Character Balancing Changes for Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2

Your feedback has been an essential for the development of Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2, and we appreciate your continued input on character tuning. Thank you - we are committed to listening to our players. As a result of your feedback and the latest data we've reviewed for character balance the following changes have been made.

Tuning/Balance Notes

Map/Mode Tuning

Seeds of Time

• Objective 2
  • Adjusted capture time
  • Remove a defensive pot
• Objective 3
  • Adjusted capture time

Zombopolis

• Objective 1
  • Adjusted capture time
• Objective 3
  • Adjusted capture time
• Mini-Game
  • Slightly decreased battery health
  • Slightly increased time Zombot’s shields are down when batteries are destroyed.

Moonbase Z

• Objective 2
  • Adjusted capture time
• Objective 3
• Adjusted capture time

Zomburbia

• Objective 2
  • Adjusted capture time
• Objective 3
  • Adjusted capture time

Character Tuning

Buffs:

Peashooter

Electro Peashooter

• Increased damage on detonation from 25 to 30
• Increased regular splash damage from 15 to 18
• Increased regular splash radius from 2 to 2.5

Dev Team Notes: Electro Peashooter still struggles to keep up with the rest of the peas for a number of reasons. These changes make him easier to use while still rewarding players for excelling with him. He is a high skill character due to his detonation mechanic. Increasing damage on detonation provides more payoff for timing it well. While his slow projectile speed is handy for timing detonations, it makes him less accurate. Increasing his splash damage and radius help mitigate missed shots.

Commando Peashooter

• Increased projectile speed from 250 to 350
• Decreased recoil by ~30%
• Decreased starting reticle size by 40%

Dev Team Notes: While Commando Pea’s damage output is quite high, his accuracy and overall “feel” make it difficult to use him effectively. These changes improve the feel of the character as well as make him more effective.

Pirate

Captain Cannon

• Shotgun
  • Increased damage from 20 to 25
  • Decreased reload time from 2.25 to 2
• Sniper
  • Increased damage on detonation from 30 to 35
  • Increased regular splash radius from 1.5 to 2
  • Increased damage on impact from 35 to 40

Dev Team Notes: Captain Cannon is a higher skill character. These changes reward players for using him effectively while making him more accessible to first time users. Aside from his detonation mechanic requiring high skill, his shotgun could also use a boost to make him more effective in close range combat. Increasing damage on detonation provides more payoff for timing it well. His slow projectile speed makes it easier to time detonations but difficult to land direct hits. We’ve increased his impact damage and splash radius to reward direct hits as well as make missed shots slightly more forgiving.

Soldier

General Supremo

• Decreased speed of reticle spread by 40%

Dev Team Notes: Due to his high rate of fire, Supremo loses accuracy quickly. This encourages firing in short bursts when far away. However, the amount of time it takes for his weapon to become inaccurate is too quick, making it difficult for him to land enough consecutive hits to be effective. Decreasing how quickly his reticle spreads mitigates this issue.

Nerfs:

Chomper

Armor Chomper

• Reduced health from 225 to 215
• Decreased rate of fire from 100 to 85

Dev Team Notes: Armor Chomper’s extra health is just a little too high, especially with his two health upgrades, making it too easy to get away while digesting his last meal. He’s still the toughest chomper as far as health goes, but this forces players to be a little more cautious when choosing their victims. We’re also still finding that his damage makes him far too effective for the slow, tanky chomper that he is. Lowering his rate of fire still allows him to get those big damaging chomps in but at a slightly slower rate.

Corn

BBQ Corn

• Decreased near/far damage from 5.5/4.5 to 4.5/3.5

Dev Team Notes: BBQ Corn is mostly effective due to his ability to spread fire very quickly and easily. As a fire character his base damage is already lower than that of the other corns, but we’ve found it’s still a little too high. Decreasing his damage will help compensate for the amount of fire damage he can dish out so quickly.

Torchwood

• Primary Weapon
  • Decreased bullet accuracy by 50%
  • Decreased near/far damage from 7.5/4.5 to 5/3
  • Increased time before overheat by 1 second
• Smoldering Madness
  • Decreased bullet accuracy by 50%
  • Increased damage from 5 to 5.5

Dev Team Notes: Torchwood is intended to be a tank that’s most effective at medium to close range, with his main strength being his ability to take a lot of hits. However we’ve found that he’s still too effective at long range. Decreasing his damage and accuracy pushes him further into his role. We found that these changes warranted some positive adjustments to compensate as well. Adding an increase to his firing time before overheating and increasing the damage of Smoldering Madness prevents the decrease in accuracy from being too punishing.

Imp

Drake

• Decreased damage of Mech’s primary weapon from 15 to 13

Dev Team Notes: The high damage output of the Drake Flame combined with its wide spread angle makes for a weapon that’s a bit too powerful, even for a mech. This also fits him better into the role of a fire character, with lower base damage to compensate for his fire damage.

Hover Goat

• Decreased primary weapon near/far damage from 7.5/5.5 to 6.5/4.5
• Decreased Mega Awesome Laser near/far damage from 12/8 to 10.5/7.5

Dev Team Notes: His damage output is still quite a bit too high for a support class. His role is to support allies with buffs while poking and harassing enemies, but his current damage needs to be nudged a bit more to better fit him into this role.

Ability Tuning

Cactus

Potato Nugget Mines

• Cooldown lowered from 30 to 20

Dev Team Notes: We've noticed that the nugget mines still aren't quite on par with the regular potato mines. The shorter cooldown provides that extra edge needed to make the decision between these two abilities more meaningful.

Sunflower

Dark Flower

• Increased accuracy by 25%

Dev Team Notes: The Dark Flower hasn't proven to be as effective as we'd like at longer ranges, and was best suited for point blank encounters. This increase in accuracy helps harass enemies who are further away.

Kernel Corn

Butter Barrage

• Radius of airstrike pattern decreased from 8 to 5

Dev Team Notes: The Butter Barrage has always been a very powerful ability due to its impressive area denial. We've decreased the radius of the pattern to counteract this, forcing players to be more accurate with placing their airstrikes.

All-Star

Dummy Shield

• Increased health from 150 to 200
• Decreased max number that can be spawned per player from 4 to 3

Shield Decoy

• Increased health from 50 to 75

   

Dev Team Notes: The Dummy Shield has always had a slight disadvantage to its plant counterpart, the Tallnut. This increase in health brings it closer to being on par. We've increased the Shield Decoy as well to help it keep up with the changes to the Dummy.

Imp

Explosive Escape (all Mechs)

• Decreased delay to eject from Mech from 1 second to 0.2 seconds.

Dev Team Notes: Not only is Explosive Escape effective for survival, but it can also be used as an effective weapon, dealing large AOE damage to grouped up Plants. However, the slow response time has made it quite difficult to successfully eject before getting blown apart. This change helps this ability achieve its goal more effectively while still requiring some foresight from the player.