Engineer Monkey (BTDB2)/Strategies/General

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This page is a general guide for Engineer. For more advanced guides, see Engineer Monkey (BTDB2)/Strategies/Optimization

Engineer Monkey

The Engineer Monkey is a mechanical expert in Bloons TD Battles 2. Initially starting with a nailgun, the Engineer is highly capable of being a very flexible unit. Engineer has various upgrades for creating contraptions that add extra popping power, support a defense, or generate income. Engineers have limited camo detection, only doable by decamoing bloons through their low-pierce foam, and hence need better camo options to make up for its camo weakness.

The aim of this article is a general guide for using the Engineer. It summarizes how to effectively use Engineer without going into too much intricate detail about meta strategy.

Base Tower

• Cost: $400
• Unlock: 1000

Base Engineer Monkey shoots nails that pop 3 bloons each and attack moderately fast. It is quite costly to start off, so it will need upgrades to reveal its ultimate power.

Upgrades

Sentry Gun

• Cost: $450
• Path: 1
• Tier: 1
• Unlock: Default

The Sentry Gun upgrade allows the Engineer to create temporary sentries that act like Dart Monkeys that last for a limited time. This gives it a lot of extra popping power. It takes time for the sentries to build up, making the Engineer quite vulnerable until reaching the maximum numbers of sentries.

Faster Engineering

• Cost: $350
• Path: 1
• Tier: 2
• Unlock: Default

Faster Engineering speeds up production of sentries, which allows for a higher number of sentries to be active on the map at any given time. Also, Bloon Traps and Cleansing Foam gets reduced cooldown with this crosspath. The increased rate of production is generally helpful for consistency of making any type of contraption.

Sprockets

• Cost: $525
• Path: 1
• Tier: 3
• Unlock: Default

Sprockets increases the attack speed of the Engineer's nailgun and newly deployed sentries. This greatly increases DPS of the Engineer. The much increased attack speed all-around is helpful for general DPS.

Sentry Expert

• Cost: $2,800
• Path: 1
• Tier: 4
• Unlock: Default

Instead of regular sentries, Sentry Expert replaces all sentries with four different specialized sentries: Crushing, Boom, Cold, and Energy. Crushing Sentry shoots balls that are similar to Spike-o-pult, Boom Sentry shoots bombs, Cold Sentry shoots snowballs, and Energy Sentry shoots lasers. All of these sentries have a different amount of attack speed, pierce, and damage in unique ways, and damage different types of bloons. Sentry Expert's specialized sentries are reliable at handling mid-game rushes if given camo detection.

Sentry Champion

• Cost: $32,000
• Path: 1
• Tier: 5
• Unlock: 1500 (T5 unlocks)

Sentry Champion produces extremely powerful plasma-shooting sentries instead of the four specialized sentries. For its price, Sentry Champion excels in combination with speed buffs, particularly if production speed is increased, as its main source of damage come from its sentries.

Larger Service Area

• Cost: $250
• Path: 2
• Tier: 1
• Unlock: Default

Larger Service Area increases the Engineer's range by a substantial amount, and new sentries gain a little extra range. This is useful for the Engineer to reach further. In addition, this upgrade as a crosspath for Bloon Trap allows for Bloon Traps to be manually targeted onto any location within the Engineer's range.

Deconstruction

• Cost: $350
• Path: 2
• Tier: 2
• Unlock: Default

Engineers with Deconstruction deal extra damage to MOAB-class and Fortified. Newly placed sentries are affected by Deconstruction's effects too, and generally gain the biggest benefit from this upgrade.

Cleansing Foam

• Cost: $800
• Path: 2
• Tier: 3
• Unlock: Default

Cleansing Foam removes camo, regrow, and lead properties from all bloons passing by. Leads are popped into Blacks, while DDTs lose their camo and lead properties permanently. Cleansing Foam has low pierce, so it shouldn't be the sole form of camo detection; grouped camo rushes can easily overwhelm even a few Cleansing Foam Engineers.

Overclock

• Cost: $13,500
• Path: 2
• Tier: 4
• Unlock: Default

Overclock's ability boosts a target tower for a different amount of time depending on the tower's tier. Higher-tier targets have a shorter effect with Overclock. Most towers receive a big boost in attack speed, while Villages gain more range and Farms get a large income increase. Overall, it is best to target the strongest towers for the maximum amplification of the boost.

