Character Upgrades Guide: Garden Warfare 2!

CHARACTER UPGRADES (CONTINUED)

These are the less common upgrades.

Fire

Effect: This upgrade increases the amount of fire damage that you deal to enemies.

Level of Unlock: Elite (Level 5).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Fire elemental characters only. 

Every character has a fire variant (except for Citron and Super Brainz). The fire variant of every character will receive the fire upgrade (instead of the damage upgrade).

Basic Effects of Fire Damage

Fire elemental characters deal additional fire damage to their enemies whenever they deal any damage with their primary weapons. The fire damage deals 5 instances of 4 damage over 3.75 seconds, with each tick of fire damage having a delay of 0.75 seconds. This will deal a total of 20 additional fire damage to enemies when you deal damage to an enemy, however hitting an enemy already on fire will reset the fire effect and it will not stack. The fire effect will always be applied when dealing damage, and this is unaffected by the amount of damage that you deal. Effects such as splash damage and penetration will still trigger fire damage. Enemies will be unable to regenerate naturally while being inflicted with fire damage. As a cost to this bonus fire damage, fire characters generally have a lower damage per second and deal less damage to enemies when compared to their regular counterparts.

Upgrade Stats

You deal 25% increased fire damage to your enemies while you have this upgrade equipped. It will not improve the time the fire damage lasts or deal the fire damage at a quicker rate, although the increased fire damage will enhance your fire elemental damage as a whole.

This is your fire damage per tick:

• Fire Damage Per Tick (without the upgrade equipped): 4 damage.
• Fire Damage Per Tick (with the upgrade equipped): 5 damage.

This is your total fire damage:

• Total Fire Damage (without the upgrade equipped): 20 damage.
• Total Fire Damage (with the upgrade equipped): 25 damage.

Upgrade Tips and Suggestions

Tips: This upgrade is useful on any fire character, as it is exclusive to those characters only and it improves their unique fire effect to deal more damage to enemies. You should attempt to spray your attacks to hit multiple different enemies at once, spreading your fire damage and to greatly improve the fire damage that you are dealing. The primary weapons of fire characters work differently, however you can use the fast rate of fire, splash damage, penetration or different effects to improve your fire potential, so that you can be constantly be dealing fire damage to multiple enemies at a time. You can play fire characters at any range, as even having damage dropoff will retain the fire effect, meaning you can keep your distance from enemies. Fire characters can be played with a supportive nature, to deal additional damage to your enemies so that you and your allies are able to vanquish affected enemies more easily. This upgrade is great on any fire character, as it provides the characters with a direct upgrade and improves the total damage that your fire characters are able to deal to your enemies.

Additional Notes: Captain Flameface is able to stack his total fire damage, normally fire damage is reset when an enemy is hit by a different fire attack, however as Captain Flameface has 2 primary weapons which each deal fire damage, you can hit your enemy or enemies with each primary weapon at least once each to stack the fire damage and to enhance his total fire potential. You are required to be at close range to your enemies to achieve this, however, as one of his primary weapons are limited to close range only. The Drake Mech for Lil' Drake deals a total of 5 damage per tick for 3 seconds (which is effectively the same effect, but reversed, so it is more damage over less time). Torchwood can deal fire damage when he hits an enemy with Blazin' Blast or Smoldering Madness, however Torchwood does not receive this upgrade (he does get the damage upgrade instead).

Toxic

Effect: This upgrade increases the range of your toxic aura.

Level of Unlock: Elite (Level 5).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Toxic elemental characters only, except for Druid Rose, Toxic Citron and Sanitation Expert.

Every toxic character receives this upgrade (except Druid Rose and Sanitation Expert as they do not have a toxic aura. Toxic Citron does not have a toxic aura while in ball form, however he does not get this upgrade anyway. This upgrade replaces the damage upgrade, however characters that do not have a toxic aura will still get that upgrade.

