Bloons Tower Defense
- Genre Board games
- Players 1
- Session 10 min
- Price Free
- Updated
This is where the Bloons TD series began. Ninja Kiwi released Bloons Tower Defense in 2007, and the first version is far smaller than the sequels people know today: a single green field, one grey stone path that snakes from the left edge to the bottom, and only five things to build. Balloons, called bloons, float along the path in rounds you start yourself with a big button on the right. Every bloon that slips past the end takes a life from your stock of 40. Each one you pop pays a little cash, and that cash buys more monkeys or upgrades for the ones already on the grass. Round one sends a short line of red bloons; by round four blue ones arrive, and a blue bloon does not vanish when hit, it drops a layer and carries on as a red. The whole game is about where you put things along that one maze, so it plays more like a calm puzzle than an action game.
| Left click a tower icon | Pick a tower from the Build Towers panel, then click on the grass to place it |
|---|---|
| Click a placed tower | Select it to see its range circle, buy an upgrade or sell it |
| Start Round | Release the next wave of bloons |
| Restart | Begin the map again from round 1 |
How to play Bloons Tower Defense
- Click New Game on the balloon menu. You start with 650 money and 40 lives.
- Choose a tower in the panel on the right and click a spot on the grass beside the path. Towers cannot sit on the stones.
- Press Start Round. Bloons follow the path; your towers fire on anything inside their range circle.
- Between rounds, spend what you earned. A Dart Tower can buy Piercing Darts for 210 or Long Range Darts for 100.
- The run ends when your lives hit zero, so keep adding coverage as later rounds bring more and tougher bloons.
Tips
- Put the first two dart monkeys inside the bends of the path. A tower on a corner sees the same bloons twice, once on the way in and once on the way out.
- Piercing Darts let one throw pass through several bloons in a row, which is worth more than raw range on a crowded stretch.
- The Ice Tower freezes bloons, but frozen bloons shrug off darts and tacks. Only bombs break them, so pair ice with a Bomb Tower or skip it.
- Selling returns most of the price. Moving a badly placed early tower is cheaper than leaking lives for ten rounds.
Questions about Bloons Tower Defense
Which towers are in the first Bloons Tower Defense?
Five: the Dart Tower for 250, the Tack Tower for 400 that fires in eight directions, the Ice Tower for 850, the Bomb Tower for 900 and the Super Monkey for 4000.
How is this different from Bloons Tower Defense 2?
The first game has one map, five towers and 40 lives. The sequel adds a difficulty choice, road spikes, monkey glue, a boomerang thrower and a new cloud map.
Can I play it on a phone or tablet?
Everything is done with clicks, so a tap works as a click, but the buttons are small on a phone screen. A tablet or a computer is more comfortable.
Is there a save?
No. Each visit starts a fresh run from round 1, so it is best played in one sitting.
