Bloons TD Battles: Complete Guide

A competitive guide to Bloons TD Battles (the original 2D Battles on Steam): how eco and bloon sending work, Assault vs Defense, tower picks after the latest balance patches, powers, arenas and card battles.

Researched September 2026 — current as of Update 6.24 (3 June 2026), with the most recent balance changes from Update 6.23 (6 October 2025). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• It is 1v1 Bloons. You defend your own track while sending bloons at your opponent's. The first player to run out of lives loses.
• Eco is everything. Sending bloons raises your eco (income paid out regularly), but spending on sends means less money for defence right now. Balancing the two is the whole game.
• Pick a loadout of three towers before a match. Cover camo, lead and MOABs somewhere in those three, or you will get punished.
• Assault vs Defense: Assault lets you send bloons directly; Defense is about building income and outlasting the opponent with better defences.
• Battle Arenas cost medallions. You put medallions on the line in a high-stakes Assault game, winner takes all. Do not enter high arenas until you win consistently in low ones.
• Card Battles are a separate deck-building mode with its own rules.
• Powers are extra tools: supercharge towers, boost bloons, or use sabotage, eco and track powers.
• It needs an internet connection, and progress is cloud-saved after you accept the terms.

Modes

Mode | What happens | Who it suits

Assault | Build defences and send bloons at your opponent | Players who like pressure and reading opponents

Defense | Build income and defences; win by outlasting | Players who like economy and scaling

Battle Arenas | Assault with medallions wagered; winner takes all | Confident players climbing

Card Battles | Build a deck and play a card-based twist on Bloons | Players wanting variety

Private matches | Challenge friends directly | Practice and scrims

Clans | Team up for weekly rewards | Social players

Sandbox | Test towers and sends; you can reset power cooldowns, clear towers and clear bloons | Learning timings

The June 2026 update (6.24) added the NK20 Anniversary Arena, which uses the original launch maps.

Eco and Bloon Sending

Every send costs money now and adds to your eco (income) for the rest of the game. Early game, sending the cheapest efficient bloons ramps eco. Mid game, you choose between continuing to eco and sending a rush to break your opponent.

Key concepts:

• Spaced vs grouped sends. Spaced bloons come in a line; grouped arrive as a clump. Grouped sends are harder to defend but cost more eco. MOAB-class sends carry an eco penalty (patch notes list penalties for spaced BFBs and ZOMGs).
• Rushes by round. Each "round" unlocks new bloon types to send. Patch 6.23 made round 10 Leads and round 11 Zebras send faster, so those rushes hit harder than they used to.
• Camo and regen modifiers make sends bypass unprepared defences. Always have camo detection by mid game.
• ZOMG minimum speed was set to 50% in 6.23, so you can no longer slow ZOMGs to a crawl.
• Boosts: you have a tower boost and a bloon boost. Use them in the moments that decide rounds, not on cooldown by habit.

Eco rules of thumb

• Eco hard early, defend just enough. Most losses are players out-scaled, not out-rushed.
• Stop eco when you see a rush coming and put money into defence.
• Save before your opponent's likely rush rounds (lead and zebra rounds are classic danger points).
• Punish greedy opponents. If they have minimal defence, a well-timed rush ends the game.

Towers

Battles has 22 monkey towers, each with 8 upgrades (two paths of four), including the C.O.B.R.A. tower created for Battles. Towers confirmed in recent patch notes include:

Tower | Role | Recent balance notes

Dart Monkey | Cheap early defence | x-4 Supermonkey Fan Club now transforms 7 monkeys (was 10)

Tack Shooter | Close-range area pops | 4-x Ring of Fire pierce raised in 2022

Boomerang Thrower | Good early coverage | 3-x Glaive Ricochet range raised to 180 (6.22)

Bomb Tower | Area damage, MOAB killing on the MOAB Mauler path |

Ninja Monkey | Camo detection, fast attacks | x-4 Sabotage Supply Lines now slows bloons to 60% speed instead of 50%

