Crosspathing/Mortar Monkey

In Bloons TD 6, it is important to choose the best crosspathing for a specific tower in order to receive the best benefits out of that tower type. Towers have special roles to play for each stage of the game. The Mortar Monkey in its core is producing high-pierce explosives aimed at any user-directed location on screen.

Introduction
Mortar Monkey can attack anywhere on the screen but only in a focused area, and even then, there is a slight variance in where the mortar shot will land within the focused area. The player can change where the Mortar Monkey will shoot and it is a really cheap base tower. Path 1 focuses on the power of the mortar shot itself, with upgrades like Bloon Buster and The Big One. Path 2 centralizes on attack speed with a little bit of bloon specialization (Heavy Shells) with upgrades like Rapid Reload and Artillery Battery. Path 3 focuses on powerful damage-over-time and support, with upgrades like Burny Stuff and Shattering shells. Crosspathing does have an impact on Mortar Monkey but it doesn't have the biggest impact compared to towers like Super Monkey and Sniper Monkey.

Tier 2 and below



 * 0-0-0: It is useful at manually targeting Leads. Pure 0-0-0 is mostly used for 2MPC as a source of lead-popping for early-game rounds.
 * 1-0-0: Increases the blast radius of the mortar shot.
 * 0-1-0: Increases the attack speed of the Mortar Monkey. Shots become a little more consistent at catching up with bloons, especially when microing the Mortar in the earlier rounds.
 * 0-0-1: Reduces the deviation of mortars shots when it lands.
 * 1-1-0: Combines increased blast radius with faster attack speed.
 * 1-0-1: Combines Increases blast radius with decreased deviation of mortar shots when it lands. In practice, this crosspaths causes a negative synergy, as the increases blast radius is supposed to increase the area of the mortar shot projectile in which it can affect, but the decreased in deviation in where the projectile lands means that the mortar shot will affect less area around the target area.
 * 0-1-1: Combines the faster attack speed with decreased projectile deviation when it lands.
 * 2-0-0: Increases the damage of the mortar explosion.
 * 0-2-0: A further increase in attack speed. Shots become quite consistent at catching up with bloons, especially when microing the Mortar in the earlier rounds. Also becomes very reliable at catching bloons on bends.
 * 0-0-2: Applies the Burn status effect to bloons when the mortar shot lands on them.
 * 2-1-0: It is basically a faster 2-0-0. Can be used to try catch faster bloons along bends.
 * 2-2-0: Combines the increased damage and higher blast radius with increased attack speed. Quite reliable at catching faster bloons along bends.
 * 1-2-0: Combines the bigger blast radius with a greater increase in attack speed.
 * 0-2-1: Combines the greater attack speed with less projectile deviation.
 * 1-0-2: Combines the increase in blast radius with the Burn status effect.
 * 2-0-2: Combines the increased damage with the Burn status effect.
 * 0-1-2: Higher attack speed combined with Burny Stuff can catch Yellows and Pinks decently when targeted on a suitable bend.
 * 0-2-2: Combines the much greater attack speed with the Burn status effect.

Shell Shock

 * 3-0-0: Shell Shock adds a secondary explosion that both stuns bloons in a condensed area and inflicts damage along a wide area. Explosion radius increases very slightly too, but it still generally helps the most from Path 2 for the consistent stunning. Path 3 offers better accuracy and higher damage, but wastes opportunity for stun potential.
 * 3-1-0: Increases attack speed slightly to stun bloons a bit more consistently. Hits faster bloons a bit more reliably, but Yellows and Pinks will still be a struggle, even for Shell Shock.
 * 3-2-0: Even further attack speed for maximum stun rate and catching faster bloons more reliably.
 * 3-0-1: Increases accuracy of each explosion, but given the slow attack rate of the Shell Shock it may still not be the most reliable option for faster bloons.
 * 3-0-2: Burny Stuff increases tick damage to 2 instead of 1, and also doubles burn tick rate at the cost of halved duration, for 6 damage total if the main explosion inflicts the damage. Because of its slow attack speed, it is not a very reliable extra damage option, but it does more damage overall if targeted into a converging spot.

The Big One

 * 4-0-0: The Big One has a much greater explosion size and much higher pierce. Accuracy matters less overall but still deserves better opportunity for consistent shots. Path 2 is generally the best choice for The Big One, giving it a higher rate of stuns and more overall damage to bloons, plus better synergy potential with external buffs.
 * 4-1-0: More attack speed gives The Big One with better consistent shots and stuns bloons at a faster rate.
 * 4-2-0: The best crosspath for The Big One for consistent shots and even faster stun rate.
 * 4-0-1: Not very useful to have Increased Accuracy, as its explosions are quite big anyway and would prefer consistent shots via attack speed increases.
 * 4-0-2: Burn effects deal 5 damage per tick, and retains Shell Shock's doubled speed at the cost of duration. While Big One tends to benefit better with Path 2 for consistent shots, 4-0-2 Big One's main explosion combined with napalm is capable of destroying a normal Ceramic in one go with some time delay.

