Strategy:Wizard Monkey (Battles 2)

This article was last updated for: version 4.5

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The Wizard Monkey has many strong upgrades that make it very versatile and good on a lot of maps. While not the best at what it does, it still offers a lot of utility in a loadout that cannot be matched with other towers. As such, it can be paired with many towers and still work effectively, even in farm strategies where a tower is sacrificed for money generation.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• Flexible starting tower
• Decamo option
• Has many upgrades to deal with anything below ZOMGs
• Arcane Spike and its tier 5s provide incredible BAD damage

Weaknesses

• Almost a complete lack of Purple popping power leaves it reliant on Necromancer or other towers to deal with them.
• No tools to deal with ZOMGs efficiently, relying on other towers or the hero Ezili to deal with them.
• Considered a "noob trap", where many inexperienced players use the tower badly and get punished for it.

Upgrades

Path 1

• 2-0-1 Arcane Blast supports a Fireball wizard in dealing with spaced yellows until one can afford Mastery.
• 3-0-1 Arcane Mastery defends everything up to round 8, allowing one to greed as much as they are willing.
• 4-0-2 Arcane Spike is its strongest tier 4, allowing players to spam it once they run out of tier 5s to place for big BAD damage.
• 5-2-0 Archmage is a strong grouped DDT counter, decamoing and melting them all.

Path 2

• 0-1-0 Fireball starts the game strong, dealing with everything up to spaced Yellows.
• 0-2-0 Wall of Fire on an intersection can defend up to round 8, much cheaper than Arcane Mastery. However, it is reliant on being placed in intersections.
• 0-3-1 Dragon's Breath delivers good MOAB popping power in the midgame.
• 0-4-2 Summon Phoenix defends early tight rushes and BFBs well with it's Phoenix ability.
• 0-5-2 Wizard Lord Phoenix is a late game powerhouse that defends all tight rushes.

Path 3

• 1-0-3 Shimmer decamos everything with decent reliability, and transitions into the next upgrade well.
• 0-2-4 Necromancer is the only way to pop Purple Bloons with the Wizard, and is required alongside supporting fire to defend round 11.
• x-x-5 Prince of Darkness consumes too much graveyard to be worthwhile.

Starting with the Wizard Monkey

Different maps require different strategies depending on if there is an intersection. For the purposes of this guide, "Intersection maps" include: Sands of Time, Star, Oasis, Banana Depot, Sun Palace, Up On The Roof and Time's Up. "Longer non-intersection maps" include: Dino Graveyard, Garden, Castle Ruins, Cobra Command, Off-Tide, Pirate Cove, Precious Space, Salmon Ladder and Bloonstone Quarry. "Shorter non-intersection maps" include: Glade, Basalt Columns, Koru, Ports, Inflection and Building Site. The maps Mayan, Docks, Bloontonium Mines, In The Wall, Thin Ice and Island base aren't in any category due to not being found in Hall of Masters. Bloon Bot Factory is also excluded due to the map's gimmick making the Wizard Monkey nearly obsolete, aside from the Summon Phoenix and WLP Phoenixes staying above when the wizard drops.

If the map has an intersection, A Wall of Fire start can be used.

1. Buy a 010 Wizard with your hero.
2. Upgrade the 010 into a 020 on round 3.
3. Get your secondary popping tower by round 8.
4. Upgrade to a necromancer or have a secondary popping tower that can deal with r11-12 due to the highly dangerous grouped purple rush.

Once you have a necromancer and a strong secondary tower, you should be fine until BFBs are able to be sent. Against an unfortified BFB, you should use a Sacrificial Totem and your secondary tower+necromancer should be enough to deal with the BFB. For the map Time's Up, You should also purchase a 031 wizard against them due to the short length. You can buy arcane spike against bfbs for permanent defense although it can be quite pricy for this point of the game. If the BFB is fortified, you can afford to purchase more expensive wizards like a Summon Phoenix for a temporary solution or an Arcane Spike for permanent defense. For ZOMGs, Wizards typically cannot handle this cheaply, so the secondary popping tower can help here, or alternatively wait or buy level 10 to use Ezili's Hex ability. In scenarios in which this isn't available and where your secondary tower doesn't have strong ZOMG popping power, an Archmage or Prince of Darkness can suffice.

If the map is long but does not have an intersection, instead of starting with a Wall of Fire you build into Arcane Mastery.

1. Buy a 010 Wizard with your hero.
2. Place a secondary wizard on round 2. This will be the 301 Arcane Mastery later. It's not recommended to rush this upgrade and sacrifice your eco from bloon sends.
3. Sell your Fireball wizard to buy Arcane Mastery on rounds 4-5.
4. Get your secondary popping tower by round 8.
5. Place a new wizard to upgrade to necromancer by round 10, or upgrade your secondary popping tower to deal with the round 11-12 rushes.

From there, since you already have an Arcane Mastery on the field, Arcane Spike can be used to defend BFBs and above for slightly cheaper, and can last you until ZOMGs.

If the map is short but does not have an intersection, you will need to be fast when purchasing the Arcane Mastery.

1. Buy a 010 Wizard with your hero.
2. Place a secondary wizard on round 2.
3. Sell your Fireball wizard to quickly buy Arcane Mastery on rounds 3-4 to avoid leaks.
4. Get your secondary popping tower by round 8.
5. Place a new wizard to upgrade to Necromancer by round 10, or upgrade your secondary popping tower to deal with the round 11-12 rushes.

On some of these maps, a Necromancer may not be the best option and other round 11 options are preferred over it. These shorter maps have much more emphasis on buying Arcane Spike due to their sheer difficulty. You can use same tips discussed in the other starts, but it's recommended to try and over-defend certain rushes to avoid dying early.