Is Crossbow Master Really The WORST Tower Now? (Bloons TD 6)

Is Crossbow Master Now The WORST Tower? BTD6 / Bloons TD 6 - I don't know if it's the worst tower, but here's a run where I use it on an expert map in Workshop.
This is my series of Bloons TD 6 strategy, gameplay, challenges, or whatever else it may be. If you enjoyed, subscribe & turn on notifications to catch up on all my future videos!
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[@vikavolt11]

What I find funny is that despite all three of the dart monkey's paths being C, B-, and D tier respectively, the base dart monkey would likely be in S or SS because you literally need it to start CHIMPS on a lot of experts

[@squiddler7731]

Crossbow master being lower than Benjamin in a CHIMPS only tier list is wild

[@Weed.eater_]

In all fairness Ben Syphon is pretty cracked late 80s and 90s which are often the second hardest part of chimps run (first bein the early game) so Ben can actually be semi viable sometimes. While crossbow master is just straight ass cheeks and doesn’t pair well with anything

[@kaydenwomack8049]

RIGHT?!

[@galaxygamer4227]

Fr 😭😭

[@ThePenisMan]

Siphon funding ability

[@ThePenisMan]

Siphon funding ability

[@Andrewstown]

I swear to god, Strikers dog is always having a stroke.

[@lihavalokki5705]

Especially when the game is sped up

[@its_xen0nn]

stroker dog

[@iurimoura426]

Now i cant unsee this lmao

[@Swiftest202]

Bro striker Jones’ dog just rolls over the whole video 😭

[@trinityskaze8609]

He's a good boy that deserves his belly rubs.

[@sniper7303]

he be rollin

[@Lockedupmymouthandthrewawa-x6b]

GOOD BOY!!!

[@cyb3rentity263]

i cant even watch the vid😭focus on the little guy only

[@metal_pipe9764]

No they don't, there's an entire minute where they don't

[@aboogala4678]

As a crossbow master enjoyer reading this title dealt me psychic damage

[@leonardotrujillo8661]

Not physical pain?

[@foxyy2048]

@@leonardotrujillo8661 he knows pain is an invention of the mind

[@A_Name136]

@@leonardotrujillo8661 must be poision type

[@aboogala4678]

@@A_Name136 okay this joke. this joke i like.

[@ColetheFlame01]

I feel you my fellow Crossbow master enjoyer. That monkey is easily my most used tier 5.

[@MockySocky]

Still waiting for the thing to get a buff so the “(used to be) controversial towers 2TC” of XBM and Glaive Lord is finally possible

[@ColetheFlame01]

I almost beat Chimps on Resort with Crossbow Master and a Permabrew, I lost to 98 and I think only cause of bad placement looking back on it.

[@MockySocky]

@@ColetheFlame01 it can struggles against round 99 and 100 but fails

[@martinshoosterman]

Glaive lord and XBM 2tc was almost possible before the last glaive lord buff, I tried it a few times and it got super close, I think it died to round 99 or 100. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s possible now

[@MockySocky]

@@martinshoosterman already tried this update, didn’t work

[@LMJMeman]

@@martinshoosterman how did you beat 59? did you already have xbm?

[@wyattskinner697]

It's canon that Quincy trains the crossbow dart monkeys... that would explain why they're so mid.

[@worminaround]

Quincy can't even buff them

[@D-S-G.]

roasted

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

Quincy is at least strong at the later part of the runs

[@ShiaTheBunnyGirl]

The funny thing is Quincy's actually pretty valuable in chimps, he's great on maps like infernal (Although infernals one of the easiest chimps maps anyway) he just so happened to be attempting to train soldiers that were doomed to fail

[@worminaround]

@@ShiaTheBunnyGirl honestly Quincy is my go to chimps, pair him with decent t5 plus alch you basically only need bad defense and lead defence

[@dlm9709]

Its a "comfortable" tower for new players, it gets tons of range, usually shoots fast enough and hits hard enough that it can pretty much solo everything up to round 80, meaning you can drop one or both of them and easy GG your way through most of the medals

[@Shirotsune-Tomuro]

Exactly, xbm only really falls off at the alternate hard modes

[@galaxi-by3xu]

​@@Shirotsune-Tomurothe same way as half of the towers in the game

[@antoniobordonhos1672]

I had a challenge idea. 2 tower chimps BUT you have to try to have the two towers have as close pops as possible. The closer there pops the better your score.

