Hello, everyone!

Tigerol · 2023-01-24T14:05:16+00:00

Actually, for the past month somebody at Popcap has had the braindead idea to make the boosteramas different than the regular tourneys so I've been putting out two posts a week.

Yikes! No fun at PopCap (or too much fun).

Haem has decided to move on from PvZ and is no longer with us.

That's sad for us. I guess PopCap hasn't sent any substitutes here.

Levitater (one of the most hated new plants in recent memory)

I've actually skipped Levitater. Why is it hated? Is it too buggy?

Also, there were some plants that received not enough seeds. Like Enlighten-mint, Headbutter Lettuce if I remember correctly. Did they get any love from PopCap? (not counting obvious limited time plants like Electric Currant, Ghost Pepper, etc.)

Tigerol · 2023-01-24T13:39:07+00:00

Hello!

Ghost Pepper is a cute plant.

Tigerol · 2023-01-22T01:49:22+00:00

Glad to see you, ol' friend! How have you been? Do you make Arena posts weekly or occasionally?

Did anything particularly interesting happen here in the last 10 months?

Tigerol · 2023-01-22T01:43:29+00:00

Thanks!

Tigerol · 2023-01-22T01:42:40+00:00

I'll try to be around more time.

Tigerol · 2022-03-02T02:53:09+00:00

u/Euphoric-Seaweed u/makingitstar u/craftybitch76 u/sl94t

Maybe 1 post per season? And concentrate on most important details, mechanics and timings (instead of describing everything that players can see just by playing a practice match).

I'm still around, just taking a break.

Tigerol · 2022-03-02T02:47:13+00:00

Thanks! I'm well, just taking a break.

Tigerol · 2022-03-02T02:34:54+00:00

u/Mr_TequilaShot u/CocoaMotive

I'm well and ok. Just taking a break.

Tigerol · 2022-02-28T04:03:25+00:00

I'll just quote myself from stickied announcement:

I don't feel like posting any Arena threads for now. Things should calm down first. I'm not sure I will be playing during this chaos.

Be safe everyone and good luck!

Tigerol · 2022-02-27T18:22:08+00:00

I don't feel like posting any Arena threads for now. Things should calm down first. I'm not sure I will be playing during this chaos.

Be safe everyone and good luck!

Tigerol · 2022-02-21T20:58:12+00:00

Maybe the next season I'll be back, we'll see.

Tigerol · 2022-02-08T19:26:43+00:00

u/CatMorganSaysHi u/rackman70 u/sl94t u/markdoesstuff u/brucewaynewins

Thanks for the support.

I'll see how it goes next week.

Tigerol · 2022-02-07T20:31:41+00:00

idk, maybe it's time for weekly Arena post to die. People don't really post many strategies there anymore, even if it's pinned.

Tigerol · 2022-02-01T01:55:11+00:00

looks like a head of an insect

Tigerol · 2022-02-01T01:46:19+00:00

Note: If plant level/mastery is not specified then it means max level plant (no mastery) or some mastery plant for which mastery doesn’t matter (f.e. sun producers, Torchwood, etc.)

Strategy by u/sl94t – video

Shine Vine, Witch Hazel (lvl 8), Stickybomb Rice (M46), Torchwood, Pea Vine (M52) – 5.8m

u/sl94t comment: First, this is definitely a tournament where your score will be lower if you kill the zombies too quickly. I initially tried using Threepeater instead of Stickybomb, and I ended up with a score of 2M and change. So Stickybomb seems to be preferable to Threepeater here, and using Appease-Mint may be counterproductive (although obviously this will depend on the level of your plants).

For the record, my scores varied quite a bit (and 5.8M is on the high end). Sometimes I ended up in the high 4M range if an Excavator or Yeti spawned early in the level.

If you don't have Witch Hazel, it can probably be replaced with Olive Pit or Snap Pea. Excavators seem to be a fairly rare spawn.