The Biggest One

 * 5-0-0: The Biggest One offers the highest pierce and blast radius out of any non-ability Mortar, making it an ideal choice at handling dense groups of bloons. It offers high Ceramic and MOAB-class damage too. Crosspathing is almost necessary to make the most out of The Biggest One.
 * 5-1-0: No need to stay at 5-1-0 because there can only be one The Biggest One.
 * 5-2-0: The highest reliability at catching Super Ceramics and stunning them. The higher attack speed both makes it easier to micro intensely and increase consistency at catching Super Ceramics.
 * 5-0-1: Increased Accuracy is useless because its blast radius is extremely huge already, so it would hardly miss anyway.
 * 5-0-2: Offers significantly higher DPS even with external buffs, but wastes potential for improving its supporting role at stunning Super Ceramics. Burn effect does much more damage in exchange for a less reliable stun rate and a worse synergy potential with attack speed buffs. In effect, it is stronger against MOAB-class bloons and can beat Super Ceramics in a fewer number of shots but requires more bloon support to offset the loss in attack speed from Path 2.

Heavy Shells

 * 0-3-0: Heavy Shells gains a variety of different forms of extra damage to various bloon properties. The main highlight(s) of Heavy Shells upgrade itself is its higher damage to Ceramics and bonus damage to stunned bloons. Because it attacks pretty quickly already, a bigger explosion radius is more preferred than accurate shots.
 * 1-3-0: Greater explosion radius is beneficial for Heavy Shells to catch more groups of bloons and potentially hit more bloons per shot, which is often better than the opposite 0-3-1 crosspath. A bit more generous at catching bloons but does still have trouble with a still somewhat high projectile deviation.
 * 2-3-0: Gains more damage per explosion. Gains the highest damage per explosion, and can clean up any stronger bloons in fewer numbers of shots, especially with its decent attack speed.
 * 0-3-1: Heavy Shells comes with decent attack speed already, so the increased accuracy would make little difference compared to the higher explosion radius offered by 1-3-0. Target on a sharp bend for the best results, if you do plan to use this crosspath.
 * 0-3-2: Burny Stuff is redundant because it already pops Black Bloons effectively, and this misses out on 2-3-0 for the higher explosion damage. This specific crosspath could be used to simulate a BTD5 Burny Stuff Mortar Monkey, if that's what is desired. Burny Stuff could be paired with Sauda to activate her Level 11+ damage bonus.

Artillery Battery

 * 0-4-0: Gains 4x attack speed and an ability that grants a further 4x attack speed, on top of Heavy Shell benefits. This makes it more reliable as an anti-MOAB option, which is one of the major highlights of the Artillery Battery upgrade. Crosspathing is very useful here to optimize its high DPS potential. Like Heavy Shells, bigger explosion radius is the preferred option but the extra damage via Bloon Buster is even more important for Artillery Battery to reach its maximum damage potential.
 * 1-4-0: Unlike Heavy Shells, Artillery Battery attacks pretty quickly, so there's almost little likelihood for Artillery Battery to miss with Bigger Blasts, assuming that Mortar micro targeting is done at least decently.
 * 2-4-0: The highest DPS for an internally upgraded Artillery Battery, and synergizes well with its high attack speed.
 * 0-4-1: Artillery Battery already can hit pretty consistently thanks to its high attack speed, and tends to prefer Bigger Blast over Increased Accuracy for this very reason.
 * 0-4-2: Burny Stuff is even more redundant because its high attack speed already can chip down bloons quite well, and prefers higher direct damage via Bloon Buster rather than damage-over-time damage via Burny Stuff. Burny Stuff could be paired with Sauda to activate her Level 11+ damage bonus.

