Crosspathing/Mortar Monkey (2024)

In Bloons TD 6, it is important to choose the best crosspathing for a specific tower in order to receive the best benefits out of that tower type. Towers have special roles to play for each stage of the game. The Mortar Monkey in its core is producing high-pierce explosives aimed at any user-directed location on screen.

Introduction[]

Mortar Monkey can attack anywhere on the screen but only in a focused area, and even then, there is a slight variance in where the mortar shot will land within the focused area. The player can change where the Mortar Monkey will shoot and it is a really cheap base tower. Path 1 focuses on the power of the mortar shot itself, with upgrades like Bloon Buster and The Big One. Path 2 centralizes on attack speed with a little bit of bloon specialization (Heavy Shells) with upgrades like Rapid Reload and Artillery Battery. Path 3 focuses on powerful damage-over-time and support, with upgrades like Burny Stuff and Shattering shells. Crosspathing does have an impact on Mortar Monkey but it doesn't have the biggest impact compared to towers like Super Monkey and Sniper Monkey.

Upgrades[]

Tier 2 and below[]

Base Tower and Tier 1 Crosspaths[]

• 0-0-0: Mortar Monkey slowly shoots explosive shells at specific spots, albeit inaccurately. It is useful at manually targeting Leads. Pure 0-0-0 is mostly used for 2MPC as a source of lead-popping for early-game rounds.
• 1-0-0: Increases the blast radius of the mortar shot.
• 0-1-0: Increases the attack speed of the Mortar Monkey. Shots become a little more consistent at catching up with bloons, especially when microing the Mortar in the earlier rounds.
• 0-0-1: Reduces the deviation of mortars shots when it lands.
• 1-1-0: Combines increased blast radius with faster attack speed.
• 1-0-1: Combines Increases blast radius with decreased deviation of mortar shots when it lands. In practice, this crosspaths causes a negative synergy, as the increases blast radius is supposed to increase the area of the mortar shot projectile in which it can affect, but the decreased in deviation in where the projectile lands means that the mortar shot will affect less area around the target area.
• 0-1-1: Combines the faster attack speed with decreased projectile deviation when it lands.

Tier 2 Crosspaths[]

• 2-0-0: Increases the damage of the mortar explosion.
• 0-2-0: A further increase in attack speed. Shots become quite consistent at catching up with bloons, especially when microing the Mortar in the earlier rounds. Also becomes very reliable at catching bloons on bends.
• 0-0-2: Applies the Burn status effect to bloons when the mortar shot lands on them.
• 2-1-0: It is basically a faster 2-0-0. Can be used to try catch faster bloons along bends.
• 2-0-1: A more accurate Bloon Buster.
• 1-2-0: Combines the bigger blast radius with a greater increase in attack speed.
• 1-0-2: Combines the increase in blast radius with the Burn status effect.
• 2-2-0: Combines the increased damage and higher blast radius with increased attack speed. Quite reliable at catching faster bloons along bends.
• 2-0-2: Combines the increased damage with the Burn status effect.
• 0-2-1: Combines the greater attack speed with less projectile deviation.
• 0-1-2: Higher attack speed combined with Burny Stuff can catch Yellows and Pinks decently when targeted on a suitable bend.
• 0-2-2: Combines the much greater attack speed with the Burn status effect.

Upper Path 1[]

Shell Shock[]

• 3-0-0: Shell Shock adds a secondary explosion that both stuns bloons in a condensed area and inflicts damage along a wide area. Explosion radius increases very slightly too, but it still generally helps the most from Path 2 for the consistent stunning. Path 3 offers better accuracy and higher damage, but wastes opportunity for stun potential.
• 3-1-0: Increases attack speed slightly to stun bloons a bit more consistently. Hits faster bloons a bit more reliably, but Yellows and Pinks will still be a struggle, even for Shell Shock.
• 3-2-0: Even further attack speed for maximum stun rate and catching faster bloons more reliably.
• 3-0-1: Increases accuracy of each explosion, but given the slow attack rate of the Shell Shock it may still not be the most reliable option for faster bloons.
• 3-0-2: Burny Stuff increases tick damage to 2 instead of 1, and also doubles burn tick rate at the cost of halved duration, for 6 damage total if the main explosion inflicts the damage. Because of its slow attack speed, it is not a very reliable extra damage option, but it does more damage overall if targeted into a converging spot.

