The "antagonistic" faction of the series, hordes of vaguely sentient balloons, airships, and other inflatable floating objects that the Monkeys must pop.
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Normal Bloons
The standard enemy types fought in the games. The game will initially send bloons whose only special trait is turning into lesser bloons when popped, but later bloon types will start to display tougher traits, most notably immunity to specific damage types without countermeasures. As a Whole
- Adaptational Badass: Purple Bloons first appeared as Glass Bloons in the spinoff Bloons Super Monkey 2. There, they were only able to deflect energy-type attacks. As Purple Bloons, however, they gained immunity to magic and fire as well. Considering most late-game defenses have towers with those types of attacks as mainstays, a rush of Purple Bloons can power through even the strongest of defenses if not properly supported, especially if they're also camouflaged.
- Armored But Frail: Bloons with immunities, like Lead or Purple Bloons, can shrug off any attacks they take that they resist. However, they'll pop from just one attack they have no resistance to.
- Arms Race: BTD's addition of new, stronger tower tiers and stronger MOAB class bloons with each sequel can be seen as this in-universe, with the monkeys continually producing stronger and stronger towers capable of countering the increasingly strong and immune MOAB classes.
- Anti-Magic: Purple Bloons are immune to all energy damage, including Sun Rays as well as attacks from the Monkey Wizard.
- Asteroids Monster: The stronger Bloons release one or more lesser ones when popped.
- Balloon of Doom: The enemies that you need to defend the lanes from. Although considering the No Plot? No Problem! nature of the games, it's unclear as to why you're fighting them at all.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: It's been offhandedly mentioned that their bodies are biodegradable and that despite being seemingly inanimate balloons, they have DNA and souls, and can be turned into edible items.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Black Bloons are immune to explosives, while White Bloons are immune to freezing. Zebra Bloons, which are black and white and contain one of each bloon, are immune to both.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: With the exception of Lead and Ceramic Bloons (and Camo Bloons in 4), the Bloons are primarily identified by their colors. Even then, Lead is easily identified by being grey and Ceramic is brown.
- Dark Is Evil: Zebra Bloons have black stripes. Black Bloons are well... black. They're both enemies.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In their debut appearance in 4, Camo Bloons were a completely independent kind of Bloon, which released 2 Pink Bloons when popped and could be damaged by stray projectiles from towers that could not detect them (for example, the spiked ball of a Spike-o-Pult that was not supported by a nearby Sonar Beacon or Crow's Nest). Starting with 5, Camo is a property, and can be applied to any regular Bloon (as well as the DDT). Furthermore, they can only be damaged by towers that can detect themnote .
- Elite Mook: Ceramic Bloons are the strongest standard type of bloon - they're fast, take 10 hits to pop, take off a lot of lives if they leak, and release 2 Rainbow Bloons when popped. Super Ceramics, found after round 80, are even tougher, but only produce one Rainbow instead.
- Extra-ore-dinary: Lead Bloons, which are immune to sharp projectiles and can be popped by heat-based or explosive attacks.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: Lead Bloons are immune to the most common attack type (that being sharp projectiles), and are the toughest bloon on their branch of the hierarchy. Unfortunately, they don't fare nearly as well against explosives or fire based attacks.
- Flat Character: It's not known why Bloons want to invade the monkey lands. They just do.
- Fragile Speedster: The Yellow and Pink Bloons are only the fourth and fifth weakest Bloons respectively, but they are the fastest, moving near three times the speed of a Red Bloon. In some cases, it might be advantageous to leave some slower Black/White Bloons alone before popping them into the faster Pinks.
- The Goomba: The basic Red Bloon moves slowly and only takes one hit to pop. The first few rounds send nothing but them to give you some extra cash.
- Healing Factor: Any Bloon with the Regen trait will passively regrow any lost layers if left unharmed for some time. This includes any split bloons, allowing Regen bloons to outright multiply if allowed to.
- Heavily Armored Mook: BTD6 introduces Fortified Leads and Ceramics, which have armor which increases the amount of damage required to pop them (quadrupling the health of Leads and doubling the health of Ceramics and Super Ceramics). They're the only two standard Bloons that can have Fortification applied to them, as it's generally reserved for the MOAB-class Bloons.
- Irony: Lead Bloons are immune to sharp objects but vulnerable to explosions. When popped, it releases two Black Bloons, which are immune to explosions and vulnerable to sharp objects.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Black, White, Zebra, Lead, and Purple Bloons are all immune to different types of damage. Black Bloons are immune to explosions, White Bloons are immune to freezing attacks, and Zebra Bloons are immune to both. Lead Bloons are immune to sharp objects, while Purples are immune to fire, energy, and magic attacks.
- Lightning Bruiser: Ceramic Bloons and their Super Ceramic upgraded versions. Not only do they deal a huge amount of health on a leak, they can also take a beating (especially Super Ceramics), and are also very fast-moving.
- Matryoshka Object: Stronger bloons (MOAB-class as well) reveal a weaker bloon inside once popped. Sometimes multiple.
- Metal Slime: In 5 and 6, a Golden Bloon could rarely show up on certain maps, offering certain rewards when popped. In 5, it was a reverse-moving bloon with Camo/Lead/Ceramic properties, the speed of a Pink, and half the health of a MOAB, along with a few select immunities to instakills. In 6, while it has less health and it only starts gradually gaining immunities over multiple appearances, it only takes 1 damage from any attack and will briefly go invincible before warping a short distance forward or backwards whenever it's damaged. Either way, it's incredibly slippery.
- Mighty Glacier: Lead Bloons are immune to several damage types and the only non-Ceramic that can be fortified, taking more than one hit to be popped. However, they move as slowly as the Red Bloon.
- No-Sell: There are a number of Bloons that are immune to certain methods of attack, although upgrades are capable of bypassing them.
- Black Bloons are immune to most un-upgraded explosives. Shrapnel from upgraded explosives is capable of piercing them, however.
- White Bloons are immune to most un-upgraded forms of freezing.
- Zebra Bloons combine the abilities of Black and White Bloons.
- Lead Bloons are immune to most un-upgraded forms of physical damage and energy attacks in 6.
- Purple Bloons are immune to most un-upgraded forms of energy attacks.
- Ceramic Bloons were immune to the slowdown from glue in 4 and 5 (although not the damage from Corrosive Glue), but lost this immunity in 6.
