Plants vs. Zombies - Survival: ENDLESS!
Written by Jason Long (evilbob)
Copyright (c)2009 Jason Long. All rights reserved.
This guide may not be reposted, in whole or in part, without my written
permission. The only website that has permission to display this FAQ is
gameFAQs.com. For questions contact me at evilbob65535 at yahoo dot com.
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Searchable Table of Contents
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Copy, Control+F, and Paste the codes in [] to search for something quickly.
0. Version History [0VERH]
1. What This Guide Does [1WTGD]
2. Theory [2THRY]
2a. Tips and Tricks [2THY1]
2b. Lexicon [2THY2]
3. Garlic Funnels (30-40 flags) [3FUNL]
3a. Phase 1 [3FNL1]
3b. Phase 2 [3FNL2]
3c. Phase 3 [3FNL3]
3d. Phase 4 [3FNL4]
3e. Phase 5 [3FNL5]
3f. Variations [3FNL6]
4. Fuming Arrow Head (70-100 flags) [4AROW]
4a. Phase 1 [4ARW1]
4b. Phase 2 [4ARW2]
4c. Phase 3 [4ARW3]
4d. Phase 4 [4ARW4]
4e. Phase 5 [4ARW5]
4f. Variations [4ARW6]
5. Other Ideas [5OTHR]
6. Thanks [6THNK]
========================================
Version History
========================================
[0VERH]
1.00 - 6/4/09
Guide complete. Garlic Funnels strategy detailed. Guide posted to
gameFAQs.com.
2.00 - 6/24/09
Complete overhaul of guide, including structure. Arrow Head strategy
detailed.
2.10 - 6/26/09
Updated all strategies; added some theory.
2.15 - 6/28/09
Updated arrow head to fuming arrow head.
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What This Guide Does
========================================
[1WTGD]
This FAQ is not a walkthrough nor is it intended as a general game guide. For
an excellent general guide, please see curby's FAQ/walkthrough on
gameFAQs.com:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/959255/56545
This guide deals specifically with one of the final challenges in the game:
Survival: Endless. This challenge is unlocked after completing all other
Survival games (and beating the adventure mode). The purpose is quite simple:
survive for as many flags as possible during a never-ending onslaught of
zombies. It is set on the "pool" level during the day, and almost every
zombie in the game may attack at some point (including normally roof-specific
and night-specific zombies). It is incredibly challenging and can take hours
to play just one game.
This guide has been heavily influenced by curby's guide and other reader
submissions and it should be noted that the bulk of credit for the core
strategies presented here goes to the people in the "Thanks" section. curby's
original strategy is what inspired me to create this guide and expand upon
these strategies for the special considerations that happen in Survival:
Endless.
Note that this guide will not talk about the basics of the game. It assumes
you have completed the game's adventure mode, unlocked Survival: Endless, and
purchased all possible plants and seed slots from the game's store.
========================================
Theory
========================================
[2THRY]
Survival: Endless creates a special set of circumstances that are really
unlike anything else in Plants vs. Zombies. First, it is truly a random game
each time. The first two phases ("phase" is my term for the period of time
between your ability to choose new plants; I also call this a "level") always
seem to have two flags each, but after that you may have 2 flags each phase or
it might switch to 3 or even 4. Typically bungee zombies and balloon zombies
don't show up until phase 4, but I have seen balloons (rarely) as early as
phase 2. And once you get past 30 flags or so, almost any combination of
zombies can show up at any time. Second, all of your purchased seeds - such
as gloom-shrooms and twin sunflowers - go up in price for each unit that is
already on the field. For example, gloom-shrooms cost 150 sun for the first
one placed on the field and 200 for the second one (there is no upper limit to
these price increases!). If you lose all of them, the cost will drop back to
150. This makes the most useful plants the most expensive as well - and it
plays into strategy considerations.
Because of all this, the well-crafted strategies presented in curby's
excellent walkthrough don't really hold up over 20+ flags. His original
strategy - which I have called "Garlic Funnels" - works very well in the
normal and hard survival levels and throughout the main game. My
interpretation of this strategy can be found in section 3. Some of the best
principles presented in this strategy are:
- Multiple gloom-shrooms doing area-of-effect damage to overlapping areas are
a powerful force and the main key to all strategies. Their 360 degree attack
radius is extremely useful.
- A column of winter melons provides an excellent slowing effect over the
entire field, which is absolutely essential in allowing other plants more time
to do damage. They should be used in the first (leftmost) column to help
combat imps that make it to the back lines.
- Cob cannon are a powerful tool (although expensive both in terms of sun and
space) that can help by providing a sun-free "instant" (or instant kill) that
hits a wide area.
- Spikerocks are one of the most effective tools against gargantuars (and
vehicles) because they slow them down. They're also extremely nice to have
against all land-based zombies as they seem to do area damage as well.
These are excellent tenets and work very well throughout the game. A few
other theories of plant placement and design are:
- Early on, you want as many sunflowers on the field as you can keep up with.
This is true of any resource-management game. The benefits are tremendous and
will help you ramp up your strategy quickly as sun production is crucial.
- Late-game, twinflowers are your best source of income for space reasons. 4
is the minimum you can scrape by with but more is always better.
