Two simple tips rookies and pro's alike can benefit from

[realitysquared]

Speaking of aggressive use of the Jackhammer, with some practice Roadie-Z can be a devastating close quarters opponent if you can maneuver him into semi-close range before triggering your Jackhammer to close and circle a Plant Hero while blasting constantly with the Ear-radicator.

If you're good at it you can easily use the Jackhammer to stay out of the line of fire of your chosen target and can easily vanquish even the Torchwood with little difficulty- but your Jackhammer dodging and maneuvering need to be on point.

Roadie-Z is also particularly effective when you are using your Jackhammer specifically to unroot Peashooters in Pea Gatling mode or Sunflowers in Sun Beam mode.

[realitysquared]

Also, speaking of knocking things out of the ground;

The Biotic Pull Z-7 Mech ability is capable of hauling a burrowed Chomper clean out of the ground if you can hit them as they are moving while burrowed.

It's difficult and you need to be accurate enough to hit a normally fast moving target but it's an incredible surprise for the Chomper to be ripped out of their Burrow and pulled towards the Z-7's Zomni Blade.

[Ziago_J]

You can pull a burrowed chomper out with one of the Z7-Mech?!?! I can see how that'd be really tough to pull off, but if there's that one chance you can keep your buddy from getting chomped it's worth a cooldown to try. Thank you I'm gonna grab a friend and practice with that reality :o

[Ziago_J]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quick Cactus Tips ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Cactus is very tough when played to her strengths. Turns out her staying power in a firefight isn't really as fragile as catching a Cactus by surprise in Multiplayer may lead you to believe! When I first played the Garden Warfare 2 Cactuses, I felt they were very underpowered and took too many shots to vanquish a zombie. However, this came because I was an experienced Garden Warfare 1 player who had fully unlocked the upgraded to his variants in the previous game.

Growing used to an upgraded character is dangerous - The Camo Cactus with her damage upgrade in GW2 can actually vanquish a foot soldier with 2 Head shots, whereas when she is not leveled to have a damage upgrade, it will take 3. Remembering this is important as seeing 60 damage with such low firing speeds and magazines will lead you to dislike a character, simply because two shots on a Foot Soldier will land them with 5 health left - Usually allowing someone else to take your vanquish. Patience and determination truly pays off when you find that Cacti that you enjoy playing despite what she may do in terms of damage.

(Here's the tips sorry)

~ Slow aim? ~

Camo Cactus when zooming in will have a slower aiming speed. Remember this if you choose to fall back on her to get revenge on someone giving you a hard time, as tracking faster moving players becomes a chore when faced with ultra slow aiming.

~Garlic Drone Tips~

The Garlic Drone, cute and cuddly as it may be has a few things about it that I seem to find interesting to note when using it. Many of you may already know these things, but the fragility of the drone could possibly leave people scratching their heads as to what the thing may even be used for, if players (Or AI for that matter) don't give them time to play with it in the air!

~Battery Power Saving~

The Garlic Drone when standing still consumes far less power than it would if you were moving or adjusting altitude. Holding both altitude buttons down will not move your drone and will consume power. Touching movement in anyway even if you aren't moving (Running into a wall for example) will drain your battery. The drone also drifts in the last direction you were moving, so remember this when attempting to get the drone to completely stand still by tapping your stick around!! I have also noticed that moving your camera stick does not drain battery, but it does cause your drifting to change (Sort of how it would with a real Helicopter I think. The swivel changes which way you'll be floating). In PvZGW 1 this was much worse and it would cause movement. Fortunately they've toned it down a bit.

This means that, if you can navigate your drone successfully to a spot you find well hidden with good visibility of an objective point, you can in actuality have your drone out for up to two whole minutes. Firing from a good position with the drone in short bursts can give you incredible stealth, since many players don't seem to be able to spot the drone without following its projectile trail back to its position. Choosing not to fire will allow you to survive longer, shelling out a Corn Strike when the chance strikes you. Staying out of well lit spots with your drone is a good tip too, as the Drone is easy to spot when it is in blue sky and it's just like this huge booger easy to see.

~ Drone Physics ~

The Drone also has some interesting physics to it. In the first game (PVZGW 1), placing your Tallnuts in a V shape pattern, standing inside of it, then slowly pushing into your front with the Drone would actually place Cactus on top of her Drone, allowing for fun and quirky antics as well as very strategic placement of Sniper Nests.

In Garden Warfare 2 however, this is no longer the case Rather, if you do this, you will cause Cactus to fly in some crazy random direction. Less of a tip and more of an opportunity to be a punk (lol) you can actually use your drone to move players around. Get in their way. Even increase their speed (In the case of a Parrot pushing an All-Star). Being a nuisance has its many advantages to lightening your own mood when on the end of a rear-end kicking, but you can also use this nifty little trick to reposition yourself if somehow you had used the Drone in an open area where you are easy to be seen. While draining battery power, it could save your life to just nudge yourself behind something.

~ Drone Tactic ~

Finally, some combat tips! Have you learned how to manage flight for over one minute? Can you harass people from behind a tree, then stay there behind that very tree CAMPING for longer than they thought you would? Can you swoop to the side of the tree while they're waiting for you, pepper them once to three times and hide behind cover before they can shoot you down? O_O Good! Because here's some goodies for you to benefit from.

