Bloons Wiki
Bloons Wiki
For other uses of Sniper, see Sniper (disambiguation).
Armed with a high-tech long range rifle, pops 2 layers off of Bloons with unlimited range.
~ Bloons TD 5 description

Sniper Monkey (BTD5) is a tower that made its debut in Bloons TD 5. Its first ever appearance was in the Bloons TD 5 trailer that was released on November 29, 2011.

When the "first 20 rounds" game play video was released, it was revealed that the Sniper Monkey fires a powerful bullet to pop 2 layers of bloon at a time, making it the first tower in the Bloons Tower Defense series with the ability to pop multiple layers of bloon without any upgrades, the next being COBRA. Like the Mortar Tower, it has unlimited range, so it can be strategically placed in locations far from the track. With no upgrades, this tower fires slowly compared to others.

The amount of layers per shot is equal to amount of damage it deals to MOAB Class Bloons.

Upgrades[]

These are all the upgrades for the Sniper Monkey. Path 1 refers to the left upgrade path while Path 2 refers to the right upgrade path within the game.

Path 1[]

Note: This section uses Bloons TD 5 Flash descriptions. Costs are shown as they are in Bloons TD 5 Flash.
Full Metal Jacket Icon BTD5S
Full Metal Jacket
COST: $300 / $350 / $380 / $420
UNLOCK: 100 XP

Description: Shots can pop through 4 layers of bloon - and can pop lead and frozen bloons.
Effect: Deals 4 damage per shot and can pop Frozen and Lead.
Point Five Oh Icon BTD5S
Point Five Oh
COST: $1,870 / $2,200 / $2,375 / $2,640
UNLOCK: 1,100 XP

Description: Shots can pop through 7 layers of bloon!
Effect: Deals 7 damage per shot.
Deadly Precision Icon BTD5S
Deadly Precision
COST: $3,400 / $4,000 / $4,320 / $4,800
UNLOCK: 3,275 XP

Description: Extreme accuracy and muzzle velocity cause up to 18 layers of bloon to be popped per shot - enough to destroy an entire Ceramic Bloon!
Effect: Deals 18 damage per shot.
Cripple MOAB Icon BTD5S
Cripple MOAB
COST: $10,625 / $12,500 / $13,500 / $15,000
UNLOCK: 23,040 XP

Description: Bullets from this tower temporarily take out the engines of MOAB class bloons, disabling them for a short period of time.
Effect: Immobilizes MOAB-Class Bloons for a few seconds with every hit (MOABs for 3 seconds, BFBs for 2 seconds, ZOMGs for 0.5 seconds).

Path 2[]

Note: This section uses Bloons TD 5 Flash descriptions. Costs are shown as they are in Bloons TD 5 Flash.
Faster Firing Icon BTD5S
Faster Firing
COST: $340 / $400 / $430 / $480
UNLOCK: 400 XP

Description: Allows Sniper to shoot faster.
Effect: Allows Sniper to shoot 40% faster.
Night Vision Goggles Icon BTD5S
Night Vision Goggles
COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360
UNLOCK: 1,950 XP

Description: Allows Sniper to detect and shoot Camo bloons.
Effect: Self-explanatory
Semi-Automatic Rifle Icon BTD5S
Semi-Automatic Rifle
COST: $2,975 / $3,500 / $3,780 / $4,200
UNLOCK: 7,875 XP

Description: Allows Sniper to take multiple shots and attack 3x as fast.
Effect: Self-explanatory
Supply Drop Icon BTD5S
Supply Drop
COST: $10,200 / $12,000 / $12,960 / $14,400
UNLOCK: 39,600 XP

Description: Supply Drop Ability: Drops a crate full of cash.
Effect: Gains an activated ability that drops a crate giving between $500 and $1500.

Total Costs[]

Differences Between BTD5 Flash and BTD5 Mobile[]

  • BUFF Supply Drop Ability no longer includes an initial cooldown.
  • BUFF Multiple Snipers set on the same setting target different bloons, preventing aiming contradiction.
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB can stun D.D.T.s. (this only applies to BMC Mobile).
  • NERF Semi Automatic Rifle without Full Metal Jacket no longer allows the tower to pop Lead and Frozen Bloons.

