Bloonarius the Inflator (BTD6)/Strategies


 * Note: This page is updated as of Version 29.4

Bloonarius the Inflator packs enormous amounts of health, is the slowest bloon in Bloons TD history, and regularly sends bloons as it becomes damaged. Its main power comes from both its extremely high HP and it spewing out hordes of powerful bloons whenever greatly damaged.

There are up to 40 rounds to start farming before Bloonarius first enters in its first tier. All tiers from Tier 1 to 5 need to be beaten in a single game in order to fully win the Bloonarius Boss Bloon Event. Each tier of Bloonarius must be beaten within 20 rounds of its appearance, or else the game is over. Losing by other means is also an obstacle to counter, so be careful.

The following article is a series of strategies to counter Bloonarius, mainly focusing on Elite Bloonarius due to its notorious difficulty of killing.

General Strategy
The general strategy for beating Bloonarius, especially Elite Bloonarius, is to take extremely greedy farming strategies to build a solid foundation of income prior to facing both the extreme HP and dense waves of bloons sent once Bloonarius is directly anticipated. Once Bloonarius arrives, there are several ideal decisions that can be made, at least for earlier tiers. But at highest tiers, one must go all in at DPS with as much support as possible. All this needs to be made before Bloonarius becomes too strong to handle.

For earlier tiers, there are two distinct strategies that one can make while the boss appears on screen. The most simple approach is to gradually destroy the boss by small increments of damage and sustain the rate of damage to Bloonarius and its spawns. Another approach, but much more risky, is to try destroy Bloonarius as fast as possible, but this will cause too many waves to be sent at a single timeframe. On the opposite side of the spectrum, can choose to intentionally not harm it so as to avoid sending too many waves of bloons at once, and then go all in by the last half of Bloonarius' initial appearance to avoid losing to neglection. However, regardless of tactics to approach earlier-tier Bloonarius, never ever try beating Bloonarius within only a few rounds towards the final few rounds of its appearance. But once Bloonarius reaches a safe level of low health, start racking up a massive farming once again as a recoverance to any income losses.

At the highest tiers, go all in at DPS and supports while maintaining a stable income flow.

The best choice of hero, assuming custom hero choice is available, is either one that specializes in income, excels in early-game for cheap, or specializes in the extreme late-game as a buffing source. The most optimal choice for most situations is Benjamin, who gives a large headstart to income production, and buffs Monkey Banks as a transition towards much stronger Farms such as BRFs + Monkey City towards an early Monkeyopolis. Hero buffing options for the extreme late-game, specifically Admiral Brickell and Adora, work well too, but not as valuable of an asset as Benjamin's early-to-mid-game income.

As for tower choices, choose an effective early-game strategy that also allows greed of income to the max, a strategy for countering early tiers of Bloonarius, and a strategy for transitioning into extreme DPS. Support is extremely helpful too in addition to massive farming.

Towers
Towers each have their special roles in Boss Bloon Events. The "optimal" tower choices in Bloonarius battles are generally those who have a cheap early-game prowess, offer income generation, or assist in damaging the boss and its minions as efficiently as possible. In the case of handling Bloonarius itself, the best tower options are generally those with high MOAB-class damage, tower buffs, bloon debuffs, and simply spamming tower combinations that produce the highest damage possible.

Heroes
Heroes offer super valuable roles at supporting a defense with their own special utility through their self-leveling upgrades. For Bloonarius, it is usually best to choose a hero that extrapolates the best leading into late-game. Such a hero choice is usually an income generator, an early-game breezer into an early income saver, or a late-game dominator.

Paragons
Paragons are major powerhouses for handling bosses. To ensure the highest-level Paragons, make sure to accumulate enough pops early on by using the same tower type as much as possible, mainly damage to the boss and its swarms. Avoid selling towers of the desired type(s) unless necessary for higher income growth.