Your Drone has absolutely -ZERO- recoil! None! That means that when you've got the bead and can compensate for your drift, the bullets will always go where you are aiming. The Drone rewards, and it rewards very well with 12 damage close range head shots, and 9 damage from long range (Critical).

Be aware of what is in between you and your target when you are fighting from an Eagle's Eye range. The slightest sign, smallest ledge or even tiniest little line from a tree LEAF will cause your Bullet to hit the the object. It will cause your CORN STRIKE to strike AT THAT INSIGNIFICANT LEAF that's miles away from the spot you were aiming, but somehow a little piece of metal was protruding from a wall SOMEWHERE and that's where your Corns are landing. SOMEWHERE. This is a warning/tip people. I've lost so many good drones and strikes to THIS very problem. Double check before you decide to strike.

Don't be intimidated by attempting to use battery power to take an alternate route low to the ground in order to remain hidden.This particular tactic can come in handy if you do not intend to hang back and camp with your Drone. Often times it's the drone that can get behind the player who is playing Master Spotter on top of a Roof Top without them seeing that can really tip the tides of a fight. Most especially so if you can sneak right onto them and give 'em the ol surprise hairwash from above. These Lone Wolves are dangerous and can be spotted by the way they play Hide n' Seek with you if you try to take them down with your Primary weapon.

Speaking of sniper hide n' seek, let us discuss some fine tactic with that.

If you do not have your damage upgrade, it will be very tough to engage worthy adversary at range, especially if they know where you are at and most so if they can patiently regenerate health.

While you may become accustomed to players who overextend because you've learned to dangle your head out there for a poor rookie to miss a few shots on, this will not always be the case. Players with the "Eagle Eye" come up with their own ways to lure players out of hiding because we all know (The Eagle Eye players know, that is) that it only takes a set number of shots in the right spot to get what we want. And if you're being hit once then the player is somehow missing you, it could very well be more than just a lucky shot. Play patiently. Forcing a player to come out first is what you want.

I, as one of those "Eagle Eye" players play contradictory to the above tip. It is I who can see you no matter how far you try to attack me from and it is I who will intentionally move in patterns common to new players. Health permitting I will purposely put my entire hitbox out in plain view for them to fire at, simply because I know it takes nothing more than a jump or a quick side step to take minimal damage from enemy fire. This way, I am able to see where enemy fire is coming from and essentially gauge by the fire who and where I should be aiming at. Whether I want to fire on someone who won't be able to hit me, or attempt to keep where the heaviest fire was coming from thinned down a little bit.

^---- This tip is based purely from a Defensive Stand point. And speaking as a Foot Soldier who engages cactuses like they are a mortal enemy. I have seen what a good cactus can do to a team of rookies, and if see a Foot Soldier on a Roof Top, PLAY PATIENTLY.

Thank, and hopefully these were more tip than ramble though it felt like more ramble than tip. I am in the process of leveling my cactus team and figured I would put these here before I dived right in. When I reacqauint myself to the Tallnuts and their uses I'll see what I can come up with for those.

[Ziago_J]

Today we have some fun little Easter Tips to give those of you who like to play Scientist, but just can't seem to find survivability in maps due to focus firing! I'll also give some pointers on the Hover-Goat 3,000.

 ~ Scientist Basics ~

The Scientist is very squishy. With only 100 health and a knack for being targeted first the Scientist isn't really one of those "Pick up and play" types as other players who know just how dangerous this particular class can be will do their very best to ensure you don't make it to the front lines, much less the friends you may or may not want to heal.

Knowing where to stand so that enemy fire does not reach you is a very important thing. If enemies are watching your cover and you know it, this is a great chance to warp to a different covering spot or warp to make a break for it. If multiple enemies are firing upon your cover and you are relatively safe, it can also be a sound tactic allow them to continue drawing attention to themselves. Though I try not to rely too heavily on my team for my own survival I have found myself saved more than once by just a random roaming zombie on my team who noticed an unaware target who was too busy trying to vanquish a Scientist to dodge gunfire.

Serpentining is a very good tactic as a Scientist. When trying to take down a Scientist, many players will attempt to lead you. Random and erratic moving patterns are very important to picking up. Jumping and generally spazzing out is a good idea so long as it does not interfere with getting from point A to point B. Or in other words, move randomly without slowing yourself down. Now let's get down to scoring highest in the "I healed my team" sector.

~ Healing at its best ~

If you intend to reach higher than the 400-700 area on healing you have to remember one thing:

IF YOU DECIDE TO HEAL SOMEBODY, HEAL THEM TO FULL. IF THEY GET HIT, CONTINUE TO HEAL THEM. USE GOOD JUDGEMENT ON WHEN YOU SHOULD STOP HEALING SOMEONE.

Healing one individual is called pocketing. If they aren't hurt and you are healing them, you're losing out on healing points. Healing an All-Star from low health to full health will get you around 100-150-175 healing points total if they take no additional damage. Getting them to full and finding another target to heal is where you will shine.

