Why is benjamin the most popular hero?

[x Princess Leliana x]

Seriously. Half of all people in coop games use him.

Ignoring the "is he a good hero or not" discussion (he isnt, he is worse than having no hero) what about him attracts people to dropping 3000 of their hard earned monkey money on him?

[Ninja Zyborg]

Originally posted by Emperor Palpatine:

Because he is the best. He basically doubles the money you get from bloons, giving you almost the amount of money you would get from playing solo. This increases your money output by a lot, making him probably the most valuable hero in coop.

no he doesnt? get real.

[H0LABANANA]

Originally posted by Ninja Zyborg:

Originally posted by Emperor Palpatine:

Because he is the best. He basically doubles the money you get from bloons, giving you almost the amount of money you would get from playing solo. This increases your money output by a lot, making him probably the most valuable hero in coop.

no he doesnt? get real.

*sigh* this is why these types of discussion posts never work. Here's the amazing thing that's always right. BEN IS GOOD IF THE PLAYER IS GOOD, IF THE PLAYER IS A COOP RANDOM, 9/10 TIMES THE PLAYER IS BAD. SO IN THE CASE, BEN IS TRASH. Bam.

[Hiroko]

Originally posted by kitten exterminator:

5. While Ben earns only you money every round, Ben's Skimming and Bank Hack passive abilities is actually split between multiple players. You help your entire team a little bit.

Only base starting cash and base bloon pop value get split. Everything else is a personal invest-return. Skimming, lead to gold, cash drops, etc. All of it is personal and will not effect your teammate's income. I can't say for sure the same about passives that indirectly effect income like his bonus to banks, but direct generation is certain.

[Bad Aim Bodyshot Barry]

Originally posted by Hiroko:

Originally posted by kitten exterminator:

5. While Ben earns only you money every round, Ben's Skimming and Bank Hack passive abilities is actually split between multiple players. You help your entire team a little bit.

Only base starting cash and base bloon pop value get split. Everything else is a personal invest-return. Skimming, lead to gold, cash drops, etc. All of it is personal and will not effect your teammate's income. I can't say for sure the same about passives that indirectly effect income like his bonus to banks, but direct generation is certain.

skimming affects everyone

[Blitzz_]

Originally posted by x Princess Leliana x:

Seriously. Half of all people in coop games use him.

Ignoring the "is he a good hero or not" discussion (he isnt, he is worse than having no hero) what about him attracts people to dropping 3000 of their hard earned monkey money on him?

Saying that Benjamin is worse than having no Hero at all is false. Benjamin is the at least the 2nd best Hero in the game, if not 3rd. Just looking at his upgrade statistics can change your mind about saying bad things about a Hero that you probably don't even have. Just look:

Level 1: Hacks in income of $100 at the end of every round.
Level 2: Income increased from $100 to $150 per round.
Level 3: Biohack Activated Ability - For 6 seconds, grants +1 damage to the nearest 4 Monkeys. Affected Monkeys are disabled from attacking for 2 seconds after the buffs expired. Cooldown is 30 seconds.
Level 4: Skimming - Earns +$1 for every new Bloon spawned.
Level 5: Bank Hack - All banks earn +5% income.
Level 6: Cyber Security - Restores 5 lives at the end of each round up to maximum.
Level 7: Bloon Trojan - Every 5-7 seconds sends a Trojan software virus to random Bloon. Affected Bloon spawns no children when destroyed and produces extra cash (+rank). If target is destroyed before the Trojan reaches it, it can choose a different target. Cannot target Camo Bloons.
Level 8: Income increased from $150 to $250.
Level 9: Bank hack increased from +5% to 12%.
Level 10: Syphon Funding Activated Ability - For 10 seconds, downgrades all new Bloons other than DDTs or BADs by one rank, and downgraded Bloons give double cash. Cooldown is 65 seconds.
Level 11: Income increased from $250 to $300.
Level 12: Skimming increased to $2 per Bloon.
Level 13: Biohack adds +2 damage to 6 Monkeys for 8 seconds.
Level 14: Cyber Security adds 10 lives per round and can go up to 100 over starting lives (except on Impoppable and CHIMPS).
Level 15: Income increased from $300 to $500.
Level 16: Bloon Trojan is sent every 3-4 seconds and produces more cash (+2*rank).
Level 17: Income increased from $500 to $800.
Level 18: Bloon Trojan can affect BFBs, DDTs, and Camo Bloons.
Level 19: Biohack adds +3 damage and lasts 9 seconds with no cooldown.
Level 20: Syphon Funding lasts 20 seconds and cash per pop is tripled for affected Bloons.

[Hiroko]

Originally posted by Spectre:

skimming affects everyone

wiki seems to agree. I don't recall this being the case before. Is it affected by double cash? That could also be the discrepancy I remember.

[DarkMatter]

Originally posted by Hiroko:

Originally posted by Spectre:

skimming affects everyone

wiki seems to agree. I don't recall this being the case before. Is it affected by double cash? That could also be the discrepancy I remember.

Skimming works for everyone. Bloon trojan however only works for the ben owner.

[Bad Aim Bodyshot Barry]

Originally posted by Hiroko:

Originally posted by Spectre:

skimming affects everyone

wiki seems to agree. I don't recall this being the case before. Is it affected by double cash? That could also be the discrepancy I remember.

iirc double cash does not affect skimming since its technically coming from ben, not popped bloons

[Tyrian]

I use Ben because he's never the wrong choice outside of CHIMPS or Deflation. Other heroes have more specialized purposes. Ben is simply just more money to build up your defenses with... or use it to build farms.
Especially in Co-op, many heroes feel quite lackluster due to the shared XP causing them to never reach substantial levels and you have to wonder if 4 lower level heroes are actually better than a single higher level one. They often actually aren't.
The reason is that most other heroes gain their most massive boosts in the last few levelups.
The most extreme example for this would be Psi. When you compare 4 level 12 Psis to one level 20 one, the high level one can kill 3 ZOMGs at a time, not to mention being able to wipe out entire rounds with the level 10 ability, only excluding BADs. The lower level ones can only target Ceramics at most, which is pretty useless past round 80.
With Bens, on the other hand, the answer is always that more of him is better than one, since his main purpose is making money and multple Bens always make more money than a single one.

Anyway, the problem isn't and never was Ben. It's always been a problem with the players using him in your games not knowing when and how to build what kind of a defense.