- For other uses of "Lab", see Lab (disambiguation).
“ | Lab upgrades provide a boost in the battlefield every time you play! To fund your research, you need Tokens which you gain by beating tracks and Special Missions. The lab displays how many Tokens are required for the next upgrade. Tap each upgrade to learn its benefits. | ” |
~ In-game description |
The Monkey Lab is a game mechanic in Bloons TD 5 Mobile, Bloons TD 5 Steam, and Bloons TD 5 Console. It is an enhancement system that allows the player to unlock permanent upgrades by spending Tokens.
The Monkey Lab does not exist in the Flash version.
Overview[]
Categories[]
The Monkey Lab has seven different categories, each of which can be upgraded to enhance certain aspects of the player's towers or the game itself. Some of these are replacements for Premium Upgrades from the Flash version, while others are unique to this version.
Category | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|
Popping Power |
Grants a <x>% increase to the popping power of every offensive tower and agent you deploy. | Despite what the description implies, this does not directly increase pierce. Instead, the given percentage is the chance for each projectile to have double pierce. |
Attack Speed |
Grants a <x>% increase to the attack speed of every offensive tower and agent you deploy. | Actually reduces the cooldown of all towers' attacks by its given percentage. Has no effect on the "fire delay" of towers' attacks, meaning the buff has less of an effect on towers whose attacks have a long wind-up period. |
Starting Cash |
Grants a bonus $<x> starting cash in every regular game you play. | Does not apply on Deflation. |
Starting Lives |
Grants a bonus <x> starting lives in every regular game you play. | Does not apply on Impoppable or Covert Pops. Replaces Triple Lives from the Flash version. |
Sell Price |
Increases the amount of cash redeemed by selling towers to <x>% of amount spent. | Replaces Monkey Tycoon from the Flash version, though unlike Monkey Tycoon, this does not give a full return on investment even at the maximum level. |
Big Bloon Sabotage |
Reduces by <x>% the number of hit points of every MOAB, BFB, and ZOMG. | Due to a bug, enabling this also disables the extra health granted to MOAB-Class Bloons on Impoppable. Replaces Big Bloon Sabotage from the Flash version. |
Ability Cooldown |
Reduces by <x>% the cool down time of your Activated Abilities. | Replaces Hotter Cooldown from the Flash version. |
Upgrades[]
Each category has 13 levels of upgrades, with the effects of each category scaling with its current level. Each upgrade costs a certain number of Tokens, which increases significantly with each level. It costs a total of 2,236 to unlock all upgrades for all categories.
By default, each Monkey Lab category can only be upgraded up to level 8. Levels 9 to 13 each require the player to unlock a corresponding Mastery Mode category before they can be upgraded to.
Level | Mastery required |
---|---|
9 | Beginner Mastery
|
10 | Intermediate Mastery
|
11 | Advanced Mastery
|
12 | Expert Mastery
|
13 | Extreme Mastery
|
List of Monkey Lab upgrades[]
Level | Amount | Cost | Total cost |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 2% | 2 | 2 |
2 | 4% | 3 | 5 |
3 | 6% | 4 | 9 |
4 | 8% | 7 | 16 |
5 | 10% | 8 | 24 |
6 | 12% | 10 | 34 |
7 | 15% | 16 | 50 |
8 | 20% | 28 | 78 |
9 | 24% | 35 | 113 |
10 | 28% | 40 | 153 |
11 | 32% | 45 | 198 |
12 | 36% | 50 | 248 |
13 | 40% | 60 | 308 |
Level | Amount | Cost | Total cost |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 2% | 2 | 2 |
