| “ | The complete assassin package for dealing with any Bloon threat. | ” |
| ~ BTD6 description of the Ascended Shadow Ninja |
The Ascended Shadow is the Paragon upgrade of the Ninja Monkey that was added to Bloons TD 6 in the 28.0 update. Combining major features from the Grandmaster Ninja, Grand Saboteur, and Master Bomber, the Ascended Shadow throws 8 large Shurikens that seek out Bloons. Every 8 shots, the Ascended Shadow throws 5 flash bombs that explode into 3 smaller blue seeking Shurikens. Both flash bombs and blue seeking Shurikens can stun any Bloons besides BAD or Boss bloons for 1 second. With the Deadly Tranquility Monkey Knowledge enabled, 1 projectile is added to each of these attacks. Additionally, the Ascended Shadow throws a sticky Card at the strongest MOAB-Class Bloon on screen. All of these attacks deal enormous damage to all bloon types with bonus damage to Camo Bloons and Boss Bloons only. The Ascended Shadow passively grants all towers (including Paragons) on the screen Camo Detection, grants all Ninjas with +10 range, nearby Ninjas 1 local Shinobi Tactics buff, applies a permanent 50% speed reduction to all bloons other than BADs and Boss Bloons, and inherits the Grand Saboteur's ability to make all bloons besides Bosses spawn with 25% less HP permanently.
The Ascended Shadow is obtained by having one of each tier 5 Ninja Monkey and purchasing the upgrade which subsequently consumes all Ninja Monkeys on screen. The Degree of the Ascended Shadow ranges from 1-100 and is determined by total cost, pop count, upgrades, and number of Ninja Monkeys sacrificed as explained here. As with all Paragons, the Ascended Shadow cannot receive buffs from any external sources except for the "Paragon of Power" Monkey Knowledge (and from the debuffing status effects of Cripple MOAB, Glue Storm, and Super Brittle). Additionally, Ascended Shadow is unobtainable in Sandbox Mode until it has been created in a real game, but can be created in Challenge Editor without any prior requirements.
Upgrading to this Paragon costs $425,000 on Easy, $500,000 on Medium, $540,000 on Hard, and $600,000 on Impoppable. To max out on manual cash sacrifices starting from v39.0, the player must spend at least $1,275,000 on Easy, $1,500,000 on Medium, $1,620,000 on Hard, and $1,800,000 on Impoppable; before v39.0, the max cash sacrifices was $250,000. With max slider, these costs increase to $1,338,750 on Easy, $1,575,000 on Medium, $1,701,000 on Hard, and $1,890,000 on Impoppable.
Description[]
Overview[]
Ascended Shadow and all three Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys
The Ascended Shadow strongly resembles Oni Demons from Japanese folklore. The monkey is fully garbed in a black robe, brown sandals, billowing scarf, mechanical red arms, and two red horns that puncture its woven Kasa hat. Prominent features include a devilish smile, sharply protruding jaws, glowing green eyes (2 in the upgrade portrait, 1 on the in-game tower), and the recurrent BTD6 spirals adorned throughout the body. Animating the Ascended Shadow are two lime-green mist clouds which orbit the tower in a clockwise manner, as well as a continuous stream of falling Cherry Blossom petals (perhaps to represent the infinite duration of the MOAB Slowdown and 25% Outer Layer HP Reduction effects, as is shown with the Grand Saboteur). The Ascended Shadow has three idle animations: a shuriken toss, a backflip, and a head roll.
As part of its primary attack, the Ascended Shadow throws large seeking shurikens, red-hot flash bombs, and sticky bombs. All of these attacks deal more damage to Camo Bloons, and its large seeking shurikens additionally deal more damage to stunned and stickied targets. For its secondary attacks, it has two passively activated secondary attacks: a permanent 50% slowdown to all bloons on screen except BADs and Bosses, and a permanent effect that causes all non-Boss blimps spawning from the entrance start off with 25% less HP than normal.
Large seeking shurikens are thrown in groups of 8, much like the Grandmaster Ninja. They are dark-grey between Degrees 1-59, with a green aura for Degrees 60-79, and recolored white with black outlines for Degrees 80-100.
Groups of 5 flash bombs are simultaneously shot independently from the shurikens. The flash bombs explode apart into three smaller blue seeking shurikens. The smaller blue seeking shurikens don't visually change at higher degrees, unlike the main shuriken.
The sticky bombs are visually replaced by a group of magical paper talismans that adhere to MOAB Class bloons, as shown by the upgrade icon. These talismans have a spiral, and strongly resemble a simplified version of the Monkey Knowledge cards in Bloons Monkey City. However, they are more likely a reference to Shinto and Buddhist Ofuda talismans that are popular in anime series like Naruto. For the purpose of consistency, the following article will still refer to this attack as Sticky Bomb.
The Ascended Shadow's appearance changes every 20 degrees:
- At Degree 21-40, the Ascended Shadow loses a few bit on it's Kasa hat, revealing it's Green flame eye. It's eye got a bit bigger.
- At Degree 41-60, the Ascended Shadow includes 2 more horns at the back of it's Kasa hat.
- At Degree 61-80, the Ascended Shadow top and bottom of it's Kasa hat color changed to slightly darker, the top of it's hat also lights up with a burning-flame. The skurikens also lights up with a green aura around it.
- At Degree 81-100, the Ascended Shadow includes a necklace on it's neck, along 7 flash bomb cards orbiting around itself.
