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Vortex: Deadly Master of Air is fast but possesses less health than Bloonarius and compensates for its lower health by moving much faster and having the potential to destroy and neutralize many projectiles. Whenever it reaches critically lowering health, Vortex stuns towers across a wide range and pushes itself backwards, causing the affected towers to stop attacking and prevent selling. The exact radius is 60 units at tier 1, and increases by 5 for each tier. Unlike Bloonarius or Lych, Vortex sends no minions; Vortex instead relies on hypersonically speeding up all natural bloons and neutralizing an inferior defense.
There are up to 40 rounds to start farming before Vortex first enters in its first tier. All tiers from Tier 1 to 5 need to be beaten in a single game in order to fully win the Vortex Boss Bloon Event. Each tier of Vortex must be beaten within 20 rounds of its appearance, or else the game is over. Losing by other means is also an obstacle to counter, so be careful.
The following article is a series of strategies to counter Vortex, mainly focusing on Elite Vortex due to its notorious difficulty of killing.
The general strategy for beating Vortex, especially Elite Vortex, is to take extremely greedy farming strategies to build a solid foundation of income prior to facing various factors in anticipation to the Vortex's arrival: the extreme HP, hypersonically fast bloons, spread-out defense, and lots of long-ranged offense. Once Vortex arrives, there are several ideal decisions that can be made, at least for earlier tiers. But at higher tiers, one must go all in at DPS with as maximal support as possible while still taking into account Vortex's strengths. All this needs to be made before Vortex becomes too strong to handle. Like Bloonarius and Dreadbloon, don't worry about selling too soon if extra defense is required or needing to boost income; focus on making a defense that takes advantage of Vortex's weaknesses.
For earlier tiers, choose a defense consisting of slows and long-ranged single-target towers that don't rely solely on projectiles. Sniper Monkeys are a solid example of single-target damage independent from projectiles. Stall farming isn't very useful on Vortex battles due to Vortex's incredible speeds. Fight Vortex by focusing on single-target damage, long-ranged offense, buffs, and slows. Once Vortex is nearly defeated at each tier, sell unnecessary defenses and build income. Do not sell too soon; Vortex and natural waves can still move pretty quickly and overwhelm an otherwise steady defense. In ranked, the best option is to anti-stall rounds, which when done right, avoids the round penalty that accumulates 10 seconds after the last bloon has spawned.
At the highest tiers, make sure to prepare DPS and supports while maintaining a stable income flow. In addition, prepare in advance for saving up Paragons and accumulating tower pops of their constituent towers. Super-buffed Vengeful True Sun God can work well in theory if not placed too close to Vortex.
The best choice of hero, assuming custom hero choice is available, is either one that specializes in income, excels in early-game for cheap, or specializes in the extreme late-game as a buffing source. The most optimal choice for most situations is Benjamin, who gives a large headstart to income production and buffs Monkey Banks, or Geraldo who not only offers good income through the Rare Quincy Action Figure and Fertilizer, but also provides utility through his shop items. Both of these heroes are great for building towards much stronger Farms such as BRFs + Monkey City and Marketplaces with Discount Villages into Banana Central. Early game and support heroes (e.g. Pat Fusty, Sauda) can be incredibly helpful too if Geraldo or Ben are banned.
As for tower choices, choose an effective early-game strategy that also allows greed of income to the max, a strategy for countering early tiers of Vortex, and a strategy for transitioning into extreme DPS. Support is extremely helpful too in addition to massive farming. Just make sure the correct defense is used to attack Vortex.
Towers[]
Towers each have their special roles in Boss Bloon Events. The "optimal" tower choices in Vortex battles are generally those who have a cheap early-game prowess, offer income generation, or assist in damaging the boss and its minions as efficiently as possible. In the case of handling Vortex itself, the best tower options are generally those that have a slowdown option and/or have long-ranged projectileless attacks. In addition, since Vortex can stun large amounts of towers in a compact radius, it is advised to avoid congregation of towers within tight spaces, particularly in areas where Vortex may roam around. Placement of inoffensive towers (especially Farms) should also be well away from where Vortex may move around, which otherwise will stun them too.
Note: If a tower is stunned, it cannot attack, activate abilities, or be sold. It is basically out of commission until the stun duration ends.
Dart Monkeys make a huge bulk of an optimal early-game, saving up greatly into early Farms and other income-generating options.
Dart Monkeys stay relevant later on in the game, with Plasma Monkey Fan Club being a top damage option when provided debuffs and buffs. These can transition well into getting an Apex Plasma Master.
Boomerang Monkeys also have an early-game prowess like Dart Monkeys. Boomerang Monkeys do progress better in terms of early mid-game power, and often lack camo detection. Their roles in Vortex battles is to defend efficiently against regular waves while also chipping decent damage to Vortex.
Turbo Charge works well at cleaning out difficult bloons while chipping damage to Vortex decently. Similarly can be said for Perma Charge.
Bloon Crush (5-2-0) can be used for the back defense because of the DDTs, pinks and the fortified ceramics, but will need a 0-2-0 monkey village to detect camo.
MOAB Eliminator is an excellent DPS option for Tier 1, with its ability dealing 4,500 damage in one shot, and with bottom crosspath (particularly 0-5-1 for range), can clear the rest of a skull while staying out of range of Vortex's stun.
MOAB Assassins can be usable against Vortex, although not very efficient due to the need for spamming to maximize damage, as well as the issue of tower stuns.
Tack Shooters must be very close to Vortex in order to become optimal, ensuring its projectiles don't get blown away whenever Vortex summons wind shields. However, do be very careful about the stun Vortex makes if Tacks are relied on for damage; have backup defenses in case Vortex triggers too soon.
Overdrive and The Tack Zone remain superior Tack Shooter upgrades against Vortex, just as they do for other bosses. They also pair well with Embrittlement, as they shoot lots of projectiles at rapid rates.
Embrittlement is an amazing support tower for early tiers, giving +1 damage to towers attacking anything it has hit. It pairs particularly well with Overdrives and Tack Zone.
For later tiers, Embrittlement can stay out of Vortex's stun by using a Door Gunner Heli.
Super Brittle makes any bloon vulnerable to +4 damage, making it very useful in combination with many towers. It is one of the few towers that debuff bloons, meaning the extra damage they provide applies to Paragons as well. Due to this, Super Brittle is one of the best lategame support towers available, although severely limited by Vortex's stun.
