Plants Town Center & Mount Steep - The Crystal Dog Guide!
Hi everyone,
In this thread I will be providing my tips upon defeating the Treasure Yeti that occasionally appears in the Plant free-roam regions, Plants Town Center and Mount Steep. Let me start by saying that this guide is more intended for newer players or players having trouble completing these parts of their free-roam regions. I will cover information such as who the Treasure Yeti is, what the Crystal Dog, what the Strange Well is and more. By completing the activities I am going to cover, you will get exclusive medals for them, so it is necessary to do these to get the medals and complete your regions. I also took some pictures as well for extra detail - after all, a picture is worth 1,000 words, am I wrong?
What is the Treasure Yeti, Crystal Dog and Strange Well?
The Treasure Yeti is a boss enemy that occasionally appears in both Plants Town Center and Mount Steep. There are no restrictions to where he can appear, although if you are doing a story quest or another mission, he will not appear. There is no real patterns to when he will appear - so get ready for him to appear. The game will tell you when a Treasure Yeti is nearby, so be ready for that. Perhaps while you are trying to find other collectibles, if the Treasure Yeti appears, you can try and vanquish him and get your Crystal Dog medals quickly, and then continue with whatever you were doing. When he appears, he will appear somewhere in a location near you, so keep a lookout for his icon when this happens. It may be worth occasionally looking around in case you missed his presence. He does not stay for very long and disappears quite quickly, so you will want to take initiative when he appears.
Plants Town Center:
Mount Steep:
The Crystal Dog is an item that drops when the Treasure Yeti is defeated. Note that it doesn't last very long before it disappears, so it's best to try and make haste and collect it quickly. When you possess the Crystal dog and pick it up, you lose access to your abilities and cannot sprint. You also cannot heal naturally and become very fragile against damage; if you would take damage, the damage you take is greatly amplified, so it's always best to try and steer clear from enemies and other hazards. If you lose the Crystal Dog due to being vanquished (you are also able to drop it, but do not do that if you are trying to earn the medals), then you will have to restart, which can be frustrating because it can take some time to actually get hold of one in the first place. However, you can still use your primary weapons and reload.
Plants Town Center:
Mount Steep:
The Strange Well is located in Plants Town Center and Mount Steep, but it's only in one location on the map. To actually get your Crystal Dog challenges, you will need to interact with the Strange Well for the first time, so do that first before getting your Medals. Then, when you collect the Crystal Dog, bring it to the Strange Well (interact with it prior) and you will get 10,000 coins and an exclusive medal for your trouble. Note that you can repeat this any amount of times, but if you do it more than once, you will get no medals and only 2,500 coins. You will also get a few tacos and sheriff badges, depending on your region, so it may be worth the trouble if you get the opportunity to do it more than once.
Plants Town Center:
Mount Steep:
Medals You Receive
By successfully vanquishing the Treasure Yeti, and taking the Crystal Dog to the Strange Well without being vanquished yourself, you get a total of two medals. These medals cannot be obtained anywhere else, so you will need to do these activities once or more to complete the region. The names of the medals vary between these two regions, but once you have fulfilled one of these conditions, check your medal progress to see if has changed or wait for a medal to appear on your screen.
Location of the Strange Well
The Strange Well is only located in one location in each free-roam region, there is not multiple in the same region. For this reason, if you're solely trying to get these medals are not focusing on any other ones, it is probably best to stick near the Well, so when you pick up the Crystal Dog, you don't have to go very far.
The Strange Well is located in Sundrop Hills in Plants Town Center and in Olde Town Road in Mount Steep. They are both located very close to where you appear in your respective regions.
The locations are as follows:
Plants Town Center:
Mount Steep:
Tips for Defeating the Treasure Yeti!
Because the Treasure Yeti doesn't stick around for very long, you want to make haste and take quick action when he appears. For this reason, he can be really difficult to defeat. Not to mention he moves around really fast and can massively slow you down with his Ice Wave attack when he gets too close, this just makes it harder again.
I have made some personal tips and attached them here to hopefully make the Treasure Yeti easier for you to fight:
- If you are waiting for the Treasure Yeti to appear, you may find it easier to try and stick near where the Strange Well is, because that way when you defeat him and collect your Crystal Dog, you can quickly and easily take it to the Well. But if you're working on collecting other stuff and he appears, try and defeat him where you are as every second is valuable.
- Something that is really important to have against the Treasure Yeti with the character of your choice is mobility. He can slow you significantly if you get close and, even though he is a boss, he moves around really fast. You can use mobility to get closer to him when you are falling behind.
- Another thing that is really important to have against the Treasure Yeti with the character of your choice is damage. Because there is a time limit before he disappears, you want to be able to damage him quickly. If your high damage abilities take a while to resolve, try to think ahead and use them at the right time.
- Gaining a height advantage against him is excellent, because he shouldn't be able to Ice Wave you and slow you down, and you also can attack him from above. If he starts moving around really fast, you should still be able to attack him because you have a height advantage, and it will be much harder for him to find cover. This is also a really good time to use Pea Gatling and Sunbeam, these abilities are useful as these abilities can do immense damage and can possibly vanquish him by themselves.
