Plant upgrade system

*I need my TIME MACHINE!***Plant upgrade system** is a conjectural name for this article.If you know the official name or have a better name or
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*For the version in Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Chinese version), see Plant upgrade system (Chinese version).*
The **plant upgrade system** is a feature in *Plants vs. Zombies 2,* introduced in the 5.7.1 update. This system allows you to level up your plants, which increase their capabilities. Plants can be leveled up by collecting seed packets, which are obtained via Piñatas. Piñatas can be obtained either by completing quests in the Travel Log, win up to five Piñatas by playing, already played levels or via purchases from the store.

Imitater, Marigold, Gold Leaf, and Thyme Warp cannot be upgraded.

## Overview

Although leveling up plants usually increases the plant's capabilities, or statistics, not all plants' statistics are increased per level. The player has to spend a lot of coins to upgrade each plant, with the cost of each upgrade increasing with each level of the plant's upgrade progress. The maximum level to which each plant could be upgraded was 3, 4 or 5 for the 5.7.1 and 5.8.1 updates, raising to 6, 9, and 12 for the 5.9.1 upgrade. As of 6.6.1, all plants will be able to achieve level 10, 15, or 20, depending on the characteristics of the plant.

Some benefits of leveling up your plants include a greater toughness (damage sustained), higher damage output, faster recharge times, decreased sun costs, or a greater amount of sun produced. Many plants also have their own unique benefits from being upgraded.

## Strategies

Do not instanly upgrade plants which you will not choose to use, as it only wastes coins. Upgrading instant-use plants is useful, because instant-use plants usually take a long time to recharge. Upgrading them will allow you to deal more damage, and also to plant them more frequently.

Some plants have a special effect when leveled up, these additional effects may be useful, but if you don't need the effect, it's better to not upgrade them, these plants are:

* Iceberg Lettuce - when Iceberg Lettuce is at level 5 or higher, it will be able to chill zombies after freezing them. When Iceberg Lettuce is at level 11-20, it can freeze multiple zombies in a 1x3/3x3 area.
* Grave Buster - when Grave Buster is at level 6-10, it will explode after destroying a grave, dealing damage on that tile.
* Hot Potato - when Hot Potato is at level 2-10, it can damage zombies. When Hot Potato is at level 5-10, it gains the ability to melt Octopi from Octo Zombie.
* Stunion - when Stunion is at level 5-10, it can poison zombies.
* Stallia - when Stallia is at level 5-10, it can knock back zombies.
* Snow Pea - when Snow Pea is at level 5-10, it has a chance to freeze zombies.
* Missile Toe - when Missile Toe is at level 5-10, it can freeze zombies.
* Fire Peashooter - when Fire Peashooter is at level 5-10, it has a chance to shoot plasma peas.
* Solar Tomato - when Solar Tomato is at level 3-10, it can damage zombies.

Suggested plants to upgrade would be expensive plants like Winter Melon, area-of-effect plants such as Snapdragon or Fume-shroom, sun-producing plants such as Sunflower and the aforementioned instant-kill plants, such as Cherry Bomb. It would also be useful to "level-up" specific plants that can be used to assist with levels that are particularly tricky, such as leveling-up Bowling Bulb in preperation for Big Wave Beach - Day 16.

Some plants' Mastery are only used for Arena (and levels which have Buffz & Bruisez mechanics in them). See the following to see what these plants are.

You may not want to upgrade some plants to Mastery; Ultomato is a notable example, as his plant food power will destroy himself. Caulipower and Electric Blueberry will change the chance to target a specific zombie when leveled up. If you want them to target more basic zombies, it's better not to upgrade them.

Upgrading plants seems to be necessary when you play Arena or Penny's Pursuit. In Arena, the higher level your plants are, the more score you have a chance to get. As for Penny's Pursuit, the zombies are leveled up, meaning that it may be harder or even impossible to deal with them if your plants' levels are too low.