While this seems pretty basic, I see a lot of Scientists seem to have a difficult time understanding this concept... I can understand why as healing someone to full health can take upwards 10-20 seconds. But here's an example anyway as all too often I see Scientists doing this mistake:

Seeing a near-dead Foot Soldier, you warp to him and begin healing him. You see an even more near-death All-Star nearby and go to heal that All-Star instead. ..... Oops! You just not only lost out on maintaining heal points by neglecting the aforementioned Foot Soldier, but you also left that Foot Soldier half-dead, who will now run off and probably get smoked in no time flat. Not only this, but I have seen these Scientists do this, then stop healing the All-Star and move on to engage an enemy in a fire fight!!!! .... !!!<_>!!!! WHAAAAAT?!

Stick by that Foot Soldier and get him to full health!!!! It's worth way more points, most especially so if that All-Star you're just dying to heal sticks around! Then you get credit for fully healing the Foot Soldier AND that All-Star. :o Foot Soldiers aren't patient and will run off if you stop healing them. And if that All-Star DIES because you didn't run off to heal him, you can warp to and revive said All-Star to full health anyway, enemy fire permitting.

If you seriously want more than 700 healing, heck... if you want more than 2,000 healing which is so easy to pull off, you need fully top off the players you begin to heal. pick a target and heal them to full before picking a new heal buddy. Do this enough and people will actually come looking for you to heal them because they find that you show up and help them and disappear when they are fully healed as to not get in their way. (Try to find them before they have to go looking for you.)

You must be like a Shadow Warrior - Sneaky and silent, healing in the dark. Your weapons are excellent for defense, and if your heal target is rushed by the plant he is engaging, you can usually sweep them out in one well placed shot most especially so if they didn't realize the Zombie they were rushing had a healer with them. Other than that, you should get your buddy to full health and resume looking for patients to heal, often times using one of your two reserve warps to "Zoop" out of visibility of any offending plants who may have noticed you from far away. (Though I tend to heal out of line of sight, and if I see someone who may be aiming at me, I try to position my heal buddy in between them and I :P lol)

Most importantly, don't get in the way of your heal buddy. Don't stand in front of them. Don't stand close to them. Don't jump on their heads as I do lol they really hate that. Once you establish the heal beam, you will see that it has quite the range. Being able to keep yourself distanced from your heal buddy can keep you alive, as enemies will be forced to focus on them. It is easier to revive your body through backwards Swoocing than it is to have to dodge fire to the point of having to leave your buddy behind. Especially if it's only because someone noticed you.

(If you want to practice Swoocing, star a solo game of Gnome Bomb. Set it to Easy, set the teams to 101st Peashooter Division vs For Science! zombie team. This will ensure Peashooters bean bomb your computer scientist buddies and allow you to practice swooce-revivals while taking minimal damage. If you can successfully revive your team without dying over and over, the scientists will beat the peashooters... sometimes :P)

~ Revivals ~

Reviving is incredibly powerful. Many players aren't used to receiving a revival and will respawn in the middle of your revival of you show up too late. Performing several successful revivals (Around 10 or so I've noticed) will have you seeing downed players waiting a bit longer before respawning. I have had quite a few games where heavy revival will lead to a build up of your team as more and more players end up roaming to the location you are maintaining the health of your team at.

An example of this is at a teleporter location which is under heavy fire. So long as you are reviving your zombuddies who don't stray too far away, you're only going to get more reinforcements to bolster the pals you're keeping alive, eventually resulting in an overwhelming wave of zombies. It all comes down to you being able to stay alive to keep them alive, so to say.

-USE YOUR JUDGEMENT-

Reviving can get you busted, and hard. Many times someone stops to revive, it will get you killed. Swooce revivals are very powerful game changes, most so if you can back up and do it. But Swoocing won't save the surly Scientist who thinks he can Warp in front of 4 plants and pull off a magnificent revival. This will not only likely get you vanquished, but if you successfully pull off that revival, what do you expect the buddy you brought back to life to do? <_< Lol He's gonna get mobbed. Discretion is key. And remember, if you didn't get there in time, the player might even just respawn before he gets revived, causing you to eat a vanquish. Making you bitter towards the player you wanted to revive. And worse more, that player in specific will never know why! So if you got vanquished trying to revive, you weren't using your best judgement!

If you intend to play a heavy reviver, then you must keep your Warps close, and keep the Mega Heal Bomb ability even closer. Maintaining a pool of 2 warps is almost neccesary for those death-defying impossible revivals. So long as the coast is semi-clear (You're gonna be targeted by someone no matter what as soon as you click that warp button) it is possible to warp onto a corpse, revive it, then warp the heck outta there!!!! Not being noticed but being aware of someone who is about to be vanquished is the key to all of this.

If you see that Foot Soldier with half health is taking damage while in the close proximity to you (Close to me is being able to see their health bar), stay out of sight and wait for him to be vanquished. If you are afraid he is going to respawn quickly but are unsure of your revival speed, do not risk it. If you have practiced Swoocing, or just reviving at all (Placement of your warp on top of his body as well) then it's fine to give it a go, especially if they don't know it's coming. Reaction speeds play a heavy part in this. After the revival is done, it's time to go. If he gets vanquished again, that's on him. You gave him a second chance and if he didn't run, you can try for a third without your warps.

