/Strategies/General

TBA
 * This page is a general guide for Ninja Monkey. For more advanced guides, see Ninja Monkey (BTDB2)/Strategies/Optimization



The Ninja Monkey is the only directly camo-detecting tower in Bloons TD Battles 2. Ninja Monkey's various upgrades make it powerful against Camo Bloons and overall has decent popping power and support. Ninja has an overall weak early-game, but its mid-game and late-game are very powerful with the right upgrades.

The aim of this article is a general guide for using the Ninja Monkey. It summarizes how to effectively use Ninja Monkey without going into too much intricate detail about meta strategy.

Base Tower



 * Cost: $450
 * Unlock: 150

Base Ninja Monkey throws shurikens at quite a moderate speed, popping up to 2 bloons each. It is quite weak for its price, but the main advantage of the base Ninja Monkey is its built-in camo detection, in fact the cheapest in the whole game.

Ninja Discipline



 * Cost: $250
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 1
 * Unlock: Default

Ninja Discipline makes the Ninja attack faster, for +66% faster. All attacks that come from other upgrades (Caltrops, Flash Bombs, and Sticky Bombs) will gain the attack speed bonus too.

Sharp Shurikens



 * Cost: $300
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Shurikens receive 4 pierce instead of 2, but there are no special crosspathing benefits that increase pierce of other upgrades. It is literally just bonus shuriken pierce. In practice, it is kind of helpful in the early-game in the save-up for Double Shot.

Double Shot



 * Cost: $650
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Double Shot throws 2 shurikens per shot at an angle per shuriken. This upgrade is somewhat expensive in the early-game, but it survives against up to Grouped Blues and Spaced Pinks with ease. It may have trouble with Spaced Whites and Spaced Blacks given their lower spacings, though multiple of these Double Shots should suffice.

Bloonjitsu



 * Cost: $2,750
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Bloonjitsu throws 5 shurikens per shot instead of 2. It is an incredibly powerful option against weaker bloons and moderate-strength bloons alike. Because of how many shurikens Bloonjitsu throws per shot, it pairs incredibly well with buffs, particularly Alch buffs.

Grandmaster Ninja



 * Cost: $35,000
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: 25,000 XP

Grandmaster Ninja throws 8 shurikens per shot, attacks faster, and deals 2 damage per shuriken instead of 1. A raw Grandmaster Ninja is very cost-inefficient for DPS. Much of its value comes from supporting it with lots and lots of buffs, especially Shinobi Tactics. Because a huge amount of DPS is concentrated onto one tower, Overclock and Alch buffs will become much more effective with this Ninja.

Distraction



 * Cost: $300
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 1
 * Unlock: Default

Distraction gives all attacks with a small chance to blow back non-blimp bloons a certain amount of distance. The blowback effects of Distraction become a lot more noticeable by adding upgrades as well as adding more Ninjas with this upgrade.

Counter-Espionage



 * Cost: $375
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Any bloon hit by Counter-Espionage will have their camo properties removed, including Leads and DDTs. Adding higher-tier upgrades will maximize the power of the decamo.

Shinobi Tactics



 * Cost: $2,000
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Shinobi Tactics increases attack speed and pierce of all Ninjas by +16%, stacking multiplicatively and additively, respectively. The main power of this upgrade is being able to stack this benefit up to 10 times. However, to get the maximum benefit the Shinobis must be congregated very tightly with other Ninjas. Shinobis work especially well with Sticky Bombs, Bloonjitsus, Grandmaster Ninja, and Master Bomber.

Bloon Sabotage



 * Cost: $4,500
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: 14,000 XP

Bloon Sabotage instantly slows down all bloons except BADs on screen, including descendents of blimps, for a limited time. This slowdown effect is especially effective against DDTs. Be aware that selling the Ninja will remove the slowdown effect, so it really should be bought if you actually have sufficient funds to get it and other defenses.

Grand Saboteur



 * Cost: $25,000
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: 17,500 XP

Grand Saboteur downgrades health of every blimp on screen, including descendents thereof, plus increases the sabotage duration greatly. Its main use case is to greatly weaken massive all-out rushes sent by the opponent. Like normal Bloon Sabotage, Grand Saboteur is only viable if you also have enough money for other defenses too, because that sabotage effect will end as soon as the Grand Saboteur is sold.