Like other Paragons, all of these visual elements are taken from the constituent tier 5 towers which, themselves, are based on many elements of Japanese culture like the Grandmaster Ninja's woven hat, the Grand Saboteur's black Ninja garb, and the Master Bomber's Oni mask. The "Ascended" part of the name refers to the powerful nature of the Paragon, while "Shadow" retains the stealthy nature of the Ninja Monkey.
Targeting Priorities[]
Ascended Shadow targets bloons using the standard targeting priorities. It has multiple types of attacks that are shot in different styles.
- First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
- Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
- Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
- Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.
Shurikens are shot in a straight movement, and can sharply seek towards another bloon with aggressive seeking. Bombs are also shot in a straight movement, but do not seek unlike shurikens. Sticky cards are shot straight and have extended range, and only target MOAB-class. The global Bloon Sabotage is a whole screen effect that targets any bloon but does not slow BADs or Bosses.
Ascended Shadow is one of the only Paragons to receive Camo Prioritization, allowing it to prioritize Camo Bloons (especially DDTs) over other types of bloon.
Monkey Knowledge Interactions[]
The following Monkey Knowledge Points directly affect the Ascended Shadow:
Lingering Magic: Projectiles fired from all Magic Monkeys (except Alchemists) have longer lifespan.
- Projectiles last 20% longer, from x seconds → 1.2x seconds.
- Diversion Tactics: Increased chance to distract Bloons from Distraction upgrade.
- Increases chance of Distraction effect occurring by an additional 5%, to a total of 20%.
- Deadly Tranquility: Bloonjitsu, Grandmaster Ninja, and Ascended Shadow get an extra shuriken per throw.
- Increases Ascended Shadow shuriken count from 8 to 9, and throws an extra flash bomb.
- Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
- Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
- Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
- Paragon of Power: Any paragon will gain a large boost to its attack speed so long as you have no T5s of the same tower type placed
The following Monkey Knowledge Points do affect Ascended Shadow but only purely indirectly:
- Cheaper Doubles: Ninja Double Shot cost reduced by 100. [note: this is a small benefit for Ascended Shadow]
- Cost of Double Shot reduced from $720, $850, $920, $1,020 to $620, $750, $820, $920 on each difficulty.
- Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
Creation[]
The Ascended Shadow can be created by having one of each Tier 5 Ninja Monkey on screen, at which point, the upgrade icon for the Ascended Shadow will become available on any of the Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys. Purchasing the upgrade will change the selected Ninja Monkey into the Ascended Shadow, while sacrificing every other Ninja Monkey on screen (including those belonging to co-op players). Only one Ascended Shadow may exist at a time, even in co-op.
Paragon Power[]
The degree of the Ascended Shadow depends on a hidden value known as "power", which itself depends on the amount of tier 5 upgrades, non-tier 5 upgrades, cash, and pops of sacrificed Ninja Monkeys, as well as any Paragon Power Totems on the map. In addition to cosmetic changes every 20 degrees, a higher degree will elevate the damage output of the Ascended Shadow. Power is calculated as follows:
- Each Tier 5 Ninja Monkey will contribute 6,000 power for a maximum of 50,000 power (9 Tier 5 upgrades). Excludes the first three Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys.
- Each non-Tier 5 Ninja Monkey upgrade will contribute 100 power for a maximum of 10,000 power (100 non-Tier 5 upgrades). Excludes the first three Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys.
- Every $21.25 / $25 / $27 / $30 spent on sacrificed Ninja Monkeys will contribute 1 power for a maximum of 60,000 power ($1,275,000 / $1,500,000 / $1,620,000 / $1,800,000 spent). Excludes the three cheapest Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys.
- Alternatively, cash can be injected into the Paragon directly with 5% reduced efficiency.
- Every 180 pops achieved by sacrificed Ninja Monkeys will contribute 1 power for a maximum of 90,000 power (16,200,000 pops). [1] Includes the first three Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys.
- Round 132 is the first round where the game's cumulative RBE exceeds this threshold. Waiting until round 136 before upgrading to Ascended Shadow should provide enough buffer to achieve the 16,200,000 pops, assuming Ninja Monkeys are responsible for 80% of all pops until that point. These rounds will be earlier on Double HP MOABs or Boss Events due to the increased RBE from Boss Bloons and MOABs, so it is always best to confirm by calculating manually.
- Each Paragon Power Totem contributes an additional 2,000 power, with no limit.
Assuming no Paragon Power Totems, a maximum of 160,000 power is obtainable in single-player, and 210,000 power is achievable in co-op, though only up to 200,000 power is actually used.
Degree roughly scales with the natural logarithm of power, so there is no unique set of upgrades, prices, etc. that will place the Paragon at a certain degree. In addition, the attack speed, pierce, damage, specialized damage, and boss damage each scale differently with the degree.
Statistics[]
The approximate power requirements for the 20 degree increments are listed, alongside the associated damage statistics and some general guidelines on which sacrificial investments to make.
All Degrees[]
- 1 Grandmaster Ninja, 1 Grand Saboteur, 1 Master Bomber needed
- 70 range
- Same footprint as a Ninja Monkey
- All attacks deal Normal damage with camo detection
- Throws 8 large shurikens rapidly with aggressive seeking and a 15% chance to apply Distraction onto non-MOAB class bloons.
- Throws 5 flash bombs that stun bloons (excluding BADs and Bosses) for 1 second, also releasing 3 blue shurikens each. Flash bombs have a 30% chance to apply Distraction.
