User blog:Qwertyxp2000 the second/Balance change suggestions for Version 24.0

Version 23.0 has changed the meta quite a fair bit. A lot of these changes are pretty solid in my opinion, but I personally think they changed some of the upgrades a little too drastically. But as a whole, if they took away the base Spike Factory price nerf then I certainly am very happy with the balance changes in this update. A lot of the overpowered towers have been softened slightly but not so much as to ruin their power balance.

Several of the balance changes in this update have likely been inspired by some of the suggestions that I was involved in. I personally made a few Tack Zone crosspathing reworks back when the Crossbow Master crosspathing reworks were released back in Version 18.0. And the other major one I recall is witnessing Raynuva's Supply Drop suggestions on Bloons Wiki Discord about buffing the shrapnel pierce from 3 to 6 back in around the time Version 22.0 was still active. The Bank nerf was also likely inspired by how I mentioned the Bank's impeccable cost-efficiency, although they didn't buff the base production per round in return. It's fair enough they didn't do so, because it's still pretty strong income production for its price.

The Tack Zone rework was inspired quite a lot from the suggestions I previously made for the Tack Zone's crosspath reworks, with the only exception being that they doubled the tack damage and reduced the base range. It was a very noticeable change indeed, but at least now there is some purpose of the weaker Path 2 crosspath over the superior Path 1 crosspath, with the underlying intent of hybridizing pierce and range for Path 2 and attack speed for Path 1. With that, I would like to thank Ninja Kiwi for making this change to the Tack Zone, as it was quite a necessary change indeed. However, the crosspathing benefits are still not quite perfect in my opinion, but it's definitely a good start.

As for the other towers, most of them are quite interesting balance changes to balance out both crosspathing and overall performance in CHIMPS games. The one that caught my eye the most was that Lead to Gold buff to its lead damage, which actually feels like a straight improvement overall to its income production, seeing as the Leads will not spawn Black Bloons that may interrupt the defense, and it will make Lead to Gold a highly effective lead counter.

The only changes I didn't like were the price nerfs to Spike Factory's base cost, even though this was mainly to balance out the fact that it gained more base attack speed. The base cost of the Spike Factory is detrimental for the Spike Factory's role in the early-game, as it makes it far too expensive to start off as an exit protector, especially on harder maps. Price nerfs make a big role in harming early-game, and this is more true for the Spike Factory in my opinion. It's true that the higher tiers are less affected by this base Spike Factory price nerf, but this also affects the total price of higher tier crosspaths with the lesser favorable non-attackspeed crosspaths.

Here are some balance change suggestions that I personally think will help the balance of BTD6 overall.

Dart Monkey
The overall balance for the Dart Monkey is pretty solid, but the Super Monkey Fan Club path is still somewhat along the weaker side. Several balance changes should help address its weaker points. In particular, range upgrades for transformed Dart Monkeys are now affected by the ability. Even more changes to Plasma Monkey Fan Club have been made to accommodate its highly expensive cost, as it is still weak whether it is with a large group of Dart Monkeys or not.

The attack speed buffs for the lower Path 2 upgrades have been adjusted to make it less of a necessity to always go for Very Quick Shots, while still improving the potential of Quick Shots in the early game. The cost of Razor Sharp Shots has also been reduced to give this crosspath a bit more value for its price.


 * Super Monkey Fan Club ability cooldown reduced (50s --> 40s)
 * Super Monkey Fan Club now stacks range with the Dart Monkey range upgrades (40 --> 44 for x-x-1, 40 --> 48 for x-x-2)
 * Plasma Monkey Fan Club now no longer has a maximum transformation cap
 * Main Plasma Monkey Fan Club now deals +2 damage and +4 pierce for both its main attack and transformed attack.
 * Plasma Monkey Fan Club's main dart attacks are now normal damage type instead of sharp.
 * Quick Shots attack cooldown reduction increased (0.85x --> 0.75x)
 * Description now changed from "Shoots 15% faster" to "Shoots faster."
 * Very Quick Shots attack cooldown reduction decreased (0.75x --> 0.85x)
 * Description now changed from "Shoots 33% faster!" to "Shoots even faster!"
 * Razor Sharp Shots costs less ($220 --> $160)
 * Long Range Darts cost decreased ($90 --> $75)

Boomerang Monkey
TBA


 * Boomerang Monkey base cost decreased ($325 --> $300)
 * Base Boomerang Monkey attack speed increased (1.42s --> 1.33s). Does not affect MOAB Press special boomerang.
 * Base MOAB Press special boomerang attack speed increased slightly (10.0s --> 9.5s 9.74s)
 * Bionic Boomerang base attack speed increased (0.28s --> 0.25s)
 * Turbo Charge now grants +11% attack speed (or 0.90x cooldown) for the main attack.
 * Turbo Charge ability attack speed bonus reduced (7x --> 6x).
 * Overall ability attack speed increased (0.04s --> 0.0375s). Also applies to Perma Charge.
 * Kylie Boomerang costs less ($1300 --> $1200)
 * Kylie Boomerang now deals +1 damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class
 * MOAB Press costs more ($2200 --> $2350)
 * MOAB Press now deals +3 damage to MOAB-class with main attack, for a total of 5 damage to MOAB-class per contact.

