Etienne, and How YOU Can Use Him Well!

Overview

Etienne’s an underappreciated hero of BTD6, frequently looked down for his seemingly unimpressive DpS, abilities, and tower synergy. Little does anyone know… DDTs HATE this guy, and for good reason! From perma-camo to UCAV firepower, this French-monkey can be one of the best support Heroes you could ever want, and why although his price tag is $5000, he’s worth ever Monkey Buck and Monkey Coin!

Who IS Etienne, Anyhow?

“Ready to fly!”

Introduced in version 20, Etienne is a French hero tower who primarily uses drones and drone-based tech to help defeat the bloons, even gaining an unmanned missile plane once his level is high enough. (Why are the bloons attacking Monkeyopolis, anyhow?)

He can be bought from the Heroes store, once unlocked, for a one-off payment of $5000 Monkey Money (about two skins for Quincy, Gwendolyn, Obyn, or Striker B o n e), making him the most expensive her to unlock thus far. He also had no Hero Skins at the time of writing [January 2021], but this may change in the future.

Etienne starts off only able to pilot one drone, though able to summon 4 of them at Level 3 (, which he can start off with given the right ‘knowledge’). He gains Camo Detection at Level 5 and extra non-ability drone at Level 7, and doesn’t seem to gain much else until Level 10, where he can summon a UCAV. After a third drone at Level 11, the only real huge upgrade he gets is at Level 16, where he gets a BIG upgrade to damage and range. At that point, the last two big upgrades for him is his Level 19 4th drone, and his Max Level perma-UCAV.

This is a very simplified version of how he works and upgrades, and what you’re about to read below is why I use him in almost every game I play, save for the ones I can’t use him in.

The Frenchmonkey’s True Potential

“C’est beau!”

What you see to your right is one of Etienne’s most important abilites: A plane-like surveilance drone that can reveal Camo Bloons to every tower on the map, making removing camo and spending more in-game currency for an upgrade specifically designed for camo completely redundant. This works for every tower that other players in Co-op mode place too, including other heroes. This property alone makes fighting against DDTS a LOT less painful, as one of it’s most sucky properties, that it can only be detected by certain towers or a X-2-X monkey village that it can easily speed past, can easily be circumvented. Later levels give it the ability to spew missiles at bloons for a short while whilst keeping this property, cumulating in being a permanent (for as long as you have Etienne around as) part of your defense.

• Etienne’s drone(s), even at Lvl. 1, can completely ignore cover, especially useful at Lvl. 16
• Etienne’s Drone Swarm, one past Lvl. 5, is able to get past most of the pre-60 camo waves, only needing a Drone Swarm at most.
• The UCAV, even just at Lvl. 10, is quite good at handling ceramic rushes, especially 63, 76, and 78
• A lethality-boosted perma-UCAV can help pop DDTs, and chews MOAB-classes for breakfast even more than it usually can.

Early Game [Round 1/3/6 – 40]

“Systems…check!”

• Place Etienne down first, or as one if your first 3-5 towers if you’re playing on CHIMPS (or if you don’t have enough starting money to buy Etienne for the other gamemodes), as that will allow him more time to level his way into Lvl. 8
• Pre Lvl. 7 Etienne could theoretically last until Round 28, but getting more firepower alongside him at around Round 15-20 might be a better use of your budget.
• Etienne can pop purples, but not leads, pairing him up with a fire/explosive tower (fire preferred, it will help later down the line if you do) is ideal.
• Placing down a Ninja Monkey would be rather inadvisiable, especially in CHIMPS. Early game camo-detection might seem like a good idea, but Ninja Monkeys and most camo-related upgrade paths lose quite a lot of their synergy once the UAV rolls around.
• (2+)-(2+)-0 Buccaneers are the best water-based tower to use with Etienne. It might seen temping to get the bottom upgrade path for the longer range, but the superior firepower will more than make up for it. The Buccaneer already has a pretty good range for most maps.
• 4-X-X Engineers, 2-0-4 Ice Monkeys, 3-0-2 Heli Pilots, 3-X-X Glue Gunners, and/or 2-2-0 Super Monkeys are good land towers to use with Etienne.
• Really, if you have a tower that deal a lot of firepower to a lot of Bloons except camo, chances are it’ll synergize well with Etienne come the UAV.
• If you got Etienne a little later (e.g Round 20 – 30), boosting him up to $2000 or less’s worth of Hero Levels might be a good idea.
• Pre-UAV Etienne’s Drone Swarm can deal with Round 37’s White Camo rush, the inner/outer layer of the Round 40 MOAB, and in theory could last you up until Round 59, where Camo Leads first appear, but as said earlier, getting better firepower once he reaches Lvl.8 is a much better idea.

laconic version: get him quickly, and get him to level 8 sooner rather than later

Mid-Game [Round 41 – 80]

“Swarm deployed!”

