General Changes
- Player Profile - The “Overall” tab on the Player Profile now shows the current and highest win streaks across all game modes (except private). - Previously, it would show the better streak from casual or ranked mode but would not combine them or include event games.
- Accolades - Visual improvements to map accolades.
Balance Changes
- Tower Boost - Tower Boost cooldown 30s -> 40s - With such a short cooldown, there was not much potential for secondary rushes in-between boosts, especially considering that most heroes have powerful abilities that can be used as alternatives to boosts. This change aims to promote more frequent rushes, leading to more exciting and competitive games.
- Banana Farm - Base Cost: $1050 -> $1000 - 1xx Increased Production: $600 -> $550 - 3xx Banana Plantation: $2700 -> $2600 - 5xx Banana Central: $68k -> $73k - xx3 Marketplace: $3000 -> $2800 - xx5 Monkey Wall Street: $43.5k -> $46k - Balancing farms and income is always a tricky area because it’s such a fundamental part of the game, and any changes will be controversial because unfortunately the community seems to be divided on which direction it should go. Currently, the optimal competitive playstyle with farms is more passive than we would like it to be, so we would like to give a buff to early-game farms. With this change, we hope to encourage farm players to build more farms in the early game rather than building income first and transitioning to farms later. Ideally, this will lead to more interesting games between farm players, by giving them more rushing potential in the early/mid-game. Additionally, we have reduced the efficiency of the higher-tier farms, to balance out how much money farm players will get in the late game. We will closely monitor how this affects the game and be receptive to more changes in future updates.
- Wizard Monkey - 024 Necromancer: Wall of Fire no longer receives a damage buff from bloons in the graveyard. - On reflection, the previous nerf to Necromancer was not impactful enough, because the graveyard capacity mostly remains at/near full capacity, meaning that the nerf did not change too much. A lot of Necromancer’s strength also comes from the wall of fire, so we have decided to weaken that attack.
- Alchemist - 4xx Stronger Stimulant: $2500 -> $2800 - Considered an extremely efficient option for buffing towers in the mid/late-game, we thought that Stronger Stimulant was a little too good for its price.
- Spike Factory - xx5 Perma-Spike: Damage 15 -> 10 - xx5 Perma-Spike: Attack Cooldown 4.5 -> 3 - Acknowledging complaints about the previous pierce buff making Perma-Spike perform worse against ceramics (before round 30), we have reverted this change and given it a rate buff instead.
- Tack Shooter - x3x Blade Shooter: $600 -> $700 - x4x Blade Maelstrom: $3100 -> $3000 - Tack Shooter has always stood out as being exceptionally powerful in the early game. While this is Tack Shooter’s strong point, we believe a small nerf is justified so that it’s not quite so efficient.
- Boomerang Monkey - 3xx Glaive Ricochet: $1500 -> $1300 - x3x Bionic Boomerang: $1300 -> $1100 - Closer to launch, Boomerang was a very dominant tower in the early game. However, since then it has received multiple nerfs and the bloon send changes also had a big impact on its viability. Therefore, we have given it a slight buff to its early game so that it can regain more relevancy in the meta.
- Mortar Monkey - xx2 Burny Stuff: Burny Stuff can now affect Black and Zebra Bloons (The initial explosion will not harm them, but the subsequent fire damage will). - The change to Striker Jones’ leveling curve had quite a big impact on Mortar because it meant that it would no longer gain the ability to pop black bloons before they became available as a bloon send. The Bomb Shooter has xx2 Frag Bombs as a cheap upgrade to be able to deal with black bloons but the Mortar Monkey does not have a similar upgrade. Therefore, we have given xx2 the ability to damage black bloons, although still not as effectively as other bloons.
- Dart Monkey - x2x Very Quick Shots: $190 -> $150 - x3x Triple Shot: $325 -> $300 - x4x Super Monkey Fan Club: Each ability can now independently transform up to 10 darts monkeys (no longer limited to 10 maximum conversions when activating multiple abilities) - This ability change was recently implemented in BTD6, and we feel that it is a good buff in this game too. It gives dart a little buff by giving it the ability to deal more total damage in the late game, without impacting its mid game as much, where it is already a decent ability. We have also made small improvements to Triple Shot, since this upgrade gets neglected in favor of the other dart paths.
- Sniper Monkey - xx5 Elite Defender: The speed buff is now triggered by bloons getting near the end of the track in addition to leaking lives. - x4x Supply Drop: 5.8k-> $5.6k - x4x Supply Drop: initial cooldown 20s->15s - At launch, Sniper and other alternative income sources dominated the meta but since then we have made a lot of changes and Sniper is no longer considered to be a particularly effective source of income. We are giving it a little boost in efficiency so that it can compete with other income sources. Additionally, Elite Defender’s leaking ability was too impractical to be of use (without Ezili), therefore we have reworked it so that it has more potential to be viable.
