I'm not sure how I got to searching for "title:Bloons OR title:BTD" on this subreddit, but I did, and when I discovered that not a single thread has been created here about this game/series, I ended up being disappointed, but also thrilled at the prospect of bringing it up for the first time on this sub and hearing what others have to say about it.

See, I love defense games. It dates back to the days of me playing Elemental Tower Defense maps on Warcraft 3. I love the strategy of it, and I was glad to see how the genre has developed through the years. Admittedly, it got to a point where ideas mostly ran out for the genre and the market ended up being flooded with very similar games. So for Bloons TD 6 to come out in 2018 and still manage to deliver the fun and replayability that the best tower defense games have to offer was huge. It's not really that different from previous Bloons installments, but it refines, updates and polishes the Bloons formula into what is arguably the definitive game in the series.

The game features:

21 monkeys (or "towers"), each with 3 upgrade paths that provide them with unique abilities.

11 hero monkeys

119 different types of bloons (or "enemies" i.e camouflaged, regen, lead, fortified, regrow, shielded, etc) - the combination of which varies per round/wave.

42 maps of varying complexity (beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert), and within each map there are 14 medals to earn based on difficulty (easy, medium, hard) and game mode.

Every day there are new community challenges with unique map setups and restrictions. And every week there is a new "odyssey" and "race" challenge to tackle.

online co-op play either via matchmaking or friend code

consumable powers, insta monkeys and a permanent "skill tree" that you can upgrade with "monkey knowledge" as you level up in the game.

gridless maps. whereas a lot of other tower defense games have set positions where you can build towers, BTD only has buildable areas and non-buildable areas. but within the buildable areas, you can build anywhere you like as long as it is not occupied.

NOTE: There's also a way to link your game on mobile and on PC via cloud saves / linking code.

Does it have IAP? It has IAPs, which owes to its mobile roots, with things you can purchase to make you progress faster.

Is it grindy? Sure. I've been playing on and off since 2018, I'm pushing towards 2000 games played and am Level 135 on my account and I haven't unlocked everything in the game. It's grindy but it isn't tedious since the game has a lot of features to keep it fresh and challenging.

The game is great because it's really simple to play. You can get hundred of hours with steady progression from it even if you play casually and not exactly think too much about what monkeys to use and what upgrade paths to take, even having only a rudimentary knowledge of how the game works. Yet, on the other end of the spectrum, there's a level of knowledge which involves knowing exactly how much DPS a monkey will have with certain upgrades and support; knowing what bloons come out in certain rounds and how much coins that round will generate which in turn informs the order you should build and upgrade your monkeys for maximum efficiency; also knowing how to build the strongest tower in the game (a fully upgraded tower of the vengeful monkey); how to micromanage abilities/buy-and-selling monkeys at certain rounds to overcome specific challenges, and really much more.


sauce: https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/jau2it/bloons_td_6_is_the_pinnacle_of_tower_defense/