Note: This tier list is for each individual tower path, with the fifth tier image representing its tiers 3-5, in CHIMPS mode. A ‘+’ sign indicates that further upgrades are strategy-specific and shouldn’t always be purchased.



SS: Arguably game-breaking. Best in the game by far with virtually no weaknesses.


- Middle Path Engi: While Cleansing Foam is unreliable and Ultraboost is unaffordable in CHIMPS mode, the real winner of this upgrade path is Overclock. Paying just $16k for a nearly 2x power boost is huge, especially in a meta that’s dominated by highly-supported fifth tiers as opposed to many weaker towers. This ability continues to shape the entire meta by causing a shift towards defenses that simply overpower the bloons with sheer DPS, with control towers taking a backseat. Best crosspath is 040.



S: Strong in all portions of the game. May be weak to some round types, but succeed when properly supported.


- Pat: While Pat is fairly mediocre on his own, his synergy with Grandmaster Ninja, a tower that is currently the strongest DPS dealer in the game, makes him extremely powerful. His level 3 ability, which is upgraded when he reaches level 14, makes the Grandmaster Ninja magnitudes stronger given its relatively low damage per projectile. Other synergies include Tack Zone and Sun Avatar as both are also low damaging and fast attacking towers. Also wields surprising amounts of control via stun and knockback, often trivializing early MOABs and dispatching the r97 FZOMGs that Grandmaster Ninja can sometimes struggle to via his level 10 ability.

- Top Path Ninja: An early, mid, and late game powerhouse when supported. For less than $6k, this tower effortlessly carries to around r60, combining area cleanup with high point DPS. The Grandmaster + Shinobi strat is now insanely powerful, especially with Pat. Unlike other fifth tiers, it can be afforded before r63 while also slowly ramping up to the power level of towers like Avatar of Wrath as Shinobis are added. Its synergy with Overclock is simply broken. Best crosspath is 502.

- Top Path Alchemist: Its buffs easily boost good towers into powerhouses, making it a necessity for most fast attacking, low damage towers, or anything expensive where the extra speed alone justifies the extra cost. Its damage/pierce buff gives massive strength to Ninjas and Subs, while its attack speed buff works well with Avatar of Wrath, Archmage, and The Biggest One. Best crosspath is 400+.

- Bottom Path Spact: A consistently useful tower that has withstood the tests of time even as other towers waxed and waned with each passing balance change. At $32k it’s harder to use as a mid-game stepping stone, but when Overclocked with a round staller is capable of almost single-handedly defeating late game. While Maim MOAB is the easiest stall to use, cheaper and even more potent options including 012 Ices, Downdraft, and MOAB Shove have allowed this tower to take down Bloody Puddles CHIMPS, the hardest map of them all. Best crosspath is 025.



S-: Almost as powerful, but may be noticeably weaker than their S tier counterparts.


- Obyn: A strong, well rounded hero that can solo early rounds and provide useful support late-game with his blimp-slowing totems. His pierce buff for magic towers in range is also extremely useful for the Druid’s bottom path fifth tier upgrade, Avatar of Wrath, as it only has 1 base pierce. Other synergies with Obyn include Sun Avatar and Bloonjitsu/Grandmaster. Easiest top-tier hero to use by far.

- Bottom Path Sub: One of the most efficient towers early/mid-game, and can also be used to success as the sole source of popping power late-game on some maps such as Peninsula as a Sub Commander army. Global range and easy camo detection, along with an excellent power curve all the way to Triple Guns, make it very popular on Expert maps. Best crosspath is 203+.

- Top Path Wizard: Its large, homing projectiles offer powerful blimp support across the entire map. For its price, Arcane Spike is especially powerful when supplemented with a strong bloon clearer like MOAR Glaives. Often considered the single most powerful and cost-effective mid-game option on Expert maps. Archmage is more map specific, but dominates maps with poor visibility like Spillway and Workshop, especially when paired with a super ceramic clearer like Bloon Solver or Biggest One. Has amazing synergy with Overclock. Best crosspath is 401+.

