Difficulties

Bloons TD 6 has three main difficulties (Easy, Medium and Hard) and the one-life Impoppable tier that sits on top of Hard. Difficulty changes your lives, the rounds you play, tower prices and bloon speed. It does not change how much money a pop is worth. This page covers every number that changes between difficulties, plus how map difficulty affects Monkey Money and how the famous Black Border works.

BTD6 difficulties compared

• Easy: 200 lives, rounds 1 to 40, towers and upgrades cost 15% less, bloons move at base speed, and the final round 40 MOAB has only two thirds of its health. Bronze medal.
• Medium: 150 lives, rounds 1 to 60, base prices, bloons 10% faster than Easy, ends with the round 60 BFB. Silver medal.
• Hard: 100 lives, rounds 3 to 80, prices 8% higher than Medium, bloons 25% faster than Easy, ends with the round 80 ZOMG. Gold medal.
• Impoppable: 1 life and no way to gain more, rounds 6 to 100, prices 20% higher than Medium, Hard bloon speed, ends with the round 100 BAD. Impoppable medal.

Every difficulty starts you with $650 unless a mode says otherwise. Hard and Impoppable skip the first rounds, so you start with the same cash but have fewer easy rounds to build up an economy.

Tower price multipliers

Prices on each difficulty are a percentage of the Medium price, rounded to the nearest $5:

• Easy: 85% of Medium
• Medium: 100%
• Hard: 108%
• Impoppable: 120%

A base $200 Dart Monkey therefore costs $170 on Easy, $200 on Medium, $215 on Hard and $240 on Impoppable. The difference stacks up fast: a strategy that needs $50,000 on Medium needs about $54,000 on Hard and $60,000 on Impoppable.

CHIMPS is a special case. It plays rounds 6 to 100 with one life like Impoppable, but it uses Hard prices. Every tower page in the Pedia lets you switch the price display between all four difficulties above the upgrade tree.

Cash per pop and round bonuses

Money from popping is the same on every difficulty. Each layer you pop is worth $1, and finishing round R pays an end-of-round bonus of $100 plus the round number. What changes is the round, not the difficulty: from round 51 pops are worth 50%, from round 61 20%, from round 86 10%, and from round 101 only 5%.

This explains why late game feels so tight on Hard and Impoppable. The ceramic and MOAB rounds after 60 give a fraction of the money you would expect from their size, so the economy you build before round 50 decides most games. It is also why farming early pays off on every difficulty where farms are allowed.

Bloon speed

Easy is the baseline. Medium bloons move 10% faster and Hard bloons 25% faster than Easy. Impoppable uses Hard speed. On Impoppable and in freeplay rounds after 80, all bloons also get faster each round, MOAB-class health climbs by 2% of its base value per round, and every Ceramic becomes a Super Ceramic.

Map difficulty and Monkey Money

Maps have their own difficulty rating: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. Map difficulty does not change rules, but it multiplies Monkey Money rewards (Beginner x1, Intermediate x2, Advanced x3, Expert x4).

First win of a mode on a map:

• Easy (Standard, Primary Only, Deflation): 75 Beginner, 150 Intermediate, 225 Advanced, 300 Expert
• Medium (Standard, Military Only, Apopalypse, Reverse): 125, 250, 375, 500
• Hard (Standard, Magic Only, Double HP MOABs, Half Cash, ABR): 200, 400, 600, 800
• Impoppable and CHIMPS: 300, 600, 900, 1,200

Replaying a mode you already beat pays 20% of those numbers: 15 to 60 on Easy, 25 to 100 on Medium, 40 to 160 on Hard and 60 to 240 on Impoppable. The Mo' Monkey Money knowledge adds 10% to map rewards, except in CHIMPS where Monkey Knowledge is disabled.

In Co-op the big first-time bonus is only paid once per mode and map, whether you earn it solo or with friends.

Which difficulty should you play?

• New players: play Easy on Beginner maps to unlock towers, earn XP and learn what each round throws at you.
• Building a collection: Medium is the sweet spot for tower XP because the game lasts 60 rounds at base prices.
• Farming Monkey Money: first-time Hard and Impoppable wins on Advanced and Expert maps pay the most. Once you have them, repeat wins on Expert Impoppable (240 each) are strong if you have a reliable strategy.
• Testing skill: Impoppable is the training ground for CHIMPS. Beat Impoppable comfortably before you try CHIMPS on the same map.

Medals and map borders

Each mode gives its own medal on the map card. Collect every Easy medal on a map for a bronze border, every Medium medal for a silver border, and every medal in the game (including Half Cash and CHIMPS) for a gold border.

What is the Black Border?

The Black Border is the top cosmetic reward in BTD6. To earn it on a map you need every other medal plus a black CHIMPS medal. You get the black medal by beating CHIMPS without ever pressing Retry Last Round and without exiting to the main menu during the run. If you retry or quit even once, you still get the CHIMPS medal, but it is red, and the map border stays gold. Black Borders give no extra Monkey Money or trophies; they are purely a badge of skill.

Practical Black Border tips: test your strategy first in a normal CHIMPS run or in Sandbox, write down your buy order, and do the clean run only when you can beat the hard rounds (63, 76, 78, 95, 98 and 100) without help. For a visual walkthrough of hard maps, see our videos on the BTD6 Master YouTube channel.

Frequently asked questions

What are the price multipliers in BTD6?

Easy prices are 85% of Medium, Hard prices are 108% and Impoppable prices are 120%, each rounded to the nearest $5. CHIMPS uses Hard prices.

How many lives do you get on each difficulty?

Easy gives 200 lives, Medium 150, Hard 100 and Impoppable just 1, with no way to gain more.

Does difficulty change how much money you get per pop?

No. Cash per pop is the same on every difficulty and only drops based on the round number, starting at round 51.

How much Monkey Money does an Expert map give?

A first win on an Expert map pays 300 on Easy modes, 500 on Medium modes, 800 on Hard modes and 1,200 on Impoppable or CHIMPS.

What is the difference between a red and a black CHIMPS medal?

A black medal means you beat CHIMPS in one go without retrying a round or quitting to the menu. Using Retry Last Round or leaving the game gives the red medal instead.

Do bloons have more health on Hard or Impoppable?

No. Bloon health is the same on every difficulty up to round 80. Only the round 40 MOAB on Easy is weaker, and freeplay scaling after round 80 makes MOAB-class bloons tougher on Impoppable and CHIMPS.