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Dreadbloon: Armored Behemoth is slow, and while it possesses less health than every other boss and also moves very slowly, it compensates for its lower health by creating a ceramic rock shield that requires twice as much damage to break, while its inner layer reduces damage taken and has lead properties, alongside the ability to resist entire tower categories, starting with Primary Monkeys. Whenever it reaches critically lowering health, Dreadbloon creates a tough outer shell and will rotate its resistance to the next tower category in order of Primary, Military, Magic, and Support. Like Bloonarius or Lych, Dreadbloon sends minions known as Dreadrock Bloons; like Lych, these minions are also weak to anti-MOAB defenses, so defenses good against Dreadbloon are good against Dreadrock Bloons, also called Rock Bloons. Despite having a lead interior, it does not take bonus damage against leads.
There are up to 40 rounds to start farming before Dreadbloon first enters in its first tier. All tiers from Tier 1 to 5 need to be beaten in a single game in order to fully win the Dreadbloon Boss Bloon Event. Each tier of Dreadbloon must be beaten within 20 rounds of its appearance, or else the game is over. Losing by other means is also an obstacle to counter, so be careful.
The following article is a series of strategies to counter Dreadbloon, mainly focusing on Elite Dreadbloon due to its notorious difficulty of killing.
The general strategy for beating Dreadbloon, especially Elite Dreadbloon, is to take extremely greedy farming strategies to build a solid foundation of income prior to facing various factors in anticipation to the Dreadbloon's arrival: the extreme HP, high lead popping damage, the many rock bloons, and strong anti-MOAB or anti-Ceramic offense in two or more tower types. Once Dreadbloon arrives, there are several ideal decisions that can be made, at least for earlier tiers. But at higher tiers, one must go all in at DPS with as much support as possible while still taking into account Dreadbloon's strengths. All this needs to be made before Dreadbloon becomes too strong to handle. Like Bloonarius and Vortex, don't worry about selling too soon if extra defense is required or needing to boost income; focus on making a defense that takes advantage of Dreadbloon's weaknesses.
For earlier tiers, choose a defense consisting of varied tower categories to circumvent Dreadbloon's rotating immunity. Sticky Bomb and MOAB Eliminator is a solid example of two single-target damage towers from different monkey categories. Fight Dreadbloon as if it was Bloonarius, except focus on varied damage sources. Once Dreadbloon is nearly defeated at each tier, sell unnecessary defenses and build income. Do not sell too soon; Dreadbloon's rock bloons and natural waves can still build up and overwhelm an otherwise steady defense. In ranked, the best option would be to anti-stall rounds, which when done right avoid the round penalty that accumulates 10 seconds after the last bloon has spawned.
At the highest tiers, make sure to prepare DPS and supports while maintaining a stable income flow. In addition, prepare in advance for saving up Paragons of multiple different categories and accumulating tower pops of their constituent towers. Super-buffed Vengeful True Sun God can work well because of its high pierce and high damage to handle the rock bloons.
The best choice of hero, assuming custom hero choice is available, is either one that specializes in income, excels in early-game for cheap, or specializes in the extreme late-game as a buffing source. The most optimal choice for most situations is Benjamin, who gives a large headstart to income production and buffs Monkey Banks, or Geraldo who not only offers good income through the Rare Quincy Action Figure and Fertilizer, but also provides utility through his shop items. Both of these heroes are great for building towards much stronger Farms such as BRFs + Monkey City and Marketplaces with Discount Villages into Banana Central.
As for tower choices, choose an effective early-game strategy that also allows greed of income to the max, a strategy for countering early tiers of Dreadbloon, and a strategy for transitioning into extreme DPS. Support is extremely helpful too in addition to massive farming. Just make sure the correct defense is used to attack Dreadbloon.
Towers[]
Towers each have their special roles in Boss Bloon Events. The "optimal" tower choices in Dreadbloon battles are generally those who have a cheap early-game prowess, offer income generation, or assist in damaging the boss and its minions as efficiently as possible. In the case of handling Dreadbloon itself, the best tower options are generally those that can easily ignore rock bloons, fit well within a budget, and get extra ceramic damage, and to damage the inner layer they must be able to pop lead bloons. In addition, since Dreadbloon spawns Rock bloons, they can easily mess up many strategies until they pop the rock bloons.
Note: Rock bloons take priority over other bloons for towers set to "Strong", but other targeting options can ignore this priority. Thus, towers set to first, last, or close, depending on where they are on the track, is recommended, or towers who do not have strong targeting at all.
Dart Monkeys make a huge bulk of an optimal early-game, saving up greatly into early Farms and other income-generating options.
Dart Monkeys stay relevant later on in the game, with Plasma Monkey Fan Club being one of the best damage towers per footprint that also contributes to a higher degree Paragon.
Ultra-Juggernaut can be a decent option for Dreadbloon's ceramic rock shield in tier 1, but overall is not recommended.
Boomerang Monkeys also have an early-game prowess like Dart Monkeys. Boomerang Monkeys do progress better in terms of early mid-game power, and often lack camo detection. However, because most Boomerang monkeys are reliant on fast, low damage attacks, they are not great for Dreadbloon itself, although Perma-Charge can be a decent option.
MOAB Eliminator is an excellent DPS option for Tier 1, with its ability dealing 4,500 damage in one shot, and can easily take off a lot of health from Dreadbloon. It also can pop lead by default. Both Eliminator and Assassin's ability also ignores rock bloons. It is also very useful for normal ranked runs to burst down the support immunity.
MOAB Assassins can be usable against Dreadbloon to help other towers deal with a category resistance.
Cluster Bombs or Recursive Cluster is a good way to defend grouped bloons in normal rounds, especially in tier 3 farming rounds.
Tack Shooters are reliant on high projectile counts, so they are not advised to be used until proper debuffs or other damage boosters are available. One benefit of Tack Shooters is that most of them are locked on Close, thus they can safely ignore Dreadrock bloons.
Overdrive and The Tack Zone remain powerful Tack Shooter upgrades against Dreadbloon, although it cannot damage the first skull or deal damage to lead by default. Thus, they should be combined with Embrittlement at minimum, which lets them damage the lead interior and overcomes the -1 damage resistance from Dreadbloon's interior. Geraldo's Jar of Pickles further boosts their damage output to deal with the interior layer better, so long as their total damage per projectile does not exceed 4 with Jar of Pickles.
Ring of Fire is a solid way of dealing with normal rounds because of its high pierce and attack speed.
Embrittlement is an amazing support tower for early tiers, giving +1 damage to towers attacking anything it has hit. It also gains additional usefulness because it lets other towers ignore the lead properties of Dreadbloon's inner armor. Super Brittle is a significant upgrade to +4 instead of +1 damage, making it a solid lategame option for bosses, although category immunities may render Brittle monkeys unable to apply their debuff during the primary immunity. Unlike other debuffs, Embrittlement cannot ignore the primary immunity of Dreadbloon.