- Occasionally throws a sticky bomb with infinite range onto a MOAB-class bloon, detonating after 3 seconds for massive damage to the target along with decent splash damage in a range of 40 units, and have a 15% chance to apply Distraction onto non-MOAB class bloons
- Grants permanent Camo Detection to all towers.
- All Bloons on screen (excluding BADs and Bosses) are permanently slowed to half speed, while all non-Boss Bloons have their maximum HP reduced by 25% upon spawning. The former includes the children of every Bloon as well.
- Nearby Ninja Monkeys gain +10 range and 1 Shinobi Tactics buff
Degree 1 (Base)[]
- 0 Power needed
Main Shuriken
- Attacks every 0.217s
- 4 pierce, 32 damage, +16 camo damage, +64 to stunned targets, +64 to stickied targets
- 64 Boss damage, 128 Elite Boss damage
- 80 Phayze damage, 160 Elite Phayze damage
- 128 stickied Boss damage, 256 stickied Elite Boss damage
- 144 stickied Phayze damage, 288 stickied Elite Phayze damage
Flash Bomb
- Attacks every 1.5s
- 40 pierce, 96 damage, +48 camo damage
- 192 Boss damage, 384 Elite Boss damage
- 240 Phayze damage, 480 Elite Phayze damage
Blue Shuriken
- 10 pierce, 80 damage, +40 camo damage
- 160 Boss damage, 320 Elite Boss damage
- 200 Phayze damage, 400 Elite Phayze damage
Sticky Bomb
- Attacks every 8s
- 50,000 damage, +18,750 camo damage
- 75,000 Boss damage, 150,000 Elite Boss damage
- 93,750 Phayze damage, 187,500 Elite Phayze damage
Explosion
- 10 pierce, 5,000 damage, +2,500 camo damage
- 10,000 Boss damage, 20,000 Elite Boss damage
- 12,500 Phayze damage, 25,000 Elite Phayze damage
Degree 20[]
- At least 11,032 Power needed
- Buying 24 2-0-2 Ninja Monkeys achieves Degree 20 on all difficulties.
- If using only the cash slider, spending a total of ~1.6x the Paragon upgrade's cost should comfortably get Degree 20 on all difficulties.
Main Shuriken
- Attacks every 0.1659s
- 6.66 pierce, 39.1 damage, +19 camo damage, +76.2 to stunned targets, +76.2 to stickied
- 96.4 Boss damage, 192.9 Elite Boss damage
- 120.2 Phayze damage, 240.5 Elite Phayze damage
- 191.65 stickied Boss damage, 383.3 stickied Elite Boss damage
- 215.4 stickied Phayze damage, 430.9 stickied Elite Phayze damage
Flash Bomb
- Attacks every 1.1466s
- 61.4 pierce, 115.2 damage, +57.1 camo damage
- 286.8 Boss damage, 573.7 Elite Boss damage
- 358.2 Phayze damage, 716.5 Elite Phayze damage
Blue Shuriken
- 25.7 pierce, 96.2 damage, +47.6 camo damage
- 239.2 Boss Damage, 478.5 Elite Boss damage
- 298.7 Phayze damage, 597.5 Elite Phayze damage
Sticky Bomb
- Attacks every 4.9694s
- 19,041 damage, +3,808 camo damage
- 71,401.3 Boss damage, 142,802.5 Elite Boss damage
- 76,161.3 Phayze damage, 152,322.5 Elite Phayze damage
Explosion
- 13.8 pierce, 4,999 damage, +2499 camo damage
- 9,372.5 Boss damage, 18,745 Elite Boss damage
- 12,496.3 Phayze damage, 24,992.5 Elite Phayze damage
Degree 40[]
- At least 31,360 Power needed
- Buying 17 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys and spending ~0.8x the Paragon upgrade's cost on the cash slider achieves Degree 40 on all difficulties.
- If using only the cash slider, spending a total of ~2.7x the Paragon upgrade's cost should comfortably get Degree 40 on all difficulties.
Main Shuriken
- Attacks every 0.1505s
- 9.46 pierce, 47.5 damage, +22.2 camo damage, +89 to stunned targets, +89 to stickied targets
- 137.9 Boss damage, 275.9 Elite Boss damage
- 171.3 Phayze damage, 342.6 Elite Phayze damage
- 271.4 stickied Boss damage, 542.8 stickied Elite Boss damage
- 304.7 stickied Phayze damage, 609.5 stickied Elite Phayze damage
Flash Bomb
- Attacks every 1.0405s
- 73.4 pierce, 136.4 damage, +66.7 camo damage
- 404.8 Boss damage, 809.6 Elite Boss damage
- 504.9 Phayze damage, 1,009.8 Elite Phayze damage
Blue Shuriken
- 31.7 pierce, 114.2 damage, +55.6 camo damage
- 338.1 Boss Damage, 676.2 Elite Boss damage
- 421.5 Phayze damage, 843 Elite Phayze damage
Sticky Bomb
- Attacks every 4.5076s
- 22,243 damage, +4,448 camo damage
- 100,084.5 Boss damage, 200,169 Elite Boss damage
- 106,756.5 Phayze damage, 213,513 Elite Phayze damage
Explosion
- 17.8 pierce, 5,841 damage, +2,919 camo damage
- 13,140 Boss damage, 26,280 Elite Boss damage
- 17,518.5 Phayze damage, 35,037 Elite Phayze damage
Degree 60[]
- At least 66,387 Power needed
- Buying 17 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys and spending ~2.63x the Paragon upgrade's cost on the cash slider achieves Degree 60 on all difficulties.