- Starting from 5 onwards, Camo Bloons are immune to attacks from towers that lack Camo detection, even if they were caught within an explosion from those towers. Their invulnerability works differently than all the others, though, as Black, White, Zebra, Lead and Purple Bloons will destroy the projectile that hits them, shielding Bloons behind them, whereas attacks without Camo detection will harmlessly phase through Camo Bloons and hit everything else behind them.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Played With. Technically all Bloons except Ceramics and Fortified Leads only have one HP. However, all of them are also Asteroids Monster that release weaker Bloons when popped. So HP for the Bloons mean how many layers are contained inside them. Attacks with more than one damage can actually skip layers (like popping a Green directly to a Red without going through the Blue layer). Red Bloons, however, play this straight as they aren't Asteroids Monsters and they die in one hit.
- Stealthy Mook: Any Bloon with the Camo trait is invisible (and invincible, as of 5) against towers without Camo detection capabilities.
MOAB-Class Bloons
Huge blimps that serve as a step up from the regular bloons, with far more Hit Points along with being much more difficult to stop. They'll start showing up once you get into the mid to late rounds (depending on the game). In General
- Boss in Mook Clothing: They become a regular occurrence in later waves, and are still far stronger than any non-MOAB-class Bloon.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: They're immune to some types of attacks that can harm regular Bloons, and are generally immune if not resistant to basic forms of movement impairing statuses. The high-tier blimps, like the ZOMG and BAD, have even more immunities.
- Cool Airship: Well, not so cool for the monkeys.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: They act the same way as regular Bloons, but they're much tougher.
- Degraded Boss: After appearing as bosses, the MOAB-class Bloons become regular enemies. The BAD is a heavily downplayed case, as it does not appear nearly as frequently as the ZOMG and DDT in Freeplay rounds, and Fortified BADs only start appearing from Round 200 onwards.
- Fun with Acronyms: All of their names stand for something. In order, there's the Massive Ornary Air Blimp, the Brutal Floating Behemoth, the Zeppelin of Mighty Gargantuanness, the Dark Dirigible Titan, and the Big Airship of Doom.
- Heavily Armored Mook: In BTD6, many blimps in later rounds will become armored Fortified versions, which doubles their HP and makes them extremely resilient to damage. Fortunately, Mortar Monkeys with the Shattering Shells upgrade can instantly destroy this armor on anything up to a BFB, or a DDT if they upgrade to Blooncineration.
- Mighty Glacier: They tend to be slower than regular Bloons, but they're also much, much tougher, and are of course, a One-Hit Kill if they do escape. The DDT is the only one that isn't this, being a Fragile Speedster relative to the others and a Lightning Bruiser on its own merits.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: All of them. The MOAB, despite actually being called the Massive Ornary Air Blimp, is an obvious reference to the Mother of All Bombs. The BFB's acronym is similar to BFG but it actually means Brutal Floating Behemoth. ZOMG tends to be an expression for huge shock, and its name Zeppelin of Mighty Gargantuanness tells you how big of a foe it is. DDT's acronym refers to an infamous environmentally-unfriendly pesticide, and the actual name Dark Dirigible Titan is ominous-sounding too. Finally, BAD's acronym speaks for itself, while also meaning Big Airship of Doom.
- One-Hit Kill: If they get past your defences, it's pretty much a guaranteed game over, as they do so much damage that it's practically impossible to get enough lives to survive them without extensive life farming.note
- Shows Damage: Starting with BTD5, they get progressively more damaged the more attacks they take.
Individual Types
Massive Ornery Air Blimp (MOAB)
First appearance: BTD3
The MOAB is the first MOAB-class to appear, as well as the weakest. It is a small light blue blimp, with two white stripes and a white tip. It tends to make its first appearance at around round 35 to 50. It has 200 health points, moves as fast as a red bloon, and releases four Ceramic Bloons upon its destruction.- Early-Bird Boss: Appears on round 40 in BTD6, a mere two rounds after the introduction of Ceramic Bloons, and ten full rounds before appearing as part of regular waves, the longest of any MOAB-class.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: It was white in BTD3, and white with blue stripes in BTD4. It also carried four Ceramic Bloons externally, embedded on top. It gained its definitive appearance in BTD5. It is however possible to revert to its original appearance (although updated with damage indications and 3D graphics) in BTD6 with the Retro MOAB skin.
- Final Boss: Is the sole enemy on Round 40, the last round of Easy difficulty.
- Zerg Rush: In later rounds, MOABs may appear in massive numbers to counter their individual weakness: on round 99, no less than 60 appear!
Brutal Floating Behemoth (BFB)
First appearance: BTD4
The BFB is the second MOAB-class to appear, at round 60 in all games so far. It is primarily red, with two turbines in the back, two eye decals, and a symbol on top. It has 700 health points, moves slower than a MOAB, and releases four of them upon its destruction.- Can't You Read the Sign?: Had a "no monkeys allowed" sign on top until BTD6.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: It was white with red stripes in BTD4. The Retro BFB skin reverts it to this.
- Final Boss: Is the sole enemy on Round 60, the last round of Medium difficulty.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: It is the first MOAB-class to have eye designs. In particular, in its first appearance, they glowed red.
- Red Is Violent: One of the more threatening MOAB-class bloons, and painted a bright red. It was more apparent back in BTD4 when they were the biggest and baddest bloons around.
- Zerg Rush: Large groups of BFBs are relatively rare, but sometime appear later on in the game. In particular, the 30 fortified BFBs of round 98 are especially infamous. Lampshaded in BTD4 with this quote:Round 75: This is the true final level. You know that it's just going to be BFBs and MOABs, right?
Zeppelin Of Mighty Gargantuanness (ZOMG)
First appearance: BTD5
The ZOMG is the third MOAB-class to appear, at round 85 in BTD5 and 80 in BTD6. It is dark grey, with green stripes and a white skull symbol. It has 4000 health points, moves very slowly, and releases four BFBs upon its destruction.-
Badass Decay: Considering the series, this was to be expected, but ZOMGs in the BTD5 era were significantly more threatening due to stuns being nowhere near as effective against them as they are in 6. Cripple MOAB (as in, 5's counterpart to 6's Maim MOAB) didn't even refresh its stun duration on hit, meaning that even a full firing squad of upgraded snipers couldn't stop ZOMGs from slowly inching forward. Additionally, 5th tier towers in 6 tend to be able to One-Hit Kill a ZOMG, examples being Pirate Lord and XXXL Trap, which is notable because there was no such thing in 5. - Contractual Boss Immunity: Many abilities that otherwise work perfectly well on MOABs, BFBs, and DDTs just stop working on the ZOMG or otherwise have drastically reduced effect. In 5, they had resistance to most stun effects such as Cripple MOAB, and were the only MOAB-class bloon that can survive getting thrashed by a Super Wide Funnel bloonchipper with base HP. Downplayed in 6 where it gains more vulnerabilities, especially from the new Tier 5 monkeys; even then, it's a lot more resistant to these than its lesser peers, its most noticeable advantage being that its Fortified trait can't be removed by any means.