Know when to revive and when not to. Try to see how many enemy icons are around multiple revivals. One of the hardest things I had to learn was when not to try and revive someone. Sometimes players who are waiting for revival put their controller down and aren't even there, so if you expect some help because you have no warp to run away it could very well turn sour as the one you were able to revive is just standing there and the plant took you down with 3% health left. :P ALL YOUR BUDDY HAD TO DO WAS POKE 'EM ONCE AND YOU'D HAVE BOTH BEEN OKAY! lol

(During these times you may have already decided to fight and were ready to get vanquished anyway. Simply because you're that bad to the bone zombie revival hero and the goo blaster hits insanely hard.)

~ Warp and Heal beam tricks and tactics ~

Warp is great for fighting. It's great for getting away. Not everybody has the same play style, and what works for you is all based on your adaption style. Some are quick. Some are burly. But everyone can benefit from this little tidbit of info:

You can change your warp direction, essentially faking out a player because of the Warp Audio Cue and the inability to see which way the scientist is facing relative to the actual direction he is facing. Activate that warp, jump and change directions in the small window of time you have to fake warping straight when you'll actually warp to the left. Being aware of where cover is when you intend to warp onto a revival target is a very powerful tool when you successfully revive, come under fire, jump and activate warp, but have turned to land on a hill or over a wall. Not only will the players try to aim in the direction you were facing at the moment they saw your scientist look down to press his wearp button, but they'll have look for where you went as often this will throw you off their screen if they aimed too far opposite the way you were going.

Heal beam can be established through obstacles such as walls, floors and even rooftops. This is tough to explain and it's so situational that it may not even be worth a mention, but if the situation is safe enough, it's possible to heal your buddies who camp on top of a roof if you can jump and establish the beam. It's possible to establish a heal beam through a wall to heal someone behind it, even if you can't see them.

Essentially, if they're close enough but they're on the floor above you, it could be worth it to jump a couple of times while looking at their health bar through the wall and tapping that heal button. Sometimes it hits. And if it does, I tend to stand still, because they'll either run away, or they'll notice and stand still too. Sometimes also, they will notice and run back to whit you must re-establish the beam if they got too far.

~~~~~~~~ Hover Goat 3000 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah the Hover-Goat. Gosh he's spunky - I would have given anything to be able to customize his hair and shades. He's probably my most favorite character ever, but his lack of customization makes him rather bland, as I very much like having my shiny gem-style characters. (Gem Iamironhead is the best hat on the planet) When playing the Hovergoat, you're going to notice a large amount of Focus Fire on you. That's because the Goat is exotic, stylish and misunderstood. He has great fire rate, he has moderate speed that can be underestimated by the way he jumps and how he bobs around, but somehow when playing as the Goat I find that I can be vanquished really REALLY quickly.

You don't have to hang your head out long before someone spots you, somehow the Goat has a magnetic appeal to other players that literally draws their fire to you, and the sooner I realized that, the sooner I realized I had to play the Goat like he was on an endless sugar rush. Fortunately for me, EA gave the goat a low-gravity mechanic on his jump that allows him to reach places in almost the same manner as the imp, it just requires more finesse. Let's begin:

----- The Hovergoat is Tony Hawk's pet (Evasive Play)-----

When you jump, hold down the jump button. By doing so, you will slow your fall after you reach the maximum height of your jump. Using this to your advantage you can actually jump to and from fences, posts and obstacles in a Tony-Hawk (Nintendo 64 version people) style play, essentially "grinding" around a level. Using your speed boost will sometimes allow you to make roof to roof jumps, though I would not recommend using your speed boost unless you're absolutely sure you won't need it again until it's ready.

Jumping around in order to play evasively works to a degree. Using erratic patterns and switching from falling slowly to falling normally can help. Oftentimes trying to focus on playing evasive will make it tough to aim (Aiming while slow falling is considerably easier for me somehow and I'm sure others will disagree). It will also make it hard to see one of those silent bean bombs that just roll around a corner. Worst so, if you're too busy trying to jump around and avoid fire, you really won't have time to fire back or assist your teammates as the longer you remain in visibility jumping around like a crazy goat on a hoverboard, the more you're gonna draw attention to yourself. Like I said, the Goat just seems to get focused on before anything else.

(Though there is a certain degree of helpfulness to dodging enemy fire, most so if you're able to fully avoid damage doing so, this exposes enemy location and allows your buddies to lay down the hurt. If your buddies don't help though, you're gonna get vanquished because you can only be lucky for so long)

Evasive hover-jumping is good tactic for taking on 1v1 enemies as landing a bead on a goat who can jump twice your height can be pretty tough, most so if their speed boost is going, and they can shoot you while you're doing so. It sort of causes a panic.

~~~~~~~ Your Laser and you ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Hovergoats laser is incredible. Not only does it do a large amount of damage, hit in a wider beam than the visual indicates (seemingly so anyway), but it seems to stick to an enemy, hitting them extra times even when they walk out of it. Visually it looks like the beam will curve at the end to follow them if it was hitting them as they move. Check it out! It's kinda weird! There's more however,

Knowing when to open up with your laser can be a fine tactic, but also knowing when it will finish the job your clip started can save your life. If you've landed enough shots with your radical raygun to know that the target is finished, it can be preferable to load up the laser rather than reload the raygun. Though it diminishes your speed, the laser will activate faster than you can reload and by holding down the fire button, it will begin firing as soon as its ready essentially granting you a speed clip with far more ammo that deals more damage. Managing your cover and being aware of when to shut down the laser so you aren't taken by surprised are important factors too, s your laser will draw attention if it's going on for too long.

