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The character variants is a gameplay mechanic in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, which serve to differentiate the character variant from from the base character in ways other than through different damage parameters. There are currently 14 distinct variant types, each of which affect opponents in different ways.

Both elemental and non-elemental characters are included in this list.

Types[]

Variant type in question Description of effects Playable characters using this type
Fire elemental Fire elemental characters use fire-based attacks rather than basic attacks.

Any opponent that is hit by a fire-based attack will be ignited, suffering five damage per second for four seconds. However, Garden Warfare 2 opponents will be ignited suffering four damage per second for five seconds. This does not apply to Drake Mech, as the ignition is just like in Garden Warfare.

Fire Pea
Fire Flower
Fire Chomper
Fire Cactus
Fire Rose
BBQ Corn
Centurion
Welder
Paleontologist
Cricket Star
Lil' Drake
Captain Flameface
Ice elemental Ice elemental characters use ice-based attack rater than basic attacks.

Any opponent that is hit by an ice-based attack will initially be slowed down slightly, but if they are hit a certain amount of times (varies by attack source), they will become frozen for 2.1 seconds, fully immobilizing them and rendering them unable to use any abilities or their primary weapon nor can they turn until they thaw.

Ice Pea
Yeti Chomper
Ice Cactus
Frozen Citron
Frost Rose
Arctic Trooper
AC Perry
Goalie Star
Toxic elemental Toxic elemental characters use poisonous (toxic-based) attacks rather than basic attacks.

Any opponent hit by a toxic attack will become poisoned, suffering two damage every second. Toxic characters (except Druid Rose, Sanitation Expert, and Toxic Citron in ball form) have toxic aura which will instantly poison any enemies that get close enough to them. In Garden Warfare 2, if a poisoned character gets close to another non-poisoned ally, the poison effect will spread to the non-poisoned character.

Toxic Pea
Toxic Chomper
Toxic Citron
Druid Rose
Sanitation Expert
Dr. Toxic
Toxic Brainz
Captain Squawk
Electric elemental Electric elemental characters use electrical attacks rather than basic attacks.

Any opponents that are hit by a electric attack will become electronically charged for a few seconds and will send out electric shocks to nearby allies which in turn will send out further shocks to additional allies. Electric splash damage varies between characters, but can go from 4 up to 16 damage. In Garden Warfare, the zombie intially hit will also receive a small amount of damage over time.

Electro Pea
Power Flower
Power Chomper
Power Cactus
Electro Citron
Electrician
Physicist
Electro Brainz
Armored Armored characters sacrifice either a small amount of movement speed or damage (or both) in exchange for higher health. This gives them higher damage resistance and inherently makes the better at defense but somewhat less useful on offense. Rock Pea
Metal Petal
Armor Chomper
Jade Cactus
Petrified Cactus
Iron Citron
Roadie Z
Cloud-on-impact Some projectiles fired from certain variants leave a cloud of their respective material that will cover a certain area and will stay in the world for a few seconds before fading away. The cloud rapidly damages all enemies that walk through it. Alien Flower
Toxic Citron
Park Ranger
Burst-fire Burst-fire variants have the ability to fire their primary weapon in bursts, as the name says. Every trigger pull fires a set amount of shots with a mandatory burst delay in between each trigger pull, preventing make-shift automatic fire. Burst-fire character often deal increased-per-shot damage than base characters but are restricted to burst-fire only. The burst length varies from character to character, ranging from 2 to 4 shots at present. Sun Pharaoh
Citrus Cactus
Pops Corn
Super Commando
Pylon Imp
Vampire Any opponents hit or vanquished by vampiric attacks will cause the user to recover a portion of health. These variants typically have less health than their vanilla counterparts. Vampire Flower
Count Chompula
Charge-up Charge-up variants have the ability to charge up their primary attacks, increasing their damage and oftentimes adding in other benefits to the charged shot. Charging up a shot will prevent the player from jumping with some characters. In Garden Warfare, charged shots use up one unit of ammo when fired while in Garden Warfare 2, charging up a shot will increase the amount of ammunition it uses, resulting in a charged shot using up multiple units of ammo when fired. Once fully charged, a charged shot can only be retained for a limited amount of time before it is automatically fired in the direction of the player's crosshair. Plasma Pea
Mystic Flower
Future Cactus
Electro Citron
Fire Rose
Frost Rose
Nec'Rose
Cozmic Brainz
Single shot Single shot variants are armed with single-shot weapons which have to be reloaded after each shot, creating a very slow rate of fire. To compensate for this caveat, the shots fired inflict high impact damage and often have splash damage as well. Iron Citron
Tank Commander
Captain Squawk
Manual detonation Some characters have the ability to fire projectiles that can be manually detonated in mid-air, allowing them to deal damage to opponents behind cover without the need to hit nearby surfaces. To help with timing, the projectiles travel slower through the air but deal more damage to compensate. All manual detonation characters share the same weapon crosshair, when a projectile is in the air, the crosshair will rotate 90 degrees to the right and will remain so until the fired projectile strikes a surface or is detonated after which the crosshair returns to its idle position. Electro Pea
Petrified Cactus
Captain Cannon
Spray Currently represented mostly by a variety of Chompers, spray characters' primary weapons fire a large spray particles, inflicting contact damage to everything caught within range of the attack. Spray characters have little to no damage fall-off at range but outside of their (limited range) they are unable to deal any damage except through abilities.

