Plants Vs. Zombies Catch-All

Mystic Violet wrote:

- Marigold farming on Last Stand -

This works. I survived all 5 flags.

Make sure you have enough sun power to replace any Garlic that was eaten at the start of every flag.

IMAGE(http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc98/mystic_violet/Screenshots/Video%20Games/MarigoldLastStandGatlingGarlic01.jpg)

Gradually build up a row of 3 Spikeweeds, replace the Garlic when necessary and that's it!

IMAGE(http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc98/mystic_violet/Screenshots/Video%20Games/MarigoldLastStandGatlingGarlic02.jpg)

Violet, you are an angel. That got me the last bit of cash I needed to grow my tree to 100ft. I now have all of the Achievements. I have never done that in a game before. This game is crazy.

I find the easiest way to start an endless survival is to just sunflower like mad while using the mine/squash/wallnut until you can afford your two cattails. They'll handle everything for a few waves, so you can hurl down sunflowers all over the place and rake in the sun. Then you go back and replace the superfluous sunflowers with the real plants once you're swimming in money.

This build was good for 50 flags, and was very resilient:
IMAGE(http://rharvey.home.die.net/forumstuff/50flag.jpg)

Took a long time for the wheels to come off the wagon on that one, and I think if I hadn't fat fingered a critical missile shot I would have gone on for a few more rounds. The key change I finally learned to make was to stop wasting money on upgraded spikes in the first row; they just get smashed by the great whomper hombres. Also I started timing my cob shots to kill vehicles before they reach my 2nd lane, which saves on rebuild costs there. This led to me very rarely spending money (the occasional pumpkin rebuild was about it), and being pegged at 9990 up until the mid 30's. With that much cash, you can spend the later rounds filling up your bar with explosives to stand in for you when your cobs are all reloading.

Mr Crinkle wrote:

This build was good for 50 flags, and was very resilient:
IMAGE(http://rharvey.home.die.net/forumstuff/50flag.jpg)

Took a long time for the wheels to come off the wagon on that one, and I think if I hadn't fat fingered a critical missile shot I would have gone on for a few more rounds. The key change I finally learned to make was to stop wasting money on upgraded spikes in the first row; they just get smashed by the great whomper hombres. Also I started timing my cob shots to kill vehicles before they reach my 2nd lane, which saves on rebuild costs there. This led to me very rarely spending money (the occasional pumpkin rebuild was about it), and being pegged at 9990 up until the mid 30's. With that much cash, you can spend the later rounds filling up your bar with explosives to stand in for you when your cobs are all reloading.

Thats definately a good setup.

I'll have to try it out.

I'm having a great time with this game. The art style is fantastic and the game's a lot of fun.

I think my favorite part so far is the Almanac; make sure to read through the entires. Some of the descriptions are great.

One Question:

What does the Pool Cleaner upgrade do? I've not seen them do anything in the game yet.

The Pool Cleaner is to the pool lanes what the lawnmower is to the grass lanes. It gets triggered once a zombie is past your defense and cleans the lane.

Puce Moose wrote:

What does the Pool Cleaner upgrade do? I've not seen them do anything in the game yet.

It's like the lawn mowers, except for the pool rows. If a zombie gets by all your plants and reaches the end, the pool cleaner will trigger and clear out that entire row.

Thanks for the answers.

I just unlocked the garlic plant; I nearly fell out of my chair laughing the first time a zombie tried to munch on it; that sound effect and the look on the zombie's face was priceless.

*Phew* finally got my brains munched on level 5-8. It took me four tries to get past those foul gargantuans; the last one kept taking me out. Careful timing with a potato mine saved the day.

Hey guys do you have any favoured strategies for I, Zombie? My record is only 8 flags. I just can't seem to get to 10!

You just have to adapt to what is on the screen. If they don't have a defense against diggers drop a digger. If they don't have anything that can stop you drop the cheapest zombie. Sometimes you will have to send two zombies out with a little space between them so one will block for the other.

Yeah, diggers are pretty much the best way to get more sunlight, if there is nothing blocking it's path or shooting backwards. At the later stages I always tried to get rid of magnets and those umbrella plants as soon as possible. The bungie dudes are good for getting rid of magnets.

I, Zombie is a pain. The levels are random and sometimes you'll get a good flower high-density level early, and then sometimes you'll get crap that has to be brute forced.

The randomness is what totally screws me over. Sometimes I get 4 sunflowers and something trivial like a spikeweed. But then in other rows I get 4 fume shrooms in a row. It doesn't help that sunflowers gets super scarce in later levels.

Do you guys think football zombies and dancing zombies are worth it?

Tamren wrote:

The randomness is what totally screws me over. Sometimes I get 4 sunflowers and something trivial like a spikeweed. But then in other rows I get 4 fume shrooms in a row. It doesn't help that sunflowers gets super scarce in later levels.

Do you guys think football zombies and dancing zombies are worth it?

The dancing, not really unless I needed to get more than row and didn't have the sunflower for two or three of something else. The football zombies . . . I can't remember. I think bucket zombies were pretty much all I ever needed for extra protection.

Cheap is the way to go. I, Zombie was actually my favorite mode out of them all and I don't recall having much trouble (though other ones gave me a fit that other people found easy), but what I do remember is that cheaper is better. Meaning, spamming units with a little forethought worked wonders for me.

Tamren wrote:

Do you guys think football zombies and dancing zombies are worth it?

