Sharper Prongs

Sharper Prongs adds +1 pierce to the Mermonkey's tridents and +3 to its splashes, for 3 and 6 pierce on a base Mermonkey. As a crosspath it also gives the Abyss Dweller line +35% tentacle pierce and the trance attack +2 pierce.

When to buy it

For $200 it is a cheap boost against groups. The extra pierce beats the top path's attack speed whenever the Mermonkey can hit many bloons at once, which is common in races.

As a crosspath it suits the Abyss path (3-1-0, 4-1-0, 5-1-0) for more tentacle pierce, and Alluring Melody (0-1-3), where the trance pierce helps catch more bloons. On Symphonic Resonance and The Final Harmonic, the top path's consistency is usually better. It also leads into Tidal Chill and Riptide Champion.

On low-tier Mermonkeys in normal games the difference between this and Trident Efficiency is small, so pick whichever leads to the tier 3 you plan to buy.

Is it worth it?

Yes, as a cheap crosspath and as the step to the strong middle path.