The Big One[]

• 4-0-0: The Big One has a much greater explosion size and much higher pierce, plus extra stun duration on affected bloons. Accuracy matters less overall but still deserves better opportunity for consistent shots. Path 2 is generally the best choice for The Big One, giving it a higher rate of stuns and more overall damage to bloons, plus better synergy potential with external buffs, with Path 3 being semi-useful at destroying stronger bloons in a shorter period.
• 4-1-0: More attack speed gives The Big One with better consistent shots and stuns bloons at a faster rate.
• 4-2-0: The best crosspath for The Big One for consistent shots and even faster stun rate.
• 4-0-1: Not very useful to have Increased Accuracy, as its explosions are quite big anyway and would prefer consistent shots via attack speed increases.
• 4-0-2: Burn effects deal 5 damage per tick, and retains Shell Shock's doubled burning volatility at the cost of duration. While Big One tends to benefit better with Path 2 for consistent shots, 4-0-2 Big One's main explosion combined with napalm is capable of destroying a normal Ceramic in one go with some time delay.

The Biggest One[]

• 5-0-0: The Biggest One offers the highest pierce and blast radius out of any non-ability Mortar, making it an ideal choice at handling dense groups of bloons. It offers high Ceramic and MOAB-class damage too as well as briefly stunning blimps every shot. Crosspathing is almost necessary to make the most out of The Biggest One.
• 5-1-0: Offers a little more attack speed for more reliable stunning and blasting. No need to stay at 5-1-0 because there can only be one The Biggest One.
• 5-2-0: The highest reliability at catching Super Ceramics or low rank MOAB-class bloons and stunning them. The higher attack speed both makes it easier to micro intensely and increase consistency at tankier targets.
• 5-0-1: Increased Accuracy is useless because its blast radius is extremely huge already, so it would hardly miss anyway.
• 5-0-2: Offers significantly higher DPS even with external buffs, but wastes potential for improving its supporting role at stunning Super Ceramics and MOAB-class. Burn effect does much more damage in exchange for a less reliable stun rate and a worse synergy potential with attack speed buffs. In effect, it is significantly more powerful at destroying MOAB-class bloons at the cost of a worse rate of stunning, and can beat Super Ceramics in a fewer number of shots but requires more bloon support to offset the loss in attack speed from Path 2.

Upper Path 2[]

Heavy Shells[]

• 0-3-0: Heavy Shells gains a variety of different forms of extra damage to various bloon properties, and pops Black properties. The main highlight(s) of Heavy Shells upgrade itself is its higher damage to Ceramics and bonus damage to stunned bloons, as well as popping Black properties. Because it attacks pretty quickly already, a bigger explosion radius is typically more preferred than accurate shots.
• 1-3-0: Greater explosion radius is beneficial for Heavy Shells to catch more groups of bloons and potentially hit more bloons per shot, which is often better than the opposite 0-3-1 crosspath. A bit more generous at catching bloons but does still have trouble with a still somewhat high projectile deviation.
• 2-3-0: Gains more damage per explosion. Gains the highest damage per explosion, and can clean up any stronger bloons in fewer numbers of shots, especially with its decent attack speed and popping of Black properties.
• 0-3-1: Heavy Shells comes with decent attack speed already, so the increased accuracy would make little difference compared to the higher explosion radius offered by 1-3-0. Target on a sharp bend for the best results, if you do plan to use this crosspath.
• 0-3-2: Burny Stuff is redundant because it already pops Black Bloons effectively, and this misses out on 2-3-0 for the higher explosion damage. This specific crosspath could be used to simulate a BTD5 Burny Stuff Mortar Monkey, if that's what is desired. Burny Stuff could be paired with Sauda to activate her Level 11+ damage bonus.

