Monkey Ace (BTD5)

Overview

Classic

BTD4

BTD5

BTD6

Bloons Pop!

BTDB2

Monkey Ace
General Information
Appearances	Bloons TD 5 Flash Bloons TD 5 Deluxe Bloons TD 5 Mobile Bloons TD 5 Steam Bloons TD 5 Console Bloons TD Battles Flash Bloons TD Battles Mobile Bloons Monkey City Flash Bloons Monkey City Mobile
Unlocked at	Rank 12
Cost	BTD5 Flash: $765 (Easy) $900 (Medium) $970 (Hard) BTD5 Mobile: $785 (Easy) $925 (Medium) $1,000 (Hard) $1,110 (Impoppable) BTD Battles: $900 (Flash) $850 (mobile/PC) BMC: $925 $1,000 (Hardcore Mode)
Tier-4 upgrades	Spectre Ground Zero
Final upgrades	Flash: Rank 30 Mobile: Rank 31
Special Abilities	Ground Zero
Targeting Options	8 Path, ∞ Path, O Path
Camo detection	Yes (x/2)
Specialty Building	Ace Private Hangar
Footprint	Flash: 80x35 rectangle Mobile: 50x21 rectangle
Hotkey	F
Statistics
Range	Depends on path formation ("dummy range" of 50)
Pierce	Flash: 15 Mobile: 5
Damage	1
Attack Cooldown	Slow Flash: every 1.8s, e.a.u. Mobile: every 2.29s, e.a.u.

“	Patrols the skies above the action, regularly strafing the area with powerful darts in 8 directions.	”
	~ Flash description

The Monkey Ace is a tower in Bloons TD 5, Bloons TD Battles, and Bloons Monkey City. It retains its name and role from Bloons TD 4, but with significant additions and changes to its mechanics.

The Monkey Ace is a flying tower that travels on a fixed path centered on its runway, firing volleys of 8 darts in a circle around itself as it travels. It excels at spreading damage across open tracks, but struggles against MOAB-Class Bloons due to its inability to target specific Bloons.

Overview

Flight paths

The Monkey Ace does not directly target Bloons by default. Instead of using target priorities, it has three flight path options.

• 8 Path (default)
• ∞ Path
• O Path

Neva-Miss Targeting and Spectre target Close in the mobile, PC, and console versions.

Upgrades

Path 1

	Rapid Fire COST: $595 / $700 / $755 / $840 UNLOCK: 225 XP
	Description: Shoots darts more often. Effect: Flash: All attacks are 40% faster (~0.714x attack cooldown). Mobile: By default, dart volley attacks 60% faster (0.625x attack cooldown). With Operation: Dart Storm, dart volley attacks ~43% faster (0.7x cooldown). Pineapples are not affected.

	Sharper Darts COST: $425 / $500 / $540 / $600 UNLOCK: 2,150 XP
	Description: Monkey Ace darts can pop 8 bloons each! Effect: Increases pierce by 3.

	Neva-Miss Targeting COST: $1,870 / $2,200 / $2,375 / $2,640 UNLOCK: 7,725 XP
	Description: Darts seek out and pop bloons intelligently. Effect: Darts gain a weak seeking effect. In the Flash version, also attacks 19% faster (0.84x attack cooldown).

	Spectre COST: $15,300 / $18,000 / $19,440 / $21,600 UNLOCK: 23,250 XP
	Description: Flying fortress of bloon doom. Effect: Exchanges volleys of seeking darts for alternating darts and bombs that both seek. Darts can pop up to 50 Bloons. Bombs deal 2 damage to up to 100 Bloons and have a blast radius of 75 units. Has a rate of fire of 25 shots per second (0.04s cooldown).

Path 2

	Pineapple Present COST: $170 / $200 / $215 / $240 UNLOCK: 850 XP
	Description: Drops an exploding pineapple every 3 seconds. Effect: Deploys an Exploding Pineapple at its current position every 3 seconds. Pineapples explode after a short delay (1.8 seconds in the Flash version and 3 seconds in other versions) and can pop up to 40 Bloons.

	Spy Plane COST: $300 / $350 / $380 / $420 UNLOCK: 3,500 XP
	Description: Allows Monkey Ace to hit Camo Bloons. Does not grant detection to other towers. Effect: Self-explanatory

	Operation: Dart Storm COST: $2,550 / $3,000 / $3,240 / $3,600 UNLOCK: 12,400 XP
	Description: More darts = win. Effect: Shoots 16 darts per volley, with a fire rate of 1 per second (1s cooldown).

