Plants vs. Zombies Expansion

***Plants vs. Zombies Expansion*** is a mod of ***Plants vs. Zombies***, a tower defense video game developed and originally published by PopCap Games and the first installment in the *Plants vs. Zombies* series. The game involves homeowners who use a variety of different plants to prevent waves of zombies from entering their houses and "eating their brains. The mod adds new content to the game and fixes some bugs and also makes the game more challenging.

## Gameplay

In *Plants vs. Zombies Expansion*, players place different types of plants and fungi, each with their own unique offensive or defensive capabilities, around a house, in order to stop a horde of zombies from reaching their house. The playing field is divided into 5 to 6 horizontal lanes, and with rare exceptions, a zombie will only move towards the player's house along one lane (the main exception is if it has bitten a garlic, causing it to move to another lane). Planting costs "sun", which can be gathered for free (a bit slowly) during daytime levels and by planting certain plants or fungi. Most plants can only attack or defend against zombies in the lane they are planted in. In later levels, players can purchase upgrades with different offensive and defensive abilities.

The game uses several different level types and layouts. The game starts out in a front yard and progresses to nighttime levels, where the gameplay is more challenging without any replenishing sun unless specific plants are used. Other levels feature the backyard, with a pool added. The next levels are nighttime pool levels (where fog fills the right half of the screen except when specific plants are used), a lightning storm level in pitch black (except when illuminated by occasional flashes of lightning), rooftop levels, and night time rooftop levels (on the final level, the player must face a huge robot operated by a mad scientist zombie known as Dr. Zomboss). At set points throughout the game, the player is either warned through a letter by zombies or addressed by Crazy Dave to prepare for an ambush, where the game takes on a bowling style, using Wall-nuts to bowl down zombies, or a modified version of regular levels, where random plant types come upon a small selection, and the player can use the plants without spending sun.

The player starts with a limited number of seed pack types and seed pack slots that they can use during most levels. The number of slots can be increased through purchases with in-game money. At the start of a level, the player is shown the various types of zombies to expect and given the opportunity to select which seed packs to take into the level. Several plants are nocturnal, such as mushrooms, having a lower sunlight cost, and are ideal for nighttime levels. Certain plants are highly effective against specific types of zombies, such as the Magnet-shroom, which can remove metallic items from a zombie, such as helmets, buckets, ladders, and pogo sticks.

The zombies also come in a number of types that have different attributes, in particular, speed, damage tolerance, and abilities. Zombies include those wearing makeshift armor, those who can jump or fly over plants, and a dancing zombie able to summon other zombies from the ground. At various points, the player will be inundated with a huge wave of zombies.

If a zombie reaches the end of a lane, a lawnmower will shoot forward and destroy all the zombies in that lane. However, if a zombie reaches the end of that same lane for a second time, it will reach the player's house. When this happens, the music changes and the other plants and zombies stop moving while that zombie enters the house. Crunching sounds will be heard, accompanied by a scream and a message saying "The zombies ate your brains!" The game will then end and display the Game Over dialog box along with an option to return to the main menu at the upper-right side of the screen.

### Game modes

The primary game mode is Adventure Mode in which the player can earn money to spend at an in-game store to buy new seed packets and other bonuses. There are also Mini games, Puzzles, and Survivals.

#### Adventure mode

*Main article: Adventure Mode*
The adventure mode consists of 6 different areas and 50 different area levels (each area contains 10 levels, except Roof where nine of the levels are set in daytime (5-1 to 5-9) while Level 5-10 is Night Roof). They are shown with the area number first, followed by the level number (i.e 1-10) in the game. Each level in this mode has a certain amount of flags and one final wave. The adventure mode is the first game mode and is also the main mode. Mini games are unlocked from here.

#### Mini games

*Main article: Mini-games*
Mini games are unlocked during the adventure mode and are mostly for fun. Some of the minigames are inspired by earlier PopCap games.

#### Puzzles

*Main article: Puzzle Mode*
Puzzles consist of 18 normal levels plus 2 endless streak levels from 2 different "modes", Vasebreaker, where you break vases that either contains a plant seed or a zombie or some sun for cherry bombs, and I, Zombie, where you create zombies to destroy cardboard cutouts of plants.

#### Survival

*Main article: Survival Mode*
Survival Mode is the second largest game mode in *Plants vs. Zombies*. It involves two difficulties as hard and normal and also has different areas. Each normal round has 5 flags and each hard round has 10 flags. It also has an endless streak level in each area.

#### Zen Garden

*Main article: Zen Garden*
The game also features a Zen Garden, where players can care for plants they previously purchased from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies. Players can also buy other Zen Garden areas for different plants. Fertilizer, water, and bug spray are necessary for a plant to grow.