Concepts

Since *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* contains many original assets made for the mod, various concept art and scrapped content of said original assets had been showed off by the developers.

## Original name

Originally, *Reflourished* was called *Holiday Mashup 2*. As the mod started to take on larger goals other than Holiday Mashup, such as new Expansion levels and a new world in Steam Ages, the original name had to be changed as it no longer fit the mod's goal.

## Concept art

### Worlds

Holiday Drinks (1)Holiday Drinks (2)Holiday Mashup world icon (1)Holiday Mashup world icon (2)Holiday Mashup - Day 16 podiumHoliday Mashup - Day 48 podium (1)Holiday Mashup - Day 48 Zomboss podium (2)Holiday Mashup - Day 48 Zomboss podium (3)Holiday Mashup - Day 48 Zomboss podium (4)The Calamity Calendar (1)The Calamity Calendar (2)The Calamity Calendar (3)The Calamity Calendar (4)The Calamity Calendar (5)The Calamity Calendar's unlock animation (mp4)Original Big Brainz lawnDesign concepts for the Steam Ages seed packetOld blueprint design for Reverse EngineeringSpongebob Age lawnBig Brainz bannerSteam Ages teaser lawn (1)Steam Ages teaser lawn (2)Steam Ages teaser lawn (3)Steam Ages teaser lawn (4)Steam Ages teaser lawn (5)
## Costumes

### Contest

#### Feastivus (2022)

The Skey to Happeaness (by Menk#9271)The Skey to Happeaness (2)The Skey to Happeaness (3)The Skey to Happeaness (4)Scrooge McStruck (by Red#6886)Jingle Bombs (by Discipline#9248)Christmas Lightning (by DeeDeeBee's#4773)Army of Soy Soldiers (by LawfulWaffle#7252)Feastivus '09 (by BlueMG24#7274)Stocking Stuffer (by beetsa#8365)Stocking Stuffer (2)Bowling Baubles (by JamesTheSkunk#6376)Unsavory Treat (by inbetween entertainment#3030)Unsavory Treat (2)Unsavory Treat (3)Unsavory Treat (4)Armament Apparel (by dragonking#8350)Shackled Serrano (by Nanori#8008)Jack-skellingtern (by -Nick-#3478)Jack-skellingtern (2)Santa Trap (by Krowzerk#4479)North Hemisphere and Warm Equator (by JJAM#9968)North Hemisphere and Warm Equator (2)North Hemisphere and Warm Equator (3)North Hemisphere and Warm Equator (4)North Hemisphere and Warm Equator (5)Snowy Graves (by VesselUnknown#4064)Snowy Graves (2)
#### Harvest Festival (2023)

Galactic Shwaffle (by arcticblue)Screaming for Ice Cream (by harden3512)Screaming for Ice Cream (2)Fiesta-Flavored (by headset)Golden Trinket (by Uriel Xero)Pop Goes the Guava! (by kilominnow)Our Lady's Tea(by josuescout301)Between a Rock and a Hard Candy (by arthumgo)Sapjacks (by emihead)Maize Warden (by coney4526)Fud-juvenator (by snaksi\_xd)
##### Storybook

Storyboard (1)Storyboard (2)Storyboard (3)Storyboard (4)Storyboard (5)Storyboard (6)Storyboard (7)Storybook style guide
### Concept art

The Skey to HappinessScrooge McStruckDragon SleigherEnlightened ExperimentalistLog BaitRock n' Roar (1)Rock n' Roar (2)Rock n' Roar (3)Rock n' Roar (4)Relic of Tatatim (1)Relic of Tatatim (2)Intoegalactic Princess (1)Intoegalactic Princess (2)Not a Cat (1)Not a Cat (2)Goddess of Sun
### Scrapped

Many costumes were made for *Reflourished*, but were scrapped later on during development.

