Engineer (Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville)

They can be tough nuts to crack.

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Engineer
Free spirits who fly by the seat of their butt-baring pants, Engineers help hammer Zomboss’ inventions together while battling plants.
Health	125
Weapon	Concrete Launcher
Ammo	10
Damage	Explosive
Special	Can Sprint in all directions and is immune to Chomper's Burrow while sprinting
Range	Close - Long
Role	Support
Specialty	Buffing nearby allies
Abilities
Engineers build stuff that provides speed boosts and increased firepower to support the team.

Engineer is a playable zombie class in Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. He is a Support class. His ability set from previous games has also been completely changed to better suit his support role; his Sonic Grenade has been replaced with the Bullhorn Swarm, his Big Bolt Blaster is now a deployable sentry turret called the Heavy Helper which shoots plants while also increasing the damage output of nearby zombies instead of a gatling ability, and his Jackhammer has been replaced with Double Time (while his Jackhammer is now his sprint, though the Engineer will still be immune to Burrow). In addition, the Concrete Launcher's projectiles now bounce on walls before exploding.

Description

In-game description

Engineers build stuff that provides speed boosts and increased firepower to support the team.

Primary Weapon

Engineer's primary weapon is the Concrete Launcher, which fires explosive concrete chunks that bounce off walls before detonating. Each chunk of concrete deals 36 impact damage and 22 splash damage. The Concrete Launcher can be fired 10 times before needing to be reloaded.

Abilities

Left abilities
Bullhorn Swarm	Deploy a group of stunning megaphones to block an area and unburrow Chompers.
Center abilities
Heavy Helper	Create a sentry turret that also buffs nearby allies' weapon power.
Right abilities
Double Time	Deploy a speed boost pad.

Upgrades

	Super Savior		● 1
	Use jump and abilities while reviving. Allows jump and using abilities while reviving an ally without canceling the revive.

	Refreshing Revive		● 1
	Faster refresh time for all abilities by reviving an ally. Reduces ability cooldown by 100% (10 seconds) when a teammate is revived.

	Rough Patch		● 1
	Spawn with more health after suffering multiple vanquishes in a row. After dying three times in a row, spawn with the maximum amount of overhealth for the currently used class after respawning or being revived.

	Seismic		● 2
	While sprinting, knock enemies away with jackhammer. Jackhammer knocks enemies 5m (16.40 ft) upward and 10m (32.81 ft) backward in a trapezoid area: (1.) Length: 4m (13.12 ft); (2.) Near width and far width: 2m (6.56 ft); (3.) Height: 3m (9.84 ft).

	Reinforced		● 2
	Increased health of deployed Bullhorns. Increases Bullhorn Swarm health by 150% (to 25 HP), heals Heavy Helper

	Revive Reward		● 2
	Gain health by reviving an ally. Grants 75 HP upon reviving an ally, also gain 10% armor while reviving.

	Rubber		● 2
	Concrete Launcher's projectile bounce more before detonating. Concrete Launcher bounces eight times before exploding.

	Turbo Charge		● 2
	Longer duration of Double Time speed boost. Increases Double Time speed boost duration by 1 second (to 3.5 seconds), provides knock back buff.

	Leveling Up		● 2
	Earn XP faster. Earn 10% more XP.

	Rollout		● 2
	Move faster after spawning or being revived. Increases movement speed by 55% for 7 seconds after respawning or being revived, being revived heals you to full health.

	Breakthrough		● 3
	Increased range of Concrete Launcher. Increases Concrete Launcher projectile speed by 54.3%.

	Hydraulics		● 2
	Jump higher on jackhammer while sprinting. Increases the jump height with jackhammer by 50%.

	Critical Blow		● 3
	Faster refresh time for all abilities by earning a critical vanquish. Reduces ability cooldown by 5.5 seconds upon critically vanquishing an enemy.

	Progress Report		● 3
	Damage by Heavy Helper reveals enemy health bar to Engineer. Health bar remains on screen for 6 seconds after being hit by Heavy Helper.

	Dispersion		● 3
	Cover larger area with Bullhorn Swarm. Increase Bullhorn Swarm area of effect to 11m (36.08 ft)

	Signal Amp		● 3
	Extends range of combat buff from Heavy Helper. Increases Heavy Helper buff radius by 25% (to 10m (32.81 ft))

	Speedy		● 3
	Move faster, except when sprinting. Increases walking speed by 12.9032%.

	Hard Target		● 3
	Move faster for a short time after receiving damage. Increases movement speed by 15% for 1.65 seconds upon taking damage. Stacks up to 4 times for a maximum of 50% movement speed increase.

	Rally the Troops		● 2
	Faster refresh time on all abilities when allies use Double Time. Reduces Engineer ability cooldown by 6 seconds upon using Double Time. This effect has a 2-second cooldown between each activation.

	Combat Aura		● 3
	Gain increased damage aura for a short time after a vanquish streak of three. Activates a damage aura with a 5m radius upon vanquishing 5 enemies without dying. Increases damage by 25% and lasts for 15 seconds.

Related achievement

	Job Well Done Earn 200 vanquishes as an Engineer.

