Flying Fortress (BTD6)

For the upgrade in Bloons TD Battles 2, see Flying Fortress (Battles 2).

Flying Fortress

This is a BIG plane.

Tower	Monkey Ace — Path 3 — Tier 5
XP cost	45,000
Cash cost	$76,500 — Easy $90,000 — Medium $97,200 — Hard $108,000 — Impoppable With Aeronautic Subsidy: $68,850 — Easy $81,000 — Medium $87,480 — Hard $97,200 — Impoppable

← Spectre

Goliath Doomship →

Flying Fortress is the Monkey Ace's path 3 tier 5 upgrade in Bloons TD 6. The Monkey Ace's Spectre attack now shoots 3 projectiles per shot from its attack instead of only 1. One of these projectiles targets First, one targets Last, and one targets Close (relative to the Monkey Ace, not its runway). This upgrade reduces the attack cooldown of the Spectre attack by 33.33%, increasing its attack speed by ~50%.

The darts from the Spectre barrage now deal +14 MOAB-Class damage, the barrage's bombs are improved (damage from 3 to 5, while keeping +4 Ceramic damage, and pierce from 20 to 30), and increases the damage of Monkey Ace's main homing darts from 3 to 6. All attacks now gain the Normal damage type.

Stats

For a complete list of Monkey Ace stats, see Stats:Monkey Ace (BTD6).

This data was last updated for: version 55.1

Tower
Display range 22 units Movement speed 60 units/s Targeting options Circle Figure Infinite Figure Eight Centered Path

Front attack
Cooldown 0.04s Offset (X, Y, Z) 15, 5.5, -3.6 Targeting First Targeting range 600 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Ignores blockers
Bomb Pierce 1 Max pierce 1 Speed 300 units/s Seeking distance ∞ units Seeking angle 45° Seeking rotation speed 45 °/s Lifespan 2s Radius 3 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Explosion Pierce 30 Damage 5 Damage to Ceramic +4 Damage type Normal Lifespan 0.05s Radius 20 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers Dart Pierce 4 Damage 6 Damage to MOAB-Class +14 Damage type Normal Speed 400 units/s Seeking distance ∞ units Seeking angle 30° Seeking rotation speed ∞ °/s Lifespan 1.125s Radius 2 units Filters Cannot hit Camo

Side attacks
Copies of this attack 2 Cooldown 0.04s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, -16.7, 2.19 (1) -15, 5.5, -3.6 (2) Targeting Close (1) Last (2) Targeting range 600 units Filters Cannot target Camo
Ignores blockers
Bomb Pierce 1 Max pierce 1 Speed 300 units/s Seeking distance ∞ units Seeking angle 45° Seeking rotation speed 45 °/s Lifespan 2s Radius 3 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Explosion Pierce 30 Damage 5 Damage to Ceramic +4 Damage type Normal Lifespan 0.05s Radius 20 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers Dart Pierce 4 Damage 6 Damage to MOAB-Class +14 Damage type Normal Speed 400 units/s Seeking distance ∞ units Seeking angle 30° Seeking rotation speed ∞ °/s Lifespan 1.5s Radius 2 units Filters Cannot hit Camo

Attack
Cooldown 1.68s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, -16.7, 2.19 Targeting range 22 units
Ignores blockers Can fire without a target
Main projectile Count 8 Angle 360° Pierce 8 Damage 6 Damage type Normal Speed 180 units/s Max speed 350 units/s Acceleration 50 units/s2 Lifespan 5s Lifespan while seeking 1s Radius 3 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers

1-0-5

Front attack
Cooldown 0.04s → 0.03s Offset (X, Y, Z) 15, 5.5, -3.6 ↓ 0, -16.7, 2.19

Side attacks
Cooldown 0.04s → 0.03s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, -16.7, 2.19 (1) -15, 5.5, -3.6 (2) ↓ 15, 5.5, -3.6 (1) -15, 5.5, -3.6 (2)