Artillery Battery[]

• 0-4-0: Gains 4x attack speed and an ability that grants a further 4x attack speed, on top of Heavy Shell benefits. This makes it more reliable as an anti-MOAB option, especially useful for against BADs or Bosses, which is one of the major highlights of the Artillery Battery upgrade. Crosspathing is very useful here to optimize its high DPS potential. Like Heavy Shells, bigger explosion radius is the preferred option but the extra damage via Bloon Buster is even more important for Artillery Battery to reach its maximum damage potential.
• 1-4-0: An increased blast radius plus a little more pierce, for increased coverage of each blast. Unlike Heavy Shells, Artillery Battery attacks pretty quickly, so there's almost little likelihood for Artillery Battery to miss with Bigger Blasts, assuming that Mortar micro targeting is done at least decently.
• 2-4-0: Gains extra damage with each blast, offering the highest DPS for an internally upgraded Artillery Battery, and synergizes well with its high attack speed.
• 0-4-1: Artillery Battery already can hit pretty consistently thanks to its high attack speed, and tends to prefer Bigger Blast over Increased Accuracy for this very reason.
• 0-4-2: Burny Stuff is even more redundant because its high attack speed already can chip down bloons quite well, and prefers higher direct damage via Bloon Buster rather than damage-over-time damage via Burny Stuff. Burny Stuff could be paired with Sauda to activate her Level 11+ damage bonus.

Pop and Awe[]

• 0-5-0: Pop and Awe improves its Heavy Shells extra damage bonuses by at least four-fold, alongside a much stronger bonus to BADs and Bosses to itself and all Artillery Batteries. Crosspathing is handy but not vital for Pop and Awe, as its main power comes from the powerful global stun ability, and the ability is not affected by crosspathing at all. For Pop and Awe, crosspathing is for its main attack, which gain rather small improvements in comparison to its previous upgrades. However, the ability will not deal 4x attack speed but instead use its new global stun ability as a replacement. Its BAD and Boss damage buffs are great for groups of Artillery Battery to focus at once, although crosspathing has no effect on the magnitude of the aforementioned buff and only on its main attack.
• 1-5-0: Like Artillery Battery, attacks pretty quickly and likely won't miss with Bigger Blasts, assuming proper Mortar micro is utilized.
• 2-5-0: The highest DPS for an internally upgraded Pop and Awe. It may seem small, but the +1 damage is still quite significant for anything that is below Ceramic. Plus, every little extra damage helps.
• 0-5-1: Pop and Awe's main attack already can hit pretty consistently thanks to its high attack speed, and tends to prefer Bigger Blast over Increased Accuracy for this very reason.
• 0-5-2: Burny Stuff is even more redundant because its high attack speed already can chip down bloons quite well, and prefers higher direct damage via Bloon Buster rather than damage-over-time damage via Burny Stuff. For Pop and Awe, there isn't much point adding Burny Stuff because its stunning power can do a significant help for Sauda already, and even then Sauda isn't even the best pair with Pop and Awe; Striker Jones would be a far better pair with Pop and Awe.

Upper Path 3[]

Signal Flare[]

• 0-0-3: Signal Flare allows the Mortar Monkey to detect camo and strip off camo properties. The non-crosspathed Signal Flare is the cheapest Mortar Monkey to affect camo, which can come in handy if the player fails to otherwise prepare for the camo leads on Round 59. Crosspathing is useful for optimizing its camo-popping power and support role.
• 1-0-3: Bigger blasts may seem desirable, but a Signal Flare without Path 2 is inconsistent due to its slow attack speed. Ideally, target on a large sharp corner. The secondary decamo blast also gains a little extra pierce, although quite significant compared to the base decamo pierce it comes at base.
• 2-0-3: Higher blast damage is not really helpful because Signal Flare is mainly a supporting role.
• 0-1-3: Faster rate of decamo is desirable. Sometimes 0-1-3 may be used to desync Signal Flare decamoing.
• 0-2-3: The highest rate of decamo with internally upgraded Mortars. Provides the most reliable decamo via a Mortar.

