Mortar Tower

“	Launches an exploding mortar shell to a fixed location anywhere on the screen.	”
	~ Bloons TD 6 Description

“	Targets a specific bit of ground anywhere on the screen. Launches explosive mortar shells to that spot. Useful for placing far away from the track to make room for other towers.	”
	~ Bloons TD 5 Description

“	Targets a specific area of ground over any distance with an explosive attack.	”
	~ Bloons TD 4 Description

Mortar Monkey
General Information
Appearances	Bloons Tower Defense 4 Bloons Tower Defense 4 Expansion Bloons Tower Defense 5 Bloons Tower Defense 5 Deluxe Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile Bloons Tower Defense 6
Unlocked at	Rank 17
Cost	$600 (Easy) $750 (Medium) $810 (Hard) $900 (Impoppable)
Final upgrades	37
Special Abilities	Pop and Awe Ability
Camo detection	Yes (x/3)
BTD Battles cost	$750/20
Tier-4 Upgrades	The Big One Artillery Battery
Battle Score prerequisite	65
Specialty Building	Mortar Emplacement
Hotkey	M (BTD4), B (BTD5)
Statistics
Range	Infinite
Pierce	40
Damage	Unknown
Attack Cooldown	Slow (Fires 0.48 times per sec excluding bonuses gained from Monkey Lab and/or Upgrades)

Mortar Tower is a tower operated by a monkey that attacks slowly by shooting mortar shells at a pre-selected target on the map. It is one of the few towers with infinite attack range. Its target area can be selected by first clicking on the Mortar Tower before clicking on any area on the map you want it to attack. On the Mobile/Steam version, the target can be re-aimed by tapping the tower once, tapping TARGET and then tapping where you want it to aim. It will continue to attack the selected target area every 4-5 seconds.

This tower is effective at bombarding the beginning area to thin out bloons and also when shooting at areas such as U-shaped tracks and in between two close tracks due to its area effect. Once it has its Bloon Buster upgrade, it can destroy two layers of bloons, although it is still ineffective against Black Bloons and Zebra Bloons until it is upgraded to Burny Stuff or The Big One in BTD5, or Heavy Shells or The Big One in BTD6.

Upgrades (Bloons TD 4)

Upgrade	Easy	Medium	Hard
Tower Cost	$700	$825	$890
Greater Accuracy Increases the mortar's accuracy.	$170	$200	$215
Rapid Reload Increases the mortar's firing rate.	$170	$200	$215
Bloon Buster Smashes through 2 layers of bloons.	$680	$800	$865
Mortar Battery Triple the pain.	$1700	$2000	$2160
Total Sell Amount	$2736	$3220	$3472
Total Cost	$3420	$4025	$4345

Upgrades (Bloons TD 5)

Tower Cost:

• Easy $640
• Medium $750
• Hard $810
• Impoppable (iOS only) $900

Path 1

Upgrade	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable
Increased Accuracy Makes your mortar shots more accurate. (Reticle becomes 60% smaller)	$170	$200	$215	$240
Bigger Blast Heavy ordinance delivers a bigger explosion radius. (Explosion radius increased by 30%)	$510	$600	$650	$720
Bloon Buster Bloon Buster Mortars smash through 2 layers of bloons at once! (Breaks through 2 layers at once. Cannot damage Black/Zebra Bloons)	$680	$800	$865	$960
The Big One Devastatingly large explosions, and each pops through 5 layers of bloon. (Can pop black and zebra bloons) Pierce increase from 40 to 100.	$8500	$10000	$10800	$12000
Total Sell Amount	$8432	$9879	$10716	$11856 ($12576 with path 2 upgrades)
Total Cost	$10500	$11600	$13395	$14820 ($15720 with path 2 upgrades)

Path 2

Upgrade	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable
Rapid Reload Increases the attack speed of the Mortar. (Reloads faster)	$215	$250	$270	$300
Burny Stuff A touch of Monkey napalm pops additional bloons every 2 seconds after impact for 6 seconds. (The fire will burn black/zebra bloons, making this upgrade very useful)	$425	$500	$540	$600
Signal Flare Camo Bloons popped by the tower permanently lose their camo status, and can be attacked by towers without camo detection. (Can remove the Camo Status from Camo Bloons. Does remove the Camo Status from DDTs, though the appearance stays the same)	$425	$500	$540	$600
Artillery Battery Shoots mortar shells 3x as fast. Pop And Awe Ability: bombards the screen for 5 seconds, popping every bloon 1 time per second, and immobilizes all bloons during that time. Does not affect MOAB-class bloons. (Can stun MOAB Class bloons, but cannot be harmed)	$7650	$9000	$9720	$10800
Total Sell Amount	$7484	$8800	$9504	$10560 ($11328 with path 1 upgrades)
Total Cost	$9355	$11000	$11880	$13200 ($14160 with path 1 upgrades)