- Single-target plants are just not useful (with one exception: cattails).
Hordes of zombies require area-of-effect damage. Additionally, anything that
only effects one zombie at a time - like magnets - becomes useless in late
levels due to the extreme number of zombies.
- Due to the above, even winter melons and melon-pults are not that powerful
as offensive units because their initial damage is more than their splash
damage (although winter melons' slow effect is crucial). Only fume-shrooms
and gloom-shrooms do true area-of-effect damage against all targets in their
area.
- Speaking of melons, when it comes to melon-pults vs. winter melons, both
types do the same amount of damage, and despite what is written in the Almanac
in the game, fire at the exact same rate. Also worth noting is that zombonis
are immune to being slowed.
- No amount of distance attacks (melons or fume-shrooms) can combat catapult
zombies quickly enough to destroy them before they can take out your back-most
plants, so umbrellas are still required for column 1 protection.
- Pumpkin everything! Pumpkins are one of your most powerful defensive tools
and you should use them liberally and keep them repaired.
- Pool rows are the "safest" rows because vehicles and gargantuars never
appear in these rows. The most valuable and vulnerable plants should be
placed here.
Moving the bulk of your offensive units to the pool rows is especially key,
since all land rows are more vulnerable. Cob cannon in particular cannot be
protected with pumpkins since they are two spaces wide, so it is vital that
they be in the pool area. The only zombies that pose a serious threat to pool
plants are dolphins (and they really only attack specific columns) and jack-
in-the-boxes (which can destroy any plant in a 9-square area). However, any
plant in the four (and sometimes five) right-most rows can be targeted, so
they all need protection with pumpkins.
However, even these principles can only get you so far. Another important
point is your defense against some of the rare but dangerous zombies such as
catapults, bungees, and balloons. These are tricky because they attack very
differently than other zombies. You also need a powerful defense against
diggers and imps, since they will ravage your rear-guard plants extremely
quickly. Many readers have helped by sending in these suggestions:
- Cattails are extremely useful against balloon zombies, and they do small
amounts of damage to diggers and imps as well. They always target fliers, and
then after that the rear-most zombie (whatever is closest to the house). They
shoot quickly but their main weakness is that they are single-target
attackers. Additionally, once a shot is fired, it will not redirect to
another target if the original target dies. However, two cattails will
completely defend against all balloon onslaughts, even in late levels.
- Umbrella leaves are powerful defensive units, especially for your back
(leftmost) row. Catapult zombies will pelt your rear plants mercilessly and
bungees will snatch you up, so having at least two umbrellas protecting your
leftmost 3 rows is a great defense for little cost. However, while powerful,
they are not necessary to defend against bungees on the rest of the field if
you have at least two gloom-shrooms protecting each plant. So long as at
least two (more is always better) can attack a specific square, plants in that
square are safe from bungee zombies. This does not help against catapults,
however.
- Speaking of bungees, they never attack cob cannon - so these plants don't
need any defenses against them.
- Additional gloom-shrooms on your second column (from the left) help kill
diggers quickly. A total of four gloom-shrooms on the land rows in this
column will decimate the diggers and help protect that area from imps and
bungees, although they are not a 100% defense and your pumpkins still need
some monitoring.
And finally, a key issue in many of the designs in this guide becomes the very
fine line between defending your front line against jack-in-the-boxes and
against zombonis and gargantuars. Somewhat ironically, to defend well against
jack-in-the-boxes you need to move your defenses forward, since they need time
to arm themselves and the longer they are on the field, the more likely they
are to explode - but to defend well against vehicles and gargantuars you need
to push your defenses back, so your damage-dealing plants have more time to do
their thing. Figuring out the optimal placement for your defenses is one of
the biggest challenges to Survival: Endless.
Adding all of these principles together makes for some excellent theory around
which the designs below are based. The rest of this guide will detail
specific strategies and give step-by-step instructions how to achieve them.
It is recommended to read through the entire plan for each before starting.
===============
Tips and Tricks
===============
[2THY1]
These are some of my personal suggestions and tricks.
- All plants should be unlocked/purchased; 10 seed slots purchased; always
start with a rake (it's worth it).
- Go crazy with sunflowers early on; don't worry about planting over them
later. If you get at least 3 sun from a sunflower, it was worth your time.
- Keep your pumpkins healthy! Pumpkins have 3 stages: healthy, wounded, and
almost dead. Healthy pumpkins cannot be replaced. Wounded ones have a chip
across the top and other damage - the chip is the most noticeable, though.
Almost dead pumpkins have severe holes in them and are hard to miss.
Generally speaking, it seems like pumpkins appear "wounded" around 60% health,
and almost dead close to 20-30% health. For this reason, I tend to replace
pumpkins almost immediately when they are wounded.
- About the imitater: I always choose pumpkin when using the imitater. While
the versatility of this plant is amazing, it sadly has about a half-second
delay in deploy time: making it juuuust barely useless for instants and other
plants you need to lay down while zombies are attacking. It'd be GREAT as a
backup cherry bomb; sadly, it will die before it can explode unless nothing is
near it. This, plus the fact that it cannot duplicate other purchased plants,
makes it best used for adding to defenses - especially since you need to keep
your pumpkins healthy and almost every plant needs a pumpkin.
