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| “ | Can shoot Bloons it can see anywhere on the screen with a long-range rifle, and pops 2 layers off Bloons hit by it. | ” |
| ~ In-game Description |
The Sniper Monkey is a Military-class tower that was released in the initial release of Bloons TD Battles 2. It is the Battles 2 counterpart to its Bloons TD 6 counterpart (refer on this page). It is relatively cheap and does multiple layers, but has only one pierce and a slow attack speed. It will require upgrades such as Shrapnel Shot and Bouncing Bullet to affect more than one bloon at a time.
Sniper Monkeys wield a long-range rifle and can attack a bloon anywhere on the map, assuming clear Line of Sight. Compared to other towers, the Sniper Monkey's main role is in single target damage as it initially deals 2 damage to one bloon at a time.
The base price for Sniper Monkey is $300. It is unlocked by spending 
500, unlocking all upgrades up to Tier 4, plus another 1,500 to unlock all its Tier 5 upgrades.
Description[]
The Sniper Monkey makes a return in BTDB2. When compared to its BTDB1 Mobile counterpart, the BTDB2 Sniper is much more versatile, particularly with the addition of upgrades that help Sniper deal with bloons in ways it normally struggles with, with Shrapnel Shot being a very helpful upgrade at cleaning up bloons.
Path 1 has been dedicated to increasing the damage of each bullet. Full Metal Jacket increases the initial 2 damage per shot to 4 damage per shot, along with granting the Sniper Monkey with frozen-popping and lead-popping power. Most of the subsequent upgrades increase the amount of damage per shot, but the Maim MOAB and Cripple MOAB upgrades deal secondary stun effects to MOAB-class bloons.
Path 2 improves the utility of the Sniper Monkey, improving aspects of the Sniper that normally cannot be done alone by the other two paths. Starting with Night Vision Goggles, this upgrade allows camo detection while additionally adding +2 damage to Camo Bloons. Shrapnel Shot and Bouncing Bullet make it easier to damage multiple bloons at once via shrapnel and bullet bounces, respectively. Supply Drop, similar to the predecessor, grants an ability that drops a crate worth $2000 cash, but also improves Shrapnel pierce and allows the Sniper Monkey to hit lead bloons. Elite Sniper further improves the Sniper's own Supply Drop ability, along with an entirely unique buff to all Sniper Monkeys on screen to acquire a unique Elite target priority option plus bonus attack speed.
Path 3 deals purely on increasing DPS. The first two upgrades, Fast Firing and Even Faster Firing, simply improve attack speed. The next two upgrades, Semi-Automatic and Full Auto Rifle, are upgrades that modify the Sniper Monkey to make it specialize on pure DPS, which in turn eliminate the alternate specialization options. Elite Defender adds even more DPS but with specialized increased attack speed mechanics - it can increase attack speed faster the closer bloons reach the exit and/or when lives are lost.
It is a Military class tower.
Target Priorities[]
Sniper Monkeys use the four basic target priorities (First, Last, Close, Strong) to target at bloons from full-map range, obstructed by Line of Sight limitations, but can also gain Elite targeting once Elite Sniper is bought. If Elite Sniper is sold, that target option will be lost. The following are a list of target priorities a Sniper can use:
- First: Targets the first bloon visible within its range.
- Last: Targets the last bloon visible within its range.
- Close: Targets the closest bloon visible within its range.
- Strong: Targets the strongest bloon visible within its range.
- Elite: Same as Strong targeting, but will prioritize the strongest multi-layered non-blimp bloons, between Ceramics to Blacks, and always switches to First targeting while there are bloons past 75% of the track.
Supply Drop and Elite Sniper abilities "target" around a moderate radius around the Sniper itself, and obviously away from the edges of the screen.
Upgrades[]
Path 1[]
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Full Metal Jacket COST: $250 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Shots pop through 4 layers of bloon, and both bullets and shrapnel can pop Lead and Frozen Bloons.
Effect: Bullets deal 4 damage, and the bullets and shrapnel can pop Frozen and Lead Bloons. | ||
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Large Calibre COST: $750 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Shots can pop through 7 layers of Bloon.