- Top Path Super: Sun Avatar has great value both before and after super ceramics show up. It effortlessly solos up to r80, then is able to provide consistent crowd control by stalling super ceramics. The nerf to knockback is definitely significant however, enough to knock this path down to S- tier from S. Note that its recently introduced ability to slow DDTs by 30% with knockback reintroduces a significant amount of its viability. Best crosspath is 301+.

- Middle Path Ninja: One of the most versatile and useful abilities in the entire game. Almost compulsory against DDT rounds, and still demonstrates remarkable crowd control against hyperdense rounds, acting as a global MOAB Glue. As mentioned above, Shinobi strats are incredibly dominant and even enjoy some success with bottom path Ninja. One remarkable strategy that’s recently emerged is to build Bloonjitsu, then max out all 20 Shinobis before saving for Grandmaster Ninja. This potent build order entirely cuts out all stepping stone towers and has become the unchallenged strat for every map except Workshop and the Puddles. Best crosspath is 0+40.

- Bottom Path Druid: Rose into the S- tier thanks mostly to a ridiculous buff to Obyn, who literally quadruples the theoretical power of this tower. Can evaporate the densest rounds such as r98, but needs a lot of support to handle DDT rounds. Often seen with Permaspike and/or Sabo as a result of this weakness. Best crosspath is 01+5.



A: Shine in some portions of the game. Some are exceeding specialists, doing their job like no other tower.


- Quincy: Used mainly as a CHIMPS start to easily clear out the early rounds. Later in the game, his powerful ceramic clearing capabilities and surprisingly high blimp DPS keep him relevant as a weaker but easier to use counterpart to Churchill. He’s the best hero to use for Muddy Puddles CHIMPS thanks to his early game power and global range ceramic round decimation. Best used with any strategy that doesn’t require hero support such as Sub Commander and Apache Prime.

- Bottom Path Tack: Tack Zone has made a resurgence in popularity thanks to update 9.0 introducing Pat Fusty as well as a buff to the 4xx Alchemist. Once again, it can sustain 100% Alchemist uptime when the Alchemist is solely focused on it, and its damage is tripled by Pat’s level 3 ability. The best way to use it is on a map where it can be placed directly below the track since its tacks originate above center and thus shred anything directly over it. It further received an almost unprecedented buff of +50% to attack speed as well as 100% uptime with Overclock, making it by far the strongest primary fifth tier in the game. Best crosspath is 205.

- Middle Path Sub: Useful for one round, r100, but boy is it insane. Two activations destroy r100 without much fuss when properly timed, while one can allow a defense designed against the previous rounds to succeed by simply deleting the BAD's children when activated late into the final damage phase. Certain maps see high synergy with Reactor to allow two activations from the same Sub. Best crosspath is 040.

- Top Path Heli: An all-rounder of a tower. Does solid damage against all types of rounds
 including r100, especially when supported. Also synergizes very well with Bloon Sabotage, which clumps up DDTs for its machine gun attack to get maximum value. Best crosspath is 501.

- Middle Path Heli: Special Poperations does extraordinary damage but is unreliable without the expensive Energizer. Downdraft on the other hand is seen in the most refined Permaspike strats when combined with 012 Ice due to its cheaper price, stronger super ceramic control, and higher stalling potential than Maim MOAB. Support Chinook is often included in spread-out maps like the Puddles in order to move towers, especially Permaspike, to relevant locations. Best crosspath is 13+0 or 051.

- Top Path Mortar: A substantial nerf to blimps in 11.0 severely decreased the viability of this tower. As a result, it’s no longer a late game menace, but rather an alternative to Bloon Solver that offers some advantages (global range, decent blimp DPS, much stronger fourth tier) and disadvantages (significantly more expensive, less effective at catching stray fortified super ceramics). Synergizes well with Overclock to blast hyperdense rounds into oblivion, as well as the strongest blimp damagers in the game like Archmage and Tack Zone. Best crosspath is 520.

- Middle Path Spact: Most effective against r100, but can also provide global damage to chip away at the substantial health pool of r99 DDTs. It’s gained popularity due to fantastic synergy with Pat, making it the most efficient way to strictly damage the BAD layer. Best crosspath is 1+40.