- Feel free to pause (space bar) as often as you can and take a quick look
around: see what's coming, see where your recharge timers are, and see if
anything is conspicuously missing from your lines. Check your pumpkins often!
- Sun maxes out at 9990. That sounds like a lot but you will easily use all
of it and still die with no sun left. Getting to maximum sun is a priority.
- One good game can last hours - easily 3 to 6, even going quickly - but you
can pause as much as you'd like and come back later. I suggest doing so.
- If you're trying to make money, I recommend curby's Gold Farming Guide on
gameFAQs.com instead. You can easily grab over 100,000 coins when you play to
over 60 flags, but it takes forever and requires lots of effort. curby's
method is short and easy!
- And lastly, just remember that you're always fighting a losing battle: so
don't sweat it. :)
=======
Lexicon
=======
[2THY2]
The period of time between which you can select plants I call a "phase" or a
"level". This starts as two flags but may get as high as four. Some
strategies may need slight adjustment based on how many flags happen during
your first 4 or 5 phases. Generally speaking, shorter phases are easier,
although longer phases mean you have both a harder time during difficult
phases and a longer recovery time during easier phases.
Each strategy has a key associated with it which will describe the plants used
for that phase. I have generally borrowed this layout and key from curby's
FAQ because it is excellent.
I like to think of each game of Survival: Endless as having four main stages.
The first stage is the beginning: flags 1 through 10 or so, when you're
creating your defense. Zombies come (relatively) slowly at this point, giving
you lots of time to build yourself up and gather sun. Simple defenses work
against them and this part is most like the rest of the game. By about the
12th flag, you should pretty much have everything ready, because then you
enter stage 2. This is levels 12 through 20, and this is when the game is
actually extremely easy - to the point that you can walk away from your
computer with confidence. The zombie levels are ramping up slowly and you
already have everything in place. You still have plenty of time to adjust or
tweak as necessary. If you're trying to make money (coins), this is the ideal
time to plant a gold magnet. During this part, you should be getting up to
9990 sun (the maximum you can get) and generally taking it easy. After that
is stage 3, or 20-32 flags, which is much like stage 2 except you actually
have to watch the game. This is when some of the more difficult zombies start
to appear, although they are still easily handled at this point. However,
some interaction on your part is required. It also makes for good practice
for things to come. Stage 4 really starts after about 33 or 34 flags, and
this is when the game starts getting difficult. At this point, you'll be
facing more zombies and the random assortment of zombies becomes more
difficult. Suddenly gargantuars and vehicles are a lot more common, as are
jack-in-the-boxes. Even regular zombies start to become tricky simply because
there are so many of them. This stage lasts indefinitely, although the
zombies continue to gather in greater numbers and I believe move just slightly
faster as the game goes on.
Additionally, this guide typically uses the following description when
describing the field, which was effectively borrowed from curby's guide:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 . . . . . . . . .
2 . . . . . . . . . <-- zombies go this way
3 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5 . . . . . . . . .
6 . . . . . . . . .
Rows and columns are numbered starting with the top left. Additionally, I
sometimes refer to the right side of the board as the "front" and the left
side as the "rear" or back of the field. The middle two rows are also called
the "pool" rows and the rest of the rows are "land" rows.
========================================
Garlic Funnels
========================================
[3FUNL]
This is one of the simpler strategies that works extremely well throughout the
main game. My best Endless record is 37 flags using the original version this
strategy, although I have updated it with new theories that should make it
much stronger and I think the variation at the end of this section would also
help. Although more powerful strategies exist, this is included both to serve
as a guide for build principles and because it works very well throughout the
main game. Credit for the core theory goes to curby.
The core idea here is to use garlic to funnel zombies from rows 1 and 6 into
rows 2 and 5, where they are then subjected to gloom-shroom attacks from the
pool rows. The gloom-shrooms on the pool rows take care of themselves. It
also uses a healthy dose of umbrella leaves to protect all rows, and has well-
protected cob cannon to supplement the defense. Its main strengths are a low
cost and ease of setup and maintenance. Its main weaknesses are vehicles and
gargantuars, especially with such a forward design. It also creates two
"bulkheads", or points at which zombies are expected to break away or be
stopped. It fails in later levels because these garlic-speared bulkheads
become impossible to sustain.
=======
Phase 1
=======
[3FNL1]
Seeds: sunflower, garlic, pumpkin, lily pad, coffee bean, fume-shroom, gloom-
shroom, kernel-pult, spikeweed, and potato mine. (Be sure you have purchased
a rake.)
Your goal for the first level is to make sure you get several tasks done and
plant all you need of certain plants so you won't have to select them again.
Seed selection becomes the most important part of this strategy, so starting
early and getting things out of the way is important. By the end of this
level, you shouldn't need to select the sunflower again. Also worth noting:
potato mines are the absolute best single-kill plants at the beginning of the
game due to their low cost. However, once you get past the first few zombies,
you'll never use them again.
