Tales of Three Monkeys

[Zephyr]

I've tried to put my mind against this puzzle, but as I'm a pretty new player overall and not that experienced or knowledgeable, I'm currently hitting a brick wall, so I thought maybe I could share what I've done to the first phases of the map, so at least others can get to a similar point, so we can all try to see if we can solve it together.

My opening is to move the dart monkey as soon as possible at the end of the first straight line, and move the alchemist in the middle of the first loop, with the engineer next to him. Upgrading the dart monkey to a crossbowman seems to be the intended solution according to the narration. I did so with quick shot, but I don't know if it's or not a good idea or if the money may be used later for something else.
I then put the alchemist priority on strong. Failing to do that usually causes a loss, because the iron/fortified iron balloons aren't taken down by him, which causes the others monkey to plink on them too much and let too much balloons pass by. Changing that priority seemed to have done the trick to allow me to survive 2 more waves.

The narration then mentions the need of the alchemist's brew. This is where I hit a wall. If I upgrade to berserk brew, the alchemist seems to give it to the engineer more than the crossbow monkey, and too much purple camo balloon pass by. I tried moving the engineer away from the alchemist so the brew is focused on the crossbow. This seems to get a better effect, but still not enough. I've tried to ignore the advice and upgrade to foam on the engineer to remove camo and provide a floor damage effect, but this is also not enough. I've tried to use others alchemist upgrades, and those don't really help.

There are plenty of things I may be doing wrong, but I'm tempted to say it's in the positioning. If not, it may be a matter of priority. Or it may be microing the chinooks to move the monkeys a lot to try to abuse of the downdraft and knock balloons backward(maybe using the engineer?).

Advices and cotnributions are welcome.

[Cowmunist Leader Moo Zedong]

Originally posted by Zephyr:

. . . microing the chinooks to move the monkeys a lot to try to abuse of the downdraft and knock balloons backward . . .

Do this. They can shoot at bloons too.

Also: Alch goal 420, Dart goal 024, Engi 402 for the first two maps and 204 for the last.

[Luminy]

how i beat the first section was by putting the dart monkey and alchemist in the center of the map so that the crossbow can shoot the end of the track when its getting buffed, engineer below outside of alch range so it doesnt steal buffs and sentries clean up small bloons left behind by the other 2.

but how the ♥♥♥♥ do you beat round 23 on the last one i dont understand

[Luminy]

also i got my engineer to 203, alchemist to 401 and dart monkey to 024

[Vivianite]

Originally posted by Luminy♡:

how i beat the first section was by putting the dart monkey and alchemist in the center of the map so that the crossbow can shoot the end of the track when its getting buffed, engineer below outside of alch range so it doesnt steal buffs and sentries clean up small bloons left behind by the other 2.

but how the ♥♥♥♥ do you beat round 23 on the last one i dont understand

2-0-5 dart monkey with 4-0-2 placed nearby the super monkey with a 4-2-0 engineer more up front where the BFB rush comes in, position your dart monkey so that their shots go diagonally south-west along the track, wait until they start going past the dart monkey to use the teach terminator ability

[Zephyr]

I managed to do it(the first map), but I have to say this is very very very inconsistent due to a lot of factors, but mainly how cooperative or not the chinooks decide to be, and whatever timing you had.

The trick to put the crossbow in range of the end of the map helped a lot, so thank you Luminy, and thank you Milordog for telling me my suspicion about chinook management was correct.

I had a very long spell where I managed to get to the wave where they tell you to upgrade the engineer once, then had maybe 15 tries without managing to get there again due to the camo lead/regrow balloon wave. This wave is extremely sketchy to me because sometimes they manage to handle it without problem, others the regrows just flood the map and it's impossible to manage.

The way I did it, is once you get your next influx of money(2000) after they tell you to ugprade the alchemist, upgrade your crossbow to 0-2-4. Then try to manage the chinooks to survive camo lead, hoping your team will manage to deal with it. After that, I went with upgrading the alchemist to stronger brew, and finally making the engi 2-0-3 as Luminy suggested.