Effect: Bullets deal 7 damage instead of 4. With Shrapnel Shot, each shrapnel piece deals 2 damage instead of 1. | ||
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Deadly Precision COST: $2,800 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: 20 damage per shot, plus bonus damage to Ceramics.
Effect: Bullets deal 20 damage plus +15 damage to Ceramics. With Shrapnel Shot, each shrapnel piece deals 5 damage instead of 3. | ||
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Maim MOAB COST: $5,000 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Immobilizes MOAB class bloons for a short time.
Effect: Bullets temporarily stun MOAB-class bloons and deal 30 damage instead of 20. With Shrapnel Shot, each shrapnel piece deals 8 damage instead of 5 and can stun MOAB-class bloons. | ||
 |
Cripple MOAB COST: $34,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (Sniper T5 Unlocks) | |
| Description: Crippled MOABs are immobilized for longer and take extra damage from all other attacks.
Effect: Bullets temporarily cripple MOAB-class bloons, rendering them vulnerable to +5 damage and become stunned for longer, on top of 280 damage per bullet instead of 30. With Shrapnel Shot, each shrapnel piece deals 12 damage instead of 8 and can cripple MOAB-class bloons. | ||
Path 2[]
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Night Vision Goggles COST: $200 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Allows Sniper to detect and do an additional 2 damage to Camo bloons.
Effect: Gain camo detection, and bullets deal +2 damage to Camo Bloons. | ||
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Shrapnel Shot COST: $250 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Damaged bloons spray out a cone of sharp shrapnel.
Effect: If a bloon is damaged, it will spray out a cone of 5 sharp pieces of shrapnel in the same direction as the bullet. Shrapnel deals extra damage to camo bloons and improves damage potential with Path 1 upgrades. Shrapnel cannot hit the same bloon from where it spawns from. | ||
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Bouncing Bullet COST: $3,000 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Shots bounce to new targets up to 3 times.
Effect: Bullet now can pop up to 4 bloons each, bouncing towards nearby targets within 50 radius from each target. Bullets produce shrapnel only on the initial hit, not on bloons hit by the bounce. | ||
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Supply Drop COST: $5,800 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Supply Drop ability: drops a crate full of cash. Regular attack also damages Lead Bloons and increases Shrapnel popping power.
Effect: Ability gives $2000 cash when deployed cash crate is collected. Bullets pop Frozen and Lead, and the shrapnel pops up to 3 bloons each. | ||
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Elite Sniper COST: $14,000 UNLOCK: 1,500 (Sniper T5 Unlocks) | |
| Description: Supply Drop gives much more cash and activates Supply Drop for other snipers. Grants Elite targeting prio and faster reload to all snipers.
Effect: Ability gives $5000 cash when deployed cash crate is collected, and triggering the ability simultaneously drops all available Sniper abilities. Attacks +150% faster (0.4x attack cooldown) and gives all other Snipers with +25% attack speed (0.8x attack cooldown). | ||
Path 3[]
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Fast Firing COST: $300 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Shoots faster than normal.
Effect: Gains +42% attack speed (0.70x attack cooldown). Decreases Supply Drop cooldown by 5 seconds. | ||
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Even Faster Firing COST: $300 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Shoots even faster!
Effect: Gains a further +42% attack speed (0.70x attack cooldown). Further decreases Supply Drop cooldown by 5 seconds. | ||
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Semi-Automatic COST: $2,200 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Attacks 3x as fast!
Effect: 3x attack speed on top of previous upgrades. | ||
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Full Auto Rifle COST: $3,800 UNLOCK: Unlock Sniper Monkey | |
| Description: Fully automatic weapon with incredible popping power.
Effect: 2x attack speed on top of previous upgrades, and bullets deal +2 MOAB-class damage and damage Frozen and Lead. More MOAB-class bullet damage with Path 1 crosspaths. | ||
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Elite Defender COST: $14,500 UNLOCK: 1,500 (Sniper T5 Unlocks) | |
| Description: An escaping bloon or a lost life gives this Sniper 4x attack speed for a short time in retaliation. Also attacks faster the further the Bloons are along the track.