Final:
S S S S . . [.] g + Symbol Legend
S c S S S [G] + . . . land G gloom-shroom
S S c c S [S][G][G] _ _ water g garlic
S S c c S [S][G][G] _ S sunflower + spikeweed
S c S S S [G] + . . c kernel-pult [ ] pumpkin
S S S S . . [.] g +
Notes:
- Start with sunflowers on land, garlic in rows 1 and 6, and kernel-pults in
rows 2 and 5. Use the rake off the bat and potato mine any cone-wearing
zombies to help get your economy off the ground. You should have a full 8
sunflowers on land as fast as possible. Save the water sunflowers for last.
- Once you get that far, move to gloom-shrooms on the land rows. Be sure to
pumpkin first, then fume-shroom. Throw a kernel-pult or two in the pool to
counter pool zombies as soon as you can, but once you get the first two gloom-
shrooms going and they are backed up by kernel-pults, you shouldn't have a
problem with anyone getting through.
- Continue to place gloom-shrooms as quickly as the upgrade seed recharges.
In the mean time, build a few more sunflowers and kernel-pults, and be sure
you are laying down pumpkins as fast as they recharge as well. Once you start
getting enough sun to cover everything, put spikeweed down in your "kill" zone
to help protect your gloom-shroom there, and then lay down your spikeweed.
- You should make it easily to this point without losing any plants or
mower/cleaners. If you lose any of those, go ahead and start over.
- If you find yourself with plenty of sun left over, go ahead and place
pumpkins or fume/gloom-shrooms from the next phase. Extra sunflowers never
hurt, either: as long as you collect 3 sun from a sunflower, it was worth
your time.
=======
Phase 2
=======
[3FNL2]
Seeds: twinflower, garlic, pumpkin, coffee bean, magnet-shroom, fume-shroom,
gloom-shroom, melon-pult, lily pad, and spikerock - or anything you still need
from phase 1 (you can wait on the spikerock if you need to).
Your goal for this level is to upgrade your defenses significantly while
boosting your sun production even more. After this level, you shouldn't need
lily pads or magnet shrooms again.
Final:
S G S t M [M][M] g # Symbol Legend
m c t t [S][G] # . . . land G gloom-shroom
S* S* c c S [S][G][G][G] _ water g garlic
S* S* c c S [S][G][G][G] S sunflower # spikerock
m c t t [S][G] # . . c kernel-pult M magnet-shroom
S G S t M [M][M] g # [ ] pumpkin t twinflower
m melon-pult
Notes:
- You probably didn't need to replace your garlic in the first phase; get
ready to keep a constant eye on it from now on.
- Pumpkin placement becomes important as you want to make sure no zombies get
past your front line.
- Start with magnet-shrooms and get them up as quickly as possible. Place a
twinflower and spikerock immediately and then you'll pretty much spend the
entire rest of the level waiting for those two and gloom-shrooms to recharge.
- Melon-pults can wait until other goals are accomplished.
- The sunflowers marked with an * are ones you can try to twin if you get a
chance, but it's not a big deal if you can't. You'll be replacing them
eventually, so only do so if you think you can get enough sun out of them to
be worth it.
=======
Phase 3
=======
[3FNL3]
Seeds: garlic, pumpkin, melon-pult, winter melon, cob cannon, imitater-
>pumpkin, cattail, and either coffee bean, fume-shroom, gloom-shroom, or some
instants (jalapeno, squash, or cherry bomb) and anything else you're still
missing. Alternately, you can bring twinflower again and go for a couple of
the sunflowers on the pool.
This level is going to be expensive, but you should have the sun to back it
up. After this level you shouldn't need melon-pults or cattails again.
[W] G m t [M][M][M] g # Symbol Legend
[W] c t t [S][G] # . . . land G gloom-shroom
S S CCCC b [W][G][G][G] _ water g garlic
S S CCCC b [W][G][G][G] W winter melon # spikerock
[W] c t t [S][G] # . . c kernel-pult M magnet-shroom
[W] G m t [M][M][M] g # [ ] pumpkin t twinflower
CC cob cannon m melon-pult
b cattail
Notes:
- Start by winter-meloning your existing melon-pults and then place another
one each time it recharges.
- Pumpkin EVERYTHING! Use the imitater->pumpkin to help you get the back rows
while you use the regular pumpkin to replace defenses.
- Don't neglect your garlic - the magnets are counting on you!
- Try to save up for cob cannon. If you have enough sun, go ahead and dig up
the rear sunflowers and plant kernel-pults.
- Squash are a decent, relatively quickly charging one-shot defense.
Jalapenos are much better but are more expensive and take longer to recharge.
Cherry bombs are even more expensive but hit a nice area. All are good.
=======
Phase 4
=======
[3FNL4]
Seeds: garlic, pumpkin, umbrella leaf, kernel-pult, cob cannon, spikeroot,
spikerock, imitater->pumpkin, winter-melon, and jalapeno - or something you
left out before.
Finally, phase 4, where we see our hard plans come to fruition. This is the
final step in the base strategy. At this point you should have an obscene
amount of sun saved up. Also, since we passed 10 flags, bungee zombies and
loads of vehicles should start coming into the picture. At this point the
types of zombies you face each level is fairly random, but there are a few
more defenses we need to set up first.
