Ember

Personality

At his best, Ember is an energetic, silly monkey who just wants to have fun. He's a troublemaker at heart, just like his best friends, and always maintains an eccentric, happy-go-lucky demeanor if he can help it. He tends to be snarky and sarcastic, often making out-of-pocket jokes to try and get a laugh from people, but he's never mean. He cares deeply about his friends and family, and tries his best to help however he can.

In terms of his work, he tends to be either lazy and apathetic, or perfectionistic to an unhealthy degree, depending on whether or not he gives a damn about what he's working on.

Unfortunately, Ember also has severe anxiety. He doubts himself a lot - his anxiety causes him to constantly worry that he's somehow doing everything wrong. He used to worry a lot about being abandoned just for being himself, but he's gotten over this since becoming a hero and making a few friends.

Ember feels the need to always seem happy and carefree, even when he's upset, so he doesn't bring other monkeys down. He believes that if he's "too negative" (shows anger, sadness, or frustration one too many times), everyone else will cut him out of their lives so they don't have to feel sad anymore. So he insists on putting on a smile, all the time, until he gets so upset that he can't hide it anymore, and he snaps.

Likes

• Really all kinds of machines. Robotics special interest go brrr
• Messing around with Ben & Gwen
• The TV show Outrageous Acts of Science

Dislikes

• Bright sunlight
• The consequences of his actions
• Forgetting things
• Adora

Trivia

• When Ember was younger, he drank way too many energy drinks. It got to the point that he could probably build a particle accelerator out of Monster cans.
• His favorite foods are mac & cheese, Pop-Tarts, and sushi. He regularly bugs Ben to make sushi for him.
• According to Ember, the one good part about being hypermobile is that he can scare people by bending his thumb backwards to touch his forearm, which is impossible for most monkeys without connective tissue disorders. He does this more often than you'd expect a man in his 30s to.
• Sometimes, on his way home from the battlefield, Ember picks a flower from a bush he passes, and gives it to Brickell. Brickell has saved every flower he's ever given her.

Playlist

• I Wanna Be a Machine - The Living Tombstone
• I've Got Some Falling to Do - Lemon Demon
• icosa - Oliver Buckland
• Lazy - The Living Tombstone
• I'm Gonna Win - Rob Cantor
• Modify - Lemon Demon

History

* Ember's lore after he became a hero is currently under revision, and will not be fully added until I've finished a fic I'm working on.

Section Title

a few paragraphs

Section Title

a few paragraphs

Section Title

a few paragraphs

Section Title

a few paragraphs

Relationships

Admiral Brickell
Wife

Ember and Brickell are like lightning and thunder. Ember's unique nature holds a special place in Brickell's heart, and she would listen to him ramble about robotics and engineering for hours. Brickell goes into battle each day to fight for a world where Ember doesn't have to make weapons, and he can do stupid stuff, like building a rollercoaster for his kids, or trying to replicate the stuff he sees on Outrageous Acts of Science. She just wants him to be happy. Even though Brickell is eight and a half years older than Ember, that doesn't stop them in the slightest.

---

Etienne
Adopted Son

Ember and Etienne are united by an interest in engineering, having cool goggles, and not taking things seriously enough. The fact that Etienne is taller than him doesn't bother Ember.

---

Psi
Adopted Child

Psi and Ember aren't particularly close, but Ember still loves them just as much as his other kids. When they were a kid, Ember would let them stay up past their bedtime reading, even on school nights.

---

Millie
Adopted Daughter

Millie's not the same anymore. She hasn't been for a long time. Ember misses their happy memories together, where Millie looked up at him with wonder and excitement, instead of staring ahead like a zombie. Nevertheless, Ember keeps trying to cheer her up, even though it seems like the sadness and grief has seeped into her very soul, and the prospect of Millie ever being happy again seems like a distant fantasy.

---

Cirrus
Adopted Child

Cirrus is slowly coming out of its shell due to Ember's love and care. Ember sees himself in it, a scared hurt kid with nowhere to go, and above all else, he wants to be the father that he never had growing up.

---

Gwendolin & Benjamin
Best Friends

Gwen, Ben, and Ember are close enough that they consider themselves almost like family. Neither Ember nor Ben had siblings growing up, so they're the closest thing that they have. They get into all kinds of hijinks together, and for a while, they even had a secret hideout in a nearby abandoned warehouse. Benjamin is more careful and rational than the other two, being the oldest out of the group by two years, and he's probably the only reason Gwen and Ember haven't blown themselves up.

---

Sauda
Old Friend

When Sauda was left traumatized by the Legion's treatment of her, Ember was there to help her pick up the pieces of her shattered self. When she couldn't sleep or leave her room for days because of the horrible flashbacks she was having, he would bring food to her door, and tried his best to convince her that she was still the same warrior she'd been before that night. Bit by bit, Ember held Sauda's hand as she stepped out of the darkness. It's been seven years since the incident, and thanks to Ember, Sauda is alive and mostly back to her old self. She knows who she can count on if something ever happens to her again.

