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| | Plants Vs Zombies Game Guide v0.70 | |
| | by Curby <
[email protected]> | |
| | | |
| | Copyright (C) 2009 Michael Lee, licensed under CC BY-ND 3.0 | |
| | | |
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| 000: Table of Contents |
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To jump to a section, search for its section number followed by a colon instead
of a period.
000. Table of Contents 400. Mini-Games Walkthrough
100. About this Guide 500. Puzzles Walkthrough
110. Availability
120. Copyright and License 600. Survival Walkthrough
130. Status and History 610. First Stage (Flags 1-2)
140. Searching the Guide 620. Second Stage (Flags 3-4)
150. Links in the Guide 630. Later Stages (Flags 5-10)
640. Location-specific Tactics
200. About the Game 650. Survival Endless
210. Gameplay Overview
220. Game Modes 700. Zen Garden Walkthrough
230. Secrets
240. Unlockables 800. Plant and Zombie Armies
250. Other Items 810. Plants Overview
260. Tips 820. Zombies Overview
300. Adventure Walkthrough
310. Stage 1 - Front Lawn, Day
320. Stage 2 - Front Lawn, Night
330. Stage 3 - Back Yard, Pool
340. Stage 4 - Back Yard, Fog
350. Stage 5 - Roof
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| 100: About this Guide |
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_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 110: Availability --------------------------------------------------------'
Whether you found this guide on the Internet or through email, please know the
latest version is always available for free from my site [1] and GameFAQs [2].
[1]
http://curby.net/docs/games/plantsvszombies.txt
[2]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56545
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 120: Copyright and License -----------------------------------------------'
This guide is Copyright (C) 2009 Michael Lee, and released under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License [3].
This license gives you my explicit permission to email, repost, republish, and
even sell this guide as long as it remains unchanged and in whole. In all
cases, this copyright and license statement, and the notice above that the
latest version is always available for free, must remain intact and unchanged.
All trademarks used herein that are listed at [4] are owned by PopCap Games,
Inc. or its licensors and may be registered in some countries. Other company
and product names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners and
are used for the benefit of those owners.
[3]
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
[4]
http://www.popcap.com/trademarks.php
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 130: Status and History --------------------------------------------------'
This guide was started because Plants vs. Zombies was the most requested FAQ on
GameFAQs. It is a work in progress, focusing on a walkthrough of Adventure
mode for beginners and advanced strategies for seasoned players.
2009-06-29 Stage 5 of Adventure, Plant and Zombie armies, etc.
2009-06-11 Stage 4 of Adventure, etc.
2009-05-28 Stage 3 of Adventure, etc.
2009-05-18 Stage 2 of Adventure, changed license, survival mode, misc changes
2009-05-15 Initial release
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'-- 140: Searching the Guide -------------------------------------------------'
To jump to a section, type its number as listed in the table of contents, fol-
lowed by the colon symbol. If you wanted to go to section 1064, you'd search
for "1064:" without the quotation marks. Each level in the Adventure mode has
its own section number consisting of 3, the stage number, and the level number.
The third level of the second stage is at section 323, and the tenth level of
the fourth stage is at section 34F (F indicates the final level of that stage).
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 150: Links in the Guide --------------------------------------------------'
URLs are often too long to place in-line with the main text, so they will be
placed at the end of each section as footnotes. For example, see the links in
the Copyright section above.
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| 200: About the Game |
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Plants Vs Zombies [5] is a tower defense [6] game in which you defend your
house from a horde of Zombies by placing plants in areas around your house.
This guide is not an instruction manual. While many walkthroughs spend time
repeating controls and other introductory material, this guide will focus
entirely on how to play the game effectively, not how perform basic functions.
Therefore, the following introductory sections will often refer to the game's
readme file [7]. If you don't have access to the Internet while reading this
guide, you can also find the readme file in the game's installation directory.
[5]
http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz
[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_defense
[7]
http://www.popcap.com/faq/plantsvszombies/1033/pc/readme.html
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 210: Gameplay Overview ---------------------------------------------------'
For information on the controls of the game and the basics of how to play it,
see the "Playing the Game" section [8] of the game's readme. The game itself
also gently introduces players to new game mechanics with in-game instructions.
[8]
http://www.popcap.com/faq/plantsvszombies/1033/pc/readme.html#PG
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 220: Game Modes ----------------------------------------------------------'
There are five game modes in Plants Vs. Zombies:
Adventure This is the primary mode, and consists of five stages of ten levels
each. Adventure mode must be completed to fully unlock the other
modes. For more information, see section 300.
Mini-Games This consists of 20 varied mini-games, which test your speed as
well as your strategy. For more information, see section 400.
Puzzles This consists of 20 levels of two puzzle modes: Vasebreaker and I,
Zombie. For more information, see section 500.
Survival This consists of 11 levels spanning the five locations first seen
in Adventure mode. For more information, see section 600.
Zen Garden This stress-free mode allows you to collect plants from other modes
and earn money by growing them and keeping them happy. For more
information, see section 700.
See the "Game Modes" section [9] of the game's readme for more information.
[9]
http://www.popcap.com/faq/plantsvszombies/1033/pc/readme.html#GM
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 230: Secrets -------------------------------------------------------------'
There are special codes that can be typed in during a level to enable graphical
effects in the game. These codes are discovered from the sayings of the Tree
of Wisdom, and some require the Tree of Wisdom to be of a certain height before
they can be activated. They have no in-game effect other than changing the
appearance of certain elements or characters and a sound effect confirming
their activation.
Code Effect
'''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
pinata Dying Zombies give a shower of candy
trickedout Lawn mowers get big engines
future Zombies wear sunglasses
dance Zombies dance instead of walk across the field
sukhbir Zombies have a different call for brains sound
daisies Dying Zombies leave small daisies on the ground
mustache / moustache Zombies get mustaches
Note that "daisies" requires a Tree of Wisdom height of 100 or more, "dance"
requires 500 feet, and "pinata" requires 1000 feet.
After the first play-through of the Adventure mode, there is an empty spot in
the Zombie Almanac. This last Zombie is unlocked by playing through Level 4-10
of the Adventure mode a second time.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 240: Unlockables ---------------------------------------------------------'
Some items and game modes are unlocked by accomplishing certain tasks. Here
they are with the prerequisites for each:
Item/Game Mode Unlock Action
'''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Shovel Complete Level 1-4
Suburban Almanac Complete Level 2-4
Mini-Games (Game Mode) Complete Level 3-2
Crazy Dave's Shop Complete Level 3-4
Puzzles (Game Mode) Complete Level 4-6
Yeti (Almanac Entry) Find in Level 4-10 during 2nd playthrough
Zen Garden Complete Level 5-4
Survival (Game Mode) Complete Adventure mode
Seed Packets Complete levels in Adventure mode (the walkthrough
notes what seeds are awarded for each level)
Silver Sunflower Trophy Complete Adventure mode
Gold Sunflower Trophy Earn all Mini-Game, Puzzle, and Survival trophies
If you purchased your game from Steam [10], you can earn Steam achievements by
accomplishing certain tasks [11]. Achievements have no in-game effect other
than the notification that you have received them.
Steam Achievement Unlock Action
'''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Ask Me About Mustache Mode Enable Mustache Mode
Better Off Dead Get a streak of over 10 in I, Zombie Endless
China Shop Get to a streak of 15 in Vasebreaker Endless
Cryptozombologist Discover the top secret zombie (Yeti)
Explodonator Blow up 10 Zombies with a single cherry bomb
Home Lawn Security Complete Adventure mode
Immortal Get to 20 flags in Survival Endless
Morticulturalist Collect all 49 plants
Nobel Peas Prize Get the golden sunflower trophy
Spudow! Blow up a zombie using a potato mine
Towering Wisdom Grow the Tree of Wisdom to 100 feet
Walk This Way Hypnotize the lead dancer zombie
[10]
http://store.steampowered.com/
[11]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/code/959255.html
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'-- 250: Other Items ---------------------------------------------------------'
Additionally, many items can be purchase from Crazy Dave's Shop. These include
seed packet upgrades, defensive items like pool cleaners, and items for the Zen
Garden. See the readme file for a complete list [12].
[12]
http://www.popcap.com/faq/plantsvszombies/1033/pc/readme.html#SC/CDS
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 260: Tips ----------------------------------------------------------------'
The readme file contains a list of helpful tips [13] for both general gameplay
and the Zen Garden. Here are a few more:
o Disregard most of the plant upgrades for the Adventure mode. They are
generally too expensive for the effect they will have on the game. For
example, use two Repeaters instead of a Gatling Pea. While it will take
two physical spaces instead of one, you save sun by planting more plants.
Also, having more plants can be beneficial as they will absorb more chomping
by Zombies.
o Don't bother using Marigolds during the Adventure mode, when time, space,
and sun are precious resources. Instead, finish Adventure mode more quickly
and use other means [14] to earn money later on.
o Gloom-Shrooms are very powerful, and should be the first upgraded plant that
you buy. Once you get them, use them in all available levels. During the
day, use coffee beans to wake them up. Yes, it's worth three slots!
o The golden rule of any real time strategy game is to ramp up your resource
production as quickly as possible while barely surviving early attacks. To
do this, try to kill each of the early Zombies as late as possible and with
as few attacking plants as possible. This will mean that you are spending
more sun on sun-producers, so that you'll have more income for the difficult
later parts of the level.
o Use the rake to take out the first zombie on each level. This allows you
to use more early resources on sun-producers.
o If you don't have the extra gold to buy rakes, you can use Potato Mines,
Tangle Kelps, and Squashes for a similar effect. Instead of spending 100
sun on a plant to take care of the early Zombie, you spend half that and
free up enough sun for another Sunflower. This is not an issue at night
when you have free plants to provide an early defense.
o Use Garlic to divert enemies onto other rows. Instead of defending 5-6 rows
on the field, you can divert them onto 3 rows. Having less effective area
to defend means that you can concentrate your defenses, and efficient plants
such as Fume-shrooms and Gloom-shrooms are even more effective against large
swarms as they hit every Zombie within range, whether there's 1 or 100.
o It is much easier to defend the water because the most powerful enemies are
all land-locked. For the more difficult games such as Survival mode, you
can group your more fragile and expensive plants, such as Cob Cannons, in
the water.
o There are tons of tips and techniques scattered throughout this guide too!
[13]
http://www.popcap.com/faq/plantsvszombies/1033/pc/readme.html#GT
[14]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56559
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------,
| 300: Adventure Walkthrough |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
The Adventure mode can be considered the primary mode of the game. Here are
level descriptions and tips on completing each level.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 310: Stage 1 - Front Lawn, Day -------------------------------------------'
The first of five stages takes place in your front yard during the day, and is
known as the "Day" stage in the game. The field has a maximum size of 5 rows
by 9 columns, though the first stages are made smaller to give a gentle
introduction to the game. The field sizes will be noted whenever they are
smaller than the maximum.
This first stage is easy, but it provides a good time to learn and practice
more advanced techniques that will be required later on. Even if you've
already beaten stage 1 in your game, skim the "The Key" lines for useful tips
and strategies. If you don't understand those summaries, read the "Notes" for
further explanation.
The listed flag count is the number of large waves of Zombies that attack on
that level. The first number is the number of flags the first time playing
through Adventure mode, and the second number is the number of flags on
subsequent times playing.