Ice Tower | Crowd control | x-3 Ice Shards cannot get pierce buffs from Village

Glue Gunner | Slowing | Base cost raised to $325; x-4 Glue Striker cooldown up to 55s

Sniper Monkey | Long range, MOAB damage via Cripple MOAB |

Monkey Apprentice (Wizard) | Magic, fire and summons | 3-x Summon Whirlwind down to $2,000; x-3 Dragon's Breath pierce up to 5

Monkey Ace | Map-wide air coverage |

Super Monkey | Late-game power | Base attack speed cut 20%, base cost down to $1,700; 1-x Laser Vision $2,200; x-4 Technological Terror $20,000

Banana Farm | Income | Base cost $1,100; x-2 Valuable Bananas $3,500; 4-x Banana Research Facility $12,500

Spike Factory | Leak insurance at the track end |

Monkey Village | Buffs nearby towers, camo detection on some upgrades |

Dartling Gunner | Aimed rapid fire |

Heli Pilot | Mobile air support |

Monkey Engineer | Utility and support |

Bloonchipper | Sucks bloons back and shreds them | x-2 Faster Shred attack speed improved to 0.4s

C.O.B.R.A. | Battles-exclusive tower |

The rest of the 22-tower roster (including water and artillery towers) has not had notable balance changes in the recent patches listed here; check the in-game upgrade screens for current prices.

Loadout principles

• One early tower that survives the first rushes cheaply (Dart Monkey, Boomerang or Ninja).
• One camo answer (Ninja is the simplest).
• One MOAB answer that scales (Bomb Tower's MOAB path, Sniper, Super Monkey, Bloonchipper, or Monkey Apprentice upgrades).
• Consider Banana Farm only if you are confident you can defend while it pays back. Its cost was lowered in 6.23, which makes farm strategies more viable.

Powers

Powers are consumables you bring into matches. Patch notes reference powers such as Copy Eco, Cripple, Power Lock, Eco Choke, Lots of Glue and Damage Boost.

Type | Examples | Use

Tower powers | Damage Boost | Burst through a rush

Eco powers | Copy Eco | Catch up if your opponent out-ecoed you (Copy Eco never decreases your eco)

Sabotage powers | Eco Choke, Power Lock, Cripple | Disrupt the opponent at key moments

Track powers | Lots of Glue | Emergency slowing

Tip: powers have limited uses per match (patch notes adjusted several, for example Cripple and Power Lock to 3 uses and Eco Choke to 4). Spend them on decisive rounds.

Maps

Battles has over 50 custom head-to-head tracks. Recent additions include Lily Pads (6.24, June 2026, plenty of space for land and water towers), Circuit Board (6.23), Leaky Pipes (6.22, multiple entrances and exits with water areas), Sprinkler, Off Piste, Celtic Knot, Dungeon and In Ruins.

Map tips:

• Water maps reward loadouts with water towers.
• Multiple entrances (Leaky Pipes) punish single-point defences; use towers with wide coverage.
• Long tracks favour eco strategies; short ones favour rushes.

Patch History That Still Matters

Balance in Battles moves slowly, a handful of changes per update. The ones that shaped today's matches:

Update | Date | Changes that affect how you play

6.24 | 3 Jun 2026 | Lily Pads map, NK20 Anniversary Arena with the original maps, desktop fix for placing towers while sending

6.23 | 6 Oct 2025 | Circuit Board map; faster round 10 Lead and round 11 Zebra sends; ZOMG minimum speed 50%; cheaper Banana Farm and Super Monkey; Glue Gunner base cost up to $325

6.22 | 15 May 2025 | Leaky Pipes map; blowback weakened for all towers (Tempest Tornado less so); Dart Monkey, Boomerang, Spike Factory, Wizard and Ace buffs

6.18 | 5 Apr 2023 | Sprinkler map; Super Monkey base down to $1,800; Apache Dartship machine gun buffed; Dartling x-4 Bloon Area Denial System buffed