---

Rosalia
Friend

Being Gwendolin's little sister, Rosalia is the baby of the group by six years. She and Ember have shared tips for building stuff before, and Ember helped show her around when she first became a hero. She often tags along with the main group's shenanigans.

---

Adora
Rival

Adora and Ember found each other insufferable for many years, but recently, they've started getting along better. (Ember found out that Adora also liked My Little Pony, and they got to talking one day. All they really needed was a chance to get to know each other.)

---

Stats

(loosely based off D&D stats)

Strength: 13

Dexterity: 5

Stamina: 4

Vitality: 13

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 12

Charisma: 10

Height: 5'1/152 cm

Weight: 150 lbs/70 kg

Physique: Chubby with some muscle mass. Poor motor control makes Ember bad at fighting in melee combat, though he is somewhat strong.

Design

• tail bandage is not optional , he gnawed off all the fur under it (he chews on his tail when anxious and all attempts to stop have been unsuccessful) and he hates anyone seeing the hairless scarred ring around the end of his tail
• he technically can walk without his crutches, but if you're drawing him sitting down somewhere, he would definitely have them close by, as he doesn't go anywhere without them.
• as with my other disabled characters, please do not use their ref sheet as your only reference for how to draw their disability/mobility aid. please just google image search forearm crutches

Levels

"A skilled engineer, Ember can build tons of different deadly contraptions to destroy the Bloons."

Cost: 5000 Monkey Money / $1700 in-game Medium Standard

Leveling: 1.71x (same as Churchill, Adora, and Corvus)

1: Pilots a double-barreled Rocket Tower. Thanks to his homemade night-vision goggles, he can target Camo.

2: Increased attack speed.

3: Hot Shots Ability: Red-hot rockets pop Lead and Frozen Bloons.

4: Hot Shots cooldown reduced.

5: Range increased (to 60).

6: Hot Shots lasts longer.

7: Spy Camera Ability: A hidden camera pops out of the ground and scans all the nearby Bloons, revealing their weak points to other towers and removing Camo properties.

8: Larger, sharper rockets deal more damage and can pop Lead and Frozen Bloons at all times. Hot Shots instead increases damage greatly.

9: Ember gets an auto-targeting system for his Rocket Tower, allowing him to construct and spawn three new types of sentries: Fire Sentries, Blade Sentries, and Shock Sentries.

10: Ember’s Rocket Tower has 3 barrels. Acid Spill Ability: Splashes the biggest Bloons on screen with a powerful rubber-dissolving solvent.

11: Sentries fire faster.

12: Smart Sentries: Sentries only spawn close to the track.

13: Acid Spill cooldown reduced.

14: Spy Camera gets extra range and can detect better weak points.

15: Rocket Tower fires faster and fires much more powerful rockets.

16: Range increased again (to 80). Hot Shots cooldown greatly reduced.

17: Sentries fire much faster.

18: Acid Spill splashes surrounding Bloons in a much larger radius. More powerful acid lasts much longer.

19: The Spy Camera becomes deadly efficient at picking out each and every Bloon’s fatal flaws.

20: Rocket Tower has 4 barrels and fires even faster. Acid Spill rains acid everywhere in a cataclysmic storm.

Voicelines

Selected on the menu:

“It’s science time!”

Placed:

“Kids, don’t try this at home!”

MOAB-Class Spawns:

“M-O-A-B on the horizon!” (MOAB)

“BFB on the horizon!“ (BFB)

“Watch out, guys!” (ZOMG)

“Swiss cheese Louise!” (DDT)

“Tell my wife I love her…” (BAD)

MOAB-Class Destroyed:

“Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!”

“That’ll show ‘em…”

"All in a day's work." (BAD)

Leveling Up:

“Ha-ha!”

“Ha-ha-ha!”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Now we’re talkin’!”

“Awesome!”

“Eureka!"

“Upgrade time!”

“Upgrade time!” (different tone)

“Now we’re bringing out the big guns!” (Level 20)

Selected:

“Yup?”

“Target?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s up?”

“Ready for action!”

“What’s next?”

“Need something?”

“You better watch it, buster.” (annoyed)

“You’re gettin’ awful confident for someone standing in range of this thing.” (very annoyed)

Lives Lost:

“We need more power!”

“Come on, it’s not rocket science!”

Activated Ability Used:

“Eat metal, suckers!” (Hot Shots)

“Take THIS!” (Hot Shots)

“Get ‘em, guys!” (Spy Camera)

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” (Acid Spill)

Technical Stuff

my Bloons obsession has led me to spend several hours learning about the inner workings of the game and making sure Ember was balanced. he might not be balanced in the future as the game continually gets updated, since I worked all this out in early 2024. but I'm still proud of this :3

Click to open the technical stats, warning they are LONG

Ember levels up at 1.71x speed, as fast as Captain Churchill and Adora. He would be overpowered otherwise.

His targeting options are:

First: All of the Rocket Tower's barrels target first.

Strong: All barrels target strong.

