Top 10 worst upgrades in the game and how to fix them (Update 33)

[Luminy]

These are the top 10 upgrades that REALLY need a buff in update 34 (in my opinion)

#10. Centered Path (xx2 Monkey Ace)

I was debating putting this upgrade on the list at all since it actually IS a useful upgrade. I use Centered Path alot when I build monkey aces so I don't need to focus so much on where I place them and can keep them near my other towers so they can receive buffs from my village/alchemist. However I then realised that the only time I really buy this upgrade is if I'm building Spectre's, I almost never buy this upgrade as a crosspath for the Bomber Ace or Fighter Plane and I think that's where the problem lies, there's rarely a reason to crosspath the Monkey Ace to xx2 rather than xx1, I think Centered Path needs to add a minor buff to the Monkey Ace's darts in some way, my suggestion is a slightly faster projectile/flight speed, works well for the xx3 and gives a reason to finish the crosspath even if you don't need to use the flight path without increasing the power in any dramatic way.


#9. Bomb Blitz (xx5 Bomb Shooter)

It might seem strange to put a 5th tier tower on the list but the Bomb Blitz is one of the worst 5th tier towers in the game, plus it has an egregious price tag of 35,000 which is only 1,000 less than the Biggest One, a considerably better 5th tier explosive AoE tower. There is almost no reason to ever upgrade a Recursive Cluster to a Bomb Blitz, the minor buff to the base tower is barely noticeable and the ability requires you to lose lives to activate it which makes it useless in the lategame as well as on Impoppable or Chimps but it can give it some minor use cases in combination with Ezili however if you are planning to invest over 30k into bomb shooters you'll most likely be using Striker Jones. I think the Bomb Blitz should get a complete rework, removing its lose lives to activate bomb ability and focusing instead on increasing its DPS making it a viable tower for all modes.


#8. Monkey City (xx4 Monkey Village)

For a 4th tier tower the Monkey City is one of the most underwhelming upgrades in the game, almost exclusively being used as a price tag increase and stepping stone for the Monkeyopolis. While increasing the radius of the village is great for that purpose, and so is increasing cash generation in radius, it is contradictory to its previous upgrade, the Monkey Town. If you are using the Monkey Town for its intended purpose then its radius will be filled with towers but if you are using the Monkey City for its intended purpose then the radius will be filled with farms. I think this upgrade needs a rework in order to achieve better synergy with its previous upgrade OR the Monkey City should be moved to a 3rd tier upgrade and the Monkey Town should be reworked to focus more on farming and act as a better stepping stone towards the Monkeyopolis. This might also make the seemingly random free dart monkey perk useful since if you can afford a Monkey City, you've spent over 15,000 on the village already and at that point free dart monkeys will mean nothing to you as you'll already have a solid defense, however as a 3rd tier upgrade you would only need to spend 5,000 on it and in that case you might get some use out of the free dart monkeys as you build up your farms.


#7. Faster Darts (xx1 Heli Pilot)

Faster Darts is an upgrade that does basically nothing, the difference in DPS of a base Heli Pilot and an xx1 Heli Pilot is negligible. It's practically a price increase for Faster Firing, I think to add some level of use to this upgrade it should increase the range at which the Heli Pilot can fire darts, meaning the Heli Pilot can shoot bloons from slightly further away, a mostly irrelevant buff if you're using pursuit but will allow the Heli Pilot to start shooting slightly earlier if on a 2 lane map and the Heli Pilot is covering both sides giving it some reason to be upgraded beyond wanting to get Faster Firing.


#6. Triple Shot (x3x Dart Monkey)

Triple Shot is a sad, sad upgrade for the Dart Monkey. What was once an early game staple in BTD5 has been reduced to a tower that no one ever seems to use. There are so many better, and cheaper options for early game popping power than the x3x Dart Monkey. Without pierce it struggles to keep up in damage and without range and camo detection it struggles to hit bloons consistently enough to make it worthwhile. It's hard to say what would need to happen to make this upgrade useable, it might need a damage buff of some kind but for now I only suggest decreasing the price from 400 to 230, or a similar price. Even with that I don't see the Triple Shot ever really being used as an early game defense because there are just so many better options nowadays but maybe the price buff would make it useful in early game chimps on some maps, regardless, this upgrade could definitely use some love and attention from ninjakiwi.


