Guide to the Gnome Challenges in the Free-Roam Regions!

Hey everyone,

In this guide, I will cover how to complete the Gnome Challenges in all of your free-roam regions. This will provide general tips that will cover every region in this guide, as these Gnome Challenges appear at least once in all regions and they are more or less the same.

For you to be able to collect most of the Golden Gnomes and all of the Diamond Gnomes available, you need to complete a specific activity before you can actually collect these items. This is what is considered as a Gnome Challenge.

I use this link to help me gather some of the information for this guide: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Gnome_challenges. You can view this link to gain more information about these Gnome Challenges as well.

There are 5 different types of Gnome Challenges for Golden Gnomes, they are as follows: Puzzles, Battles, Balance, Defense and Catch That Gnome. You will have to do these activities at least once each in each region, but some activities need to be completed multiple times in each region, in order to collect all of the Golden Gnomes in that region. I will cover each activity and how it works. 

There are 3 different types of Gnome Challenges for Diamond Gnomes, they are as follows: Puzzle, Parkour and Boss Fight. These activities always appear once each in each region, never less or more often than that.

Remember that the progress for all Gnome Activities in Plants Town Center and Zombies Town Center are shared. Therefore, if you complete an activity in Zombies Town Center, for instance, you do not need to repeat it in Plants Town Center. In each region, look for a Gnomolith nearby that will appear when you find and shoot at the button. You will need to pay a small fee of your appropriate region's currency each time you take an attempt at an activity.

TYPES OF GNOME CHALLENGES

Puzzles

This applies for both Diamond and Golden Gnomes, but they work differently depending on which type of Gnome you are trying to collect. For this activity, you are required to complete a Puzzle. There are 3 Golden Gnome Puzzles in each region: one of an Easy difficulty, one of Medium and another of Hard. When you activate one of these Gnome Puzzles, either 2 (in Easy), 4 (in Normal) or 6 (in Hard) will appear. They will have different symbols on each side, activate a Gnome Platform to rotate it. You may rotate the pieces as much and as often as you want. To complete these puzzles, you need to match all of the symbols so each adjacent platform shows the same symbol on each of the sides that face each other. When you have completed this, the Golden Gnome will appear in a nearby location to where you are, ready for you to collect. 

I will not cover the Diamond Gnome Puzzles here, if you would like to find out how to complete these Puzzles successfully, refer to these other guides I have made:

• https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Plants-amp-Zombies-Town-Center-Gnome-Guide/m-p/9286036/highlight/true#M23098 (Plants and Zombies Town Center).
• https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Mount-Steep-Gnome-Guide/m-p/9291062/highlight/true#M23168 (Mount Steep).
• https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Weirding-Woods-Gnome-Guide/m-p/9294030/highlight/true#M23224 (Weirding Woods).

My Tips

• If you have not attempted the Puzzles before, try doing a Easy or Medium one first so you have more of an idea how the Puzzles work. If you find yourself doing a Hard one, it may be worth leaving it until you have more of an idea of how to complete these Puzzles.
• Take your time. This is no time limit to complete it, so you do not need to be concerned about trying to get it done quickly. All other Gnome Challenges have a time limit, except this one, so you can focus more easily.
• The symbols on the different pieces of the Puzzles are not always the same as each other. It might be useful if you look for "common pieces" on the ajacent pieces. If you align these symbols facing each other, you will likely have completed a significant part of the Puzzle.

Battles

There are different variants of Battles that you could get, and this depends on your region. When you need to perform a battle challenge, make sure you have an idea of what you need to do, follow the instructions to help you. Some of them including vanquishing a certain amount of Gnomes in a certain time, or to avoid vanquishing specific types of Gnomes, along with other similar activities. When you get one of these Battle Challenges to do, take a look at what you need to do on the top-right of your screen. The Golden Gnome will appear nearby, ready for your collection when you have completed this challenge.

My Tips

• Having attacks and abilities that deal high damage on your characters are good for taking out regular Gnomes quickly, as well as dealing high damage to Champion or Boss Gnomes.
• Splash damage, area of effect and homing attacks and abilities on your characters are useful against multiple Gnomes at once. If the challenge wants you to avoid dealing damage to specific types of Gnomes, ignore this tip and instead pick characters that have attacks or abilities more effective against single targets.
• Use characters that have lots of health, shield access, escape or healing capabilities, in order to improve your durability and survivability throughout these battles and so you can stay in the fight for longer, before possibly needing to heal.

