Zen Garden (PvZ)



The Zen Garden is a virtual garden where you keep plants that you have collected, usually obtained from Presents. They are the same plants you use in the game. It is an alternative, non-competitive environment obtained by completing the Adventure Mode level 5-4 for the first time.

Overview
The objective is to acquire Plants, either by random drops in any of the other game environments, or by purchasing them from Crazy Dave. Once they are obtained, the player must care for them by watering them and meeting their other needs until they are fully grown. Once they are at full size, the player must water them every day and make them happy, after which they will begin dropping coins every 30-60 seconds or so for up to a full calendar day (it resets at midnight).

Populating the Zen Garden
There are 32 available spaces for Zen Garden plants and 34 spaces for animal pizza. 8 slots in each of the other two gardens can be purchased from Crazy Dave for $30,000 each: the Mushroom Zen Garden (for plants that sleep during the day) and the Aquarium Zen Garden, for aquatic plants. Zen Garden plants can be obtained by random drops from killing zombies, or up to three Zen Garden Marigolds can be purchased per real calendar day from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies.

Dropped Zen Garden plants will not contain Marigolds, any Upgraded Plant (meaning that you will never get a Gloom-shroom or Gatling Pea, for example), or a Flower Pot. Marigolds, when fully grown, can be sold for $3,000. Other day plants, including Grave Busters and Planterns, can be sold for $8,000 when fully-grown. Mushrooms and aquatic plants can be sold for $10,000 when fully grown.

To get specific Zen Garden plants, a recommended way is to play the Survival Mode in the area where the seed packet was obtained, like the Peashooter in Survival: Day. In Puzzles, any plant can drop. Note that you can only receive new plants if there are open spaces in the main Zen Garden.

Keeping the Plants Unhappy Just for Fun
Mushrooms will not mature past the first stage or allow themselves to be happy unless they're in the Mushroom Garden, and aquatic plants never need to be watered once they have grown past seedling stage. Although they will not grow unless in the proper environment, they will ask for bug spray or music, and can become happy in any environment if fully grown. Once fully grown and happy, Mushrooms can then be moved to the main Zen Garden where they will remain awake and drop coins at intervals throughout the day (aquatic plants can be moved there as soon as they mature). Mushrooms must be moved back to the Mushroom Garden once a day to be watered and made happy again, after which they will remain awake in the main Zen Garden. Or they can be left in their own garden and will drop coins there after a short while when happy. Other aquatic plants, once fully grown, no longer need to be in the Aquarium Garden to be made happy, and never need to be watered. They, too, can be left in their own garden to drop coins. The main exception to these rules is the Sea-shroom, which never has to be watered because it is an aquatic plant, but can grow and become happy in either the Mushroom Garden or the Aquarium Garden (if it is in the main Zen Garden without being happy, it will fall asleep).

Organizing your Zen Garden plants
Plants can be moved around in the main Zen Garden by purchasing a Gardening Glove which costs $1,000, and is re-usable. After purchasing one of the other Zen Gardens, the Wheel Barrow becomes available for $200 and can be used to move plants from one Zen Garden to another. It can be used as a replacement Gardening Glove, if you wish, though it adds an extra step to moving each plant.

Tips in collecting Zen Garden plants
Any plant can be found in the area its seed packet is obtained in, the Puzzle Mode levels, the Mini-game It's Raining Seeds, and Survival: Endless. Exceptions to this are the Marigold, which can only be bought from Crazy Dave, and possibly the Flower Pot, which apparently cannot be found as a plant drop (research has not yet concluded). Also, Upgrade Plants and the Imitater cannot be found as plant drops, as they are not obtained in specific areas, and it would make no sense to be able to obtain them without first buying them.

If the player wishes to collect all the plants that can be obtained for the Zen Garden, then it is suggested that they do not buy too many Marigolds, as (if the Flower Pot cannot be obtained) there will be only four blank spaces in the main Zen Garden for duplicate plants (three if you keep both Marigolds Crazy Dave gives you), assuming the Mushroom Garden is full and the three aquatic plants are in the Aquarium Garden.

Perhaps the quickest way to acquire plants (in terms of time spent) is to play the Last Stand minigame with 6 Corn-Cob Launchers and 6 Tall-Nuts (with supporting Lily Pads). Fire a pair of missiles at the 3x3 tile area in front of the Tall-Nuts when the zombies accumulate. Then fire the the next pair while the previous pair reloads. Eventually, a pattern can emerge whereby launches can be timed based on when an additional reloading of a different pair has occured. In this way missiles will always be available when needed. Note that while this doesn't allow for Marigolds (insufficient sun), the drastically reduced time actually spent acquiring plants quickly to raise and sell means that this method may be at least as profitable as pure money farming, but with the bonus of new plants.

Making Money
Purchased marigolds start as small flower seedlings, but other dropped plants start as unidentified sprouts. In order to for these plants to begin dropping coins, they must be cared for until they mature. As each plant grows, an icon will appear next to the plant indicating what it needs: water, fertilizer, bug spray or music. When you get the Zen Garden, you begin with a single-shot watering can that can be used over and over again - each use watering a single plant. The Golden Watering Can can be purchased for $10,000 and will water up to four plants in a circular area at a time. Other items purchased at the store include Fertilizer ($750 for 5 bags), the Phonograph ($15,000 for unlimited use), and Bug Spray ($1,000 for 5 sprays).