Bomb Shooter
The base Bomb Shooter, while not meant to be strong at its earlier upgrades, is shadowed by the power of its Tier 3 and higher upgrades. MOAB Mauler and its high combined pierce and blimp damage makes spamming it a little too easy to use and spam. Increasing the original pierce value of the base Bomb Shooter, adding an extra pierce usage when hitting MOAB-class or Ceramics should make it overall weaker when spammed. More value is given for Frag Bombs to encourage crosspathing past Tier 1 for Maulers. The added extra pierce consumption is removed for MOAB Assassin, which should scale up the power of groups of MOAB Assassins too. MOAB Eliminator, while still well-used when killing off higher-health blimps, has its value taken over by First Strike Capabilities.

Frag Bombs has been seen as a really underused upgrade outside of upgrading further to Cluster Bombs and above, so a lot of buffs have been added here, and the price for Extra Range has dropped because the bonus range is hardly useful in the early-game compared to other towers' bonus range options.


 * Bomb Shooter base cost decreased ($600 --> $500)
 * Bomb Shooter pierce increased (14 --> 20)
 * Bigger Bombs pierce bonus increased (+6 --> +10, for 30 pierce total instead of 20). Does not apply for Cluster Bombs secondary explosions, but does apply for main explosion and tertiary explosions.
 * Heavy Bombs pierce increased (30 --> 40). Pierce bonus remains the same.
 * Really Big Bombs pierce increased (50 --> 60). Also applies to Bloon Impact.
 * Bloon Crush pierce increased (50 --> 120)
 * Bloon Crush pierce consumes more with MOAB-class
 * MOABs and DDTs consume 2 pierce
 * BFBs consume 3 pierce
 * ZOMGs and BADs consume 4 pierce
 * MOAB Mauler explosions now consume 2 pierce per Ceramic or MOAB-class hit. Does not apply for MOAB Eliminator Assassin.
 * MOAB Eliminator costs less ($25,000 --> $24,000)
 * MOAB Eliminator deals more ability damage (x6 --> x12, 4500 --> 9000)
 * MOAB Eliminator ability can now instakill a single MOAB or a visible DDT in full, and guarantees stripping off the BFB layer off BFBs regardless of health, but still can only hit up to one blimp at a time.
 * Description for the upgrade is now changed to "Ability deals at least 12x more damage, deals extreme damage to any MOAB-class bloon weaker than a ZOMG, and ability has a shorter cooldown."
 * 1-0-2 Frag Bombs pierce increased (1 --> 2)
 * 2-0-2 Frag Bombs pierce increased (1 --> 3)
 * 3-0-2 Frag Bombs pierce increased (2 --> 5)
 * 3-0-2 Frag Bombs damage type changed from sharp to shatter
 * 3-0-2 Frag Bombs projectile count increased (8 --> 12)
 * Description for Really Big Bombs now changed from "Huge bombs blow up Bloons in a large area and allow Frags to pop more Bloons." to "Huge bombs blow up Bloons in a large area and improves Frags."
 * 4-0-2 Frag Bombs now can stun bloons hit by the fragments
 * 4-0-2 Frag Bombs damage type changed from sharp to normal
 * 5-0-2 Frag Bombs projectile count increased (8 --> 16)
 * 5-0-2 Frag Bombs projectile size increased (3 --> 5)
 * 5-0-2 Frag Bombs pierce increased (3 --> 9)
 * 5-0-2 Frag Bombs now can stun bloons and blimps hit by the fragments
 * 0-3-2 MOAB Mauler's Frag Bombs now deal +2 damage to blimps and +1 damage to Ceramics
 * 0-4-2 MOAB Assassin's Frag Bombs now deals +5 damage to blimps and +2 damage to Ceramics
 * 0-5-2 MOAB Eliminator's Frag Bombs now deal +25 damage to blimps and +2 damage to Ceramics
 * Extra Range costs less ($200 --> $125)

Tack Shooter
The value of the base Tack Shooter is not really good in comparison to its very small range, and it depends a little too much on the attack speed upgrades to make it viable. The base attack speed has been improved once again while softening the attack speed buffs, in order to balance crosspathing. Attack speed for Path 3 has also been improved to reduce dependency on Path 1's benefits, although small price nerfs have been applied to minimize the impact of overall improved attack speed, not to mention that Upper Path 3 feels to be the most dominant and favored path of choice for higher upgrades.