Main Shuriken
- Attacks every 0.1406s
- 12.26 pierce, 55.9 damage, +25.4 camo damage, +101.8 to stunned targets, +101.8 to stickied targets
- 186.8 Boss damage, 373.7 Elite Boss damage
- 231.3 Phayze damage, 462.7 Elite Phayze damage
- 364.9 stickied Boss damage, 729.8 stickied Elite Boss damage
- 409.4 stickied Phayze damage, 818.9 stickied Elite Phayze damage
Flash Bomb
- Attacks every 0.972s
- 85.4 pierce, 157.6 damage, +76.3 camo damage
- 543 Boss damage, 1,086 Elite Boss damage
- 676.5 Phayze damage, 1,353.1 Elite Phayze damage
Blue Shuriken
- 37.7 pierce, 132.2 damage, +63.6 camo damage
- 453.9 Boss Damage, 907.9 Elite Boss damage
- 565.2 Phayze damage, 1,130.5 Elite Phayze damage
Sticky Bomb
- Attacks every 4.2126s
- 25,445 damage, +5,088 camo damage
- 133,568.7 Boss damage, 267,137.5 Elite Boss damage
- 142,472.8 Phayze damage, 284,945.5 Elite Phayze damage
Explosion
- 21.8 pierce, 6,683 damage, +3,339 camo damage
- 17,538.5 Boss damage, 35,077 Elite Boss damage
- 23,381.7 Phayze damage, 46,763.5 Elite Phayze damage
Degree 80[]
- At least 120,115 Power needed
- Buying 17 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys, spending ~2.82x the Paragon upgrade's cost on the cash slider, and accumulating 9,020,700 pops across all Ninja Monkeys achieves Degree 80 on all difficulties.
Main Shuriken
- Attacks every 0.1333s
- 15.06 pierce, 64.3 damage, +28.6 camo damage, +114.6 to stunned targets, +114.6 to stickied targets
- 243.1 Boss damage, 486.2 Elite Boss damage
- 300.4 Phayze damage, 600.8 Elite Phayze damage
- 472.2 stickied Boss damage, 944.5 stickied Elite Boss damage
- 529.5 stickied Phayze damage, 1,059 stickied Elite Phayze damage
Flash Bomb
- Attacks every 0.9211s
- 97.4 pierce, 178.8 damage, +85.9 camo damage
- 701.4 Boss damage, 1,402.7 Elite Boss damage
- 873.2 Phayze damage, 1,746.4 Elite Phayze damage
Blue Shuriken
- 43.7 pierce, 150.2 damage, +71.6 camo damage
- 586.8 Boss Damage, 1,173.6 Elite Boss damage
- 726 Phayze damage, 1,452 Elite Phayze damage
Sticky Bomb
- Attacks every 3.9926s
- 28,647 damage, +5,728 camo damage
- 171,854 Boss damage, 343,708 Elite Boss damage
- 183,310 Phayze damage, 366,620 Elite Phayze damage
Explosion
- 25.8 pierce, 7,525 damage, +3,759 camo damage
- 22,568 Boss damage, 45,136 Elite Boss damage
- 30,086 Phayze damage, 60,172 Elite Phayze damage
Degree 91 (Single Player Max without Geraldo)[]
- At least 159,085 Power needed
- Buying 17 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys, spending ~2.82x the Paragon upgrade's cost on the cash slider, and accumulating 16,200,000 pops across all Ninja Monkeys achieves Degree 91 on all difficulties.
Main Shuriken
- Attacks every 0.1299s
- 16.6 pierce, 69.8 damage, +30.4 camo damage, +121.6 to stunned targets, +121.6 to stickied targets
- 261.2 Boss damage, 522.4 Elite Boss damage
- 322 Phayze damage, 644 Elite Phayze damage
- 504.4 stickied Boss damage, 1,008.8 stickied Elite Boss damage
- 565.2 stickied Phayze damage, 1,130.4 stickied Elite Phayze damage
Flash Bomb
- Attacks every 0.8978s
- 104 pierce, 191.4 damage, +91.2 camo damage
- 747.6 Boss damage, 1,495.2 Elite Boss damage
- 930 Phayze damage, 1,860 Elite Phayze damage
Blue Shuriken
- 47 pierce, 161 damage, +76 camo damage
- 626 Boss Damage, 1,252 Elite Boss damage
- 778 Phayze damage, 1,556 Elite Phayze damage
Sticky Bomb
- Attacks every 3.8899s
- 30,409 damage, +6,080 camo damage
- 182,418 Boss damage, 364,836 Elite Boss damage
- 194,578 Phayze damage, 389,156 Elite Phayze damage
Explosion
- 28 pierce, 7,989 damage, +3,999 camo damage
- 23,958 Boss damage, 47,916 Elite Boss damage
- 31,938 Phayze damage, 63,876 Elite Phayze damage
Degree 100 (Max)[]
- 200,000 power needed
- Buying 17 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys and spending ~2.82x the Paragon's cost on the cash slider along with either 9 tier 5 Ninja Monkeys (only possible on co-op), 20 Paragon Power Totems, or a mix of the two, and accumulating 16,200,000 pops across all Ninja Monkeys achieves Degree 100 on all difficulties.