Basic Effects of Toxic Damage

Toxic elemental characters deal additional toxic damage to their enemies whenever they deal any damage with their primary weapons, as well as having a toxic aura, which instantly inflicts the toxic effect on enemies that get close to you while they remain close. The toxic aura deals 1-3 damage per second, depending on proximity to you, while they are near you. The toxic effect that you deal to enemies when you hit them with your primary weapon deals 3 instances of 2 damage over 3 seconds, with each tick of toxic damage having a delay of 1 second. This will deal a total of 6 additional toxic damage to enemies when you deal damage to an enemy, not including toxic aura, although hitting an enemy already afflicted with the toxic effect will reset the toxic effect and it will not stack.

This toxic effect will always be applied while near an enemy or when you deal damage to them, and this is unaffected by the amount of damage you are dealing. Effects such as splash damage and blast damage will still trigger toxic damage. Enemies will be unable to regenerate naturally while being inflicted with toxic damage. As a cost to this bonus toxic damage, toxic characters generally have a lower damage per second and deal less damage to enemies when compared to their regular counterparts. Your toxic damage that you deal to enemies can spread to their allies if they get close to each other while inflicted with the toxic effect, making this elemental effect excellent against enemy groups and for additional supportive damage.

The toxic aura will be applied to enemies while they are within 7m of you. When this toxic aura is activated, they will take damage per second depending on how close they are to you.

The amount of damage per second will depend on proximity of you:

• 3 damage per second while within 4m or closer to you.
• 2 damage per second while within 4-8m of you.
• 1 damage per second while within 8-12m of you.

When an enemy was inflicted with the toxic effect from your toxic aura and they move 12m or further away from you, the effect will be immediately removed, and they must get within 7m of you before this effect will even trigger again. This same mechanic applies to spreading toxic damage between the enemies you affect and their allies.

Upgrade Stats

You gain a 10% to your toxic aura while you have this upgrade equipped. It will only improve the range of your toxic aura, and it will only apply to the range to actually trigger your toxic aura effect. The upgrade does not work when your enemies spread the toxic effect to each other, it does not improve the total range of your toxic aura radius once you have triggered the toxic aura on an enemy and it does not improve the amount of toxic damage you are dealing. In other words, this upgrade is only useful when trying to initially inflict an enemy with your toxic aura.

This is your toxic aura trigger radius:

• Toxic Aura Radius (without the upgrade equipped): 7 meters.
• Toxic Aura Radius (with the upgrade equipped): 7.7 meters.

Upgrade Tips and Suggestions

Tips: Unfortunately this upgrade is close to being worthless. It only benefits your toxic aura, and only when initially applying your toxic aura. This being said, it is exclusive to toxic characters that have a toxic aura, so it could be worth using in some cases. It will be most effective on eligible characters that benefit further from attacking enemies at close range, or if your character is almost completed limited to close range combat, as you can trigger this toxic aura often and more efficiently, and your enemy will continue to take damage while you remain up close and continue to attack them. There are abilities that allow you to retain your toxic aura while using them, such as Energy Warp or Barrel Blast, so you can easily get up close to your enemies and be inflicting the toxic aura while being resistant or immune to damage. If you engage up close with a group of enemies, you can more easily inflict the toxic aura on those enemies and maintain toxic damage on them for longer. If you are in combat and are close to an enemy, you could use cover to inflict the toxic aura more easily while avoiding enemy attacks. This upgrade is not great overall, although it can have its uses in certain scenarios.

Additional Notes: Toxic Brainz has an increased range for his toxic aura while he has his legendary mode, so this upgrade will stack and improve the range of his aura further and could be useful if you are not sure what to equip for an upgrade, which is especially useful as he specalises in attacking up close. Toxic Citron does not receive this upgrade, even though he does have a toxic aura, as he gets different replacement upgrades, although the toxic effect does not apply while he is in ball form. If your character has 2 primary weapons, you have 3 ways of dealing toxic damage, through toxic aura and each of the primary weapons. The toxic effect will still apply and is able to benefit from this upgrade when you are using abilities, however there are small exceptions such as Citron Ball.

