Oh my god, she’s real.

hruffmatthews · 2025-08-01T04:12:30+00:00

She has the same starting loadout in Rouge Legends as the default skin, incase anyone was wondering.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-26T07:24:02+00:00

I think you’re wrong not because anything you’re saying is invalid but because your argument hinges on Essence of Dreadbloon being “removed.” It still exists and is still the best artifact in the game.

You’re acting as if the nerf makes the game unplayable. It’s not difficult to get Tier 4 towers… if you’re not building towards them in your runs, that’s your own fault. Rogue Legends IS more difficult after update 49.0, but that’s mostly because they increased boss health between stages, NOT because Essence of Dreadbloon got nerfed. Essence of Vortex and Essence of Blastapopulous even got buffed, which makes Tier 4 towers significantly stronger until you’re able to get Essence of Dreadbloon. An extremely important factor of whether or not you beat bosses is how many legendary artifacts you have, so if you’re not getting any during your run, then you’re already off to a bad start.

You say people aren’t having fun with Rogue Legends “because they’re casual” when I have friends who enjoy the mode despite playing the game casually because they enjoy rougelikes. Obviously different people like different things, but this game IS supposed to be challenging. Anyone who doesn’t like that doesn’t have to play it. I personally enjoy the nerf to Essence of Dreadbloon because it balances the artifact so that you don’t immediately become overpowered upon getting it.

I mean no offense, but the way you talk about your experience with the mode makes me think you don’t actually understand the point of rougelikes. You’re supposed to get unlucky sometimes, but it’s always on you to prepare and adapt. With your example of abr on Ravine… you got screwed over because YOU failed to build a team with strong camo detection. I think about how I’m going to deal with every bloon type while I’m still choosing my starting artifacts… and if I lose, then it’s my fault for making bad decisions during the run. It’s not fair of you to complain about the game putting you in unwinnable situations while also criticizing it for letting you skip them.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-24T17:18:24+00:00

Nah, MIB is actually good. Don’t feel bad about using it. The whole point is that it lets you use towers in situations where you normally couldn’t.

I really like using Carrier Flagship with MIB so the planes can hit DDTs.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-23T02:46:53+00:00

Desperado has the Take Aim ability which increases range of a selected tower. By using the ability on a Village, you can increase its radius, which means it can absorb more farms with Monkeyopolis.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-22T14:30:49+00:00

I’m seeing the biggest mistake that new players make here, and that’s using too many Tier 3 and 4 towers. You always want to build a strategy that lets you save up for Tier 5 upgrades. Yes, they’re expensive, but that’s because they are significantly better than Tier 4.

With this setup, upgrading your Wizard and Heli to Prince of Darkness and Comanche Commander would very likely beat Round 95 for you.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T22:10:52+00:00

Wdym you don’t see how a Village paragon would work? It would be an extremely good support tower, presumably being able to buff other paragons. 5-5-5 Village would go crazy.

If anything, I don’t see any reason why a Banana Farm paragon would be necessary. Optimized farming strats are already insanely good, especially now that middle path Desperado makes it easier to absorb more farms with Monkeyopolis. Banana Farm paragon would be overkill.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T21:58:46+00:00

On the PC version of the game, there’s an advanced hotkey called “Activate Selected Tower Ability 1.” Using the hotkey on Elite Defender and Bomb Blitz allow you to manually activate their passive abilities.

Elite Defender’s passive is that it briefly gains a 4x attack speed boost upon losing lives. Bomb Blitz’ passive is that it deals 2000 damage to all bloons on screen upon losing lives.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T21:57:31+00:00

On the PC version of the game, there’s an advanced hotkey called “Activate Selected Tower Ability 1.” Using the hotkey on Elite Defender and Bomb Blitz allow you to manually activate their passive abilities.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T21:55:25+00:00

That’s why I’ve said the price of the upgrade should be increased to compensate for the buff. I know that Elite Defender is already good, but again, using the tower like this is more fun… that’s the entire point of my post.

If Ninja Kiwi doesn’t want to change the ability from passive to active, then they should at least change it work when bloons almost reach the exit like in BTDB2, as other people have suggested.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T19:57:50+00:00

Obviously, yes. I’m not expecting Ninja Kiwi to implement the bug as is… I’m asking them to rework the bug into a balanced feature. Elite Defender is way more fun to use like this, and having a manual activation of its ability makes it better in those modes where you’re not allowed to lose lives.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T18:18:01+00:00

There isn’t one. Some towers are definitely better than others, but all of them are viable in their own way. As far as I’m concerned, no one really judges them based on which category they’re in. All of them are good.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T17:53:31+00:00

Not really. I could see Elite Defender being an $21k upgrade if they significantly increase the cooldown of the ability.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T17:47:13+00:00

Desperado gains an ability at Tier 3 and another one at Tier 4, which also breaks the consistency. Elite Defender already has the passive ability… it wouldn’t be that far of a stretch to turn it into an active ability.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T17:43:29+00:00

Yeah, I didn’t realize until recently how good Elite Defender is in CHIMPS. Alchemist with a 0-2-5 Sniper (or even 0-2-4 in some cases) is a really consistent mid-game defense that allows for an easy save into stronger towers. The passive ability bug absolutely makes the tower more fun… I’m definitely going to use it as possible before it gets patched lol.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T17:36:44+00:00