Main Shuriken
- Attacks every 0.1274s
- 18 pierce, 74 damage, +32 camo damage, +128 to stunned targets, +128 to stickied targets
- 310.5 Boss damage, 621 Elite Boss damage
- 382.5 Phayze damage, 765 Elite Phayze damage
- 598.5 stickied Boss damage, 1,197 stickied Elite Boss damage
- 670.5 stickied Phayze damage, 1,341 stickied Elite Phayze damage
Flash Bomb
- Attacks every 0.8805s
- 110 pierce, 202 damage, +96 camo damage
- 886.5 Boss damage, 1,773 Elite Boss damage
- 1,102.5 Phayze damage, 2,205 Elite Phayze damage
Blue Shuriken
- 50 pierce, 170 damage, +80 camo damage
- 742.5 Boss Damage, 1,485 Elite Boss damage
- 922.5 Phayze damage, 1,845 Elite Phayze damage
Sticky Bomb
- Attacks every 3.8146s
- 32,010 damage, +6,400 camo damage
- 216,022.5 Boss damage, 432,045 Elite Boss damage
- 230,422.5 Phayze damage, 460,845 Elite Phayze damage
Explosion
- 30 pierce, 8,410 damage, +4,200 camo damage
- 28,372.5 Boss damage, 56,745 Elite Boss damage
- 37,822.5 Phayze damage, 75,645 Elite Phayze damage
Troubleshooting[]
Behavior and Interactions[]
Like other Paragons, the Ascended Shadow will ignore most tower interactions, such as buffs, discounts, and redeployment as detailed here. However, there are a few noteworthy points of the tower's behavior to consider:
- The Shuriken and Flash Bomb attacks obey the target priority which is set on the tower. They are restricted by line of sight,
- Sticky card can stack with Sticky bomb or Master Bomber's sticky bombs on the same blimp.
- The Sticky Bomb will always target the strongest Bloon on screen, unless Camo Priority is enabled. Then, it will target DDTs.
- Despite having infinite range, this attack is restricted by line of sight, regardless of target priority.
- The Ascended Shadow's primary Shuriken attack gains one extra Shuriken projectile from the Deadly Tranquility Monkey Knowledge.
- Perhaps unintentionally, the Flash Bomb is also affected.
- Like all Paragons, Time Stop does not slow down Ascended Shadow, which allows it to deal much more overall damage against all bloon types including BADs and Bosses.
- The Ascended Shadow attacks deal extra damage to Bloons debuffed with effects such as Super Brittle or Cripple MOAB.
- If placed on an ice platform created by an Arctic Wind monkey, the Ascended Shadow is not sold when said ice monkey is sold. Instead, it'll hover over the water. It is also immune to Pontoon selling, and Portable Lake selling if an Ice platform is used.
- As of update 33.0, this Arctic Wind ice platform interaction no longer occurs.
Costs[]
Like all Paragons, which are able to sacrifice other towers, Ascended Shadow has a complex set of costs.
Data updated as of Version 40.2.
Quick Reference Costs[]
Assumes normal undiscounted costs of each tower.
| Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla | $524,945 | $617,600 | $667,010 | $741,120 |
| Cheapest Degree 20 | $561,545 | $660,800 | $713,690 | $792,960 |
| Cheapest Degree 40 | $994,864 | $1,170,438 | $1,264,075 | $1,404,525 |
| Maximum Sacrifices | $1,857,019 | $2,184,738 | $2,359,519 | $2,621,685 |
Combos written for the above table:
- Vanilla: The cheapest Ascended Shadow at raw cost, using only 5-0-0, 0-5-0, and 0-0-5.
- Cheapest Degree 20: The best way to acquire a degree 20 Ascended Shadow. Uses 24x 2-0-2 Ninja Monkeys.
- Cheapest Degree 40: The best way to acquire a degree 40 Ascended Shadow. Uses 17x 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys and a cash injection.
- Reaching Degree 40 with only tower sacrifices requires placing 58 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys. This is obviously unfeasible, so if going for a Degree 40 Ascended Shadow, you only need to maximize the upgrade requirements and then spend the rest of the money with the cash slider.
- Maximum Sacrifices: Fully covers non-pop count, non-T5 sacrifices for Ascended Shadow. Uses 17x 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys and a cash injection.
- Filling the cash requirement with only tower sacrifices requires placing 163 0-2-4 Ninja Monkeys. This is obviously unfeasible, so if going for the strongest possible Ascended Shadow, you only need to maximize the upgrade requirements and then spend the rest of the money with the cash slider.
Cost Formula[]
Lists the costs for all Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys without crosspathing, all Tier 4 Ninja Monkeys without crosspathing, and all crosspaths up to Tier 2 on all four game modes (Easy, Medium, Hard, Impoppable), along with the power contribution next to each price value. The three cheapest Tier 5 Ninja Monkeys do not contribute power to the cash requirement.
