Upgrade

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The Dart Monkey's upgrades in Bloons TD 6

Upgrades are a core game mechanic of the Bloons TD series and Bloons Super Monkey. They can be purchased for cash to enhance a monkey's stats, add or replace attacks, unlock Activated Abilities, or combination of effects. Depending on the game, upgrades may come in multiple paths and tiers that restrict how many upgrades can be purchased and in what order; higher-tier upgrades are generally more powerful, but more expensive.

Terminology and notation

Towers in Bloons TD 6 change their appearances based on their combination of upgrades. The Wizard Monkeys with path 1 upgrades are on the upper left, the ones with path 2 upgrades are down the middle, and the ones with path 3 upgrades are on the upper right. The ones between those are crosspathed and have upgrades on two paths at the same time; there are 64 possible combinations, though their tier 5 upgrades don't change when crosspathed, so the Wizard Monkey only has 52 unique models. The Wizard Monkey's Paragon is not included here.

• An upgrade path is a grouping of upgrades across multiple tiers. In Bloons TD 6 and Bloons TD Battles 2, towers have three upgrade paths; in Bloons TD 4, towers have only one upgrade path; and in all other Bloons TD games except Bloons Adventure Time TD, towers have two upgrade paths.
• An upgrade tier is a ranking of an upgrade within an upgrade path. An upgrade can only be purchased if the previous upgrade on its path has been purchased. Starting in Bloons TD 5, Higher upgrade tiers have additional restrictions.
• In Bloons Adventure Time TD, characters have upgrade trees instead of specific upgrade paths and tiers. Upgrades can have multiple prerequisites and mutual exclusion is specific to certain upgrades rather than being based on the path and tier.
• A crosspath is a combination of upgrades across two different upgrade paths. This is most prominent in Bloons TD 6 and Bloons TD Battles 2, where some upgrades have unique perks or interactions when combined with upgrades on other paths, though the concept exists in all Bloons TD games with multiple upgrade paths.
• Upgrades for towers in the Bloons TD series are usually notated with numbers to represent their upgrade tiers. For example, a Dart Monkey in Bloons TD 6 that is upgraded to tier 5 (Ultra-Juggernaut) on its first path and tier 2 (Very Quick Shots) on its second path is a "5-2-0" Dart Monkey. Upgrade notations are usually parsed with hyphens (e.g. "5-2-0"), slashes (e.g. "5/2/0") or no symbols between the letters (e.g. "520").

Properties of upgrades

Upgrades can have a variety of effects on the subject. In Bloons TD 6 alone, upgrades can:

• Increase stats, e.g. Sharp Shots or Ninja Discipline
• Add new attacks, e.g. Grape Shot or Fireball
• Replace existing attacks, e.g. Ring of Fire or Cannon Ship
• Add new properties to attacks, e.g. Burny Stuff or Shrapnel Shot
• Unlock Activated Abilities, e.g. MOAB Assassin or Turbo Charge

Upgrades can apply multiple different effects at the same time. For example, Primary Expertise both enhances the buffs the Monkey Village provides to Primary towers and grants it its own attack. Not all upgrades are strictly beneficial; some upgrades have both upsides and downsides (such as Hot Shot, which allows Grape Shot to pop Lead Bloons but prevents them from popping Purple Bloons) or fulfil a radically different role from the previous tier (e.g. Buckshot).

Special upgrade categories

Premium Upgrades

Main article: Premium Upgrade

Premium Upgrades are upgrades in Bloons TD 4 and Bloons TD 5 that are not part of a tower's upgrade tree.

• In the Flash version of Bloons TD 4, Bloons TD 4 Expansion, and the Flash version of Bloons TD 5, Premium Upgrades are purchased with NK Coins, which are purchased using real money.
• In the mobile version of Bloons TD 4, Premium Upgrades can now be unlocked for free by earning 5, 10, and 15 Hard difficulty Medals, unlocking 3 specific Premium Upgrades at each threshold, but can still be purchased with real money.
• In the iOS and Android releases of BTD5, Premium Upgrades are purchased with real money.
• In Bloons TD 5 Deluxe and the PC releases of BTD5, Premium Upgrades are purchased with Monkey Money.

Tier 4 upgrades

Tier 4 upgrades first appear in Bloons TD 4. In Bloons TD 4, Bloons TD 5, the Flash version of Bloons TD Battles, and Bloons Monkey City, tier 4 upgrades have additional requirements in order to be unlocked.

• In BTD4 and BTD5, they require reaching a specific rank.
• In the Flash version of BTD Battles, they must be purchased with Medallions.
• In BMC, they require a Special Building to be built first (with the exception of Banana Investments Advisory, which requires a Monkey Bank instead).

Tier 5 upgrades

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Tier 5 upgrades appear in Bloons TD 6 and Bloons TD Battles 2. Only one of each tier 5 upgrade can exist at the same time, except for Crossbow Master with Master Double Cross & Ice Monkeys when used with Silas in BTD6. In BTD6's Co-op, each player can have one of each tier 5 upgrade, allowing up to four of each tier 5 upgrade to exist at the same time (8 in the case of Crossbow Master/Ice Monkey tier 5 towers). In Battles 2, Tier 5 upgrades are permanently unlocked for  1,500 per unlocked tower.

Paragons

Main article: Paragon

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Paragons are a kind of upgrade introduced to Bloons TD 6 in version 27.0. They require all three tier 5 upgrades of that tower to be on screen, and when the paragon is bought, all of that tower on screen merge into a single unit with exceptionally high stats and damage bonuses against Boss Bloons. The player can sacrifice more towers and Paragon Power Totems when creating them to increase their Degree, which determines their stats. They are extremely expensive and take much more tower XP to unlock than other upgrades. Only one of each Paragon can exist at the same time, even in Co-op. While sometimes referred to as "5-5-5 towers" in the game, they actually belong to their own upgrade tier.

Upgrades that require another tower

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In Bloons TD 6, Monkeyopolis can only be purchased if at least one Banana Farm is within the Monkey Village's range. Additionally, the Megalodon, Gigantosaurus and Pouākai tier 5 beast handlers can only be purchased if three additional beast handlers of the respective tier 4 are merged.

In Bloons Adventure Time TD, some upgrades can only be purchased if a specific character is within the tower's range. Alternate characters are considered the same character for the purposes of these upgrades; for example, Finn can be upgraded to Bound by Word if either Princess Bubblegum or Warrior Bubblegum are in his range.

Lists of upgrades

• Upgrades in Bloons Tower Defense
• Upgrades in Bloons Tower Defense 2
• Upgrades in Bloons Tower Defense 3
• Upgrades in Bloons TD 4
• Upgrades in Bloons TD 5
• Upgrades in Bloons TD Battles
• Upgrades in Bloons Monkey City
• Upgrades in Bloons TD 6
• Upgrades in Bloons Adventure Time TD
• Upgrades in Bloons TD Battles 2
• Upgrades in Bloons Super Monkey

Related achievements

Bloons TD 6

	Big Monkey Deploy a tier 4 monkey tower Reward(s):  20

	Mega Monkey Deploy a tier 5 monkey tower Reward(s):  50

20K	Tools to Darwin Upgrade towers 20,000 times Reward(s):  200,  Tier 2 ×2

Bloons Adventure Time TD

	Homies Help Homies Buy 20 Upgrades that Require another Character Reward(s):  100

	Homies Help Homies 2 Buy 50 Upgrades that Require another Character Reward(s):  50

	Homies Help Homies 3 Buy 100 Upgrades that Require another Character Reward(s):  ×1,  50