Path 2 is in general decently balanced besides a few minor aspects that deserve mention. Blade Maelstrom and Super Maelstrom pierce has been increased significantly in order to give them more use than just their abilities. As for Long Range Tacks, it has been given a slight cost decrease to match its comparatively worse value when compared to the bonus tacks upgrade.


 * Base Tack Shooter attack speed increased (1.4s --> 1.25s)
 * Faster Shooting attack speed bonus increased (0.75x --> 0.73x). Attacks every 0.9125s instead of 1.05s pre-update.
 * Even Faster Shooting attack speed bonus decreased (0.60x --> 0.68x). Therefore, total attack speed bonus is reduced from 2.22x to 2.01x. Attacks every 0.6205s instead of 0.63s.
 * But base attack speed of 2-0-0 now has 2.26x attack speed compared to a pre-change 0-0-0 Tack Shooter, which in total grants slightly more attack speed for a 2-0-0 Tack.
 * Tack Sprayer attack speed bonus increased (0.75x --> 0.60x). Attacks every 0.75s instead of 1.05s pre-update. 2-0-3 attacks every 0.3723s instead of every 0.473s pre-update.
 * Tack Sprayer costs more ($450 --> $600)
 * Overdrive costs more ($3200 --> $3300)
 * 0-0-4 Overdrive attacks faster (0.35s --> 0.25s)
 * 2-0-4 Overdrive attacks faster (0.159s --> 0.1241s)
 * Tack Zone attack speed bonus increased (0.75x --> 0.60x)
 * 0-0-5 Tack Zone attacks faster (0.2625s --> 0.15s)
 * 2-0-5 Tack Zone attacks faster (0.1181s --> 0.07446s)
 * Tack Zone costs more ($24,000 --> $25,000)
 * 0-1-5 Tack Zone has more pierce (4 --> 7). Pierce for 0-2-5 remains the same.
 * 0-1-5 Tack Zone has more range (30 --> 42). Range bonus is increased from +4 to +12.
 * 0-2-5 Tack Zone has more range (50 --> 54). Range bonus is decreased from +20 to +12, but overall +4 more range compared to pre-update.
 * Blade Maelstrom base pierce increased (6 --> 10)
 * Super Maelstrom base pierce increased (6 --> 30)
 * Super Maelstrom cost decreased ($15,000 --> $14,000)
 * Long Range Tacks cost decreased ($100 --> $90)

Ice Monkey
Some of its weaker upgrades deserve a little buff, as its generally low range and generally low raw late-game damage output makes the Ice Monkey fall behind, except for Icicle Impale.

Although MOAB-class bloons are generally supposed to be one of many major weaknesses to Ice Monkeys, removing direct MOAB-class targeting hurts its direct performance versus MOAB-class until reaching the expensive Tier 5 upgrades. So letting them target blimps should allow them to deal at least a little bit of damage to them while not letting them become OP versus them.


 * Embrittlement costs less ($2200 --> $2100)
 * Deep Freeze freeze is now increased (2.2s --> 3.0s)
 * Absolute Zero base and ability freeze is now increased (2.2s --> 15s)
 * Absolute Zero now creates an immediate average 15-second freeze Absolute Zero ability effect upon purchasing
 * Absolute Zero's new ability now sets the entire screen persistently on frozen status for 15 seconds, freezing all non-BAD bloons on screen and permanently setting them frozen until the ability duration ends, where they will have 15 more seconds to freeze
 * Absolute Zero's new ability now sets it on initial cooldown
 * Absolute Zero's new ability has longer cooldown (30s --> 60s)
 * Absolute Zero's Arctic Wind effect now slows MOAB-class bloons, but the slowdown is halved for blimps


 * Super Brittle cost decreased ($30,000 --> $27,000)
 * Super Brittle pierce increased (40 --> 95)
 * Ice Monkeys can now target and deal damage but not deal any status effects to MOAB-class bloons until Tier 5, except freezing and dealing damage with Snowstorm ability.

Glue Gunner
While normal MOAB Glue is balanced now, the Path 2 MOAB Glue tends to be overwhelmingly favorable while Path 1 MOAB Glue has little to no use. Adding soaking of MOAB-class and extra damage per tick to those types should make the Path 1 MOAB Glue crosspath a little more enticing. Likewise, Relentless Glue's extra normal bloon slowdown should give the Path 2 Relentless more of a practical use versus regular bloons. Extra pierce is added to further Path 2 upgrades to give them more use outside of the ability. And lastly, the raw damage output of Glue Gunners tends to be extremely limited outside of Bloon Solver. So more damage has been given to the 2-0-5 Super Glue to give it some more use over the more popular 0-2-5 Super Glue.


