Guide to PvP Modes and General PvP Tips!

Hey all,

This guide intends to cover all of the Multiplayer modes that are available in the Multiplayer Terminal that everyone has access to. This includes modes that are permanently available, and modes that are not permanently available as well (and that are only available sometimes as weekly events). This guide will include what the objective of each mode is, whether it is permanently available or not, and some tips for increasing your chances of winning or performing well in each mode. Read on if you like a specific game mode, or play lots of different modes.

THE MULTIPLAYER GAME MODES

To access it, interact with the Multiplayer Terminal that is near the Portal and use it to select a mode you wish to play. You can change regions at any time, there are a few regions to choose from, so you can change if you are not finding games on your current region at the time. 

Turf Takeover

Turf Takeover is a permanently available mode in the Multiplayer Terminal. The objective of Turf Takeover is to capture or defend an objective or payload. Whether your team will aim to capture or defend the objective or payload depends on which map you are playing at the time. At the last section, if the capturing team makes it that far, there is a bonus objective that they will have to complete successfully in order to win the game. The capturers win if they capture all the objectives and complete the bonus objective at the end. Defenders win if they hold an objective for enough time. The objective gets contested if there is a capturer and a defender on the objective or payload. If only capturers are on the objective or payload, it starts to get captured. If only defenders are on the objective or payload, they keep the objective or payload, until contested or until it starts being captured, and they are able to take back some capture progress as well if a capturer has not been on the objective or payload for a while (however, there is a checkpoint when the capturing team gets 1/3 of the objective or payload). If the time runs out for the capturing team to capture the objective or payload, and a capturer is contesting the payload, instead of immediately losing, it goes into overtime. During overtime, the capturers have a final chance to try and capture the objective or payload. If there are no capturers on the objective or payload at any point during overtime, you or another capturer have a very limited amount of time to get back on and recontest, or you lose. This time is shortened even more if it has been overtime for a while. The game will indicate which area you have to capture or defend.

Whether your team aims to capture or defend the objective and payloads, and what the bonus objective is, varies on the map you are playing:

Goopy Gully: Plants capture, Zombies defend, the final objective requires the Plants to destroy this large drill, while the Zombies must defend it. https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Goopy_Gully

Tourist Trap: Plants capture, Zombies defend, the final objective requires the Plants to push a switch that prevents a Master Storm from happening on the island, while the Zombies need to prevent that from happening. https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Tourist_Trap_Island

Turning Point: Plants capture, Zombies defend, the final objective requires the Plants to steal batteries from the lighthouse, while the Zombies need to stop them from doing so. https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Turning_Point

Loggy Acres: Zombies capture, Plants defend, the final objective requires the Zombies to blow up the Mallow Mortar, while the Plants need to prevent them from doing that. https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Loggy_Acres

Preserve Pastures: Zombies capture, Plants defend, the final objective requires the Zombies to escort the garguantaurs into the Plants' secret base and blow up their bath machine, while the Plants need to defend their secret base. https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Preserve_Pastures

Peachy District: Zombies capture, Plants defend, the final objective requires Zombies to hack the TV Station at the top of the hill, while the Plants must stop them from doing so. https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Peachy_District

TIPS

• Use Pots, Bots and Summonables in order to help your team with extra numbers, firepower, and other means of support.
• Use cover around the objectives and map in order to reload, heal allies, recharge abilities, place Bots, Bots and Summonables (if possible) and so on. Shields are also another helpful option for doing this.
• A lot of the time, enemies may cluster in the objective. Attacks and abilities that can effectively deal damage in groups or have splash damage can be really useful in this mode in this situation.
• Stay with your team when possible. If you are capturing, you can prepare to attack all at once (summon some Summonables to help). If you are defending, you can have some players out of the objective trying to stop the capturers from getting through, and have others inside the objective (and placing Pots and Bots).
• If the game is about to go into Overtime, if you are on the capturing team, make sure to get on the objective, so you still have a chance to capture. If you are on the defending team, try your best to remove all of the capturers from the objective so you win. Either way, now is the time to use your abilities and deal as much damage as possible.

Team Vanquish

Team Vanquish is a permanently available mode in the Multiplayer Terminal (in Nintendo Switch, it is not, but it sometimes appears as a Weekly Event). In Team Vanquish, the objective of the mode is to be on the first team to get 50 vanquishes. The more vanquishes you earn, the higher your likelihoods are of winning. It is important to try and protect your team, while also getting vanquishes on enemies as well. If someone on your team that has been vanquished gets revived, the other team loses a point, however if a teammate respawns or is unrevivable, the other team keeps that point and it cannot be removed. So it is a race against time to get the most vanquishes, but it is important to stay with your team so you do not get vanquished as easily.