 * Each time you initially water a plant that needs water, it will drop a silver coin.
 * After several waterings, a seedling will ask for Fertilizer. Once it has been given Fertilizer, the seedling will then mature into a very small version of the full-grown plant and drop a gold coin.
 * 30 minutes later, the small plant will again become thirsty and require another round of waterings, followed by a request for more fertilizer, at which time it will will grow to a medium-sized plant and drop two gold coins.
 * Later, the plant will need another round of waterings, and ask for more Fertilizer. It will then give you two diamonds (except for Marigolds, which give one).
 * Finally, there will be one last round of waterings followed by another request for bug-spray or the phonograph. If the plant is then provided the correct items asked for, it will glow with a gold aura (signifying that the plant is "happy") and reward the player with a gold coin (three if it's a mushroom or aquatic plant) and then drop coins and occasionally diamonds for the rest of the day. The drop rate starts out relatively high, and decreases as the day progresses. Also, the plants may cease to drop coins and diamonds if the previous two coins/diamonds they dropped are not picked up. The player can either pick them up manually or purchase Stinky the Snail to do this task.

Automation
The Zen Garden will not produce or collect coins unless the Plants vs. Zombies window is open to the Zen Garden. This means the player may open another window and run other applications while continuing to collect coins from the Zen Garden (the game must not be in full screen, and if the game is minimized, the zen garden won't drop or collect coins). However, timers, like Stinky the Snail's sleep timer, will continue to run. At midnight, by your computer's clock, the timer resets, and your plants will need to be watered or made happy once more.

Stinky the Snail can be purchased from Crazy Dave for $3000. At first, he will appear asleep at the bottom of the Zen Garden, however, if you wake him up by clicking on him, he will begin to (slowly) collect coins dropped by your plants. After a few minutes, however, he will become sleepy and fall asleep at the bottom of the screen again. Stinky does have a secret weakness for Chocolate, however, and if you feed him a piece, he will become extremely hyper and continue to collect coins at a high rate of speed (for a snail) for about an hour. However, he cannot be fed more than one piece of Chocolate at a time. Also, giving Stinky Chocolate wakes him up, although this may be due to the fact that giving him chocolate requires clicking on him.

Chocolate can also be used to increase the rate at which a plant drops coins and allows them to drop more before they stop dropping coins (if they are not picked up). As stated previously, plants drop more often right when they become happy; as a result, Chocolate is best given at that time, when they give the maximum increase.

The Zen Garden can be a relaxing low-pressure click-for-rewards game, or can simply be left running as a musical and visual treat. Additionally, feeding Stinky chocolate will allow you to continue collecting coins, even when you aren't at the computer, making the Zen Garden a popular way to earn money.

Trivia

 * The Zen Garden contains no Zombies.
 * The Zen Garden isn't included on the iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad version. It is only found on the PC, Mac, XBLA, DS and PSN versions.
 * All plants can be obtained for the Zen Garden except for the Flower Pot, the Upgrade plants, the Imitater, and Explode-o-nuts. They can't be obtained in the Zen Garden unless you have a device called Zen Garden Editor. You'll have to find it on your own.
 * The lack of purchasable plants available in the Zen Garden, similar to how upgrade plants can't be found on Conveyor Belts, may be due to the fact that it would not make sense to be able to obtain a plant in any way before its seed packet had been obtained.
 * Technically, once the Zen Garden is unlocked, plants from the Roof levels could be dropped by zombies before the plants were obtained.
 * The Zen Garden music plays on the screens where it says you got a seed packet, item, or trophy. This might be because the Zen Garden music is the item explanation screen.
 * In the Chinese version of this game, there is a one out of one hundredth that you may randomly recieve another plant when you purchase Marigolds from Crazy Dave. Although what he/she can get is unknown, one of the possibilities is a Snow Pea. It's also unknown if this glitch is avaliable in the U.S. version of the game.
 * In the Chinese verison of this game, when Marigolds are fully grown, they only sell for 3,000 dollars while when they are only half grown (one stage away from full growns) They sell for 2,500 dollars.
 * In the Chinese verison of this game, offensive plants (Snow Peas, Threepeaters, Wall-nuts, Chompers, etc.) sell for 8,000 dollars.
 * Once you've finished Adventure Mode once, the second time through you will get a plant or two every ten levels.
 * When a plant needs water, the dirt in the pot gets lighter, and when you water it, it gets darker.
 * Unofficial observations indicate that Day levels drop day-obtained plants, i.e. the first row of plants in the Suburban Almanac, Night levels drop night-obtained plants i.e. the second row of plants in the Almanac, and so on. However, this does not apply to Puzzles and Survival Endless, where any kind of Zen Garden plants can be dropped.
 * When you are on your Aquarium Garden, you can right click to "tap" the glass on the aquarium. This also happens in Zombiquarium.
 * The Tree of Wisdom says that your pets will be deafened if you do this.
 * You can grow day plants in the Mushroom Garden. However, you can't grow any other plant in the Aquarium Garden except for the Aquatic Plants.