Strategies

With

Engineer is a very helpful asset to your team. His Double Time can give him and other zombies a speed boost, allowing you to rush into objectives or to retreat faster. His Concrete Launcher now bounces off of walls, allowing you to trickshot your enemies in wall-based areas, as well as making it very easy to pressure your enemies without taking any pressure himself. His Bullhorn Swarm can home in to enemies and multiple Bullhorns can stun you longer, making him a threat in mid to close combat. The Heavy Helper is very useful because of its damage and ammo buff that it gives to the zombies.

Against

Engineer proves to be a tricky character to vanquish one-on-one due to abilities like Bullhorn Swarm and Double Time which can paralyze you and provide an escape for Engineer. His Heavy Helper is very dangerous, as it has above-average health, damage and has aimbot, plus it gives zombies a damage and extra ammo buff. Nightcap is not an advisable counter to Engineer, as the Engineer's Bullhorn Swarm and his turret's aimbot can negate your high mobility, as well as the fact that the engineer only needs to land two shots to vanquish you. The same can be said for Acorn, but Oak, whose playstyle is nearly the opposite, fairs well against engineer, although the Engineer's high damage while near his turret can make the match-up tricky. If you're playing Chomper, its heavily advised to not close in on him, as his stun will take away your ability to escape with burrow and if he's aided by his turret he can vanquish you much quicker than you can vanquish him. That being said, chomper's long ranged attack, slobber shot, does well against engineer's large hitbox, and can vanquish him in a mere three shots if you use the halitosis upgrade and four shots without it, while also keeping you out of range of both his turret and arced primary. Engineer's high damage at close-mid range makes his match-up with Snapdragon and Citron a toss up, as all three of them specialize in this. If you're playing Snapdragon, try to use Swoop Slam at the beginning of the fight, as it'll only take a few hits after that to vanquish both him and his turret. If you're playing Citron, use EM-peach to your advantage, as it will both destroy his Bullhorn Swarm's megaphones, as well as stun him long enough to vanquish him. You can also use Spin Dash at the beginning of the fight to reduce his HP to a mere 50. His large size and easy to hit hitbox makes Cactus, Sunflower, Peashooter, and Kernel Corn effective counters to the Engineer. Cactus can snipe the Engineer with a fully charged shot followed by a half charged shot, while Sunflower, Peashooter, and Kernel Corn's above-average speed, damage, and accuracy make attacking him very easy. Just keep your distance from him, and he should be easy to take out.

Tips & Tricks

When Engineer is sprinting any Zombie behind him gets a small speed boost which stacks with more Engineers, it's great for getting to the objective faster.

NPCs

Enemies

• Basecoat Bert
• Dig Wig

Quest NPCs

• Hugh D. Votee
• Seagasstian

Balancing changes

October 2019 patch

• ▲ Remove strafe and back pedal speed modifier when sprinting
• ▲ Remove activation delay of 0.1 when sprinting

November 2019 patch

• ▲ Fix issue with incorrect stun amount being added for additional horns hitting target after the first with the Bullhorn Swarm. Net result is reduced stun duration

December 2019 patch

• ▼ Decrease Heavy Helper firing range 45m->40m

December 3, 2019 TTK patch

• ▲ Increase Concrete Launcher direct damage 5.2->12.8
• ▲ Increase Concrete Launcher splash damage 22->25
• ▼ Decrease Concrete Launcher splash damage radius 3.5->2.5
• ▼ Decrease Concrete Launcher shockwave radius 3.75->3.2
• ▲ Increase Concrete Launcher ammo capacity 8->10
• ▼ Decrease Bullhorn Swarm initial stun time 0.5->0.35
• ▼ Decrease Bullhorn Swarm additional stun time 0.35->0.175

January 2020 patch

• ▲ Fixed collision check when attempting to deploy Double Time (easier to deploy)

March 2020 patch

• Bullhorn Swarm
  • Adjust trajectory to be more center screen aligned
  • ▲ Decrease gravity of initial projectile
• Upgrade Turbo Charge
  • Remove UI health element
• Upgrade Rally the Troops
  • Fix issue with missing refresh reduction
  • ▲ Increase refresh reduction 1->4.5 sec
• Upgrade Double Time
  • Fix issue with proper speed blending

May 2020 patch

• ▼  Decrease shockwave radius 3.2->2.75 m
  • ▲  Switch to automatic fire
• Bullhorn Swarm
  • ▲ Can now cancel Snapdragon’s Swoop Slam
• Double Time
  • ▲ Strafe multiplier 1.04->1.5x
  • ▲ Backwards 0.5->1.5x
  • ▼ Decrease speed multiplier 1.8->1.5x
  • ▲ Normalize speed multiplier in all directions at 1.5x
• Upgrade Seismic
  • ▲ Increase knockback area dimensions, length 4->6 m, width 2->5.5 m
  • ▲ Decrease time between knockbacks after landing 2->0.5 sec

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Engineer.

Visit this page to see it.

Trivia

• Engineer is the only character from the previous shooter games to have none of their abilities from those games. All of Engineer's abilities in this game are new.
• His Buttcrack is noticeably more covered than his Garden warfare 1 & 2 appearances.

V · T · E	Zombies (Shooter games)