---KEEP IN MIND THAT WHEN YOU DEACTIVATE YOUR LASER, YOU ARE STILL GONNA NEED TO RELOAD YOUR RADICAL RAYGUN---

The tactic of using your laser as your backup clip can also save you in mid range one on one firefights. This is debateable however as many Hovergoats can do just fine jumping around with the Radical Raygun. I have found however against Sunflower and Rose, my radical raygun just doesn't do the trick without more than one clip. And if I try to get too close to either of them, I end up vanquished because I belittle the damage of the Sunflower (Which is actually pretty hard hitting) and totally underestimate the value of rose (Who can jump around and has a hit box like a stick). However, I can activate my backup laser clip in under a second and have it firing on them when they think I'm gonna start jumping around to play evasively so I can reload in safety.

Having to reload has a large impact on the goat for me, as I must remove my crosshair from the enemy in order to hop around. When activating the laser, I usually maintain my aim, accepting that if I don't land the shots with the laser, I'm gonna get vanquished anyway.

~~~~ Closing statement ~~~~~

As always, enjoy the rambling of how I play but remember to play through your own example. Adopting technique to your own playstyle is how you become a unique Plant/Zombie of justice who will remain unmatched until we face off on the field. Hope to see you all out there, Happy Easter everybody!

[Ziago_J]

Also, on Great White North, I pulled a Chomper out of the ground with my Z7 Mech. It was on the first point, he was one of those sneaky chompers that goop you and chomp you to death from behind. Oh ho ho he tried to burrow passed me and I hit it just right. Sweet, sweet destruction, I could feel his disdain haha reality wasn't joking about that. I suggest learning how to do it from long range as a burrowing chomper who burrows just to regenerate is so annoying, it's almost worth bringing out the mech if you were saving it, though he'll probably unburrow by the time you finish summoning :P

[realitysquared]

One other tip for the Scientist, as well as the Sunflower, in regards to use of the Heal Beam;

When facing opponents with Fire, Toxic or Ice effects you'll find that the ones with Splash damage love to target groups of your teammates for maximum effect, leaving a lot of them on fire or poisoned as well as damaged from the shots and splash.

The best way to approach is to rapidly swap your Heal Beam from affected team member to affected team manner to rapidly remove the effect before selecting one to Heal properly. Doing this eliminates the extra damage from being set on fire or poisoned, in some cases preventing the poison from spreading to nearby teammates, and will remove the movement penalty or freezing effect of Ice.

You can also select an individual to Heal from a tight Group by making certain that your targeting reticule is on the character you want the Heal Beam to target; if you have nothing selected in this manner it will usually connect randomly to the closest teammate out of those in range.

[Ziago_J]

Here's a quickie tip some people might benefit from:

~~~~~~~~~~ Sneaky Reloading ~~~~~~~~~

As a Variant of Citron who has an ammo pool rather than a beam weapon (Toxic, Electro, Mech) it is possible to tap the reload button before activating your Ball Form. This will have Citron reload his weapon while he is in ball form ensuring when you morph back into assault form, he will have a full clip. He will also reload automatically if you use all of your ammo and then morph into ball form. This comes in handy as I would often go into ball form to escape someone who had targeted me. While running I would encounter someone I could sneak up on and ambush them with only 3 bullets in my clip! Argh!!! Then I have to reload while they know I'm there, talk about humiliating.

This also works with some other characters as well.

Tapping reload before activating Arcane Enigma on any Rose will ensure you have a full clip available when your Enigma wears off, giving you that much needed extra edge over a Super Brainz ambusher or providing you with the ability to keep the pressure on without having to reload.

Tapping reload before activating Sunbeam on the Sunflower will allow you to have a full clip when you exit your Sunbeam mode!

The Zombie side can benefit from this too ~.^ Despite Citron benefiting the most.

The Imp can tap reload before his Impkata and come out with full Ammo ready to pepper your would-be rivals after your super spinning special smash skill! This can really come in handy! He can also reload before calling his Mech, ensuring his explosive escape comes with no ammunition expended from any previous encounter!

The Pirate can tap reload before his Barrel or Cannon Rodeo to ensure full clip after he's done. Not the Parrot however. Also, pressing Circle on Ps4 will allow you to leave barrel mode without needing to light the fuse, this way you don't have to go through that second long jump into the air after a speed boost.

The Engineer is a pretty quirky guy, he can tap reload before big bolt blaster and it will work, but here's his quirk, he can use any of his skills while reloading and it will not disrupt the reload. In fact, you can throw a sonic grenade half way through your reload and it will still be half way done, meaning he can just spam his weapon and not worry about his reload being affected by the jackhammer or grenade.

This does not work with: Colonel Corn (His abilities all have ammo pools), Peashooter (He makes the reload sound going into Gatling mode but does not reload), Cactus (She reloads after exiting Garlic Drone despite the sound being played during Drone), Foot Soldier (Every skill stops his reload period), Scientist (Warp and Bomb skill interrupts the reload) and Hovergoat 3000 (Speed Boost and Laser gun disrupt reload)

These are very small tactics to bear in mind. There is also a great advantage to having a full clip when you need it most. Especially when you play these fast classes who must use a lot of ammo but also disrupt their firefight to use a skill.

Thanks for XP people and please keep gaming! See you all out on the Vanquishing field!

