Dark Ages

Dark Ages is the fifth world in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. It is the first world in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time to be in a night time setting. The mushrooms make their debut here.

As it namesake says, Dark Ages takes during the tenth century where culture and economy slowly deteriorates mankind that follows the decline of the Roman Empire. Also, the use of Black Magic like Necromancy became also the center of usage for evil purposes.

Like in Ancient Egypt, tombstones appear in Dark Ages. However, they can now occasionally spawn by themselves and summon zombies through an ambush called "Necromancy!". Certain tombstones marked with a sun or Plant Food icon reward players with sun (100 sun) and Plant Food when destroyed. Sun does not fall from the sky in Dark Ages as it has the exclusive night time setting. If a grave spawns where there is a plant, that plant and all plants in front or behind it will move forward one column. Contrary to popular belief, Sunflowers and Twin Sunflowers do not fall asleep in these levels, but it is still recommended to use Sun-shrooms due to their lower cost.

Game description
''Bring out your undead to the year 948! Harvest mushrooms in the dark of knight and get medieval on zombies from the days of yore!''

Order of Events
The player uses a World Key, giving them access to the Dark Ages, when the player defeats Night 9's wave, a medieval scroll is shown, saying "By decree of Lord Zomboss: Please leave thoust brain on thyng stoop" (the note has horrible spelling and grammar, so it can't be translated). On Night 10, Dr. Zomboss writes a note before the huge wave attacks. The wave with the Dark Ages Gargantuar is defeated, leaving a World Key behind.

Levels
So far levels 1-10 (11-20 in some countries) have been available to play as well as introducing four new plants (three were returned) and eight new zombies.

Goals for Success
These levels' layouts are same as their original ones. Two to three missions objectives are added. The player needs to complete all the missions however, failure to do so will force the player to restart the level. Meeting all the criteria in a level will award the player either a costume, new plant, or money and will proceed to the next level.

Night 6 Night 8 Night 9 Night 10
 * Plan your defense and defeat the zombies.
 * Survive the zombie attack with the given plants.
 * Survive while evil potions boost zombies.
 * Survive a massive attack in the Dark Ages.
 * Survive without any lawn mowers.

Evil Potions
Evil Potions is Dark Ages's exclusive Brain Buster.



These levels's layouts are exactly the same as the normal levels, but potions will raise from the ground and boost zombies if they're stepped on. The potions will bring different effects to the zombies such as increasing their health and speed.

Special Delivery
Special Delivery is an exclusive Brain Buster without any criterion to full fill in order to achieve victory. Much like the Gargantuar battles, the plants provided to the player are given via conveyor-belt and must survive a set of waves.

Locked and Loaded
Locked and Loaded makes the player restricted to the plants that they will use. They are only required to use the plants given to them in order to win the battle. Even though the plant is locked yet, they can get a tendency to use that plant (unless it is unlocked already). This will serve as a demo for that plant if ever that manages to happen. The player must win only using the given plants to them. Locked and Loaded serves as a reference for a certain weapon in real life, where once it is armed, it should not be disarmed any more.

Last Stand
The player must survive a flag in order to accomplish the level. In this Brain Buster, the player is given an extreme amount of sun to make use of and two or four Plant Foods at their disposal because there will be no glowing zombies and falling suns to replenish sun for plant production to aid the player from a victory. Sunflower, Sun-shroom, Sun Bean and Twin Sunflower are not allowed in this brain buster, but other than these four, there are other plants as well that are not allowed. Followed by that, the player will deal then with an extreme number of zombies charging at their lawn. If the player is very creative enough to formulate his own plan, he can win without the aid of Plant Food.

Arthur's Challenge
Arthur's Challenge is Dark Ages' Endless Zone. Grave Buster is exclusive to this and Pyramid of Doom. This Endless Zone is very difficult as Winter Melons and other strong plants will be useless against Gargantuars because of Jester Zombies. The former combined with Zombie Kings, Knight Zombies and Wizard Zombies make this Endless Zone hard.

Zombot Dark Dragon
Zombot Dark Dragon is the boss of Dark Ages and the final finite level. It can shoot fireballs that hatch Imp Dragon Zombies and those fireballs can also damage zombies along with plants. They also create craters that cannot be planted on.

Trivia

 * This is only night-time world in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time at the moment.
 * Currently, Sun Bean is the only non-mushroom plant obtainable in this world.
 * The Necromancy ambush is a reference to the magic of communicating with the dead, coming from the greek words nekros meaning "dead body" and manteia meaning "prophecy"
 * Evil Potions refers to how Alchemy was used for evil purposes.
 * On the little river in front of the zombies' castle, there are an array of Lily Pads.
 * Left to the zombies' castle, there is a sword that's stuck in a rock, an Excalibur (a sword from medieval times that, as the legend says, has mystic powers and would proclaim the king of Albion who pulls the sword out of the rock) reference.
 * In the front of Dark Ages Player's House, there is a present day mailbox.
 * The drawbridge on the castle is opening onto nothing.
 * The Player's House in this world has a weather vane with a Peashooter's head.
 * This music main theme is similar to Moongrains and Zen Garden, the Brainiac Maniac (Demonstration Mini-Game) and Ultimate Battle has slight touch to Ancient Egypt, Pirate Seas, Wild West, and Far Future with Medieval-styled drumbeats and effects remix along with Tambourines.
 * Dark Ages Zombie growls have Ancient Egypt and Pirate Seas mashed up growl.
 * Like Weapon Stands from Kung-Fu World, tombstones grow from the ground at points, even on squares occupied by plants. If this happens, the plant will be tossed away or forward one square but unlike the Weapon Stands, they can't make the plants fly off-screen upon doing so.
 * Unlike other areas, the Gargantuar battle is now on Night 10 instead of 8.
 * The Imps on the logs over Night 11 seem to be loafing, slacking, and playing around. One of them is even lunching a sandwich with brains. The other just holds a wrench.
 * The sky on the world map is a purple color compared to the faded blue of daytime maps. However, a glitch in the update makes the map sky turn blue when loading up the game. To fix this, just leave and come back.
 * It is the second world to be the shortest with the first one having the Player's House which contains only four levels while this one contains twenty levels.
 * This is the only world that has no upgrades.
 * Penny states that a plague recently swept the area, a reference to the plague.
 * The Wizard Zombie also references the plague, since it's legs are bandaged.
 * After the Gargantuar level, the map changes to a castle design.
 * This makes it the only world that's map changes halfway through.

Тёмные Века