Bloons Tower Defense 6

Bloons Tower Defense 6
General Information
Appearances	Bloons TD 6
Unlocked at	Rank 7-11
Cost	$640 (Easy) $750 (Medium) $810 (Hard) $900 (Impoppable)
Final upgrades	The Biggest One · Pop and Awe · Blooncineration
Special Abilities	Pop and Awe
Camo detection	Yes (x/x/3)
Hotkey	N/A
Statistics
Range	Depends on target placement
Pierce	40 (45 with Bigger Blasts, 85 with The Big One, 200 with The Biggest One)
Damage	Unknown
Attack Cooldown	Moderate

The Mortar Monkey returned in the Version 6.0 update. Previously, it was one of three towers with data-mined development associated with them, the others being Engineer and Dartling, since the Bloonchipper has not yet received any development.

In BTD6, 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).

It is a Military class tower.

Path 1

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Unlock XP
Bigger Blast Bigger shells deliver a bigger blast radius.	$425	$500	$540	$600	180
Bloon Buster Smash through 2 layers of bloon at once!	$555	$650	$700	$780	600
Shell Shock Each blast creates a shockwave that stuns Bloons at impact point and pops Bloons further out.	$925	$1,100	$1,190	$1,320	2,500
The Big One Devastating explosions pop 5 layers of bloon.	$6,800	$8,000	$8,640	$9,600	15,000
The Biggest One Smashes through 20 layers of Bloon over a huge area.	$23,800	$28,000	$30,240	$33,600	36,000
Total Sell Amount	Tier 4: $6,545 Tier 5: $23,205	Tier 4: $7,700 Tier 5: $27,300	Tier 4: $8,316 Tier 5: $29,484	Tier 4: $9,240 Tier 5: $32,760	N/A
Total Cost	Tier 4: $9,350 Tier 5: $33,150	Tier 4: $11,000 Tier 5: $39,000	Tier 4: $11,880 Tier 5: $42,120	Tier 4: $13,200 Tier 5: $46,800	52,420

Path 2

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Unlock XP
Faster Reload Increases the attack speed of the Mortar.	$255	$300	$325	$360	150
Rapid Reload Even faster reload.	$425	$500	$540	$600	600
Heavy Shells Heavy shells do extra damage to Ceramic, Lead, and all Fortified Bloons. Can also pop Black Bloons.	$765	$900	$970	$1,080	2,300
Artillery Battery Artillery battery has 3 barrels for triple the pain.	$4,675	$5,500	$5,940	$6,600	12,500
Pop and Awe Pop and Awe ability: Rains explosions over the whole screen, popping and immobilizing all Bloons for a few seconds.	$28,050	$33,000	$35,400	$39,600	32,000
Total Sell Amount	Tier 4: $7,497 Tier 5: $17,017	Tier 4: $8,820 Tier 5: $20,020	Tier 4: $9,527 Tier 5: $21,623	Tier 4: $10,584 Tier 5: $24,024	N/A
Total Cost	Tier 4: $10,710 Tier 5: $24,310	Tier 4: $12,600 Tier 5: $28,600	Tier 4: $13,610 Tier 5: $30,890	Tier 4: $15,120 Tier 5: $34,320	47,550

Path 3

	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Unlock XP
Increased Accuracy Makes the shots more accurate.	$170	$200	$215	$240	140
Burny Stuff Sets Bloons on fire with each hit.	$425	$500	$540	$600	650
Signal Flare Camo Bloons popped by flares lose their camouflage permanently.	$595	$700	$755	$840	2,200
Shattering Shells Shattering shells strip all bloon properties off all but the biggest bloons.	$9,350	$11,000	$11,800	$13,200	12,000
Blooncineration Superhot burny stuff melts through 5 layers of bloon each shot, burns MOAB class bloons for extra damage, and strips DDT camo.	$42,500	$50,000	$54,000	$60,000	35,000
Total Sell Amount	Tier 4: $7,231 Tier 5: $36,981	Tier 4: $8,505 Tier 5: $43,505	Tier 4: $9,184 Tier 5: $46,984	Tier 4: $10,206 Tier 5: $52,206	N/A
Total Cost	Tier 4: $10,330 Tier 5: $52,830	Tier 4: $12,150 Tier 5: $62,150	Tier 4: $13,120 Tier 5: $67,120	Tier 4: $14,580 Tier 5: $74,580	49,990

Version History (BTD6)

6.0 (compared to BTD5)

• 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 ($9000 --> $5500)
• 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.

