Sniper Monkey (BTDB2)/Strategies/General

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



The Sniper Monkey's main role in Bloons TD Battles 2 is to pick off bloons at any range. Sniper Monkey's various upgrades make it excel at long ranges, provided it does not have its vision blocked by Line of Sight. While it initially can only hit one bloon at a time, it has Shrapnel Shot and Bouncing Bullet to assist its general group-popping weaknesses.

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

Base Tower



 * Cost: $350
 * Unlock: 75

Base Sniper Monkey shoots bullets that instantly hit one bloon at a time but deals 2 damage each. It is mainly used to pick off stray bloons, thanks to its instantaneous accuracy. It is not recommended to simply buy multiple of these base Snipers, as they have very low pierce and don't do much damage for how much they cost.

Full Metal Jacket



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

Full Metal Jacket increases each bullet to deal 4 damage, as well as lets it pop Frozen and Lead. The same applies to shrapnel from the Shrapnel Shot upgrade. The main power of this comes from picking off stronger mid-game bloons. Multiple Snipers with this upgrade or single Sniper with higher-tier upgrades can help assist with wiping out stronger bloons.

Large Calibre



 * Cost: $1000
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Large Calibre increases each bullet to deal 7 damage. If given Shrapnel Shot, shrapnel will deal 2 damage each. This allows the Sniper to instantly destroy Leads and Zebras in a single shot, excluding Fortified Leads, and reduces Rainbows into much weaker bloons. It does a fair amount of Ceramic damage. The extra shrapnel damage also assists with weakening stronger bloons neighboring the Sniper's main target.

Deadly Precision



 * Cost: $2,800
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: 3,500 XP

Deadly Precision one-shots Ceramics and almost fully one-shots Fortified Ceramics, making it a solid option at wiping out individual Ceramics. It is still quite expensive though, and it is not worth spamming them to handle a large Ceramic rush. Setting on Strong is almost always the best choice for Deadly Precision, as this takes advantage of its high damage. As its shrapnel doesn't do much damage in comparison to its main bullet, it is often recommended to use the bottom path for optimizing Deadly Precision's huge Ceramic damage.

Maim MOAB



 * Cost: $5,000
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: 10,500 XP

Maim MOAB lets the Sniper stun MOAB-class bloons that it has damaged. This also includes shrapnel, which can be utilized in conjunction as grouped damage via the Shrapnel Shot upgrade. In most cases, it should be set on Strong, but it can sometimes be changed to First to account for blimps that are progressing forward. Setting on First is generally reserved for a Maim MOAB with Shrapnel Shot.

Cripple MOAB



 * Cost: $34,000
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: 37,500 XP

Cripple MOAB causes all affected blimps to become vulnerable to a lot of extra damage, +5 to be precise. Bullets themselves don't do the most damage, rather its peak point is letting other towers take advantage of that debuff. To take advantage of this, towers that shoot lots of projectiles very quickly will cause maximal damage. This is mainly for handling BADs, though it also does well against ZOMGs and DDTs.

Night Vision Goggles



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

Night Vision Goggles lets the Sniper detect Camos and deal +2 damage to them if hit by its bullets. This is enough to one-shot Camo Yellows. Despite the Night Vision Goggle's bonus damage to Camos, it is not very wise to invest in lots of them to defend against mid-game Camos, as the Sniper will still have a major grouped bloon weakness. Instead, the Night Vision Goggles upgrade itself is mainly a supporting role against Camos.

Shrapnel Shot



 * Cost: $400
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Shrapnel Shot gives Sniper with grouped popping power by producing 5 shrapnel pieces out of bloons that were damaged by the Sniper's bullets. Shrapnel is shot in the direction where the bullet pointed prior to impact. Hence, positioning will be very important here to maximize its pierce. Many upgrades along Path 1 modify Shrapnel Shot to become more effective, mainly extra damage.

Bouncing Bullet



 * Cost: $3,000
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: 2,500 XP

Bouncing Bullet lets the Sniper bounce bullets onto up to 3 more bloons, for up to 4 bloons in total. Shrapnel will also shoot parallel to the direction of the bullet before bouncing off each target. This gives the Sniper much stronger grouped damage. It combines cleanup with general damage. Setting on First or Strong fits its use case either way.

Supply Drop



 * Cost: $5,800
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: 11,000 XP

Supply Drop's ability generates crates of cash worth $2000 each. These crates regenerate pretty slowly relative to the battle, so these are mostly for expanding long-term income. A major advantage of Supply Drop over other methods of income comes from being able to spam the same tower to generate more income without direct attachment to bloon sends from either one's own or from the opponent, as well as having innate camo detection and decent grouped popping. However, it will still need support to deal with very dense grouped rushes or MOAB-class bloons. If Supply Drop is activated as soon as it is available, the cash given is functionally equivalent to 300 eco.

