When it comes to upgrading your towers in Bloons Tower Defense it can be difficult to choose which upgrade path you want to take, especially when it comes to Primary Monkeys that players regularly rely on due to how inexpensive they are.
The first type of Monkey players have access to is the Dart Monkey.
While players may anticipate that the Dart Monkey is weak, simply due to its appearance, players will be happy to note that once Dart Monkeys reach tier-5 they become quite powerful towers that should be played on the majority of maps, though which tier-5 Dart Monkey the player chooses to use will depend on what map players are trying to complete and what bloons they need defences for.
PATH 1 TIER-5 DART MONKEYS – ULTRA-JUGGERNAUT
The Path 1 tier-5 Dart Monkey, Ultra-Juggernaut is the second most useful upgrade for Dart Monkeys in my opinion as it provides players with a substantial amount of damage and provides players with a good amount of AoE damage.
Ultra-Juggernauts shoot out large spiked balls that deal 4 damage to regular bloons, 12 damage to Ceramic Bloons and can deal damage to a maximum of 200 bloons at a time due to its massive pierce.
Ultra-Juggernauts are most useful in situations where players need a lot of protection from Ceramic Bloons or Lead Bloons though due to the fact that Ultra-Juggernaut also shoots out 6 smaller spike balls, players can effectively use the Ultra-Juggernaut on any map that features terrain that its spike balls can bounce against.
Unfortunately the perk of the Ultra-Juggernaut is also its downfalls, meaning that players will not reap much reward or popping power when playing on a map that does not have any or much terrain as the majority of the damage the Ultra-Juggernaut can output relies on the ability to allow the spike balls to ricochet against terrain.
Essentially there are going to be many situations where the Ultra-Juggernaut shoots out its spike balls and does not deal enough damage to protect players simply due to the fact that the Ultra-Juggernaut doesn’t have access to a way to hit 200 bloons.
Players can actively try to damage the maximum amount of bloons by placing an Ultra-Juggernaut on a straight path, which isn’t very common especially in harder maps, or can attempt to place the Ultra-Juggernaut strategically in a place where either the spike balls ricochet or are at least flung into the direction of where bloons are travelling, essentially having to rely on the happenstance that bloons perfectly align where the Ultra-Juggernaut is aimed.
Luckily for players, the chances of an Ultra-Juggernaut damaging bloons that have already leaked from the location they initially place it are fairly high as the initial ball it launches is fairly large and covers a good portion of the map, though in my opinion having an Ultra Juggernaut either at the beginning of a map or simply wherever a path is straight is still the best option in my books.
In most cases players will want to put the Ultra-Juggernaut on “Last” targeting as this will raise the chances of the Ultra-Juggernaut damaging the majority of bloons.
An Ultra-Juggernaut set to “First” tends to be ineffective as it will often fling a spike ball into a direction that is less ideal and doesn’t usually hit as many bloons.
Although players don’t normally think about prices when quickly placing towers, it should be known that the Ultra-Juggernaut is considered relatively cheap in comparison to all other upgrades especially with the vast amount of potential damage it can yield when placed strategically.
If players do choose to use a Path 1 Ultra-Juggernaut they should look into unlocking the Force vs Force Monkey Knowledge as this will heavily upgrade the Ultra-Juggernaut’s damage towards MOAB-class bloons, bringing it from 1 damage to 3 damage, essentially being able to deal a total of 21 damage to a MOAB-class bloon if the spike ball explodes on the MOAB-class bloon itself.
When deciding what to cross path a Path 1 Dart Monkey players will often want to select Path 2 as this will raise the Ultra-Juggernaut’s attack speed, essentially raising it’s DPS and increasing the chances of the Ultra-Juggernaut hitting as many bloons as it can before they escape its range.
The only time I would recommend cross pathing an Ultra-Juggernaut with Path 3 is when players are struggling to defeat Camo Lead Bloons and do not have access to a Monkey Village or Etienne.
The most notable maps players will want to use the Ultra-Juggernaut for are:
Moon Landing
Encrypted
Cornfield
The reason for these choices is due to the large amount of obstacles found inside of these maps, essentially guaranteeing a player with high amounts of DPS from an Ultra-Juggernaut.
Moon Landing is especially difficult for players to complete without the use of a single Ultra-Juggernaut as it features three almost completely closed locations that can only be accessed for brief moments unless the tower in use has no obstruction fo it’s line of sight.
The nice thing about using the Ultra-Juggernaut and Juggernauts in general when playing on Moon Landing is the fact that their spike balls will continuously bounce between walls in the craters, essentially making the Ultra-Juggernaut the absolute best tower to place.
PATH 2 TIER-5 DART MONKEYS – PLASMA MONKEY FAN CLUB
I’m personally not the biggest fan of Path 2 Dart Monkeys as the Plasma Monkey Fan Club has a fairly long cool down, being 50 seconds.
