- For strategies that are more related to popping MOAB-class rushes, see Packed MOAB-class/Strategies.
This page is an article for a list of strategies for countering Bloon Rushes. In most cases, explosions and towers capable of splash damage and/or high popping power and DPS may counter Bloon Rushes well.
Feel free to add your specific strategies for countering Bloon Rushes in a new Level 3 Header below each "General notes" section. You may also change the "General notes" sections as well.
Dart Monkey[]
General notes[]
Dart Monkeys are an effective strategy for beating rushes if you have the Fan Club upgrade and multiple triple dart monkeys. The Spike-o-pult or Juggernaut upgrades can also assist with destroying rushes. Juggernaut do especially well against ceramics.
Tack Shooter[]
General notes[]
Tack Shooters shoot within its radius and produce area damage. Area damage is good for damaging as many bloons as possible using the fewest times of shooting possible. The Blade Maelstrom ability is amazing, as it can destroy tons of regrow bloons. Its one flaw is that it cannot detect camo bloons.
Sniper Monkey[]
General notes[]
Sniper Monkeys are quite weak against bloon rushes because of their slow attack speed and the fact that they don't have area damage. Consider using Semi automatic snipers because of their fast attack speed. Also snipers can be useful for popping fast bloon rushes with their infinite range. With the Deadly precision upgrade they can destroy all non Fortified bloons in one shot so your other monkeys don't need to deal with the children.
Ninja Monkey[]
General notes[]
Ninja Monkeys are good for wiping out Bloon Rushes, however, is not good for wiping out Regrow Rushes. They may be good for removing a large number of bloons layer by layer, but they can be a nuisance when trying to remove Regrow Rushes, because they can often unintentionally leave strong regrow bloons to grow after being popped partially. A good upgrade path to use is the 2/3 Flash Bomb, and combine with other similar towers with bomb projectiles, to give a good impact to the stunned bloons. A 4/2 Ninja Monkey can hit up to 20 bloons at once and can strip layers of many bloons.
Sabotage Supply-Lines[]
Sabotage Supply Lines is used to slow down bloons to buy you time. This ability is good, as it allows you to get up that Blade Maelstrom or Fan Club before the bloons reach the end.
Boomerang Thrower[]
General notes[]
Boomerang Throwers are good at dealing with rushes if upgrade to at least any tier-3 upgrade. Such upgrades work well in different ways. A Glaive Ricochet can strip layers off grouped bloons, while a Bionic Boomer can destroy a smaller number of bloons well. A Turbo Charge is the best option for rushes due to how fast it shoots.
Bomb Shooter[]
General notes[]
Bomb Shooters can shoot bombs which explode over a large area. Cluster Bombs or Bloon Impact may also be good for removing non-MOAB-class rushes, because the secondary bombs can further damage the Bloon Rush structure. Bloon Impact is especially good because it can pop Black and Zebra Bloons, as well as stunning all bloons affected. Avoid using the middle path (MOAB Mauler BTD5) as it specializes in popping M.O.A.B class.
Ice Monkey[]
General notes[]
Upgrade to Arctic wind and Permafrost, it can halt immense rushes so that all other tower to take aim at it. A strategy is to use an Arctic Wind paired with an Ice Shards, which allows you defend big rainbow rushes (can't detect camo though). Watch out for white and zebra bloons though, as they are immune to being frozen. The Absolute Zero ability can freeze all non MOAB-class bloons on the map, making it a replacement for the 2-4 ninja ability.
Glue Gunner[]
General notes[]
2/3 Glue Gunners can quickly stick lots of bloons, fast enough to keep up with amount of bloons needed to soak. Fortunately, upgrades Glue Hose or Glue Striker make bloons much slower, decreasing bloon speed from 50% to 40% and 30% respectively. Combining that with other similar slow-down towers and bloons will move so slowly they will easily get destroyed. The Glue Storm ability reaches across the entire map, which makes it a useful ability.