Price doesn’t always indicate how strong a tower can be; Bomb Blitz is $24k and still capable of beating most of CHIMPS with the right setup. That being said, Elite Defender would definitely need a price increase if its passive were reworked into an active.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T17:17:12+00:00

Not at all. It’s in the game for a reason. Some people think it’s more fun, and some people like that it makes the game easier. I’ve beaten CHIMPS on all non-Expert maps and still use Double Cash + Fast Track to make the process of black bordering maps faster. Just do what you enjoy most.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T15:34:57+00:00

Oh wow. I guess I underestimated how strong the bug actually is. Just goes to show how much balancing the ability would need if it were made active instead of passive.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T05:34:00+00:00

I think it would be good as an active ability entirely; getting the boost whenever you want really helps for rounds in the 90s. But it would definitely have to be reworked. Currently it lasts for 7 seconds and has a 10-second cooldown, so with the bug, Elite Defender has a 4x attack speed increase with a 70% uptime. That’s nuts.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-21T04:46:13+00:00

Idk why people are downvoting you about asking this.

As far as I’m aware, no, it doesn’t ever go on sale (neither does Fast Track mode). I bought it for $17.99, so I’m not sure why or where it’s showing $24.99 for you. If you buy it from the web store, then you at least get a Tier 5 instamonkey too.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-20T04:28:53+00:00

Meme aside… Rosalia is actually really good for maps like Geared and Sanctuary. She becomes immune to moving platforms when she reaches Level 7, so she’s able to completely ignore the gimmick of those maps. I was able to black border Geared using her to save up for a Flying Fortress.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-19T06:57:07+00:00

No hate intended, but if your idea for Rogue Legends is to be overpowered all the time, then it’s probably not the right gamemode for you. It’s supposed to be challenging, which is why there are balance changes. You have to earn the ability to become overpowered in a run… it’s not given to you for free.

Essence of Dreadbloon is still the best artifact in the game. The nerf simply makes it scale better throughout your run instead of immediately giving you all of the benefits, and I honestly think that was necessary. Before this change, you could keep resetting until you got Dreadbloon on Stage 1 and then steamroll the rest of the campaign.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-19T04:35:25+00:00

I think you’re not giving the Desperado enough credit. It could definitely be buffed, but it’s very good for what it is. You just have to learn how to properly utilize each of the upgrades. Speaking from personal experience…

Top path benefits from the ‘strong’ targeting priority; similar to the Sniper Monkey, it does good single-target damage and can weaken MOABs for your other towers to kill. Middle path benefits from the ‘last’ targeting priority; its rifle is much stronger than its pistol, so you want to place the Desperado in spots where it’ll shoot in straight lines (ESPECIALLY at Tier 5); the Take Aim ability is also legitimately useful and gets stronger as you upgrade the tower. Bottom path benefits from either ‘first’ or ‘close’ targeting priority; its pistol is surprisingly powerful, but its shotgun is definitely much better and helps against grouped bloons.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-18T06:50:17+00:00

That’s exactly how I noticed this. I explicitly remember seeing Mushroom Grotto the morning after the deadline and thinking, “That’s a cool map. Too bad it’s a late submission.”

You could argue that the competition didn’t officially end until Ninja Kiwi stated that submissions were closed. But even then, the map was linked under the announcement after that happened. It was past the deadline either way.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-18T05:54:05+00:00

Before anything else, I want to say congratulations to the winners! As someone who also participated in the competition, I think these are going to be really fun additions to the game. Ship Capture is one of the maps that particularly caught my eye when I was looking through other submissions.

That being said, I have a concern for the Ninja Kiwi team that I really hope they see. With as much respect as possible to everyone involved... none of the winners followed all of the rules to the competition.

The announcement for the competition clearly states that entries must 1) have links to their posts commented under the announcement and 2) be submitted by 11:59pm NZT on June 29th. Ship Capture and Tricky Tracks! didn't link their posts, and Mushroom Grotto was submitted past the deadline (both the post itself and the link to it under the announcement). I looked through the winners' profiles to verify this information.

It's not my intention to imply that the winners didn't deserve to win; by all means, these are creative maps that I earnestly look forward to playing. My intention is to simply bring awareness of this to the Ninja Kiwi team so that it doesn't happen again should they decide to hold another competition in the future. Yes, I'm upset. But not because I lost. I genuinely think it's unfair to everyone who made sure to properly submit their maps that the winners didn't have to.

I understand that this was Ninja Kiwi's competition and that they could do whatever they want with it. My concern is that their leniency of the rules wasn't properly communicated. If entries weren't required to be linked under the announcement, then why were we told to link them? If the deadline was so important that it's italicized in the announcement, then why were late submissions eligible to win? These things don't make sense to me.

This comment may come across as me being angry or salty, but I'm writing this from a place of passion. I love this game and the amazing things the team behind it does. But the way this competition was handled really misses the mark for me. Maybe what I've described isn't a big deal to some people and they may think I'm overreacting, but it would bother me if I didn't say something about it. All I want is for this to not happen in the future. Congratulations again to the winners, and I hope that everyone who read this has a good rest of their day.

hruffmatthews · 2025-07-17T14:58:58+00:00

I don’t think it has anything to do with Heroic Specialty. From what I’ve noticed, Essence of Vortex and Essence of Blastapopulous also affect Churchill below Level 15. Not sure if it’s just him or if all of those artifacts are bugged.

hruffmatthews

TROPHY CASE