Ok, so the game is out – and you like it hopefully, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this guide. The purpose of this guide is to provide some basic game information for new players and some general strategies and methods for beating the game on the simpler tracks and difficulty settings. I will follow up this guide with an advanced player’s guide later that will include some in depth game analysis including statistics and properties of the Towers.
General Game Info
There are 6 tracks plus another 7 extra tracks that you can purchase using MochiCoins. The tracks vary in challenge from very easy to very hard, and there are 3 difficulties you can play on for every track. The difficulty rating affects how much money you start with, how many lives you have and how many rounds you need to pass to win the game; 50 on easy with 200 lives, 60 on medium with 150 lives and 75 on hard with just 100 lives. New players should probably start with the first or second track on easy. Players who enjoyed BTD3 could start on the 3rd or 5th tracks, as they aren’t super hard, but are something quite different to what you’re used to.
Bloon Types
BTD4 brings 4 new bloon types to the game, each special and mean in its own way. But for completeness, here is a list of each bloon type and its properties:
- Red Bloon – the simplest bloon in the game. Moves slowly and only needs to be popped once to be removed forever. This is the bloon by which all others are compared. The Red Bloon Equivalent or RBE is a measure of how tough a given Round is, telling you how many ‘pops’ you will need to pass the level.
- Blue Bloon – moves slightly faster than red, and when popped, contains a Red Bloon.
- Green Bloon – moves faster than blue, and spawns a Blue when popped.
- Yellow Bloon – moves fast and creates a Green in its place when popped.
- Pink Bloon – a new type to BTD4, moves even faster than Yellow, is even bigger and of course contains 1 Yellow when popped. Be careful as these guys can take you by surprise with sheer speed.
- Black Bloon – small and sometimes hard to hit, contains 2 Pinks. Black Bloons are immune to bombs and bomb type effects, so remember to vary your tower selections.
- White Bloon – similar to black except White Bloons are immune to Ice Towers. Contain 2 Pinks.
- Zebra Bloon – Zebras are nasty, and new to BTD4, they combine the effects of Black and White Bloons, making them immune to freezing and bomb effects. They move fast and contain 1 Black and 1 White Bloon.
- Lead Bloon – Everyone’s favourite to love to hate, the Lead Bloon is immune to anything sharp including darts, tacks, spikes, boomerangs and more. They have only 1 redeeming feature – they move slowly. Lead Bloons contain 2 Black Bloons, thus requiring a bomb to ‘break open’ and then anything but a bomb to finish off.
- Camo Bloon – These are new to BTD4 as well. Camos are dealt with very easily so long as you plan and don’t panic. Camos will not be targeted by any tower that cannot ’see’ them. Luckily there are several upgrades in the game that allow nearby towers to see Camos. If you find yourself with no way to spot them, simply select Road Spikes and lay them near your towers. The projectiles from your towers that target the visible Bloons may break open more Camos. If you play it right, you may only need one or two Road Spikes to clear a Camo round – if you have no other way to see them. Mortar Towers can also be retargeted to hit Camo Bloons. In addition, Monkey Aces attack automatically, so if you’re lucky, the Camos will fall to their powerful dart attacks.
- Rainbow Bloon – Contain 2 Zebras. They move fast and require lots of firepower to completely wipe out.
- Ceramic Bloon – These Bloons require 10 hits to break open and contain 2 Rainbow Bloons. You do not get money for damaging Ceramics, only destroying them. Ceramics move fast and although glue does stick to them, they are not slowed by it. This requires you to vary your strategy a little if you like going heavy with Glue Gunners or Monkey Glue.
- MOAB – Received an upgrade since BTD3, requiring 200 hits to break open. They contain 4 Ceramic Bloons which can make these hard to deal with without plenty of fast firing Towers such as Super Monkeys or Tacks. You can destroy them using only Road Spikes, but it’s not recommended unless you are making lots of cash from Banana Farms. MOABs move quite slowly. The MOAB Mauler upgrade for Bomb Towers is another useful way to take these down.
- BFB – These super sized MOAB look-a-likes are the most powerful thing the Bloons can throw at you. Each one requires 700 hits to destroy. Then, predictably, they contain 4 MOABs. This can mean that if your anti-MOAB towers are too clustered near the start, you may be in trouble. Luckily BFBs move very slowly.
Bloon Life Costs
When a Bloon escapes, you lose a life, plus an extra life for every Bloon contained within it. Higher ranked Bloons can take off dozens of lives if they escape:
- Red – 1 life
- Blue – 2 lives
- Green – 3 lives
- Yellow – 4 lives
- Pink – 5 lives
- Black – 11 lives
- White – 11 lives
- Lead – 23 lives
- Zebra – 23 lives
- Camo – 11 lives
- Rainbow – 43 lives
- Ceramic – 103 lives
- MOAB – 613 lives (yah… gameover)
- BFB – if you must know… 2884 lives
First Play Through
When you first play the game, you will notice that you only have access to Dart Monkeys. That’s ok, since they’re powerful enough to take you through the early levels, and you will rank up very quickly unlocking new towers along the way. After a couple of play throughs or so you should have reached rank 16, which is the point you will have unlocked all tower types, but not their level 5 upgrades. These get unlocked over the next 15 ranks along with 2 special game modes for advanced players. The level 5 upgrades for the towers are expensive but very powerful upgrades that make the tower useful even in the later rounds.
Basic Strategy
For the easier tracks on easy difficulty, you can just about use any towers you like to get to Round 50. Try placing towers at corners and intersection points so that they get to attack the Bloons for the longest period of time. It’s best to have a variety of towers that compliment each other well (more on that in our advanced guide) but in general just choose what looks fun and enjoy it. The only vital moments in the game are introduction of Camo bloons and Lead Bloons. A single Camo Bloon appears on round 24. Camo Bloons will be ignored by any towers that can’t see them. To see a Camo Bloon, your tower must be in the radius of another tower that grants this ability. The 4 tower types that can do this are:
- Monkey Beacon with the Level 4 upgrade called “Sonar Beacon”
- Monkey Ace with the Level 3 upgrade “Spy Plane”
- Monkey Buccaneer with Level 3 upgrade “Crow’s Nest”
- Monkey Apprentice with special premium upgrade “Crystal Ball” (requires mochicoin purchase)
However by round 24 you may not have any of these things, in which case simply use a dose of Road Spikes when the Camo Bloon is near your other towers. The Camo will pop and your towers will clean up the rest. Round 33 has 50 Camos so you should make sure you have at least one of the above detector towers by then. Lead Bloons appear on round 28, and they’re only popped by explosives. If you forget to have a Bomb Tower or similar, use a couple of Exploding Pineapples instead. Place them a short way ahead of the Lead Bloons so that they explode as the Bloons pass over them.
M.O.A.Bs
On round 46 you get your first MOAB. If you haven’t unlocked the Level 5 Bomb Tower upgrade called MOAB Mauler, your next best option is to use a Super Monkey to take it down. The MOAB Mauler upgrade is powerful, but you might need more than 1 to safely destroy the MOAB. If you have neither a Super Monkey or Maulers, you can help your other towers by putting Road Spikes down in front of the MOAB. This is expensive, but it could save you from losing the game.
The next part of this Bloons Tower Defense 4 Walk Through will cover more advanced strategy for beating the harder tracks on higher difficulties, including correct usage of Banana Farms, when is best to use Boomerangs instead of Tack Towers, and a break down of the overall effectiveness of Super Monkey vs other towers. The next guide will also have stats for each tower type including how many Bloons they can pop with each shot.
Fri, Jan 22, 2010
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