## Plants

### Level unlocks

As seen in older videos, some plants were supposed to be unlocked in different levels, or were unlockable in a level compared to the final release. List are as follows, in order of dev diary release date:

#### Overview Dev Diary

* Electric Peashooter in Wild West - Day 27
* Tumbleweed in Wild West - Day 31
* Starfruit in Far Future - Day 27
* Parsnip in Far Future - Day 31
* Homing Thistle in Pirate Seas - Day 31
* Torchwood in Frostbite Caves - Day 33
* Cold Snapdragon in Jurassic Marsh - Day 40
* Shadow Peashooter in Modern Day - Day 40
* Caulipower in Holiday Mashup - Day 36
* Puffball in an unknown Holiday Mashup level

#### Expansions Dev Diary

* Boingsetta in Big Wave Beach - Day 38
* Escape Root in Jurassic Marsh - Day 35
* Cold Snapdragon in Jurassic Marsh - Day 39
* Murkadamia Nut in Modern Day - Day 40
* Shadow Peashooter in Modern Day - Day 43
* Goo Peashooter in Modern Day - Day 46

### Berry Blaster

Gameplay footage of Berry Blaster can be found in an old build of *Reflourished*, as seen in this video by Bonk150, the former art director of the mod, and in a private build used in the QnA video from Slimeakku's channel. From what was shown in the videos, Berry Blaster could launch explosive berries that can ricochet three times. The projectile had a 3x1 splash radius and turned zombies it defeated into ash. Its Plant Food effect was it launching multiple berries in quick succession.

Berry Blaster was removed due to the International version of *Plants vs. Zombies 2* not being optimized to use two massive spritesheets for a single plant. However, the plant's concept wasn't entirely scrapped as the dev team would later reuse the ricochet attack as a part of Maypop Mechanic.

Its plant ID slot and therefore its codename would later be reused for Lotus Root.

### Mints

Gameplay footage of the mints in action can be found in this video by PvZABFan. Mints were rebalanced to a heavier sun cost (i.e. Ail-mint costing 425 sun) and provided lighter boosts to plants in their family. The family system was also reworked so that plants could be in multiple plant families, with Ghost Pepper being in the most families, at 3.

Mints were present up until the October 2021 builds of *Reflourished*. They were removed following the discovery that they added nothing to the game. Their high sun cost, low boost output relative to their cost, and the system overall being very convoluted resulted in the low usage of the mints.

Two of the mints, Ail-mint and Fila-mint, would later make an appearance in Spongebob Age - Day 3.

### Other removed plants

Certain plants were removed from *Reflourished* for various reasons. While the reasons for the removal of most plants were never stated, certain plants have reasons for their removal, which are as follows:

* Heath Seeker: While also not impossible to balance, the dev team just didn't want to deal with it.
* Pokra: Pokra was experimented with, but the dev team could never make her feel like a decent, worthwhile pick.
* Power Vine: While not impossible to balance, the dev team simply wants to repurpose his abilities to another plant later down the line.
* Pyre Vine: Pyre Vine was considered to be added into the mod, being reworked to be a vine that protects the plant inside it from freezing winds without the ability to attack. In the end, the dev team didn't want to add a plant that can completely invalidate Frostbite Caves.
* Tiger Grass: Tiger Grass was the only plant that the dev team could worked with and made work, but with how it was set up, it was incredibly buggy, especially in 9.4.1. The dev team also didn't like the choppy visuals of how the Grass Tiger leaps outside of Tiger Grass.

## Zombies

### The transition to RFL

During the development of *Holiday Mashup 2*, new variants were designed to accompany the remake. However, with the transition to *Reflourished*, many of said variants were scrapped with the reason that they were either unnecessary or were just too much to cram in, especially when combined with an early mechanic of Holiday Mashup. While most zombies were sent to the chopping block before Holiday Drinks were even conceptualized, a select few were done so afterwards when it was realized that they didn't have any purpose or use for them due to hardcoded issues.

### Special reskins

Prior to Holiday Drinks, new special zombie reskins were introduced to Holiday Mashup that would've had changed up stats or abilities that made them distinct enough from their original counterparts. However, it did not mesh well in the end, as it made introducing these zombies too difficult to the players in a world that already had too much zombies to work with. Footage of this concept can be seen in this video, which had a faster Food Blocker Zombie.

### Scrapped zombies

#### Valenbrainz Cleopatra

A Valenbrainz variant of the scrapped Cleopatra Zombie was planned to appear in the game, she was likely scrapped not only due to Cleopatra's code being buggy, but also because the Fan Imps she spawns sometimes explode instantly for seemingly no reason. When she was leaked in certain YouTube videos days after *Reflourished* released, it showed her having the ability to summon 4 Stupid Cupid-Fan Imps in a diamond formation.

