How To Win in Bloons Tower Defense 3

From the developers at Ninja Kiwi, Bloons Tower Defense 3 continues the Bloons series' unique, colorful battle of balloons versus monkeys. This fast-paced tower-defense strategy series – which encompasses about a dozen games and spinoff titles, as of 2018 – can be played for free at Ninja Kiwi's official site, but that doesn't mean it's free of challenge. The only way to win is to fend off a relentless flow of balloons until the timer is up.

Over the course of eight track-like levels, your monkeys must defend against waves upon waves of invading balloons by way of spending in-game currency on your choice of defensive devices. As a strategy game with no less than three difficulty levels, your game play choices are virtually endless – however, certain strategies help make the road to victory a lot smoother, so strap on your thinking cap and get ready to monkey around.

Upgrading your simian arsenal is the key to victory in Bloons Tower Defense 3, but some various upgrade paths suit certain levels better than others. Toward the beginning of the game, you'll want to make faster shooting a priority upgrade for your tack towers. Next, it's a safe bet to sell your balloon-popping tack and use the funds to buy a much more powerful canon to place in a central location. Toward the end of the round, when your funds are a little more robust, upgrading to extra-range bombs and equipping your canon with a missile launcher is a safe bet.

As the intensity begins to heighten, road spikes (with upgraded tacks as soon as possible) help ebb the balloon flow. Early on in the game, you'll also want to upgrade as many of your tacks as possible with blades and super range.

At about midway through a run of BTD3, the Spike-O-Pult is a wise investment. As soon as possible, upgrade it with a longer range, Juggernaut and multi-shot abilities and set its target priority to "last." This is about the point where a few more canons come in handy, too.

By the last tenth or so of the game, it's time to purchase a Super Monkey and upgrade it with super range, and then epic range, as soon as you can. A Super Monkey, the addition of another Spike-O-Pult and those good-old road spikes and upgraded tacks (a little less than 20 of them by now) makes for a lethal combo.

Be conservative with building toward the beginning of each round, starting with a simple tack tower or two. At the end of each round, it's never a bad idea to use excess funds to build at least one more tack tower.

When the game reaches its most frenzied pace and you're all stocked up with gear like a Super Monkey, a few Spike-O-Pults and at least a dozen tacks with various levels of upgrades, focus on adding and upgrading towers, placing road spikes just for extra security.