Ice

Effect: This upgrade decreases the amount of shots from your primary weapon required to freeze enemies.

Level of Unlock: Elite (Level 5).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Ice elemental characters only.

Every ice character receives this upgrade. The ice variant of every character will receive the ice upgrade (instead of the damage upgrade). 

Basic Effects of Ice

Ice elemental characters are able to slow and freeze enemies by dealing damage to them with their primary weapon. Every shot you land on an enemy will slow them down further until they are frozen, the slowing will reduce their movement speed and the freeze will stop them completely, making them completely unable to move or shoot. When you freeze an enemy, the freeze will last for 2.1 seconds and there will be a 10 second cooldown before you are able to freeze that enemy again. The amount of shots required to freeze an enemy depends on the fire rate of a character, characters with a faster rate of fire will require more shots before they are frozen. The freezing and slowing effect interacts differently with different ice characters, if multiple of the same ice character is attacking an enemy, each shot of either of the same ice character will count toward freezing the enemy, although different ice characters will not have their ice effect stacked, however they can each freeze the enemy once each before they have to wait the freeze cooldown. As a cost to this additional ice effect, ice characters generally have a lower damage per second and deal less damage to enemies when compared to their regular counterparts. 

Upgrade Stats

You gain a 20% faster freeze rate while you have this upgrade equipped. You will require less hits on your enemies before you successfully freeze them, and it will reduce your time to freeze as well. Each successful shot you land on your shot will slow them down more than normal, as you will be freezing them more quickly, which will be great as you can quickly slow them before they have time to escape. This upgrade will not improve the time that your enemy is frozen for or reduce the cooldown before you can freeze affected enemies again. The amount of shots that are reduced before you freeze an enemy and the rate of slowdown with this upgrade depends on which character you are using, as the amount of shots to freeze an enemy varies with each character.

Upgrade Tips and Suggestions

Tips: This upgrade is useful on any ice character, as it is exclusive to those characters only and it improves upon their unique ice effect further to make your enemies more vulnerable. You should focus on a specific enemy at a time, as consistently suppressing them will freeze them more quickly, will reduce their chances of escaping from you before you freeze them, and force the enemy to be completely vulnerable to attacks from you or your allies for a short time. You can repeat the process on a different enemy after you freeze an enemy to basically ignore the cooldown before you can freeze the same enemy again. The primary weapon of ice characters work differently, however you can use splash damage, fast rate of fire or different effects to improve your freeze efficiency. You can use ice characters from any range, as even having damage dropoff with retain the ice effect, meaning you can keep your distance from enemies. Ice characters can be played with a supportive nature, to make enemies vulnerable to attacks from you and all allies. This upgrade is great on any ice character, as it provides the characters with a direct upgrade and improves the potency and efficiency of your ice effects.

Additional Notes: Frost Rose is able to charge her shots which will actually slow enemies down significantly if hit by a charged shot, almost instantly freezing them, and you can stack this effect with this upgrade for even better results. AC Perry will get a point toward freezing an enemy if hit by either a direct or splash hit, although different ice characters with splash damage will get 2 points if a direct hit is landed on them. Yeti Chomper will get the damage upgrade as well as this upgrade, which you could use together, or simply focus on this upgrade, so that you can slow your enemies as you approach and then you can digest them. Freezing an enemy will make them vulnerable to your abilities which deal high damage, so use this upgrade to freeze them faster and set them up for an ability vanquish.

Digestion

Effect: This upgrade decreases the amount of time to digest an enemy.

Level of Unlock: It depends on the character.

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Chompers only.

Upgrade Stats

You gain a 20% faster digestion time while you have this upgrade equipped. Many of the Chompers actually receive 2 of these upgrades, which can be stacked together to further reduce digestion time to a 36% faster digestion time. This is useful for a Chomper in many situations, as digesting them more quickly will improve your survivability and you will not be left vulnerable for as long.

This is your time to digest an enemy:

• Digestion Time (without the upgrade equipped): 4 seconds.
• Digestion Time (with the upgrade equipped): 3.2 seconds.
• Digestion Time (with both of the upgrades equipped): 2.56 seconds.

