The Spike Factory slowly generates spikes around its range, which build up its damage to bloons. Although mainly designed to protect exits, it has a few upgrades that allow Spike Factory to act as a DPS option. Its lower tiers are decent, and its higher-tiers can greatly assist cleanup and general damage depending on upgrades.
The Spike Factory's main role is protecting exits. Spikes are dispensed slowly, so the Spike Factory's value should be more so used for stockpiling instead of raw damage. That being said, some upgrades are designed to be compatible as direct damage, depending on positioning of the spikes.
Early game
During the early game, a 0-0-0 Spike Factory is enough to handle Camo Bloons in standard rounds when placed at the exit of one lane.
[something about other early-game stuff]
MOAB damage
TBA
Stockpiling
TBA
Tips
Two 0-0-0 Spike Factories are more cost-efficient than 1-0-0 with One More Spike, but without this MK then 1-0-0 is more cost-efficient.
Base tower and upgrades
Base
The base Spike Factory can be used to tank small amounts of Bloons, including early Camo Bloons. Ideally, place it near an exit so it has time to generate spikes.
Upgrades
Tier 2 and below
Bigger Stacks is almost always the preferred crosspath for all Tier 2 and below Spike Factories, maximizing spikes for a low cost. Leaving them uncrosspathed without Bigger Stacks is not preferable.
1-0-2 is a decent choice for protecting an exit at a specific location.
1-1-0 and 1-2-0 can quickly refresh spikes.
Smart Spikes for lower tiers, specifically 0-0-2, is often used in Boss Rush combined with Sauda to begin versus most Bosses, if other more reliable towers are absent.
Path 1
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Spiked Balls is valuable in the mid-game to tank small amounts of bloons, yet still retains value in the late-game to handle Super Ceramics.
Spiked Mines handles large groups of bloons effectively.
Super Mines is very expensive but does enormous damage to all bloons with its explosions and napalm. It can be used both as a DPS option and tanking bloons near the exit. It also is effective against Boss Bloons with its general high damage.
Path 2
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MOAB SHREDR is niche, and mainly used if targeting exactly one MOAB-class bloon, such as the Round 100 BAD and Boss Bloons. Crosspathing with Bigger Stacks (1-3-0) is usually preferred. In Boss Rush, it's often used with 0-3-2 crosspath.
Carpet of Spikes is a decent T5 that excels against DDT and BAD rounds in CHIMPS, as well as acting as a more concentrated Spike Storm that continually does high damage to MOAB-class bloons.
Path 3
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Long Life Spikes's main value is carrying spikes over rounds, but is not very effective in game modes that have continous rounds (e.g. Apopalypse, Boss Rush).
Deadly Spikes is not very much stronger than Long Life Spikes, though its +2 damage often gives more tanking power for its cost than external buffs such as Berserker Brew.
Perma-Spike is a powerful cleanup option in CHIMPS, especially on single-exit maps. For the best results, pair with Berserker Brew and Jungle Drums, and deal with dense rounds via other towers.
Like Perma-Spike, Mega Massive Munitions Factory prefers stockpiling giant mines near the back, rather than near bloons. As it lacks any targeting options to adjust locations for the spikes, always place it with barely enough range to reach the track.
Mega Massive Munitions Factory is
It is okay against Bosses, but since it cannot stockpile before a Boss in a Boss Event, it's preferred to only buy it during the round break before the Boss arrives.
Versus Bosses
This section is incomplete. You can help out by expanding it. The editor who added this notice elaborates: Elaborate how to use MMMF in each boss and in general. Oh and also this section is designed to provide tips specific to this tower as to how to use it against Bosses, both generally against bosses and versus specific bosses
Boss
Strategy
All Bosses
Spike Factories in general are strong against Bosses, as they can pile up damage at a steady rate, and have excellent synergy with pierce buffs. They also have innate Camo detection, which helps protect against natural Camos and damage Phayze without support.
For Boss Bloon Events, Spike Factories tend to work best on Timed events, particularly with Spike Storm spam and external buffs. For Timed Bosses, it's optimal to pair with Geraldo for his Rejuv Potion, providing up to 3 abilities per tower in a short timespan. Spike Factory can also be useful to tank Camos in the early-game, though on longer maps it's not very efficient on Boss Events due to the time penalty.
For Boss Rush, 0-3-2 MOAB SHREDR is a staple if Spike Factory is enabled, which can rack up plenty of early kills in early stages. x-x-2 crosspaths are generally preferable against most Bosses in Boss Rush. Make sure to have defenses that can handle natural bloons and boss minions, to reduce wastage of spikes.
For Contested Territory's Boss tiles, Spike Storm and tanking early Camos are often the main use cases of Spike Factory if this tower is enabled.
Most spikes are consumed by Bloonarius's minions before they are able to damage Bloonarius. However, super-buffed Spike Storm spam and/or Mega Massive Munitions Factory usually counter that problem. Thus, Spike Factories are effective against Bloonarius in Timed Bosses, but not so much in Boss Rush or CT Boss tiles.
Spike Factories, especially Spike Storm, remain an excellent option for all stages, handling Lych and its Lych-Soul and Resurrected Blimps efficiently, as all of them are considered MOAB-class and don't have as much RBE as Bloonarius's bloons.
Due to Lych's forced invulnerability, it is recommended to time each Spike Storm ability slowly, not all at once.
Avoid x-x-2+ upgrades, as Lych is able to sap the Smart Spikes buff.
Mega Massive Munitions Factory is usable versus Lych but poor choice due to Lych being able to sap the Controlled Burst ability.
Spike Factories are much less effective versus Vortex but still usable for a burst. Vortex removes spikes regularly, nullifying any stockpiles. Although Spike Storms remain relevant versus Vortex, many other towers (especially Snipers) simply do better.
Mega Massive Munitions Factory is a poor choice, as Vortex removes its stockpiles often, and this Paragon's low range makes it prone to being stunned.
Provided Dreadbloon lacks Support immunity, Super Mines is strong against Dreadbloon's Ceramic armor. Spike Storm remains a strong choice when spammed.
In Boss Rush, 0-3-2 remains a strong choice if the Lead properties are countered, and the Support immunity is dealt by other towers. Embrittlement, Glue Strike, or Monkey Intelligence Bureau can assist versus unshielded Dreadbloon, though the former two cannot be used versus the Primary immunity.
Whenever Phayze hits a skull, its invulnerable state removes every projectile (including spikes) that it goes through. If using Spike Storms, use only enough Spike Storm abilities to trigger the skull phase.
In the absence of Monkey Ace in Boss Rush, 0-0-2 Spike Factory combined with Sauda near the start is often the go-to choice for starting against Phayze.
Mega Massive Munitions Factory is poor versus Phayze, as each skull wipes out stockpiles that this Boss passes over, and frequently skips important chokepoints that this Paragon takes advantage of.
Spike Storm ability spikes do not lose lifespan once deployed; in Timed Bosses, it's recommended to spam all abilities as fast as possible, before Blastapopoulos can stun and delay further abilities.
In Boss Rush, only 0-3-2 is recommended; Spike Storms are too slow and vulnerable against Blastapopoulos's stuns, and Super Mines is far too expensive (relative to other Bosses in Boss Rush, which more easily snowball Boss kills) and cannot apply napalm on Blastapopoulos.
One More Spike, but without this MK then 1-0-0 is more cost-efficient.