--- 311: Level 1-1 ------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 1x9
Enemies: Zombie
Flags: 0 / 2
Reward: Sunflower Seed Packet
The Key: Keep Peashooters far from the enemy.
Notes: Follow the tutorial tips and place your Peashooters at the far left.
As the name implies, ranged units work best at long range, so we put
them far away from the right edge where the Zombies spawn. The
Zombies are typically melee (close combat) units so this strategy
keeps your plants safe for as long as possible.
--- 312: Level 1-2 ------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x9
Enemies: Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Cherry Bomb Seed Packet
The Key: Save the two leftmost rows for sun production.
Notes: Place 4-5 Sunflowers at the far left before the first Zombie shows
up. Your first Peashooter should be on the same row as that first
Zombie and on the third column from the left. In general, set
aside the two left-most columns for sun-producing plants.
Here's our first level diagram, representing the beginning of the
game. Each dot represents an open space on the field, and other
symbols are explained to the right of the diagram. After we plant
four Sunflowers, the first Zombie appeared in the middle row. We
place our Peashooter in the same row and in the third column.
S S . . . . . . . S Sunflowers
S . P . . . . . Z P First Peashooter
S . . . . . . . . Z First Zombie
Towards the end, you should flesh out the two columns of Sunflowers
and build up two columns of Peashooters. This will be more than
enough firepower to take down the "flag" wave at the end. Flags on
the progress bar at the lower right of the screen indicate large
groups of Zombies that attack at once. By keeping an eye on the
progress bar, you can better prepare your defenses for these waves.
--- 313: Level 1-3 ------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 3x9
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Wall-nut Seed Packet
The Key: Maximize your early sun production.
Notes: You'll only have enough time to plant 3 Sunflowers before the first
Zombie, but try placing a fourth. If your reflexes are fast enough,
you'll still be able to kill the first Zombie with your first Pea-
shooter without taking a single hit. This goal of early resource
production should be kept in mind on every level.
As before, set up two columns each of Sunflowers and Peashooters.
That should be enough to beat the level, but you may want to try a
Cherry Bomb to see how it works. As they have a 3x3 area of effect,
try not to place them at the edges of the field or you'll waste some
of their power.
--- 314: Level 1-4 ------------------------------------------------------------
Size: 5x9
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Shovel
The Key: Get used to a larger field and to laying defenses.
Notes: Your first defensive plant, the Wall-nut, can be used to stall more
durable Zombies and larger groups. As Zombies stop and gnaw at a
Wall-nut, your Peashooters and other offense plants will have the
time and protection they need to dispatch them.
The strategy for this level follows that of the previous two: build
Sunflowers, and support them with Peashooters. Use Wall-nuts just
in front of your Peashooters. There, they will stop Zombie groups
but single Zombies will be killed by the Peashooters before being
able to damage the Wall-nuts at all.
--- 315: Level 1-5, Mini-Game: Wall-nut Bowling -------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Potato Mine Seed Packet
The Key: Kill Zombies as late as possible.
Notes: The fifth level of every stage is a special mini-game. After
teaching you how to use the shovel, Crazy Dave introduces you to the
first: Wall-nut Bowling.
This is also the first conveyor belt level. Instead of being
limited by recharge timers and sun costs, you only get to use the
seeds that slide in on the belt. Keep in mind that unused seeds
stay at the left side of the belt, so you can keep some there for
emergencies.
Your first thought might be to kill Zombies as soon as possible, but
it is difficult to win that way for two reasons. First of all, by
allowing Wall-nuts to ricochet around the field and hit multiple
Zombies, you won't need as many Wall-nuts to kill Zombies. Also,
seeing what's coming up allows you to plan your resources more care-
fully. Instead of wasting an Explode-o-nut on two Zombies, you may
wait a few seconds and see a larger group.
--- 316: Level 1-6 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Pole Vaulting Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Snow Pea Seed Packet
The Key: Plant Wall-nuts early, but place them carefully.
Notes: Pole Vaulters are easily stopped by two defensive units, but the
recharge time on the Wall-nuts is very high, so there's no way to
build two full columns of them before the flag. The best bet is
to start building them early so you can at least have one full
column of them, and to position them to the right so that post-
vault Zombies have some open ground to cover before reaching your
Peashooters. I used the following setup:
S S P P . . W . . S Sunflower
S S P P . . W . . P Peashooter
S S P P . . W . . W Wall-nut
S S P P . . W . .
S S P P . . W . .
That gives you more sun than you need towards the end of the level,
so you may start to replace Sunflowers with more Peashooters,
especially on rows that don't have a Wall-nut yet. Alternately, you
can use extra sun on Cherry Bombs. Cherry Bombs make a good "panic
button" by killing Zombies that get past your defenses, or those who
get within melee range of your fragile plants.
--- 317: Level 1-7 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Pole Vaulting Zombie
Flags: 2 / 3
Reward: Chomper Seed Packet
The Key: Plant Wall-nuts early, but place them carefully (yes, again!)
Notes: The last level gave us a great plant, the Snow Pea. By slowing down
Zombies while also damaging them, this creates a very useful hybrid
offense/defense plant. Since Zombies are slowed down, we don't need
as much space between our Wall-Nuts and our shooters. Try to finish
this setup before the first flag:
S S P s P . W . . S Sunflower
S S P s P . W . . P Peashooter
S S P s P . W . . W Wall-nut
S S P s P . W . . s Snow Pea
S S P s P . W . .
--- 318: Level 1-8 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Pole Vaulting Zombie (?) Buckethead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Repeater Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Chomper
Peashooter Wall-nut
Snow Pea Cherry Bomb
The Key: Choose an appropriate selection of plants to fill your seed tray.
Notes: Starting at this level, there will be too many seed packets for the
seed tray. In the walkthrough, there will be a new section called
"Plants." The notes assume that the listed plants were chosen
for that level.
In general, I choose a sun-producing unit (e.g. Sunflower), an early
attack unit (Peashooter), an advanced attack unit (Snow Pea), a
defensive unit (Wall-nut), and a "panic button" (Cherry Bomb). Any
remaining slots are filled with plants that are good against certain
special Zombies for a given level, or plants I want to use for fun.
To fully streamline your game, also consider where in the seed tray
you place each packet. The goal is to reduce the time and distance
necessary to choose and then plant a certain seed, so get a feel for
what plants you place in which columns, and position their seeds
closer to those columns. For example, my sun producers always go to
the left, so I place those seeds in the left-most slot of the tray.
This level plays out like the last one, except that you can place
Chompers behind Wall-nuts to take care of Bucket-heads that make it
to your front lines. Chompers will eat Zombies that are up to two
columns ahead, so they can reach over Wall-nuts to eat a Zombie.
Note: In one of my profiles, this level did not have Pole Vaulters.
--- 319: Level 1-9 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Pole Vaulting Zombie Buckethead Zombie
Flags: 2 / 3
Reward: Zombie Note
Plants: Sunflower Repeater
Peashooter Wall-nut
Snow Pea Cherry Bomb
The Key: The Repeater's good, but the Snow Pea comes first
Notes: An early defense relies heavily on stalling tactics while it builds
up its resource production. In the early parts of the game before
there is time to plant a full column of Wall-nuts, preventing fast
or high-toughness Zombies from reaching your plants is more
important than raw power. For this reason, start with a Peashooter
in each row, and then plant a Snow Pea before planting Repeaters.
This can be played the same way as the last two levels, but you can
replace Peashooters with Repeaters towards the late game if you have
extra sun.
--- 31F: Level 1-10, Conveyor Belt Level --------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Conehead Zombie
Pole Vaulting Zombie Buckethead Zombie
Flags: 2 / 2
Reward: Puff-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: All plants except for Sunflower
The Key: Plan your setup before planting, even for the conveyor belt levels!
Notes: The last level of each stage is a conveyor belt level. Instead of
placing plants based on recharge timers and sun costs, seed packets
slide in on a conveyor belt and collect at the left. You can keep
"panic buttons" such as Cherry Bombs on the belt indefinitely while
you place permanent plants such as Peashooters on the ground.
Just like before, you can see how the Zombies spawn and what plants
you get before you start planting. The more you wait, the more you
will know and the better you'll be able to plan your first moves.
Plant your assorted Peashooters in columns 1-4, your Potato Mines
and Chompers in column 5, and Wall-nuts in column 6. To prepare for
the second flag, replace normal Peashooters with extra Repeaters.
Towards the end of conveyor levels, sometimes the seed tray has
extras of plants such as Peashooters when you've moved to Repeaters.
While keeping an extra on hand can be useful to rebuild after an
attack, these extras are usually useless. Simply plant them towards
the right as ablative armor [15]. The point is to make room for
more relevant seeds, and to stall the Zombies a little.
[15]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablative_armor
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 320: Stage 2 - Front Lawn, Night -----------------------------------------'
The second stage takes place in your front yard when night falls, and is known
as the "Night" stage in the game. There will be no sun falling from the sky
during these levels, which limits your early expansion rate.
Since it is the front yard, levels are still 5x9 in size, but there are now
gravestones in the yard. You cannot plant on graves, and Zombies will spawn
from them during the final wave in each level. The level descriptions below
note which columns will have gravestones at the start of the level.
On most of these levels, you will want to start out by planting Puff-shrooms as
your early attacking plant. Since these are low-range, you'll eventually want
to place long-range support plants behind them. For this reason, we'll break
the "attackers at the left" rule and plant the first Puff-shrooms in columns 4
or 5 depending on the situation.
Lastly, Zombies will occasionally drop coins when destroyed, starting in this
stage. Silver coins are worth $10, and gold coins are worth $50. Quickly pick
up dropped coins by clicking on them before they disappear. The rest of the
guide assumes that you are collecting money, as it will be used later on to buy
important upgrades and items.
--- 321: Level 2-1 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 7-9
Enemies: Zombie Newspaper Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Sun-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Snow Pea
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Repeater Wall-nut
The Key: Plant Puff-shrooms relentlessly.
Notes: In the last stage, I recommended that you wait until the first
Zombie appears before placing your first attacking plant. However,
since Puff-shrooms are free, you are only limited by the recharge
timer. To make your force as strong as possible, you'll want to
start planting them right away and keep planting them whenever
possible.
Instead of placing my first Puff-shrooms in column 3 like I usually
do for attackers, I place them in column 4. This is because I
expect to place some Snow Peas to slow down Zombies, and Snow Peas
have long range and can fire from the back, whereas Puff-shrooms
have a range of 3. This will be true for most of stage 2: start
your Puff-shrooms further to the right and place long-range support
between them and the Sun-shrooms. Target the following setup:
S S s P P W . . . S Sun-producing plant
S S s P P W . . . s Snow Pea
S S s P P W . . . P Puff-Shroom
S S s P P W . . . W Wall-nut
S S s P P W . . .
If there were any more Puff-shrooms, they couldn't shoot far enough
to get past the Wall-nuts and to the Zombies anyway, so we only use
two columns' worth.
Reality check: It is probably possible to complete this level with
nothing but two or three columns of Puff-shrooms. The point of
discussing and practicing more advanced tactics, as always, is to
prepare for the harder levels to come.
--- 322: Level 2-2 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 7-9
Enemies: Zombie Newspaper Zombie
Conehead Zombie Buckethead Zombie
Flags: 2 / 3
Reward: Fume-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Snow Pea
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Repeater Wall-nut
The Key: Decide on Sun-shrooms or Sunflowers; I prefer the Sun-shrooms.