Adding Absolute Zero and Icicle Impale may be helpful too, Absolute Zero focusing on buffing Embrittlement and Super Brittle, and Icicle Impale for freezing blimps that may have sneaked past.
Glue Strike and Glue Storm apply a debuff of +2 damage to bloons they hit, making them a top support option. For Glue Strike specifically, 0-4-2 is preferred for the extra duration.
MOAB Glue and Super Glue may be useful for slowing down the bloons behind Vortex.
Base Glue Gunners can be helpful to funnel more bloons into a Bloon Trap.
Sniper Monkeys are advantageous against Vortex due to using hitscan attacks, more specifically snipe attacks. They can be placed anywhere while being able to avoid getting stunned if properly positioned.
Elite Defender (2-0-5) is a solid damage option for Vortex's 1st and 2nd tiers, as it is able to be placed anywhere on a map, avoiding Vortex's stuns.
Cripple MOAB is a great support tower for later tiers, as its +5 damage debuff helps many low-damage towers (especially those with 1 damage per projectile), such as the Sun Avatar, or Tack Zone.
Cripple MOAB can also stun blimps that have been slipstreamed and are near the exit in tiers 4 and 5.
Supply Drop and Elite Sniper can be used to farm in very tight spaces while packing a lot of income and bloon-popping power. These pair especially well with Level 11+ Geraldo (thanks to Rejuv Potion) and Monkey City.
First Strike Capability is the fastest (currently known) way to defeat Tier 1 Vortex, however, the instant-kill strategy is only doable if a player is able to generate $61,600 worth of income before round 40 on normal difficulty (this is enough to get 4 First Strikes).
Since Vortex can't skip skulls, at least 4 First Strikes are required to defeat Tier 1 Normal Vortex, 8 if Elite Vortex. Geraldo's Rejuv Potion can reduce this to at minimum, three first strikes if one can stock 2 rejuv potions, although this requires purchasing level 11 early.
Advanced Intel works well on maps with a reasonable amount of water, as it can be placed far away while it won't get too affected by the stuns. Hence options like Triple Guns + Alch buff and Armor Piercing Darts + Alch buff can be viable on each tier.
Aircraft Carriers and Carrier Flagship have among the highest DPS of all Buccaneers outside of the Paragon, and also come with flying towers that can hit bloons from anywhere on screen.
Carrier Flagship also buffs the True Sun God if it is built on water, and also buffs Monkey Aces.
Most of a Monkey Ace's attacks rely on projectiles to deal damage, with exception of its abilities Ground Zero and Tsar Bomba. As long as the projectiles keep attacking Vortex consistently, Vortex should keep getting its health chipped away.
An advantage of Aces is that they can fly around in a fixed pattern, but be sure to keep landing pads away from Vortex, which otherwise leads to them to be stunned.
Sky Shredder and Flying Fortress are powerful consistent long-ranged options against Vortex. Flying Fortress in particular can antistall rounds while building up pops for the Goliath Doomship.
Heli Pilots can move anywhere on screen, mostly utilize projectiles, and each has a Heli Pad for themselves. Position Heli Pilots and their pads to ensure optimal results; Vortex's stun only affects Helis if it affects their pads.
Stunned Heli Pilots cannot move at all, which can be troublesome if they are too far from the main action and/or the player needs to see towers underneath them.
Apache Dartship and Apache Prime is cost and space inefficient, but the best filler option for events that limit the total amount of towers. As a bonus, it also ignores obstacles.
Support Chinooks can be helpful if needing to re-position a tower. Bear in mind that the selected tower and the Chinook needs to be in an unstunned state in order to perform the re-position.
With exception of Pop and Awe, most Mortar Monkeys don't really have much of a use, since Vortex buffs speed of bloons pretty quickly and most Mortar upgrades don't specialize against BADs and Bosses, and most Mortars attack pretty slowly.
When boosted by Pop and Awe and Support Temples, Artillery Battery is a decent spam option for late-game damage, because it can ignore the wind shield and its ability has high burst damage. Its DPS is outclassed by Full Auto Rifle, so they should only be used in areas where Line of Sight is an issue, or if Snipers are banned. Plasma Accelerators should be used instead when Vortex will not pop quickly.
Most Dartling Gunners upgrades have infinite range, allowing them to shoot anywhere on screen and hence can avoid Vortex's stuns. Bloon Exclusion Zone can work against Vortex too.
Plasma Accelerator and Ray of Doom beams are immune to blowing effects by Vortex, and Ray of Doom is usable for fast ranked times on Tier 1 and 2. Plasma Accelerator is a usable spam tower for later tiers as well, although outclassed by Full Auto Rifle and Artillery Battery's ability, since the laser's point damage is negated by Vortex's shield. It is stronger than Artillery Battery spam when Vortex will not be defeated quickly, such as Tier 5 Elite Vortex, as the point damage will be active and Dartling Gunners are much easier to micro.
M.A.D is a very strong option against Vortex if it can be placed far away from where Vortex may linger. While some projectiles can be blown away by Vortex, its consistent long-ranged damage makes it valuable at chipping away against Vortex quickly without needing to risk getting stunned so easily.
Wizard Monkeys tend to have subpar damage for how much they cost, particularly against Vortex. However, Summon Phoenix can be valuable for its long-ranged offense.
Wall of Fire is a cost-efficient early game defense.
Super Monkeys attack very quickly but have very few long-ranged options. However, a well-buffed Super Monkey especially True Sun God and Vengeful True Sun God should be able to take down Vortex quite efficiently, provided proper placement and backup defense is added.
Unlike for other bosses, a VTSG that partially skips Primary sacrifices (i.e. the 1(9)-2(9,9)-2(9,9)-2(9,9) VTSG configuration, skipping Primary at Sun Temple stage) may be a better configuration than the one that skips Military, since maximizing the globally ranged dark Spectre attack may allow VTSG to continue attacking Vortex when outside range. Magic is still key, as the Mini Vengeful Sun Avatars can basically increase effective range of the VTSG too.
If Subs are banned or if there is no water on the map, Tech Terror and The Anti-Bloon can use their abilities for fast ranked times against earlier tiers.
Sticky Bomb remains a reliable option against Vortex, provided it is not too far from the boss such that Vortex could blow the sticky projectiles off. Once attached, however, Vortex can't remove them. Similar principles can be used for Master Bomber.