This upgrade is useful on Chompers that receive benefits for digesting an enemy, such as Hot Rod Chomper, Count Chompula and Disco Chomper, and using both of the upgrades will provide a greater effect. It will trigger your effects more quickly, and this upgrade will not leave you vulnerable for as long when you are in the process of digesting your enemy. It is useful on all Chompers, although you should decide which Chom

Homing

Effect: This upgrade improves the homing potential of your primary weapon.

Level of Unlock: Advanced (Level 9).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Roses only.

Upgrade Stats

You gain a 25% improved homing range and a 50% lock on angle increase while you have this upgrade equipped. The homing range improves the range that your projectiles will home into targeted enemies and the lock on angle is the angle that the enemy must be within for the homing to activate on the enemy. In an overall note, this upgrade improves your homing potential and allows you to benefit further from the homing. 

This is your homing range:

• Homing Range (without the upgrade equipped): 45 meters.
• Homing Range (with the upgrade equipped): 56.25 meters.

This is your lock on angle:

• Lock On Angle (without the upgrade equipped): 1.5 degrees.
• Lock On Angle (with the upgrade equipped): 2.25 degrees.

This will apply to your charge up shots as well, which benefits from the homing. You must be aiming toward the enemy to trigger the homing and you need to be about 7m or further from the enemy for your homing to actually trigger. This upgrade is useful on all Roses, as the homing is a significant part of their primary weapon and the improved homing makes it easier to deal damage to enemies and to keep your distance from your enemies.

Super Meter

Effect: This upgrade requires you to earn less vanquishes, digestions or punches before filling your legendary meter.

Level of Unlock: Elite (Level 5).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Legendary characters only. Only some legendary characters receive this upgrade at that though, with none of the party characters receiving this upgrade. The legendary characters that receive this upgrade include:

• Disco Chomper.
• Iron Citron.
• Computer Scientist.
• Toxic Brainz.

Upgrade Stats

Your meter gets filled further when you earn a vanquish, or if you digest or land punches on an enemy, depending on your character, while you have this upgrade equipped. The significance of this effect actually varies, as the legendary meters vary between characters and they generally require different conditions to fill your meter. Vanquishing hero enemies will fill up your meter more than weeds, browncoats and summonables will, however the upgrade increases the fill rate of each to an extent. 

Upgrade Tips

This upgrade is similar between each of the legendary characters that actually obtain it, however it has some differences between each character depending on how you fill your legendary meter. 

Computer Scientist and Iron Citron require direct vanquishes to fill your meter, so shared vanquishes do not count, and vanquishing enemy heroes will actually give you more of your meter, compared to vanquishing weeds, browncoats and summonables. It normally takes 10 total vanquishes on summonables or 5 total vanquishes on heroes to get your meter filled, although this upgrade will not quite reduce the requirement to 4 heroes, although you can vanquish 4 heroes and a summonable to fill your meter if you use this upgrade.

Disco Chomper requires you to successfully digest enemies to fill your meter, and it will normally take you 5 total digestions on summonables or 4 total vanquishes on heroes to get your meter filled, although this upgrade will not quite reduce the requirement to 3 heroes, although you can vanquish 3 heroes and a summonable to fill your meter if you use this upgrade. 

Toxic Brainz requires you to successfully land 15 punches on enemies to fill your meter. This will work on heroes and summonables, and you can actually punch multiple enemies at a time if they are close enough to your fists, in which case each individual punch will contribute to your meter. This upgrade will reduce this requirement to 10 successful punches to fill your meter.

