BTD6 Update 57: What's New and What Should You Do First?

Quick Answer

Open Instas + Powers → Featured to check the current Insta-Monkey offers and Freeplay Challenge. For the Sniper Paragon, unlock S.P.I.D.E.R. and prepare its required Tier 5 Snipers. For Degree 100, use the new damage, income, and cash requirements instead of counting extra upgrade tiers.

Bloons TD 6 Update 57 adds more than the S.P.I.D.E.R. Sniper Paragon. The Insta-Monkey collection system now lets you work toward displayed rewards, the new Ship Capture map presents another Advanced-map challenge, and Mastery Mode returns through a three-part quest.

Several changes also affect existing games. Paragon Degrees use revised Power contributions, Supply Drop Snipers gain an offensive ability option, and the interface provides more ways to inspect damage, cash, and cooldowns.

The first decision is what you want to accomplish. Building a Paragon, filling an Insta-Monkey collection, and completing the new challenges call for different preparation.

What Should You Do First in BTD6 Update 57?

There are four useful starting points:

• Unlock S.P.I.D.E.R.: Work toward the Sniper Monkey Paragon if you want its single-target damage, automatic cash drops, and new abilities.
• Reach Degree 100: Adjust your preparation if you previously relied on hundreds of extra upgrade tiers.
• Collect missing Insta-Monkeys: Visit the Featured Store before starting a match so you can work toward a specific reward.
• Clear new challenges: Try Ship Capture for a new Advanced map, or enter the Mastery Mode quest for strengthened Bloon rounds.

You can begin these activities independently. Ship Capture and Mastery Mode do not need to be completed before you start preparing a Sniper Paragon.

Want to Unlock S.P.I.D.E.R.?

S.P.I.D.E.R. is the new Sniper Monkey Paragon. Its heavy single-target attacks and abilities make it attractive against major threats, but its slower normal firing pattern means a complete defense still needs dependable cleanup.

The Sniper Paragon unlock, cost, and ability instructions cover the required upgrades, purchase prices, what happens to your existing Snipers, and when the investment is worthwhile.

Trying to Reach Degree 100?

Update 57 removes the direct Paragon Power contribution from extra upgrade tiers. Damage, qualifying income, and cash are now the main considerations for a normal solo attempt.

If your Paragon stops at Degree 99 despite a large collection of extra towers, use the Degree 100 Paragon requirements to calculate the contributions and decide what is still missing before purchasing.

How Do You Get Specific Insta-Monkeys in Update 57?

Go to Instas + Powers and open the Featured tab.

The Insta Store now displays particular Insta-Monkeys instead of making every collection purchase depend on an unknown reward. This is useful when you already own many Instas and want to acquire a missing tower or upgrade combination.

The Featured Store contains 10 offers shared across players:

• Offers 1–9: Individual Insta-Monkeys. Each can be purchased directly or obtained through a gameplay goal that unlocks a Monkey Money purchase option.
• Offer 10: A bundle selected from a separate pool of predetermined bundles.

The first nine offers also provide three copies when purchased through the direct real-money option. The gameplay-goal route instead lets you work toward the displayed Insta-Monkey using Monkey Money.

Offers become available over the course of one week. A completely new selection arrives every two weeks, so the available targets do not remain permanent.

Complete Featured Goals Before Spending Monkey Money

Select an Insta-Monkey offer to see its associated objective.

Some goals involve winning games with appropriately leveled Heroes or popping particular Bloon types. Others may require progress under specific conditions.

The displayed goal determines which towers and map are useful. For example, if an objective specifically requires removing Camo, simply detecting and popping Camo Bloons does not perform that action. You need an effect that actually removes the Camo property.

A goal requiring BFB pops is different from a goal requiring wins with a sufficiently leveled Hero. One setup might satisfy both, but only if the match provides the required Bloons and the Hero reaches the specified level.

Multiple goals can progress during the same game. Before starting a long match, look through the currently unlocked offers and identify requirements that can be completed together.

Most ordinary Featured goals are designed to take about one game or less. A valuable Tier 5 Insta-Monkey may demand more effort, so compare its requirement with the time remaining before the next rotation.

Finishing a goal unlocks its Monkey Money purchase option. You must still spend the required Monkey Money to acquire the Insta-Monkey. Completing the objective alone is not the same as receiving the reward.

How Does the Featured Freeplay Challenge Work?

The Featured tab also contains a Freeplay Challenge, separate from the individual Insta-Monkey offers.

Its rules change with the rotation, but the important restrictions are:

• A specified final round that must be beaten.
• A limited selection of available Heroes.
• A global limit on the number of towers you can place.

Everyone receives the same challenge conditions, and the challenge resets every two weeks alongside the Featured Store.

The tower limit is the restriction to check before building anything. A normal Freeplay setup may use many Farms and support towers, but that approach can leave too few tower slots for the defenses needed near the final round.

Choose the Hero and plan the main damage towers around the allowed total from the start. Count any support and farming towers against the same limit.

Completing the challenge unlocks a special Insta-Monkey chest with three reward choices. Two of those choices are tailored to your current Insta-Monkey collection progress.

That makes the reward valuable when you are trying to complete a collection rather than simply accumulate more random duplicates.