- Dark Is Evil: It has a dark color scheme and is definitely a major foe in your struggle against the bloons.
- Final Boss: Is the sole opponent on Round 85 in BTD5 (unless on Impoppable, where it gains four friends). Additionally, it's the only bloon that appears on Round 80 in BTD6, the last round of Hard mode.
- Green and Mean: One of its main colors is green, and it's a foe.
- The Juggernaut: Downplayed. While it can be slowed down and pushed back, some methods either do not work as well or fail. As such, it is less affected by Maim MOAB than other MOAB-class. Towers capable of dealing a One-Hit Kill to lesser MOAB-classes merely damage it without popping it, with some exceptions such as First Strike Capability and certain Tier 5 upgrades in BTD6.
- Pointless Band-Aid: Some of its versions show a band-aid when critically damaged.
- Skeleton Motif: Its distinct detail is a large white skull.
- Steampunk: One of its purchasable skin makes it this in BTD6.
- Wolfpack Boss: On Impoppable difficulty in BTD5, five appear on round 85 instead of merely one.
Dark Dirigible Titan (DDT)
First appearance: Bloons Monkey City
The DDT is the fourth MOAB-class to appear, at round 90 in BTD6. It is black with a camo motif and a metallic appearance. It has 400 health points, moves as fast as a pink bloon, has the camo, black and lead properties, and releases four camo regrow Ceramics upon its destruction.- All Your Powers Combined: It combines the health of a MOAB, the speed of a Pink Bloon, the damage immunities of Black and Lead Bloons, and Camo properties, making it very tough to damage without the help of middle-path Monkey Villages.
- Canon Immigrant: The DDT originally appeared in the spinoff Monkey City, but made their way into the main series in BTD6.
- Dark Is Evil: It is black and a tricky foe.
- Failed a Spot Check: Despite being a massive metal blimp, it's still a camo bloon. If your monkeys can't detect camo, they can't attack the DDT.
- Fragile Speedster: Compared to its fellow MOAB-classes, it is fast yet very fragile.
- Lightning Bruiser: Just as capable of dealing a One-Hit Kill as other blimps, and very fast. Fortified DDTs in particular can run right through a defense with their 800 HP!
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: With overlapping immunities to piercing and explosives on top of Camo, there isn't a single base tower that can successfully damage it, much less destroy it.note
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Dark Dirigible Titan shares its acronym with the infamous pesticide DDT.note If that doesn't clue you in on how dangerous it is...
- Shout-Out: The Neon DDT skin gives it Tron Lines and an overall appearance resembling programs from TRON: Legacy. As a Genius Bonus, a camouflaged DDT has blue colors (like a user-aligned program), while a revealed DDT has yellow colors (like a hacker program).
- Stealthy Mook: Like Camo Bloons, it has stealth and invincibility against all towers that lack camo detection.
- Threatening Shark: One of its skins in BTD6 turns it into a shark. Since the shark doesn't have camo print, if the DDT's camo is removed, the shark gets a tracking tag attached to it.
- Weak, but Skilled: It has only a tenth of the health of the ZOMG, but manages to share a rank with it and pose just as much of a threat if not more due to its speed and myriad immunities.
- Wolfpack Boss: DDTs never appear alone, and are typically seen in groups of 3 or more.
- Zerg Rush: Round 95 is infamous for featuring a rush of no less than 30 DDT bloons among a bunch of MOABs. A later round, Round 263, is slightly random but is always fixed to produce nothing but Fortified MOABs and DDTs numbering in the thousands.
Big Airship of Doom (BAD)
First appearance: BTD6
The BAD is the fifth and last MOAB-class to appear so far, at round 100. It is huge and purple, with three turbines. It has 20,000 health points, is as slow as a ZOMG, and releases three DDTs and two ZOMGs upon its destruction.- Contractual Boss Immunity: The BAD completely resists just short of everything, even attacks and effects the ZOMG was susceptible to, such as the ones from Tier 5 towers. Its progress can't be impeded in any way, and it tends to be immune or significantly resistant to things that'd normally One-Hit Kill any lesser bloon.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: With 20000 healthnote and total immunity to most effects in the game, it takes a lot of punishment to bring one down. In freeplay, BADs progressively get even bulkier, and starting from round 200, they may appear fortified. At that point, a single FBAD has more than a million HP.
- Dem Bones: One of its skins turns it into a skeleton.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: It's not the Big Airship of Doom for nothing...
- The Dreaded: Most heroes' reaction to seeing one is a variation of Oh, Crap!, or if not, elicits a unique response that breaks from the trend of their reactions to other MOABs.
- Final Boss: It appears on round 100, the last non-freeplay round, and the last round on Impoppable and CHIMPS.
- Final-Exam Boss: Not only will the BAD test your pure DPS output since it shrugs off debuffsnote , you also have to manage the DDTs and ZOMGs inside of it, putting the flexibility of your defenses to the test.
- The Juggernaut: It's tankier than anything that isn't a boss while being completely immune to any form of slowing or displacement, and very few things can one-hit-kill it, the only exceptions being Ezili's level 20 MOAB Hex,note the Legend of the Night's black hole,note the hook ability of a Navarch of the Seas Buccaneer,note and a maximum Beast Power Megalodonnote . The only thing that will stop this behemoth is the finishing blow.
- Purple Is Powerful: It is purple, and the toughest normal bloon you'll face.
- Super Boss:
- Round 100 of Alternate Bloon Rounds is a single Fortified BAD. Since ABR normally finishes on round 80, you do not have to defeat it, but doing so gives you an insta-monkey like normal.
- In normal games, the first Fortified BAD shows up on Round 140, along with a normal one after. The only mode that goes this far is the Boss Bloon Event, and the FBAD will be the least of your worries there, if it hasn't been outright replaced.
- Round 200 is a non-random freeplay round made of two fortified BADs.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Unlike all the other standard bloons, BADs do not have a listed number for how many lives they take from you if one leaks on the game over screen. Letting one leak is an instant game over, no ifs, ands or buts.note
Boss Bloons
Special MOAB-class Bloons that first appeared as special events in Bloons Monkey City. These boss blimps have unique abilites and take a lot of punishment to bring down, but pay out with immense rewards if you do so. They returned in the sixth game, where they can be fought for big rewards as part of a rotating event. In General
- Adaptational Badass: They were already quite tough in Monkey City, but in 6 they return packing much higher stats and enhanced abilities to make up for the increased power available in the sixth game, as well as the fact that they only have 5 levels (10 counting their Elite variants) compared to the 20-30 of the original.For example...
