Wizard Monkey (BTD6)

Overview

BTD4

BTD5

BTD6

BATTD

Bloons Pop!

BTDB2

Wizard Monkey
General Information
Game	Bloons TD 6
Release Date	June 13th 2018
Class	Magic
Unlocked at	Level 15-17 and Level 19-20
Cost	$210 (Easy) $250 (Medium) $270 (Hard) $300 (Impoppable)
Activated Ability(s)	Summon Phoenix Wizard Lord Phoenix
Targeting Options	First, Last, Close, Strong, Camo Priority with Monkey Sense If purchased, Wall of Fire will default to Close. With Guided Magic, Wall of Fire obeys set Target Priority.
Hotkey	A
Other Names	Wizard
Statistics
Damage	1
Pierce	3
Attack Speed	1.1s
Range	40
Status Effects	N/A
Tower Boosts	N/A
Income/Life Boosts	N/A
Camo Detection	Yes (x-x-2)
Footprint	Medium (7)
Default Damage Type	Energy
Related Towers
Monkey Apprentice (BTD4), for the BTD4 counterpart Monkey Apprentice (BTD5), for the BTD5 counterpart Wizard Monkey (BTDB2), for the BTDB2 counterpart

“	Hurls magical bolts of energy at the Bloons. Can upgrade to a variety of powerful spells.	”
	~ In-game description

The Wizard Monkey is a Magic-class tower that was released in the initial release of Bloons TD 6. The tower retains its role from the Bloons TD 4 and Bloons TD 5 game generations, with a name change from "Monkey Apprentice" alongside other significant changes. It did not receive any teasers prior to release, but it was first shown when the game was available to select YouTubers several days before BTD6's official release date.

Wizard Monkeys produce bolts every 1.1s that pop up to 3 bloons each. It is slower than the Engineer Monkey but it can pop Frozen Bloons at the cost of not popping Purple Bloons, due to its Energy damage type. Many of the Wizard Monkey's upgrades either enhance its magical bolt or add additional powerful attacks. For instance, the Wizard can learn multiple fire spells, such as fireballs, hot blazes, fiery breath, summoning a phoenix, or even becoming the phoenix. Wizards can also pursue the dark arts, especially necromancy of recently popped bloons.

It costs $210 on Easy, $250 on Medium, $270 on Hard, and $300 on Impoppable.

Description

The Wizard Monkey wears a light black cloak and a small light black wizardly hat, with yellow crescent moons on it, just as it did in BTD5 when it was called the Monkey Apprentice. It does not look very different compared to his BTD5 counterpart, other than the fact that it now has the BTD6 art style.

The Wizard Monkey has a moderate overhaul in Bloons TD 6, losing several key abilities that had been a staple for the tower in previous installments and instead replaced with some new attacks. Most lost spells from prior installments however are now found in the Druid instead. The Wizard Monkey also lost the power to pop lead bloons without any upgrades, requiring it to have the Fireball, Arcane Spike, or Necromancer: Unpopped Army upgrades in order to do so.

The Wizard Monkey can select two paths at a time, one that enhances its main energy bolt, a second that grants fire-based spells, and a third that focuses on spells geared towards detection and necromancy.

Path 1 allows the monkey to attack anywhere in its range with Guided Magic, ignoring Line of Sight. Arcane Spike allows the Wizard Monkey to pop lead bloons, as well as increasing the DPS it does to MOAB-Class bloons, and as Archmage, it inherits the Dragon's Breath and Shimmer of the second and third paths respectively. It mainly specializes in DPS.

Path 2 makes the Wizard Monkey wield fire-based attacks. However, Purple Bloons will pose a problem for it. Further down Path 2 will allow it to summon a phoenix that can also pop purple bloons at its 5th tier.

Path 3 centralizes the Wizard Monkey to focus on more of a support role with the Shimmer Upgrade that decamoizes bloons. The Necromancer: Unpopped Army upgrade transforms the Shimmer into an effective cleanup tower and even more so with Prince of Darkness.

The Wizard Monkey is classed as a Magic Monkey.

Target Priorities

The base Wizard Monkey uses the standard target priorities: First, Last, Close, Strong. Many of the Wizard's alternate attacks have target priorities that are integrated into the Wizard's own target priorities.

• 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.

Certain alternate attacks have a different set of target priorities:

• Wall of Fire always sets on Close by default. Adding Guided Magic can adjust location of where the Wall of Fire spawns based on target priority if there is a bloon within range at the time of creating the attack.
• Summon Phoenix's phoenix's flight path is always set on Centered Path, similar to the Centered Path upgrade for the Monkey Ace. It will continue to travel clockwise around the center of the map indefinitely until it disappears.
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's transformation always has its flight path set on Centered Path. The WLP Phoenix will continue to travel clockwise around the center of the map indefinitely until it transforms back into a monkey. Wizard Lord Phoenix's permanent phoenix acts exactly the same as Summon Phoenix's phoenix but lasts indefinitely.
• Undead Bloons spawn from a set location on any track within the wizard’s range. Undead bloons will use mana to spawn from the set location, and mana is regained by getting pops. By default, the undead bloons spawn from as far back in the track as possible on the active lane which has bloons the furthest back.

Upgrades

Path 1

	Guided Magic COST: $125 / $150 / $160 / $180 UNLOCK: 110 XP
	Description: Magic shots seek out the Bloons, even behind cover. Effect: All magical bolts can ignore Line of Sight and can seek at bloons. Most other attacks also ignore Line of Sight and gain further projectile lifespan. Phoenixes with Guided Magic can lightly home.

	Arcane Blast COST: $380 / $450 / $485 / $540 UNLOCK: 600 XP
	Description: Bigger more powerful magic blasts pop through 2 layers of Bloon. Effect: Main bolt's projectile size increased and now deals 2 damage. Fireballs with this crosspath deal +1 damage.