This upgrade has varying degrees of usefulness on the eligible legendary characters. Unfortunately, this upgrade does not have much of an impact on Computer Scientist, Iron Citron and Disco Chomper, as it will only fill faster if you manage to vanquish or digest a summonable instead of another hero. I would still recommend using this upgrade on these characters, as this upgrade is only available on a single other character and it boosts their legendary status by allowing you to fill their meter more quickly, so vanquish a summonable in a match if you get the chance to fill your meter faster. Toxic Brainz is excellent with this upgrade, and this upgrade should be your top piority on him, as it will require less punches to get your insanely powerful meter filled, and you can punch any sort of enemies to fill it, including grouped enemies. Just remember that using your beam on enemies will have no effect on your meter, even if you get a vanquish with it.

Penetrate

Effect: This upgrade allows you to penetrate an additional enemy with your primary weapon.

Level of Unlock: Advanced (Level 9)

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Characters with primary weapons that has penetration only. The characters are as follows:

• Mob Cob.
• Camo Cactus.
• Camo Ranger.
• Captain Flameface.

Upgrade Stats

Your primary weapon is able to penetrate an additional enemy while you have this upgrade equipped. This upgrade will only allow you to penetrate up to 1 additional enemy with each shot, although this is a significant difference as these characters are already able to naturally penetrate through additional enemies. These characters generally lose damage for each enemy they penetrate, although it allows you to shoot enemies hiding behind their allies. You can shoot through allies for 1 penetration point with these characters, although your allies will not take damage and you will deal less damage to enemies with shots that you have already penetrated. The penetration points for each character are as follows:

Mob Cob and Camo Ranger:

• Penetration Points (without the upgrade equipped): 2 enemies (or allies).
• Penetration Points (with the upgrade equipped): 3 enemies (or allies).

Camo Cactus and Captain Flameface

• Penetration Points (without the upgrade equipped): 4 enemies (or allies).
• Penetration Points (with the upgrade equipped): 5 enemies (or allies).

Upgrade Tips

This upgrade improves your penetration capabilities for characters that have penetration. Penetration is not something that will be useful that often, however, as enemies are not always going to be lined up for you to penetrate through and you lose damage for each enemy that you penetrate through. This being said, it could actually be useful in some situations, especially in circumstances and game modes where your enemies are generally grouped up. You will benefit further from this upgrade if you would like to hide behind your allies and shoot through, or if you do not want your allies blocking your shots. This upgrade will be more useful on Mob Cob and Camo Ranger, as they have a lower penetration score and this upgrade will provide a more significant difference, along with the penetration being a fairly large part of their kit, although having this upgrade on Camo Cactus and Captain Flameface could still be useful, as you can land critical hits on additional enemies, or inflict fire damage on additional enemies a time, depending on the character that you are using. This upgrade has its uses, and I would recommend it since no other characters receive this upgrade anyway, although in an overall sense, the additional effect it provides is very situational and may not end up being all that useful to you.

Damage Radius

Effect: This upgrade increases the radius of your spore clouds.

Level of Unlock: Advanced (Level 9).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Characters with primary weapons that leave spore clouds on impact. The characters are as follows:

• Alien Flower.
• Toxic Citron.
• Park Ranger.

Upgrade Stats

Your spore clouds from your primary weapon will have an improved radius while you have this upgrade equipped. The spore clouds created from your primary weapons will have an approximately 15% improved radius, which allows you to cover a larger area with your spore clouds and to improve the overall lingering damage dealt to your enemies through your spore clouds. The radius of your spore clouds will  depend on the character that you are using, as their spore clouds have different amounts of radius, depending on the character.

• Alien Flower has a 3 meter spore cloud radius (3.3 metres when using this upgrade). 
• Toxic Citron has a 2.5 meter spore cloud radius (2.72 metres when using this upgrade).
• Park Ranger has a 2 meter spore cloud radius (2.15 metres when using this upgrade).

Upgrade Tips

This upgrade is really useful on all of the eligible characters, as it improves your spore clouds as a whole. Limited characters actually receive this upgrade, so I recommend using this upgrade on every character that is able to receive this upgrade. It may not seem that useful, although you can use this upgrade to deny areas or to deal with enemy groups more easily. This upgrade provides a direct upgrade to your spore clouds, which will improve the potential of your spore clouds. Use it with the Explosion Life upgrade for an awesome combo and more spore cloud upgrades.

