Bloons TD 7: Dark Times (CrookedHorn)

"This page features a variant of the conceptual successor to Bloons TD 6 as created by Crooked Horn."

Bloons TD 7 (or Bloons TD 7: Dark Times) is a tower defense game that acts as the next game in the Bloons TD line. The rules of the game have not changed. In the end, the goal is still to prevent Bloons from reaching the exit of a track by placing various towers into the map. Just because the goal remains the same does not mean new storms are brewing, mind you.

Bloons TD 7 features many new towers, upgrades, abilities, heroes, bloons, bosses, and more. Alongside all of this new content resides a fully built in Story Mode and a quest to embark upon. Inside of the game remains the typical formula, deemed Classic Mode. Select a map, a difficulty, and get popping for medals.

Since the formula of the Bloons TD franchise really needs no introduction, the content will be explained below.

'''The game features a health and damage mechanic similar to this system, but handled independently. It will be explained here.'''

Campaign Mode
The largest addition to the game is featured within the Campaign Mode. Campaign Mode is a 60 stage endeavor around the Monkey world putting together the pieces and uniting amid dark times to bring to its knees a common adversary.

The Story
''The world was once prosperous and life was lavish. Under a powerful and unconquerable kingdom, the monkeys of the realm remained united and free. It had been long since the Bloons of the outlands had threatened the sovereignty and territory of the kingdom, but seers felt something terrible brewing...''

''Without warning, the sky darkened, and green lightning scattered the skies in mile long arcs. It had seemed as if the unrest soul of every fallen warrior had risen from death as whole tracts of land tore and gave way. From far off in the mountains of yonder, a vile and crooked cackle echoed over the world, a beacon of sickly green light rocketing skyward and breaking the black clouds and spreading forth from its break scattered tendrils of green light pulsing in the clouds.''

''Next came the haunting. As the weeks went by, the spirits of bloon and monkey alike rose from the dead, terrorizing every street and home of the many cities and towns within the expansive kingdom. As the dark times grew longer and the turmoil endured, the various cities and towns were cut off from one another, and from the outlands entered a nefarious force taking advantage of the tragedy...''

''The armies of sickly resurrected bloons spoke whispers of a certain villain that brought them about. The name was unfamiliar to many, and so a new title was adopted for this scheming nightmare who birthed a catastrophe: The Prince of Darkness.''

''And despite the now decades of rule by the faraway Prince of Darkness, through the shadow of this horrific age, a light pierced the terror as if a blinding spear of hope. From far the edges of the now shattered kingdom's southern territory opposite to the Prince's catacombs in the north, a forgettable but well-defended city by the name of Prideshead had long endured the armies of the Prince. Now with plans to reclaim the broken world from the clutches of this malicious entity and restore the mighty Monkey Kingdom, the Prince of Darkness, after many years of domination, has a reason to feel fear again...''

Breakdown
Campaign Mode is split into six 'Arcs' of 10 stages. The final stage of each Arc is considered a Boss Stage, and is denoted by the aura of fire surrounding its thumbnail on the stage selection screen.

Campaign Mode is partially linear, with the Arcs having to be completed in order but some stages able to chosen in any order. Other stages in an Arc may require another stage be completed before it will unlock.

A 'stage' is an instance of gameplay on a map with a number of rounds to complete and as the story and game progresses more tower types and tower upgrades will be unlocked.

Towers, upgrades, etc. unlocked in Campaign Mode will not carry over to Classic Mode, and towers, upgrades, heroes, etc. unlocked in Classic Mode will not carry over to Campaign Mode. Heroes unlocked through Campaign Mode will be usable in Classic Mode once unlocked however, and in some rare instances some tower upgrades require certain Campaign Mode stages to have been beat to unlock. Tower XP for Classic Mode upgrades can be earned in Campaign Mode, but upgrades unlocked with said XP cannot be used in Campaign Mode. Career Ranks can be earned in Campaign Mode, but at a slower pace than in Classic Mode. Gaining Rank XP in Campaign Mode after the Tutorial will not be possible until at least one full game of Classic Mode on any difficulty and on any map has been completed.

