Gather The Sun. Position Your Plants. Kill Zombies. Repeat. Here is how to define in a very simple way the core loop of Plants vs Zombies 2. When starting the game you find yourself with a couple of seconds and a small amount of Sun energy to get your first lines of defense and sun supply ready. This should get you through the first wave of zombies… It also might not, as even during this first wave you are able to invest and upgrade your defenses to counter anything unexpected (more zombies coming through one specific line or a big zombie coming). Wave after wave, you keep upgrading your wall of plants to make it even more efficient against the upcoming threats. The way the zombies spawn on the right side of the screen happens near the battlefield, which adds to the element of surprise and makes the actions and decisions made during the waves crucial in order to survive any level. This requires from the player a high level of engagement with the game at all times and the fact that each wave is more difficult than the previous one makes the player have a kind of ambition. In fact, if the player loses at the third or fourth wave, he will still want to play again as he won two or three waves precedently. Therefore if you break it down, a defeat in Plants vs. Zombies 2 happens in reality after a few victories.

However, one important that makes this game progression exciting and entertaining is the great variety of plants and zombies the game has. We could from the start of the game draw four categories of plants: Attacking plants, defensive plants, traps, and what I would call grind plants.

The attacking plants are here to damage the opponents. You would place them usually everywhere in order to damage upcoming threats in every row of the game board.

The defense plants are here to play the role of tank, which means they are here to use their healthy amount of hitpoint and protect other weaker plants from being destroyed.

The traps are here usually cheaper than the rest of the plants and they usually only have a one-use function. Those plants are the last resort to get rid of one weak zombie from one defenseless line.

The grind plants are the sunflowers in this game, they give the main currency needed to be able to plant your lineups. They don’t damage and don’t have much health, there you would want to place them as far as possible from the enemy and do your best to protect them.

Lastly, I will analyze a bit deeper five plants to see their role in the battlefield and understand how they can affect it:

The Cabbage-pult is a long-range attacking plant it deals more damage than the standard peashooters but has a lower fire rate. It can shoot above zombie shields and obstacles. It is useful to use this plant when a wave starts with shielded zombies that the peashooters have a hard time dealing with. The combination peashooters/cabbage-pult is a great one as it allies great damage and great fire rate.

The Twin Sunflower is an upgraded grind plant as it gives double the amount of sun compared to the standard sunflower. It is important to rapidly try to get this plant is it will drastically boost your play and allow you to have more creative line-ups.

The Bonk Choy is a melee attacking plant, the first you will encounter in the standard progression of the game. The range of this plant is limited to two tiles in front of him. It is best to couple this plant with a wall nut as it will keep him protected while letting him damage the zombies with his fast and deadly leaf fists.

The Iceberg Lettuce is a trap plant that has a special effect on opponents. It freezes the zombie that steps on it and later makes it walks slow and attack slowly as well. It is useful to put this plant in a row that is weak in order to gain some time to reinforce it.

The Split Pea is an attacking plant that represents basically an upgrade to the standard peashooter. It comes at a point in the game where some zombies can be thrown in the middle of the board, not only from the front as per the start of the game. Therefore it becomes important to not only shoot from left to right but also from right to left to damage the threats that fell in the middle of the battlefield. This is where this plant shines.