## Mastery

*We need more gems and sprouts.*This section is currently under construction. You can help expand it; it's your choice.
Introduced in the 7.0.1 update, you can now level up your plants to Mastery level once they're maxed out. As you upgrade a plant to Mastery, the lightning bolt icon on the top right corner of seed packet's will turn into a star, displaying what Mastery level, the plant is at. Mastery for all plants caps at M200, which is practically impossible without exernal tools.

When some plants reaches Mastery 100 or higher, their effect are not influenced by Buffz & Bruisez, these plants are:

* Iceberg Lettuce
* Blover
* E.M.Peach
* Magnet-shroom
* Stallia
* Hypno-shroom
* Sap-fling
* Hurrikale
* Shrinking Violet
* Caulipower
* Gumnut

The chance for non-damaging plant to work against the zombies it normally works against in the case of its plant family being weak against zombies depends on the plant's level. When the plant is not at Mastery, the chance is 0%, when plant is at Mastery, the higher Mastery the plant is at, the more chance is, until Mastery 100, which the chance is 100%.

Depending on the plant, the following may be upgraded:

* **Chance to Boost**: Every 10 levels, going from Level 1, the plant gains a 1% chance to use its Plant Food effect on planting, up to 21%.
* **Damage Pierce**: Damage is increased by 1% per level, up to 200%. The increased damage is only effective on zombies. If the plant's ability is non-damaging, the chance to work against the zombies it normally works against wll be increased by 1% per level, up to 100%.
* **Toughness Bonus**: Increases by 10 per level, up to 2000. This is normally used if the plant does not qualify for either one of the above upgrades.

There are also plants that do not upgrade to Mastery, these plants are:

* Power Lily
* Tile Turnip
* Intensive Carrot
* Perfume-shroom
* Gold Bloom
* Power Mints
* Tumbleweed

## Gallery

Piñatas in storeSunflower almost ready to upgradeThreepeater ready to upgrade but lockedPiñata rewards in Travel LogHD level upLevel Up texturesIceberg Lettuce leveling upA player receiving bonus seed packets for Missile ToeWall-nut leveling upPlant upgrade reminder for Wall-nut. It will appear even if the player has already done so.Plant upgrade system banner advertisement with PeashooterMelon-pult reached Level 3Advertisement for the plant upgrade systemLevel 1 Repeater and level 20 PeashooterParsnip reaching Mastery 200 (Max Level)
## Trivia

* Plants that fire projectiles will have their projectiles' appearance changed as they level up.
* Prior to the 5.8.1 update (March 17, 2017), plants were capped at Level 3, 4 or 5.
* Prior to the 6.5.1 update (December 12, 2017), plants were capped at Level 6, 10 or 12.
* When a plant is leveled up, it will play its Zen Garden animation.
	+ All instant plants up to Far Future includes their animation; all others will have their idle animation reset.
* Bonus seed packets can be assigned to any premium plant present in the game, even if the player does not have it or even if it is not available in the store.
	+ Bonus seed packets can also be given for Epic Quest plants. However, if you already owned that plant before the 5.7.1 update, you have to complete that plant's Epic Quest in order to receive the seed packets.
* Seed packets from plants that are unlocked in the Player's House appear in Ancient Egypt piñatas, along with Ancient Egypt plants.
* Peashooters are the first max-level plants (Level 20) that the player is able to use, but only in the quest "Leveled-up plants are AMAZING!", which is accessed via the Travel Log.
* Missile Toe has the greatest number of statistics that can be upgraded, with a total of seven statistics.
* The player cannot upgrade plants that have not yet unlocked or purchased; however, they may collect seed packets for them.
* In the 5.7.1 update, although there were Jurassic Marsh quests, five gems were given as rewards instead of piñatas. The player also couldn't find them in the store. The Jurassic Marsh piñatas became available in the 5.8.1 update.
* Currently, the Plant upgrade system does not apply to Vasebreaker levels. All plants involved remain at Level 1, with the exception of Cherry Bomb in Vasebreaker Endless.