Ultraboost

• Cost: $100,000
• Path: 2
• Tier: 5
• Unlock: 1500 (T5 unlocks)

Ultraboost's main value comes from the permanent boosts given from those towers affected by Ultraboost. It is a very expensive support option whose use case is mostly for accumulating boosts during a late-game stalemate.

Oversize Nails

• Cost: $450
• Path: 3
• Tier: 1
• Unlock: Default

Each nailgun's nail hits up to 8 bloons instead of 3, and sentries and foam gain more pierce. This is a basic pierce boost that helps advance against grouped bloons a fair amount.

Pin

• Cost: $200
• Path: 3
• Tier: 2
• Unlock: Default

Pin stops non-blimp bloons other than Leads and Ceramics in place when struck. There is a special crosspathing interaction with the Pin crosspath that allows sentries to pin bloons (via the Pinned status), which can be helpful for stopping bloons in place over a wide area.

Double Gun

• Cost: $350
• Path: 3
• Tier: 3
• Unlock: Default

Double Gun doubles the nailgun attack speed by firing independently from two different guns. This helps advance better in the early-game and barely solo the early rounds before Round 5.

Bloon Trap

• Cost: $3,500
• Path: 3
• Tier: 4
• Unlock: Default

Bloon Trap traps a substantial amount of bloons immediately when touched, and once full it can be manually collected (or automatically collected if the trap is nearby a Monkey City) for a sum of money. Only natural bloons grant extra income to the Bloon Trap, and sent bloons dilute the income gain. In terms of income generation purposes, it is best used on maps with separate lanes for bloon sends and natural bloons, and syphoning the natural lane to make money. In addition, it serves as a defense option too, trapping a portion of bloons that meet the trap. Traps do need other defenses to assist so that minimal lives are lost while traps are under cooldown. Traps with the Larger Service Area crosspath can also be manually targeted, taking a short cooldown to switch places upon doing so, and rewarding a partial income reward. If optimized, a collected trap rewards up to $750 each.

XXXL Trap

• Cost: $54,000
• Path: 3
• Tier: 5
• Unlock: 1500 (T5 unlocks)

XXXL Trap increases the size of the trap to affect any non-BAD bloon, provided camo detection, and gives a sum of money per manual or automatic collection of full traps. It proves to be very strong against ZOMGs and works well against DDTs if given camo detection prior. Like the normal Bloon Trap, XXXL Trap can be used to syphon the natural lane to generate money, though it should be focused on exclusively absorbing MOAB-class bloons. Optimizing an XXXL Trap rewards up to $7500 each.

General Strategy

All towers including Engineer Monkey start off with upgrades up to Tier 4. All upgrades up to Tier 4 are unlocked with purchase of the Engineer Monkey, and Tier 5 upgrades unlocked with a single one-off purchase of 1500. In order to suit the tower's varied specialties, some upgrades in each tier should be mastered. Below is a brief guide to unlocking the potential for all Engineer Monkey upgrades.

Engineer Monkey's first two tiers are rather minor in early-game defense, mostly gaining a potential with sentries. 2-0-2 Engi is one of the better upgrades up to Tier 2, although investment of its Tier 3 upgrades are significantly more superior.

The Tier 3 upgrades are where the Engineer gets a little more specialty. Sprockets can be used to add more DPS in the early rounds, Cleansing Foam for degrow and decamo albeit slightly unreliable, and Double Gun for cheap early-game defense with the pinning effect.

For Tier 4 upgrades, this is where the Engineer transforms from an early-game assistance to have some mid-game and late-game use. The most notable example is Bloon Trap for absorbing pops and generating money. Overclock is used for boosting singular powerful towers, which is best used in the mid-to-late-game when used on a high-DPS option such as an expensive Tier 5 dedicated for DPS. Sentry Expert acts as a mid-game supporting damage with its variety of sentries.

As for Tier 5 upgrades, these are not essential to make Engineer Monkey a viable option in the late-game, although desirable. In particular, XXXL Trap may be necessary for absorbing ZOMGs and visible DDTs and making large amount of money off them. Ultraboost's stacking of permanent speed buffs may be helpful but isn't so useful unless going on a heavy farming strategy in combination. Sentry Champion does decent damage via the Champion Sentries but isn't essential for success with Engineer.