Bloons TD 4 Guide — First Run

Bloons TD 4 is a tower-defense classic: monkeys with towers stop waves of bloons before they escape. Below is the core loop, the tower lineup, and economy habits that transfer to every track.

First, get the game — all official channels are on the where-to-play page (two of them are free).

The core loop

1. Place monkeys along the track with the coins you start with.
2. Pop bloons before they reach the end — each pop earns coins.
3. Upgrade towers between rounds to keep up with tougher bloons.
4. Reach the final round (75 per track on iOS), then keep going in freeplay. (official)

Tower lineup

The official iOS description confirms these towers exist in Bloons TD 4: Sun God (super-powerful late-game tower), Dartling Gun, Spike Factory, Monkey Ace, Banana Farm and Mortar. (official)

Source: Apple App Store description for Bloons TD 4 (v3.6.2).

Economy habits that win games

• Invest early, defend cheaply. Spend your first coins on the cheapest useful tower, then put spare income into income. (community knowledge)
• Banana Farms pay for themselves. A farm produces money every round; the earlier you buy one, the more it returns before the lategame. (community knowledge)
• Cover the whole track, not one spot. Bloons leak where the coverage is thinnest. (community knowledge)
• Save for the Sun God. It is the classic lategame answer to dense waves. (community knowledge)

A three-phase strategy

Most tracks reward the same overall shape: survive early, build income, then convert income into power. (community knowledge)

• Early game — hold with one cheap tower. Buy a single damage tower on the first bend and let it carry the first rounds while you save.
• Mid game — farm and upgrade. Drop a Banana Farm, then upgrade your damage tower instead of buying more of the same. Upgrades beat quantity.
• Late game — consolidate into power. Sell or stop expanding the small towers, keep your line tight, and save toward the Sun God as the finisher.

How to beat Bloons TD 4 (all 75 rounds)

Each track has 75 rounds on iOS (official). Beating them comes down to three habits, in order of importance (community knowledge):

1. Never leak early. Early rounds are cheap to hold; a single leak sets your economy back.
2. Compound income. Money spent on a Banana Farm early returns more than the same money spent on a fifth identical tower.
3. Keep an emergency layer. A Spike Factory at the track end saves runs when a wave slips past your main line.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Buying many low-level towers instead of upgrading one. Upgrades are the efficient spend in player experience. (community knowledge)
• Ignoring the economy. No farm means no late game. (community knowledge)
• Defending one spot only. Bloons leak at the thinnest point, not the strongest. (community knowledge)
• Spending everything before the final rounds. Keep a bank for the Sun God. (community knowledge)

Which towers should you buy?

For a buy-order and timing list, see the best-towers page — it ranks the six confirmed towers by player consensus without inventing stats. For the full round-by-round shape of a game, see the walkthrough.

Game modes

• Challenge Mode: Listed in the official iOS app description — mode with unique gameplay elements added over updates (2.0). (official)
• Freeplay: Continue beyond the final round and survive as long as possible (official iOS description). (official)
• Apopalypse Mode: Added in iOS update 1.4 — a pressure variant (official iOS description). (official)
• Deflation Mode: Added in iOS update 1.6 (official iOS description). (official)

Where is the Expansion content?

Bloons TD 4 Expansion is playable separately in the official archive — see the Expansion page for what is verified about it.

This page is part of Balloon TD Guides, an independent fan reference not affiliated with Ninja Kiwi.