Overview
Do you struggle to win in the low-tier arenas? Maybe don’t know a great strategy, or don’t have all those 4th tiers unlocked? This guide will try to help you win with minimal towers!
Towers & Upgrades
So, you might be thinking what the exact towers you’ll need are. Well, firstly:
Dart Monkey (4th tier): This is unlocked at 300 battlescore, and costs a rather small sum of medallions, so you likely already have it. This is a very powerful tower, able to defend quite large rushes with ease. The left side specializes in bloon popping power, and the right side specializes in MOAB-class popping power, like BFBs.
Monkey Ace (3rd tier): The right-sided 3rd tier, Dart Storm, has very good bloon popping power, and with battle energy can defend regrow rainbow rushes with ease, and even without it, it requires little support for ceramics and regrow rainbows! It doesn’t do well against leads, though.
Banana Farm (2nd tier): This is your main way to get money, it far outclasses bloon eco up until about round 25-30 as it is pretty cheap, can be sold to defend or rush, and gives a lot of money. It can also be used on all but 1 map!
Buccaneer/Monkey Submarine (2nd tier): And in case that one map pops up, you’ll want a water tower! Both of these towers are great, but I’d reccomend the Submarine personally, as you don’t have 4th tiers for these yet. At least, most likely. If you do, it’s completely up to you which one you choose!
Main Strategy
Alright, so you’re probably thinking now, “okay, how do I use these towers effectively?” Well, firstly, you need to get up a 1-0 farm (1 upgrade on the left, 0 on the right) as soon as possible, then get up a 0-1 dart monkey. If your opponent rushes with bloons, get a 0-3 dart monkey, otherwise go for your 2-0 farm first.
After getting your 2-0 farm, get a 0-3 dart monkey if you haven’t already. You’ll need another if you get rushed with pinks or blues.
Between rounds 4 and 7, you should get up as many farms as possible, likely 2 farms up to 2-0. You will probably be rushed with yellows on round 8, if so you need to quickly get down another 3-0 dart monkey. If it’s a large rush, use battle energy.
Get another 1-0 farm up now, then a 4-0 dart monkey near the front of the map to defend leads. Make sure this one shoots down somewhat straight lines to maximize its popping power.
Now, get your 1-0 farm to 2-0. After that, prepare to quickly sell a farm (or don’t if you have about $6000 saved up) and buy a 2-3 monkey ace to defend zebras or rainbows! They will certainly kill you if you don’t! After they send the rush, keep farming. The triple darts will help deal with ceramics, so you’re fine with them.
If you see your opponent has no way they could defend zebras, camos, or regrow zebras, send a small rush to bait their battle energy, then when it ends sell your farms and send a massive regrow zebra/rainbow rush with bloon energy to take ’em down! Same goes with anything higher, of course.
On round 18, you will need more triple darts to defend MOABs.
On round 20, wait to see if the opponent sends a BFB. If not, buy some farms or rush. If so, sell your Monkey Ace and maybe a farm for a Super Monkey Fan Club (0-4 dart monkey) to defend the BFB! After it’s gone, sell the fan club and counter-rush the opponent.
On round 22, you want to sell all your farms, and full-on rush the opponent. You want to get out a ZOMG and 3 BFBs, but if you can’t just go full BFBs. Make sure to bloon boost it, use it about 6 seconds after sending the ZOMG, or just before sending the BFBs.
You won’t survive a round 22 rush without 4th tier monkey aces, buccaneers or submarines and 4th tier farms, so if the opponent sends a huge BFB or ZOMG rush, don’t even try to defend it, just rush. Just don’t send a ZOMG as a counterrush, you’ll lose because they’ll die after you.
Exceptions
“So, what about the maps this doesn’t work on? What if I get certain bonus towers?”
Well, here’s exceptions.
If you get Submarine as a bonus tower on a water map like Ice Flow or Water Hazard, a 4-0 submarine and a 0-2 submarine will defend until round 15, where you’ll want a 2-3 dart monkey on strong to help with ceramics. You’ll need 2 more 0-2 subs for MOABs, and you’ll need Super Monkey Fan Club for a BFB. If the opponent sends a full-on round 22 rush, and you can afford a 0-4 sub, use that to clear up most of the rush, then clean up with a Super Monkey Fan Club. If you can’t afford the sub, counterrush!
OBSOLETE: If you get Bloonchipper as a bonus, just one 0-4 chipper ability placed around your dart monkeys, well timed battle energy, and a Super Monkey Fan Club should defend round 22, and once you defend it you can sell your chipper, counterrush, and win! (Bloonchipper was nerfed a lot, this no longer works as well. Try this at your own risk!)
If you get Ninja or Ice as a bonus, use the 0-4 to slow any round 20/22 rush, then sell it, sell farms, and counterrush!
If you’re playing on Indoor Pools, you can’t be greedy with your farms! 3 triple darts for round 4 pinks, 4 triple darts and a 3-0 dart monkey for round 8 yellows, and a 4-0 dart monkey on round 10 for leads. After all that, save money, and on round 13, just all-out regrow rainbow rush with bloon energy. It’s very difficult to defend that on Pools, so don’t try to build a defense for it unless you see boomerangs from your opponent. If you do, buy 4-0 dart monkeys to defend, and send a MOAB on round 18 to hopefully kill them, otherwise you’re likely dead.
If you’re playing on Ice Flow, bring your water tower, and use bloon eco. The same defenses and rushes apply, although you might have a little trouble affording a Super Monkey Fan Club on round 20 without selling anything. Tip: be greedy, try to go for about 750 eco by round 20! Don’t get too greedy though. Use 3 0-2 subs or 0-1 buccaneers and a juggernaut or 2 for round 13, although include some 2-3 dart monkeys for camo bloons.
Outro
So, that’s it. Hopefully this will help you make your way to the top, and become a better player in general! This is my first guide, so any support or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! And remember: don’t h8, appreci8! 🙂