Survival: Roof (Hard)/Strategies

This is a strategy page about Survival: Roof (Hard). Feel free to add your strategies, but see the rules page first.

Starting - The Beginning (Flags 1-2)
The priorities are: Get two rows of Sunflowers up fast, plant Kernel-pults to later build Cob Cannons, and get Cabbage-pults up in the fifth row.

Start off by picking these plants: The Imitater Sunflower can be used instead of the Twin Sunflower, if you bought it to get the Sunflowers up faster or if you have more seed slots, and add the Winter Melon if you don't have the Imitater, but have nine slots. Note that it is also recommended to use the Potato Mine if you have enough slots, so you could build more and more Sunflowers.
 * Sunflower
 * Flower Pot
 * Kernel-pult
 * Cabbage-pult
 * Melon-pult
 * Twin Sunflower
 * Pumpkin
 * Squash

Start by planting Sunflowers in the third and fourth columns (the first and the second columns are used for Cob Cannons). However, if you don't have the Twin Sunflower, build Sunflowers in column two as well, but dig them up later when you've got enough sun to build Cob Cannons and Winter Melons. The fourth Sunflower should be planted the moment the zombie is killed by the rake or a second before. When the next zombie comes plant a Pot in the 4th column and plant a Squash. By the time the Squash has killed the zombie the third and fourth columns should be filled with Sunflowers except for the Squashes' spots.

When the third zombie comes, plant a Kernel-pult in its lane you, then another one in the same lane after it recharges or you get enough sun. Keep planting Kernel-pults. One per lane can kill regular zombies, but two is recommended for Coneheads. After two columns of Kernel-pults are planted, you should start filling up the fifth column with Cabbage-pults, and try to Pumpkin them as soon as possible.

By now, your defenses are decent already. You should start upgrading your 4th column Sunflowers in lanes one, three, and five into Twin Sunflowers. You won't keep the third column Sunflowers, so don't bother with them. While upgrading, you should be digging up﻿ third column Sunflowers and replacing them with Melon-pults. Try to Pumpkin them.

Your setup should at least look like this: (Note that you may have many Pumpkins)


 * S: Sunflower


 * K: Kernel-pult


 * M: Melon-pult


 * C: Cabbage-pult


 * A: Twin Sunflower


 * -: Empty

K K M A C - - - -

K K M S C - - - -

K K M S C - - - -

K K M S C - - - -

K K M S C - - - -

Note that you may have Pumpkins around Cabbage-pults or Melon-pults, I didn't include them yet. Do NOT pumpkin Kernel-pults, they have to be unpumpkined to be upgraded. You could have more upgraded Sunflowers, but only in lane three.

Cob Cannon Time (Flags 3-6)
During these flags, you should build your Cob Cannons, as it suggests in the title. Cob Cannons are important in Survival Mode, but although you can eliminate them, Survival Roof almost always need them due to the fact that Gargantuars can't be delayed by Spikerocks on the Roof, and they should be used in case of emergencies.

Flags 3-4
For flags 3-4, pick Twin Sunflower only if you have two upgraded Sunflowers, or upgraded the wrong one in mistake. The normal ones should be Umbrella Leaf, Cob Cannon, Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Flower Pot, Pumpkin, and two extras for instants or Blovers for Balloons. If you needed Twin Sunflowers, you only get one extra spot, but it should be used on Blovers, but only if there are Balloons. Otherwise, you should put an instant, preferably Jalapeno.

You should plant the last Twin Sunflower if you haven't already (see above for the three places Twin Sunflowers should be used). Save up enough sun for a Cob Cannon. Upgrade any group of Kernel-pults you want (doesn't matter), and upgrade Winter Melons while the Cob Cannon is recharging. Cob Cannons have priority over Winter Melons, too so upgrade the Kernel-pults first, but one Cob Cannon is enough for now, so Winter Melons should be upgraded before the second Cob Cannons.

Start to dig up the Cabbage-pults and replace them with Melon-pults. You should finish this by the end of flag 4. Start pumpkining the Cabbage-pults (and their replacements) and Winter Melons. It is very important you get this done before massive hordes of Football Zombies come.

Right before the third flag, dig up the second lane and fourth lane Sunflowers and replace them with Umbrella Leafs. If there are too many strong zombies getting close to munch up the fifth column Pumpkins, use a Cob Cannon to kill them. You should have one Cob Cannon at this flag.