 * 1-0-3 MOAB Glue can now soak through MOAB-class
 * 2-0-3 MOAB Glue now deals more damage per tick (1 --> 5)
 * 2-0-5 Super Glue now deals more MOAB-class damage per tick (1 --> 25)
 * 2-0-5 Super Glue on-hit damage versus blimps increased (50 --> 100)
 * Relentless Glue slows normal bloons more (75% --> 90%)
 * Glue Striker now has more pierce with main attack (6 --> 10)
 * Glue Storm now has more pierce with main attack (6 --> 26)

Sniper Monkey
The overall balance of the Sniper Monkey is almost perfect, but a few touches have been done to address some of its weaker crosspaths and to add variety in Deflation strategy.


 * Cripple MOAB costs less ($40,000 --> $37,500)
 * Cripple MOAB now deals more damage (80 --> 120)
 * Full Auto Rifle attack speed bonus increased (2x --> 3x)
 * Elite Defender costs increased ($14,000 --> $15,000)
 * 3-2-0 Shrapnel Shot now deals more damage (4 --> 6). 4-2-0 Shrapnel Shot damage remains the same.
 * 5-2-0 Shrapnel Shot shrapnel pierce increased (3 --> 5)

Monkey Sub
Monkey Subs are powerful and cost-effective for the fact that they are restricted as water-based towers, but some of its powerful upgrades are a little too cost-effective for what they do, more specifically the Advanced Intel Path 3 Subs. And while Barbed Darts is quite powerful in the early-game, it isn't as strong compared to its BTD5 counterpart due to Twin Guns fulfilling far greater value via utilizing the increased dart pierce, so a large price cut has been applied to this upgrade.

Energizer feels too expensive for its niche at decreasing ability cooldowns. One creative approach is to add a new lightning laser attack whenever the Energizer is unsubmerged, with a mechanic similar to the end point of a Plasma Accelerator.

First Strike and Pre-Emptive's main attacks are quite weak outside of its ability. Extra damage is given to both of them, which should give them more use besides their respective abilities.


 * Airburst Darts costs more ($1000 --> $1200)
 * Advanced Intel costs more ($500 --> $600)
 * Barbed Darts costs less ($450 --> $325)
 * Unsubmerged Energizer now produces a lightning laser attack similar to the end point of a Plasma Accelerator.
 * Deals 1 pierce, range equal to Energizer's base range, attacks every 0.06s, and deals 6 damage.
 * Targets based on Sub target priority, except Submerged.
 * 5-1-0 adds +3 pierce, while 5-2-0 also adds +3 damage and +3 lead damage.
 * 5-0-1 increases attack speed to 0.05s, while 5-0-2 increases attack speed to 0.04s.
 * Damage type is plasma, which means can't pop Purple.
 * First Strike's main attacks now deal +2 damage
 * First Strike range increased (50 --> 60)
 * Pre-Emptive's main attacks now deal +2 damage and main missiles deal more Ceramic and MOAB-class damage (+10 --> +15)
 * 5-2-0 Energizer deals +3 damage to Leads instead of just +1

Monkey Buccaneer
More crosspathing changes have been applied to give more use for Path 3 crosspathing when Monkey Knowledge is not active. The cost of Grape Shot has also been increased slightly because of how too reliable it is for the early-game and how powerful it is for the Buccaneer's main popping power. Path 3 crosspathing gives all attacks with bonus pierce, which should give more reason to try multiple 0-1-1 Buccaneers instead of a single 2-1-0 Buccaneer (which is cheaper than two 0-1-1 Buccaneers but with less overall pierce), and this change would also make 3-0-1 Destroyer stronger overall.

Trade Empire's base production has been increased to avoid needing to rely on Merchantmen to improve its income production. Likewise, Trade Empire's main attacks got some buffs, which should add more choice to which Favored Trades should be upgraded to the aforementioned upgrade.


 * Long Range now also increases pierce of all attacks by +1
 * Description changed from "Much longer range" to "Much longer range and projectile speed, plus extra pierce"
 * Grape Shot costs more ($550 --> $600)
 * Trade Empire base income production per round increased ($800 --> $1600). Note that Trade Empire itself can't be buffed by itself, and therefore doesn't count as the buff for the 20 Merchantmen or Favored Trades.
 * Trade Empire range increased (71 --> 120)
 * Trade Empire pierce for all its attacks increased by double. Applies before other pierce buffs such as Alch buffs.
 * Trade Empire base dart damage increased (2 --> 8).

Monkey Ace
Exploding Pineapples have next to no use for higher-level upgrades, although still useful for the lower tiers (specifically 1-1-0 and occasionally 0-1-1). However, Exploding Pineapples are not strong with the Ace's higher tiers, mostly being a vestige just to get the Spy Plane upgrade or its higher upgrades. More crosspath benefits have been added, with particular attention to attack speed benefits, most notably because not all attack speed benefits for Exploding Pineapples have been added yet.