Rarely, but occasionally. I have cleared three rows with one dancing zombie when the setup is right. Every once in a while the football zombie's speed is handy. Maybe one of each throughout an entire run though.

I did much better my first try in I, Zombie then all my other tries. The dancing zombie has it's place. When you have one easy row, that has 1 or more tough rows next to it. Or in other words use the dancing the zombie to take out 2-3 rows at once. It's really nice because the backup dancers keep re-spawning as long as the MJ zombie is alive, use that to your advantage.

If you want money, leave the game running on Zen Garden in a window while you do something else. Slap some chocolate on that snail, and check back once in a while to water or whatever. It won't take all that long to get every upgrade in the game. Well, at least by my standards, but I play MMO's.

I enjoy the endless and survival modes, but if I'm farming, I'm farming for different Zen Garden plants.

For big money finding and selling plants is really where its at. Fill up on marigolds and only sell one to make room for a new plant. The coin drops on the garden really pay off.

I don't even have a garden. How the hell far into the game is it before all the different modes are available? I think I'm on the 5th level?

I know I was at least on the roof for the first time, but I think I got to the stage after that. I just don't remember what it was.

The garden comes up later in the campaign. Long after you gain access to the store if I remember correctly. A lot of the stuff is locked until you beat the campaign for the first time.

The whore that I am, coming soon to XBLA..

MaxShrek wrote:

The whore that I am, coming soon to XBLA..

I heard that, and I'm sure I'll buy it again.

Agh, I was 25 sun away from getting a streak of 10 on I, Zombie.

For money, the easiest way to get a lot is to cheat by editing your save game. Personally I don't have the patience to grind it out from the Zen Garden or Last Stand. Open up your user1.dat file with a hex editor. Bytes 8 through B (11 in base-10) store how much money you have divided by 10 in little endian byte order. You don't have to understand what that means, just change those bytes to FF FF 00 00 and you'll have enough money to buy everything except all the Tree of Wisdom food needed to unlock everything. Note that if you try to give yourself too much money you can overflow and bad things will probably happen.

I'm skimming so this may have been posted already, but I just noticed Plants vs. Zombies' new ad campaign and it had me laughing my butt off:

IMAGE(http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CLCqmr_w3f7ADxDYBRhaMghX9_hl3TYYrQ)

For those who don't know, here is the ad campaign they are parodying.

Switchbreak wrote:

I'm skimming so this may have been posted already, but I just noticed Plants vs. Zombies' new ad campaign and it had me laughing my butt off:

IMAGE(http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CLCqmr_w3f7ADxDYBRhaMghX9_hl3TYYrQ)

For those who don't know, here is the ad campaign they are parodying.

That is awesome!!!

Irongut wrote:

My 6 year old's uncontested favorite game for months has been Caste Crashers.

A simple typo, I know, but one that sent me on a dizzying mental imagining of such a game. One of the Untouchables infiltrates a higher echelon caste and begins a shadowy campaign to bring freedom and equality to his people!

I'd totally play that.

PvZ was only purchased a week ago, but it has taken over any other games.

Outside of the normal summer fun, my 6 and 8 year old are competing a bit for PvZ time since it got its zombie claws on them. I hear a lot of "He played last" and "It's my turn." I am stuck waiting patiently for a window to play when they aren't.. darn.

My 6 year old's uncontested favorite game for months has been Castle Crashers. No more. He told me this morning its #2 now. CC has been great fun, but at the sametime he has been on a determined quest to get everything the game has to offer(pets, weapons, tier 3 characters), which has meant a lot of co-op fun for us all. At times I would think... oh my, will CC never end, but now I'm kinda sad to see CC dethroned.

It's very interesting to see my sons personalities manifest in the game. My 8 year old is very organized. He takes after his mother this way and he creates a very planned set of defenses. My younger son is more fuzzy, even more than I. He keeps planting and planting. No organization whatsoever, and somehow he hasnt failed a level yet. It both surprises and cracks me up.

We went to a community music concert last night that is held on a farm. On the way from our car, we walked through a community garden. There was a 'Squash' laying on the grass that someone had picked and this kicked off a conversation of PvZ. They asked where the pea shooters are. I told my sons, 'The zombies must've got'em." But then we saw a magnificent row of green beans and were all greatly relieved.

All that's left is my wife. I'm curious if she'll give it a whirl. She such a patient (with my hobby spending) non-gamer (outside of her PacMan and Starcraft). I think she would like it if she gave it a try. She loves to turtle in SC. The barrier is just getting her to try.

Switchbreak wrote:

I'm skimming so this may have been posted already, but I just noticed Plants vs. Zombies' new ad campaign and it had me laughing my butt off:

IMAGE(http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CLCqmr_w3f7ADxDYBRhaMghX9_hl3TYYrQ)

For those who don't know, here is the ad campaign they are parodying.

This is just full of win.

Ahh. oops. Caste Crashers. Yeah I meant Castle Crashers.. though Caste Crashes may be an untapped gaming idea
That could be either a strategy or action oriented game.

Switchbreak wrote:

I'm skimming so this may have been posted already, but I just noticed Plants vs. Zombies' new ad campaign and it had me laughing my butt off:

IMAGE(http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CLCqmr_w3f7ADxDYBRhaMghX9_hl3TYYrQ)

For those who don't know, here is the ad campaign they are parodying.

Just saw this at Penny Arcade. Whoever's behind the Plants vs. Zombies ad deserves some kind of award.