“ | Flies above the ground shooting volleys of high-pierce darts. | ” |
~ In-game description |
Monkey Ace is a Military-class tower in Bloons TD 6. The tower retains its name and role from the Bloons TD 4 and Bloons TD 5 Generation, with significant additions. It did not receive any teasers prior to release, but it was first shown when the game was available to select YouTubers several days before BTD6's official release date.
At base, the Monkey Ace fires 8 darts in a circle around itself. These darts, with no upgrades or Monkey Knowledge, deal 1 damage and have 5 pierce. It creates volleys of these darts every 1.68s. A Monkey Ace will fly around in a fixed pattern around its runway, generally speaking, and its flight pattern can be adjusted based on target priority. It has various upgrades that can benefit from its height advantage, including anti-MOAB missiles, tightly packed bombs, nukes, and rapid-fire alternating darts and bombs.
It costs $680 on Easy, $800 on Medium, $865 on Hard, and $960 on Impoppable by default.
Description[]
The Monkey Ace makes a return in BTD6. Just like in BTD5, it has a landing pad that takes up space. It received a number of new changes, especially splitting several of the most popular upgrades in its predecessor game into different upgrades, most notably being the Operation: Dart Storm becoming a Tier-4 upgrade of Path 1 instead of the Tier-3 upgrade of Path 2. Another change is that when the tower is placed, it will briefly take off from its runway first.
The first path generally increases the numbers of darts sent out. Rapid Fire gives the Monkey Ace a 33% attack speed boost, and Lots More Darts increases the amount of darts fired from 8 to 12. Fighter Plane increases flight speed, as well as a new projectile: a missile that targets and does extra damage to MOAB-Class Bloons. Operation: Dart Storm returns from BTD5, shooting 16 darts per attack cycle at double speed. The final upgrade, Sky Shredder, doubles the amount of darts fired to 32, as well as redoubling attack speed and being able to pop all bloon types.
The second path generally primarily centers around bomb damage. Exploding Pineapple drops Pineapples onto the track, which explode after 3 seconds. Spy Plane gives the Ace camo detection, and Bomber Ace has the Ace dropping a line of 4 bombs regularly on the track, with each bomb doing 3 damage. Ground Zero also returns, dropping a large bomb onto the track as its ability, dealing 700 damage to up to 2,000 bloons, and increasing bomb damage to 10. Tsar Bomba further increases the ability's power, dealing 3,000 damage to up to 5,000 bloons, and stunning any surviving bloons. In addition, the Ace's bombs can now damage all bloon types, including Blacks, Zebras, and DDTs.
The third path generally deals with efficient projectile distribution. Sharper Darts increases the Ace's dart pierce to 8, and Centered Path adds a new targeting option for maximum map coverage. Neva-Miss Targeting adds weak seeking to the darts, allowing them to pop more bloons. Spectre adds a constant stream of darts and bombs which have high pierce and attack power, and increases the power of the preexisting darts. Flying Fortress attacks faster, adds 2 more streams of attacks with different targeting priorities, and, like Sky Shredder, can pop all bloon types.
Target Priorities/Flight Paths[]
As the Monkey Ace does not directly aim at Bloons, its targeting priorities are replaced by flight patterns centered around the runway (Centered Path and subsequent upgrades are the exceptions to this). By default, its set target priority is Circle. If target option is changed partway through the Monkey Ace's flight, the Ace will attempt to fly promptly from its old target priority to its new target priority. The Monkey Ace will fly in a clockwise direction by default and counterclockwise with Reverse Flight toggled.
The following are a list of target priorities that a Monkey Ace can use:
- Circle: Flight pattern becomes a circular path around the runway.
- Figure Infinite: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the infinite symbol (∞). As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
- Figure Eight: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the number 8. As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
- Centered Path: Flight path becomes a large circular path, centered around the center of the map by default. The center of the flight path can be changed manually. Can be accessed by purchasing the Centered Path upgrade, and once upgraded the Ace defaults to this target priority.
- Wingmonkey: Instead of a fixed flight path, the Monkey Ace will attempt to fly as close to the path as possible, similarly to an Aircraft Carrier Plane. Available only via the Wingmonkey MK.
- Reverse Flight: Shown by an icon of a reverse aircraft, the Ace will reverse direction of flight. Unlike other target priorities such as Change Hands, there is a cooldown of 5 seconds before being able to reverse flight direction again. It can be coupled with all flight options except Wingmonkey.
- Set Linear Path: Sets a linear path for the mini-doomships to carpet bomb. Default path is along the primary diagonal. A valid path must be at least 100 units long. Exclusive to Goliath Doomship.
Main dart attacks are produced in a zone-like attack centered from where the Ace was at the time of deployment. Certain Monkey Ace upgrades have different target priorities, and therefore interact with targeting in different ways. Flight pattern remains unchanged with its alternate attacks.