##### Almanac entry

"Ultimate and immortal. The hungry and absolute. I am the true queen of this golden kingdom which shines brilliantly. Those of you who kneel to me are granted the right to brains under the name of Cleopatra." If this kingdom she talks about was an average neighborhood during love season, then yes, she's good at both her job and inaugural speeches.

Almanac image
#### April Fool

April Fool, the Springening variant of the Jester Zombie from the original *Holiday Mashup* mod, was meant to return but was scrapped as Jester Zombie already has 2 variants. According to PvZABFan, his visuals were supposed to be a bunch of pranks being pulled on him.

##### Almanac entry

He's tired of it! Every single April he gets fooled, well, "No more!", he said, right before stepping onto a deliberately placed rake.

Placeholder almanac image
#### Gold Digger

A St. Paddy's variant of the Excavator Zombie, known as the Gold Digger, was planned to be added into the game but was scrapped to "debloat" Holiday Mashup further. He had some notable differences from his Lost City counterpart, with the main one being that shovel could be stolen by Magnet-shroom.

##### Almanac entry

This zombie's gonna dig for gold, even if he has to dig up tons of plants along the way.

Damage: blocks incoming projectiles, but is vulnerable to lobbed shots

Special: shovel can be stolen by Magnet-shroom

Why is he digging for gold if his shovel is already made out of it? It isn't, he sold his real gold one for two cans o' brains and just spray painted this thing he found laying on the side of a road.

Almanac image
#### Greaser Imp

Greaser Imp, a zombie that appeared in the Big Wave Beach teasers, was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup. He would have functioned identically to Parasol Zombie, though he was scrapped due to being too similar to Valenbrella Zombie but with poorer visuals suggesting his ability. However, there was a point in time where Valenbrella was scrapped and Greaser Imp was kept but the developers eventually mirrored the decisions as Valenbrella did a better job visually showing its lobbed shot immunity. Greaser Imp would later make an appearence in Spongebob Age - Day 5, although due to the level's lack of lobbed shot plants his ability is useless.

Almanac image
#### Summer DJ

Summer DJ was a Summer Nights variant of the MC Zom-B that was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup. He was later scrapped for unknown reasons.

##### Almanac entry

Summer DJ is really just looking for a job. He doesn't even want brains, he just wants employment.

Almanac image
#### Summer Boombox

Summer Boombox was a Summer Nights variant of the Boombox Zombie that was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup. He was later redesigned as the Valenbrainz Boombox (which is why his codename still uses the prefix **summer**).

Almanac image
#### Summer Cardio

A variant of the Cardio Zombie that was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup as one of the "holiday themed generals". He was later scrapped after generals were replaced with Minibosses.

Almanac image
#### Big Head Sunday Edition

Big Head Sunday Edition was a Big Brainz variant of the Sunday Edition Zombie that was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup. He was scrapped due to Holiday Mashup's already huge zombie roster, as well as having to play the World Expansions to be able to understand how they worked.

Almanac image
#### Candyhouse Gargantuar

Candyhouse Gargantuar was a planned Gargantuar variant for the Children's Day group of zombies, but was never completely realized. He was more armored than the typical Gargantuar. While he has zombie properties, he never made it to be drawn due to being too complex and the lack of proper artistry and time.

#### Halloween Bull and Halloween Legend

Lawn of Doom variants of both the Zombie Bull and Rodeo Legend Zombie were planned to be added into the game, but were later scrapped due to the imp they throw being hard coded to always be the original Bull Rider. Halloween Bull would later make an appearence in Spongebob Age - Day 7.

Halloween Bull almanac imageHalloween Legend almanac image
#### Halloween Surfer

Halloween Surfer was a Lawn of Doom variant of the Surfer Zombie that was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup. He was scrapped for unknown reasons, though his ability was repurposed for Zombie Witch.

Almanac image
#### Heroic Rockpuncher

A PvZ: Heroes variant of the Jurassic Rockpuncher from the original *Holiday Mashup* mod was planned to return, but was scrapped for the same reasons the Big Head Sunday Edition Zombie did. A messed up version of its appearance is currently used as the :juan: emote in the official Reflourished Discord server.

Almanac image
#### Heroes Blastronaut

A PvZ: Heroes variant of the Blastronaut Zombie from the original *Holiday Mashup* mod was planned to return, but was scrapped to trim out unnecessary zombies from Holiday Mashup.

