Highway to the Danger Room

**Highway to the Danger Room** is the eleventh Endless Zone in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*, and the Endless Zone in Modern Day. The starting plants are Moonflower, Nightshade, Shadow-shroom and Dusk Lobber. As usual, the player can expect one-flag levels at the beginning but progressively getting harder as the player advances. Gimmicks from other worlds are not present here. The portals are also the only way that zombies from other worlds can appear. There is no way that the player can know whatever portals can appear in a level, and while the portals start with less dangerous zombies such as 8-Bit Zombies and Dodo Rider Zombie, later on, more than 3 portals can appear at once and they can spawn much more dangerous zombies such as Octo Zombies and Weasel Hoarders.

## Dialogue

*(Crazy Dave appears)*

Crazy Dave: Howdy, neighbor! Welcome to Highway to the Danger Room!

*(Crazy Dave leaves)*

## Strategies

### Overall

* Phat Beets can be really useful, since they are a counter to most of the difficult zombies to deal with (Jester Zombie, Chicken Wrangler Zombie, Shield Zombie, Boombox Zombie, etc), and they can also damage zombies behind them, spawned by portals.
* Having plants that can push zombies backwards, like Hurrikale, Chard Guard and Primal Peashooter can help when a zombie is taken by a portal to an unhelpful place. However, take caution when using Primal Peashooter, as it can turn out poorly due to certain zombies coming out of portals.
* Instant-use plants, such as Grapeshot, can help taking out groups of tough zombies.
* Gold Bloom can help with setting up defenses quickly, as this endless zone triggers portals earlier as the levels progress.
* Primal Wall-nut can be used to quickly stall tough zombies that spawn in the middle of the lawn.
* Ice plants such as Winter Melon and Cold Snapdragon are really useful, especially when dealing with many crowds, or emerging zombies from portals
* Blover should be used against some threats such as Bug Zombie, Super Fan Imps launched from All-Star Zombie, and Zombie Parrots.
* Premium plants are recommended to bring along, as they have the firepower and support to sustain levels higher than 100, unlike most non-premium plants.
* Remember to bring at least one offensive plant that does not use solid projectiles. Jester Zombies may randomly come out.

### Strategy 1 (Contains premium content)

**Required plants:**         or

* Plant two rows of Primal Sunflowers.
* In front of it, plant a row of Cold Snapdragons.
* Use Escape Root and Blover to get rid of annoying Zombies that will appear throughout the level.
* Use Chard Guard when needed. Or if using Gold Bloom, use it for when you are limited to sun production.
* When you get enough sun, dig up a row of Primal Sunflowers and plant Winter Melons, do the same with the other row of Primal Sunflowers, but do it when you have enough sun.
* Power Lily will help you get enough sun using Plant Food.
* The Cold Snapdragon will help clear off Zombie Chickens, Ice Weasels, Shield Zombies, and such, while the Winter Melons will take care of Excavator Zombies, Turquoise Skull Zombies, Robo-Cone Zombies, and others.
* You have Blover, so use it.
* All-Stars are the only Zombie that can ruin this strategy, as they move fast and can destroy a plant instantly, try to use Plant Food on Cold Snapdragons.
* Do **not** plant anything from the fifth column onward, since zombies can eat them real quickly.
* If there are a lot of zombies in a lane, use Chard Guard and Blover together to destroy them.
* And finally, if you do not have much sun, use Plant Food on a Primal Sunflower which you will place somewhere on the lawn.

Note: This strategy is only tested up to level 80, it may not work on higher levels. If the zombies are going to win, resort to power-ups, if available.

### Strategy 2 (Contains premium content)

**Required plants:**   /    (The rest of the plants are your choice.)

* Plant one row of Moonflowers in the second column.
* Plant one row of Dusk Lobbers in the first column.
* Plant an attacking plant of your choice in front of the row of Moonflowers. Use Nightshades in earlier levels as support until you get better plants.
	+ Or, if you want, you can make it two rows of Dusk Lobbers. However, Nightshade's cheap cost makes it more viable since you only have one row of powered Moonflowers.
* Plant a row of Chard Guards in front of the Moonflower, Dusk Lobbers and attacking plant which you chose.
* Stall the second sub-wave of zombies by waiting before defeating the first sub-wave. This allows you to set up your defense.
* Blovers are a good choice to deal with flying zombies.
* Grapeshots are good at saving lawn mowers/your brains. Make sure to imitate them so you have two to use at once.
* This strategy *does* work without Cold Snapdragons. In fact, it may work better without them since plants which aren't limited in range can get to zombies further away, vanquishing them quicker.
	+ Remember that the Cold Snapdragons would be planted in the third column.

### Strategy 3

This strategy was built to work without premiums. It also assumes you have the Instant Recharge upgrade.

It will virtually always get to Level 30, usually get to Level 50, and may get to Level 70 with quite a bit of skill and good luck.

**Required plants:**   /

If you have Grapeshot, use it over Cherry Bomb.

This strategy mainly revolves around Winter Melon's slow and Phat Beet. Phat Beet, as stated above, is able to deal with tough zombies such as Jester Zombie, Shield Zombie, Chicken Wranglers, Weasel Hoarders, and (most importantly) Boombox Zombies which would be dangerous to most other strategies without Cold Snapdragon. With the support of Winter Melon's slowing effect Phat Beet can dish out large damage.