	Arcane Mastery COST: $1,190 / $1,400 / $1,510 / $1,680 UNLOCK: 2,300 XP
	Description: Faster attacks with increased range, damage, and popping power. Effect: Gains +20 range, 2x attack speed, deals 3 damage per bolt instead of 2, and pops +4 bloons.

	Arcane Spike COST: $8,500 / $10,000 / $10,800 / $12,000 UNLOCK: 11,000 XP
	Description: Faster firing magic does huge damage to most Bloon types. Effect: Deals 6 damage per shot and 16 versus MOAB-class. Attacks 4x faster than an unupgraded Wizard and can pop Lead Bloons.

Archmage COST: $27,200 / $32,000 / $34,560 / $38,400 UNLOCK: 35,000 XP

Description: A true master of magical wizardry. Attack faster and does more damage to MOAB-Class Bloons. Effect: Even higher damage bolts deal 8 damage and 27 MOAB-class damage and attack twice as fast as Arcane Spike. Additionally gains Dragon's Breath and Shimmer attacks, and all additional attacks gain twice as fast speed and deal four times damage to MOAB-Class Bloons (including crosspathing path 2 Fireball and Wall of Fire).

Path 2

	Fireball COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360 UNLOCK: 130 XP
	Description: Every few seconds casts an explosive fireball spell. Effect: Every 2.2s, produces a fireball that explodes on impact. Fireballs cannot explode if collided onto Purple Bloons, and fireball explosions cannot damage Black properties.

	Wall of Fire COST: $680 / $800 / $865 / $960 UNLOCK: 700 XP
	Description: Creates a super hot wall of fire across the track to roast the Bloons as they pass. Effect: Creates a blaze of fire onto the closest region of bloon track. The blaze will regularly damage bloons as they pass through. Crosspathing with Guided Magic allows Wall of Fire placement to be manually adjusted, and also lasting 6.5s instead of 4.5s.

	Dragon's Breath COST: $2,805 / $3,300 / $3,565 / $3,960 UNLOCK: 2,600 XP
	Description: Spews endless flames at nearby Bloons and enhances Fireball and Wall of Fire. Effect: Rapidly spews flames at bloons. Flames deal 2 damage and sets affected bloons on fire for more damage. Hurls a triple fireball spell, each fireball dealing 3 damage and 14 blast radius. Wall of Fire spawns every 4.5s and gains +10 pierce, and increases tick rate of Wall of Fire.

	Summon Phoenix COST: $5,950 / $7,000 / $7,560 / $8,400 UNLOCK: 13,000 XP
	Description: Summon Phoenix ability: Powerful phoenix wreaks Bloon havoc for 20 seconds. Effect: Ability generates a phoenix that rapidly spews flames which deal 5 damage each. Phoenix has infinite range, ignores line of sight, last up to 20 seconds, and has a 45 second cooldown. Phoenix flames lightly home with 1-4-0 crosspath. Main wizard gains a double flame attack that burns more damage.

Wizard Lord Phoenix COST: $42,500 / $50,000 / $54,000 / $60,000 UNLOCK: 35,000 XP

Description: Wizard Lord becomes a master of the flame, turning into a super powerful Lava Phoenix for a short time. Effect: Enhances damage of all fire-related attacks, Dragon's Breath attack gains 46 pierce and damage increased from 2 to 6. Wall of Fire damage increased from 1 to 5 and fireball damage is tripled. Phoenix is now permanent. Ability now transforms the monkey into a super-phoenix that spews even stronger flames and regular volleys of powerful meteors.

Path 3

	Intense Magic COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360 UNLOCK: 140 XP
	Description: More powerful magic shots move faster and can pop more Bloons. Effect: Bolt gains +5 pierce and moves faster. Most fire-based attacks gain a certain amount of bonus pierce.

	Monkey Sense COST: $255 / $300 / $325 / $360 UNLOCK: 500 XP
	Description: Increase range slightly and allows the Wizard to hit Camo Bloons. Effect: Wizard gains +10 range, camo detection and can access Camo Prioritization.

	Shimmer COST: $1,275 / $1,500 / $1,620 / $1,800 UNLOCK: 2,200 XP
	Description: Gains a dark magic attack that periodically reveals location of all nearby Camo bloons permanently. Effect: Gains a shimmer attack. If bloons get within range, the Wizard periodically produces dark waves of magic that permanently remove camo properties off bloons. Also gains +10 range.

Necromancer: Unpopped Army COST: $2,380 / $2,800 / $3,025 / $3,360 UNLOCK: 10,000 XP

Description: Reanimate recently popped enemies as servants to destroy the Bloons. Effect: Stores Undead Bloons into its personal graveyard every time any tower pops bloons within its range, and spawns them out to attack bloons. Undead Bloons pop any bloon type. Undead Bloons gain further pierce, damage, and attack speed as the graveyard count grows. All the Wizard's other attacks also gain up to +2 damage as the graveyard grows.

Prince of Darkness COST: $22,525 / $26,500 / $28,620 / $31,800 UNLOCK: 30,000 XP

Description: Reanimate even more powerful Bloon servants to obliterate the enemy and enhances all other Necromancers. Effect: Expands its personal graveyard greatly, Undead Bloons last longer, and can now also summon Undead MOABs and Undead BFBs that deal even more damage and pop more bloons. Improves damage and lifespan of all Undead Bloons on screen including its own. The Wizard's other attacks can now gain up to +10 damage with a full graveyard. Also gains a massive range of 80.

Paragon Upgrade

Magus Perfectus COST: $637,500 / $750,000 / $810,000/ $900,000 UNLOCK: 1,000,000 XP

Description: Only the most perfect Wizard can channel the ancient powers of the beyond. Effect: Gains a powerful arsenal of magical spells with two powerful abilities and a permanent Dark Lord Phoenix that flies around the Magus Perfectus. Gains graveyard mana as it pops and damages Bloons but gradually depletes upon reaching the full 100k capacity. The Magus Perfectus initially shoots Arcane bolts which drain mana, which can be toggled into a mana-restoring focused beam instead which also disables the Dark Phoenix. Phoenix Explosion Ability: Sacrifices the Dark Lord Phoenix to unleash an invigorating burst of dark exothermic energy. Immediately incinerates the Bloons within blast of the Phoenix, and releases its graveyard into multiple Undead ZOMGs that consume 9000 graveyard mana each, that later explode into BFBs. Arcane Metamorphosis Ability: Transforms into an alternate form that spews dark fiery breath onto Bloons and scatters blazes onto the Bloons. Duration depends on quantity of graveyard mana.

