Plants vs. Zombies 2 Pro-Tips: Power to the Plants

Pull up a chair and listen to the tale of a Plants vs. Zombies 2 round gone horribly awry. Not only can this happen to anybody, but there is little that can be done once the cogs of fate have started rolling against the player. Unless, of course, there are a few power-ups left in the satchel. Then all bets are off.

Power to the Plants

There comes a time in every player’s game when they decide whether to pack it in and take a loss or dig deep and try for a miracle win. For the non-wussies in the population there are power-ups, which help to level the playing field - for a cost. These specific perks take four different forms and can vary in levels of usefulness.

As far as generic pay-per-use perks go, there are three different ways to dispatch undead using gestural controls: pinching, flicking, or sliding. The one thousand coin lightning bolt is used by sliding a finger between zombie adversaries, which links them in a chain of electric obliteration. A throw costs a bit more, clocking in at twelve hundred, and consists of a flick of the finger that will send the troops reeling. Arguably the most viscerally appealing is the pinch, which simply pops the head off of every reanimated abomination and oddly happens to be the cheapest at only eight hundred coppers.

The last, and easily most useful of the quintet of amplifications, would be the overcharge leaf. This game-changer allows any one plant to cause an absurdly augmented amount of destruction. Every plant is effected by this item differently, but the result is always the same: tons of re-dead corpses. While these normally cost a thousand apiece to unlock, frequently they can be collected off of dispatched plants.

But when are these items right to use? Most times they should be saved for the last or middle wave of zombies, unless the fate of a mower is in question. If a match can be won using less than three perks, then it's normally worth it. The reason for this is that between two to three uneventful stages, these losses can be recouped without necessitating the spending of a penny of actual cash.

Most critical of the decisions is which power-up will be most effective for a given scenario. As far as bang for the buck goes, the pinch is the most effective in clearing a map while not draining the bank. If undead are bunched together, a couple of double flicks can go a long way towards cleaning house. Heavily armored brutes are best to be left for the electric bolt. They may not end up completely drained by the end of the attack, but all of the weaker enemies in the area will be singed beyond repair, leaving all the defenses with a single target.

It may seem like a no-brainer to purchase as many overcharge leafs as possible, but they're abundant enough through death drops that it should almost never need to be done. This power will be the one that is used the most abundantly, but should also be reserved for worst case scenarios. Juicing up a Bloomerang may be the very best use in early worlds, simply due to its combined horizontal and vertical attack, but be sure to experiment with each plant when the stakes are lower.

Be sure to keep it locked here for tomorrow’s final lesson: How to play Plants vs. Zombies 2 forever, without spending a dime. Rest assured, it is not to be missed. So until next time, remember that there is no shame in having a green thumb if keeps the blood off of your hands!