While there’s no doubt that thePlasma Monkey Fan Club is powerful, providing nearby Dart Monkeys with an increase in attack speed (damaging every 0.03 seconds) the ability to deal 2 damage and 5 piece per plasma blast and a range of 40, the reality is that of the ability is on cool down players will not be outputting very much damage.
If players want to make the most use out of Plasma Monkey Fan Club, players will essentially need to place up to 20 Dart Monkeys in range of a Path 2 tier-5 Plasma Monkey Fan Club Dart Monkey which can get quite costly unless players have purchased Monkey Village and upgraded it with Monkey City (-/-/4).
As Monkey Villages with Monkey City provide players with a free Dart Monkey each round, players can essentially guarantee the most use out ofPlasma Monkey Fan Club.
When it comes to the Dart Monkeys you place next to the tier-5 Path 2 Plasma Monkey Fan Club, I strongly recommend upgrading them to have (2/2/-) as transformed Dart Monkeys will keep the speed and piece buffs provided from Path 1 and Path 2.
There is no real reason why players will want to upgrade these Dart Monkeys further, though players can cross path the side Dart Monkeys with (-/2/2) if they wish to provide their Dart Monkeys with Camo detection, though it’s important to note that transformed Dart Monkeys will not benefit from the range increase.
Overall, Path 2 Plasma Monkey Fan Club is a mediocre upgrade that will be able to provide players with a good amount of wave clear, especially if players are able to time the activation of the ability at the right times, however in the long run it is probably the weakest in terms of end game simply because of its lack of damage when the ability is not activated and need to rely on a 50 second cool down.
Players will also want to pair up the Plasma Monkey Fan Club with Gwendolin as she has a global ability, Firestorm, to buff all the transformed Plasma Monkeys.
Players can further boost their Plasma Monkeys with a Monkey Village with Primary Expertise (5/-/-) which provides them with 3 pierce, 10% Range, 5 extra range, 15% projectile speed and a 10% ability cooldown.
PATH 3 TIER-5 DART MONKEYS – CROSSBOW MASTER
Path 3 Crossbow Masters are my absolute favourite upgraded towers to place simply due to the versatility they provide players.
Crossbow Masters deal an impressive amount of damage attacking 6.25 times per second and having the chance to critically hit every 4-8 shots.
The Crossbow Master also has some of the most impressive range in the game, being an overwhelming 76 range, equaling to 240% more range than a base Dart Monkey.
The Crossbow Master is also devastating as it has 10 pierce and can shred through Lead Bloons making it unstoppable against the majority of bloon types, including Camo Bloons due to its previous upgrades.
Crossbow Masters are quite often all a player needs to shred through MOAB class bloons and are most effective when placed on straight paths as if players play to the strength of the Crossbow Master’s pierce.
Players do not need to place Crossbow Masters on straight paths in order to make them effective as with enough attack speed a Crossbow Master will still deal a massive amount of damage to incoming bloons.
Crossbow Masters are great as they do not need other towers in order to be powerful, though players can use an Overclock (-/4/-) Engineer Monkey in order to speed up a Crossbow Master’s attack, essentially making it so a Crossbow Master has a higher chance of shooting critical hit shots.
Another support Tower players can place next to Crossbow Masters is a Stronger Stimulant (4/-/-) Alchemistor even a Monkey Village with Primary Training (4/-/-).
Crossbow Masters are great for dealing with Super Ceramics, though realistically I can’t think of any bloons that a Crossbow Master isn’t good at other than very high tier MOAB class bloons.
The best thing about the Crossbow Master is the fact that with the Master Double Cross Monkey Knowledge, players will be able to place two Crossbow Masters, essentially being the only tower players can place two tier-5s of.
I would strongly recommend upgrading a Crossbow Master with Path 2 as this will increase the attack speed of the Crossbow Master which will raise the chances of the Crossbow Master critical hitting the bloons they are damaging.
While players may want to gain more pierce on the Crossbow Master in order to deal more damage to multiple bloons at a time. I really wouldn’t do that though because it can greatly reduce the damage the Crossbow Master can output due to the missed opportunities of critical hits.
Pierce is most useful for players in the late-game, though players can still rely on the attack speed of Path 2.
Shockingly, Crossbow Masters can solo up until level 80 on easier maps, however, players may want to use other towers in order to provide support.
Also shockingly, Crossbow Masters can deal damage to Dark Dirigible Titans (DDTs) which cannot be affected by lower tier Dart Monkeys.
CONCLUSION
While all Tier-5 Dart Monkeys have their uses and can be used on any maps I would have to say that a Path 3 Dart Monkey is my favourite option due to its versatility.
Crossbow Masters have the highest attack rates, largest range and have Camo detection.
But I’m curious, what is your favourite tier-5 Dart Monkey? Is it also Path 3 or do you have another favourite?
What’s the best strategy in your opinion? Let me know in the comments below!