- Homing attacks and abilities are really good against the Treasure Yeti as it can somewhat counteract his high speed, and most likely still damage him. Just note that some homing attacks are slow. Examples include Rose's primary weapon, Thorn Apart legendary upgrade, Blue Blazes, Homing Pea upgrade for Peashooter and so on.
- Getting vanquished wastes valuable time trying to fight him, high health characters, characters with healing capabilities and characters with shields are useful because you are less likely to be vanquished. If you are vanquished, you may lose sight of the Treasure Yeti for a while, wasting valuable time. Using upgrades that assist with regeneration, damage reduction or similar are good to use.
- When you go to fight the Treasure Yeti, before he appears, consider what character you want to use. Also make a consideration of which upgrades you equip. Upgrades that help with mobility, survivability, homing capabilities, healing and damage is great to consider. It may even be worth making a temporary build with a character that you intend to use to fight him, to give you an easier time against him. You don't want to switch characters during the fight as that wastes time, so prepare and use your character beforehand.
Tips for Bringing the Crystal Dog to the Strange Well!
Because you are really vulnerable when you possess the Crystal Dog, you cannot use your abilities or sprint, you cannot heal naturally and any damage you take is greatly amplified to the point where even small attacks can be fatal or near fatal, this can be really hard to complete.
Which is why I have also made some personal tips and attached them here for making your life easier when bringing the Crystal Dog to the well:
- The Crystal Dog vanishes after a short amount of time, so pick it up quickly by interacting with it. However, enemies nearby may be able to vanquish you once you collect it, so you may want to quickly vanquish a few enemies in the area before you pick it up. If you respawn to a different character to pick it up, plan ahead and decide which character you want to use before you even fight the Treasure Yeti.
- Try and fight the Treasure Yeti near the Strange Well, when you vanquish him, hopefully you can easily pick up the Crystal Dog and place it in the Strange Well without much, if any, trouble.
- Once you have picked up the Crystal Dog, unless you drop it, you have an unlimited amount of time to place it in the Strange Well, unless you drop it (if you drop it, you have to defeat another Treasure Yeti, so do not if you want the medal). Try and use as much cover as you can and stay away from enemies, because if they see you, you can easily be vanquished.
- If you need to battle enemies along the way, try and do it from the furthest distance possible, or try to peek out of cover, attack with a couple of quick shots, then hide back into cover for a bit, then rinse and repeat.
- There are two really effective characters to use when handling the Crystal Dog: Citron and Corn (with the Shogun-Guard upgrade, if you have it). Why? Because Citron is able to shield against attacks while holding the Crystal Dog, and Shogun-Guard Corn is able to do the same. This is because these are not abilities, rather secondary weapons. This is not something you can normally do with the Gnome Bomb or similar. Citron's shield is able to absorb tons of damage from zombies, and you can regain ammunition when successfully blocking damage with it. Just note you cannot use your Primary Weapon and you move slower while holding the Peel Shield. Shogun-Guard's shield is great as you can fire with your shield active and can absorb at least some damage. Just note that your shield has low health and does not cover the entire front of Corn. Furthermore, your shields do not take extra damage from the Crystal Dog's effect, it only affects your character, not their shields. This is great for taking the Crystal Dog to the Strange Well more safely.
- Jump frequently while you are moving, while you hold the Crystal Dog, to move a bit faster, and if you get attacked, you are somewhat less likely to get hit by enemies.
- Consider the character you use for bringing the Crystal Dog back to the Strange Well, even before you fight the Treasure Yeti, and always keep a lookout for enemies, as they become very dangerous.
Conclusion and List of Rewards
To know more about the Treasure Yeti, and for more tips for vanquishing him, visit this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Treasure_Yeti_(Boss)
Now, while these quests may seem different compared to other story missions in the free-roam regions, it is important that you complete them, because if you do not, you will not be able to fully complete these free-roam regions. If you're having fun or collecting other items, and the Treasure Yeti is nearby, you may as well attempt to vanquish him and get your Crystal Dog and your two medals, so you don't have to worry about them later. Overall, these missions should not take long to complete, so it does not greatly require you to go out of your way.
The rewards you get for completing these activities the first time are as follows:
- Your 2 Medals.
- 10,000 coins.
- Some Tacos and Sheriff Badges, depending on your region.
Any subsequent times, you get 2,500 coins instead, and no additional medals.
This is made easier by getting friends to help you. If you can get friends to help you with this, you can get them to help vanquish the Treasure Yeti, as well as them protecting you while you take the Crystal Dog to the Strange Well. You can do the same for them, if they haven't got their Medals yet or they want coins and he appears. Just note that you have to get the direct vanquish on the Treasure Yeti and you have to be the person to directly take the Crystal Dog to the Strange Well, so if you and your friends all want the medal, you will need to take turns.
Oh well, hope this guide was helpful, see you again very soon!
See ya!
Regards
