Zombies Town Center & Weirding Woods - The Crystal Dog Guide!
Greetings,
In this thread I will provide my tips to defeat the Marigold that appears occasionally in the Zombie free-roam regions, Zombies Town Center and Weirding Woods. This guide is more intended for newer players or players who are having trouble completing these parts of their free-roam regions, but anyone can read it and use it as they please. I cover information in this guide such as who the Marigold is, what the Crystal Dog is, what the Strange Well is and more. By completing these activities I am going to cover in more detail, you will get exclusive medals for completing them, so it is necessary to do these to get the medals and complete your regions. I also took some pictures as well and included them here for extra detail - after all, a picture is worth 1,000 words. At least that's what I've heard.
What is the Marigold, Crystal Dog and Strange Well?
The Marigold is a boss enemy that will appear every so often in both Zombies Town Center and Weirding Woods. She cannot appear while you are doing a story quest, but apart from that, there is no restriction on where she can appear. There are no real patterns to when she will appear - so get ready for her to appear. The game will tell you when a Marigold is nearby, so be ready for that to occur. Perhaps while you are trying to find other collectibles, if the Marigold appears, you can try and vanquish her and get your Crystal Dog medals quickly, and then continue with whatever you were doing. When she appears, she will appear in a location somewhere near you, so a keep a lookout for her icon when this happens. It may additionally be worth occasionally looking around in case you missed her presence. She does not stay for very long and she disappears quite quickly, so you will want to take initiative when she appears.
Zombies Town Center:
Weirding Woods:
The Crystal Dog is an item that drops when you defeat the Marigold. Note that it does not 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.
Zombies Town Center:
Weirding Woods:
The Strange Well is located in Zombies Town Center and Weirding Woods, 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 trying to get 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 quest 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 or marshmallows, depending on your region you're in, so it may be worth the trouble of doing this again when you get the opportunity to do it more than once.
Zombies Town Center:
Weirding Woods:
Medals You Receive
By successfully vanquishing the Marigold, and taking the Crystal Dog to the Strange Well without being vanquished yourself, you get a total of 2 medals. These medals cannot be obtained in any other way, 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 it 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 and are focusing on trying to complete any other ones, it's 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 Zombies Town Center and in Camp-Near-A-Lake in Weirding Woods.
The locations are as follows:
Zombies Town Center:
Weirding Woods:
Tips for Defeating the Marigold!
The Marigold does not stick around for very long before she disappears, so you want to make haste and take quick action when she appears. For this reason, she can prove to be a big challenge to defeat. Not to mention she hops around really fast and can stun you for significant periods of time with her Chest Slam attack when you get too close, which massively reduces your movement speed for a significant period of time, so both of these together mean that the Marigold can become really hard to deal with and keep up with.
I have made some personal tips and attached them here to hopefully make the Marigold easier for you to fight:
- If you are directly waiting for the Marigold to appear, you may find it easier to hang out near where the Strange Well is, that way when you defeat her and collect your Crystal Dog, you can quickly and easily take it to the Well. But if you're working on collecting other items and she appears, try and defeat her where you are as every second is valuable.
- Something that is really important to have when battling the Marigold is mobility. Since she can stun you and severely reduce your movement speed for a while, abilities that give mobility, or Brainium Basher, are really useful when fighting her. Brainium Basher is excellent as it is not an ability and you can possibly charge into her, dealing significant damage to her as well.
- Another important thing to have against the Marigold with the character of your choosing is damage. Because she will disappear after a certain time limit, it's important to sink damage into her quickly. If your high damage attacks and abilities take a while to resolve, try and think ahead and use them at the best possible time.
- Gaining a height advantage against Marigold is really helpful, as it's much harder for her to escape you and find cover, not to mention that she cannot Chest Slam you as you will be out of the radius of the attack. Characters with good jump height are good to use for this reason.
- Homing and splash damage are really good against the Marigold. Homing means your attacks and abilities are less likely to miss and splash damage means that, even if you miss, you may still deal some damage to her, which is what you want. Damage. Example of homing ability is Can't Missile.
- Because being vanquished wastes valuable time trying to fight her, high health characters, characters with shield capabilities and healing capabilities are really useful so you are less likely to be vanquished. If you are vanquished, you may even lose sight of the Marigold for a while, wasting lots of valuable time. Using upgrades that help with regeneration, damage reduction or similar are also good to use.
- When you go to fight the Marigold, before she appears, consider what character you would like to use. Also make a consideration of which upgrades you equip. Upgrades that help with mobility, survivability, 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 her, to give you an easier time against her. You do not want to switch characters during the fight as that wastes time, so prepare and make your character build 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 period 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, be quick and plan ahead, so you don't take too long and lose the Crystal Dog. Remember, limited time.
- Try and fight the Marigold near the Strange Well, because once you vanquish her, hopefully, you can quickly pick up the Crystal Dog and simply place in the Strange Well without much, if any, trouble.
- When you pick 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 Marigold, so do not if you want the medal). Try and use as much cover as you can and stay away from enemies, because even if they look in your general direction, you can easily be vanquished after that.
- If there are enemies in the way you cannot avoid, try and fight them from the furthest distance possible, and use as much cover as you can. You can peek out of cover, attack with a couple of quick shots, quickly head back into cover, then rinse and repeat.
- There is a character who is really effective with the Crystal Dog: Super Brainz. Why, you might ask? Super Brainz has a shield which is not an ability which you can shield yourself with while you have the Crystal Dog. Furthermore, while you are holding your shield, you get a passive movement speed boost. You can use it to protect you, and move faster, as you head towards the Well. Your shield does not take extra damage due to you holding the Crystal Dog. It only affects your character, not your shields. You could also try using Brainium Basher, your dash attack does not require an ability use, meaning you can use it to quickly cover long distances, even if you have the Crystal Dog. Just note that if you use this upgrade you lose your shield access.
- Jump frequently while you are holding the Crystal Dog to move slightly faster and reduce your chances of being hit by attacking enemies.
- Consider the character you use for bringing the Crystal Dog back to the Strange Well, even before you fight the Marigold, and always keep a lookout for enemies as they suddenly become very dangerous.
Conclusion and List of Rewards
To know more about the Marigold, and for more tips for vanquishing her, visit this page: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Marigold_(Boss)
While these 2 quests may seem quite 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 Marigold appears nearby, you may as well attempt to vanquish her and get your Crystal Dog and your two medals, so you don't have to worry about these quests later. Overall, these missions should not take you long to complete, so it does not require you to go out of your way greatly.
The rewards you get for completing these activities the first time are as follows:
- Your 2 Medals.
- 10,000 coins.
- Some Tacos and Marshmallows, depending on your region.
Any subsequent times, you get 2,500 coins instead, and no additional medals.
These quests are made easier by getting friends to help you, if possible. If you can get friends to help you with this, you can get them to help you vanquish the Marigold, as well as them protect 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 the Marigold appears. Just note that you have to get the direct vanquish on the Marigold and you have to be the player 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 for all of you to get the medals.
Hopefully this guide was helpful and I will see you in the next one!
Bye now!
Regards