| Whole Tower Purchase | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-0-0 Total | $33,780 (1,589.647) | $39,750 (1,590) | $42,935 (1,590.185) | $47,700 (1,590) |
| 0-5-0 Total | $25,030 (1,177.882) | $29,450 (1,178) | $31,805 (1,177.963) | $35,340 (1,178) |
| 0-0-5 Total | $41,135 (1,935.765) | $48,400 (1,936) | $52,270 (1,935.926) | $58,080 (1,936) |
| Whole Tower Purchase | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4-0-0 Total | $4,030 (189.647) | $4,750 (190) | $5,135 (190.185) | $5,700 (190) |
| 0-4-0 Total | $6,330 (297.882) | $7,450 (298) | $8,045 (297.963) | $8,940 (298) |
| 0-0-4 Total | $7,135 (335.765) | $8,400 (336) | $9,070 (335.926) | $10,080 (336) |
| T1+T2 Purchase | Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-0-0 T1+T2 | $550 (25.88) | $650 (26) | $705 (26.111) | $780 (26) |
| 0-2-0 T1+T2 | $720 (33.88) | $850 (34) | $920 (34.074) | $1,020 (34) |
| 0-0-2 T1+T2 | $550 (25.88) | $650 (26) | $700 (25.929) | $780 (26) |
Where T(x,y,z) and C(x, y, z) are functions with three parameters corresponding to tier numbers, S1 and similar are the number of Tier 4 upgrades of each path, and L1 and similar are the sums of Tier 2 crosspaths from each of the Tier 4 upgrades:
T(5,0,0) + T(0,5,0) + T(0,0,5) + S1 * T(4,0,0) + S2 * T(0,4,0) + S3 * T(0,0,4) + L1 * C(2,0,0) + L2 * C(0,2,0) + L3 * C(0,0,2)
Substitute each of these functions with the respective tower costs (e.g. Grandmaster Ninja → T(5,0,0) → $39,750 if Medium prices are used). Use Wolfram Alpha or similar to plonk in specific combinations.
Cash Sacrifices[]
- Cash : Power: Ratio of cash required to gain 1 power. Maximum power gained from cash sacrifices is 60,000 power.
- Max Manual Sacrifices: Maximum amount of cash required to max out power via cash sacrifices by only using placed towers, irrespective of non-impossibility in practice.
- Max Slider Sacrifices: Maximum amount of cash required to max out power via cash sacrifices by only using the cash slider.
| Easy | Medium | Hard | Impoppable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash : Power | Manual: $21.25 Slider: $22.3125 |
Manual: $25 Slider: $26.25 |
Manual: $27 Slider: $28.35 |
Manual: $30 Slider: $31.5 |
| Maximum Manual Sacrifices | $1,275,000 | $1,500,000 | $1,620,000 | $1,800,000 |
| Maximum Slider Sacrifices | $1,338,750 | $1,575,000 | $1,701,000 | $1,890,000 |
Strategy[]
See also: Paragons: Strategy
Summary[]
The Ascended Shadow combines the attacks of the Grandmaster Ninja, Grand Saboteur, and Master Bomber to rapidly fire a piercing array of seeking Shurikens, Flash Bombs, and Sticky Bombs. Players should plan early and invest in an intense farming setup and sacrifices to maximize the power of the Paragon. Doing so will make the Ascended Shadow an invaluable asset to any Boss Bloon and most Late Game defenses.
During Boss Fights, obtain as high a degree Ascended Shadow as possible while keeping as much cash as possible for other towers. Ascended Shadow is a decent option against Tier 3 Bosses, but the more expensive paragons are better in terms of damage output against higher tiers of bosses. Reality Warper Phayze gives the Ascended Shadow much more of a niche, thanks to Ascended Shadow's bonus damage against camo bloons.
For general late game usage, the Ascended Shadow is highly recommended as its sticky bombs and main attacks provide very high DPS and MOAB stalling power. However, the main benefit when going into freeplay is the permanent Grand Saboteur ability that removes 25% health from incoming MOAB-class Bloons, making it super effective at severely damaging the immense health of freeplay BADs. This permanent Saboteur effect will become the vast majority of its pops in deep freeplay. That being said, the permanent incoming health reduction to blimps can "steal" pops that other towers may get for their Paragon saveups, so get the Ascended Shadow once other to-be Paragons get most of their pops.
In either case, all of its direct attacks are restricted by Line of Sight, so place the Ascended Shadow in areas with fewer obstacles and more track area to maximize time spent attacking bloons. If possible, try to align the placement so Ascended Shadow has direct line of sight to the track entrance, allowing for more usage of the sticky bomb.
Tips[]
- To get a cheap degree 20 Ascended Shadow, one can buy 25 2-0-2 Ninjas with Sharp Shurikens and Caltrops to fulfill the 100 upgrade tiers requirement and $25,800 cash for a cheap degree 20, which will be enough to get a degree 21 Ascended Shadow (degree 20 on Easy).
- 0-2-4 Ninja (not 2-4-0 Ninja) is the most expensive tier 4 Ninja, and is optimal for dumping cash for sacrifices.
- 2-4-0 Ninja costs $8100 on Medium, and so does 0-4-2 Ninja, but $9050 on Medium for 2-0-4 and $9250 on Medium for 0-2-4 Ninja.
- Note that while 0-2-4 is the most expensive ninja, the 0-4-2/2-4-0 ninjas have the Shinobi Tactics buff and the Bloon Sabotage ability, which can make it significantly easier for ninjas to gather pops in freeplay by buffing the Grandmaster Ninja, as attacks like Sticky Bomb will quickly become inconsequential because of health ramping.
- The main sources of pops for the Ascended Shadow will typically be from the Grand Saboteur's ability and Grandmaster Ninja.
