This article or section uses Cargo to generate its content. It will automatically fill up as other articles are completed. To add to this section, create the articles it is looking up. Do not add content to this section manually and do not remove this notice until you are sure this section is complete.
Description changed ― "Increases attack speed of all ninjas nearby - more Shinobi means more attack speed." → "Increases attack speed and pierce of nearby Ninjas. Stacks 20 times."
While Sticky Bomb still has issues we are investigating, this damage buff allows Sticky Bombs to destroy all regular MOABs from round 81 to 100 in a single bomb in standard games whether they are fortified or not. In addition since this damage runs off a timed function, somewhat similar to Alchemist’s Unstable Concoction, we felt that adding a range increase to the Sticky attack similar to Concoction should give a better chance to actually explode before the target MOAB is destroyed by other towers. — Update notes
Ninja’s Bloon Sabotage is often used in tricky rounds as a powerful slow with a long duration, so we have made a gentle price increase here to reflect that support strength. — Update notes
To try and allow more strategic use Ninja’s Sticky Bombs will now use the targeting of the main tower instead of always Strong. Additionally as they weren’t feeling good enough in general Sticky Bombs will now deal a smaller amount of damage in an AoE to anything surrounding the main target. — Update notes
As ninja is the ‘Camo Specialist’ and has been since inception, it is the only tower that will unlock Camo Prioritization on the base tower. Master Bomber’s main flash bomb has also been buffed in damage slightly leading into the new Ninja Paragon. — Update notes
Grand Sabotage is extremely powerful in freeplay, but really boring outside of that one scaling mechanic. For a little more flavour with the shinobi mechanic, the T5 will now boost the potential of your shinobi army. — Update notes
Sticky Bomb feels like it is in a very strong point right now in a lot of situations, though flash bomb isn’t good enough without a great deal of support leading into it, this shift should open up for challenge viability especially in Alternate Bloon Rounds games. — Update notes
Ironing out Caltrop inconsistency & power a little on top and bottom T5s, but also as frequently unused caltrops clutter up the screen and cause extra lag we want to balance out their lifespan to reduce the number always on screen and make them no longer last longer than the base Spike Factory. Ninja currently appears to be the least competitive paragon, & as it is also very similar in cost to the Navarch we feel that lowering Ninja into its own price range will fill a bit of a cost-gap and increase the effective value it has for the cost. — Update notes
We’re changing the Ninja Monkey Paragon’s focus as a fighter against camo, as we feel like a greater strength and tactical value against camo will be the full reveal of all camos rather than all camo removal. — Update notes
”
Tiers
Changes
Paragon
Now grants global camo detection instead of stripping camo from Bloons with every attack
Note: Buff since towers with bonus Camo damage can continue performing them
Main attack: now deals +6 damage to Camo
Flash Bomb explosion: now deals +20 damage to Camo
Flash Bomb shuriken: now deals +16 damage to Camo
Sticky Bomb projectile: now deals +3,200 damage to Camo
Sticky Bomb explosion: now deals +700 damage to Camo
Now deals 25% damage to all non-Boss MOABs that spawn
We’re mindful that this has been in place since launch, but still think this change could lead to more balanced crosspath Ninja play for casual and for apex players. Ninja's 1xx feels like it does too much, granting both range and attack speed to all crosspaths, so these benefits are now being split apart. As Sticky feels like it’s doing a fair lot of work these days we’re somewhat reworking this path into a range path but taking away the free ‘bonus range’ that Sticky used to gain independent of the tower radius. — Update notes
Flash Bomb’s long time between bombs, without improvements on the main attack leaves this as quite a bad stepping stone, for now due to this long downtime we want to try increasing the stun duration. The recent bug fix for xx4 Sticky Stacking ended up hurting Master Bomber’s viability as it was relying on that bug to have any real single target impact, now that it can be balanced with intended functionality we’re trying out much higher damage per explosion with slower attacks for single target performance as it has Shinobi synergy to bring this rate back up. — Update notes
No changes here for now - given that it did feel behind the other paragons previously, however this is the only paragon that actually got stronger from the bug fix rather than weaker — Update notes
”
Tiers
Changes
Paragon
Ninja Paragon has less Boss damage, especially on Elite and at higher Degrees
