Mortar Monkey

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For the BTD5 tower, see Mortar Tower.

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“	Launches an exploding mortar shell to a fixed location anywhere on the screen.	”
	^{~ BTD6 description}

The Mortar Monkey is a Military-class tower that arrived in the 12.0 update of Bloons TD 6 on September 17, 2019. It is a returning tower formerly named as the Mortar Tower. It was first teased on social media (specifically on Twitter) just before Version 6.0 was released several days later. On Ninja Kiwi's Twitter account, it was teased here, on September 15th 2019.

It costs $640 on Easy, $750 on Medium, $810 on Hard, and $900 on Impoppable.

Description[]

The Mortar Monkey is a returning tower from Bloons TD 5, returning to Bloons TD 6 since the Version 6.0 update. Several changes have occurred from BTD5, the most significant example being that it can no longer apply Burny Stuff to Black Bloons nor remove camo from Black Bloons via Signal Flare, both of which without MIB would simply not work.

Like other versions of it, the Mortar Monkey still has one yellow stripe on the green military helmet it also wears in other games (which doesn't have a chin strap on it like actual helmets do). The mortar, however only has one yellow line instead of two like in the artwork of BTD5 and BMC, making it a lot closer to the model in the game. The base of the mortar has screws, but it still has the ability to turn around freely when the players "micro" it like in other games. Another thing can be spotted is that while in other games, the monkey is always to the left of the mortar, this game however, has the monkey to the right. The tower itself also no longer has a reload animation. Instead, it now has a lever to pull, which will automatically reload and shoot the mortar in just a few seconds (with Heavy Shells and further upgrades, it presses a button on a remote control to launch attacks, particularly with faster upgrades such as Artillery Battery and Pop and Awe).

Path 1 improves the Mortar Monkey's explosive potential. The first upgrade of this path is Bigger Blast, which increases the blast radius of the Mortar Monkey's explosive shells. Bloon Buster returns as a Tier 2 upgrade, increasing explosion damage from 1 to 2. Shell Shock is a new Tier 3 upgrade that allows it to create a secondary explosion for each explosion, a shockwave that either stuns bloons close to it or damages bloons further out. The Big One further improves the explosion radius and damage just like its BTD5 counterpart. The final upgrade, The Biggest One, boosts its damage to 20 per explosion and an extra +20 to Ceramics and MOAB-class.

Path 2 increases attack speed of the Mortar Monkey and lets it gain special military-themed combat against bloons. Following a military theme, the first two upgrades Faster Reload and Rapid Reload both provide extra attack speed, while later upgrades allow it to become more powerful as a countermeasure to various types of bloons. Heavy Shells allows the Mortar to damage Black Bloons and deal bonus damage to a variety of different bloon types, specifically to Ceramics, MOAB-class, Fortified, Lead, and bloons affected by stunned status effects. Artillery Battery further increases attack speed for a greater performance at bloon destruction, in addition to gaining the Bombardment ability. Its Bombardment Ability unleashes a rapid fire attack in a slightly wider area. Pop and Awe gains much more specialized damage, and gains a much powerful replacement for the Bombardment ability, the Pop and Awe ability. Activating it causes all bloons on screen to be perpetually damaged and stunned for an extended period of time.

Path 3 is a new path dedicated to accurate firepower. Increased Accuracy increases accuracy of the Mortar's targeting, allowing it to hit its intended location more accurately. Burny Stuff upgrades the attack to gain a burning napalm on bloons damaged by its explosions, causing affected bloons to slowly damage over time. The aspect of flammables remains largely untouched with its two further upgrades, but still sticks to the theme of accurate firepower. Signal Flare allows the Mortar to detect camo and strip camo off damaged bloons, while Shattering Shells further improves the aspect of removing special bloon properties by stripping any non-MOAB-class bloon property and removing fortified off any bloon up to BFBs. Blooncineration brings back the burning aspect of this upgrade path, firing barrages of searing hot explosives that deal immense burning damage to affected bloons and generate infernal blazes at the center of each explosion.

Target Priorities[]

Mortar Monkey has only one target priority, "Set Target". This allows the Mortar Monkey to land shells within anywhere inside the target reticle. Tapping on the "Set Target" button prompts the player to change the target position of where the Mortar Monkey will land its shells. By default, once the Mortar Monkey is bought, the Mortar Monkey's target reticle is placed near the start of the first bloon track.

Upgrades[]

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Path 1[]

	Bigger Blast COST: $425 / $500 / $540 / $600 UNLOCK: 180 XP
	Description: Bigger shells deliver a bigger blast radius. Effect: Each explosion produces a large explosion radius, and increases main pierce from 40 to 45.

