ZomBotany

ZomBotany is the first Mini-game, available as soon as the mode is unlocked. It features several Peashooter Zombies and Wall-nut Zombies, which have the same abilities as the corresponding plants. Defensive plants such as Wall-nuts and Tall-nuts are vital here, considering the Peashooter Zombie's ability to damage plants from afar.

Strategy
Most zombies in ZomBotany are idiotic and not easy to kill; a couple of Peashooters will stop even a Wall-nut Zombie in a minute or two. However, due to the peas being fired at your plants, it is a lot harder to prevent your plants from being destroyed. Just put a Wall-nut or Tall-nut in each row (it's a good idea to use the Imitater Wall-nut too). You should plant Spikeweed or Spikerock onfront of these to maximize damage and plant a couple of Peashooters and a Snow Pea in each row and you'll be fine. However, you can also plant a couple of Garlics in rows two and four and a few Gloom-shrooms behind them (three or four per row are enough) and the zombies will be killed without any opportunities to retaliate. Rakes are also a good idea in both setups.

Setup 1 (10 Seed Setup)
This setup is built up with pea-shooting plants, defensive plants and instant kills, which is the most common strategy. Just do the same thing as you do in normal levels, except that you have to build defensive plants much faster or you will be overwhelmed and you will lose your plants very fast. Potato mines are not affected by peas so it is useful when you don't have much sun. Instant kill can be used for emergency and kill Wall-nut zombies.
 * Sunflower
 * Peashooter or Repeater
 * Wall-nut or Tall-nut *(if you want the "Wall-Not Attack" achievement, don't use these)
 * Cherry Bomb
 * Potato Mine
 * Snow Pea
 * Doom-shroom and Coffee Bean (optional)
 * Jalapeno
 * Squash
 * Imitater (Imitating Wall-nuts*, Tall-nuts*, or instant kills)

Setup 2 (9 Seed Setup)
The Garden Rake's strongly needed.
 * Sunflower
 * Twin Sunflower
 * Fume-shroom
 * Gloom-shroom
 * Coffee Bean
 * Potato Mine
 * Garlic
 * Wall-nut or Tall-nut
 * Imitater Potato Mine

Plant five Sunflowers on a space and plant your Fume-shrooms and upgrade them to Gloom-shrooms if you have enough Sun later. This is not necessary to upgrade the Fume-shrooms; do not plant anything where there's a rake, let the Peashooter Zombie walk on it and it'll die. Put a two Garlic on two spaces. Also, it is not necessary to upgrade your Twinflowers. When both Gloom trios are awake, they'll kill the zombies and you should upgrade the Garlic as it's dying and do not let the Glooms get shot down or eaten. DO NOT plant the shell plants or you never earn this. The game allows you to use the Imitater (non-shell plants, Potato Mine). Then, on the final wave, the shrooms will kill the zombies and no shells are in this place.

Setup 3 (8 Seed Setup)
In this setup, you start by planting Sunflowers in the second and fourth lanes and a Garlic at the end. The Sunflowers should cover all the spaces except for the last one. When possible, upgrade them into Twin Sunflowers. Then start planting Wall-nuts (you won't have that much Sun when the zombies start showing up) in the sixth columns of the rest of the lanes. When they get deformed, turn them into Tall-nuts.Also, plant Spikeweeds on the right of them. Upgrade Spikeweeds as soon as possible. In individual lanes with lots of Zombies, use Jalapenos. Replace deformed Garlics and Tall-nuts as well.
 * Sunflower
 * Wall-nut
 * Jalapeno
 * Spikeweed
 * Tall-nut
 * Garlic
 * Twin Sunflower
 * Spikerock

Strategy 4
This strategy will earn the achievement Wall-Not Attack. Choose these plants: Choose other instants to fill you seed slots, and buy a rake.
 * Garlic
 * Threepeater
 * Spikeweed
 * Spikerock
 * Potato Mine
 * Sunflower

First, start planting Sunflowers in the first 8 squares of rows 1 and 5. Let the rake kill the first zombie. If the next zombie appears in the top or bottom lane,redirect im with Garlic. Make sure you have a garlic in front of each lane of sunflowers. Use Potato Mines to kill early zombies. Save up 375 sun for the Threepeater. Place it in the third lane and put a Garlic at the right-most square of the third lane. Add another Threepeater when you have the sun. Then, on lanes 2 and 4, place Spikeweeds on the edge of the lawn. Keep adding Spikeweeds and Threepeaters, upgrading Spikeweeds to Spikerocks, and replenishing your Garlics and you will beat the level.

Strategy 5
This strategy uses only Instants to beat the Mini-game

thumb|250px|right You may include Cherry Bomb or Jalapenos but I normally use them for emergency purposes only. This strategy involves on relying almost entirely on Sun shrooms for Sun and Using only Instants to kill the zombies. Normally Doom shrooms and Potato Mines should be enough and the other instants may be used only for emergency.
 * Sunflower (needed)
 * Sun shroom
 * Cofee bean
 * Doom Shroom
 * Potato Mine
 * Imitater Doom Shroom (optional)
 * Cherry Bomb (optional)
 * Jalapeno (optional)

Strategy 6
This needs the following seeds:


 * Sunflower
 * Garlic
 * Potato Mine
 * Imitater Potato Mine
 * Peashooter
 * Split Pea
 * Wall-nut (optional)
 * Puff-shroom (optional)
 * Flower Pot (optional)

Plant Sunflowers on the first row with 2 Garlics at the 8th and 9th Column of the row. Obviously, you cannot set up all the Sunflowers before the zombies come, thats when the potato mines come in use. Plant them in the 1st row where they buy time, arm up, and explode. They cannot be damaged due to their hight. Then when ready, plant 4 or 5 peashooters in each row with wall-nuts in the 8th column. If there is ever a giant wave of zombies in a row, use split peas to your advantage by planting them behind zombies. Replant Garlic when needed and use Wall-Nut First aid to refresh Wall nuts. The Puffshrooms and Flower Pots are good for spamming in front of them.