The Tutorial is technically part of Campaign Mode, but is featured as soon as the game is opened for the first time and roughly introduces that 'The Prince of Darkness has sent another small assault to the town and must be held off'. Players will leave this Tutorial at Rank 3, and with two additional towers alongside the Dart Monkey to take on their adventurers into either Campaign Mode or Classic Mode.

Arcs and Stages
WIP

Towers
Towers are the entities, usually Monkeys, placed on the map to hold off oncoming waves of bloons along the track. They start weak, but have 3 Paths of five upgrades, the same as in BTD 6. Unlike before, there is an even greater degree of customization in the form of Skill Upgrades, which are selected in a skill tree format unique to each tower and universal in effecting them regardless of their paths.

Towers gain XP correspondent to their use. At the end of each round, all towers in use will gain 100 + (1 x round) XP to their independent XP count. This does not stack with multiple instances of a tower on the same map. This XP is used to unlock the upgrades along the various paths of a tower's whole arsenal, ending with powerful, expensive, and elusive Tier 5 upgrades.

Towers have three paths each with five upgrades each, but only two can be invested into a placed tower. A chosen path can be taken all the way to Tier 5, but once that path hits Tier 3, it closes of any other of the remaining paths from reaching Tier 3. If an upgrade is bought into a second path, the third path closes and no upgrades can be bought from it. This second path can only go up to Tier 2.

Towers are divided into four categories: Standard, Military, Magic, and Support. These typings do very little in regards to gameplay same for some upgrades or heroes that favor whole branches of towers rather than just a select few.

Bloons TD 7 currently features 29 towers, of which new towers shall have written independent pages eventually. More may come in the future. Rank 2-29 features the unlocking of these new towers, with the Dart Monkey being unlocked from the get-go. Unlike BTD 6, towers can be unlocked in nearly any order, save for some requiring a minimum Rank to unlock. Ranks 30 onward reward 3 Monkey Knowledge Points usable in Skill Upgrades.

Standard

 * Dart Monkey: Cheap and effective dart throwers. (Default)
 * Tack Shooter: Shoot eight-way radial bursts of tacks. (Requires Rank 2)
 * Engineer: Mechanical masterminds who can enhance the battle. (Requires Rank 5)
 * Glue Gunner: Slow down targets by spraying them a glue that hinders movement! (Requires Rank 2)
 * Boomerang Monkey: Throws a powerful projectile in an arc shape, piercing many targets. (Requires Rank 2)
 * Ninja Monkey: Fast throwing and very threatening ninjas keen on sabotage. (Requires Rank 5)
 * Buccaneer: A salty dog aboard a hearty pirate ship. Requires water to be placed. (Requires Rank 8)

Military

 * Bomb Cannon: A large piece of artillery that fires explosive bomb projectiles, popping in an area. (Requires Rank 3)
 * Sniper Monkey: Long ranged snipers who can hit anywhere so long as their vision isn't obstructed. (Requires Rank 3)
 * Mortar Monkey: Give them a fixed target location, and periodically explosive shells shall rain there. (Requires Rank 8)
 * Monkey Submarine: An advanced naval vehicle that fires homing darts. Requires water to be placed. (Requires Rank 8)
 * Monkey Ace: A skilled pilot that moves through the sky in a fixed pattern, periodically firing a ring of darts. (Requires Rank 12)
 * Heli Pilot: Dominating the air, the Heli-Pilot can be moved around and fires at targets with a plentiful plethora of propelled projectiles. (Requires Rank 18)
 * Dartling Gunner: Fast-firing but inaccurate gunners with a long range. Can be aimed manually with the cursor. (Requires Rank 18)

Magic

 * Wizard: A powerful mage who can blossom into a deadly asset, with three branches of magic to choose from. (Requires Rank 8)
 * Ice Monkey: Arctic mages from the north who can freeze and pop bloons within a small radius for a short time. (Requires Rank 2)
 * Druid: Live by, for, and of nature. Can undertake various routes to embodying its wrath. (Requires Rank 5)
 * Alchemist: Magical and curious chemists who live little more than to test their potent potions. (Requires Rank 5)
 * Super Monkey: Awesome and powerful heroes who throw darts at incredible speed with much room for enhancement. (Requires Rank 24)