Elite Sniper



 * Cost: $14,000
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: 35,000 XP

Elite Sniper attacks faster, grants extra attack speed for all Snipers on screen, gives them Elite targeting as a target option, and generates crates worth $5000 instead of $2000. It is very support-oriented and is an enhanced Supply Drop in essence. The biggest benefit of Elite Sniper is its passive attack speed buff, mainly useful for Maim MOABs and defenses reliant on Sniper DPS.

Fast Firing



 * Cost: $350
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 1
 * Unlock: Default

Fast Firing increases attack speed of the Sniper by a fair amount. It is barely enough to push the Sniper's reliability a little further. It is not recommended to buy this on a Sniper without Full Metal Jacket or Shrapnel Shot, as this is otherwise very cost-inefficient.

Even Faster Firing



 * Cost: $700
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Even Faster Firing increases attack speed of the Sniper by a fair amount on top of the previous upgrade. This is enough to give the Sniper with reasonable reliability when paired with other upgrades. Like its previous Fast Firing upgrade, it is not recommended to buy this on a Sniper without Full Metal Jacket or Shrapnel Shot, as this is otherwise very cost-inefficient.

Semi-Automatic



 * Cost: $3,300
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: 2,750 XP

Semi-Automatic gives triple attack speed for the Sniper. This gives the Sniper with an attack speed specialization. The main value of this upgrade comes from giving it crosspaths, mainly Path 1 for chipping down multiple bloons or Path 2 for quick grouped cleanup. Target options play a role in the effectiveness of Semi-Automatic, given its DPS role more than either grouped popping or pure single-target.

Full Auto Rifle



 * Cost: $4,750
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: 10,000 XP

Full Auto Rifle increases attack speed of the Sniper by a considerable amount once again, likely 2x as is implied by BTD6. Like Semi-Automatic, Full Auto Rifle is DPS-oriented, and thus should have crosspathing to make the most of its incredible attack speed.

Elite Defender



 * Cost: $16,000
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: 30,000 XP

Elite Defender is the fastest-attacking Sniper possible. It gains more attack speed if bloons are closer to the exit. As a bonus, losing a life by any means will let the Sniper attack 4x faster, for extremely hypersonic attack speed, though it is almost impossible to find a way to leak only a few bloons towards the exit without risking all lives lost at once. Either way, Elite Defender offers the highest DPS possible for a Sniper per dollar.

Unlocks
All towers including Sniper 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 Sniper upgrades.

Sniper's first two tiers of each path are only enough to handle weaker groups of bloons as well as do some small-scale cleanup. It will need more grouped damage and higher-tier damage with upgrades. In most cases, grouped bloons will be a serious option, and therefore Bouncing Bullet is the best choice for the first choice of Tier 3. Semi-Automatic does offer higher attack speed, but it is very crosspath-dependent and doesn't shred bloons as efficiently as Bouncing Bullets with either crosspath. Deadly Precision packs with high damage, with reasonable damage to MOABs and enough damage to wipe out Ceramics in a single shot, but Tack should be brought to deal with MOABs first, which unlocks generally sooner. However, the choice for a second Tier 3 is changed when deciding the Tier 4.

Tier 4 upgrades for the Sniper are often bounded by what the long-term goal is. Maim MOAB's blimp stun is impeccably valuable against both early blimps and later ones. Supply Drop makes it easier to survive on longer maps by having a secondary income option while still keeping up the pace of income growth until needing to inevitably face BADs and DDTs. So whichever Tier 4 works best will typically be the better option. This leaves Full Auto Rifle as the odd one out.

As for Tier 5, each of the three Snipers have starkly different roles at different pricepoints. Cripple MOAB, while very expensive (and hence lots of farming required), offers a partial solution to fighting BADs by causing affected blimps to become more vulnerable to damage, which helps let other towers quickly removes HP off vulnerable blimps. The other two options are relatively inexpensive, with Elite Sniper being support-oriented and Elite Defender being offense-oriented. Elite Sniper enhances attack speed, which is its main strongpoint; the higher income per crate is not very much value on its own to be worthy investing XP on. Elite Defender's main power is its immense attack speed, though it is quite weak on its own at dealing with grouped or spaced bloons.

Overall, a recommended upgrade order could go something like this:
 * 1) Bouncing Bullet
 * 2) Deadly Precision
 * 3) Maim MOAB
 * 4) Supply Drop
 * 5) Cripple MOAB
 * 6) Elite Sniper
 * 7) Semi-Automatic
 * 8) Full Auto Rifle
 * 9) Elite Defender