Plants vs Zombies
From Badges Wiki
| |
| Status: | Active |
|---|---|
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | PopCap Games |
| Publisher: | unknown |
| LTP badge type: | Generic 3 |
| Game version: | Restricted |
| Game length: | 14 levels (Adventure), ??? (Survival), ??? (Puzzle) |
| Playable in non-IE browsers: | Yes |
Contents |
Gameplay information
Plants vs Zombies is a defense type game where you must place plants to defend from the attacking hordes of zombies.
The currency of the game is simply called "sun". In the daytime levels (1-1 to 1-10), 25 sun will drop from the sky every ~6 seconds. Some plants also generate sun by dropping it. You must click on the sun to add it to your total. If you fail to pick up sun for ~7 seconds, it is lost. At the end of each level, before you click the level-ending token, sun stops being generated but you can still use your existing supply to buy new plants. When you click on the token, any sun left on the level is instantly collected, although this has no significance in the online version.
The level consists of 5 lanes, each divided into 9 tiles. Each tile can hold one plant. Each zombie will walk down one lane. Zombies never change lanes and plants can't attack zombies in other lanes. (These facts only hold for the online version. Note that the exploding plants can damage zombies in different lanes than where they are placed, but these work like "nukes" as opposed to the consistent damage plants.) Level 1-1 only uses 1 lane, 1-2 and 1-3 use 3 lanes, and levels 1-4 onwards use all 5.
To place a plant, you must have enough sun to cover its cost. Each plant also has a cooldown time during which it can't be placed again. The "bomb" type plants start with their cooldown active at the beginning of the level. You can only use 6 types of plants on each level. Until level 1-8 this is not a problem since you only have 6 or less plant types. Level 1-8 introduces the seventh type. From this level onwards, you'll have to choose exactly 6 plant types to use.
A zombie that reaches a plant begins to eat it. Plants have limited HP and don't regenerate. If a zombie reaches the end of a lane, it first activates the lawnmower located in that lane. The lawnmower destroys all zombies in the lane but doesn't destroy any plants. If a zombie reaches the end of a lane with no lawnmower, the result is instant Game Over - no chance to replay the level (although you can go into the menu and retry before the zombie actually reaches the house).
You get access to the shovel at level 1-5 (although won't be able to use it for its real purpose until 1-6). The shovel removes a plant, has no cost and no cooldown. It can be used to replace a weaker plant with a stronger one, or to replace a damaged wall-nut with a new one.
Levels 1-5 and 1-10 are special. 1-5 is a bowling game where you get "bowling balls" to use from a conveyor and you must put them down in the back 3 columns. Level 1-10 also gives you plants on a conveyor rather than you purchasing them for sun, but in this level all the available plants are given and the whole level is enabled for planting.
Later levels have graves on them. These both prevent planting on the tiles they are on, and serve as the entry point for some zombies in the "massive" waves.
Plant types
Normal plants
| Image | Name | Cost (sun) | Cooldown (sec) | First available | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower | 50 | 7.5 | 1-2 | Generates 25 sun every ~25 sec. |
| Sun-shroom | 25 | 7.5 | 2-2 | When placed, generates 15 sun every ~12 sec. After 2 minutes it grows into a Large Sun-shroom which generates 25 sun every ~12 sec. |
| Peashooter | 100 | 7.5 | 1-1 | Attacking plant with unlimited range. |
| Snow Pea | 175 | 7.5 | 1-7 | Does normal damage plus slows the target. |
| Chomper | 150 | 7.5 | 1-8 | 1 tile range. Can kill a zombie regardless of health, but vulnerable while digesting. It digests for 40 seconds. |
| Repeater | 200 | 7.5 | 1-9 | Fires at twice the rate of the Pea Shooter. Effectively halves the effective cooldown and space usage of the Pea Shooter while retaining the cost and power. |
| Puff-shroom | 0 | 7.5 | 2-1 | 2 tile range, same damage as Pea Shooter. |
| Fume-shroom | 75 | 7.5 | 2-3 | 4 tile range, damages every target in range. |
Single-use plants
| Image | Name | Cost (sun) | Cooldown (sec) | First available | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherry Bomb | 150 | 50 | 1-3 | When placed, it instantly explodes and kills every zombie in a 3*3 area. |
| Wall-nut | 50 | 20 | 1-4 | Doesn't do any damage, but it takes a very long time to eat through. |
