Peacebloom Vs Ghouls
Reproduced from the Guide over at MMO-Champion.
The goal of the mini-game is to prevent the Zombie invaders from reaching your house, where they will come in and eat your brains. To prevent this from happening you need to strategically place several types of plants on the playing field where they can attack, slow down and block the incoming waves of Zombies.
When you complete the final quest in the series, you will be rewarded with Brazie’s Sunflower Seeds.
The seeds grant you the non-combat pet Brazie’s Sunflower.
1 – The Playing Field – a 5x8 grid consisting of 5 lanes with 8 squares each. This is where all of the action takes place.
2 – Your last line of defense, a column of Fertilize-o-tron 2000s. If an enemy reaches one of these units the Fertilize-o-tron will mow down the attacker and continue driving off the Playing Field killing every enemy in that lane. However, this will leave a vulnerability in your defenses.
3 – Your House. Defend it at all costs! If an enemy reaches a vulnerable spot in your defenses, he will continue past it, enter your house and eat your brains! If this happens, you fail the quest and the game ends.
4 – The Ghoul spawning grounds. All your enemies will spawn here on one of the 5 rows, and proceed towards your house. They will always follow a straight line, so if an enemy Ghoul spawns on lane 1, he will stay on lane 1 until he makes it to the other side or is defeated.
5 – The Progress Meter – As you defeat waves of Zombies, the Progress Meter will fill up. Once it reaches full, and the X is glowing yellow, you will have completed the stage.
6 – The Plant/Ability bar. You start with one plant, the Spitter. As you progress through the stages, you will gain more plants and abilities up to a total of 6. Each plant and ability has a Solar Power cost to use. The costs are detailed in the next section.
The icons are: 1–Sunflower 2-Spitter 3–Freezya 4–Rocknut 5-Strangler Vine 6–Pumpkin Bomb
7 – The Solar Power tank. This will fill up in 5% increments every time you collect a Solar Power globe (SP) from the Playing Field.
1 - Sunflower - 484hp – Cost: 10 SP - Each of these units will produce one extra Solar Power globe per cycle.
2 - Spitter - 968hp – Cost: 20 SP – This unit will spit a poison attack causing 50 damage to enemies in the line of fire.
3 - Freezya - 968hp – Cost: 20 SP – This unit does less damage than the Spitter, only 35 per attack, but its attacks will temporarily slow down the enemies it hits.
4 - Rock Nut – 2420hp – Cost: 15 SP – This unit is used as a barrier. When you place it on a square, no enemies will be able to bypass that square it until they destroy it.
5 - Strangler Vine - 1936hp – Cost: 30 SP - This unit will grab the nearest enemy, trapping it in the air and slowly damaging it until dead. They cannot trap Abominations or Warden Stillwater but they still deliver damage to those enemies when on an adjacent square.
6 - Pumpkin Bomb – Cost: 40 SP - This unit will explode, doing massive damage to any enemy on squares adjacent to where you place it. It is the most efficient weapon to use against Warden Stillwater.
There are 5 types of enemy units and one boss.
1 - Zombie - 484hp – This is the most common enemy. They move slowly and die quickly.
2 - Ghoul - 968hp – Ghouls move quicker and do more damage than Zombies. Use a Freezya plant to slow them down, or a Rocknut to stop them while the Spitters take them down.
3 - Aberration - 3388hp – The most dangerous common unit, it can destroy your plants very quickly. Recommend using a vine to trap it or a pumpkin bomb to defeat it quickly.
4 - Abomination - 7260hp – They are very slow, but have a lot of health and hit very hard. Strangler Vines will not trap them, so you need to set up Rocknuts to slow them down and use Pumpkin Bombs to take them out.
5 - Obelisk - 2420hp - These units block your Spitter attacks from reaching Warden Stillwater. The only effective method of getting rid of them is to use a Strangler Vine.
6 - Warden Stillwater - 35000hp – The final boss. He will not attempt to cross the playing field; instead he paces back and forth on the Ghoul Spawning ground, periodically tossing vials of fertilizer onto your plants, which will kill them after 30 seconds. He will also build his own defenses in the form of floating Obelisks. Pumpkin Bombs are the most effective attack against him.
There are 5 quests to complete:
1. Basic Botany – Survive a Massive Wave of Zombies.
2. Flower Power – Survive a Massive Wave of Zombies.
3. Ghouls Hate My Grains – Survive 2 Massive Waves of Zombies.
4. Someone Setup the Pumpkin Bomb – Survive 2 Massive Waves of Zombies.
5. Lawn of the Dead – Defeat Warden Stillwater
When you are ready, click the first icon in your ability bar, the Spitter, and place it in 3A. (that square will be highlighted with a golden circle).
Once you plant your Spitter, you will hear the familiar groan of a Zombie, and then see him appear on the center lane in the Ghoul spawning ground. Your Spitter will start attacking the zombie as it moves towards your house. Even if you only plant that single Spitter, you will still complete this mission, but to speed things along, you can plant several more Spitters in lane 3 to defeat the Zombies quicker. After you defeat a couple Zombies, you will be receive this warning:
In the tutorial stage however, it just means 5 zombies are going to attack at once. One Spitter can defeat them all before the reach your house, but you likely have 3 to 5 planted by now so the wave should fall rather quickly.
When you complete the mission, you unlock your second ability, the Sunflower.
Speak to Brazie to complete the quest and prepare for the next stage.