Fighter Plane's anti-MOAB missiles were nerfed too hard, to the extent that it was almost never viable against early MOAB-class bloons, besides grouped blimps. So its base attack anti-MOAB missile damage has been overall slightly increased to make up for this. Operation: Dart Storm will not receive this change, and instead exchange the Fighter Plane's main attack for a pair of weaker missiles at a much faster rate. Fighter Plane also gains an extra attack to give the entire Upper Path 1 a bit of an Aircraft Carrier makeover.


 * 4-1-0 Exploding Pineapples now deploys 100% faster (1.5s --> 0.75s)
 * 5-1-0 Exploding Pineapples now deploys another 100% faster (1.5s --> 0.375s), deal more damage (1 --> 3), and pop any (visible) bloon type
 * 0-1-4 Exploding Pineapples now are deployed in arrays of 10 split between 0.2s
 * 0-1-5 Exploding Pineapples now are deployed in arrays of 10 split between 0.2s, deal more damage (1 --> 5), and pop any (visible) bloon type
 * Fighter Plane missile damage increased (18 --> 40). Does not affect Operation: Dart Storm or Sky Shredder.
 * Fighter Plane now only shoots one missile instead of two. Does not affect Operation: Dart Storm or Sky Shredder.
 * Fighter Plane now also gains a pair of front-shooting darts with a range of 60 (diameter). Requires there to be a bloon within 60 range of the Ace itself in order to activate. Twin darts aim at closest bloons in a straight formation.
 * 5 pierce (or 8 with 3-0-1 or 3-0-2), 1 damage, 60 range, attacks every 0.75s. Attack speed remains the same across upgrades, but inherits base dart stats in higher upgrades.

Heli Pilot
The Heli Pilot flies so slowly with the base amount, it was unnecessary to cut down the base flight speed, and rather the Path 2 flight speed needed to be increased even more to make the upgrade more worth using. Similarly, crosspath benefits with Razor Rotor's main attack are added, as there appears to be almost no benefit for the Razor Rotors when adding crosspathing, outside of camo detection via IFR. Extra damage of the Razor Rotor is added for higher upgrades to make crosspathing make a bigger difference with the Razor Rotor attack.

While Special Poperations is decent, decreasing its Redeploy Tower Ability should make it more useful as a useful support tower in the late-game. And as for Comanche Commander, it is decent, but slightly underpowered. Buffing the earlier Comanche Defense upgrade should also buff the Comanche Commander's power by a slight amount, putting Comanche Commander a little more on par with Apache Prime in terms of price versus DPS.


 * Base flight speed increased (40 --> 45)
 * Bigger Jets flight speed increased (70 --> 80)
 * Bigger Jets now increases Razor Rotor pierce by +10
 * Razor Rotors now attacks +25% faster with 3-0-2 crosspath
 * Apache Dartship's Razor Rotor attack now deals more damage (1 --> 3)
 * Apache Prime's Razor Rotor attack now deals more damage (1 --> 6)
 * Special Poperations' Redeploy Tower Ability cooldown decreased (60s --> 40s)
 * Comanche Defense base helicopter attack speed increased by +66% (0.448s --> 0.269s). Also applies for Comanche Commander.
 * Comanche Defense main helicopter also gains a twin base rocket attack. Also applies for Comanche Commander, but with +1 damage too.
 * 100 pierce, 1 damage, +2 damage versus MOAB-class and Ceramics, and deals twin rocket attacks every 6.0s (rather than 3.0s with the mini-Comanches)

Mortar Monkey
There is little reason to improve Burny Stuff effect without Path 2 crosspathing outside of using the already lesser popular Upper Path 1 crosspaths. While there is still adequate reasoning to go for crosspathing without Path 2 crosspathing, these crosspaths are still quite weak. Faster burn time with Bloon Buster and above should give more reason to try out the Burny Stuff crosspath without needing Path 2. Likewise, the Heavy Shells + Burny Stuff crosspath has been given extra damage to burning bloons as a potential reason to use this upgrade over the more popular Heavy Shells + Bloon Buster.

Artillery Battery having a lack of an ability feels a bit empty for this upgrade. Adding the ability to stun bloons hit by the main explosions should help improve Artillery Battery's overall power. The cost has been slightly increased to compensate this new change, however. Pop and Awe will inherit this new ability main explosion stun in its existing Pop and Awe upgrade.