Attack
Cooldown 1.68s → 1.26s

2-0-5

Attack
Main projectile Count 8 → 12

0-1-5

Front attack
Offset (X, Y, Z) 15, 5.5, -3.6 ↓ 0, -16.7, 2.19
Explosion Pierce 30 → 45 Radius 20 units → 23 units

Side attacks
Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, -16.7, 2.19 (1) -15, 5.5, -3.6 (2) ↓ 15, 5.5, -3.6 (1) -15, 5.5, -3.6 (2)
Explosion Pierce 30 → 45 Radius 20 units → 23 units

Bomb attack
Cooldown 1.6s Offset (X, Y, Z) 0, -16.7, 2.19 Targeting range ∞ units
Can fire without a target
Explosion Pierce 32 Damage 1 Damage type Explosion Lifespan 0.05s Radius 35 units Filters Cannot hit Camo Ignores blockers

0-2-5

Front attack
Filters Can now target Camo
Bomb Filters Can now hit Camo Explosion Damage to Camo +5 Filters Can now hit Camo Dart Damage to Camo +8 Filters Can now hit Camo

Side attacks
Filters Can now target Camo
Bomb Filters Can now hit Camo Explosion Damage to Camo +5 Filters Can now hit Camo Dart Damage to Camo +4 Filters Can now hit Camo

Bomb attack
Explosion Damage to Camo +1 Filters Can now hit Camo

Attack
Filters Can now target Camo
Main projectile Damage to Camo +6 Filters Can now hit Camo

Costs and sell values

Note: this list does not factor in Monkey Knowledge or other discounts.

Tiers	Total cost				Sell value
	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable	Easy	Medium	Hard	Impoppable
0-0-5	$100,125	$117,800	$127,225	$141,360	$70,088	$82,460	$89,058	$98,952
1-0-5	$100,505	$118,250	$127,710	$141,900	$70,354	$82,775	$89,397	$99,330
2-0-5	$100,970	$118,800	$128,305	$142,560	$70,679	$83,160	$89,814	$99,792
0-1-5	$100,295	$118,000	$127,440	$141,600	$70,207	$82,600	$89,208	$99,120
0-2-5	$100,590	$118,350	$127,820	$142,020	$70,413	$82,845	$89,474	$99,414

Strategy

This article or section is outdated and needs to be updated to reflect recent updates or newly available information. You can help out by editing this article. The editor who added this notice elaborates: FF CHIMPS nerf in v55.0 may affect the Rosa FF carry. More specifically, is it still viable?

This section was last updated for: version 49.3

Flying Fortress excels at high rapid-fire damage regardless of line of sight. It stands out on Boss Bloon Events for two reasons: it's super effective DPS when superbuffed, and carries most of the pop requirements for Goliath Doomship.

In CHIMPS, the Flying Fortress can carry the rest of the standard rounds if this upgrade is afforded soon enough, particularly when paired with Rosalia's Ace discounts. With some micromanagement of Rosalia and the Spectre during the 80's, Flying Fortress can be afforded by the late-80's, which trivializes the rest of the game. Doing this is quite easy on maps with a single or alternating lane, but on maps with multiple simultaneous Spectre struggles and may still lose to some fast late game rounds such as 99 after affording it.

Like Spectre, Flying Fortress prefers top crosspaths for maximized DPS, except versus Phayze, which demands internal camo detection.

Update history

This article is in need of research. You can help out by editing this article or discussing your findings on the talk page. The editor who added this notice elaborates: Verify if v51.0 dart rework also affected the neva-miss dart damage from 6 to 8 (v55.0 says the side dart damage also is decreased)

For a complete list of Monkey Ace changes, see Update history:Monkey Ace (BTD6).

This article or section uses Cargo to generate its content. It will automatically fill up as other articles are completed. To add to this section, create the articles it is looking up. Do not add content to this section manually and do not remove this notice until you are sure this section is complete.