In flag four, upgrade another pair of Kernel-pults into Cob Cannons, make sure all the third column plants are Winter Melons, and replace all of the Cabbage-pults with Melon-pults. All plants in the fifth row should have pumpkins on them. When the wave comes, wait until all of the zombies step onto the roof, and use two Cobs to kill them all.

By the end of flag four, your map at least has to look like this, but the Pumpkins around the Winters aren't necessary yet:

K: Kernel-Pult, M: Melon-Pult, W: Winter Melon, A: Twin Sunflower, C-C: Cob Cannon, U: Umbrella Leaf [ ]: inside a Pumpkin, -: Empty

C-C W A [M] - - - -

C-C W U [M] - - - -

K K W A [M] - - - -

K K W U [M] - - - -

K K W A [M] - - - -

You may have Pumpkins around some Winter Melons and more Cob Cannon, but this is what it should at least be.

Flags 5-6
Pick these seeds: Cob Cannon, Melon-pult, Pumpkin, (an Imitater Pumpkin if you have one) Winter Melon, Flower Pot, Fume-shroom, Coffee Bean, Jalapeno, Squash, and Blovers to rid balloon zombies if they are coming (replace Squash).

Start Pumpkining the Winter Melons, then Column 4. It is essential as Gargantuars usually appear in flags 6 or 7 and beyond, but they still might be in flag 5. Also, start upgrading more Kernel-Pults into Cob Cannons. You will want to have this done by the end of flag 6.

Plant Flower Pots in Column 6 and Pumpkin them. Don't put any plants in the unpumpkined Column 6 Flower Pots. Plant Fume-Shrooms and wake them up in the Pumpkined Flower Pots. The reason the Fume-shrooms shoot off screen is because that way they will be dead few seconds before than if the Fume-shrooms shoot all on-screen, protecting the Pumpkins slightly more.

The last thing to do is to plant more pumpkined Melon-pults in column 7. This will complete the setup.

Make sure you do all this. Be sure that one Cob is loaded all the time to take care of Gargantuars. Don't blast them too late, or else they will land at the Cob Cannons. The only reason you will want to shoot Cobs, actually, is when there are Gargantuars or a bunch of Football Zombies are putting pressure on the Pumpkins.

This should be your final setup:


 * M: Melon-pult


 * W: Winter Melon


 * A: Twin Sunflower


 * C-C: Cob Cannon


 * U: Umbrella Leaf


 * F: Fume-Shroom


 * -: Empty

(Note: all non-Cob Cannon plants should be Pumpkined)

C-C W A M F M - -

C-C W U M F M - -

C-C W A M F M - -

C-C W U M F M - -

C-C W A M F M - -

Surviving the last Flags (Flags 7-10)
During the last four flags, the zombie amounts increase greatly. Skilled performance is required.

Instants
You should always choose these plants: Melon-pult, Pumpkin, and Flower Pot. The others should be used on instants, here is a list on instant priority, based on roof levels (the lower the number, the more useful).
 * 1) Jalapeno
 * 2) Squash
 * 3) Cherry Bomb
 * 4) Chomper
 * 5) Potato Mine (should almost never be used, it will be eaten due to the arming time, since our pots are in column 5 already).
 * 6) Tangle Kelp (useless because there is no water on the roof).

Cob Cannons
Cob Cannons should be saved for certain conditions instead of being used whenever 2 Football Zombies come onto the screen. They should be saved for Gargantuars, massive amounts of Football Zombies, and Imps thrown too late, right to your Cobs. Generally, these are the only places Cobs should be fired:

-: Non-recommended space

X: Recommended space

- - - - - - - - -

- X - - - - - X X

- - - - - - - - -

- X - - - - - X X

- - - - - - - - -

Even if a Gargantuar is in, say, lane 1, shoot the Cob at lane 2 because it has the same effect only with the added bonus of defeating any other lane 3 zombie. Always shoot at the rightmost square (column 9) if there are Gargantuars because that will be able to shoot some Pumpkin-harassing Footballs while also hitting the zombies that have strolled onto the screen so little that they haven't reached column 9.

If you are shooting Pumpkin-harassers, shoot at the column 8 square because the column 9 square's explosion won't be big enough to kill all of the harassing Football Zombies. The column 2 square is solely for Imps that are thrown right to the Cobs.