Almanac image
#### Summer Torchlight

A Summer Nights variant of Torchlight Zombie was planned to be added into the game, but was scrapped likely for the same reason as the Big Head Sunday Edition Zombie.

Almanac image
#### Watermelon Snorkel Zombie

Watermelon Snorkel Zombie was a Food Fight variant of the Snorkel Zombie that was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup. He was scrapped due to the tide mechanic not being present in the world and thus served no purpose other than being a glorified Basic Zombie.

Almanac image
#### Zombie Santa

Zombie Santa was a Feastivus variant of the Zombie King that was intended to appear in Holiday Mashup. He was scrapped due to Zombie King being hardcoded to only give knight helms to Peasant Zombies and that utilizing him would be rather difficult and be more work than it was worth.

Almanac image
#### Big Head Seagull and Pelican

Big Brainz variants of both the Seagull Zombie and Pelican Zombie were planned to be added into the game, but were later scrapped to trim out unnecessary zombies from Holiday Mashup.

Big Head Seagull almanac imageBig Head Pelican almanac image
#### Big Head Giga-gargantuar

A Big Brainz variant of the Giga-gargantuar was planned to be added into the game, but was later scrapped for unknown reasons.

Almanac image
#### Lawn of Doom Bug

A Lawn of Doom variant of the Bug Zombie was planned to be added into the game, but was later scrapped to remove unnecessary zombies in Holiday Mashup.

Almanac image
#### Mashup Arcade

Back when *Reflourished* was still known as *Holiday Mashup 2* and was beginning development, a zombie simply called "Mashup Arcade" existed, who was Zombert's earliest incarnation. He looked nothing like Zombert but had the same arcade design. He appeared as an Arcade Zombie with a prominently more colorful design. Unlike Zombert, Mashup Arcade was just meant to be a Holiday Mashup Arcade Zombie variant which spawned holiday basics from the arcade instead of 8-Bit Zombies. Soon, developers saw potential on it becoming a miniboss due to finding it odd how a variant represents a "mashup" of holidays instead of one specific holiday like the rest of the holiday zombies and eventually they started formulating what could be done to attach it to the story of Holiday Mashup. PeaMix has stated he wanted *Reflourished* to have at least one fourth wall break which poked fun at the player. This became a reality with the Zombert we all know. As holidays are usually associated with family gatherings, they decided to come up with Dr. Zomboss having a family member that always played video games, fulfilling PeaMix's fourth wall breaking joke and cementing Zombert as a concept.

Almanac imagePushing arcade
#### Old Zombie Multimplicity

Zombie Multimplicity originally split up 10 times instead of 7, and started at 14400 health instead of the final one's 5000. It was later nerfed as it would've been too difficult to fight against. Splits were as followed:

#### Lawnbowl Flag Zombies

Armored variants of the Lawnbowl Flag Zombie were planned to be used in a Piñata Party level set in Vasebreaker, presumably the one that took place in December 18, 2022, but were replaced with regular armored Lawnbowl Zombies due to their armor not showing up properly when released from a vase (their armor did not show up until they reach their first degrade). However, their armor shows up properly anywhere else.

Conehead almanac imageBuckethead almanac image
#### Leafblower Zombie

A Harvest variation of the Jetpack Zombie, it never reached beyond the concept stage, and was scrapped in favor of introducing holiday reskins of Zombies with no variations before.

Leafblower concept art
#### Hayblock Pusher

A Harvest variation of the Troglobite, similarly to the Leafblower Zombie, it was scrapped at the concept stage for similar reasons. However, the concept art served as a jumping point for Gourd Carrier Zombie's design.

Hayblock Pusher concept art
### Redesigns

#### Dark Summoner Zombie

Dark Summoner Zombie used to have a dragon head identical to ones on Imp Dragon Zombies inside the mouth of his hat. This was soon scrapped as it was "a bit too tight-fitting for it to work without looking awkward".

Peeking
#### Lost Explorer Zombie

Lost Explorer Zombie had received at least two designs before having his final design. One that was literally Explorer Zombie but with grey clothes (as seen in the World Expansions dev diary), and another that was close to his final design, but with less of a mustache. There is also a scrapped design that is a mix of both, being similar to his final design but with grey clothing.

"Less mustache" spritesGrey clothes"Less mustache" & gray clothing head sprite
#### Rock Carrier Zombie

Before Rock Carrier Zombie became what he is today, he went through a lot of different iterations. He went from being a projectile thrower (which wasn't considered to be good), a rock pusher (another variant of a projectile thrower), before finally settling on his current ability.