Notes: I use Sun-shrooms for Adventure mode but not because they produce
sun more quickly. Both sun-producers can end up completing the level
2-1 setup above in three minutes and fifty seconds, at which time
the Sun-shrooms will all be matured (so future production would be
comparable to Sunflowers). However, the tenth Sun-shroom can be
planted at around 1:30 versus 2:20 for the tenth Sunflower. Getting
your resource production squared away earlier is desirable as you'll
be able to concentrate your attention on your front lines sooner.
Additionally, you're at the mercy of a single random source when
using Sunflowers. Having additional sun producers smooths out the
curve, so you'll be able to better anticipate your income and build
up more consistently.
The counterargument is that during Survival game modes, upgrading to
Twin Sunflowers costs more if you start with Sun-shrooms. If you're
expecting to upgrade to Twin Sunflowers in Survival mode, definitely
use only Sunflowers even on night levels.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. Start with the setup shown above
for Level 2-1 with a Snow Pea, two Puff-shrooms, and a Wall-nut in
each row. To prepare for the last wave, gradually replace the Puff-
shrooms with Repeaters.
--- 323: Level 2-3 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 7-9
Enemies: Zombie Screen Door Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Grave Buster Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Snow Pea
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Fume-shroom Wall-nut
The Key: Piercing attacks are great against swarms.
Notes: You've probably noticed that when several Zombies spawn at once in a
single row, the lead Zombie will absorb all the damage allowing its
followers to arrive at your plants at full health. Fume-shrooms and
other plants with "piercing attacks" negate this tactic by damaging
all Zombies in a group at once. Their damage output actually goes
up when they're attacking bigger groups! They also nullify screen
doors. The one disadvantage is their limited range of 4 spaces.
Again, start with the setup from Level 2-1 but plant Fume-shrooms in
place of Snow Peas. As funds permit, start replacing Puff-shrooms
with more Fume-shrooms, for a final setup similar to the following:
S S F F F W . . . S Sun-shroom
S S F F F W . . . F Fume-shroom
S S F F F W . . . W Wall-nut
S S F F F W . . .
S S F F F W . . .
--- 324: Level 2-4 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Screen Door Zombie
Conehead Zombie Pole Vaulting Zombie
Flags: 2 / 3
Reward: The Suburban Almanac
Plants: Sun-shroom Grave Buster
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Fume-shroom Wall-nut
Snow Pea
The Key: Use the Grave Buster to expand the buildable area.
Notes: You have probably noticed that each unused lawnmower is worth $50 at
the end of a level, so you can earn $250 just for finishing a level
without letting Zombies get to the left side. Between lawnmowers
and collected coins, you should have $750 by this point, so buy the
7th slot in your seed tray from Crazy Dave. You don't really need
it for this level, but there's no other need for cash so you might
as well get it now.
Our new plant is the Grave Buster, which eats graves. Note that the
Zombies can attack the Grave Buster while it's working, so make sure
the coast is clear before you use one. By the end of each level,
try to make sure that all the Graves have been destroyed because a
Zombie will rise from each grave for the final wave.
This level sees the return of the Pole Vaulting Zombie, so again we
need to push the Wall-nuts out to the right to give our attacking
plants some breathing room. Unfortunately, graves are starting to
spawn closer to our house, so we'll need to use the Grave Buster to
chew them away. Start with Puff-shrooms in columns 4-6, and replace
the ones to the left with Fume-shrooms. Column 6 Puff-shrooms
remain as cannon fodder for Pole Vaulters. The final setup is:
S S s F F P W . . S Sun-shroom
S S s F F P W . . s Snow Pea
S S s F F P W . . F Fume-shroom
S S s F F P W . . P Puff-shroom
S S s F F P W . . W Wall-nut
--- 325: Level 2-5, Mini-Game: Whack a Zombie ---------------------------------
Graves: Columns 4-9
Enemies: Zombie Buckethead Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 1
Reward: Hypno-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Grave Buster Potato Mine
Cherry Bomb
The Key: Use the Grave Buster to push back the spawn area.
Notes: There's not much to it. Just click Zombies like mad, and use the
Grave Buster whenever you have 75 sun to destroy the left-most
Graves, working your way to the right.
Alternately, destroy graves in rows with the least number of graves.
The goal of this alternate strategy is to be left with graves in 2-3
rows, preferably adjacent rows, so Zombies spawn closer together and
can be killed with less movement of the mouse pointer.
If you're playing on a laptop, attaching an external mouse will make
this level easier as it involves a lot of movement and clicking.
--- 326: Level 2-6 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Football Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Scaredy-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Grave Buster
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Fume-shroom Wall-nut
Hypno-shroom
The Key: Use Hypno-shrooms on Football Zombies
Notes: Start as normal, except you may want to use Hypno-shrooms now and
then to get rid of tougher enemies. Converted Zombies fight for you
and may destroy several other Zombies before dying. Since this is a
short (1-flag) level, you won't have time to set up a full defense.
My final setup looked like this:
S S . F P W . . . S Sun-shroom
S S . F P W . . . F Fume-shroom
S S . F P W . . . P Puff-shroom
S S . F P W . . . W Wall-nut
S S . F P W . . .
--- 327: Level 2-7 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 5-9
Enemies: Zombie Football Zombie
Conehead Zombie Screen Door Zombie
Flags: 2 / 3
Reward: Ice-Shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Grave Buster
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Fume-shroom Wall-nut
Hypno-shroom
The Key: Plant a bunch of Fume-shrooms, just like Level 2-3
Notes: I don't use Scaredy-shrooms because every niche is already filled by
a better choice. As an early attacker, the Puff-shroom's zero cost
makes it superior in spite of its lower range. In the late game,
the Fume-shroom's piercing attack makes it superior. As a last-
ditch defense, the Scaredy-shroom is useless because it hides. The
only good thing about it is that it looks like the little alien from
Pixar's "Lifted."
Since there aren't any Pole Vaulters we need to slow down, we will
just plant 3 columns of Fume-shrooms behind Wall-nuts. Footballers
can be met with a Hypno-shroom, or let them die from Fume-shrooms.
--- 328: Level 2-8 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Dancing Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Doom-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Grave Buster
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Fume-shroom Wall-nut
Hypno-shroom
The Key: Hypnotize the lead dancers
Notes: Here we have Dancing Zombies that raise Backup Dancers from the
ground. By Hypnotizing the leaders, you can get a whole army on
your side for only 75 sun! Other than that, it's Level 2-3 again.
--- 329: Level 2-9 ------------------------------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 5-9
Enemies: Zombie Dancing Zombie
Conehead Zombie Screen Door Zombie
Flags: 2 / 3
Reward: Zombie Note
Plants: Sun-shroom Grave Buster
Puff-shroom Cherry Bomb
Fume-shroom Wall-nut
Hypno-shroom
The Key: Business as usual for stage 2
Notes: Since this is a two-flag stage, there will be plenty of resources
for 3 full columns of Fume-shrooms (shown above in Level 2-3).
--- 32F: Level 2-10, Conveyor Belt Level --------------------------------------
Graves: Columns 4-9
Enemies: Zombie Dancing Zombie
Conehead Zombie Screen Door Zombie
Newspaper Zombie Football Zombie
Flags: 2 / 2
Reward: Lily Pad Seed Packet
Plants: Puff-shroom Grave Buster
Fume-shroom Hypno-shroom
Scardey-shroom Ice-shroom
Doom-shroom
The Key: As in all conveyor belt levels, save your bombs for emergencies!
Notes: I started with Puff-shrooms in column 5, then put Scardey-shrooms
in columns 1-2 and Fume-shrooms in columns 3-4. This level is not
very difficult as you have Doom-shrooms and Hypno-shrooms to handle
the otherwise dangerous Football and Dancing Zombies.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 330: Stage 3 - Back Yard, Pool -------------------------------------------'
The third stage takes place in your back yard the following day, and is known
as the "Pool" stage in the game. The levels consist of four rows of nine
spaces on land, and two rows of nine spaces in the pool. Here are a few key
points to be aware of:
1) Lawnmowers can't clear away Zombies that make it to the left side of the
pool, so be sure to defend the water carefully. That said, Zombies don't
usually try to enter the water until it's almost to the first flag, so you
have more time to set up defenses there.
2) Mushrooms fall asleep during the day, so avoid them for now.
3) Levels in stage 3 have hidden, sunken Zombies that resurface in columns 6-9
during the last wave. Don't concentrate your water defenses ahead of column
6 or Zombies will pop up behind your defenses and have a straight shot to
the house. A basic water defense therefore places Wall-nuts in column 6.
--- 331: Level 3-1 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / 2
Reward: Squash Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Snow Pea
Lily Pad Wall-nut
Peashooter Cherry Bomb
Repeater
The Key: Plant 8 Sunflowers on land first, then 4 in the water
Notes: As we talked about above in stage 1, it's important to maximize your
early resource production. This means that we defer non-essential
building as long as possible, so we'll put Sunflowers on land before
building Lily Pads for Sunflowers in the water.
After the night stage, let's review a normal daytime build order.
We should try to get 4 Sunflowers on the field before our first Pea-
shooter, and have 6 Sunflowers before our second Peashooter. If
luck brings faster sun production or the first two Zombies in the
same row, you can plant more Sunflowers even sooner!
Treat this like the levels in stage 1: start with Peashooters, build
up Wall-nuts, and fortify with Repeaters and Snow Peas.
--- 332: Level 3-2 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Newspaper Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Football Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Threepeater Seed Packet and Mini-Games mode
Plants: Sunflower Snow Pea
Lily Pad Wall-nut
Peashooter Squash
Repeater
The Key: Learn how to effectively use the Squash
Notes: Play it like Level 3-1, but put Squashes behind Wall-nuts to destroy
the Footballers and Bucketheads that make it to your front lines.
Note that the defenses in the water don't have to be as powerful
because only a few types of enemies can swim.
The Squash can act like a panic button to kill Zombies that make it
to the left, but it only costs 50. Compared to the Potato Mine, it
doesn't need to charge itself up and detects enemies to the left or
right instead of being passive.
--- 333: Level 3-3 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Snorkel Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Tangle Kelp Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Snow Pea
Lily Pad Wall-nut
Peashooter Cherry Bomb
Repeater
The Key: The Threepeater trades sun and tempo for space
Notes: Planting a Repeater in each row gives a solid 2-pea defense. On the
other hand, you could plant just 4 Threepeaters. This method costs
50 more sun after Lily Pad costs, but takes 2 fewer spaces on the
field. Unfortunately, you pay for Threepeaters in larger chunks of
sun, which leaves you vulnerable at the beginning. Since space is
not usually a problem in Adventure mode, you're better off staying
with the Repeater.
Again, this level is mostly like Level 3-1. The Wall-nuts in the
water will take more damage here because the Snorkel Zombies will
attack them at full health. We choose the Cherry Bomb over the
Squash or Potato Mine because it alone can kill Snorkeling Zombies.
--- 334: Level 3-4 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Snorkel Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Pole Vaulting Zombie
Newspaper Zombie
Flags: 3 / ?
Reward: Crazy Dave's Car Key
Plants: Sunflower Snow Pea
Lily Pad Wall-nut
Peashooter Tangle Kelp
Repeater
The Key: Tangle Kelps provide an early water defense.