- Middle Path Village: After the reign of Comanche Commander ended, the best late-game towers in the game require MIB support once again. Its ability to grant DDT popping power is invaluable for Sub Commander, Grandmaster Ninja, and Avatar of Wrath especially. Often seen in refined CHIMPS strategies in the form of double villages, with the other village upgraded along the top path and both having the discount upgrades. Call To Arms is generally unreliable but can be used to some success, with its best synergy coming from Sentry Paragon. Best crosspath is 032.



A-: Similar to A tier, but are often less powerful or can be replaced in many circumstances by better towers.


- Ezili: A late-game oriented hero that can demolish the RBE of the densest rounds in the game with her level 10 ability. Her base attack sports the highest blimp DPS out of all heroes and can even neutralize dangerous groups of fortified super ceramics by defortifying them. On the highest difficulty tracks, it’s even a viable option to purchase level 20 for a free r100 win. Should only be used in strategies that don’t require a hero buff, especially Sub Commander and Apache Prime.

- Bottom Path Dart: Crossbow is problematic in CHIMPS due to its lack of synergy with Alchemist and tendency to miss, resulting in being largely outclassed by top path Ninjas. However, thanks to enormous buffs in 12.0, Crossbow Master is now a valid substitute for Sun Avatar as it has remarkable super ceramic clearing abilities. Still needs lots of straight lines to be usable, such as on Cubism, and is thus highly map dependent. Best crosspath is 025.

- Middle Path Boomer: Permacharge received a massive buff in 12.0, making it over twice as powerful as before. Combined with Overclock and MIB, this tower can decimate the late game blimp and DDT rounds alike, even on short sections of track. Turbocharge is also a strong mid-game ability, serving as one of the cheaper ways to deal with multipath MOABs. Best crosspath is 250.

- Bottom Path Boomer: Most useful for its knockback, which has substantial pierce and does well against hyperdense rounds. Seen in the original Puddles CHIMPS solutions, as well as Workshop CHIMPS. One of its more common use cases is against r100 to push the spawned ZOMGs back as far as possible. Most recently, 12.0 allowing the knockback kylies to benefit from crosspathing launched it into huge viability thanks to mid crosspath granting a 78% attack speed increase. As a result, it’s now incredibly powerful against hyperdense rounds, especially r98. Best crosspath is 024.

- Bottom Path Glue: Wields a useful form of crowd control against both hyperdense and DDT rounds. A little expensive, but can be discounted by bottom path villages and stacks well with Bloon Sabotage to cripple DDTs. Doesn’t coexist well with Overclock. Best crosspath is 01+3.

- Top Path Sniper: Most commonly used due to its synergy with Permaspike. When set on Last targeting, Maim MOAB easily drags out rounds to unreasonable lengths, allowing Permaspike to stack up far more spikes than usual. This, in turn, means that Perma-Spike can do well against hyperdense rounds, especially when Overclocked. The extended rounds are also amazing for Pat, whose volatile and powerful ability can be otherwise hard to manage between rounds. In addition, Deadly Precision is decent for its global range, seeing use in most #ouch CHIMPS strategies since update 7.0 to deal with the r40 MOAB and early mid game. Shockingly powerful against r99 as Maim MOAB when overclocked. Best crosspath is 402.

- Bottom Path Mortar: Excels against r98, removing a sizable amount of the RBE for a cheap price tag, but not much else. Useful for strategies built around dealing with DDTs that need extra hyperdense round support, but the influence of Overclock resulting in a meta centralized on overwhelming with sheer DPS results in less usage than in other metas. Signal Flare is unfortunately too inconsistent to be useful and Blooncineration is mostly unusable with nearly half its normal DPS in CHIMPS. Best crosspath is 01+4.

- Middle Path Alchemist: The majority of its usage lies in its third tier upgrade. For a very cheap price tag, it’s by far the most efficient tower in the game when considering pure damage. As a result, it synergizes best with towers that can hold their ground against groups of super ceramics, such as Permaspike, as its massive blimp-wrenching explosions have the side effect of releasing hordes of super ceramics all at once. A less common but still viable strategy is to use Total Transformation on Ninjas, which stacks with Shinobi buffs to gain considerable DPS. Best crosspath is 030+.



