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Bloons TD 4 Mobile is a port of Bloons TD 4 released for the iPhone and iPod Touch on 7 December 2010, and for Android on 22 Dec 2011.[2][3] An HD version for the iPad was released on 1 April 2011.

The mobile versions of Bloons TD 4 are very similar to the Flash version of the game, and has the same roster of towers alongside an additional tower, the same upgrades, and the same ranking system. Unlike the Flash version, freeplay games can be saved. There are other minor alterations to game mechanics (such as tower footprint) due to the difference in engine.

On the Main Menu screen, there is a Sun God Temple that shoots light balls out of its eyes when lightning strikes it. When pressing any of the tabs (Play Game, Options, Help, and About), the screen moves to the right for about 3 seconds. If the player is on a version with the Beekeeper and has not unlocked it yet, they will instead see a giant crate containing it, showcasing how many pops are still required to open the crate.

On 17 May 2012, they added the Beekeeper in an update, which unlocks after popping 2 million bloons. Its core mechanics are exactly like its Bloons TD 5 counterpart, but it has upgrades, and should not be confused for a Special Agent. This was released before Bloons TD 5 Mobile, and was likely meant as a teaser for Bloons TD 5's Mobile version. To celebrate the release of this new tower, the icon's background changed from blue to yellow-orange, which is still the current icon.

The final content update was on 19 Dec 2012, adding the map Snow Monkey exclusive to iOS and HD, as it was never added to the Android version for unknown reasons. Despite being a winter-themed map, it does not change the sprites of towers or bloons, unlike the previous Christmas-themed maps. At this point, the main focus of Ninja Kiwi Europe was Bloons TD 5 Mobile, and no further content updates would be released. Both the iPhone and HD versions would later receive a patch in 2016-2017 that would make them 64-bit compatible, because of iOS 11 discontinuing support of 32-bit apps such as BTD4 Mobile.

Even as far back as 2014, many users complained that Bloons TD 4 would not run on their device.[4] As of November 2019, the Android version has been pulled from the Play Store due to being incompatible with newer phones.[5]

Although the Play Store no longer lists Bloons TD 4 Mobile, the Amazon App Store still lists BTD4 Android Version 2.0 for sale, but the same compatibility issues remain.[6]It remains available in the iOS App Store, as it was updated with 64-bit compatibility in 2016-2017 in preparation for compatibility with iOS 11.


Bloons TD 4 HD[]

Bloons TD 4 HD Icon

HD App icon in new orange background. Before that, the background was blue.

Bloons Tower Defense 4 HD is the version of BTD4 that is made specifically for the Apple iPad, featuring higher resolution graphics and an altered UI. While BTD4 HD formerly had a different update schedule that would often receive two content updates from the iPhone variant in 1 update instead, they are now equivalent in content. One notable difference between the normal and HD version of BTD4 is that the HD version tends to have much smaller tower footprints than its flash or iPhone/Android variants.

Bloons TD 4 Lite[]

Bloons TD 4 Lite is the free version of Bloons TD 4 iOS. The player can only play the first track on it (Ocean Road) on Easy, Medium, and Hard. The player cannot play Apopalypse or Deflation mode. There is also a taster map pack which has 3 more tracks for £0.69/$0.99.

There was also an HD version of the Lite version, designed for high resolution graphics on iPads.

There are three towers not included in the game: Spike Factory, Dartling Gun, and Beekeeper, due to these towers being released as part of content updates that are after the release of the lite version. There are also no Premium Upgrades.

Content Differences between Flash and Mobile[]

  • Tower sprites are altered.
  • The Beekeeper is a tower exclusive to the mobile version. It is unlocked similarly to the Monkey Sub in BTD 5 Mobile or the Dartling Gunner in BTD 6, requiring 2 million Bloons popped in order to use the tower.
  • There are many exclusive tracks for BTD4 Mobile.
  • Extreme Difficulty maps are only in BTD4 Mobile.
  • Excluding Monkey Temple, no Bloons TD 4 Expansion map is in the mobile version. Similarly, five base Bloons TD 4 maps are not included: Tap Track, Clifftop Track, Grasslands Track, Inter-Dimensional Track, and High-Tech Track.
  • The player is able to unlock three preset premium upgrades by beating 5 maps in hard mode, for a total of 9 premium upgrades after earning 15 hard medals, the exact amount of possible medals at the launch of BTD4 Mobile.
  • Instead of Kongregate or Ninja Kiwi Achievements, there are Game Center achievements. Android does not have achievements whatsoever.
  • Unique holiday-themed tracks that change the sprites of towers and bloons to match the theme.
    • Tannenbaum and Milk 'n' Cookies are Christmas themed tracks with this functionality, replacing the sprites of all towers except the Beekeeper, who was not released at the time.
    • Despite sharing the winter theme, Snow Monkey does not replace the tower sprites with Winter variants, likely because content support shifted to Bloons TD 5 Mobile by the time of its release.
    • Trick or Treat is a Halloween themed track that replaces the sprites of all towers except the Spike Factory and Beekeeper, as both of these towers were not released then.
  • Sandbox Mode was never added to the mobile version, for unknown reasons. Rank 26 thus awards nothing.