 * 2+-0-2+ Burny Stuff burns +50% faster
 * 2+-0-2, 2-0-3, 2-0-4: 1/2/3/25 damage per 1.5s --> 1/2/3/25 damage per 1.0s
 * 2-0-5: 5 damage per 1.0s --> 5 damage per 0.75s)
 * With MK, 2-0-2 damages every 0.75s, or 0.5625s for 2-0-5
 * 0-3-2 Heavy Shells now deals +2 damage versus bloons with the burning status
 * 0-5-2 Pop and Awe now deals +6 damage versus bloons with the burning status
 * Artillery Battery now has a new ability: "Bloon Shock". When activated, Artillery Battery's main attacks temporarily will stun normal bloons for 1.0s and stuns blimps for 0.25s. Ability lasts for 8 seconds. Cooldown of 60 seconds.
 * Description changed from "Artillery battery upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks" to "Artillery battery upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks. Bloon Shock Ability: for a limited time, explosions will stun bloons and MOAB-class."
 * Artillery Battery costs more ($5500 --> $6000)
 * Pop and Awe ability's main attack also applies a stun to bloons and blimps with the main explosion, with a stun of 2 seconds for both types.

Dartling Gunner
Crosspathing choice has predominantly been to go for the Path 2 Faster Barrel Spin upgrade, so a bit of base attack speed versus crosspath adjustment has been done to give more reason to choose some of the other lesser popular crosspaths. Plasma Accelerator's loss of extra beam damage versus MOAB-class hurt it quite a lot, so extra damage versus Ceramics and MOAB-class has been added to compensate and also make it better at taking down Super Ceramics in the late-game. Also, Ray of Doom already deals enormous pierce, so extra damage has been given to this crosspath on top of gaining literally infinite pierce.


 * Base Dartling Gunner attack speed increased (0.20s --> 0.167s)
 * Faster Barrel Spin attack speed bonus decreased (+50% --> +33%)
 * Faster Barrel Spin cost decreased ($950 --> $825)
 * Buckshot base attack speed increased (1.8s --> 1.5s). Subsequent upgrades are buffed accordingly.
 * Laser Cannon base attack speed increased (0.2s --> 0.15s)
 * Plasma Accelerator base attack speed increased (0.25s --> 0.20s). Also affects Ray of Doom.
 * 5-0-2 Ray of Doom now deals +5 damage and no longer has a pierce cap.
 * Plasma Accelerator pointer deals +2 damage versus Ceramics and MOAB-class
 * Plasma Accelerator beam deals +1 damage versus Ceramics and MOAB-class

Wizard Monkey
There is no value to 2-3-0 Dragon's Breath besides improving its main bolt attack, so a crosspath benefit has been added to accommodate its purpose over the superior Path 3 crosspath. Likewise is given for the homing idea for Dragon's Breath (credit to Raynuva for the idea of homing flames).

As for Wall of Fire, it is a little too powerful for what it costs and does, so increased cooldown for the attack has been added. Slightly more duration has been added to slightly compensate, and more with Arcane Blasts to give more incentive to utilize Arcane Blasts outside improving the bolt attack.

Crosspath benefits for Summon Phoenix have been added to give more variety to it and therefore make it a bit stronger.


 * 2-3-0 Dragon's Breath now increases flame attack speed by +25%, for 0.08s instead of 0.10s. Also applies for Archmage.
 * 1-3-0 Dragon's Breath now applies Submarine-grade homing for the flames. Also applies for Archmage.
 * Wall of Fire duration increased (4.5s --> 5.0s)
 * Wall of Fire attack speed decreased (5.5s --> 8.0s)
 * 2-2-0 Wall of Fire duration increased (4.5s --> 7.5s)
 * 2-1-0 Fireball deals +1 damage. Also applies for Dragon's Breath.
 * 1-4-0 Summon Phoenix flames now slightly home at bloons, similarly to Spectre darts
 * 2-4-0 Summon Phoenix deals +1 damage. Also applies for permanent phoenix with 2-5-0 WLP.
 * 0-4-1 Summon Phoenix has more pierce (6 --> 11)
 * Summon Phoenix no longer detects camo without getting the 0-4-2 crosspath or if the main Wizard is supported by camo detection. Does not apply for Wizard Lord Phoenix transformation (can still detect and pop camo).

Super Monkey
The Super Monkey's main power comes from its higher upgrades, but Laser Blasts is a little too weak in comparison to Epic Range, whereby the latter gains huge range and bonus +1 pierce while still not popping Frozen, while Laser Blasts only gains bonus +1 pierce plus Frozen-popping without the range bonus and loses popping of Purples. Adjusting the cost of Laser Blasts versus Plasma Blasts should fix this issue while still keeping Plasma Blasts with similar value.


 * Laser Blasts costs less ($2500 --> $2250)
 * Plasma Blasts costs more ($4500 --> $4750)

Ninja Monkey
TBA


 * Flash Bomb stun lasts longer (1.0s --> 2.0s)
 * 0-1-3 Flash Bomb now has a 20% chance to push bloons backwards by 50% for 2 seconds
 * Master Bomber stun lasts longer on MOABs and BFBs (0.25s --> 0.5s)
 * Master Bomber stun lasts longer on non-MOAB-class (1.0s --> 5.0s)

Alchemist
TBA


 * Transforming Tonic potion damage increased (1 --> 2)
 * Transforming Tonic lasers gain +5 pierce with 1-4-0 (or 2-4-0)
 * Transforming Tonic laser attack speed increases from 0.03s to 0.025s with 0-4-1 (or 0-4-2)
 * Total Transformation main monster now gains exactly the same stats as the mini monsters rather than keeping the Transforming Tonic stats (i.e. in this case more pierce from 6 to 10)

Druid
Some small changes to make some of the weaker crosspaths more effective and practical, in this case attempting to make 5-1-0 a viable option and 2-0-5 useful outside of the Hard Thorns pierce bonus. Superstorm's solid stalling power is quite good, and a tiny price cut is added to make it a slight bit more balanced.