[@antoniobordonhos1672]

I feel like he's done a challenge like this before but I'd love to see a rerun!

[@wyattskinner697]

@@antoniobordonhos1672 bro forgot to change accounts, also, how tf is your reply OLDER than your comment

[@HIGHDEFINITIONCRACKHOUSEPRODUC]

@@wyattskinner697 I don’t think he forgot to change accounts just adding additional info to his comment.

[@MAML_]

@@HIGHDEFINITIONCRACKHOUSEPRODUC when edit

[@aidanarmaggeddon]

​@@antoniobordonhos1672 thid was from the BTD6 challenge tourney a while ago. The one where a bunch of towers should have as close a pop count as possible and the winners sold all their towers 💀

[@Crumbling_Vortex]

Another reason the crossbow is popular with casuals might be that it would be one of the first they get because the towers unlock progressively with levels and they can get dart xp faster earlier on.

[@anusaukko6792]

It's because XBM is a very good jack of all trades tower. It has rapid fire-rate, it has pierce, it has camo detection, it has lead popping, and it has a ginormous range. You can just plop it down and not worry about any round up to like the 80s.

[@duytaxuan4980]

Yea, that's why I used to like it. After the pierce nerf Crossbow Master dies to stacked rounds like 63, 76 and 78 and is no longer just beats pre-freplay rounds outright.

[@owenblount7334]

They shoot fast and do decent damage and crits

[@mrspecialk1234]

Getting two crossbow masters was my go to strategy for a longtime….until Ninja Kiwi weakened the tower…..took me a while to click on to the fact they did that though…..

[@tnrshaylon3061]

"Beloved by casual players" Maybe cause it is the best dart path casually. Top path is fairly niche although it better than it used to be. Mid path requires too much round knowledge and isn't as bb friendly being ability based. For fairly cheap it gives large range, type coverage and decent use as mid carry. Solid pick since alot of beginner map players aren't 1 tower + supp spam. All that said, I'd agree with D tier for expert chimps. A pretty meh t5 and out classed t1-4. Still better than top beast imo

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

Oc orca fucks bloody

[@MythicWiz]

Orca is a great tower from my personal experience But the t5 is uhhh

[@DoubleDuck2]

The top path beast handler gets carried by orca

[@yuricesar9706]

Orca can get 70k cash lefover on bloody puddles chimps,way better than xbm

[@LostSquire]

You'd think with U-Jugg being great at Ceramic damage, and PMFC being a fun ability, XBOW master woul be great at single target. It's technically the niche it does have, high damage, with crits, low pierce. But it has no extra bonuses so it just...cant do it's job. I do like it though. Cool design.

[@im-possible-1]

It can pop all bloom types, and it's faster than u jugg

[@owenblount7334]

It shoots fast af wdym

[@MarcusTheDorkus]

XBM at the very least needs much higher baseline pierce. If you manage to get some straight line action going on, you should be rewarded well for it. Plus those arrows just look like they should have serious pierce. Heck they could even make it so crits increase the pierce even more. I wouldn't want them to go too far with the buffs though given that it's one of the cheaper T5 upgrades.

[@sylvietat]

itd make the top path crosspath useless

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

It just needs more damage in general since it relies so hard on crits to cleanup cerams

[@Kevaca]

​@@sylvietat looks at xx5 boomer gaining 69 pierce with 2xx:

[@worminaround]

​@@sylvietat you'll be surprised how much t5 towers gets so much pierce with the pierce crosspath.