Effect: 2x attack speed on top of previous upgrades, as well as attacking an additive percentage amount faster depending on how close the Bloons are nearing the exit. If lives are lost or if a Bloon approaches the exit, attacks 4x faster on top of other attack speed bonuses. | ||
Strategy[]
Summary[]
The Sniper Monkey is a cheap, long-ranged tower that does high damage but has low pierce and firing rate without further upgrades. It is very effective on maps that give it clear vision, and against the grain when utilizing Shrapnel Shot. Additionally, it has decent countermeasures against Camos, including Camo Leads and DDTs.
Snipers work best against single targets such as Ceramics or MOAB-Class Bloons, especially with top-path upgrades such as Maim MOAB. Middle-path monkeys have better crowd control and are useful for farming money, while bottom-path monkeys can contribute a high amount of overall DPS.
Tips[]
- Early-tier Snipers are fairly poor by itself. Try to pair with a reliable popping tower such as Quincy or Dart Monkey so the Snipers are supplementary to the defense, not the main defense.
- Unlocking the T5 upgrades for this tower is vital for surviving competitively. Elite Sniper offers great grouped DPS, cash generation, and support; Elite Defender has significant DPS gains; and Cripple MOAB assists defense against BADs.
- Most use cases for bringing in Sniper in competitive games should be for the intention of Sniper Farming. Many other towers have decent long-ranged benefits that have cheaper utility that is generally more reliable.
Further Strategies[]
- Strategies
- General Strategy
- Optimization Strategy
- Countermeasures Strategy
Monkey Mastery[]
Monkey Mastery is unlocked once all of its upgrades are unlocked. Monkey Mastery gives customization which is purchased using XP and Monkey Money. Has a total of 9 customizations available.
| Item | Type | Description | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Covert Placement |
 Placement Animation |
Did this bush just move? | 600 75,000
|
Sniper Monkey emerges out of the bush. |
Night Vision |
 Emote |
No Bloon can hide. | 16020,000
|
Lights go out as Sniper Monkey's night vision goggles light up. |
Sniper Beret |
 Bloon Decal |
The height of military fashion. | 20030,000
|
Bloons wear green berets. |
Laser Sights |
 Trail Effect |
Always find their targets. | 45060,000
|
Laser appears from the rifle whenever Sniper Monkey shoots. |
Take The Shot |
 Avatar Icon |
They won't know what hit 'em. | 30040,000
|
Cripple MOAB hiding in the bushes. |
Binoculars |
 Idle Animation |
Looking for trouble. | 45060,000
|
Sniper Monkey takes binoculars and looks around. |
 Named Sniper Monkeys |
 Custom Names |
Name your Sniper Monkeys! | 30040,000
|
Default name is Barnes. |
Aerial Extraction |
 Sell Animation |
Time to bug out! | 24030,000
|
Rope appears as Sniper Monkey grabs it and it takes them up. |
Golden Gun |
 Weapon Skin |
Each bullet is inscribed with the name of a bloon. | 45060,000
|
Sniper Monkey's weapons are replaced with ones made out of pure gold. |
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
Compared to its Battles 1 counterpart, the Sniper Monkey is slightly less successful and popular. Despite the addition of its middle path for decent grouped damage, the alternative income it provides was heavily nerfed in an early update, its top path pales in comparison to the Ice Monkey’s debuffing support, and the bottom path’s damage is severely limited, not fitting into any particular niche. After its nerfs, it is considered to be a fairly bad tower. The most popular strategy revolving around the Sniper is Sniper-Dart-Farm, which used to be considered meta on Garden, but the addition of the hyper-dense ZOMG send on R30 heavily weakened the loadout. For hero choice, they mainly focus on other towers in the comp instead of sniper itself.
