Plants Vs Zombies: Heroes Balance Update for December 2024

MEGA CARD BALANCE UPDATE

Hello Heroes! It has been a long time since we did a card balance update, so now we are doing a MEGA-sized edition! We believe the game is most fun when a large variety of creative strategies have great chances to win. We love having lots of powerful cards that do different things well. Towards this goal, using card win rate data and player feedback, we have made many cards stronger and some cards weaker.

We especially wanted to provide a wider variety of appealing cards to remove opposing Plants and Zombies. This creates more varied deck-building and gameplay than if there is an obvious best removal option in a given class. Finally, we have made many of our mid-size and high-cost plants and Zombies stronger, while slightly weakening some of the very best low-cost cards.

Any cards that got weaker have their Recycle values temporarily increased to match their Crafting costs, so you can recycle a changed card for something else of the same rarity if you wish. We hope you enjoy exploring the new strategies unlocked by the card updates!

BEASTLY

• Alien Ooze is now a 3-cost Trick “A Plant gets -3/-3. If it's on Heights or an Environment, it gets -6/-6 instead.” (First effect used to be -2/-2.)
• B-Flat now costs 3. (Was 4-cost)
• Cat Lady is now a 1-cost 0/5 (Was 0/4)
• Deep Sea Gargantuar is now a 6-cost 6/6 “Amphibious, Hunt. When any Zombie enters any lane, that Zombie gets +1/+1.” (This includes growing itself and other Zombies when they enter the board and when they change lanes with Hunt. Was 7/8 with only “Amphibious”)
• Kangaroo Rider is now a 4-cost 4/4. (Was 4/3)
• King of the Grill is now a 6-cost 6/6 “Frenzy. When a Gargantuar destroys a Plant, Conjure a Gargantuar.” (It used to Conjure Gourmet cards.)
• Nibble is now a 1-cost Trick “A Plant gets -1/-1. If this destroys that Plant, Conjure a Gourmet card.”
• Nurse Gargantuar is now a 7-cost 6/6 “When this does damage, heal your Hero for that much.” (It used to only heal when it itself did damage.) 
• Octo Zombie is now an 8-cost 8/8 “Amphibious, Frenzy. When played: Make a 3/2 Octo-Pet with Amphibious and Frenzy. When destroyed: Bounce this Octo-Zombie.” (Used to not make an Octo-Pet.)
• Overstuffed Zombie is now a 4-cost 4/4 “Hunt. When this destroys a Plant and survives, it heals to full and heals your Hero for 2.” (Previously didn’t have Hunt and was “This heals to full and gets +2 Health when it destroys a Plant.”)
• Primordial Cheese Shover is now a 4-cost 4/4. (Was 4/3)
•  Synchronized Swimmer is now a 2-cost 2/1. (Was 2/2)
• Vengeful Cyborg is now a 5-cost 5/6 Hunt. (Was 5/5 Hunt). This also strengthens Cyborg Zombie, which creates a Vengeful Cyborg card.
• Yeti Lunchbox is now a 1-cost Gourmet Pet Trick “A Zombie gets +1/+1. If it’s a Pet, it gets +2/+1 instead.” (It used to just give +1/+1. This also strengthens Zombie Yeti, which makes Yeti Lunchboxes.)
• Zombot 1000 is now a 9-cost 9/9 “Gravestone. When revealed: Destroy all Plants here and next door.” (Used to be not Gravestone and “When played: Destroy all Plants.”)
• Zookeeper is now a 2-cost 1/3. (was 2/2)