[W][G][W][t][M][M][M] g # Symbol Legend
[W][u][t][t][u][G] # . . . land G gloom-shroom
CCCC CCCC [b][W][G][G][G] _ water g garlic
CCCC CCCC [b][W][G][G][G] W winter melon # spikerock
[W][u][t][t][u][G] # . . u umbrella leaf M magnet-shroom
[W][G][W][t][M][M][M] g # [ ] pumpkin t twinflower
CC cob cannon b cattail
Notes:
- Go ahead and pluck those last kernel-pults and sunflowers and plant
umbrellas. That will cover 2/3rds of the field, and your remaining pieces of
land are now your "special" spots. If you see a bungee zombie targeting
anything in rows 1 and 6 in the last three columns, quickly throw an umbrella
plant into the appropriate spot to cover it (the umbrella will get eaten
immediately but that's ok). If they target something both above and below:
well, sorry. It's not a perfect defense.
- Once you have 2 cob cannon, start digging up the remaining sunflowers in the
pool lanes and replacing them with kernel-pults and then cob cannon as well.
Try to wait until the cob cannon has recharged and you have enough sun before
you dig up the sunflowers: the idea is to squeeze as much sun out of them as
possible before they go.
=======
Phase 5
=======
[3FNL5]
[W][G][W][t][M][M][M] g # Symbol Legend
[W][u][t][t][u][G] # . . . land G gloom-shroom
CCCC CCCC [b][W][G][G][G] _ water g garlic
CCCC CCCC [b][W][G][G][G] W winter melon # spikerock
[W][u][t][t][u][G] # . . u umbrella leaf M magnet-shroom
[W][G][W][t][M][M][M] g # [ ] pumpkin t twinflower
CC cob cannon b cattail
Generally, you'll want:
- garlic, pumpkin, spikeweed, spikerock, jalapeno (all levels)
- imitater->pumpkin, cherry bomb (when you have room)
- umbrella leaf when facing bungee zombies
- coffee bean, magnet (as necessary; good to take if you have the room and are
facing gargantuars or zombonis as they will likely get a magnet or two)
- whatever else gets killed
At this point, the game is about damage control and wise cob cannon usage (and
to some extent, luck of the draw based on which zombies are attacking each
phase). Your twinflowers will keep you afloat - but hopefully you have
several thousand sun banked up, because you'll need it. Keep your spikerocks
as healthy as possible, especially rows 1 and 6. Eventually, the game will
become all about the spikerock recharge timer, as you'll be blowing through
them incredibly fast. Try to use cob cannon to ease their load when you can,
but generally save your blasts to both fend off imps and kill gargantuars.
Ideally, if you fire two cob cannon in rapid succession at a gargantuar, it
won't get to throw its imp - but zombies never make things easy. Sometimes
you'll miss, and sometimes you'll barely get another gargantuar in the second
blast, causing him to throw. Just accept that it will happen and try to
defend as best you can. Jalapenos help a great deal since they can take out
imps and hit things still coming - although they work best on rows 2 and 5 -
but don't be shy about digging up a garlic and using one there if you can do
it quickly enough. Also, don't be afraid to dig up an umbrella plant and
throw a cherry bomb down if you need to - those are cheap to replace, and if
you need one you probably brought them on this level.
Keep an eye on your pumpkins and on your garlic, especially the pumpkins on
the magnets just behind the garlic. Later levels with dozens of pole-vaulters
or dolphin zombies are merciless on your 2nd-line pumpkins; keep them as
healthy as possible, too.
Long-Term
Zombonis and gargantuars are your worst nightmares; eventually the spikerock
timer just won't be able to keep up with them and you'll be using every trick
you have just to keep them at bay. Fortunately, this strategy does a pretty
decent job at fighting while losing; you can often keep the zombies off for a
good couple of flags past the point where your field is no longer viable,
especially since the worst types of zombies can't hurt your pool plants.
However, scores of dolphins will seriously mess you up if you start losing
gloom-shrooms, so keep those pumpkins healthy. Sadly, gloom-shrooms end up
being the most difficult plant to replace due to the 3-seed slot cost, so do
what you can to keep them running, as their defeat will signal your impending
loss.
==========
Variations
==========
[3FNL6]
Stronger Garlic Funnels
One change to this strategy is to replace some of the magnets with more gloom-
shrooms. Magnets - being single-target plants - become less useful except
against diggers after about 30 flags.
[W][G][W][t][M][M][G] g # Symbol Legend
[W][u][t][t][u][G] # . . . land G gloom-shroom
CCCC CCCC [b][W][G][G][G] _ water g garlic
CCCC CCCC [b][W][G][G][G] W winter melon # spikerock
[W][u][t][t][u][G] # . . u umbrella leaf M magnet-shroom
[W][G][W][t][M][M][G] g # [ ] pumpkin t twinflower
CC cob cannon b cattail
The forward-most magnets are the best to replace since that helps do more
damage to your kill zones - but putting them directly behind your bulkheads
makes them very vulnerable. Keep your cob shots ready for row 1 and 6
threats. (One perk is that column 8 is effectively protected from bungees as
well, which makes emergency umbrellas less unnecessary.)