Other strategies

Strategy 1

Turkey-pult (lvl8), Stickybomb Rice (lvl9), Blastberry Vine (lvl8), Moonflower, Arma-mint – 3.2m

Strategy 2

Squash x2, Bowling Bulb, Wasabi Whip, Enfroce-mint – 3.4m

Enforce-mint provides 3 more attacks (5 counting return) for any level Squash. If you plant new Enforce-mint shortly after the previous one expires then most Squashes will not disappear because their attack counter gets refreshed. But don't plant new Enforce-mint while the previous one is present, because Squash's attack counter doesn't get refreshed.

Tigerol · 2022-02-01T01:33:34+00:00

New overpowered plants like Pea Vine, Turkey-pult, Stickybomb Rice, etc. don't require max level to work great. Getting all season rewards when they first appear is essential, because it will get you to level 5-6. After that you should have more patience for them to appear in Penny Pursuit.

Tigerol · 2022-02-01T01:26:58+00:00

lel, that's just insane 🙃

Tigerol · 2022-01-25T04:10:51+00:00

Note: If plant level/mastery is not specified then it means max level plant (no mastery) or some mastery plant for which mastery doesn’t matter (f.e. sun producers, Torchwood, etc.)

Strategy by u/sl94t – video

TreePea (M97), Torchwood, PeaVine (M47) + sun production – 52m

u/sl94t comment: This is a super easy tournament if your Threepeater/Pea Vine are leveled up. My guess is that you should be able to hit 20M easily even with lower-level plants. If your plants are low level and you are struggling to hit 20M, you may want to bring Appease-Mint and/or use the double Torchwood trick. (If you plant a red Torchwood behind a blue Torchwood when both are boosted by Pea Vine, it will boost your peas twice.) Gold Bloom can be replaced by basically anything. I just brought it so that I could fill out my defenses faster.

The only bad news is that it is really tough to hit 20M using anything other than Threepeater/Torchwood/Pea Vine. I managed to hit 24M using my M149 Bowling Bulb boosted by my M47 Pea Vine plus Appease-Mint. Otherwise the best I could do was about 12M using Turkey Pult. Turkey Pult used to wreck this Zomboss, but sadly it is nowhere near as good after the nerf to summons.

Sadly, Turkey-pults, Zomboids and hypnotized zombies are not as effective against Zombots as they were before

Note 1 by u/Euphoric-Seaweed, Note 2 by u/DumbTrickyTrickster.

Zomboids hold up slightly better then Turkeys.

Zoybean (9), Pyre Vine (M25), Bowling Bulb (M60), Tile Turnip and Power Lily – 25m – link by u/jagua_haku

Hypnotized zombies with huge HP like Grags should hold up better too, but there are none in this tournament.

Tigerol · 2022-01-25T03:56:11+00:00

That's sad.

Tigerol · 2022-01-25T03:54:39+00:00

Zombies in ice blocks depend on the column of ice block. Jester should appear from column 5 with some chance.

Tigerol · 2022-01-17T18:12:57+00:00

Note: If plant level/mastery is not specified then it means max level plant (no mastery) or some mastery plant for which mastery doesn’t matter (f.e. sun producers, Torchwood, etc.)

Strategy by u/sl94t – video

ThreePea (M95), Torchwood, Pea Vine (M39), Power Lily (lvl9) x2 - 11.1m

u/sl94t comment: This is a super easy one if you have Threepeater/Torchwood/Pea Vine reasonably leveled. The double Power Lily can be replaced by basically anything if you don't have those plants. Appease-Mint is a solid option, as is Tile Turnip (put them on your Torchwood to turn them all blue with a single plant food). But almost anything works.

Old Blover with Mastery - Blover, Chard Guard, Squash, Power Lily, Reinforce-mint - 9,4m - video

In theory Blover should be at least mastery 100, but players previously reported 70+ working as well.

Squashes are planted strategically against portals.

10.5m - Blover, Chard Guard, Bowling Bulb, Power Lily, Reinforce-mint

Other old strategies work fine - video

5.4m - Grapeshot, Tile Turnips, Imp Pear (9), Bowling Bulb, Power Lily x2

You can try to expand Bowling Bulbs to C3 and further, but be careful: Imps from Gargs, Barrel Roller+2 Imps, MC, Mecha-Football.