For an early game Distraction improvement the consistency of blowbacks is being averaged out more with increased minimum distance but reduced maximum, in many cases there would not actually be 250 units of track length in front of defenses to be blown back across anyway so the overall average distance is slightly lower. More at the mid to endgame we are also weakening distraction distance against Ceramics specifically as by this point Ninja have stacked so much speed and projectiles the consistency doesn’t matter anymore. Finally, distraction values for secondary projectiles are being modified, as Distraction chance as it has existed was never balanced around more than the main attack — Update notes
Flash Bomb has pierce too excessive for Shinobi Tactics to do anything for it but then lacks any actual damage output, so this high pierce is trading in for greater damage. Master Bomber’s MOAB stun was not changed when Flashbomb stun duration was previously increased, so it is now increasing to match — Update notes
Bottom path Ninja never does anything with the main shuriken projectile past the xx1 upgrade leaving it inconsequential on higher tiers. Given that Flash Bombs can feel lacking without heavy support, we’re trying out a change that makes Flash Bomb Ninja scale better with attack speed and pierce as something of a combo-attacker. Overall, this feels pretty ‘right’ for ninjas and more importantly it’s cool and sometimes that’s what matters most. — Update notes
While a great early game option, Ninja generally struggles with dominant crosspathing choices and also has relatively poor base tower value. Without going into every single change, T3s onward remain relatively unchanged with a lot of prices below T3 being moved around from less favorable crosspaths into better/higher tier upgrades. Ninja Paragon is very simple to use so unlock XP requirements for this and Wizard Paragon are swapping around so Ninja is the faster unlock. This increase will not affect players who have already unlocked it. — Update notes
To allow Shinobi combos to scale more effectively with the Flash Bomb, the combo-attack pattern is being improved with more base Shuriken pierce & slightly larger bonuses to Stunned & Stickied targets – however the increased range at T4 is being removed. Ninja Paragon’s Camo bonus has been interesting, but we want to scale this up in many places to feel like a more significant overall boost when it comes into play. Additionally this Paragon hasn’t scaled the best at high degrees as Stickies attacking faster than their Fuse Time would make the attack weaker at single target, we are slowing the sticky attack but giving it back proportionally more damage to resolve this with an overall buff. — Update notes
Description changed ― "Ability duration is longer, and MOAB-Class Bloons spawn with less health during the sabotage. Buffs all Shinobi." → "Ability duration is longer and buffs Shinobi while active, and MOAB-Class Bloons spawn with less health during the sabotage."
“
Based on the x5x ability Ninja Paragon will now grant bonus range to all non-paragon ninjas, it will provide the Shinobi Tactics buff to any other Ninja in radius, and its global camo detection will also apply to other paragons. — Update notes
”
Tiers
Changes
Paragon
Now grants +10 range to all other Ninjas on-screen
Now applies Shinobi Tactics buff to all other Ninjas in range
Now grants Camo detection to all other Paragons on-screen
Master Bomber is janky to build for given the high cost and the fuse time limits how much single target damage it can do as well, so we’ve given a massive rate boost to the sticky attack. — Update notes
Note: The effect of Counter-Espionage to remove camo gets priority over this bonus, so it doesn't get applied to regular Bloons, however it will work against Phayze while Radar Jam is active.
Note: The effect of Counter-Espionage to remove camo gets priority over this bonus, so it doesn't get applied to regular Bloons, however it will work against Phayze while Radar Jam is active.
Shurikens and Caltrops now deal +2 damage to Camo Bloons and Flash Bomb Explosion deals +4 (undocumented)
Note: The effect of Counter-Espionage to remove camo gets priority over this bonus, so it doesn't get applied to regular Bloons, however it will work against Phayze while Radar Jam is active.
Flash Bomb Explosion now deals +4 damage to Camo Bloons (undocumented)
Note: The effect of Counter-Espionage to remove camo gets priority over this bonus, so it doesn't get applied to regular Bloons, however it will work against Phayze while Radar Jam is active.
A few attacks had been missed on the Ninja’s last distraction change and have now had their distraction distance properly standardized. The Ninja Paragon is also seeing a set of light adjustments, most notably the much requested rebalance to Sticky Bomb now with a slower attack rate to scale properly against Bosses at high degrees, while the main attack now also hits much harder against any Stickied targets. — Update notes
Ninja Paragon no longer uses the wrong sticky bomb art asset against Elite Phayze (bug fix)
Multiple Sticky Bombs should no longer be able to stack the single target damage of their explosions when clustered together (bug fix)