User blog:Ballistic Planet/Terror from Tomorrow: Three Tried and Tested Strategies

A few notes before we get into the strategies:

All of these strategies will use premiums in some way. I'll either edit this blog or have a follow up blog with a free to play strat (includes no premiums, no 8th seed slot, and no limited Gemiums. Evergreen Gemiums, and Epic Quest plants will be allowed, however)

Also, none of these strategies use the broken Cold Snapdragon or Explode-o-nut!

Consistent Plants
These plants are in all 3 of my strategies. They provide a solid baseline, and make up the backbone of these strategies.

Core:

Sun Producer (take 1 of ):

Luxury Instant (take 1 of):

Firstly, having a sun producer in PVZ2 is mandatory. In these strategies, the best ones are Primal Sunflower and Sun-shroom, since they're the cheapest. Pick whichever one you want, it's all preference. Now I'll go over in detail why we don't use Twin Sunflower after we discuss these strategies, but in short, it's just too slow.

Next up is the core. You'll be taking these four plants into every single TFT level.

Winter Melon is an extremely consistent offensive plant, so we'll want to bring him. He has the damage and range advantage over Cold Snapdragon, so that's why we use him.

Since all three of these strategies are extremely expensive, we'll need a lot of sun early in the level. In TFT, this is easy because of the power tiles. We'll need a lot of plant food throughout the level, so having Power Lily to help us recover it is very valuable.

E.M.Peach pretty much becomes mandatory in later TFT levels, especially for Gargantuars. His (practically) full screen stun effect is too good to pass up.

And finally we have Imitater. In these strategies, Imitater helps us either set up the defense more quickly, (with Power Lily), or allows us to stop Gargantuars a lot more effectively (with E.M.Peach). What you imitate depends on what zombies you go up against, and I'll discuss what to imitate in each strategy.

Last up, we have your luxury instant. Now you may be asking, "What is a luxury instant?" Well the answer is simple. A luxury instant is just an extra filler plant, usually an instant. The plants I listed are the most effective luxury instants in these strategies. Hurrikale can get you out of tough situations, Shrinking Violet can make the zombies here a joke, Cherry Bomb, Grapeshot Jalapeno, or Primal Potato Mine for just blowing stuff up, Ghost Pepper for some consistent DPS, or Squash to deal with zombies quickly.

As I talk about these strats, I'm going to use a couple of abbreviations.


 * LI = Luxury Instant
 * SP = Sun Producer (not Sweet Potato, if I use Sweet Potato I'd use an image of her)

Additionally, I'm going to refer to spots on the lawn by a number system. Lanes will be referred to as lanes 1-5, (going downwards) and columns will be referred to as columns 1-9 (going rightwards) Here's an image to demonstrate what I mean.



Anyways without further ado, let's get into strategy 1!

Strategy #1: Kiwi Attack!
Plants: SP (on Power Lily)  LI

Use against: Anything except

DO NOT use against:

This strategy is the cheapest of the three, and is a fun way to showcase Kiwibeast. The goal of this strategy is to have five Kiwibeasts on the 7th column over Tile Turnips, so as to shred through all the zombies with their plant food effect.

To start off the strategy, you need to identify the best place to put your sun producing plant. Ideally, you'll want to place your sun producing plant on the power tiles with the most quantity on screen. Place down your sun producing plant on the power tiles, and use two plant food on them. Then wait for the level to show how many flags there are. If there's only one flag, then don't use any more plant food. You're gonna have to except that you're not going to get a full column of Tile Turnips, so just focus on getting two or three down in the 7th column (since that's where you're going to plant your Kiwibeasts). If there's two or more flags, then you can go all out with your plant food, since you'll have enough time to get back all the plant food you've spent by the end of the level.

After you've used your plant food on the sun producers, start planting Kiwibeasts on the 7th column, or the 3rd column closest to the zombies. Place down your Kiwibeast in the same lane as the first zombie, so that he'll start to get eaten (and thus, grow to his second stage). Keep planting down Kiwibeasts until you have a full column of them, or until you see a Jetpack Zombie. Unless you brought Hurrikale, Ghost Pepper, or Squash, defeating a Jetpack Zombie this early will require you to either expend a Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno, or Grapeshot, or build a Winter Melon to stop it. Both of these options are rather costly, so choose wisely.