[@SenyiKimmo]

@@MarcusTheDorkus make the top path upgrades increase crit rate perhaps? To the point that with attack speed buffs it could potentially crit more often than the raw attack speed path in the middle

[@ramosdetrigo]

honestly out of chimps mode crossbow master is just a S tier tower. for basically every game mode you can just save for it till round 50 and then you win cause it easily carries till round 80 or so

[@yuricesar9706]

Good luck on half cash,magic monkeys only or double hp moabs on a true expert

[@kaboomer]

Beast handler: hold my 🦈 🦈 🦈

[@meepswag35]

Actually it’s in like a or b tier I think

[@Randomperson10083]

One of the beast handlers paths are in s tier

[@JoelTheParrot]

orca's great, great white's ok, barracuda's great it's because this is based on a tier list that ranks entire tower paths. that being said i dunno i remember getting use out of megalodon in chimps but not xbow master! (megalodon was on sulfur springs so it's not much achievement)

[@JoelTheParrot]

@@Randomperson10083 yeah but kaboomer means megalodon as an individual upgrade

[@marxunemiku]

handler is good on multi lane maps but is extremely high skillcap and micro intensive

[@lillehei]

I love crossbow master for deflation. Outside of that mode, it doesn't work well, but it solos 80% of deflation maps on its own.

[@CoconutOrNot_]

Deflation?¿?

[@rumlad341]

@@CoconutOrNot_ Gamemode where you start with a load of cash and have to defeat a range of waves, but without making any more money

[@CoconutOrNot_]

@@rumlad341 no shiiiii Can you even afford xbm on deflation?

[@alexanderzhou5561]

actually i dont think so unless you have double cash

[@jasonc7620]

You used to be able to until they nerfed xbm price, probably less than a year ago. Used to use that for a brain dead deflation win on most maps.

[@baconwastaken.]

True Sun god with no sacrifices: am I a joke to you? Also true sun god: gets sacrificed to a normal Sun god temple

[@sneezywheezyboy1652]

Did you know a maxed pouakai can pop a bad, but a tsg no sacrifices can't? Damn if I were a 600k tower I would never take that level of disrespect

[@dijosto]

​@@sneezywheezyboy1652what is a pouakai

[@procrastinator4009]

@@dijostobottom Path t5 beast handler

[@Mouthwashh]

Crossbow master was my main tower when I started this game. I think it’s just because dart is the first tower most players level up, and crossbow is the first tier 5 you unlock generally. Also, the crits go brrrrr. I think a pierce buff and bonus ceramic damage would go a long ways, but they don’t want to undercut the ultra jugg so idk. Doesn’t make much sense to have 2 paths on 1 tower both be ceramic cleanup. Maybe a single target buff would make more sense.

[@memeboi69-k3v]

I think all XBM needs is a higher crit ratio

[@OpenEpicGaming]

As a pretty casual player I shall explain the reasoning that crossbow master is popular,: BIG RANGE = YAY (EVEN BIGGER RANGE WITH TOP PATH VILLAGE? YAY!)

[@dijosto]

It's fun

[@AltraHapi]

Bigger = better But average -size- range is good too

[@badateverything2931]

@@AltraHapi what about little range 👉 👈

[@youtubeknight53]

​@@badateverything2931*cough cough* sauda

[@AltraHapi]

@@badateverything2931 it's joever

[@Isntevo_Ferrera]

13:07 Striker cosplaying Quincy😭

[@megan00b8]

I think why it's popular with many players and why I enjoy using it time to time is that it's a fun tower, and relatively affordable. Like sure it's pretty weak for a tier 5, but it's still a tier 5 and if you aren't gping for free play on some maps it can wipe pretty alright.

[@dakotacornish6616]

Don't forget the tier list is based off TOP level play and perfect micro on CHIMPS bloons is balanced in a way where every tower is great the crossbow master struggles on expert chimps maps but hes still great for casual play and where monkey knowalge allows you to get two of them

[@blinkoncebuddiesreveluv6961]

It has served me well when I was still learning the game and getting the hang of things I dont use it anymore but it will always have a special place in my heart

[@Christina_Heiki]

looking at that tierlist was interesting since I enjoy using a lot of the upper towers' lower tiers like Relentless and Stronger Stim, but the T5s I like are mostly mid tiers, like Glaive Lord, BEZ, Sub Army, Carpet, and Bloon Solver

[@yuricesar9706]

A- is actually pretty good

[@irasuper6397]

I also felt as though Crossbow Master's niche was being attractive for new players, and personally, that seems like a perfectly fine place for it. New players love the simplicity and novice/veteran players move on to more intricate towers

[@michaliskyriazidis1844]

If they're going to buff the bottom path, they should give sharp shooter (and therefore crossbow master) a second arrow