Split: Half the barrels target first and half the barrels target strong. For levels 10-19, the targeting is First, Strong, First, because the number of barrels cannot be split evenly.

Rocket Tower

The Rocket Tower is a tower that is similar in shape to a Bloon Area Denial System, but has 2 barrels instead of 4, and fires rockets instead of buckshot. It has a base range of 50 (for comparison, Etienne's base range is 55). At level 5, it is increased to 60. At level 16, it is increased to 80.

The rockets deal 1 damage each and create small explosions with a blast radius of 13. They have 9 pierce. Each barrel fires once every 1.25 seconds. Their damage type is Explosion while Hot Shots is active or after level 9. Otherwise, it is a modified version of Sharp (he cannot pop Black Bloons).

In terms of appearance, the rockets look like 020 Bomb Shooter projectiles, but have rounder tips, no faces, and are silver with blue tips and fins. Hot Shots gives the rockets' bodies an orange tint and turns their tips and fins orange. The Rocket Tower itself is neon purple and green.

At level 2, each barrel fires once every second.

At level 8, the larger rockets deal 3 damage each (5 w/ Hot Shots), have a blast radius of 15, and have 12 pierce.

At level 15, each barrel fires once every 0.7 seconds. The rockets deal 5 damage (7 w/ Hot Shots). They also have a blast radius of 18, and 16 pierce.

At level 20, each barrel fires once every 0.5 seconds.

Sentries

Ember spawns a random sentry every 1 to 4 seconds.

The Fire Sentry shoots a continuous blast of flames which pops 1 layer every 0.2 seconds (0.15 after level 11, 0.1 after level 17). The flames have 3 pierce. Each flame also applies a burn effect, dealing 1 damage per 1.5 seconds for 3 seconds. The sentry’s body is bright orange with a yellow stripe. Its damage type is Fire, meaning that it cannot pop Purple Bloons.

The Blade Sentry shoots a single rotating saw blade. It fires every 0.8 seconds (0.7 after level 11, 0.5 after level 17), deals 1 damage, and has 8 pierce. Its body is blue. Its damage type is Sharp, meaning that it cannot pop Lead or Frozen Bloons.

The Shock Sentry uses a lightning attack that jumps between up to three nearby Bloons and stuns the one it hits first for 0.3 seconds. It fires once every 3 seconds (2.75 after level 11, 2 after level 17). The sentry’s body is electric purple with a bright blue stripe. Its damage type is Plasma, meaning that it cannot pop Purple Bloons.

Their targeting is locked to First regardless of the Rocket Tower’s targeting option. They can see Camo. All sentries have 40 range.

Abilities

Hot Shots

This ability has a cooldown of 60 seconds and lasts for 10 seconds.

At level 4, the cooldown is reduced to 50 seconds. At level 16, it is reduced to 30 seconds.

At level 6, it lasts for 15 seconds.

Spy Camera

The camera can be set to appear anywhere within Ember’s range that isn’t on the track, including in water (there's a spot on the bottom where he can attach a tiny inner tube, in case it needs to float). A button appears to select its location, similarly to setting Gwendolin's Cocktail of Fire or Obyn's Wall of Trees. It has its own independent range of 30. When the ability is used, every Bloon inside is permanently stripped of its Camo properties and takes +1 damage from everything for the next 45 seconds.

At level 14, its range is upgraded to 40, and affected Bloons take +3 damage from everything. By this point, regular Bloons aren’t a threat, and it’s pretty much only MOABs, which is why it’s so much.

At level 19, affected Bloons take +6 damage from everything.

Bloon children are not affected.

This ability has a cooldown of 70 seconds.

Acid Spill

Acid Spill deals 3 damage per second to regular Bloons. It deals more damage based on the size of the MOAB: MOABs and DDTs take 50 damage per second, BFBs take 80 damage per second, ZOMGs take 175 damage per second, and BADs take 300 damage per second. Boss Bloons take 400 damage per second. It aims for the 3 strongest MOABs (including Boss Bloons) on screen and will not target non-MOABs. It also coats all the Bloons in a range of 10 around the Bloon it aims for. It wears off after 20 seconds and soaks through all layers.

At the level 18 upgrade, its splash range is upgraded to 15. It wears off after 25 seconds.

This ability has a cooldown of 70 seconds. At level 13, it is reduced to 50 seconds.

Strategy

Ember is a late-game, mostly DPS hero with one good support ability. Due to his extremely slow leveling, he doesn't level up high enough to be good on any Easy or Medium difficulty, and most Hard difficulties, but might be good on Double HP MOABs and Impoppable (but is very hard to place early enough on CHIMPS). He is best on Boss Events, where Acid Spill and Spy Camera easily eat away at the largest of Bloons.

Because Spy Camera gives a flat damage increase to every attack, it's advised to use him with towers that attack very fast with comparatively low damage, like Supermonkey or bottom-path Ace. An Elite Defender with the correct crosspath (seriously, who gets a 025 Sniper unless you're fighting Phayze?) has its power literally doubled by Level 19+ Spy Camera.