Total Costs

		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5
Path 1
	Base Cost	150	600	1,300	10,900	32,000
	Cumulative Cost	550	1,150	2,450	13,350	45,350
	Base Sell	105	420	910	7,630	22,400
	Cumulative Sell	385	805	1,715	9,345	31,745
Path 2
	Base Cost	300	900	3,000	4,000	54,000
	Cumulative Cost	700	1,600	4,600	8,600	62,600
	Base Sell	210	630	2,100	2,800	37,800
	Cumulative Sell	490	1,120	3,220	6,020	43,820
Path 3
	Base Cost	300	300	1,700	2,800	24,000
	Cumulative Cost	700	1,000	2,700	5,500	29,500
	Base Sell	210	210	1,190	1,960	16,800
	Cumulative Sell	490	700	1,890	3,850	20,650

Strategy

See also: Wizard Monkey (BTD6)/Strategies

See also: Crosspathing/Wizard Monkey

Summary

Wizard Monkeys are capable of learning a variety of different spells dedicated for damage and utility. Generally, their spells are quite accurate but have a noteworthy weakness to Purple Bloons without Necromancer: Unpopped Army. The lower-tier upgrades generally are fairly weak alone, with exception of Wall of Fire.

Tips

• 0-0-0 Wizard is cheaper than a 1-0-0 Dart.

Monkey Knowledge

This section displays Monkey Knowledge that has effects on Wizard Monkey and its changes when compared to one by default:

• Lingering Magic: Projectiles fired from all Wizard Monkey have longer lifespan.
  • Bolt without 1-x-x lasts 20% longer, from 0.4 seconds to 0.48 seconds.
  • Bolt with 1-x-x lasts 20% longer, from 0.8 seconds to 0.96 seconds.
  • Wall of Fire lasts 20% longer, from 4.5 seconds to 5.4 seconds
• Magic Tricks: Guided Magic and Intense Magic cost 25 less.
  • Guided Magic cost reduced from $125, $150, $160, $180 to $100, $125, $135, $160 on each difficulty.
  • Intense Magic cost reduced from $255, $300, $325, $360 to $230, $275, $300, $335 on each difficulty.
• Hot Magic: All Magic type towers can pop Frozen Bloons.
  • Technically affects all Magic Monkeys, but because Wizard Monkey lacks any damage type that cannot pop Frozen, it remains unaffected.
• Flame Jet: Dragon's Breath flame projectiles move much faster.
  • Dragon's Breath flame projectiles fly 50% faster.
• Arcane Impale: Arcane Spike does extra damage to MOAB-Class and Ceramic Bloons.
  • Deals 17 damage instead of 16 to MOAB-Class Bloons.
  • Deals 7 damage instead of 6 to Ceramic Bloons.
• Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
• Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more.
  • Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
• Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.
• Global Ability Cooldowns: All Ability cooldowns for all Monkeys reduced by 3%.

Version History

Differences Between BTD5 and BTD6

Listed are comparisons of the Wizard Monkey in BTD6 compared to BTD5. Takes into account Flash and Mobile versions.

• Lightning Bolt and Tornados are no longer available.
• Attacks can't damage Purples (at least in general).
• Base attack can't damage Leads before significant upgrading.
• Base wizard cost decreased from $550 to $325
• Monkey Sense is on the same path as Intense Magic instead of Fireball.
• Monkey Sense now gives +10 extra range
• Dragon's Breath now have a napalm effect, deals more damage (1 -> 2) and cost less ($4200 -> $3300)
• Dragon's Breath now shoots three fireballs
• Summon Phoenix cost more ($5000 -> $7000) but the phoenix have more damage (1 -> 5)
• Summon Phoenix now shoot two Dragon's Breath projectiles
• Dragon's Breath and Summon Phoenix include Wall of Fire, having higher accumulative costs, but having better cleanup.
• Monkey Apprentice is renamed to Wizard Monkey.

Balance Changes

Initial release (compared to BTD5)

Note: Lists all balance changes implemented for the Wizard Monkey when it was first released in Bloons TD 6 (June 14th 2018) in comparison to Bloons TD 5. Takes into account Flash and Mobile versions of Bloons TD 5.

• Lightning Bolt and Tornados are no longer available.
• Attacks can't damage Purples (at least in general).
• Base attack can't damage Leads before significant upgrading.
• Monkey Sense is on the same path as Intense Magic instead of Fireball.
• Dragon's Breath and Summon Phoenix include Wall of Fire instead (was a to the price, but buff to overall cleanup).

2.0

• 3-x-x Arcane Mastery now adds pierce.
• 5-x-x Archmage now adds pierce.
• x-5-x Phoenix projectile speed greatly increased, and shoots more large fireballs.
• x-x-5 Soulbind upgrade has been re-designed into the Prince of Darkness.

3.0

• 1-x-x Guided Magic will now allow the main attack to pass through obstacles.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix should no longer lock itself from being purchased again if sold under certain situations.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix will no longer crash the game if redeployed while the ability is active.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix's ability icon should no longer disappear until the ability wears off.
• x-x-4+ Unpopped Army will now spawn zombie bloons correctly in all cases as long as it can reach the track.

4.0

• 1-2-0 Guided Magic will now allow the Wall of Fire to ignore walls.

6.0

• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix pierce increased to 50 on main tower dragon's breath & main Phoenix fire breath attacks.

