Bloons TD 6 A Casual's Guide to BTD6

General

Disclaimer: A lot of what's in this guide is likely biased, and I do not claim whatsoever that any of this is fully optimal or meta. This is simply a compilation of all the things I believe I would've found to be useful if I knew them earlier on.

This guide is intended to inform new, casual players of some of the ways to progress through the game more effectively. Although it can be worth skimming through for some that aren't new to the game, a lot of this information may be less valuable. Regardless, most of this guide will be the following two sections, but there are two general tips to mention first and foremost.

First off, as most of the heroes aren't available for free, saving up Monkey Money for them is crucial. Although some of them are far from necessary, others enable unique strategies or options for certain situations. If you plan on playing challenges often, you're bound to eventually find one that locks you into each hero. On top of that, most Odysseys restrict your hero choice, making every hero unlocked a better chance of having a solid option for your crew. Even if you don't use them at all in normal gameplay, not having them could force you to skip over a challenge or put more effort into Odysseys.

Second, optimizing your tower experience gain will allow you to take on harder maps and modes notably sooner. In addition to a couple Monkey Knowledge perks that will be mentioned below, Deflation is a great way to unlock upgrades without much effort, as you can simply let the rounds run while you do other things.

With those out of the way, we can now move onto Monkey Knowledge and achievements. Monkey Knowledge for the sake of optimizing gameplay and, by extension, progression, and achievements for some extra Monkey Knowledge points and Monkey Money.

Monkey Knowledge

Monkey Knowledge is a big part of most BTD6 gameplay. Whether it's just to make games a bit easier and/or quicker, essential to beat certain player made challenges, or a strong investment to help your game progression, there are plenty of good perks up for grabs. Specifically, there are two types of Monkey Knowledge perks that should be emphasized: the strong perks and the investment perks, with there being many more of the former than the latter.

Strong Monkey Knowledge

There are many perks that can give you a significant boost in various ways. As there are so many of them, it's best to break them up into tiers. While you don't need all, or even any, of these perks to make good progress, it never hurts to know which ones should be focused on a bit more.

Tier 1

These are the best of the best. Either providing strong yet highly flexible bonuses or even stronger, specific bonuses, these can all have significant impacts.

Big Bloon Sabotage: Reduces the HP of all MOAB-class bloons.

More Cash: $200 added to your starting cash every game.

Bonus Monkey!: Provides a free Dart Monkey every game.

Pre-Game Prep: Permanent Road Spikes at the end of the track. For maps with multiple exits, there will be multiple spike piles. Additionally, you have to get another perk that buffs spike piles just to get this. Note: a few maps have entrances and exits that are very close together, or have spots that function as both at once. In these situations, the spikes will be eaten up right away. As there aren't too many maps that have this issue, it's still a very strong option.

Hero Perks: Although some of these are particularly weak, ones like Hero Favors, Empowered Heroes and Self-Taught Heroes can all give your hero a big boost, either in the short or long term. Overall, this section is very valuable to get.

Bank Deposits: As income is already extremely powerful, having the most powerful income option will make farming incredibly efficient, so long as you manage the banks properly.

There Can Be Only One: Although it's not essential to casual gameplay, this knowledge unlocks the Vengeful True Sun God , which is the most powerful standalone tower in the game. There are a handful of situations where it's a must have, including a few achievements.

Tier 2

While these aren't as extreme as the previous set of perks, they still provide very strong effects.

Mana Shield: In short, it's a weaker Pre-Game Prep. It can provide a similar safety net, but has a number of downsides. While it can allow a much greater number of bloons to get through if it regenerates enough, you don't get the cash for said bloons like you would with the spikes. Even though it allows the Elite Defender and Bomb Blitz passives to activate, it's far more situational, and its regeneration hardly matters if you only let a few bloons by early on.

Strike Down the False: Although it only applies to one path of one tower, the Sun Avatar is a very strong option. Being able to detect camo with Ultravision, as you typically get Knockback anyway, and pop purples with this knowledge allows it to contribute to every situation. On top of that, it completely removes the need for the Monkey Village's middle path, allowing you to get discounts instead of the Monkey Intelligence Bureau, which has the greatest impact on Sun Avatars in particular. In short, big direct and indirect buffs through this perk.

Master Double Cross: Although it isn't an insanely powerful tower, the Crossbow Master is (currently) the best Dart Monkey tier 5, as Ultra Juggernaut is situational, and Plasma Monkey Fan Club comes with a hefty price tag. On easier maps, having two Crossbow Masters can prove to be pretty effective, even if there are stronger options.

More Valuable Bananas: Although this knowledge has a relatively mild effect, it can make Marketplaces with Valuable Bananas more profitable than those with Greater Production. Although they're still not as profitable as Banks, they require no effort once you get the Marketplace upgrade, making them the more user friendly farming option.

Bonus

Although some of these could've been listed above, I've opted to bundle these together, as they all have certain attributes that can sum up their benefits in a very brief manner.

Cash Perks: Various perks that can save you a bit of cash here and there. Some have more specific uses than others, but they all have the same result in mind: less cash spent or more cash regained. The most notable of these are Military Conscription, Better Sell Deals, Flat Pack Buildings and Insider Trades.

