Engineer Monkey (BTDB2)/Strategies/General

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



The Engineer Monkey is a mechanical expert in Bloons TD Battles 2. Initially starting with a nailgun, the Engineer is highly capable of being a very flexible unit. Engineer has various upgrades for creating contraptions that add extra popping power, support a defense, or generate income. Engineers have limited camo detection, only doable by decamoing bloons through their low-pierce foam, and hence need better camo options to make up for its camo weakness.

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

Base Tower



 * Cost: $450
 * Unlock: 250

Base Engineer Monkey shoots nails that pop 3 bloons each and attack moderately fast. It is quite costly to start off, so it will need upgrades to reveal its ultimate power.

Sentry Gun



 * Cost: $500
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 1
 * Unlock: Default

The Sentry Gun upgrade allows the Engineer to create temporary sentries that act like Dart Monkeys that last for a limited time. This gives it a lot of extra popping power. It takes time for the sentries to build up, and the Engineer can only produce sentries at a set speed, even if given attack speed buffs.

Faster Engineering



 * Cost: $400
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Faster Engineering speeds up production of sentries, which allows for a higher number of sentries to be active on the map at any given time. Also Bloons Trap and Cleansing Foam gets reduced cooldown with this crosspath.

Sprockets



 * Cost: $525
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Sprockets increases the attack speed of the Engineer's nailgun and newly deployed sentries. This greatly increases DPS of the Engineer. There is a special crosspathing interaction with the Pin crosspath that allows sentries to pin bloons, which can be helpful for stopping bloons in place over a wide area.

Sentry Expert



 * Cost: $2,500
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Instead of regular sentries, Sentry Expert replaces all sentries with four different specialized sentries: Crushing, Boom, Cold, and Energy. Crushing Sentry shoots balls that are similar to Spike-o-pult, Boom Sentry shoots bombs, Cold Sentry shoots snowballs, and Energy Sentry shoots lasers. All of these sentries have a different amount of attack speed, pierce, and damage in unique ways, and damage different types of bloons. Sentry Expert's specialized sentries are reliable at handling mid-game rushes if given camo detection.

Sentry Champion



 * Cost: $32,000
 * Path: 1
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Sentry Champion produces extremely powerful plasma-shooting sentries instead of the four specialized sentries. For its price, Sentry Champion currently does not have much DPS, particularly because the main source of its damage are only the sentries.

Larger Service Area



 * Cost: $250
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 1
 * Unlock: Default

Larger Service Area increases the Engineer's range by a substantial amount, and new sentries gain a little extra range. This is useful for the Engineer to reach further.

Deconstruction



 * Cost: $350
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Engineers with Deconstruction deal extra damage to MOAB-class and Fortified. Newly placed sentries are affected by Deconstruction's effects too, and generally gain the biggest benefit from this upgrade.

Cleansing Foam



 * Cost: $800
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Cleansing Foam removes camo, regrow, and lead properties from all bloons passing by. Leads are popped into Blacks, while DDTs lose their camo and lead properties permanently. Cleansing Foam has low pierce, so it shouldn't be the sole form of camo detection; grouped camo rushes easily overwhelm even a few Cleansing Foam Engineers.

Overclock



 * Cost: $13,500
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 4
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Overclock's ability boosts a target tower for a different amount of time depending on the tower's tier. Higher-tier targets have a shorter effect with Overclock. Most towers receive a big boost in attack speed, while Villages gain more range and Farms get a large income increase.

Ultraboost



 * Cost: $120,000
 * Path: 2
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Ultraboost's main value comes from the permanent boosts given from those towers affected by Ultraboost. It is a very expensive support option whose use case is mostly for accumulating boosts during a late-game stalemate.

Oversize Nails



 * Cost: $450
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 1
 * Unlock: Default

Each nailgun's nail hits up to 8 bloons instead of 3, and sentries and foam gain more pierce. This is a basic pierce boost that helps advance against grouped bloons a fair amount.

Pin



 * Cost: $220
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 2
 * Unlock: Default

Pin stops non-blimp bloons other than Leads and Ceramics in place when struck. Only the nailgun's nails can add the Pinned status effect, unless given the Sprockets crosspath.

Double Gun



 * Cost: $500
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 3
 * Unlock: TBA XP

Double Gun doubles the nailgun attack speed by firing independently from two different guns. This helps advance better in the early-game and barely solo the early rounds before Round 5.

Bloon Trap



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

Bloon Trap traps a substantial amount of bloons immediately when touched, and once full it can be manually collected for $700. The best time to use it for income purposes is early enough to afford it but not so late that the opponent can invest in alternate income sources or overwhelm the trap. It works best for trapping dangerous early-game bloon sends (such as Spaced Whites) and syphoning bloons by spawncamping them. Traps do need other defenses to assist so that minimal lives are lost while traps are under cooldown.

XXXL Trap



 * Cost: $54,000
 * Path: 3
 * Tier: 5
 * Unlock: 40,000 XP

XXXL Trap increases the size of the trap to affect any non-BAD bloon, provided camo detection, and gives $5000 per manual collection of full traps. It proves to be very strong against ZOMGs and works well against DDTs if given camo detection prior.

Unlocks
All towers including Engineer 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 Engineer Monkey upgrades.