Once you have a full column of Kiwibeasts, start saving up for Winter Melons. Ideally, you'll want to place your first Winter Melon where the first mech spawns. If the first mech spawns in either lane 1, 3, or 5, then you'll need to place your Winter Melon in it's lane, as well as the aforementioned lanes (IE if a mech spawns in lane 3, place your next Winter Melons in lanes 1 and 5). If the first mech spawns in lanes 2 or 4, then you'll need to place your next Winter Melon in the other lane I mentioned which it didn't spawn in. (IE if a mech spawns in lane 2, then place your next Winter Melon in lane 4) This gives us the most coverage against zombies.

Once you have your Winter Melons in either the 1/3/5 or 2/4 configuration, start planting your Tile Turnips underneath the Kiwibeasts. You'll want atleast 3 Tile Turnips under your Kiwibeasts before you use your plant food on them. Try to place your Tile Turnips under the lowest stage Kiwibeasts, so you can try to make all of the Kiwibeasts as large as possible. After you have 2-3 Tile Turnips down, finish off your column of Winter Melons. Once your column of Winter Melons are finished, you may finish the column of Tile Turnips. Once you have a column of Tile Turnips and Kiwibeasts, go ahead and spend a plant food on the Kiwibeasts, and watch as they shred zombies. After you've finished your column of Tile Turnips, spam Winter Melons and the columns behind them, since more damage is always good.

Extra Tips:


 * Only use two column of sun producers at most, as any more will flood the lawn with unnecessary plants.
 * Try to use Power Lily and Imitater Power Lily when you have extra sun to. Weaving them into your plantings is key to this strategy.
 * Kiwibeasts should always go into the 7th column. This is because in their large form, they'll be able to hit the zombies as soon as they walk onto the lawn. Just be careful of Imp Bots that can spawn behind them.
 * Tile Turnip on Winter Melons is never as cool as on Kiwibeasts, and Kiwibeasts have the added knockback effect on their plant food.
 * Using a plant food on a plant restores it to full health, so after you've prioritized the lowest stage Kiwibeast with Tile Turnips, try prioritizing the ones that are lower on HP.
 * Once again, if you see a Mecha-Football Zombie or Gargantuar Prime in the seed select, DO NOT use this strategy, since it's terrible against those two zombies.

Here are some videos that demonstrate this strategy in action.



Strategy #2: Berry Blast!
Plants: SP (on Power Lily)  LI

Use against: and everything else

DO NOT use against:

This strategy is fairly similar to the Kiwibeast one, but instead uses the power of Strawburst to stop hordes. Keep in mind that this strategy also works in levels where there aren't Mecha-Football Zombies, so you don't have to use the Kiwibeast one if you don't want to. This strategy revolves around using Strawburst to destroy the massive hordes, while Winter Melon stalls them. Tile Turnips can come in after you've finished a column of Winter Melons and Strawbursts to add even more destructive power to the Strawbursts.

The very beginning of this strategy is fairly similar to the Kiwibeast strategy. Like before, identify the best place for your sun producer, so as to get the most out of the power tiles. Use two plant food if there's only one flag, and go all out if there's two or more.

Once the first zombie spawns however is when the strategy starts to diverge. You're going to need to either stall that zombie (if you brought Hurrikale, Squash, or Primal Potato Mine, this works best), wait for it get right up next to your sun producers and then kill it, (with Cherry Bomb, Grapeshot, Jalapeno, or Ghost Pepper), or you'll need to save up for a Winter Melon. For the placement of Winter Melons follow the rule I set in the previous strategy:

''If the first zombie spawns in either lanes 1, 3, or 5, then you'll need to place your Winter Melon in it's lane, as well as the aforementioned lanes (IE if a zombies spawns in lane 3, place your next Winter Melons in lanes 1 and 5). If the first zombie spawns in lanes 2 or 4, then you'll need to place your next Winter Melon in the other lane I mentioned which it didn't spawn in. (IE if a zombie spawns in lane 2, then place your next Winter Melon in lane 4) This gives us the most coverage against zombies.''

You'll need to save up for a full column of Winter Melons. If a mech comes out during this time, use your luxury instant or E.M.Peach to help defeat it. (Shrinking Violet, Primal Potato Mine, Squash, and Ghost Pepper work best in this instance as they also stall the zombie while helping you take it down.) Once you have a full column of Winter Melons, start working on your Strawbursts.

