"Banana Farms grow bananas that you can collect to turn into cash. When your farm produces some bananas, collect them by moving your mouse over them. Don't leave them too long however, or they will spoil!"
The Banana Farm is one of the few towers that has nothing to do with actually popping bloons. This tower made its debut in BTD4. The tower generates income every round, the amount depending on what upgrades you have purchased. The Banana Farm itself generates 80 money per round and costs $850 on Easy, $1000 on Medium and $1080 on Hard. It even gives money during Apopalypse Mode. It is generally a good idea to buy these early in the game, as you will get a bigger payoff.
Healthy Bananas premium upgrade, gives the player 1 life per Banana Farm upgrade, per round. For example, if in BTD4, the player has 2 Banana Farm's that are both fully upgraded with the 4th upgrade (Banana Research Facility, they will get 8 lives at the end of each round. If the player saves up enough lives, even a MOAB-Class Bloon, can be let through and still leave the player with spare lives.
The Button of the Banana Farm
The Banana Farm and all its upgrades.
The Banana Farm is twice as big as a regular tower.
The Banana Farm is bigger than other towers, even in its first form. There is a hut on the left side of the tower, and the hut is big as a regular tower. There is a field to the right of the hut, colored brown. Then there is a banana tree, right in the middle of the field.
The tower was completely reworked in BTD5; now it drops banana pickups 4 times a round (80 money max, or 120 once you obtain Valuable Bananas), collect them with your mouse before they disappear. They last 10 seconds (20 with Long Life Bananas) and each banana pickup is worth 20 money (or $30 with Valuable Bananas).
Generates 6 bananas per round. This will bring in a maximum of 120 money per round without Valuable Bananas, or 180 money per round with Valuable Bananas.
Generates 13 bananas per round. This will make in a maximum of 260 money per round without Valuable Bananas, or 390 money per round with Valuable Bananas.
Generates 25 bananas per round. This will earn you a maximum of 500 money per round without Valuable Bananas, or 750 money per round with Valuable Bananas. Keep in mind, however, that buying this upgrade will prevent the purchase of Monkey Bank or Banana Investments Advisory for this tower.
Generates 10 crates of bananas each round. The crates are identical to the bananas, except they are worth 10 times as much. This stacks with Valuable Bananas. This will profit 2,000 money per round without Valuable Bananas, and 3,000 money per round with Valuable Bananas. This upgrade is unlocked at Rank 36.
Due to the greater returns provided by the higher upgrades, it is wise to upgrade a Banana Farm as early into each game as possible.
Payoff Period (with valuable bananas, without) Rounded up
Increases the value of each banana/box of bananas by 50%. It is advisable to purchase this upgrade only if the player intends to pursue Path 2 or has already maxed out the Path 1 upgrade. This is so because it gives $1000 additional by $4500.
The Monkey Bank will no longer drop bananas, but instead generates money throughout the round, which is placed in your "bank account," separate from that of other Monkey Banks. Creates 450 money per round plus 10% interest. You may withdraw this fund at any time, and the bank will hold up to $5000. This will also lock the purchase of Banana Republic or Banana Research Facility for this tower, however. Purchasing More Bananas/Banana Plantation will make the bank generate slightly more money (+ $40/$180 per round).
Increased money generated to 1000 per round, increases interest to 20%, and increases the maximum held at a time to $20000 per round. Purchasing More Bananas/Banana Plantation will make the bank generate slightly more money (+ $40/$180 per round). This upgrade is unlocked at rank 36.
The following table shows how much money the Monkey Bank and the Banana Investments Advisory generate before the maximum is reached:
In Bloons TD 5 iOS, the upgrades are the exact same as in the online version of Bloons TD 5, but each upgrade gives half the bananas they normally give, at $40 a banana. So More Bananas will only give you 3 bananas, but each banana is worth $40 rather than $20.
Buy as early as you can, Dart Training Facility Lvl 3 might help a lot. Upgrade to 1/0, repeat until you gain for upgrade to 2/0. Upgrade all To. Spare to Village for lower prices. Upgrade Farms to Banana Republic 3/0. Check if you can sell farms for upgrade one to B.Res.Fac. 4/2, which is worth it. This "pays" itself on a single round. That means, the dif. between buy and sell prices. Keep going buy more while strenghtening your defenses.