A portion of the spritesGiant rockIdle and walking animations, dated 2021/02/11 (mp4)Walking animation, dated 2021/08/12 (mp4)Walking animation, dated 2021/08/14 (mp4)
#### Valenbrella Zombie

Valenbrella Zombie had a different design before she was redesigned. She had a different looking dress and hairstyle, and was holding Valenbrainz Flag Zombie's balloons instead of an umbrella.

Almanac image
#### St. Paddy's Ra Zombie

St. Paddy's Ra Zombie had a different design before he was drastically redesigned. He had a gold-tinted body, the head of a Jurassic Zombie, and green hair.

Almanac image
#### Lepreglitter

Lepreglitter had a different design as seen in the teaser video. She looked more identical to her Neon Mixtape Tour counterpart and wore a top hat on her head instead of having a four-leafed clover pinned to her hair.

#### Slamrock Gargantuar

Slamrock Gargantuar had a different design as seen in the teaser video. He looked more identical to his Neon Mixtape Tour counterpart but had four-leafed clovers for hair and produced rainbow shockwaves when smashing.

#### Overstuffed Zombie

Overstuffed Zombie had a different design as seen in the dev diary for Holiday Mashup. Instead of being based on his *Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes* design, he was a fatter Food Fight Zombie with facial hair.

#### Festive Fisherman

Festive Fisherman had a different death animation compared to the one that appears in the final release.

Fisherman
### Concepts

Torchlight ZombieRock Carrier Zombie (1)Rock Carrier Zombie (2)Rock Carrier Zombie (3)Jurassic ImposterVarious Holiday Mashup zombiesSt. Paddy's Ra Zombie (1)St. Paddy's Ra Zombie (2)Slamrock GargantuarHuge-GigantacusDark Summoner Zombie (1)Dark Summoner Zombie (2)Food Fighter PrimeZombie WitchOverstuffed ZombieFestive FishermanZombot Sphinx-inator 2.0 and Zombot Plank Walker 2.0Zombot War Wagon 2.0 and Zombot Tomorrow-tron 2.0Zombot Sharktronic Sub 2.0Zombot Tuskmaster 10,000 BC 2.0Zombot Multi-stage Masher 2.0 (1)Zombot Multi-stage Masher 2.0 (2)Zombot Multi-stage Masher 2.0 (3)Zombot Multi-stage Masher 2.0 (4)Zombot Multi-stage Masher 2.0 (5)Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur 2.0Zombot Lawn-O-TronZombot Lawn-O-Tron intro conceptZombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (1)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (2)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (3)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (4)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (5)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (6)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (7)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (8)Zombot Seasonal Sleigh-er (9)The Sniffer (1)The Sniffer (2)Harvest Basic (1)Harvest Basic (2)Harvest ArmorsHarvest Flag BrainInitial Flag colorsHarvest Flag Zombie hat (1) [Originally shared with Harvest Basic, a la Wild West Zombies]Harvest Flag Zombie hat (2)Harvest Egg StealerSheepish Gargantuar (1)Sheepish Gargantuar (2)Early concept artwork of Mechanic Zombie, when it originally going to be based on the Bully bodytypeMechanic ZombieMechanic Zombie alongside his MachineConcept artwork detailing how Mechanic Zombie would function for animationsClockwork ZombieA differently colored face plate for Clockwork ZombieEarly face plate degrades for Clockwork Zombie [Final one used on the far left]Concepts of an an early eating anim [Dev Note:'Initially while creating Clockwork Zombie's "eat" animation, my idea was that he would move his arms at a constant spinning rate, like a conveyor, or more accurately, a watermill. However, during the process we decided to unwind the uncanny by a little bit and make him attempt to eat plants "normally", and failing miserably at doing so. Still uncanny, but he at least pretends to be normal ;)']Inventor ZombieRepairimpAn early version of Repairimp [Note the goggles]Concept design for Dr. Zomboss' outfit in Steam Ages - Day 32 [Dev Note: Sooooo,y'all have seen Zomboss' fancy and distinguished suit from the update,right? Well,guess what? I made it! Haha!! Here are some of the previous attempts at making the outfit before the final version! I had different visions for the outfit,as you can see in the first drawing,so many ideas! After a few discussions with members of the mod,I drew it again later with some notes next to it. Then,I drew it again....and it started to form out the main features of his attire!!]Second design for his outfitThird design for his outfitDigitalized render [Dev Note: When I felt like it's good enough,I had one last attempt with the 4th drawing,fully digital! I am a rather new mod and I'm proud to say this is my first contribute to it! I hope you guys can play the game and enjoy SA part 2,enjoying everyone's work to the fullest!! sparkles]
## Mechanics

