Crosspathing/Monkey Sub (2024)

In Bloons TD 6, it is important to choose the best crosspathing for a specific tower in order to receive the best benefits out of that tower type. Towers have special roles to play for each stage of the game. The Monkey Sub in its core is a low-cost water-based tower packed with high value.

Introduction[]

Monkey Subs are one of the most versatile towers in the entire game across the early-game, mid-game and late-game. Its early-game is pretty strong, with its base tower acting as a powerful source of homing, second to Dart Monkey thanks to the Dart Monkey's cheap early-game upgrades. Nonetheless, the Monkey Sub features a significant amount of support-oriented and damage-oriented roles that alternatives tend to become shadowed by. Its weakness is mostly about the need to be placed in water, but its other noteworthy weakness is its mutually exclusive lead-popping and homing for the mid-to-late-game.

Upgrades[]

Base Tower and Tier 1 Crosspaths[]

• 0-0-0: Valuable with its homing power and decent attack speed also infinite dart lifespan. It is necessary on CHIMPS when playing on Flooded Valley or Bloody Puddles.
• 1-0-0: Adds more range to make it more compatible with maps that require the extra 10 range. 1-0-0 is the only affordable Sub crosspath on the start of CHIMPS aside from the base tower.
• 0-1-0: Occasionally, the 5 pierce per dart instead of double attack speed from 0-0-1 is better, for the same price as each other. 0-1-0 tends to work better for handling grouped early-game waves rather than counter spaced ones.
• 0-0-1: Often upgraded from an existing 0-0-0 Sub. While more expensive than two 0-0-0 Subs, it can produce lots more darts within a short range, often overproducing darts against spaced bloons. This behavior of the 0-0-1 Sub provides much of its value at handling the early-game.
• 1-1-0: Extra range and pierce give it better for most emergency situation.
• 1-0-1: Basically a Twin Guns with more range. When the little bit of extra range is needed for a 0-0-1 Twin Guns, or when saving up for 2-0-1 Advanced Intel, this upgrade can be used to barely push the defense to safety.
• 0-1-1: As a combination of Barbed Darts and Twin Guns, it is a relatively fast-attacking Sub with moderate pierce darts with fair accuracy.

Tier 2 Crosspaths[]

• 2-0-0: The non-crosspathed Advanced Intel is useful for getting an early-game head start for the Sub to make the most of creating as many dart attacks as possible. Works best at long range when compared to other lower-tier crosspaths.
• 0-2-0: The cheapest option for a Sub to pop Leads is to get Heat-Tipped Darts.
• 0-0-2: An effective early-game option for specifically popping early fast bloons and grouped bloons within short range, thanks to its airburst attack. It can hit the same bloon more than once and comes with a decent amount of pierce.
• 2-1-0: Advanced Intel with extra pierce can strive for as many pops can.
• 2-0-1: Long-ranged 2-0-0 Sub packed with twice the normal dart value. More cost-effective than another 2-0-0 Sub. Can chase faster bloons better but still finds it hard to beat early grouped bloons.
• 1-2-0: Extra range with Heat-Tipped Darts can get pops Leads for early.
• 1-0-2: Basically an Airburst Dart Sub with more range, perfect for transitioning into 2-0-2 while gaining a sizeable range increase.
• 2-2-0: Combining Advanced Intel with Heat-Tipped Darts, it has high-range lead-popping power. Not nearly as reliable as Snipers, but it does work on water-heavy maps.
• 2-0-2: Powerful early-game tower that combines open range with airbursts, allowing it to clean up fast early-game bloons and deal decently with early game grouped bloons from any reasonable distance. Best used on maps where there is little to no Line of Sight, such as Muddy Puddles or even Bloody Puddles. May have trouble on split simultaneous multi-lane maps such as Quad.
• 0-2-1: Combining Heat-Tipped Darts with Twin Guns can more efficient to takeout group of Leads and lower bloons.
• 0-1-2: Offers a high amount of pierce within a close range, combining Airburst with extra internal pierce. The +3 pierce does apply with each individual airburst dart, for higher overall popping power. Works well against groups of bloons within a short range.
• 0-2-2: Offers reliable early-game lead-popping within close range, combining Airburst with internal lead-popping. Mostly helpful in Flooded Valley.