Pop and Awe

 * 0-5-0: Pop and Awe improves its extra damage bonuses by at least four-fold. Crosspathing is handy but not vital for Pop and Awe, as its main power comes from the powerful global stun ability, and the ability is not affected by crosspathing at all. For Pop and Awe, crosspathing is for its main attack, which gain rather small improvements in comparison to its previous upgrades. However, the ability will not deal 4x attack speed but instead use its new global stun ability as a replacement.
 * 1-5-0: Like Artillery Battery, attacks pretty quickly and likely won't miss with Bigger Blasts, assuming proper Mortar micro is utilized.
 * 2-5-0: The highest DPS for an internally upgraded Pop and Awe. It may seem small, but the +1 damage is still quite significant for anything that is below Ceramic. Plus, every little extra damage helps.
 * 0-5-1: Pop and Awe's main attack already can hit pretty consistently thanks to its high attack speed, and tends to prefer Bigger Blast over Increased Accuracy for this very reason.
 * 0-5-2: Burny Stuff is even more redundant because its high attack speed already can chip down bloons quite well, and prefers higher direct damage via Bloon Buster rather than damage-over-time damage via Burny Stuff. For Pop and Awe, there isn't much point adding Burny Stuff because its stunning power can do a significant help for Sauda already, and even then Sauda isn't even the best pair with Pop and Awe; Striker Jones would be a far better pair with Pop and Awe.

Signal Flare

 * 0-0-3: Signal Flare allows the Mortar Monkey to detect camo and strip off camo properties. The non-crosspathed Signal Flare is the cheapest Mortar Monkey to affect camo, which can come in handy if the player fails to otherwise prepare for the camo leads on Round 59. Crosspathing is useful for optimizing its camo-popping power and support role.
 * 1-0-3: Bigger blasts may seem desirable, but a Signal Flare without Path 2 is inconsistent due to its slow attack speed. Ideally, target on a large sharp corner.
 * 2-0-3: Higher blast damage is not really helpful because Signal Flare is mainly a supporting role.
 * 0-1-3: Faster rate of decamo is desirable. Sometimes 0-1-3 may be used to desync Signal Flare decamoing.
 * 0-2-3: The highest rate of decamo with internally upgraded Mortars. Provides the most reliable decamo via a Mortar.

Shattering Shells

 * 0-0-4: Shattering Shells mainly helps defortify Fortified MOABs and Fortified BFBs, but also can decamo and degrow any type of bloon. It is mainly a support role. Giving extra attack speed via Path 2 crosspathing makes it easier to micro the Shattering Shells so it can target different locations quicker. The only noteworthy Path 1 crosspath for its support role is Bigger Blast, which increases its blast radius.
 * 1-0-4: Increased blast radius can be useful if targeted in a large sharp corner, but the attack speed is generally better, as a MOAB-class bloon's hitbox is quite large anyway, and the Mortar would benefit more from making consistent shots.
 * 2-0-4: Bloon Buster is redundant for the Shattering Shells' support role because all Bloon Buster does is add +1 damage per explosion. The defortification already strips a large amount of health off the defortified bloons.
 * 0-1-4: This particular crosspath is normally enough to make it reliable at defortifying all Fortified BFBs before they reach the main defenses. Extra attack speed with 0-2-4 may be required on maps with multiple lanes, more specifically on Quad, for instance.
 * 0-2-4: Generally the best crosspath for Shattering Shells for a reliable defortification, especially versus Fortified MOABs, which are faster than Fortified BFBs and therefore could possibly skip over each shot without the needed boost in attack speed.

Blooncineration

 * 0-0-5: Blooncineration upgrades its napalm to deal significantly higher MOAB-class damage and burn faster, and leaves behind fire blazes every time its shells explode on the ground. Crosspathing is beneficial for its special fire blazes and for making consistent shots at bloons, and a non-crosspathed Blooncineration leaves little to offer besides its napalm and un-optimized fire blazes.
 * 1-0-5: Not only are explosions larger, fire blazes produced will become larger too. Basically more contact area for the blazes and higher explosion rate is what 1-0-5 offers. This misses out on Path 2 crosspathing, but Bigger Blast's benefits to Blooncineration are still worth a solid note.
 * 2-0-5: The explosion itself doesn't do much extra damage, rather the fire blazes do more contact damage. In essence, this is basically much more damage per fire blaze.
 * 0-1-5: Faster rate of explosions also increases rate of production of fire blazes. Shots become more consistent at blimps by gaining higher attack speed. Use 0-2-5 for the best results.
 * 0-2-5: The fastest rate of explosions via internal upgrades, producing by far the most consistent shots at blimps and making the most fire blazes.

Strategy
The majority of the Mortar Monkey's improvements from crosspathing tend to come from Path 2 crosspaths, which increase both consistency to shots and simply increase DPS. As for Upper Path 2 upgrades, it is normally crosspathed with Path 1 for the bigger explosions and better DPS, given its fast attack speed already is sufficient that getting better accuracy hardly matters compared to producing bigger explosions. Burny Stuff does improve with Upper Path 1 but does not improve with any other upgrade. This means the Burny Stuff effect is highly redundant for most other upgrades including Blooncineration, and even with Blooncineration's improved blazes with Bloon Buster it doesn't compete for the better consistency that Path 2 offers.