The Beginning (Flags 1-2)
You should pick these plants: A garden rake is strongly recommended. Deal with the first few zombies using Potato Mines, and then Squash (if the Potato Mine is recharging). This can save you lots of Sun, and during the waves start planting the melons on the third column. While you get more Sun, start planting more melons. You might want a few Twin Sunflowers to get more Sun. By the end of the first two flags, it should look at least like this:
 * Sunflower
 * Flower Pot
 * Potato Mine
 * Squash
 * Melon-pult
 * Anything else you want

S=Sunflower

M=Melon-pult

-=empty

SSM--

S-M--

SSM--

S-M--

SSM--

If there are any Catapult Zombies or Bungee Zombies, then the empty spaces in the Sunflowers are for Umbrella Leaves.

The Rest
This is cobless and you should continue building melons fast and by flag 5-6 you should finish 4 columns of melons. Start turning them into Winter Melons from the back first, and have a row of Tall-nuts in front of that. Always take instant kills, such as Jalapeno or Cherry Bomb because of Gargantuars or too many zombies to deal with. Only 1 row of Winter Melons is needed, because they don't do any more damage than regular melons. The finished strategy should look like this:

S=Twin Sunflower

M=Melon-pult

W=Winter Melon

T=Tall-nut

U=Umbrella Leaf*

-=empty

SSWMMMT--

SUWMMMT--

SSWMMMT--

SUWMMMT--

SSWMMMT--

Pumpkin everything.

* only needed if there are catapults or bungees.

Strategy 3 : All Instants with Sun Producing Plants and Flowerpots
This strategy involves instant rotations and will definitely depend on how effective a certain area on the roof is utilized and how efficient instants are used when combined with other instants. This strategy also involves using the instants to the best possible way in order to protect the Flower Pots and Sunflowers.

Since this is the roof level, then Flower Pots are counted as resources too simply because you can only plant on Flower Pots and the whole strategy focuses on using every single Flower Pot in the best they could possibly be in order to keep the strategy alive.

Unlike other strategies, the Imitater plays a very vital role on defending the lawn when using this strategy because it will definitely affect how often can you use certain instants and how effective it will be depending on what combination of zombies appear on every round.

All these Imitater plants should be accompanied with the true version of them and bringing certain Imitater plant really affect the strategy for the whole round.

Imitater Ice-shrooms help by allowing you to have extra time by slowing all the zombies except Zomboni and will allow you to buy some time for other things you need to do.

Imitater Squash helps by having a fast recharging instant that can be used to kill groups of zombies that are gathered up on one tile and works best against Pogo Zombies, Zomboni, Catapult, Imp and Bungees.

Imitater Hypno-shrooms are effective against Football Zombies and Buckethead Zombies because they will most likely take care some of the zombies on the lane where they belong and is definitely helpful against Imps depending on how you handle the other instants.

Imitater Jalapeno gives works best on defending one lane against almost any zombie. Usually used to defend against Bungees, Zombonis and Gargantuars the moment they throw their Imp.

Imitater Doom-shroom are very effective against all combinations of zombies although it may cause affect the whole strategy in the long run depending on where they are used because every part of the lawn can be considered as a resource too and since you need to also plant them on Flower Pots which can really affect the whole strategy depending on where they are used. So no matter how powerful Doom-shroom and Imitater Doom-shroom are when combined. You should also consider that you also sacrifice one empty space on the roof and a Flower Pot which can really be annoying when not handled very carefully.

Imitater Sunflower good for a decent boost on sun supply when you need it

The 1st round ( Flag 1-2 )
Normally the only threat on this stages are the Bucketheads and the Coneheads. But at the same time you need to be able to have a decent number of Sunflowers (or Twin Sunflowers) to handle constant sun consumption due to using a lot of instants.

6 Twin Sunflowers should be enough as that's the standard number of twins you need in order to have a strategy that involves a lot of instants working (Ice-shroom, Doom-shroom and the rest).

You need not to plant any offensive plant. all you need is Squash, Cherry Bomb, Potato Mine and Hypno-shrooms. Ice-shrooms might help but they are not always recommend. Make sure you will be able to have a decent number of Flower Pots that will be the one who will determined what strategy you can use and where you could setup some stocked Ice-shrooms or probably Doom-shrooms.