Again, to anyone who may try that method, this is not foolproof, this is, as I said, inconsistent. Now if anyone can manage to find a method which is safer and more consistent, I think it would be nice for others people struggling.

[Zephyr]

Managed to beat the 2 others maps with a lot more ease than the first one. I found the second one is pretty forgiving overall, and I used Vivianite's trick when the super monkey arrived to replace my master crossbow and alchemist near him. I used a quickshot master crossbow instead of the piercing one and it worked just as well. I managed to beat the last wave on the first try I reached it, the terror monkey doing most of the heavy lifting. Engi was in the back with turrets and balloon trap, as I used a 2-0-4 engi instead of a turret focused one. The balloon trap was a nice security net for whatever managed to pass through. I didn't use the chinook much on the last map unless it was to replace the defence around the super monkey for the last part.

[The Wanderer]

So it isn't just me... I feel like these 3 "tales" are an exemplification that stuff in this game is either really easy or it almost immediately jumps to on the daunting side.

[Zephyr]

My main problem with them is the design, and the reliance on the chinooks on the first mission due to the lack of funds. Because of the way chinooks work, and because of the fact you can't expect a player to consistently use them exactly the same way on every run(they will either change the placement, or the timing, more likely both), and because downdraft triggers every few seconds, you can have the same upgrades, and a similar positionning and not get the same result. This is important. This means that, unless there is an elegant sureproof solution that we may have not found(totally possible), at the moment the feeling is that it is a bit luck based(as if, you need to have a run where you have the right tempo/effect with the chinooks for the rest to work properly).

Personally, I don't like it. If there is a puzzle, I like when there is one, or better, multiple solutions that are all viable consistently and will work like clockwork. I also like when they don't rely too much on reflexes. Granted, I know modes such as Apocalypse exist, which test your real time ability to react, as opposed of being able to take breaks to think between waves. They are just less appealing for little ol' me, because I'm not really used to things so far.

Something has also to be said about the fact it changes the usual formula of the game of either getting moneys on pops, or having some starting cash, having some set sums of money at scripted intervals. On one way, it's interesting, as it allows a narrative. On the other, on the first runs, you don't know when you will get your money and you can't plan around that.

Of all the maps, I felt the one is extremely sketchy and random, the second is the most free form with no real set solution and generous amount of money that don't match what you can purchase with it(you're left with a bunch of it and nothing to spend it on due to the price of the upgrades), and the third one is the most straightforward, with one clear solution and not much variation about it.

But that's just my own vision, I'm sure more veteran players will be more able to make more a more educated analysis of what works and what doesn't.

[WalrusJones]

So this story is extremely tight with the build order.

Like. So tight it will be funny when one of these units gets patched slightly and the challenge breaks completely.

[Ninja Zyborg]

Originally posted by Vivianite:

Originally posted by Luminy♡:

how i beat the first section was by putting the dart monkey and alchemist in the center of the map so that the crossbow can shoot the end of the track when its getting buffed, engineer below outside of alch range so it doesnt steal buffs and sentries clean up small bloons left behind by the other 2.

but how the ♥♥♥♥ do you beat round 23 on the last one i dont understand

2-0-5 dart monkey with 4-0-2 placed nearby the super monkey with a 4-2-0 engineer more up front where the BFB rush comes in, position your dart monkey so that their shots go diagonally south-west along the track, wait until they start going past the dart monkey to use the teach terminator ability

thx for the tip; I was stuck.

[Dmitri]

I'll put in my two cents: sentry champion does not work at all. you can save up for it, but It doesn't help one bit.
402 sentry expert works with with 204 crossbow if I place the crossbow just above where supermonkey is supposed to spawn (so that it shoots down a nice line). I had to tank some of the early camo pinks with the chinook ability.
Then once I got 205 crossbow, I was able to easily buy x4x alchmist, which helps massively for round 23 with the extra ability damage.
This was really frustrating due to how tight the last round is
honestly, Thanks to everyone in this thread for tips