Trade Empire (BTD6): Difference between revisions

|description  =Generates more cash per round, increases cash earned by up to 20 other Merchantmen by the number of Merchantmen, and boosts all Merchantmen damage.

'''Trade Empire''' is the [[Monkey Buccaneer (BTD6)|Monkey Buccaneer]]'s path 3 tier 5 [[upgrade]] in ''[[Bloons TD 6]]''. It increases the cash generated by Monkey Buccaneer from $500 to $800 ($820 with {{BTD6 mk|Trade Agreements}}), and grants a Trade Empire buff to up to 20 other [[Merchantman (BTD6)|Merchantmen]] or [[Favored Trades (BTD6)|Favored Trades]]. This buff increases the cash generation of affected Monkey Buccaneers by an amount which scales based on the number of affected Monkey Buccaneers. The buff also grants +1 [[damage]], +1 [[Ceramic damage]], and +1 [[MOAB-Class damage]] to all attacks of affected towers.

Trade Empire grants the Monkey Buccaneer itself +1 [[damage]], +1 [[Ceramic damage]], and +1 [[MOAB-Class damage]] to all attacks. Additionally, [[Hot Shot (BTD6)|Hot Shot]] improves burn damage of its own grapes from 4 to 9.

 

Contrary to what the description states, Trade Empire does not boost the damage of all Merchantmen - only the 20 which are affected by its income buff receive the damage boost.

Trade Empire can grant its buff to up to 20 other Merchantmen or Favored Trades. If more than 20 of them exist, Trade Empire firstly prioritizes granting the buff to Favored Trades over Merchantmen. Secondarily, it prioritizes granting the buff to towers upgraded to Merchantman earlier.

{{cleanup|this section is too wordy for an upgrade strategy and could probably be rewritten to be more concise}}

Trade Empire cannot properly be compared to either of the other Tier 5 upgrades for Monkey Buccaneer, both of which are much more combat-focused. Trade Empire instead forms the capstone of the Merchantman economy web, and should never be acquired unless the player already has a fleet of Merchantmen and Favored Trade(r)s for it to buff. If the player does, however, it is extremely powerful.

 

As a unit on its own, Trade Empire differs barely at all from the Favored Trades that precedes it; its damage only goes up if pathed 0-2-5, and while its income-per-round of 800 is impressive, at a gain of only 300 per-round over Favored Trades at an upgrade cost of at least 23,000, it will basically never pay itself off. The potency of Trade Empire is in, well, its trade empire.

 

Trade Empire allows every Merchantman or Favored Trades n the field to make an additional 10 dollars per round for ''each other Merchantman'', and an additional 20 for each other Favored Trades (and Trade Empire itself). So:

* A Merchantman makes 200 a round on its own

* A Merchantman with Trade Empire out makes 210 a round (plus 800 for Trade Empire)

* Two Merchantmen with Trade Empire out make 220 a round each for a total of 440 (plus 800)

 

This continues up to the first 20 Merchantmen or Favored Trade(r)s that are out alongside Trade Empire; any further ones provide no more bonus and also don't gain the bonus, soft-capping the number of Merchantmen per map at 21. If all of them are out, however, this means that a full set of 20 Merchantmen goes from 4000 gold a round to 8800 a round with Trade Empire, and a full set of Favored Trade(r)s from 10,000 to a whopping 18,800.

 

This can be further boosted by the Central Marketplace, the 0-0-4 Banana Farm upgrade. Each Central Marketplace increases Merchantman (and upgrade) income by 10%, which stacks up to ten times for 100%. Including their own income, this optimal situation -- ten Central Marketplaces without other upgrades, twenty Favored Trades, and Trade Empire -- can pull in ''40,800 money per round.''

 

Monkey Banks can, in fact, produce comparable income, but even without Marketplaces involved, there is also another advantage to Trade Empire's generation method -- space and utility. Trade Empire's merchantmen can be placed on water, and have a much smaller footprint than a Banana Farm -- getting double-digit Merchantmen on any map with a decent amount of water is much easier than cramming equivalent numbers of Banana Farms in to the edges of most maps. Merchantmen are also totally hands-off, while Banana Plantations and some forms of Monkey Bank require player attention.

Finally, of course, there is the damage. Banana Farms only produce income, and contribute nothing directly to the actual game objective of stopping Bloons from getting through your defense. By contrast, Trade Empire's income comes attached to as many as twenty-one combat towers, all of which it gives an additional +1 damage to, along with an even further +1 against MOABs and Ceramic. If upgraded with Hot Shot, these are also towers that can hit every Bloon type, thanks to the camo-detecting Crow's Nest prerequisite. This represents a huge amount of combat power, and combat power that can be spread out across a map to cover a huge amount of track rather than concentrated on a single point to boot. The Carrier Flagship and the Pirate Lord are flashier towers that provide more individual damage, and Banana Farms offer more potent direct income, but Trade Empire's swarm of guns can be even more intimidating, and the defense that the income it generates enables will be grand indeed.