Upgrades Discussion: GW2 Upgrades!
I have been very interested in adding to current discussions on this forum and reading them, so I would like to make some of my own discussions where anyone can add to!
In this discussion, I am going to cover all of the character upgrades that are available in Garden Warfare 2, and will cover some Battle for Neighborville upgrades after this discussion. I do not see any need to discuss the Garden Warfare 1 upgrades, as they are set upgrades without being customisable and must simply be unlocked.
Anyway, enjoy the discussion and post your thoughts if you would like!
INTRODUCTION
Each character in Garden Warfare 2 will unlock up to 8 upgrades, which you unlock by continuing to upgrade and promote the character. There are some universal upgrades that every character will receive, although there are some upgrades that only particular characters will receive. You can only have to 3 upgrades equipped at once, and you will only benefit from an upgrade while it is equipped. You may change your equipped upgrades in the character selection menu at any time. You should take which upgrades you wish to use into consideration, as specific upgrades may combo well with the character or character variant that you are using! This system allows you to customise your character and to synergise with specific combos!
Source: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Upgrades_(PvZ:_GW2).
Health Regeneration Delay Upgrade
The Health Regeneration Delay upgrade reduces the time after taking damage before your natural regeneration will begin on its own. You can use this upgrade to heal more efficiently between fights and to get back into fights sooner. You may find this useful if your character has only taken a small amount of damage or if your character has low maximum health. You can use it along with the Health Regeneration upgrade for faster healing and you can use it to prevent being vanquished.
This is a universal upgrade, meaning every character will receive this upgrade.
Health Regeneration Upgrade
The Health Regeneration upgrade increases your natural regeneration speed, allowing you to regenerate health at a quicker pace. You can use this upgrade to heal more quickly after a fight so you can keep your health topped up more often. You may find this useful if your character has taken lots of damage during a fight or if your character has high maximum health. You can use it with the Health Regeneration Delay upgrade for improved healing and it can be used to prevent being vanquished.
This is a universal upgrade, meaning every character will receive this upgrade.
Speed Upgrade
The Speed upgrade improves your movement speed, allowing you to travel around the map more quickly, whether you are walking normally or when using abilities. You can use this upgrade to a fight more quickly, escape your enemies more carefully, approach or chase down your enemies more easily or to slightly improve your chances of avoiding attacks during a fight due to the increased speed. You may find this useful if your character has low movement speed or high movement speed.
This is a universal upgrade, meaning every character will receive this upgrade.
Health Upgrade
The Health upgrade increases your maximum health, which allows you to receive more damage before you get vanquished. You can use this upgrade to increase your survivability during a fight and it can allow you to last longer in a battle. Depending on the situation, the additional health could provide the difference between you winning and losing a fight. You may find this useful if your character has low maximum health or high maximum health.
This is a universal upgrade, meaning every character will receive this upgrade.
Damage Upgrade
The Damage upgrade increases the damage of your primary weapons, allowing you to deal more damage to your enemies and to vanquish them more quickly. You can use this upgrade to finish weakened enemies more easily or to improve your overall damage per second output. This could allow you to win fights more often as you will hopefully deal damage faster than the enemy. You may find this useful if your character already deals high damage, has good damage per second or if you have a fast rate of fire.
Many characters receive this upgrade, however not all characters will gain this upgrade.
Zoom Upgrade
The Zoom upgrade gives you increased zoom when you are aiming, improving your accuracy at longer ranges, allowing you to keep the distance between you and your enemies more easily. You can use this upgrade to attack more effectively at longer ranges, which will be especially useful if you are sniping, and you may find the zoom to even be useful when at medium range, however you will get no benefit at close range. You may find this useful if your character is not normally that accurate or if you already have increased zoom.
Most characters receive this upgrade, however characters that are limited to close range will not gain this upgrade.
Ammo Upgrade
The Ammo upgrade improves your maximum ammo per clip, you will be shoot for longer without needing to reload this way. You can use this upgrade to reduce the chances of you needing to reload during a fight, which could leave you vulnerable and unable to attack for a short time. You may find this useful if your character has low maximum ammo or if they have high maximum ammo. You should reload when you do not need to attack to keep your ammo count at maximum for a fight.
Only characters that use ammo will receive this upgrade. Characters that have infinite ammo or that can overheat will not receive this upgrade.
Reload Upgrade
The Reload upgrade reduces the time it takes for you to reload, meaning that each reload you make will be quicker. You can use this upgrade to leave you less vulnerable if you find yourself needing to reload during a fight. You may find this useful if your character can already reload quickly, if your character takes a long time to reload or if your character has low maximum ammo and needs to reload often.
Only characters that use ammo will recieve this upgrade. Characters that have infinite ammo or that can overheat will not receive this upgrade.
Overheat Upgrade
The Overheat upgrade improves the amount of time that you can attack for before you weapon overheats. You can use this upgrade to maintain fire for longer, and so you can take smaller breaks in between attacks to prevent overheating, which may leave you vulnerable if you overheat during a fight. You may find this useful if your character normally overheats quickly or slowly. You should still try to take breaks if you attack constantly, although this is less necessary.
