Heli Pilot (BTD5)

Heli Pilot
General Information
Appearances	Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile BTD5 Steam Bloons TD Battles Mobile Bloons Monkey City Mobile Bloons TD 6
Unlocked at	Rank 17 (BTD5 Mobile) Rank 7-9, 11-12 (BTD6)
Cost	$1275 (Easy in BTD5 Mobile) $1500 (Medium in BTD5 Mobile) $1620 (Hard in BTD5 Mobile) $1800 (Impoppable in BTD5 Mobile) $1360 (Easy in BTD6) $1600 (Medium in BTD6) $1730 (Hard in BTD6) $1920 (Impoppable in BTD6)
Final upgrades	Apache Prime · Special Poperations · Comanche Defense (BTD6)
Special Abilities	Support Chinook Special Poperations (BTD6)
Camo detection	Yes (x/2 in BTD5 Mobile, x/2/x in BTD6)
BTD Battles cost	$1300/TBA
Tier-4 Upgrades	Apache Dartship Support Chinook Comanche Defense (BTD6)
Footprint	14
Hotkey	J (BTD5 Steam only)
Statistics
Range	Medium
Pierce	3
Damage	Unknown
Attack Cooldown	BTD5 Mobile: Fast (Fires 2 times per second excluding bonuses gained from Monkey Lab and/or Upgrades) BTD6: TBA

“	Powerful attack helicopter armed with twin dart shooters and multiple patrol options	”
	~ Official Description in BTD5 Mobile

“	Hovers wherever you direct it. Shoots from twin heavy dart guns.	”
	~ BTD6 description

The Heli Pilot (BTD5) is a tower first released in Bloons TD 5 Mobile. The Heli Pilot is an aircraft, like the Monkey Ace, that shoots 2 darts directly in front of it. The Heli Pilot is operated by a monkey. Although the Heli Pilot does hover above the ground, it does not fly automatically like the Monkey Ace and has a helicopter pad instead of a runway, rather, is free to move about the entire map based on the targeting system chosen by the player.

The Heli Pilot is an expensive tower and costs $1275/$1500/$1620/$1800 Cash to place on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable respectively. In BTD6, this is increased to $1360 on Easy, $1600 on Medium, $1730 on Hard, and $1920 on Impoppable.

Targeting System

The Heli Pilot has four moving systems (one of which is unlocked with an upgrade). Lock in Place is a moving system that will make the Heli Pilot stay in one spot based on its current position. Follow Touch is another targeting system which makes the Heli Pilot follow where you touch or where your cursor is (depending on platform), like the Dartling Gun. Patrol is a targeting system that makes the Heli Pilot move from one point to another, which are selected by the player. The final targeting system, Pursuit, is the only targeting system that is not readily available at the start and must be purchased. Pursuit will make the Heli Pilot follow and attack the bloon farthest through the map.

Bloons Tower Defense 5

Heli Pilot
General Information
Appearances	Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile BTD5 Steam Bloons TD Battles Mobile Bloons Monkey City Mobile
Unlocked at	Rank 17
Cost	$1,275 (Easy) $1,500 (Medium) $1,620 (Hard) $1,800 (Impoppable)
Final upgrades	41
Special Abilities	Support Chinook (Tower Relocation, Supply Drop)
Camo detection	Yes (x/2)
BTD Battles cost	$1,200/TBA
Tier-4 Upgrades	Apache Dartship Support Chinook
Battle Score prerequisite	TBA
Specialty Building	Heli Hangar
Hotkey	J (BTD5 Steam only)
Statistics
Range	Med
Pierce	3
Damage	Unknown
Attack Cooldown	Fast (Fires 2 times per second excluding bonuses gained from Monkey Lab and/or Upgrades)

“	Powerful attack helicopter armed with twin dart shooters and multiple patrol options	”
	~ Official Description in BTD5 Mobile

The Heli Pilot (BTD5) is a tower first released in Bloons TD 5 Mobile. The Heli Pilot is an aircraft, like the Monkey Ace, that shoots 2 darts directly in front of it. The Heli Pilot is operated by a monkey. Although the Heli Pilot does hover above the ground, it does not fly automatically like the Monkey Ace and has a helicopter pad instead of a runway, rather, is free to move about the entire map based on the targeting system chosen by the player. The Heli Pilot is an expensive tower and costs $1275/$1500/$1620/$1800 Cash to place on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable respectively. This tower has many powerful upgrades and helpful additions never before seen in any tower, including Razor Rotors, and Support Chinook.

