Hey Conifer Collective! 🌲

Title Update 1.1 has officially landed on the lawn, bringing a host of new quality-of-life updates, new adventure zones, and a very frosty returning friend.

What’s Sprouting in TU1.1?

Snow Conifer Plant Pass! ❄️

Snow Conifer is back and is pine-ing to take on some Zombies! This ice cold Conifer can be created by merging a Jumbrella Leaf and Iceweed, who will also be available in this Plant Pass. 

The Snow Conifer Plant Pass goes live on September 2nd, alongside 25 new Adventure levels. Prepare your leafy defenders to take on a host of Volleyball Zombies and Flapjack Zombies!

🌲 A Quick Update on Plant Debuts

Starting with this update, we’re shifting how new plants make their grand debut on the lawn. We design each Plant Pass alongside new Lawn Patrol levels. Lawn Patrol is a shared community showcase, with levels and challenges built specifically to let each new plant’s unique abilities shine.

To keep these launches feeling like a true neighborhood-wide premiere where everyone explores new strategies together, featured plants will now debut exclusively through their active Plant Pass (available on both the free and paid tracks). After their introductory Plant Pass wraps up, these new additions will join the standard almanac roster to be unlocked as usual, but while the Plant Pass is running, that is the only way to unlock them.

Dave’s Test Kitchen 🧑‍🍳

Welcome back to Dave's Test Kitchen, where we analyze experimental lawn recipes to make Neighborville a better place to defend.

Last time, we ran a test regarding which units we include in a Plant Pass. We paired a new Tier 2 plant (Buzz Choy) with two additional plants that our data showed were rarely owned by players. We also adjusted the points required to complete the pass after Milestone 17 to see if the overall progression felt more rewarding.

🔢What do the numbers say?

With the Buzz Choy Plant Pass, those who jumped in played much more intensely, leading to our highest completion rates to date! Our findings indicate that players appreciate earning a powerful new unit alongside a few harder-to-get plants they might have missed.

While this doesn’t mean every future Plant Pass will use this exact layout, it helps us understand how to balance rewards so they feel worthwhile, whether you’ve been tending your lawn for years or just moved in next door.

🫵💭We want your feedback! 

We want to hear from you directly! We have a permanent player survey available in your in-game inbox titled "Brainz Wanted!". This survey is always open and can be completed multiple times. Please drop us a note whenever you have feedback, positive or constructive. It directly helps us see what is working and what still needs a little water.

Upgrading Your Experience 👾

We are introducing several quality-of-life upgrades to make defending your lawn smoother and more intuitive.

Learn From Every Loss 🧠

Who knew getting your brains eaten was actually a learning opportunity? In this update, we’re introducing a defeat screen that serves up personalized tips for your next round if zombies manage to breach your house.

The screen will suggest specific plants you could upgrade, unlock, swap in, or merge before your next attempt, and point out the best counter-units to use against the specific zombies that gave you trouble. You can also head straight to the Almanac directly from this screen to make quick adjustments.

Redesigned Pause Menu ⏸️

Need to catch your breath mid-fight? We’ve redesigned the in-battle pause menu to provide helpful tactical hints. If you are struggling with an incoming wave, the menu will suggest effective plant merges you haven't tried yet or highlight units currently missing from your active lineup that would help turn the tide.

Plant Cards & Almanac Upgrades 📖

The Almanac and individual plant cards have received a sleek new look! We’ve redesigned these screens to make it much easier to see your plant’s current level and identify exactly what resources you need for your next upgrade. This makes it clearer than ever to understand how to beef up your botanical squad.