Only characters that can overheat will receive this upgrade. Characters that use ammo or that cannot overheat will not receive this upgrade.
Overheat Penalty Upgrade
The Overheat Penalty upgrade reduces the cooldown time before you can attack again when you overheat. You can use this upgrade to leave yourself less vulnerable when you are in a tough situation during a fight and you did overheat. You may find this useful if your charcter has a long overheat cooldown, a short overheat cooldown or if your character normally overheats quickly and you are likely to overheat often.
Only characters that can overheat will receive this upgrade. Characters that use ammo or that cannot overheat will not receive this upgrade.
Fire Upgrade
The Fire upgrade increases the amount of fire damage that you deal each second to your enemies. You deal 5 damage to enemies per second for 5 seconds with the upgrade, for a total of 25 damage (normally without the upgrade, you deal 4 damage per second for 5 seconds, a total of 20 damage). You can use this upgrade to improve your overall damage to enemies and to take full advantage of the fire damage. You may find this useful to vanquish enemies that have been weakened or to provide additional lingering damage support for your team. You should try and spread the fire damage to multiple enemies at least once each for best results.
Only fire characters will receive this upgrade. Applicable characters include:
- Fire Pea.
- Fire Cactus.
- Fire Chomper.
- Fire Flower.
- Fire Rose.
- BBQ Corn.
- Centurion.
- Welder.
- Cricket Star.
- Paleontologist.
- Lil' Drake.
- Captain Flameface.
Toxic Upgrade
The Toxic upgrade improves the range of your toxic aura against enemies and, when enemies are inflicted with your toxic effect, it improves the range that the toxic effect can spread to their allies. Most toxic characters already have a toxic aura that will instantly apply the toxic effect to enemies that get near you, and the toxic effect will normally spread from the enemies to their nearby allies, although with this upgrade, the range of each of these will be improved, making it easier to spread and inflict the toxic effect. The toxic effect deals 2 damage per second for a few seconds. You can use this upgrade to spread the toxic effect to more enemies and more often. You might find this useful for additional lingering damage and to make it easier to inflict the toxic effect. You should still try and inflict multiple enemies that are not close to each other to improve your toxic spreading potential.
Only toxic characters that have a toxic aura will receive this upgrade. Some toxic characters do not have a toxic aura and will not receive this upgrade. Applicable characters include:
- Toxic Pea.
- Toxic Chomper.
- Toxic Citron.
- Dr. Toxic.
- Captain Squawk.
- Toxic Brainz.
Ice Upgrade
The Ice upgrade reduces the amount of shots you need to inflict on an enemy before they will freeze, slows down enemies more after each time you deal damage and increases the time that the enemy will be chilled for before the slowing effect expires. It will be much easier to freeze your enemies and to keep them at a slowed pace using this upgrade. You can use this upgrade to reduce the chance of your enemies avoiding your attacks and being able to escape once being slowed down, along with being able to freeze your enemies more often and efficiently, which can additionally be used to support your allies by slowing your enemies. You might find this useful for improving your slowing and freezing capabilities, supporting you and your team and for giving your enemies less of a chance of escaping.
Only ice characters will receive this upgrade. Applicable characters include:
- Ice Pea.
- Ice Cactus.
- Yeti Chomper.
- Frozen Citron.
- Frost Rose.
- Arctic Trooper.
- Goalie Star.
- AC Perry.
Explosion Life Upgrade
The Explosion Life upgrade increases the amount of time that the lingering clouds created from your primary weapon will last for. You can use this upgrade to deal additional lingering damage to enemies as it will last longer and to increase the chances of your lingering clouds dealing damage to enemies. You might find this useful for tight spaces and in situations where enemies have restricted space as they will likely take the maximum damage from your lingering clouds. The lingering damage is not much, however improving their linger duration can allow for more overall damage from each lingering cloud.
Only cloud on impact variants will receive this upgrade. Applicable characters include:
- Alien Flower.
- Toxic Citron.
- Park Ranger.
Damage Radius Upgrade
The Damage Radius upgrade increases the size of your lingering clouds created from your primary weapon. You can use this upgrade to deal more damage to enemy groups as the clouds will now affect a larger area and it is more likely that each nearby enemy will take damage from your lingering clouds. You might find this useful for tight spaces and in situations where enemies are closely grouped as you will more likely affect multiple enemies at a time with your lingering clouds more often. The lingering damage is not much, however improving their size can allow for more enemies affected from each lingering cloud.
Only cloud on impact variants will receive this upgrade. Applicable characters include:
- Alien Flower.
- Toxic Citron.
- Park Ranger.