Notes: In the water, we only have columns 3-5 for attacking plants. We've
Sunflowers in columns 1-2 and Wall-nuts in column 6 to catch all
resurfacing Zombies. To make the most of the water defense, we'll
use only Snow Peas and Repeaters there. Unfortunately, these take
more sun to plant, so we'll use Tangle Kelps to provide an early
defense until we can get the permanent solutions up. This is a long
level with three flags. Try to have a solid column of Wall-nuts up
for the first. By the end, have something like the following. As
with level diagrams before, dots (.) represent open spaces on land.
Now, underscores (_) represent open spaces in the water.
S S P R s R W W . S Sunflower
S S P R s R W W . P Peashooter
S S R s R W _ _ _ s Snow Pea
S S R s R W _ _ _ R Repeater
S S P R s R W W . W Wall-nut</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
S S P R s R W W .
Double Wall-nuts on land protect against Pole Vaulters, and those in
column 6 protect against resurfacing Zombies in the water. As in
other examples, the specific defenses can be modified. For example,
the early-game Peashooters on land can become more Repeaters.
--- 335: Level 3-5, Mini-Game: Big Trouble Little Zombie ---------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Snorkel Zombie
Football Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Jalapeno Seed Packet
Plants: Peashooter Wall-nut
Lily Pad Cherry Bomb
The Key: At Crazy Dave's shop, first buy what's useful for Adventure mode.
Notes: When Crazy Dave's shop first opens, the inventory is as follows:
8 Slot Seed Tray $5000
Pool Cleaners $1000
Garden Rake $ 200
Gatling Pea Seed Packet $5000
Twin Sunflower Seed Packet $5000
From the tips section, we know that most plant upgrades aren't very
useful in Adventure mode, so we'll skip the last two. With this
guide, you shouldn't need the Pool Cleaners or Garden Rake to get
through the levels, so that leaves the 8-slot upgrade. Having more
slots is very useful in Adventure mode though. We should be nearing
$5000 in the bank, so we'll buy this upgrade this round or next.
As for the level itself, we'll put Peashooters at the left, building
towards the right. Wall-nuts will be planted in column 6 so we can
place Cherry Bombs in column 8 and rows 2 or 4 to maximize damage.
--- 336: Level 3-6 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Zomboni
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Spikeweed Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Peashooter
Lily Pad Snow Pea
Wall-nut Repeater
Jalapeno Squash
The Key: Fire melts ice. And Zombies too!
Notes: If you haven't bought the 8-slot upgrade yet, do so now. We see
that the 9-slot upgrade costs $20,000. Yikes! Anyway, select your
plants and let's get going.
During this level, Zombonis will slowly roll across the field, with
three problems. First of all, Zombonis instantly squish any plants
they reach, including Wall-nuts. Secondly, they leave a trail of
ice behind them that cannot be planted on. Lastly, Zombie Bobsled
Teams will slide in on the ice. Thankfully, Jalapenos can be used
at any point to get rid of a Zomboni and its ice trail, or a Bobsled
Team and the ice it's on.
It takes many peas to kill a Zomboni, but a single "massive damage"
plant such as a Potato Mine, Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno, or Squash will
do it quickly, preventing the Zomboni from leaving a lot of ice
behind. For that reason, we use two such plants to make sure that
Zombonis don't get far.
--- 337: Level 3-7 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Snorkel Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Zomboni
Flags: 3 / ?
Reward: Torchwood Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Peashooter
Lily Pad Snow Pea
Wall-nut Repeater
Jalapeno Spikeweed
The Key: Spikeweed et. al. will be useful 'til the end.
Notes: This time, there are three flags but Zombonis don't appear until the
second flag. Target the following build, replacing your early Pea-
shooters with Repeaters. Spikeweeds are used to instantly kill
Zombonis before they can leave an ice trail, and Jalapenos are used
as backup to melt the ice of Zombonis that get past the Spikeweeds.
S S R s R . W w w S Sunflower
S S R s R . W w w R Repeater
S S R s R W _ _ _ s Snow Pea
S S R s R W _ _ _ W Wall-nut
S S R s R . W w w w Spikeweed
S S R s R . W w w
--- 338: Level 3-8 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Dolphin Rider Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Tall-nut Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Peashooter
Lily Pad Repeater
Wall-nut Torchwood
Cherry Bomb [-- open slot --]
The Key: Learn when to plant Torchwoods, and remember that fire melts ice.
Notes: Remember The Key to the last level? Well, Spikeweeds and such are
most useful against vehicles, which we don't have in this level.
That said, you could certainly put them in the 8th slot of your seed
tray if you wish, but I suggest another one-shot plant such as a
Squash or Tangle Kelp.
Torchwoods are great for increasing your damage and dealing with big
swarms. While the explosive fireballs do some splash damage, the
range is much lower than the range of a Fume-shroom so the power-
doubling feature is more significant. The only downside is that it
melts Snow Peas, so we won't use Snow Peas and Torchwoods together.
Torchwoods effectively double the output of each Pea plant for 175
Sun, so plant them when a row has two or more peas. For example, a
row with a Repeater already has two peas of attack power. This
could be doubled with another Repeater for 200 Sun, but a better way
would be to use a Repeater for 25 less sun, and get splash damage in
the deal. On the other hand, a row with a single Peashooter has one
pea of attack power. You could spend 175 on a Torchwood to double
that, or spend 200 sun and triple that row's attack power.
--- 339: Level 3-9 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Dolphin Rider Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Pole Vaulting Zombie
Zomboni
Flags: 3 / ?
Reward: Zombie Note
Plants: Sunflower Peashooter
Lily Pad Repeater
Tall-nut Torchwood
Jalapeno Spikeweed
The Key: Tall-nuts stop vaulters, so you can bring in the front lines.
Notes: A common initial thought is to keep the Tall-nuts out to the right,
but this results in a lot of damage to them because Zombies get to
them more quickly. By keeping the Tall-nuts back towards the left,
our peas will kill individual Zombies before they start chewing on
the Tall-nuts. In this way, Tall-nuts are actually a second line of
defense after our Pea plants even though they are farther to the
right. The result of this train of thought is that Tall-nuts take
less damage and have to be replaced less often, which is useful as
their recharge timer is so long.
As you build up your Sunflowers and initial Peashooters, start
planting Tall-nuts as soon as possible. They have a slow recharge
timer, so you'll have to start early to have as many as possible
up before the first flag. For the last flag, I had two columns of
Sunflowers, two of Repeaters, one of Torchwoods, and one of Tall-
nuts all flush to the left, with some Spikeweed out front.
--- 33F: Level 3-10, Conveyor Belt Level --------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Snorkel Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Dolphin Rider Zombie
Zomboni
Flags: 3 / ?
Reward: Sea-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Threepeater Spikeweed
Lily Pad Squash
Torchwood Jalapeno
Tall-nut Tangle Kelp
The Key: Plan out your Lily Pad use, as there are few in the late-game.
Notes: Lily Pads drop more often before the first flag, so use those early
Pads to set up your final water defenses. After the first flag, you
will see fewer Lily Pads, so be sure to get Tall-nuts up to block
Dolphin Riders. Our primary attacker in this game is the Three-
peater, which should be placed in rows 2-5 to maximize their power.
My final build looked like this:
. . . . Y T . . w w Spikeweed
3 3 3 3 Y T . . w 3 Threepeater
_ _ 3 3 Y T _ _ _ Y Torchwood
_ _ 3 3 Y T _ _ _ T Tall-nut
3 3 3 3 Y T . . w
. . . . Y T . . w
Threepeaters with Torchwoods should be enough to keep walkers and
swimmers at bay, so you can save your Squash and Jalapenos for
Zombonis and emergencies.
As a reminder, plant those extra Torchwoods, Lily Pads, etc. towards
the end of the level just to clear out the seed tray for more useful
plants.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 340: Stage 4 - Back Yard, Pool and Fog -----------------------------------'
The fourth stage is the nighttime version of the last stage, known as the "Fog"
stage in the game. Instead of gravestones on the ground, we have fog creeping
in from the right. While you can plant in fog-covered spaces, you can't see
anything in fog, not even your plants. This is especially annoying in the case
of Nuts, as you want to monitor their status. The fog will begin the stage in
only the right-most columns, but it will move closer to the house as the stage
progresses. Each level guide below will note which columns are foggy. Keep in
mind that the leading edge of the fog (the column closest to the house) is
slightly translucent but columns further out will be opaque.
--- 341: Level 4-1 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 7-9
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Jack-in-the-Box Zombie
Flags: 1 / ?
Reward: Plantern Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Sea-shroom
Wall-nut Fume-shroom
Cherry Bomb [your choice]
The Key: Get used to the annoying fog.
Notes: While you probably have 8 slots in the seed tray now by following
this guide, the core strategy here only uses 7 plants. Feel free to
experiment with plants of your choice!
Let's recap a few strategies from stage 2. Since the early offense
(Puff-shrooms and Sea-shrooms) are free, plant them as soon as
possible! However, since Puff-shrooms have limited range, we'll
start them farther to the right than with other early attackers, and
place them in columns 4-5.
Jack-in-the-Box Zombies are one of the biggest threats in the game
because they destroy a 3x3 area when they blow up, just like a
Cherry Bomb. Try to kill them quickly so they don't have time to
blow up and take out your Wall-nuts!
--- 342: Level 4-2 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Jack-in-the-Box Zombie
Football Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Cactus Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Sea-shroom
Wall-nut Fume-shroom
Plantern Cherry Bomb
The Key: "Practice placing pretty planterns," Practical Platypus pronounces.
Notes: Planterns are your first weapon against fog. Each lights up a 5 row
by 7 column area around it, so you'll generally want two to cut
through the fog across the entire field. If you want to use just
the bare minimum, you can place a plantern in the fourth row. This
would take care of most of the fog in rows 2-6, and you can see the
heads of attacking Zombies over the fog in row 1. However, that
strategy has its own problems so we'll opt to place a Plantern in
each of rows 2 and 5. Remember that you can place plants in fog,
which is useful here because a Plantern in column 5 won't shine all
the way to column 9. To maximize visibility with just 2 Planterns,
we will place them in column 6.
The only question left is WHEN to place Planterns. During the very
early stages, you're working with Sun-producers, Puff-shrooms, and
Sea-shrooms in the left half of the screen. The fog isn't a problem
then because you're working with a non-foggy area anyway, and there
are few if any Zombies attacking you. You only need to take care of
the fog when you push your late-game defenses forward to the right.
At that point, after you have around 2 columns of Puff-shrooms and 1
of Sea-shrooms, you can start thinking about placing Planterns and
saving up some Sun. You want to be able to place defenses in front
of your Planterns to protect them, so you'll need some Sun for a
Wall-nut and/or an attacking plant.
In the end, I had the following:
S S F F F F W . . S Sun-shroom
S S F F F < W . . s Sea-shroom
S S F F s s s _ _ F Fume-shroom
S S F F s s s _ _ < Plantern
S S F F F < W . . W Wall-nut
S S F F F F W . .
I didn't use any Wall-nuts in the water. Instead, I opted to simply
plant more Sea-shrooms as free cannon fodder.
--- 343: Level 4-3 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Balloon Zombie
Flags: 1 / ?
Reward: Blover Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Sea-shroom
Wall-nut Fume-shroom
Plantern Cactus
The Key: Crafty Cacti can crash crazy ... balloonists.
Notes: Balloonists are annoying because they can appear in any row, so you
will eventually need a full-field defense against them. Not only
are you wasting a full six spaces on the field to deal with a single
type of enemy, but balloonists will drop onto the ground when their
balloons are popped. As you may imagine, they can drop behind your
Wall-nuts and start attacking your more vulnerable plants directly!