7.0

• 0-0-0 Wizard Monkey price reduced from $550 → $450.
• x-3-x Dragon's Breath price reduced from $3,600 → $3,000.
• x-4-x Summon Phoenix price reduced from $5,000 → $4,000.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix price reduced from $80,000 → $60,000.

8.0

• x-2-x Wall of Fire price reduced $1,300 → $900.
• x-3-x Dragon's Breath Wall of Fire fire rate increase 5.5s → 4.5s.
• x-4-x Summon Phoenix damage increased 1 → 2.

10.0

• x-3-x Dragon's Breath now applies a burn Damage Over Time equal to Mortar's Burny Stuff to any Bloon it touches.

11.0

• x-x-4 Unpopped Army price reduced from $3,500 → $2,800.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness now gives +1 damage to Zombies from any Necromancer.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness now gives +50% duration to Zombies from any Necromancer.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness range increased from 40 → 80.

12.0

• x-4-x Summon Phoenix ability damage increased from 2 to 3.
• x-4-x Summon Phoenix projectile speed increased from 200 to 300.

13.0

• x-x-4 Unpopped Army zombie bloon damage increased from 1 to 2.

18.0

• 1-2-0 Wizard now uses tower targeting priority to guide the Wall of Fire.
• x-2-x Wall of Fire pierce reduced from 20 → 15.
• 0-2-1 Wall of Fire pierce increased from 15 → 20 (original Pierce).
• x-x-4 Necromancer Wizards now each have their own personal 'graveyard' of 500 capacity rather than 1 shared pool of 2,000.
• x-x-4 Necromancer Wizards will display their current graveyard size above their portrait next to their pop count. Any Bloons popped within the Shimmer radius of a Necromancer can be absorbed into that graveyard, but 1 pop will not fill more than 1 graveyard.
• x-x-4 Necromancer Wizards will now be able to retain any Bloons in their graveyard for 1 extra round before expiring.
• x-x-4 Necromancer Wizard's Zombie lifespan increased from 8 → 10.
• x-x-4 Necromancer Wizard's Zombie spawn rate is increased by a flat 10% for every 100 Bloons in the grave reaching a maximum of double attack speed at 500 capacity.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness Graveyard Capacity increased to 2,000.

19.0

• 4-x-x Arcane Spike price increased from $10,000 → $10,900.

20.0

“	Second and third path upgrades get some fine tuning for more internal consistency. We want to make slow tweaks here to bring them into better balance.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 0-3-1 Dragon's Breath crosspath now benefits from increased pierce 4 → 6.
• x-4-x & x-5-x Phoenix summon states should now save between games.
• x-x-3 Shimmer price reduced from $1,800 → $1,700.

21.0

“	Though it was never a goal for the base tower to be great, given the additional purple weakness since BTD5 and how poorly it currently performs we feel it deserves to take rank as the cheapest magic tower along with a small buff. Dragon's Breath crosspathing has also been finished up along with a considerable boost to scale Dragon's Breath up against Ceramics. Finally, Unpopped Army changes are also here! We wanted to cover all of the usability issues with this upgrade while also powering it up and expanding more on the mechanic that makes it so unique. We hope this will be enough to make Wizard very useful in a number of ways, but will be keeping a watchful eye on how it plays out.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 0-0-0 Wizard Monkey price reduced from $450 → $400.
• 0-0-0 Wizard Monkey pierce increased from 2 → 3.
• x-3-x Dragon's Breath, breath attack gains bonus damage to ceramic +1.
• 1-3-0 Dragon's Breath increases lifespan of Dragon Breath 0.4 → 0.8.
• x-4-x Summon Phoenix projectile radius increased from 5 → 6.
• x-4-x Summon Phoenix damage increased from 3 → 4.
• x-4-x Summon Phoenix pierce increased from 5 → 6.
• x-4-x Summon Phoenix projectile speed increased from 300 → 350.
• x-x-4 Unpopped Army now gains a bonus to graveyard after round 81 to make up for the total decrease in child Bloons that are created from Super Ceramics (About 10 per pop).
• x-x-4 Unpopped Army targeting has been reworked to function in a smarter way, summoning Zombie Bloons further back to avoid them spawning behind Bloons, and also on multi-lane tracks targeting the lanes that are likely to leak sooner.
• x-x-4 Unpopped Army now enhances the power of all of its attacks by 1 for every 200 souls in its Graveyard. This can stack up to 10 times for Prince of Darkness.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness max Graveyard capacity increased from 2,000 → 3,000.

22.0

“	Some changes have been made to wall of fire to improve race balance in particular.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Wall of Fire attack begins on cooldown when the upgrade is purchase.
• Wall of Fire now saves the time remaining on its attack cooldown, rather than always immediately spawning upon starting a round from a game save.
• Wall of Fire attack projectiles are removed when the tower is sold.

23.0

“	Despite ranking low overall, Wizard Lord Phoenix has dodged balance changes because of its extremely popular place as a challenge tower. With the rise of other towers in challenges, we've decided to start off buffing it based on its own merits in general gameplay. We've also added some previously intended minor changes to Prince of Darkness which were held back due to bugs that have now been resolved.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Wizard Lord Phoenix price decreased ($60,000 → $54,000).
• Dragon's Breath's Fireball radius increased (10 → 14).
• Dragon's Breath's Fireball damage increased (1 → 3).
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Fireball damage increased (1 → 9).
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath damage increased (1 → 2).
• Prince of Darkness pops retained in graveyard increased (2 → 3).
• Prince of Darkness grave required for damage stacks increased (200 → 300).

25.0

“	Wall of Fire has been reworked in order to cut down on cases of frustrating randomness as well as the initial cooldown on the attack being reduced. Additionally at the highest tier all fire attacks will be further enhanced in damage.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• x-2-x Wall of Fire now targets 'closest' track position by default, instead of randomly.
• x-2-x Wall of Fire initial cooldown reduced from 5.5s → 1.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix, Fireball damage increased from 9 → 27.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix, Wall of Fire damage increased 1 → 3.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix, Breath damage increased from 2 → 6.

