Laser Blasts

Laser Blasts swaps the Super Monkey's darts for lasers. Each shot gets +1 pierce and a much bigger hitbox (projectile size goes from 2 to 5), and the damage type becomes energy. Energy lasers can pop frozen bloons, but they can no longer hurt Purple Bloons, which is the main drawback of starting the top path.

When to buy it

Treat Laser Blasts as a stepping stone. You buy it on the way to Plasma Blasts and Sun Avatar, usually right before you have the cash for the next tier. On its own it is the weakest value in the Super Monkey's tier 1 options: Super Range gives the same +1 pierce plus extra range for less money.

In crosspaths it shows up as the "1" in builds like 1-0-3 or 1-3-0 only when you plan to keep climbing to 2-x-x for the attack speed. If you need to pop frozen bloons from your own Ice Monkeys, the Hot Magic knowledge does the same job without losing purple coverage.

Is it worth it?

Only as part of the top path. Buy it when you are committing to Plasma Blasts or Sun Avatar, and watch out for purple rounds if you stop here.