- Fighter Plane's anti-MOAB missiles will only target blimps, and they will target Close relative to the aircraft.
- Exploding Pineapple's pineapples are spawned at the location where the Ace was at the time of deployment.
- Bomber Ace's bomb arrays always land on nearby bloon track.
- Ground Zero and Tsar Bomba abilities affect the whole screen, and target Close relative to its runway for purposes of calculating pierce consumption.
- Spectre rapid dart-and-bomb attacks target First relative to the aircraft.
- Flying Fortress's three rapid dart-and-bomb attacks target First, Last, and Close relative to the aircraft.
- Goliath Doomship's frontal gun attack is locked on Close.
Upgrades[]
Path 1[]
Rapid Fire COST: $550 / $650 / $700 / $780 UNLOCK: 160 XP | ||
Description: Shoots faster than normal.
Effect: Attacks +33% faster (0.75x attack cooldown). |
Lots More Darts COST: $550 / $650 / $700 / $780 UNLOCK: 750 XP | ||
Description: Shoots 12 darts at a time.
Effect: Each dart volley shoots 12 darts at a time. |
Fighter Plane COST: $850 / $1,000 / $1,080 / $1,200 UNLOCK: 2,700 XP | ||
Description: Flies fast and launches anti-MOAB missiles.
Effect: Every 4 seconds shoots twin anti-MOAB missiles that deal 18 damage per shot and affect up to 4 blimps. Anti-MOAB missiles can only target MOAB-class bloons, and are locked on Strong. |
Operation: Dart Storm COST: $2,550 / $3,000 / $3,240 / $3,600 UNLOCK: 8,000 XP | ||
Description: Shoots 16 darts per volley, and twice as fast.
Effect: Shoots 16 darts per volley, darts and missiles attack 2x faster (0.375x attack cooldown), and increases fighter plane missile damage to 24. |
Sky Shredder COST: $36,125 / $42,500 / $45,900 / $51,000 UNLOCK: 35,000 XP | ||
Description: The bloons will wish they had never come.
Effect: Attacks 33% faster (0.251~ attack cooldown), pops any bloon type, and shoots 32 darts per volley. Darts deal 3 damage plus another +2 to Ceramics. Anti-MOAB missiles deal 150 damage and up to 5 blimps. |
Path 2[]
Exploding Pineapple COST: $170 / $200 / $215 / $240 UNLOCK: 120 XP | ||
Description: Drops pineapples to the ground that explode violently after a few seconds. Ace's explosive attacks are improved.
Effect: Drops exploding pineapples onto the ground every 1.6 seconds, and increases the pierce and blast radius of all of Ace's explosive attacks. Pineapples explode after 3 seconds and deal 1 damage to up to 20 bloons. |
Spy Plane COST: $295 / $350 / $380 / $420 UNLOCK: 600 XP | ||
Description: Allows Monkey Ace to hit Camo Bloons and do more damage to them.
Effect: Allows Monkey Ace to hit Camo Bloons and any attacks deal +1 damage to Camo Bloons |
Bomber Ace COST: $765 / $900 / $970 / $1,080 UNLOCK: 2,500 XP | ||
Description: Drops a line of bombs when crossing the Bloon track.
Effect: Instead of pineapples, drops an array of 4 bombs every 1.6 seconds but only when crossing the track. Bombs deal 3 damage per explosion, each bomb explodes in a 35 radius, and each explosion pops up to 20 bloons. |
Ground Zero COST: $15,300 / $18,000 / $19,440 / $21,600 UNLOCK: 15,000 XP | ||
Description: Bomb damage increased significantly. Ground Zero Ability: Drops a huge bomb that destroys most things on screen.
Effect: Ability drops a nuke that inflicts 700 damage to all bloons on screen, including explosion-immune bloons, affecting up to 2000 bloons on screen and wiping out any weaker bloons. Main bomb explosions deal 10 damage instead of 3 and can pop up to 40 bloons. |
Tsar Bomba COST: $25,500 / $30,000 / $32,400 / $36,000 UNLOCK: 30,000 XP | ||
Description: A very, very large bomb. Someone put a stop to this craziness!
Effect: Ability nuke deals 3000 damage, affects up to 5000 bloons on screen, and stuns all survivors of the blast except BADs. Has a shorter ability cooldown. Main bomb explosions pop any bloon type. |
Path 3[]
Sharper Darts COST: $425 / $500 / $540 / $600 UNLOCK: 160 XP | ||
Description: Darts can pop 8 Bloons each.
Effect: Darts pop up to 8 bloons and dropped bombs gain +12 pierce. |
Centered Path COST: $465 / $550 / $595 / $660 UNLOCK: 600 XP | ||
Description: New central flight path for maximum map coverage.
