Banana Farm (BTDB2)

Banana Farm is a Support-class tower that was released in the initial release of Bloons TD Battles 2.

It generates money and is the one of the two most common methods of generating money, other than Eco. It generates $40 per banana (unlike in Bloons TD 6, where it generates $20 per banana). Each banana lasts 15 seconds before rotting. The Banana Farm starts producing bananas at the beginning of every round (with a equal amount of time between each drop) until it produced the maximum amount of bananas for that round. The amount of banana's produced per round can be increased by purchasing certain upgrades.

It costs $1100 to build.

Description
Banana farms in this game are similar to those in Bloons TD 6; however, the base farm and most upgrades provide 2x as much money per round compared to BTD6 to account for the shorter number of rounds.

The base tower only drops three bananas a turn for $40 a pop, and these must be collected manually. Each of the paths tries to improve one facet of income production.

Path 1 is centered around production of bananas. The early upgrades just add a couple of bananas per turn. By the time you reach Banana Plantation, the farm produces 16 bananas per turn as the base tower. Banana Research Facility changes the bananas into large crates worth $600 each. Banana Central takes it even further with increased crate production as well as a boost to Banana Research Facilities.

Path 2 is all about a more patient approach. The first two upgrades increase the duration of bananas before they go bad and increase the value of all bananas by 25%, respectively. The third upgrade, Monkey Bank, changes the tower significantly. Instead of dropping bananas, payments are deposited in the bank each turn, where they earn 20% interest. This rewards the player for long-term play, as it takes many rounds (exact number TBA) for the bank to fill to its maximum of $14,000. The next upgrade, IMF Loan, continues to act as a bank (with increased capacity), but also allows the player to take out an instant $20,000 loan which must be paid back over time (unless the game ends first). The final upgrade, Monkey-nomics, removes the need to pay back the loan.

Path 3 makes banana farms much easier to manage. EZ Collect makes it easier to pick up bananas and Banana Salvage makes the bananas auto-collect for a reduced amount. The Marketplace doubles cash flow and adds money to your total automatically, so no bananas are dropped. Central Market both increases the amount of money received per turn and boosts all Merchantmen towers (in 1.0.5 that does not work as the tower is bugged). Finally, Monkey Wall Street adds a huge cash bonus at the end of each round.

Quotes
TBA

Summary
The banana farm is the primary alternative to eco in Bloons TD Battles 2. While it takes longer to set up than eco, its main advantage is that it can be sold before a big investment in towers or bloons, allowing you to recoup your investment.

All farms can be used for mid-to-late game rushes or building up to expensive towers. They can produce income for a few turns, then get sold off either in emergencies (like buying a Dark Knight for D.D.T rushes) or for game-ending towers and bloons. However, it pays to be careful if you neglected your eco, since all sources of income will be gone if your rush fails.

Upper-path upgrades increase income per round with few other benefits until you reach Banana Central, which boost all Banana Research Facilities. The annoyance of picking up bananas in this path can be ameliorated with Monkey City, which picks up bananas automatically, or its upgrade, Monkeyopolis, which absorbs the farms entirely. Unfortunately, this takes up two of your tower slots, which means this strategy is only effective when paired with a tower that can handle all bloon types throughout early-, mid-, and late-game rounds.

Mid-path upgrades, especially Monkey Bank and above, require a long time investment and don't provide income while they are saving up. They should only be used if you have a good setup you know can last 5+ rounds. In an emergency, they can be cashed out, but this can be less convenient than just selling an top-path tower. Given a good enough defense, however, they can be a massive income source for late-game plays. IMF Loan in particular can give you an almost-instant $12,500 in cash (when purchased for $7,500, waiting a few seconds for ability, and getting $20,000), in return for heavily damaging your income flow for many turns after.

Lower-path upgrades are best when you don't have time to pick up a lot of bananas. They work better on maps with a lot of space, since a map that can only fit one or two farms makes it easier to pick up bananas manually.

Comparison with Eco
(1.0.5) Banana farms can be fairly competitive with eco. For instance, if a player has $6500 at the start of round 10, they could either buy a Banana Plantation or do 100 sends of Grouped Pink Bloons for 2.4 eco a piece.

From now until the start of round 20 is 10 turns, and roughly 211-271 seconds. In that time, the banana plantation will produce $8000 in income, while the eco will produce between around $8440 and $10,840. Eco will produce a greater amount, but cannot be sold and can be diminished through big sends.

Further Strategies

 * Strategies
 * General Strategy
 * Optimization Strategy
 * Countermeasures Strategy