Explosion Life

Effect: This upgrade increases the time that your spore clouds linger for.

Level of Unlock: Elite (Level 5).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Characters with primary weapons that leave spore clouds on impact. The characters are as follows:

• Alien Flower.
• Toxic Citron.
• Park Ranger.

Upgrade Stats

Your spore clouds from your primary weapon will have an increased duration while you have this upgrade equipped. The spore clouds created from your primary weapons will last 25% longer, which allows your spore clouds to last longer and deal more overall damage to your enemies. Due to this improved duration of the spore clouds, you can effectively have more spore clouds out at once, provided that you continue shooting without needing to reload, and you can cover more areas with additional spore clouds, due to each spore clouds having an improved duration.

This is your spore cloud duration:

• Spore Cloud Duration (without the upgrade equipped): 2 seconds.
• Spore Cloud Duration (with the upgrade equipped): 2.5 seconds.

Upgrade Tips

This upgrade is really useful on all of the eligible characters, as it improves your spore clouds as a whole. Limited characters actually receive this upgrade, so I recommend using this upgrade on every character that is able to receive this upgrade. It may not seem that useful, although you can use this upgrade keep your spore clouds out for longer and to improve the total lingering damage that you are able to deal to your enemies. This upgrade provides a direct upgrade to your spore clouds, which will improve the potential of your spore clouds. Use it with the Damage Radius upgrade for an awesome combo and more spore cloud upgrades.

Vampiric

Effect: This upgrade improves the health you gain per successful shot on an enemy.

Level of Unlock: Elite (Level 5).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Vampire Flower.

Upgrade Stats and Tips

You gain more health per successful shot that you land on an enemy while you have this upgrade equipped. You will heal about 25% more health per shot when using this upgrade. Only Vampire Flower receives this upgrade, which is a life steal character who will gain health back if successfully dealing damage to an enemy. This healing is unaffected by the amount of damage that you deal to an enemy.

This is your health gain per successful shot, rounded accordingly as these figures are not exact:

• Health Gain (without the upgrade equipped): 3 health.
• Health Gain (with the upgrade equipped): 4 health.

I absolutely recommend using this upgrade, as only Vampire Flower receives this upgrade and it improves your life steal effect further, which is useful in many situations, as you actually have the least health out of any plant in the game. You can attack enemies that are easier to hit for easier lifesteal, and using the life steal effect in a 1v1 situation will mean you will likely win the battle if you can land your shots, especially if you use this upgrade. You still have decent health gain without the upgrade, although why not use this upgrade? It gives your Vampire Flower a direct upgrade! Absolutely worth using in my opinion! 

Sonar

Effect: This upgrade improves the duration that the sonar effect lasts.

Level of Unlock: Advanced (Level 9).

Characters That Receive This Upgrade: Scuba Soldier.

Upgrade Stats and Tips

You are able to identify enemies behind walls and natural cover while you have this upgrade equipped. You will have a 50% improved duration of your sonar effect whenever you trigger it when using this upgrade. Only Scuba Soldier receives this upgrade, which is a sonar character who be able to identify enemies behind walls or natural cover whenever your shots make contact with an enemy or surface. Receiving this sonar effect is unaffected by the amount of damage that you deal to an enemy.

This is your sonar length duration:

• Sonar Duration (without the upgrade equipped): 3 seconds.
• Sonar Duration (with the upgrade equipped): 4.5 seconds.

I absolutely recommend using this upgrade, as only Scuba Soldier receives this upgrade and it allows you to make further use from your sonar effect, which will make it easier to track and chase enemies if they try to escape. This upgrade will become even more useful to you if able to communicate with your friends or allies, as you can give away the location of your enemies and track then down as a team. It gives your Scuba Soldier a direct upgrade! Absolutely worth using in my opinion! Probably is not the greatest upgrade to use, although as it is exclusive to a single character and you still are able to use different decent upgrades, I would save a slot for this upgrade, as it is useful in every mode!

The conclusion is in the next post!