Effect: Gains the Centered Path flight path, which moves the Ace along a unified path in a circular formation. This flight path can be adjusted so it flies around a different central point. |
Neva-Miss Targeting COST: $2,165 / $2,550 / $2,755 / $3,060 UNLOCK: 3,000 XP | ||
Description: Darts automatically seek out and pop Bloons by themselves.
Effect: Darts will automatically rotate to continuously seek at nearby bloons, each dart weakly homing around a large arc. |
Spectre COST: $19,890 / $23,400 / $25,270 / $28,080 UNLOCK: 19,000 XP | ||
Description: Rapidly fires darts and bombs, dominating most Bloon types easily.
Effect: Additionally shoots rapid-fire alternating darts and bombs that both seek. Darts deal 5 damage per shot, and pop up to 15 bloons. Bombs deal 3 damage to up to 20 bloons (+15 with Exploding Pineapple). Darts deal +1 Ceramic damage, and bombs deal +3 Ceramic damage. Volleys of seeking darts deal 3 damage. |
Flying Fortress COST: $72,250 / $85,000 / $91,800 / $102,000 UNLOCK: 45,000 XP | ||
Description: This is a BIG plane.
Effect: Attacks +50% faster (0.66x attack cooldown), shoots three rapid-fire attacks with separate targeting: first, last and close. Rapid-fire darts deal 5 damage and bombs deal 4, and these darts deal a further +10 to MOAB-class, and both pop all bloon types. Volleys of seeking darts deal 6 damage. |
Paragon Upgrade[]
Goliath Doomship COST: $765,000 / $900,000 / $972,000/ $1,080,000 UNLOCK: 1,000,000 XP
| |
Description: A flying shadow of darkness spells Bloon obliteration.
Effect: Regularly shoots out quick volleys of 12 non-homing missiles, deploys 8 homing missiles at once towards bloons, and rapidly fires twin darts when directly facing bloons. Flies twice as slowly as a normal Monkey Ace. Carpet Bomb Ability: Calls out 3 mini-doomships that carpet bomb along a straightline path, deploying 9 devastating bombs in rapid succession. |
Total Costs[]
Easy:
Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 | Tier 5 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Path 1 | ||||||
Base Cost | 550 | 550 | 850 | 2,550 | 34,000 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,230 | 1,780 | 2,630 | 5,180 | 39,180 | |
Base Sell | 385 | 385 | 595 | 1,785 | 24,693 | |
Cumulative Sell | 861 | 1,246 | 1,841 | 3,626 | 28,319 | |
Path 2 | ||||||
Base Cost | 170 | 295 | 765 | 15,300 | 25,500 | |
Cumulative Cost | 850 | 1,145 | 1,910 | 17,210 | 42,710 | |
Base Sell | 119 | 207 | 535 | 10,710 | 17,850 | |
Cumulative Sell | 595 | 802 | 1,337 | 12,047 | 29,897 | |
Path 3 | ||||||
Base Cost | 425 | 255 | 2,380 | 19,890 | 72,250 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,105 | 1,360 | 3,740 | 23,630 | 95,880 | |
Base Sell | 298 | 178 | 1,666 | 13,923 | 50,575 | |
Cumulative Sell | 774 | 952 | 2,618 | 16,541 | 67,116 |
Medium:
Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 | Tier 5 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Path 1 | ||||||
Base Cost | 650 | 650 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 41,000 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,450 | 2,100 | 3,100 | 6,100 | 47,600 | |
Base Sell | 967 | 1,400 | 700 | 2,100 | 29,050 | |
Cumulative Sell | 1,015 | 1,470 | 2,170 | 4,270 | 33,320 | |
Path 2 | ||||||
Base Cost | 200 | 350 | 900 | 18,000 | 30,000 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,000 | 1,350 | 2,250 | 20,250 | 50,250 | |
Base Sell | 140 | 245 | 630 | 12,600 | 21,000 | |
Cumulative Sell | 700 | 945 | 1,575 | 14,175 | 35,175 | |
Path 3 | ||||||
Base Cost | 500 | 300 | 2,800 | 23,400 | 85,000 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,300 | 1,600 | 4,400 | 27,800 | 112,800 | |
Base Sell | 350 | 210 | 1,960 | 16,380 | 59,500 | |
Cumulative Sell | 910 | 1,120 | 3,080 | 19,460 | 78,960 |
Hard:
Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 | Tier 5 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Path 1 | ||||||
Base Cost | 700 | 700 | 1,080 | 3,240 | 44,820 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,565 | 2,265 | 3,345 | 6,585 | 51,405 | |
Base Sell | 490 | 490 | 756 | 2,268 | 31,374 | |
Cumulative Sell | 1,096 | 1,586 | 2,342 | 4,610 | 35,984 | |
Path 2 | ||||||