Using the alternate path with Glue Splatter will make the Glue Gunner more effective against Ceramic Bloons because of the fact that the glue will crack the ceramic layer fast enough to start the slowing effect. Though not as many bloons will be affected as Glue Hose or Glue Striker, Bloon Dissolver and Bloon Liquefier will weaken the Bloon Rush structure.
Mortar Monkey[]
General notes[]
Mortar Monkeys shoot mortars with explosions over a large area. Napalm may also be used to add additional pop to bloons, especially to pop black and zebra bloons. It is also useful when upgraded to Signal Flare, if there are Camo Rushes, which strips off the Camo status out of affected bloons. A 4/2 Mortar can remove many layers of Bloons, which can prevent high ranked Regrowth Bloons from duplicating itself. It is much more useful when combined with towers which slow down bloons, which include but are not limited to Ice Monkeys and Glue Gunners.
Dartling Gun[]
General notes[]
One of the best ways to deal with rushes. They can fire rapidly, especially when the Dartling Guns are 2/2 and above. Such towers usually leave little or no bloons behind, the "survivors" of which can be easily dealt with using other towers. There are some disadvantages, however, the first one being that unless you have a Dartling Ammo Dump, the Dartling Gun is hard to control because it follows touch/mouse, and is uncomfortable to try and reposition the Dartling Gun, especially if the player tries to upgrade towers on the spot. Another disadvantage is that the upgrades of the Dartling Gun are quite expensive, especially for BMC players, so the Dartling Guns may not be able to reach 2/2 before a devastating rush of Regrow Pink Bloons swiftly overwhelm the player's towers.
A 4-2 Dartling Gun can counter any bloon rush, if focussed at the bloons well.
Spike Factory[]
General notes[]
Spike Factories are not the best for removing Bloon Rushes by themselves, however, they can "mop up" the last few bloons that manage to pass through the defenses of the other towers. It is recommended to buy a 4/2 Spiked Mines because of the explosions they make after losing their spikes, if using Spike Factories to deal with Bloon Rushes. A 2-4 Spike Storm is also a good tower to use to deal with Bloon Rushes, especially when using the Activated Ability.
Monkey Buccaneer[]
General notes[]
Monkey Buccaneers are quite good against Bloon Rushes, if upgraded well. A 2/2 Monkey Buccaneer can deal with up to yellows. 3/2 Monkey Buccaneers are more reliable in removing regrow rushes because they shoot so fast.
Monkey Ace[]
General notes[]
Monkey Aces are not that good at dealing with rushes if they don't have at least . However, when upgraded to Spectre or Ground Zero, they can counter them well. Spectre can shoot many pursuing darts at once and many times, while Ground Zero is capable of dropping a bomb that will wipe out every single non-MOAB-class bloon and damage all MOAB-class.
When deciding between tier-3 upgrades, be aware that Neva-Miss Targeting will promote more accuracy for greater poppage, while Operation: Dart Storm will generate more darts for greater poppage.
Monkey Apprentice[]
General notes[]
Monkey Apprentices are usually weak against Bloon Rushes, but when upgraded to include Lightning Bolt and/or Dragon's Breath, it can be quite effective against Bloon Rushes from "rushing" towards the exit. The Lightning Bolt can strip many, almost all bloons at once, while the Fire Breath has high popping power. Avoid the tornado upgrade, as it will cause a regrow storm.
Super Monkey[]
General notes[]
Super Monkeys are great at removing Bloon Rushes, but they are expensive and not good unless upgraded at least laser blasts. A plasma monkey is usually enough to defend most regrow rushes. The Technological Terror is a good choice against MOAB-class bloons, as its Bloon Annihilation ability does high damage.
TOTMG would obviously be THE most effective, although it is very expensive, and lot of investment is needed to get all of the awesome effects produced by TOTMGs. However, with enough sacrifice of towers, a single maxed TOTMG may as well destroy any and all Bloon Rushes, including just about all of the Packed MOAB-class, provided that the Packed MOAB-class do not move too fast. Also, if the player can afford it, placing 2 or more maxed TOTMGs in the right places may as well protect you even from packs of the dreaded DDT.