### Seasonal weather

Prior to Holiday Drinks, various mechanics were thought up for Holiday Mashup to justify the lawn switching from level to level, as well as giving zombies a boost to go alongside plant-helping presents. One of these potential mechanics was "seasonal weather." They were weather effects tied to specific holidays that provided a boost to zombies, not too dissimilar to zombie-boosting Jams.

### PvZH environments

During the mod's development as *Holiday Mashup 2*, various aspects from *Plants vs. Zombies Heroes* played a much bigger role in the world, with one of them being the environments. Essentially, these were elongated grid items that act similar to mechanics such as Tar. One of the environments mentioned was a destroyed alien imp mech thing.

### Holiday foods

Holiday Drinks were originally thought up as being holiday-themed foods, but they were later changed to be beverages because "it made more sense with potions."

### Speed boosting sewers

Before sewers had their current mechanic, they were once planned to be tiles that boosted zombies alking wover them. It was later scrapped due to it being boring and because it didn't make any sense.

## Levels

#### Miniboss Battles

Miniboss battles originally followed the same level type, similar to Zomboss fights. At one point, the developers settled on Locked and Loaded levels which was how Impfinity's battle was like originally. However, as time went on, the developers found that making all miniboss battles Locked and Loaded levels to be needlessly restrictive and limited their creativity. After this, they decided to change miniboss battles to be any type of level to give themselves more freedom for designing these levels however they wanted, with the only level that remained a Locked and Loaded level being Holiday Mashup - Day 42.

### Ancient Egypt

#### Day 31

Ancient Egypt - Day 31 originally didn't have the gravestone objective, had Necromancies and a denser zombie horde.

AE-31 concept(ish)
### Wild West

#### Day 30

Wild West - Day 30 originally didn't have a pre-placed Twin Sunflower. It was added as an accident, but player feedback about it was positive, which allowed them to stay in the level.

#### Day 32

Wild West - Day 32 originally had Potato Mine as the level's endangered plant, but it was quickly replaced with an endangered Wall-nut.

Rodeo Legend Zombie's fodder plant was originally a Sunflower, but players may not really care about it. After that, a Twin Sunflower was tried, but players would be too fixated on trying to save it from Rodeo Legend. Then a few more were tried before Puff-shroom was settled.

### Far Future

#### Day 32

Far Future - Day 32 originally had Gargantuar Primes but were later removed late in development due to how "bs" it was to deal with. This level also used to have a unique ambush called "Mechassault!" where mechanical zombies would spawn from the ground, but was removed since it doesn't appear in expansions and of how "stupid" it was. The level also used to have mold colonies at Columns 1 and 2 and had Zoybean Pods as the endangered plants.

FF 29...or 33 concept(ish)
#### Day 33

Far Future - Day 33 was a different level that had the objective of not losing more than 5 plants, and had Gargantuar Primes appear in it. The level was overhauled later on.

### Dark Ages

According to PeaMix, Dark Ages had to be remade from the ground up thrice due to how hard it was to design levels for.

#### Night 22

In the QnA video from Slimeakku's channel, an old version of Dark Ages - Night 22 was played in the stream. Instead of serving as Bandit Zombie's intro, it was a Locked and Loaded level with Citrons, Iceberg Lettuces, Stunions and Shadow-shrooms against Peasant Zombies, Coneheads, Bucketheads and Jester Zombies.

#### Night 23

Also shown off in the QnA video, Dark Ages - Night 23 was a precursor to what would become the final version of Dark Ages - Night 22. It had the "tic tac toe" tombstones gimmick present but did not have Bandit Zombies. Instead, it had Dark Ages Gargantuars.

#### Night 24

Also shown off in the QnA video, Dark Ages - Night 24 was a Locked and Loaded and Dark Alchemy level instead of a level with a sun-producing objective with Sun Beans. The level was made with vanilla Shadow Peashooter in mind.