TIPS

• Vanquishes are really important in this mode! Stay with your team as often as possible to reduce your chances of being vanquished, while making it easier to vanquish enemies at the same time.
• Revives are also important to get as you can stop the enemy team from getting points. If it seems safe to get a revive, try and go for the revive. Players will often wait to be revived so you can remove a point from the enemy team. 
• Healers are actually really good in this mode. You can revive players much more easily (and with full health) and deny the enemy team of a point, and you can also heal allies (and yourself) to reduce their chances of being vanquished.
• Characters that have attacks and abilities that deal damage to groups of enemies effectively can be really useful in this mode. When enemies cluster, try to deal damage to that cluster of enemies, then try to finish them all off alongside your team.
• If you see an enemy that has been damaged or weakened, you can score your team a point for free, if you manage to vanquish them. Stray enemies that are alone are also generally really easy to vanquish, meaning your team can easily get a point.

Vanquish Confirmed!

Vanquish Confirmed! is one of the Weekly Event modes that is sometimes available in the Multiplayer Terminal. In Vanquish Confirmed!, the objective of the mode is to collect 50 of the other teams' orbs. Orbs are dropped when a character is vanquished. Green for Plants, Purple for Zombies. You have to get close to orbs in order to be able to pick them up. If you collect an enemy's orb, your team gets a point for it. If you collect an orb from a fallen ally, you prevent the other team for getting a point from it. For this reason, it is good to try and stay with your team so that if an ally is vanquished, your team can get the orb and prevent the other team from getting a point. If you are vanquished, your allies can collect your orbs for you.

TIPS

• Staying alongside your team is really useful, so that if enemies vanquish your allies, your team can easily pick up the orbs and deny your enemies from collecting them.
• Go out of your way to pick up any orbs you find. You will either give your team a point, or stop an enemy from finding that orb and getting their team a point, as well as getting XP.
• Close-range characters, or characters that are effective at close-range, can be really good for collecting orbs, as you can easily vanquish an enemy, then collect their orb before anyone else has a chance to. 
• Healers can be really useful in this mode, you can keep your team alive this way more easily, and therefore, prevent your team from dropping orbs for enemies to collect. Shields are also useful for this.
• If you can deal damage to groups of enemies with attacks or abilities, and your enemies are grouping, you can use this to your advantage. You may be able to damage or vanquish groups of enemies this way. However, enemies may be able to pick up the orbs of their fallen allies, but it will make it easier to take out the rest of their team.

Suburbination

Suburbination is one of the Weekly Event modes that is sometimes available in the Multiplayer Terminal. In Suburbination, the objective of the mode is to have control of 3 points around the map. The control areas vary based on the map that is being played, but they will always be in the same location on each map. Your team gets points if your team holds 2 or more of the 3 control points. If your team has control of all of the control points, you achieve "Suburbination" and gain extra points, and your enemies get none. It is important to try and prevent your enemies from getting 2 or more points wherever possible, as this will reduce their chances of winning. You may want to stick as a team and move from control point to control point or split up a bit to defend the control points you already have.

TIPS

• You should either decide to defend a point or to, whenever you capture a point, go and attempt to take another capture point. However, if you do not have any allies with you, you could struggle holding or capturing objectives. So, you should have at least have a few allies with you as often as possible. Also, by having your team with you, you will capture the objective back faster.
• Attacks and abilities that are effective against groups can be really useful in this mode. Enemies will tend to cluster around the objective, so you may be able to dispatch or damage many enemies at once. You could also leave traps or defenses on points you currently have captured to give enemies a harder time taking those points away from you.
• If you are vanquished and respawn, if there is a capture point close by, but your enemies control that point, go and take it back. The close proximity from where you spawn will make it quite easy to capture the objective, and enemies will have a disadvantage as they will not spawn close to it. The quicker you capture it, the faster you can rack up more points for your team. Just note that if vice versa will happen for enemies, your team will have that disadvantage instead.
• You only need 2 or more capture points for your team to get points. So, if you only allow your enemies to gain a single capture point (or none), you will prevent the enemy team from getting points completely. Perhaps, if about half of your team aims to capture, then defend, a particular capture point, while the about other half of your team does that to another particular capture point, you may be able to stop the enemies from getting points. Although, you get even more points if your team manages to capture all the control points.
• Characters and upgrades that have good speed and mobility can be really useful in this mode. This means that you can quickly go from objective to objective in order to capture them faster, or to defend capture points you currently control before they get captured, to try and stop enemies from capturing them. In this case, hopefully you have some allies there contesting or they will come and help, if they see the control point is being taken back.