	Bloon Buster COST: $550 / $650 / $700 / $780 UNLOCK: 600 XP
	Description: Smash through 2 layers of Bloon at once! Effect: Explosions deal 2 damage instead of 1.

	Shell Shock COST: $935 / $1,100 / $1,190 / $1,320 UNLOCK: 2,500 XP
	Description: Blast shockwave stuns bloons at impact, pops bloons in a wider area, and increases Burny Stuff damage. Effect: Creates a secondary shockwave explosion that stuns bloons close to the epicenter and deals extra damage further from the main explosion. When given Burny Stuff, deals 2 damage per tick instead of 1.

	The Big One COST: $6,800 / $8,000 / $8,640 / $9,600 UNLOCK: 15,000 XP
	Description: Devastating explosions pop 5 layers of bloon, plus increases Burny Stuff damage further. Effect: Explosion radius is even bigger, deals 5 damage per main explosion, and increases main pierce from 45 to 85. When given Burny Stuff, deals 3 damage per tick instead of 2.

	The Biggest One COST: $23,800 / $28,000 / $30,240 / $33,600 UNLOCK: 29,000 XP
	Description: Blasts deeply through Bloons and layers over a huge area, plus powerful Burny Stuff damage. Effect: Creates gigantic explosions that deal 20 damage per main explosion, plus +20 to Ceramics and MOAB-class, and pops 200 bloons instead of 85. Shockwave explosion deals +10 damage to Ceramics. When given Burny Stuff, deals 25 damage per tick instead of 3.

Path 2[]

	Faster Reload COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360 UNLOCK: 150 XP
	Description: Increases the attack speed of the Mortar. Effect: Gains +33% attack speed (an equivalent value from 0.75x attack cooldown).

	Rapid Reload COST: $425 / $500 / $540 / $600 UNLOCK: 600 XP
	Description: Even faster reload. Effect: Gains +28% attack speed (an equivalent value from 0.78x attack cooldown).

	Heavy Shells COST: $765 / $900 / $970 / $1,080 UNLOCK: 2,300 XP
	Description: Heavy shells do extra damage to Ceramic, Lead, all Fortified, and all stunned bloons. Can also pop black Bloons. Effect: Explosions pop Black Bloons and deal +3 damage to Ceramics, +1 damage to Leads, +1 damage to Fortified, +1 damage to MOAB-class, and +2 damage to stunned bloons.

	Artillery Battery COST: $4,675 / $5,500 / $5,940 / $6,600 UNLOCK: 12,500 XP
	Description: Bombardment Ability: Unleashes a rapid fire attack in a slightly wider area. Main attack upgrades to 3 barrels for incredibly fast attacks. Effect: 4x attack speed. Ability increases attack speed by another 4x and blast radius by +15%.

Pop and Awe

COST: $25,500 / $30,000 / $32,400 / $36,000

UNLOCK: 32,000 XP

Description: Pop and Awe Ability: rains explosions over the whole screen, damaging and immobilizing all bloons for a few seconds. Main attack gains additional bonus damage to stunned Bloons.

Effect: Ability stuns all bloons on screen repetitively every 1 second for 8 seconds. Main attack gains quadruple the additive special bonus damage bonuses for all except stunned, which gives +10 instead of +2.

Path 3[]

	Increased Accuracy COST: $170 / $200 / $215 / $240 UNLOCK: 140 XP
	Description: Makes the shots more accurate. Effect: Reduces deviation radius from ~18 to ~8.

	Burny Stuff COST: $425 / $500 / $540 / $600 UNLOCK: 650 XP
	Description: Damaged Bloons are set ablaze momentarily with each hit. Effect: Affected bloons slowly deal 1 damage every 1.5s for 3.0s after getting ignited with napalm.

	Signal Flare COST: $595 / $700 / $755 / $840 UNLOCK: 2,200 XP
	Description: Camo Bloons popped by flares lose their camouflage permanently. Effect: Explosions produce secondary flares that strip camo properties off any bloon hit, including Camo Blacks, Camo Zebras, and DDTs. Can detect Camo Bloons.

	Shattering Shells COST: $9,350 / $11,000 / $11,880 / $13,200 UNLOCK: 12,000 XP
	Description: Shattering shells strip all bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons. Effect: Strips all Camo, Regrow, and Fortified from non-MOAB-class bloons, strips DDT camo, and strips Fortified from MOABs and BFBs.

