Budget Clusters

Budget Clusters is a third-row Primary knowledge that makes the Bomb Shooter's Cluster Bombs upgrade (tier 3 bottom path) $100 cheaper. On Medium, Cluster Bombs drops from $800 to $700. You need 5 Knowledge Points in the Primary tree and Fraggy Frags. It costs one point and unlocks Violent Impact.

The discount is a flat $100 applied after the difficulty multiplier: $680 to $580 on Easy, $865 to $765 on Hard and $960 to $860 on Impoppable. Version 57 fixed a calculation issue that affected flat discounts like this one outside Medium.

How it changes the game

Cluster Bombs is a strong mid-game tower for clearing grouped bloons, and many players spam it in the rounds 30 to 60 range. A $100 saving per Bomb Shooter means:

• Spam builds: placing several 0-0-3 or 2-0-3 Bomb Shooters saves $100 each, which can add up to a whole extra tower over a game.
• Saving toward Recursive Cluster and Bomb Blitz: you reach tier 4 a little sooner.
• Races: where Cluster Bombs is part of the plan, every $100 shortens the time to the next upgrade, which directly lowers your time.

It only discounts the Cluster Bombs upgrade itself. Frag Bombs, Recursive Cluster, Bomb Blitz and the other paths cost the same as usual, and the tower's stats are unchanged.

Is it worth it?

Priority: situational. If Cluster Bombs is a regular part of your strategies, it saves real cash every game. If you rarely build bottom-path Bomb Shooters, it is a filler point that mostly helps you reach the 8 and 10 point thresholds for deeper rows.

Its child Violent Impact helps top-path Bomb Shooters, so Budget Clusters is also the route for players who like Bloon Impact stalls. Compared with other third-row options such as More Splatty Glue, Extra Bounce or 4 And 4, it ranks lower for most accounts.

Where it works

Budget Clusters is active in any mode with Monkey Knowledge enabled, on every difficulty. It is disabled in CHIMPS, so Cluster Bombs always costs full price there, and challenges can also turn knowledge off. When timing a save-up for a Race, remember that the price in the shop already includes the discount.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Cluster Bombs cost with Budget Clusters?

$700 on Medium, $580 on Easy, $765 on Hard and $860 on Impoppable.

Does Budget Clusters make Recursive Cluster cheaper?

No. Only the tier 3 Cluster Bombs upgrade is discounted.

Is Budget Clusters worth it?

It is worth it for players who spam Cluster Bombs, especially in Races. Otherwise it is a filler point on the way to Violent Impact.

Does the discount change with difficulty?

No. It is always $100, applied after the difficulty price change.