BRAINY

•  Duckstache is now a 3-cost 3/2 “When this does damage: Conjure a Mustache. Mustache Evolution: This gets +3/+3.” (Evolution bonus was previously +2/+2.)
•  Electrician is now a 3-cost 2/3. (Was 2/2)
•  Gadget Scientist is now a 5-cost 3/3. (Was 2/3)
•  Gargantuar Mime is now a 5-cost 5/7. “When a non-Mime Plant or Zombie does a Bonus Attack, this does a Bonus Attack.”
•  Gentleman Zombie is now a 3-cost 1/4. (Was 2/2)
•  Mad Chemist is now a 4-cost 3/5 “Gravestone. When you play your first Trick each turn, Conjure a Trick and it costs 1 less.” (It previously did not reduce costs.)
•  Mustache Waxer is now a 1-cost 2/1 “When you play a Mustache, this gets +2 Health and you get a Brain.” (Used to be 2/2 and when you played it Mustache it got +1 Health and a Brain.)
•  Pirate’s Booty is now a new card called “Quarterly Bonus”, a 4-cost Professional Barrel Trick “A Zombie’s Strength becomes 4, then it does a Bonus Attack.” (Pirate’s Booty was a 5-cost Pirate Barrel Trick “Draw a card for each Zombie.”)
•  Portal Technician is now a 5-cost 5/4. (Was 4/4)
•  Regifting Zombie is now a 3-cost 3/2 “When played: Conjure a Zombie, and it gets +1/+1. The Plant player Conjures a Plant, and that Plant gets -1/-1.” (Was “When played: Each player draws two cards.”)
•  Shieldcrusher Viking is now a 5-cost 7/5 “Bullseye. When played and when this hits the Plant Hero, empty their Block Meter.” (Used to not do an effect when played.)
•  Trick-or-Treater is now 3-cost 2/4. (Was 2/3)
•  Wizard Gargantuar is now a 6-cost 5/6 “All Gargantuars have Bullseye. When played: Another Zombie transforms into a random Zombie that costs 1 more.” (Was 6-cost 6/7 “All Gargantuars have Bullseye.”)
•  Wormhole Gatekeeper is now a 3-cost 2/5 Science Zombie “Cards either player Conjures cost 1 less. Start of turn: Each player Conjures a card.” (Was a 3-cost 2/5 History Science Zombie “Bullseye. Each player draws an extra card each turn.”)
•  Zom-Blob is now a 3-cost 2/5. (Was 1/5)
•  Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur is now a 7-cost 8/8. (Was 6/7)

CRAZY

•  Abracadaver is now a 3-cost 3/3. (was 3/2)
•  Cakesplosion is now a 3-cost Trick “Do 4 damage to a Plant.” (Was 4-cost)
•  Conga Zombie is now a Dancing Barrel Zombie. (Was Dancing Gourmet)
•  Cuckoo Zombie is now a “Pet Zombie.” (Was “Clock Pet Zombie”)
•  Disco Dance Floor is now a 2-cost 0/3 “Overshoot 2. Fusion: A Zombie played on this gets Overshoot 2.” (Both Overshoot numbers used to be 3.)
•  Disco-Tron 3000 is now a 6-cost 5/5. (Was 4/4)
•  Exploding Fruitcake is now a 2-cost Trick “Do 5 damage to a Plant. The Plant player Conjures a Fruit.” (Was 7 damage)
•  Final Mission is now a 2-cost Trick “Destroy a Zombie. Then do 4 damage to a Plant.” (It used to hit Plant Heroes as well.)
•  Flamenco Zombie is now a 5-cost 3/1. (Was 3/2)
•  Frankentuar is now 5-cost 5/7 “Splash Damage 2. This gets +1/+1 when a Zombie is destroyed.” (It gained Splash Damage 2.)
•  Gargantuar-Throwing Imp is now a 4-cost 1/2. (Was 5-cost 2/2)
•  Gizzard Lizard is now a 3-cost 3/3 “Zombie Evolution: Do 3 damage to each Plant.” (Was 2 damage to each Plant)
•  Grave Robber is now a 1-cost 2/1. (Was 2/2)
•  Headhunter is now called “Bobblehead” and is a 4-cost 2/4. (Was 3/4. Avoiding “hunt” in the name because it doesn’t have the Hunt ability.)
•  Hippity Hop Gargantuar is now a 5-cost 6/5 “When played and when hurt: Make a Mystery Egg in a random lane.” (Used to only happen when hurt, not when played)
•  Moon Base Z is now a “Science Barrel Environment.” (was just Science Environment)
•  Quickdraw Con Man is now a “Monster Zombie.” (It used to be a Pirate Monster. It no longer benefits from Swashbuckler, Captain Flameface, or other Pirate bonuses.)
•  Zombot’s Wrath is now a 2-cost Trick “Do damage equal to the number of Zombies.”