[@sunbleachedangel]

the attack speed of tier 3 and 4 is just so horribly low that it's just too inconsistent at actually popping bloons. The crossbow master is like pretty good until round 81 hits, then it suddenly turns into a pumpkin

[@flameblade3]

Crossbow Master’s only real big thing is that it’s cheap and can function decently on its own. However the issue is that the cheapER tier 5s consist of Glue Storm and Tack Zone, generally stronger overall towers

[@nuclearwarhead9845]

Neither of those function well on their own

[@ShiaTheBunnyGirl]

I love the idea of glaive lord looking down on the crossbrow master like "Look who sucks NOW!"

[@almightyhydra]

I use the T4 very often in chimps runs as you have dart monkeys lying around from the start. It handles camo on rounds 33, 37 and 42, and can take a chunk out of the MOAB (or if you're lucky, oneshot all the cerams from it). It's cheap too. XBM is an OK inclusion in primary monkey oriented strats but personally I prefer going for T5 ice and boomer. Overall, if you pay only 26k for a T5 you shouldn't expect miracles.

[@CoconutOrNot_]

And ur wasting 3k on a useless tower...

[@madrid_drive_enjoyer]

@@almightyhydra Prince of darkness has similar costs but is sooo much better, XBM just needs a buff

[@DoubleDuck2]

With a similar amount of money you can get a tack zone, elite defender, glaive lord, and much more that are all better than crossbow master.

[@CoconutOrNot_]

@@DoubleDuck2 edef and glory c9st way more

[@madrid_drive_enjoyer]

@@CoconutOrNot_ Not to be rude but who tf calls glord “glory”😆

[@thatbignoob0410]

Dont mind the TSG being a b tier for chimps even though you LITERALLY CANT GET ONE it costs like 3x the money you make in a whole game

[@Kevaca]

Sun avatars:

[@trevors.5922]

Only 2 bad things about XBow master is: Pink bloons and faster cant be hit if theyre shooting parallel to it. If youre not using a p.expertise with it you might as well shelf it. And even w p. Expertise it STILL CANT HIT PINK BLOONS PARALLEL TO IT!

[@thealientree3821]

If Tier 1s and Tier 2s are included, then Monkeyopolis would definitely escape F tier due to Discount Village. Boat and especially Alchemist might not be lucky. Acid Pool in particular sucks.

[@SenyiKimmo]

ok but that path also has faster throwing which is just really good

[@meepswag35]

@@thealientree3821 the reason they don’t is because I mean just cross path, 202 and/or 022 are pretty good on their own

[@OMGoobero]

Middle beast S+

[@PolyxTheWise]

Been stuck on solo chimps on this map for awhile. Thankfully I know how to cheese the early rounds (it's the 90s that are a problem for me and what to save up for), but it physically pains me to see that Isab didn't use Spiked Mines on this map, alch buffed, and cross pathed 4-0-2. That tower *hard* carries the mid-game, and coupled with relentless glue, anything outside of a fortified ZOMG or even just a regular ZOMG won't breakthrough. The reasoning he explained for going 3-2-0 instead of 3-0-2 also doesn't make sense, claiming the ceramic rushes came later in the 40s/50s...which is perfect for spiked mines/balls since they have more time to build up a pile, excluding if any moab class bloons are coming ofc.

[@im-possible-1]

Use druids 014 x5 and 015 x1 with obyn, berserker brew, and homeland defense

[@qbc_03x65]

ISAB doing a fair and even test of a tower in CHIMPS challenge: Impossible

[@crimsonvale7337]

Damn, that dog sure loves to roll on the machines. Silly dog :)

[@jaguarj1942]

Crossbow master really only works on easy maps where it’s used as a saveup for primary expertise with Moab glue and Moab dom

[@whatever--]

Can you make a playlist for your black border runs? I'd love to watch all of them but it's kinda hard to find those vids

[@nuts5388]

I bet that giving it a ricochet similar to Quincy would be a good buff, because the top path is already the “straight line to maximize pierce” path, it doesn’t need a second one for the bottom so maybe a ricochet or something would make sense

[@rockit2475]

I think one of the only gamemodes that crossbow master near excels at is half-cash since he's very cheap and can easily take you near or all the way up to round 80 alone

[@Secretlycat31]

The full quote is "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes is better than a master of one"

[@JDraks]

No, that was added to the saying later to invert its meaning. That's how a lot of those "full" sayings are

[@Secretlycat31]

@@JDraks source?