- For Ranked Boss Bloon Events, the Ascended Shadow struggles in Timed Boss events. It is too expensive to get in earlier tiers, and is outcompeted by the more expensive paragons with strong burst damage abilities in later tiers. However, it is a decent option for Least Tiers Events, as Sticky Bomb and Master Bomber are great options for Tier 1 and 2 bosses, and the Ascended Shadow can maintain decent boss DPS around the whole map with its infinite range sticky bombs.
- This Paragon is far more suitable against Reality Warper Phayze as it can deal increased damage against bloons with the camo property.
- Ascended Shadow is a useful option in extreme late-game runs due to having a permanent Bloon Sabotage effect. These sabotage effects will penetrate blimp layers. Grand Saboteur is redundant in combination if Ascended Shadow already exists, as the 25% instant health reduction from incoming blimps is already handled by Ascended Shadow and can’t stack.
- Setting the Ascended Shadow to Camo Priority is not recommended as it will prevent the sticky bomb from targeting the strongest bloons.
- To get the $1,500,000 on Medium valuation of manual sacrifices for Ascended Shadow, one must spend roughly 162.16 worth of 0-2-4 Sticky Bombs. Very few maps can support that many Ninjas, and even then it requires occupying excessive amounts of the entire available land. For efficient cost sacrifices, place as many as humanly possible and spend the rest on the cash slider.
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
The Ascended Shadow started off as the strongest Paragon in the game when it was introduced. While it had not changed much since its initial release, other powerful paragons, such as the Navarch of the Seas, Goliath Doomship, and buffs to the initially underperforming Glaive Dominus, have pushed the Ascended Shadow out of the spotlight in Boss events due to its high price and lack of outstanding qualities. It still deals solid single target damage to bosses, but it lacks easy ways to rack up progress towards a high degree, unlike many other paragons. Because of this, it received a price reduction to increase its viability. In the following update, the paragon received multiple significant buffs to greatly improve the late-game performance of it, gaining the Grand Saboteur’s instant health reduction to MOAB-class Bloons in addition to reworking its decamo into gaining extra Camo damage plus a global Camo detection buff. In 42.0, as part of the balance changes to the bottom path, Ascended Shadow now deals extra damage to stunned/stickied targets
- 28.0
- The Ninja Monkey Paragon was added
- 29.0
- [bug fix] Ninja Paragon sticky bomb attack should now correctly create an aoe when it destroys the target
- 36.0
| “ | [...] Ninja currently appears to be the least competitive paragon, & as it is also very similar in cost to the Navarch we feel that lowering Ninja into its own price range will fill a bit of a cost-gap and increase the effective value it has for the cost. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ninja Paragon cost reduced from $600k → $500k
- 37.0
| “ | We’re changing the Ninja Monkey Paragon’s focus as a fighter against camo, as we feel like a greater strength and tactical value against camo will be the full reveal of all camos rather than all camo removal. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ascended Shadow reworked to grant global Camo detection to all towers on screen instead of removing Camo with all its own attacks
- Ascended Shadow now grants global camo detection for all towers
- Ascended Shadow no longer strips camo from Bloons with every attack
- Note: Granting global Camo detection over removing Camo properties is overall a buff, as the addition of external Camo detection makes the decamo become almost redundant, and decamoing actually loses Ascended Shadow’s anti-Camo focus. Ascended Shadow will now still target Camo Bloons whenever Camo Prioritization is turned on.
- Ascended Shadow main attack gains bonus to camo +6
- Ascended Shadow Flash Bomb Explosion gains bonus to camo +20
- Ascended Shadow Flash Bomb Shurikens gains bonus to camo +16
- Ascended Shadow Sticky Bomb Projectile gains bonus to camo +3200
- Ascended Shadow Sticky Bomb Explosion gains bonus to camo +700
- Ascended Shadow now deals 25% damage to all non-Boss MOABs that spawn
- 39.0
| “ | No changes here for now - given that it did feel behind the other paragons previously, however this is the only paragon that actually got stronger from the bug fix rather than weaker | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ascended Shadow's overall Boss damage increased
- Ascended Shadow's Camo damage bonuses now properly scales with Paragon degrees
- Ascended Shadow cash sacrifice per power increased/decreased in all game difficulties
- Easy: $25 → $21.25
- Medium: $25
- Hard: $25 → $27
- Impoppable: $25 → $30
- Ascended Shadow is no longer affected by the bonus sellback benefit from Favored Trades or Navarch of the Seas.