Other ice paths are fairly useless for Dreadbloon and its minions, since neither can be slowed. Arctic Wind retains usage for creating land space from water, primarily useful for farming or maps with large quantities of water.
Glue Strike and Glue Storm apply a debuff of +2 damage to bloons they hit, and remove lead properties from Dreadbloon, DDTs, and Lead Bloons as long as the ability is applied, although the Corrosive Glue crosspath is needed for them to hit MOABs and Bosses. In addition, Glue Strike/Storm can apply its debuff even against a Primary immunity Dreadbloon.
All other Glue paths are fairly worthless because neither Dreadbloon or its Dreadrock bloons can be slowed. Bloon Solver can be a decent option to contribute extra damage against Dreadrock bloons, but typically spending money on more MOAB popping power is more efficient.
Base Glue Gunners are useful in the early game to slow down bloons for Rubber to Gold and Bloon Trap.
Sniper Monkeys may struggle against Dreadbloon because of a lack of pierce on their strongest damage options. Thus they are especially prone to attacking the wrong bloon compared with other towers.
Because Dreadbloon's outer layer is considered to be Ceramic, 3-0-2 Deadly Precision can actually deal noticeable damage during that phase, although their lack of pierce is a major drawback
Cripple MOAB is a great support tower for later tiers, as its +5 damage debuff helps many low-damage towers (especially those with 1 damage per projectile), such as the Sun Avatar, or Tack Zone. It will need to either be set on close or first, have other towers that can clear the dreadrock bloons quickly, or be crosspathed to 5-2-0 to properly hit Dreadbloon when it summons its minions. In addition, Cripple MOAB can still apply its debuff against Dreadbloon under military immunity.
Supply Drop and Elite Sniper can be used to farm in very tight spaces while packing a lot of income and bloon-popping power. These pair especially well with Level 11+ Geraldo (thanks to Rejuv Potion) and Monkey City.
Full Auto Rifle and Elite Defender remain solid lategame long range damage dealers, but unlike other bosses, are no longer good options for dealing with lower tiers.
First Strike Capability is a strong burst of damage, although it will prioritize any dreadrock bloons on screen before Dreadbloon. Thus, make sure to clear out all rock bloons before activating the ability.
Since Dreadbloon can't skip skulls, at least 6 First Strikes are required to defeat Tier 1 Dreadbloon, although another method is necessary for the military immunity.
The ability has a delay before landing, so it is possible to cast it as soon as Dreadbloon spawns and still land the hits on it, even if the skull is triggered early.
Advanced Intel works well on maps with a reasonable amount of water, as it provides a lot of long-range damage. Hence options like Triple Guns + Alch buff and Armor Piercing Darts + Alch buff can be useful in later tiers.
Destroyers, Aircraft Carriers and Carrier Flagship have among the highest DPS of all Buccaneers outside of the Paragon. However, because of their reliance on low damage projectile spam, they may struggle against the lead interior early on. In addition, they also need Hot Shot, MIB, or a delead debuff to damage the interior.
Pirate Lord is able to hook in rock bloons if desperate to clean up leaks. This will not work against Rock Bloons with a military immunity.
Carrier Flagship also buffs the True Sun God if it is built on water, and also buffs Monkey Aces.
The Monkey Ace deals okay damage, but will typically be more popular during farming phases than actual boss encounters.
Sky Shredder and Flying Fortress are powerful consistent long-ranged options. Flying Fortress in particular can antistall rounds while building up pops for the Goliath Doomship.
Heli Pilots are fairly limited in usage against Dreadbloon, since their damage output is not great per cash spent. If tower quantity is limited, Apache Dartship and Apache Prime can be tower-efficient, but space and cost inefficient options. Comanche Commander is still a strong lategame option as well.
Support Chinooks can be helpful if needing to re-position a tower.
Because Dreadbloon's outer rock shield is considered to be ceramic, top and middle path mortars will get additional bonuses against it. Thus, combined with the fact that mortars have manual targeting and deal splash to help out against dreadrock bloons, mortars can be a good option to damage Dreadbloon, especially on unranked runs.
Explosions are bugged to deal no damage to Dreadbloon if there is an immune dreadrock on screen, which hurts the Mortar Monkey's damage output significantly, as it relies on dealing splash damage for its DPS.
While Dreadbloon's ceramic rock shield is active, Artillery Battery will be able to take advantage of its bonus against ceramics and bonus against bosses to deal fairly high grouped damage. Pop and Awe boosts the damage output of all Artillery Batteries on screen against bosses further.
The Biggest One can deal decent grouped damage against Dreadbloon because of its MOAB and Ceramic bonuses, but should not be the first choice a player uses.
Dartling Gunners can be manually targeted, thus circumventing targeting problems caused by rock bloons.
Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom can be good long-ranged options for later tiers, although they are cost inefficient.
M.A.D is a very strong option against Dreadbloon because of its high MOAB damage and ability to hit Dreadrock bloons in the way.
Bloon Area Denial System can be a space efficient damage option for mid ranges or military only tiles if cash is plentiful, but space is scarce. Target Independent should not be used, as it prevents it from making use of its full projectile range. Likewise, Bloon Exclusion Zone is a very space-efficient damage option.
Wizard Monkeys tend to have subpar damage for how much they cost. However, Summon Phoenix can be valuable for its long-ranged offense, and ability to stack up to three of them with Geraldo's Rejuv Potion. Archmage is also a decent option for lategame with the 5-2-0 crosspath, and micro on the Archmage's wall of fire is not necessary.
Wall of Fire is an cost-efficient early game defense.
Super Monkeys are heavily reliant on high projectile quantities that deal low damage, so they are not a great option until proper damage boosts are affordable or when going for Sun Temples and above.
Like other bosses, True Sun God and its Vengeful variant is a great addition to any setup because of its global buff and solid damage output.
While not useful in casual runs, Tech Terror is extremely useful for breaking Dreadbloon's final skull near instantly without being distracted by Dreadrock Bloons when combined with two (or even four) Rejuv Potions in normal difficulty. This is not recommended for Elite because enough are not realistically affordable to make it work.
Support Sacrifices are very important for beating Dreadbloon, and as such should be prioritized over any of the other categories. During the stages for T3+ Dreadbloon, the extra damage offered by the Sun Temple will help offset the lost damage to Dreadbloon, allowing some low-damage towers to at least deal reasonable damage to Dreadbloon.
Sun Avatar spam remain an excellent lategame option because of their high damage when combined with damage boosts.
Sticky Bomb remains a reliable option against Dreadbloon Tier 1, provided it is accompanied with another tower to deal with the magic immune skull. In addition, Sticky Bomb is one of the few strong priority attacks that will ignore the Dreadrock bloons, making it especially useful for staying focused on the boss.