B: These towers tend to have great use, but are highly map or strategy dependent.


- Churchill: A surprisingly significant buff in 13.0 has given new life to Churchill as a mid/late-game powerhouse, out-damaging every other hero. Similar to Quincy, should only be used with towers that don’t require hero buffs, but only on maps with easy early games. Somewhat map specific due to only getting maximum value when shooting down straight lines. MOAB Barrage is currently weaker than it should be due to a bug where 9/10 of the missiles target last instead of strong.

- Gwen: Currently completely outclassed by Pat and Obyn. Her most redeeming feature is a significantly higher mid-game DPS than either, but her buffs simply pale in comparison to the top-tier heroes. Nevertheless a usable and viable hero on easier maps when combined with low damaging towers like Sun Avatar, especially thanks to her level 3 ability shutting down early/mid-game bloon rushes.

- Top Path Boomer: Exceptionally strong against bloons, exceptionally weak against blimps. Best used as a complement to Arcane Spike to work as a surprisingly potent mid-game combo while saving up for fifth tiers like Grandmaster Ninja. The fifth tier, Glaive Lord, is usable in CHIMPS, although not commonplace because of its puny range and inability to actually deal with fortified super ceramics. Best crosspath is 420 with Alch buff or 402 otherwise.

- Bottom Path Bomb: Easily decimates midgame when supported by Striker Jones. Hasn't been nearly as popular recently, but acts as a usable replacement for Sun Avatar in some strategies. However, the significant nerf to Biggest One and the current Pat/Obyn meta has resulted in a lower tier as other midgame options continue to dominate the game. Completely evaporates dense ceramic rounds such as r78. Best crosspath is 204.

- Middle Path Tack: While the fifth tier ability is up and buffed by Pat Fusty, this tower melts everything nearby, including blimps, due to its recently improved uptime of 50%. By nature using this tower as your main DPS necessitates using it with Pat along with Permaspike due to its tendency to leak and suffer against DDTs when Pat's roar isn't properly micromanaged. The fourth tier is a cheap patch for round 63 defenses and can be used on both the first and third rushes. Best crosspath is 250 (although this doesn’t affect the ability).

 - Middle Path Ice: The fourth tier ability is great for Expert maps in particular, where Permaspike is difficult to use. Its slow is significantly more powerful than MOAB Glue and Bloon Sabotage, especially against r99’s FDDTs. However, it does little to nothing on just about every other round. The water freezing is incredibly useful for gaining extra land on Peninsula, better tower placements on Quad, and utilizing both subs and land towers in the center on #ouch. Best crosspath is 03+1.

- Bottom Path Ice: Powerful for its crowd control capabilities that allow it to solo DDT rounds. However, offers less support than other towers at a similar price range against hyperdense rounds, along with weak point DPS. Replaceable by Permaspike on most maps. Best crosspath is 01+5.

- Top Path Glue: One of the most specialized towers in the entire game. Its sole purpose is to deal with super ceramics, and this it does incredibly well. Perhaps the cheapest reliable option against these menaces late game. Its sheer concentrated power is a great counter to fortified rounds, in which the greatest threat is the beefy ceramic children. Best crosspath is 502.

- Bottom Path Ace: After a “rework” that increased price significantly, Spectre fell off the map as its role was completely boxed out by Sun Avatar. However, the introduction of Overclock and the nerf to Sun Avatar in 12.0 has given it new life. It’s now able to contend with late game with no line of sight issues and global range thanks to having 100% Overclock uptime. Seen with Impale on Muddy Puddles and Workshop CHIMPS. Best crosspath is 204.



B-: Have limited, but occasionally useful, applications.


