Strategy:Sniper Monkey (BTD6)

This article was last updated for: version 47.0

The Sniper Monkey is a tower that excels at dealing high damage. Its Path 1 upgrades focus on single-target damage, and excel against MOAB-Class Bloons. Its Path 2 upgrades deal solid grouped damage, while its Path 3 upgrades focus on high DPS.

General tips

• The Sniper Monkey has global range and can attack Bloons anywhere on the map. This means it shines on maps with little to no line of sight blockers, as well as maps with specific placements that benefit it (such as the stone platforms on Dark Path).

Base

The base (0-0-0) Sniper Monkey's high damage for a base tower allows for some normally difficult rounds like round 6 or 8 to become easier due to popping multiple layers. Thus, it can be utilized to start the early game well on many maps, even maps that are short. Snipers can also be utilized for cleanup, though this is dependent on the defense that surrounds it.

Multiple snipers are also damage efficient, and usually having 2-3 of them is common on harder maps like Geared or Muddy Puddles, and can later be upgraded to Full Metal Jacket for the Lead Bloons on round 28/30 or to Night Vision Goggles for early camos on round 24/33.

Its main drawback is its slow fire rate, making it unable to counter Bloon rushes like the end of round 10, at which point focusing on other defense for the early game is recommended. On some tough maps, it may also be necessary to change the targeting of the sniper, such as setting to Strong for bigger bloons and then First to take out solo bloons that slip by the early Dart Monkeys and Monkey Subs.

Upgrades

Path 1

• 1-x-x Full Metal Jacket is a cheap Lead popper for rounds 28 and 30.
• 3-x-x Deadly Precision is rather uneventful DPS but has niche use cases, such as in Race Events due to it's instant kills of ceramics cleaning up after most of the bloons have already been sent.
• 4-x-x Maim MOAB is a decent stalling tower, being able to hold MOAB-Class Bloons in place while slowly taking them out. Due to its cost it is mostly used in Impoppable and CHIMPS. Its not very effective against DDTs making it sub par compared to stronger stalling towers such as MOAB Glue or Bloon Sabotage. It is a great tower for stalling rounds in Least Cash Boss Events where rounds 120+ can be deadly for many defenses.
• 5-x-x Cripple MOAB debuffs all bloon types, including the BAD, allowing for towers with weaker damage to deal solid DPS. Not particularly relevant in standard games due to the high price point, unless the player opts to build around it. Against Bosses, it becomes almost a necessity for it's powerful debuff which allows all towers including Paragons to deal bonus damage.
• Top path Sniper Monkeys benefit from both crosspaths. x-2-0's shrapnel allows the stun and debuff effect to hit multiple blimps at once, which is incredibly useful when dealing with large amounts of BFBs in the mid-game and in the 90s. It also gives the Sniper camo detection which can be useful if villages are banned or unable to be placed near the tower.
• However, x-0-2 gives the Sniper Monkey more attack speed, which lets it keep blimps in place more effectively.

Path 2

• x-1-x Night Vision Goggles allows for cheap Camo popping on rounds 24/33.
• x-2-x Shrapnel Shot is a great upgrade against grouped Bloons, and is a great utility option in general. The direction the shrapnel goes is based on the angle of the bullet, so placing the Sniper Monkey near the back to angle it's shots against the grain of the track is ideal. Shrapnel has low effectiveness to where it cannot be lined up well, such as Workshop with it's completely straight path and line of sight blockers.
• x-3-x Bouncing Bullet is a strong mid-game option against densely packed rounds such as 55. Spamming Bouncing Bullets can be a viable strategy, and an Alchemist's Berserker Brew pairs extremely favorably with it.
• x-4-x Supply Drop's ability can be rather useful for money generation alongside it's defensive capabilities from the previous tier. It's ability to pop Lead Bloons with the main bullet is niche.
• x-5-x Elite Sniper is a useful mid-game tower. Its cheap cost allows it to buff many snipers in a Bouncing Bullet strategy, or increase the fire rate of the Maim and Cripple MOAB for more stun and debuff uptime.
• The middle path Sniper can benefit from both crosspaths depending on the availability of the Alchemist: Bouncing Bullets prefer 0-3-2 with a Berserker Brew, but can comfortably use Full Metal Jacket if not available. Elite Sniper has so much attack speed that Full Metal Jacket is almost always correct regardless of Berserker Brew buff.

Path 3

• 2-0-3 Semi-Automatic is overall a decent tower, dealing good single-target damage and cracking open Ceramics easily, but struggles to deal enough damage to the MOAB in time.
• 2-0-4 Full Auto Rifle is a great option for mid-game MOABs, alongside ceramics, and delivering supporting fire to BFBs and above.
• 2-0-5 Elite Defender is one of the cheapest Tier 5 towers, further improving its effectiveness at cracking open large targets, now including BFBs that it can safely handle, as well as doing immense single target damage for late game rounds like 97 and 100, though other tier 5s should be purchased to cover it's grouped popping power weakness.
• All paths when crosspathed with Shrapnel Shot transform their purpose to a pierce/cleanup tower with global range. It's high rate of fire allows it to take out many groups of Bloons (though at the cost of it's single target prowess), especially when paired with a Berserker Brew buff to improve it's damage. Elite Defender often attacks so fast that Permanent Brew can be considered to keep the uptime on the damage buffs.