Weirding Woods - Elusive Foes Guide!

Hello everyone,

In this thread here, I will be covering information on finding the Elusive Foes in Weirding Woods. I will include a bunch of useful information such as what Elusive Foes are, what they look like and how to defeat them, along with attaching pictures of what they look like and other information about them.

What are Elusive Foes?

Elusive Foes are somewhat rare enemies that are located in every free-roam region. Every free-roam region has exactly 3 Elusive Foes to be found. They are found in specific areas only, and after certain criteria have been met as well. If you defeat one, you will be rewarded for it. In order to complete your Weirding Woods region fully, you must defeat every Elusive Foe in the region once or more, as they will reward you with a unique medal if you defeat them. A direct or a shared vanquish both counts, meaning if you simply deal enough damage and an Al Zombie ally, or another friend, defeats them, you will still get the medal. Elusive Foes have a special name displayed above their head, and they all have a red aura around them. All of the Elusive Foes in Weirding Woods have special gimmicks. All Elusive Foes are elite enemies, meaning they have more health than a Champion or regular hero.

Names of Elusive Foes

The Elusive Foes in Weirding Woods can prove to be quite a challenge to defeat and all of them have special gimmicks, unlike the other regions. Also, you must complete most of the main story to unlock some of them, unlike the other regions as well. This is done by obtaining the Boombox item and using it to put the forest to sleep. Furthermore, once of the Elusive Foes is an Elite Boss and has several major gimmicks. For this reason, I will cover him last and provide as much detail on him as I can.

The names of the Elusive Foes in Weirding Woods are Amber Gemma, Sleepy and Pops Cyclops (the Elusive Foe boss). I will provide more information on them below on where they are found and how to lure them out, such as their exact location and their approximate rarity to find. I will add other information, such as pictures of me battling the Elusive Foes and my personal tips to give you an easier time defeating them and obtaining the medals!

THE ELUSIVE FOES

Amber Gemma

Amber Gemma is an Elusive Foe found in Z-Tech Factory. To get her to appear, trigger Battle Zones just outside of the Z-Tech Factory itself. She will have a relatively high chance of appearing at any point throughout the Battle Zone or Skirmish itself. If you complete a Battle Zone and she does not appear, you will need to repeat a Battle Zone until she finally appears. Luckily, she does appear fairly often. Using characters with mobility or significant damage are useful for going around the area faster, finding more enemies faster, then defeating them and getting a Battle Zone to appear more quickly and to complete them in a faster time. If you do this, you should overall find her faster, you have a higher chance anyway. She will not appear if the forest has been put to sleep, so do not put the forest to sleep if you are looking for her. She is a Peashooter who is wearing the "Sappy Pea" costume. 

• Location: Z-Tech Factory (not inside the building, and sometimes during Battle Zones).
• Rarity: Rare.
• Special Gimmicks: She makes all nearby plants, excluding herself, invincible. While the ally plants are invincible, they heal over 100 health per second.
• Medal Received for Defeating Her: ELUSIVE FOE: Amber Gemma.

My tips for having an easier time defeating her are as follows:

• Amber Gemma can rapidly heal allies near her and make them invincible, so it is probably better to try and take her out first. However, you could save her until the Battle Zone has ended so there's less enemies in your face as you try to vanquish her. If you do that, attack or lead enemies away from her.
• Due to her high health, use attacks and abilities to deal lots of damage to her, to guarantee a shared vanquish, or get a direct vanquish, on her. You will get the medal either way.
• You can use attacks and abilities that deal knockback on Amber Gemma to keep her away from her nearby allies, meaning that Amber Gemma's effect is heavily suppressed.
• Try to use attacks and abilities that have an are-of-effect or that deal splash damage to clear out any nearby enemies that are not being made invincible by Amber Gemma, while possibly also damaging Amber Gemma in the process.
• When you encounter Amber Gemma, you may want to switch your character to a one you may be more experienced with to make the fight more easier, or a different character of your choice. Amber Gemma will not despawn but be quick so she does not possibly get vanquished by other Zombies.