Mechanical Differences between Flash and Mobile[]

  • Flash Ring of Fire creates a firey explosion from the center, its Mobile counterpart visually shoots 8 streams of fire. Despite the significantly altered visuals, the attacks work exactly the same between both versions, although the Ring of Fire attacks every 0.37s in the mobile version, instead of every 0.74s.
  • Graphics are in higher quality with altered textures in the mobile version compared with Flash.
  • HD maps are wider than Flash or standard Mobile maps, allowing more towers to be placed in one spot. The non-hd mobile variants are closer to flash.
  • Red Bloon Seconds of mobile maps are 17% shorter than the Flash version. Both the normal and HD mobile versions have the same RBS.
  • Retargeting the Mortar Tower will automatically pause it, and instantly reload it, allowing a Mortar with no upgrades to unload shots faster than Mortar Battery at peak speed.
  • The player can no longer use a glitch to place the Monkey Buccaneer (BTD4) on land, due to the removal of hotkeys.
  • The attack speed cap is now every 0.05s (20 frames/s), as the game runs at 60 FPS.
  • Jungle Drums (BTD3-BTD5) now does not round its attack speed boost up to the next integer. Instead, towers will occasionally spend less frames inbetween attacks to approximate the proper attack speed boost.
  • Super Monkeys and Faster Barrel Spin Dartling Gun attack at 0.1s (6 frames/60f) base instead of 0.057s (2 frames/35f).
    • Plasma Vision and above attack every 0.05s and cannot be boosted with Jungle Drums, because of the attack speed cap.
  • Many other towers have slightly altered attack speed, because of the difference in engine, although most other towers are not altered as significantly as the Ring of Fire, Dartling, or Super Monkey.
    • Base Dartling Gun attacks every 0.2333s (14 frames/60f), much closer to its Flash counterpart's 0.2s (7 frames/35f).
  • All towers, including the Banana Farm and Super Monkey, have the same placement hitbox. Hitbox size can change with upgrades for some towers.
  • Bloons have 0.125s of invulnerability after a layer is popped. This does not apply to damaging layers with more than 1 health.
  • Ranks are bought in intervals of 2 and were added in updates. iOS received this functionality on an unknown update. Android previously could not buy ranks, but with the release of version 1.8.1, this is now possible. [7]
  • No cloud saves exist - the only way to move a save on the Mobile version is to manually move the save file. Similarly, it is impossible to connect BTD4 Mobile with a Ninja Kiwi account.
  • Players can save a Freeplay game, and players no longer need a Ninja Kiwi account to save a game.
  • Rainbow Bloons split into two White Bloon and two Black Bloons instead of two Zebra Bloons, just like in BTD3.

Version History[]

Main article: Version History (Bloons TD 4 Mobile)

Bugs[]

  • As mentioned above, Pressing the retarget button on the Mortar Monkey automatically reloads it and stops it from firing until it is retargeted. This allows it to rapidly fire multiple shots by retargeting the mortar, and immediately targeting another spot, after the previous explosion detonates. Doing this before the previous shot detonates will cause it to not explode.
  • Save Transfer Corruption: When transferring a save file with a saved game from one device to the next on BTD4 HD, it is possible for the save to permanently be locked to that save, and trying to start a new game will cause it to constantly load that save. It is entirely possible to have a different track visual appear by selecting a different track, then loading it in, while keeping the old save data in that track, causing bloons to spawn off-track, and boundaries to be different from where they appear.
  • Game Center Achievements are stored in a save file and are reset every time the game is reloaded. They are reclaimable by beating one round of any gamemode. If one device with a save with achievements is loaded, then another device without said achievements are loaded, then the save will not refresh those achievements by playing on the old device. The only way to fix this is to manually earn the achievements on the second device, or manually transfer a save file with the same achievements.

Gallery[]

Unlocks[]

Videos[]

References[]

  1. Android page showcasing last Android Update
  2. Blog with iOS Release Date
  3. Blog with Android Release Date
  4. April 2014 snapshot of BTD4 Google Play page, note 1 star reviews
  5. https://ninjakiwi.com/blog/news/173357-what-s-up-at-ninja-kiwi-6th-december-2019
    Why was BTD4 pulled from the Play Store? Are you planning on putting it back?
    Sadly, BTD4 just wasn't compatible with newer phones so we have no plans on bringing it back at this stage.
    ~ Sav and Tarn
  6. BTD4 Amazon App Store Link
  7. Amazon App Store page with v1.8.1 notes
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