Balance

For these challenges, you need to balance carefully on platforms and jump between lots of platforms that appear until you get to the final one. You have a limited amount of time to get to the end, so falling from the platforms could cost you the attempt, but you will not instantly lose by falling. Collecting a Golden Gnome that appear on some platforms, which are decoys, will extend your time. When you have completed the challenge, the Golden Gnome will appear nearby and be available for collection.

My Tips

• Characters with additional mobility can prove to be useful for this challenge, as you have a lower chance of missing platforms and you could save time, but be careful not to overshoot.
• Characters that have multiple jumps are really useful as you can be more precise with your jumps and you can reach each platform more easily. If you would miss a platform, you might be able to skip a platform or still get yourself on the original platform instead of falling.
• Collect the decoy Golden Gnomes where possible so you can gain more time, and remember not to go excessively fast as you can easily miss platforms, despite the challenge being timed.

Defense

For this challenge, a ring will appear where you need to prevent Explody Gnomes from entering. Explody Gnomes will appear nearby and try to enter the ring. You need to survive about 3 minutes. In that time, if less than 10 Explody Gnomes enter the ring in that time, you win the challenge. Shooty Gnomes will also appear during the challenge, but you do not need to vanquish them to complete this challenge successfully. When you have completed this challenge, the Golden Gnome will appear nearby which is available for you to freely collect.

My Tips

• Always keep a lookout for Explody Gnomes, as they can come from nearly any direction, and they tend to appear in small to medium clusters. Focus on trying to take out the Explody Gnomes that are closer to you first. Stay in the circle for best results as you do not want them to 
• Using characters that have attacks and abilites which deal high damage, even if they slow your movement, are useful for quickly vanquishing Explody Gnomes before they get too close. Area of effect and splash damage attacks and abilities are great for vanquishing clustered Explody Gnomes.
• Do not bother attacking Shooty Gnomes unless there are no Explody Gnomes nearby at the time and you have checked. If you are having trouble surviving with Shooty Gnomes, use a character with shields to protect yourself while you wait for more Explody Gnomes to appear, or high health or healing capabilities.

Catch that Gnome

For this challenge, what you need to do is chase after a Golden Gnome that continuously moves around. The Golden Gnome constantly keeps moving as you keep chasing it down. You need to follow the light and keep chasing the Gnome until you get to the end of the course. The locations that the Gnome appears in, for each of these challenges, will always be the same so you are able to memorise the locations that the Gnome moves to. Once you have completed this challenge, the Golden Gnome will be available for collection.

My Tips

• Characters that have lots of mobility will be really useful for this challenge, as speed is really important.
• Use characters that have extra jumps or that can have improved jump height, as sometimes the Golden Gnome location will be in the air.
• Memorize where the Golden Gnomes appear, as it will be easier to complete the challenge subsequent times, especially if you run out of time the first few times.

I have completed all of these Gnome Challenges for Catch The Gnome, so I am reenacting what the challenge would be like.

OTHER INFORMATION

Associated Medals

If you complete all the Gnome Challenges in each region, you will automatically collect some cool medals for your hard work. Here are the associated medals for completing the Gnome Challenges in each region:

Plants and Zombies Town Center

In these regions, these 2 medals are shared, which means that if you earn these medals in one of these regions, you will automatically get it in the other:

• Being Gnosey: Complete a Gnome Challenge in your regions.
• Gno Problemo: Complete every Gnome Challenge in your regions.

Mount Steep

• (name of medal coming soon) - Complete a Gnome Challenge in your region.
• (name of medal coming soon) - Complete every Gnome Challenge in your region.

Weirding Woods

• Bring it On Gnome: Complete a Gnome Challenge in your region.
• Gno Sweat - Complete every Gnome Challenge in your region.

Conclusion

While these challenges may seem annoying or challenges to complete, hopefully this guide will make these activities easier to complete. Playing with friends or other players will make this a lot easier as well, because you can work together to complete each of the Gnome Challenges. Hopefully this guide helped you to complete some tough challenges and collect some medals!

Regards

@TheSprinter85