Base Cost | 215 | 380 | 970 | 19,440 | 32,400 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,080 | 1,460 | 2,430 | 21,870 | 54,270 | |
Base Sell | 150 | 266 | 679 | 13,608 | 22,680 | |
Cumulative Sell | 756 | 1,022 | 1,701 | 15,309 | 37,989 | |
Path 3 | ||||||
Base Cost | 540 | 325 | 3,025 | 25,270 | 91,800 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,405 | 1,730 | 4,755 | 30,025 | 121,825 | |
Base Sell | 378 | 227 | 2,118 | 17,689 | 64,200 | |
Cumulative Sell | 984 | 1,211 | 3,329 | 21,018 | 85,278 |
Impoppable:
Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 | Tier 5 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Path 1 | ||||||
Base Cost | 780 | 780 | 1,200 | 3,600 | 49,800 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,740 | 2,520 | 3,720 | 7,320 | 57,120 | |
Base Sell | 546 | 546 | 804 | 2,520 | 34,860 | |
Cumulative Sell | 1,218 | 1,764 | 2,604 | 5,124 | 39,984 | |
Path 2 | ||||||
Base Cost | 240 | 420 | 1,080 | 21,600 | 36,000 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,200 | 1,620 | 2,700 | 24,300 | 60,300 | |
Base Sell | 168 | 294 | 756 | 15,120 | 25,200 | |
Cumulative Sell | 840 | 1,134 | 1,890 | 17,010 | 42,210 | |
Path 3 | ||||||
Base Cost | 600 | 360 | 3,360 | 28,080 | 102,000 | |
Cumulative Cost | 1,560 | 1,920 | 5,280 | 33,360 | 135,360 | |
Base Sell | 420 | 252 | 2,353 | 19,656 | 71,400 | |
Cumulative Sell | 1,092 | 1,344 | 3,696 | 23,352 | 94,752 |
Strategy[]
- See also: Monkey Ace (BTD6)/Strategies
Summary[]
Monkey Aces have a high skill ceiling in true optimizations with its various flight patterns that assist its maximum potential with its arsenal of various weapons available. The base Monkey Ace starts off like a flying Tack Shooter moving in a fixed flight pattern around its base, making it somewhat inconsistent in accurate damage but stronger in localized positions. This trend tends to continue for most upgrades, with many of its higher-tier upgrades offering more weapons that either rely on optimal micromanagement or alter its overall accuracy for a high cost.
Tips[]
- Ace micro (refer to Micromanagement#Ace Micro) is an important skill to use for optimizing a Monkey Ace.
Additional Strategies[]
Monkey Knowledge[]
This section displays Monkey Knowledge that has effects on Monkey Ace and its changes when compared to one by default:
- Airforce Upgrades: All T3+ Monkey Aces get +1 pierce.
- Base pierce increased from 5 → 6.
- Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
- Accelerated Aerodarts: Darts from Monkey Aces fly faster.
- Darts fly 50% faster.
- Targeted Pineapples: Pineapples are only dropped near tracks.
- Gun Coolant: Monkey Aces attack 10% faster.
- Wingmonkey: Grants all Monkey Aces with a new target priority that allows it to fly around the screen like the planes from the Aircraft Carrier.
- Aeronautic Subsidy: Reduces the cost of all Monkey Ace Tier 5 Upgrades by 10%.
- Cost reduced from $42,500, $35,000, $85,000 to $38,250, $31,500, $76,500 on Medium difficulty for Path 1, Path 2, Path 3, respectively.
- Military Conscription: First military tower costs only ⅔ of the original cost.
- Monkey Ace base cost from $680, $800, $865, and $960 → $455, $535, $580, and $645 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
- Advanced Logistics: All Military Monkeys base costs reduced by 5%.
- Monkey Ace base cost from $680, $800, $865, and $960 → $645, $760, $820, and $910 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
- If Military Conscription is also enabled, the final cost will be $420, $495, $535, and $595.
- Monkey Ace base cost from $680, $800, $865, and $960 → $645, $760, $820, and $910 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
- Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
- Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
- Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
- Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
- Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.
Version History[]
Differences Between BTD5 and BTD6[]
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it. |
Listed are comparisons of the Monkey Ace in BTD6 compared to BTD5. Takes into account Flash and Mobile versions.
- Defaults to Circle instead of Figure-Eight
- Monkey Ace can now toggle flight direction for any pattern.