Upper Path 1[]

Submerge and Support[]

• 3-0-0: Crosspathing doesn't truly matter for this tower as its main strength comes from being submerged into the water. Crosspathing with Path 2 does insignificant effect, unless it is for unsubmerging it, while Path 3 improves rate of decamo.
• 3-1-0: Not very useful for Submerge and Support as it is supposed to be support-oriented, and Barbed Darts only slightly increases pierce of the decamo pulse to the submerge crosspath for this upgrade.
• 3-2-0: Buying the "Angry Sub" may look cool, but it isn't very useful. The option to unsubmerge where there are Leads that need popping can come in handy, also further increases decamo pierce while submerged.
• 3-0-1: Can decamo faster, more useful for decamoing faster bloons. In Battles 2, this is a slight speed increase.
• 3-0-2: Decamos bloons even faster, for even more reliability. At this point, Reactor would be far more useful, but if the pure decamo is needed and not the damage, like for 2MPC/APC challenges, then 3-0-2 is a fine choice. Also, 3-0-2 could be unsubmerged if needing a little more damage if necessary, acting identically to 2-0-2 Sub. In Battles 2, this is a full speed increase.

Bloontonium Reactor[]

• 4-0-0: Gains a very fast decamo rate and deals damage. Crosspathing does make use of its offensive attacks more than it does for decamo.
• 4-1-0: Gains more pierce for both its main offensive radiation zone and the decamo pulses. Opting for 4-2-0 adds the maximum pierce bonus.
• 4-2-0: In situations where the pierce matters more than attack speed, such as in Race Events, the 4-2-0 tends to work better than 4-0-2. May be useful against dense rounds. It gaining the ability to pop Lead Bloons get more damage to them but is usually pointless outside of races as other cheap lead popping like Full Metal Jacket or Buccaneer's Hot Shot can accompany a 4-0-2 Sub instead.
• 4-0-1: Unlike 3-0-1, 4-0-1 doesn't have a significant increase in decamo, as Reactors decamo pretty quickly anyway and has a rather generous base pierce for its decamo. Rather, 4-0-1 slightly increases the rate of damage of its radioactive zone for a respectable cost.
• 4-0-2: Generally the best crosspath, as being able to damage bloons faster is usually preferred over pierce, as the Reactor's pierce is already rather high. Having an Airburst Dart attack may also make it somewhat useful against MOABs. In Battles 2, this speed increase is maximal, but in BTD6 the 4-0-2 crosspath is only worth over 4-0-1 if desiring the Airburst Darts attack.

Energizer[]

• 5-0-0: Its purpose is mostly attributed to a support role, so crosspathing usually does not matter, unless utilizing its high grouped damage against Super Ceramics, which it does much more damage against. However, a crosspath is likely to be inherited from a previously crosspathed reactor.
• 5-1-0: Gains an insignificant pierce increase.
• 5-2-0: Energizer gaining too few pierce is insignificant compared to its already very high 1000 default pierce, and its Extra Damage bonus is almost worthless by the time you can afford an Energizer.
• 5-0-1: Gains a slight DPS increase. In Battles 2, this is a slight speed increase.
• 5-0-2: The most optimal Energizer crosspath, as the it allows its high-damage radiation to occur over 25% more often, and thus significantly increase the radiation DPS. In Battles 2, this is a full speed increase, and in BTD6 it's just the addition of the Airburst Darts attack which becomes fairly redundant by this point aside from acquiring the benefits as acting like a 2-0-2 Sub.

Upper Path 2[]

Ballistic Missile[]

• 0-3-0: Ballistic Missile gains a minor range bonus and shoots missiles that shoot above the sky. Crosspathing has a big impact on the benefits of Ballistic Missile, as its ballistic missile attacks provide the majority of its high-pierce, high-damage potential. Unless going for First Strike, crosspathing is recommended. Crosspaths are expensive for a Ballistic Missile, but they can be worth it for beating not much ceramics is for targets. Path 1 crosspath is oriented for gaining opportunity to let it attack further, while Path 3 crosspath is the superior short-ranged option.
• 1-3-0: As Ballistic Missile already gains a range bonus, this upgrade alone is not very useful for increasing the range of the ballistic missile attack.
• 2-3-0: Increases ballistic range to attack into any tower's range, not very useful in most situations unless ballistic can only barely hit the track or darts getting block by Line of Sight. All of a 2-3-0 Ballistic's attacks can detect camo provided that at least one tower with camo detection is on screen and their range(s) overlaps bloon track.
• 0-3-1: Gains extra attack speed for both its darts and missiles. Using 0-3-2 adds the greatest DPS value on top of the bonus attack speed benefits.
• 0-3-2: Adds heat-tipped airburst darts for extra DPS. Combined with the already decent range and pierce of the Ballistic Sub, it adds some benefit against MOAB-class and ordinary bloons. However, it has no effect on the missile.