	Ground Zero COST: $11,900 / $14,000 / $15,120 / $16,800 UNLOCK: 35,700 XP
	Description: Drops a single devastating bomb that destroys all bloons on screen and heavily damages MOAB-class bloons. Effect: Ability instantly deals 350 damage to all Bloons on-screen. Has a 45 second cooldown.

In Bloons TD 5

The Monkey Ace is unlocked at Rank 12. Its tier 4 upgrades are unlocked at Rank 30 in the Flash version, or Rank 31 in other versions.

It is enhanced when using the Ace Private Hangar, but is more expensive when using the Pirate Cove.

In the Flash version, it costs $765 on Easy, $900 on Medium, and $970 on Hard. In other versions, it costs $785 on Easy, $925 on Medium, $1,000 on Hard, and $1,110 on Impoppable.

Premium Upgrades

	Grilled Pineapples BTD5 Flash: 100 / 10 BTD5 Deluxe: 600
	Description: Cooking pineapples brings out the flavor - and reduces the countdown on explosions. Now pineapples will explode right after being placed - no more guessing and missing! Effect: Exploding Pineapples explode after 0.6 seconds instead of 1.8 seconds. Affects both manually placed Exploding Pineapples and the pineapples deployed by Pineapple Present.

In Bloons TD Battles

In the Flash version, the Monkey Ace can be purchased for 20 starting at 250. Its tier 4 upgrades can be purchased for 60. It costs $900 to place.

In the mobile and PC versions, the Super Monkey can be purchased for 10 starting at 60. Its tier 3 upgrades can be purchased for 35 starting at 190, while its tier 4 upgrades can be purchased for 75 starting at 460. It costs $850 to place.

Version history (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)

In general, Monkey Ace is hardly buffed or nerfed in updates, but is still not very popular early game, due to its frequent missing as a lower-tier tower. However, Monkey Ace can be more useful in combination with other towers, as it does help in reducing the overload of Bloons. Whenever used, most players tend to aim towards purchasing Operation: Dart Storm, in which they could also go towards Ground Zero which could be very useful against MOAB-Class Bloons.

There are very few widely used Monkey Ace strategies, but one very popular strategy that uses Monkey Ace is Dart-Farm-Ace, the most popular loadout in the game, which is especially advantageous for doing the large-scale bloon cleanup. Another popular loadout that uses the Monkey Ace is Heli-Farm-Ace, with some considering it to be the new meta when update 4.6 came out.

3.9

• Ground Zero price increased ($14,000 → $16,000).

4.3

“	The poor Monkey Ace has been neglected in recent updates and we don't see it flying around the battlefield as often as we'd like. We've reduced the prices of two of it's more popular upgrades as well as bumped up the damage dealt by its activated ability. This will hopefully make it more useful in the later rounds when MOAB health starts to scale!	”
	~ "BTD Battles 4.3 Update Balance Changes"

• Neva-Miss Targeting price decreased ($2,200 → $1,800).
• Spectre price decreased ($18,000 → $17,000).
• Spy Plane price increased ($350 → $400).

4.3.1

“	These changes are corrections to the ones which should have been made in the 4.3 update. The Ace is now balanced as intended.	”
	~ "BTD Battles Update 4.3.1 Balance Changes"

• Ground Zero damage increased (350 → 400).
• Spy Plane price decreased ($400 → $350).

6.11

• Spectre no longer creates more bomb explosions when given pierce buffs

6.12

• Monkey Ace price decreased ($925 -> $850)
• Rapid Fire price decreased ($700 -> $500)
• Operation: Dart Storm price increased ($3000 -> $3300)

6.13

• Neva-Miss Targeting attack cooldown reduced (1.43s -> 1.2s)
• Neva-Miss Targeting projectile lifespan increased (500 -> 650)
• Neva-Miss Targeting seeking angle increased (90 -> 360)

6.17

• Sharper Darts pierce bonus increased (+3 -> +5)
• Operation: Dart Storm pierce decreased (15 -> 13)

6.18

• Sharper Darts pierce bonus decreased (+5 -> +4)
• Spectre price decreased ($17,000 -> $16,000)
• Ground Zero price increased ($16,000 -> $17,000)

In Bloons Monkey City

The Monkey Ace's population is increased by building Ace Airports, and its upgrades can be researched by building the Aeronautics Laboratory. Its tier 4 upgrades require building the AC130 Construction Hangar and Super-Bomb Research Centre, respectively, in order to be researched.

It is favored on Grass Terrain, Arid Grasslands Terrain, and High Desert Terrain, but is restricted on Mountain Terrain, Caves Terrain, and Badlands Terrain.