Heli Pilot (BTD5) upgrades artwork

Path 1

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable
Quad Darts Shoots 4 darts per volley instead of 2.	$510	$600	$650	$720
Pursuit Superior targeting computers enable a powerful new targeting option to pursue bloons across the track.	$425	$500	$540	$600
Razor Rotors Rotors blades rip up bloons on contact, including frozen and lead. (This is not recommended to be used with the Pursuit mode.)	$1,485	$1,750	$1,890	$2,100
Apache Dartship Adds a large missile array and a powerful machine gun.	$14,875	$17,500	$18,900	$21,000
Total Sell Amount	$14,860	$17,480	$18,880	$20,976 ($22,032 with path 2 upgrades)
Total Cost	$17,295	$20,350	$21,980	$26,220 ($27,540 with path 2 upgrades)

Path 2

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable
Bigger Jets More powerful jets enable the Heli to move much faster.	$425	$500	$540	$600
Enhanced IFR Instruments Allows Heli Pilot to detect and shoot Camo Bloons.	$510	$600	$650	$720
Downdraft Blows bloons away from the Heli.	$2,125	$2,500	$2,700	$3,000
Support Chinook Abilities: Drops life and cash crates, or can pick up and reposition most towers.	$12,750	$15,000	$16,200	$18,000
Total Sell Amount	$13,668	$16,080	$17,368	$19,296 ($20,352 with path 1 upgrades)
Total Cost	$17,085	$20,100	$21,710	$24,120 ($25,440 with path 1 upgrades)

Bloons Tower Defense 6

Heli Pilot
BTD6
General Information
Appearances	Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile BTD5 Steam Bloons TD Battles Mobile Bloons Monkey City Mobile Bloons TD 6
Unlocked at	Ranks 7- 9 or Ranks 10 and 11
Cost	$1,360 (Easy) $1,600 (Medium) $1,730 (Hard) $tba (Impoppable)
Final upgrades	Apache Prime · Special Poperations · Comanche Commander
Special Abilities	Support Chinook · Special Poperations
Camo detection	Yes (x/2/x)
Footprint	14
Hotkey	N/A
Statistics
Range	Medium
Pierce	2
Damage	Unknown
Attack Cooldown	TBA

The Heli Pilot returns in Bloons Tower Defense 6, filling in its same role as a mobile tower. It still has its original targetting options, with Pursuit still being unlocked via upgrade.

The Heli Pilot is a Military-category tower.

Path 1

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Unlock XP
Quad Darts Shoots 4 darts per volley instead of 2.	$680	$800	$865	$960	200
Pursuit A new targeting option enables Heli to seek and pursue the Bloons automatically.	$425	$500	$540	$600	650
Razor Rotors Razor Rotor blades rip up Bloons on contact, including Lead and Frozen Bloons.	$1,485	$1,750	$1,890	$2,100	2,700
Apache Dartship Adds a large missile array and powerful machine guns.	$16,660	$19,600	$21,170	$23,520	20,000
Apache Prime The Apache Prime leaves most Bloons wishing they'd never been inflated. (Replaces dart cannons and machine gun with laser cannons and plasma gun respectively. These do much more damage and fire much faster. The tower also moves faster.)	$38,250	$45,000	$48,600	$54,000	55,000
Total Sell Amount	Tier 4: $14,368 Tier 5: $41,143	Tier 4: $16,905 Tier 5: $45,255	Tier 4: $18,260 Tier 5: $52,280	Tier 4: $20,286 Tier 5: $58,086	N/A
Total Cost	Tier 4: $20,525 Tier 5: $58,775	Tier 4: $24,150 Tier 5: $69,150	Tier 4: $26,085 Tier 5: $74,685	Tier 4: $28,980 Tier 5: $82,980	78,550