- Background Music Override: In 6, they replace the standard music with their own boss themes. Returning bosses from Monkey City get Primal One
, while newcomers to 6 get Onslaught. - Canon Immigrant:
- Downplayed. They showed up in events in BTD5, but they don't appear in standard gameplay unlike the DDT.
- The Boss Bloons return in BTD6 after update 27.0, once again appearing in special events.
- Classical Elements Ensemble:
- Bloonarius represents Water. It's a swamp-dwelling, crocodile-themed blimp that is fought in the rain, and spawns massive tides and deluges of bloons every time it loses enough health.
- Vortex represents Air. It's constantly surrounded by a storm, uses air currents to speed up bloons and deflect projectiles, and can emit a radial air blast (in Bloons Monkey City) or lightning blast (in BTD6) to stun towers around it.
- Dreadbloon represents Earth. It's a subterranean, metallic blimp that protects itself with its Lead armor and can grow a rocky layer to protect itself, as well as summon Dreadrock Bloons to tank for it and Draw Aggro.
- Blastapopoulos represents Fire, being a molten blimp that dwells in a volcano and can throw fireballs at your towers to stun them.
- Contractual Boss Immunity:
- They have resistances to the MOAB Assassin ability, and cannot be consumed by the Super Wide Funnel Bloonchippers.
- In 6 they gain the expected universal immunity to stuns, knockback, and slows, similar to the BAD. Unlike the BAD, they're understandably also immune to the few things that can instantly kill a BAD, and are additionally immune to all sources of percentage-based health reduction.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: MOAB-class bloons generally soak damage ranging from the hundreds at least to tens of thousands at most, and even the bulkiest of them, the BAD, only has 28000 HP when first encountered on round 100. Meanwhile, even at the lowest possible level, bosses will have tens of thousands of HP while appearing on round 40, and at higher Elite tiers, even the most fragile boss can be expected to have HP in the tens of millions. A defense that might have no trouble defeating a BAD can fail to even dent a mid-tier boss, while any defense built to handle a boss will invariably be overkill for standard gameplay outside of very late freeplay.
- Elite Four: In Monkey City, Bloonarius, Vortex, Dreadbloon, and Blastapopoulos make up the original four bosses.
- Evil Is Bigger: The Boss bloons are some of the largest and most dangerous bloons in the entire series, with Lych (currently) the largest of them all.
- Marathon Boss:
- Their health multiplies every time you defeat them, resulting in them having hundreds of thousands of RBE by level 20. It's VERY hard to beat the later levels in one attempt, resulting in a player needing to try again and again to beat them.
- While the mechanics surrounding their boss fights changed in BTD6, what hasn't changed is the amount of time taken to beat them. Extravagant health aside, the bosses now show up repeatedly over the duration of a standard game, with the final tier appearing on Round 120. And if you fail? You have to start all over again from the beginning.
- Metal Slime: They show up only in events, but grant loot to the player if they're beaten.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: In BTD6, they modify specific rounds to match their theme. For example, Vortex downgrades MOAB-class Bloons by one layer, but spawns more of them (i.e the round 100 BAD is replaced with 4 ZOMGs and 6 DDTs.), and Dreadbloon replaces regular Bloons for fortified Leads, Ceramics and Moabs.
- Recurring Boss: They pay out with rewards after defeating them up to 20 times. They technically can be fought as much as a player wants, but continuing to do so has no tangible rewards. The sixth game cuts down the number of battles they have to 5, but also adds 5 more Elite fights. Each tier of boss now shows up on certain rounds of a game, replacing the usual "final boss" rounds of the original gamemodes.
- Stone Wall: The bosses are painfully slow (and give you multiple rounds to defeat them), but offset this with their exponentially-increasing durability. On higher difficulties, you will need every last second of this time to grind them down.
- Super Boss: The boss bloons aren't part of standard gameplay, and are only there if a prospective player is looking to squeeze out extra loot drops or Contested Territory tiles.
- Time-Limit Boss: In BTD6, if you don't defeat a boss after 20 rounds,note you automatically lose regardless of how many lives you had left or how close the boss was to leaking. This only really applies to Bloonarius and Dreadbloon because of how slow they are, but on longer maps it is possible against Lych, Phayze, or even Vortex.
- Upgraded Boss: In BTD6, each boss comes with an Elite variant that's only unlocked after fully defeating their regular version. These versions have new appearances, massively buffed stats and abilities, and their own sets of medals and ranked brackets.
- Weapon of X-Slaying: All Paragons deal significantly increased damage to them on top of their already staggering firepower. Considering how ridiculous their HP gets in the later tiers (especially Elite), you will need to make good use of Paragons to even stand a chance of taking them down for good.
Bloonarius the Inflator
Bloonarius the Inflator awakens!
Elite Version
Sludge-dwelling Bloonarius spews Bloons as it takes damage then disgorges massive Bloon clusters when each skull on the health bar is reached. Bloonarius' sludge infused husk makes it slow but extremely tough.
An absolute behemoth of a blimp, lurking within the depths of its swamp. Bloonarius is the tankiest of the event bosses, and has the ability to spawn progressively-stronger bloons as it takes damage.- Adaptational Badass: In 6, in addition to its massively increased HP, Bloonarius doubled down on its Bloon-spawning capability. Instead of periodically spawning single bloons at health thresholds, it now continuously spawns waves of weaker bloons after losing a given amount of HP, and every quarter of its health gone, spawns an absolute Zerg Rush of high-tier bloons that can easily overpower your defense, or smaller groups of MOAB-class bloons that are arguably even worse. Its elite variant is even tankier and triggers its (much stronger) spawns at every eighth of its HP, making it even more overwhelming.
- Animal Motifs: Crocodiles. Bloonarius's monstrous green shape is very similar to a crocodilian, which gets even more pronounced in its Elite form; and an Easter Egg in Bloonarius Prime has a croc emerging from the swamp.
- Battle in the Rain: Bloonarius's presence in 6 is heralded by a rainstorm. Its elite variant cranks it up to a dark thunderstorm.
- Boring, but Practical: Compared to its fellow bosses, all Bloonarius does is tank damage extremely well and summon lesser bloons when damaged. This does not make it any less lethal than the others.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: In Monkey City, its swamp is the only boss stage with water, allowing players to deploy the powerful Monkey Buccaneers and Monkey Subs. This is not necessarily the case in BTD6, for its release event didn't feature on a map with water, although it has appeared on maps with water later.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: Bloonarius's stage in Monkey City, a coiled swamp with murky waters. Its associated stage in BTD6, Bloonarius Prime, is also a dank swamp.