In general, accumulation of pops in Bloonarius battles is easier compared to battles against other Boss Bloons, mainly due Bloonarius' huge health and swarms of bloons. In addition, Bloonarius lacks any special immunities, using only its huge health and relentless bloon swarms to compensate.

Powers
Sometimes, Bloonarius may be too difficult to beat that bailing out with Powers and Insta-Monkeys may be necessary. Use them wisely, and ideally prepare use of Powers before defenses begin to overwhelm. For efficiency, they should not be consumed on useless endevours, because Powers and Instas are single-use, Powers cost Monkey Money, and Instas are limited resources. Powers cannot be used on Ranked Mode, as they add unnecessary advantage over players who don't use them.

In general when playing on Bloonarius events, the best Powers are the ones directly related to income, for extrapolating cash gain faster and therefore affording the necessary defenses sooner. Micromanagement supporters such as Banana Farmer and Tech Bot are also worth adding for convenience purposes. Tower boosts such as Monkey Boost and Time Stop are useful when needing to destroy the boss better with a beefy defense, but direct damage Powers such as Super Monkey Storm will generally be useless because of their little potential for dynamic empowerment.

Summary and Other General Advice
To beat Bloonarius effectively, apply a greedy income strategy very hard in the early-game, and build up early-game income as fast as possible while keeping up with the incoming strength of bloons. As Bloonarius becomes damaged, it will spawn bloons that do not give any extra income, which means balance between bloon rush defenses and intense income management will need to be incorporated into strategy. Bloonarius is super slow, and super big, which means traditional anti-BAD strategies become quite effective at dealing pure damage to Bloonarius. Beware of Bloonarius' skull sends, they can be overwhelming, and prepare them well before playing. Similarly, watch out for the continuous spewing of bloons every time it gets damaged.

Expand the collapsible section for bullet-pointed tips for beating Bloonarius.

Pre-Boss (Farming)
This is the first stage for properly preparing for any Boss Bloon. Start with a suitable early-game defense (preferably using the free dart monkey if the player has that MK) and work your way towards either Benjamin or a 0-0-0 Banana Farm. If using Ben, start going towards 2-3-0 Farm. Otherwise, upgrade Farm to 1-0-0 and 2-0-0. Buy another Farm and get that towards 2-0-0.

By the mid 20's, aim for a specific farming strategy. One can choose to opt for a Tier 3 Farm or towards Jungle's Bounty. No matter if either strategy is used, always use Farms for the early-game to utilize the fast pace of each round. Stick to a particular strategy as the game progresses into the later rounds.

If going for a Tier 3 Farm strategy, upgrade one Farm to any appropriate Tier 3 Farm by around Round 25 or so. Banks produce overall the most income, but does not flow income smoothly per round. Plantations can be used as a transition straight into BRFs. Marketplaces are more cost-efficient than Plantations but do not transition well to more expensive Farms. Try to keep farming hard by balancing a secure flow of income with sufficient defense.

On maps with water, Merchantman farming is another viable option, although less efficient due to obtaining the income generation upgrades much later.

Tier 1 (Farming)
By this point, after a decent income flow is running, keep farming.

Tier 1 is the point of the game where it would be wise to try to explore other money-generating options aside from 4-2-0 BRFs. In fact, there are two distinct types of farming to consider in terms of farming in Bloonarius: round-based income, and time-based income. Round-based income is based upon profiting as much as possible based on rounds, and this includes standard farming and income-per-pop sources. Time-based income is based on stalling as long as possible to obtain the maximum amount of profits through the use of activated abilities.

For round-based income, anti-stalling is key. That way, income can be earned faster. This is important for standard Farms and Merchantmen in particular, as their income only produces as the round goes by.

For time-based income, stalling is key. Jungle's Bounty farming and Supply Drop farming are two examples of time-based income, and are suitable starting from Rounds 40 given that rounds will eventually get longer and longer. Plus, since MOABs start appearing, an adequate stall with MOAB Shove can be utilized to amass higher profit from income-related abilities.

