Throws incredibly fast, 8 shurikens per shot! Distraction can affect MOABs and BFBs.
”
~ BTDB2 description
Grandmaster Ninja is the 5th upgrade of Path 1 for the Ninja Monkey in Bloons TD Battles 2. It is a much more powerful version of Bloonjitsu that increases its attack speed by 100% (specifically one shot every 0.217s instead of 0.434s), gains +10 range (from 47 units to 57 units), deals greater damage (2 per shuriken instead of 1), and throws 8 shurikens per shot instead of 5. Each shuriken pierces up to 4 bloons.
Crosspaths greatly affect Grandmaster Ninja. Distraction offers 100% chance to distract Ceramics and below and 50% chance to distract MOABs and BFBs for 60-100 units. Caltrops massively improves damage of caltrops from 5 to 25 and attack cooldown from 5.6s to 4.5s.
It costs $35,000, and is unlocked with the other Ninja Monkey tier 5 upgrades for 1500.
Grandmaster Ninja throws a lot of shurikens at pretty quick rates that deal a lot of damage. The main value of the Grandmaster Ninja is when it is buffed greatly with multiple buffs, especially Shinobi Tactics. A well-buffed Grandmaster Ninja is very effective cleanup however, its still weak to leads without support. Average synergies with Alch Buff but best Perma-Brewed.
Tips[]
5-0-2 Ninja is almost universally better than 5-2-0. As a Shinobi Buffed Master Bomber already provides so much MOAB Stall that the MOAB and BFB Blowback is basically useless and since 5-0-2 optimizes the pierce of each shuriken since they seek bloons, combined with the extra Caltrops damage makes 5-0-2 the much better crosspath. MIB Village or Alch Buff is best paired with Grandmaster as it adds the ability to pop lead bloons which is Grandmaster's weakness.
Despite its high DPS with Shinobi Tactics, FBADs still pose a major threat to this strategy as pierce, not damage, is what makes this upgrade shine. FBADs counter this with their extremely high hitpoints and immunity to being slowed down by bloon sabotage. Using anything that gives Grandmaster more damage (Like Super Brittle or Perma-Brew) is recommended when using Shinobi + Grandmaster strategies as the low damage and high projectile count of Grandmaster pairs well with damage buffs.
It's highly recommend to get up a Master Bomber with Shinobi + Grandmaster strategies, since Grandmaster struggles at dealing with the FZOMGs that come out of the FBADs.
Version History[]
Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)
Released
1.1.0
XP requirements decreased (50k → 25k). Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund.
1.5.0
No longer requires 25k 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 Ninja Monkey upgrades.
5-1-0 Grandmaster Ninja now can distract MOABs (but not BFBs and above) between 45-75 units with a 15% chance.
Note: Ninja Kiwi reduced the damage (40 → 30) and increased the attack speed (2.8s → 4.5s) of 502 caltrops before the update launched.
“
[...] For 5xx Grandmaster Ninja, we’ve made 2 interesting crosspath changes. The middle path was never used as the preferred crosspath due to the distraction not being very relevant, so it has been greatly improved for 5xx by now including MOABs. For the bottom crosspath, although already the preferred choice, we wanted to buff it up anyway so that 5xx would be stronger overall now, since previously it was often more efficient to buy multiple 4xx Bloonjitsu Ninjas instead of a 5xx. The 5xx upgrade provides more shuriken and higher damage on them, yet Caltrops did not benefit from either of these things, so it provided negligible damage relative to the shuriken. It has received a massive damage buff so that it can now scale up with the shuriken and play a greater role in Grandmaster Ninja’s overall firepower.
”
3.2.4
5-0-2 Grandmaster Ninja’s caltrops damage reduced from 30 to 25
5-1-0 Grandmaster Ninja now distracts BFBs and the distraction chance versus MOABs and BFBs increased from 15% to 50%, distance increased from 45-75 to 60-100
“
Ninja Monkey’s Flash Bomb and Counter Espionage upgrades have never been commonly used upgrades. By buffing the combination of them, we hope to open up a new use case for these upgrades and Ninja as a whole, a somewhat reliable decamo option. As for Grandmaster Ninja, we liked giving the crosspaths much more utility in the previous update, however it needs some adjusting - Caltrops was a little bit too powerful and Distraction could not compete.
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
3.3
Grandmaster Ninja pierce increased from 4 to 5
“
We have increased Ninja’s early-game potential since it stood out as a tower with relatively low DPS in the early game, always depending on another tower to deal the damage or to buff it. [...]
”
~ Ninja Kiwi
3.3.2
Grandmaster Ninja pierce decreased from 5 to 4
“
Ninja Monkey has spiked up in popularity since the last update, with the Ninja + Alchemist combo standing out as overly strong in all stages of the game. We have made quite a few changes to address this, such as keeping the additional +1 pierce on the early tiers but taking it back off for 2xx, with some price rearranging to accommodate. [...]
1500.
XP requirements decreased (50k → 25k). Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund.
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