27.0

“

In order to allow for more strategic use of the birdy, Summoned Phoenix will now follow the set target priority.

”

• Summon Phoenix now copies targeting of the Wizard instead of defaulting to Close
• [undocumented] Both the permanent Phoenix and the ability-induced Lava Phoenix for Wizard Lord Phoenix are affected by this buff as well.

28.0

“	Some general buffs have been made to Wizard's abilities to give it a small boost. Prince of Darkness has been performing extremely well after all its buffs and this is nice after it underperformed for so long, but the round 81 change to counter reduced Bloon Children with bonus Graveyard per pop has made it sustain high levels of graveyard too easily, this bonus has been lowered a little.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Summon Phoenix Ability cooldown reduced from 60s -> 45s
• Summon Phoenix Ability cooldown reduced from 50s -> 45s
• Summon Phoenix Ability damage increased from 4 -> 5
• Summon Phoenix Ability pierce increased from 6 -> 10
• Wizard Lord Phoenix Ability flaming ball travel range increased from 180 -> 250
• Monkey Sense now grants Wizard Monkey the new Camo Prioritization filter
• Prince of Darkness 'bonus grave' after r81 reduced from 7 -> 13 to 7 -> 10

29.0

“	As Wall of Fire still stands out too much for a Tier 2 upgrade, it is seeing a nerf with some power being shifted further up to the T3 instead. In contrast, Fireball continues to underwhelm, so is seeing an initial buff plus a larger buff at T3.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Wall of Fire pierce refreshment rate decreased from 0.1s → 0.15s. However, Dragon's Breath and higher will retain the old pierce refresh rate.
  • Note: Ninja Kiwi described that Version 29.0 balance change as a nerf to "tic rate". However, community testing has confirmed that this is only a nerf to the pierce refreshment rate.
• Wall of Fire pierce bonus from Intense Magic reduced from +5 → +4
• Fireball fireball's attack delay reduced from 3s → 2.2s
• Dragon's Breath fireball's damage increased from 3 → 9

30.0

“	As base Wizard shines in no way & doesn’t lead into any immediately good cheap lower tiers aside from Wall of Fire, the base price is being slightly lowered at the cost of an increase to Wall of Fire. The role Arcane Spike filled at game launch has been replaced as better synergies were learned & added over time. As it's slightly too expensive at some early key points the price is being lowered to hopefully fit some use in at those points. Wizard Prince of Darkness is annoying to position correctly due to the sudden massive radius increase & it also needs a power nerf. So overall here we are moving all of the range increase down into a lower amount at the T3 so that range positioning is known before buying any necromancer upgrades, as well as moving some of the lifespan of the zombies themselves into the lesser used 1xx lifespan crosspath.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Wizard base cost reduced $400 -> $375
• Wall of Fire price increased from $900 -> $950
• Arcane Spike price reduced from $10,900 -> $10,000
• Shimmer tower range increased from 40 -> 60
• Prince of Darkness tower range reduced 80 -> 60
• Necromancer base Zombie travel distance without Guided Magic reduced 250 -> 175. 104 Necromancer base Zombie travel distance remains at 250
• Prince of Darkness base MOAB travel distance without Guided Magic reduced 300 -> 225. 105 Prince of Darkness MOAB travel distance remains at 300
• Prince of Darkness base BFB travel distance without Guided Magic reduced 200 -> 150
• Prince of Darkness BFB travel distance with Guided Magic increased from 200 -> 225

31.0

“	Arcane Blast's benefit to the base tower is quite small for the price and also doesn't carry on well as a crosspath to the other T3s since they add new attacks instead of buffing the base attack, the price has been reduced to add a little more value here along with more MOAB damage at the T5 to give it a little more value over Arcane Spikes. As we somewhat expected the last Prince of Darkness rework didn’t end up really nerfing it so much, so we are now following up with a small price nerf.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Arcane Blast price reduced $600 -> $450
• Archmage bonus damage to MOABs 17 -> 19
• Prince of Darkness price increased from $24,000 -> 26,500

32.0

“	Polishing some crosspaths, 130 Dragons Breath is the only crosspath for Guided Magic that doesn't yet attack through walls, and 011 Fireball also does not benefit from having the pierce crosspath	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Dragons Breath now target through walls from Guided Magic
• Wizard Fireball pierce increased from 15 -> 20

33.0

“	Wall of Fire’s exceptional T2 power needs to be moved around for improved crosspathing, along with a slight nerf to Phoenix as it is currently performing too well, and both of these upgrades are shifting some of their power into Dragon’s Breath so it can stand out as more than just a buff to WoF & a stepping stone to Phoenix. Shimmer is prone to missing a lot of camo Bloons due to the low attack rate, we do want it to be slower than other decamos to account for the larger radius and better T5 so we are making the radius benefit more noticable and lowering price.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Wall of Fire rehit rate decreased from 0.1s → 0.15s. Does not affect Dragon's Breath and above.
  • Note: Ninja Kiwi described that Version 33.0 balance change as a nerf to "damage Tic [sic]". However, community testing has confirmed that this nerf is actually a nerf to the rehitting rate, making this nerf a follow-up nerf to Wall of Fire.
• x-2-0 Wall of Fire pierce per tic reduced from 15 → 10
• 0-2-1 Wall of Fire pierce per tic reduced from 19 → 15
  • Wall of Fire pierce bonus increased (+4 → +5)
• 0-2-x Wall of Fire wall spawn rate reduced 5.5s → 6.5s
• 1-2-0 Wall of Fire duration increased 4.5s → 5.5s
• 1-2-0 Wall of Fire no longer auto-targets but gains a target marker (like x3x Engineer)
• Dragon's Breath flame base damage increased (1 → 2)
• Dragon's Breath WoF base pierce per tic increased (15 → 20)
• Summon Phoenix price increased ($4000 → $4500)
• Summon Phoenix pierce reduced (10 → 8)
• Shimmer radius increased (70 → 80)
• Shimmer price reduced ($1700 → $1500)