The Rest
There are a few core instants to bring and some plants that are really required The Imitater should be used but depending on what instant the Imitater will imitate determine the strategy to be used
 * Ice-shroom
 * Doom-shroom
 * Cherry Bomb
 * Squash
 * Coffee Bean
 * Hypno-shroom / Potato Mine
 * Flower Pots
 * Coffee Bean

The other one is either


 * Sunflower


 * Twin Sunflower


 * Blover


 * Jalapeno

Plants to Use
Sunflower

Twin Sunflower

Cabbage-pult

Kernel-pult

Flower Pot

Melon-pult

Wall-nut

Imitater Wall-nut

Marigold

First of all start planting Sunflowers in column 1. When the zombies start coming place a Cabbage-pult in column 3 in the lane the zombie is in. Add Cabbage-pults to each lane in column 3 when a zombie comes down that lane. When a Conehead Zombie comes place a flower pot in column 4 and put a Kernel-pult in it. The Kernel-pult's butter will be sufficient to kill a Conehead Zombie with a Cabbage-pult's assistance. DO NOT DIG UP THESE KERNEL-PULTS AT ANY POINT! Put Wall-nuts and Imitater Wall-nuts at the start of the flat bit of each lane. Don't forget to place Flower Pots first.

When you have enough sun start upgrading your Sunflowers. If you have enough sun but can't be bothered to wait for the Twin Sunflower start replacing your Cabbage-pults with Melon-pults. When placing Melon-pults prioritize lanes with Buckethead Zombies in them

Also put Marigold in column 2 in lanes 1,3 and 5. Leave lanes 2 and 4 in column 2 blank. You will fill these spaces up later.

Fill up any empty spaces in column 4 with Kernel-pults.

You should be able to survive flags 1 and 2 this way.

Plants to Use
Twin Sunflower (Only if you need them)

Melon-pult

Flower Pot

Wall-nut

Imitater Wall-nut (Only if you didn't choose Twin Sunflower)

Umbrella Leaf

Kernel-pult

Winter Melon

Cob Cannon

Anything you want

First put Umbrella leaves in the empty spaces in column 2 because there are lots of Bungee Zombies in these two flags. Place Kernel-pults in front of the ones that are already there so you have 2 Kernel-pults per lane.

If you want to upgrade to a Cob Cannon upgrade it when a Bungee Zombie targets a Kernel-pult because you don't lose your Kernel-pult if you upgrade it because it is not there anymore because it has been upgraded and also Bungee Zombies can't steal Cob Cannons. Once you have all of your Kernel-pults upgraded,(Which you probably won't have by the end of flag 4) the Bungee Zombies can't take anything because Cob Cannons are too heavy and everything else is protected by your Umbrella Leaves. Your Wall-nuts aren't protected but they are easily replaceable.

Also try to upgrade your melon-pults into Winter Melons because they are really helpful when they can slow down huge groups of zombies.

If you ever have too many zombies in one lane to handle just use your Cob Cannon. By the end of flag 4 you should have 2 Cob Cannons.

Plants to Use
Winter Melon

Cob Cannon

Flower Pot

Wall-nut

Imitater Wall-nut

Blover

Marigold

The rest of the plants can be what you want

There will be no more Bungee Zombies so you can get rid of your Umbrella Leaves. Put a Marigold in one space and leave the other empty. You will need to put Blovers in there when the Balloon Zombies come.

If you need to upgrade any more Melon-pults to Winter Melons you should do so. Keep upgrading Kernel-pults and if you have Wall-nut First Aid use it to replace nearly dead Wall-nuts.

Plants to Use
Winter Melon (If you need it)

Cob Cannon

Marigold

Wall-nut

Imitater Wall-nut

Flower Pot

Pumpkin

Lots of Instant-Kill plants

Gargantuars appear in these two flags so be careful. Keep on upgrading Melon-pults and Kernel-pults and if targeting a Gargantuar wait till two Cob Cannons are ready and then fire them both one after another. Doing this will kill the Gargantuars before they can throw their Imps. Never have more than 5 Cob Cannons in one game.

Plants to Use
Wall-nut

Imitater Wall-nut

Any other plants you may need

Just sit back and watch your plants kill all of the zombies and activate a Cob Cannon if needed. Don't forget to pick up Marigold coins and any other coins that may drop.