I haven't tested this variation but I would suspect it would probably average
40-50 flags. However, its main weakness remains units that cannot be diverted
appearing in rows 1 and 6.
========================================
Fuming Arrow Head
========================================
[4AROW]
This is my most powerful strategy. My best record is 101 flags (yay triple
digits!). Credit for parts of this design goes to snapple37 and curby.
The main idea behind this strategy is a design that splits the zombies up
naturally without bulkheads and attacks them from indirect angles as they
proceed along the field. However, if you remove your defenses too far from
the front, you become increasingly vulnerable to jack-in-the-box zombies,
which do catastrophic damage very quickly. So, you have to supplement the
arrow head design with a few fume-shrooms on rows 1 and 6, which - while
making the overall strategy weaker in some ways - do a better job against
jack-in-the-boxes. As these end up being the most troublesome zombie on the
field, it is worth the trade.
Other core principles are using gloom-shrooms to cover the back rows
completely and ditching magnets and forward umbrellas. Because every exposed
area is covered by multiple gloom-shrooms, umbrellas aren't necessary except
to defend against catapults. Some new ideas are ditching winter melons in
pool rows and making spikerock completely optional. Pool row winter melons
are useful, but almost every pool zombie dies within seconds anyway so they
just don't warrant the space. Spikerocks are still useful and can be planted,
but they are not necessary most of the time and saving sun is usually more
important.
The main strengths are that it defeats all types of zombies except jack-in-
the-boxes in specific spots. In fact, through many levels, this design is so
efficient that you will gain sun even while replacing damaged plants
aggressively. It is somewhat weak against zombonis and footballers, but this
is a necessary trade-off to cover against more jack-in-the-boxes.
=======
Phase 1
=======
[4ARW1]
Seeds: sunflower, garlic, pumpkin, lily pad, coffee bean, fume-shroom, gloom-
shroom, kernel-pult, spikeweed, and potato mine. (Be sure you have purchased
a rake.)
Again, your goals here are to get certain plants finished so you won't need
them again - although your core seed select will change far less for this
strategy.
Early:
S S S . . . . g . Symbol Legend
S c S S [G] . . . . . land G gloom-shroom
S c _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ water g garlic
S c _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ S sunflower [ ] pumpkin
S c S S [G] . . . . c kernel-pult
S S S . . . . g .
Get 4 sunflower up before anything else. Set up land kernel-pults and garlic
early and use potato mines for early defense, especially against the first
cone-headed zombie. Next, try to get to 12 sunflowers as fast as you can.
Then move to land-based gloom-shrooms and try to make sure you can put down a
gloom-shroom, lily pad, or a pumpkin each time they recharge and get as many
out as you can. Put your spikeweed down near the end (start at least halfway
before the second flag) and if you have more time, get more gloom-shrooms out
there. Don't forget to dig up your first kernel-pults or you'll need
sunflowers again next level.
Final:
S S S [S] + . . g . Symbol Legend
S S S f [G] + . . . . land G gloom-shroom
S c c S S [S][G][G] _ _ water g garlic
S c c S S [S][G][G] _ S sunflower + spikeweed
S S S f [G] + . . . c kernel-pult [ ] pumpkin
S S S [S] + . . g . f fume-shroom
=======
Phase 2
=======
[4ARW2]
Seeds: twinflower, garlic (optional), pumpkin, lily pad, coffee bean, fume-
shroom, gloom-shroom, spikerock, melon-pult, and jalapeno (and/or cherry bomb
or cattail if necessary).
Bring along any seeds you didn't finish from last time if necessary. Also be
on the lookout for early fliers. You may not really need to bring garlic
along; it's only useful if your old garlic are eaten before your rear defenses
are set up.
Mid:
m S S [f] + . . . . Symbol Legend
S S S [G][G] + . . . . land G gloom-shroom
S c c t t [S][G][G] _ _ water + spikeweed
S c c t t [S][G][G] _ S sunflower # spikerock
S S S [G][G] + . . . c kernel-pult m melon-pult
m S S [f] + . . . . [ ] pumpkin f fume-shroom
Melon-pults on rows 1 and 6 should go first, then rear defenses. If you have
ladders this phase, you'll want to place the foremost pool glooms before
concentrating on rear defenses; you have no ability to remove ladders once
they are placed so be sure to kill those guys quickly. Overall you'll want to
lay down a twinflower, spikerock, and gloom-shroom as often as their recharge
timers will allow. Also, remember to never dig up a sunflower until you can
afford its replacement.
Final:
m S f [f] # . . . . Symbol Legend
S t m [G][G] # . . . . land G gloom-shroom
S c c t t [S][G][G][G] _ water # spikerock
S c c t t [S][G][G][G] S sunflower m melon-pult
S t m [G][G] # . . . c kernel-pult [ ] pumpkin
m S f [f] # . . . . f fume-shroom
=======
Phase 3
=======
[4ARW3]
Seeds: pumpkin, coffee bean, fume-shroom, gloom-shroom, melon-pult, winter
melon, cattail, cherry bomb, two more that you still need or jalapeno/squash
Start using winter melon immediately and use it each time it recharges; these
really help your effectiveness. Do rows 1 and 6 first and then 5 and 6. This
level is all about the recharge timers: gloom-shrooms are very expensive at
this point so you'll be saving up as much as possible. Be sure to get two
cattails down by the end of the level (or earlier if balloon zombies are on
present). If you have diggers, go ahead and pumpkin column 1 as quickly as
possible.
