Bloononomics

The stages of a Banana Farm - Only when you have at least the third upgrade on the second path do you not have to put your mouse over the farm to collect the bananas.

Bloononomics- Bloon Economics

The economics of playing Bloons TD games, and particularly BTD4, BTD4 Expansion, and BTD5, but usually just BTD5.

Do not spend more than the reward!

Very obvious, but people do this - Don't spend 300 on Special Agents, so you can win a Daily Challenge that will only give you 50. If you are going for the Awesome Points though, the loss might be countered by the gain.

Ways to earn cash

Early Game: Banana Farms. Farms can quickly give money even in the early rounds. It is advised that you quickly upgrade them to at least 1/0, which is quite cheap and gives quite the payoff later on.

Mid-Game: Monkey Village/Town. This reduces a tower's price by 10%, By Round 40 to 60 depending on the difficulty of the track, you should have a good economy to buy a 3/x Monkey Village that gves 50% more money from popping Bloons. Be careful when upgrading to this, as it costs quite a bit ($10000 on Medium) and MOABs start appearing in these rounds. Consider getting an adequate defense that can hold off these rounds first before getting a Monkey Town. They can be great later when upgraded to 4/0 as well. Not so much for the beam attack, but more by reduced ability cooldowns. Especially...

Late Game: Supply Drop Snipers. These little guys really give you lots of money in later rounds. If you do it right, you could have $10,000,000 by round 120. They are excellent, especially in free play where rounds are long enough to use it again and again. Also, they may be better than Banana Farms since they attack bloons and they use much less space.

Money vs. Lives...

In some tracks, it is wise to sacrifice lives for money (or vice-versa). Easier tracks don´t need it, like Snake River, or Archipelago. Harder/Split Tracks require this more often. Monkey Tycoon makes convenient to Buy/Sell towers. On tracks like Switch and Lightning Scar, Road Spikes and Pineapples are impractical, you need as many lives as you can get. So, in the early rounds, if you know that your defenses are weak, but you want to keep them the way they are, try placing one, and just one, pile of Road Spikes at where the track splits or converges. This will help eliminate the rough bloons early, so you don't have to fiddle with going back and forth and back and forth with Road Spikes and Pineapples between the two ends of the track.

The Monkey Village

Placing a Monkey Village will lower the cost of towers and upgrades in the Monkey Village's range. This is really good for expensive towers and upgrades as it lowers the cost of upgrades and towers by 10%. If you buy the Monkey Town upgrade it will make a pretty good payoff. 

The more expensive the upgrades, the better. Getting high-tiered Super Monkeys, for example, in the range of a monkey village will save well over the $1600 used to buy it.

The sell price is always 80% of the actual buy price, even if the tower is in the range of a village when you sell it.

Stages And Strategy

Try to use the track to your advantage like Park Path, as it´s a long path, so use Spike Factory at the end to make lives, or Path "O" Aces on Bloontonium Lab, or Mortars and Bomb Towers on Mount Magma. Basically try to use the stage to your advantage.

Fiddle around with targeting. Towers like 2/3 Boomerangs and Buccaneers of any upgrade just don't function as well when they're not put to "Strong" or "Last". This also means moving Dartling Guns strategically, like popping Regrowth Bloons one at a time to control the rate at which they regrow. Monkey Ace paths as well. Aces besides 3/x or higher work better when their flight path is close to the track, since the darts will be less spread out. Sometimes the ideal path is "" and "O" instead of "8", so change the path accordingly.

Money efficiency

Try to save in-game money by not buying stuff that you don't need, especially if your defenses are good. Buying Farms is a much better investment. Using the least, you can get, say a farm by Round 5-6 Hard without any Premiums on most tracks.

Some Worthy Towers

Dartling Guns, you control them, so if you are focusing on a "Bloonsnake", or a MOAB, and you see some bloons heading for the exit you can pop them, unlike other towers that have to let the bloons in their range. Without them bloons can escape ultimately costing you lives.

Super Monkeys are amazing... when upgraded. Robo Monkey with the Plasma Blasts has more than double the power (Due to increase in popping power) of even a Plasma Monkey, and thusly can kill MOABs fairly quickly. Play effeciently, though. A Robo-Plasma costs a hefty $21150 on Medium under the influence of a Monkey Village. A fully boosted Temple, though, is an excellent example of the word "Overkill", but it costs a lot to get a "Max Temple", including all the sacrifices needed.

Ninja Monkeys are to be looked at because they can see Camo bloons and the upgrade, Bloonjitsu, coupled with Distraction (4/2) can halt even Ceramics completely. But they are outclassed at low rounds, as Dart Monkeys do the same job for a lot less money. Lead Bloons can also be troublesome for the Ninja on rounds like 37, 38, or 39, forcing you to get some extra lead-popping tower, which costs more money for the defense overall, which means it is not as cost-effecient.

