Endless Zone

"The Endless Zones are harder than usual!"

- Penny Endless Zones (also referred to as Danger Rooms; Challenge Zones in the old version) in Plants vs. Zombies 2 are sets of endless levels that will increase difficulty as the player progresses. The main idea of Endless Zone is purely similar to Survival:Endless, where in an unlimited number of zombies will make an effort in reaching the player's house. All zombies are listed as belligerents excluding Dr. Zomboss and his creations. While it is a notable similarity, there are notable differences.

In Survival:Endless, there is only one level and one setting, there are only two flags per wave, sun bank is retained, no rewards will be collected, lawn mowers cannot be replenished, and placed plants on the first two waves are retained but the player is then given a chance to regroup and re-choose their corresponding arsenals. Since placed plants from the beginning are retained, when the next onslaught starts, zombies will immediately come in large groups. Finally, there are 22 zombies all in all listed as belligerents for the level. On the first two levels, it will select the basics (i.e Conehead Zombie and Buckethead Zombie). It will be then shuffled and will select more until all zombies are encountered, from which there will be 9-10 random zombies will be selected and will be deployed for an onslaught.

Meanwhile, the endless zone portrays an identical feature but with few differences. The player will start with either three or four plants automatically given to them as they start. From there, there will be a total of 94 cards if the player starts with three given plants, 93 if four, with some plants ommited since their use will be invalidated if their usage is not really usable on a certain location. (18 of which are premiums), representing each plants acquired (assuming all plants are acquired and available for use). The cards will flash four random plants with three face-up and one face-down and requires paying 2000 coins. As the player progresses, they get to pick one more card until the cards show power-ups, plant food, sun bank, or lawn mower. Furhtermore, the player can replenish their lost lawn mowers, a feature that Survival:Endless does not possess. Also, in all levels no matter how high it is, the level always starts the onslaught by deploying a single Basic Zombie across the lawn and the next set of zombies willl be deployed after a certain period of time of delaying to kill it or by killing it immediately. Also, as each level passes, all placed plants on the lawn will be cleared and the sun bank will reset to 0. Instead, plant food and lawn mowers are retained on next levels until they either failed to fill in all slots for Plant Food or they lose a lawn mower by intentional (either by last resort or by mower launch upgrade) or accidental (mower launch upgrade). Finally, unlike Survival:Endless, the endless zone has 10 different settings, each of which is listed below.

Pyramid of Doom
This is Ancient Egypt's Endless Zone. As the player progresses through higher levels, the lawn will be filled with large number of tombstones, occupying most spaces and preventing the player from planting any kind of plant. The zombies to watch out for in this Endless Zone are Explorer Zombie, Tomb Raiser Zombie, Pharaoh Zombie, and Mummified Gargantuar. There are a total of 86 plants available in Pyramid of Doom

Dead Man's Booty
This is Pirate Seas's Endless Zone. The number and placement of plank bridges will vary in different levels. It is easier when there are less plank bridges since there are less Gargantuars to handle. Dangerous zombies in this Endless Zone are Barrel Roller Zombie, Imp Cannon, Pirate Captain Zombie, and Gargantuar Pirate. Overall, here are total of 87 plants available in Dead Man's Booty.

Big Bad Butte
This is Wild West's Endless Zone. As the player progresses through higher levels, the lawn will be filled with minecarts that can either occupy two, three, four, or five rows. The mine carts can also occupy many spaces, limiting the player from planting. However, the player can also use these to delay Wild West Gargantuars. Watch out for Pianist Zombies, Chicken Wrangler Zombies, Zombie Bull Riders, and the Wild West Gargantuar in this Endless Zone. Like Dead Man's Booty, there are total of 87 plants available in Big Bad Butte.

Terror from Tomorrow
This is the Far Future's Endless Zone. As the player progresses throughout the higher levels, the lawn will sometimes give less Power Tiles and machined zombies are most likely to appear at the very beginning of the level. Robo-Cone Zombies, Disco-tron 3000s, Mecha-Football Zombies, and Gargantuar Primes are considered dangerous in this Endless Zone. Like Dead Man's Booty and Big Bad Butte, there are total of 87 plants available in Terror from Tomorrow.

Arthur's Challenge
This is Dark Ages' Endless Zone. As the player progresses throughout the higher levels, eighty percent of the lawn will be filled with tombstones, preventing the player from planting plants. Also, from time to time gravestones will rise more frequently, making the surprise attack much frequent that it was. Powerful zombies in this Endless Zone include the Knight Zombie, Jester Zombie, Wizard Zombie, and Dark Ages Gargantuar. Liker Pyramid of Doom, Arthur's Challenge has a total of 86 cards available.

Tiki Torch-er
This is Big Wave Beach's Endless Zone. As the player progresses throughout the higher levels, the tide line will get closer and closer to the edge of the lawn, forcing the player to use Lily Pad and Tangle Kelp and giving zombies such as the Surfer and Snorkel an advantage by allowing them to stay in the water longer. The tide also changes more often, sometimes surprising the player by swamping his/her plants or summoning powerful zombies via Low Tide. Watch out for Surfer Zombies, Octo Zombies, Fisherman Zombies, and Deep Sea Gargantuars in this Endless Zone. Because of the tides, ambush attacks, and dangerous zombies; Tiki Torch-er is considered to be the most challenging of all the Endless Zones. Like Dead Man's Booty, Big Bad Butte, and Terror from Tomorrow, Tiki Torch-er has a total of 87 cards available.