 * Superstorm thorn pierce increased (2 --> 17)
 * Superstorm thorn damage increased (1 --> 10) and deals +5 damage to MOAB-class
 * 2-0-5 Avatar of Wrath lightning deals more damage (1 --> 4). Lightning still does not get affected by the unique damage ramping.
 * Superstorm costs less ($90,000 --> $80,000)

Banana Farm
Bank Deposits have made it more interesting to play with Monkey Banks, but it feels too easy to just let the Bank Deposits grow once and then immediately withdrawing the cash to just profit easily, outweighing the efficiency of normal Farms on harder gamemodes. Decreasing the base Bank interest rate should make it harder to spam Bank Deposits, while increasing the base production per round and increasing the base capacity should compensate the use of traditional Bank investments. The IMF Loan will also subsequently become more efficient than before, although still less efficient than Banks in their regard. Lastly, bank capacity is halved in Half Cash, due to its sheer cost-efficiency on said game mode.

Also, the prices for EZ Collect and Banana Salvage have been swapped, as the value for the Banana Salvage upgrade appears to be more valuable than EZ Collect alone.

And lastly, Monkey-Nomics has been modified to make it more useful outside of just its ability by improving the bank functionality of it, with a price increase to make up for this.


 * Monkey Bank interest decreased (15% --> 12%). Remains unchanged for IMF Loans.
 * Monkey Bank base production increased ($230 --> $240)
 * Monkey Bank capacity increased ($7000 --> $8000)
 * All Monkey Bank and above bank capacities are halved in Half Cash.
 * IMF Loan capacity increased ($10,000 --> $12,000)
 * Costs for EZ Collect and Banana Salvage are now swapped
 * Monkey-Nomics bank capacity increased ($10,000 --> $25,000)
 * Monkey-Nomics base production per round increased ($230 --> $600)
 * Monkey-Nomics interest increased (15% --> 20%)
 * Monkey-Nomics costs more ($100,000 --> $120,000)


 * Maths
 * ((cash + (storedOld * (1 + interest))) * (1 + interest)) = storedNew

Instead of ~$265 per round with 0-3-0, it's now minimum of ~$268 per round with 0-3-0. Subsequently, it takes longer to get the spicy maxed Bank capacity of both with and without MK, but the maxed income is a lot higher. An average of two rounds longer is necessary for maxed capacity for both with and without MK.

At maximum, efficiency of the theoretical Bank at max capacity is up to 10.09 efficiency with 0-3-0 and before $8000 collect, compared to 9.99 efficiency with 0-3-0 before $7000 collect. With MK, this is 8.75 effiency with 1-3-0 Bank before $10500 capacity, compared to 8.37 efficiency with 0-3-0 Bank before $9500 capacity. IMF Loans had an average of around 1 to 2 rounds less to pay off itself, with total best efficiency being 2-4-0 IMF at 13.95 efficiency when collect $14500, as opposed to 15.34 efficiency before collect $12500.

Again, the intent is to balance out Bank Deposits, forcing the player to wait out longer before the Bank Deposits income stacks come into play. This will nerf the base Bank, but frankly the point of the Bank is to wait out your income generation to gain the massive income reward.



Download the above document. This compares the Bank and IMFs with and without the changes.

Spike Factory
With some massive Spike Factory changes for the earlier upgrades, the price nerfs have hurt the lower tiers a little too much despite the overall attack speed buff. Some price adjustments for the earlier upgrades while carrying some of that extra value into the Spiked Balls upgrade should help improve the Spike Factory's early-game prowess. Extra value is also shifted into improving the Deadly Spike's mid-game potential by adding more time lifespan and pierce. Calculationally, these changes should make a 0-2-5 Perma-Spike still cost the same as it always did since Version 12.0 while also improving Path 3 overall.

As for Spike Storm and Carpet of Spikes, while Spike Storm is powerful versus MOAB-class, Carpet of Spikes is a lot weaker versus purely MOAB-class bloons compared to multiple Spike Storms. Adding a major pierce buff for Carpet of Spikes not only diversifies the crosspathing choices for this upgrade, but it also balances out its efficiency versus multiple Spike Storms when it comes to shredding MOAB-class. As for Spike Storm, the base attack speed was increased, following a trend of turning most Tier 4 Path 2 upgrades to become more useful than just for their ability, and also following the roots of the old MOAB-SHREDR Spikes upgrade in BTD5.