Bloon Sabotage can be helpful if the natural bloons become too fast, slowing them down considerably. Grand Saboteur also works well too for similar reasons, mainly the higher duration and reduction of incoming MOAB-class bloon health.
Superstorm may find a niche as a DDT counter in later tiers of Vortex, however its high cost makes it largely outclassed by cheaper towers such as XXXL Trap.
Druid of the Jungle is a cheap tower for rounds 20-39, allowing you to focus more of your income into farming.
Jungle's Bounty is a fantastic tower for farming, however, its full potential is only reached when a player is able to stall out rounds, so it is generally unused in ranked mode.
Spirit of the Forest is an alternate source of income if a player is out of space to place farms, however, as its efficiency of farming is low, it is generally advised to only get it once all farming area has been used.
Avatar of Wrath remains relevant as a solid DPS tower in Vortex's later tiers, however, the relatively low range of the tower means players must be careful with placement. It is possible to leak at least three camo rainbow bloons in Round 56 by not decamoing them to cap out a Heart of Vengeance Druid's attack speed to later upgrade to AoW, if Ray of Doom is banned. If using Geraldo's Rejuv Potion, leak an extra rainbow or two, depending on whether one or two rejuvs will be used.
When Monkey Knowledge is enabled, the IMF Loan's income potential is the highest in Tier 1. See Income Farming for more details.
Transition into any suitable early-to-mid-game farming strategy and later go quickly into 4-2-0 BRF spam near a Monkey City or into discounted Marketplace spam, place some more 4-2-0 BRFs to catch up on income, and quickly afford a boosted 5-2-0 Banana Central.
Banana Central buffs Banana Research Facilities, which help make maximum money.
Central Market spam is effective in combination with Merchantmen spam.
Due to the immense scale of farming necessary in this game mode, Monkey Wall Street can act as an autocollector of important high-income options like Monkeyopolis, Banana Central, and XXXL Trap, just like a Banana Farmer.
Farms can't produce income while stunned; this can detrimentally affect income growth during a boss battle. Place high-tier farms as far away from the track as possible, and if needing to sell farms, sell the ones closest to the track.
Spike Factories depend a lot on stockpiling to deal the most damage. However, Vortex regularly blows away projectiles including on-track spikes, and can remove all spikes if under skull health.
Super Mines are a decent last line of defense, and can also be used for fast ranked times against earlier tiers, since the Super Mine explosions can penetrate Vortex's shield.
Spike Storms and Carpet of Spikes can work, but don't dump too many abilities at once, because Vortex can blow the spikes away or destroy them. If spamming the Spike Storm ability, make sure to only use abilities in necessary quantities.
Perma-Spike is a poor investment against Vortex, as Vortex can neutralize an entire stockpile, making it not reliable in earlier tiers, but can still be useful in conjunction with other defense for fast ranked times or for backup against natural waves of bloons. Because Perma-Spike piles are blown away after each skull, this also means significantly less investment is required, since it will only be used to instantly take out one skull instead of the full healthbar.
Villages provide valuable buffs that empower a lot of towers in range. Due to the nature of the Village, towers must be placed close to it, be aware. Long-ranged towers shouldn't have a problem provided they are far from where Vortex may linger.
Homeland Defense remains extremely useful against Vortex, provided the optimal towers are used. Call To Arms similarly works well.
Monkeyopolis remains a space efficient income-generator and is pivotal for boosting income in the late game. However, Monkeyopolis is cost-inefficient. However, one exception to this is the 1 farm "miniopolis", which is cost efficient and provides Monkey City bonuses.
Note that Monkeyopolis can't produce income while stunned; this can detrimentally affect income growth during a boss battle. Similarly, Monkeyopolis crates can be blown away or destroyed by a nearby Vortex.
Take into account optimal money-generating locations and locations that avoid Vortex as much as possible. Ideally, place it as far as possible from Vortex, or as late as possible along the bloon track.
Overclock and Ultraboost are both incredible support towers, buffing the chosen tower by 66% attack speed for a short time. This buff also applies to farms, and is critical to maximize income once Banana Research Facilities come into play.
Overclock provides a slightly longer benefit on towers up to tier 3. Thus, a strategy is buying a base tower (or 3-x-x tower), then upgrading it in order to get extra overclock time.
The early tiers of the bottom path are very good at defending earlier rounds, allowing for more money to be diverted to farming.
Bloon Trap is most effective at making money during rounds 35-39, and also can serve as a way to catch runaway bloons that slipstreamed past other defenses.
XXXL Trap is a good money maker and defender in combination with Rubber to Gold, Monkey City, and Support Sun Temples, as the alchemist doubles all income that enters the trap, including blimp layers. In addition, the XXXL trap antistalls rounds on one lane and contributes greatly for a high paragon degree. It needs to have its attack speed doubled to cap out its trap deployment rate if using the middle crosspath, so Overclock is extremely useful for this.
Sentry Champion is only worth it if the player can funnel all of the sentries in range of Vortex, while the Engineer is out of range of Vortex's stun blast.
Most Beast Handler upgrades do not have much of a niche against Vortex, and many have a weaknesses to direct range, although the beasts can be moved around. Many of its upgrades lack Boss damage, and don't really serve efficiently enough as part of a "throw everything at the Boss" tower.
A Beast Handler far away from Vortex's skull stun can still attack Vortex if it is merged with a Beast Handler in range of Vortex, even if the latter tower is stunned, provided that the beast is deployed in range of Vortex.
Since melee attacks from dinosaurs is considered "melee", bites from dinosaurs can't damage Vortex while Vortex is shielded.
Giganotosaurus is a good late-game tower to use for Tiers 4 and 5, but should not be the first option the player pursues. It is best to place merged Tyrannosaurus Rex far away from the boss spawn and away from the True Sun God buff, to maximize the benefit of merging with minimal drawbacks of occupying space.
Mermonkeys require synergetic combinations to make the most out of them; their raw DPS alone is rather poor versus Bosses alone but their synergies compensate it greatly.
The Final Harmonic + high DoT options (especially 5-0-2 The Bloon Solver, Glaive Lord, and Glaive Dominus) cause the Final Harmonic to deal immense damage to the Boss if the alluring aura is placed far away from other bloons, as it attempts to repeatedly "trigger" on the Boss, setting off DoTs at a really fast rate.
Abyss Dweller and above upgrades grant bonus percentage pierce, which is beneficial for Spike Factories in particular, as the damage output of Spike Factories improve with improved "lumping damage".