- Clown Car: Bloonarius's insides can store a lot more than would be visually apparent, repeatedly disgorging MOAB-class bloons, and even a dozen BADs (which happen to be slightly larger than Bloonarius) according to its Elite variant.
- Costume Evolution: Of a sort. In BTD6, Bloonarius's appearance changes with each tier it's fought, growing more monstrous-looking.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: THE tankiest of all the bosses, but all it can do to defend itself is release a swarm of Bloons at every damage stage. Particularly notable is the Level 5 Elite Bloonarius fought in BTD6, which has a whopping 40,000,000 HP. As a reference, in Freeplay Rounds, a Fortified BAD does not reach that much HP until around Round 600, whereas you are facing Level 5 Elite Bloonarius in Round 120.
- Eye Scream: When sufficiently damaged, Bloonarius' left eye appears to be completley punctured in, while its right eye has a large gash inside it.
- Flunky Boss: Will spawn bloons at every damage stage. The bloon spawned ranks up with each level Bloonarius is fought at, going from Lead Bloons all the way up to ZOMGs at max level. In BTD6, it passively disgorges weaker Bloons as it takes damage and spawns stronger bloons at every level, ranging from hordes of Ceramics at level 1 to BADs at level 5, and multiple fortified BADs at Elite level 5.
- Glasgow Grin: Elite Bloonarius has tears around its "mouth", giving it the appearance of a gaping, toothed maw.
- Green and Mean: It has green and it's a villain.
- Making a Splash: Bloonarius's element is water, represented (at least in BTD6) by it spewing deluges of bloons from its insides. Additionally, its home turf is a rainy swamp.
- Mook Maker: Bloonarius focuses and specializes in being one, spawning a single Bloon that scales with its level in its BMC incarnation, and spawning a whole army in BTD6.
- Stone Wall: Bloonarius may be the slowest Bloon in the series to date, but it is also by far the tankiest Bloon as well. So much so that its Elite form has more HP than the test bloon.
- Tag Line: "From the swampy depths, Bloonarius the Inflator awakens!"
- Zerg Rush: Each time a skull threhsold is reached, Bloonarius dumps tons of extra bloons for you to deal with onto the field. Its Elite tier 1 is notable for spawning 70 ceramics at once, while tier 5 passively spawns 8 DDTs whenever it takes damage.
Vortex, Deadly Master of Air
From the skies comes Vortex!
Elite Version
Vortex moves like lightning and speeds other bloons along!
When each health bar skull is reached, Vortex shields itself and sends out a shockwave that stuns nearby Towers before retreating further up the track.
Vortex emits a regular storm pulse, destroying projectiles, including any non-Powers on the track.
A shark-like zeppelin that's fought at the top of a mountain range. Vortex isn't as durable as Bloonarius, but makes up with its ability to emit a slowing pulse that cripples the damage output of towers too close to it. It returned to BTD6 as the third boss, reworked to place more emphasis on its speed and variety of abilities designed to mitigate or negate incoming damage.- Adaptational Badass: It got the standard massive HP boost during the transition to BTD6, but Vortex received a much more varied set of buffs compared to the first returning boss, Bloonarius. Not only is it much faster, its storm powers are now more varied than just a slowing pulse, allowing it to speed up bloons, clear projectiles in a radius with wind, and periodically deploy wind barriers at health thresholds that nullify most incoming attacks for their duration. It also keeps the pulse attack, but it now fires at HP thresholds instead of on a timer and is significantly more dangerous, completely stunning towers for a lengthy period of time instead of just slowing them.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Despite being the quickest of the Boss Bloons, it gets pushed back everytime it loses a skull.
- Batman Gambit: Vortex's new powers in BTD6 counter several popular strategies for destroying bosses in Ranked Mode. Its storm shield and short-ranged stun counter towers like the Tack Zone or Super Brittle, the same stun wave can shut down defenses that need to be heavily clumped to take advantage of buffs (like Avatar of Wrath or towers being buffed by a Village/Alchemist), and its wind pulses can disperse track hazards, most notably Spike Factory spikes and even bananas from the highest-production top path Banana Farms. Its skillset instead puts a greater emphasis on carefully positioning and spacing towers (and using long or global-ranged towers) to keep constant pressure on Vortex without being stunned or blocked, rather than building a compact kill-zone with focused DPS like one might do for Bloonarius or Lych.
- Blow You Away: Vortex's element is air, and it uses it to emit stunning blasts. In BTD6, its wind powers get more varied, giving it the ability to create shields, speed up bloons, and destroy projectiles and track hazards outright with periodic shockwaves.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Vortex in Monkey City emerges from its own unique path that happens to be twice as long as the track that the rest of the bloons take.
- Death Mountain: Its stage in Monkey City takes place on a high mountaintop, surrounded by clouds.
- Deflector Shields: In BTD6, it gains the ability to temporarily put up a storm barrier that will deflect any projectiles that aren't fast enough to power through it. This shield disappears after a short time, but will be refreshed every time Vortex loses enough HP.
- Dramatic Thunder: How Vortex announces its approach in 6.
- Empathic Environment: An electrifying storm will swirl around the map to herald its presence.
- Extra Eyes: Has five eyes on its face. In BTD6, it gains even more eyes as it levels up.
- Flying on a Cloud: It is held aloft on a turbulent thundercloud.
- Fragile Speedster: Vortex is by far the fastest of the bosses,note and while still has a huge sum of health to eat through, it lacks the extremely bulky minions of Bloonarius or Lych, and will also be knocked back a fair distance every time it takes enough damage, making it possible to continuously push it back with enough DPS. It circumvents this with its wind blasts and shields temporarily nullifying projectiles, and its lightning bursts outright disabling towers every time it gets knocked back, which can turn it into a literal Lightning Bruiser if the player hasn't positioned their units well.
- Hellish Pupils: Elite Vortex's eyes changes from pupiless white to catlike yellow with vertical pupils at tier 3.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: The lightning blast it releases at HP thresholds will hit everything in a moderate range, putting them out of commission for a decent time. This makes heavily clumped defenses a poor choice against Vortex, instead encouraging careful positioning and spacing of long-ranged towers.
- Hostile Weather: All the damn time. Vortex is a living storm-front, and it brings the thunder when it comes in.
