Contested Territory - does spy show the correct power level ?

[Geathaa]

Not for the first time, I'm in a contested territory where a contestant holds the territory with 10+ more rounds (i.e. 53) than I can manage (i.e. 42), even though when spying on their city, the buildings seem to have a significantly lower power level than me.

This is based on the assumption that when researching upgrades, the buildings change and reflect the number of upgrades finishes, e.g. me having finished the Sun God upgrade for the Super Monkey, my Super Enhancements building (where you research the Super Monkey upgrades) shows a spotlight on the rooftop. The contestant's Super Enhancements building does not show the spotlight, which leads me to assume that they don't have the Sun Gods. The same is true for the 4/2 Bloonjitsu ninjas, the 4/2 Tempest Tornado Apprentices, the 4/2 Cripple Moab Snipers etc. And without those upgrades, there's no way they can beat 10+ more rounds than me with those upgrades, never ever, no way Jose.

So what am I missing here ?

[Biometrix]

Cheating maybe? Now this is an extreme assumption but it's possible and extremely unlikely. Also maybe he has 4/2 Super Enhancements and not just 3/2?

[Planterror]

Visiting a city is usually somewhat behind than how they've actually progressed. Have you noted any upgrades being researched?

Another note, Bloonjitzu and Tempest aren't good upgrades for CT. Not sure where you learned that, but Bloonjitzu is only decent once you have monkey knowledge around level 5.

It's all about decent upgrades. See this video for a City level 12 getting to round 30: https://youtu.be/Y3YhrAZAE4Y

[Geathaa]

Here [ibb.co] are screenshots of their city vs. my city.

I assume that the path you take for research does not matter for the display of the houses, but only the tier you reached in the upgrade (so if their Super Enhancements building doesn't have the spotlight on top, I assume they don't have progressed their Super Monkey farther then tier 2)

What I noticed: They have the Monkey Fan Club fpr the Dart Monkeys (which I don't use at all) and the fiery pit for the apprentices, and their mortar and plane buildings look different than mine, so they must have higher tiers than me in those.

Maybe it's really as Planterror said, that I'm just betting on the wrong horses (i.e. having researched the "wrong" upgrades)

[awWhy]

He probably just using ice 2/3, if placed properly can win additional +10-20 waves, planes 4/0 is stronger than super monkey 3/2, planes alone can get to wave ~60

[Geathaa]

Okay will try some different strategies and upgrades, thanks everyone for the feedback!

[Raiku]

he probably has some very powerful upgrades other than the ones you said and had a good strategy (and used some powers). supermonkey is good lategame but there is not only supermonkey in life.


at lvl 15, i went 30+ round with only dartling guns 2/2 , boomers 2/3, spike factories 1/2(and bucanners 3/2 on water lvls) and can defend against a ZOMG. (but not 2)

some upgrades you should use:

you should go for ice shards for monkey ice (3/2), it's known to be OP (and laggy) against bloons rushes of DEATH (the product of destroying all MOAB layers of a ZOMG for example or regen bloons farm madness) because it destroy theses pack in one go. (and it's very sastisfying to watch trust me) and the 4/2 is also useful, go for it because it slows bloons and MOABs

speaking of slowing bloons, you like bloonjitsu (i alos fdo), but i think you should invest in the other path, just put a bloon sabotage, it also slows down MOAB's and bloons. (and the flash bomb can be handy, and it can pop camo leads)

try to go for bloonchipper 4/2 is also very efficient against ZOMG's

and i also like the submarines, i just place a lot of them 2/3 (or 2/4 if you have the money) and it can defend well.

[BarbieQ234]

TLDR your opponents might have better MOAB popping power or more utility than you

hmm... from a city lvl 29 perspective, my guesses are spectres, ray of doom dartlings, and 4/2 bloonchippers for MOAB popping power. ice shards (if no 4th tier upgrades & lags hard), spectres, and RoD dartlings also take care of bloon popping power. maybe they were using x/4 ice tower's freeze ability, since the ability also slows MOABs in mobile/steam.

oh! for water maps, they might be using 4/1 or 4/2 boats. i had a huge lead in water CT when around city lvl 23, easily getting to round 68 while the other players struggle past 40.

--

"so what about sun gods?"
just use spectres and RoD dartlings, if you can, until you get the temple, which build and upgrade time is a total of 14 days and a bit over 200k coins.

can't due to mountain map?
spam x/4 ice tower ability every 4 seconds (base cooldown of 60 sec i think)

"isn't ray of doom nerfed? flash version pierces 100"
hell nah. it's mobile/steam. the only noticeable nerf was a thinner laser. this ♥♥♥♥ got infinite piercing and popping power based on frame rate (to a cap)

"but aren't these upgrades expensive?"
get that cash rolling in asap. engineers, farms, 4/0 villages for income

but for real, engineer bloon traps are OP. three bloon traps in a good spot with a 4/0 or 4/2 village yields 700-1000 cash per trap. spam click the traps and you just made as much as six 4/2 farms in a round. now imagine if you consistently pop MOAB class bloons early, and the traps collect all of the bloons? yeah those 4/2 farms are better off as banks