Overview
Are rounds like 76 and 90 just too dang hard? This guide will help you beat them practically every time!
Introduction
Not all rounds are created equal. Some are just there to give you money and kill time, while the truly game-defining ones are there to test your skill and strategy. Among the latter are rounds like 40, 63, 75, 76, 82, 90, 95… hey, wait a minute! Two of these things are not like the others.
In truth, there’s another category: trap rounds. If you’re not paying attention, they’ll jump out at you and end your game pretty quickly. You either have what it takes to win and it’s not even close, or you don’t and it’s not even close. Obviously, immunity rounds like 24, 25, and 28 fall here, but often miscategorized are rounds like 76 and 90. They seem like monstrous obstacles, but in reality, any good strategy should beat them easily. You shouldn’t have to add anything to your defense to beat them, like you would add a MOAB Glue for 95 or Maelstrom for 63. The sad truth is that if you died to round 76 or 90, your strategy was bad.
But it’s probably not obvious what you were supposed to do to pass them. Let’s go into these posers in a bit more detail.
76
76’s giant clump of regrow ceramics is extremely threatening. First there’s 60, now there’s 600. However, this round is all bark and no bite. There’s only 60, while 75 come in one clump 2 rounds later, and 122 in 3 clumps 13 rounds earlier. 63 is the main reason 76 is just a trap: all of the towers you placed down to beat 63 should make 76 absolutely trivial. The problem is when you employ a 63 strategy that really sucks.
Usually, good towers for 63 include things like Maelstrom and The Big One that use their massive pierce to deal nice, even damage to 63. These are even easier to use on 76 because there’s just one wave of ceramics. The problem comes when your strategy for 63 is something stupid like Downdraft or Elite Defender. Okay for maybe that one round, not so great for 76. Just use Maelstrom, it’s so much better for both rounds than any other option.
90
90 is the first DDT round. DDTs are fast, have more health than regular MOABs, and really shouldn’t be that bad when there’s only 3 of them. Even the worst of the worst towers can usually muster up the damage to take down 90. The problem comes not when you have very little DDT damage, but no DDT damage. 90 is just another immunity round and shouldn’t be confused with anything actually challenging. Buy a Monkey Intelligence Bureau.
The truly worst part is that if you struggled with 90, don’t even consider the rest of the game. 93 has twice as many DDTs, 95 10 times as many, and 99 thrice as many in fortified form as 90. If you did buy a MIB and 90 was close, you don’t have enough DDT DPS, and more support will not save you.
Quick Hacks and Real Strategies
Still, at the end of the day, a lot of the best strategies don’t need any of the support I mentioned. They don’t need Maelstrom for 63, they don’t need a MIB for 90, they probably don’t even need either of those for the hard versions of those rounds. How? They’re not just random DPS towers cobbled together, they’re deliberately designed and extremely powerful.
Take what’s still one of the best strategies, the sub army. It doesn’t need Maelstrom for round 63, it usually affords Sub Commander before then. It also doesn’t need a MIB for 95 since it has Brickell’s level 3 ability to give it lead popping power. These strategies save their money for the actual demons like 98 and 99 and use it on good support rather than the bare necessities. The sub army and others use synergies and supports to their absolute limit.
Meanwhile, the average hack newer players do don’t dive any deeper than placing damage towers to damage the Bloons. They put everything that deals significant DPS, like Archmage and Dark Knight and Adora and… where’s the ceramic cleanup? Getting better at Bloons TD 6 requires looking at the big picture. What rounds are coming 30 minutes from now? What towers work extremely well together? What kind of defense am I lacking in? These are the questions to ask yourselves, not just “what pops the Bloons faster?”
Luckily, you don’t have to start from scratch. There are great guides out there for a multitude of different strategies, modes, and maps. If you don’t want to learn everything the hard way, follow them before you start calling the shots. Eventually, everything will click, and you’ll find it easy to develop your own strategies with bad towers or on hard maps. There are also great ways to prevent this development from happening. Don’t shelter yourself, feel free to venture to Advanced or Expert maps, even if you only try them for a bit. Play more CHIMPS instead of sticking to the easy modes. And perhaps ironically, don’t listen to Steam Guides, and never, EVER, go to Steam Forums. I’ve spent a long time surveying this place and made this guide when I was fed up with none of the advice here being any good.
Good luck, I know you have it in you!