- Initial release (compared to BTD6 Version 28.0)
Supply drop initial cooldown decreased to 1/4 of the ability's cooldown.- Full Metal Jacket now costs less ($350 → $300)
- Large Calibre now costs less ($1,500 → $1,000)
- Deadly Precision now costs less ($3,000 → $2,800)
- Shrapnel Shot now costs less ($450 → $400)
- Bouncing Bullet now costs less ($3,200 → $3,000)
- Supply Drop now costs less ($7,200 → $5,200)
- Fast Firing now costs less ($400 → $350)
- Even Faster Firing now costs less ($400 → $350)
- Semi-Automatic costs less ($3,500 → $3,300)
- Full Auto Rifle now costs more ($4,250 → $4,750)
- Elite Defender now costs more ($14,000 → $16,000)
- 1.0.4
- Supply Drop: shrapnel pierce decreased (5 → 3)
- Supply Drop price increased ($5,200 → $5,400)
- Maim MOAB: stun duration on ZOMG decreased (0.75s → 0.5s)
- Cripple MOAB: BAD vulnerability length decreased (0.75s → 0.5s)
- 1.0.6
- Supply Drop cost increased ($5,400 → $5,800)
- Maim MOAB stun length decreased (MOAB 3s → 2s, BFB 1.5s → 1s, ZOMG 0.5s → 0.3s, DDT 0.75s → 0.5s)
- Elite Sniper cost increased ($13,000 → $14,000)
- 1.1.1
- xx4 Full Auto Rifle MOAB-class damage increased (+0 → +1)
- xx5 Elite Defender MOAB-class damage increased (+0 → +2)
- 105 Elite Defender MOAB-class damage increased (+0 → +3)
- 205 Elite Defender MOAB-class damage increased (+0 → +4)
- 1.5.0
- Sniper Monkey now comes with all Tier 4 upgrades by default.
- Sniper Monkey T5 upgrades now cost 1,500 instead of XP
- Sniper Monkey unlocks increased (75 → 500)
- 1.7.0
- x1x Night Vision Goggles now grants Sniper monkey Camo prioritization.
- 1.8.0
- Semi-Automatic price reduced ($3,300 → $3,000)
- Full Auto Rifle price reduced ($4,750 → $4,600)
- 1.10.0
- 0-x-4 Full Auto Rifle MOAB class damage increased (+1 → +2) (x-x-5 remains at +2)
- 1-0-4 Full Auto Rifle MOAB class damage increased (+1 → +3)
- 2-0-4 Full Auto Rifle MOAB class damage increased (+1 → +4)
| “ | The bottom path of the sniper does not see much use in general so we are increasing its MOAB damage in the interim ahead of more substantial changes in a future update. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 1.10.3
- Elite Defender Attack speed buff is now triggered by bloons getting near the end of the track in addition to leaking lives.
- Supply Drop initial cooldown decreased (20s → 15s)
- Supply Drop Price decreased ($5,800 → $5,600)
| “ | At launch, Sniper and other alternative income sources dominated the meta but since then we have made a lot of changes and Sniper is no longer considered to be a particularly effective source of income. We are giving it a little boost in efficiency so that it can compete with other income sources. Additionally, Elite Defender’s leaking ability was too impractical to be of use (without Ezili), therefore we have reworked it so that is has more potential to be viable. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 2.0.4
- Cripple MOAB: Damage increased 80 → 280.
- Semi-Automatic price decreased ($3,000 → $2,700)
| “ | The damage buff is copied over from BTD6, giving Cripple Moab more strength on its own which it deserves for being an expensive tier 5. Bottom path sniper is still extremely underutilised, so we are giving it another price reduction. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 2.1
- Full Auto Rifle cost decreased ($4,600 → $4,200)
| “ | Sniper remains one of the least used towers in the highest areas. We previously gave Full Auto Rifle a decent damage buff but it hasn’t appeared to be enough, so we are also reducing its cost. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 2.1.2
- Elite Sniper: Elite Supply Drop Ability will now also trigger all other Supply Drop Abilities
- Semi-Automatic: $2,700 → $2,500
- Full Auto Rifle: $4,200 → $3,800
| “ | Sniper Monkey’s bottom path continues to be considered one of the weakest of all tower paths, therefore we are making a couple of decently sized price buffs to the tier 3 and 4 upgrades. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 3.1
- Elite Sniper: ability no forces a new initial cooldown
| “ | In a previous update, with distinguished the tier 5 ability from the tier 4 ability, which had the side effect of introducing an initial cooldown for the tier 5. We have removed this cooldown so that like before, the cooldown will remain unchanged when upgrading from tier 4 to 5. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 3.2
