Spy Plane (BTD6)

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Spy Plane is the second upgrade of Path 2 for the Monkey Ace in Bloons TD 6. It allows the Monkey Ace to detect and pop Camo Bloons and deal +1 damage to them with any attack, including those from crosspaths or further upgrades. Monkey Aces with this upgrade also drop pineapples, as this is the upgrade after Exploding Pineapple.

This upgrade costs $295 on Easy, $350 on Medium, $380 on Hard, and $420 on Impoppable. If this tower is nearby Level 6+ Rosalia's workshop, this upgrade costs $270 on Easy, $315 on Medium, $340 on Hard, and $380 on Impoppable.

Description

Overview

The Spy Plane retains the general shape and color of all tier-2 monkey aces that imitate the Sopwith Camel design, but with two pairs of concentric blue and yellow circles. The pilot goggles are now worn on the eyes with a blue reflection. The Rapid Fire upgrade adds two red lines across the front of the wings. Lots More Darts turns the fuselage gray. Sharper Shots turns the edges of the wings red. Centered Path turns the entire ace red.

Spy Plane is a rather simple upgrade, granting Camo Detection and +1 damage to Camos from all attacks, including the pineapples, seeing as it comes after Exploding Pineapple.

Targeting Priorities

Like all Monkey Aces, Spy Plane uses flight patterns as its targeting priority settings. It requires the Centered Path upgrade to access the Centered Path targeting option.

• Circle: Flight pattern becomes a circular path around the runway.
• Figure Infinite: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the infinite symbol (∞). As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
• Figure Eight: Flight pattern becomes the shape of the number 8. As the Monkey Ace flies, it will pass its runway during its flight, specifically at each half of the whole flight path.
• Wingmonkey: Instead of a fixed flight path, the Monkey Ace will attempt to fly as close to the path as possible, similarly to an Aircraft Carrier Plane. Available only via the Wingmonkey MK.
• Reverse Flight: Shown by an icon of a reverse aircraft, the Ace will reverse direction of flight. Unlike other target priorities such as Change Hands, there is a cooldown of 5 seconds before being able to reverse flight direction again. It can be coupled with all flight options except Wingmonkey.

Full Popology

Statistics

Updated as of Version 43.0

Base stats

• Landing Base has a rectangular footprint of 28x18. "Dummy range" of 22. Upon placement, spawn Monkey Ace as the main tower.
• Monkey Ace moves in a fixed pathway around its base, flying above all obstacles. Creates Dart projectiles from centre of Monkey Ace, and spawns Pineapple from centre of Monkey Ace.
  • Circle: circular loop of 80 radius, center is the runway
  • Figure-Eight: figure-eight loop of (40, 40) radii, center is the runway
  • Figure-Infinite: figure-infinite loop of (40, 40) radii, center is the runway
• Dart:
  • Projectile, sharp type, camo detection, spray of 8, 1.68s attack cooldown, 1 damage, +1 Camo damage, 5 pierce. Projectile lifespan of 300.
• Pineapple:
  • Spawn, explosion type, camo detection, 1.6s attack cooldown, 1 damage, +1 Camo damage, 20 pierce, 25 blast radius. 3.0s (?) delay before detonation.

Crosspathing interactions

All additional attacks gained from crosspaths gain +1 Camo damage.

Monkey Knowledge interactions

• Elite Military Training: All Military Monkeys get a one-off +1000 XP and earn XP in-game 5% faster permanently.
• Accelerated Aerodarts: Darts from Monkey Aces fly faster.
  • Darts fly 50% faster.
• Targeted Pineapples: Pineapples are only dropped near tracks.
• Gun Coolant: Monkey Aces attack 10% faster.
• Wingmonkey: Grants all Monkey Aces with a new target priority that allows it to fly around the screen like the planes from the Aircraft Carrier.
• Military Conscription: First military tower costs only ⅔ of the original cost.
  • Monkey Ace base cost from $680, $800, $865, and $960 → $455, $535, $580, and $645 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
• Advanced Logistics: All Military Monkeys base costs reduced by 5%.
  • Monkey Ace base cost from $680, $800, $865, and $960 → $645, $760, $820, and $910 on Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impoppable, respectively.
    • If Military Conscription is also enabled, the final cost will be $420, $495, $535, and $595.
• Monkey Education: All Monkeys XP earn rate increased by 8%.
• Better Sell Deals: All Monkeys sell for 5% more. Increases sell potency from 70% to 75%.
• Veteran Monkey Training: All Monkeys reload time reduced by 3%.

Attack Interactions

See also: Attack Interactions/Bloons TD 6/Military

Updated as of Version 42.0

Base attack(s)

• Dart:
  • Sharp
  • Camo Detection
  • Orbital Spray (8)
  • Straight Attack
  • Path-Based Mobility
  • Flying
  • Extra Damage to Camos (+1)
• Pineapple:
  • Explosion
  • Camo Detection
  • Spawn
  • Path-Based Mobility
  • Flying
  • Extra Damage to Camos (+1)

Costs

Updated as of Version 46.0. Listed prices exclude external buffs, any sacrifices, and Monkey Knowledge.

This upgrade's prices (or included crosspath's prices) are affected by the following MK: Military Conscription, Advanced Logistics, Better Sell Deals

Strategy

Summary

Spy Plane's innate camo detection and bonus Camo damage allows the Moneky Ace be more effective at countering Camo Bloons, in addition to the benefits of Exploding Pineapple's explosive pierce benefits. However, there are external sources like Radar Scanner or Etienne who do provide external camo detection, which reduces the need to internally gain camo detection. The exception, of course, would be if going for a middle-path bomber ace or if there are camo-detection restrictions, as in the case of Challenges and Two-Tower Chimps runs, or if requiring the specialization to combat the Camo Boss Phayze.

Tips

• Although the lower-tier Ace is not the most reliable camo-popping source, the Spy Plane upgrade is a useful stepping stone to obtain higher-tier Aces.
• When using a Spy Plane as a Camo solo, try to micro the Ace to hit as many Camos as possible.
• Many early tiers of Phayze in Boss Rush or the Phayze One quest may use Spy Plane as a starting option, usually with 1-2-0 or 2-2-0 to get a headstart in high camo-specific DPS for the low cost.

Version History

Balance Changes

Bug Fixes and General Changes

This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.

31.0

• [Undocumented] Description changed from "Allows Monkey Ace to hit Camo Bloons." to "Allows Monkey Ace to hit Camo Bloons and do more damage to them."

Extra Notes (Version History)

Gallery

Crosspathing (Top: Path 1, Bottom: Path 3)

0-2-0 Monkey Aces dropping pineapples

Spy Plane dealing more damage to Camo Whites, compared to normal Whites

Spy Plane's pineapples dealing more damage to Camo Leads, compared to normal Leads

Official artwork

Upgrade portrait

Upgrade icon

Instamonkey icon

Trivia

• Spy Plane is the only returning upgrade in BTD6 where the name has the word "plane" as the second word.
• 0-2-3 Neva-Miss Targeting wears goggles covering the pilot's eyes, but the pilot in the 3-2-0 Fighter Plane wears two pairs of goggles. Until a certain update, 3-2-0 Fighter Plane didn't wear goggles that covered the pilot's eyes.