To find out more about Amber Gemma, go to this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Amber_Gemma

To find out more about the Amber Gemma medal you obtain by defeating her, go to this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/ELUSIVE_FOE:_Amber_Gemma

Sleepy

Sleepy is an Elusive Foe found in Camp-Near-A-Lake. She will only appear if you have used the Boombox to put the forest to sleep. To do this, you must complete all of the main story, except the Dreadwood boss fight. This is the only Elusive Foe in the game so far that requires you to do something else before you can find them. But, when you have done this and while the Boombox is active, she is guaranteed to appear. When you get back to Camp-Near-A-Lake after using the Boombox, keep a lookout for her. She is a Nightcap who is wearing the "Gnomish Spot-Shroom" costume. There will be other Nightcaps in the area, but Sleepy turns invincible frequently and she looks different to the other Nightcaps.

• Location: Camp-Near-A-Lake (while the Boombox is activated).
• Rarity: Common.
• Special Gimmicks: Turns invincible every few seconds and can still attack you.
• Medal Received for Defeating Her: ELUSIVE FOE: Sleepy.

My tips for having an easier time defeating her are as follows:

• When she is invincible, use this time to regenerate, reload, start using an ability with a delay, move position, charge up an attack, seek cover or similar.
• Seek cover a distance away from Sleepy if you find you are being overwhelmed by her, and use this time to regenerate and get your abilities back.
• Try to vanquish any nearby enemies before taking on Sleepy. If you do, the fight will be easier.
• Wait to use your damaging attacks and abilities until Sleepy is not invincible, otherwise you will waste them and Sleepy will take absolutely no damage from them.
• Switch to a character that you are experienced with before taking on Sleepy, and consider your upgrades.

To find out more about Sleepy, go to this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Sleepy

To find out more about the Sleepy medal you obtain by defeating her, go to this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/ELUSIVE_FOE:_Sleepy

Pops Cyclops (boss)

Pops Cyclops is a unique Elusive Foe found in Stirring Swamp. What makes him unique is his bucket load of gimmicks, along with the fact that he is a boss. He is really difficult to defeat, and unlike other Elusive Foes, if you are vanquished, he is more likely to heal all the way to full health. However, to get him to appear is actually surprisingly easy. If the Boombox has not been activated, you will be able to fight him. However, if you put the forest to sleep, he will not be able to appear. So make sure the Boombox has not been activated before you try to find him. Getting him to appear is simple: go to Stirring Swamp, make sure that the forest has not been put to sleep, then vanquish 3 Dreadroots in the swamp that appear. Once you have done that, he will appear, and you will be able to battle him. He is guaranteed to appear with an 100% chance once you have defeated 3 Dreadroots, so get ready to battle him beforehand as he is really hard to fight. He is a Dreadroot who has a red aura and the name "Pops Cyclops" that appears over his head, so as soon as you have defeated your Dreadroot friends, keep a lookout for him as you do not where he will appear from.

• Location: Stirring Swamp (once you have vanquished 3 Dreadroots). 
• Rarity: Common.
• Medal Received for Defeating Him: ELUSIVE FOE: Pops Cyclops.

Pops Cyclops has a lot of gimmicks, the list of gimmicks are as follows:

• He is a boss, and is an Elite foe, so he has mountains of health!
• Insanely increased damage boost (about 150 damage).
• He instantly heals back to full health if there are no zombies to attack.
• He is completely invincible while burrowing.

Because of all of these gimmicks, he is really hard to defeat. However, instead of getting 75 XP for defeating him, you get 200 XP instead. That's nice I'm sure. A way to tell where he is, is by looking for burrowing Dreadroots. If they are invincible with a rainbow aura, it is Pops Cyclops. Look out for his name - he does tons of damage and can catch you unaware.

