Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes

Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes is a turn-based strategy game based on the Plants vs. Zombies franchise. This title takes cues from collectible card games and has players control an avatar who has to fight an opponent on a board by using a custom deck of cards. The story explains how Dr. Zomboss designed a machine called Zombot Hero-Tron 5000 to turn zombies into heroes. It malfunctions however, giving the zombies super powers. But the explosion also affects the nearby plants, providing them with new abilities. This game lets players control avatars on both sides, plants and zombies, fighting AI opponents or participating in online multiplayer matches. Each side has ten different avatars to unlock, with three shared abilities and a unique one that can all be used in battle as the avatars are also present on the board. There are also two different classes of cards available and a custom deck of 40 cards is taken into battle.

A game is played on on a single-screen board that consists of five lanes with an avatar of each side. Lanes are not identical, as some have height with advantages for certain characters or others have water that can be used by amphibious creatures. A round always consists of the same sequence: zombies make the first action, plants react to it, zombies have the ability to react with tricks, and after that three-step planning phase everything in executed in that order. While zombies strike first, plants can still fight back in a reaction before they disappear from the board. A game is won when the main avatar on one of the sides has lost the 20 health points. Each character in a lane has two numbers, a green one for damage and a red one for health. Cards are drawn from the pile from each round. While there are regular characters that attack, many cards also introduce status effects, affect enemy actions or help characters support each other by altering statistics. Zombies often have the last word with tricks as dangerous status effects. The lanes are also important as characters always attack in a straight line. Positioning or moving away creatures helps to find an open spot or to block an incoming attack. Damage dealt to the avatars fills up a Super-Block meter used to activate the special abilities.

Actions such as putting cards on the board or using buffs requires sun as a currency. An amount is provided per turn and it is not carried over. Completing matches is rewarded with packs that introduce new cards with different frequency levels. A deck can only hold a limited amount of cards, so redundant ones need to be discarded. The game is free-to-play. Next to a basic currency there is a premium one based on gems. Gems are mainly used to buy premium packs and access rare and powerful cards that are harder to find in regular games. Multiplayer can be done in casual and ranked games. Ranks are grouped in different leagues and are run as seasons.