- Rapid Fire only increase 33% attack speed instead of twice as fast
- Rapid Fire price decrease ($700 → $650)
- Spy Plane price increase ($300 → $350)
- Ground Zero price increased ($14,000 → $18,000)
- Operation: Dart Storm now shoots anti MOAB missiles to MOAB-class Bloons (upgrade from Fighter Plane)
- Spy Plane now deals +1 damage to Camo Bloons
- Ground Zero ability has deal double damage (350 → 700)
- Ground Zero ability pierce reduced ( infinite → 1000)
- Neva-Miss Targeting now all darts will always seek at bloons regardless of position
- Spectre price increased ($18,000 → $24,000)
- Spectre darts and bombs both increase damage
- Spectre darts and bombs both deal extra damage to ceramics
- Exploding Pineapple(Or Pineapple Present) now increase Spectre bomb pierce and blast radius
- Spectre bomb cannot pop black bloons or zebra bloons itself
- Spectre dart pierce reduced (TBA → 15)
- Spectre bomb pierce reduced (TBA → 30)
- Several changes in path placement of the upgrades; some upgrades are moved to different paths. This allows for more options with the first two middle path upgrades but means that no longer have at once.
Balance Changes[]
Note: Due to the volatility of seeking changing unknowingly throughout updates, seeking changes may not be properly reflected here. This affects all Top Path Monkey Ace and Neva-Miss Targeting.
- Initial release (compared to BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Steam)
- Monkey Ace base cost decreased ($900 -> $800)
- 4.0
- x-x-4 Spectre attack rate reduced by about 16.6%, Flying Fortress remains unchanged.
- 6.0
- x-x-5 Flying Fortress attack rate increased by 20%.
- 7.0
- x-3-x Bomber Ace bombing run blast radius increased 25 to 35.
- x-3-x Bomber Ace bombing run attack cooldown reduced 3s to 1.5s.
- x-3-x Bomber Ace bombing run damage increased from 2 to 4.
- x-3-x Bomber Ace costs more ($500 → $900).
- 8.0
- 5-x-x Sky Shredder - damage from radial darts increased 2 to 3.
- x-x-3 Neva-Miss Targeting projectile lifespan +50%.
- x-x-3 Neva-Miss Targeting projectile speed +50%.
- x-x-3 Neva-Miss Targeting increased homing tightness to accommodate new speed.
- x-x-4 Spectre dart damage increased 1 to 2.
- x-x-4 Spectre bomb damage increased 2 to 3.
- x-x-4 Spectre price increased from $18,000 to $24,000.
- x-x-5 Flying Fortress dart damage increased 2 to 4.
- x-x-5 Flying Fortress bomb damage increased 3 → 5.
- 9.0
- x-x-3 Neva-Miss Targeting darts should no longer perform considerably worse with the Accelerated Aerodarts knowledge active.
- 10.0
- 1-3-x Bomber Ace will now benefit from the 40% rate increase crosspath, lowering the rate from 1.7s to 1.02s.
- x-3-x Bomber Ace bomb damage reduced from 4 to 3.
- x-3-x Bomber Ace cooldown increased from 1.5s to 1.7s.
- x-4-x Ground Zero Bombs dropped by this tower now deal 10 damage permanently.
- 16.0
- 5-x-x Sky Shredder ceramic damage bonus added +2.
- 17.0
- 3-x-x Fighter Plane missile pierce increased from 1 to 3.
- 3-x-x Fighter Plane missile rate reduced from 3s to 4s.
- 3-x-x Fighter Plane missile damage reduced 25 to 18.
- 4-x-x Operation: Dart Strom Fighter Plane missile pierce increased from 1 to 4.
- 4-x-x Operation: Dart Storm Fighter Plane missile rate reduced from 1.5s to 2s.
- 5-x-x Sky Shredder Fighter Plane missile pierce increased from 1 to 5.
- 5-x-x Sky Shredder Fighter Plane missile rate reduced from 1.5s to 2s.
- 18.0
- Monkey Ace is now affected by the Carrier Flagship 15% speed buff effect.
- 21.0
“ | Tsar Bomba currently holds low value compared to multiple Ground Zero purchases aside from the stun, this greatly requested change should hopefully add more niche benefit | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- x-5-x Tsar Bomba bombs damage type changes from Explosive → Normal.
- x-5-x Tsar Bomba cooldown reduced from 45 → 40.
- [undocumented] Tsar Bomba ability initial cooldown reduced (15s → 10s).
- 22.0
“ | While Pineapples are never the star of the show, the amount of pierce they have is completely unnecessary for their usage window and has only led to balance problems for Bombing Run, specifically in races. This high amount of pierce has been more evenly spread through higher tiers & crosspath. Flying Fortress has also been reduced in price because, while achievable, it doesn't match well with freeplay progress | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Base Exploding Pineapple bomb pierce decreased (40 → 20).
- 0-1-1 Exploding Pineapple bomb pierce decreased (40 → 32).
- Pierce nerfs for Exploding Pineapple also apply to Bomber Ace. Ground Zero pierce remains at current pierce value of 40.
- 0-4-1 Ground Zero pierce increased from 40 to 52.
- Flying Fortress price reduced from $120,000 to $105,000.