- Adora: Largely outclassed by Churchill. Her only useful benefit over him is having a better early game (acting as a more powerful Obyn), but by mid-game her overwhelming downsides become apparent. In particular, her level 10 is one of the worst hero abilities in the game before level 20 since it can’t even pop the outside of a BFB, unlike Churchill’s MOAB Barrage which can target and destroy up to ten. Her level 3 ability gives good coverage, but can’t realistically contend with grouped ceramics as opposed to Churchill’s AP Shells. She’s half-decent on any map where it’s feasible to sacrifice her to level 20 early, but is out-damaged by Churchill. On the other hand, she’s dead weight mid/late-game on more difficult maps and throwing money at her will likely result in a quick death in the final few rounds.

- Jones: Has a decent synergy with towers such as The Biggest One and a group of Recursive Clusters. His level 3 can provide good support throughout the entire game, but Pat’s stun and knockback is generally considered more potent. Sadly, the current state of The Biggest One relegates it to super ceramic clean-up, and as a result Jones is rarely chosen in favor of another hero to buff other DPS towers such as Obyn with Archmage or Pat with Tack Zone.

 Middle Path Bomb: As the name might suggest, MOAB Eliminator completely trashes the r100 BAD. In addition, it contributes decent damage and can remove some of the RBE from hyperdense rounds. Unfortunately, its price tag means that, for the most part, First Strike on water and Spike Storm on land outclass it. MOAB Mauler spam can be mildly effective for late-game when supported with Primary Expertise and Jones. Best crosspath is 050+.

- Top Path Ice: Demonstrates incredible support capability with certain towers that deal low damage per projectile, such as Tack Zone and Grandmaster. Unfortunately, its pathetically small range makes it difficult to use well. Because of this, it also has, to an extent, high map dependence. Best crosspath is 51+0.

- Middle Path Glue: Acts as a weaker form of Super Brittle, but with global range. Obviously, best used with towers that deal low damage per projectile such as Tack Zone and Grandmaster Ninja. Glue Hose is very useful for certain strategies that greatly struggle against super ceramics, but these are few and far between with the dominance of Overclock. Best crosspath is 250 (after the bug fix made 052 unable to debuff blimps).

- Top Path Ace: At its third tier, Fighter Plane is an acceptably strong way of dealing heavy single-target damage to blimps, especially useful on r40, for maps where global range is particularly valuable. Above that, Sky Shredder combines two mediocre attacks to create a jack of all trades, master of none tower. Tends to struggle against super ceramics and dense blimp packs, but its relatively cheap price tag makes this somewhat acceptable. Best crosspath is 501+.

- Middle Path Ace: Best used on hyperdense rounds to clear out super ceramics and deal heavy damage to blimps. Tsar Bomba is niche, but can be used well, especially with Permaspike. However, its lack of synergy with Overclock has resulted in significantly reduced viability. Bomber Ace is mostly relegated to races. Best crosspath is 14+0.

- Bottom Path Ninja: Never quite been very good due to the unreliability of Flash Bomb and extreme specialization of Master Bomber. However, with Shinobi spam very much in the meta, Flash Bomb is a cheap way to further power up Grandmaster by decimating ceramic rounds in the Bloonjitsu + max Shinobi strat and permanently stunning super ceramics in the late game. In addition, mass Shinobis greatly enhance the power of Master Bomber's blimp stun to become a strange yet effective substitute for Bloon Crush. Best crosspath is 103.

- Top Path Druid: For a reasonable price, Ball Lightning is a respectably powerful tower that carries mid-game and can control super ceramics with the tornado. Combine 1-2 of these with Poplust spam as a stepping stone to Avatar of Wrath on most maps, granting extra late game money as opposed to using Sun Avatar. Best crosspath is 402.

- Top Path Village: At the fifth tier, it combines decent buffs with a rather unreliable attack which can sometimes clear out large groups of super ceramics. While neither is particularly powerful, they merge into a tower that supports some Primary towers well, while taking on the role of denting super ceramic clusters. For example, Inferno Ring requires the use of this tower to quadruple the power of its meteor attack. Its most popular form however is Primary Training, which greatly buffs 013 Glues and 024 Boomers. Often seen in the double village strategy in CHIMPS, outlined above. Best crosspath is 302.



C: Average towers, nothing extraordinary to see here.