All other Ninja upgrades are fairly irrelevant against Dreadbloon, as many of the Ninja's attacks deal low damage and can't damage Lead, with exception of Sticky Bomb and Master Bomber, in addition to its abilities being unable to affect Rock Bloons.
Alch buffs work fine against Dreadbloon, and can be useful to let towers pop Dreadbloon's lead layer for a cheap price.
Alch buffs aren't affected by Dreadbloon's Magic immunity, so feel free to use them on non-Magic Monkeys while Dreadbloon is under the Magic immunity.
Offensive Alchs attack pretty slowly except for Transforming Tonic and Total Transformation. Many of these options deal low damage overall, as Perishing Potions spam is too inefficient against Dreadbloon and Rock Bloons, and Alchemist abilities have semi-low damage per projectile.
Lead to Gold and Rubber to Gold can generate more income, which can be used for further income purposes. In particular, custom rounds for Dreadbloon replace Zebras with Leads, opening further opportunities for Lead to Gold farming, and Rainbows with Ceramics for easier Rubber to Gold farming.
Many Druid upgrades deal very low damage per projectile, with thorns providing a majority of its DPS against lower tiers of Bosses and relying on large groups to rack up high damage. Adding bloon debuffs against Dreadbloon is the best option to allow the Druids to do some damage to Dreadbloon.
Druid of the Jungle is a cheap tower for rounds 20-39, allowing you to focus more of your income into farming.
Jungle's Bounty is a fantastic tower for farming, however, its full potential is only reached when a player is able to stall out rounds, so it is generally unused in ranked mode.
Spirit of the Forest is an alternate source of income if a player is out of space to place farms, however, as its efficiency of farming is low, it is generally advised to only get it once all farming area has been used.
Avatar of Wrath remains relevant as a solid DPS tower against Dreadbloon, although it requires external means of popping lead such as Embrittlement, Glue Strike, or M.I.B., to damage Dreadbloon's lead interior. It is possible to leak at least three camo rainbow bloons in Round 56 by not decamoing them to cap out a Heart of Vengeance Druid's attack speed to later upgrade to AoW. If using Geraldo's Rejuv Potion, leak an extra rainbow or two, depending on whether one or two rejuvs will be used.
Poplust is a cheap added source of damage, that while worse than Overdrives or Sun Avatars, is still a solid choice if on a budget, and also buffs the Avatar of Wrath.
Druid of Wrath are a cheap additional source of damage in conjunction with the Avatar of Wrath when given additional damage boosters and placed near Poplusts, as Poplust buffs have no effect past 5 stacks.
When Monkey Knowledge is enabled, the IMF Loan's income potential is the highest in Tier 1. See Income Farming for more details.
Transition into any suitable early-to-mid-game farming strategy and later go quickly into 4-2-0 BRF spam near a Monkey City or into discounted Marketplace spam, place some more 4-2-0 BRFs to catch up on income, and quickly afford a boosted 5-2-0 Banana Central.
Banana Central buffs Banana Research Facilities, which help make maximum money.
Central Market spam is effective in combination with Merchantmen spam.
Due to the immense scale of farming necessary in this game mode, Monkey Wall Street can act as an autocollector of important high-income options like Monkeyopolis, Banana Central, and XXXL Traps, just like a Banana Farmer.
Spike Factories depend a lot on stockpiling to deal the most damage. Because Dreadbloon's support immunity is the last skull that is activated, Dreadbloon can take a substantial amount of damage from Spike Factory strategies.
Perma-Spike is a solid investment against Dreadbloon if one can spare the cash three rounds early, as Dreadbloon can be pushed to the final skull if properly stockpiled. Deadly Spikes is similarly effective in later tiers when combined with a support temple and debuffs.
Super Mines are particularly helpful for inflicting high damage to the ceramic layers.
Villages provide valuable buffs that empower a lot of towers in range. None of these options contain a benefit that increases damage, but many of its other upgrades contain very valuable assets for general DPS and countering specific properties.
It is important to note that Monkey Intelligence Bureau cannot bypass the unique tower class immunities of Dreadbloon, but it can still help other towers damage the lead interior.
Homeland Defense remains extremely useful against Dreadbloon, and the extra pierce may be useful against the swarms of Rock bloons. Call To Arms similarly works well.
Monkeyopolis remains a space efficient income-generator and is pivotal for boosting income in the late game. However, Monkeyopolis is cost-inefficient. One exception to this is the 1 farm "miniopolis", which is cost efficient and provides Monkey City bonuses.
Overclock and Ultraboost are both incredible support towers, buffing the chosen tower by 66% attack speed for a short time. This buff also applies to Farms, which is critical to maximize income once Banana Research Facilities come into play.
Overclock's buff duration depends on the tier of the chosen tower, starting at 60 seconds at no upgrades, and only giving 30 seconds to tier 5 towers. If you have the spare money, it's best to place down a farm, then overclock it, then upgrade it in order to get 15 seconds of extra time overclocked.
The early tiers of the bottom path are very good at defending earlier rounds, allowing for more money to be diverted to farming.
Bloon Trap is most effective at making money during rounds 34-49, and also can become more valuable in later rounds to maximize profits from the various Rainbows converted into Ceramics.
XXXL Trap is a good money maker and defender after round 80 in combination with Rubber to Gold, Monkey City, and Support Sun Temples, as the Alchemist's Rubber to Gold doubles all income that enters the trap, including blimp layers. In addition, the XXXL Trap antistalls rounds on one lane and contributes greatly for a high paragon degree. It can also instakill non-support rocks, if the player is desperate to kill rock bloons. It needs to have its attack speed doubled to cap out its trap deployment rate if using the middle crosspath, so Overclock is extremely useful for this.
Sentry Champion is *the* strongest tower to ultraboost, right after a VTSG, making it deal ludicrous amounts of damage that can even compare to a Paragon.
Many of its upgrades lack Boss damage, and don't really serve efficiently enough as part of a "throw everything at the Boss" tower.
Giganotosaurus is a good late-game tower to use for Tiers 4 and 5, but should not be the first option the player pursues. It is best to place merged Tyrannosaurus Rex far away from the boss spawn and away from the True Sun God buff, to maximize the benefit of merging with minimal drawbacks of occupying space.
Mermonkeys require synergetic combinations to make the most out of them; their raw DPS alone is rather poor versus Bosses alone but their synergies compensate it greatly.
The Final Harmonic + high DoT options (especially 5-0-2 The Bloon Solver, Glaive Lord, and Glaive Dominus) cause the Final Harmonic to deal immense damage to the Boss if the alluring aura is placed far away from other bloons, as it attempts to repeatedly "trigger" on the Boss, setting off DoTs at a really fast rate.
