Strategy:Freeplay (BTD6)

This article was last updated for: version 53.2

Freeplay icon

Freeplay in Bloons TD 6 involves blimps rapidly ramping up in health and speed. The ramping means that blimps become magnitudes more challenging once the game is deep into Freeplay. Reaching Round 500, even on the easiest maps, is a daunting task, especially when considering the lag in Freeplay. Farming in the first couple hundred rounds is essential, and proper utilization of the entire space of the map is crucial for the final setup.

General recommendations

Map choice

Logs is the recommended map, as it has an abundance of good placements, has a layout with many intersections and is composed entirely of straight lines, and is the 2nd longest map (after Scrapyard, which severely lacks space and has many line of sight blockers). Contrary to popular belief, Logs has enough space for farming, being able to fit 38 Banana Farms, and optimal farming strategies can reach over $50 million spare by the time the final setup has been completed, with certain farming strategies on Logs reaching over $300 million, though this amount is almost never needed in Freeplay. Additionally, Logs has enough space for a full Ninja army with excellent overlaps, making it the best map for ultra late game no matter the strategy.

Resort is shorter than Logs, but its plentiful space means that when using Bloonjitsus + Shinobi Tactics, it is only a bit worse than Logs for Freeplay. However, no matter the strategy, Logs remains superior. Resort currently holds the round record for Easy mode Freeplay with Powers (Round 969, though using time stops, Legend of the Night, and Ezili or Navarch rebuys this can go on infinitely), but Logs holds the round record for CHIMPS Freeplay (Round 550) and powerless Easy mode Freeplay (Round 720). It is worth noting that both of the aformentioned records were set in v52 where the Ice paragon was extremely overpowered and bugged, leading to such rounds now being unachievable. Spa Pits is the third most optimal, but it has no significant advantages over Logs or Resort and is thus not recommended, unless using Destroyers or Aircraft Carriers as the main damage dealers.

Gameplay

• BADs are the only significant threat, as all other Bloons and blimps can be permanently stalled. Paragons with stall capacity such as Ascended Shadow, Glaive Dominus and Master Builder are sufficient to permanently stall any bloon weaker than a BAD, though sometimes getting a Monarch of the Storms may be helpful. The best way to deal with BADs in freeplay is by using Ezili as her level 20 ability deals percentage damage to BADs
• Do not overspend on defense during the first hundred rounds, as the gameplay is typically on Easy mode on a Beginner map. Instead, focus on farming.
• Banana Central + Banana Research Facility spam + Monkeyopolis + Overclocks (for the Farms) is the best simple farming strategy. Stalling to farm with Support Chinooks (and later with Supply Drops) produces more income, but it is not necessary, as Banana Farms already permit a full setup with tens of millions to spare unless you are planning to truly push the limits of Ezili rebuy.
• Ultraboost towers that will be present in the final setup while farming. Use Support Chinook to move the towers to their final desired positions.
• Apart from the two main strategies of Temple spam and Ninja army, a third strategy called Hybrid has recently been developed that involves using Support Chinook to move Ninjas into Sun Temple's range as they transform, allowing for a Ninja and Temple army in one setup, providing currently unparalleled popping power.
• Supporting towers and the Hero are all crucial to Freeplay. Recommendations for them are listed in the sections below.
• All Paragons besides the Apex Plasma Master are worthwhile in Freeplay, and it is recommended to obtain them first to avoid the final setup depriving them of the pops needed to reach high degrees.
  • Start investing into Paragons that will less likely "steal" future pops. The Master Builder is generally recommended to be first of the Paragons, the former relying on XXXL Trap's instakills to maximize pops.
• Cram towers as tightly as possible, whether while farming or preparing the final setup, to utilize every bit of space present on the map.
• Using stalling towers such as Bloon Crushat the start of the track or 4-0-2 sniper set to last can help greatly to get full Ultraboost stacks on every tower, or stall for abilties such as the Legend of the Night's Black Hole.
• Set stalling towers (such as Monarch of Storms and Master Builder) to First, set Navarch of the Seas and Nautic Siege Core (if unsubmerged) to Last, and set all other targetable towers to Strong.
• Unlocking Monkey Knowledge is vital. There is no MK that is truly detrimental to extreme Freeplay on non-CHIMPS games.