• If you don’t have the UAV, get it NOW.
• The UCAV isn’t as important, but will save you time and sanity when you get it.
• Although Etienne’s drones can weaken the mid-game ceramic rushes, be it Round 63, 76, or 78, they won’t be enough to pop them entirely.
• You don’t need to prioritize Boosting Etienne, use your money to get more towers capable of popping Leads and Blacks. The Ultra-Juggernaut, Sun Avatar, MOAB Press, Ring of Fire, Icicle Cyro-Cannon, Sentry Expert, Apache Dartship, Monkey Pirates, Aircraft Carrier, and/or the Bloon Liquifier and good places to start.
• Don’t be afraid to invest in more fire-based towers than you usually would and leave yourself a little vulnerable to purples as well, the worst that’ll happen is that you have to use a Drone Swarm or a UCAV on them. Purples are weak to explosions, unlike blacks and DDTs. They barely show up once you get to late game, too. Purples are only really there in the first place to stop people from winning the game with only fire-based towers earlier on. This WILL bite me if Ninja Kiwi ever introduces a MOAB-class bloon with the properties of a purple.

laconic version: take advantage of the uav/ucav, purples aren’t as threatening as you think

Late/Ultra-Late Game [Round 80/100+]

“DDT! DDT!”

• Invest in Metal Freeze + Icicle Impale if applicable, this will help with rounds 90-99. Slowing and damaging DDTs in their tracks WILL absolutely help you. If you already have a lot of towers capable of damaging them, Deep Freeze Icicle Impale might be a better idea.
• 5-0-2 Apache Primes are one of the best upgrades you can get once Round 80 rolls around, able to turn Super Ceramics into jokes no matter where. They deal great damage to most MOAB-class balloons unassisted as well, but needs assistance for the DDTs since they can’t exactly catch up with them too well. It might not seem so bad at Round 90, but they add up QUICK in 95-99.
• As tempting as it is to get the MIB, consider it a last resort.
• Don’t spend too much on crowd control, it won’t help you much against the BAD.
• Continuing from earlier, remember what I said about investing in towers that specialize in leads and blacks without caring much about paths that give Camo Detection? DDTs have to be popped by what Purples are immune to, save a few exceptions, and the UAV/UCAV allows a lot more towers to either slow ’em down, and/or meet this requirement.
• If the boost price is low enough (1750K or less’s my personal target), getting the perma-UCAV is a good idea, as it not only helps deal with the lower MOAB-classes, but also help deal with the DDTs when lethality-boosted.
• Divide and Conquer might be a better idea for aiming instead of Zone Defense once Etienne reaches Lvl. 19+, depending on the map you’re playing.

“That’s some serious damage!”

• Sun Temples, True Sun Gods, and Vengeful Monkey Avatars do not sacrifice Etienne, so they can keep their long range AND camo detection, admittedly without knockback, but that doesn’t matter much at that point where you’re eating ZOMGs for breakfast.
• Plasma Anti-Bloons also greatly benefit from the map-wide Camo detection, so they can be a little more useful before their inevitable sacrifice to the Vengeful Monkey Avatar.
• You don’t really need to use Drone Swarm all that much at this point, BADs barely register most of what they can do, even at their most powerful.

laconic version; you WILL be thankful every tower can see camo

Other Etienne-Related Information

“Weapons hot!”

• Deflation: If you have the knowledge for it, swallow your pride and use Monkey Money to boost Etienne to Lvl. 10. Not that it’ll help you much trying to get to Round 100. I only did that once, and I still don’t know how people can do it with only 20K, let alone 40K.
• Primary/Military/Magic Only: Having a Lvl. 8+ Etienne means having a free map-wide Radar Scanner, something you normally can’t get in any of these game modes. The UCAV also helps, especially when playing with Magic Monkeys Only where there isn’t a lot of good horde options aside from the expensive Super Monkey or a top-path Druid Monkey.
• Apopalype: Wise usage of Drone Swarm, placing Etienne in a good spot (one where lots of track can be seen), and heeding the advice of the earlier sections much more closely WILL save your bacon here. MOABs, BFBs, and ZOMGs appear later down the line, but DDTs appear much earlier in this gamemode in contrast.
• Alternate Bloons Rounds: Don’t be afraid to invest a little more than you usually would in camo detection early game, there’s only so much you can do to get him to Lvl. 5 when the camos start showing up. Be absolutely sure you have towers that can pop both blacks and leads when reaching the 80+ rounds, DDTs appear earlier here too. Oh, and don’t forget the BAD in Round 99 and it’s fortified equivalent in Round 100. Good luck!
• Half Cash/Reverse/Double HP MOABs/Impoppable: The normal progression of Bloons TD6 applies here, save for Reverse that sends them in the reverse order per round (obvs), so your strat won’t need to change much between these modes. If you have Double Money, you can get Etienne immediately in Half Cash as well, though you won’t be able to buy other towers for a little while.