First Strike Capability[]

• 0-4-0: Go straight for 0-4-0 if using the First Strike Capability ability. Otherwise use a crosspath depending on the Ballistic Missile attack's purpose. Its main ballistic missile attack is no different from the previous upgrade.
• 1-4-0: See 2-4-0
• 2-4-0: Advanced Intel is not required for the ability to target outside its immediate range. Otherwise treat it as a 2-3-0 Ballistic Missile.
• 0-4-1: As with 0-3-1, improves attack speed of both darts and missiles.
• 0-4-2: As with 0-3-2, adds a helpful short-ranged airburst attack.

Pre-Emptive Strike[]

• 0-5-0: The main power of Pre-Emptive Strike comes from the passive ability that creates missiles that deal an instant 750 damage to incoming MOAB-class bloons, each hit removing up to one blimp layer if the incoming target blimp's health is low enough. Pre-Emptive Strike attacks faster and deals more damage with its ballistic missile attack, but the majority of its damage does come from its passive ability, which isn't affected by crosspathing. Nonetheless, it's a good idea to crosspath Pre-Emptive.
• 1-5-0: Doesn't do much in itself because it already comes with decent range, and extra attack speed would be more favorable.
• 2-5-0: All its missiles can hit bloons more often by increasing range, provided there's enough range coverage across the whole map. However, its activated ability and pre-emptive missile attacks are not affected by this crosspath or any crosspath.
• 0-5-1: As with 0-3-1, improves attack speed of both darts and missiles. Note that missiles attack much faster, so this small Twin Guns attack speed boost amplifies more here.
• 0-5-2: Adds helpful short-ranged airburst dart attacks.

Upper Path 3[]

Triple Guns[]

• 0-0-3: Triple Guns is simply a faster Airburst Darts Sub. Generally an okay tower, but crosspathing is needed to make it actually viable.
• 1-0-3: Only used as a stepping stone for 2-0-3. More range is desirable, but in itself is not much effect.
• 2-0-3: The much more versatile crosspath, and is often preferred to other crosspaths. It has virtually unlimited range, as long as other towers are on the screen.
• 0-1-3: The pierce is okay-ish for certain situations, but general outclassed by the upper crosspath.
• 0-2-3: Popping Frozen and Lead is helpful for both popping Leads and synergizing with Ice Monkeys, but generally is situational.

Armor Piercing Darts[]

• 0-0-4: Armor Piercing Darts adds greater MOAB-class damage on top of a higher on-hit damage with its main darts. As with most Sub upgrades, crosspathing is key for optimizing the power of Armor Piercing Darts.
• 1-0-4: Extra base range is helpful. However, this crosspath is mostly used as a stepping stone to 2-0-4.
• 2-0-4: Generally the best crosspath due to optimizing its incredible DPS potential across a wide range, especially versus MOABs.
• 0-1-4: Armor Piercing Darts already comes with extra pierce, but if more pierce is required within short range and need other way to get camo detection, this crosspath is an option. Still not as versatile compared to 2-0-4.
• 0-2-4: Pops Lead, and can be used as anti-DDT popping power or just popping leads. The 0-2-4 Sub's role at anti-DDT power is redundant for Sub-only CHIMPS, given that Pre-Emptive + Sub Commander can already neutralize normal DDTs anyway and BADs can have its DDT offspring bypassed with a First Strike.

Sub Commander[]

• 0-0-5: Sub Commander gives itself and all Subs within range with double damage and +4 pierce for almost all attacks except First Strike Capability ability missiles. The non-crosspathed Sub Commander is mainly for giving the buff itself. Unless attempting a difficult custom 2MPC challenge with a single Sub other than itself, crosspath the Sub for maximum influence range and more DPS.
• 1-0-5: Increases influence range to allow more Subs within range to gain the Sub Commander buff. Even without Sub Admiral MK, the 1-0-5 crosspath is useful, especially because 2-0-5 is even better.
• 2-0-5: Not only does it increase the Sub Commander's influence range because of 1-0-5 crosspath's range increase, this allows Sub Commander to add significantly more DPS potential for the defense. For a remarkably low cost in comparison, it is very worth the purchase.
• 0-1-5: Gives the Sub Commander's darts with more pierce, but does nothing for its buff to nearby Subs. Normally useless, unless it is the only tower on screen.
• 0-2-5: Heat-Tipped Darts allows the Sub Commander itself to pop Frozen and Leads. Normally poor crosspath except in the very rare case where an APC (All Pops CHIMPS) with Sub Commander is to be attempted.

Strategy[]

Each path sub focuses on a specific niche path 1 is better for decamo help other towers camo popping, path 2 great for against group of MOABs and it First Strike Capability ability most efficiency to against BAD. Path 3 great for defense to make incredibly DPS.