Abyss Dweller and above upgrades grant bonus percentage pierce, which is beneficial for Spike Factories in particular, as the damage output of Spike Factories improve with improved "lumping damage".
Lord of the Abyss is essential for expanding water space for water-based towers, particularly if wanting higher degrees on water-based Paragons where the map has only a low amount of water. It can also help expand water for a nearby Favored Trades, particularly if Special Poperations' Door Gunner is banned.
Heroes[]
Heroes offer super valuable roles at supporting a defense with their own special utility through their self-leveling upgrades. For Dreadbloon, it is usually best to choose a hero that extrapolates the best leading into late-game. Such a hero choice is usually an income generator, an early-game breezer into an early income saver, or a late-game dominator.
Striker Jones is mainly for buffs to Bomb Shooters and Mortar Monkeys, primarily MOAB Maulers and Artillery Batteries.
His early-game performance is subpar, but his buffing options compensate this downside, if opting for a purely Bomb and Mortar strategy.
The +25% pierce and +5% range buff at Level 8+ can be helpful for a variety of different towers against Dreadbloon, including lumping more spikes into Spike Factories.
He is expensive and can do a huge amount of DPS, but his extreme late-game DPS is outclassed by other hero options, mainly Ben and Geraldo for his income.
Undoubtably a solid choice as an early-game income source that can snowball income quickly later on in the game. Less potential in the lategame than Geraldo in exchange for simplicity.
Benjamin makes Monkey Banks more effective due to his buff to them.
Benjamin's Biohack let towers deal extra damage at the cost of potentially causing downtime for them. Syphon Funding can make rounds go faster, but will also take away potential pops for a Paragon.
It is a net income loss to use Syphon Funding on MOABs, as the reduced RBE is a larger income loss than the income multiplier. Similarly, Bloon Trojan is a net income loss on MOABs and DDTs until r101, and always reduces cash gained from BFBs. Furthermore, both reduce potential pops for Paragons. Thus, some players opt to either sell Benjamin or hide him where his Trojan cannot target bloons.
Not very useful as Dreadbloon is the key issue, not BADs, so her extreme late-game potential is weakened in this scenario. Her early-game and mid-game is not very useful in Boss Events either, so her main offering is the Sacrificial Totem.
MOAB Hex does not target Rock Bloons, so using her to whittle down rock bloons is not recommended.
Pat Fusty can slap bloons to stun them or push them back. However, he attacks quite slowly and has low range. Also, he cannot stun or push back Rock Bloons, since these are considered Boss Bloons.
Pat Fusty's Rallying Roar does amplify damage of various nearby towers, although its benefit slowly becomes less impactful upon higher tiers.
Space is not normally a problem, so his free camo (which removes need of Radar Scanner) and UCAV (counter against mid-game rushes, and saves money in mid-game) aren't nearly as superior as his CHIMPS expertise does. His early-game is rather lackluster and his late-game doesn't scale very well, especially in Boss Event scenarios.
Excels in the early-game but doesn't scale very well in the late-game. She is more helpful than Quincy in both regards, but still outclassed by Benjamin for income.
She does have a redeeming window in saving plenty of money earlygame, which can be a good choice for events where both Benjamin and Geraldo are banned.
Generally not useful as they are really subpar against BADs and Boss Bloons, and the relatively low amount of grouped bloons makes Psionic Scream obsolete.
Psi's abilities and main attack have no effect against Dreadbloon's minions, even at level 20, and they are too expensive for what they provide in defense. They also interfere with Bloon Trap and Lead/Rubber to Gold Farming by popping bloons too early.
Geraldo comes with lots of special items that can be bought for special benefit. His indirect offense (e.g. Shooty Turret) can be very strong in the early-game, mid-game, and late-game. The tower buffs and special items he provides can be really strong when optimized, although they have a learning curve before one can get full value out of them.
Particularly useful items for going against Dreadbloon include: Jar of Pickles (for quick high-projectile but low damage towers, significant against Dreadbloon's inner lead layer in early tiers), Creepy Idol (minor blowback versus many natural bloons), Rejuv Potion (resets abilities, especially First Strike and Homeland Defense), Gerry's Fire (strong early game defense), Paragon Power Totem (higher Paragon degrees).
Investment in his Rare Quincy Action Figure can be helpful for amassing a huge income gain in the long-term, but provides no immediate payoff. Optimally, sell the action figure on Round 31, as its value generation decreases beyond that point. Try to get Geraldo and his action figure as early as possible without harming long-term farming. After the price increase of 34.0, the Rare Quincy Action Figure is delayed a round longer, reducing early-game snowball potential compared with Benjamin.
Geraldo can make a lot of money indirectly through the Rejuv Potion, which resets all ability cooldowns excluding Paragons, including money-generating abilities such as Supply Drop. The Rejuv Potion can also be extremely helpful for salvaging enough damage to Dreadbloon by allowing ability chains, notably involving First Strike.
Geraldo's only direct income-generating options are Rare Quincy Action Figure and Fertilizer, and can indirectly make money via his Rejuv Potion in combination with money-generating abilities. If Banana Farms are available, Fertilizer is his secondary income source, which is best placed on the highest-tier Farms, and actually results in his lategame income exceeding that of Benjamin.
Geraldo's strongest item in raw value is the Paragon Power Totem, which can increase degrees of Paragons by granting 2,000 Power per totem for only the cost of $26k on Medium. Paragon Power Totems should be used as supplements to already large-scale defenses consisted on a single tower type, which paired with excess cash should sum to a quite high Paragon degree.
Corvus has a variety of different spells in his Spellbook that can be used to produce various effects on himself and his Spirit companion. Combining his spells wisely in combination with managing his Spirit and his own haunting attack will maximize his true power.
Rosalia offers a mix of generalistic damage and high "positional range", and separately attacks with either her high straightline damage lasergun or high grouped damage grenades. She can be placed anywhere within her workshop's range but cannot move anywhere else outside of her Flight Boost ability. Her abilities deal a boost of extra damage but at a long cooldown.
Rosalia's discounts to Aces and Helis is beneficial in Least Cash Bosses that center around these tower types, although most Least Cash strategies outclass strategies centered on either of these towers. Either way, a cheaper Support Chinook is beneficial if the more powerful heroes are banned.
Level 20 Anti-Bloon discount is relatively useless, unless specifically wanting The Anti-Bloon for a Least Cash Boss challenge.
Note that Scatter Missile and Kinetic Charge should not be set on Strong to specifically target Dreadbloon if purely using her abilities as an extra source of boss damage, as the Rock Bloons take priority.
Paragons[]
Paragons are major powerhouses for handling bosses. To ensure the highest-level Paragons, make sure to accumulate enough pops early on by using the same tower type as much as possible, mainly damage to the boss and its swarms. Avoid selling towers of the desired type(s) unless necessary for higher income growth.