| Squash | 50 | 20 | 1-6 | 1 tile range. Stays idle until it finds a target. May kill multiple zombies if they are close to each other. |
| Grave Buster | 75 | 7.5 | 2-4 | Removes a grave. It takes 4.5 seconds to complete its job. It doesn't start its cooldown at the start, unlike the other single-use plants. |
Special plants
| Image | Name | Cost (sun) | Cooldown (sec) | First available | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Bowling Wall-nut | N/A | N/A | 1-5 | Rolls forward. After first impact, it starts travelling up-forward, then alternates between up-forward and down-forward on each impact. Kills normal zombies with 1 hit and knocks down the cones from cone-head zombies. |
|
| Bowling Explode-o-nut | N/A | N/A | 1-5 | Rolls forward and explodes on impact, killing everything within a 3*3 tile area. |
Zombies
| Image | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | Drops its head after 10 hits. Although it can no longer eat without its head, it will still catch a few shots until it finally falls. |
| Flag carrier | Same as the normal zombie. |
| Cone-head | After 19 hits, it drops the cone and becomes a normal zombie. |
| Athlete | Dies in about 17 hits. Moves quickly while it still has its vaulting pole. When it reaches a plant, it vaults over, skipping the plant, but it also loses the pole and slows down to normal speed. It will also attempt to vault over cherry bombs and squash. |
| Bucket-head | After about 55 hits, it loses the bucket and becomes a normal zombie. |
| Newspaper reader | After 8 hits, it loses the newspaper and after a quick pause it switches to running speed. It takes another 9 hits before dying. |
| Door carrier | If attacked by Fume Shroom: dies straight after 14 hits. If attacked by anything else: loses the door after 55 hits and becomes a normal zombie. Immune to slowing while it still has the door. |
Tips
General
- Place sun-generating plants in the two back columns as they contribute nothing to your defense, while it's a major setback if you lose them.
- Sun shrooms are better than sun flowers because they produce more sun over the same interval. If we assume that the sun shroom produces exactly twice as often as the flower, then the flower produces 25 sun per 25 sec, while the shroom produces 30 sun per 25 sec in its small state and 50 sun per 25 sec in its grown state. The apparent slowdown in sun production stems from the fact that in the night levels you don't get the sun falling from the sky, which is worth about 4 sunflowers' production.
- At the start of the levels, focus on sun production rather than defense. Since you'll get only one zombie in each lane in the early waves, only build plants to counter those few. In the daytime levels, a peashooter will do the job. In the night levels, use puff-shrooms, as they are free and don't take away from the pace of the economic buildup (which is limited by the lack of the daytime sun).
- In the night levels, make sure you spend your initial sun on a sun-producing plant, or you won't be able to buy any more plants except puff-shrooms.
- Snow Peas are a great plant to have, as they buy you extra time to take down the super tough zombies. In the night levels where you get Fume Shrooms, leave the third column open for snow peas while placing the shrooms in the fourth column and beyond. Since peas have unlimited range, they will work just as well in the back as in the front, while a shroom placed closer to the entrance will be able to start attacking earlier.
Strategy by kaleto
I concur with this strategy. I try to plant two columns of sunflowers/sun shrooms. I also plant two sunflowers/sun shrooms before planting the first offensive plant.
I stopped using the grave eater because I needed the free spot for the cherry bomb. Although you might only use the cherry bomb twice per round, it is great when a horde of zombies is approaching. Note on the bottom of the screen there is a bar which shows the zombies' progress and when a horde is approaching.
The walnuts are invaluable--just don't plant them too far in front of your small purple mushrooms because of the limited range of the shrooms.
The last level for me by column looks like this: two columns of sun shrooms, a column of frozen pea shooters (great against the tough zombies), a column of big purple shrooms, 3 columns of small purple shrooms, and a column of walnuts. As I get more sun money, I replace the small purple shrooms with big ones.
I also try to keep the far right square in the middle row open to plant the cherry bomb when the horde approaches. When the horde does come, zombies pop up out of the graves; another reason to use the cherry bomb in that vicinity.