We must keep in mind that the majority of Zombies will still come on
land and in the pool, so we'll have to build up our defenses as
normal, and only start adding Cacti after our normal defense is
established. Especially in this short 1-flag level, there simply
isn't enough time and Sun to build a full column of Cacti. The
final setup can look like:
S S C F F P W . . S Sun-shroom < Plantern
S S C F F < W . . s Sea-shroom W Wall-nut
S S C F s s _ _ _ F Fume-shroom C Cacti (possible
S S C F s s _ _ _ P Puff-shroom positions)
S S C F F < W . .
S S C F F P W . .
--- 344: Level 4-4 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Balloon Zombie
Conehead Zombie Dolphin Rider Zombie
Ducky Tube Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Taco
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Sea-shroom
Wall-nut Fume-shroom
Tall-nut Blover
The Key: Whenever you see Balloonists or fog from now on, use the Blover.
Notes: The Blover is the solution to both Balloonists and fog. In fact, it
is a better solution than Planterns or Cacti alone or together!
First, let's review the problems with Planterns and Cacti:
o Planterns take up valuable spaces on the right side of the field,
where your front line defenses should be.
o Planterns don't actually kill Zombies themselves.
o Cacti use up a ton of real estate: a full vertical column.
o They are only useful against one enemy, as a normal Peashooter
does the same damage for less Sun.
o A Cactus can only take care of enemies to its right; if a Balloon
Zombie makes it to the left edge, Cacti don't help.
o A Cactus can pop a balloon behind your Wall-nuts, making a Zombie
land deep within your ranks where it can cause a lot of damage.
o Combined, they take up two seed tray slots for very narrow uses.
o Combined, they take up 8 spaces on the field.
How do Blovers solve these problems? They only need a single space
to protect the entire field against Balloonists and drive back fog
for about 25 seconds. They only take up a single seed tray slot to
take care of both fog and Balloonists. They instantly remove
Balloonists, meaning there won't be any Zombies dropping right onto
your plants. They get rid of all the Balloonists on the screen,
even ones at the very left edge. While they are only a single-use
item, they are usually only needed later in a level when you have
plenty of Sun anyway.
Since we're on the subject, let's also consider the Cattail, a plant
available later in the game. Cattails attack Balloonists or any
other Zombie in any row, which partially solves the problems of the
Cacti. Unfortunately, you might still need 3-4 Cattails during the
harder levels to pop every Balloon, and they may still drop a Zombie
in the midst of your plants and cause great losses. As with the
Cactus, they don't get rid of fog. Lastly, they're only usable on
levels with water. As The Key states above, just use Blovers for
fog and Balloonists!
Since Blovers can get rid of Balloonists anywhere on the screen,
wait until they get close to the left edge before your use a Blover.
If several waves of Balloonists spawn close to each other, you'll be
able to get rid of all of them with a single Blover if you wait for
the screen to be filled. Waiting until you absolutely need a Blover
will also maximize your fog-free time.
Ok, enough of that.
This level introduces the Dolphin Rider Zombie, the aquatic version
of the Pole Vaulting Zombie. To take care of the Dolphin Riders,
we'll plant some Tall-nuts in the water. Having both Wall-nuts and
Tall-nuts enables us to set up a full column of them more quickly,
as their recharge timers will be running simultaneously. As with
other water levels, submerged Zombies will resurface for the final
wave, so don't place the Tall-nuts any further than column 6. The
final build will have 2 columns of Sun-shrooms, 3 of Fume-shrooms,
and a column of assorted nuts. Blovers can still be placed anywhere
in columns 7-9.
--- 345: Level 4-5, Mini-Game: Vasebreaker ------------------------------------
Vases: Columns 7-9
Enemies: Zombie Buckethead Zombie
Plants: Peashooter Squash
Vases: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Football Zombie
Buckethead Zombie
Plants: Peashooter Squash
Snow Pea
Vases: Column 5-9
Enemies: Zombie Dancing Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Jack-in-the-Box Zombie
Plants: Peashooter Hypno-shroom
Snow Pea
Reward: Split Pea Seed Packet
The Key: Take it slow, a row at a time, starting from the right.
Notes: The Taco from the last level gives you $1000 and access to two more
plant upgrades (see section 335 for more about the other items):
Gloom-shroom Seed Packet $ 7500
Cattail Seed Packet $10000
Let's take a moment to discuss these in reverse order. See section
344 above to see why the Cattail isn't very useful. While some have
talked about Cattail-centric setups, there are almost always better
uses for the slots in your seed tray. There are certainly better
uses for $10,000!
Among these better uses is the Gloom-shroom, an upgrade we'll be
working towards in the near future. Yes, the Gloom-shroom should be
the first plant upgrade that you buy, and is even very useful in
Adventure mode. For more on the Gloom-shroom, see the next section.
For now, we've got a Mini-Game to play.
There are three stages to this Mini-Game, in increasing difficulty
and complexity. It takes place in the "Night" stage, so the field
size is 5x9. When you break a vase, either a Zombie or seed packet
will pop out. The goal is to use the seed packets wisely to destroy
the Zombies before they make it to the house.
To beat these stages easily, concentrate on one row at a time. I
generally start at the bottom, but you could start at the top. For
each row, break the vase in column 9 and gradually work your way to
the left. The goal is to use as few plants as possible to defeat
the Zombies in the row, and plant the rest of the plants in the next
row. For example, if a row of three vases yield a Zombie, a Squash,
and a Peashooter, place the Peashooter at the left of that row, and
save the Squash for the next row. Either plant could kill the one
Zombie, but there is plenty of time for the Peashooter to do the job
so we can save the more powerful Squash. Just make sure to plant
seed packets as soon as practical, as they disappear after a few
seconds on the ground.
--- 346: Level 4-6 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 6-9
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Digger Zombie
Flags: 1 / ?
Reward: Starfruit Seed Packet and Puzzles mode
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Fume-shroom
Wall-nut Gloom-shroom
Blover Squash
The Key: Gloom-shrooms are awesome.
Notes: As we noted above, the Gloom-shroom is one of the few plant upgrades
that are useful in Adventure mode. By this point in my game, I had
about $6500 in the bank. The Gloom-shroom takes $7500, so let's go
beat the ZomBotany Mini-Game (section 401 below) and earn $1000,
giving us enough to buy the Gloom-shroom.
So, what's good about the Gloom-shroom? Zombies are all about huge
numbers, and the Gloom-shroom is the best answer to huge swarms for
several reasons. First, it covers a 3x3 area with its spores, so
two Gloom-shrooms will cover every row on the field. Second, it has
a piercing attack just like the Fume-shroom, hitting every Zombie
in those 9 squares (compared to a Peashooter, which can only hit a
single Zombie in a single square). Lastly, it has a fast attack,
pulsing out spores very often to quickly dispatch Zombies. It does
have a slow recharge and takes up a lot of seed tray slots and Sun.
In spite of these costs, it's still a critical part of almost every
strategy for difficult levels.
There are few enough Diggers on this level that you can just use
Squashes on them instead of the more expensive and less generally-
useful Split Peas. In order for the Squash plan to work, we need
to leave space for them on the left. The core of the final setup is
like the following, with Puff-shrooms scattered throughout:
. S S . . . . . . S Sun-shroom
. S S . . G W . . G Gloom-shroom
S S _ _ W _ _ _ _ W Wall-nut
S S _ _ W _ _ _ _
. S S . . G W . .
. S S . . . . . .
The crowd control capability of the Gloom-shroom is evident here;
with only two attacking plants, we can cover all six rows!
--- 347: Level 4-7 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 5-9
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Digger Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Jack-in-the-Box Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Pumpkin Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Fume-shroom
Wall-nut Gloom-shroom
Blover Squash/Starfruit
The Key: Gloom-shrooms are so awesome!
Notes: This level plays out the same as the last one, but you should make
four Gloom-shrooms instead of two. Also, you can either use Squash
or Starfruit to take care of Digger Zombies.
--- 348: Level 4-8 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 5-9
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Pogo Zombie
Flags: 1 / ?
Reward: Magnet-shroom Seed Packet
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Fume-shroom
Wall-nut Gloom-shroom
Blover Squash
The Key: Once again, Gloom-shrooms are awesome!
Notes: While the Pumpkin is very useful, it won't stop the Pogo Zombies in
this level so we'll look to other plants for now. As before, Gloom-
shrooms are the answer. Two Gloom-shrooms will kill a Pogo, as well
as anything else this level. If anything makes it past your Glooms,
use a Squash or other massive damage plant to finish the job.
--- 349: Level 4-9 ------------------------------------------------------------
Fog: Columns 5-9
Enemies: Zombie Ducky Tube Zombie
Conehead Zombie Pogo Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Balloon Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Zombie Note
Plants: Sun-shroom Puff-shroom
Lily Pad Fume-shroom
Wall-nut Gloom-shroom
Blover Magnet-shroom
The Key: Guess what? Gloom-shrooms are awesome!
Notes: Once again, a setup like the one shown for Level 4-6 will work just
fine. Instead of the Magnet-shroom, you can use Squash, or another
support plant to kill whatever gets past the Gloom-shrooms.
--- 34F: Level 4-10, Conveyor Belt Level --------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Digger Zombie
Conehead Zombie Pogo Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Balloon Zombie
Ducky Tube Zombie Jack-in-the-Box Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Cabbage-pult Seed Packet
Plants: Lily Pad Cactus
Magnet-shroom Split Pea
Pumpkin Starfruit
Blover Sea-shroom
The Key: Make the most of the lightning by placing multiple plants each time.
Notes: This level shows the true power that can result from a field full of
Starfruit. In spite of the stormy weather, you have plenty of tools
at your disposal to get rid of Zombies. Cacti and Blover handle the
Balloonists, Magnet-shrooms make dealing with Diggers, Pogos, and
Jack-in-the-Box Zombies much easier, and Starfruit and Split Peas
kill everything else.
Save the Pumpkins for use at the front lines, because with all the
rear-firing plants along with Magnets, you won't need to worry about
the left side. As with all conveyor belt levels, make sure you have
some room on the belt for new plants to slide in. If this means
placing some plants in non-optimal positions, so be it! The only
single-use plant on this level is the Blover, which doesn't have fog
or Balloons to blow away (because of the many Cacti) so there is
little reason to save up plants on the belt.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 350: Stage 5 - Roof ------------------------------------------------------'
The fifth stage takes place on the roof of the house, so naturally it is known
as the "Roof" stage in the game. Since there is no soil on the roof, you are
required to plant in Flower Pots; just as land-based plants need a Lily Pad to
be placed on water, they need a Flower Pot to be placed on the roof.
The field here is actually composed of two parts. At the left is a 5x5 pitched
roof, and to the right of that is a flat 5x4 area. Straight-shooting plants
such as Peashooters will hit the pitched roof unless they are planted in column
5 or beyond. To get around this problem, you have access to several catapult-
like plants that lob their projectiles over the roof to hit Zombies.
--- 351: Level 5-1 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Bungee Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 1 / ?
Reward: Flower Pot Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Cabbage-pult
Wall-nut Chomper
Tall-nut Jalapeno
[your choice] [your choice]
The Key: Don't let Zombies eat your Flower Pots!