Gnome Bomb

Gnome Bomb is one of the Weekly Event modes that is sometimes available in the Multiplayer Terminal. In Gnome Bomb, the objective of the mode is to use the Gnome Bomb to blow up all 3 of your enemies' gardens or tombstones, depending on what team that you are on. You need to prevent the enemy team from doing the same to you. When a player picks up the Gnome Bomb, their abilities are negated, so you should protect your ally who is holding it, or focus on vanquishing any enemies that have picked it up. However, while you have the Gnome Bomb, you can use your primary and secondary weapons, meaning that you still have a way to protect yourself. If you have the Gnome Bomb, head to one of the enemies' gardens or tombstones (depends on which faction you and your enemies are on) and place the bomb there. If a Gnome Bomb has been placed on a garden or tombstone, the other team has some time to defuse it so it does not explode on them. Try to prevent your enemies from defusing it by vanquishing them quickly. Your team gets a point if a garden or tombstone gets destroyed. The game goes for up to 15 minutes, but the team who gets to 3 points first wins. However, if after 15 minutes, both teams have the same amount of points, it goes into overtime. In which case, the team who next places the Gnome Bomb on the enemies' garden or tombstone wins, so in this case, try to head to the nearest enemy garden or tombstone and place it before the enemies vanquish you and your team and collect the Gnome Bomb, to try and do the same to you.

TIPS

• Leave traps and defenses around the map and at your gardens or tombstones to protect them, or to give enemies a harder time getting to them.
• Try to stay in a team, especially when you or an ally has the Gnome Bomb. It will be much easier to protect the player with the Gnome Bomb. It will also be easier to prevent the enemies from defusing the Gnome Bomb on their garden or tombstone.
• The more speed and mobility your characters and upgrades have, the better. It will be easier to get to the enemies' gardens and tombstones, or to defuse the Gnome Bomb if it has been placed on your garden or tombstone.
• Enemies do cluster fairly often in this mode. For this reason, you can use attacks and abilities that can effectively deal damage to groups of enemies to your advantage, in this mode, especially if enemies are clustered around your garden or tombstone, or theirs. 
• The spawn locations are set in this mode, and do not change. This way, you always know where your enemies are coming from. However, their gardens and tombstones are fairly close to their spawn point, so once a Gnome Bomb has been placed on their objective, it is important to work as a team to stop the enemies from getting to their garden or tombstone to defuse it. Focus on the enemies that are closest first, and use attacks and abilities that are effective against groups to your advantage. Stunning or knocking back enemies also works well.

Battle Arena

Battle Arena is one of the Weekly Event modes that is sometimes available in the Multiplayer Terminal. In Battle Arena, the objective of this mode is to eliminate every enemy. This is a 4v4 Deathmatch mode, meaning there are only up to 4 players on each team, and being vanquished means you cannot respawn until the next round, unless you get revived (which the revive must be started in a fairly short space of time). The team that wins is the first team to get 4 points. A team gets a point if they are the first to eliminate of all their enemies in a round. This means that at least 4 rounds will be played in Battle Arena, but there can be up to 7 rounds if both teams are performing well. This can be a really hard game mode, so it is probably best to learn more about the game and develop some strategies first. There are exclusive maps in this game mode, but the variety of maps are really limited, so you should get to know the maps quite well if you play a decent amount of Battle Arena. After a period of time, if players on both factions are still unvanquished during a round, a capture point will open up in the middle of the map. The team that captures the point first, in this case, will win that round of Battle Arena. Every round, you must select a different character. You cannot be the same character more than once in a match of Battle Arena.

TIPS

• Try and combo well with allies regarding character selection, see which characters your allies select and try to use a character that works well with your team composition.
• If you can attack enemies before they are aware of your presence, you will gain the advantage, but be careful not to be vanquished.
• The majority of the time, staying and working with your team is the best way to go. Stay together and vanquish enemies that come your way. If you play with others that you know, you and your team will have a larger advantage.
• Use characters that you are more familiar with in this mode. If you are not as skilled with particular characters, you should practice with them first in another mode, before using them in this game mode.
• Consider your upgrades for your characters, but do this before you start playing Battle Arena. You cannot actually customise your character builds once you enter this mode, so do it beforehand. Upgrades can provide really good advantages. It is also suggested (by me) that you are familiar enough with the mode and you are confident enough before playing this mode. This is a very skill-based game mode.

CONCLUSION

There are lots of game modes to pick from in Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville! This guide does not even include Private Play modes, Free-roam regions, Giddy Park or Ops modes. However, hopefully this guide helps you to understand what each of the Multiplayer modes are about, and it helps you to decide which mode is your favourite or which mode you are the best at, especially if you are a newer player. Well, pick a mode, and get playing! Why aren't you doing anything? (I am joking, but go have fun)!

See you next time!

From

Me! (@TheSprinter85)