[WendyLong2017]

I am a new player, so I need the tips and tricks to level up faster. Thanks for your share. It is the things I need and find.
rolling sky

[Ziago_J]

~ EXP Grinding ~

It's absolutely no secret that EXP takes ages to gain. Getting to level 10 may come quicker for some than it does for others but for most, it's a confusing concept. XP can easily be gained just by patrolling around the backyard battleground, stomping on any enemy you see for flat XP. However, there are some "ins and outs" to XP that don't quite come to people as easily as some may think. Let's begin

~ The XP Multiplier ~

If you want to get loads of XP you're going to have to work your multiplier up to x2. Your current multiplier can be found in the bottom left of the screen, where it tells you what level you are and where you will find a "x0.50" to "x2.0". The x# is your current multiplier.

The multiplier is increased by doing the quests on the bounty board (Located in front of the building on the Plants or Zombie side of the Backyard Battleground respectively). Each quest will give you a Prize of 3 Stars (If it is a Plant/Zombie quest), 5k coins (If it is a Multiplayer quest), and a x3 of a little red dot/pin.

Every 5 little red dot/pins you get will boost your XP multiplier by 0.25x until you have gotten 20 pins, which will set your XP multiplier to 2x, allowing you to get 200 XP for player vanquishes.

~ Doing Quests through Solo Play ~

Most quests can be seen as tedious if you do not know what to do. If a quest asks you to "Vanquish 15 Peashooters" or "Vanquish 15 Engineers" then new players will jump into multiplayer and get creamed looking for a class that sometimes the other players aren't playing. This is where solo play comes into hand. Stacking a game in your favor can help you take these quests out in a single round while sometimes getting other quests done in the process as well.

For this example we will pretend we are doing a quest that requires me to vanquish 15 pea shooters plant 3 gnome bombs and vanquish 10 gnome bomb carriers. Seems pretty annoying, but it's really just 1-2 solo games worth of quest.

Go to the Multiplayer Portal, select "Solo Play", set the difficulty to easy (On Easy mode when your health drops below one third, you will take far less damage), Set the teams to 101st Division Peashooter team for plants (All Peashooters) and set the Zombie team to whatever you please. I usually do all my solo play on Zen Peak. The game should be gnome bomb.

Once the game begins, head to the bomb spawn (It will always spawn in the same spot the first time. Right next to the 2 barrels of fireworks on the cliff side)

Do what you do best to any plant who picks up the gnome. When a plant picks up the Gnome it -TECHNICALLY- will not fire at you. His friends will. If you find that your team is better at grabbing the gnome, then you may want to set your team to just Scientists (Scientists AI have trouble dodging bean bombs, and this leads to you having to run the bomb).

In this very specific scenario, as I need 10 Gnome Bomb carrier vanquishes, I will play as All star and attempt to herd the bomb runner with Tackle Dummies. The plant who grabs the bomb will always go to the nearest point with it if they can. I try my best to camp point C or A with Tackle Dummies since it is very predictable which direction the peashooter will take.

10 Carriers.

15 Peashooters?

No problem.

If you have a quest that is telling you to "Get x amount of kills with <Skill name Here>", then I usually take that character to the Flag of Power in the Backyard Battleground. The first wave will spawn 40 enemies for you which are usually very easy to vanquish. I will reset the flag after first wave of 40, Soldier/Peashooter/Any special plant or zombie variant doesn't just stack up for skills like husk hop or ZPG.

A great point made by another poster on the next page as follows:

(pandareno1999 credit to)

05-31-2017 02:34 PM - edited ‎05-31-2017 02:36 PM

Great stuff as always, Ziago.  I do some of this stuff differently - more than one way to skin a cat and all that.  I tend to use team vanguish rather than gnome bomb, for example.  I'm not sure if you mentioned that an empty TT game is the best way to knock out base capture quests and teleporter related related quests (except having a number of players use the teleporter).  I love when suburbination quests come up, because it's already so easy to earn 1000 coins per game while you're busy doing something else - if I need coins fast, I grind for them while I'm doing the housework or such, hitting the bumper for chile bomb or ZPG every minute or so.  Add in the 5000 for the quest and that's some easy money right there.

 (end quote)

Turf Takeover quests require you can fully cap 5 points. 50 Points of capturing is equal to 5 points fully captured argh!! Empty games are very helpful with this hassle if you're not into point diving!!! You can also taunt the NPC's you vanquish in case you did not want to taunt a player and incur their wrath. The applications go on!

~ Finding Best Spots for XP ~

At Max XP Multiplier you will get:

500 XP for First Strike boast

200 XP for Player Vanquish

100 XP for Capture Vanquish (Vanquishing opponent on their Capture Point in Turf Takeover)

100 XP for Defender Vanquish (Vanquish opponent who is on YOUR Capture Point in Turf Takeover)

100 XP for Neutralizing Zones in Suburbination

200 XP for fully CAPTURING Zones in Suburbination

100 XP for player revivals

200 XP for vanquishing Plant/Zombie boss

100 XP for vanquishing a Plant/Zombie Champion (Plant/Zombie Icon with a Gold Circle around it)

50 XP for Vanquishing a Bot

50 XP for Assists

50 XP for you or a team member picking up a Gnome Bomb

50 XP for Planting a Gnome Bomb

50 XP for Disarming a Gnome Bomb

50 XP for Capture Vanquish (Vanquishing Opponent on their Capture Point in Suburbination)

50 XP for Defender Vanquish (Vanquish Opponent who is on your Capture Point in Suburbination)

20 XP for summoning a zombie

20 XP for summoned zombie vanquishing someone for you

20 XP for healing anything for 20 health (I think)

20 XP for vanquishing a summoned plant/zombie

20 XP for helping capture the point in Turf Takeover (You'll get 20 XP multiple times depending on how long you stay on the point as it gains capture progress)