In general, accumulation of pops in Dreadbloon battles is fairly easy compared to battles against other Boss Bloons except Bloonarius, mainly due to Dreadbloon's ability to summon rock bloons and its total health including the ceramic exterior providing a lot of health to destroy.
Note that Dreadbloon can be immune to Paragons if they match the tower category that Dreadbloon is currently immune to. Make sure to not rely solely on paragons from one tower category for boss damage.
Note: Rock bloons take priority over other bloons for towers set to "Strong", but other targeting options can ignore this priority. Thus, Paragons set to first, last, or close, depending on where they are on the track, Paragons where the bulk of their damage deals splash damage, or Paragons who do not have strong targeting at all, are recommended.
Apex Plasma Master deals decent damage against Dreadbloon on maps with lots of obstacles. Because of its cheap price, it is a decent supporting Paragon to other defenses, especially due to how its ultra-juggernauts bounce all over the map alongside access to an extra tier 5 Crossbow Master for higher degrees.
Apex Plasma Master's now has direct competition with the Glaive Dominus at almost the same price point. While the Apex Plasma Master is able to deal collateral damage to rock bloons, outside of favorable obstacle-heavy maps, it can be inconsistent.
Glaive Dominus is a good choice for Dreadbloon on more open maps, because it does not get weaker or stronger depending on the presence of obstacles
Glaive Dominus' attacks, particularly its main glaives and orbital glaives, can consistently hit multiple bloons at once. This can be useful to clear out rock bloons that can otherwise distract other defenses.
Dominus is around the same price point as the Apex Plasma Master, so choose wisely depending on the map. To get a cheap degree 20 Dominus, build 25 0-2-2 boomerang monkeys to fulfill the 100 tier requirement.
One additional benefit of Glaive Dominus is that it buffs all primary towers' attack speed by 11.1% (*0.9 cd), including primary paragons, making it even better for strategies utilizing lots of primary towers.
Ascended Shadow is a great way to deal raw, single-target damage to Dreadbloon.
Because ninjas do not have instakills, high burst damage, or income, it can be harder to accumulate pops with Ninjas.
Ascended Shadow has a sticky card attack that ignores the rock bloons alongside seeking shurikens that will eventually seek out Dreadbloon. Therefore, it can remain focused on Dreadbloon itself.
With the Paragon limit, it may not be worth using up a Paragon slot on Ascended Shadow, when Sun Avatars and the True Sun God already contribute substantial damage.
Navarch of the Seas does huge damage to Dreadbloon but has an expensive price tag. It is relentless at hooking in blimps fairly quickly.
Navarch's deals heavy damage in close range and can also double as a farming tower to provide an extra trade empire buff to Merchantmen. It can also benefit from being set to last with Flanking Maneuvers. Amassing degrees with the Navarch is also fairly easy because of Trade Empire farming.
The main downside with Navarch is that it takes a bunch of water to be a strong option for bosses. For instance, a map like Cracked is generally not too viable except if you use enhancements such Geraldo or a lot of Portable Lakes.
Navarch's Carrier Flagship buff affects the Goliath Doomship's attack speed, resulting in the Doomship attacking ~17.6% faster. This does not affect its carpet bomb ability, so Navarch should still only be used on maps with lots of water.
Unlike Pirate Lord, neither the Navarch's passive or active hooks will target Rock Bloons. This should typically not be a problem, as the Navarch deals more than enough damage to non-military rocks.
Master Builder is a very expensive Paragon in terms of upgrade cost and collective T5 costs. Like Navarch of the Seas, Master Builder is relatively easy to get high Paragon degrees thanks to the benefit of extra income.
In terms of its role, it is a pure DPS role that greatly benefits from building its own power in the long-term, which come primarily from its stacking self-ultraboost and placement of Mega Sentries.
Each Mega Sentry can be placed on any land spot, have a unique attacking style, and produce Mini Sentries.
One powerful strategy with Master Builder is selling the Mega Sentry to create massive explosions on demand. It helps to accumulate a decent-sized army from the recently sold Mega Sentry. On certain tiers and difficulties, this can even cause Dreadbloon to skip skulls.
Dreadbloon will be immune to the Master Builder on the last skull, so make sure to set off all active sentry explosions before the fourth skull.
Goliath Doomship is a very expensive Paragon in terms of upgrade cost and collective T5 costs. While the Goliath Doomship lacks income generation as an alternative to earn pops, the Flying Fortress possesses high damage and pierce that can accrue lots of pops while also antistalling rounds effectively for Ranked Bosses.
In terms of its role, it is a pure DPS role that greatly benefits from high degrees for a stronger ability that can be used more frequently.
Its carpet bomb ability is the strongest aspect of this paragon. With a high enough degree and proper positioning, the full bomb barrage can demolish significant health off Dreadbloon.
Keep in mind that after the first skull is reached, Dreadbloon will be immune to Military, so best to save the ability if Dreadbloon is close to reaching 75% of its total health.
When its ability is on cooldown, a lot of damage for the Goliath Doomship comes from its forward gunner attack. Thus if possible, maintaining as much time facing Dreadbloon with the Goliath Doomship is very beneficial.
Magus Perfectus is quite an expensive Paragon in terms of upgrade cost alone, although the required T5's aren't too expensive. However, unlike Goliath Doomship, accumulating high degrees is difficult and tedious, much like many of the cheaper Paragons.
In terms of its role, it is a pure DPS role that is heavily micro-dependent for the maximum DPS. Juggle between its two togglable modes and its two activated abilities to achieve a careful balance of its optimal DPS.
Without the Arcane Metamorphosis ability active, the Magus Perfectus is very weak at quick DPS, particularly with its very slow ability cooldown. Compared to other Paragons, Magus is best used for sustained DPS.
Like other Magic Paragons, the addition of the Paragon limit means that Magus Perfectus may not be the best choice of Paragon against the final tier of Dreadbloon, especially Elite Dreadbloon, since other non-Paragon sources heavily rely on Super Monkeys for the Magic phase.
Nautic Siege Core is one of the cheaper Military Monkey Paragons, in fact the cheapest at the moment. It mostly fulfills a support role, doing decent damage while also having the option to submerge for various buffs or to produce a massive strike on bloons.
In terms of its role, it depends a lot on the situation. Choose the option that best fits the scenario.
Ability-dependent Paragons such as the Goliath Doomship and Magus Perfectus may benefit greatly from a submerged Nautic. Also, a submerged Nautic has better group-popping power.
Its pure DPS when unsubmerged is relatively similar to a Glaive Dominus, but with the activity of a Sub Commander plus a Pre-Emptive Strike.
When preparing for the Final Strike Ability, it can be used to pull off some immense burst damage to the Boss.
Being the cheapest Military Paragon, it can be paired with the Primary Paragons (e.g. Apex Plasma Master, Glaive Dominus) for a cheap duo of Paragons.