- Top Path Dart: Interestingly, if the only maps in the game were Hedge, Moon Landing, and Cornfield, this tower would probably be in SS tier with Overclock. Considered to be by far the most map specific tower in the game due to Ultra-Juggernaut absolutely decimating on certain maps but doing almost nothing on every other map. Its disgusting hyperdense power should be further strengthened by Pat and Overclock. Best crosspath is 520.

- Top Path Tack: As usual with the offensive Tacks, it’s rather map specific. Ring of Fire acts as decent bloon clean-up, with the fifth tier Inferno Ring being a fun, if not amazing, tower to use. Similar to its partner in crime, Primary Expertise, it combines two roles it does decently into a tower that’s a little more than decent. Best crosspath is 520.

- Top Path Bomb: On maps that converge to a single path, this tower completely shuts down every round besides r100 for a very large price tag. Almost always combined with Sun Avatar to burn through the dense packs of perma-stunned blimps it creates, largely because of the exceptional cost efficiency of Avatar to compensate for Crush's extreme price tag. Unfortunately, its complete lack of damage means that it requires powerful support, such as double First Strike. Note that Sun Avatar nerf has significantly decreased Bloon Crush’s viability. Best crosspath is 520.

-Top Path Sub: Reactor has a niche use in maps such as Quad where the map is just long enough that it can decrease the First Strike cooldown enough for two activations. Can also be used to decamo bloons incredibly reliably; however, a camo village is generally better because of its capacity to provide discounts and buffs. Best crosspath is 400.

- Middle Path Wizard: Despite being the king of 2 Tower CHIMPS, Wizard Lord Phoenix’s sheer price tag, mediocre fourth tier, and unreliability during downtime makes it difficult to use on advanced maps. Surprisingly has little point DPS and thus suffers to r100, but effortlessly cleans up hyperdense and DDT rounds when managed properly. Due to its low uptime, it should almost always be paired up with a round staller. Best crosspath is 050+.

- Middle Path Super: Decent mid-game option at the third tier. The path sadly suffers from a host of problems, including strange and unreliable dual targeting, doubled Alchemist buff usage rate, horrible fourth tier ability, and virtually unaffordable fifth tier. Nevertheless can be a somewhat competent replacement for Sun Avatar on easier maps. Best crosspath is 230.

- Bottom Path Super: Suffers greatly from an ability to deal damage to super ceramics, unlike Sun Avatar which pierces through and controls them. Its blimp damage gives it some specialization, but it’s outclassed by more effective options for such a purpose like Arcane Spike. Dark Champion is decent DPS but very hard to afford and still falls to rounds like 98 and 99 without help. Best crosspath is 203.

- Top Path Engi: Since release Sentry Paragon has always been outshadowed by Archmage due to its horrid stepping stones and pierce. However, thanks to small yet continuous buffs, it finally demonstrates some counterplay, being able to deal with super ceramics slightly better than Archmage. Buffs from the Village in particular (namely, Jungle Drums and Call to Arms) are in fact more potent on this tower than any other. While selling the Paragons is fun in concept, in practice it's far too difficult and unreliable to be useful. Best crosspath is 502.

- Bottom Path Engineer: Very expensive for CHIMPS at $64.8k, but it provides functionality that’s utterly unique and unmatched besides possibly Bloon Master Alchemist. However, it’s unreliable and fast bloons like DDTs and ceramic clumps will often slip through, requiring a defense capable of dealing with them. Best crosspath is 005.


 C-: Almost entirely outclassed by better choices. There’s no more need to talk about each upgrade path specifically.

- Bottom Path Sniper
- Top Path Bucc
- Bottom Path Heli
- Bottom Path Wizard
- Bottom Path Alch
- Top Path Spact



D: Strictly outclassed by other towers/strategies.
- Ben
- Middle Path Dart
- Middle Path Bucc
- Middle Path Mortar



D-: Somehow has even fewer redeeming features than zero.

- Middle Path Druid
- Middle Path Sniper

F: Actively works against the player in CHIMPS.



- Bottom Path Buccaneer
- Bottom Path Village