20 XP for Critical Vanquish

20 XP for suppression assist (All-Star & Mr. Tree man)

^------------------------------ These Values indicate THAT ----------------------------^

In order to get the maximum XP in a single kill, you must land a vanquish on someone who is on a point with a non critical strike, and it must be the first vanquish of the game. This lands you a whopping 800 XP. (First Strike, Player Vanquish, Turf Takeover capture point vanquish). If you get them with a critical strike, it will only count First Strike, Capture Point, And Critical Strike (610 XP)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ Multiplayer or Solo? ~

Multiplayer is tough. You can get placed in a game with a large amount of Master level characters or you can be placed in a game with a large chunk of Blue (New) nameplate gamers. Either way, not everyone can do well in a firefight where players are involved. Some people are better at handling predictable AI than some of those who are better at hanging out on rooftops and spotting people from miles away (Crazy mode AI eat some of those players alive). But the real factor remains that player vanquishes are worth 4x as much as a Bot vanquish. The Money count will be around the same depending on your difficulty choice in solo. It comes down to how well you can grind those vanquishes.

There is a cheap and sleazy way to grind EXP using the split screen. It does involve losing a game but it means loads of experience for long range characters you are capable of shooting from behind cover, all the while ensuring you are not hit to the point of dying. You must set a second player on the opposite team and have them stand on a Capture Point of Turf Takeover on a team of nothing but Sunflowers/Scientists. As long as you can vanquish them fast enough before healing begins, the Scientists will usually revive the other player faster than you could have ran back. This gives you 6 or so Minutes to grind as much exp as you can on another player.

->REMEMBER THAT THE TEAMS MUST BE SET TO ALL HEALERS FOR THE SIDE WITH THE PLAYER WHO IS BEING VANQUISHED.<--

-----------> SET THE TEAM FOR THE PLAYER WHO IS GRINDING TO -NO BOTS-. THEY MUST PLAY SOLO<--

I did not do this with split screen but I'm assuming it can be done with it. I did this with mine and a friends Ps4 on 2 TV's. Please note that this trick ...

^---REQUIRES ANOTHER PLAYER OR CONTROLLER---^

You must be familiar with the beginning of the levels indicated.

You must be able to "Shoot from the right" as indicated on the first page of this topic.

If you want the Maximum pay out of 7,500 coins alongside your grinding, you will have to play on Crazy Mode. Don't mess up.

Head to the Multiplayer Portal and select PRIVATE MATCH. Set the game type to TURF TAKEOVER. The level will determine who can do the exp grinding. I only know of two levels and locations so far.

Level: SEEDS OF TIME

For:  COZMIC BRAINZ AND ALL VARIATIONS OF FOOT SOLDIER WITH THE EXCEPTION OF TANK COMMANDER & ARCTIC SOLDIER.

Location: As Any Soldier/Cozmic Brainz, begin the match by taking the furthest left path and using your Super/Rocket Jump to reach the entrance to the catwalk above the bench. Follow this catwalk through the possible teleporter room and find yourself in the Sniper Nest overlooking the Capture Point.

Job for vanquished player: Set the other player as a Vampire Flower (or other flower variant that has low health). Place the player on the point along the side which is plainly visible to the one who will be grinding exp from the Sniper Nest. TAP THE FLOWER SKILL SO YOU ARE NOT FLAGGED AFK. TAP IT ON COOLDOWN OR LOSE MONEY. If possible swap to Dark Flower so it does not heal you. Enjoy the sweet headrush of seeing how fast you get knocked out. Pick up teeth. Get a photo done beforehand to remember how you looked before your pride was obliterated.

Job for exp grinding player: Hiding on the LEFT of your Sniper nest, you will be practicing the side shot on the point. You will see there is low visibility, as the player must be in the green circle for you to get 300 XP per Vanquish. Make your first kill with a precision ZPG shot, which will ensure an 800 XP boost. If Cozmic, it is okay to forgo added exp for just a ranged critical if the flowers give you trouble. YOUR SMOKE GRENADE, PLACED ON THE WALL AND STOOD IN, PROVIDES YOU IMMUNITY TO THE NPC AIMING MECHANIC. This will allot you TEN OR SO SECONDS to get your vanquishes.

As Cozmic Brainz, rely solely on your ranged attack and see just how much Cozmic shines when he finally gets his Overheat upgrade. Also take the chance to make a risky Super Ultra Ball. You'll be shot at almost instantly, but seeing just how accurate with it you can be on a target who is not moving will surprise you at just how precise this skill needs to be to score the long range 100+ damage.

NOT SHOOTING AT THE NPC'S will ensure you have a clip ready for when they pick up the player. If you are doing this with two controllers and just yourself, you will need to adjust where the player is standing so they are in the circle after a few vanquishes. The flower will move when you place the final shot.