#5. Counter Espionage (x2x Ninja Monkey)

This upgrade suffers mostly from its lack of consistency and its price, 500 is simply too much for an upgrade that only lets the Ninja Monkey remove camo with its base attack, if you are bothering to upgrade the Ninja Monkey in order to deal with camo bloons you would simply upgrade the other paths instead, the camo removal is far too inconsistent to be used as intended. Other decamo options like the xx3 Wizard Monkey, xx3 Mortar Monkey and x3x Engineer Monkey are much better options and as a crosspath x2x is simply never used, Seeking Shurikens and Ninja Discipline are always the better choice. What I suggest for this upgrade is to make Counter Espionage remove Fortification from ceramics similar to the x2x Alchemist, if this scaled when upgraded to 5th tier letting the Ninja Monkey remove fortification from MOAB class bloons too then the crosspath would likely also become alot more viable and give reasonable competition to the xx2 and 2xx crosspaths.


#4. Laser Shock (2xx Dartling Gunner)

At a price tag of 900 the Laser Shock upgrade does not offer enough value to the Dartling Gunner to be worth buying as a crosspath or as a damage option. the x5x Dartling Gunner always appreciates the pierce offered by xx2 and the xx5 Dartling Gunner appreciates the attack speed offered by x2x, there are no use cases for the 2xx because it simply does not do enough. I suggest the effective resurrection of Bloontonium Darts, allowing the 2xx Dartling Gunner to pop lead bloons and/or increase damage to ceramic bloons. Giving it lead popping power would give a reason for it to exist as a singular upgrade and giving it increased damage to ceramic bloons would benefit it as a crosspath, neither of these things seem like they would make the tower too powerful, on the contrary, for one of the more expensive towers in the game the Dartling Gunner feels very underwhelming in its current state, I think adding both lead popping and ceramic damage is not unreasonable for the price of the upgrade and the 1 extra damage laser effect acts as more of a bonus than the primary reason for the upgrade.


#3. Heat Tipped Darts (x2x Monkey Sub)

This is a strange case of an upgrade that feels like it should do something but it doesn't, popping DDT's is something that the Monkey Sub struggles with (besides Pre-emptive Strike) and the x2x crosspath seems like it should help with that but it just doesn't. Heat Tipped Darts DOES allow the Monkey Sub to pop lead bloons however without Advanced Intel the crosspath is virtually useless, nerfing the effective range of the Monkey Sub by a huge amount and it doesn't feel impactful in the early game either. I think Heat Tipped Darts should give +1 damage to the Monkey Sub's darts, I believe this would help the crosspath viability while not breaking the tower. Nobody really buys Heat Tipped Darts for any reason other than to upgrade to First Strike later in the game however I think +1 damage on it's darts would make up for the significant handicap of not having full map range and give a reason for the Sub Commander or AP Darts to crosspath Heat Tipped Darts in order to pop DDT's without the need for an alchemist buff and perhaps make it more useful in the early game while not becoming more powerful than Advanced Intel. The want for camo detection on this crosspath is a non issue since Monkey Sub strategies are commonly run alongside Admiral Brickell, who grants camo detection to water based towers via her ability, or Etienne for his global camo detection.