Monkey Ace, it´s excellent on split tracks. Neva-Miss Targeting gives accuracy, giving the Monkey Ace a lot of accurate popping power, but not a whole lot of overall popping power. Operation: Dart Storm is where it's at. While it may not be as good vs. Ceramics and higher, it is excellent in popping many lower-level bloons, such as Rainbows and Zebras. Aces aren't too good below Tier three upgrades, though, and Lead Bloons can still slip by even with the x/1 upgrade. The Spectre can pop many more bloons than Operation: Dart Storm, but it costs a whopping $18000 on Medium, and it's not to good on taking on BFBs or higher on its own.

Banana Farms are a must. Whether you like dartling guns or are fine hovering over the farms, it's for you, with the Monkey Bank Upgrades (x/3,4) you can still use dartling guns and make money. The best farm overall is 4/2 ($3000 per round), as x/4 works out to only $2612 per round even if you wait 7 rounds.

The Bomb Tower. It is very good if you have it upgraded to Bloon Impact (4/2), it just causes widespread and major damage. 2/x is also good, cheap option for MOAB Maulers. (x/3)

Sniper Monkey is good against high-leveled bloons and can immobilize MOAB-class bloons on the first path. Its 2/3 upgrade allows it to pop bloons 3x as fast, which is great for crowd control. A 2/3 Sniper reduces a Ceramic to 8 yellows in 1 second! Its ability, the Supply Drop, can make even more money than a (4/2) Banana farm in rounds long enough, I.E. 86+. Use this strategy on rounds like 40, 43, 47, 49, 50, 51, and 55. Just set the snipers to strong and let Burny Stuff Mortars (2/2) pop theYellows.

Temple Sacrifices

Sacrifice:

Mortars/Bomb Towers: From twin, to up to 5 golden huge blast Missiles ($30K of Bomb/Mortars for the best Missiles)

Ice Towers: Splash Ice Shot, big damage to MOABs, Snap Freezes hundreds of bloons ($10K for best Ice)

Glue Gunners: Large Corrosive Glue splat shot ($10K also makes the glue splatter a Liquefier shot)

Monkey Apprentices: Super Tempest Tornado ($10K again)

Super Monkey/Any other tower not listed: A wave of 16 darts, then 16 blades. $30K here also boosts plasma damage to obscene levels, this is the category you need to make sure you upgrade.

A Temple is extremely expensive so make the most of it. Buy while near a Village for lower price.

How to build the best Temple:

1. Buy the range upgrades for the sun god
2. Put these towers in the sun god's range:

• 3 4/2 Mortars.

• 3 4/2. Apprentices

• 3 4/2 Ice Tower.

• 3 4/2 Glue Gunner.

• $30,000 of other towers (A 2/4 Super Monkey works great for this) including a 3/1 Monkey Village for blades/Turbo plasma.

3. Upgrade the Sun God to a Temple.

Note: Step 1 goes last for maximum Temple placement.

Monkey Money vs. Experience Points in BTD5

The player can't gain the both Monkey Money and Experience Points efficiently, so he must choose before a game, which of them is his priority.

• Gaining Monkey Money by playing a lot of short games. The best way is to play Clock or Castle on Easy (or Medium, Hard), where the player gets the most MM for a short time spent by playing.
• Gaining Experience Points by playing just one but very long game. The best way is choose one of the tracks, that are easy to play for the player (mostly Beginner tracks like Monkey Lane, Park Path, The Rink). The best mode for gaining a lot of XP is Apopalypse. If the player plays on Easy (or Medium, Hard), he should continue through Freeplay Mode. The player should play as long, as he can, because the best XP rewards are in the later rounds. Or play MOAB Madness Special Mission. The 2nd July Daily Challenge is a effective way to earn Experience Points too, giving around 40 million Experience Points by round 140. By round 120, you surely need to use lots of Ground Zero, by sell and re-buy.

Premiums

Some of the premium upgrades avalable help the player with lives and cash. Most people have to choose between getting premiums for Lives or Cash (Some people with lots of NK coins are able to get both of these things)

• Purchasing Lives is mainly useful if you plan to play a very long game. Healthy Bananas is the best premium upgrades for these as it allows Banana Farms to generate lives per round as well as cash. It just takes 2 (2/2) farms and 10 rounds and it can earn as much as a single purchase of More Lives. Triple Lives allows you to get 3x more lives than usual, which is necessary for getting to high rounds.
• Purchasing Cash is mainly useful on very hard tracks (Mainly Advanced, Expert, and Extreme tracks). They are useful for getting better and better towers. Double Cash gives you 2x the starting cash, and more cash for popping bloons. Using this with Monkey Town will give you a lot of money. If you make a mistake, then using Monkey Tycoon will allow you to sell the tower and all of it's upgrades what you paid for it, very useful in Deflation or if your stratergy fails. Cash Injection is OK, but it is recomended you do not buy this (unless you are just starting a game and want to be able to get a big defense while spending on Banana Farms) as you can make that amount of money with a (4/2) Banana farm in 3 rounds. This same amount can also be made by 3 (4/2) banana farms in 1 round.