- 23.0
“ | Monkey Ace was never intended to be a great starting tower and instead come into power at mid- and high-tier upgrades, but since the base tower feels lacking to new players (and some of us old timers) we decided to rework low tier power into the base tower. In addition to this we are experimenting with adding a small amount of homing to the spectre upgrade as rapid fire missing is not the intended design | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Monkey Ace projectile size increased (2 → 3).
- Monkey Ace attack cooldown reduced (2.1s → 1.68s).
- Rapid Fire attack rate buff decreased (0.6x → 0.75x).
- Spectre and Flying Fortress attack speed bonus from Rapid Fire remains the same.
- Exploding Pineapple base attack cooldown decreased (3s → 2s).
- Spectre now has a very slight seeking effect on the dart projectiles. Also affects Flying Fortress.
- Flying Fortress price decreased ($105,000 → $100,000).
- 24.0
“ | Similar to Tack Shooter Maelstrom upgrades, we have targeted a nerf to Ground Zero for race conditions by amounts which are not relevant outside of those conditions. Additionally Tsar Bomba has received a much smaller version of this nerf along with a reduced cooldown to increase its relevance. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ground Zero ability pierce reduced (infinite → 1,000).
- Tsar Bomba ability pierce reduced (infinite → 5,000).
- Tsar Bomba ability cooldown reduced from (40s → 35s).
- [undocumented] Tsar Bomba ability initial cooldown reduced (10s → 5s).
- 26.0
“ | As Dart Storm currently feels like a lossy stepping stone the damage has been increased. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Operation: Dart Storm homing missile damage increased from 18 to 24. Does not affect Sky Shredder.
- 28.0
“ | Monkey Ace has had an overall rework to a lot of different upgrades in order to highlight the x1x Exploding Pineapples upgrade as a buff to all explosives, in addition to this Spectre has been reworked to have less base pierce but a higher damage bonus to Ceramic Bloons in order to make the new option of a pierce crosspath more viable while also allowing it to carry on better into the endgame against Super Ceramics. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Fighter Plane missiles pierce increased from 3 -> 4. Operation Dart Storm Missiles pierce remains 4.
- 3-1-0 Fighter Plane missiles pierce increased from 3 -> 6
- 3-1-0 Fighter Plane missiles radius increased from 30 -> 34.5
- 4-1-0 Dart Storm missiles pierce increased from 4 -> 6
- 5-1-0 Sky Shredder missiles pierce increased from 5 -> 7
- Spectre dart damage deals +2 damage to Ceramics, for 4 damage versus Ceramics instead of 2. Flying Fortress also inherits this Ceramic bonus.
- Spectre dart pierce reduced from 30 -> 15
- Spectre bomb damage deals +2 damage to Ceramics, for 5 damage versus Ceramics instead of 3. Flying Fortress also inherits this Ceramic bonus.
- Spectre bomb pierce without Exploding Pineapples reduced from 60 -> 30
- 0-1-4 Spectre bomb pierce reduced from 60 -> 45
- 0-1-4 Spectre bomb radius increased from 20 -> 23
- 30.0
“ | More of a straight quality of life, Ace has gained a new special toggle button to allow it to turn back and fly in reverse on any selected flight pattern. As Ground Zero stands out in power, & enough so to make the upgrade to Tsar Bomba questionable, some upgrade cost has been moved out of Tsar Bomba into Ground Zero to make Ground Zero more expensive while not changing Tsar much other than a slight overall cost buff. While Flying Fortress has started to see use in Boss events this feels like more of a cash dump than actual value in the tower. As Spectre value already drops off the later any game gets, the saveup into a ‘better version’ also drops off in value, and so the price should reflect that better. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Monkey Ace can now toggle flight direction for any pattern via Reverse Flight. Cooldown of 5 seconds per use on the same Ace.