Powers[]
Sometimes, Dreadbloon may be too difficult to beat that bailing out with Powers and Insta-Monkeys may be necessary. Use them wisely, and ideally prepare use of Powers before defenses begin to overwhelm. For efficiency, they should not be consumed on useless endeavours, because Powers and Instas are single-use, Powers cost Monkey Money, and Instas are limited resources. Powers (including Instas) cannot be used on Ranked Mode, as they add unnecessary advantage over players who don't use them.
In general when playing on Dreadbloon events, the best Powers are the ones directly related to income, for extrapolating cash gain faster and therefore affording the necessary defenses sooner. Micromanagement supporters such as Banana Farmer and Tech Bot are also worth adding for convenience purposes. Tower boosts such as Monkey Boost and Time Stop are useful when needing to destroy the boss better with a beefy defense, but direct damage Powers such as Super Monkey Storm will generally be useless because of their little potential for dynamic empowerment.
Helpful when needing the non-Paragon defense to deal more damage. Particularly useful on Tier 5 if there isn't enough firepower from non-Paragon towers.
Note that Monkey Boost cannot affect Paragons, as they are immune to all buffs.
Unlike Cash Drop, Thrive strives for long-term income gain at a much lower purchase price. To make the most of Thrive's income generation, prepare use beforehand and have plenty of pre-existing income sources available around.
For the best results, use it if there are lots of income generators and/or on rounds with lots of naturally spawning bloons.
An active Time Stop causes almost everything to slow down. Most bloons will be reduced by 10% but most towers will attack at 30% speed, and BADs and Bosses (including Dreadbloon and Rock Bloons) to move at 30% speed. In most cases, this is basically a second Monkey Boost.
Time Stop is also used as a saving grace for reducing stressful situations, giving more time to react accordingly for the defense. Plus, abilities still recharge at the same speed, giving more time to activate important abilities sooner.
Paragons are immune to being slowed down, essentially making them attack much faster, especially versus BADs and Bosses.
Collection of bananas and crates can be tiresome for the hand or finger, so a Farmer can be added to collect nearby bananas from Banana Farms without Monkey Bank or Marketplace upgrades, or to collect Monkeyopolis crates.
If there is enough money to afford Special Poperations and there is the Door Gunner MK active, one can use Door Gunner on a Banana Farmer to rake up money across many different points, saving space and potentially saving use of a second or third Banana Farmer.
Generally not necessary because Arctic Wind can fulfill a similar role, unless on a map such as Spice Islands where Banana Farm space is very limited but water is plentiful.
Tanks a few bloons for very cheap, but it is extremely ineffective at damaging blimps and requires too much micro if wanting to rush with spamming it out.
Glue Trap is unable to slow down Rock Bloons, making its usage questionable. It does, however, have its uses to slow down the heavier Lead and Ceramic waves that appear on Dreadbloon events.
While Glue Trap cannot slow down BADs or Bosses, Glue Trap could be used to slow down blimps, but the Supersize Glue Trap MK must be unlocked for this to work. Note that Glue Trap will consume more pierce upon consuming a blimp.
Since Rock Bloons constitute as Boss Bloons, MOAB Mine can be useful for Tier 1 Rock Bloons. The sheer quantity of them may quickly cause the MOAB Mine to run out.
Also, while MOAB Mine can damage Bosses, it does very little damage to them.
Insta-Monkeys are one-use and highly limited. If needed, use an offensive tower that excels for a long time (e.g. Tier 3 Super Monkey) or a pure income generator.
Boss Strengths and Weaknesses[]
Dreadbloon
Strategy
Strengths
Dreadbloon moves very slowly and has the lowest raw health of all bosses, but compensates with large amounts of direct damage mitigation.
Dreadbloon's ability to be immune to a specific tower category (such as Primary) discourages players from using one-tower only, and will likely require more investment in defense. In addition, Dreadbloon comes with lead properties that do not benefit from bonus lead damage, restricting what towers can be used even more.
Dreadbloon's lead interior reduces damage from all attacks by 1, hurting low damage, high projectile count towers such as Deadly Spikes, Overdrive, and Poplust early on. This does not apply to the ceramic shell that spawns after each skull.
Dreadbloon also spawns with a ceramic shell with twice the health of each skull phase, which has ceramic properties. Damage will not soak through this shell, so burst damage can often go wasted. Similarly, high single-target damage, such as First Strike, will not soak between skulls.
Dreadbloon spawns Rock Bloons at the entrance that take priority over it for Strong targeting. These rock bloons are also immune to all slowdowns and instakills. Thus, players will have to rely on other targeting options to damage Dreadbloon.
Immediately after hitting skull health, Dreadbloon creates another rock shield and cycles its category immunity. This will necessitate that a player has enough damage in two different tower categories to successfully defeat Dreadbloon.
Dreadbloon's custom waves are much more heavier in terms of RBE, resulting in lethal early game rushes consisting of earlier fortified leads, ceramics, and MOABs that can overwhelm an unprepared player.
Dreadbloon's Ceramic Shell does not give extra pops, meaning that players do not get much room to farm pops for a higher degree paragon.
Because of Dreadbloon's slow speed and special abilities, if a player gets carried away with defeating Dreadbloon slowly, it is easily possible to lose, not from the boss leaking, but from 20 rounds passing by from when Dreadbloon spawned instead. Dieing to the boss being on screen for 20 rounds can bug out if a player uses a continue, so plan accordingly.
Weaknesses
Dreadbloon's damage reduction does not affect high single-target towers as much, such as the MOAB Eliminator or Deadly Precision. In addition, towers good against Dreadbloon are also generally good against its rock bloons.
Rock Bloons cannot take priority over Dreadbloon on other targeting settings such as Last if they do not fulfill the criteria normally, further exploitable because they spawn at the track entrance. They also do not instantly lose the game if leaked, and can be ignored for a good while because of this.
Rock Bloons are vulnerable to most instakills, so a player can rely on two tower categories of instakills, such as XXXL Trap and Pirate Lord, to handle rocks.
Dreadbloon's rock shield is vulnerable to ceramic bonuses. Artillery Battery and other anti-ceramic towers can be effective for the rock shield because of its bonus against ceramics while also helping deal damage to rock bloons. The rock shield also cuts its speed in half and does not reduce damage taken, so it is just as vulnerable to high projectile towers as any other boss while giving opportunities to farm more income or stall rounds.
Dreadbloon's tower class immunity always cycles between Primary, Military, Magic, and Support in that particular order. Because of this behavior, Dreadbloon is vulnerable to getting attacked in a specific arrangement of defenses at different moments.
Dreadbloon has no direct timegating between each skull, so a deadly/perma spikes or sufficiently high damage setup can easily break through multiple skulls in a few seconds in earlier tiers.