 * Spike Factory base cost decreased ($1000 --> $900)
 * Bigger Stacks cost decreased ($800 --> $750)
 * Even Faster Production cost decreased ($800 --> $750)
 * Spiked Balls cost increased ($2200 --> $2400)
 * Faster Production attack speed increased (0.80x --> 0.77x, +25% --> +30%)
 * Even Faster Production attack speed decreased (0.70x --> 0.72x, +43% --> 39%)
 * But total attack speed bonus with both Path 2 upgrades is improved, for total of +80% attack speed with Even Faster Production instead of +79%. 0-2-0 Spike Factory attack speed is now also 0.97s instead of 0.98s.
 * Smart Spikes costs less ($400 --> $300)
 * Long Life Spikes costs less ($1400 --> $1250)
 * Deadly Spikes lasts longer (140s --> 200s). Permaspike lifespan remains the same.
 * Deadly Spikes pierce increased (5 --> 10, or 10 --> 20 for 1+-0-4)
 * Deadly Spikes cost increased ($3500 --> $3900)
 * Spike Storm base attack speed increased by +66% (0.99s --> 0.58s). Doesn't affect ability.
 * Carpet of Spikes pierce increased (5 --> 10, 0-4-x; 10 --> 15, 1-4-0 and 2-4-0)
 * Carpet of Spikes passive ability is now affected by Energizer

Monkey Village
Very few changes are necessary for the Monkey Village, with most of these suggestions being MIB interaction changes that affect certain non-blimp bloon types. Also, Monkey Town has had its cost dropped slightly to compete with some of the more popular and efficient farming options. It now also gains the cash generation bonus from Monkey City, which makes better sense considering it is a money-oriented upgrade. Monkey City also gains a discount for all Tier 4 upgrades from towers nearby the village, which should make a Monkey City at least somewhat more useful on CHIMPS.


 * With MIB effect, allows Downdraft to blowback Frozen and Lead (already for Lead, but not for Frozen yet)
 * With MIB effect, allows Pin now affects Leads and Ceramics
 * With MIB effect, allows Knockback to deal Dark Knight type knockback versus Leads and Ceramics
 * Monkey Town costs less ($10,000 --> $9000)
 * Monkey Town now gains the Monkey City's extra cash generation benefit.
 * Monkey Town description changed from "All Monkeys within the radius of the Monkey Town get extra cash per Bloon pop." to "All Monkeys within the radius of the Monkey Town get extra cash per Bloon pop, and cash generators produce more cash."
 * Monkey City now also applies +10% discount to Tier 4 upgrades only.
 * Description changed from "Increases influence radius, cash generation in radius, and gives you a free Dart Monkey every round." to "Increases influence radius, decreases price of Tier 4 upgrades, and gives you a free Dart Monkey every round."
 * Monkey City costs more ($3000 --> $3750)

Engineer Monkey
The new Deconstruction crosspath benefit for sentries has made this crosspath the almost go-to option for sentries, especially Sentry Paragon. However, the Path 3 crosspaths are still not quite up to scratch with the Path 2 benefits. Adding bonus lifespan for sentries and foam to Pin crosspath should help balance out more crosspathing interactions, including that for Cleansing Foam crosspathing versus the popular Faster Cleansing Foam crosspath. Similarly, a little more pierce is added for the 5-0-1 Sentry Paragon, as +1 pierce has little to no effect to Paragon Sentries compared to that for other sentries.

Like Ice Monkeys, Cold Sentries have no use out of its increased MOAB-class damage benefit from the 4-2-0 crosspath, so letting them target MOAB-class but still not dealing status effects to them should let them still utilize the inherited MOAB-class damage benefit.


 * Pin now increases lifespan of Engineer sentries and foam by 40%
 * Description changed from "Pins Bloons in place for a short time when struck" to "Nailgun shots can pin Bloons in place for a short time. Additionally, Engineer sentries and foam last longer."
 * To be more specific, 10 * 8.5 * (1 / 2.0) = 42.5 bloons at max when fully stocked for 0-3-0, 10 * 8.5 * (1 / 1.2) = 70.83 bloons at max when fully stocked for 2-3-0, and 15 * (8.5 * 1.4) * (1 / 2.0) = 89.25 bloons at max when fully stocked for 0-3-2. So while 2-3-0 refreshes foam faster, 0-3-2 has better overall maxed foam pierce but refreshes slower.
 * Sentries last for 35 seconds instead of 25 seconds, or 42 seconds instead of 30 with "Vigilant Sentries"
 * Sentry Paragon sentries now gain +2 pierce instead of +1.
 * Cold Sentries can now target and damage but not deal status effects to MOAB-class