Blooncineration

COST: $34,000 / $40,000 / $43,200 / $48,000

UNLOCK: 35,000 XP

Description: Superhot burny stuff melts through 5 layers of bloon each shot, burns MOAB class bloons for extra damage, and strips DDT camo.

Effect: Even more burning damage, 5 damage to bloons and 100 damage to blimps per damage tick. Blazes are produced at the location where the explosions landed, for further damage to bloons passing by. Explosions also strip camo and fortified properties from DDTs.

Total Costs[]

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost
	Cumulative Cost
	Base Sell
	Cumulative Sell
Path 2
	Base Cost
	Cumulative Cost
	Base Sell
	Cumulative Sell
Path 3
	Base Cost
	Cumulative Cost
	Base Sell
	Cumulative Sell

Strategy[]

Main article: Mortar Monkey/Strategies

Teaser[]

It was teased a few days earlier on Twitter, on November 16th 2018.

Version History[]

6.0 (compared to BTD5 Flash)

Initial release
Burny Stuff no longer applies napalm to Black Bloons or Zebra Bloons.
Signal Flare no longer removes camo from Black Bloons, Zebra Bloons, or DDTs. Additionally, an MIB or other black-popping grant is required to decamo Black Bloons or Zebra Bloons.
Signal Flare costs more ($500 → $700).
Bigger Blast costs less ($600 → $500).
Several changes in path placement of the upgrades; some upgrades are moved to different paths. Increased Accuracy, Burny Stuff, and Signal Flare are now Path 3 upgrades starting from Tier 1 to Tier 3. Bigger Blasts is now a Path 1 Tier 1 upgrade. Bloon Buster is now the Path 1 Tier 2 upgrade. Bigger Blasts and Rapid Reload are now mutually exclusive for Signal Flare. New upgrade Shell Shock is the Path 1 Tier 3 upgrade. New upgrade Heavy Shells is the Path 2 Tier 3 upgrade.
Artillery Battery no longer has an ability. Instead, it has moved to the new succeeding upgrade Pop and Awe.
Artillery Battery no longer detects camo without support.
Artillery Battery explosions can pop Black Bloon properties but no longer has Burny Stuff.
Artillery Battery costs less ($9,000 → $5,500).
Cost of Bloon Buster decreased ($800 → $650).
Rapid Reload is now a Tier 2 upgrade; Faster Reload is now the former Rapid Reload upgrade. New Rapid Reload upgrade costs $500 on Medium.
Faster Reload (the new version of the BTD5 Rapid Reload) costs more ($250 → $300).
Mortar Monkey's Footprint is now the size and shape of the mortar turret prior to placement, regardless of where it turns. This footprint is used instead of an unclear "center" spot between the monkey and the mortar turret.

Balance Changes[]

7.0

5xx The Biggest One damage increased from 10 to 20.

8.0

1-x-x Bigger Blast radius has been increased slightly.
4-x-x The Big One cost reduced $10,000 to $8,000.
4-x-x The Big One blast radius increased.
5-x-x The Biggest One cost reduced $30,000 to $24,000.
5-x-x The Biggest One blast radius increased by a big amount.
x-3-x Heavy Shells now deals extra damage to MOAB class bloons +1.
x-x-5 Blooncineration can now damage all Bloon types.
x-x-5 Blooncineration price reduced $55,000 to $50,000.
x-x-5 Blooncineration now creates a wall of fire at impact location.

9.0

5-x-x The Biggest One deals 3x damage to any Ceramic or higher.
- Note: It is presumed the damage is additive, or +40 damage instead of multiplicative.
5-x-x The Biggest One price increased from $24,000 to $28,000.
2-x-5 Blooncineration's Wall of Fire will now benefit from the Radius, Pierce and Damage buffs that the top crosspath offers.

10.0

x-x-4 Shattering Shells price increased from $10,000 to $11,000.

11.0

5-x-x The Biggest One larger shockwave radius now deals +20 damage to ceramics.
5-x-x The Biggest One bonus damage to ceramics and higher reduced from 40 to 20.
x-5-x Pop and Awe ability damage increased from 2 to 10.
x-x-5 Blooncineration can now remove camo from DDTs without knowledge being required.
x-x-5 Blooncineration price reduced from $55,000 to $45,000.

12.0

5-x-x The Biggest One bonus ceramic damage decreased from +20 to +10.
x-4-x Artillery Battery speed buff improved from 3x to 4x.
x-5-x Pop and Awe damage per second during ability increased from 10 to 20.
x-5-x Pop and Awe cost reduced to $30,000.