Farming by Tier[]
Tier 1 Farming[]
This is the first stage for properly preparing for any Boss Bloon, including Dreadbloon. The early-game farming is fairly straightforward for Dreadbloon, with some exceptions; simply farm as efficiently as possible and choose the most optimal progression of income generation while simultaneously defending against the bloons. The only catch is that all Zebras become Leads and Rainbows become Ceramics, so the progression of farming starts to diverge from other Bosses starting from Round 26.
It is recommended that you start farming as soon as possible. Two distinct farming-heavy hero strategies exist: Benjamin and Geraldo. For Benjamin strategies, start with Ben as soon as he is ready to purchase, and then get a 0-0-0 Farm to build into more Farms and their upgrades. For Geraldo, delay his purchase until both himself and his Rare Quincy Action Figure can be bought in a single round; on long maps it can be safely done by Round 4 with free Dart Monkey. Sometimes it is better to buy Geraldo early, even if the Action figure cannot be bought on the same round, to further build the action figure's value. Sell the Action Figure at round 31, as that is when it gains value slower than before.
Afterwards, invest in Banana Farms and their upgrades. Multiple methods for farming exist which can work effectively in different scenarios. The easiest is to opt for multiple 2-0-0 Farms into 2-0-3 Marketplaces while also having enough to get a Favored Trades too for even more sellback. Banks or IMF Loans can also work but requires long-term evaluation or precise farming.
Do take note of the high numbers of Leads and Ceramics in this game mode. The first Leads start at Round 26, so be sure to afford a cost-effective lead-popper by that point. On single-lane maps, one can use a Lead to Gold to capitalize on the sheer numbers of Lead Bloons that come from the entrance; under these conditions, it may be worth going for Lead to Gold. Similarly, Bloon Trap can both handle and capitalize from the heavier custom rounds, particularly starting from Round 35 where the first Ceramics arrive.
If you have enough money by the early 30s, an early miniopolis (monkeyopolis with 1 farm sacrifice) may be worth going for, as not only does it have good income, it also boosts income from pops and other income generating sources. Build a 0-0-2 village, then build an 0-0-4 village next to it so it benefits from the discount. Build an unupgraded farm next to it, then upgrade to the Monkeyopolis and start building 0-2-3 marketplaces next to it until a few (2-3) rounds before the boss arrives.
Tier 2 Farming[]
Use a portion of money to kill Dreadbloon as quick as possible, so that farming can resume at full speed. Find a strategy that uses different tower categories while not dying to rock bloons; countermeasures specifically for Tier 1 are the best for this tier. It is important to whittle down Dreadbloon's health down low enough that it is possible to quickly resume farming at a safe moment; this can be only safely done once all skull healths are down. Sell unnecessary defense after Dreadbloon is defeated at Tier 1, while also looking out for the defense. Don't forget to anticipate for Tier 2 Dreadbloon, and do an aggressive farming strategy while there is enough time to recover income.
Do note that every second MOAB will be fortified in Dreadbloon boss events, thus one should adjust their defenses accordingly for early fortified MOABs. Notably, round 46 spawns the first fortified MOAB in Dreadbloon events. MOAB Eliminator's ability can be useful in dealing with fortified MOABs.
If using a Geraldo strategy, the Rare Quincy Action Figure should have been sold by round 31 in order to snowball income for tier 1. Afterwards, the defense spent could be used to further fuel into an aggressive farming play. If using a Benjamin strategy, simply get an aggressive farming play as normal.
It is often at this tier when a transition into a large-scale farming method would be desirable. Examples include going into Trade Empire and multiple Merchantmen, or building a BRF after defeating tier 1 accompanied with Marketplace spam. Supply Drop farming can be useful from here, but since rounds in this round range are quite short it is often better to use round-based income like the prior aforementioned two.
Tier 3 Farming[]
After amassing a large-scale farming, make sure to kill Dreadbloon as soon as possible once again, so that farming can commence sooner. Standard Tier 2 Dreadbloon countermeasures are the best option here. Again, sell unnecessary defense after Dreadbloon loses the last skull health at Tier 2, while also looking out for the defense. Don't forget to anticipate for Tier 3 Dreadbloon, and do an aggressive farming strategy while there is enough time to recover income.
Keep a steady flow of income going. Ideally, one should be able to afford enough to go to a 5-2-0 Banana Central with a respectably sized army of 4-2-0 BRFs. When space is low, a large Monkeyopolis can be built to continue to make income while also making more BRFs. Monkey Wall Street can also be added to give more income and autocollect important income sources, particularly Monkeyopolis and Banana Central. If using Geraldo, he can also use Fertilizer to further boost existing Farms, just be sure to use them on Farms that won't soon be sacrificed, which otherwise wastes the fertilizer.
Trade Empire and multiple Merchantmen in combination with lots of Central Markets is another viable option for massive farming potential, especially on water-heavy maps like Spice Islands. Their defensive capabilities generally begin to fall off by this point, so accompany them with more defense.
Supply Drop farming can be very impactful to begin from this round onwards, as rounds get progressively longer. Not only that, Geraldo naturally can unlock his Rejuv Potion soon enough to create a burst of supply crates from the Snipers. Pairing Snipers with Monkey City maximizes income generation from them, giving +15% income.
An interesting trick is to use Special Poperations with Door Gunner to pick up a Favored Trades so that the bonus +10% sellback can be applied anywhere the helicopter goes; this can save more money in the long-run, and it is quite readily affordable by this point. Works as long as there is space for at least one Buccaneer on the map.
With remaining time and rounds, accumulate as much income as possible, because Tier 3 Dreadbloon cannot be defeated with a single paragon, unlike other bosses.
Tier 4 Farming[]
More than one type of defense is needed to beat Dreadbloon Tier 3, so be sure to make enough of an income gain to afford necessary supports and strong towers. It is risky to continue farming while Tier 3 Dreadbloon is alive, given the high health of rock bloons that can quickly result in a loss. It may help to sell some defenses, preferably with the Special Poperations + Door Gunner + Favored Trades trick to gain a sizable refund.
Once Tier 3 Dreadbloon is completely dead, commence to sell unnecessary defense and rebuild what amount of cash is left.
From here, usage of as many income generators as possible within the allocated space is key.
Tier 5 Farming[]
Keep farming hard with as many income-based sources as possible while also at the same time investing for pops for the Paragons. Also use the last 20 rounds before Tier 5 Dreadbloon to accumulate those last pops, particularly key for maximizing the degrees for the Paragons. Still make sure to farm super hard at the same time too.
