Plants Vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished | Penny's Challenge - Cascade Kingdom

Описание: Playthrough of Penny's Challenge - Wiltening
Level starts at 0:29
Note: I avoid using Plant Food and try to use unique strategies.

What can I say about this insanity, other than that it's awesome. Another classic Penny's Challenge. The concept is that its a Jurassic Marsh level with three columns of speed boost tiles on the right, and pre-placed Infi-nuts ahead of them. The already turbo charged zombies will next proceed to have a herd of T.rexes yell up their ying yang, sending them charging right at you like crazed drug addicts. They will grind through those Infi-nuts in short order before streaking over to your house. Those aren't just basics running around either; there are a lot of tough customers including Rock Carriers, Rockpunchers, Tumble-weasels, Jurassic Gargs, Prankster and Boombox whom will eagerly run to their respect columns to do their thing, the dreaded Sunday Edition Zombie, and finally that super bee arch Exca-sol with her whack hitbox and her already fast shove/melee attack that will now be lightning-quick.

Some would say: "hey just chill bro, literally, just use chill or even stall if you feel bad about it". There is no chill, literally, on this level. Or stall, or stun, or anything that can stop or slow the nitro fast zombies down other than the plants standing in their way. No Dazey Chain, no Iceweed, not even Stunion. And yes, no Winter Melon.

Fortunately, we have Tiger Grass, whom I've always said is an S-Rank plant. This kitty cat is the stall we need and deserve. The tigers can really stop zombies in their tracks while other plants hammer them, and if there's two working together, they can easily bring down many zombies just by themselves. With Tiger Grass, you can get away with just the Infi-nuts, or even Primal Sunflower doing wall duty. Helping him here is Homing Thistle, Lava Guava, and Nispaereo who will be the much needed power we need to back the cats up. The latter two instants are also great counters to several zombies here like Prankster and Exca-sol.

Knowing this, I still spent a lot of gems on this, mostly because I wanted Great Zucchini to get a W for a change on a Penny's Challenge. He just doesn't work for the reasons you'd think: there's too many zombies at the end and he has no real solutions for gargs other than slow them down a bit. You can see me regretfully give up on him in the run up to the level start. :[

I had, uh, actually already did give up on him earlier than that, lol. Subbed him out for Dartichoke and Snap Pea, two other plants I've never beaten a Penny's Challenge with. Snap Pea actually did the best out of anyone, made it all the way to the final wave but with my forces too shattered to continue. At that time, I didn't have Perfume-shroom, which leads me to this: he really really helps here. That herd of T.rexes will start gobbling up the zombies for you, even Jurassic Garg and Imposter. There are so many you can sometimes nail multiple at once. Feels so good to hear that "PONG!!! PONG!!!" sound effect when it happens. That and full health Jurassic Gargs disappearing down the throat of a T.rex.

Back to Snap Pea, oh snap man did he cook on this level. He will one-shot all those high health tanks/mega threats. Talk about feel good, watching Sunday Edition, Rock Carriers, Pranksters et. all disappear down HIS throat is great. Head spit attack is also underrated, you can see him down quite a few zombies with it, which helps save you some T.rexes gobbles. But the kicker was his pea barrage attack which I thought was useless. Turns out: THIS also stalls good. It also does a lot of damage and combos ridiculously well with Homing Thistle and Lava Guava. Check out the Jurassic Garg at 6:42, upper right corner. He strolls in at full health, and ends up dead 30 seconds later, no T.rex necessary. A lot of Jurassic Gargs went down to this Lava/Snap combo, backed up with Thistles and Tigers.

Some more pointers on the strat, or at least what worked for me anyway:
-Get two columns of Thistles and Tigers going asap using Gold Bloom
-Get Primal SFs in front of Infi-nuts with the plan of swapping out the Infi-nuts for more Snap Peas. T.rexes will eat zombies that approach those SFs.
-Snap Pea has an awful recharge, so you'll want to hurry and get him out as soon as possible
-I'd avoid charming T.rexes until after first flag, so you can buy more time. After that get as many as you can.
-Exca-sol is the biggest threat, she blocks Thistles and easily swats away Tigers. As soon as you hear that feminine moaning kill her with Nispaereo/Lava. T.rexes really help against her.
-Snap Pea combos work great on gargs as mentioned, weasels too
-Endgame, I guess just spam whatever like I did lol. At times I'd just toss a Snap Pea in front of guys like Sunday Edition.
-That T.Rex at 9:45 sitting off the lawn at the bottom right, the heck? I was looking for someone to charm and he's just chilling there off the lawn guarding my shovel.