Lord of the Abyss is essential for expanding water space for water-based towers, particularly if wanting higher degrees on water-based Paragons where the map has only a low amount of water. It can also help expand water for a nearby Favored Trades, particularly if Special Poperations' Door Gunner is banned.
Heroes[]
Heroes offer super valuable roles at supporting a defense with their own special utility through their self-leveling upgrades. For Vortex, it is usually best to choose a hero that extrapolates the best leading into late-game. Such a hero choice is usually an income generator, an early-game breezer into an early income saver, or a late-game dominator.
Note: If a hero is stunned, it cannot attack, activate abilities, or be sold. It is basically out of commission until the stun duration ends. The only exception is Geraldo, who still lets his store be open for purchases regardless if he is stunned or not.
His early-game performance is subpar, but his buffing options compensate this downside.
He may be helpful for stunning a strong group of regular bloons with his Concussive shell.
The +25% pierce and +5% range buff at Level 8+ can be helpful for a variety of different towers against Vortex, including lumping more spikes into Spike Factories.
Undoubtably a solid choice as an early-game income source that can snowball income quickly later on in the game. Less potential in the lategame than Geraldo in exchange for simplicity.
Benjamin makes Monkey Banks more effective due to his buff to them.
Benjamin's Biohack let towers deal extra damage at the cost of potentially causing downtime for them. Syphon Funding can make rounds go faster, but will also take away potential pops for a Paragon.
It is a net income loss to use Syphon Funding on MOABs, as the reduced RBE is a larger income loss than the income multiplier. Similarly, Bloon Trojan is a net income loss on MOABS and DDTs until r101, and always reduces cash gained from BFBs. Furthermore, both reduce potential pops for Paragons. Thus, some players opt to either sell Benjamin or hide him where his Trojan cannot target bloons.
Not very useful as Vortex is the key issue, not BADs, so her extreme late-game potential is weakened in this scenario. Her early-game and mid-game is not very useful in Boss Events either.
Space is not normally a problem, so his free camo (which removes need of Radar Scanner) and UCAV (counter against mid-game rushes, and saves money in mid-game) aren't nearly as superior as his CHIMPS expertise does. His early-game is rather lackluster and his late-game doesn't scale very well, especially in Boss Event scenarios.
Excels in the early-game but doesn't scale very well in the late-game. She is more helpful than Quincy in both regards, but still outclassed by Benjamin for income.
She does have a redeeming window in saving plenty of money earlygame, which could potentially snowball better than Benjamin, but still highly unlikely.
Generally not useful as they are really subpar against BADs and Boss Bloons, and the relatively low amount of grouped bloons makes Psionic Scream obsolete.
Psi is too expensive for what they provide in defense. They also interfere with Bloon Trap and Lead/Rubber to Gold Farming by popping bloons too early.
Arguably, Psi's Psychic Blast actually may see usage on Vortex battles against natural bloons.
Geraldo comes with lots of special items that can be bought for special benefit. His indirect offense (e.g. Shooty Turret) can be very strong in the early-game, mid-game, and late-game. The tower buffs and special items he provides can be really strong when optimized.
Particularly useful items for going against Vortex include: Jar of Pickles (for quick high-projectile but low damage towers), Creepy Idol (minor blowback for early game and slipstream bloons), Rejuv Potion (resets abilities), Gerry's Fire (cheap early game defense), Paragon Power Totem (higher Paragon degrees).
Investment in his Rare Quincy Action Figure can be helpful for amassing a huge income gain in the long-term, but provides no immediate payoff. Optimally, sell the action figure on Round 31, as its value generation decreases beyond that point. Try to get Geraldo and his action figure as early as possible without harming long-term farming, typically by buying Geraldo on round 3 or 4. After the price increase of 34.0, the Rare Quincy Action Figure is delayed a round longer, reducing early-game snowball potential compared with Benjamin.
Geraldo can make a lot of money indirectly through the Rejuv Potion, which resets all ability cooldowns excluding Paragons, including money-generating abilities such as Supply Drop. The Rejuv Potion can also be extremely helpful by allowing ability chains, notably involving First Strike.
Geraldo's only direct income-generating options are Rare Quincy Action Figure and Fertilizer, and can indirectly make money via his Rejuv Potion in combination with money-generating abilities. If Banana Farms are available, Fertilizer is his secondary income source, which is best placed on the highest-tier Farms, and actually results in his lategame income exceeding that of Benjamin.
Geraldo's strongest item in raw value is the Paragon Power Totem, which can increase degrees of Paragons by granting 2,000 Power per totem for only the cost of $26k on Medium. Paragon Power Totems should be used as supplements to already large-scale defenses consisted on a single tower type, which paired with excess cash should sum to a quite high Paragon degree.
Corvus has a variety of different spells in his Spellbook that can be used to produce various effects on himself and his Spirit companion. Combining his spells wisely in combination with managing his Spirit and his own haunting attack will maximize his true power.
Rosalia offers a mix of generalistic damage and high "positional range", and separately attacks with either her high straightline damage lasergun or high grouped damage grenades. She can be placed anywhere within her workshop's range but cannot move anywhere else outside of her Flight Boost ability. Her abilities deal a boost of extra damage but at a long cooldown.
Rosalia's discounts to Aces and Helis is beneficial in Least Cash Bosses that center around these tower types, although most Least Cash strategies outclass strategies centered on either of these towers. Either way, a cheaper Support Chinook is beneficial if the more powerful heroes are banned.
Level 20 Anti-Bloon discount is relatively useless, unless specifically wanting The Anti-Bloon for a Least Cash Boss challenge.
Paragons[]
Paragons are major powerhouses for handling bosses. To ensure the highest-level Paragons, make sure to accumulate enough pops early on by using the same tower type as much as possible, mainly damage to the boss and its swarms. Avoid selling towers of the desired type(s) unless necessary for higher income growth.
In general, accumulation of pops in Vortex battles is a lot more difficult compared to battles against other Boss Bloons, mainly due Vortex's considerably lower health and fast speed, both factors contributing to its overall reduced damage opportunities for the desired towers.
Note that Vortex can stun Paragons if they are too close to it. Try finding long-ranged options or those with very high range.
Note: If a Paragon is stunned, it cannot attack, activate abilities, or be sold. It is basically out of commission until the stun duration ends. Paragons are stunned for the full duration.
