Difficulty

Difficulty is a mechanic in the Bloons TD series that allows the player to adjust the gameplay to be easier or more difficult. In the numbered games, it affects properties such as starting lives, the cost of towers and upgrades, the number of rounds required to win the game, and the speed of the Bloons. It behaves differently in Bloons Monkey City and Bloons Adventure Time TD.

The difficulty mechanic debuted in Bloons Tower Defense 2, though it was originally specific to each map. Starting in Bloons Tower Defense 3, difficulty is chosen separately from maps, and starting in Bloons TD 4, maps have a separate map difficulty system.

Mechanics

Bloons Tower Defense 2

In Bloons Tower Defense 2, difficulty levels are specific to each map, unlike in later games, where map difficulty is a separate system. Besides the map, difficulty only determines the cost of towers and upgrades (but not their sell value) and the player's starting lives.

Map	Cost modifier	Starting lives	Medal
Easy	×0.9	100	Bronze
Medium	×1.02	75	Silver
Hard	×1.04	50	Gold

Bloons Tower Defense 3

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In Bloons Tower Defense 3 and its ports, difficulty affects starting lives, the cost of towers and upgrades (but not their sell value), the speed of Bloons, and freeplay round generation (by adding a flat amount to the random difficulty value of each round). It increases the speed of Bloons by a flat amount of distance units per second, which is more significant on slower Bloons than faster Bloons, and applies after freeplay speed boosts.

Mode	Starting lives	Cost modifier	Bloon speed	Freeplay difficulty	Medal
Easy	100	×0.85	±0	±0	Bronze
Medium	75	×1.02	+0.1	+3	Silver
Hard	50	×1.08	+0.25	+7	Gold

Bloons TD 4

In Bloons TD 4, difficulty affects starting lives, the cost of towers and upgrades (including sell value), the speed of Bloons (by a flat amount), and the number of rounds required to earn the medal.

Mode	Starting lives	Cost modifier	Bloon speed	Rounds	Medal
Easy	200	×0.85	±0	1–50	Bronze
Medium	150	×1.0	+0.1	1–60	Silver
Hard	100	×1.08	+0.25	1–75	Gold

Bloons TD 5

In Bloons TD 5, difficulty affects starting lives, the cost of towers and upgrades, the speed of Bloons (by a flat amount), and the number of rounds. Impoppable difficulty is exclusive to the mobile version and console version.

Mode	Starting lives	Cost modifier	Bloon speed	Rounds	Other modifiers	Medal
Easy	200	×0.85	±0	1–50	—	Bronze
Medium	150	×1.0	+3.5	1–65	—	Silver
Hard	100	×1.08	+8.75	1–85	—	Gold
Impoppable	1	×1.2	+17.5	1–85	The player cannot gain more lives by any means Round 85 has four more ZOMGs Ceramic Bloons have 50% more health MOAB-Class Bloons have double health (unless Big Bloon Sabotage is enabled in the Monkey Lab)	Impoppable

Bloons Monkey City

Main article: Difficulty (BMC)

In Bloons Monkey City, difficulty is a hidden property of a match that affects the round generation and number of rounds. Tiles, Special Missions, Monkey v Monkey attacks, track replays, Contested Territory, and Boss Battles all calculate difficulty differently from each other. The difficulty of a match is displayed to the player as "Trivial", "Easy", "Medium", "Hard", "Very Hard", or "Impoppable", depending on the difficulty value relative to their City Level.

Bloons TD 6

In Bloons TD 6, difficulty affects starting lives, the cost of towers and upgrades, the speed of Bloons, and the number of rounds. It increases the speed of Bloons by a percentage, rather than a flat amount. In normal gameplay, each difficulty level has its own sub-modes that use the same difficulty level, but any difficulty level can be combined with any game mode in other ways to play, such as the Challenge Editor. Standard mode and Sandbox mode can be played on any difficulty. Unlike in Bloons TD 5, Impoppable is treated as a separate mode that can combine with any difficulty level, though it overrides all properties of the difficulty except the speed of Bloons and the health of the round 40 MOAB.

Mode	Starting lives	Cost modifier	Bloon speed	Rounds	Other modifiers	Modes	Medal
Easy	200	×0.85	×1.0	1–40	The MOAB on round 40 has 33% less health	Primary Only, Deflation	Bronze
Medium	150	×1.0	×1.1	1–60	—	Military Only, Apopalypse, Reverse	Silver
Hard	100	×1.08	×1.25	3–80	—	Magic Monkeys Only, Double HP MOABs, Half Cash, Alternate Bloons Rounds, Impoppable, CHIMPS	Gold

Bloons Adventure Time TD

Main article: Difficulty (BATTD)

In Bloons Adventure Time TD, difficulty affects starting lives, the health of MOAB-Class Bloons, and the number of rounds. Most maps have one set of difficulty modifiers for each of the four difficulty levels that change the properties of Bloons, though most maps have no difficulty modifiers for Normal difficulty. Some difficulty modifiers change their behavior depending on the map or difficulty (for example, Ghost MOAB-Class Bloons only appear on Promcoming maps).

Mode	Starting lives	Rounds	MOAB-Class health	DDT health	Medal
Normal	200	1–30	N/A	N/A	Bronze
Hard	150	1–45	×1.1	N/A	Silver
Extreme	100	1–60	×1.5	N/A	Gold
Impoppable	1	1–75	×2.0	×1.5	Impoppable