EA Staff (Retired)
@pandareno1999 wrote:
@EA_Andy Could we get this made sticky?
Consider it done! 🙂
Keep the tips coming.
- Andy -
Husk Hop is a tough one ☹️ I find if you barely touch anything during the hop, even a small ledge just in front of your feet, it will cancel the hops ammunition discharge and completely ruin your momentum... He's my Favorite plant by far but some of the jumps people can pull off with him I can't even fathom without lots of planning and a good run first.
Sure enough Mr. EA_Andy buddy!
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"Shooting from the Right"
You can fire safely from behind cover as most zombies so long as you can angle the barrel of your gun "To the right" of the cover you are hiding behind. So if you hold down the button you use to aim (L2 by default on PS4) and zoom in, you can see perfectly where the barrel of your gun is resting. This makes nesting in those high places with chimneys or walls you can hide behind as a Foot Soldier much better since you can consistently return fire so long as you don't over do it. People run, but if you're behind that wall firing every now and then, then only the most perceptive player will engage your position!
This makes using the Tackle Dummy very useful for extending cover as well, but keep in mind that All-Stars by default move their cannons in a sort of circular motion, which will cause you to hit your own dummy now and then so take your dummy durability into consideration as you do so! Practice makes perfect! (You can also place the dummy to extend cover while staying behind the initial location you would be firing from as any other class in order to fire between your cover and the dummy. Anyone who shoots the dummy may think they scored a hit on you and stay out to try and continue hitting it!)
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Air-Bombing Citron tip
Here's one for the Citron:
This is more just a tip than some kind of sneaky trick, using your Ball Form you can activate Hyper in order to move around, jump high, or even evade and escape large groups of Zombies. Not many consider ending the cooldown early for any reason since it's such a helpful skill -- HOWEVER, you can in fact use this skill to pretend you are running away, charge the enemy or simply let them come to you while dodging fire, hop OVER THEM with Peashooter Hyper grace not known to most Citron, activate your Assault Form mid-aid above your target, land behind them, ALL THE WHILE MASHING THE EMPEACH ABILITY BUTTON. By the time you land, your enemy will have about a 0.3-0.8 second time to respond before they are stunned and primed for vanquish.
If you are unsure about your aiming speed, you may consider (Taking a few vanquishes yourself in the process, in the name of practice) activating your shield while they are stunned. This has gotten me vanquished for more than I'd like since I end up needing that shield later down the line. >< Please also keep in mind, you CAN NOT ACTIVATE CITRON'S PEEL SHIELD MID-AIR!!! He can only activate it while standing firm on the ground. This is why EMPeach is favored over the shield, as it can be a sort of sneak attack.
It takes practice, and you have to aim while swapping from ball to assault mid-air, and since the empeach will usually launch near the time you hit the ground to a little bit after you are punished for poor aim AND timing (Dependent on your height when you activate Assault Form).
But the reward is great. Especially if you are caught behind enemy lines by that one lone roamer zombie who has a knack for ruining good subterfuge. Imagine their face when they thought they had you on the run just to get taken down by a 25% health Citron who decided to just jump once! They don't expect you to come down ready to fight after using the shiny run skill. Who stays and fights when they do?
As Frozen Citron, nobody can recover from this, especially with Ice Upgrade (Gold Rank Plate lvl5) and fair aim... beware zoologists who can somehow still hit you in the air and pirates who are privvy to this and unleash the barrel of doom. Flee from the barrel.
Finally, always expect to take at least 25 damage from this. If you can dodge EVERY bullet, okay, but if you try to do this with say, 5-35 health, it's not gonna save your life. I'd suggest just running away with the hyper.
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Another simple trick
Foot Soldiers!!! FOOT SOLDIERS!!!!! Your smoke Grenade is for more than choking out a capture point! And this is key.
Many of you might know this, it could be common knowledge, but when I realized it it had changed the way I played entirely as the Foot Soldier.
When standing in your Smoke Grenade, you are NOT TARGETED by game AI (Within Reason. if they walk in it and see you, you exist to them. If they saw you run into it after you engaged them, they will run through it sometimes.) But for the absolute most part, everything ignores you while in that happy little stinky cloud...
....Now get this... it works on players.
Not even joking! When I first started playing, plants used to FIRE at smoke clouds... they just don't seem to anymore! And if they do, it's a simple matter of backing out of the cloud until they stop! Would YOU fire at a cloud when you have other stuff to worry about?!
You as a zombie are immune to the smoke grenade. If you fire from it the only way someone can tell your position is by damaging you or successfully guessing where you're shooting from, leading by that guess, and firing at where you will be. (Just fire in bursts! Don't stand still! They're gonna move anyway don't waste bullets! It also resets your recoil to let go of fire button, ensuring accuracy when you fire again. :D)
There's tactic with the smoke bomb as well! Take some time to stand in your smoke bomb. Inhale the air. Enjoy it. Mmm taste the stink of it. Become one with that stink cloud and you'll see. As you stand within and examining it (In your backyard for safety :P) there are spots you can put your camera that allow you decent to fair visibility of the field for harassing plants. Throwing the smoke bomb to the location you intend to fire from while running to it can almost ENSURE that no plant will know you intend to strike from there. Looks more like someone accidentally threw their bomb in the wrong spot to me.