Final:
[W] G [f][f] # . . . . Symbol Legend
S t W [G][G] # . . . . land G gloom-shroom
b c c t t [f][G][G][G] _ water # spikerock
b c c t t [f][G][G][G] b cattail W winter melon
S t W [G][G] # . . . c kernel-pult [ ] pumpkin
[W] G [f][f] # . . . .
=======
Phase 4
=======
[4ARW4]
Seeds: pumpkin, imitater->pumpkin, coffee bean, fume-shroom, gloom-shroom,
cob cannon, cherry bomb, umbrella leaf, two more that you still need, or
jalapeno/squash, or magnet and gold magnet
Phase 4 almost always has balloons or bungees or at least catapults, so you'll
need to set up your umbrellas quickly. If you don't have any of these, go
ahead and enjoy the extra sun production as long as you can. The nice thing
about this strategy is that you don't need more than two umbrellas to protect
your whole field, since everywhere else is fairly-well protected by gloom-
shrooms. The rear two are there to counter catapults.
Mid:
[W][G][f][f] # . . . . Symbol Legend
[u] t [W][G][G] # . . . . land G gloom-shroom
b c c t t [G][G][G][G] _ water # spikerock
b c c t t [G][G][G][G] b cattail W winter melon
[u] t [W][G][G] # . . . c kernel-pult [ ] pumpkin
[W][G][f][f] # . . . . u umbrella leaf
Save the cob cannon for last. If you have diggers this level, get those back
rows protected with pumpkins as quickly as possible. Everything is expensive
at this point so if you don't get every last pumpkin, that's ok. Just be sure
to hit them up soon.
Final:
[W][G][f][f] # . . . . Symbol Legend
[u][*][W][G][G] # . . . . land G gloom-shroom
b CCCC t [t][G][G][G][G] _ water # spikerock
b CCCC t [t][G][G][G][G] b cattail W winter melon
[u][*][W][G][G] # . . . CC cob cannon [ ] pumpkin
[W][G][f][f] # . . . . u umbrella leaf
*These spaces are easy to change up because they are not a key part of the
defense yet. They are best used as twinflowers as long as possible, but they
also make ideal spots for gold magnets. You don't even need a coffee bean to
wake up a magnet: just place a gold magnet on a sleeping magnet and then sit
back and relax. I have found that only one gold magnet is needed to get just
about every coin that drops; save the other slot for another twinflower.
Eventually, you will replace whatever you have with two more gloom-shrooms -
probably when your flag count is around the late-20s - to complete your rear-
guard defense against diggers and imps.
=======
Phase 5
=======
[4ARW5]
Seeds: pumpkin, imitater->pumpkin, spikeweed, spikerock, jalapeno, cherry
bomb, squash, coffee bean, fume-shroom, gloom-shroom
[W][G][f][f] #* . . . . Symbol Legend
[u][G][W][G][G] +* . . . . land G gloom-shroom
b CCCC [t][t][G][G][G][G] _ water # spikerock
b CCCC [t][t][G][G][G][G] b cattail W winter melon
[u][G][W][G][G] +* . . . CC cob cannon [ ] pumpkin
[W][G][f][f] #* . . . . u umbrella leaf + spikeweed
* optional
At this point, you'll probably want the same lineup each level. On levels
with jack-in-the-boxes, swap out squash for lily pad - useful if they destroy
a pool gloom. If, for some reason, a different plant somewhere else on the
field gets destroyed and you need to replace it, I recommend swapping squash,
spikerock, and spikeweed, in that order of priority. All other plants are
crucial.
Your cattails and cob cannon are safe forever. You can put pumpkins on the
remaining twinflowers once you're at max sun, but it's not really necessary.
Keep a constant eye on your pumpkins: columns 1, 3, and 7 these are some of
your most important ones and will take the most damage from diggers, imps, and
dolphins respectively, but the others need monitoring, too. Column 4 on rows
1 and 6 will get hurt by footballers, but it's easy enough to handle.
Spikerocks really are not that necessary to this design, and unless you have
max sun, don't worry too much about replacing them. Rows 1 and 6 are most
vulnerable, and spikerocks help a great deal against waves of gargantuar, but
this design can destroy all vehicles and normal zombies before they hurt you.
In particular, it's almost never worth actually upgrading rows 2 and 5
spikeweed to spikerock, because these are the plants most vulnerable to jack-
in-the-boxes. If you have the sun, go ahead and put down some spikeweed on 2
and 5 and spikerock on 1 and 6, but unless gargantuars are coming, don't feel
like you need to defend them. On levels without jack-in-the-boxes, zombonis,
or gargantuars, if I had the sun I would plant extra spikeweed in rows 1 and 6
just to help kill footballers and other normal zombies. Expect these to get
destroyed, however.