Notes: This is a rather straight-forward level, meant to introduce the roof
environment. It also introduces the Bungee Zombie, who targets a
plant and then grabs it from above. Bungee Zombies will also drop
down during the final wave and place other Zombies (such as Bucket-
head Zombies) behind your front lines. If a dropped Zombie eats one
of your plants, quickly place a Wall-nut or Tall-nut there to stall
it while your Cabbage-pults take care of it. You can also place a
single-use plant such as a Jalapeno in the now-open Flower Pot to
get rid of the offending Zombie right away.
Note that we tend to use the Jalapeno over the Cherry Bomb in stage
5. The Jalapeno can be planted on the left side of the field and
still affect the right side, whereas a Cherry Bomb requires that we
first place a sacrificial Flower Pot on the right side, which takes
more time and more sun.
Lastly, we don't have the ability to place new flower pots yet, so
try to keep Zombies from eating them!
--- 352: Level 5-2 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Bungee Zombie
Conehead Zombie Pole Vaulting Zombie
Buckethead Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Kernel-pult Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Cabbage-pult
Flower Pot Chomper
Wall-nut Jalapeno
Tall-nut [your choice]
The Key: Draw a line in the sand, then fill in behind it.
Notes: Once again, Crazy Dave adds a few items for sale (see sections 335
and 345 for discussion about other available items).
Roof Cleaners $ 3000
Spikerock Seed Packet $ 7500
Gold Magnet Seed Packet $ 3000
Unused Roof Cleaners are worth $50 each at the end of a level, just
like Lawnmowers in previous stages. In the remaining 9 levels of
stage 5, Roof Cleaners can earn $2250, bringing the $3000 cost down
to $750. Since we're going to eventually want Roof Cleaners for the
harder game modes, we'll buy them now to start earning the $50 each.
We didn't buy the Pool Cleaners because there are Lawnmowers on pool
rows regardless, and they still give 50 gold each per level. In
other words, buying Roof Cleaners eventually pays for itself even if
you don't need them to beat a level, but buying Pool Cleaners is not
necessary unless Zombies actually reach the end of the pool.
The Spikerock upgrade is useful in general, but Spikeweed cannot be
planted on the roof to begin with, so it is useless for the rest of
Adventure mode. Lastly, the goal for now should be getting through
Adventure mode. Collecting money can be done later, so we'll also
wait before we buy the Gold Magnet. You may need to play a Mini-
Game to get enough money to afford the Roof Cleaners. Either way,
buy them and then start the level!
Starting on Level 5-2, there will only be three columns of Flower
Pots at the beginning, and you'll need to have the Flower Pot in the
seed tray in order to expand towards the right.
On this level, Wall-nuts are optional. You usually have enough time
to set up a full column of Tall-nuts before anything can get to your
Cabbages. When you do start placing Wall-nuts or Tall-nuts, place
them in column 6 or beyond. Unlike the short-range Mushrooms in the
last stage, our Cabbages can hit Zombies at the very right edge, so
we can set our front lines first, then build from the left towards
that point. Place more attacking plants in rows that don't have a
Tall-nut yet, so the stronger offense can offset the weaker defense.
You might have something like this halfway through:
S S C C . . . . . S Sunflower
S S C C . . . . . C Cabbage-pult
S S C C . . . . . T Tall-nut
S S C . . T . . .
S S C . . T . . .
Towards the end, you'll want 3-4 columns of Cabbages and/or Chompers
behind a column of Tall-nuts. As discussed in section 351 above,
Bungee Zombies may drop high-toughness Zombies among your Cabbages,
so keep a Jalapeno or Wall-nut handy to deal with them.
--- 353: Level 5-3 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ladder Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Coffee Bean Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Kernel-pult
Flower Pot Cherry Bomb
Wall-nut Jalapeno
[your choice] [your choice]
The Key: Butter is your friend.
Notes: The Kernel-pult is the best general purpose early attacker in the
game. While its corn kernels do little damage, its butter attacks
temporarily immobilize enemies in addition to doing full "normal"
damage. This means that fast enemies such as Football and Pole
Vaulting Zombies can't charge at you, dangerous Zombies such as
Dancing Zombies and Jack-in-the-Box Zombies can't trigger their
effects, and Zombies that reach your front lines can't eat your
plants. In the late game, Kernel-pults don't need to be replaced
as quickly because in spite of their lower damage, they hold Zombies
in place so they get pounded by the more powerful late-game plants.
Lastly, they can be upgraded with another plant available later on.
Ladder Zombies can set their ladders on Tall-nuts so they and others
can climb over them, so we elect to use the cheaper Wall-nuts
instead. Just in case some ladders are set up, we include the
Cherry Bomb to knock them down. The final build should consist of
a ton of Kernel-pults behind a column of Nuts.
--- 354: Level 5-4 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ladder Zombie
Conehead Zombie Pogo Zombie
Football Zombie
Flags: 3 / ?
Reward: Watering Can (and Zen Garden mode)
Plants: Sunflower Kernel-pult
Flower Pot Fume-shroom
Pumpkin Gloom-shroom
Coffee Bean Magnet-shroom
The Key: Coffee lets us use our powerful nocturnal plants during the day.
Notes: Remember how we used nothing but Gloom-shrooms once we got them in
Stage 4? Well, with Coffee Beans in our seed tray, we can use them
during the day. We'll get one more tool to help us perfect our
Gloom-shroom strategy, but for now we can still mount an effective
defense with Magnets and Gloom-shrooms. Start with the usual column
of Kernel-pults, then plant Gloom-shrooms in Pumpkins in rows 2 and
4 in column 7. After that, plant a couple of Magnet-shrooms to snag
ladders, pogo sticks, and football helmets. Plant a third Gloom in
between the existing two. The resulting overlapping spore clouds
combined with butter from the Kernel-pults will dispatch Zombies
before they can do much damage to your front-line Pumpkins. Towards
the end, you can replace some Sunflowers with more Kernel-pults and
protect more plants with Pumpkins, resulting in something like this:
S c [c] . . . . . . S Sunflower
S c [c] . . [u][G] . . c Kernel-pult
S c [c] . . . [G] . . u Magnet-shroom
S c [c] . . [u][G] . . G Gloom-shroom
S c [c] . . . . . . [ ] Pumpkin
As in most other cases, you can modify this setup, add more plants,
etc. but this should be more than enough to beat the level.
--- 355: Level 5-5, Mini-Game: Bungee Conveyor --------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Ladder Zombie
Conehead Zombie Bungee Zombie
Buckethead Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Garlic Seed Packet
Plants: Flower Pot Cherry Bomb
Pumpkin Chomper
The Key: You'll want two sets of defenses, each with two columns of Chompers.
Notes: The Zen Garden, unlocked last level, is one of the best ways to make
money in this game. For more information, see section 300 of the
Gold Farming Guide [16].
As Crazy Dave warns us, we will be facing a lot of Bungee Zombies,
so (1) they'll drop Zombies down on our plants and (2) they'll
target individual plants and pluck them out of their pots. Since we
have no ranged units, we'll gradually build up towards the right,
and keep some space to the left as a buffer zone in case anything
gets past our Chompers.
Protect your Flower Pots and Pumpkins, but let Chompers go if they
are already digesting. Chompers take a long time to digest Zombies,
so you'll find yourself digging up full Chompers and replacing them
with new ones.
You can have up to two columns of Chompers at a time as they have a
range of two. To keep Zombies from bunching up too much, construct
two zones of two columns each:
. C C . . C C . . C Chomper
. C C . . C C . .
. C C . . C C . .
. C C . . C C . .
. C C . . C C . .
[16]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56559
--- 356: Level 5-6 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Catapult Zombie
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Umbrella Leaf Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Kernel-pult
Flower Pot Fume-shroom
Garlic Gloom-shroom
Coffee Bean Jalapeno
The Key: The Gloom-shroom plan is complete!
Notes: Let's discuss Gloom-shroom strategy again. As we found in Stage 4
and Level 5-4, Zombies in rows adjacent to Gloom-shrooms just walk
past them, taking huge amounts of damage in the three spaces covered
by the Gloom-shrooms. This leaves Zombies in the same rows as our
Glooms. They bunch up and start chewing on the Pumpkins protecting
the Glooms. While they still die pretty quickly, Pumpkins are too
expensive to replace all the time.
We use Garlic to divert Zombies into adjacent rows and protect our
Glooms at the same time. This has the additional benefit of letting
us have two or three sets of Gloom-shrooms for destroying faster and
sturdier Zombies. With two sets of Glooms, all Zombies will be
diverted into rows with four spaces of spore-filled goodness, two of
which have double spore density!
For this level, a single set of Glooms will suffice. As the level
goes on, use Jalapenos to destroy the odd Catapult Zombie, and keep
on building Kernel-pults. You'll end up with something like this:
S c c c . . . . . S Sunflower
S c c c . . G g . c Kernel-pult
S c c c . . . . . G Gloom-shroom
S c c c . . G g . g Garlic
S c c c . . . . .
Remember to keep a column of open Flower Pots for Jalapenos when
Catapult Zombies arrive!
Note: This Gloom-shroom plan is so powerful that we've just beaten a
level for the first time without any Wall-nuts or Tall-nuts!
--- 357: Level 5-7 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Catapult Zombie
Conehead Zombie Bungee Zombie
Ladder Zombie
Flags: 3 / ?
Reward: Marigold Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Kernel-pult
Flower Pot Fume-shroom
Garlic Gloom-shroom
Coffee Bean Umbrella Leaf
The Key: The Gloom-shroom plan is complete!
Notes: Umbrella Leaves protect a 3x3 area, so we can simply repeat last
level's build but sprinkle some Umbrella Leaves in:
S S c c c . . . . S Sunflower
c ^ c c ^ . G g . c Kernel-pult
S S c c c . ^ . . G Gloom-shroom
c ^ c c ^ . G g . g Garlic
S S c c c . . . . ^ Umbrella Leaf
Something like the setup above gives us even Umbrella Leaf coverage,
three Kernel-pults per row, and six Sunflowers in total.
--- 358: Level 5-8 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Gargantuar
Conehead Zombie
Flags: 2 / ?
Reward: Melon-pult Seed Packet
Plants: Sunflower Kernel-pult
Flower Pot Fume-shroom
Coffee Bean Gloom-shroom
Garlic Jalapeno
The Key: Use explosives and stalling tactics on Gargantuars
Notes: This level introduces the Gargantuar, the most dangerous Zombie. It
takes 2 massive-damage attacks (such as a Squash or Cherry Bomb) to
destroy one, and after he takes 50% damage, he throws an Imp five
columns to the left to eat your more vulnerable rear ranks. Lastly,
instead of nibbling on your plants as the other Zombies do, he
smashes them in one hit.
To counter this threat, we'll use a combination of Kernel-pults to
slow them down and Jalapenos to hit them from afar. In front we'll
place our normal Gloom-shroom defense seen in previous levels. At
the end we'll replace some Sunflowers with even more Kernel-pults:
S c c c c . . . . S Sunflower
S c c c c G g . . c Kernel-pult
S c c c c . . . . G Gloom-shroom
S c c c c G g . . g Garlic
S c c c c . . . .
Note that we keep two columns open to the right, to make Gargantuars
cross more space before they can start smashing our plants. This is
the ranged vs. melee strategy we talked about in Level 1-1 (section
311). Gargantuars spawning in odd rows don't pose as much of a
threat. They will often enter Gloom-shroom range and get frozen by
butter. The worst threat there will actually be the Imps, which
will get thrown onto your Sunflowers or rear Kernel-pults. You may
wish to keep your Jalapeno ready to destroy both the Imp and the
Gargantuar at once (once the Imp is thrown, it means the Gargantuar
has taken at least 50% damage so the Jalapeno will finish the job).