#2. Acid Pool (xx2 Alchemist)

We've all heard complaints about the Acid Pool Alchemist. All it really serves to do is waste money and increase lag. It offers no utility as a crosspath and it doesn't do enough damage to serve as a DPS upgrade either. Since the new Acid Mixture Dip nerf only allowing up to 40 stacks on a tower I've only ever thought about how much of a missed opportunity it was to give this upgrade some crosspath potential. Thematically both upgrades involve acid so it only makes sense for one to buff the other, remove the increased stacks from the x2x and have Acid Pool double the amount of shots that give lead popping power, balancing out both crosspaths and letting Acid Pool be useful for something other than flushing money away. The x2x should focus on increasing the range and damage of towers for longer and the xx2 should focus on increasing the lead popping power of towers for longer allowing people to decide which is more important to them based on the towers affected by the alchemist and upgrade accordingly. Alternatively, if you want it to be used as a DPS upgrade instead, giving it the ability to remove camo and regrow from bloons much like Cleansing Foam might make it a useful sidegrade. Comparing it to the x2x which removes fortification, letting the xx2 remove camo and regrow makes it feel more useful as a crosspath to support DPS rather than buffs, I imagine a price tweak would be required if this suggestion was used however.


#1. Exploding Pineapple (x1x Monkey Ace)

By far the worst upgrade in the game in my opinion is the Exploding Pineapple upgrade for the Monkey Ace. Being not even worth it's price tag of 200 for what it changes about the tower this upgrade has to take the number 1 spot on this list. Exploding Pineapple is an upgrade that even its own upgrade path doesn't take seriously, the ability is removed from the tower when you upgrade to the x3x and I can see why they'd want you to forget about it. This sad upgrade stands as a price increase for the much more useful Spy Plane upgrade granting the Monkey Ace camo detection, Exploding Pineapple has absolutely no ingame applications. If you need to pop leads you will buy a cheaper tower with a less wasteful crosspath, if you need group popping power, a simple Druid or Bomb Shooter would be better and more consistent, and if it needs to have camo detection as well, then a Sniper or Wizard Monkey will get the job done for a comparable cost as well as upgrading into much more useful things throughout the game. As much as I love the charm of the Exploding Pineapple I think this upgrade should be removed and replaced with something else, I can't think of a reasonable way to make this upgrade useful without making it too powerful for the price, you might be able to do it if you swap it to x2x and Spy plane to x1x, leaving you room to increase it's power and price if necessary but that feels like a lot of unecessary work for a tier 2 upgrade that goes unnoticed most of the time anyway. I think a new upgrade is the better option for the x1x Monkey Ace as sad as I would be to say goodbye to the classic upgrade from the flash era.

Let ninjakiwi know what upgrades you think need buffs in the upcoming update in the comments below and also let me know what you think of my suggestions to buff the worst upgrades in the game, (in my opinion) I'd love to hear alternative ideas for buffing these towers as well.

[Vivianite]

i agree with ace x-1-x but monkey knowledge fixes that, it's just when that's off it's pretty meh. i dont agree with hardly anything else you said because i found all of these upgrades useful.

you wanna talk useless? druid x-2-x if monkey village is available.

[Smokey]

Wizard / Phoenix lord i think are over priced
Bomb shooter 5xx
Engineer 5xx
Dark monkey x5x (even for map spam they are not worth cost)
Glue monkey all tier 5 paths are bad compared to Ice :P
Heli 250 (are too advanced for most players to fully ab'use ;)

Edit: pls try look up a guide about that Heli path & how you use it in best possible ways
since that is harder to find out without guides than to summon the dark temple by pure accident.

[Revalopod]

The funny thing is some of the ones on the list have been buffed recently but they're still bad.

#7. Faster Darts (xx1 Heli Pilot) I believe got buffed in the most recent update to make the darts travel further possibly having more range?

#1. Exploding Pineapple (x1x Monkey Ace) got buffed an update or 2 ago to improve all explosive attacks of the plane but it's still not even worth taking as a crosspath.

And for #5. Counter Espionage (x2x Ninja Monkey) I think a good buff for that would be to allow it to decamo anything it hits, including leads and DDTs.

[Chael P Sonnen]

If only NK would fix things instead of nerfing and creating more bugs.

