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User:JoelTheParrot/Sandbox

Revision as of 05:53, 22 August 2026 by JoelTheParrot (talk | contribs) (→Airburst Darts)

Currently, these have been submitted to their respective pages, although are noted as temporary and so the pages are still considered stubs and the strategy pages are still considered incomplete.

Airburst Darts

Header includes:

"being increased to 5 pierce per dart with the Barbed Darts upgrade"after existing "However, they instantly split into 3 airburst projectiles upon impact that each each deal 1 damage with 2 pierce" New Strategy section implemented:

The Airburst Darts upgrade's increase to Monkey Sub's popping power is generally good for transitioning to handling heavier eco Bloon sends in the earlygame such as spaced White Bloons and spaced Black Bloons since it does triple the effective damage with its attack. Airburst Darts is a big step-up in power against MOAB-Class targets since they are large enough to take 4 hits from each attack, or 3 hits for additional MOAB-Class Bloons that were not impacted by the initial darts. It has a strong crosspath benefit to assist the slower Ballistic Missile attack on the x3x Monkey Sub since the dart attack rate is quick. As a crosspath for Submerge and Support, it increases its reliability at decamoing Bloons, which is mainly needed for maps where the Monkey Sub's natural range has poor coverage, such as Off-Tide, and the increase on attack speed for the Bloontonium Reactor and Energizer is very beneficial to their total popping power. For Energizer in particular, the high tick rate allows it to deal significant damage to the tight MOABs bloonsend, defeating it with support while also buffing the hero.

While it is technically a sidegrade since the homing stops after the first target is hit in favour of the split dart, the powerful increase in stats means that performance issues compared to the Twin Guns Monkey Sub are negligible. It can utilize its pierce better in a situation where Bloons will be behind the targeted Bloon compared to the Monkey Sub. For example, it will be targeted on last in the earlygame on some maps such as Star or Magma Mixup. If a Sub is mainly being used to catch leaks in the earlygame, however, it may be more efficient to keep it at Twin Guns, with defensive issues being covered with other, cheaper tactics, such as upgrading the core defense or placing another base Sub. Airburst Darts is fairly expensive for that job. You also don't usually need Airburst Darts if you are using Monkey Sub to pop off a single layer in earlygame, such as popping Black Bloons for Captain Churchill or Sentai Churchill, since the reliably homing shots are generally superior for the job unless you are popping multiple layers off, such as with Zebra Bloons.

An Airburst Darts Monkey Sub generally prefers the middle crosspath since the Barbed Darts upgrade increases the pierce of its three darts each from 2 to 5, which is a grand increase in total popping power. You can also use this crosspath to get popping power for frozen and lead Bloons if needed since it upgrades into Heat-Tipped Darts. The benefits of top path include more coverage and the ability to hit Camo Bloons in the range of Monkeys who already detect Camo Bloons, as well as building into the Submerge and Support and further upgrades. More coverage is mainly beneficial to damage against a single target, such as MOAB-Class Bloons. Since the Monkey Sub serves a powerful decamo role, its camo detection using Advanced Intel is not helpful in most strategies and is very unreliable at contributing to camo popping.

Airburst Darts benefits heavily from damage buffs due to its increased projectile count per attack and high attack rate being balanced out by low base damage per projectile. In situations where Alchemist and Monkey Sub are used in a loadout together, Airburst Darts also has efficient uptime with the Berserker Brew buff since it only uses one attack per four projectiles. It might not be the most efficient option in the strategy for that particular buff, though. The multiple projectiles can also pair well with flat pierce buffs such as Gwendolin's or Scientist Gwendolin's Heat It Up or the aforementioned Berserker Brew, and Ocean Obyn's percentage pierce buff is strong on this tower since the three darts per shot will triple this Monkey Sub's effective pierce assuming they all hit.

Twin Guns

New strategy section implemented:

The Twin Guns upgrade on the Monkey Sub is a pivotal aspect of its earlygame strength due to its rapid attack rate. It pops less total Bloons per second than the identically-priced Barbed Darts, so if it is your starting tower it is recommended to purchase Barbed Darts first, but the Twin Guns can hit a single target twice as much and more reliably, making it good at handling certain spaced Bloon sends such as spaced Yellow Bloons and spaced Pink Bloons. The Barbed Darts and Twin Guns upgrades are especially strong together, increasing the Monkey Sub's total power by more than 4× for less than 3× its base cost. Due to its rapid attack speed, a Twin Guns Monkey Sub is great at cleaning up Bloons that get past a slower-attacking tower, such as a Bomb Shooter or a Monkey Buccaneer, preventing excessive leaking to the opponent's earlygame eco sends. Its fast attack speed also makes it great at activating Ice Shards when capable of popping frozen Bloons.