17.0

x-3-x Heavy Shells now deals additional damage to 'Stunned' Bloons +2.
x-5-x Pop and Awe now deals additional damage to 'Stunned' Bloons +10.

18.0

x-x-5 Blooncineration's Walls of Fire can now detect Camo Bloons.

21.0

“	Mortar's Faster Reload feels like a 'required' as a crosspath with Burny Stuff never scaling well on any path but its own. We like choices not requirements so to counter this we have made Burny Stuff scale with top-path damage & shifted a small amount of the speed from Faster Reload onto the base mortar and reduced base accuracy considerably.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Explosion random deviation radius increased (18 → 30).
Attack speed without Path 2 upgrades increased (2.2s → 2.0s).
Attack speed with Faster Reload increased (1.54s → 1.5s).
Attack speed with Rapid Reload decreased (1.07s → 1.08s).
3-0-2 Shell Shock, Burny Stuff damage increased from 1 → 2.
4-0-2 The Big One, Burny Stuff damage increased from 1 → 3.
5-0-2 The Biggest One, Burny Stuff damage increased from 1 → 25.

22.0

“	We felt like we set up the math quite well with Mortar changes last update, but regardless of this missed shots due to inaccuracy vs. attack speed turned out to be unpopular and impacted the middle path too severely. Fortunately this change led to the community finding some critical bugs in the middle path upgrades there since Mortar's release! That said, since low tier Mortars were never powerful we chose to leave the speed buff from last update but revert the accuracy nerf. Additionally mid-path T5 mortar has had all of its T3 damage bonuses increased to better reflect its position as a Tier 5.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Base random projectile deviation for the Mortar Monkey decreased from 30 back to 18.
Pop and Awe ceramic damage bonus increased from 3 to 12.
Pop and Awe Lead damage bonus increased from 1 to 4.
Pop and Awe Fortified damage bonus increased from 1 to 4.
Pop and Awe MOAB damage bonus increased from 1 to 4.

24.0

“	As an expensive high-layer T5 DPS tower lurking behind a mainly support path on path 3 Mortar it's not easy to save for, so Blooncineration has had a fair price reduction.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

Blooncineration price reduced from ($45,000 → $40,000).

25.0

[undocumented] Blooncineration's firewalls now no longer pop Purples and will disintegrate upon touching them.

Bug Fixes and General Changes[]

7.0

5-x-x The Biggest One has had a bug fixed where the range was not increasing upon purchasing.
0-3-2 Heavy Shells should now apply Burny Stuff to Black bloons.

8.0

4-x-x The Big One should now correctly damage DDTs when given detection.
x-x-4 Shattering Shells now counts damage dealt from fortifications being stripped.
x-x-5 Blooncineration burn duration fixed, it will now deal 1 extra tick of damage over time.

8.1

On desktop versions, Mortar Monkey can now pick a new location upon pressing the "change targeting" hotkey (Tab ↹ by default).

9.0

x-x-5 Blooncineration should be able to apply burn to DDTs.

10.0

5-x-x The Biggest One can now deal damage to non-camo DDTs.

13.0 (?)

Mortar Monkeys displays Line of Sight (Mortar isn't affected by them though).

14.0

Mortar Monkeys no longer display Line of Sight.

15.0

The mortar's projectiles should no longer visually drop back down the barrel.

17.0

Burny Stuff should no longer gain MIB buff icon from any distance.
Blooncineration fire assets updated.

20.0

5-x-x The Biggest One description updated as it deals much more damage now.
x-5-x Artillery Battery description updated as 'triple pain' doesn't describe 4x attack speed very well.

21.0

Resolved an issue with selling mortars leaving target circles on screen.

22.0

x4x Artillery Battery issues resolved with ejection point.
x-4-x Artillery Battery issues resolved with crosspath application.
x-5-x Pop and Awe active ability now lasts between rounds.

23.0

x-x-4 Shattering Shells removing fortification should now reflect the children Bloons losing their fortification as well towards the damage counter.

24.0

x-x-2 Burny Stuff description has been updated with more detail.

25.0

Blooncineration's firewalls can no longer damage Purple Bloons and will disintegrate upon contact.

Gallery[]

Official artwork[]

Other assets[]

Videos[]

TBA

Trivia[]

Mortar Monkey is the first tower to be added in an Bloons TD 6 update.
The name "Mortar Monkey" is not entirely new. In Bloons Monkey City, the Mortar Tower was consistently referred to as "Mortar Monkey".