* Plant Gold Bloom. Unless you are running out of Plant Food and NEED to conserve it use a Plant Food on its seed packet and immediately replant it.
* Don't immediately plant Winter Melon unless constant Imp laughter suggests the portals will come very quickly. Instead, plant Primal Sunflowers until you have enough sun to plant some Winter Melons and Phat Beets while still being able to continuously plant Primal Sunflowers. This is important as the sun producer should be planted as fast as possible.
* Plant Winter Melons in the back while planting Phat Beets in the 5th column (ideally you will have three columns of Primal Sunflowers).
* Use Primal Wall-nut to tank hits from All-star Zombies and Gargantuars and stall tough zombies such as Knight Zombie or Shield Zombie.
* If all goes well throughout the level you will have lots of sun (thanks to Gold Bloom and the three columns of Primal Sunflowers) and can continuously plant Phat Beets to replace the eaten ones. Even tough zombies will usually die relatively quickly with a Winter Melon and 4 or 5 Phat Beets attacking them.
* As in all the other strategies, you have Blover, so use it.
* If you see something that may leave a chunk on your defenses but hasn't yet (i.e. a Shield Zombie guarding tanky Robo-Cone Zombies or Knight Zombies), use an extra plant food to remove the threat. Chances are you will save yourself some grief later.
* Shield Zombie's shield WILL protect any zombies behind it from Winter Melon's slow and splash damage, and will often lead to zombies pushing through.
* If Surfer Zombie is present try to plant Primal Sunflowers on the square they are on as the surfboards will usually fall on the Primal Sunflowers instead of the Phat Beets, conserving sun.

**Weaknesses:** This strategy is not foolproof and there are things you must watch out for.

* Imp rush: Imps and Super-Fan Imps will immediately trigger the next wave if a wave is made entirely of them. At the beginning, sometimes the first zombie is an Imp, and then the next wave is made of Imps, etc...and then portals immediately spawn. This is very dangerous, especially if the portals are Ancient Egypt or Neon Mixtape Tour portals - as Ancient Egypt portals spawn Explorers which burn through most defenses and Neon Mixtape Tour portals spawn Boombox Zombies that jam up your sun producers. Pirate Seas and Wild West portals (because of Barrel Roller Zombies and Pianist Zombies) are also very dangerous. As such, it's important to get your offenses up as fast as possible, so plant a Phat Beet in all lanes as soon as you can and instantly recharge Gold Bloom a third time if you really feel you have too. But if you are not prepared, even with the right plants your run can end as early as level 30.
* Bad luck: If, by chance, you get a four-flag level above Level 50 with both All-Star Zombie and Gargantuar usually the combined offenses of both of these powerful zombies will be extremely tough to take down, and there may be no way out. All-Star Zombies and Super-Fan Imps together are also really dangerous due to the large damage done to Winter Melons and Primal Sunflowers (though Blovers, if timed properly, can neutralize most of the damage). Fortunately, these levels are relatively rare.

### Strategy 4: A.k.a the Creepypasta strat.

Required plants: Primal Sunflower/Sun-shroom, Winter Melon/Melon-pult, Laser Bean/Fume-shroom, Spore-shroom/A.K.E.E, Puff-shroom, Primal Wallnut/White Radish, Whatever you want.

Step 1: Plant Primal Sunflowers as fast as possible. Unless you're worried/a hacker/brought Gold Bloom, you'll need these more than 75 sun.

Step 2: Use Puff-shrooms to stall the beginning Zombies. Just be careful with Dark Ages Portals.

Step 3: Build 2 columns of Winter Melons/Melon-pults, 1 column of Laser Beans (2 if using Fume-shrooms), and 1 column of Spore-shrooms (2 if using A.K.E.E.s) and then a column of Primal Wall-nuts or White Radishes to seal the deal. It may prevent huge firepower, but it will also prevent Jester Zombies and Jurassic Imps from wrecking havoc.

Step 4: DO NOT use A.K.E.E.s AND Fume-shrooms at the same time! It'll risk you-know-whats getting through.

**Weaknesses:** This strat won't work for everything. These are some things you should fear:

Jester Zombie: For obvious reasons.

Jurassic Imp: For obvious reasons.

Imp rushes: For obvious reasons.

Wizard Zombies/Octo Zombies: A pack of these suckers could cost you the game.

ANYTHING FROM FAR FUTURE: These robots are super deadly, especially because you can't use E.M Peach.

Gargantuars: For obvious reasons.

## Trivia

* Highway to the Danger Room is a reference to the song *Danger Zone* by Kenny Loggins, which had previously been used in the trailer for *Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2,*and is found in many places within the same game.
* The Neon Mixtape Tour portal can spawn 8-Bit Zombies, even though there is no arcade machine.
	+ This is because the Jams' mechanic is not encoded into the Endless Zone (unlike Neon Mixtape Tour or stand-alone Modern Day levels with portals) so special zombies coming out of the portal would behave like a regular, non-threatening Zombie.
* The Travel Log refers this Endless Zone as "Highway to the Danger *Zone*." This is the second error on the Travel Log involving Endless Zones.
	+ The other one is about Greatest Hits, which says "Unlock 80's Danger Room!" instead of "Unlock Greatest Hits!"
* There is a glitch where sometimes if the player starts Highway to the Danger Room for the first time, the player may receive wrong starting plants. Instead of Modern Day plants, one may receive plants from Player's House (Sunflower, Peashooter, and Wall-nut).
	+ This was fixed in the 4.6.1 update of the game.
* Highway to the Danger Room currently holds the record for the longest Endless Zone name, having five words, while others typically have two to three words.
* It is the only Endless Zone to have two possible candidates to appear as the first zombie besides a Basic Zombie variant. In this case, the zombies that may appear are Imp and Super-Fan Imp. If this happens, then the next wave will be triggered immediately.
* This is the only part of Modern Day where a portal can spawn on top of a pre-existing one.
* It has the shortest Crazy Dave's introduction speech of all Endless Zones.
* Highway to the Danger Room has the most variety of zombies by far of all Endless Zones.

\*: Removed ~: Epic Quest