- The Juggernaut: Downplayed with Vortex specifically. While it still has stun/slowdown/knockback immunity like the BAD, and cannot be instakilled by things like a Navarch, it's also the only boss that can be directly held back. When Vortex reaches a skull threshold, it retreats backwards along the track a small but significant distance. With enough firepower, it's perfectly possible to keep Vortex from advancing an inch.
- Nitro Boost: Its BTD6 incarnation has the ability to drastically speed up Bloons with wind until they catch up to it. This is especially deadly on multi-lane maps, as the lanes that Vortex is not on will be subjected to its speed boost for the entire length instead of up to Vortex's current position.
- Shock and Awe: In BTD6, it adds storm and lightning-based powers to its arsenal, with its "body" being wreathed in electricity at higher levels and its stunning wind pulses being turned into bursts of lightning. Unlike its previous version of the attack, this occurs every time it loses a certain amount of HP rather than on a timer.
- Support Party Member: Unlike Bloonarius or Lych which function more like Mook Maker style bosses, Vortex instead focuses on supporting its fellow Bloons by speeding them up via its slipstream, blocking or clearing projectiles for them, and stunning towers to stop them from fighting back.
- Tag Line:
- "Dark clouds gather for Vortex: Deadly Master of Air!"
- From the skies comes Vortex: Deadly Master of Air!" for BTD6.
- The Paralyzer: Its BTD6 incarnation is capable of completely shutting down any tower nearby whenever it loses enough health.
- Weather Manipulation: Its mere presence is heralded by a windstorm, and it appears to have a permanent localized lightning storm underneath it. It can also blast towers with lightning to stun them once it loses enough of its health and it can control wind to deflect or outright destroy projectiles.
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Its eyes turn from white to yellow during its elite form, and this boss is far from being a nice guy.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: In contrast to the Monkey Druid's pinkish/purple lightning, Vortex's lightning is yellow.
Dreadbloon, Armored Behemoth
From deep within the dark earth... Dreadbloon, the Armored Behemoth!
Elite Version
Dreadbloon has lead properties and reduces all incoming damage by 1.
When each skull is reached, Dreadbloon grows a Ceramic Armor Shell and Dreadrock Bloons will begin spawning at the start of the track.
When Dreadbloon appears, it is immune to Primary towers. At each skull, this immunity changes to a different tower type: Military, Magic, Support.
Dreadrock Bloons and the Ceramic Armor Shell also have these immunities.
Dreadrock Bloons have a Strong taunt, be careful what your towers are targeting!
Fought within a dark cavern, Dreadbloon has the least raw HP of all the bosses, but makes up for it with its ability to regenerate a rocky shield as well as its native lead property. It returned to BTD6 as the fourth boss, reworked to emphasize its durability and ability to mitigate damage taken.
- Adaptational Badass: Like Vortex, Dreadbloon received a significantly improved arsenal in BTD6 in addition to the usual stat buff. Not only do its passive damage reduction and rotating immunities let it power through even the mightiest of monkey defenses, its tremendously tanky Dreadrock Bloon spawns can very quickly end the game if you aren't prepared to handle them along with the boss.
- Armored But Frail: While Dreadbloon's Lead properties make it resistant to many sources of damage and its regenerating ceramic shield helps it soak damage, its actual HP is quite low in comparison to the other boss bloons. Averted with its BTD6 incarnation: although its raw HP is still by far the lowest of the bosses, its protective capabilities give it effective bulk just shy of Bloonarius.note
- Barrier Change Boss: Its 6 incarnation can cycle through immunities to entire tower categories, changing its immunity in a fixed cycle each time it reaches a skull (Primary, Military, Magic, and Support in order). Its Dreadrock Bloon spawns will share whatever immunity Dreadbloon currently has.
- Barrier Warrior: Every damage stage, Dreadbloon will encase itself in stone, adding another layer of HP your monkeys will need to chip through. In BTD6, while its shield is up, it'll slow down but start spawning Dreadrock reinforcements until you break the armor.
- Batman Gambit: Continuing the trend of BTD6 bosses breaking up popular strategies, Dreadbloon forces you to spread out your money across different categories of towers. You can't rely on a single powerhouse tower like a Paragon or Vengeful Temple to deal all the damage, as when Dreadbloon shifts its immunity to that category, they won't even scratch its paint as its now-immune Dreadrock minions run you down; if you think Monkey Intelligence Bureau will trivialize this, you're in for a nasty surprise. To a lesser extent, it also punishes towers relying on high attack speed or Death of a Thousand Cuts like the Tack Zone, as it'll significantly resist them at best and outright shrug them off at worst without damage amplification.
- Damage Reduction: In BTD6, Dreadbloon will passively reduce all damage taken by 1 when its main body is exposed, letting it significantly resist or outright No-Sell towers that rely on Death of a Thousand Cuts without the use of a Damage-Increasing Debuff like Embrittlement. In its Elite version, it'll start reducing even more damage per hit once it reaches the higher tiers, although at that point it winds up being somewhat ineffective due to the sheer damage per hit the towers needed to take out high tier Elites deal.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Dreadbloon's element is earth, represented by its stone barrier and metal body.
- Draw Aggro: Dreadrock Bloons are set to always be considered the "strongest" bloon in the game, allowing them to force any towers or attacks set to Strong targeting to attack them instead of Dreadbloon itself. This also affects any abilities that target the "strongest" bloon on screen, like First Strike.
- Elemental Armor: At every damage stage, it will use its earth powers to encase itself in a Ceramic shell, which gives it an additional layer of health that must be whittled down.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Although its Ceramic and Lead traits give it increased defensive power, they also make it uniquely vulnerable to attacks that are effective against them compared to the other bosses. This is most noticeable against its Ceramic shell, since Dreadbloon is now doubly vulnerable to the myriad of anti-Ceramic and anti-MOAB upgrades available, most notably the Apex Plasma Master which hits three of its weaknesses at once.
- Flunky Boss: Dreadbloon in 6 has the ability to spawn Dreadrock Bloons while its rock armor is up; these Dreadrock Bloons are tremendously tanky and manipulate target priority to be considered the "Strongest" bloons on field, which can distract towers that otherwise would be aiming at Dreadbloon.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Dreadbloon's base layer has lead properties, preventing many monkeys from hurting it unassisted. in 6, it can also cycle between wholesale immunities to entire tower categories.
- No-Sell: In 6, Dreadbloon can become immune to ALL damage from a single tower category at a time, even from Paragons. Even Monkey Intelligence Bureau, which allows all towers to damage all bloons normally, is unable to pierce this immunity. Pay careful attention to any blue IMMUNEs that appear.