HEARTY

•  All-Star Zombie is now 5-cost 4/6 “Armored 1, Frenzy, Untrickable.” (Gained Untrickable)
•  Bonus Track Buckethead is now 4-cost 4/4. (Was 3/4)
•  Celestial Custodian is now a 4-cost 3/4 “Gravestone. When revealed in an Environment: Destroy a Plant with 3 Strength or less.” (Was a 3-cost 3/2 that destroyed 2 Strength or less)
•  Coffee Zombie is now 6-cost 5/4. (Was 4/3)
•  Cone Zone is now a Professional Environment. (Was just “Environment”)
•  Landscaper is now a 3-cost 2/3. (Was 2/2)
•  Leftovers is now 1-cost. (Was 2-cost. This also strengthens Turkey Rider, which gives you Leftovers.)
•  Lost Colosseum is now a 2-cost 2/3. (Was 3-cost)
•  Ra Zombie is now a 5-cost 3/4 “History Pet Zombie” (Was 6-cost 3/4 “History Zombie”)
•  Terrify is now a 2-cost Trick “Move a Plant. Conjure a Monster.” (Was 2-cost “Move a Plant. Draw a card.”)
•  Turquoise Skull Zombie is now a 4-cost 2/6 “Gravestone. Start of turn: The Plant player loses 1 sun. This gets +1/+1.” (Used to gain +1 Strength instead of +1/+1.)
•  Undying Pharaoh is now a 6-cost 5/5 “Armored 1. Your Hero’s Health can’t go below 1.” (Was 4/6 not Armored.)
•  Wannabe Hero is now a 7-cost 6/1 “Frenzy. When played: Heal 3. Then this gets +1 Health for each Health your Hero has.” (Used to not Heal 3.)
•  Zombie King is now a 4-cost 3/6. (Was 3/5)
•  Zombot Battlecruiser is now a 6-cost 6/6. (Was 5/6)

SNEAKY

•  Blowgun Imp is now a 5-cost 3/4. (was 3/3)
•  Captain Flameface is now 3-cost 2/4 “All Pirates have Strikethrough.” (No longer has Gravestone)
•  Cursed Gargolith is now a 6-cost 7/6 that says “Gravestone. When revealed: Steal 2 sections from the Plant Hero's Super-Block Meter. End of turn: All Gargantuars hide in Gravestones.” (It gained the stealing Super-Block sections ability.)
•  Ducky Tube Zombie is now a 1-cost 1/2. (Was 1/1)
•  Firefighter is now a 4-cost 5/5. (Was 4/5)
•  Imp Commander is now a 3-cost 2/4 “Gravestone. When an Imp hurts the Plant Hero, draw a card.” (Was not Gravestone before)
•  Mini-Ninja is now a 1-cost 2/1 “Anti-Hero 2”. (Was 1/1 “Anti-Hero 3”)
•  Monkey Smuggler is now a 2-cost 2/3 “Gravestone. When revealed: Steal a section from the Plant Hero's Super-Block Meter.” (Used to steal 2 sections)
•  Pogo Bouncer is now a 4-cost 2/1. (Was 2/2)
•  Tomb Raiser Zombie is now a 4-cost 5/3. (Was 3/4)
•  Unthawed Viking is now a 4-cost 4/3 “Amphibious. When played: Freeze all Plants here. Pirate Evolution: Instead, this gets +1/+1 and Freeze all Plants in all lanes.” (Was 4-cost 4/4 Amphibious. When played: Freeze all Plants in the Water. Pirate Evolution: Instead, Freeze all Plants.)
•  Zombie High Diver is now a 3-cost 3/2. (Was 2/3)
•  Zombot Stomp now costs 6. (Was 7-cost)

