User:Bastion Horde/Sandbox

Now testing for Ninja Monkeys.

General

Ninjas are noted for their ability to bypass bloon immunities and hold out against most of the early game by themselves. However, they suffer late-game due to their low damage rate on their own and weakness to large numbers of blimps, mostly acting as support popping power when that time comes. With Ninja-focused defenses, buffs and cleanup are needed to support them late-game.

Base

The base tower has average pierce but good range and attack speed. It is twice as expensive as a Dart Monkey, but its attack speed makes it an excellent lone starting tower on easier maps, and can reliably start advanced maps with a Dart Monkey for support.

Path 1

Path 1 is DPS-focused, although it needs external buffs, such as from Alchemists, to be effective in the late-game. Path 3 is generally preferred, as the Seeking Shurikens maximize the Ninja’s attacks, whilst Caltrops provide extra damage. Path 2 is better left to the Shinobi Ninjas that are necessary for this path to be effective.

Ninja Discipline is a valuable crosspath and essential early-game upgrade, as the Ninja has very little other attack speed upgrades. Sharp Shurikens makes the shuriken attack much more effective, and is necessary to maximize the potential of Seeking Shuriken.

Double Shot acts as better cleanup, particularly when paired with Seeking Shuriken. Its cheap price makes spamming 3-0-1 Ninjas highly effective, particularly if paired with Acidic Mixture Dip Alchemists to let them handle the Leads and deal extra blimp damage.

Bloonjitsu provides much more cleanup and DPS, and its relatively slow fire rate and high projectile count make it a perfect match with Berserker Brew and above, getting even more effective with Deadly Tranquility. Their low price also allows them to be spammed, although external buffs, such as Alchemist buffs and Shinobi Tactics, are necessary to make this upgrade worthwhile. Without buffs, its popping power is pretty lackluster.

The Grandmaster Ninja buffs just about every aspect of the Ninja, but still heavily relies on Shinobi buffs to reach its true potential. As it attacks too fast for Berserker Brew to be effective anymore, Permanent Brew is recommended to buff it. 20 Shinobis allows the tower to become a DPS champion, and with enough buffs and bloon debuffs, it can outperform a Sun Temple.

Path 2

Path 2 focuses on support and stalling. Because Shinobi Tactics are usually spammed to support Path 1 Ninjas, Path 3 is usually the better crosspath, as they can pile up massive amounts of Caltrops for extra damage, although the lag this may cause should be taken into account.

Distraction is a useful upgrade for early game on short maps, as it gives the Ninja much more time to deal with oncoming threats, especially when using Diversion Tactics. Counter-Espionage can decamo bloons to allow powerful towers without Camo detection, such as Druids and Boomerang Monkeys, to damage them. When paired with Flash Bomb, it can decamo large groups and even DDTs, making the aforementioned towers able to eliminate these bloons more easily.

Shinobi Tactics is absolutely essential for making Path 1 Ninjas useful late-game, and it is best to get at least ten as quickly as possible after Grandmaster Ninja is purchased. If possible, get twenty for the maximum buff effect. Spamming them also provides great blowback and decamo due to sheer numbers.

Bloon Sabotage provides more stalling from its ability. Despite its weakness to long rounds, multiple Sabotage Ninjas, usually having been upgraded from spammed Shinobis, can easily keep 100% Sabotage uptime with good ability timing. It is ideal to have multiple of the spammed Shinobis upgraded to Sabotage if the funds are available; just don’t buy more than 4 or 5, as any more will just be a waste of cash.

Grand Saboteur is best used on hyperdense rounds with many blimps to maximize its damage ability. Spamming Shinobis is again ideal due to the buff to them, and it works well with towers that can maximize damage against the slowed bloons, such as Sauda, The Blazing Sun, and The Bloon Solver. Because of its nature as a burst slowdown, burst damage towers like Turbo Charge and Plasma Monkey Fan Club synergize well with it, too.

Path 3

Path 3 is group damage-focused, with later upgrades providing high MOAB-class damage as well. It’s not nearly as reliant on Shinobis or other buffs as Path 1, but Shinobis still significantly improve its attacks. Path 1 is preferred for high-tier Ninjas of this path, as the high attack speed outdoes the decamo, but it’s a good idea to have at least one 0-2-3 Ninja to decamo DDTs.

Seeking Shuriken allows the shuriken to do better group damage, particularly on maps with many curves and loops, and especially when paired with Sharp Shurikens. Another useful niche is that the shuriken may seek out and pop a bloon that has left the ninja’s range.

Caltrops provides additional DPS and cleanup, and is beneficial as a crosspath for either of the other paths, because it benefits from Path 1’s much-needed external buffs,