[@Teh-Dee-bear]

Crossbow Master’s a fun tower, but that thing? *(Points at Tech Terror)* Is even better!

[@LuckBeALadyTonight]

I can’t believe ISAB didn’t have a part in the tier list

[@tristen9736]

If he did, bottom path village would be next to top path alch

[@Kevaca]

​@@tristen9736 the tier list ranks the tiers 3 TO 5 for the most part The 000 and tier 1/2 are not counted

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

Voters mainly consists of individuals with high expert chimps knowledge and has done a lot of impressive runs

[@rmlgaming2091]

Frankly, ISAB is a bit out of the loop when it comes to high level CHIMPS runs. It's been nearly 5 years since he was on the cutting edge..

[@dillonwestgate1625]

lmao i watched Striker jones dog the entire video

[@badateverything2931]

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@justmob9917]

Inb4 nk buffs the hell out of crossbow master in exchange for changing its damage type from normal to sharp

[@Kevaca]

Ah yes, buff it just to make it bad

[@linkguy0877]

2:15 ahh yes *the jungle of the druid* my favourite upgrade

[@bennybucket4245]

I think the main appeal for the crossbow master is it's pure simplicity and cheapness. Also the other two dart paths are too situational, so whenever i have a dart monkey leftover from early game he always eventually ends up being a crosbow

[@hayespang7820]

I always use crossbow master for any game which is ends before round 80 But apart from that and bosses(for paragon) it stinks

[@Kradrling]

A lot of people forget about rounds 60-80 with CHIMPS and bosses being the biggest challenges in the game, but crossbow master is amazing if you're going for any other mode, it can solo all of hard mode on like 90% of maps without any support, and it's pretty much the cheapest tower that can do that. Spectre is close, but it can't see camo and doesn't have quite as much raw damage.

[@jrodd13]

Literally all the Crossbow Master needs is more pierce across the board. That feels like it's biggest issue, at least when I use it.

[@renegadeatherton8058]

I don't care how bad it may be, the fact that I can get it in deflation mode makes it all worth it

[@RonZhang]

11:50 RIP in peace

[@troqu]

Crossbow Master generally ends up being most first time players first 5 star so it really has a popularity buff for that. When you're first starting out darts are easy to use and with the way tower exp works, you will probably quickly unlock the levels for all three paths and to a newbie bottom path seems like a clear winner. Top path is slow and they've probably not put it on a straight line with a targeting change. Middle path is powerful with an ability, but new players are afraid of abilities not being available when they hit (what they feel) is hard rounds. Bottom path however will shred entire waves except for lead in the early game and fires fast enough that their poor placement won't actually hinder the tower's performance in early maps.

[@rakenzarnsworld2]

*Nothing gets past my crossbow!* Pink bloon:

[@Silverfish0161]

I think I've nearly always ended up getting a crossbow master in chimps...

[@davidmaciejewski193]

Primary expertise is really good with the crossbow master

[@danielcain9134]

4:10 Sniper Mains: "Exactly."

[@staufin966]

I love the fact that the top path alc is at the top of the tier list, the middle path in the middle and the bottom path at the bottom 😂😂😂

[@Kevaca]

Because buff alch is goat Unstable coc is ok, but only for dense rounds And bma... bma loses money (its chimps) and costs 48k (for the whole thing)

[@Free-4554]

RIP ben being a better chimps hero than obyn😔

[@Ne_Ne_Vova_UA]

X bow master is alright, the only thing where he falls off is like 90s, but he can get you through all of the early game

[@Awesomeness-iz3dh]

5:00 My theory is that it's because many new players had it as their first ever tier 5, and it stuck with them for being the first time they got to see a tier 5 in action.

[@purpur5]

Isn't the Xbow master popularity partially contributed to being the 3rd path added from BTD5, where both Jug and SMFC were quite niche and suddenly Xbow becoming "the default" path?