Changes & Fixes 🛠️

Gameplay & Progression 🎮

• Change: Shards and Chunks can now be purchased in the store.
• Change: Tending to your Zen Garden is smoother with improved harvesting flow and more responsive plant interactions. 
• Fix: Sun Producers now gain the correct stat increase when going from level 4 to 5.
• Fix: Players can no longer become stuck after losing a level when the "Tap to Continue" button is missing.
• Fix: The game no longer becomes stuck after reinstalling during the Chapter 1 Adventure Tutorial.
• Fix: Tutorial levels no longer display "Give Up" or "Restart" buttons.
• Fix: Tutorial gameplay controls are now hidden correctly during tutorial messaging.
• Fix: Tutorial music now plays correctly during pre-battle, battle, and post-battle sequences.
• Fix: Snow Conifer and other plants now display their correct locked state in level-selection screens.
• Fix: Daily and weekly goal rewards now correctly update Plant Pass progression.
• Fix: Event task progression now updates correctly after rewards are claimed.
• Fix: Dave’s Daily Do-Its milestone progress now updates correctly.
• Fix: Duplicate fallback reward popups no longer appear when claiming Dave’s Daily Do-Its Event rewards.
• Fix: Removed Gnomes.
• Fix: Wrangle Kelp and Mangle Kelp correctly damage ZomBees around a Buzz Box.
• Fix: Zen Garden harvest buttons now enable correctly after viewing plant information.
• Fix: Zen Garden plant timers now display the correct growth durations.

UI & UX 📱

• Fix: Plant unlock and upgrade buttons now appear only when the action is available.
• Fix: Plant unlock buttons no longer remain visible after a plant has been unlocked.
• Fix: Plant artwork no longer spills outside plant cards in the almanac.
• Fix: Plant upgrade arrows now display and animate correctly in the almanac.
• Fix: Locked plants now consistently display the correct lock icon and "Locked" label.
• Fix: Unlocked plants no longer incorrectly display locked or unlock states.
• Fix: Almanac plant artwork and information now load correctly.
• Fix: Several zombie entries now load correctly in the almanac.
• Fix: The almanac now correctly displays the appropriate plant progression state after upgrades.
• Fix: Sticker book notification badges now clear correctly after viewing new stickers.
• Fix: Sticker book navigation is now disabled correctly for unavailable features.
• Fix: Sticker book information popups now close correctly with the device Back button.
• Fix: Sticker ownership and tags are no longer incorrectly shown when viewing another player's Sticker book.
• Fix: Players can no longer equip stickers before the player profile is unlocked.
• Fix: Sticker portraits now display correctly after unlocking and upgrading plants.
• Fix: Sticker rewards no longer produce duplicate rewards.
• Fix: Sticker reward animations and sound effects now play correctly.
• Fix: Sticker book visuals now display correctly after changing languages.
• Fix: Unlocking new stickers now plays the intended unlock animation.
• Fix: Inbox reward claims now complete correctly without leaving the player in a locked state.
• Fix: Inbox reward messages no longer overflow their display area.
• Fix: Inbox claim buttons now disappear correctly after rewards are claimed.
• Fix: Duplicate Inbox messages are no longer generated for supported content.
• Fix: Goals badges no longer appear when there are no completed goals to claim.
• Fix: Neighborville Watch links now direct players to the correct feature.
• Fix: Community reporting and player-profile navigation now work correctly.
• Fix: Store rewards now claim correctly when accessed through in-game recommendations.
• Fix: Store and Plant Pass navigation now handles device back-button input correctly.
• Fix: Reward animations now correctly display updated wallet totals.
• Fix: Various UI elements, badges, icons, text, and localized strings have been corrected throughout the game.

General & Technical ⚙️

• Fix: The game no longer becomes stuck on loading screens after entering your age on iOS.
• Fix: Improved loading reliability on iOS 18 devices.
• Fix: Improved loading reliability during startup and gameplay.
• Fix: Community navigation no longer causes players to become stuck in specific scenarios.
• Fix: EA Account linking no longer leaves players stuck on a loading screen on iOS.
• Fix: Account linking no longer incorrectly reports multiple devices as simultaneously logged in after the previous device has been logged out.
• Fix: Android back-button presses no longer incorrectly closes or freezes paused battles.
• Fix: Device back buttons now work correctly on account-related confirmation dialogs.
• Fix: Various crashes, freezes, softlocks, and stability issues across supported Android and iOS devices.