For Strawburst placement, try to put them in column 1. If column 1 is where your sun producing plants are located, then place your Strawbursts in column 2. Likewise, if column two also has sun producers in it, then place them in column 3. Also have your Strawbursts as close to your house as possible. Once you have determined the appropriate column for Strawbursts, you have a couple of options depending on how the level has progressed.


 * If the mechs are getting pretty far in your defense, plant your first Strawbursts in the lanes where the mechs are located. If your luxury instant or E.M.Peach are off cooldown, try to use it to stop the mechs.
 * If not many mechs have come out/you're doing fine against them, then place your first couple of Strawbursts in lanes 2-4, as once again this provides the most coverage.

Once you have your first couple of Strawbursts on the lawn, finish off the column. After that, you can start planting Tile Turnips under the Strawbursts. Strawbursts plant food effect is extremely strong since it automatically grows the berry to max size, so having all of the berries grow to max size is going to destroy the zombies.

Extra Tips:
 * Like in the last strategy, stay away from more than two columns of sun producing plants, as they fill the lawn with junk.
 * Also like in the last strategy, try to use Power Lily and Imitater Power Lily whenever you have extra sun. Hording plant food is key.
 * Try not to place your Strawbursts any closer than column 4, since Bot Swarms will wreck your Strawbursts.
 * Once you've finished a column of Winter Melons, Strawbursts, and Tile Turnips, you can place extra Winter Melons to help take care of the weaker zombies more effectively.
 * Primal Potato Mine is pretty bad vs. Mecha-Football Zombies, so try to pick any of the other 5 luxury instants.
 * If you want to work on a column of Strawbursts before finishing the column of Winter Melons, that's fine, just be sure to have a couple Winter Melons to slow down the zombies.

Here are some videos that demonstrate this strategy in action.



Strategy #3: The Garg Slayer!
Plants: (on E.M.Peach)  LI

Use against:

DO NOT use against: Any level where there isn't a Garg Prime.

This strategy was tailor-made to take down Garg Primes. It uses the combo of Shrinking Violet + two Banana Launchers to take down Garg Primes very quickly. Although this strategy is very effective if pulled off properly, this strategy is hard to do if you don't have fast hands, or if you're bad at micromanaging. Being successful with this strategy shows your skill at the game, with the constant micromanaging required. Before I get started describing the process of this strategy, let me go over some quick notes:


 * Primal Sunflower is strongly preferred over Sun-shroom in this strategy. This is because if the gargs do end up destroying your sun producing plants, Primal Sunflower is easier to replace because it gives it's full amount right away.
 * Hurrikale or Grapeshot are the most preferred luxury instants here. This is because they're most likely to pull you out of sticky situations. Cherry Bomb, Primal Potato Mine, Jalapeno, Squash, and Ghost Pepper, while they're all very good, they don't help out quite as much as Hurrikale or Grapeshot do in the strategy.

The start to this strategy is the same as the start to the other ones. In short, identify the best place for your Primal Sunflowers, and then spam plant food on them. The rule of thumb here though is slightly different compared to the last two strategies.


 * If there's one Flag, use two-three plant food on your Primal Sunflowers, depending on how comfortable you are with the strategy (I'd say two if you're just starting off)
 * If there's two flags, use three-four plant food.
 * If there's three or four flags, go all out.

Once you have enough sun, place down a Winter Melon in the lane of the first zombie, and place down a Banana Launcher. For the placement of Winter Melons follow the rule:

''If the first zombie spawns in either lanes 1, 3, or 5, then you'll need to place your Winter Melon in it's lane, as well as the aforementioned lanes (IE if a zombies spawns in lane 3, place your next Winter Melons in lanes 1 and 5). If the first zombie spawns in lanes 2 or 4, then you'll need to place your next Winter Melon in the other lane I mentioned which it didn't spawn in. (IE if a zombie spawns in lane 2, then place your next Winter Melon in lane 4) This gives us the most coverage against zombies.''

In this strategy though, it's very important that you have at least one column of Winter Melons in columns 1-3. This is because if there are any imps that somehow get launched from the Gargantuars, your Winter Melons can take them down. Once you have your Winter Melons in lanes 1/3/5 or lanes 2/4, start working on your Banana Launchers.