[@grimreaper1542]

Crossbow is cracked on most maps up until round 80 (not as much in CHIMPS though). But then really falls off late game pretty hard. But given how cheap it is, it can make mid game easy allowing to save up for a more expensive tier 5, so not too bad overall imo.

[@nuclearwarhead9845]

The problem is 25k is way too much for just a midgame tower- the good midgame towers that cost they much are good because they still do well in late game 4:26

[@gregorycarmichael6907]

I think a lot of the problems with crossbow master stem from NK assigning it as the "range path", which isn’t super useful most of the time. I think to stand out from the other paths (which both have a niche they fit into) bottom path should have bonus moab damage, or maybe even bonus camo damage since it struggles so much with ddts

[@jblev736]

Q: What is crossbow master good for!? A: Looking cool 😎

[@denialz1460]

CBM can carry you through a lot of expert maps

[@defenestrater]

Just in time for my pre sleep isab

[@stalledzeus3915]

I don’t know I think cross bow master is good, it’s just people keep comparing it to other towers, the crossbow master is good agaist everything it’s just not over powered. The only one I can agree with is ceramics, and ddts which are meant to be difficult

[@alfredroman5801]

I have played Chimps mode with at least one crossbow master and I have never lost the late game. Well, I have other towers but one of them is a crossbow master.

[@DeeJay694]

I would love if they made the double cross bow master MK be default, so you could get 2 of them in chimps, and change the MK to something else. Itd be pretty pointless but neat.

[@MeowItsGhazt]

No way, this guy helps cook everything up to round 85-90 with ease!!!

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

Not on experts

[@nuclearwarhead9845]

Play harder maps then where you don't get straight lines and a ton of track length

[@MrTBunting]

2:34 Smooth recovery

[@larrss4330]

I like to use a 032 wiz and 025 dart for 0-80 and just spam 042 supers for 81-100

[@RmnGnzlz]

As a guy that uses this tower all the time I disagree this map is good for him, I actually think it's bad. The bloons move at 2x speed and once they get near him he loses his good hits and you can't take advantage of his range in general here. Sanctuary and Infernal are way better for expert maps.

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

@@RmnGnzlz i mean, not that it matters at the end of the day since xbm struggles on all experts

[@RmnGnzlz]

@@Idc08-xv7qv They should give him Quincy's aimbot, so he would never miss.

[@Kevaca]

Also it's not 2x rate It's +50% speed when the reverse motor is not active

[@RmnGnzlz]

@@Kevaca Ah yeah, still the point was that they get close sooner and that's bad for the BM.

[@theorochocz6735]

I reccently started trying to get some black borders and getting to know the meta, but for me the primary monkeys (specially bloon solver, xbm and tack zone) with the top path village has been a breeze for almost all maps that have at least one intersection. i really surprised me seein xbm in D tier.

[@itzickybroidk8379]

No way! But I did my first 2 megapops challenge with the crossbow master (this was when the achievement first came out)

[@irrwegeirrwege255]

Need a long straight track and put cbw on last - this thing shredds. and put it just before exit so it shoots bloons and moab at the same time

[@nuclearwarhead9845]

"it's a good tower if you use it on a free map"

[@linguine4500]

I love crossbow master, even if he isn't meta. Perhaps the reason he isn't good is because you can get 2 of then in a non-chimps setting, and if they buff it, that's 2 towers with that buff. How the the hell is XLL trap high if the money making ones are bad.

[@wastingtime1441]

Double gun is great early game, traps do have some viability on multi lane maps when you switch where they are cause they do insta kill cerams and at t5 ZOMGs

[@xuansangdotrinh1055]

XXXL trap has a bug where it can deploy many traps at once.

[@BriaBri]

⁠@@xuansangdotrinh1055he’s asking because xxl trap is pretty bad in chimps because you can’t make money. And it sucking up all of the moab class bloons takes away the money from the pops that you would’ve gotten

[@artix4545]

Xxl trap + a stalling tower = godly

[@thealientree3821]

Traps now no longer make you lose money when you're using it.