6.17 | 15 Dec 2022 | Off Piste map; Super Monkey base cut to $2,000; Sniper 4-x Cripple MOAB damage 30 to 45; spaced BFB and ZOMG eco penalties reduced

6.15 | 2 Jun 2022 | Celtic Knot map; power uses rebalanced (Cripple and Power Lock 3, Eco Choke 4, Lots of Glue 2); Copy Eco can no longer lower your eco

6.14 | 21 Mar 2022 | Dungeon map; Sandbox can reset power cooldowns and clear towers and bloons; Bloonchipper x-1 Long Range Suck grants camo detection

Two takeaways: Bloonchipper's x-1 path is a camo answer since 6.14, and Super Monkey has been made steadily cheaper since 2022, so a late Super Monkey is a more realistic MOAB answer than it once was.

Progression and Achievements

Your battle score is the number that tracks your standing; several achievements reference it. The 16 Steam achievements double as a progression checklist:

Achievement | Requirement

Winner | Win your first battle

Open Season | Reach 125 battle score

The Bigger They Are | Beat an opponent with a higher battle score

Popping Streak | Win 5 quick play battles in a row

Unspoppable | Win 20 sequential quick play battles

Jack Of All Towers | Win using a random loadout

Boosted | Use tower boost and/or bloon boost 100 times

War Paint / Tattoo You | Win using decorated bloons / own 3 or more decals

Penultimate / Top Tier | Unlock tier 3 / tier 4 upgrades for all towers

Heavy Assault / Getting Defensive | Win 100 quick play battles in Assault / Defense

Uber Popper / Spawner | Pop 1,000,000 bloons / spawn 100,000 bloons

Tier 3 and tier 4 upgrades must be unlocked before you can buy them in matches, so Penultimate and Top Tier are long grinds. Unlock the upgrades for the towers you actually play first.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• No camo detection by mid game. Camo rushes are the most common upset.
• Sending without watching the opponent's defence. Read their towers before choosing what to send.
• Over-eco into a rush. Your eco is useless if you lose before it pays out.
• Entering arenas on tilt. Medallions are wagered; take a break after a loss streak.
• Ignoring MOAB-class damage. Late game ends quickly if you cannot pop MOABs, BFBs and ZOMGs.
• Wasting boosts. Save boosts for the rush or defence that matters.

Advanced Tips

• Time your rush to their spending. If they just bought an expensive upgrade, their wallet is empty.
• Mix sends. A lead rush followed by camo exploits gaps in single-purpose defences.
• Remember the blowback nerf (6.22): blowback now pushes bloons back less, so do not rely on it as your main defence.
• Watch spaced MOAB-class eco penalties. Sending big bloons costs you eco; do it when it will actually break the opponent.
• Practise in Sandbox with power cooldown resets to learn exact tower breakpoints.
• Check the weekly leaderboards and clan rewards for extra prizes.

FAQ

Is Bloons TD Battles still updated? Yes. Update 6.24 on 3 June 2026 added the Lily Pads map and the NK20 Anniversary Arena, and fixed a desktop bug that let players place towers while sending bloons.

Is this the same as Bloons TD Battles 2? No. Battles 2 is a separate 3D sequel (with heroes and 15 upgrades per tower) released on Steam on 30 November 2021. This guide covers the original.

Is it free to play? Yes, with optional in-app purchases. It requires an internet connection.

How do medallions work? They are the arena currency. You wager them in Battle Arenas; the winner takes all.

What's the best tower after the latest patch? There is no single best. The 6.23 patch made Banana Farm cheaper, weakened Supermonkey Fan Club and Glue Striker, and nerfed Super Monkey's base attack speed while cutting its cost.

How many achievements are there? 16, including winning 100 Assault and 100 Defense quick play battles and unlocking tier 4 upgrades for all towers.

Sources

• Steam store page: Bloons TD Battles
• Steam news for Bloons TD Battles (Updates 6.13–6.24 patch notes)
• Steam achievements for Bloons TD Battles
• Steam store page: Bloons TD Battles 2 (release date)