34.0

“	Wizard Archmage currently doubles the attack speed of the main attack along with adding a sizable MOAB damage bonus, but these benefits are not applied to the extra attacks that it gains as a 533 tower, which specifically makes the 520 crosspath benefits feel disappointing and the base dragon's breath it gains quite insignificant to the main tower. Phoeniis still far too strong for an extremely cheap T4, so cost is being shifted from the T5 down.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 5-1-0 Archmage's Fireball damage increased to match x3x bonus fireball damage 1 -> 9
• Archmage base attack rate increases now applies to secondary attacks
  • 5-1-0 Fireball rate 2.2s -> 1.1s
  • 5-2-0 Wall of Fire rate 6.5s -> 3.25s
  • Dragon's Breath rate 0.1s -> 0.05s
  • Shimmer rate 2.5s -> 1.25s
• Archmage now also adds bonus MOAB damage to extra attacks
  • Dragon's Breath MOAB bonus added +2
  • 5-1-0 Fireball MOAB bonus added +9
  • 5-2-0 Wall of Fire MOAB bonus added +1
• Summon Phoenix price increased $4500 -> $6000
• Wizard Lord Phoenix price reduced $54,000 -> $52,500

35.0

“	Arcane Spike is seeing 1 damage shifted from MOAB bonus to regular damage to improve layer skipping issues. Dragon’s Breath range is being fixed to actually match the tower radius, but now xx2 crosspath will also improve range and can bring it back to what it was. Necromancer strategies are very dependent on where your Zombie Bloons spawn which would enable more strategies with more range, but then too much range is very harmful making the spawn location difficult to place & forcing you to often place these towers in silly locations which makes the shimmer not work well. Allowing Necro to select a spawn point addresses this issue and we hope provides some interesting micro uses, so please share any cool ones.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Arcane Spike damage increased 5 -> 6
• Arcane Spike moab bonus reduced 11 -> 10
• Dragon's Breath flame attack matches tower range properly -> 40
• Monkey Sense increases wizard range 40 -> 50
  • Shimmer range remains unchanged at 60
• Necromancer gains a spawn point target for zombies that the player can set

36.0

“	Dragon’s Breath will still be great, just a little less excessively so.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Dragon's Breath flame attack cooldown 0.1s → 0.125s
• Dragon's Breath flames no longer deal +1 damage to Ceramics

38.0

“	Middle path T4 Phoenix continues carrying rounds quite well for a long period of the game, as a light nerf here we’re taking away the free camo detection that Phoenix used to get, given the tower has a camo crosspath it could go for to properly inherit this onto the phoenix anyway. When the Wizard Paragon released it unintentionally drained mana from every target the main attack came into contact with, which caused the passive mana drain to scale much faster with degrees than intended. At a base level it was balanced around this factor though so the passive mana drain values have been properly reworked to trigger from attacks being performed with amounts keeping it roughly similar but not scaling up to such crazy fast drains with the high degrees.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Dragon's Breath cost increased ($3000 → $3300)
• Summon Phoenix now requires the 042 crosspath for Phoenix ability to see Camo
• Summon Phoenix's Phoenix can now be targeted using targeting options
• xx4 Necromancer targeted spawn point can now be reset back to default by activating the target option, then canceling without selecting a point
  • Note: activating the target option already causes the reset without wait, making this a subjective buff; cancelling simply avoids setting the point to anything but default
• Magus Perfectus no longer drains 100 mana for every single Bloon hit by the main attack, instead, it drains mana for generating certain spells.
  • No longer drains mana for damaging bloons
  • Each main attack fired drains mana 50
  • Each Phoenix firebomb attack fired drains mana 50
  • Zombie Bloon spawn mana cost increased from 100 → 250
• Zombie Bloons travel range increased from 175 → 400

39.0

“	We set up for this Wall of Fire change quite a while ago, however finally it feels that Wall of Fire has cooled off enough to smooth out the curve a little more, granting it seamless uptime with crosspathing and a lower price tag. Summon Phoenix price is increasing more along with a larger reduction in cost to the Wizard Lord Phoenix, however Phoenix will now also be able to gain seeking frontal breath attacks with Guided Magic crosspathing. Shimmer’s range/radius values are being adjusted to match the attack trigger area to the tower’s range but with a far larger radius on the actual effect once it is triggered, this reduces inconsistency where Shimmer would often hit only first camo target to enter radius then be stuck on long cooldown. As targeting improvements for Necromancer zombie spawns feel well ironed out now and deal with the old problem that increasing range used to have at T5 we’re bringing back the much larger range on Prince of Darkness which will now also benefit from these Shimmer changes.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Wall of Fire upgrade cost reduced ($950 → $800)
• 1-2-0 Wall of Fire further increases duration of blaze (5.5s → 6.5s)
• Summon Phoenix upgrade cost increased ($6000 → $7500)
• 1-4-0 Summon Phoenix now adds light seeking to the Phoenix
• Wizard Lord Phoenix upgrade cost reduced ($52500 → $50000)
• Wizard Lord Phoenix radial attack pierce reduced (500 → 300)
• Shimmer decamo pulse range now matches tower range, detection range decreased (80 → 60)
• Shimmer decamo pulse radius set to 25% more than tower range, radius increased (70 → 75)
• Prince of Darkness range increased (60 → 80). Also affects decamo pulse (detection: 80, radius: 70 → 100)

“	Wizard was one of the more heavily impacted Paragons losing power from the bug fix, and had a few planned buffs aside from this anyway. We’re happy keeping it more on the expensive side with a higher skill requirement, so to keep justifying this higher price tag much more significant buffs were necessary to keep it in line.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• ??? [buff/nerf indeterminate] Magus Perfectus's overall Boss damage undetermined
• Magus Perfectus' Mini Paragon Undead Bloon projectile base pierce increased from 20 → 50
• Magus Perfectus' Drain Beam base damage increased (50 → 200)
• Magus Perfectus' Arcane Spike attack base MOAB bonus damage increased (+200 → +250)
• Magus Perfectus' Arcane Spike attack base Boss bonus damage increased (+100 → +150)
• Magus Perfectus' Dark Phoenix Firebomb attack now deals +50 bonus damage to Bosses, which scales with Paragon degrees
• Magus Perfectus' Metamorphosis Flamethrower attack base pierce increased (30 → 100)
• Magus Perfectus' Metamorphosis Flamethrower attack base Boss bonus increased (+500 → +1000)