Icebound Battleground
This is Frostbite Cave's Endless Zone. Hot Potato is initially given as the player starts the level. The player should be aware of the speed of Ice Weasels, how the Hunter Zombie immobilizes their plants, and how the winds can be powerful in terms of disabling plants. As the player progresses through to higher levels the freezing winds become more of a problem, as Hunter Zombies and winds combined can quickly freeze the player's sun-producing plants or offensive plants. Troglobites can also get more annoying on higher levels of Icebound Battleground because it crushes plants in its path by pushing their ice blocks. Watch out for Blockhead Zombies, Troglobites, Weasel Hoarders and Sloth Gargantuars in this Endless Zone. As such, there are 87 plants available.

Temple of Bloom
This is Lost City's Endless Zone. The Gold Tiles that are naturally spawned on the lawn are usually in random positions and more of a nuisance that a help, because of their rightwards position. Additionally, Excavator Zombies and Parasol Zombies, along with other dangerous zombies, will come faster and in larger groups as the levels progress. The zombies to beware of in this Endless Zone are Excavator Zombie, Parasol Zombie, Bug Zombie, and the Porter Gargantuar. Like its previous counterparts, there are 87 plants that can be obtained.

Greatest Hits
This is Neon Mixtape Tour's Endless Zone. As the player progresses through higher levels, special zombies tend to appear more often and their corresponding jams would play more frequent. Furthermore, since Hair Metal Gargantuar's appearance is very frequent yet relies on jams to be summoned, their appearance in consecutive levels make it a deterrent to push forward. Additionally, Impunks can also provoke powerful zombies on higher levels to spawn them and play a random jam that would make them certainly behave erratically as the player tends to build their sun production, which makes it also a factor for deterrence.

What the player should need to watch out are the following: Hair Metal Gargantuar, Breakdancer Zombie, Impunk, Punk Zombie, Arcade Zombie, Glitter Zombie, MC Zom-B, and immediate music shift. The best thing to do is to observe and devise strategies carefully. There are also a total of 87 plants that can be collected from this Endless Zone.

La Brainsa Tarpits
This is Jurassic Marsh's Endless Zone. As the player progresses through higher levels, more dinosaurs would appear. The player starts with Perfume-shroom and Primal variants of Sunflower, Peashooter, and Wall-nut.

The most dangerous zombies the player may need to worry about are Jurassic Gargantuars and Jurassic Fossilheads. Jurassic Imps can also provide powerful zombies on higher levels to spawn them, while themselves rush through the defense, due to their fast speed, making them dangerous if it appears early in the level. Jurassic Bullies are another zombie to look out when using Primal Peashooter, as they are immune to the pea's push back ability. The player should also be careful on how you use Perfume-shroom. If there are tons of dinosaurs in screen, use the Perfume-shroom on the row with the most Raptors and Pterodactyls. La Brainsa Tarpits has a total of 87 cards available for pick up.

Trivia

 * Versions 1.0 to 1.6 of Plants vs. Zombies 2 forbids the player to Save and Quit over the course of Endless Zone. The only way is to finish the level then save and exit. Along with this version, power-ups and spending coins for Plant Food can only be used once.
 * In the game files, Endless Zones are called "DangerRooms."
 * However, it was heard in some Dev Dairy trailers with part 2 of the world, it was also referred as "Danger Rooms" in the survey.
 * There is a glitch when the player lose the Endless Zone, then play again without quitting, the player will lose all his or her Lawn Mowers in the 1.9 update. However, this was fixed in later versions.
 * There was a glitch where visiting the Zen Garden before starting a level gives the player access to every seed packet. This can be used to get Blover in Pyramid of Doom and E.M.Peach in Big Bad Butte. The seed packets will disappear once the level ends, therefore plants must still be permanently obtained through cards. However, as of version 2.3.1, this glitch was fixed.
 * If the player visits Zen Garden and has chosen either a Plant Food or Sun on four of the cards, the player will still keep the card they have chosen. In previous versions, upon doing so, the selected card will be nullified. However, as of version 2.4.1 the player will get a chance to keep the Sun or Plant Food card he has selected.
 * This glitch also occurs when force-quitting the game in the Seed Selection screen.
 * As of the 2.7.1 update, the plants that are in the card have costumes too. If the plant does not have a costume then it will be seen as a regular one.
 * There are no Endless Zones in the Chinese version.
 * Before the 2.7 update, the player can choose the fourth card without opening it by tapping it first, then tapping one of three first cards, then tapping again the fourth.
 * Out of 12 zombies to fight (11 in Arthur's Challenge), the game will select randomly from five to six zombies that the player will fight in a level (the game selects seven in Big Bad Butte).
 * Tiki Torch-er and Icebound Battleground are the only Endless Zones to have their names changed during development.
 * Originally Tiki Torch-er was to be named "Coastal Calamity", and Icebound Battleground was to be named "Frozen Fear"
 * Ironically, the worlds they are in also had their names changed during development, with Big Wave Beach originally being called "The Beach", and Frostbite Caves originally being called "Ice Age".
 * The Recall button is unusable in Endless Zones.
 * La Brainsa Tarpits is the only Endless Zone that doesn't use the starting plants of Sunflower, Peashooter, and Wall-nut. Instead, it uses their primal versions along with Perfume-shroom.
 * Temple of Bloom, Pyramid of Doom, La Brainsa Tarpits, Icebound Battleground, and Greatest Hits are the only Endless Zones where the first zombie that appears is not always the Basic Zombie variant of the respective world.