Strategy:Phayze

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Phayze is an elusive boss that counters compact defenses and forces the player to spread towers across the map thanks to is Warp and Slow aura abilities allowing it to travel large sections of the track unimpeded upon reaching the Skull and taking less and less damage overall by increasing the cooldown of the player's towers. Also the boss has the Camo property, which forces many towers to take less efficient single target crosspaths (ex. Elite Defender) to get the camo detection or just accept they will only be able to attack half of the time thanks to the Radar Jam ability.

A lot of the difficulty of Phayze comes from the map, being extremely easy in tracks that makes it pass over the same point many times (ex. Monkey Meadow, Four Circles) making compact and spam strategies extremely powerful as Phayze is slower than Bloonarius, making the Wrap less impactful as it will end over the towers again. However in more difficult tracks (ex. Off The Coast, Another Brick) where towers are most likely going to have only one chance to damage Phayze, the boss becomes very difficult as it will keep warping forward ahead of the defenses which will be unable to fight, not even against regular spawns. This makes towers with global range almost a necessity.

This strategy page only covers dealing with Phayze itself and not the farming required to afford the defenses; for such guide, consult Strategy:Boss Bloon Event. The tower selection also assumes all challenge modifiers are at standard values.

Normal Phayze

Phayze

Tier 1

In general defenses against Phayze must have inherent camo detection and global range as Phayze can easily skip half of the track during warps.

• 0-2-5 Crossbow Master if Phayze can stay long enough in its range.
• 0-5-0 MOAB Eliminator or 4× MOAB Assassin with additional camo support (ex. 0-2-0 Radar Scanner).
• 0-2-5 Elite Defender or 2× 0-2-4 Full Auto Rifle.
• 2× 0-4-0 First Strike Capability.
• 2-0-5 Sub Commander or 2× 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Darts. Make sure the towers that are giving vision to the subs can see camo natively like a 0-0-2 Dart Monkey / Monkey Buccaneer.
• 4-0-2 Aircraft Carrier.
• 2× 4-2-0 Operation: Dart Storm.
• 0-2-4 Spectre.
• 4-2-0 Plasma Accelerator.
• 0-2-4 Bloon Area Denial System.
• 2× 4-0-2 Arcane Spike o 2× 0-4-2 Wizard Lord Phoenix place them to cover as much of the track as possible.
• 2-0-3 Dark Knight, use Darkshift to chase Phayze around.
• 4-0-2 Bloonjitsu with some 0-3-2 Shinobi Tactics if Phayze can stay long enough in their range.
• 2× to 3× 1-0-4 Sticky Bomb to cover most of the track.
• 2× 1-4-0 Spike Storm.

Tier 2

Tier 2 doesn't change much, the majority are upgrades of the Tier 1 options or some new towers that can be afforded at this point.

• 0-5-0 MOAB Eliminator with additional camo support (ex. 0-2-0 Radar Scanner). Be careful with the ability and make sure it is only used while Radar Jam is off, otherwise the shot can be wasted on a MOAB.
• 2× 0-4-0 First Strike Capability.
• 2-0-5 Sub Commander + 2× 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Darts.
• 5-0-2 Carrier Flagship on longer maps, otherwise combine it with 2× 4-0-2 Aircraft Carrier.
• 5-2-0 Sky Shredder.
• 2-0-5 Blooncineration.
• 3× 4-2-0 Plasma Accelerator.
• 1-5-0 M.A.D.
• 2-0-4 Dark Champion.
• 5-0-2 Grandmaster Ninja with some 0-3-2 Shinobi Tactics if Phayze can stay long enough in their range.
• 1-0-5 Master Bomber.
• 1-5-0 Carpet of Spikes.

Tier 3

Any strategy should use buff towers (Permanent Brew, Call to Arms / Homeland Defense, Jungle Drums) and debuffs for the boss (5-2-0 Cripple MOAB, Super Brittle and Glue Storm) at this point, specially on spam strategies, which also benefit from a 4-X-X Sun Temple with only Support sacrifices.