Version History (Bloons TD Battles Mobile)[]

The Sniper Monkey is one of the least used towers in BTD Battles Mobile, along with the Glue Gunner, Spike Factory, and Monkey Village. This is mostly because while snipers perform reasonably well versus strong bloons, they are not nearly as effective against grouped bloon rushes and are too expensive to be effective against M.O.A.B. Class Bloons. Because of this, the Sniper has been heavily buffed via game updates. Dart Farm Sniper used to be a semi-popular loadout on short maps such as Indoor Pools and such but players eventually switched to other loadouts such as Buccaneer Farm Apprentice and Engineer COBRA Apprentice.

TBA
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB price decreased ($12500 → $7000).
  • BUFF Semi Automatic Rifle price decreased ($3500 → $2750).
3.1
  • BUFF Supply Drop price decreased ($12000 → $8000).
3.9
  • BUFF Full Metal Jacket price decreased ($350 → $300).
  • BUFF Point Five Oh price decreased ($2200 → $1800).
  • BUFF Deadly Precision price decreased ($4000 → $3500).
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB price decreased ($7000 → $5500).
  • BUFF Faster Firing price decreased ($400 → $350).
  • BUFF Semi Automatic Rifle price decreased ($2750 → $2400).
  • BUFF Supply Drop price decreased ($8000 → $7000).
4.6
We've buffed the Sniper's overall attack speed, as well as it's 0-4 attack speed, in the hope we see it out on the battlefield more often and make it more worthy of one of your three tower slots.
~ "BTD Battles Update 4.6 Balance Changes"
  • BUFF Overall attack speed increased by 10% (0/0: 0.45 shots per second → 0.5; x/1: 0.63 shots per second → 0.7; x/3: 1.875 shots per second → 2.06).
  • BUFF Supply Drop now adds a +33% attack speed boost to the tower.
4.9
The Sniper isn't seen too much in the higher arenas, so we've lowered the prices of a couple of its upgrades to hopefully give it a little more value and make it a more viable option in your loadout.
~ "BTD Battles Update 4.9 Balance Changes"
  • BUFF Point Five Oh price decreased ($1800 → $1400).
  • BUFF Deadly Precision price decreased ($3500 → $3200).
6.9
  • BUFF Supply Drop attack cooldown reduced (0.26s -> 0.14s)
  • BUFF Supply Drop ability cooldown reduced (60s -> 30s)
  • BUFF Supply Drop ability crate value increased ($500-$1500 -> $1500-$2000)
6.13
  • BUFF Deadly Precision price decreased ($3200 -> $2000)
  • BUFF Deadly Precision damage increased (18 -> 30)
  • NERF Deadly Precision no longer soaks damage through MOAB-class bloons
6.17
  • BUFF Deadly Precision price decreased ($2000 -> $1800)
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB price decreased ($5,500 -> $5,000)
  • BUFF Cripple MOAB damage increased (30 -> 45)

Quotes[]

Sniper Monkeys can pop bloons from any distance and pop several layers at once. Powerful upgrades include: Full Metal Jacket, Faster Firing, Deadly Precision, Cripple MOAB.
~ BMC Flash description
Armed with a high-tech long range rifle, pops 2 layers off of bloons with unlimited range.
~ Bloons TD 5 Description

Gallery[]

BTD5[]

BMC[]

Tower Tips[]

  • Path 1 Sniper Monkeys are very effective on Strong or Last setting, because this takes max advantage of their high damage.
  • Path 2 Snipers can be used on any setting very effectively.
  • Snipers are good for making space for other towers and can be upgraded to detect Camos and Leads. They can save your life if you ever get Camo Leads as they are the only tower that has cheap anti camo-lead defense other than the monkey apprentice (wizard monkey) which would quickly lose to Blacks due to their quick speed.
  • They can pop Frozen Bloons and Lead Bloons with the Full Metal Jacket Upgrade.
  • The Cripple MOAB Upgrade can be particularly useful against large numbers of MOAB class bloons. Lined shoulder to shoulder against the edge of the path and target assignments set to "Close", Sniper Monkeys with this upgrade can, for a short time, halt the progress of an entire wave of them.
  • Multiple Sniper Monkeys will shoot with the same rhythm at the beggining of each round, so to maximze the effects of Cripple MOAB, each Sniper should be assigned to target a different MOAB class bloon.
  • Unless you are playing the Steam version, try to have multiple Snipers with upgrades and target priorities that vary from each other as multiple Snipers with the same settings are notorious for overshooting their targets, wasting shots.
  • Snipers have unlimited range, and are fairly cheap. This makes them useful early game against any Pink Bloons that may rush past your towers.
  • Place them away from the path, because they have unlimited range they can still hit bloons, so you make room for other towers closer to the path.

