Bloons TD 6

Overview

First released for iOS and Android on June 13, 2018, Bloons TD 6 is the sixth main entry in the Bloons TD series, a tower defense spin-off to the Bloons series of puzzle games. Unlike previous entries into the series, which were developed for Adobe Flash, TD 6 was built with Unity. Bloons TD 6 features a number of other differences relative to previous entries in the series, including polygonal 3D graphics, completely reworked tower upgrades and control schemes, and a new leveling progression system centered around "Monkey Knowledge".

Since launch, the game has received a PC release through Steam, co-op support, new towers, and several time-limited event modes.

Game Modes

As with the series' previous entries, Bloons TD 6 features three standard difficulty modes: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Difficulty influences a number of factors, including tower and upgrade prices, enemy speed, and number of rounds. Upon winning a game in any difficulty, the player can opt to enter "Freeplay Mode", continuing their current game.

When a player completes a given difficulty/mode combination, they are granted an amount of Monkey Money, the game's premium currency. Easy difficulty modes grant 75 Monkey Money by default, Medium modes grant 125, Hard modes grant 200, and Impoppable/CHIMPS modes grant 300 Monkey Money. Subsequent completions for a difficulty/mode combination on a given map are reduced by 80%.

Bloons TD 6 also features several challenge modes, although each one must be unlocked by completing the difficulty or mode before it for a given map. This includes the fourth difficulty mode, Impoppable, which previously only appeared in Bloons TD 5 Mobile.

• Easy Standard: Bloons move slower and all prices are reduced by 15%. Ends on round 40, or when 200 lives are lost.
  • Primary Monkeys Only: The player can only place Hero monkeys and Primary Monkeys.
    • Deflation Mode: The player begins at round 31 with 20,000 cash, but all sources of income are blocked.
  • Sandbox: The player is given unlimited lives and cash, and can spawn bloons in any configuration.
• Medium Standard: All towers and upgrades are their regular price. Ends on round 60, or when 150 lives are lost.
  • Military Only: The player can only place Military Monkeys.
    • Apopalypse: More bloons are sent per round, and rounds begin automatically.
  • Reverse Mode: Bloons move backwards along the track.
    
    • Sandbox
• Hard Standard: All towers and upgrades cost 8% more, and bloons move faster. Ends at round 80, or when 100 lives are lost.
  • Magic Monkeys Only: The player can only place Magic Monkeys.
    • Double HP MOABs: All MOAB-class bloons have twice as much health.
      • Half Cash: All income sources are halved.
  • Alternate Bloons Rounds: Bloons spawn in different formations than Standard mode.
    
    • Impoppable Mode: Players have 1 life and all prices are 20% higher. Ends on round 100.
      • C.H.I.M.P.S.: Continues are removed, players have one Heart, all non-bloon Income is removed, Monkey knowledge benefits are disabled, Powers/insta-monkeys can not be used, and Selling towers is disabled.

Towers

Bloons TD 6 features 22 towers, two of which (the Alchemist and the Druid) were introduced to the series in TD 6. Unlike previous entries, TD 6 splits these towers between four categories: Primary Monkeys, Military Monkeys, Magic Monkeys, and Support Monkeys, as denoted by a tower's icon color. In standard play this is solely for organization, however certain game modes restrict the player to only using one of the three non-support categories. Road items from previous games (including spikes, monkey glue, and exploding pineapples) are no longer counted as towers, instead having been reworked into premium Powers.

Each non-hero tower has several upgrades, although each upgrade must be unlocked by using a tower in-game to earn tower-specific experience, which carries over between games. Expanding upon TD 5's two-path upgrade system, a tower's upgrades are split across three paths, each with five upgrades. While upgrades can be bought in any arrangement, a single tower can only have upgrades from two paths, a single tower can only have tier three and four upgrades from a single path, and only one tower on the field can have a given path's tier five upgrade per tower type.

In July 2021, a sixth tier of upgrade was introduced, referred to as "Paragons". Paragon upgrades, which can only be bought when all three of a tower type's tier five upgrades are on the field, combine the powers of all three tier five upgrades with additional damage boosts. Upon purchasing a paragon upgrade, all towers of the same type are destroyed, with the paragon being powered by how many towers were sacrificed, how many bloons have been popped, and how much cash has been spent in the current game.

Heroes

New to the series in Bloons TD 6, heroes are a special type of tower comparable to hero units from other strategy titles. The player selects which hero they wish to use before entering a map, and are limited to placing one hero on the map at any given time. Each game, a hero unit will passively progress through a predetermined series of upgrades, up to level 20, although in-game currency can be spent to increase a hero's level immediately.

Each hero has unique properties, such as using fire or explosive attacks, increasing the power of nearby towers, or slowing nearby bloons. All heroes have at least two active abilities, although no active abilities are usable when a hero is first placed. Instead, abilities are unlocked as a hero levels up.