“You want me to do this or not?”

Co-op mode… isn’t exactly well-known for competent partners, and bringing Etienne into the battlefield won’t automatically solve the problem. In fact, sometimes people are so moronic out there that bringing him in only makes their incompetency worse. So, in an effort to desperately get people to stop wasting their in-game currency on terrible towers, here’s some things to know when you’re either using Etienne, or have someone using him as one of your partners:

• RADAR SCANNERS ARE COMPLETELY REDUNDANT WHEN ETIENNE REACHES LEVEL 8, SO YOU DON’T NEED TO BUY ONE. The only real purpose they serve at that point is being a required upgrade for the MIB, and further upgrades.
• Following from that, it’s a little silly to even have a MIB around when you’ve got towers that can pop leads and blacks (maybe even purples too) much better, and for a lower price.
• Unless you’re going for Hydra Rocket Pods, Dartlings do NOT need the middle path when Etienne is around.
• Same goes for the Cash Drop ability for the Sniper Monkey.
• And the Merchantman upgrade for the Buccaneer.
• Plus the Energizer for the Submarine.
• As well as the Necromancer for the Wizard Monkey.
• Don’t forget the Dark Knight for the Super Monkey.
• Oh yeah, Shattering Shells for the Mortar too, you get the point.
• Speaking of explosives… No, MOAB Mauler spam is NOT a good strat. There are towers better dedicated to dealing with Ceramics and MOABs out there.
• You don’t need to buy that Ninja Monkey, unless it’s a really early-game thing that you plan on selling later. Yes, Ninjitsu and Acid-Dipped Berserker Potion IS a decent strat… but there’s better strats you can do when the UAV renders the Ninja’s purpose obsolete.
• No amount of Acid Dipped Nijustus can effectively pop DDTS.
• Same goes for the Shrapnel Shot for the Sniper, though he’s much more useful in Alternate Bloons Rounds, where the right upgrades allow him to pop the early Camo Leads.
• It’s an especially bad idea to get any Heli Pilot that isn’t and Apache Prime, though it’d also be a rather unwise idea to have it’s minor path be the middle one. Superior movement don’t matter much when you’re dealing with DDTs.
• Stop buying Triple Shot.
• Stop buying Triple Shot.
• Stop buying Triple Shot.
• I’m not kidding about this, stop. Buying. Triple Shot.
• No really, why would you buy Triple Shot!? The Crossbow’s a much better investment, even if it’s camo detection is rendered somewhat redundant mid-game!
• Enhanced Eyesight and Triple Shot is especially a bad idea.
• You only really need one Etienne on the battlefield to get most of his beneficial effects, so don’t be afraid to swap to another hero if someone already has him. He’s not like Gwen or Adora.
• Striker Jones’s ability to weaken, and eventually rid black bloons of their explosive resistance comes especially in handy for Etienne’s UCAV, especially when the DDTs start cropping up.
• Long-Range Tacks aren’t a good investment. This isn’t really related to Etienne, I just don’t think it’s a good upgrade path. Sure, non-middle path Tack Towers did get nerfed a bit, but I still don’t see much purpose investing in the long-range path. The Super Maelstrom tower isn’t even that good anyways.
• Speaking of Gwen, she has no built-in camo detection, and thus can also benefit greatly from Etienne’s UAV/UCAV. Whatever gets rid of those god-awful DDTs quicker.
• The same thing applies to Adora, though she can’t pop Purple Bloons until very, VERY late-game without her abilities or a MIB.

Adieu, mon ami!

If you liked this guide, consider thumbing it up, placing it in your favorites, or even sending an award my way so that way I can make more (and even better) guides, maybe even for many other games too!

This guide might also get updated, changed, skimmed, and generally rendered “not the same as when I last left it” as Bloons Tower Defense 6 updates, or when there’s a property of Etienne that could be useful in our ever-increasing battle against the Bloons that I feel needs to be updated to reflect such.

UPDATE: Now that I’ve had plenty of time to beat at least 15 maps on the infamous CHIMPs, I can comfirm that Etienne is indeed viable* for CHIMPS.

(*viable as hero units are on most non-expert maps, anyways)

And remember, “Etienne is the best tower hero in the game” is “Etienne est la meilleure tour de héros du jeu” in French!