Recommended core towers

Name	Portrait	Reasoning & how to use
Bloonjitsus + Shinobi Tactics		Spamming Bloonjitsus, with each given 20 or near 20 Shinobi stacks, produces an extraordinarily powerful setup that defeats most other strategies. One of the Bloonjitsus is to be upgraded to Grandmaster Ninja, which is also worth it in the VTSG + Sun Temples + Sun Avatars setup despite depriving Ascended Shadow of its Paragon of Power buff. Grand Saboteur is still worthwhile despite its health removal capability being nullified by Ascended Shadow, thanks to its ability buffing all Shinobis. Master Bomber is worth the space as well. Caltrops is recommended for the Bloonjitsus, Grandmaster Ninja, and Shinobis, and Sharp Shurikens is recommended for Master Bomber. In this setup, the Bloonjitsus, Grandmaster Ninja, and Master Bomber occupy the spaces near the map's center, Shinobi Tactics and Grand Saboteur immediately surround them, and supporting towers (except Embrittlement and Super Brittle) and supplemental towers are placed at the periphery of the map. Note that this setup requires packing towers extremely tightly, requires multiple trials to find the best placements for maximizing the Shinobi stacks on the Bloonjitsus, and produces immense lag.
VTSG + Sun Temples + Sun Avatars		This setup is somewhat weaker than Bloonjitsus + Shinobis, but it produces less lag and is easier to achieve. The VTSG is ideally placed on water using Arctic Wind, as it can then be buffed by Navarch of the Seas. VTSG is also best placed near the center of the map so that its True Sun God buff reaches the entire map, and is also recommended in the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup thanks to its buff. 2-2-2-1 is the ideal sacrifice for VTSG, as its Tier 4 Sun Temple buffs do not stack with the buff from other Sun Temples. x-2-0 is the best crosspath for all 3 listed towers. Placing as many Sun Temples as possible is crucial, as they are more space efficient than Sun Avatars. Place Super Monkeys so that their range barely avoids the center of their neighboring Sun Temples, and do not buff their ranges before upgrading them to Sun Temple. Support Chinook can move distant towers right next to the Super Monkey, which remain there once the Super Monkey is upgraded, allowing for towers inside Sun Temples. Hybrid makes use of this greatly, as it allows for many more ninjas to fit in the setup. 2 Sun Temples with the 1-0-1-1 sacrifice are recommended for their support buffs to reach the whole map, and they are recommended for the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup as well. 1-1-1-0 is the recommended sacrifice for other Sun Temples for maximized damage. Leave space for 1 Overclock for each Sun Temple and each supplemental tower, and fill the rest of the map with Sun Avatars.
Destroyers/ Aircraft Carriers		A max buffed Destroyer can match or even outpace a Ninja in terms of raw DPS. However, due to only being able to be placed on water, having a large hitbox size, and only working with Brickell to max damage output, unless playing on a map that is predominately water, such as Spa Pits, Destroyer spam is not recommended, though it possesses immense damage potential if used well.
Ezili		Ezili has two powerful assets: MOAB Hex and Sacrificial Totem. MOAB Hex is her flagship asset, as its capability to deal percentage-based damage makes it excessively powerful against BADs in deep freeplay, which have millions of health. Spamming the ability throughout the course of the round allows her to take down heaps of Fortified BADs, greatly easing the load on other towers. Sacrificial Totem's buff is also powerful, and it is best targeted at a location where it reaches the largest portion of the core defense. She works the best with the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup and the Hybrid (Temples+Ninjas) setup.
Adora		Adora's Blood Sacrifice is extremely powerful, doubling the attack speed of all Sun Avatars, all Sun Temples, and the VTSG, all while boosting their ranges by 40%. She is best placed at the center of the map, as Blood Sacrifice only functions within her own range. However, this is not a limiting factor, as her Level 3 Long Arms of Light ability grants her global range when she is also given max buffs, so it is recommended to Blood Sacrifice when that ability is active. She works well with the VTSG + Sun Temples + Sun Avatars setup, which remains slightly weaker than the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup when paired with her but is more smooth and easy to perform. She matches Ezili when used in hybrid, though she may cause more lag.
Herald of Everfrost		Herald Of Everfrost is an essential paragon for BTD6 Freeplay. It gives a map-wide debuff to all bloons, and also has the ability to slow BADS. The paragon is most effective in ninja-based freeplay as bloonjistus each have 8 projectiles, and each of those projectiles can benefit from the global debuff. Whilst not as effective in other setups such as temples or destroyers, the BAD slowing ability provides a lot of support.

