@TheSprinter85 The tier ideas are just for the ones you start with based on a free to play model with the option to have 2 levels of paid accounts which of course have you start with more stuff unlocked, including consumables. Barring those, you can unlock anything you've earned at any time assuming you can afford it. So the free tier has some benefits, the basic paid tier has more, and the deluxe tier has even more. (I've mentioned it before, but it's been awhile, I'll make a new post here soon, but there's a LOT of ground to cover).
Let's say you wanted to unlock the Outhouse Zombie. This guy is pretty tough and one of the better kinds but he's not unusual so Rux would sell the unlock for say, 10000 coins. Once unlocked, you can buy copies of it for 5000 coins (assuming the basic browncoat is 500). Any player could unlock it if they have the coins and can buy as many copies as they want, again as long as they have enough coins. This is one way I make sure coins are always desirable.
As a more complex example, say you really wanted the Pirate Map zombie. You'd travel to the Scallywag Seas free roam zone (working title) do some quests as a zombie, earn some ancient doubloons (the zone currency) and would visit pegleg peg (the female zombie pirate vendor), spent 1000 doubloons to get it, then you can spend the 2000 coins at Rux to unlock copies of it. Any player of any tier can do this at any time.
As for spending real money. If it's going to be a long term supported game like say, Warframe or Destiny, which is what I'm shooting for with this idea, they're going to have microtransactions, regardless of how I feel about them (I have spent a lot on them in all PvZ shooters though), I was thinking of simply selling coin packs like in GW and GW2. This isn't a perfect solution, but all players earn coins via playing. It does mean you can unlock a lot more stuff but barring the consumables, it wouldn't give you in an in game advantage as you can't use coins to level up, all upgrades are always available for all characters you have unlocked, and any consumables added will be unlocked via the battle pass (although it will have a paid tier), the free roam zones, special events, and seasonal events. An alternative to coin packs would be coin boosters that last for x hours (where x equals at least 1, maybe they have different levels), that you buy for real cash that give you more coins based on how much you earn.
After BfN and seeing how well games like Apex Legends are doing with the F2P model, I feel strongly that making the next PvZ shooter free to play is the best option as a lot of veterans feel burned by BfN and will be hesitant to spend more money on another game after the experience and if it's free, they can give it a try with no financial risk. Iif the game is good (and I feel it has to be, they can't let another PvZ shooter go the way of BfN), they can always upgrade their tier or keep playing for free and maybe spend some money at times.