Monkey Village[]
General notes[]
The Monkey Village is great for lowering the price of upgrading things. When another monkey is inside the Monkey Village radius, it will receive bonuses, such as boosts to the monkeys attacking range, allowing for detection of camo bloons, increasing attacking speed, and allowing certain bloons such as lead and frozen to be popped regardless of the monkeys used. The Monkey Village cannot attack unless upgraded to 4/0 and up, at which point it gains an ability that functions much like Wizard Monkeys Lightning Bolt attack, but without the chaining effect, and an attacking speed much like a Super Monkey. Try placing this tower near other monkeys which are costly to upgrade, and save a great 10% on upgrades! This is especially helpful for the 4/2 upgrades on Dartling Monkey.
Note that Path 1 focuses more on helping the surrounding towers for efficiency (as in range increase, attack speed increase, 50% extra cash from pops, and decreased cooldowns), while Path 2 focuses more on helping the surrounding towers to gain effective popping (as in +1 pierce, camo detection, all-bloon poppage, emergency boost of towers).
Banana Farm[]
General notes[]
Other than simply generating income for towers and upgrades, it does not damage or affect the outcome of bloons. However, certain strategies can be made from how Banana Farms are used. Usually, try to go for the Path 1 upgrades, as they are more efficient in cost amounts. In addition, you can always sell your farms for a cash boost.
Monkey Engineer[]
General notes[]
Monkey Engineers can be effective, but only when there are a large number of them and their sentries. Having at least three 2/2 Monkey Engineers scattered around the whole map is quite effective against Bloon Rushes. 3/2 or 2/3 Engineers may also work as well. Consider adding a 2/2 Monkey Apprentice to pop nasty Lead Bloons that Monkey Engineers would find frustrating. Add more Camo-detecting towers to counter Camo Bloons, or try to get Monkey Knowledge to educate Monkey Engineers to Rank 3 so that the sentries can get rid of Camo Bloons (BMC and BMC Mobile only).
Heli-Pilot[]
General notes[]
Heli-Pilots can take down rushes well if a large amount of 3/1 or 3/2 Heli-Pilots set on pursuit swarm the bloon rush, chopping and popping the Bloons up. Four Apache Dartships can take down Ceramic bloon rushes very easily. However, they are too expensive to be good.
Monkey Sub[]
General notes[]
They work well against Regrow rushes only if they are 2/2 or more and if there are other towers around (Note: For best results there will have to be more than one Monkey Sub). A 4/0 Sub is a better choice because while submerged, it has an infinite pierce with it's radar.
Bloonchipper[]
General notes[]
Bloonchippers will suck up bloons in like a vacuum cleaner but not all will suffice. 2/3 to 2/4 Bloonchippers are best for dealing with non-MOAB class bloons, while 4/2 Bloonchippers are best at dealing with the MOAB-class.
3/2 Bloonchippers are cheaper than 2/3 Bloonchippers, but 3/2 Bloonchippers appear to be more effective against Ceramic Bloons, Regrow Bloons and simply just better attack efficiency (compared to improved sucking up efficiency from Triple Barrel). Taking advantage of setting 3/2 Bloonchippers to strong will chip away the ceramic layers that some towers find frustrating, though be aware that the bloons are well away from Spike Factories or the spike defense may as well be harshly affected.
Road Spikes[]
General notes[]
Road Spikes should not be high priority for dealing with rushes, because it can make the player lose more cash than it receives. Prepare towers earlier to avoid having to procrastinate with Road Spikes, which doing so would be not very economic. Not preparing for Bloon Rushes early and applying a mass of Road Spikes in the last minute would waste a lot of cash, which could be spent on other useful things beforehand.
Pineapple[]
General notes[]
Pineapples, like Road Spikes, shouldn't be used for dealing with rushes. First, they have a 3-second time delay before exploding (accelerated if Fast Forward is on), even though it is cheaper than Road Spikes. Also, it takes too much timing and concentration to even pop one bloon with a Pineapple. Worst of all, in BMC Mobile and BTD5 Mobile, the Pineapple has been nerfed to have a smaller explosion.