Mixing both round-based income and time-based income isn't always the best idea, however, unless it's a Jungle's Bounty strategy with multiple lower-tier Farms (i.e. in this case use lots of 0-0-0 Farms, and sometimes to 1-0-0 and 2-0-0 if needing to squeeze per-round income). Primarily focus on one category or the other. Planning ahead, still aim for a Monkeyopolis in later rounds, as stalling becomes much harder to pull off in freeplay rounds, so develop a solid farming foundation at this stage of the game.

After having a solid income strategy established and working for many rounds, prepare for a Monkeyopolis. If opting for Monkeyopolis, it should be time to begin building 4-2-0 BRFs. This is in preparation for a Monkey City that will later be used for Monkeyopolis. Whether the 3-2-0 Plantations should be discounted or not shouldn't matter too much because several hundred dollars off sacrificing shouldn't really matter as long as an early Monkeyopolis is achieved.

Right before beating Tier 1 Boss, sell all the no longer necessary defense and go straight to boosting Farms. Keep barely enough defense to counter any rounds where the Boss doesn't appear. Use these boss-free rounds to keep creating extreme rates of income. Greed as hard as possible, especially because Tier 2 will be pretty hard.

Tier 2 (Farming)
Right before entering Tier 2 Bloonarius, balance out farming with defense and otherwise do a similar mixed farming-defense method that is done for Tier 1 Bloonarius except at a higher scale. Keep going hard with farming while keeping up the pace with killing Tier 2 Bloonarius well. Beware of Elite Bloonarius Tier 2; anticipate BFBs, and quickly sell before or right when they spawn. Farming may be yet again interrupted, but expect a lot more selling and micro involved in this stage.

As with Tier 1, sell all unnecessary defense right before the boss passes its final skull and is at critically low health. Use all that money to farm much harder. Go aggressive with farming towards the main powerhouses of farming as fast as possible. It may be easier by this stage to add Favored Trades to increase sellback of expensive towers, which will save a lot more money than is lost from buying them.

After obtaining a decently large rate of farming, go straight towards affording an early Monkeyopolis. Try fitting at least 6 Banana Research Facilities within the space of a Monkey City, and try boosting that Monkey City's range with Overclock if sure that more Farms are within possible reach. Afterwards, place more Banana Research Facilities. If possible, try get Banana Central too after getting several BRFs, and then Overclock the Banana Central persistently.

Tier 3 (Farming)
Alongside general defense against Tier 3 Bloonarius, income-supporting supports will be very useful. These include:


 * Monkey City (boosts direct income of nearby towers)
 * Energizer (faster ability cooldowns)
 * Overclock (Farm boosts)
 * Ultraboost (Farm permaboosts)
 * Support Sun Temples (discounts and money)

Sun Temples are what should also be aimed for at Tier 3. Support sacrifices can be gathered from existing Farms within range. Careful not to let the Sun Temple consume the Monkeyopolis or get its range close to the range of a Monkeyopolis, or else a new Monkeyopolis will have a much lower maximum income with sacrifices.

As with Tier 2 farming, keep farming; spam the most powerful income producers possible.

Tier 4 (Farming)
At this point, focus on building up Vengeful True Sun God and Paragons with the remaining money. Continuing to farm hard is still greatly recommended; there will almost never be a time where there is too little money in any Boss Event scenario, no matter what tier of boss. You will need all the money for just about anything: all of the most important abilities, multiple Sun Temples, and as many powerful DPS towers as possible.

Tier 5 (Farming)
By this point, the main defenses should be fully developed by now, DPS towers and their supports. Do not remove ALL Farms. Keep as much income producers as necessary but do not remove them all; money is still an important drive for income and further investing for even more defense.