- Monkey Sub - xx1 Twin Guns: $450 -> $350 - xx3 Triple Guns: $950 -> $800 - We would like to give Sub more potential to be useful in the early game, rather than just being a mid-late game tower.
- Druid - 5xx Superstorm: blowback distance 33-350 -> always 250 - x3x Druid of the Jungle: $950 -> $850 - x4x Jungle’s Bounty: initial cooldown 20s -> 15s - Similar to Sniper Monkey, we are making small changes to Druid’s income generation to make it a more appealing option once again. We also removed the randomness from Superstorm to make it a more reliable option, particularly for defending DDTs.
- Monkey Village - x2x Radar Scanner: $2000 -> $1700 - x3x MIB: $7500 -> $7000 - x4x Call to Arms: $20k -> $21.5k - We would like to make Monkey Village’s camo detection a bit affordable since the alternative de-camo options are much cheaper. We have also decreased the cost of MIB to give that more utility, and increased the cost of Call to Arms since that upgrade is already powerful and does not need an indirect buff.
- Sentai Churchill - Level 3: ability cooldown 35s -> 45s - Previous changes to Sentai Churchill had little impact, so we are making another small adjustment to his early/mid-game dominance.
- Captain Churchill - Level 3: ability cooldown 30s -> 35s - While Captain Churchill does not get used as much as Sentai Churchill, we acknowledge that he is still a very powerful hero and have adjusted his ability cooldown in line with Sentai Churchill’s.
- Agent Jericho - Level 6: Seize Assets steals $80/s ->$65/s - Level 9: Seize Assets steals $120/s -> $100/s - Level 9: Reduces fortified multiplier from 2 to 1.6 -> 1.7 - Level 10: Bloon Decoy ability initial cooldown 30s -> 0s - Level 10: Bloon Decoy ability cooldown 120s -> 90s - Level 10: Bloon Decoy moves down 1/2 -> 2/3 of the track before vanishing - Level 11: Seize Assets steals $150/s -> $130/s - While we appreciate the changes that Jericho brings to the game by promoting more engaging playstyles, we believe that he is currently excessively powerful. This domination is particularly apparent in the highest arenas, where all the other heroes struggle to compete. To address this imbalance, we have decided to weaken a couple of Agent Jericho’s strong points, specifically his Seize Assets ability and his reduction to fortified bloon costs. However, we recognise that his level 10 decoy ability is relatively underwhelming, especially in comparison to Highwayman Jericho, so we have increased the effectiveness of this ability by reducing the cooldown and increasing the distance the decoy travels. We would also like to mention that we have fixed a bug with bloon adjustment, which will mean that there now be noticeably fewer bloon-adjusted camo bloons in the early game.
- Highwayman Jericho - Level 3: Stand and Deliver ability cooldown 90s -> 100s - Level 6: Stand and Deliver steals $800 -> $650 - Level 9: Stand and Deliver steals $1.2k -> $1k - Level 9: Reduces fortified multiplier from 2 to 1.6 -> 1.7 - Level 11: Stand and Deliver steals $1.5k -> $1.3k - In addition to changes to cash-stealing and fortified costs that match those of Agent Jericho, we have very slightly increased Highwayman Jericho’s level 3 Stand and Deliver ability cooldown. Highwayman Jericho appears to be favored over Agent Jericho, with a stronger level 10 ability, the ability to sell towers, and the fact that his cash stealing cannot be prevented (unlike Agent Jericho’s). These aspects give Highwayman Jericho the edge, so we hope that this change along with improvements to Agent Jericho’s decoy will put the two heroes more on par with each other.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed Super Monkey Fan Club transformation being reverted when upgrading a transformed monkey.
- Minor text fixes
- Fixed sent DDTs and BADs spawning on the wrong path on Glade.
- Fixed crash when claiming a gifted Banana Farmer from Support.
- Fixed incorrect icon showing for tight bloon sends. Tight ZOMGs, Ceramics and DDT sends now show 3 bloons on the icon instead of 2.
- Fixed Agent Jericho and Highwayman Jericho’s bloon adjustment favoring camo bloons more than any other modifier (as mentioned in the Jericho balance changes).
- Fixed First target priority getting confused when the secret passage is open on COBRA Command.
- Fixed button on COBRA Command being small and difficult to press.
- Fixed Agent Jericho’s legs clipping with the bench in his Retro Reconnaissance matchup animation.
- Fixed missing hair texture on Highwayman Jericho’s Good Manners matchup animation.
- Fixed Activated Ability quantity showing when there is only one tower with the ability.
- Fixed Agent Jericho’s head clipping through the hatch in his Breaking and Entering matchup animation.
- Fixed DJ Ben Jammin’ losing his microphone in the Make Some Noise matchup animation.
- Fixed Battle Points counter disappearing after opening a free chest
- Fixed upgrades not being bought despite being charged for them if they were bought too soon after buying the tower.
- Fixed in-game Hero XP not being awarded correctly after disconnecting and reconnecting to a game.
We appreciate any feedback and happy gaming!