Blooncyclopedia:Strategy guidelines

Blooncyclopedia incorporates community-created strategies into its articles. There are two ways these are used: strategy articles, which go in the Strategy: namespace and are used for major gameplay elements, and strategy sections, which are either strategies for minor gameplay elements or short summaries of strategy articles that link to them with the {{main strategy}} template.

Strategy articles/sections don't need to adhere to the writing guidelines as strictly and can be more flippant and casual (e.g., referring to the reader in the second person), but they should still use correct spelling and grammar and avoid being flowery or pedantic. Like main articles, strategy sections should always be up-to-date with the latest releases; outdated strategies should be marked as such and ideally be replaced as soon as possible, or removed if the strategy is no longer viable for some reason.

General guidelines

• Strategies should mainly recommend when and how to use gameplay elements and compare elements with similar roles. You should only outright state that something should not be used in situations where it's practically unusable (e.g. Trade Empire in CHIMPS) or is genuinely so terrible that it has no practical purpose in any situation whatsoever (e.g. Viral Frost in Bloons TD 5). In the latter case, being blunt is preferred; "Viral Frost does absolutely nothing to improve on Arctic Wind in any way" and "Trade Empire in CHIMPS is the equivalent of two tier 2 Buccaneers for $34,000" get the point across much better than "Viral Frost is generally considered an unnecessary upgrade to Arctic Wind because it is not much more effective at slowing Bloons" and "Trade Empire is not worth purchasing in CHIMPS because it does not generate cash and the damage and attack speed bonuses are not worth the cost".
• Strategy sections shouldn't be used to explain game mechanics. You can mention mechanics or interactions for context (e.g. "because of interaction X, you should do Y"), but specifics should be saved for the lede or a "mechanics" section, not a strategy article/section.
• Strategies shouldn't involve features that are only accessible through additional purchases. "Buying Double Cash Mode makes Half Cash easier" isn't helpful advice.
• For maps, modes, or levels, strategies should:
  • Be based on the highest difficulty level applicable. For example, there's no reason to have separate strategies for Easy, Medium, and Hard when any strategy that works on Impoppable also works on those by extension.
  • Generally not involve expendable items unless the subject is way too difficult or impractical to beat without them, and shouldn't involve expendable items that can't easily be obtained en masse. You can recommend consumable items as a way of making things easier (e.g. "If you're struggling, use a Cash Drop to buy your Hero on the first round"), but they shouldn't be the crux of the strategy unless absolutely necessary. "Spamming high tier Insta Monkeys makes Half Cash easier" isn't helpful advice.

Strategy articles

Strategy articles should focus primarily on how to use the subject in general (or how not to use the subject in general). Every facet of the subject should at least be given some usage tips on a strategy article, though those usage tips can be in the vein of "don't use this ever" or "this mechanic is useless in 95% of cases" if necessary (see #General guidelines).

In many cases, there are ways to optimise the subject for specific scenarios; these scenarios are worth mentioning on the subject's strategy article, but the details are usually better saved for articles about those scenarios where they're more relevant. In the case of Bloons TD, usually if someone is struggling to beat a specific map/mode, or they want to get better at a specific event, they're going to that map/mode/event's page, not the page for a specific tower, so it's better to structure articles around that. For example, it's worth mentioning that Ice Shards is exceptional in Races, but the details of how to use it in Races should be saved for Race mode's strategy article, since that's where people go to find information about how to optimise Races.

Details about synergies between different gameplay elements should be saved for articles about synergies (e.g. Strategy:Bloons TD 6/Synergies, Strategy:Bloons TD Battles 2/Loadouts, and Strategy:Bloons Card Storm/Decks).

Minor strategy sections

If a subject has its own strategy article, then the subject's main page should contain a strategy section that links to it with {{main strategy}} and a few bullet points of generally important tips (just so the section isn't empty). Details should be saved for the strategy article.