Apex Plasma Master deals decent damage against Vortex. Because of its cheap price, it is a decent supporting Paragon to other defenses, especially due to how its ultra-juggernauts bounce all over the map.
Apex Plasma Master's balls have enough high projectile speed to dodge Vortex's storms. In addition, when close enough to Vortex, their projectiles can also bounce inside Vortex's wind shield for massive damage.
It is possible to place Apex Plasma Master further away from Vortex so it doesn't get stunned so frequently. For maximum damage, be sure the Apex Plasma Master attacking barely far enough to hit Vortex, preferably such that the balls hit nearby the edges of the screen or close to walls.
Glaive Dominus is likely the weakest option for Vortex due to its constituent towers having significant problems with racking up sufficiently high degrees, contrasting with the expensive but high power of Ascended Shadow, and additionally has much lower range than most Paragons and having very few long-ranged attacks.
Glaive Dominus' attacks, particularly its main glaives and orbital glaives, should have enough high projectile speed to dodge Vortex's storms. However, its reliance on its orbital glaives may make it prone to being stunned.
Dominus does have a long-ranged attack in the form of the anti-MOAB glaive, which is able to ignore Vortex's wind shield and can be used for fast Tier 2 elite kills.
The Glaive Dominus costs around the same as a Dart Paragon, so whether the Dart or Boomerang paragon is used will depend on what tier and how many other towers are supporting the tower.
One additional benefit of Glaive Dominus is that it buffs all primary towers' attack speed by 11.1% (*0.9 cd), including primary paragons, making it even better for strategies utilizing lots of primary towers.
Ascended Shadow is a great way to deal raw, single-target damage to (elite) Vortex. However, since Paragons cannot be buffed or moved, their range is limited and is recommended to place them where they are viable. This is especially so for Ascended Shadow, whose main DPS is dependent on attacking within its immediate range.
Most, if not all Ninjas, rely on projectiles to make the majority of their pops. In addition to Vortex's stuns potentially impacting Shinobi-heavy strategies, it can be harder to accumulate pops on Vortex with Ninjas.
Ascended Shadow has a sticky card attack that has infinite range. Therefore, it can be placed quite far without needing to risk getting stunned too often.
Since the Ascended Shadow has a passive Bloon Sabotage, Vortex's slipstream bloons will be much slower, which is particularly useful against natural DDTs.
Navarch of the Seas does huge damage to Vortex but has an expensive price tag. It is relentless at hooking in blimps fairly quickly. This is especially the case for natural DDTs.
Navarch's long-ranged offense deals respectable amounts of damage to Vortex without needing to be too close to the boss.
Navarch can also be used to boost farming in the lategame because it stacks with Trade Empire, and potentially affording an even stronger Navarch later on.
The main downside with Navarch is that it takes a bunch of water to be a strong option for bosses. For instance, a map like Cracked is generally not too viable except if you use enhancements such Geraldo or a lot of Portable Lakes.
Navarch's Carrier Flagship buff affects the Goliath Doomship's attack speed, resulting in the Doomship attacking ~17.6% faster. This does not affect its carpet bomb ability, so Navarch should still only be used on maps with lots of water.
Master Builder is a very expensive Paragon in terms of upgrade cost and collective T5 costs. Like Navarch of the Seas, Master Builder is relatively easy to get high Paragon degrees thanks to the benefit of extra income.
In terms of its role, it is a pure DPS role that greatly benefits from building its own power in the long-term, which come primarily from its stacking self-ultraboost and placement of Mega Sentries.
Each Mega Sentry can be placed on any land spot, have a unique attacking style, and produce Mini Sentries. Make use of the global placement of Mega Sentries in order to inflict a significant amount of damage to each stage of Vortex without the Master Builder itself getting stunned. The Green Mega Sentry is particularly notable as its laser can damage Vortex through its shield.
One powerful strategy with Master Builder is selling the Mega Sentries to create massive explosions on demand. Note that Mega Sentry explosions can hit Vortex through its shield. Since each sentry explosion counts as a separate attack, exploding multiple sentries at once can cause Vortex to skip skulls.
Caution should be taken to avoid letting Master Builder become too close to Vortex; Vortex's stun can also affect any Mega Sentry or Mini Sentry created. Conversely, stunned Mega Sentries do not affect the Master Builder. Any stunned sentry can still be detonated by replacing it with a new sentry or selling the Master Builder.
Goliath Doomship is a very expensive Paragon in terms of upgrade cost and collective T5 costs. While the Goliath Doomship lacks income generation as an alternative to earn pops, the Flying Fortress can accrue lots of pops while also antistalling rounds effectively for Ranked Bosses.
In terms of its role, it is a pure DPS role that greatly benefits from high degrees for a stronger ability that can be used more frequently.
Its carpet bomb ability is the strongest aspect of this paragon. With a high enough degree and proper positioning, the full bomb barrage can demolish significant health off Vortex. The Carpet Bomb ability can even ignore Vortex's wind shield from reaching skulls.
When its ability is on cooldown, a lot of damage for the Goliath Doomship comes from its forward gunner attack. Thus if possible, maintaining as much time facing Vortex with the Goliath Doomship is very beneficial.
Magus Perfectus is quite an expensive Paragon in terms of upgrade cost alone, although the required T5's aren't too expensive. However, unlike Goliath Doomship, accumulating high degrees is difficult and tedious, much like many of the cheaper Paragons.
In terms of its role, it is a pure DPS role that is heavily micro-dependent for the maximum DPS. Juggle between its two togglable modes and its two activated abilities to achieve a careful balance of its optimal DPS.
Without the Arcane Metamorphosis ability active, the Magus Perfectus is very weak at quick DPS, particularly with its very slow ability cooldown. Compared to other Paragons, Magus is best used for sustained DPS.
Magus Perfectus can still change toggles while stunned, but its abilities cannot be activated or recharge while stunned.
The range of Magus Perfectus is still bigger than some Paragons, most notably compared to Navarch or MBuilder, so Magus could potentially dodge some stuns at lower tiers of Vortex.
Note that Vortex can remove Magus's Undead Bloons, but not the powerful DoT from the exploded Dark Lord Phoenix. Do time the Phoenix Explosion ability to hit Vortex; it deals a lot of damage to Vortex, even while under a windshield or during blowing.