#### Night 26

Also shown off in the QnA video, Dark Ages - Night 26 was a Save Our Seeds level that served as the scrapped vanilla Wizard Zombie veteran's intro level. The level had a column of endangered Citrons on the first column.

#### Night 28

Dark Ages - Night 28 was played for a brief amount of time in the QnA video. It was a regular level with three flags and had no special objectives whatsoever.

### Frostbite Caves

#### Day 34

Frostbite Caves - Day 34 originally didn't have endangered Chard Guard, but it would've been too cheesable otherwise.

Aaron5015, the level's creator, wanted the level to be "clear all the ice blocks as zombies only on flag waves come," but due to the iceblocks destroying at the end of the level, it was changed.

#### Day 35

According to PeaMix, Frostbite Caves - Day 35 went through about 30 variations over the course of five months. The level having wave 1 zombies spawn for every wave was done to preserve the fast pacing.

### Lost City

According to Creeps20 in the Discord server for *Alternate Univerz*, he had made an older version of the world's expansion levels. All of the levels were later replaced due to them being drastically different compared to the other expansion levels.

### Jurassic Marsh

#### Days 43 and 45

Egg Stealer Imp's debut level was originally Jurassic Marsh - Day 45, but became Jurassic Rockpuncher's debut level to give room for the new Jurassic Marsh zombies.

### Modern Day

#### Highway to the Danger Room

Highway to the Danger Room originally had Goth Punk Zombie as one of the many zombies the Endless Zone can use, but was removed due to how annoying he was always jamming.

#### Day 49

Modern Day - Day 49 originally didn't have Power Tiles and the frozen plants.

MD49
### Holiday Mashup

#### Day 2

Early version of the dialogue used in what was presumably an early version of Holiday Mashup - Day 2, revealed by Aaron5015 with a recording dated 2021-03-17.

**Crazy Dave:** What!? It's St. Paddy's now!?

**Penny:** User Dave, I might have figured out what is happening!

**Dr. Zomboss:** Oh, have you?

**Penny:** Zomboss.

**Dr. Zomboss:** Oh, you two are gonna love this.

**Dr. Zomboss:** Excuse me for not ringing the phone earlier, I was a little busy patching everything up.

**Crazy Dave:** Are you gonna give me another taco?

**Dr. Zomboss:** Wh-huh-What?

**Dr. Zomboss:** We're way past tacos now, David!

**Dr. Zomboss:** Look around you!

**Penny:** Things appear to be most unusual.

**Dr. Zomboss:** All the work of yours truly.

**Dr. Zomboss:** You like it? It's been a long time passion project.

**Dr. Zomboss:** You see, you didn't kill Project Paradox by doing your little time-ending stunt.

**Dr. Zomboss:** Instead, you gave me a better idea.

**Dr. Zomboss:** I forgot to send you a thank-you card for that.

**Crazy Dave:** What are you talking about? You just made Christmas again!

**Dr. Zomboss:** Well, by showing me time manipulation is truly possible, well, I went experimenting.

**Dr. Zomboss:** Returning to every time period to see what would happen if I gave the zombies there a bit of a boost.

**Penny:** So, that's what that was...

**Dr. Zomboss:** That research has made this possible.

**Dr. Zomboss:** So, observe! The year is jumping left and right! Me, commanding all the seasons!

**Dr. Zomboss:** Oh, and did I mention? Everyone is here.

**Dr. Zomboss:** And I mean EVERYONE!

**Dr. Zomboss:** Boosting past zombies has proven successful.

**Dr. Zomboss:** Ladies and gentlemen, consider this: Project Paradox 2.0!

**Dr. Zomboss:** I've gathered an army's worth of zombies from our past encounters, and I got them in the holiday spirit!

**Dr. Zomboss:** Enhanced with my various boost formulas as well.

**Penny:** ...

**Crazy Dave:** \*gulp\*

**Dr. Zomboss:** So, Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, I will celebrate with your brains on my plate! HAHAHAHAHA!

#### Day 3

Holiday Mashup - Day 3 was originally 2 concepts. One where it was a level introducing Big Brainz zombies instead of Valenbrainz ones and had Peashooter, Wall-nut and Apple Mortar instead. The other concept is just the same as the other concept but with Blastberry Vine added into the conveyor.

