Survival: Endless

### Zombies

**Survival: Endless** (also known as Survival: Pool (Endless)) is a Survival Mode level that is set in the Pool which has an unlimited number of flags. It is unlocked after completing all the other Survival Mode levels. This level is mainly a challenge of surviving as many flags as the player can, and will become very difficult as the player completes more flags. Just like all Survival: Hard levels and Last Stand Endless, the player can choose new plants when two flags are completed. Each time the player upgrades a plant, the upgrade's sun cost increases by 50 sun. If an upgraded plant is removed in any way, its cost will decrease by 50 sun.

## Overview

The basic idea of Survival: Endless is that seemingly an unlimited number of zombies are attacking in an onslaught to take over the Player's House. The player has to hold off the zombie hordes for as long as possible, resembling the military act of laying siege to a castle. The only ways for Survival: Endless to end are by getting the player's brains eaten or if they reset.

### High flag number errors

At 107,374,183 flags, only Flag Zombies will come, and no zombies will be shown in the seed selection screen, until flag 214,748,364. After that, other zombies will come, although in small quantities, and will increase every flag. After 214,748,366 flags, the game will go to -214,748,363 flags (due to an integer overflow), and the flag number will only show during the intermission every two flags. At -107,374,181, only Flag Zombies will show up, until -1 flags, where Survival: Endless will be like normal. This behavior cannot be observed if Survival: Endless is played in the Pool or Fog stage, as the game will crash after reaching flag 107,374,184 and loading the seed selection screen. As Survival: Endless is played in the Pool stage by default, it is therefore technically impossible to observe these errors without hacking the game.

## Tips

* A good setup is plenty of Cob Cannons, a column of Winter Melons three squares from the house to slow down the zombies, a column of Gloom-shrooms in front of the Winter Melons because Imps usually land there and they can get rid of them. Spikerock can distract the Gargantuars while placing Tall-nuts can protect the Cob Cannons.
	+ You can also use Gatling Peas with Torchwoods instead of Winter Melons and Fumes, they deal more damage but will not slow down and have poor crowd control.
* Although all Survival: Endless setups win on Survival: Pool (Hard), not all Pool: (Hard) setups can handle the massive numbers of zombies in Survival: Endless.
* Zombonis, Jack-in-the-Box Zombies, and Giga-gargantuars are the biggest threats on this level. The Zomboni can crush the player's plants and cannot be slowed, while the Giga-gargantuars take four instant kills to die. Both can be stalled and killed with Spikerock, but the Spikerocks need to be replaced quickly in most levels, which is problematic due to Spikerock's slow recharge. Jack-in-the-Box Zombies rarely are a problem, though they can occasionally blow up instantly and wipe out plants in the pool.
	+ It is recommended to protect everything possible with Pumpkins as one may not realize a zombie has gotten past one's defenses.
	+ If you got a defense that is good enough to keep away stronger zombies such as the Football Zombie, it is best to remove Pumpkins on the frontmost plant. Pumpkins actually make plant hitboxes a lot larger, and this is a bad thing when you encounter the aforementioned zombies.
* The back four columns of the Pool are the safest area for Cob Cannons; as long as the plants in front of those rows are protected by Pumpkins, zombies that surface during waves will not be able to get back to them. If a Pumpkin is planted on the plant in the fifth column, its wider hitbox will allow Zombonis, Catapult Zombies, and Giga-gargantuars to crush it more easily. If a Pumpkin is not planted on it, it is safe from those zombies. However, Football Zombies may eat the plant.
* Players should rate a setup by the number of Cob Cannons they have.
	+ Zero to three: Bring many instant kills, have plenty of powerful attacking plants.
	+ Four: Bring a couple of instants, keep Cob Cannons away from the offense.
	+ Five to eight: Instants might not be used, but if you have extra spots use them. Keep Cobs protected.
	+ Nine and more: Instants will be rarely needed, but keep Ice-shroom or a Doom-shroom or some other high range plant(s). Keep a cycle going with Cobs.
* If one doubles up on Winter Melons, only do so on land. Thrown Imps sometimes draw fire from Winter Melons long enough for zombies to unfreeze. Winter Melons do the same amount of damage as Melon-pults, so the player should not plant too many.
* Every time the player plants an upgrade plant, its cost increases by 50 sun.
	+ However, if an upgrade plant is destroyed in any way, its cost decreases by 50 sun.
* Gloom-shrooms or other plants with area of effect attacks are recommended, even when dealing with Digger Zombies or Imps.
* The player should have either two Cattails or use a Blover to deal with Balloon Zombies. If the player wishes to only use a single Cattail, the player has to maintain a strict double Ice-shrooms timing.
* Large amounts of money can be earned through progression in this mode. Even if one misses many coins, they will get $30,000 or more within ten flags of Survival: Endless.
* The number of zombies will stop increasing at around 100 flags.
* Ice-shrooms are very important here, especially if you are not using Cob Cannons; if timed correctly, it can prevent ambushes. Use this to your advantage. Imitating it is also a good idea.
* Obtain a lot sun of during the beginning, as you need it to plant your expensive, powerful plants. Obtain about 9000 sun (however at about 8000 the Sunny Days achievement will be earned) so you will rarely have a lack of sun. Even if you have a lot of sun already, it is not recommended to dig up all your Sunflowers and it is advised to have at least two Twin Sunflowers in the entire setup.
* Mastering Cob Cannon and instants timing is a very good supplementary skill. It can help to reduce Pumpkin maintenance of the builds, refine the structure of the endgame build and even eliminate the Zombonis, Balloon Zombies, Digger Zombies and Catapult Zombies without the aid of Spikerocks, Cattails/Blover, Gloom-shrooms and Umbrella Leaves respectively.
* The player may plant Spikerocks at the leftmost land column or even empty the column and have at least one Gloom-shroom at the 2nd leftmost column to deal with Digger Zombies. Doing so will make your build free of managing Digger Zombies.
* The player may use ladders from Ladder Zombies to eliminate the need for Pumpkin maintenance for Imps. Although setting it up can be difficult for newcomers.
	+ When laddering Pumpkins, it is recommended that any of these zombies aren't in the same round as Ladder Zombies: Gargantuar, Jack-in-the-Box, Giga-Gargantuar, Zomboni. While Zombonis are manageable they become a larger threat in a laddering stage.
	+ Do remove a couple AOE plants such as Gloom-shrooms to ensure that Ladder Zombies do not die quickly.
	+ Use Garlic to re-route Ladder Zombies. This will also lesson damage received by such zombies.
	+ Do not bring Jalapenos once you are laddering or have finished laddering. You'd be in a risk of losing all the ladders which can be a nightmare to achieve again.
* Pick Kernel-pult, Cob Cannon, Fume-shroom, Gloom-shroom, and Coffee Bean, because they are important in huge waves. Jack-in-the-Box Zombie can blow up the Gloom-shroom, and Zomboni can crush it too, so be careful.
* Trash can zombies (console only) are an absolute joke and should not be worried about.

## Trivia

* Bungee Zombies only appear during huge waves in this stage
* The Zombie Bobsled Team and Dr. Zomboss are the only zombies in the Suburban Almanac that do not appear in this level. The Zombie Bobsled Team does not appear for an unconfirmed reason, even if a Zomboni has made an ice trail for them.
* There is a mode in *Plants vs. Zombies 2* similar to this called Endless Zones, but the player's planted plants don't exist in the next level, not all of their plants are there at the start, and levels can have 1-4 flags. The player also only get four default plants, but get to pick more as the levels go on.