Gargantuars spawning in even rows are a much bigger threat, as they
only need to cross two columns and can start smashing your plants.
Don't worry too much about the Garlics as they are easy to replace,
but try to stall them from getting to your expensive Gloom-shrooms.
Note: In the more difficult game modes unlocked later, you'll see
Gargantuars with red eyes. These "super-Gargantuars" take three
massive-damage attacks to destroy.
Note: Umbrella Leaves don't deflect thrown Imps, and Garlic and
Hypno-shrooms don't work on Gargantuars because they don't actually
eat your plants.
--- 359: Level 5-9 ------------------------------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Jack-in-the-Box Zombie
Conehead Zombie Bungee Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Catapult Zombie
Ladder Zombie Gargantuar
Flags: 3 / ?
Reward: Zombie Note
Plants: Sunflower Umbrella Leaf
Flower Pot Pumpkin or Wall-nut
Kernel-pult Cherry Bomb
Melon-pult Jalapeno
The Key: Use the Gloom-shroom if you have more seed tray slots.
Notes: Since we're facing such a wide array of Zombies in this level, we'll
choose more conventional weapons instead of using Gloom-shrooms. If
you have more slots in you seed tray, you can consider Gloom-shrooms
instead. The final build looks like the one for Level 5-7:
S S c m m [W] . . . S Sunflower
c ^ m m ^ [W] . . . c Kernel-pult
S S c m m [W] . . . m Melon-pult
c ^ m m ^ [W] . . . ^ Umbrella Leaf
S S c m m [W] . . . [W] Pumpkin or Wall-nut
While we're losing our most powerful attacker, the Melon-pult is not
a bad replacement. Melons do "splash" damage to Zombies close to
where they hit, so they have some crowd control capability. Also,
they can hit Zombies from far away, so they can be kept back from
the powerful attacks of Gargantuars and Jack-in-the-Box Zombies.
Note that we use the Wall-nut instead of the Tall-nut, so any losses</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
from Jack-in-the-Box Zombies will be easier to recover. Alternately
you can use open Pumpkins and place single-use plants in them.
--- 35F: Level 5-10, Conveyor Belt Level --------------------------------------
Enemies: Zombie Bungee Zombie
Conehead Zombie Jack-in-the-Box Zombie
Buckethead Zombie Ladder Zombie
Catapult Zombie Football Zombie
Dr. Edgar Zomboss
Flags: None
Reward: Silver Sunflower Trophy, Survival Mode, more Puzzles and Mini-Games
Plants: Flower Pot Jalapeno
Kernel-pult Ice-shroom
Cabbage-pult
Melon-pult
The Key: Time your single-use plants well.
Notes: This is the boss fight against the leader of the Zombies. The level
completion meter at the bottom of the screen tracks the damage dealt
to the boss.
The boss has several attacks, which will be discussed separately.
First, the boss can place Zombies on the surface of the roof to
attack you as in previous levels. To defend against these, place
plants to defend each row as normal. Sometimes, the boss will hang
Bungee Zombies over your plants. To keep them from plucking your
powerful Melon-pults, destroy them with Jalapenos or place an Ice-
shroom to freeze them in place, giving your catapults more time to
destroy them conventionally. Since Kernel-pults and Cabbage-pults
aren't as powerful, you may choose to let them go, and save your
single-use plants for more powerful Zombies.
Next, the boss can duck down to generate a fireball or snowball from
his mouth. These projectiles will roll down the roof and destroy
everything in their path, including roof cleaners if you've bought
them from Crazy Dave. To destroy a snowball, place a Jalapeno on
the same row. To destroy a fireball, place a Ice-Shroom anywhere on
the screen.
If you build on the flat portion of the roof (columns 6-9) the boss
will step on your plants. Since you want to have an empty pot on
each row to deal with incoming snowballs, this limits your building
to 4 plants per row. Of course, if you have a surplus of pots and
plants in the seed tray, you can certainly plant on the flat
portion. Even if they fire once, it's better than sitting in your
seed tray doing nothing.
The last attack is a camper that the boss will smash down on your
plants, destroying a 3 column by 2 row area. The only defense
against this attack is to spread out your plants out to minimize
losses. It is especially important to spread the high-damage Melon-
pults far apart so you don't lose many of them at once.
Your only chance to damage the boss comes when he ducks down to spit
out a fireball or snowball. To maximize the damage, once he
generates the projectile use the Jalapeno or Ice-Shroom right away
to freeze or damage him and any Zombies, and also get rid of the
projectile. By freezing the boss, you'll give your plants more time
to shoot him.
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------,
| 400: Mini-Games Walkthrough |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
--- 401: ZomBotany ------------------------------------------------------------
In this game, Zombies have the properties of their plant heads, so Peashooter
Zombies will not only eat any plants in range, they'll also shoot at your
plants. Wall-Nut Zombies will have much higher defense than normal Zombies. A
single Peashooter plant will be able to take down a single Peashooter Zombie,
but the next Peashooter Zombie will destroy the Peashooter plant. For this
reason, after one of your early Peashooters kills a Peashooter Zombie, place
another Peashooter or Wall-nut in front of it to protect it against further
attacks. Wall-nut Zombies are best taken out with Squash, Chompers, and other
massive-damage plants. By the end of the level, try to have two columns of
Sunflowers, one of Repeaters, one of Snow Peas, one of Chompers, and one of
Wall-nuts.
--- 402: Wall-nut Bowling -----------------------------------------------------
This is just like Level 1-5 of the Adventure but more difficult because more
Zombies will spawn, so the strategies discussed in section 315 will be all the
more important here. In short, wait until the Zombies are far to the left to
maximize the hits for each Wall-nut, and save the Explode-o-nuts for tight
packs of Zombies three rows tall to maximize the effect of the blast radius.
--- 403: Slot Machine ---------------------------------------------------------
You're dependent on the slot machine to get plants for defense, so pull the
lever to spin the machine as often as possible. The ultimate goal is to get
2000 sun, and your overall progress is tracked using the meter in the lower-
right corner as with standard levels.
--- 404: It's Raining Seeds
--- 405: Beghouled
--- 406: Invisi-ghoul ---------------------------------------------------------
--- 407: Seeing Stars ---------------------------------------------------------
You can generally follow the Gloom-shroom and Garlic plan to get through this
level. Once you've stabilized, start planting Star Fruit to finish the level.
--- 408: Zombiquarium
--- 409: Beghouled Twist ------------------------------------------------------
This Mini-Game is a Plants vs. Zombies take on Popcap's puzzle game Bejeweled
Twist. The goal is to rotate 2x2 squares of four spaces to create matches
(three or more adjacent columns or rows of the same plant). You need to make
75 such matches to complete the level. As you match up the plants, you'll earn
sun which can be spent to rearrange plants or upgrade your plants.
The challenge here is that it's more difficult to see possible matches when
rotating blocks than when sliding them. To help, here are the four situations
(each of which can be in 4 rotated orientations). Keep an eye out for these
patterns for an easier time.
| | |
.o --> .. | .o --> .. | .o --> .. | o.oo --> .ooo
.oo ooo | o.o ooo | ..oo .ooo | .. ..
| | |
--- 410: Big Trouble Little Zombie
--- 411: Portal Combat
--- 412: Column Like You See 'Em
--- 413: Bobsled Bonanza
Use Squashes to destroy Zombonis as you build up your resources. Try to use
Jalapenos to kill Bobsledders and melt the ice simultaneously. After every
Jalapeno, quickly place a Spikerock in column 9 to stop Zombonis in that row
for a long time. Once you have four Spikerocks at the very right, the level
becomes much easier. I used Kernel-pults as my main offensive unit to slow
down attackers.
--- 414: Zombie Nimble Zombie Quick
--- 415: Whack a Zombie
This is a more difficult version of Level 2-5, so see section 325. This same
strategies will apply, but you might still get overwhelmed towards the end. If
the situation looks grim for the final wave, concentrate your efforts on one or
two rows and let the Lawnmowers take care of the rest.
--- 416: Last Stand
This level is often used for gold farming. For more information, see my Gold
Farming Guide [17]. It contains a lot of theory behind my chosen setup, but if
you just want the quick answer, here's a good 30-Marigold setup:
M M M M [M] . . . . Symbol Legend
M M M M U G G [G] g . Open Land U Gold Magnet
M M M M [M][M] _ _ _ _ Open Water M Marigold
M M M M [M][M] _ _ _ G Gloom-shroom
M M M M U G G [G] g g Garlic
M M M M [M] . . . . [ ] Pumpkin
[17]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56559
--- 417: Zombotany 2
Use the gloomshroom plan again (see above).
--- 418: Wall-nut Bowling 2
Giant Wall-nuts are good at taking out long strings of Zombies. That ability
makes this even easier than the first Wall-nut Bowling. Mentally split up the
attackers into loners, long rows, and tight clumps. Hit the clumps with
Explode-o-nuts, the long rows with the Giant Wall-Nuts, and the stragglers with
normal Wall-nuts. Only drop Explode-o-nuts in rows 2-4 so you don't waste the
3x3 blast radius.
--- 419: Pogo Party
sunflower, pot, squash, squash copy, magnet, bean, wall, corn pult, jalapeno
Start building two rows of sunflowers. Use squash to kill the first few pogos
as you build up funds. when you get 200, create a magnet in the front middle,
and soon after create a wallnut in front of it. A single magnet will take care
of all the pogo sticks until the first flag, so you have some time to set up
Kernel-pults and Wall-nuts to kill the grounded Pogos.
By the second flag, I started replacing wallnuts with tallnuts, though that is
an optional step. By the last flag, you should chop down a row of sunflowers
to make room for a fourth row of Kernel-pults, and have 6 magnets up front.
Mid-Game
S S c c . . W . . Symbol Legend
S S c c . . W . . . Open Land
S S c c . M M W . S Sunflower
S S c c . . W . . c Kernel-pult
S S c c . . W . . M Magnet
W Wallnut/Tallnut
Final
S c c c c M W . .
S c c c c M W . .
S c c c c M M W .
S c c c c M W . .
S c c c c M W . .
--- 420: Dr. Zomboss's Revenge
This is a repeat of the last level of the Adventure mode, so use the same
strategies as outlined in section 250.
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------,
| 500: Puzzles Walkthrough |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
--- Vasebreaker
--- I, Zombie
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------,
| 600: Survival Walkthrough |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
There are 11 levels in the Survival Game mode. First, there's a normal-
difficulty level in each location (day, night, pool, fog, and roof) with five
flags to survive. Then there's a hard level in each location with ten flags.
Finally, there's an unlimited level which takes place in the pool location and
keeps increasing in difficulty until you lose.
My strategy for each level is exactly the same. For the theory behind a good
initial defense, see section 400 of my Plants Vs Zombies Gold Farming Guide
[18]. Since the Survival levels are more difficult than Last Stand, we'll need
to make a few changes. First of all, we'll need to move the front lines back
to make room for a column of Spikerock. For additional security, we'll add two
more Gloom-shrooms. Lastly, we'll need to set up some heavy artillery on the
left side of the field instead of a Marigold farm. This results in four major
groups of defenses:
1) Winter Melons keep Zombies on the Spikerocks longer while doing heavy splash
damage. Spikerocks also hinder Gargantuars and stop vehicles.