Shattering Shells[]

• 0-0-4: Shattering Shells mainly helps defortify Fortified MOABs and Fortified BFBs, but also can decamo and degrow any type of bloon and deals stronger burn damage. It is mainly a support role, reducing the strength of special bloon properties in addition to limited high-HP grouped popping power from its penetrating napalm. Giving extra attack speed via Path 2 crosspathing makes it easier to micro the Shattering Shells so it can target different locations quicker. Path 1 mainly impacts its blast radius and mid-game damage at the risk of retaining its slow attack speed.
• 1-0-4: Increased blast radius can be useful if targeted in a large sharp corner, but the attack speed is generally better, as a MOAB-class bloon's hitbox is quite large anyway, and the Mortar would benefit more from making consistent shots.
• 2-0-4: Bloon Buster is redundant if purely using Shattering Shells for defortification, because all Bloon Buster does is add +1 damage per explosion and more burn damage. The defortification already strips a large amount of health off the defortified bloons. However, the improved burn allows it to fully destroy non-freeplay Ceramics in a single shot with a small delay.
• 0-1-4: This particular crosspath is normally enough to make it reliable at defortifying all Fortified BFBs before they reach the main defenses. Extra attack speed with 0-2-4 may be required on maps with multiple lanes, more specifically on Quad, for instance.
• 0-2-4: Generally the best crosspath for Shattering Shells for a reliable defortification, especially versus Fortified MOABs, which are faster than Fortified BFBs and therefore could possibly skip over each shot without the needed boost in attack speed. This also optimizes Shattering Shells for simply targeting the same spot to dispatch mid-game bloons in combination backline defenses that handle bloons that it can't handle alone.

Blooncineration[]

• 0-0-5: Blooncineration upgrades its napalm to deal significantly higher MOAB-class damage and burn faster, and leaves behind fire blazes every time its shells explode on the ground. Additionally, it can defortify DDTs with each explosion. Crosspathing is beneficial for its special fire blazes and for making consistent shots at bloons, and a non-crosspathed Blooncineration leaves little to offer besides its napalm and un-optimized fire blazes.
• 1-0-5: Not only are explosions larger, fire blazes produced will become larger too. Basically more contact area for the blazes and higher explosion rate is what 1-0-5 offers. This misses out on Path 2 crosspathing, but Bigger Blast and more wall of blazes pierce per tic it benefits to Blooncineration are still worth a solid note.
• 2-0-5: The explosion itself doesn't do much extra damage, rather it gains extra damage via its fire blazes dealing stronger contact damage and inflicting a stronger damage-over-time effect. It is worth mentioning that each hit deals massive burn damage-over-time to bloons and even more to MOAB-class bloons. In essence, this is basically a highlight of the importance of fire damage compared to the base hit or defortifying.
• 0-1-5: Faster rate of explosions also increases rate of production of fire blazes. Shots become more consistent at blimps by gaining higher attack speed. Use 0-2-5 for the best results.
• 0-2-5: The fastest rate of explosions via internal upgrades, producing by far the most consistent shots at blimps and making the most fire blazes. This is especially the case for catching DDTs.

Strategy[]

Path 1 and Path 3 crosspathing make the player choose between increasing the frequency and reliability of mortar hits (by crossing with Path 2) and the mortar's damage output (with the other crosspath). Pick a crosspath depending on the mortar's purpose. If the mortar serves as support (Decamo, Defortify, Stun, DDT damage, or just applying Burn in the first place), Path 2 crosspathing will allow the mortar to apply its support effects more consistently. If the mortar is to serve as pure damage, picking the other crosspath increases the mortar's raw damage output, via a buffed Burny Stuff, at the cost of less consistency in hitting the desired bloons.

As for upper Path 2 upgrades, it is normally crosspathed with Path 1 for the bigger explosions and better DPS, given its fast attack speed already is sufficient that getting better accuracy hardly matters compared to producing bigger explosions. Burny Stuff does not improve with any Path 2 upgrade.