Version 6.0

•  Attack cooldown reduced by 20% ― 0.05s → 0.04s

Version 8.0

•  Overall cost increased by $6,000 (due to cost changes for previous tiers)
•  Dart attack: Damage increased ― 2 → 4
•  Bomb attack: Damage increased ― 3 → 5

Version 22.0

“

While Pineapples are never the star of the show, the amount of pierce they have is completely unnecessary for their usage window and has only led to balance problems for Bombing Run, specifically in races. This high amount of pierce has been more evenly spread through higher tiers & crosspath. Flying Fortress has also been reduced in price because, while achievable, it doesn't match well with freeplay progress.
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost reduced ― $120,000 → $105,000

0-1-5, 0-2-5

•  Pineapple/bomb explosions now gain +12 pierce from Sharper Darts

Version 23.0

“

In addition to this we are experimenting with adding a small amount of homing to the spectre upgrade as rapid fire missing is not the intended design.
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost reduced ― $105,000 → $100,000
•  Now has a slight seeking effect on dart projectiles

0-1-5, 0-2-5

•  Exploding Pineapple: attack cooldown reduced ― 3s → 2s

Version 27.0

“

Now allows you to find your center. Very zen.
— Update notes

”

•  Centered Path mode: Now allows the player to change the center point of the path

Version 30.0

“

While Flying Fortress has started to see use in Boss events this feels like more of a cash dump than actual value in the tower. As Spectre value already drops off the later any game gets, the saveup into a ‘better version’ also drops off in value, and so the price should reflect that better.
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost reduced ― $100,000 → $85,000
•  Reverse flight pattern added

Version 33.0

“

To help you work towards the new Ace Paragon we have reduced Spectre’s lategame ceramic weakness with improved targeting for the bomb projectiles & a large increase to their bonus Ceramic damage to help out later on, to change focus on these projectiles we have also shifted damage around for the darts to deal single target with the bombs providing ceramic AoE cleanup. Flying Fortress’s value drops off by the lategame when you can realistically afford it, so following on with this dart single target focus change at T4 we have added a large MOAB damage bonus to Flying Fortress darts.
— Update notes

”

•  Dart: now deals +10 damage to MOAB-Class
•  Darts & bombs now both have a weaker homing effect

Version 34.0

“

Same as mentioned above for the flagship, we are experimenting with new homing changes for the Spectre & Flying Fortress to improve their feeling.
— Update notes

”

•  Spectre new homing style

Version 35.0

•  Resolved an issue where reversing flight path before purchasing Centered Path would prevent the centered path target from flying in the correct direction (bug fix)
  • Note: nerf to ace micro

Version 39.0

•  Spectre and Flying Fortress can no longer ignore Phayze’s camo immunity when under Radar Scanner (bug fix)

Version 41.0

“

Neva-Miss itself is too fun and cool to be lost completely on the very next upgrade so it’s coming back to Spectre as an additional attack, as this main attack is back again 204 no longer needs to give an additional conflicting crosspath benefit.
— Update notes

”

•  Radial 'neva-miss' attack is no longer disabled
•  Radial attack: Damage increased ― 1 → 3

2-0-5

•  Lots More Darts no longer grants +25% pierce to darts

Version 43.0

“

Minor catchup changes to some parts have fallen out of line slightly due to balance changes for other parts of the Ace.
— Update notes

”

•  Homing dart: Damage increased ― 3 → 6

Version 46.0

“

As efforts to improve the feeling of top path Buccaneer have gone relatively well, projectile seeking has now been greatly improved for the Bottom path Ace as well.
— Update notes

”

•  Radial darts: now use Adora's seeking mechanics, allowing them to decelerate to take much tighter turns towards targets and accelerate when targets are directly in front
•  Radial darts: lifespan reduced ― 3.33s → 1.5s (undocumented)
•  Spectre dart: seeking turn rate is no longer capped at 180°/s
•  Spectre dart: seeking targeting angle is no longer capped at 30°