GUARDIAN

•  Galacta-Cactus is now a 1-cost 2/1. (Was 2/2)
•  Gardening Gloves is now a 2-cost Trick “Move a Plant. Conjure a Trick.” (Was “Move a Plant. Draw a card.”)
•  Gravitree is now a 6-cost 7/7 “Armored 1, Untrickable. When a Zombie is played, move it here.” (Gained Untrickable)
•  Marine Bean is now a 3-cost 3/3. (Was 2/3)
•  Mirror-Nut is now a 4-cost 0/11 “Bullseye, Team-Up. When your Nuts get hurt, do 1 damage to the Zombie Hero.” (Was 0/8 “Team-Up. When your Nuts get hurt, do 2 damage to the Zombie Hero.”)
•  Photosynthesizer now costs 2. (Was 1-cost)
•  Primal Wall-Nut is now a 3-cost 0/8. (Was 0/9)
•  Prickly Pear is now a 5-cost 0/10 “Team-Up. When hurt: Do 2 damage to the Zombie Hero.” (Was a 4-cost 0/4 “Team-Up. When hurt: Do 4 damage to the Zombie here.)
•  Smackadamia is now a 5-cost 4/5. (Was 4/4)
•  Spikeweed Sector now costs 3. (Was 2-cost)
•  Tough Beets is now a 5-cost 2/2 “Armored 1. When played: This gets +1/+1 for each other Plant and Zombie.”  (Was 5-cost 6/1 “Armored 1. When played: This gets +1 Health for each other Plant and Zombie.”)
•  Tricarrotops is now a 2-cost 1/2. (Was 1/3)

KABLOOM

•  Atomic Bombegranate is now a 6-cost 6/1 “When destroyed: Make Seedlings here and next door.” (All Seedlings are also now 2 Health instead of 1 Health. Was 5/2 “When destroyed: Make Seedlings next door.”)
•  Blooming Heart is now 1-cost 2/1. (Was 2/2)
•  Hot Lava now costs 0. (Was 1-cost)
•  Invasive Species is now a 2-cost 1/4. (Was 3-cost 2/4)
•  Lava Guava now costs 4. (Was 5-cost)
•  Poison Oak is now a 6-cost 5/6 “Anti-Hero 5”. (was 4/5 “Anti-Hero 5”)
•  Puff-Shroom is now a 1-cost 1/1 Team-Up. (Was 0-cost)
•  Seedling is now a 2-cost 0/2 (Was 1 Health.) 
•  Sizzle is now a 3-cost Trick “Do 4 damage to a Zombie.” (Was 5-cost “Do 5 damage to a Zombie.”)
•  Transfiguration is now a new card: a 2-cost 1/1 “At end of turn, this transforms into a random Plant that costs 1 more. It keeps this ability.” (Was 4-cost 4/7 “Whenever a Plant is hurt and survives, transform it into a random Plant.”)
•  Veloci-Radish Hunter is now called Veloci-Radish Packmate (Avoiding “hunt” in the name because it doesn’t have the Hunt ability.)
•  Wild Berry is now a 2-cost 2/1 “Anti-Hero 2. When played: This moves to a random lane.” (Was 4/1 “When played: This moves to a random lane.”)
•  Zapricot is now a 3-cost 4/1. (Was 4/2)

MEGA-GROW

•  Bamboozle is now a 6-cost 6/6. (was 5/6)
•  Banana Peel is now a 2-cost Fruit Trick “Move a Zombie. Conjure a Fruit.” (was 1-cost “Move a Zombie. Conjure a Banana.” All Bananas are now Fruits instead.)
•  Black-Eyed Peas is now a 2-cost 2/2. (was 2/3)
•  Cosmic Pea is now a 4-cost 2/2. (Was 3-cost 1/1)
•  Half-Banana is now a 2-cost 2/2 Fruit Plant “When destroyed: All Fruits in your hand get +1/+1.” (All Banana cards are now Fruits. Was 1-cost 2/2 “When destroyed: All Bananas in your hand get +1/+1.” This change also improves Banana Split, which splits into Half-Bananas.)
•  Potted Powerhouse is now a 5-cost 4/4. (was 3/3)
•  Super-Phat Beets is now a 6-cost 4/4 (Was 3/3)
•  The Podfather is now a 3-cost 2/3. (was 2/2)
•  Typical Beanstalk is now a 3-cost 3/3 “When played next to a Leafy Plant: This gets +1 Strength and Conjure a Leafy card.” (Used to not gain Strength)
•  Whipvine is now a 5-cost 6/5. (was 5/5)