- Base: $350 → $250
- Full Metal Jacket: $300 → $250
- Night Vision Goggles: $300 → $200
- Shrapnel Shot: $400 → $300
- Bouncing Bullet: $3,000 → $3,200
- Fast Firing: $350 → $250
- Faster Firing: $350 → $250
| “ | Sniper Monkey also lacks early game efficiency, being most used for its tier 3/4/5 upgrades way past the early game. Additionally, Sniper hasn’t been particularly prevalent in highest arenas recently, so we have made quite a few price cuts to the early upgrades to encourage Sniper to be used more and to potentially provide some more use cases for it in the early game. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 3.2.4
- Maim MOAB: ZOMG stun length 0.3s → 0.45s
| “ | Sniper has remained one of the least used towers in the highest arenas for a long time now. We felt like its ZOMG stun could be more efficient since it pales in comparison to other upgrades such as Heli Pilot’s MOAB Shove. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 3.3
- Large Calibre cost decreased from $1,000 to $800
- Shrapnel Shot cost decreased from $300 to $250
- Semi-Automatic cost decreased from $2,500 to $2,300
- Elite Defender cost decreased from $16,000 to $14,500
| “ | Sniper is still not quite as strong as we would like. It lacks early game efficiency and its bottom path is a little too expensive for what it does, so a few price cuts have been made. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 4.1
- Base cost decreased from $250 to $200
- Full Metal Jacket: cost decreased from $250 to $200
- Large Calibre: cost decreased from $800 to $600
- 1-2-0: shrapnel damage 1 → 2
- 2-2-0: shrapnel damage 2 → 3
- 3-2-0: shrapnel damage 4 → 5
- 4-2-0: shrapnel damage 6 → 8
| “ | Since it’s hard to get much use out of Sniper in the early game, we’re giving it some simple early game buffs and improvements to crosspathing. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 4.2
- Shrapnel Shot: shrapnels now deal +2 damage to camo bloons
| “ | There was a bug where only the main attack was dealing additional damage to camo bloons, not the shrapnel pieces. This has now been corrected which results in a slight buff to the Sniper. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- 4.2.1 OTA Update 2
- Base cost: $200 → $300
- Full Metal Jacket: $200 → $250
- 1-2-0 Shrapnel Damage 2 → 1 (same as 0-2-0)
- Large Caliber: $600 → $750
- 2-2-0 Shrapnel Damage 3 → 2
- Bouncing Bullet: price $3200 → $3,000
- Bouncing Bullet: Shrapnel is only created on the initial hit, not on bloons hit by the bounce.
- Supply Drop $5600 → $5,800
- Supply Drop cooldown 40s → 50s
- Elite Sniper: other snipers attack cooldown multiplier 0.75x → 0.8x
- Fast Firing $250 → $300
- 0-4-1: Supply Drop Ability cooldown -5s (to 45s)
- Even Faster Firing $250 → $300
- 0-4-2: Supply Drop Ability cooldown -5s (to 40s)
- Semi-Automatic: $2,300 → $2,200
| “ | We were a little too successful in trying to increase the popularity of the Sniper Monkey as it is now the single most used tower in the game, surpassing even the Banana Farm. Sniper’s popularity is due to its versatility as an income source that also excels with both group popping through its shrapnel shot and at single targets with its high damage. We believe the primary culprit for Sniper’s dominance is the x3x Bouncing Bullet’s ability to create multiple bursts of high damage shrapnel so we have capped it to 1 burst per shot and also moved the 1xx shrapnel damage upgrade to 3xx so that only dedicated top path snipers can benefit from it. We’ve also increased the cooldown of the Supply Drop ability and added ability cooldown reductions to the bottom path to create a choice between the more offensive 240 Sniper farm or the more efficient 042. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
- 1.0.2
- TBA
Quotes[]
| “ | The Sniper Monkey has unlimited range that covers the entire map. It won't be able to see through solid objects though. | ” |
| ~ Quincy loading screen tips |
Gallery[]
_-_Copy.png "Screenshot (119) - Copy.png (64 KB)")
Official artwork[]
Trivia[]
- When the game was first released, all Tier 3 Sniper upgrades costed $200 less than their BTD6 counterparts during BTD6 Version 28.0, and the costs of all Tier 1-2 upgrades except for Large Calibre (reduced by $500) and Night Vision Goggles (no cost change) reduced by $50 compared to those same BTD6 counterparts in that version.
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