Holiday3Holiday 3 (with blastberry)
#### Day 22

Holiday Mashup - Day 22 was originally Day 20, as seen in this video by PvZABFan. It took place on the Birthdayz lawn and had the Leprechauns! ambush instead of Tech Support!. Said video was used as a mockup for the world's music would be heard in-game.

Reflourished DEV ONLY - Holiday Mashup Music Mockup
### Steam Ages

#### Day 2

An extremely early version of Day 2 with drastically different wave progression and predated the sewers mechanic was recorded and edited for a mockup for how the world's music would be heard in-game.

Reflourished DEV ONLY - Steam Music Gameplay
#### Day 14

Steam Ages - Day 14 originally didn't have an objective, however PeaMix really wanted the level to have one, so Slimeakku added a sun limit objective, but it wasn't fun, so she asked PeaMix to do something new after seeing the "no shovel" objective in Ender's Level Maker.

#### Brain Drain Factory

Prior to the release of Steam Ages' second part, design co-lead Slimeakku made a custom Endless Zone for the world, with the original name of the Endless Zone being "The Pain Train." Opening the json file would reveal the string ID of the Endless Zone's name.

### Future Crash!

#### Step 4

Future Crash! - Step 4 was nerfed multiple times, which included the endangered plant placements being at columns 4 and 6 instead of columns 1 and 3.

### Piñata Party

#### February 15, 2023

According to ArizTheAckee, a former level designer of the mod, the party that first took place on February 15, 2023 was supposed to have a column of endangered Grimroses on column 1, referencing a certain custom level for *Reflourished*. It was replaced with another column of mold colonies for obvious reasons.

## Music

Just like with every music track out there, none of them ever come out perfect on the first try. They all have beta versions that build up to the final version of the track where the instrumentation and the melodies hit just right. Just remember that we don't have access to every beta version of every single music track new to Reflourished because not all of them have been made publicly accessible.

However, all music tracks listed below were posted by PeaMix on the Official Reflourished Discord Server.

## Easter eggs

These images can be found in the game's files, but are not intended to be used in-game. They are more so easter eggs that people would see if they were to unpack the mod's obb file. However, due to the dev team discouraging the unpacking of mod obbs, these were never widely seen until one of the devs shared them in the official Discord server.

## Videos

Videos from the development of *Holiday Mashup 2* and *Reflourished*.

### *Holiday Mashup 2*

Plants vs. Zombies 2 - Steam Ages in the International Version!-2Holiday Mashup 2 - Gameplay Teaser (PvZ2)Ancient Egypt Expansion- REDESIGNED! - PvZ2- Holiday Mashup 2Steam Ages Gameplay Preview! - PvZ2- Holiday Mashup 2Inzanity- Actually Good Edition! - Plants vs. Zombies 2- Holiday Mashup 2
### *Reflourished*

Plants vs. Zombies 2- Reflourished Overview Dev Diary-2Plants vs. Zombies 2- Reflourished - World Expansions Dev Diary-2Steam Ages Dev Diary! - Plants vs. Zombies 2- ReflourishedPlants vs. Zombies 2- Reflourished - Holiday Mashup Dev Diary!PvZ2- Reflourished - Rock Carrier Showcase!Goth Punk Showcase! - PvZ2- Reflourished
## References

1. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/1003408310021668895/1024094915870867586/1038299829559885935 "anyways, we already removed Pokra, Heath Seeker, Explode-O-Vine, Teleportato Mine, Power Vine, Pyre Vine, Tiger Grass, and all 14 power mints"
2. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/1003408310021668895/1024094868378759228/1049173608615911425 "Devs don't like the choppy visuals of how tiger grass launches tigers"
3. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/522593298884460547/522593298884460551/1041897443119337472
4. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/1003408310021668895/1035082123188637747/1071320420860559380
5. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/1003408310021668895/1024094868378759228/1032131129513345066 there was gonna be a children's day garg but he never got around to becoming a reality
6. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/672080652677545994/911105248435777536/1077574140258697318
7. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/1003408310021668895/1024094868378759228/1083532424073457684
8. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/1003408310021668895/1035082123188637747/1090983864819789865
9. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/1003408310021668895/1035082123188637747/1084213028209315940 "The only other thing I have is one concept of the SA Mid Wave B potentially being a Watery Graves remix but in a more old-timey ragtime style. I tried the idea, but found it ultimately unfitting for the vibe of my take on SA."