Make Use of NK Coins!

• Remember, if you love renting upgrades, you will eventually pay more than if you buy them once forever. So, if you have NK coins, you might want to spend them to spare your monkey money.
• Also, buying monkey money can be a waste, as it is quite expensive.
• The best premium is probably double cash, or triple lives because they make the game last a lot longer.

Do not buy useless upgrades!

True, but most of the people do this - Don't buy useless upgrades - that allow to do nothing. For example, if there is a X/2 Monkey Village and in its range there is an upgrade which allows ONLY to detect camo bloons, don't buy it, except if you are trying to get further upgrades. Or, if you are in freeplay, do not buy upgrades which allow to pop leads or camos, like White Hot Spikes except if you are trying to get Spiked Mines. So, when in freeplay you want a Spike Storm, buy 1/4 Spike Storms instead of 2/4 ones. When using this strategy, you can save a lot of money.

Valuable/Economical Upgrades

Especially in BTD5, but also in BTD3 and BTD4, there are a lot of economical upgrades, which can be better than some other upgrades that are more valuable. They may also help saving lives. A list below.

BTD3

Buying multiple Monkey Beacons may not be helpful.

• This is because Monkey Beacons are really expensive, so fitting all towers inside its range may be more helpful than buying more of them.

Getting the Laser Vision upgrade for the Super Monkey is better than buying another Super Monkey.

• This is because it is cheaper (2 super monkeys cost $8000, while a Laser Vision super monkey only costs $7500), and it also pops 2 bloons each projectile, making it far more helpful.

BTD4

The Spike-o-pult upgrade for the Dart Monkey may be harmful.

• This is because it is far less accurate, this upgrade is only good at dealing with hordes of bloons.

The Ring of Fire upgrade for the Tack Shooter may be harmful.

• This is because Blade Shooter fires 8 projectiles popping one bloon each, while Ring of Fire fires only one projectile popping 60 bloons. Blade Shooter is far better at dealing with Ceramic Bloons and MOAB-class bloons, Ring of Fire instead is better at dealing with hordes of bloons. This can save a lot of money.

Getting a Monkey Buccaneer with Crow's Nest is better than getting a Monkey Beacon with Sonar Beacon.

• Unless the map has no water, this is because a Monkey Buccaneer has more range and it is cheaper.

Upgrading Banana Farms are better than getting more Banana Farms.

• This is because they are cheaper, spending less money for more income.

BTD5

The Spike-o-pult upgrade for the Dart Monkey may be harmful.

• Just like in BTD4, this is because it is far less accurate, this upgrade is only good at dealing with hordes of bloons. If the player wants to deal more damage at a time, getting Triple Darts is better, it is also cheaper.

The Ring of Fire upgrade for the Tack Shooter may be harmful.

• Just like in BTD4, this is because Tack Sprayer fires 16 projectiles popping one bloon each, while Ring of Fire fires only one projectile popping 60 bloons. Tack Sprayer is far better at dealing with Ceramic Bloons and MOAB-class bloons, Ring of Fire instead is better at dealing with hordes of bloons. This can save a lot of money not upgrading to Ring of Fire.

Getting more 1-1 Sniper Monkeys is better than getting upgraded ones.

• This is because they pop more bloons, even though they pop less layers, they are also cheaper. Sniper Monkeys focus on one bloon dealing lots of damage, while more unupgraded Sniper Monkey focus on multiple bloons.

The Cluster Bombs upgrade for the Bomb Tower may be harmful.

• This is because they can't pop Black Bloons, causing bloons to escape, losing lives. Also, the Frag Bombs upgrade is better at dealing with MOAB-class bloons.

Getting the Absolute Zero upgrade is better than getting the Glue Striker upgrade.

• Other than being far cheaper, Absolute Zero freezes the bloons, which is arguably better than Glue Striker. This can also save some lives.

A Banana Republic is worth less than 2 Banana Plantations.

• Unlike in BTD4, a Banana Republic is more expensive than buying 2 Banana Plantations. This is because a Banana Republic costs a total of $5900 giving only $500, while 2 Banana Plantations cost a total of $5400 but they give $520 rather than $500.