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And finally... spotting? You see those little heads on the map? I don't really know what makes those pop up, but I do know that when somebody fires their weapon, it makes it pop up.
I don't know if you head pops up while firing in the smoke cloud. But I do know this friendly tip from me to you o_o
Do not fire your weapon, unless you want someone to know where you're at. It's fun, yes, but your head will linger for a while there, and any route you take you just might encounter someone who saw they could head you off.
Thanks for the sticky and the XP! I'm happy these tips come in handy, and as always, I only hope they increase balance in the game for everyone, most so by ensuring tactical approaches to character and skill technique can be accessed by those who can comprehend them... but cannot come up with them on their own due to harrowing experience during newbie play. (I always got gunned down when I first started playing and stood in smoke bombs 😕 but now a smoke bomb is like a gigantic evil death cloud I can strike and flee from at any time. But I had to consider that nobody was firing at them... they just knew I was standing there in one spot firing from it, punishing me for it, then I decide standing there is bad idea for eternity. Nope!)
Happy Easter everybody, and good vanquishing!
~The Imp Tip~
It's no secret that the Imp is one bad dude. If played right, he's downright mean. If played wrong, he's absolutely adorable. And even the best of players know that when you call in your Mech, there's always that chance some Peashooter or Sunflower is nearby in root mode just WAITING to make you wish you hadn't! Once your Mech is destroyed you're forced to endure a veyr lengthy cooldown in-between the destructive awesomeness that is your favorite robotic companion.
Fret not however, for there's real reason to level all Imps equally and try to have them all at top upgrade specs!
Each Imp's Mech cooldown is unique to that Imp in particular! So say you were playing Scallywag Imp and summoned your Mech just to have it get thrashed by a heavily defended point - Simply switch Imps! This won't help with the cooldown on the Imp you were just using, but the Cooldown for the next Imp you choose will be at Half, just like when you first began the match. :o This goes for every Imp you switch to, and if you aren't too easy to spot, you'll actually have difficulty doing this with every as there may not be enough time in the game depending on how attatched you get to your vanquish streaks! (I usually respawn right away if my Mech runs outta juice while shooting from afar. Just so I can hop into another mech as I'm not very nimble with the 75 health little guy 😕)
So in short, this can lead to your team having a Mech driver (Of unknown skill level :P) nearly every life you have as Imp.
HEALING vs ELEMENTAL EFFECTS
Everyone knows that some characters carry an elemental effect with their shots and while Electric simply arcs around Fire and Toxic will inflict lingering damage which you carry around, and even if you initially survive your encounter and vanquish your opponent the lingering fire and poison can deplete your Health and give that opponent a From the Grave vanquish and as far as Ice is concerned everyone hate the movement penalty and being frozen in place as a sitting duck.
What a lot of people don't seem to realize is the role that Healing has in mitigating these lingering effects; either removing them or preventing them entirely.
The Sunflower Heal Beam, Heal Flower, Rainbow Heal Flower and the Heal Flower Pots which can be spawned along with the Scientist Heal Beam of Science, Heal Stations, Mega Heal Bomb and Dr. Heals Bot all effectively counter being slowed, frozen, set on fire or poisoned.
If you are currently on fire, poisoned, slowed or frozen receiving even a moment of healing from any source will cancel that effect, and having the benefit of having a Heal Beam placed on you or standing in the healing radius of a stationary source like a Heal Flower or Dr. Heals will prevent it from even happening in the first place- you'll still take damage from any hits but those hits won't set your face on fire, or freeze you or poison you.
This is not only useful in Multiplayer or Co-Op play but it's a vital tactic in some Boss Hunts, like The Kings Day Out where you are in constant danger of being frozen or slowed, or A Banquet for Sasquatch where the Sasquatch keeps turning you into a walking bonfire. This is why so many experienced Sunflower players fight with a Heal Flower by their side almost constantly during those events; not just for the Health benefits but to stop themselves from being set on fire by Sasquatch or frozen by the Yeti King, or even those annoying Yeti Bosses in Garden Ops.
If you play a Scientist or a Sunflower and you see a teammate slowly burning, poisoned or just stuck in place frozen just snap out your Heal Beam or drop a Heal Flower and you'll instantly cure them and return them to normal.
One thing to remember though is that the Vampire Flowers ability to steal Health from Zombies with every hit won't cure these elemental effects; but if you are only facing a single opponent or a couple and aren't taking large amounts of damage you should find that a constant barrage of successful hits on the Zombies might just offset that extra Toxic or Fire damage and keep you alive; but as far as Ice is concerned you're just as vulnerable as anyone else to being frozen without a Sunflower teammates assistance or backup from your own Heal Flower.
