Supply drop gives much more cash. Grants Elite targeting prio and faster reloading to all snipers.
”
~ BTDB2 description
Elite Sniper is the 5th upgrade on Path 2 of the Sniper Monkey in Bloons TD Battles 2. It is similar to its BTD6 counterpart, except cheaper, crates are stronger, and its shrapnel has less pierce, each with 3 pierce instead of 5. Its ability has only 10s initial cooldown, and drops crates worth $5000 cash. Cooldown has also been greatly reduced, down to 50 seconds cooldown (45s with 0-5-1 and 40s with 0-5-2).
It improves its Supply Drop ability to activate all available x-4-x Supply Drop abilities simultaneously and increases cash value of its own ability from $2,000 to $5,000, as well as allowing all Snipers (including itself) to gain a new "Elite" targeting option along with improving attack cooldown for all other snipers by x0.8 (+25% attack speed), while giving itself a x0.4 attack cooldown (equal to +150% attack speed). The Elite Sniper itself retains its normal Supply Drop Sniper attack but with the built-in faster attack speed. Unlike in BTD6, the Elite Sniper ability icon is shared with other Supply Drop Snipers.
It costs $14,000, and is unlocked with the other tier 5 Sniper Monkey upgrades for 1500.
Elite Sniper's dual offense and income generation makes it incredibly strong at building a solid income growth, particularly whenever the game is set to play at a stalemate. Tapping the ability as soon as is ready gives essentially an equivalent 750 eco. Like normal Supply Drop, the main draw with this upgrade compared to other options is being able to use other Sniper upgrades as well as not needing to rely exclusively on eco to grow income. However, another huge perk is global attack speed boost for all Snipers, empowering Maim MOABs and Cripple MOAB in particular.
Tips[]
0-5-2 does a better job at cleanup, has shorter ability cooldown, and is cheaper to buy, but 2-5-0 is stronger and deals with stronger bloons better. Elite Sniper is even more of a dual offense and income tower, so 2-5-0 generally does a better job anyway.
Elite Sniper has great popping power and gives $5000 per crate, which becomes a lot more valuable in the late-game, and even works well during the middle 20's rounds.
Using several Deadly Precisions and/or Maim MOABs alongside your Elite Sniper is an easy way to rack up high damage on tankier bloons, since the increased attack speed becomes more noticeable the more Snipers on the field.
Version History[]
Elite Sniper was buffed a lot in initial release to make it fare better versus the improved eco. Also worth mentioning that its previous upgrades got price cuts too.
Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)
Elite Sniper initial cooldown reduced from 100% to 25%
Elite Sniper initial cooldown now follows the cooldown of the previous ability instead of defaulting at this ability's initial cooldown
1.0.4
Elite Sniper shrapnel pierce decreased (5 → 3)
1.0.6
Elite Sniper costs more ($13,000 → $14,000)
1.1.0
XP requirements decreased (37,500 XP → 18,750 XP)
1.5.0
No longer requires 18,750 XP to unlock. Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund, as well as unlock all Tier 5 Sniper Monkey upgrades.
2.1.2
x5x Elite Sniper Elite Supply Drop Ability will now also trigger all other Supply Drop Abilities
2.2.0
[undocumented] Elite Sniper's Supply Drop ability now undergoes the normal initial cooldown regardless of status of ability cooldown from the prior upgrade
3.1
Elite Sniper: ability no longer forces a new initial cooldown
“
In a previous update, with distinguished the tier 5 ability from the tier 4 ability, which had the side effect of introducing an initial cooldown for the tier 5. We have removed this cooldown so that like before, the cooldown will remain unchanged when upgrading from tier 4 to 5.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
4.1
1-5-0 Elite Sniper shrapnel damage increased from 1 to 2
2-5-0 Elite Sniper shrapnel damage increased from 2 to 3
4.2
Affected by Shrapnel Shot's camo damage buff
4.2.1 OTA Update 2
1-5-0 shrapnel damage decreased from 2 to 1
2-5-0 shrapnel damage decreased from 3 to 2
Affected by Bouncing Bullets shrapnel production nerf
Affected by Supply Drop ability cooldown nerf
Affected by Supply Drop Path 3 crosspath buffs
Other snipers attack cooldown multiplier 0.75x → 0.8x
“
We were a little too successful in trying to increase the popularity of the Sniper Monkey as it is now the single most used tower in the game, surpassing even the Banana Farm. Sniper’s popularity is due to its versatility as an income source that also excels with both group popping through its shrapnel shot and at single targets with its high damage. We believe the primary culprit for Sniper’s dominance is the x3x Bouncing Bullet’s ability to create multiple bursts of high damage shrapnel so we have capped it to 1 burst per shot and also moved the 1xx shrapnel damage upgrade to 3xx so that only dedicated top path snipers can benefit from it. We’ve also increased the cooldown of the Supply Drop ability and added ability cooldown reductions to the bottom path to create a choice between the more offensive 240 Sniper farm or the more efficient 042.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
Gallery[]
About to get Elite Sniper with enough XP
Unlocked Elite Sniper
Collecting the $5000 crate from Elite Sniper
Videos[]
Elite Sniper BTDB2 (2.2.1)
Elite Sniper with a refreshed initial cooldown
Trivia[]
Elite Sniper is the cheapest T5 Sniper by upgrade cost alone.