Strategy for "Falling Seeds" in Plants vs. Zombies

Plants vs. Zombies is an excellent tower defense game. This strategy guide covers "Falling Seeds", a particularly interesting and replayable mini game.

1) The opening

You will get three seeds before the zombies start coming. Hopefully, they will be shooters. If not, place any lights and magnets farther back than you would usually place them.

If you get lily pads, you can either place them at the back of the water row or forward. Since you know that none of the first wave of zombies will go through the water, if you place a lily pad forward and then get a star, light, or magnet, you can place it on a lily pad.

Which row should you place the shooters in?

There are two top rows (1,2), two water rows (3,4), and two more grass rows (5,6). I like to place shooters in 2 and 5.

Note that you can always see zombies through the fog in row 1, and can often see zombies through the fog in row 6.

If you get a threepeater, place it in 5. If you get a second, place it in 2. If you get two in the opening, you have already covered all six rows with shooters!

2) The first wave

Once the zombies start coming, try to get one shooter in each of 1,2 and 5,6. Initially, if you get an expendable plant, such as a spud bomb, you can place it in a row and consider that row covered by a shooter. I also like placing expendables (and the little puff shrooms) on lily pads as far forward as possible, but at least 3 columns from the end.

If you get spikes, place them on the far right and use their sound to warn you of a zombie attacking that row. If you get spikes later in the round, place them right in front of a nut (this is from the gamefaqs.com strategy guides: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/959255-plants-vs-zombies/faqs -- the survival endless guides contain some very creative and powerful strategies).

Besides the spikes, there are only two plants that hit more than one zombie in their row: the watermelon and the big fume shroom. These are very valuable and should be protected. The watermelon can be placed at the back, but the fume shroom has a short range and is best placed 2 spaces behind a barrier or, if necessary, protected by a pumpkin.

Also valuable are the plants that slow down the zombies: the butter and freeze plants. These should be protected. In the early part of a level, they can save you when a zombie gets farther than you'd like.

Also try to place chompers directly behind a barrier (or garlic) or a pumpkin.

Place one shooter in each row before you place a second shooter in any row unless there is a conehead advancing on a valuable plant.

In particularly difficult levels (after you've played the game at least 10 times, they will happen occasionally), you will not get enough shooters to cover even the start of the first wave. If two zombies have progressed far enough down one row, let them get to the end and let them meet your lawn mower.

Once you have placed a large number of lily pads, you desperately want to prevent zombies from reaching the end. Protect the lily pads.

Never place in the back: nuts, single use plants, spikes, marigolds.

Never place far forward: threepeaters, watermelons, and scaredy shrooms.

3) Using garlic

Garlic is a very difficult plant to use correctly. If you ever get two in a row, you can place them adjacent to each other, and the zombies will go back and forth. If you ever have one row poorly defended, or you lose a lawn mower early in the game, you can protect that row with garlic, but then you must take care to place powerful plants in the adjacent row. The row with garlic should have some shooter in it. A freeze or butter plant is preferred.

If you are depending on garlic to protect a row, and you get the garlic early on, you will need to place a second garlic in the same lane after a few waves.

4) Using bombs, chilis, and nukes

If you get these too early, they're useless. Hold them for as long as you can. They are especially valuable in destroying the bungee zombies.

5) Using chompers

The chomp zombies can be used to protect key plants. They will eat a zombie that is attacking the plant in front of them, but then they need time for digestion. If a chomper needs time, an ice shroom can help.

6) Using torchwood

These are the most difficult to place. For best effect, they need to placed forward but they are vulnerable. Chompers and pumpkins can protect them, as can barriers. Note that if you place a split pea to their right, they will protect the plants in the lane against bungees.

Note that torchwood will drive back a very small amount of the fog.

7) Using nuts and pumpkins

These barriers are the key to the survival of your most valuable plants. Early on, you may want to place them in the grass rows, but later on, it's great to also place them in the water rows.

Place them forward so that you can place the following behind them (in order of value): lights, magnets, fume shrooms, stars, and chompers.

Note that if you get another nut of the same type, you can place it directly on top of your existing nut to heal it and make it stop crying.

8) Zombies to fear

The metalheads (football players, pailheads, and screeners) are especially dangerous if you're playing in a level that has no magnets. Otherwise, they (and the jack in the box) are relatively harmless. The metalheads must meet a barrier. Even if you fill a lane with shooters, the football player will get through.

The jack in the box is the most feared zombie. Make sure that by the late first wave, you have enough plants in each row to defeat a jack in the box. Generally, this means 2-3 shooters per row. A jack in the box that explodes can destroy your barrier and completely disrupt your strategy faster than any other zombie (except the bungees, who can do the same).

The newspaper zombie is feared in the early stages of the game, before the barriers are set up. This zombie is particularly likely to get to your short range plants, the puff and fume shrooms. If necessary, place an expendable plant such as a marigold as a barrier.

The bungee zombies can be your most challenging opponent. I find that freeze, bomb, and butter plants do the best to stop them. If you have a large number of stars in a column, they can help fight the bungees.

9) The endgame

Wave four differs from the other waves in that it: a) attacks the water rows more than the grass rows and b) some zombies appear in the water row. Towards the end of wave 3, place more firepower in the water. Also, some of the single use plants will be particularly useful in the end game. If you get a nuke, the end game is over very quickly

Note: You should occasionally look at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It shows the progress bar. The start of each new wave is marked with a flag.

10) Why "falling seeds"?

My gf pointed out to me that of all the mini games, this one offers the greatest variety precisely because you do not control what plants you get. The fog adds to the variety and uncertainty, but I try very hard to eliminate the fog.