- Ground Zero price increased from $14,000 -> $18,000
- Tsar Bomba price decreased from $35,000 -> $30,000
- Flying Fortress price $100,000 -> $85,000
- 31.0
“ | Spy Plane is always a lesser crosspath aside from specific challenges that call for camo detection. It has a similar vibe to Night Vision sniper so we have given it a similar buff. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Spy Plane grants attacks bonus damage to camos +1
- 32.0
“ | Neva-Miss has been generally over performing for quite a cheap T3, increasing price here slightly but not carrying that increase up through higher tiers. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Neva-Miss Targeting price increased from $2200 -> $2800
- Spectre price reduced from $24,000 -> $23,400
- 33.0
“ | To help you work towards the new Ace Paragon we have reduced Spectre’s lategame ceramic weakness with improved targeting for the bomb projectiles & a large increase to their bonus Ceramic damage to help out later on, to change focus on these projectiles we have also shifted damage around for the darts to deal single target with the bombs providing ceramic AoE cleanup. Flying Fortress’s value drops off by the lategame when you can realistically afford it, so following on with this dart single target focus change at T4 we have added a large MOAB damage bonus to Flying Fortress darts. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Spectre darts & bombs now both have a weaker homing effect
- [undocumented] Spectre darts angular speed decreased (80 → 20)
- [undocumented] Spectre bombs angular speed decreased (0 → 10)
- Spectre dart damage increased from 2 -> 3
- Spectre bomb damage reduced from 3 -> 2
- Spectre bomb ceramic bonus increased from 2 -> 4
- Flying Fortress darts now gain deal bonus +10 damage to MOABs
- 34.0
“ | Sky Shredder has a higher skill ceiling than most towers so has evaded many nerfs, but is still too good for what it offers so is finally seeing a slight price increase. Same as mentioned above for the flagship, we are experimenting with new homing changes for the Spectre & Flying Fortress to improve their feeling. Users have noticed that Goliath Doomship's ability overall has far less pierce than the T4 ability, while this rarely matters at all the pierce value downgrading by that much was not an intended reduction, so we are bumping up each of those ability bombs to bring the total pierce up. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Sky Shredder price increased $40,000 -> $41,500
- Spectre new homing style
- Goliath Doomship ability Carpet-Bomb pierce increased 50 -> 150
- 35.0
“ | While we wanted to initially ensure general farming achievability of the (still very high) price compared to how good we actually felt the Doomship was due to the target goal of giving it an intentional ability niche and the jump it would be as most expensive paragon, but after seeing the results of its power we're happy to take this up now | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Goliath Doomship price increased $800,000 -> $900,000
- 37.0
“ | Spectre is shifting a little of the ceramic bonus around into basic all damage at the cost of reduced pierce, which should make up for lack of single target damage while also making the pierce crosspath more necessary when being used for cleanup focus. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Spectre Dart damage increased 3 → 4
- Spectre Dart ceramic bonus reduced +2 → +1
- 0-x-4 Spectre Dart pierce reduced 15 → 10
- 2-0-4 Spectre Dart pierce reduced 18.75 → 12.5
- Spectre Bomb damage increased 2 → 3
- Spectre Bomb ceramic bonus reduced +4 → +3
- x-0-4 Spectre Bomb pierce reduced 30 → 20
- 0-1-4 Spectre Bomb pierce reduced 45 → 35
- Note: Spectre base damage and Ceramic bonus damage changes also affect Spectre
- Flying Fortress Dart damage increased 5 → 6
- Flying Fortress Dart ceramic bonus reduced +2 → +1
- 0-x-4 Flying Fortress Dart pierce reduced 15 → 10
- 2-0-4 Flying Fortress Dart pierce reduced 18.75 → 12.5
- Flying Fortress Bomb damage increased 3 → 5
- Flying Fortress Bomb ceramic bonus reduced +4 → +3
- x-0-4 Flying Fortress Bomb pierce reduced 30 → 20
- 0-1-4 Flying Fortress Bomb pierce reduced 45 → 35
- 38.0
“ | As the price of Ground Zero has been considerably increased in the base game since then, the nerf to 1000 pierce set for races a long time ago now feels restrictive for the price. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Ground Zero ability pierce increased from 1000 → 2000
- 39.0
“ | Limiting many changes to Ace for now, we feel that it wasn’t nerfed that badly from the bug fix and we also currently want it to stay one of the much higher level price tags. It has been performing incredibly well even as the most expensive paragon, however given it is very cooldown dependent and scaling that cooldown via degrees is going to be much harder now we want to wait and see the impact of the rest of that rework before anything more significant to it. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Goliath Doomship's overall Boss damage slightly decreased
- Goliath Doomship's Carpet Bomb base ability cooldown increased (40s → 45s)
- 40.0
“ | The homing for Neva-miss darts can cause darts to expire just before they are able to loop around and hit their target, which is unsatisfying to see – we like the pattern this attacks with though so allowing a little extra distance before expiration should mostly solve this. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Neva-Miss Targeting projectile distance increased (450 → 600)
- 41.0
“ | Sky Shredder somewhat justifies its power as one of the very best towers in the game, although everything at this level is a bit too cheap. Exploding pineapples gained a larger rate bonus from crosspathing than the main attack did to make up for its base rate being so poor, so we're fixing that poor base rate while keeping the crosspath bonus the same. Centered Path these days adds a lot more potential power to Ace than before and we are moving price down into it from Neva-Miss. Neva-Miss itself is too fun and cool to be lost completely on the very next upgrade so it's coming back to Spectre as an additional attack, as this main attack is back again 204 no longer needs to give an additional conflicting crosspath benefit. Finally, the Doomship continues to outperform all other paragon significantly enough even for the much higher price that we feel the need to slightly increase the ability cooldown - although the new buff from sub paragon lowers this back down to exactly 45 again anyway. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Sky Shredder price increased from $41,500 to $42,500
- 0-1-x Exploding Pineapple attack cooldown decreased from 2s to 1.7s
- Rapid Fire bomb crosspath's attack cooldown reduction multiplier to pineapples and bombs decreased from 0.60x to 0.75x, matching attack cooldown reduction multiplier of darts
- 1-1-0 Exploding Pineapple attack cooldown increased from 1.2s to 1.275s
- 1-3-0 Bomber Ace attack cooldown increased from 1.02s to 1.275s
- Centered Path price increased from $300 to $550
- Neva-Miss Targeting price reduced from $2800 to $2550
- Spectre now keeps the original Neva-Miss Targeting attack alongside its rapid-fire dart-and-bomb barrages, additionally increasing damage of its Neva-Miss Targeting darts from 1 to 3. Also affects Flying Fortress.
