Special Abilities made their debut in Bloons Tower Defense 5. They allow towers to perform powerful skills to stop bloons. Some of these effects last 5-15 seconds, and others do something on the screen instantly, like glueing or freezing all bloons on screen. Special abilities are available after towers are upgraded to Tier Four on the Second Path with the exception of the Banana Farm. Each special ability, when used, has a "cooldown" time before it can be used again.
Abilities
Super Monkey Fan Club (Speed)
This is the special ability for the Dart Monkey. It changes up to 10 dart monkeys into 0/0 Super Monkeys for 15 seconds (3rd in the picture.)
| Recharge time | Normal Speed | Fast forward |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 80 seconds |
30 seconds |
| W/ High Energy Beacon (HEB) | 64 seconds | 24 seconds |
| W/ Hotter Cooldown (HC) | 56 seconds |
21 seconds |
| W HEB & HC | 40 seconds | 15 seconds |
Blade Maelstrom (Speed / Full-Screen)
This is the special ability for theTack Shooter. It covers the entire screen with spiralling blades from the tower. (10th in the picture.)
The blades have unlimited popping power and cannot pop lead. They also spread out the further they fly away from the tower.
| Recharge | Normal | Fast Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 40 seconds | 12 seconds |
| W/ HEB | 32 seconds |
10 seconds |
| W/ HC | 28 seconds | 8 seconds |
| W/ HEB & HC | 20 seconds | 6 seconds |
Supply Drop (Money)
This is the special ability for the Sniper Monkey. It calls a familiar-looking plane that flys from the left and drops a crate full of $500 - $1500 cash. (2nd in the picture.)
| Recharge | Normal | Fast Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 107 seconds | 37 seconds |
| W/ HEB | 86 seconds |
30 seconds |
| W/ HC | 75 seconds | 25 seconds |
| W/ HEB & HC | 54 seconds | 19 seconds |
Turbo Charge (Speed)
This allows the Boomerang Thrower that activated it to attack at hypersonic speeds for 10 seconds. (1st in the picture)
| Recharge | Normal | Fast Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 120 seconds | 25 seconds |
| W/ HEB | 96 seconds | 20 seconds |
| W/ HC | 84 seconds | 18 seconds |
| W/ HEB & HC | 60 seconds | 13 seconds |
(data was copied from previous version "as is". The ratio between normal and fast forward do not seem to match the others)
Sabotage Supply Lines (Other)
This is the special ability for the Ninja Monkey. During the sabotage all newly spawned bloons will move at half the speed. (2nd in the picture)
| Recharge | Normal | Fast Forward |
|---|---|---|
| basic | 105 seconds | 35 seconds |
| W/ HEB | 84 seconds | 32 seconds* |
| W/ HC | 74 seconds | 28 seconds* |
| W/ Both | 53 seconds* | 20 seconds* |
- Indicates estimated value.
MOAB Assassin (MOAB)
This is the special ability for the Bomb Tower. It fires deadly missiles that targets any MOAB or BFB and destroys that layer instantly. This does 7500 damage to ZOMG. (9th in the picture.) It also creates an explosion that does 3 damage to anything in its radius.
It takes 55 seconds to recharge on normal speed.
It takes 17 seconds to recharge on fast forward.
Absolute Zero (Whole-Screen)
This is the special ability for the Ice Tower. It freezes the entire sceen for 4 seconds. This does not affect MOAB-class Bloons. (11th in the picture)
It takes 115 seconds to recharge on normal speed.
It takes 30 seconds to recharge on fast forward.
Glue Striker (Whole-Screen)
This is the special ability for the Glue Gunner. It glues all the bloons on the screen. This does not affect MOAB class bloons. (6th in the picture)
It takes 88 seconds to recharge on normal speed.
It takes 27 seconds to recharge on fast forward.
MOAB Takedown (MOAB)
This is the special ability for the Monkey Buccaneer. It grabs the nearest BFB or MOAB with a harpoon and destroys it along with all bloons inside instantly.. This does not affect ZOMG. (7th in the picture)
It takes 90 seconds to recharge on normal speed.
It takes 30 seconds to recharge on fast forward.
Ground Zero (Whole-Screen)
This is the special ability for theMonkey Ace. It drops a bloontonium bomb and deals 350 damage to all Bloons on screen. (4th in the picture)
It takes 65 seconds to recharge on normal speed.
It takes 22 seconds to recharge on fast forward.
Bloon Annihilation (Fixed Range)
This is the special ability for theSuper Monkey, and for the Phase Crystal in Bloons Monkey City. This destroys all the bloons within the radius of the tower. It does 1000 damage to the ZOMG. (5th in the picture)
It takes 98 seconds to recharge on normal speed (12 on the Phase Crystal version).