41.0

“	Dragon's Breath is too much of an early powerhouse right now, as the DoT doesn't care for high rate we're reducing that rate, but slightly reducing the cost of Phoenix as well. Magus currently has higher single target on the drain beam than the main spike attack at degree 1, the intended mechanical functionality of this tower prevents drain beam being left active at all times, and we also don't want players to stay on drain mode all the time so we are shifting power levels around a little to give these attacks the same overall degree 1 single target power.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Dragon's Breath attack cooldown increased from 0.125s to 0.135s
• Summon Phoenix price reduced from $7500 to $7000
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Lava Phoenix breath damage type changed from Normal to Fire
• Magus Perfectus drain beam damage reduced from 200 to 100
• Magus Perfectus arcane spike attack damage increased from 50 to 100
• Magus Perfectus arcane spike bonus to MOAB-class increased from +250 to +300

42.0

“	Wizard is feeling effective across the board with nice use cases across each path so there was hesitation about making changes. Nevertheless we felt there were important changes here with DoT in mind, so there’s now new scaling on the Dragon’s Breath attack improving damage over time on higher upgrades and a for-fun change to the projectile count assisting in spreading flames to many targets. We understand we are affecting current balance but it’s done in the name of fun and for Wizard fans.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Summon Phoenix's Dragon's Breath damage-over-time increased from 1 to 2
• Summon Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack now shoots 2 projectiles in an angular spray
• Summon Phoenix's Dragon's breath attack pierce reduced from 4 to 3
• Summon Phoenix's Summon Phoenix ability projectile speed increased from 350 to 450
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack damage-over-time increased 1 to 10
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack now shoots 3 projectiles in an angular spray
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack damage reduced from 6 to 2
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath attack pierce reduced from 50 to 15

43.0

“	Wizard has a weaker base tower so the base cost is going down in exchange for a small price increase to the cost to value ratio for the effective Arcane Mastery. As Fireball becomes very forgotten at higher tiers and is hard to even see at Dragon’s Breath, we’re improving the crosspath and adding even more projectiles at T3 for wider explosive coverage. As Shimmer is the slowest de-camo in the game it is important that it not miss when it does trigger, so pierce is greatly increased. Wizard Lord Phoenix’s Wall of Fire hasn’t had any meaningful upgrade progression, so its damage is being increased. Magus is one of the more in-depth Paragons to use effectively so having it as one of the cheapest to unlock didn't feel right, the unlock XP requirements for this and Ninja are being swapped around.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• Wizard Monkey base cost reduced from $375 to $325
• Arcane Mastery cost increased from $1300 to $1400
• Shimmer decamo pierce increased from 200 to 500. Also affects Archmage's Shimmer decamo.
• 2-1-0 Fireball damage increased from 1 to 2. Also affects Dragon's Breath's fireball with +1 damage.
• Dragon's Breath fireball projectile count increased from 1 to 3. Also affects 5-1-0 Archmage's fireballs.
• Dragon's Breath fireball damage reduced from 9 to 3. Does not affec 5-1-0 Archmage's fireball (9).
• Dragon's Breath breath pierce reduced from 4 to 3. Also affects Archmage's Dragon's Breath. Does not affect Summon Phoenix's breath pierce (3).
• Wizard Lord Phoenix Wall of Fire attack damage from 3 to 5
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's fireball damage reduced from 27 to 9
• [undocumented] Prince of Darkness buff no longer gives +50% all undead bloons lifespan to itself or other Necromancers. Does not affect Undead MOABs or Undead BFBs.
• Magus Perfectus unlock cost increased from 500,000 XP to 1,000,000 XP

46.0

“	Archmage’s secondary attacks are gaining bonus MOAB damage increases as due to Archmage’s unique mechanics, nerfs building up from Dragon's Breath have also indirectly caused an impact for the Archmage. Prince of Darkness’ buff to other Zombies damage doesn't get much interest, so we’re buffing it. Though the expected dps should be high Magus doesn’t fit well into boss dps windows, so we’re reducing its mana drain rate to increase Metamorphosis duration.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 5-1-0 Archmage fireball bonus to MOAB-class increased from +9 to +27
• 5-2-0 Archmage blaze bonus to MOAB-class increased from +1 to +4
• Archmage Dragon's Breath bonus to MOAB-class increased from +2 to +6
• Prince of Darkness buff to Undead Bloon damage increased from +1 to +3
• Magus Perfectus Mana drain per tick reduced from 5000 to 4000

47.0

“	Archmage still seems to prefer the 502 crosspathing, so the fire attacks are being taken even further. Summon phoenix falls off in single target fairly early so we are lowering the cost back again to bring back options to let it fly before it has to deal with so many stronger targets. Shimmer struggles as a de-camo option due to the low consistency, so the attack rate is being improved.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• 5-1-0 Archmage fireball bonus to MOAB-Class increased from +27 to +36
• 5-2-0 Archmage Wall of Fire bonus to MOAB-class increased from +4 to +8
• Archmage Dragon's Breath bonus to MOAB-class increased from +6 to +10
• Summon Phoenix cost decreased from $7000 to $6000
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath burn damage-over-time increased from 10 to 30
• Wizard Lord Phoenix's Dragon's Breath burn damage-over-time duration increased from 3s to 15s
• Shimmer's shimmer attack cooldown decreased from 2.5s to 2s
• [undocumented] Prince of Darkness's shimmer attack cooldown decreased from 1.25s to 1s
• [undocumented] Archmage's shimmer attack cooldown decreased from 1.25s to 1s

