YMMV / Bloons Monkey City

This is for YMMV items that are specific to Bloons Monkey City.

• Awesome Music: This game's soundtrack is considered one of the best among all the Bloons series. Street Party in particular seem to be widely loved. In the official Bloons TD6 subreddit there are many posts asking for BMC music to be added into the game until it was eventually added to said game on version 23.0.
• Breather Boss: Vortex on mobile versions of the game. Due to Vortex having a larger hitbox and Spike Storm working differently than on Flash (the spikes from the Spike Storm ability will continue to hit the boss as they're flying onto the track instead of only doing damage once they land), Vortex will easily take large amount of damage by simply spamming Spike Storms upon the track. Its slowing pulse waves are also severely nerfed, and it never will have the ability to fully stun towers in range compared to the Flash version. And like any other boss on mobile versions, it can also be slowed with Absolute Zero. Any tragedy that comes from this boss will almost always be from the natural bloons; never from Vortex leaking itself.
• Breather Level: Sometimes Contested Territory on the Flash version generates waves of non-MOAB bloons in the rounds 30+ that are short and super easy by the time you can reach them, if you are even capable of reaching such rounds yet!
• Demonic Spiders: D.D.T.s. They are immune to Stuff Blowing Up, immune to darts and other sharp objects, are camouflaged from your towers, and are extremely fast! Oh, and they release 6 Camo Regrowth Ceramic Bloons on death, which would already qualify for Demonic Spider status by themselves. It's like the devs were trying to make the most overpowered bloon... and succeeded. That is, until BTD6 introduced the B.A.D... which contains three of them and two Z.O.M.G.s. Subverted on mobile versions, as it lacks its lead and black bloon properties, essentially making it equal to a 300HP camo pink, which is more easily stopped by any defense that can detect camo.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Dundee Monkeys. ^Explanation  A pejorative nickname for the current tower art, which veteran players find ugly and hideous. Takes its name from the Ninja Kiwi development team located Dundee, Scotland, primarily responsible for the mobile ports of Bloons Tower Defense games which also use this art. The uproar was due to the fact that Bloons Monkey City used to use the same tower art as Bloons Tower Defense 5, whose tower art was vastly better received.
• Goddamned Bats: Pink and Yellow Bloons become weak after a while, but can ruin a no-lives-lost run, frustrating players who want a lot of Bloonstones.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Temple of the Vengeful Monkey seems to be this. The Temple of the Monkey God was already a rapid-firing nuke (especially when given max sacrifices), but this thing fires twice as fast, vastly increasing its fire power.
  • Spike Factories can steamroll early-game maps by themselves, and are very useful as a last line of defence later on. White-Hot Spikes makes them one of the few towers that can touch a D.D.T. without the assistance of a Monkey Village. A 2/3 Spike Factory can pop a DDT much more easily than a 2/2. And a 2/4 Spike Factory can shroud the entire screen with these anti-DDT spikes...
  • Ninja Monkeys. Let's see... First off, they ALWAYS detect Camo Bloons. Second, x/1 (Seeking Shuriken) Ninjas are guaranteed to pop the maximum amount of Bloons per shot. Then there's the x/2 upgrade (Distraction), which can send Bloons back to the beginning of the stage. Think that's good? Wait until you get a 3/2 Double Shot. You are quadrupling the popping power, and doubling the Distraction rate. Then you get to 4/2 Bloonjitsu, and you just added five times the distraction rate compared to the 0/2 Ninja, as well as the maximum of 20 pops per volley. To top it off, Monkey Knowledge can increase Bloonjitsu's shuriken count per volley to 6 or even 7. All of those there, and you have one damn good tower, that isn't too bad against M.O.A.B.s either.
  • The Monkey Village's x/1 Monkey Fort upgrade can be this in Mobile, due to a Good Bad Bug with effects that buff pierce (the number of Bloons a projectile can pop before expiring) on towers that launch explosive projectiles. This interaction resulting in self-duplicating explosives, doubling their popping power. The notable offenders include the Ninja Monkey's x/3 Flash Bomb with its cheap stunning effect, the Dartling Gun's x/3 Hydra Rocket Pods and x/4 Bloon Area Denial System because of the former's high fire rate and the latter's increased projectile count on top of that, and the Bomb Shooter's x/4 MOAB Assassin's instant high-MOAB-damage ability. All this (and then some) from one $900 support upgrade!
    • Combine this with a 4/2 Spectre and you're guaranteed to hands-off solo the remaining rounds of the tile. Not even D.D.T.s or Z.O.M.G.s will last long against this combination, as Spectre now effectively has twice the damage.