It costs $925 normally, or $1,000 on Hardcore Mode.

Special Items

	Magic Spanner OBTAINED FROM: Random Treasure Chest
	Description: Assembly of all vehicles becomes super easy. Monkey Ace, Buccaneer cost 5% less than normal. Effect: Reduces the base cost and all upgrade costs of both Monkey Aces and Monkey Buccaneers by 5%.

Monkey Knowledge

1	Base cost 10% cheaper	6	Base cost 20% cheaper	11	Base cost 30% cheaper
2	Pierce increased by 1	7	Pierce increased by 2	12	Pierce increased by 3
3	Attack speed increased by 5%	8	Attack speed increased by 10%	13	Attack speed increased by 15%
4	Pineapples are dropped every 2.5 seconds	9	Pineapples are dropped every 2 seconds	14	Pineapples explode immediately when dropped
5	Spectre cost reduced by 2000	10	Spectre cost reduced by 3000	15	Spectre cost reduced by 3500

Bugs

An Operation: Dart Storm ace flying sideways

• In BTD5, if you place a Monkey ace and switch from "vertical 8" circling to "round" circling, sometimes the Ace will indefinitely fly towards the top right, though eventually it will re-adjust and go back to normal.
• Monkey Ace landing sites can be placed more closely together when below other landing sites than when on top. The landing sites also go slightly right when placed down (BTD5 Flash)
• In BTD5 the ace's artwork shows a red cone but in the actual tower it's blue and in BMC Mobile if it's flying above your city it's green.
  • This reverses when upgraded to Pineapple Present, the artwork shows it has a blue cone, while the actual tower has a red cone.
• (BTD5 Flash)You can glitch the Monkey Ace by buying one, this should take you so you can upgrade whenever you want, hover over the ace so it has white outlines on it, then, press backspace (this will sell the tower) and left-click your mouse again as fast as possible, then this should take you to a Monkey Ace with no picture, that you can upgrade, upgrade the Ace (you cannot use the upgrade hotkeys, nothing happens), and you will notice that there is another ace, that you even upgrade to 4/4 (Seriously), through you would just have a spectre with the Ground Zero ability. This glitch has been fixed.
• In BTD Battles, you can put a monkey fort next to the 4-x/Spectre Ace, and it will give +1 pierce to the missiles. This gives an advantage because the missiles deal 2 damage in the explosion radius, but if it pierces through, it will do another explosion, which also deals 2 damage, and if a bloon is in both explosion's radius, it will deal 4 damage to that bloon.

• In Bloons Monkey City, there is a glitch that makes the Monkey Ace fly off the screen to switch back to the track you've selected when alternating between the 8 pattern and the O pattern. It comes back around when the pattern is changed, though.

Strategies

Main article: Monkey Ace (BTD5)/Strategies

Tips

• The monkey ace's purpose is to inflict great damage when bloons totally cover the track. However, it won't do much when bloons cover the track as the bloons would quickly reach the end and kill you.
• Monkey Ace is quite useless until you get a tier 3 upgrade, as they often miss.
• They are extremely expensive so it is not a good choice for early games.
• Ground Zero, one of the last upgrades for the Monkey Ace, is very useful in higher levels since 2 of them can instantly pop B.F.B.s, leaving just M.O.A.B.s. The player will still need a way to pop Z.O.M.G.s, though.

Quotes

“	Monkey Aces rule the skies, and their wide area attacks are good for central track placement. Powerful upgrades include: Neva-Miss Targeting, Dart Storm, Spectre, Ground Zero.	”
	~ BMC Flash description

Gallery

Runway

Left upgrade path progression

Right upgrade path progression

Monkey Ace and runway

Monkey Ace icon in BTD5 Mobile

2 aces flying above a monkey city

Trivia

• This is the first moving tower in the BTD series, with the second being the Heli Pilot.
• An Operation: Dart Storm appears dropping a crate of cash in BTD5 and in BTD6 when the player activates the Supply Drop ability.
• In BTD5, the icon for the Spectre shows the ace dropping 2 bombs with words on both bombs that are hard to read, the first saying "From: Ace" and the second saying "To: Bloons".
• Both of the final upgrades are based on real planes, the AC-130, and the B-2 Spirit Bomber for the Spectre and the Ground Zero respectively.
• In BTD5 Deluxe, the Ground Zero Ability does 1,000 damage instead of 350, instantly popping B.F.B.s. It also does 1,000 damage in BTD Battles.
• The Monkey ace is a biplane. Biplanes have two wings stacked on top of each other and they are connected by wires and struts to make one strong structure. The ace becomes a monoplane when at least x/3 or is 4/x.