48.0

“	Base Wizard mostly struggles to compare to base Dart Monkey anyway, so we’re cutting it down to one of the cheapest starter placement towers and adding that small cost back across the top path. Arcane Spike is now seeing some of the crosspathing benefits that Archmage recently received, although Archmage’s Wall of Fire is being reduced in power. Magus’ strict ability timings currently struggle to line up well with Boss Skulls & immunity periods which makes it an undesirable paragon for Boss events, so the Metamorphosis cooldown is being reduced.	”
	~ Ninja Kiwi

• xxx Wizard price $325 > $250
• 1xx Guided Magic price $150 > $175
• 3xx Arcane Mastery price $1400 > $1450
• 4xx Arcane Spike's Fireball deals MOAB bonus +6
• 4xx Arcane Spike's Wall of Fire deals MOAB bonus +2
• 5xx Archmage wall of fire MOAB bonus 8 > 6
• Magus Metamorphosis cooldown 120 > 90

Bug Fixes and General Changes

8.1

• Wall of Fire no longer pops Purple Bloons without support.
• Wall of Fire now disappears upon impacting a Purple Bloon instead of simply allowing the Purple Bloon to pass by untouched.
• Wall of Fire and Dragon's Breath now (correctly) can be deployed/shot further when the Wizard Monkey has increased range.

11.0

• x-4-x Wizard's Phoenix should no longer stop attacking when villages are placed within its radius.
• x-x-4 Necromancer has had some performance improvements.

12.0

• Fireball can no longer hit Camo Bloons without Monkey Sense.

14.0

• 4-x-x Wizard's description has been updated.
• x-4-x Wizard's Phoenix can no longer be targeted for overclock without doing anything.

15.0

• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness should now only show buff icons to other Necromancers.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness description has been updated to include its buff.

16.0

• Removing objects from the map should no longer 'sell' the x4x Phoenix out of the air.

17.0

• Wall of Fire asset updated.
• Dragon's Breath fire asset updated.
• Phoenix's flames assets updated.
• Wizard Lord Phoenix should no longer count as 2 towers.
• Prince of Darkness no longer rotates.

17.1

• Resolved a rare crash upgrading Wizard to x-5-x.
• Wizard Lord's minor Phoenix at x-5-x is now permanently permanent at all times.

18.0

• 0-4-0 Phoenix can no longer be sacrificed to a temple if it flies over the top.

20.0

• x-4-x Phoenix summons should no longer be consumed when moving off an ice platform.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness should no longer display buff icon when placing towers that cannot receive its buff.

22.0

• x-2-x Wall of Fire should no longer occasionally 'be eaten' by nearby walls if the tower is placed next to a blocker.
• x-5-x Wizard Lord Phoenix correctly hits all Bloon Types with radial balls.

23.0

• 1-1-0 Fireball now correctly ignores blockers with Guided Magic.
• Necromancer no longer depletes grave from current round before previous.

24.0

• x-3-x Dragon's Breath description has been updated with more detail.
• x-x-3 Shimmer description has been updated with more detail.

25.0

• x-2-x Wall of Fire visual issue resolved where tower attack animation would not be correct under some cases.

30.0

• Missing sell/upgrade animations fixed

38.0

• Wizard’s Phoenix should no longer show as overclock/door gunner targets
• Resolved an issue creating a permanent magus flamethrower attack

Merchandise

Wizard Monkey Vinyl Figure

Wizard Monkey Vinyl Figure on Makeship

Link to campaign

“	Message from the Creator The Bloons thought they were just dealing with darts, but the Wizard Monkey brings the magic, vinyl style! With spellpower in its hand and wonder in its eyes, this aspiring Wizard has much study ahead to become an Archmage, but every day it will be there to help you school those Bloons! Grab your magical new friend as they are limited time and will disappear before you even have time to shout "Abra Cadabra!"	”
	~ Makeship entry for Wizard Monkey Vinyl Figure

Gallery

Entire Wizard Monkey Upgrade Tree for Bloons TD 6, including Magus Perfectus.

Upgrade path map for Wizard Monkey (BTD6)

All Wizard Monkey upgrades during initial release (graphics differences)

Official artwork

Tower portrait

Instamonkey icon

Steam Trading Card

Expanded Steam Card

Wizard Monkey Vinyl Figure

Coming soon silhouette

Figure in box

Figure out of box

Perspectives of the Wizard Monkey Vinyl Figure

• Angle 1
• Angle 2
• Angle 3
• Angle 4
• Angle 5
• Angle 6
• Angle 7
• Angle 8
• Angle 9
• Angle 10
• Angle 11
• Angle 12
• Angle 13
• Angle 14
• Angle 15
• Angle 16
• Angle 17
• Angle 18
• Angle 19

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Trivia

• In BTD6, the three paths are based on arcane magic, fire magic (pyromancy), and dark magic (necromancy).
• The Wizard Monkey used to have an ability called Soulbind, allowing the player to sacrifice towers to gain extra life. However, because of the extremely high amount of life that can get lost if even a few bloons leak during the higher rounds, the upgrade was replaced by the Prince of Darkness in update 2.0.
• The name "Wizard Monkey" is new to Bloons TD 6, as previous games never referred the Monkey Apprentice as a "Wizard Monkey". The BTD4 Tempest Tornado refers to the Apprentice as a "Monkey Wizard", but not "Wizard Monkey".
• The minimum upgrade for Wizard Monkey to damage DDTs without supports is 0-2-2, because Fireball cannot damage DDTs, as its damaging explosion is explosive type, not fire type, but Wall of Fire is true fire type.
• All Tier 3 Wizards gain a wand of their respective discipline colors.
• The monkey's eyes change to orange when upgraded to x-3-x, and green for x-x-3.
• According to Ninja Kiwi's November 3rd 2023 blog, all Wizards regardless of gender can grow moustaches, thanks to the power of magic.