Nautic Siege Core is one of the cheaper Military Monkey Paragons, in fact the cheapest at the moment. It mostly fulfills a support role, doing decent damage while also having the option to submerge for various buffs or to produce a massive strike on bloons.
In terms of its role, it depends a lot on the situation. Choose the option that best fits the scenario.
Ability-dependent Paragons such as the Goliath Doomship and Magus Perfectus may benefit greatly from a submerged Nautic. Also, a submerged Nautic has better group-popping power.
Its pure DPS when unsubmerged is relatively similar to a Glaive Dominus, but with the activity of a Sub Commander plus a Pre-Emptive Strike.
When preparing for the Final Strike Ability, it can be used to pull off some immense burst damage to the Boss. Be careful, because a wrong timing could allow Vortex to just delete those nukes, completely wasting time and resources of the Final Strike. Also, Final Strike's radioactive fallout can still be wiped out by Vortex, so for the Final Strike ability, only rely on the nukes themselves for damage.
Powers[]
Sometimes, Vortex may be too difficult to beat that bailing out with Powers and Insta-Monkeys may be necessary. Use them wisely, and ideally prepare use of Powers before defenses begin to overwhelm. For efficiency, they should not be consumed on useless endevours, because Powers and Instas are single-use, Powers cost Monkey Money, and Instas are limited resources. Powers (including Instas) cannot be used on Ranked Mode, as they add unnecessary advantage over players who don't use them.
In general when playing on Vortex events, the best Powers are the ones directly related to income, for extrapolating cash gain faster and therefore affording the necessary defenses sooner. Micromanagement supporters such as Banana Farmer and Tech Bot are also worth adding for convenience purposes. Tower boosts such as Monkey Boost and Time Stop are useful when needing to destroy the boss better with a beefy defense, but direct damage Powers such as Super Monkey Storm will generally be useless because of their little potential for dynamic empowerment.
Note: Most Powers are immune to Vortex's stuns, and all Powers are immune to Vortex's wind blasts.
Generally useless for Vortex events, but can be useful if needing to bail out against natural bloon rushes. Multiple uses may be needed to deal with MOAB-class Bloons.
Helpful when needing the non-Paragon defense to deal more damage. Particularly useful on Tier 5 if there isn't enough firepower from non-Paragon towers.
Note that Monkey Boost cannot affect Paragons, as they are immune to all buffs.
Unlike Cash Drop, Thrive strives for long-term income gain at a much lower purchase price. To make the most of Thrive's income generation, prepare use beforehand and have plenty of pre-existing income sources available around.
For the best results, use it if there are lots of income generators and/or on rounds with lots of naturally spawning bloons.
An active Time Stop causes almost everything to slow down. Most bloons will be reduced by 10% but most towers will attack at 30% speed, and BADs and Bosses (including Vortex) to move at 30% speed. In most cases, this is basically a second Monkey Boost.
Time Stop is also used as a saving grace for reducing stressful situations, giving more time to react accordingly for the defense. Plus, abilities still recharge at the same speed, giving more time to activate important abilities sooner.
Paragons are immune to being slowed down, essentially making them attack much faster, especially versus BADs and Bosses.
Collection of bananas and crates can be tiresome for the hand or finger, so a Farmer can be added to collect nearby bananas from Banana Farms without Monkey Bank or Marketplace upgrades, or to collect Monkeyopolis crates.
If there is enough money to afford Special Poperations and there is the Door Gunner MK active, one can use Door Gunner on a Banana Farmer to rake up money across many different points, saving space and potentially saving use of a second or third Banana Farmer.
Generally not necessary because Arctic Wind can fulfill a similar role, unless on a map such as Spice Islands where Banana Farm space is very limited but water is plentiful.
Tanks a few bloons for very cheap, but it is extremely ineffective at damaging blimps and requires too much micro if wanting to rush with spamming it out.
Glue Trap actually may serve useful at slowing down masses of bloons to a halt, particularly the bloons behind Vortex, which move much faster.
While Glue Trap cannot slow down BADs or Bosses, Glue Trap could be used to slow down blimps, but the Supersize Glue Trap MK must be unlocked for this to work. Note that Glue Trap will consume more pierce upon consuming a blimp.
Generally weak because Vortex sends no minions, instead buffing natural waves. It can be helpful in stopping a few MOABs but it won't do much damage against all other MOAB-class bloons.
Also, while MOAB Mine can damage Bosses, it does very little damage to them.
Not necessary unless camos are an issue. It can be useful for removing the camo property off DDTs, especially the ones under slipstream, in order for other towers to target it.
Insta-Monkeys are one-use and highly limited. If needed, use an offensive tower that excels for a long time (e.g. Tier 3 Super Monkey) or a pure income generator.
Boss Strengths and Weaknesses[]
Vortex
Strategy
Strengths
Vortex moves very quickly, and bloons behind also move noticeably faster too. This means there is less time to kill Vortex at each tier.
Vortex's ability to speed up bloons is truly threatening on tracks with multiple lanes (e.g. Quiet Street, Spring Spring) where bloons from both lanes have their speed boosted, and in case for the latter, bloons that aren't on Vortex's lane and far from Vortex will have their speed boost retained to the end without having to catch up to Vortex.
On long maps (e.g. Logs, Four Circles), which tend to have many more loops for bloons, Vortex will have an easier time stunning a densely packed defense, consequently benefiting the slipstream bloons even more.
Each tier increases the range of Vortex's stun by 5, up to a maximum of 80, making later tiers even more threatening against a dense defense.
Vortex can recurrently summon wind shields that protect against projectiles, immediately destroying projectiles that are too close to Vortex. It occurs always every few seconds and whenever hitting skull health.
Immediately after hitting skull health, Vortex produces a persistent wind shield that lasts for few seconds. During this period, projectiles recurrently blow away from a wide radius.
Defenses too close together and close to the bloon track are liable to getting simultaneously stunned by Vortex, which greatly works in Vortex's favor. Such a synchronous and extensive stun becomes amplified at higher tiers; it is even harder to avoid and becomes more punishing.
Like Lych, Vortex is immune to skipping skulls. Vortex must be hit with multiple attacks in quick succession in order to inflict heavy damage to Vortex.
In the case of First Strike Capability, more of them may be necessary to take down Vortex. This is key in Tiers 1 and Elite Tier 1 (both assuming single-player), which need a minimum of 4 and 8 instant ability uses, respectively.
