There is this "popcap" video game called Plants vs Zombies. Until recently I'd never heard of a popcap game, or a game called Plants vs Zombies. Yes, I'm old. Popcap Games is the company that developed Plants vs Zombies, along with their biggest selling game, Bejeweled. Sorry, I'd never heard of that game, either.
I might never have heard of or thought about any of the above until I started seeing these little flowers following players around. How cute! How do I get one? Well, apparently Blizzard designers are big fans of popcap games, and Plants vs Zombies in particular. There is a quest chain available that anyone who has reached level 20 can do, and the final reward is the Singing Sunflower companion pet.
I set out to get that flower. The guinea pig for the effort was Shevils. The beginning quest is called "Basic Botany" and is offered by Brazie the Botanist in the Hillsbrad Foothills. When looking at the map for the quest, Shevils noted that the npc was close to a place called Sludgeguard Towers. When Shevils arrived at that spot, there was no npc at the Tower. However, a short distance away is a farm, and that is where Brazie can be found.
What is interesting about the five quests in this chain is that all the action takes place in a phased area. You don't have to worry about other players being around. Once a quest is accepted, you are on your own. These quests are not like regular WoW quests, either. Blizzard constructed a mini-game of Plants vs "Undead" (instead of zombies) that plays very like the popcap game.
The point of the game is very simple. The game is played on a checkerboard lawn. I would come to think of it as a lawn with five bowling lanes. The player has to earn energy to create little plant creatures, which are placed on the board. Those plant creatures have to defend against waves of undead, who advance on your plants in the lanes that they spawn in. Kill enough undead without losing all your plants and you win. Simple rules, simple game ... but it can be very addictive fun.
The five quests are designed to help players learn the game. The early quests introduce the types of plants the player can use and what their abilities are. When Shevils first tried the game I kept trying to move her around to go pick up the little balls of yellow energy that dropped onto the lawn. Wrong. There is no player movement in the game. The yellow balls of energy should be right-clicked on, and they then fly into a jar to help fill it up with energy that is expended when you create something. There is also an action bar where plant types to use can be selected and placed on the board. As Shevils progressed through the quests she learned more and the waves of undead became more deadly and more numerous.
The game is seductively easy at first. But it gets pretty challenging in the later phases. There are several strategies on wowhead on how to beat the game, and Shevils tried a number of them. And she did get her Singing Flower. Shevils is going to tell you how she did it below, so if you want to sort it out on your own (which I think is half the fun), skip the below and go play Plants vs Undead yourself!
Warning! Spoilers below!
Shevils Victory Dance on the Corpses of the Undead!
This is the strategy that worked for Shevils. It will work with all five of the quests, although in the easier early quests you can experiment some and still beat it. If you lose (or complete a quest) you'll appear back at Grazie to start again or get the next quest.
1) Once the game starts yellow orbs fall to the lawn. Right click them to start filling your jar with energy. As soon as you have enough energy to make a sunflower, do so and put it on the board, starting at the bottom left corner square. Make three flowers in that first, left-most row before making anything else. Undead will spawn on the right side of the board. They will stay in their own lane (unless they reach the left-most row) and at first they will move very slowly. The Sunflowers placed on the board also earn energy, so the more of them you have the more energy you earn. The yellow balls will keep falling, too.
2) Undead can spawn in any lane and there can be more than one in a lane. When undead start to get close to the halfway point on the board you are going to need to kill them. If all you have is a spitter (a plant that can attack undead) then place one on the third square from the left in the lane that the undead is in. If the undead reach a plant they will try to kill it, but the spitters will be able to kill most of the early undead easily. Keep making sunflowers. Fill the back row and start on the second row. Make just enough spitters to kill incoming undead.
2a) HOWEVER, if you have been making sunflowers and collecting yellow orbs and are far enough into the chain, you will be able to make Vines. This is the MAIN TACTIC to follow. For those later quests, when things get really hairy, you should ignore most of the plant types. Don't make spitters. Make Vines instead. They last much longer and kill faster. They also cost more energy and have a fairly long cooldown.
3) At some point the game will announce "A wave of undead approaches!" At this point you should be close to having two full rows of sunflowers and one full row of Vines. Keep making vines to get two full rows of vines as there will be a second wave of undead, and later there will be bigger and badder undead coming with everything else.
4) At some point you will be able to make Bombs. If you have your four rows in place use the bombs to blast the bigger undead or clumps of smaller ones. Bombs do a LOT of AoE damage and can be placed anywhere on the board. Bombs have a long cooldown, though, so use them wisely.
5) If an undead reaches the left most row, you lose that lane and the undead will move toward the house behind it, where Brazie is - and kill him. You lose. So don't let an undead get that far.
6) Summary - Work toward making two rows of sunflowers. Use Vines in the 3rd and 4th rows to protect the sunflowers. Use bombs to deal extra damage where needed. And have fun!
Forgot to add a pic!
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