[@claydolwithexplosion6633]

I do think crossbowmaster is actually pretty good on anything but round 100 game modes (so basically, most gamemodes), because as you said it can basically solo the first 80 rounds, even without buffs on many maps. With monkey knowledge the upgrade gets cheaper too if all your primary towers are tier 3 or 4. So for ~20k (depending on game mode) I do think it's a really good upgrade to easily beat the rest of the game without any micro. Crossbow Master is bad in Chimps, sure, but as I said, that is just one game modes of many. Apart from pierce I don't even think it needs any buffs really, otherwise it would become even more of an "autowin" upgrade.

[@zoompipes_twin2889]

I think the main thing holding it back is the monkey knowledge allowing you to have 2

[@Fehzor]

I must pose the question of whether xbm ought to be better. It [mostly] gets the job done for cheap and you can have two of it in impoppable etc. and it's a pretty low maintenance strategy.

[@thenecromancer4113]

CBM is good early game with the high damage and camo, amazing midgame if you can get it, but DOG. WATER. In lategame. It cannot kill super cerams to save its life. If you’re playing hard mode, it’s a good investment, but for chimps and impoppable, there are much better and cheaper options for midgame.

[@di11_9]

early/mid game on parts with straight paths i find crossbow anything can carry for a long time

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

That's every non expert maps

[@Wildkirblet]

i would like to see ultra juggernaut try going half as far as crossbow master. aint no way he should be that low on the list.

[@AsocPaladin0016]

It is good at its specific purpose which is to be a super cheap t5 to carry mid game while you save for bigger defense. Thing is a beast until mid 70s and you can get it by round 50ish on easier maps.

[@383stevie]

Master with Gwen was my go to when I started bloons.

[@michaelfarber3742]

“Most tier 5s would’ve had an easier time” Most tier 5s cost more????? I am utterly baffled

[@AshenPlayer]

Yes, and you should be able to save up to them instead of getting the crossbow master since he is not even worth his price tag

[@rumar4u]

I kinda like crossbow master - solid tower for the price that helps transitioning to a better one until mid 80's rounds

[@cellogaming19]

crossbow master also goated on deflation

[@shinystarmiestudios4179]

Crossbow Master is good mid-game, then TANKS after R80.

[@yuricesar9706]

Not really,has bad self saveup because of sharpshooter and is more expensive than most better midgame options

[@Cinque27]

It's weird cos I've never lost a chimps run where i use CM. one of my fav t5s

[@Idc08-xv7qv]

Show me an impressive xbm run on true expert maps where the tier list is based on

[@madrid_drive_enjoyer]

@@Cinque27 Can we please stop saying x tower is good on beginner/intermediate maps. Time for megalodon to shine on logs I guess

[@Cinque27]

@@Idc08-xv7qv I'm sorry it wasn't a 1tc on ouch

[@Cinque27]

@@madrid_drive_enjoyer it's not just easy/intermediate maps I use him. I didn't say he was good, just that whenever I've used him I've never had trouble. Idk if he's been nerfed recently or something, but I always thought he's good for the money you pay and use him alot because of this, not to mention the T3/4 are really good for 0-40

[@madrid_drive_enjoyer]

@@Cinque27 Well that’s interesting. The problem with XBM is that its only job is to carry to r80, but some towers (0-4-2 wiz, spectre, apache, combination of cheap tier 3 or 4s, etc.) are better, cheaper or can do stuff during lategame. If you use it casually it will get the job done but on harder maps the money could be better used elsewhere.

[@OskarsBestD]

Night 15 of watching isab every night before bed

[@michaelsminecraftknowledge758]

jungle of the druid is crazy

[@BriaBri]

I love using it in my chimps runs :(

[@nuclearwarhead9845]

No one ever said you can't use it it's just bad

[@doce3609]

I am a rather casual player and I always upgrade my starting Dart Tower because it just feels so lonely without being upgraded

[@lordshuv-rowyoknow6486]

Crossbow is more liked by casual pkayers is because its one of the simplest tower, cheap enough to buy before r60, just buy it and it can clean up all sort of bloons, add some buffs,

[@bluenightrblx]

what's it good at?: deflation, deflation.

[@ArberKryemadhi]

I have an idea, double the crossbow masters base pierce and make top path one shot ceramics

[@laurakeel3930]

For me I only use the crossbow master for very easy deflation

[@im-possible-1]

The only bugf it needs is a second stream of arrows