2 | 3% | 3 | 5 |
3 | 4% | 4 | 9 |
4 | 5% | 5 | 14 |
5 | 7% | 10 | 24 |
6 | 9% | 12 | 36 |
7 | 12% | 18 | 54 |
8 | 15% | 25 | 79 |
9 | 18% | 32 | 111 |
10 | 20% | 40 | 151 |
11 | 22% | 45 | 196 |
12 | 24% | 50 | 246 |
13 | 26% | 60 | 306 |
Level | Amount | Cost | Total cost |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 | 1 | 1 |
2 | 20 | 2 | 3 |
3 | 40 | 4 | 7 |
4 | 60 | 5 | 12 |
5 | 90 | 10 | 22 |
6 | 120 | 12 | 34 |
7 | 160 | 20 | 54 |
8 | 200 | 25 | 79 |
9 | 240 | 32 | 111 |
10 | 280 | 40 | 151 |
11 | 320 | 45 | 196 |
12 | 360 | 50 | 246 |
13 | 400 | 60 | 306 |
Level | Amount | Cost | Total cost |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 82% | 2 | 2 |
2 | 83% | 2 | 4 |
3 | 85% | 5 | 9 |
4 | 87% | 6 | 15 |
5 | 89% | 8 | 23 |
6 | 91% | 12 | 35 |
7 | 93% | 20 | 55 |
8 | 95% | 25 | 80 |
9 | 96% | 32 | 112 |
10 | 97% | 40 | 152 |
11 | 98% | 45 | 197 |
12 | 98.5% | 50 | 247 |
13 | 99% | 60 | 307 |
Level | Amount | Cost | Total cost |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 2% | 1 | 1 |
2 | 4% | 2 | 3 |
3 | 6% | 3 | 6 |
4 | 8% | 5 | 11 |
5 | 10% | 7 | 18 |
6 | 12% | 10 | 28 |
7 | 15% | 17 | 45 |
8 | 20% | 35 | 80 |
9 | 22% | 40 | 120 |
10 | 24% | 45 | 165 |
11 | 26% | 50 | 215 |
12 | 28% | 60 | 275 |
13 | 30% | 70 | 345 |
Strategy[]
Token Farming[]
There are a few ways to farm for Tokens.
- Method 1: Clear past round 100 of every gamemode. This is the simplest way but can also be considered the most tedious as you will go into Freeplay Mode even in Hard Difficulty or Impoppable due to them only ending on Round 85. For more specific strategies, please see this page on the most effective strategies on clearing the upper rounds of freeplay.
- Method 2: Clear each map's difficulty. This can reward you with a handful of Tokens. However, this can only be done once per map's difficulty. (E.g. If you cleared Monkey Lane on Easy Difficulty before, you cannot clear Monkey Lane on Easy again. However, clearing Monkey Lane on Medium Difficulty will reward you the Tokens for that difficulty.) Take note that maps of higher difficulties will reward greater token payouts. Take advantage of Monkey Teams which will quadruple the payout of map clears and Fast-Track Mode to help you get set up, especially if the towers chosen are impossible to afford on Round 1.
- Method 3: Purchase 5 Tokens from the Premium Store for 750 Monkey Money. This method should ideally be used only once all other Monkey Money upgrades and Specialty Buildings upgrades have been purchased. Since if you do Method 2 a lot you will have a lot of Monkey Money leftover, which can be converted into Tokens.
Token usage focus[]
- It is advised that the very first Monkey Lab upgrade you purchase is the Level 1 Big Bloon Sabotage. This will help to disable the additional health bonus to all MOABs especially on Impoppable.
- Then afterwards, focus on Starting Cash to allow you to purchase the more expensive towers sooner and Attack Speed to increase damage output from most towers.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Attack Speed costs the fewest Tokens to fully upgrade, at 306, while Big Bloon Sabotage costs the most Tokens to fully upgrade, at 358.
- There is an unused building in the Flash version of Bloons Monkey City called the Monkey Lab. As it has no functionality, graphics, or description, it is unknown if it was related to this Monkey Lab or not.
See also[]
References[]
- http://archive.ninjakiwi.com/blog/bloons-td5-now-178-more-portable/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn0bBR5h1dM