Path 2

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Unlock XP
Bigger Jets Powerful jets make Heli move much faster.	$255	$300	$325	$360	150
IFR Allows Heli Pilot to detect and shoot Camo Bloons.	$510	$600	$650	$720	650
Downdraft Blows Bloons away from the Heli, back toward the entrance.	$2,550	$3,000	$3,240	$3,600	3,300
Support Chinook Abilities: Drops lives and cash crates, or can pick up and redeploy most Monkey types.	$10,200	$12,000	$12,960	$14,400	15,000
Special Poperations Deploys a powerful special Monkey Marine with machine gun.	$25,500	$30,000	$32,400	$36,000	40,000
Total Sell Amount	Tier 4: $10,353 Tier 5: $28,203	Tier 4: $12,180 Tier 5: $33,180	Tier 4: $13,157 Tier 5: $35,837	Tier 4: $14,616 Tier 5: $39,816	N/A
Total Cost	Tier 4: $14,790 Tier 5: $40,290	Tier 4: $17,400 Tier 5: $47,400	Tier 4: $18,795 Tier 5: $51,195	Tier 4: $20,880 Tier 5: $56,880	59100

Path 3

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Unlock XP
Faster Darts Darts are propelled much faster through the air.	$210	$250	$270	$300	140 (?)
Faster Firing Faster attack speed.	$295	$350	$380	$420	550 (?)
MOAB Shove Can collide with and shove MOAB-Class Bloons, impeding their movement.	$2,975	$3,500	$3,780	$4,200	2,500
Comanche Defense Automatically calls in 3 more Comanches when they're most needed.	$7,255	$8,500	$TBA	$TBA	12,500
Comanche Commander Upgraded weapons. Also automatically calls in 3 more Comanches. Permanently.	$29,750	$35,000	$37,800	$42,000	50,000
Total Sell Amount	Tier 4: $10,171 Tier 5: $30,996	Tier 4: $11,970 Tier 5: $36,470	Tier 4: $12,929 Tier 5: $39,389	Tier 4: $14,364 Tier 5: $43,764	N/A
Total Cost	Tier 4: $14530 Tier 5: $44,280	Tier 4: $17,100 Tier 5: $52,100	Tier 4: $18,470 Tier 5: $56,270	Tier 4: $20,520 Tier 5: $62,520	65,690

Strategy

• The three upgrade paths all have their own strengths and weaknesses.
• The first path focuses on an aggressive offense, with its final upgrades Apache Dartship and Apache Prime. With 3 or more Heli Pilots with Razor Rotors, one will never worry about MOABS, and 6 or more can single-handedly bring down a BFB. Apache Dartship less so, as it bring firepower by using more darts.
• The second path is pure support, with Downdraft blowing back Bloons, and its special abilities allowing the player to tacticallly reposition towers, provide supply drops with cash and lives (and deploy Marines with Special Poperations).
• The third path is more of a defensive tower, with MOAB Shove helping to stall MOAB-Class Bloons in the same way Downdraft does with standard Bloons; however the later upgrades allow for the summoning of additional pilots, allowing the Pilot to multitask.

Update History

1.01

Heli Pilots no longer clash with Monkey Aces.

All abilities of Support Chinook (along with the new 5th-tier upgrade Special Poperations) have an initial cooldown

2.0

Apache Prime now moves faster.

Duplicated towers glitch from Support Chinook's Tower-Moving Ability will no longer work.

...

17.0

Heli Pilot base cost increased ($1500 --> $1600)

...

21.0

• Heli base speed reduced from 45 -> 40
• x1x Bigger Jets speed increased from 67.5 to 70
• xx3 Heli MOAB Shove price reduced from $5000 -> $3500

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)

Heli-Pilot was hardly used, mostly because it was too expensive to use as an one-for-all-uses tower for the early-game to early mid-game when compared to towers like the Dart Monkey. Even so, a large number of buffs has allowed Heli-Pilot to be a more usable tower for the early-game, the mid-game, and even the mid-late-game. Most especially is in Version 4.6, where Path-2 upgrades Downdraft and Support Chinook have gotten significant buffs, as well as where Pursuit and Razor Rotors is significantly cheaper.

Overall, the Heli Pilot has been significantly buffed via game updates and has become drastically more used, with some considering the loadout Heli-Pilot Farm Ace to be the new meta. Other popular loadouts for Heli Pilot include Heli-Farm-Wizard (either as a Wizard start or a Heli start), Heli-Farm-Ice, Heli-Farm-Bomb, and Heli-Farm-Boomerang.