Recommended support

Name	Portrait	Reasoning & how to use
Overclock, Ultraboost		Overclocks are crucial to the final setup, as they maximize the strength of the most powerful Freeplay towers. If using the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup, use 1 Overclock for each Bloonjitsu and 2 for the Grandmaster Ninja. If utilizing Temples, use 1 Overclock for each Sun Temple and for each 2 Sun Avatars. In addition, use 1 Overclock for each of the supplemental defense towers listed below. Ultraboost is also essential for maximizing the final setup, and it is recommended to start ultraboosting towers as soon as possible, since it has a long cool down even with the Energizer. It is worth keeping Ultraboost in the final setup due to its full uptime for Tier 5s, allowing it to permanently Overclock the two most powerful towers.
Homeland Defense, Call to Arms		The doubled attack speed and pierce that Homeland grants is crucial to all Freeplay setups. When attempting Freeplay AFK, it is recommended to add a Call to Arms to cover Homeland's downtime, with a Tech Bot used to activate the Call to Arms immediately after Homeland runs out to avoid the latter being overriden. If attempting to reach the absolute maximum round possible, sell and rebuy Homeland after each usage to make the buff permanent.
Permanent Brew		The attack speed, range, pierce, and damage buffs that Permanent Brew grants are mandatory for all setups. To apply the buff to all towers on the map, use Support Chinook to move Permanent Brew around. In general, it is best to apply Permanent Brew to Sun Temples after they have received their sacrifices, as doing so reduces their range before being upgraded and allows more of them to be fit.
Cripple MOAB, Elite Sniper		Cripple MOAB's +5 debuff is essential to all Freeplay setups as well. 5-2-0 is the optimal crosspath for it in Freeplay, allowing for the debuff of multiple BADs with one attack. Place it at a spot where it can shoot BADs while they face toward it (so that the shrapnels travel straight into the BAD), such as the space to the immediate left of the rightmost bottom log on Logs. Elite Sniper buffs Cripple MOAB's attack speed, allowing the latter's shrapnels to spawn more rapidly and debuff more BADs, in addition to buffing the 0-2-5 Elite Defender (if desired) and doing some damage on its own.
Glue Storm		Glue Storm's debuff makes it crucial for reaching the highest round possible. 2-5-0 is recommended when The Final Harmonic is not used, as it increases the debuff from +2 to +3 and retains over 90% uptime with Primary Expertise and Energizer/Nautic Siege Core. 0-5-2 is recommended when using The Final Harmonic, as the latter strips the glue and debuff from the 2-5-0 Glue Storm.
Primary Expertise		Primary Expertise has the largest range of all Monkey Villages when considering Permanent Brew's ability to buff it, making it the best option to apply the crucial Jungle Drums buff to as many towers as possible. In addition, its buffs to Primary towers are also valuable, increasing the range of Embrittlement and Super Brittle while reducing Glue Storm's cooldown. Ultraboost it for maximized range.
Bloon Master Alchemist		While BMA generally accumulates more pops than any other tower, it is not close to being as essential as its pop count suggests, as the ZOMGs and DDTs that it one-shots are non-issues and perma-stalled regardless. However, its ability to one-shot ZOMGs still prevents low-pierce towers (such as Ascended Shadow) from pierce-capping, making it a worthwhile support. However, if attempting to stall for abilities, BMA should not be used.

Additional notes

• Energizer is worth it in the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup, where unsubmerging Nautic Siege Core is recommended and Energizer's cooldown reductions are not invalidated. However, in the VTSG + Sun Temples + Sun Avatars setup, Energizer is redundant due to Nautic Siege Core being ideally submerged to buff Adora's immense solo damage.
• The Final Harmonic is also worth obtaining in the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup. However, its trance effect removes the debuff of the 2-5-0 Glue Storm (the preferred crosspath), making it counterproductive when used in the Adora + Sun Temples + Sun Avatars setup. On the other hand, in the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup, where Ezili is preferred, Harmonic's immense synergy with Ezili's MOAB Hex and Sacrificial Totem outweighs harm from its forcing of the 0-5-2 crosspath for Glue Storm.