The challenge also records your highest Freeplay round. This is separate from satisfying its stated completion conditions; the required final round and tower restrictions remain the conditions for the reward.

What Changed for Round 100 Insta-Monkey Rewards in v57.1?

Version 57.1 adjusted which Insta-Monkey tiers can appear from Round 100 rewards.

For collection planning, the most important changes are:

• Beginner maps: Tier 0 and Tier 1 now each have a 50% chance. Tier 2 is no longer available from this Round 100 reward.
• Intermediate maps: Tier 1 and Tier 2 now each have a 50% chance. Tier 3 is no longer available from this Round 100 reward.
• Advanced maps: The Tier 3 reward chance increased from 40% to 50%, while Tier 2 decreased from 40% to 30%.

These differences matter when choosing where to complete Round 100 for collection rewards.

If you are missing low-tier Insta-Monkeys, Beginner maps provide a more focused Tier 0–1 reward pool. Intermediate maps serve a different range, while Advanced maps now have a higher chance of awarding Tier 3.

The regular Freeplay rewards at Round 200 and subsequent 100-round milestones continue to use Tier 3 and Tier 4 Insta-Monkeys regardless of map category.

Does Monkey Teams Help With Insta Collection?

Yes. When a Monkey Team is active, reaching Round 100 without breaking that team’s restrictions makes the game attempt to select the Insta-Monkey reward from the three monkeys belonging to that team.

This can help when you need Instas from a particular tower family included in the active team.

It does not guarantee a specific crosspath or upgrade combination. The benefit is a more focused selection of possible monkeys, provided you preserve the Monkey Team condition through Round 100.

How Do You Beat Ship Capture?

Ship Capture is an Advanced map introduced in Update 57. Bloon pirates board from both port and starboard, creating threats on opposite sides of the ship as they advance toward the Captain’s Quarters.

The central deck has limited room for towers, so keeping the opening formation compact is especially important in CHIMPS. Poor placement can leave one approach exposed or prevent later support towers from fitting.

For the exact purchases, Spike Factory placement, and Round 100 defense, follow the Ship Capture CHIMPS walkthrough.

How Does the Mastery Mode Quest Work?

Update 57 introduces a three-part Mastery Mode quest with an enhanced Bloon roundset. Bloons gain additional layers or Fortification, so familiar rounds can contain stronger enemies than their standard versions.

Enter the quest through the Quests menu and complete its three parts in order. The strengthened Bloon waves are the main difference from ordinary rounds.

Which Update 57 Settings Are Worth Using?

Several interface changes help you make decisions during a game, especially when saving for expensive towers or troubleshooting a defense.

Switch Between Pops and Damage

The advanced tower information panel now lets you choose whether to display Pops or Damage.

Damage is useful when assessing performance against high-health MOAB-class enemies. It can show how much damage a tower has dealt even when the number of Bloon layers popped does not adequately reflect its contribution.

Use the damage view when checking a tower’s performance against large enemies rather than relying on pop count alone.

Show Numerical Ability Cooldowns

Open Accessibility & Advanced Options and enable numerical ability timers.

You can then see the remaining ability cooldown directly. This is particularly useful before a dangerous round when an ability must be ready for a particular enemy or Bloon group.

The same menu also includes a Cash Spent counter, allowing you to see the total money spent during supported gameplay modes.

Check Lead to Gold and Rubber to Gold Income

Alchemists with Lead to Gold and Rubber to Gold now track cash earned.

Select the Alchemist to inspect how much money it has generated. This gives you a way to judge whether its placement and available targets are producing a useful return during a cash-generating match.

The displayed income also helps distinguish a productive Alchemist from one that has barely affected the Bloons passing through its range.

Disable Individual Monkey Knowledge Points

Owned Monkey Knowledge points can now be enabled or disabled individually.

Open the Monkey Knowledge menu and switch off a particular effect when you want to play without it. You no longer need to reset your entire set of Knowledge points just to disable one bonus.

This is useful when comparing different starting conditions or preparing for a challenge with specific restrictions.

Reduce Memory Usage During Long Freeplay Runs

The Memory Optimization option is available under Accessibility & Advanced Options.

It performs additional memory cleanup between rounds. On devices struggling with long Freeplay sessions, enabling it can reduce memory use and help avoid crashes, although there may be a short pause between rounds while cleanup runs.

What Did Update 57.1 Change?

Update 57.1 fixes several gameplay interactions introduced or affected by the main update.

For Sniper players, it corrects S.P.I.D.E.R.’s damage against standard MOAB-class Bloons and changes how ordinary Supply Drop Snipers gain Lead-popping capability. The Sniper Paragon and Supply Drop instructions cover the relevant effects on tower upgrades and combat.

Skywarden also received fixes to Aerial Attunement’s interaction with Heroes, some Lead and BAD interactions, and ability reactivation.

The update further resolves inconsistent cash generation across certain modes and rounds. If a v57.0 setup produced money through an unintended interaction, do not assume that extra income remains available in v57.1.

In the Featured Store, v57.1 also fixes interface behavior involving offline accounts and the Insta-Monkey pages. When offline, Instas + Powers opens to the Powers tab rather than Featured, so select Featured after returning online if you are looking for the rotating offers.