In these Brain Busters, the player needs to protect all the endangered plants. Completing a level would earn the player a star before the 1.7 update. After the 1.7 update, the objective is still the same, but only requires the player to progress on the map. If an endangered plant gets eaten or destroyed, the game screen will display "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR PLANT!" instead of "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" and the player will fail the level in a similar manner.
Although the following plants cannot be eaten, they would still yield the game over message mentioned before as if they were eaten, the message should say "THE ZOMBIES TRIGGERED YOUR PLANT".
The only time the game over screen is different is in Dark Ages - Night 12, where the text will say "PUFF-SHROOM DID NOT SURVIVE!" if the Puff-shrooms disappear normally. Before version 6.9.1, all endangered plants would be set to Level 1 regardless of what level they were supposed to be. As of version 6.9.1, they now match the player's plant levels.
Save Our Seeds is a reference to the phrase "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls," also known as S.O.S, used in emergencies.
Levels
The Roman numerals are the level numbers before the 1.7 update for Ancient Egypt, Pirate Seas, and Wild West. For Frostbite Caves onwards, it is used for disambiguation purposes. The parentheses show where the level is located after the 1.7 update, or if the level is removed in the update altogether.
If the player dug up the endangered plants before the 1.9 update, they would fail the level as if they were eaten. This would occur because the game registers digging up a plant the same way it does when it gets eaten. After the 1.9 update, the shovel no longer has any effect when used on endangered plants.
If an endangered plant is crushed, shoveled (before the 1.9 update), tossed off of the screen, destroyed by Jester Zombie's deflected projectile, stolen by Zombie Parrot, pulled into a space without Lily Pads by Fisherman Zombie (or the plant is pulled onto itself), or burned by a trap tile, when failing the level, the game over screen still says "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR PLANT!" even though the zombies did not technically eat the player's plant.
Even though the player's brains are not eaten if the plant is eaten, the brain image is still shown if the player fails.
Sometimes, the brain will not show up if the endangered plants were eaten or destroyed by the zombies. This is likely a glitch.
The endangered plants are placed on yellow and black squares, which is the universal caution sign with diagonal stripes.
If a Zombie Parrot steals an endangered plant, the endangered tile is dragged with it.
Not counting Piñata Parties, Far Future - Day 20, Far Future - Day 29 and Jurassic Marsh - Day 36 are the only levels with the endangered plants being premium plants.
Due to a possible glitch, Wall-nut First Aid does not work on the endangered Wall-nuts in the Wild West Save Our Seeds levels. However, it could have also been implemented as an extra layer of challenge. This works in the Chinese version though.
When the player starts a level, they can sometimes see the dirt under the endangered plants from the planting animations, as the game pre-planted them automatically.
The endangered tile can be on Lily Pads. It covers the Lily Pad, making them unseen. The only way for this to happen is Fisherman Zombie pulling the endangered Banana Launchers forward in Big Wave Beach - Day 23.
Tile Turnip cannot be planted on the endangered plant, but an endangered plant can still use Power Tiles.
All Save Our Seeds levels in Big Wave Beach have four flags.
A Save Our Seeds level can have more than one type of endangered plant (currently occurs in Piñata Party and Neon Mixtape Tour).
Phat Beet, Wall-nut, and Primal Wall-nut are currently the only plants that appear in more than one Save Our Seeds level after the 1.7 update (not including Piñata Parties)
Wall-nut and Primal Wall-nut are the only plants that appear in more than one Save Our Seeds levels in two different worlds.
Crazy Dave's quote "There's a plant call on the banana phone!" is a reference to the 1994 popular children's album, Bananaphone.
Endangered plants cannot be moved with Escape Root, though Penny says in Modern Day - Day 19 that it can swap places with endangered plants.
In the 4.6.2 update, Escape Root can now swap with endangered plants, making Escape Root useful in Save Our Seeds levels.
Most first Save Our Seeds levels of each world take place on Day 15 except for Pirate Seas, Wild West, and Dark Ages.
Zombies sent by a Pterodactyl and Prospector Zombies will not die if they are only the zombies remaining in a gameplay, just like on levels with flowers. This was done in order for them to allow them to eat an endangered plant from behind.
Even though the plants are described as endangered, one can produce infinite of them using the seed packet, which contradicts the “endangered” part of it.
In Penny's Pursuit, if an endangered plant gets eaten, the player will not fail the level, they simply will not get the bonus for the objective.
However, in a Worldly event, if all Penny Points are collected, there are still the endangered plants on the board. Having them eaten will count as a loss.
This doesn't happen to levels in Normal events.
If a level is modified to contain instant plants as endangered plants, they will either not trigger properly until the level starts, or activate instantly. In both cases, the level will be failed a short period after it starts.