Recommended supplemental defense

Name	Portrait	Reasoning & how to use
Sentry Champion		Sentry Champion benefits twice from aura buffs, such as True Sun God, Jungle Drums, Homeland Defense, and the Power Glove abilty, which boost both the rate at which sentries are spawned and the attack speed of the sentries. This makes Sentry Champion excessively powerful in Freeplay, and the 5-2-0 crosspath is recommended for increased damage to Fortified BADs.
Super Mines		The extreme power of Super Mines makes it a strong addition to any setup, and the area-of-effect explosions of the mines mean that a central spot is optimal for it. 5-2-0 is the recommended crosspath for Super Mines for a consistently increased attack speed.
Bloon Exclusion Zone		BEZ shoots out an immense number of projectiles, making it synergize exceptionally well with the damage buffs and debuffs present in all late-game setups and deal extraordinary damage. Unlike in CHIMPS, 0-2-5 is the optimal crosspath due to attack speed being more valuable than flat damage in Freeplay thanks to the damage buffs and debuffs. Place BEZ at a spot where its projectiles are shot to travel through the entire map, such as the spot immediately below the rightmost bottom log on Logs.
M.A.D		M.A.D's immense MOAB-Class damage means that it excels in deep Freeplay, despite its mediocre synergy with buffs. 0-5-2 is its optimal crosspath due to the immense number of BADs present in every round, and the placement recommendation for BEZ applies to it as well.
The Tack Zone		Tack Zone's immense number of projectiles grants it extreme synergy with the damage and pierce buffs present in all setups. 2-0-5 is the far superior crosspath due to 0-2-5's pierce being insignificant when considering the pierce-buffing towers (such as VTSG) on the screen, and Tack Zone is best placed right below an intersection to utilize its deadzone.
Inferno Ring		Inferno Ring's meteors benefit immensely from pierce buffs and become extreme damage dealers that approach the potency of M.A.D. 5-0-2 is the optimal crosspath for extra meteor damage, with 5-2-0's +1 meteor pierce and extra range being insignificant.

Additional notes

• Some other towers, such as 0-2-5 Elite Defender, 2-0-5 Flying Fortress (which outweighs Paragon of Power's benefits on Degree 91 Goliath Doomship), 0-1-5 Avatar of Wrath, and 0-5-2 Popseidon, are weaker relative to their footprint than towers above, but they are still worth it in the VTSG + Sun Temples + Sun Avatars setup. However, they are not recommended for the Bloonjitsus + Shinobis setup, or the Hybrid setup, which demand more space for the core of the setup.

Commonly used but suboptimal towers

Name	Portrait	Reasoning
Geraldo		Geraldo's Paragon Power Totem is appealing, but the extra 9 max degrees for Paragons are greatly outclassed by Ezili's capabilities and the TSG/VTSG support of Adora. Rejuv Potion and Worn Hero's Cape are the only other shop items with relevance in Freeplay, but both restock far too slowly to have significant effect.
Psi		Psi's inability to deal any damage to BADs makes them completely redundant in Freeplay. While their ability to one-shot any non-BAD is appealing, BMA and Navarch of the Seas can already take care of all non-BADs.
XXXL Trap		Compared to BMA, XXXL Trap is poor at instakilling blimps for extreme late-game, because traps consume more pierce on higher-RBE targets. Since BMA + Navarch of the Seas is enough for one-shotting non-BADs, XXXL Trap is simply a waste of space.
Blooncineration		Defortification of small blimps is not worth it when going deep into Freeplay, as they would be quickly one-shot by BMA or Navarch of the Seas. In addition, most other towers do much more raw DPS per footprint, making Blooncineration not worth its footprint.
Other stalling towers		As Paragons with stalling capabilities (Master Builder, Ascended Shadow, Glaive Dominus, Herald of Everfrost) and Monarch of the Storms can already permanently prevent non-BADs from moving extra stalling is not useful, unless using Bloon Crush to stall for abilities such as Legend of the Night passive. None of the listed towers deal sufficient raw damage to BADs to be worth it either. Note that Bloon Crush is also useful in CHIMPS Freeplay to stall for Legend of the Night's passive ability.