My tips for having an easier time defeating him are as follows:

• Before you take on Pops Cyclops, make sure you put some consideration into the character you use, as well as the upgrades you equip.
• Characters with less than or equal to 150 health are not recommended for the fight, as he can vanquish you in one clean shot and probably heal to full health as well.
• Characters with high health and shields are excellent for the fight. If you have enough health, you can survive a shot from him. He won't heal to full health if you are attacking him and he is trying to attack you. Shields are excellent because they do not take extra damage from Pops Cyclops.
• Use cover. If he is about to damage you with a shot, hide behind the cover and let him shoot (and hopefully miss), then come back out and continue attacking him. 
• Pops Cyclops takes really minimal damage, which combined with his huge health, means he will take forever to vanquish. However, if you hit his large eye, he will take greatly increased damage instead of greatly reduced. Always aim for his eye for that reason, whenever you get a chance.
• I heavily suggest using the Health Regeneration and Health Regeneration Delay upgrades against him if you use a Defend character. This will improve your survivability.
• Super Brainz is an excellent character for the fight, but do not use Brainium Basher. You can attack Pops Cyclops constantly, and as he is about to shoot, quickly shield. If you shield the attack properly, your shield won't take much damage, you will take none, and then you can get straight back into shooting him. Rinse and repeat when he is about to attack.
• All-Star is a very good character for the fight. He can drop his shield and continue fighting Pops Cyclops while inside the shield. He can also fully sandbag a hard hit from Pops Cyclops without getting vanquished once. The rapid fire is also good to make sure Pops Cyclops does not heal to full health. Just be careful because if he gets inside the Dummy Shield, it's not good news for you most likely.
• Space Station (not Cadet) is a good character for the fight. It can fully tank a single major hit from Pops Cyclops, two if you regenerate fast enough. The Crater Maker deals major damage and the Space Force is good for using Crater Maker again, along with firing and moving faster. If you have passenger friends, all the better. They can use their shields to block his attacks and can provide extra firepower.
• Imp can be a good character for the fight. Imp by himself is not very good, but you can use cover to hide as Pops Cyclops is about to hit you. Your Mech is where he shines. It can survive 2 full hits from Pops Cyclops, and when your Mech is destroyed, you do not get vanquished. You can use your Missile Madness and Robo-Stomp to deal lots of damage, as well as your Mech's primary to deal constant damage to him. You can also Explosive Escape if your Mech fuel is about to run out or if he is about to vanquish your Mech. Use Mech Hunter if you try this strategy. Remember, you are also invincible when you call in your Mech. Hint hint.
• Once you have defeated the 2nd Dreadroot and need to defeat 1 more before Pops Cyclops appears, switch to your character of your choosing.
• Do not respawn while fighting Pops Cyclops, unless he is already at full health, or he will instantly heal to full health. That would not be fun to deal with, would it now?

To find out more about Pops Cyclops, go to this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Pops_Cyclops

To find out more about the Pops Cyclops medal you obtain by defeating him, go to this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/ELUSIVE_FOE:_Pops_Cyclops

CONCLUSION AND REWARDS

To watch someone finding and battling all 3 of these Elusive Foes, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHVYuAtPYWw

While a couple of Elusive Foes are rare to find or hard to defeat (I'm taking to you, Pops Cyclops!), you will get 75 XP for each Elusive Foe you defeat with the character of your choice, which is good for levelling up particular characters, so it may be worth putting consideration into which character you pick before you battle the Elusive Foe. Pops Cyclops will give you 200 XP instead, but it's probably more important to choose a character that is more effective in defeating him. Also, the first time you defeat an Elusive Foe, you will get a special medal, which are not obtainable in any other way. For this reason, you need to defeat every Elusive Foes in the region once or more is crucial for completing the region, by collecting all of the medals, which means you can 100% the region. If you learn the Elusive Foe's gimmicks and can work around them successfully, and defeat the Foe, you will be rewarded with a medal the first time you defeat them and XP (any amount of times) for your efforts. Because some of the Elusive Foes can be quite hard to defeat or hard to find, you may want to try and get a friend or some friends to help you find and defeat them. If you do, you and your friends can get the medal if they do not already have it, if everyone contributes enough damage for at least a shared vanquish. This should not be difficult to achieve due to their large health pool. Elusive Foes wear exclusive costumes in all of free-roam regions, apart from Pops Cyclops, who simply has an aura and special name above his head. They have special auras (that a very limited amount of other enemies have) and exclusive costumes that no other characters possess in PvE, so you should not find them hard to spot, even when there are multiple enemies around. Just make sure that, while in the correct area or under the right circumstances for an Elusive Foe to spawn, that you keep a lookout for them and their auras.

Well, hopefully this guide proved to be helpful, see you next time!

Farewell!

Regards

@TheSprinter85