Around this time a zombie will drop a sack on the field containing Freezya Seeds. Right click this to unlock your third plant, the Freezya.
Your grid layout should now match this: Figure.A.01
When you defeat this mission you will unlock the fourth ability, the Rocknut.
Speak to Brazie to complete the quest and prepare for the next stage.
Your next 3 moves, you should plant Sunflowers in 2A, 4A then a Freezya into 3C.
At this point, your grid should match this: Figure.B.01
While that is being taken care of, plant your next Sunflower, then plant a Freezya on the lane where the Ghoul is destroying the Rocknut. Next plant your final Spitter on row D. Now with all 5 rows attacking, you can plant the remaining Sunflowers and Freezyas. The first Massive Wave should be about to happen, with any spare time you have before it starts you should be dropping some Rocknuts on column G.
Your grid should look like this (possible with some Rocknuts in column G) before the first massive wave comes: Figure.B.02
The next stretch before the final wave is mainly about placing plants where you need them. If any of your Rocknuts get destroyed, rebuild them in the same spot. The rest of your SP should be spent filling rows E then F with Spitters, alternating with dropping Strangler Vines into row H.
Once the second and final Massive Wave starts you should have all of column G filled with Rocknuts, one to three Vines up in column H and columns E and F nearly full of Spitters.
Your grid moving into the final wave should be nearly full and look something like this: Figure.B.03
Once you defeat all the Ghouls, and complete the stage, you will unlock the final plant in your arsenal, the Pumpkin Bomb.
Speak to Brazie to complete the quest and prepare for the next stage.
If you don’t have at least the same defense built up as Figure.B.02 by the time the first Massive Wave arrives, you will probably fail the quest so it’s better to reset and try again at that point or you may just be prolonging the inevitable loss of brains.
Figue.B.02 (you should have this layout plus a scattering of Rocknuts in different stages of destruction on the right side of the field)
You will not be able to prevent plant loss in this stage, so don’t get too worried if you start losing some of your front line. If there are too many enemies building up, make sure to drop a Pumpkin Bomb in the middle of the cluster. Losing a full row during the first Massive Wave is not unusual for this stage. Just try to refill those squares in the base defensive line as quick as possible. If you see an Aberration by itself, it’s a good idea to drop a Vine on him, but if he is surrounded by 2 or 3 other friends, save the SP for the Pumpkin Bomb and take out the cluster.
Moving into the second wave, your defensive line will probably be a mess, just make sure you still have the full 2 columns of Sunflowers, and focus your SP on Rocknuts and Pumpkin Bombs.
This second and final wave of this stage will introduce the Abominations. You will get 3 of them in the initial rush. They are immune to vines so you need to Rocknut the lane they are in then save up SP for Pumpkin Bombs. It’s going to take 2 or 3 hits with the bombs to take them down. Try to place the bombs on squares that will hit as many adjacent enemies as possible. An Aberration or Ghoul may already have broken an entire row, but if there is a Fertilize-o-Tron in that row, don’t waste any SP trying to kill it. Stay focuses on taking down the Abominations. The Fertilize-o-tron will take down the enemy and everything else in his lane when he reaches it so it might actually help you. However, if there is no defense remaining in that row, then you need to drop a Vine on them as soon as you have enough SP to keep them from reaching your house.
With a little luck and timing, you should complete this mission by the skin of your teeth.
Speak to Brazie to complete the quest and prepare for the final stage.
You will notice there is no Progress Meter when this stage starts. When Warden Stillwater arrives, his health meter will appear in the space where the Progress meter would normally appear.
Your main goal before he arrives is to form at least one column of Sunflowers and one column of Spitters. You will need to make strategic use of Rocknuts to buy some time to finish both of these columns if you are going to make it in time.
Your layout when the Warden arrives should be at the very minimum like this (with some Rocknuts in various states of decay on the right side of the field): Figure.C.01
About the time you achieve that layout, the Warden will spawn and yell “Enough fooling around. It’s time for some hands-on management!”. You will then receive this warning:
Your goal now is too fill column B with Sunflowers and column C with Freezyas. As in the previous stage you will need to be switching between dropping a lot of Rocknuts and Strangler Vines on the left side of the field to delay the clusters while you build out the defensive line. Once those left side columns are full the fight becomes a lot like the final wave of the previous fight mixed with a lot of maintenance.
You will need extra maintenance because periodically during the fight, Stillwater will shout “Enough of your pesky pea-shooters. Let them shoot at this!” and toss several vials of Fertilizer onto your plants. After 20-30 seconds, the plant will die and you will need to replace it as soon as you have enough SP.
Each time this happens, a green globe of fertilizer will drop somewhere on the field. Collecting the globe grants you a buff that increases the drop cycle of the Solar Power by 100% for 15 seconds. This boost is a good time to drop a Strangler Vine and Pumpkin Bomb on large clusters then repair holes in your defenses.
Additionally, he will spawn 2 or 3 Obelisks on row G to protect him from incoming attacks. You need to plant Strangler Vines next to them in row F to clear them out of the way.
The rest of the fight you will rotate between dropping Pumpkin Bombs on Stillwater, repairing holes in your defensive line and dropping Rocknuts to slow down the clusters.
If you survive long enough to defeat him, the Warden will yell “What? No?! This lawn… was… mine…” and you will have completed the entire series of quests.
Speak to Brazie to complete the quest and claim your reward!