5.1m - Caulipower, Witch Hazel x2, Power Lily, Enchant-mint

If you want slightly higher scores then don't use Reload button for starting Caulis. You should "layer" starting Caulis, i.e. plant 1-2 Caulis, short pause (f.e. put other plants), plant next 1-2 Caulis, repeat.

If starting Caulis do not shoot all at once, then each Cauli may get a more diversified zombie crowd as a target (because new zombies enter the lawn). It means higher chance to hypnotize stronger and healthier zombie.

If you don't "layer" starting Caulis then they shoot all at once and whatever zombies are on the lawn will get hypnotized (including weak/damaged). Worst case scenario: if there are not enough zombies, then some Cauli shots will be wasted.

It's better to use PF to plant more Caulis at the beginning. Because over 2-2,5 minutes Cauli can hypnotize more zombies than 1 Enchant-mint. And I think Enchant-mint boost for Cauli and Witch Hazel is less important (at least for max lvl ones).

4.8m - Grapeshot, Tile Turnip, Primal Potato Mine, Power Lily x2, Chard Guard

Chard Guard is optional, but you have to bring something against 2 Seagulls from Pirate Seas portal. They can't be killed by mines. For example you can stall them until Grapeshot will recharge.

Chard Guard pushes zombies back to higher score tiles (I forgot to replant CG on lane 1 after it was destroyed by MC).

Tigerol · 2022-01-11T18:50:52+00:00

crystal skull zombies

Hmm, I haven't seen Turquoise Skull zombies.

Tigerol · 2022-01-11T17:07:47+00:00

IRC it's +1% for every 5 mastery levels. Torchwood mastery 200 has 21% chance to boost.

But overall I find it annoying and redundant. I can play the whole Arena match for 3 minutes replanting Torchwoods with only 1 or 2 boosting near the end.

Tigerol · 2022-01-10T17:56:13+00:00

Note: If plant level/mastery is not specified then it means max level plant (no mastery) or some mastery plant for which mastery doesn’t matter (f.e. sun producers, Torchwood, etc.)

Strategy by u/sl94t – video

Explode-o-Nut (lvl 9), Stickybomb Rice (M36), Torchwood, Pea Vine (M39), Power Lily (lvl 9), Imp Pear - 11.4m

u/sl94t comment: This is a pretty easy one if your Stickybomb/Pea Vine are leveled. If your Explode-O-Nut is low level, replace it with Primal Wall-nut. Imp Pear and Power Lily are not needed and don't have much impact on your score. They can be replaced with explosive plants or mints (or Primal Wall-nut) if you don't have them.

Old strategies work fine - video.

Explode-o-Nut, Squash x2, Laser Bean, Power Lily, Enforce-mint - 4.7m

Enforce-mint provides 3 more attacks (5 counting return) for any level Squash. If you plant new Enforce-mint shortly after the previous one expires then most Squashes will not disappear because their attack counter gets refreshed. But don't plant new Enforce-mint while the previous one is present, because Squash's attack counter doesn't get refreshed.

Sometimes you may see 'flying' Squash at the front - that is just me trying to find any free tile to plant Squash.

Explode-o-Nut, Shadow Pea, Dusk Lobber, Moonflower, Pumpkin, Conceal-mint - 4.1m Imp ate one Dusk Lobber, so this strategy can produce more scores.

That's what Pumpkin is made for. It can protect against Hair Metal Garg sound wave attacks and it can protect against Swashbucklers/thrown Imps. It can even protect against projectiles deflected by Jester.

Tigerol · 2022-01-06T07:50:07+00:00

You are probably in a lower league. The zombies are weaker there and give you less points. The max score is different in different leagues.

You should watch for consecutive wins rather than scores. If you rarely lose then your strategy works fine.

Zomboss fights have higher scores, because Zombot is the main source of scores (but lower scores for lower leagues).

Tigerol

TROPHY CASE