Good Luck

Strategy 5: Fire 'N Ice
Plants needed:

Flags 1-2

 * Sunflower
 * Twin Sunflower
 * Repeater
 * Gatling Pea
 * Melon-pult
 * Winter Melon
 * Flower Pot
 * Potato Mine
 * Pumpkin

Flags 3-4

 * Twin Sunflower
 * Repeater
 * Gatling Pea
 * Melon-pult (optional, if less than 5 was planted)
 * Winter Melon
 * Flower Pot
 * Torchwood
 * Pumpkin
 * Imitater Pumpkin (optional)

Flags 5-8

 * Repeater
 * Gatling Pea
 * Winter Melon
 * Pumpkin
 * Imitater Pumpkin
 * Umbrella Leaf
 * Squash
 * Jalapeno (optional)

Flags 9-10
The Rake is strongly recommended.
 * Repeater(optional, to backup killed Repeaters)
 * Gatling Pea (optional, to backup killed Gatling Peas)
 * Pumpkin
 * Imitater Pumpkin
 * Flower Pot
 * Squash
 * Torchwood (optional, to backup killed Torchwoods)
 * Coffee Bean (optional)
 * Doom-shroom (optional)

First flags
First, plant Sunflowers in the first and second columns as fast as possible. When a zombie appears, let the rake kill it and focus on Sunflowers. For the next zombies, use Potato Mines. After having at least 200 sun, start planting Repeaters in the 4th column. Plant Repeaters (and after that, Gatling Peas) in columns 4 to 6 and Melon-pults (and after that, Winter Melons) in column 3.

Middle flags
Plant like below:

S S M [R] [R] (T) - - -

S U M [R] [U] [R] (T) - -

S S M [R] [R] (T) - - -

S U M [R] [U] [R] (T) - -

S S M [R] [R] (T) - - -

S = Sunflower/Twin Sunflower (Sunflowers should be upgraded)

U = Umbrella Leaf

M = Melon-pult/Winter Melon (Melon-pult must be upgraded)

R = Repeater/Gatling Pea (Repeater must be upgraded)

T = Torchwood

- = Free space

= Must-have Pumpkin

[] = Should-have Pumpkin

The Catapult Zombies and Zombonis are you worst threats, even more than Gargantuars. You can deal with Zombonis by Squashes or Jalapenos or pile enough damage on it. Catapult Zombies are less dangerous, but can still do quite some damage to your defense.

Last flags
Plant as many Pumpkins as you can. For the final wave, if you want, plant a Doom-shroom (with a Flower Pot and Coffee Bean, of course) in the middle of the wave to easily eliminate most of them, but plant fast, as the Doom-shroom might get eaten by the zombies or smashed by the Gargantuar.

No Sunflower Strategy

 * Survival Hard ( Roof ) all Instants with Sun Producing Plants and Flower Pots 1
 * Survival Hard ( Roof ) all Instants with Sun Producing Plants and Flower Pots 2
 * Survival Hard ( Roof ) all Instants with Sun Producing Plants and Flower Pots 3

Plants needed

 * Melon-pult
 * Sunflower
 * Potato Mine
 * Twin Sunflower
 * Tall-nut/Wall-nut
 * Umbrella Leaf
 * Pumpkin

Instructions
First, you put some sunflowers, then kill the zombie using a Potato Mine,then plant a bunch of Melon-pults and do whatever you want.

1st round (Flags 1-2)
Start planting Sunflowers and Potato Mine for the first zombies. Later plant Gloom-shrooms in Pumpkins and Umbrella Leaves at column 5, rows 2&4. Upgrade 3-6 Sunflowers to Twin Sunflowers

S S S S T (G)

S S S S U (G)

S S S S T (G)

S S S S U (G)

S S S S T (G)

S - Sunflower

T - Twin Sunflower

G - Gloom-shroom

- Pumpkin

2nd round (Flags 3-4)
Replace two columns of Sunflowers with Melon-pults and upgrade one in each lane to Winter Melons. Place Umbrella Leaves at column 2, rows 2&4 for Catapults.

S T M W (T) (G)

S U M W (U) (G)

S T M W (T) (G)

S U M W (U) (G)

S T M W (T) (G)

M - Melon-pult

W - Winter Melon

3rd round (Flags 5-6)
Add more melons and upgrade to Winter Melon.

W T M W (T) (G)

W U M W (U) (G)

W T M W (T) (G)

W U M W (U) (G)

W T M W (T) (G)

4th round (Flags 7-8)
Continue adding and upgrading melons.

5th round (Flags 9-10)
Replace some Twin Sunflowers with Melon-pults for Zombonies and Gargantuars

W T M W (M) (G)

W U M W (U) (G)

W T M W (M) (G)

W U M W (U) (G)

W T M W (M) (G)