Long-Term
Effectively the game becomes all about the random assortment of zombies, and
how many waves have jack-in-the-boxes verses how many waves that don't. You
can build up sun during most levels so you'll be able to react better during
the difficult ones. At 50 flags, I had full defenses and max sun, so it is
very possible to slowly build yourself back up, especially if you aren't too
quick to replace mid-field pumpkins and spikerock. (Column 7-9 pool pumpkins
and column 1 pumpkins should ALWAYS be replaced quickly.)
The trick to survival is to use your cob cannon, cherry bomb, and jalapeno
timers effectively to constantly cover the field with instants. In
particular, you will be watching the rows 1 and 6 gargantuars. These are the
most serious threats to your defense (that you can really deal with, anyway),
so you'll want to slowly but surely make certain you hit each gargantuar in
these rows with at least one instant. Doing this will keep your entire
defense alive and destroy large numbers of normal zombies as well. It's
tricky, but with practice you'll know when to fire and when to wait just a
touch longer to get even more enemies in the blast.
Zombonis are also a major hassle, but bringing along squash really helps in
this respect. Squash have a faster recharge timer - and much smaller area of
effect - but they work great against 3 or 4 zombonis stacked on top of each
other. Use these on rows 1 and 6 to keep your spikerock healthy enough to
fend off the gargantuars.
If you don't have gargantuars on a level, use the cob cannon against zombonis
or waves of dolphins. Dolphins are one of the most damaging unit to pumpkins
because they aren't being slowed, do lots of damage per chomp, and there are
just so many of them. I often used cob cannon to catch dolphins (fire just
after they throw the dolphins in the air) to ease the burden on my poor
pumpkins on column 7. If you don't have gargantuars, dolphins, or zombonis,
either try to catch jack-in-the-boxes or footballers. Never let your cob
cannon sit idle, unless you're saving them for the next wave.
Eventually you'll start to experience very bad combinations of zombies - and
they will start to happen often enough that you'll run low on sun, spelling
your downfall. Overall, it becomes a matter of luck: as long as you have
plenty of "recovery" time between difficult levels, you can hang on.
==========
Variations
==========
[4ARW6]
The thing that will eventually destroy you with this design are jack-in-the-
boxes on rows 2 and 5. Occasionally, they just have an incredibly short
timer, and they will detonate in column 9 taking out your column 8 and 9
gloom-shrooms. Usually you can recover from one side being destroyed (as long
as you have the sun), but finally so many jack-in-the-boxes will be coming
they'll hit both sides at once, putting you 4 glooms down - and this will
spell your doom. The reason this is so bad is two-fold. First, your overall
offense is severely weakened, since rows 2 and 5 are vulnerable - especially
to vehicles and gargantuar (not to mention more jack-in-the-boxes), and you'll
be spending like mad to protect what you have left. Second, having gloom-
shrooms up to the edge of the pool is MUCH stronger than having them further
back. This is because zombies entering the pool are forced to start on top of
your column 9 glooms, which means they're getting hit by 4 glooms at once. If
they are allowed to get in the pool, they bump up against the glooms and only
get hit by 2 at once. Worse yet, because of the recharge timer when you're
rebuilding you're going to have only one gloom-shroom out front for a period
of time - which means simple cone-head pool zombies suddenly become a real
threat in huge numbers. The only way to solve this issue is to throw lots of
sun at the problem - about 1000-1200 per space at this point - and dropping
over 4000 sun is no joke. Because this design is so effective you will
gradually gain sun on most levels (especially if you're more stingy with your
pumpkins), but if this happens to both sides at once, you may not be able to
come back. If you have less than 4000 sun when it happens, then you're pretty
much sunk for sure (although you will be able to hang on for several more
flags).
Because of this, the only variation on this design is to replace the column 5
gloom-shrooms on rows 2 and 5 with fume-shrooms. Doing this makes rows 1 and
6 even MORE vulnerable to zombonis and footballers (and makes the spikerock
rows no longer optional), but it -might- be able to take out those vicious
column 9 jack-in-the-boxes in time. However, because they blow up so early,
it may not even matter. I was not able to completely test this variation.
[W][G][f][f] # . . . . Symbol Legend
[u][G][W][G][f] + . . . . land G gloom-shroom
b CCCC t [t][G][G][G][G] _ water # spikerock
b CCCC t [t][G][G][G][G] b cattail W winter melon
[u][G][W][G][f] + . . . CC cob cannon [ ] pumpkin
[W][G][f][f] # . . . . u umbrella leaf + spikeweed
========================================
Other Ideas
========================================
[5OTHR]
This development of this guide is a continual process and more ideas are
always welcome. If you have suggestions for new design ideas or useful tweaks
for existing designs please feel free to write in and I will be happy to
credit you. Also, theories only remain untested because I can't take the 4+
hours necessary to test each one of them; if you are able to test a design
feel free to send in your results with as much detail as possible.
========================================
Thanks
========================================
[6THNK]
- Thanks to curby for an excellent guide and strategies!
- Thanks to snapple37 for the arrow head core strategy!
- Thanks to Ian, 10up, and others who pointed out the usefulness of cattails.
========================================
Plants vs. Zombies - Survival: ENDLESS!
Copyright (c)2009 Jason Long. All rights reserved.
Version 2.15. Last Updated 6-28-2009