    • Monkey Fort also has this effect in the mobile and Steam ports of Bloons TD5. It used to have it in the versions of Battles on those platforms, but pretty much every OP interaction with it has been patched so that their projectiles are no longer cheaply duplicated (although Hydra Rocket Pods lasted a good while before it, too, was patched).
  • The Bloon Dunes city update added the special item "Anti-Camo Dust", which when used, turns all the camos (even D.D.T.s, though you'll still need towers that can hurt them and the camo regrow Ceramics) on screen into normal Bloons. Also, it has a decent recharge. Suddenly, Signal Flare isn't too useful anymore, unless you don't have the reflexes to time the ability right when camos appear.
  • Bloon Dunes also adds in the Monkey Engineers, which are very good for most of the early game because of their Sentry Guns. An incredibly powerful third upgrade comes in the form of Cleansing Foam. It not only clears out camo and regen on the Bloons, but it also pops Lead Bloons. Unfortunately, M.O.A.B.-class bloons aren't really affected by it, making it something of a Crutch Character without Overclock.
    • Bloon Traps in the Mobile version. Unlike in the Flash version, it never gets a cash reduction when cash per pop decreases, so even in late game you will still gain about 250/500+ cash per trap. Combined with Monkey Town, you can gain well over 1000+ per trap.
  • Monkey Knowledge in its higher ranks. Long story short, it can make the above Game Breakers even more game-breaking! Unfortunately, the amount of time it takes to reach its higher ranks (especially on mobile) can make it Awesome, but Impractical.
    • Ninja MK increases pierce of the Ninja Monkey and makes Bloonjitsu throw more shurikens, which makes an already powerful tower even stronger.
    • Spike Factory MK makes MOAB SHREDR do more damage to MOAB-class bloons, which is especially helpful for boss fights.
    • Bloon Sabotage makes MOAB-class bloons slower and reduces their HP. This is extremely helpful for Contested Territory.
    • Monkey Tycoon MK makes road items much cheaper. When maxed, Pineapples are 40% the price, and Road Spikes are 50% the price. This means that they can even make money on Bloon Beacon tiles.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • Not quite a Game-Breaker, but the Mobile version has a bug that allows Juggernauts to become SMFC Monkeys while retaining their Spike Balls of Doom, rather than the permanent SMFC/hypersonic Juggernauts in Flash. This is much like in the mobile/Steam versions of BTD5.
  • Also in the Mobile version, the Monkey Engineer's Bloon Trap used to be able to suck D.D.T.s in, and didn't just give about a thousand cash, but a game-breaking 33,000+. About 5 D.D.T.s would be enough for a max temple. Too bad the bug was patched.
  • The permanent Super Monkey Fan Club glitch. To create this, place between 3 and 10 Dart Monkeys, but remember the last one you placed. Upgrade one to 0/4 (don't upgrade the last one!), activate the ability, and sell the last Dart Monkey. Now watch as your "fake" Super Monkeys stay transformed until the game ends!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Anti-(insert something here) Dust. ^Explanation Anti-Camo Dust, an ability that removes camo properties from bloons, has become an expression for intense dislike in the Ninja Kiwi community.
• That One Boss: This game has boss events where you can fight a very tough boss Bloon every time you defeat a Bloon Beacon tile. What makes these bosses so tough is that they gain extra health for every level that you defeat them on, to the point that they end up being far tougher then even the Z.O.M.G. These bosses also can't be slowed down or stunned by anything besides the boss chill ability, which costs Bloonstones^note or you can slow the bosses with the Ice Tower's Absolute Zero ability, but only on Mobile.
  • Any boss on mobile can become this starting on level 15 and above, but usually not due to the bosses themselves. Rather, this is the point where the natural bloons sends become extremely aggressive, guaranteeing leads or above when you have minimal cash to deal with them (even MOABs and BFBs have a chance to spawn before the boss does). Unless you have properly planned ahead and have a high city level for enough starting cash, death can be guaranteed even before the boss has a chance to spawn!
  • Dreadbloon: Armored Behemoth on the Flash version. This boss has the ability to "grow" a Ceramic layer for protection that it will use both at the start of the fight and after 25% of its health is gone, though it has less health in exchange. Also, the Dreadbloon has lead properties under the ceramic layer, so unless you can buy a Monkey Intelligence Bureau, destroying it with Tack Sprayers is out of the question. At higher levels, the armor can even partially regenerate between 25% intervals! Averted on the mobile version due to weaker naturals and more powerful Spike Storm abilities.