7.0

• The Biggest One blast radius now (correctly) increased upon purchase.
• Heavy Shells with Burny Stuff now applies Burny Stuff to Black Bloons.
• Shattering Shells description updated.

8.0

• Bigger Blast blast radius increased slightly
• The Big One cost reduced ($10k --> $8k)
• The Big One blast radius increased
• The Biggest One cost decreased ($30k --> $24k)
• The Biggest One blast radius increased immensely
• Heavy Shells now deals +1 damage to MOAB-class.
• Blooncineration can now damage all bloon types. ("Wall of Blooncineration" only)
• Blooncineration cost reduced ($55k --> $50k)
• Blooncineration now creates a wall of fire at impact location. The wall of fire is similar to the Wizard Monkey's Wall of Fire upgrade.
• Blooncineration will now (correctly) deal damage per 1.0 seconds instead of every 1.5 seconds (with or without MK).
• The Big One will now (correctly) damage DDTs when given camo detection.

8.1

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

9.0

• The Biggest One deals 3x damage to any Ceramic or higher, dealing up to 60 damage to Ceramics and above at once.
• The Biggest One price increased from $24,000 to $28,000
• Blooncineration now applies burn to DDTs, regardless of having MIB or not.
• Blooncineration's Wall of Fire will now benefit from the Radius, Pierce and Damage buffs that the top crosspath offers.

10.0

• Shattering Shells price increased ($10k --> $11k)
• The Biggest One without MIB can now (correctly) deal damage to decamoized DDTs, or any DDT if camo detection is granted.

11.0

• The Biggest One bonus damage to ceramics and higher reduced (+40 -> +20)
• The Biggest One larger shockwave radius now deals extra damage to ceramics (+0 -> +20)
• Pop and Awe ability damage increased (2 -> 10)
• Blooncineration can now remove camo from DDTs without knowledge being required
• Blooncineration now can remove fortified from DDTs.
• Blooncineration price reduced ($55,000 -> $45,000)

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.

Differences Between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile

Explosions are generally nerfed in mobile, and like the Bomb Tower the Mortar Tower is no exception to this.

Explosions from the Mortar Tower are smaller.

If a 3/x Mortar Tower attacks a Rainbow Bloon, it will not be popped down to Black and White Bloons. This happens even if the tower is under the influence of an x/3 Monkey Village.

Update History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)

Previously, the Mortar Tower was not a popular tower. This was because compared to its flash counterpart, the Mortar Tower had a much smaller blast radius, which drastically hurt its reliability. Over the years, however, it has gained popularity through a set of buffs, particularly with Version 4.1's update, and has now become part of the meta. Even with a somewhat major nerf in Version 4.6, it still remains as one of many popular towers in the game. Popular loadouts include Ninja Farm Mortar, Tack Farm Mortar, and Bomb COBRA Mortar.

Initial Release

Artillery Battery's Pop and Awe ability cannot damage or stun MOAB-class Bloons.

3.1

Bigger Blast radius size increased.

Bloon Buster price decreased ($800 → $650).

Signal Flare price increased ($500 → $700).

3.2

Artillery Battery's Pop and Awe ability now damages and stuns MOAB-class Bloons, causing them to receive 5 seconds of burning damage and stunning MOABs for 5 seconds, BFBs for 2 seconds, and ZOMGs for 0.5 seconds.

3.9

Signal Flare price decreased ($700 → $550).

4.1

Bigger Blast price decreased ($600 → $400).

The Big One price decreased ($10000 → $6000).

Artillery Battery price decreased ($9000 → $7000).

Blast radius size increased by 15% (Both 0/0 and 2/0).

4.3.1

The Big One price increased ($6000 → $7500).

4.6

Signal Flare price increased ($550 → $750).

Artillery Battery price increased ($7000 → $8000).