2) Garlic and Gloom-shroom defense kills nearly anything else.
3) Magnet-shrooms grab Pogo sticks, Jack-in-the-boxes, and mining picks.
4) Cob cannons help destroy Gargantuars and other dangerous threats.
[18]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56559
The following is written primarily for the hard and unlimited levels. The
strategy is the same for the normal difficulty levels as well, but you'll be
building slower, so you'll only get to the third stage or so.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 610: First Stage (Flags 1-2) ---------------------------------------------'
For the first stage, choose Sunflower, Kernel-pult, Fume-shroom, Gloom-shroom,
Pumpkin, Garlic, and Spikeweed. A few slots are intentionally empty as you'll
need other plants depending on the level (see section 640).
Build Sunflowers and Kernel-pults (Puff-shrooms on night levels), and try to
set up Garlic to redirect Zombies soon. As soon as possible, start setting up
Gloom-shrooms. You want to have a pair up by the first flag, and three pairs
up by the second flag. The limiting factor will be the recharge timer on the
Gloom-shroom, so start early!
Goals:
Destroy any gravestones
Set up a column of Spikeweed
Set up a 6x Gloom-shroom defense
Set up two columns of Sunflowers
Set up Pumpkin protection on all rows
Sample build:
S S c . [.] . . . # Symbol Legend
S S c . G G [G] g # . Open Land G Gloom-shroom
S S c _ [.] _ _ _ _ _ Open Water g Garlic
S S c _ [.] _ _ _ _ S Sunflower # Spikeweed
S S c . G G [G] g # c Kernel-pult
S S c . [.] . . . # [ ] Pumpkin
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 620: Second Stage (Flags 3-4) --------------------------------------------'
For this stage, choose Twin Sunflower, Kernel-pult, Melon-pult, Winter Melon,
Magnet-shroom, Spikerock, Pumpkin, Garlic, and whatever else is needed. If you
didn't get 6 Gloom-shrooms or a full column of Spikeweeds yet, you'll have to
work on those goals first.
Goals:
Upgrade to a column of Spikerock
Upgrade to a column of Twin Sunflowers
Plant Magnet-shrooms
Finish off Pumpkin defenses (generally two per row)
Start building Melon-pults and Kernel-pults for later upgrading
Sample Build:
t c c [m][u] . . . # Symbol Legend
t c c m G G [G] g # . Open Land G Gloom-shroom
t c c _ [u] _ _ _ _ _ Open Water g Garlic
t c c _ [u] _ _ _ _ t Twin-Sunflower # Spikerock
t c c m G G [G] g # c Kernel-pult u Magnet-shroom
t c c [m][u] . . . # [ ] Pumpkin m Melon-pult
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 630: Later Stages (Flags 5-10) -------------------------------------------'
These stages are described together because the goals are the same, but small
changes will be necessary depending on the specific Zombies that attack during
each stage. To begin with, we'll try to finish upgrading to our final setup:
t CCCC [W][u] . . . # Symbol Legend
t CCCC W G [G][G] g # . Open Land # Spikerock
t CCCC [W][u] _ _ _ _ _ Open Water u Magnet-shroom
t CCCC [W][u] _ _ _ _ G Gloom-shroom W Winter Melon
t CCCC W G [G][G] g # g Garlic C Cob Cannon
t CCCC [W][u] . . . # [ ] Pumpkin t Twin Sunflower
The first order of business is getting Winter Melons on odd-numbered rows for
overlapping freeze effects. Next, get a couple Cob Cannons up for defense
against Gargantuars. Then, finish off the colums of each.
Balloon Zombies are a common occurrence, and Blovers are the best way to take
care of them, especially on Fog levels. For further discussion on Blovers vs.
other fog/balloon solutions, see section 344 in the Adventure mode walkthrough.
Towards the end, you may wish to keep some open spaces in the Winter Melon
column to protect your Cob Cannons. Gargantuars that take 50% damage will toss
their Imps into your support ranks, and there's little time before they eat up
your Cannons. The open spaces allow you to place Cherry Bombs to kill Imps.
You could also use the Cob Cannons to get rid of the Imps but they fire slowly
and it may be too late unless you accurately anticipate the Imps' arrival time.
If Digger Zombies consistently get past your Magnet-shrooms, you may wish to
place Pumpkins around your Twin Sunflowers. This will give you some time to
use a Cob Cannon or Jalapeno to kill the Digger. Note that you have some time
after the Digger resurfaces to kill him anyway, but Pumpkins will cut you some
slack.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 640: Location-specific Tactics -------------------------------------------'
While the overall strategy is the same for every level, there are obviously
some minor changes required by the level's location:
Day:
Use Coffee for the Fume-shrooms and Magnet-shrooms
Night:
Use Puff-shroom as your early attack unit
Use Grave Buster to destroy gravestones
Pool:
Use Lily Pads for planting in the pool
Use Coffee for Fume-shrooms and Magnet-shrooms
Fog:
Use Lily Pads for planting in the pool
Use Puff-shroom as your early attack unit
For early stages, use Planterns to cut through the fog
For later stages, use Blovers for both Balloon Zombies and fog
Roof:
Use Flower Pots for planting on the roof
Use Umbrella Leaf for protection from Bungee and Catapult Zombies
Use Coffee for the Fume-shrooms and Magnet-shrooms
In levels with 5 rows, the leading edge of the middle row is brought forward
because that row is covered by every Gloom-shroom and any Zombies there will
all fall quickly. This allows us to plant an extra Magnet-shroom:
t CCCC [W][u] . . . #
t CCCC W G [G][G] g #
t CCCC W [u][u] . . #
t CCCC W G [G][G] g #
t CCCC [W][u] . . . #
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 650: Survival Endless ----------------------------------------------------'
Survival Endless is largely the same as Survival Pool (Hard) except that all
Zombies can spawn (e.g. Bungee Zombies) and there are endless waves of Zombies.
The techniques described above can finish around 20-30 flags, but better
defenses are required for the later flags. The following build
Pull the land defenses back and into the water to create a larger kill zone
Defend the back lines better against Miners, Bungees, etc.
Use more winter melons to slow down attackers
Use at least 6 Cob Cannons to deal effectively with Gargantuars
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------,
| 700: Zen Garden Walkthrough |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
The Zen Garden is a "stress-free" game mode that is unlocked after completing
Level 5-4 in Adventure mode. There, you can cultivate the plants that you
receive as gifts in other modes, and earn money to spend on upgrades. At the
beginning there's only the Greenhouse environment, but there's also a Mushroom
Garden environment and an Aquarium Garden environment for your nocturnal and
aquatic plants respectively. Lastly, there's a Tree of Wisdom that you can
grow to receive tips on playing the game. The game's readme file has general
information [19] on the Zen Garden, and section 300 of my Plants vs Zombies
Gold-Farming Guide [20] describes how to earn money in two ways there.
[19]
http://www.popcap.com/faq/plantsvszombies/1033/pc/readme.html#GM/ZG
[20]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56559
,-----------------------------------------------------------------------------,
| 800: Plant and Zombie Armies |
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
As stated above, the goal of this guide is to present a walkthrough of the main
game modes, not to repeat information easily accessible elsewhere. Tips and
strategies for using many of the plants are given above, as are strategies for
countering and destroying the more powerful Zombies. There are in-depth guides
for the Plants [21] and Zombies [22] if you need more information.
Below are lists of plants and Zombies, with simple ratings and references to
other sections in this guide with further discussion.
[21]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56547
[22]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56558
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 810: Plants Overview -----------------------------------------------------'
Plant Name Rating See Sections Plant Name Rating See Sections
'''''''''''''' '''''' '''''''''''' '''''''''''''' '''''' ''''''''''''
Peashooter ***-- 311 Sea-shroom -----
Sunflower ***** 312,322 Plantern *----
Cherry Bomb ****- 313 Cactus *----
Wall-nut ***-- 314-318,330 Blover ***--
Potato Mine **--- Split Pea -----
Snow Pea ****- 317 Starfruit *----
Chomper **--- 318 Pumpkin ****-
Repeater ***-- 319 Magnet-shroom ***--
Puff-shroom ***-- 321 Cabbage-pult **---
Sun-shroom ***** 322 Flower Pot **---
Fume-shroom ****- 323 Kernel-pult ****-
Grave Buster ***-- 324 Coffee Bean ****-
Hypno-shroom **--- 326 Garlic ****- 260
Scaredy-shroom ----- Umbrella Leaf **---
Ice-shroom *---- Marigold **--- 260
Doom-shroom ***-- Melon-pult ***--
Lily Pad **--- 331 Gatling Pea ----- 260
Squash **--- 332 Twin Sunflower **---
Threepeater **--- 333 Gloom-shroom ***** 260
Tangle Kelp **--- 334 Cattail *----
Jalapeno ****- 336 Winter Melon ****-
Spikeweed ***-- 337 Gold Magnet *----
Torchwood **--- 338 Spikerock ***--
Tall-nut ****- 339 Cob Cannon ****-
Imitater ****-
_______________________________________________________________________________
'-- 820: Zombies Overview ----------------------------------------------------'
Below, Threat refers to how dangerous Zombies are, and 1st refers to the levels
in which Zombies first appear. Look in the corresponding sections for tips on
how to defeat each Zombie.
Zombie Name Threat 1st Zombie Name Threat 1st
''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''' ''' ''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''' '''
Zombie *---- 1-1 Jack-in-the-Box Zombie ***** 4-1
Flag Zombie *---- 1-2 Balloon Zombie ***-- 4-3
Conehead Zombie **--- 1-3 Digger Zombie ****- 4-6
Pole Vaulting Zombie ***-- 1-6 Pogo Zombie ***-- 4-8
Buckethead Zombie ***-- 1-8 Zombie Yeti ***-- 4-10
Newspaper Zombie **--- 2-1 Bungee Zombie ****- 5-1
Screen Door Zombie **--- 2-3 Ladder Zombie ***-- 5-3
Football Zombie ***-- 2-6 Catapult Zombie ****- 5-6
Dancing Zombie ***-- 2-8 Gargantuar ***** 5-8
Backup Dancer *---- 2-8 Imp ***-- 5-8
Ducky Tube Zombie **--- 3-1 Dr. Edgar Zomboss ***** 5-10
Snorkel Zombie ***-- 3-3
Zomboni ****- 3-6
Zombie Bobsled Team **--- 3-6
Dolphin Rider Zombie ****- 3-8
Notice that the introductions of Zombies are done very systematically. In each
stage, a new Zombie is introduced in the first level. This new Zombie shares a
theme with the stage, and the intro level is short and features only basic
Zombies along with the new Zombie. Then there's a longer level with a wider
range of Zombies. This process repeats for the next two levels with the intro-
duction of another Zombie. Then there's a Mini-game, and two more Zombies are
introduced. The ninth level therefore features all of the stage's Zombies. At
the end is a conveyor-belt level which again has all of that stage's Zombies.
Each stage only introduces four primary Zombies, and a related or incidental
Zombie. The first stage has the unimpressive Flag Zombie, the second has the
Backup Dancer (summoned by the Dancing Zombie), the third has the Zombie Bob-
sled Team (slides in after the Zomboni), the fourth eventually yields the Yeti,
and the fifth has the Imp (thrown by the Gargantuar).