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Overall SetUp:

S S S S S S S G G

P P P P P W SP

P P P P P W SP

P P P P P W SP

P P P P P W SP

Key:

S: Sunflower

G: Garlic

P: Peashooter

W: Wall-nut

SP: Split Pea

Strategy 7 ( No Sunflower Strategy )
thumb|300px|rightPlants Needed:
 * Potato Mine
 * Spikeweed
 * Garlic
 * extra plants to start the level

Gold Farming Strategy
 This strategy can earn you over 5000 gold in a 'perfect' round, assuming you have 9 seed slots and set plants effectively. You can make more gold from Last Stand, but this strategy is designed for those who have not yet been given access to that minigame. If you have fewer than 9 slots, you will earn a bit less money. A rake is suggested, but not required. Please view slideshow for setup and clarifications.

You will need:
 * Garlic
 * Sunflower
 * Marigold
 * Pumpkin
 * Snow Pea
 * Twin Sunflower (optional but highly suggested)
 * Gold Magnet (optional but highly suggested)
 * Magnet-shroom (for Gold Magnet )
 * Imitater (optional) as a Marigold
 * Squash (optional filler)

 Start by planting 5 Sunflowers in the middle row, and eventually 4 in either the top or bottom row (whichever one the zombies don't show up in) with garlic at the end column. Allow the Lawn Mowers and rake to help you at the start, or if you prefer extra security, use Squash. Leave lanes 2 and 4 open, as well as the top and bottom middle (column 5) squares (Gold Magnets go in those slots, eventually). You will want to plant a Marigold once you're comfortable with enough sun, and again on every cooldown for greatest profits, but be careful not to stave yourself for sun. Plant Twin Sunflowers when available (before the zombies get to the mowers). Use empty slots (in rows 1 or 5) for a few more sunflowers, but do not plant more than 13. Plant a Magnet Shroom and upgrade to Gold Magnet after your Twin Sunflower(s). Once the zombies get mowed down, ensure there is garlic at the end of rows 1, 3, and 5 (some like the added buffer of two garlics at the head those lanes, while some prefer to watch their garlic carefully and choose to have more Marigolds). Also ensure there is a Pumpkin blocking lanes 2 and 4 if the mower has been used. Remember to plant your other Gold Magnet when available (you only need 2 for the game, in the middle top and bottom). Put Snow Peas in or behind your Pumpkins. They are extremely important so ensure you don't let them die/plant over them if you need to. You can start to dig out Sunflowers and replace them with Marigolds when you find you have enough sun production/not enough room for Marigolds. You will want at least 3 Snow Peas in lanes 2 and 4, but at times you may need 4. You can put Pumpkins either ahead of the peas, or right on them. Behind the snow peas, extra Marigolds can be added. Also, if you have them available after the last wave has gone into your lanes, Marigolds can be added behind the zombies' wake. This stragegy involves a good balance between sun and gold, and can be adjusted to be more casual to require less concentration, or more risky and engaging to make more gold. As always when using Garlics to redirect traffic, be wary for when they are going to run out/don't be shy to replace them early. Please view slideshow for an easy clarification of set up and flow.

Puffshroom strategy Plants needed: Puffshroom, Coffee Bean, Potato Mine, Imitater Potato Mine, Wall-nut,

Start planting Puffshrooms in the first 3 back columns. It may take some time when the zombies are walking on the lawn, so plant Potato Mines to stop them. Since this strategy requires no sunflowers, it may be more difficult to beat this mini-game. When the Wall-nuts are finished recharging, start planting some. The defense is complete! (If you brought instant kills, you might want to use more sun to use these.)

Trivia

 * ZomBotany is a portmanteau of the words Zombie and Botany, hence, the zombies here are plant-zombie hybrids.
 * The Hypno-shroom has disappointingly incomplete effects on plant-zombie hybrids. Although hypnotized Peashooter hybrid zombies do the about face and do munch their normal brethren, they continue to fire peas towards your house (apparently from the back of their head) which continue to damage your plants. They also are not harmed by peas fired by normal Peashooter Zombies and so don't run interference for your plants. These errors are fixed on the iPhone version.






 * Spikeweed, Potato Mine, Spikerock, small Sun-shroom, and Puff-shroom are surprisingly effective since the peas fired cannot harm them.
 * Instead, it goes over these 5 and harms any other plants in the row.
 * The achievement Good Morning can be unlocked in this minigame.
 * In the ZomBotany mini-game, most plants (except Wall-nuts, Tall-nuts, and Pumpkins) can take 16 peas worth of damage before being destroyed.
 * The ZomBotany in iPod touch is $10,000. When you buy, this mini-game will appear in the mini-game section.
 * Beating this mini-game without Tall-nuts, Wall-nuts, and Pumpkins will earn this achievement Wall-Not Attack.
 * You can also get the Good Morning achievement if you plant mushrooms and Coffee Beans.
 * There was supposed to be different BGM other than Grasswalk in this Mini-Game which is Zombotany (Unreleased Track). This song doesn't release because the intense part weren't long enough to sustain the entire Battle.
 * Zom-Botany was one of the beta names for Plants Vs. Zombies,and this minigame probably was named after it.

thumb|right|300px|A guide for the mini-game.