Vortex is capable of disrupting an otherwise steady generation of income. By stunning within a moderate range, it is capable of incidentally stunning farming towers, especially Banana Farms and Monkeyopolis. It can also destroy projectiles, including collectables.
Weaknesses
If Vortex reaches skulls too quickly, Vortex moves much quicker, allowing it to frequently move back to the same place. This can be utilized in the player's favor by intentionally attacking quickly, trapping Vortex in the same spot and allowing focused attacks (e.g. First Strike Capability spam, Apex Plasma Master ultra-juggernauts) to become lethal to Vortex.
Vortex cannot blow away or destroy hitscan attacks and certain instant abilities. Snipers in particular excel against Vortex and evade every strength of Vortex, provided proper positioning. Instant use abilities such as First Strike Capability ability are not affected by Vortex's projectile-blowing.
Vortex does not send its own minions by itself or at skull health unlike Bloonarius and Lych, so you don't have to worry about them, though fast natural bloons are still a threat.
Farming by Tier[]
Tier 1 Farming[]
This is the first stage for properly preparing for any Boss Bloon, including Vortex. The early-game farming is fairly straightforward for Vortex, with some exceptions; simply farm as efficiently as possible and choose the most optimal progression of income generation while simultaneously defending against the bloons. The only catch is that farming options especially Banana Farms should be placed away from where Vortex would roam around.
It is recommended that you start farming as soon as possible. Two distinct farming-heavy hero strategies exist: Benjamin and Geraldo. For Benjamin strategies, start with Ben as soon as he is ready to purchase, and then get a 0-0-0 Farm to build into more Farms and their upgrades. For Geraldo, delay his purchase until both himself and his Rare Quincy Action Figure can be bought in a single round; on long maps it can be safely done by Round 4 with free Dart Monkey. Sell the Action Figure at round 31 as that is when it gains value slower than before.
Afterwards, invest in Banana Farms and their upgrades. Multiple methods for farming exist which can work effectively in different scenarios. The easiest is to opt for multiple 2-0-0 Farms into 2-0-3 Marketplaces while also having enough to get a Favored Trades too for even more sellback. Banks or IMF Loans can also work but require long-term evaluation or precise farming.
If you have enough money by the early 30s, an early miniopolis (monkeyopolis with 1 farm sacrifice) may be worth going for, as not only does it have good income, it also boosts income from pops and other income generating sources. Build a 0-0-2 village, then build an 0-0-4 village next to it so it benefits from the discount. Build an unupgraded farm next to it, then upgrade to the Monkeyopolis and start building 0-2-3 marketplaces next to it until a few (2-3) rounds before the boss arrives.
Tier 2 Farming[]
Use a portion of money to kill Vortex as quick as possible, as stall-farming strategies are quite poor against Vortex due to its fast speed. Find a strategy that involves high single-target DPS while also having some backup defense in case Vortex stuns the most important towers; countermeasures specifically for Tier 1 are the best for this tier. It is important to whittle down Vortex's health down low enough that it is possible to quickly resume farming at a safe moment; this can be only safely done once all skull healths are down. Sell unnecessary defense after Vortex loses the last skull health at Tier 1, while also looking out for the defense. Don't forget to anticipate for Tier 2 Vortex, and do an aggressive farming strategy while there is enough time to recover income.
If using a Geraldo strategy, the Rare Quincy Action Figure could be sold at this moment in order to get enough defense to quickly take down Vortex at this tier. Afterwards, the defense spent could be used to further fuel into an aggressive farming play. If using a Benjamin strategy, simply get an aggressive farming play as normal.
It is often at this tier when a transition into a large-scale farming method would be desirable. Examples include going into Trade Empire and multiple Merchantmen, or building a BRF after defeating tier 1 accompanied with Marketplace spam. Supply Drop farming can be useful from here, but since rounds in this round range are quite short it is often better to use round-based income like the prior aforementioned two.
Tier 3 Farming[]
After amassing a large-scale farming, make sure to kill Vortex as soon as possible once again, so that farming can commence sooner. Standard Tier 2 Vortex countermeasures are the best option here. Again, sell unnecessary defense after Vortex loses the last skull health at Tier 2, while also looking out for the defense. Don't forget to anticipate for Tier 3 Vortex, and do an aggressive farming strategy while there is enough time to recover income.
Keep a steady flow of income going. Ideally, one should be able to afford enough to go to a 5-2-0 Banana Central with a respectably sized army of 4-2-0 BRFs. When space is low, a large Monkeyopolis can be built to continue to make income while also making more BRFs. Monkey Wall Street can also be added to give more income and autocollect important income sources, particularly Monkeyopolis and Banana Central. If using Geraldo, he can also use Fertilizer to further boost existing Farms, just be sure to use them on Farms that won't soon be sacrificed, which otherwise wastes the fertilizer.
Trade Empire and multiple Merchantmen in combination with lots of Central Markets is another viable option for massive farming potential, especially on water-heavy maps like Spice Islands. Their defensive capabilities generally begin to fall off by this point, so accompany them with more defense.
Supply Drop farming can be very impactful to begin from this round onwards, as rounds get progressively longer. Not only that, Geraldo naturally can unlock his Rejuv Potion soon enough to create a burst of supply crates from the Snipers. Pairing Snipers with Monkey City maximizes income generation from them, giving +15% income.
An interesting trick is to use Special Poperations with Door Gunner to pick up a Favored Trades so that the bonus +10% sellback can be applied anywhere the helicopter goes; this can save more money in the long-run, and it is quite readily affordable by this point. Works as long as there is space for at least one Buccaneer on the map.
With remaining time and rounds, accumulate as much income as possible, because Tier 3 Vortex is the first real challenge that cannot simply be trivialized with single tower combos.
Tier 4 Farming[]
More than one type of defense is needed to beat Vortex Tier 3, so be sure to make enough of an income gain to afford necessary supports and strong towers, perhaps a makeshift Paragon. It is risky to continue farming while Tier 3 Vortex is alive, given the sudden jump in health and lack of cheap single options for taking it down. It may help to sell some defenses, preferably with the Special Poperations + Door Gunner + Favored Trades trick to gain a sizable refund.
Once Tier 3 Vortex loses its last skull health, immediately try to build back as many income-generators as soon as possible. Once Tier 3 Vortex is completely dead, commence to sell unnecessary defense and rebuild what amount of cash is left.
From here, usage of as many income generators as possible within the allocated space is key.