Vanquishing the flower pot while it is down will net you 120 XP so long as it was placed in the Capture Zone.

As you learn to handle Crazy Mode AI (If chosen to do so), you will come to see that they have a sixth sense about where you are, and can target you without even turning around. Placing your aiming reticule on a Crazy Mode bot who is attempting to revive a player will sometimes make them change their course, giving another AI the job of reviving and lengthening the revival.

On the final minute of the game, all of the AI will swarm the point sometimes resulting in difficulties taking down the player on the point as all of the flowers will try to heal them. Fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Level: ZOMBURBIA

For: Any Cactus, Pea Shooter*, Sun Flower*

*Peashooter recoil makes it tough to plant shots while rapidly shooting. Some shots will hit the roof of car. Use Gatling Gun on cooldown.

*Sun Flower should be leveled in Multiplayer since learning to avoid fire while healing is more important than pure prestige plates

Location: At the start of the match you will be placing yourself smack dab in the center of the road. Shooting down the middle while standing on the trunk of the car behind your base-camp spawn line, right in front of the gate which explodes 30 seconds into the game and directly in between the two giant Z-Bot defenders. You can be easily fired upon by Zombie Scientist AI which will surprise you at a moments notice. Sometimes if Beaker Blaster or Nature Scientist gets right next to you despite the 3 secs before they are KO'd, they will be able to shoot you if it is the final shot which vanquishes you. Be careful.

Job for vanquished player: As a Scientist of any type, you will be launching yourself to the point at Warp Speed. Attempt to place yourself near the stairs closest to the gate that explodes near the beginning of the match. (On the point dummy!) And remember, you're pretty far away from the one who is shooting you and there's a big purple light in front of you so you're tough to see. Also, zombies will attempt to revive you more and more behind the point as you are vanquished. Keep this in mind as you eventually find yourself behind the pole on the point, placing you completely out of the line of sight of your vanquisher.

Put a smiley button on your Science coat and remember that it's all fun and games until someone forgets to use their skills! You'll be docked pay for AFK. Try to throw a Mega Heal Bomb every 20 or so seconds. Brain Matter you cannot recover can be replaced!

Job for exp grinding player: As the Cactus you are going to be picking a Z-Bot defender and unloading your clip into it. Once your clip is empty switch to your drone and bring yourself as high as you can go and begin to fire at the Bots. The bots will both have around 400 health so don't be afraid to use your Corn Strike as soon as you can to make it quick. Defeating the bots will take about fourty-five seconds to a minute. Take this chance to see just how long it takes your Cactus of choice to deal that 400 damage with no criticals. Pea Shooters and Sunflowers both have a Root-Skill which provides them with insane stationary DPS.

Once the bots are taken care of you must follow the road to the gate that explodes 25 or so seconds into the match.Staying behind the gate you're going to hop onto the trunk of the vehicle docked on the street with the barbed wire & sandbags. On the trunk of this car, you are -technically- hidden from the Scientist Bot AI. The roof of the vehicle is technically what they see if their shot would hit it when they fire at you. If the shot would hit you, they can see you and will take the shot. You are able to fire from behind this roof and if you come under fire, it's nothing more than a few steps back. Try to regenerate to at least 64 health before attempting to make your vanquish.

Hopping on the trunk as Cactus and scoring your Vanquish then hopping down is the best way to go about without being hit. The Scientists that notice you will persue you until they are Vanquished by you or because they stepped behind your respawn line. Placing potato mines to pick up these spare pins is okay, but only worth 50 XP per one. Remember, only Vanquishes on the Capture Point count for an Extra 100 XP. In the final minute, everyone will swarm the point. Using your Corn Strike during this time -After- Knocking out the player can result in almost 10 whole vanquishes.

Pea Shooter will need to rely on steady firing speeds to ensure he can shoot from behind cover without hitting the roof of the vehicle or getting mobbed over by Scientist gunfire. His Pea Gatling gun, if fired in bursts, can score you about 5-7 Vanquishes before running out of ammo. (Tap the fire button and let go, don't hold it down)

I haven't tested Sunflower but assume she works like Pea Shooter. Try to use her in Multiplayer instead!! Focus on spotting enemies and avoiding gunfire!

Please keep in mind that I can usually grind out anywhere from 28-37 kills per game. It takes 2-3 games to get to level 10 in this fashion for me. It comes down to how accurate you are and how fast the AI will revive the player.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope this helps you out. I'll give it a look over and spruce it up some more but for the most part I think it's done.

If anyone else has locations for quick exp grinding for the other classes which involves a spot you can SAFELY SCORE VANQUISHES AGAINST THE POINT AT (FIrst point only), submit it!

[Ziago_J]

Great stuff as always, Ziago.  I do some of this stuff differently - more than one way to skin a cat and all that.  I tend to use team vanguish rather than gnome bomb, for example.  I'm not sure if you mentioned that an empty TT game is the best way to knock out base capture quests and teleporter related related quests (except having a number of players use the teleporter).  I love when suburbination quests come up, because it's already so easy to earn 1000 coins per game while you're busy doing something else - if I need coins fast, I grind for them while I'm doing the housework or such, hitting the bumper for chile bomb or ZPG every minute or so.  Add in the 5000 for the quest and that's some easy money right there.