Super Meter Upgrade
The Super Meter upgrade reduces the amount of vanquishes, punches or enemies that you need to eat, depending on your character, to fill up your legendary meter. You can use this upgrade to build your legendary meter up more quickly and so that you can use it more often. You might find this useful for building up your legendary meter more safely and efficiently, along with more frequently. In some cases, this upgrade will have no impact on filling your legendary meter as vanquishing enemy heroes fill up the meter more than a different summonable, however you should be able to get away with vanquishing a summonable instead of a hero (once though) to fill up your meter entirely each time you fill it up.
Only some legendary characters will receive this upgrade. Applicable characters include:
- Disco Chomper.
- Iron Citron.
- Computer Scientist.
- Toxic Brainz.
Penetrate Upgrade
The Penetrate upgrade allows your shots to pierce through more enemies. Some of the characters that can get this upgrade already can pierce an additional enemy, but this upgrade will increase the number of enemies you can pierce. You can use this upgrade to deal damage to multiple enemies at a time and to fight grouped enemies. You may find this useful for dealing with enemies that are lined behind each other as you can hit all of them once each per shot with your piercing. When trying to pierce through enemies, try to line yourself and your shots up, so that you will hit multiple enemies at once.
Only particular characters will receive this upgrade. Applicable characters include:
- Mob Cob.
- Camo Cactus.
- Captain Flameface.
- Camo Ranger.
Digestion Upgrade
The Digestion upgrade reduces the amount of time it takes to digest and resolve eating your enemy. You can use this upgrade to reduce the amount of time that you are vulnerable for after you eat an enemy and to improve your chances of escaping without being vanquished successfully. You may find this useful if you can manage to eat an enemy without being seen or with not many other enemies around, as the quicker digestion time can allow you to get out before your enemies get that chance to react and vanquish you. Being stealthy and trying to make enemies unaware of your presence will assist you in achieving this.
Only Chompers receive this upgrade, however all Chompers will receive this upgrade.
Homing Upgrade
The Homing upgrade will improve the lock on effect of your primary weapon and the shots will travel a bit faster, allowing your shots to chase down and home on your enemies more easily. You can use this upgrade to improve the accuracy of your shots and to land your shots more frequently, as your enemies will have a hard time avoiding the homing. You may find this useful if you are struggling to lock your shots onto your enemies, or if you want to focus more on avoiding shots than aiming your attacks. You can keep a range from your enemies and focus on avoiding any attacks that enemies are sending your way.
Only Roses receive this upgrade, however all Roses will receive this upgrade.
Vampiric Upgrade
The Vampiric upgrade is exclusive to Vampire Flower, and you will now heal 4 health every time you deal damage to an enemy with your primary weapon (normally without the upgrade, you will heal 3 health). You can use the upgrade to keep yourself up during a fight more easily and to heal yourself more efficiently. You may find this useful if you are taking too much damage during a fight or if you struggle to survive due to your lower health. You have less health, so use this healing to stay alive, and as the healing is regardless of the amount of damage you deal, you may want to attack slow moving or larger targets.
Exclusive to Vampire Flower.
CONCLUSION
I learnt a lot when making this post! I barely knew that the Penetrate upgrade was a thing and some other upgrades were fairly unfamiliar to me! The Garden Warfare 2 character upgrade system built on the original Garden Warfare weapon upgrade system, where the upgrades were fixed and could not be changed, they had to be unlocked and they would be permanent once you unlocked them.
I know that some of these upgrades may seem to be redundant, as their effects are not that game changing, however I feel that all of the upgrades have at least some use, even if only in specific situations. Even if an upgrade and the effect that it provides is quite minimal, it is much better in my opinion to use upgrades than not to, as it could provide you with at least a small change in certain cases.
I personally think that all the upgrades are cool, although probably the best general upgrades are Damage, Ammo/Overheat and Reload/Overheat Penalty. The other general upgrades, including Health Regeneration, Health Regeneration Delay, Speed and Zoom, are actually useful too, although probably to a lesser extent. However, the more unique upgrades are the coolest in my opinion, for instance, the Ice upgrade on Ice characters, the Fire upgrade on Fire characters, the Toxic upgrade on Toxic characters, the Explosion Life and Damage Radius on Cloud on Impact characters, for example. You will not come across this upgrades as often, only on specific characters, although the effects can be much more significant and fun to use! I always suggest that you use this special upgrade on the eligible characters.
Something to consider that the upgrade system in Garden Warfare 2 is customisable, you can combo the upgrades with one another, the character and/or variant that you are using, the team composition or what you friends are using and any alternate abilites that you use. Even though these upgrades will not be unlocked from the start, you will continue to unlock upgrades as you level up, giving you more incentive to level up your character rather than simply promoting every 10 levels and gaining coins.
I will point something out before I conclude: this was a guide post as well as a discussion! So feel free to refer back to here and take into consideration which upgrades you should use on each of your characters! I am one step ahead and generally have most or all of my upgrade builds planned out for every character variant that I use in Garden Warfare 2!
Well, that is all now! I am going to start discussing upgrades in Battle for Neighborville next time!