- 2-0-4 Spectre no longer gains +25% pierce for darts
- Goliath Doomship ability cooldown increased from 45s to 50s
- 43.0
“ | Minor catchup changes to some parts have fallen out of line slightly due to balance changes for other parts of the Ace. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Exploding Pineapple base attack cooldown reduced from 1.7s to 1.6s. Also affects Bomber Ace.
- 1-1-0 Exploding Pineapple attack cooldown reduced from 1.275s to 1.2s. Also affects Bomber Ace.
- Flying Fortress radial dart damage increased from 3 to 6
“ | A lot of stats shuffled around here; this should keep the power level roughly similar overall but with proportionally more of that power coming from the seeking attacks, and less from micro aiming the faster firing frontal gun. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Goliath Doomship's Seeking Radials projectile count increased from 4 to 8
- Goliath Doomship's Seeking Radials damage increased from 200 to 300
- Goliath Doomship's Seeking Radials boss bonus increased from +200 to +300
- Goliath Doomship's Non-seeking Radials projectile count reduced from 16 to 12
- Goliath Doomship's Non-seeking Radials damage increased from 200 to 300
- Goliath Doomship's Non-seeking Radials boss bonus increased from +200 to +300
- Goliath Doomship's Frontal Gun damage reduced from 300 to 150
- Goliath Doomship's Frontal Gun boss bonus reduced from +300 to +150
- 44.0
“ | Even with the higher cost Goliath Doomship continues to pull too far ahead of other paragons, given that this is mostly an ability based paragon we’ve decided to nerf this ability greatly but also somewhat counterbalance this change for standard freeplay by converting all of the boss bonus on the ability into basic damage similar to our changes for the Sub Paragon. | ” |
~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Goliath Doomship's Carpet Bomb cooldown increased from 50s to 60s
- Goliath Doomship's Carpet Bomb regular damage increased from 20,000 to 30,000
- Goliath Doomship's Carpet Bomb bonus damage to bosses reduced from +20,000 to +0
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it. |
- 7.0
- x-2-x Exploding Pineapples work on Firing Range again.
- 14.0
- x-x-3 Neva-Miss Targeting Global Range tracking no longer stutters unreasonably.
- This change appeared to affect other towers with seeking projectiles.
- 17.1
- Resolved an issue where 5-0-0 Monkey Ace would target DDTs (But deal no damage).
- Resolved an issue where 5-2-0 Monkey Ace could not damage DDTs.
- Monkey Ace darts will no longer hit Camo Bloons without 5-2-0.
- 19.0
- Monkey Ace shouldn't cause as many desyncs on Geared.
- 20.0
- Should no longer cause a crash on Geared when map is turning.
- x-4-x Ground Zero description updated to include base Bombs being upgraded.
- 22.0
- x-5-x Tsar Bomba resolved an issue with crosspath stacking (always 40 seconds, not -5s per crosspath).
- 23.0
- No longer locks in place after enabling wingmonkey and then disabling knowledge.
- 24.0
- x-1-x Exploding Pineapples description has been updated with more detail.
- 26.0
- [visual change] 010 Exploding Pineapple should no longer display the wrong number on every 2nd Pineapple.
Sounds[]
When placing a Monkey Ace:
- [Biplane engine]
- [Biplane engine]
When activating Ground Zero or Tsar Bomba Ability:
- [Explosion]
Gallery[]
Official artwork[]
Trivia[]
- This is the only tower in which all 3 of its tier 4 upgrades in BTD6 were present in BTD5.
- Even though the Operation: Dart Storm did not fire missiles and Ground Zero did not drop bomb arrays originally, all three names and the main characteristics are retained.
- All Monkey Aces with Tier 4 or above upgrades lack a visible pilot.
- The upgrade description for Spectre in BTD5 hinted at the Flying Fortress, with the description being, "Flying fortress of bloon doom.".
- All Tier 5 Monkey Ace upgrades each contain ambiguous descriptions.
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