• 5× 0-4-0 First Strike Capability. Use Energizer in shorter maps or two groups of 5 subs.
• 2-0-5 Sub Commander + 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Darts or 5-0-2 Carrier Flagship + 3-0-2 Destroyer spam, specially when paired with Admiral Brickell.
• Grandmaster Ninja + Bloonjitsu + Shinobi Tactics spam or 3-0-2 Sun Avatar spam if Phayze can stay long enough in their range.
• 1-4-0 Carpet of Spikes spam.
• 1-5-0 M.A.D.
• 2-0-5 Legend of the Night.

Any Paragon has the damage needed to clear this Tier, however only Apex Plasma Master, Crucible of Steel and Flame and Glaive Dominus are typically affordable at this point. Dart and Boomerang Paragon should be able to defeat Phayze before it gets out of range, even at Degree 1 except in really bad map situations. Tack Paragon should not be used due lack of camo detection but if there is no other option, it should be paired with towers that can remove the camo property from Phayze.

Tier 4

If a Primary Paragon was used for Tier 3, it should be sold for farming setup in order to afford another better suited to fight Phayze. Nautic Siege Core, Ascended Shadow or Navarch of the Seas are the most common defenses for this stage and can defeat Tier 4 and 5 Phayze by their own in almost any situation at Degree 20+ using their global range attacks. Other options for this tier include a combination of the Tier 3 towers.

Tier 5

A second Paragon is recommended but not needed if the one for Tier 4 is strong enough. Apex Plasma Master, Crucible of Steel and Flame and Glaive Dominus can be used at Degree 40+ to cover more track, but Tack Paragon should be paired with Ascended Shadow for camo detection (it is unaffected by Phayze's Radar Jam). Magus Perfectus, Master Builder (if allowed to self utlraboost for a few rounds) and Goliath Doomship can defeat Phayze at Degree 1 with good micro for the former two.

Elite Phayze

Elite Phayze

Boss Rush

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Tips and recommendations

• In general is better to use a crosspath with inherent camo detection (ex. 0-2-5 Elite Defender over 2-0-5) rather than granting it from other tower, as in the later case, the tower will only be able to attack Phayze half of the time.
• Ascended Shadow can grant camo detection to Crucible of Steel and Flame that can't be disrupted by Phayze. This might not be enough to make the Tack Paragon viable against Phayze as it still suffers from range problems just like other compact / spam defense solutions.
• Spam strategies such as Shinobi Tactics or Sun Avatar spam should only be used if the map forces Phayze to pass over the towers several times, otherwise it will just warp after triggering the skull making the defense useless against the boss and even regular spawns. Other spam or compact defenses like Overdrive or Avatar of Wrath, while still useful, there are outclassed by the options mentioned earlier and even weaker than Plasma Accelerator and Spike Storm spam due having only 50% uptime against the boss.
• Reglular spawns will be advancing into the track as the fight against Phayze progresses, so is important to have defenses in the back to handle them. For Tier 1,towers like 0-3-2 Dragon's Breath, 3-0-2 Destroyer or 4-0-2 M.O.A.R Glaives can be used with another tower that cover their weakness (Purples, Lead, Camo, respectively). Camo detection is necessary due Radar Jam granting Camo property to the Bloons Phaze pulls and in the case the defensive tower doesn't have detection, it should be given in the form of stripping camo from Bloons (ex. Submerge and Support, Shimmer) rather than granting it (ex. Etienne, Radar Scanner) as the later can be disrupted by Phayze leaving the player defenseless against the Camo Bloons . In later tiers, the pierce of the main attackers or using dedicated towers such as Perma-Spike can be enough to handle regular spawns, but if Phayze's last skull are triggered too late, there is a risk of leaking as the defense will have too little time to defeat the regular spawns, making Fortified ZOMGs and DDTs extremely dangerous especially for Elite Phayze due the Slow Aura ability.
  • Dangerous rounds presenting Fortified ZOMGs are 129, 131, 132, 133 and 135, and Fortified DDTs will appear in 128, 130, 135 and 138. So additional defenses or clever ability timing might be needed from such positions.
• Phayze should not be stalled for long as if the player starts defending it when is very ahead in the track, they risk Phayze reaching the exit during a Warp.

Gallery

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