Plants are living organisms that belong to the Plantae kingdom. They obtain most of their energy from sunlight in a process called photosynthesis. However, not all plants absorb energy via photosynthesis. They are the protagonists of Plants vs. Zombies and the player’s main defense against the undead assailants.
The plants also populate the Zen Garden, available on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Android, Nintendo DS, iPad, and iPhone versions of Plants vs. Zombies. In the Zen Garden, the player is able to use the Watering Can, Bug Spray and fertilizer to grow plants and earn money
Overview
There are many different plants, each with different abilities and special attributes. During Night, sun does not fall from the sky, so mushrooms are usually used because of their low sun cost. In Pool levels, plants must be either Aquatic or planted on a Lily Pad to be in the water. Fog levels are a mix of night and pool levels but also have fog in the level, which can be removed temporarily with a Blover or removed with a Plantern or Torchwood until the end of the level or whenever the plant is removed with the shovel or eaten/destroyed by zombies. On the Roof, plants require Flower Pots to be planted on before planting the actual plant. Also, the roof is slanted to make the levels harder by making most of the projectiles hit the slanted part of the roof instead of the zombies, so catapult plants are used. A Night Roof setting exists, which is where the player fights Dr. Zomboss.
On the top of each seed packets, there is a phrase: “Bloom and Doom Seed Co.” (except in the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSiWare, Android, and iOS version of Plants vs. Zombies), “BLOOM & DOOM” being a name that PopCap brainstormed when they were looking for names for Plants vs. Zombies.
To fight zombies, certain projectiles are fired from plants. For example, peas are fired from peashooting plants, such as Peashooters, Snow Peas and Threepeaters. Spikes are fired from Cattails and Cacti. Spores are shot from Puff-shrooms, Scaredy-shrooms, and Sea-shrooms. Fumes are shot from Fume-shrooms and Gloom-shrooms. Lobbed-shot plants each fire their own specific kind of projectile such cabbage or melons. Stars are fired from Starfruits. Lobbed-shot plants such as Cabbage-pults, Kernel-pults, Melon-pults, and Winter Melons can also shoot over shields and hit Snorkel Zombies while they are underwater, although they cannot hit Balloon Zombies, despite the fact that they shoot high up, and corn cobs are launched from Cob Cannons.
Note: The table below is about the damage of the projectiles. The numbers are the amount of peas equivalent in damage to the projectile, and a normal Zombie takes ten peas to kill.
| Projectile shooter name | Damage per shot | Projectile | Equivalent in peas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peashooter, Repeater, Threepeater, Split Pea, Gatling Pea | Normal | Pea or fire pea after passing a Torchwood | 1 (pea), 0.7 (fire peas’ splash damage), 2 (fire pea) |
| Snow Pea | Normal, slows zombies | Frozen pea or pea after passing a Torchwood | 1, halves zombies’ speed (frozen pea) |
| Puff-shroom, Scaredy-shroom, Sea-shroom | Normal | Spore | 1 |
| Fume-shroom, Gloom-shroom | Normal, penetrates screen doors, ladders and newspapers | Fumes | 1 |
| Cactus, Cattail | Normal, pops balloons | Spike | 1, pops balloons |
| Starfruit | Normal (for each star) | Star | 1 |
| Cabbage-pult | Normal | Cabbage | 2 |
| Kernel-pult | Light (kernel), normal (butter) | Kernel or butter | 1 (kernel), 2 and stun (butter) |
| Melon-pult | Heavy, area of effect | Melon | 4 (target), 1.5 (splash) |
| Winter Melon | Very heavy, area of effect, slows zombies | Frozen melon | 4 (target), 1.5 (splash), all are slowed |
| Cob Cannon | Massive, area of effect | Corn cob | 90 (three-by-three area) |
Pea
Frozen pea
Spore/Fume
Fire pea
Spike
Star
Cabbage
Kernel
Butter
Melon
Frozen melon
Type of plants
Plants received when playing Adventure Mode
At the end of each level of the player’s first playthrough of Adventure Mode, a new seed packet of a plant made by the Bloom & Doom Seed Company is received from the last zombie to get destroyed. There is a theory that Crazy Dave throws them, according to a Sneak Peek to the Xbox 360 Version. Once the Suburban Almanac is acquired in level 2-4, a sometimes humorous quote of each plant can be read as well as a summary and helpful facts about it.
Plants received at Crazy Dave’s Twiddydinkies
Once Crazy Dave’s car key is found, Crazy Dave’s Twiddydinkies is unlocked and more plants can be purchased with Money. These plants are called upgrade plants. They are the Gatling Pea ($5000), Twin Sunflower ($5000), Gloom-shroom ($7500), Cattail ($10,000), Winter Melon ($10,000), Gold Magnet ($3000), Spikerock ($7500), and Cob Cannon ($20,000). Imitater ($30,000) is also available here but requires completing Adventure Mode before he can be bought. Other upgrade plants will arrive after receiving certain objects, such as Gloom-shroom and Cattail being available to buy when you receive the taco.
Sun producing plants
Sun producing plants are vital for regular levels in order to plant. Each plant has a certain amount of sun that is needed in order for it to be planted. Also, the seed packets for plants have a recharge time; some of which are longer than others. In Survival: Endless, upgrade plants cost 50 more sun to plant for each of that particular plant on the lawn at the time of planting. Below are the costs of sun producing plants and how much sun is produced.
Zombies are reanimated, mindless, decaying corpses with a hunger for human brains. They are the main antagonists of Plants vs. Zombies, as the objective of the game is to prevent them from eating the player’s brains. Zombies, like their defensive counterparts the plants, are varied in strength as well as speed, and command unique aspects which must be countered appropriately.