Plants Vs. Zombies GOTY Game Guide: Adventure Mode Level One

Popcap's Plant vs. Zombies Game of the Year is an affordable and popular computer game. This game guide covers the playing fields, weapons and zombies on the first level in adventure mode of Plants vs. Zombies.

Beginning Plants vs. Zombies
The game begins with easy levels and slowly introduces players to the controls, weapons and enemies. The primary goal is to protect the house from zombies. A basic strategy is to immediately plant a sun-producing plant, such as the sunflower, in order to afford more expensive defensive and offensive plants.

There is no score, but players need to collect coins to purchase upgrades. Coins carry over throughout the game, but sun points do not.

Level 1-1
The first stage begins with only one row of grass. Practice planting pea shooters and collecting sunlight from the sky while shooting zombies.

Zombies: This stage has a few regular zombies.

New Item: Receive the sunflower which costs 50 points and provides additional sunlight.

Level 1-2
This level has three rows of grass. Plant at least three sunflowers and protect the house. The more sunflowers you have, the faster you can grow plants.

Zombies: Regular zombies attack with only one flag of zombies.

New Item: Pass the stage to receive a cherry bomb seed packet. Cherry bombs cost 150 sunlight points and blow up all zombies in an area.

Level 1-3
This level continues with three rows of grass, but a new zombie, conehead, increases the difficulty. It takes nearly two dozen peas to destroy the cone. Then they are the same as regular zombies. There is one flag of zombies.

Zombies: This stage has regular and conehead zombies.

New Item: Receive the wall-nut packet at the end of this stage. Wall-nuts cost 50 points each and protect plants by blocking zombies.

Level 1-4
The playing field expands to include five rows of grass.

Zombies: This stage has conehead and regular zombies. There is one flag of zombies.

New Item: The shovel removes unwanted plants, leaving the square free for planting. The shovel is free and remains at the top of the screen for repeated use.

Level 1-5
Meet Crazy Dave! This stage begins with Crazy Dave explaining how to use the shovel. After a few practice tries, wall-nut bowling begins.

Wall-nuts and explode-o-nuts scroll across the top of the screen. As zombies advance toward the house, use wall-nuts and explode-o-nuts as bowling balls to plow them down. The explode-o-nuts explode on impact. Wall-nuts ricochet to hit zombies in different rows.

Pace the usage of bowling balls because this stage has two flags of zombies. It is better to launch a weapon after zombies appear in multiple rows. The ricochet or exploding action will take out multiple zombies. Conehead zombies require two hits or one explosion.

Zombies: This stage has conehead and regular zombies.

New Item: Receive the potato mine at the end of this stage. It explodes on contact but takes time to arm itself.

Level 1-6
This stage continues with five rows of grass, the entire playing field, and introduces the pole-vaulting zombie. The pole-vaulting zombie moves quickly and leaps over the first plant in its path. This medium powerful zombie, slows to a normal pace after it jumps.

Zombies: This level has pole-vaulting, conehead and regular zombies.

New Item: The snow pea plant costs 175 points. It freezes and slows the enemy.

Level 1-7
The tougher zombies on this level mean players will need multiple weapons per row in addition to a wall-nut.

Zombies: Two flags of zombies attack, including pole-vaulting, regular and conehead zombies.

New Item: Chomper is a hungry plant that can devour a zombie whole. However, it chews slowly and is vulnerable to attack while eating. Chomper costs 150 points.

Level 1-8
This is the first stage that allows players to chose plants. Choose carefully because there are seven plant options and only six plant slots. Plants vs. Zombies lends itself to different strategies. In addition to a sunflower, choose a mix of defensive plants, such as wall-nuts, and offensive plants, such as snow pea.

Zombies: Buckethead, conehead and regular zombies attack in two flags.

New Item: Repeater fires two peas at a time and costs 200 sun points. It looks similar to the pea shooter but has two leaves on its head.

Level 1-9
With the addition of the repeater, there are now eight plant options and six seed slots. More powerful zombies require a more aggressive strategy. Wall-nuts are very helpful on this stage, but pole-vaulting zombies can leap over them.

Zombies: Enemies include two flags of buckethead, conehead, pole-vaulting and regular zombies

New Item: At the end of this level, the zombies deliver a threatening note promising an all-out attack .

Level 1-10
Instead of collecting sunlight and planting weapons, plant options scroll across the top of the stage on this level. True to their threat, this stage has many zombies, but the selection of plants is plentiful, making it easy to conquer the horde.

Zombies: Two flags of buckethead, conehead, pole-vaulting and regular zombies attack.

New Item: Puff-shroom shoots short-ranged spores at enemies. This nocturnal plant is free, but very small and particularly vulnerable.