Tower Specific Perks: In all four main branches of the Monkey Knowledge tree are various perks that apply to specific towers or upgrades. Depending on what you like to use, and what gives the best boosts, some of these may be worth considering, especially if they're easy to get. The most notable of these are Come on Everybody!, Paint Stripper and Hot Magic, although the latter is even more situational than most perks from this category.

Extras

These are all worth noting for varying reasons, and have been bundled here as a result.

Veteran Monkey Training & Global Ability Cooldowns: Both provide small buffs to all towers and abilities, respectively. As such, they're very easy to utilize.

Grand Prix Spree: Although some may not care for races at all, those who do can end up saving lots of Monkey Money with this knowledge, assuming they race enough to make the savings greater than the Monkey Money spent to get it.

Healthy Bananas: If Marketplaces are your choice for farming, having them produce extra lives could help enable even more greed, especially when Pre-Game Prep and/or Mana Shield is/are also included. At the very least, there is an achievement for getting over 1,000 lives in a single game, which this knowledge can help with.

Investment Monkey Knowledge

Ideally, these three should be acquired as soon as possible, as they provide more value the earlier points are put into them. Although going for all three right away locks your first eight Monkey Knowledge points, it shouldn't be difficult to level up for more to begin working towards non-investment knowledge.

Monkey Education: More experience gained for every tower, which enables you to unlock upgrades significantly faster. Requires four points total to unlock.

Elite Military Training: Similar to Monkey Education, but includes 1,000 experience points for all military towers. With this, you can unlock some upgrades for military towers without even using them, making them even easier to work with. Additionally, unlike the other two perks listed here, this knowledge doesn't require other Monkey Knowledge points be spent before getting it.

Mo' Monkey Money: Adds 10% Monkey Money to your reward after every game. Especially beneficial if most of your first time win bonuses have yet to be claimed. Requires three points total to unlock.

Achievements

Although some achievements have hefty requirements, less than ideal rewards, or even both, others are the exact opposite, and should be worked towards whenever possible. There are three main categories of achievements that I'd like to specifically mention here: the passive achievements, the easy achievements and the Monkey Knowledge achievements. All three of these categories, along with a few other specific achievements, will be explained further below, along with examples for most.

Passive Achievements

These achievements are the ones that you'll likely get without actively hunting them. These include beating maps and modes a number of times, using heroes, popping various bloon types and other mundane tasks. There's not much to say about these beyond the fact that some of them do offer Monkey Money upon completion, and are somewhat helpful due to that.

Special example: Tower Keeper can either be easy or passive, depending on whether you know to save up for it. For the sake of ease, I highly recommend saving all insta monkeys--excluding one tier 5 if you want that achievement, as it gives another tier 5 back as a reward--until this achievement is complete. On top of completing it a bit faster, being independent of insta monkeys will also prove useful.

Easy Achievements

Similar to the passive achievements, there are others that are relatively low effort, but require that you know what you need to do beforehand. There are some like All for One and One for All, which can easily be completed using a guide, as opposed to ones like Freaky Friday, which just requires a moderate number of Transforming Tonic uses. Overall, very little effort required if you're prepared, meaning even more easy Monkey Money.

Other examples: Oathbreakers, Inflated, Bloons Master, Superior Bloons Master, Ultimate Bloons Master, A Year in the Making and most co-op, Odyssey and daily challenge achievements.

Monkey Knowledge Achievements

Lastly, I'd like to specifically point out achievements that provide Monkey Knowledge points for completing them. These can be particularly useful due to how powerful some Monkey Knowledge perks--which will be explained in greater detail later on--are when used wisely.

Examples: All three Bloons Master achievements, 2TC, A Year in the Making, Rising Star, Monkey Philanthropist, All for One and One for All, and Sapper.

Optional Achievements

Personally, I've found it slightly easier to see everything with smaller bloons and towers. For those who also find it to be a quality of life improvement, you'll want to complete Golden Ticket, which is a freebie if looked up, and Alchermistman and Bloonacleboy, which requires 900K pops on a Bloon Master Alchemist by the end of Round 100 , respectively.

Achievements to Avoid

Although you don't necessarily have to ignore these achievements, they're not ones that I believe should be actively hunted due to varying reasons.

Sapper: Although it offers a Monkey Knowledge point, its requirement is very demanding. As a result, even while trying to grind it out, you won't get this one without a real fight.

Race achievements: These achievements hardly make this category, as Rising Star isn't the most demanding of the three, yet provides a Monkey Knowledge point. In this case, it's more about avoiding them initially, rather than entirely, as they may become trivial in time.

Survivor: Due to the way Apopalypse's random rounds, it's hard to predict when certain bloon types will first appear. On top of this, most notable bloon types show up significantly faster than in standard rounds. Combine all of that with the relatively poor reward, and it's yet another achievement that should be handled later on.

Co-op achievements: Simply put, other people can make or break a lot of these. If you can get people who leave as soon as the game starts, providing you with a 'solo co-op' game, then some of these will be pretty straightforward. If not, a number of factors will be left to chance. Similarly to Survivor, a lot of these achievements don't have particularly amazing rewards, and aren't a huge deal to put aside.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2410059464

A Casual's Guide to BTD6

General

Monkey Knowledge

Achievements

More Bloons TD 6 guilds