It is also the start of the generally preferred crosspath for both of the Monkey Sub's other paths. Submerge and Support's increased pulse rate makes it much quicker to decamo Bloons, which can be important on maps where the Monkey Sub's natural range has weak coverage such as Off-Tide. The Bloontonium Reactor benefits greatly from the easily-afforded increased attack speed, as does the Energizer who gets the same bonus. Ballistic Missile's Ballistic Missile attack is slow and unreliable on its own, so the bottom crosspath increases its attack speed while also increasing reliability with the rapid dart attacks.

Barbed Darts

Header expanded. After the existing "Barbed Darts is the Monkey Sub's path 2 tier 1 upgrade in Bloons TD Battles 2.", it now gives an explanation formatted the same as Twin Guns

It increases the pierce of its dart attack by 3, going from 2 pierce to 5 pierce.

Additionally, it adds an extra pierce buff for the Sub's pulse attacks on the top path:


Strategy section added with the following text:

The Barbed Darts upgrade on the Monkey Sub is important due to its efficient power, increasing the Sub's pierce by more than double for less than the base price. When using a Monkey Sub in the first few rounds, it is generally best to purchase the Barbed Darts upgrade before the identically priced Twin Guns upgrade since Barbed Darts pops more Bloons per second and can use its pierce effectively against the dense eco Bloons. Although, it is worse at single-target damage and catching leaks on its own since it attacks much less quickly. The Barbed Darts and Twin Guns upgrades are especially strong together, increasing the Monkey Sub's total power by more than 4× for less than 3× its base cost.

Barbed Darts is pitiful as a crosspath for the top path Monkey Sub. The pierce on the sonar pulse and the Energizer's radioactive pulse is very high already, and the +5 pierce on the radioactive pulse is weak compared to the attack rate increase of the bottom path and the +15 pierce and lead Bloon popping power of Heat-Tipped Darts. For the bottom path of Monkey Sub, however, the heavily increased pierce and ability to gain lead and frozen Bloon popping power is preferred in most cases.

With Ocean Obyn, Barbed Darts is especially powerful since his in-range pierce buff is percentage-based, assuring the Monkey Sub consistently has +1 pierce or more on its dart attacks.

Heat-Tipped Darts

Header expanded. After the existing "Heat-tipped Darts is the Monkey Sub's path 2 tier 2 upgrade in Bloons TD Battles 2.", it now gives an explanation formatted the same as Twin Guns and my own edit on Barbed Darts. It also uses the page of Red Hot Rangs (Battles 2) as reference for how to refer to the damage type change.

It changes damage of Dart and Pulse attacks to Unstoppable (can pop Lead and Frozen Bloons) and adds +1 bonus lead damage to the radioactive pulse attack.

Additionally, it adds an extra pierce buff for the Sub's pulse attacks on the top path on top of the existing Barbed Darts pierce increases:


Strategy section added with the following text:

The Heat-Tipped Darts upgrade on the Monkey Sub is useful if your Sub needs to pop lead Bloons, or for Subs with upgrades aside from Submerge and Support and above if you have Ice Monkey in your strategy. Frozen Bloon popping can be good on low tier Subs on the bottom path due to their high attack rate. Due to this upgrade's cheap additional price compared to the often-preferred crosspath for the bottom path Monkey Sub, it is a very good option to prevent the threat of Bloons that are layered under lead Bloons.

This upgrade on its own is wasted cash without Ice Monkeys in your strategy if bought before Round 10, since it is impossible to face the threat of lead Bloons and this upgrade does not increase any other stats.

This is not recommended as a crosspath for the top path Monkey Sub. The sonar pulse already has excessive pierce and low attack speed, and for the Bloontonium Reactor and Energizer the radioactive pulse's overall ability to pop Bloons is decreased due to hitting each Bloon less times. There is usually a better option to reliably handle lead Bloons while having a Bloontonium Reactor up, even if they cost more money than this cheap crosspath. Energizer's radioactive pulse gains the ability to handle the tight leads Bloon send, but the Energizer's innate high pierce and Bloon damage means you only have to have enough pierce on lead-popping towers to pop the lead bloon layer, and Energizer's DDT damage is negligible.