Seeking Shuriken



 * Cost: $200
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 1
 * Unlock: Default

Seeking Shuriken allows all shurikens to seek at bloons. This pairs especially well with Double Shot and its higher-tier upgrades.

Caltrops



 * Cost: $300
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Caltrops lets the Ninja throw caltrops onto nearby bloon track, similar to a Spike Factory except slower and pops fewer bloons per caltrop. Stockpiling caltrops helps accumulate DPS over time; the more caltrops, the more bloons that can be tanked. A Ninja with this upgrade could be used in a similar vein to Spike Factory.

Flash Bomb



 * Cost: $2,000
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Flash Bomb allows the Ninja to throw bombs that stun bloons and pop both Leads and Blacks. This gives the Ninja with a grouped-popping option, as well as an option for stopping a small-to-medium crowd of bloons from passing through.

Sticky Bomb



 * Cost: $4,500
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: 15,500 XP

Sticky Bomb lets the Ninja throw sticky bombs at blimps, damaging the affected blimp and neighboring bloons after a short time delay. One sticky bomb is enough to take down a Fortified MOAB's outer layer with no trouble. While the sticky bomb attack has a very generous range, it is recommended to assume the Ninja can only throw them within base range.

Master Bomber



 * Cost: $40,000
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: 18,750 XP

Master Bomber greatly improves the sticky bomb attack to shoot from anywhere and deal much more damage, as well as stun affected blimps with both flash bombs and sticky bombs. Like Grandmaster Ninja, it is recommended to pair with Shinobi Tactics for the best results, though Master Bomber is still okay even without nearby Shinobis.

Unlocks
All towers including Ninja Monkey start off with upgrades up to Tier 2. All upgrades are unlocked with Tower XP of the respective tower's type, and can be unlocked in any order provided that previous tiers on the same path are unlocked first. In order to suit the tower's varied specialties, some upgrades are better unlocked first before others. Below is a brief guide to unlocking Ninja upgrades.

Ninja's first two tiers have a subpar early-game and have weak supporting options. Until accessing either Double Shot or Flash Bomb, Ninja remains inefficient at countering the early-game and doesn't have much to offer later on in the game. Shinobi Tactics sounds powerful on paper but is useless without other Tier 3 upgrades, so it isn't recommended to be unlocked before the aforementioned Tier 3 upgrades. Double Shot holds off decently, making this the better first Tier 3 for developing Ninja XP better. Flash Bomb is better in the long-term because of its grouped popping.

For Tier 4 upgrades, Ninja Monkey becomes a lot stronger with more distinct options to assist the defense. Bloonjitsu packs a lot of synergy potential for its cost, especially pairing well with Alchemist buffs. Bloon Sabotage is expensive but effective at immediately slowing down all non-BAD bloons on screen. Sticky Bomb excels against MOAB-class bloons, reliably taking down MOABs and chipping away at higher-tier blimps efficiently. Bloon Sabotage is usually the best first Tier 4 to unlock, given the difficulty of DDTs. Bloonjitsu can be substituted with more reliable mid-game options plus camo detection or decamo, and isn't strong in the late-game, so should be unlocked last.

Tier 5 options for the Ninja specialize even greater. Grandmaster Ninja produces the highest Ninja DPS with a very high synergy potential, thanks to its very quick sprays of 8 shurikens per shot. Grand Saboteur greatly weakens incoming blimp health. Master Bomber sticky bombs deal much more damage, both single-target and collateral, and stun blimps too. All of these Tier 5 upgrades are optimized for late-game. Grandmaster Ninja is the slowest to unlock and requires a lot of support to defend, so should be last unlocked. Grand Saboteur works better when unlocked first, as its ability does percentage damage, perfect against very high rounds, though Master Bomber stuns blimps well while dealing quite high damage.

Overall, a recommended upgrade order could go something like this:
 * 1) Double Shot
 * 2) Flash Bomb
 * 3) Sticky Bomb
 * 4) Shinobi Tactics
 * 5) Bloon Sabotage
 * 6) Grand Saboteur
 * 7) Master Bomber
 * 8) Bloonjitsu
 * 9) Grandmaster Ninja