Support

 * Village Hut: A new settlement with resources for enhancing troops. Huts at base provide a range boost and upgrade cost reduction to nearby towers! (Requires Rank 24)
 * Banana Farm: Bountiful farms that produce valuable bananas worth quite a bit of cash for bloon popping. Generates 5 bananas a round at base. (Requires Rank 18)
 * Spike Factory: Will shoot out small stacks of 5 spikes randomly about in its vicinity, sometimes saving a monkey's life or two. Can build up quickly. (Requires Rank 8)

Standard

 * Monkey Guardian: Sword and shield defenders of the old ways from the west. Monkey Guardians have a small range with their blades, but are staunch protectors. (Requires Rank 5)
 * Monkey Archer: Skilled with a bow and of keen eye, Archers rain arrows upon their foes slowly but steadily. (Requires Rank 2)

Military
WIP

Magic

 * Monkey Summoner: Magical prodigies in the art of summoning. This unique magic makes for epic implications. (Requires Rank 12)
 * Phase Monkey: Mages of light and energy who can warp reality and wreak havoc with beams of light.(Requires Rank 18)
 * Nautical Mage: Seafaring mages who can ride waves and make bloons soaked in agony. Requires water to be placed. (Requires Rank 8)

Support

 * Monkey Fortress: Fortresses provide unique bonuses to surrounding Towers with the added bonus of placing fighters to stall on the track. (Requires Rank 8)
 * Bionic Drone: Initially dormant, Bionic Drones have many powerful upgrades manipulating the very mechanics of warfare. (Requires Rank 24)

Health and Damage
WIP

Bloons
Bloons are your enemy, and allies of the Prince of Darkness. He has his own hoard of undead bloons and monkeys alike, but he has made a treaty with those yet to serve him eternally due to their common foe... the fractured Monkey Kingdom.

Every bloon has an RBE or Red Bloon Equivalent, equal to the amount of hits it takes to completely destroy, and how many lives it will claim upon exiting the map. Bloons come in four types: Standard Bloons, Unique Bloons, MOAB-Class Bloons, and Boss Bloons.

Bloons also have many Properties, included but not limited to: Camo, Regrow, Fortified, etc. to name a few from BTD 6. More will be included. Once encountered, a bloon will appear in the player's Bestiary for later viewing, a short description, and a number of times they have been popped in your total career.

Some Bloons have abilities, able to either support their allies or damage and whittle away at towers. These abilities can range from passive speed boosts, to group effect giving, or even to powerful deadly blasts against your towers. Bosses feature numerous abilities to make the struggles with them more difficult. Some MOAB-class Bloons include them as well.

New bloons listed here will eventually receive pages.

Bloon List
WIP

Standard

 * Red Bloon
 * Blue Bloon
 * Green Bloon
 * Yellow Bloon
 * Pink Bloon
 * Purple Bloon
 * Indigo Bloon
 * Orange Bloon
 * Black Bloon
 * White Bloon
 * Lead Bloon
 * Zebra Bloon
 * Rainbow Bloon
 * Ceramic Bloon

Unique

 * Bloon Hoardling
 * Hoard Blaster
 * Hoard Bomb
 * Hoard Enchanter
 * Suction Bloon
 * Hoard Mage
 * Bloon Hoardmaster
 * Elite Bloon
 * Shielded Bloon
 * Enforcer Bloon
 * Lightning Bloon
 * Nova Bloon
 * Arctic Bloon
 * Shade Bloon

M.O.A.B-Class

 * M.O.A.B (Massive Ornery Air Blimp)
 * B.F.B (Brutal Floating Behemoth)
 * Z.O.M.G (Zeppelin Of Mighty Gargantuaness)
 * D.D.T (Dark Dirigible Titan)
 * B.A.D (Big Airship of Doom)
 * M.H.A (Missile Hoarding Airship)
 * M.F.W (Massive Flying Warmachine)
 * L.O.T.S (Lord Of The Skies)

Boss Bloons
WIP

Heroes
WIP

The rest of this page in general remains a Work In Progress to be continued later.