[Ninja Zyborg]

disagree -
xx4 village. the cash generation is nothing to be scoffed at.
x2x sub. lead popping is useful.
2xx dartling. the laser shock does +1 damage to a currently shocked bloon.
xx5 bomb. it has decent all-around damage and the ability can be used by ezili manually.
x3x dart. cheaper and less whiffing potential than xx3. It does lose out on range and damage slightly but it still has its place.
xx2 ace. you can place it at the edge of the map.

[spiritedinkbro20]

i don't have paitionts to read this

[Kamen Kreuz]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with all of this. Some comments:

• xx2 Monkey Ace
  I think this is okay as a niche choice for odd Ace placements, but I wouldn't be opposed to a buff.
  
• xx4 Monkey Village
  I completely agree. Currently, your options are to just have a useless tier or two, or gimp the effectiveness of your upgrades by going halfsies with towers/farms.
  
• x2x Ninja Monkey
  I have one use for this, decamoing the second gold bloon so my 022 Ice Monkey can catch it. And then I sell it.
  
• x2x Monkey Sub
  Monkey sub in general feels weird to me, as the synergy between most crosspaths doesn't seem worth it. 3+20 and 0xx are, at best, very niche.

[Luminy]

Originally posted by Vivianite:

i agree with ace x-1-x but monkey knowledge fixes that, it's just when that's off it's pretty meh. i dont agree with hardly anything else you said because i found all of these upgrades useful.

you wanna talk useless? druid x-2-x if monkey village is available.

I considered that upgrade in place of Centered Path but it is genuinely useful on round 76 when you're using top or bottom path and removing regrow permanently is always better than stopping it temporarily

[Ackranome]

Originally posted by Smokey:

Wizard / Phoenix lord i think are over priced
Bomb shooter 5xx
Engineer 5xx
Dark monkey x5x (even for map spam they are not worth cost)
Glue monkey all tier 5 paths are bad compared to Ice :P
Heli 250 (are too advanced for most players to fully ab'use ;)

Edit: pls try look up a guide about that Heli path & how you use it in best possible ways
since that is harder to find out without guides than to summon the dark temple by pure accident.

I use to think Pho was overpriced until I did some chimps with that guy - it is so ridiculous as far as a tower.

[Ackranome]

Originally posted by Smokey:

Wizard / Phoenix lord i think are over priced
Bomb shooter 5xx
Engineer 5xx
Dark monkey x5x (even for map spam they are not worth cost)
Glue monkey all tier 5 paths are bad compared to Ice :P
Heli 250 (are too advanced for most players to fully ab'use ;)

Edit: pls try look up a guide about that Heli path & how you use it in best possible ways
since that is harder to find out without guides than to summon the dark temple by pure accident.

2-4 is for advanced maps (5 is overkill) on the heli.

[Holtz]

I agree with the whole list, especially with the Dartling Gunners being so underwhelming for the price. Can't remember the last time I bought any of these upgrades in a regular game.

[Luminy]

Originally posted by Spooky Kreuz:

Yeah, I pretty much agree with all of this. Some comments:

• xx2 Monkey Ace
  I think this is okay as a niche choice for odd Ace placements, but I wouldn't be opposed to a buff.
  
• xx4 Monkey Village
  I completely agree. Currently, your options are to just have a useless tier or two, or gimp the effectiveness of your upgrades by going halfsies with towers/farms.
  
• x2x Ninja Monkey
  I have one use for this, decamoing the second gold bloon so my 022 Ice Monkey can catch it. And then I sell it.
  
• x2x Monkey Sub
  Monkey sub in general feels weird to me, as the synergy between most crosspaths doesn't seem worth it. 3+20 and 0xx are, at best, very niche.

thank you for your wisdom puppycat beeboop haaaaa~

[Luminy]

[Hiroko]

Originally posted by miki♡:

:Monophanie_DGR:

wonderful self-bump necro after a a week and a half of no one replying, when the last post was also already yours and could have been edited if you really needed to add an emoji. Amazing job, op. Good luck on the award farm.

[Luminy]

Originally posted by Hiroko:

read the post