Trivia[]

  • Having 100 4/1 sniper monkeys on first can withstand 8 ZOMG without losing a single life.
  • The path 1 upgrade Point Five Oh in Bloons TD 5 is a reference to the bullet caliber .50, which is used in many real sniper rifles (eg. Barrett M107, a .50 Caliber sniper rifle), and the movie Snatch where a character describes his Desert Eagle's caliber using words instead of the numbers.
  • The Sniper Monkey appearing in Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile could be the reason why the app is rated 9+ for Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence. This is supported with Bloons TD Battles iOS and BMC Mobile being rated similarly. The 9+ rating may also be due to the sacrifices from the TOTMG.
  • Ten 3/x Sniper Monkeys can destroy a MOAB in one collective volley and leaves a dense group of blue bloons standing.
  • If you destroy a MOAB with Deadly Precision or Cripple MOAB, after 12 shots 64 blue bloons come out, rather than 4 ceramic bloons. This no longer occurs in BTD6.
  • It is most effective to have a large number of Semi Automatic Rifles set on the first targeting, and a decent amount of Cripple M.O.A.B. set to strongest targeting, so one takes out the M.O.A.B. classes while the other takes down its children.
  • On Park Path, it takes 23 4/1 Cripple M.O.A.B. Snipers to take out a ZOMG and all bloons spawned by it without any bloons leaking. Further testing will be required to identify whether the few leaked bloons with 22 snipers actually get through.
  • On Mobile, after testing on Park Path, a maximum of 14 4/2 Cripple M.O.A.B Snipers will take out a ZOMG and all bloons spawned by it without any bloons leaking on first and no specialty building.Still leaks through with 22 Snipers on flash.
  • Only on the online flash version of Bloons TD 5, Semi-Automatic Rifle can pop Lead and Frozen Bloons even without Full Metal Jacket.
    • This was because you could add 2 Ice Towers to constantly freeze a Red Bloon, and win infinite cash using Supply Drop.
  • The Sniper Monkey is visible in the Bloons Tower Defense 5 Mobile trailer.
  • Supply Drop is useful for freeplay. Cripple MOAB is good on later levels with strong MOAB-Class Bloons.
  • A 2/0 Sniper Monkey is one of the six towers that are purple , the other 5 are: 3/0 Boomerang Monkey, 2/0 Ninja Monkey, 2/0 Glue Gunner, 0/2 Dartling Gun, and a 1/1 or 2/2 Spike Factory.
  • There is a glitch (Through very rare, maybe more frequent on Semi-Automatic Rifle), where when the first intial layer of the ZOMG is popped, it turns into 16 M.O.A.Bs instead of 4 B.F.Bs.
    • This glitch occurs most often when you pop an M.O.A.B with Cripple MOAB.
  • Sniper Monkeys are left handed.
  • This is one of the few towers that is not restricted in any terrain in Bloons Monkey City.
  • The rifle the Sniper Monkey uses is Bolt Action, as it requires x/3 upgrades to attain a semi-automatic sniper.
  • It is the second tower in the series that shoots from a firearm, the first being the Dartling Gun and the third being the COBRA.
  • In BTD5, the Supply Drop gives a random value between $500 and $1500 when used each time.
  • The Sniper Monkey is one of the few towers in BTD5 that combines the appearance of the upgrades it has, specifically its hat colour and its goggles. This also applies to the Bomb Shooter's Cluster Bombs, as well as Spike Factories which have many combination appearances.
  • Despite the description saying "...2 layers off of any bloon...", the Sniper Monkey cannot pop lead or frozen bloons without the Full Metal Jacket upgrade.
  • It is one of the only 2 towers to have an invisible projectile, the other being the COBRA.