Version 46.1

•  Radial dart: projectile lifespan reduced ― 1.5s → 1s

Version 48.0

“

[...] Neva-Miss darts max speed and homing acceleration is being increased so the projectiles are less likely to expire before meeting their target unless placement is terrible.
— Update notes

”

•  Homing dart: Max projectile speed increased ― 180 → 350
•  Homing dart: Projectile acceleration increased ― 20 → 50
•  Homing dart: Projectile lifespan increased ― 1s → 3.3333s (undocumented)
  • Note: Only affects the projectile while not homing; the lifespan while homing switches to Adora homing stats, which remain unchanged at 1s

Version 50.0

“

Since Spectre works best at the edge of the map far from the entrance the radial attack can expire too early, so projectile distance has been increased.
— Update notes

”

•  Radial dart: Lifespan increased ― 3.3333s → 5.0s
  • Note: Projectile distance increased from 600 units to 900 units

Version 51.0

“

Spectre is trying a new approach: darts are trading in pierce for higher single-target damage, while bombs lean more into AoE Ceramic cleanup to improve overall efficiency. These changes are mirrored on the Flying Fortress to keep the behavior consistent.
— Update notes

”

•  Frontal dart: Pierce reduced ― 15 → 4
•  Frontal dart: Damage increased ― 4 → 8
•  Frontal dart: No longer does +2 Ceramic damage
•  Frontal dart: Bonus damage to MOAB-Class Bloons increased ― +10 → +14
•  Radial dart: Damage type changed ― Sharp → Normal

Version 55.0

“

Spectre was making the save-up into into a Flying Fortress too effortless so it’s single target power has been lowered with a raised upgrade cost, enough to make this not quite so easy
— Update notes

”

•  Upgrade cost increased ― $85,000 → $90,000
•  Frontal darts: Damage reduced ― 8 → 6
•  Side darts: Damage reduced ― 8 → 6 (undocumented)

Gallery

For more Monkey Ace images, see Gallery:Monkey Ace.

Screenshots

• 
  Flying Fortress for all upgrades
• 
  Flying Fortress runway

Assets

• 
  Portrait
• 
  Upgrade icon
• 
  Insta Monkey icon

Trivia

• It is sometimes referred to as the "big plane" due to its upgrade description.
• Its name is very likely inspired by BTD5 Spectre's upgrade description: "Flying fortress of bloon doom."

In other languages

Language	Name / Description	Notes
Arabic	الحصن الطائر هذه طائرة كبيرة.	—
Danish	Flyvende Fæstning Dette er et STORT fly.	—
German	Fliegende Festung Das ist ein richtig GROSSES Flugzeug.	—
Spanish	Fortaleza voladora Este es un avión GRANDE.	—
Spanish (LA)	Fortaleza voladora Este es un avión GRANDE.	—
Finnish	Lentävä linnoitus Tämä on SUURI lentokone.	—
French	Forteresse volante C'est un GROS avion.	—
Italian	Fortezza volante Questo aereo è ENORME.	—
Japanese	空飛ぶ要塞 これこそ、大型航空機。	—
Korean	천공의 요새 정말 커다란 비행기입니다.	—
Dutch	Vliegend fort Dit is een GROOT vliegtuig.	—
Norwegian	Flyvende festning Dette er et STORT fly.	—
Polish	Latająca forteca To WIELKI samolot.	—
Portuguese (Brazil)	Fortaleza Voadora Esse é um avião GIGANTE.	—
Russian	Летающая крепость БОЛЬШОЙ самолёт.	—
Swedish	Flygande fästning Det är ett STORT plan.	—
Thai	ปราการลอยฟ้า นี่ล่ะ เครื่องบินลำ "ใหญ่" ของจริง	—
Turkish	Uçan Kale Bu BÜYÜK bir uçak.	—
Chinese (simplified)	飞行堡垒 这是一架大飞机。	—
Chinese (traditional)	飛行堡壘 這是架大飛機。	—
This list was last updated for: version 43.1