Very Quick Tips: Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2

Boost your XP and find secrets galore!

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Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is one of my favorite games and its sequel does everything it did, only better, and adds a lot more content including single-player campaigns for each side and a large overworld brimming with secrets. 

So get ready to enjoy Dr. Dinosexual’s tips to find the hottest secrets and get you started on your way unlocking all the characters and their dank accessories.

General Tips:

– Before doing anything, head to the sewers near the middle of the map and find a clam with a seagull sitting on it. The clam will ask you to find snow globes that are scattered throughout the overworld, each netting you 500 coins. What happens when you collect all 50 of them is unknown as I’m currently missing just one! I’ll update when I find out.

– Look out for hidden golden gnome statues that are collectible throughout the game, with at least one in each area of the overworld, and even more hidden throughout multiplayer levels.

– Make sure you take quests from the board before starting missions or single-player, as completing them gives you experience boosts or coins, as well as stars that can be used to unlock chests in the overworld and provide entry into a secret mode that is unlocked later in the game.

– Quests do not have to be completed online against other players. Use this to your advantage to quickly earn stars and double XP.

– Quests that require you to kill a certain number of enemies as a specific character can be completed easily by raising the flag in the middle of the overworld to start Backyard Assault, which spawns a bunch of weak enemies to quickly grind kills. After the initial wave, back off and let the enemy win, then start over.

– If you need to kill a certain boss, all of the bosses are available in story missions. They also spawn during the final endless wave of the Backyard Assault, but that can take a bit more time than the missions.

Every multiplayer mode can be played against bots, and quests can be completed on any difficulty unless otherwise noted.

If you need to kill certain enemy types, you can setup a bot match against said enemy type. Need to kill corns? There’s an option for that.

Use the crazy settings for bot matches to your advantage. You can set it so everyone only has 1 HP thus being easily killed.

– Each character can be leveled up to level 10, at which point they can be promoted to give them a better title and you 20,000 coins.

– Every few levels, characters unlock an upgrade that can be applied in the customization menu, with a total of eight upgrades available. To unlock them all you must promote your characters multiple times.

    Secret Tips:

    – Once you’ve collected enough gnomes from the overworld, a phone near the docks will start ringing. Answer it. This will cause a gnome bomb to spawn nearby, which you can take into the sewers to access a secret area with free-to-open chests. One of the chests down here costs 200 stars to unlock, and its contents are currently unknown.

    – When hunting for gnomes and snow globes, use either the Superhero as he jumps the highest, or Peashooter with his high-jump ability. They’re both able to easily reach areas that other characters can’t.

    – One of the easiest-to-miss snow globes is in the first mission the zombie pirate gives you in the zombie’s story. In this mission, you shrink down and go inside of a shark, and the globe is hidden behind some debris.

    – In the sewer, there is a golden pipe across from the fish who exchanges stars for XP. Jump on the pipe as an Imp then into the nearby tunnel to the left to find a secret area with free chests.

    – Also, in the sewers, there is a door that costs five stars to open that unlocks a shooting gallery mini-game. Complete this mini-game in under 22 seconds to net yourself a ton of free coins. This can be done pretty easily with the peashooter.

    – In the second room of the shooting gallery, go back and jump up to the area where the gnome target was moving from side to side; once there, look to the right and shoot the wall to discover another hidden free-to-open chest.

    – There are sea-based items in the overworld that must be activated in a certain order to spawn a chest with a special hat. When activated in the correctly the items give a ding sound. You must be a zombie to activate these items — as one is in the zombie lair — I suggest the superhero as he can easily jump up to item 8 and can use his kick to move faster.

    1. A fish head and skeleton are on the ground next to the treehouse in the zombie park.
    2. A seashell is in the sewers off the side of a ramp between some broken pillars.
    3. In the park between Suburbia and Zomburbia, in the back right, you’ll see a pond surrounded by thorns. Get close to the end nearest the wall to find a puffer fish.
    4. A dolphin gun in a shop window along the docks.
    5. Follow the wall from the puffer fish into Suburbia and look on the backside of houses for a large fish shaped clock.
    6. A swordfish lays in the goo just inside the secret room that you must jump to from the golden pipes, just after falling into the dirt hallway.
    7. A seashell is on the left platform in the hidden zombie base
    8. On the top right side of the Zomburbia Bank near the docks, there is a fish butt mounted to the wall.
    9. A barnacle behind the portal to the pirate levels.
    10. There’s a squid in the water just before the docks on the zombie side of the overworld. Look for a rocky ramp that leads down to a few rocks that you can jump across. The squid will be barely visible under the water.

    – The final mission in both the plant and zombie stories is a new mode called Infinity. In this mode, you control giant mechs (a dinosaur for the plants and a cat for the zombies) and defend points from gnomes. Depending on how well you do, you’re awarded differently ranked chests at the end that can give you coins or items. Once you’ve done Infinity mode, it will cost you five stars to play again, and it can be played with multiple people.

      Follow the wall from the puffer fish into Suburbia and look on the backside of houses for a life preserver hanging atop a fish icon.


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