SMARTY

•  Bean Counter is now a 4-cost 1/1 (Was 2/2.) 
•  Carrotillery is now a 4-cost 5/3. (was 5/2)
•  Laser Cattail is now a 2-cost 2/2. (was 2/1)
•  Leaf Blower is now a 4-cost 3/4 “Amphibious. When played in an Environment: Bounce a Zombie or Gravestone.” (Used to not be able to bounce Gravestones.)
•  Lightning Reed is now a 2-cost 2/2. (was 1/2)
•  Mayflower is now a 3-cost 2/4. (was 2/3)
•  Melon-Pult is now a 5-cost 3/5. (was 3/4)
•  Navy Bean is now a 4-cost 3/3. (was 2/2)
•  Snapdragon is now a 4-cost 3/3 “Amphibious, Splash Damage 3”. (Previously was not amphibious)
•  Sow Magic Beans is now a 2-cost Trick “Shuffle five Magic Beanstalks into your deck.” (was shuffle four)
•  Winter Melon is now a 6-cost 4/5 “Splash Damage 4. When played: Freeze a Zombie. When this hurts a Zombie, freeze that Zombie.”

SOLAR

•  Apple-Saucer is now a 2-cost 3/1. (was 3/2)
•  Cob Cannon is now a 6-cost 4/6. (was 6/6)
•  Elderberry is now a 4-cost 2/3. (was 2/4)
•  Haunted Pumpking is now a 1-cost 4/1. (was 4/2)
•  Laser Bean is now a 6-cost 0/5 “Strikethrough. When played: This gets +1 Attack for each Sun you made this turn.” (Was 6c 5/7 Strikethrough)
•  Magnifying Grass is now a 3-cost 0/2. (was 0/1)
•  Sun Strike is now a new card: “Cross-Pollination”, a 3-cost Flower Fruit Trick “Conjure a Flower. Conjure a Fruit. They both cost 1 less.” (Was 4-cost Trick “All Plants get Strikethrough this turn. Conjure a Trick.”)
•  Venus Flytrap is now a 3-cost 3/1. (was 2/2)
•  Water Balloons is now a 2-cost Trick “A non-Amphibious Zombie gets -2/-2. If you made at least 6 Sun this turn, it gets -3/-3 instead. (Was “A Zombie gets -1/-1. If you made at least 6 Sun this turn, it gets -2/-2 instead.”)

PLANT SUPERPOWERS

•  Ensign Uproot (Beta-Carrotina) is now a 1-cost 2/1 “Amphibious. When played: Move another Plant or Zombie.” (Was 2/2 and not Amphibious)
•  Genetic Amplification (Beta-Carrotina) is now “Conjure a 2-Sun Plant. It gets +2/+1, Amphibious, and Team-Up.” (Used to give +1/+1 instead of +2/+1.)
•  More Spore (Night Cap, Solar Flare) now says “Make a 1/1 Button Mushroom in a lane of your choice. Then another appears in a random lane.” (Was “Make two 1/1 Button Mushrooms in random lanes.”)
•  Night Cap added a space in the middle to match other PvZ games. (Was “Nightcap”)
•  Power Pummel (Grass Knuckles) now says “Attack each Zombie on the Ground for 2 damage.” (Was “Attack for 2 damage in each Ground lane.” It used to be able to hurt the Zombie Hero.)

ZOMBIE SUPERPOWERS

•  Carried Away (Super Brainz) now says “Move a Zombie. It gets +1/+1. Then it does a Bonus Attack.”
•  Dance Off (Electric Boogaloo, Professor Brainstorm) now says “Make a 1/1 Backup Dancer in a lane of your choice. Then another appears in a random lane.” (Was “Make two 1/1 Backup Dancers in random lanes.”)
•  Frozen Tundra (Brain Freeze) is now a Pet Monster Superpower that says “Freeze all Plants.” (Was a Pet Superpower that said “Freeze all Plants on the Ground.”)
•  Octo-Pult (Neptuna) now says “Make a 3/2 Octo-Pet with Amphibious and Frenzy.” (Was a 3/2 just Amphibious.)
•  Terror-Former 10,000 (Huge-Gigantacus) now says “Conjure an Environment and a Trick. All Environments and Tricks in your hand cost 1 less.” (Was “Conjure an Environment. All cards in your hand cost 1 less.”)
•  Witch’s Familiar (Immorticia) now makes Zom-Bats that are 2/2 “Amphibious. When this hurts a Plant, draw a card.” (Was 2/1)

Thanks for playing and we’ll see you on the Lawn!

- Team PVZ Heroes