Longer Range

New Strategy section implemented:

This cheap and weak upgrade does very little on its own, and is mainly purchased to build into higher tier top path upgrades. +10 range allows Monkey Sub to reach some paths it usually struggles to reach due to its water-only placement, but using it to defend these paths is generally inefficient due to its low projectile speed and reliance on the power of its other tier 1 upgrades, Barbed Darts and Twin Guns, for earlygame efficiency. It can help increase coverage a little bit for MOAB-Class targets for the bottom path Monkey Sub, but it is usually better to just go for Advanced Intel to gain a lot of coverage for a fairly inexpensive amount by the standards of MOAB-Class defense, and a small amount of coverage is usually less needed for the MOAB-Class Bloon layers on their own since MOAB-Class Bloons are bigger and can be targeted from further away than standard Bloons. Its range is also less needed on Ballistic Missile due to that upgrade's own increased range, although that upgrade is a lot stronger overall with the bottom path regardless. Despite the visually enlarged sonar visual, the Bloontonium Reactor will only damage Bloons within the actual attack range which is identical to the Longer Range Sub, so you can plan your Bloontonium Reactor coverage around the visual of this upgrade's range circle since it is required to build into top path upgrades. Since it's required of this path, it can still be useful to buy it for a small amount of defensive value on some maps if you plan on upgrading that Monkey Sub into a Submerge and Support or Bloontonium Reactor.

  • On Ports, a centered Monkey Sub can reach both exits using Longer Range, which allows it to serve as weak clean-up for both sides on its own. It won't build into a good Bloontonium Reactor since it barely reaches, though
  • On Oasis (Battles 2), it can reach more of the starting line, or the exiting line on reverse, allowing it to reach the intersection if its placement is more centered and increasing its lower reliability for that section
  • On Dino Graveyard, it can reach the leftmost path and the last straight path that Bloons exit through simultaneously from a centered position for more coverage
  • On COBRA Command, this upgrade lets it reach Bloons on the bottom of the center of the track that resembles 3/4 of a circle, allowing a Monkey Sub to attack Bloons at a sooner point on the track than usual. This is much less useful on Reverse since there will be times where the Bloons earlier in the track from wehre the Bloon the Sub is shooting at being sent will block the angle that the Sub is shooting at in an attempt to act as clean-up
  • On Koru, this upgrade allows a Monkey Sub in the bottom pool to see the early part of the path for earlier attacking, which can let the Sub remove a Bloon layer from Bloons with immunities using 1-0-1, or set off Ice Shards for the Ice Monkey's placement along the curve if the Monkey Sub is given frozen Bloon popping. This can also increase the short attack time it would have against MOAB-Class targets
  • On Sands of Time, this upgrade allows a Monkey Sub placed at a point somewhat higher than the lowest placement to somewhat reach the top of the track (it will start to be able to reach when its base range was above the highest line in the sand on the inside of the top triangle, although it won't reach it reliably from only that much. The highest you can place it while still fitting two more Subs in each top corner is when the base range doesn't quite align with the inner edge of the outer border of the track, which can be done by aligning it intentionally and moving it down slightly until it first shows a vertical difference. Although, it also has to be very centered. This allows Long Range Monkey Sub to have good Bloon coverage along the top of the track)
  • On Bot Factory, this upgrade or Ballistic Missile is needed to reach the middle line, which is much more reliable from the bought lower pools but not as needed from the top pools due to its homing projectiles and potential explosives. It still barely reaches, though, so Advanced Intel or usage of the pools of the path closer to the center of the screen (mainly the higher one) is recommended heavily for Monkey Sub's usage on this map
  • On Precious Space, a Monkey Sub placed to the immediate upper-right of a Monkey Sub placed as far to the left in the upper pool can use Longer Range to see a later, second part of the track to the bottom-left of the green-flagged platform. This can apply to a Monkey Sub placed to the rightmost point of the upper pool for a MOAB-Class target
  • On Bloontonium Mines, Monkey Sub can use this upgrade to reach the first line that sent Bloons start on
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