For Banana Launcher placement, try to place them around the 4th and 5th columns. Garg Primes seem to avoid firing at these columns very often, as they'd rather fire at the back 3 columns. This also a good spot for the Banana Launchers as they barely avoid any stray imps that come their way. You want to get atleast 3 Banana Launchers before you finish your column of Winter Melons. After you finish a column of Winter Melons, spam Banana Launchers when you can, as thay are your main method for defeating zombies.

Next up is how you deal with zombies. Vs. Garg Primes, drop a Shrinking Violet on them. Once they've shrunk, fire two bananas at them, and they'll be defeated. If two Gargs come out at the same time in adjacent lanes, the plant a Shrinking Violet on one of them, and then fire two Bananas at each of them. If two gargs come out in non adjacent lanes, you're going to need to stall them with E.M.Peach. Plant down an E.M.Peach, shrink one of them, and then fire two bananas at the shrunken one. Then, either wait for Shrinking Violet to come off cooldown and shrink the other one, or fire three bananas at the non-shrunk one while it's still stunned.

Now Winter Melons will not be enough to handle mechs on their own, so you'll have to use the help of E.M.Peach, Banana Launcher, Shrinking Violet, and your luxury instant to take them down. If the mechs come right up next to your Primal Sunflowers or Banana Launchers, either blow them away with Hurrikale, or blow them up with Grapeshot. If you want to stop them preemptively, then use an E.M.Peach on them, shrink them (but only if there are no garg primes on screen), and then launch bananas at them.

Extra Tips:
 * The best time to use Power Lily in this strategy is when you've just completed a column of something. Once you've completed a column of Winter Melons, then you can plant down a Power Lily. Same with Banana Launchers.
 * If you want to finish a column of Banana Launchers before the Winter Melons, that's fine, just know that it's riskier to do so. You should immediately try to finish the Winter Melon column after the Banana Launcher column.
 * This strategy is pretty bad against levels without Garg Primes. If you want a good strategy for that, use the Strawburst strategy.
 * Imitater on Power Lily is not advised as there will be times where the Garg can become mobile again while your E.M.Peach is on cooldown.

Here are some videos that demonstrate this strategy in action.



Plants to Avoid
While normally these plants seem like good ideas in other strategies, they tend to not work out so well in this one.



While Expode-o-nut might seem appealing at first, Kiwibeast handles zombies more quickly, and in levels with Mecha-Footballs, he's useless. Garg Primes aren't even that phased by him, since they'll just throw their imp and continue on their merry way.



You already get plenty of sun at the start of the level via power tiles, so this plant is outclassed by higher impact instants like Hurrikale and Grapeshot.



While Twin Sunflower does give the most amount of sun, her recharge is just way too slow in these strategies, so we pick less greedy sun producers. You've seen in the video that we can barely get up 3 Primal Sunflowers before the first zombie spawns, so getting up that many Twin Sunflowers while having enough sun for the expensive plants we use is pretty much impossible.



Does not work very well when we're using Winter Melon.



Don't work vs. mechs!



With all of the high health zombies, Guacodiles damage output isn't quite high enough to stop them.

Viable Alternatives
While not mentioned in any of the strategies, these plants can certainly help you against zombies in certain scenarios.



Replace: Either Tile Turnip or your luxury instant.

If you see Buckethead Zombies, Magnet-shroom can be quite a big help, especially early on, especially in the Kiwibeast strategy. Bucketheads can take a lot more health out of your Kiwibeasts then other zombies, so neutering them is a great help.



Replace: Kiwibeast (in Kiwibeast strategy), Winter Melon (in Garg strategy)

My goodness, you want to be boring, don't you? Well if you insist on using Cold Snapdragon, it's a great alternative to Kiwibeast at taking down zombies, (especially with Plant Food) and can replace Winter Melons in the Garg Strategy to help deal with zombies earlier.



Replace: Luxury Instant

In case you REALLY hate the Jetpack Zombies. Also works well against Bug Bot Imps.



Replace: Luxury Instant

If prefer a more reusable way to get zombies out of your face, then Chard Guard is the way for you! While he doesn't work too well in the Kiwibeast strategy, he's certainly quite helpful in the Strawburst strategy.

Epilogue
Thanks for reading! I hope you learned something new today.