- Regenerating Shields, Static Health: Starts with a ceramic shell that periodically regenerates at HP thresholds, forcing you to spam high damage to keep it down.
- Stone Wall: Quite literally; Dreadbloon is a very slow boss, but its regenerating ceramic armor gives it the means to resist loads of incoming damage. Its immunities and damage reduction take this even further, cutting incoming DPS to size.
- Tag Line: "Deep from the dark earth, The Dreadbloon: Armored Behemoth!"
- This Is a Drill: Has a massive drill mounted on its nose.
- Underground Level: Dreadbloon's arena in Monkey City is a dark cave.
Blastapopoulos, Demon of the Core
A red-hot blimp fought within a volcanic wasteland. Blastapopoulos frequently throws out flaming meteors at your strongest towers, stunning them outright and preventing them from attacking.
- Batman Gambit: A common strategy to deal with boss bloons is to constantly sell and rebuy towers with high damage abilities (notably, MOAB Assassin) while using fast fire rate towers (such as Tack Sprayer or Dartling Gun) to maintain income. Blastapopoulos doesn't like this, as selling a tower will cause it to throw fireballs at your towers, stunning them.
- Berserk Button: Selling your towers. If you sell a tower, Blastapopoulos instantly throws a fireball (or more at higher levels) at your most expensive tower(s), stunning it.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Since the Boss Bloon released after Dreadbloon in version 38.0 ended up being a new boss, Blastapopoulos is the only Boss Bloon from Monkey City that has yet to return in BTD6.
- Cycle of Hurting: Blastapopoulos will constantly throw fireballs at your most expensive tower. Higher levels allow it to throw more fireballs while also increasing the stun duration, effectivly disabling your most powerful towers.
- Lethal Lava Land: Its arena, which appears to be the inside of a volcano.
- Magma Man: Blastapopolous has pieces of glowing hot rock embedded in it, to say nothing of it actually emerging from the lava.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: It ain't called Demon of the Core for nothing.
- Playing with Fire: Blastapopoulos's element.
- Shout-Out: Its name is an explosive spin on Rastapopoulos.
- Tag Line: "By fire be popped. Blastapopoulos: Demon of the Core!"
Lych, the Gravelord
The Gravelord Lych has been resurrected!
Elite Version
Gravelord Lych drains buffs from your Monkeys, healing itself in the process. When each skull on its healthbar is reached, Lych goes ethereal, resurrecting the empty shells of recently popped MOAB class bloons.
While ethereal, Lych cannot be damaged until all resurrected Bloons have been popped, including the life-draining Lych-soul Bloon. Resurrected Bloons do not spawn children, selling towers heals Lych.
The first new boss blimp to be introduced in BTD6. Lych was first teased by Ninja Kiwi before its official reveal. It's a necromantic-themed blimp with the ability to sap the power of buffs and sold monkeys to heal itself, and can turn ethereal and resurrect MOAB-class bloons.- Back from the Dead: Lych's main ability is to bring back recently defeated MOAB-class bloons from the grave every time it loses a portion of its health.
- Batman Gambit: Many strategies for dealing with bosses revolve around spamming applied buffs like Alchemists on scaling towers, or selling towers on the fly to gain money back or reset abilities. Meanwhile, Lych's ability to nullify buffs and steal HP from those exact strategies means that it will destroy you if you think about using the same tactic. Strategies against Lych thus revolve around towers with high base anti-MOAB power, rather than buffing scaling towers with every buff imaginable.
- Chained by Fashion: MOABs resurrected by Lych, as well as Elite Lych itself, are wrapped with chains. Tier 5 Elite Lych has a golden chain wrapped entirely around its body!
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Invokes an interesting case for the players: Lych's ability to sap buffs does not apply to those applied by Heroes, as "they're just too awesome."
- Dark Is Evil: It's got black and it's evil.
- Discard and Draw: Blimps resurrected by Lych are merely an Empty Shell, releasing no children. However, they have significantly buffed HP and speed to compensate.
- Evil Counterpart: Lych shares similar design motifs to the Tier 5 Wizard, the similarly necromancy-themed Prince of Darkness. Unlike the Dark Is Not Evil Prince, Lych is on the side of the bloons.
- Four Is Death: Every 4 seconds, Lych's Soul will directly drain a certain amount of your hearts.
- Glass Cannon: Lych may have one of the lowest HP values of all the bosses present in BTD6, but its abilities are arguably the most dangerous. Between sapping power from your monkeys whenever they are buffed or sold, resurrecting blimps with extreme speed and health buffs, and the equally powerful Lych Soul draining your lives directly, it's one deadly foe.
- Meaningful Name: Draws its name from a lychgate, which is also known as a resurrection gate.
- Our Liches Are Different: This one is a dirigible!
- Life Drain: In addition to healing off of buffs and leeching the lifeforce of sold towers to heal further, the Lych-soul it summons at health intervals will gradually drain your lives while it's alive. The amount of lives it drains increases depending on how high level the Lych you're currently fighting is.
- Necromancer: Every time Lych loses a portion of its health, it will resurrect MOAB-class bloons that were popped in the last 20 seconds, becoming invulnerable but immobile until they (and his soul) are defeated.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: The Lych-soul Bloon that it spawns is the only Bloon in the entire series that can directly damage your lives without leaking.
- Punny Name: Its name is a play on the term "Lich", as in the undead sorcerer, but also "Lychgate", the fence gate of a church graveyard. It's also a play on its ability to "leech" health from the player and their buffs.
- Purple Is Powerful: Lych is a deep purple and as one of the boss blimps is not to be trifled with.
- Shielded Core Boss: Every time it loses a portion of its HP, it'll resurrect a group of MOAB class bloons and summon a fast Lych-soul Bloon that drains the player's lives. Lych cannot be harmed while its spawns are alive.
- Soul Jar: The Lych-soul Bloon is a phylactery in all but name. Not only does it render Lych invulnerable as long as it lives, it will also Life Drain your hearts every 4 seconds.
- Spikes of Villainy: It's seen with large fence spikes jutting out from its rear section, which helps to make it more menacing. Higher tiers of Lych gain even more spikes.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Lych can periodically dispel applied buffs on nearby towers, absorbing them to heal itself; this will also stun the victims for a short time. Fortunately, this doesn't affect passive buffs, such as Village's Jungle Drums, and also cannot affect Heroes.
- Tag Line: "The Gravelord Lych has been resurrected!"
- Third Eye: Elite Lych has one, fitting for a bloon with magical powers.
- Vampiric Draining: Lych has the ability to steal buffs on monkeys on the field and turn them into healing for itself; selling towers also heals Lych.