Toxic Chomper
Fire Chomper
Power Chomper
Chomp Thing
Roadie Z
Chemist
Dr. Chester
Zoologist
Drake Mech
Captain Squawk

Sniper Sniper variants have a high zoom, allowing you to attack enemies from afar. Camo Cactus
Pops Corn
Camo Ranger
Painter
Golf Star
Legendary Legendary characters have access to a legendary meter which will fill up as the player vanquishes enemies. The fill rate is 5 vanquishes to fill the meter all the way with the Scallywag Imp being the only exception, requiring only 3 vanquishes to fill up his legendary meter (but his "boost mode" doesn't last as long).

Once the legendary meter is filled up, it will automatically activate a powerful "boost mode" during which the character's movement speed and damage are increased considerably and will also receive a small amount of damage resistance.

Disco Chomper
Iron Citron
Party Citron
Party Rose
Party Corn
Commando Corn
Computer Scientist
Party Imp
Scallywag Imp
Toxic Brainz
Party Brainz
Captain Partyman

Examples of different types of variants[]

Trivia[]

  • A variant that is unique and corresponds to no similar character from another class is not a variant type.
  • Although all elemental variants use colored numbers to match their element, the Alien Flower isn't an elemental, yet she still uses pink numbers to indicate the damage.
  • Fire is the only type which contains a variant of each class in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.
  • While most characters behavior-wise adhere to one variant type only, there are currently 14 characters that, due to their behavior, are counted as using two or more types simultaneously.
    • Electro Citron is both an electric and a charge variant since his primary weapon can be charged up and deals electric damage.
    • Iron Citron is an armored, legendary, and single-shot variant since he has higher health than the default Citron, has to reload his primary weapon after each shot unless using Iron Mode, and has a legendary meter.
    • Toxic Citron is both a toxic and a cloud variant since he is a toxic character whose primary weapon leaves toxic gas clouds behind when hitting surfaces.
    • Fire Rose is both a fire and a charge variant since she deals fire damage and her primary weapon can be charged up.
    • Frost Rose is both an ice and a charge variant since she chills/freezes enemies and her primary weapon can be charged up.
    • Pops Corn is both a sniper and a burst-fire variant, since his primary weapon is long range and fires three projectiles at once.
    • Electro Pea is both an electric and a manual detonation variant, since he deals electric damage and his projectiles can be detonated in mid air.
    • Petrified Cactus is both an armor and a manual detonation variant, since she has more health and her projectiles can be detonated in mid air.
    • Toxic Brainz is both a toxic and a legendary variant since he deals toxic damage and has a legendary meter.
    • Captain Squawk is a toxic, single-shot, and spray variant since he is a toxic character while operating a single-shot sniper and spray shotgun.
    • Roadie Z is both an armored and a spray variant as he has higher health than the base Engineer while his primary weapon damages everything within its range.
    • Toxic Chomper, Fire ChomperPower Chomper, and Drake Mech are all spray variants, and toxic, fire, electric, and fire variants respectively.
  • Toxic Brainz and Disco Chomper are the only Legendary variants that fill their meter differently from other Legendary variants. Toxic Brainz requires landing punches, and Disco Chomper requires swallowing Zombies. All other Legendary variants require vanquishes (as mentioned above) to fill their legendary meter.
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