- Ascended Shadow can now accept a cash slider to fill additional cost sacrifices for a 5% price markup
- Ascended Shadow bonus Boss damage multiplier per 20 degrees increased (20% → 25%)
- 42.0
| “ | Bottom path Ninja never does anything with the main shuriken projectile past the xx1 upgrade leaving it inconsequential on higher tiers. Given that Flash Bombs can feel lacking without heavy support, we’re trying out a change that makes Flash Bomb Ninja scale better with attack speed and pierce as something of a combo-attacker. Overall, this feels pretty ‘right’ for ninjas and more importantly it’s cool and sometimes that’s what matters most. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ascended Shadow main Shuriken attack now deals +15 damage to stunned bloons
- Ascended Shadow main Shuriken attack now deals +15 damage to stickied bloons
- 43.0
| “ | [...] Ninja Paragon is very simple to use so unlock XP requirements for this and Wizard Paragon are swapping around so Ninja is the faster unlock. This increase will not affect players who have already unlocked it. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ascended Shadow unlock cost decreased from 1,000,000 XP to 500,000 XP
- 45.0
| “ | [...] Ninja Paragon’s Camo bonus has been interesting, but we want to scale this up in many places to feel like a more significant overall boost when it comes into play. Additionally this Paragon hasn’t scaled the best at high degrees as Stickies attacking faster than their Fuse Time would make the attack weaker at single target, we are slowing the sticky attack but giving it back proportionally more damage to resolve this with an overall buff. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ascended Shadow Main Attack bonus damage to Camo increased from +6 to +16
- Ascended Shadow Flash Bomb explosion bonus damage to Camo increased +20 to +48
- Ascended Shadow Flash Bomb shuriken bonus damage to Camo increased +16 to +40
- Ascended Shadow Main Attack bonus damage to Stunned increased +15 to +64
- Ascended Shadow Main Attack bonus damage to Stickied increased +15 to +64
- Ascended Shadow Sticky Bomb attack cooldown increased from 5.5s to 6.5s
- Ascended Shadow Sticky Bomb explosion damage increased from 3500 to 4200
- Ascended Shadow Sticky Bomb explosion bonus damage to Boss increased from +1400 to +2100
- Ascended Shadow Sticky Bomb explosion bonus damage to Camo increased from +700 to +2100
- 46.0
| “ | Based on the x5x ability Ninja Paragon will now grant bonus range to all non-paragon ninjas, it will provide the Shinobi Tactics buff to any other Ninja in radius, and its global camo detection will also apply to other paragons. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ascended Shadow now grants +10 range to all nearby Ninja Monkeys
- Ascended Shadow now provides 1 local Shinobi Tactics buff
- Ascended Shadow's camo detection buff now also affects Paragons
- Note: It will affect the newly added Crucible of Steel and Flame (Tack Shooter Paragon), as all other Paragons (including Master Builder's mini sentries) do detect camo Bloons naturally.
- 51.0
| “ | A few attacks had been missed on the Ninja’s last distraction change and have now had their distraction distance properly standardized. The Ninja Paragon is also seeing a set of light adjustments, most notably the much requested rebalance to Sticky Bomb now with a slower attack rate to scale properly against Bosses at high degrees, while the main attack now also hits much harder against any Stickied targets. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Distraction distances standardized from 10-300 > 100-150
- Paragon main Shuriken bonus damage to Stickied targets 15 > 64
- Paragon Flash Bomb pierce reduced from 50 > 40
- Paragon Flash Bomb shuriken pierce reduced from 20 > 10
- Paragon Sticky Bomb attack cooldown 6.5s > 8s
- Paragon Sticky Bomb damage 16,000 > 50,000
- Paragon Sticky bonus to Boss 32,000 > 25,000
- Paragon Sticky bonus damage to Camo 3200 > 18,750
- Paragon Sticky AoE explosion damage 4200 > 5000
- Paragon Sticky AoE explosion bonus to Boss 2100 > 5000
- Paragon Sticky AoE explosion bonus to Camo 2100 > 2500
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
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Bugs[]
- Current
None, so far
- Patched
None, so far
[]
The Ninja Monkey Paragon (Ascended Shadow), as teased on Social Media.
On 6th October 2021, Ninja Kiwi teased the Ninja Monkey Paragon on their Twitter. It was later released in the 28.0 update, and later revealed to be the Ascended Shadow. It has been teased with the following description in double quotation marks: "The Bloons will never see me coming..."; however, upon release of Version 28.0, the Ascended Shadow's upgrade description turned out to be completely different.
Quotes[]
| “ |
|
” |
| ~ Version 28.0 patch notes |
| “ | The Bloons will never see me coming... | ” |
| ~ October 5th Teaser Description |
Sounds[]
When attaching a Sticky Card on a MOAB-class bloon:
- [Glue splatting]
- [Glue splatting]
- [Glue splatting]
- [Glue splatting]
- [Glue splatting]
Gallery[]
Ascended Shadows[]
Projectiles[]
Official Artwork[]
Animations[]
Trivia[]
- Ascended Shadow is the first Magic Monkey paragon to be announced and released.
- Ascended Shadow is the first upgrade in the Bloons TD series to surpass the cost of True Sun God (if excluding cumulative sacrifices of VTSG). At the time, it was the most expensive single upgrade in the entire franchise.
- However, it has since been surpassed by the Master Builder since Version 32.0, and subsequently the Goliath Doomship in v33.0. In addition, after Version 36.0, its price has been reduced to the same as the TSG.
- The teaser featured the quote "The Bloons will never see me coming...", which is notable for being in first person perspective.
- The files for Ascended Shadow's Shurikens does not include the ones for Level 2 and 3 (i.e. Degrees 21-40 and 41-60, respectively), as Ascended Shadow from Degree 1 to 60 use the same sprites.
- Ascended Shadow is the second Paragon to start with A, and the first Paragon to have a letter that starts with a letter that matches an existing Paragon's starting letter, that for Apex Plasma Master.
- As of 37.0, Ascended Shadow is the second paragon to do percentage-based damage to all bloons, including BADs (the first being Navarch of the Seas), by inflicting 25% damage to them at spawn.
- If Grand Saboteur's ability is used while the Ascended Shadow is on screen, the damage to the bloons at spawn will go to the Grand Saboteur instead of the Paragon until the ability times out.
- In Update 42, Ascended Shadow became the first and currently only paragon that can deal extra damage to BADs. In this case, the extra damage to stickied targets lets it deal extra BAD damage.
References[]
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