Boss Strategies by Tier[]
Tier 1 Boss[]
Artillery Battery and Sticky Bomb fighting off T1 Normal Dreadbloon
BTD6 Elite Dreadbloon T1 - First Strikes + Glue Strike into OC Tack Zone
First Strike into Overclocked Tack Zone with Glue Strike, a ranked strategy typically requiring IMF to afford, good in Ranked
A risky but rewarding method to destroy Dreadbloon is to destroy it very quickly with high-damage attacks, particularly bursty abilities such as MOAB Eliminator and First Strike Capability, combined with a stockpile of Perma-Spikes. This can quickly eradicate a lot of Dreadbloon's health, although at least two different tower categories must be used.
If one can afford the cash, buying an overclocked The Tack Zone, along with multiple overdrives if possible, combined with either Super Brittle or Embrittlement + Glue Strike can deal massive damage to Dreadbloon, after taking out the primary layer with either Perma-Spike or First Strike.
For general cases, it is best to use two high-damage options that can also deal with the incoming Dreadrock bloons. Good candidates include 2-0-5 Elite Defender, 2-0-4 Artillery Battery, 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Darts + Alch buff, Sticky Bomb, The Tack Zone/Overdrive spam + Embrittlement, or MOAB Eliminator. Dreadbloon is fairly slow, but one must remember to have a way of dealing damage against its lead layer and especially on elite, the impending rock bloons.
When Dreadbloon dies, sell all unnecessary defense and continue farming. Keep watch of the natural bloons too, as the bloon waves are more stronger than normal.
Tier 2 Boss[]
M.A.D + Jungle Drums is an easy choice against Tier 2 Dreadbloon, even Elite Tier 2 Dreadbloon, packing consistent huge increases of damage against Dreadbloon while also taking advantage of M.A.D's ability to hit dreadrock bloons in the way. To compliment the M.A.D against the military immunity, one can combine it with other high damage options such as Avatar of Wrath + Poplusts or Overdrive + Super Brittle + Cripple MOAB + Glue Strike.
For ranked, if it is possible to prepare an overclocked and homeland boosted Perma-Spike three rounds in advance, it can trivialize any layer except the final skull, by then using overdrive spam with debuffs will easily clean up the rest. The main downside is that buffs applied to perma spike piles will go away when reloading a save.
Again, when Dreadbloon dies, sell all unnecessary defense and continue farming. Still keep watch of the natural bloons too, as their increased RBE can make them quite threatening.
Tier 3 Boss[]
The first truly difficult tier of Elite Dreadbloon is Tier 3 Elite Dreadbloon, which packs an immense amount of health with no easy options to counter except accumulating enough cash for a makeshift Paragon and other strong towers. The easiest option is to go for a Glaive Dominus, which is a very cheap option that can handle both the dreadrocks and dreadbloon itself. Best to build 25 0-2-2 boomerang monkeys to boost its degree to 20 for a relatively cheap price. On maps with lots of obstacles such as One Two Tree or Encrypted, one can opt for an Apex Plasma Master instead, since it deals significantly higher dps when obstacles are present. Dreadbloon's category immunities necessitate another tower category to deal with the immunity, but since all Paragons deal huge damage to bosses, even with vanilla degrees, it should not be difficult to take down the boss. Because of this, it is highly likely that a paragon will need to be paired with another combination of towers.
Like tier 2, Perma-Spike is a great option to deal with the primary layer, if one can spare three rounds of prep and managing homeland buffs.
An alternate option besides quick Paragons is a max support-sacrifice Sun Temple combined with high projectile towers/other strong towers such as Destroyers, Sun Avatars, Plasma Monkey Fan Club, or many of the T2 options listed.
Like usual, after Dreadbloon dies, sell all unnecessary defense and continue farming. By this point, the natural round boosts for Dreadbloon are very negligible overall. It is still recommended to sell the early Paragon so that a better Paragon can be obtained later on in the game.
Tier 4 Boss[]
Accumulation of pops towards the next Paragon is often the best choice here. By this point, one should accumulate enough money and hero XP to obtain important items and upgrades. If using Geraldo, he should be fast enough to naturally reach max level, which should allow him to unlock Paragon Power Totems for enhancing levels of new Paragons.
When making max-tier Paragons, it is important to prepare enough space and money soon enough to get a kickstart in accumulating pops (including generated money, if applicable). With enough money available, spend money for all Tier 5 upgrades, maximal Tier 4 upgrades for the monetary sacrifice costs, and try maximizing supports. Make sure that only the to-be Paragon constituent towers receive the most pops. If Geraldo is available, try investing on Paragon Power Totems if there is a glut of cash available.
Vengeful True Sun God with maximum buffs is another approach for dealing with Dreadbloon.
Keep some money in hand while quickly accumulating pops for new Paragons.
Tier 5 Boss[]
For Tier 5 Dreadbloon, an extra support Sun Temple for the purposes of buffing a (Vengeful) True Sun God may be bought. Paragons should be bought as well for extra damage. Maximum buff supports and blimp debuffs possible, on top of Temples and Paragons, ensures that the final battle can be won securely, provided previous precautions are done with preventing Dreadbloon from optimizing its strengths. Superbuffing many Sun Temples with the maximum supports possible is a strong choice, alongside Paragons and maxed (V)TSG. Note that Dreadbloon has immunities against certain tower categories depending on how much health it has left, so it is recommended to diversify towers used.
Important support buffs (presumed all strong towers use this):
Homeland Defense, can be bought and resold to maintain full uptime.
Beyond that, there are strong options that can be spammed:
2-4-0 Spike Storms (support) for a strong long range spammable option, benefits from Geraldo. Heavily burst reliant and falls off after the initial ability.
3-2-0 Sun Avatars (magic) can be used if there's no other valid expensive option available. Their cost and space efficiency is very high when provided with lots of damage increases.
If Spike Factories and Super Monkeys are limited or banned in a Dreadbloon event, Then the strongest spammable towers based on factors such as range and availability are as follows:
2-0-4 Overdrive (primary) (close range, very high damage)
0-1-4 Poplust (magic) (mid range budget alternative to BADS, comparable damage for cheaper at the cost of less range)
4-2-0 Plasma Accelerator (military) (long range micro reliant option, comparable with Full Auto Rifle if Snipers are limited or banned)
2-0-4 Full Auto Rifle (military) (long range option that also fills smaller gaps in a defense, can take advantage of Flanking Maneuvers)
2-4-0 Artillery Battery (military) (long range micro reliant option with high burst from its ability dealing bonus against the Ceramic Shell, ignores obstacles, falls off when ability wears off)
4-2-0 Aircraft Carrier (military) (mid-range water option with higher damage than other spammable towers other than overdrives, can take advantage of Flanking Maneuvers)
In the case where Vengeful True Sun God is not possible, whether it be because the There Can Only Be One MK is not unlocked yet or because the True Sun God upgrade is restricted from this event, Legend of the Night can help assist with catching any leaks.
In short, throw in as much damage and support as possible as quickly as possible, and make sure the defense consists of multiple different tower categories.
Flanking Maneuvers)