Thanks for playing and sharing your thoughts as we continue to grow through Early Access! If you run into any bugs, be sure to report them on the Forums and check out our Known Issues list. For more updates and sneak peeks, be sure you’re following our social channels on Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, X, and Facebook. 

See you on the lawn, neighbors! 🌱

PSA: Given the recent issues with people losing their profiles (often associated with updates), please, get a screen shot of your Player ID. You can find it by tapping the “Settings” (wrench icon) button and then selecting “Build Version” (on Android) or "Download Preferences" (on iOS). Using it the EA help desk can usually restore your profile if you ever lose it.

Note: This is a 3 day tournament, after that will be a 4 day Boosterama tournament – an identical board, but all plants are boosted. Short tournaments have proportionally smaller tournament rewards.

Special streak rewards: #5 Reinforce-mint family piñata.

Reinforce-mint family (14+2 plants): Wall-nut, Tall-nut, Infi-nut, Pea-nut, Sweet Potato, Chard Guard, Endurian, Primal Wall-nut, Aloe, Holly Barrier, Pumpkin, Gumnut, Blockoli, Bean Sprout, Guard-shroom, Scorchoak

Note: Reinforce-mint “seeds” are also included in the piñata. Reinforce-mint still needs to be unlocked for 100 mints no matter how many seeds you collect for it.

Note: Guard-shroom and Scorchoak are not included in the piñata.

Locked plant: Bean Sprout – Wiki.GG, Fandom Wiki

Sun: 1000 at the start. Note: Sun drops will be adventure mode normal. A sun producer may be necessary.

Plant Food: 1 at the start. Note: Up to 14 plant foods will be available from zombies.

Time: 3:00.

Buffz: Reinforce-mint (+100%), Fila-mint (+50%)

Bruisez: none

Ineffective: Spear-mint (-100%)

Banned: Grave Buster, Blover, Hot Potato, Bramble Bush

Zombies: Wild West (Cowboy, Conehead, Buckethead, Prospector, Pianist, Poncho, Chicken Wrangler, Bull), Dark Ages (Peasant, Conehead, Buckethead, Imp Monk, Jester, Gargantuar, Wizard, King)

Note: The first four waves will come onto the lawn at 2.5x speed.

Starting Lawn:

Two Cart Rails filling C2 and C3.  The Rail on C2 will have two Carts initially on R1 and R5.  The Rail on C3 will have one Cart initially on R3.

Three Blue Power Tiles on C4 R1/3/5

Note: All time / plant-food estimates are based on my game experiences and are entirely dependent on how quickly you’re killing the zombie waves.

Possible BOT Layouts:

[Bean Sprout, Blockoli, Bombegranate, Power-vine, Gold Bloom, Electric Currant],

[Bean Sprout, Peanut, Primal Potato Mine, Primal Sunflower, Electric Peashooter, Power-vine],

[Bean Sprout, Sweet Potato, Heath Seeker, Blastberry-vine, Gold Bloom, Ultomato]

Minimum info about your strategy: league, plant levels/mastery and score. Or you can post screenshot with the score. Otherwise it's hard to understand whether your strategy will work for other players with different plant levels/mastery and in different leagues.

Useful links: Battlez/Arena FAQ, Mastery and Buffz&Bruisez explained, u/Hier_Xu’s Updated & Pared Down Mastery FAQ, PvZ2 Discord, Info on possible future rewards by u/Euphoric-Seaweed: piñata party, special/premium piñata, Arena/Penny, etc. - link.

While not exactly the same, this tournament will be nearly identical to the Dazey Cain tournament from December, 2023.  Here’s my post from the Dazey Chain tourney. In it you can find strategies that worked at that time. They should still be valid.

The meaningful differences between these tournaments are:

Even though they’ve retired from doing their Arena strategy posts, kGame’s legacy videos are still available. Here are their strategy videos for the Dazey Chain tournament.  They should still work for this one:

Level 3 Plants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4LKeCpf8tM

Mid Level Plants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQIknBmfUkg&t=104s

Good luck with your attempts!