Phayze, the Reality Warper
The Reality Warper Phayze invades from the chaos rift!
Elite Version
Phayze has the Camo property and a Reality Shield that increases its speed while the Shield is active.
When each skull is reached, Phayze rebuilds the Realily Shield and warps forward, opening a tear in the fabric of reality allowing Bloons to spawn further along the track.
Skulls also trigger a slow aura around Phayze, reducing the attack speed of all Monkey Towers.
Phayze triggers Radar Jam every 24 seconds, disabling Camo-seeing buffs as well as restoring its Camo property if it has been stripped.
Radar Jam also pulls Bloons to Phayze's location and grants them the Camo property.
A Boss Bloon added to BTD6 as the fifth boss, being the second new blimp introduced to the game after Lych. Phayze is a camouflaged blimp whose space-warping abilities are tailored for mobility and neutralizing damage, as well as further disorienting players by moving bloons further up the track.
- Anti-True Sight: Phayze periodically jams radar, preventing shared camo detection buffs from working, as well as restoring its own native camo property and preventing monkeys from removing its camo for a short time. This also pulls all bloons to its location and grants them the camo status.
- Armored But Frail: Much like Dreadbloon, its low HP is compensated for by its regenerating Reality Shield. On Elite, where it has 5 skulls and thus 6 shields, this gives it effective health rivaling Bloonarius and Dreadbloon.
- Background Music Override: Even more so than the usual Battle Theme Music, as while it's theme initially seems to be Onslaught, it will be overriden by The Reality Warper, a distorted arrangement of Onslaught that slows down and speeds up, glitches out at irregular intervals, and at one point plays a snippet of Monkey Lane Sub Boss 2 from Bloons Super Monkey 2, meant to reflect how Phayze is in a superposition between two worlds.
- Batman Gambit: Like with Vortex, attempting to defeat this boss with killzones will backfire on you,note as not only will Phayze warp right past the killzone, it will also teleport the bloon spawn point ahead on the track to bypass it completely. Its radar jamming abilities also mean camo buffs like top path Monkey Subs and middle path Monkey Villages will be severely crippled, working only for half the time. Phayze will instead require you to spread out your firepower and to rely on towers who can see camo by themselves, rather than focus fire on one part of the track or rely on external camo detection.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Phayze will glow bright red and blue if its camo properties have been removed.
- Color Contrast: At higher tiers, one blimp becomes red, while the other turns blue.
- Composite Character: From a gameplay perspective, it acts as a sort of combination between Vortex and Dreadbloon. It has the former's agility, ability to accelerate/empower natural bloons,note ways to slow down or neuter incoming fire,note and its emphasis on applying constant pressure instead of building a killbox. Meanwhile, it also has the latter's deceptive durability from a regenerating shield that affects its mobility,note and natural immunity to certain tower/damage types (Camo as opposed to Lead).
- Dark Is Evil: It's an ominous boss bloon whose speciality is in granting camo to all non-MOAB class bloons.
- Dimensional Traveller: Phayze is clearly not from this world.
- Dungeon Bypass: When its health reaches a skull threshold, Phayze leaves behind a portal. This lets the bloons spawn further up the track, and possibly ahead of any kill zones.
- Eldritch Abomination: Phayze is definitely the most otherworldly of all Boss Bloons. On top of being bizarre-looking and seemingly being based on quantum superposition, it is also capable of seriously impacting the world around it, tearing space asunder and letting the player peer into the void. Finally, it doesn't seem to be made of anything ressembling what the other bloons are made of, but rather some strange static.
- Eye Motifs: A bunch of eyes at the start of the track indicate its presence. Phayze itself starts off with two eyes, one on each blimp, and gains four more at higher tiers, for a total of three on both blimps.
- Fragile Speedster: Specifically in regards to its Reality Shield: It has only a quarter of Phayze's already small health pool, but Phayze's speed is boosted while it's active. The actual boss is closer to a Lightning Bruiser with its abiltiy to warp through the track and its shields giving it deceptively massive bulk.
- Field Power Effect: Each time it reaches skull health, it'll put up an effect that reduces the attack speed of all monkeys on screen, which stacks with each skull until it's defeated. The Elite version not only has more skulls to stack this, the slowing effect will additionally increase with Phayze's tier, which can get quite painful at higher tiers when Phayze is getting low.
- Glitch Entity: On its boss battle screen, it visually disappears and reappears quickly, and dark rectangles pop in and out of existence around itself. When it takes enough damage in battle, its insides appear to be white tv static.
- Mercy Invincibility: While Phayze is warping forward, it is immune to all damage. While this doesn't really matter much super often, this does make it immune to most Spike Factory (especially Perma-Spike) shenanigans.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: Its presence is heralded by the corners of the screen being torn, with an ever color shifting void inside. Presumably, that is a peer into the chaos rift that the Tag Line mentions.
- Percent-Based Values: Phayze's warp ability that it triggers for every skull lost warps it across 8% of the track's distance. This means that, at minimum, Normal Phayze will cross 24% of the track, while Elite Phayze will cross 40%.
- Reality Warper: Explicitly described as such, and is capable of doing so in battle to teleport bloons and itself across the track, as well as inhibit the attack speed of monkeys.
- Regenerating Shields, Static Health: Phayze will spawn with a Reality Shield that buffs its movement speed while active and also must be destroyed to harm the boss itself. It'll regenerate this shield each time it reaches a skull.
- Space Master: In addition to being able to warp across the track, Phayze can also tear open portals whenever it reaches skull health, moving the bloons' spawn point closer to the exit.
- Speed Echoes: Whenever it warps forward, it leaves behind a rainbow afterimage of itself as it travels.
- Stealthy Colossus: Despite its massive size, most monkeys cannot see it. When it activates its Radar Jam, it further disables buffs that grant camo vision, such as the Monkey Village's Radar Scanner.
- Support Party Member: Similar to Vortex, Phayze focuses on supporting current bloons on screen, rather than generating new ones. Whenever a skull threshold is reached, it rips open a portal for bloons to spawn from. Whenever it activates its radar jam, all bloons warp to its location and are given camo properties, while preventing monkeys from seeing camo by any buff related means. Additionally, it cuts the attack rate of any monkeys on screen whenever a skull threshold is reached.
- Tag Line: The Reality Warper Phayze invades from the chaos rift!
- Tron Lines: It has lines that run around its body like the ones found on a circuit board. They start off a dull grey, but as you reach higher tiers/the elite version, they become red and blue.
- Two-Faced: Phayze appears as two separate blimps that move as one, giving this effect; likely a representation of the phenomenon of "quantum superposition".