  • Blastapopoulos: Demon of the Core is a real pain to deal with. This blimp has the ability to stun the most expensive towers on screen by throwing lava balls at them. It will also do this every time you sell a tower. Things get especially bad on later levels; it'll start throwing multiple lava balls at a time. It gets so bad that nearly any single sufficiently-priced tower can be singled out and Stun Locked. Even the Temple isn't exempt from this, and its heavy price even hurts it! It becomes even worse on mobile due to a Game-Breaking Bug that causes the game to crash should you sell towers too quickly when you have less towers than Blastapopoulos can throw fireballs at.
• That One Level:
  • Keyhole, a Volcano tile with a very short path and very little good placing space. You also can't use Ice towers, Boomerang Throwers, or Monkey Villages. It's even harder on mobile since a section of the "keyhole" is missing so you have less space to place towers. Have fun.
  • Bad Mirror, a Lake tile with way too much water, and not enough good Spike Factory spots. Have fun.
  • The infamous Butterfly level, a heavy forest tile with one big straight line with very little placing space near it (though makes for an excellent Dartling Gun and Juggernaut spot) and two short paths, which means you need two times the towers. Have fun.
  • There is a Heavy Forest map exclusive to mobile that is a large circle loop in the center, except the center itself is blocked by trees and the bloons only loop once. Towers are generally going to be limited on their range to attack on this track.
  • The Totem Pole map may count too. Bloons enter on two separate paths that cross only once, then separate again. The Game-Breaker spike factories are less useful in the early game because of the two exits. Popping MOAB-class bloons, especially DDTs, can be a big issue because of the split tracks. Because it's a jungle map, no apprentice monkeys or ice towers either, meaning you have to find a replacement for the Arctic Wind and/or Ice Shards to pop massive amounts of bloons from ZOMGs.
  • Percent ZigZags this one somewhat; the shape of the track averts this trope on standard tiles; however, it can be quite a pain in high Contested Territory rounds due to the extremely limited land. In other words, farming for high rounds is limited, temples can't be built very well due to insufficient land for full sacrifices, and very little room for support towers after this! Your best bet is to rely on First Strike Capabilities, but this only applies for mobile.
  • As for entire terrains, Hill tiles are hard to capture early on, as they restrict the use of Boring, but Practical Dart Monkeys, and some pretty difficult levels for them, one of them being chock-full of tunnels, which monkeys can't attack bloons that are in them.
    • Of particular note for the Hill terrain is the infamous Mustache level. It has only 1 path, but bloons go both ways on it, so both entrances are also exits. Spike Factories and Road Spikes becomes less effective as a result. Good luck...
  • Desert terrain is even worse, as it restricts the Spike Factory, one of the best towers in the game, and Super Monkey, an essential for later Contested territories. What's especially bad is Arrow, which has a deceivingly short path with very little placing space, two different exits, and tunnels at the end. It's going to be a long day if these terrains are used in a Contested Territory.
  • The Cave level is easily one of the hardest maps in this game early on. It has 3 entrances and 1 exit, but the paths are really short, especially on the leftmost entrance where bloons go straight for the exit without going around the loop like bloons coming from the bottom entrance or the right entrance do. You also can't use Monkey Aces, Banana Farms, or Dartling Guns on this tile (Heli-pilots are also banned on the mobile version). If you do tend to replay it on Flash, then you can't use Mortars despite favoring Engineers.
  • Bloon Dunes introduces several more tough maps.
    • Stealth Canyon. The bloons go straight up the track, then make a U-Curve, then go straight to the exit. That's it! The straightforward bloon path outright HURTS your towers' reliability due to the ways they attack. No farms either due to being in Badlands.
    • Parabola. Take Stealth Canyon's concept and put it on a lake. Now design the exit area to counter a very common Game-Breaker strategy to pass Stealth Canyon and other tracks at low levels. Oh no.
    • Coils. The bloons come out of two curls and then march out on a straightforward path to the exit. ABSOLUTELY FORGET about defending anywhere near the curls. Also, this is a Heavy Forest track, so no farms.
    • Mirage. You're forced to defend not one, but TWO paths that meander away from each other! In addition, no glue, spike factories or super monkeys, like all the other Desert maps.
    • The High Desert terrain in general, because it restricts spike factories and super monkeys like Desert maps, but instead of glue being banned, you lose dartlings and banana farms! High rounds in Contested Territory become both difficult and tedious, because of the need for supply-drop farming (lengthening the game a lot on its own) and the inability to build some of the strongest late-game towers.