It takes 31 seconds to recharge on fast forward (roughly 4 on the Phase Crystal version).
Summon Phoenix (Other)
This is the special ability for theMonkey Apprentice. It summons a phoenix that spits fire at bloons for 20 seconds. (8th in the picture.)
M.I.B Call to Arms (Speed)
This is the special ability for the Monkey Village. It doubles the attack speed and popping power of all towers in range of the village for ten seconds. (12th in the picture.)
Pop and Awe (Whole-Screen + MOAB)
This is the special ability for theMortar Tower. It immobilizes the bloons and bombards the entire screen with mortar shells for five seconds, popping one layer off every bloon on-screen once per second. MOAB-Class Bloons will also be stunned, though BFBs are stunned for slightly less, and ZOMGs are barely stunned at all. (2nd to last in the picture.)
Rocket Storm (Other)
This is the special ability for the Dartling Gun. It shoots 5 volleys / pulses of missiles at 100 Bloons each (500 in total) or, if there is less than 100 Bloons on the screen, it will shoot as many rockets as there are bloons on screen. Note that the missiles can still miss their targets. (Last in the picture.)
Orbital Strike (Other)
This is the special ability for the special agent, the Bloonsday Device. For a few seconds a beam controlled by the mouse destroys bloons and does massive damage to MOAB class bloons.
It takes 85 seconds to recharge on normal speed.
It takes 35 seconds to recharge on fast forward.
Spike Storm (Whole-Screen)
This is the special ability of the Spike Factory. When used, it covers the whole screen with short-lived spikes (just like in BTD 4).
The SwarmThe Swarm! (Whole-Screen)
This is the special ability for the special agent Beekeeper Pro. It makes a swarm of 100 bees that pop bloons the way normal ones do, but disperse after an amount of time.
Activate Sea Monster! (Other)
This is the special ability for the special agent Portable Lake Pro. It creates a tentacle that lashes nearby bloons for 5 seconds. Pops 5 layers off of bloons with unlimited popping power, can pop lead but can't detect Camo Bloons. Approximately 50 seconds recharge on normal speed.
Abominable Ability (Speed)
This is for the Mad Snowman pro version appearing in Bloons Tower Defense 5 Deluxe only. It throws snowballs hypersonic for 10 seconds.
Shadow Double (Other)
This is the special ability for the Ninja Monkey. It creates a shadow copy of itself. This can be unlocked by the Ninja Academy Specialty Building Tier 3. It is represented by a white and black shuriken.
MOAB Takedown popping a red bloon
Trivia
- By selling and rebuying towers, it is possible to use a special ability lots of times (unlimited times with Monkey Tycoon). This doesn't work on Supply Drop Snipers.
- This makes Hotter Cooldown much less useful.
- If there is no MOAB-class Bloon on the screen, the MOAB Takedown Ability will still hook on the strongest Bloon on the screen.
- Blade Maelstrom has the fastest recharge time and Supply Drop has the longest.
- Oddly, Absolute Zero can freeze White Bloons and Zebra Bloons even without a level 3 Ice Fortress.
- Perhaps it is so cold that not even they can withstand its arctic temperature.
- If this were the case, then maybe the MOAB-class bloons have an advanced heating system since they can't be frozen by Absolute Zero.
- The Banana Farm is the only tower without an ability.
- The Bloonsday Device (on non-pro & pro), the Beekeeper (pro), the Portable Lake (pro), & the Mad snowman (pro) are the only Special Agents that have a special ability.
- The Supply Drop Ability is the only ability that has to charge right away, possibly to avoid sell/rebuy abuse to gain unlimited cash.
- All abilities are the last upgrades for path 2 (with some exceptions like for special agents).
- As of Mar 22, 2012, the Super Monkeys that the Super Monkey Fan Club makes no longer fire triple darts during the ability, nerfing it.
- Technological Terror only destroys things in a 0/0 Super Monkey range for Bloon Annihilation Ability.
- The Shadow Double Ability is the only ability that you get from a Specialty Building. However, some tier 4 upgrades in the Mobile version grants some abilities (i.e. Fourth Upgrade Tier for Bombing Range grants a temporary doubled range that could cover the entire track).
- Precaution: Only save at round 1~46, 49, 59, 69 & 79 or all your special abilities will have to recharge again after you reloaded.
- The Monkey Beacon from BTD3 sort of has a special ability, Super Monkey Storm.
- With the Hotter Cooldown and the High Energy Beacon, the Super Monkey Fan Club can be constantly used.