A Banana Farm is self-sustaining (that is, after the initial purchase it will provide enough money to pay for its own upgrades) on the following schedule (assuming that the Banana Farm is originally purchased at Round 0, and not accounting for Valuable Bananas):
Easy
Medium
Hard
More Bananas
Round 4
Round 4
Round 5
Banana Plantation
Round 14
Round 16
Round 17
Banana Republic
Round 23
Round 28
Round 30
Banana Research Facility
Round 48
Round 56
Round 61
Interestingly, the marginal increase in difficulty is greater in the escalation from Easy to Medium than it is from Medium to Hard.
However, if a player has the total cost of the Banana Farm available up-front, as depicted in the table below, a player can recoup the expense of a fully-upgraded banana farm as shown:
Easy ($16920)
Medium ($19900)
Hard ($21490)
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
With the Valuable Bananas upgrade, the recoupment schedule for a fully-upgraded Banana Research Facility is as follows:
Easy ($20750)
Medium ($24400)
Hard ($26350)
Round 7
Round 9
Round 9
Thus, a player who purchases and fully upgrades a Banana Farm (4/2) on Round 0 in Easy will have the tower "paid off" in Round 7 and will begin making a "profit" in Round 8.
Note that all of the above numbers assume that the tower is not within range of a Monkey Village, which reduces costs by approximately 10%. One financially wise strategy is to purchase a Monkey Village, put a Banana Farm (or multiple Banana Farms) in range, fully upgrade each Banana Farm, and then sell the Monkey Village.
Buy this as soon as you can. upgrade to More Bananas, then buy more and more (Around 5) until the player can get Banana Plantations easily, then continue to Banana Republics, and then to Banana Research Facilities.
If you are playing with Double Cash Mode enabled, you can use a Dart Monkey and build a Banana Farm before Round 1 begins.
In Deflation Mode, the Banana Farm is disabled. However, you can still use it (if you have enough money) by pressing its hotkey (V). They will generate bananas/crates/money in banks, but picking up the bananas/crates/money in banks will not give you any money.
You can also get a Banana Farm if you slide your cursor under the Monkey Apprentice when you cannot see the Banana Farm icon and you may be able to click the Banana Farm. However this does not always work.
The Banana Farm is the only source of reliable income in Apopalypse Mode.
You need about 14 Banana Research Facilities to buy a fully upgraded Sun God every round in Easy, or 9 if Valuable Bananas is purchased.
The Banana Farm is the only tower without an ability.
Unless you are planning to play in Freeplay Mode, in BTD5 the basic tower stops being worth it at round 39 on easy, round 52 on medium, and round 71 on hard.
The Banana Farm is better in BTD5. The list of reasons:
The upgrade Banana Plantation in BTD4 gets 250 cash every round. In BTD5 gets 260 cash.
With Valuable Bananas you can grow up the reward to 150%.
With Banana Investments Advisory, you can get to 20000 cash waiting 8-9 rounds (and 7 rounds to earn its cost), and buying 5 you can get 100000, enough to earn a Temple of the Monkey God. A Banana Research Facility will give you that money in 7 or 10 rounds (and 9 or 11 rounds to earn its cost).
If you have the Healthy Bananas premium upgrade in BTD5, each (4,2) or (2,4) banana farm gives you 7 lives each round. (1 from the tower itself, 4 from the path with 4 upgrades (5) and 2 from the other path (7).
All the BTD4 upgrades to the Banana Farm became upgrades for path 1 in BTD5.
In Bloons TD Battles, the Banana Farm has been buffed so that each regular banana gives 30 money, each box of bananas gives 300 money, and with Valuable Bananas, they give 45 money per banana and 450 money per crate.
In Bloons TD 5 iOS, you can tap on them to give money. They give twice the amount, but half times each round. However, this is worth it for the Banana Plantation and the Banana Republic because it is rounded up.
Ironically, even though it doesn't attack bloons, it has a pop count on BTD5.
Right-clicking above a Banana Farm and moving the cursor outside the window will still collect the bananas.
Edit
Added by Greekfire975