Tier 1 (Boss Countermeasures)
A single Sticky Bomb ninja can bomb away all the HP of Tier 1 Elite Bloonarius on its own, only needing extra defenses for the spawns. The Tack Zone is also a good DPS option, serving a dual purpose of effectively damaging both Bloonarius and bloons that naturally spawn from the track entrance. Blade Maelstrom is very well at defending against the ceramic rushes, but timing the abilities will be crucial. Recursive Cluster can also defeat the grouped ceramics given alchemist buffs.

Tier 2 (Boss Countermeasures)
Tier 2 of Elite Bloonarius can be defeated by having a M.A.D shoot at the boss while other defenses defeat the spawns. On some maps, a Tack Zone with a Super Brittle can easily shred through Bloonarius though some extra defense for the spawns. Super Maelstrom can server as an effective yet cheap defense for the BFBs, though if one cannot press the ability, Glaive Lord can also serve as the defense for the BFBs.

Tier 3 (Boss Countermeasures)
For this tier, there are two types of defenses that work effectively. One of them is using powerful Tier 5 options and buffing them with basic but essential supports; outstanding examples of powerful Tier 5 options include M.A.D and Avatar of Wrath. The other is using an Apex Plasma Master.

You can use a M.A.D and Avatar of Wrath with Overclock (BTD6), Stronger Stimulant and Homeland Defense to take down the tier, beware that you will have to move the MAD in order to counter the DDTs spawned, and it is recommended to have Icicle Impale for the insides of the BADs as well.

Another option that requires less effort once set up but more expensive is Apex Plasma Master, when bought, even at Degree 1, it should be able to easily shred Bloonarius. It is also recommended to sell the Plasma Master after the Tier 3 has been defeated under the effect of a Favored Trades in order to get a higher degree Plasma Master for later tiers while also getting money for farming.

Tier 4 (Boss Countermeasures)
Before or when encountering Tier 4 Bloonarius, the player should make a beeline to get the True Sun God, or upgrading it further to a Vengeful True Sun God if available. After purchasing the VTSG, the supports it should be grouped with are similar to the Sun Temple. On most maps, an Apex Plasma Master can be used to save money before getting the Vengeful True Sun God.

Tier 5 (Boss Countermeasures)
For Tier 5 Bloonarius, an extra support Sun Temple for the purposes of buffing a (Vengeful) True Sun God may be bought. Paragons like the Apex Plasma Master and the Glaive Dominus may be bought as well for extra damage. Go for the maximum buff supports and blimp debuffs possible, on top of Temples and Paragons. With excess money, place as many Sun Temples across the map as possible, and then go for the best single-target damage options available. If possible, it is advised to superbuff them with the maximum supports possible.

Important support buffs:
 * Homeland Defense
 * Ultraboost
 * Permanent Brew
 * Multiple Overclocks
 * Multiple Call to Arms
 * Jungle Drums

Best single-target options plus best optimizations (ranked starting from best):
 * Vengeful True Sun God with 2-1-2-2 sacrifices + Ultraboost + Homeland + JDrums + Pbrew
 * Ascended Shadow degreee 40+ at minimum
 * Apex Plasma Master Degree 40+ at minimum
 * Glaive Dominus Degree 40+ at minimum
 * M.A.D. + Ultraboost + Homeland + JDrums + Pbrew
 * 0-1-5 Avatar of Wrath + 5 Poplusts + Ultraboost + Homeland + JDrums + Pbrew
 * 2-0-5 Flying Fortress + Ultraboost + Homeland + JDrums + Pbrew

All useful debuffs against Bloonarius that be added in conjunction to super-buffed towers:
 * Cripple MOAB
 * Super Brittle
 * Glue Storm

In the case where Vengeful True Sun God is not possible, whether it be because the There Can Only Be One MK is not unlocked yet or because the True Sun God upgrade is restricted from this event, Legend of the Night can help assist with catching any leaks in case Bloonarius (especially Elite Bloonarius) sends skull waves very far along the bloon track.

In short, throw in as much damage and support as possible as quickly as possible.