Trivia

Mortar Tower in Bloons Tower Defense 4 Expansion

• The monkey next to the Mortar Tower when players upgrade to Bloon Buster and The Big One wears the same clothes as the Glue Striker and Glue Hose.
• After upgrading to Bigger Blast, the explosion will not be heard.
• In the towers fountain on the main menu, the picture of the Mortar Tower doesn't have smoke coming out of its cannon, but if players click it, the big picture has smoke coming out of its cannon.
• In Bloons TD 4 this tower can detect camo bloons without upgrades. In BTD5, it won't be able to detect camo bloons without Signal Flare.
• This is one of the three towers in BTD5 that can remove Camo status, with the other two being the Monkey Engineer and Monkey Sub.
• Even with the Bigger Blast upgrade, sometimes the explosions won't be bigger. That's because the explosion reaches its popping limit before the animation ends.
• The artwork of an unupgraded Mortar Tower and one with Signal Flare both show the monkey with his fingers in his ears.
• Bloons with monkey napalm can be frozen and the flame still pops while they are frozen.
• A 2/4 Mortar Tower under the influence of its specialty building fully upgraded can stun nearly every non-M.O.A.B. Class Bloon.
• Due to the slow-mo in Battles, it is possible to stall MOAB Class Bloons forever by activating the ability as fast as possible.
• The monkey with closed ears is the same in defense mode image in BTD Battles
• In Bloons TD 5, on Co-op mode, you can aim it to be set to pop bloons on your ally's side.
• Although it says that the Pop and Awe ability doesn't affect MOAB Class Bloons, It does stun them for a short amount of time.
• Mortar Tower is much like the Dartling Gun as it shoots where the player wants it to, however unlike the Dartling Gun, it is not directly controlled by the player.
• Oddly in BTD4, when upgraded to Bloon Buster, the Mortar Tower and the Monkey's helmet becomes red. When upgraded to Mortar Battery the monkey disappears and the 3 Mortars turn back into green. In Mortar Battery, the Bloon Buster upgrade is not suppressed.
• In BTD5 mobile, with a tier 4 specialty building, the mortar can be prioritized to first, last, close, or strong like any other BTD tower.

  

  

  

• The Mortar Tower is one of only 2 towers to have its BTD4 3rd and 4th upgrades to be in completely separate paths in BTD5. A player could have Bloon Buster or Artillery Battery in BTD5, but not both. It shares this trait with the Tack Shooter.
• In the BTD4 logo and title screen there is a Mortar Monkey.
• The Mortar tower in BTD4 takes up much less space when placing it than in BTD5.
• In BTD5 and BMC, its footprint its the shape of its barrel before the tower have been placed.
  • This shows that the mortar in BTD5 only takes up the lower half of the space of the big square..
• It could aim following mouse by clicking on the tower twice and hold to aim anywhere the mouse is. But this has been patched.
• The Big One explosion sound is slightly different and has larger boom sound (not louder).
• The circle in the middle of all "target circles" of the Mortar Tower represents the whole possible areas where the center of the explosion may hit. It may hit closer to or further away from the complete target center, but will not stray away from the target circle in the center. The Increased Accuracy upgrade allows the "target circle" to be smaller and therefore stay shooting around the center of the target.
• Strangely in the flash version of BMC, it faces at the right side when you try placing it and same applies with the Dartling Gun in BMC Mobile.
• In BMC, the tower is named Mortar Monkey.
• In BTD5, the tower will try to pop Camo Bloons by aiming at the Camo Bloons, but in BMC it doesn't until it's upgraded to Signal Flare.
• There was a bug BTD5 where you could hold the mouse on set target, which will make the mortar do shots whenever you hold it! However, this has been patched.
• This tower is one of the 4 towers that were not reinstated in BTD 6 when it launched, the other three being the Bloonchipper, Dartling Gun and Engineer. However, the Mortar Monkey was added later in the 6.0 update.
• This is the only tower so far in BTD6 where the x/4/x does not have an ability. However, the x/5/x does.
• In BTD5, the Burny Stuff upgrade would apply to black bloons. However, this is no longer the case in BTD6.
• In BTD5 web and mobile is one of the 2 towers in mobile and the only on web that have 2 upgrades which remove their weakness,in that case is black and zebra bloons which are burny stuff(is the burning time but counts) and the big one

Gallery

Path 1 upgrades

Path 2 upgrades

Pop and Awe in useage

A bunch of Mortar Explosions

Mortar monkeys on the map dark castle.

Path 3 upgrades

Path 2 upgrades

Path 1 upgrades

Mortar interface menu in BTD6