Tier 5 Farming[]
Keep farming hard with as many income-based sources as possible while also at the same time investing for pops for the Paragons. Also use the last 20 rounds before Tier 5 Vortex to accumulate those last pops, particularly key for maximizing the degrees for the Paragons. Still make sure to farm super hard at the same time too.
Boss Strategies by Tier[]
Tier 1 Boss[]
A risky but rewarding method to destroy Vortex is to destroy Vortex very quickly with long-ranged attacks, particularly long-ranged abilities such as MOAB Eliminator and First Strike Capability. The more often Vortex pushes itself back, the more time for defenses to handle with Vortex, provided the main defense isn't stunned. If Vortex is killed soon enough, farming can continue as normal.
For general cases, it is best to use long-ranged options that attack consistently and do not rely primarily on stockpiling, and rely primarily on those to destroy Vortex and any speedy bloons behind. Good candidates include 2-0-5 Elite Defender, 2-0-3 Triple Guns + Alch buff, 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Guns + Alch buff, and Sticky Bomb. Vortex is quite fast, so there is not much time to make stalling worth it. Short-ranged options such as Overdrive + Embrittlement can work well against Vortex too, but watch out for Vortex's stun.
Before Vortex dies after losing its final skull phase, sell all unnecessary defense and continue farming. Keep watch of the natural bloons too, as their increased speeds can make them quite elusive.
Tier 2 Boss[]
M.A.D + Jungle Drums is an easy choice against Tier 2 Vortex, even Elite Tier 2 Vortex, packing consistent huge increases of damage against Vortex while also taking advantage of M.A.D's long range. It can take Vortex down pretty quickly with little problem. Ray of Doom is even better if one can afford it because it can ignore Vortex's shield.
In absence of M.A.D, it can be harder to defeat Vortex. Avatar of Wrath + Poplusts and The Tack Zone + Super Brittle may still work like with other bosses, but may need support in case Vortex stuns them all. 5-0-2Apache Prime and Sky Shredder can be viable alternatives if needing a long-ranged advantage.
Again, just before Vortex dies after losing its final skull phase, sell all unnecessary defense and continue farming. Still keep watch of the natural bloons too, as their increased speeds can make them quite elusive.
Tier 3 Boss[]
The first truly difficult tier of Elite Vortex is Tier 3 Elite Vortex, which packs an immense amount of health with no easy options to counter except accumulating enough cash for a makeshift Paragon. The easiest option is to go for a Apex Plasma Master, which is the cheapest option while also having the advantage of accessing headstarts in degree amounts via Master Double Cross. Since all Paragons deal huge damage to bosses, even with vanilla degrees, it should not be difficult to take down the boss provided the Paragon is adequately placed such that it does not get stunned yet still gets enough damage inflicted into the boss. In addition, when close enough, the Apex Plasma Master can bounce its plasma juggernaut balls inside Vortex's Wind Shield for massive damage.
An alternate option besides quick Paragons is a highly buffed high-sacrifice Sun Temple.
Tower buffs become very important starting from this tier. Call To Arms and Homeland Defense are both recommended for optimal buffs, alongside Overclock and Ultraboost. Regardless of having a Paragon or not, bloon debuffs (notable examples being Cripple MOAB and Super Brittle) are very helpful starting from this tier onwards, due to the need to maximize damage.
As always, just before Vortex dies after losing its final skull phase, sell all unnecessary defense and continue farming. Still keep watch of the natural bloons too, as their increased speeds can make them quite elusive. It is still recommended to sell the early Paragon so that a better Paragon can be obtained later on in the game.
Tier 4 Boss[]
Accumulation of pops towards the next Paragon is often the best choice here. By this point, one should accumulate enough money and hero XP to obtain important items and upgrades. If using Geraldo, he should be fast enough to naturally reach max level, which should allow him to unlock Paragon Power Totems for enhancing levels of new Paragons.
When making max-tier Paragons, it is important to prepare enough space and money soon enough to get a kickstart in accumulating pops (including generated money, if applicable). With enough money available, spend money for all Tier 5 upgrades, maximal Tier 4 upgrades for the monetary sacrifice costs, and try maximizing supports. Make sure that only the to-be Paragon constituent towers receive the most pops. If Geraldo is available, try investing on Paragon Power Totems if there is a glut of cash available.
Vengeful True Sun God with maximum buffs is another approach for dealing with Vortex.
Keep some money in hand while quickly accumulating pops for new Paragons.
Tier 5 Boss[]
For Tier 5 Vortex, an extra support Sun Temple for the purposes of buffing a (Vengeful) True Sun God may be bought. Paragons should be bought as well for extra damage. Maximum buff supports and blimp debuffs possible, on top of Temples and Paragons, ensures that the final battle can be won securely, provided previous precautions are done with preventing Vortex from optimizing its strengths. Superbuffing many Sun Temples with the maximum supports possible is a strong choice, alongside Paragons and maxed (V)TSG.
Important support buffs (presumed all strong towers use this):
Homeland Defense, can be bought and resold to maintain full uptime.
Beyond that, there are strong options that can be spammed:
3-2-0 Sun Avatars can be done if there's no other valid expensive option available. Their cost and space efficiency is very high when provided with lots of damage increases.
If Super Monkeys are limited or banned in a Vortex event, Then the strongest spammable towers based on factors such as range and availability are as follows:
4-2-0 Plasma Accelerator (long range micro reliant option, ignores wind shield, comparable with Full Auto Rifle if Snipers are limited or banned)
2-0-4 Full Auto Rifle (long range option that also fills smaller gaps in a defense, ignores wind shield, can take advantage of Flanking Maneuvers)
Any Summon Phoenix (budget option, benefits from energizer, ignores obstacles)
2-4-0 Artillery Battery (ignores obstacles and wind shield, insane burst with ability, falls off once ability wears off)
4-2-0 Aircraft Carrier (mid-range water option with higher damage than other spammable towers other than overdrives, also has moderate global range capability, can take advantage of Flanking Maneuvers)
In the case where Vengeful True Sun God is not possible, whether it be because the There Can Only Be One MK is not unlocked yet or because the True Sun God upgrade is restricted from this event, Legend of the Night can help assist with catching any leaks in case regular bloons end up surpassing Vortex and reach the exit.
In short, throw in as much damage and support as possible as quickly as possible while also taking safe measures against Vortex's powerful stuns.
Flanking Maneuvers)