3.7

Apache Dartship price decreased ($17,500 → $14,000).

Pursuit now automatically switches the tower to the Pursuit targeting mode upon purchase. (Technically a buff, but sometimes the automatic Pursuit Mode interferes with players)

4.1

Tower price decreased ($1,500 → $1,200).

Bigger Jets price decreased ($500 →$250).

Enhanced IFR Instruments price decreased ($600 → $300).

4.3

Razor Rotors attack speed of rotors increased by 50%.

4.31

Tower-moving ability cooldown timer of Support Chinook now starts upon tower selection, rather than as soon as the screen opens.

4.6

Pursuit price decreased ($500 →$350).

Razor Rotors price decreased ($1,750 → $1,250).

Downdraft price decreased ($2,500 → $1,750).

Support Chinook price decreased ($15,000 → $7,500).

Support Chinook's Downdraft effect attack speed increased by 100%.

4.8

In Tournament Mode, if both players' lives are 150 lives or higher after the round limit then both players' lives will go to 1 life regardless of bonus lives from health crates. Health crates from the Crate Drop Ability will still grant bonus lives though, but will not give any bonus lives after Sudden Death.

5.0

It is now no longer possible to stack towers on top of other towers with Support Chinook.

6.0

Quad Darts cost increased ($600 --> $750)

Razor Rotors cost increased ($1250 --> $1500)

Gallery

Path 1 Upgrades

Path 2 Upgrades

Damaged Helicopter in Bloons Monkey City

Instructions mobile

Follow Mouse target priority in BTD6 Steam

Trivia

• The Heli Pilot and Monkey Ace are the only towers that use aircraft.
• This is currently the only tower that can have two different abilities without the use of a Specialty Building, or by other means.
• The Apache Dartship has no visible space for the rocket launcher.
• The Apache Gunship, and Support Chinook are real helicopters, still in use to date. The Comanche is also a real helicopter, however it was cancelled before mass production began.
• The Heli Pilot's landing pad doesn't change appearance with any of the upgrades.
• In BTD6, the Heli Pilot is currently the only tower which has 3 abilities. (4 if the door gunner monkey knowledge is involved)
• The missiles fired by Apache Dartship home in on bloons, and have infinite range.
• In BTD5 Deluxe, the Support Chinook's tower moving ability is useless with the premium upgrade Monkey Tycoon activated, as the player can sell and place towers in a different location without losing any money. This is unless the player wants to exploit Tower Stacking.
• If the Support Chinook moves a Monkey Ace's landing strip, the plane will continue to circle around the place where the landing strip was before it got moved.
• If the Support Chinook moves a Portable Lake (special agent in BTD5) with water-towers on it, the towers will remain in the same place before the pool was moved; allowing the player to place near-unlimited water towers
  • The same works with pontoons.
• As mentioned before, the Heli Pilot is a BTD5 Mobile, Steam, Deluxe, and Xbox exclusive tower. It is only unavailable in the Flash version.
• Heli pilot is the one of two towers in Bloons Tower Defense 5 that has its path 1 tier 2 upgrade cheaper than tier 1 upgrade. The other tower to do so is the Monkey Buccaneer.
• Monkey Aces (including those from Aircraft Carriers,) Radadactyls, and other Heli Pilots all push Heli Pilots.
  • Therefore, two Heli Pilots in pursuit mode would push each other continuously.
• In Bloons Monkey City Mobile, there is a special mission where you must rescue an endangered Heli Pilot in order to unlock it in the player's city and can be usable in game by paying $1000 to repair it.
• Its pad size takes up slightly less space than the Banana Farm.
• The 4/0 Apache Dartship has red lines on the end of its wings, while the 4/2 does not.
• The Heli Pilot's helicopter pad does not change in BTD5 when upgraded, but it does in BTD6 once upgraded to tier 4.
• All of the 4th and above tiers have names of American Indians (Apache Indians, Chinookan Indians, and Comanche Indians.)
• A single 0-0-0 Heli Pilot can defeat a M.O.A.B by itself on Logs, but only on Easy with lots of RNG. Mana Shield and other Monkey Knowledge (preferably the middle tree in military) will make this easier to do.