Plants vs. Zombies vs. A Trophy Hunter

Plants vs. Zombies is a classic name in many households. If you’re a gamer of any caliber, you’re likely to have heard of it at least in some fashion. There are now many sequels and spin-offs, including mobile games and even a web series.

With such a successful franchise, it’s no surprise that a remaster of the originating title eventually made its way onto digital store shelves in 2025. But what does this mean for nostalgic trophy hunters?

Plants vs. Zombies may be simple in concept, but it is no cakewalk. Completionists are going to have their work cut out for them on this one. In this article, we will delve into the steps needed to earn Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted’s platinum trophy and provide some analysis on the game from a trophy-hunting perspective.

This is not a comprehensive trophy guide, but rather a recommended progression route. It will cover the main beats of the trophy hunt as well as information for some tricky trophies.

• Difficulty: 5/10
• Time to Platinum: 60 hours
• Missable Trophies: None
• Overall Recommendation: No

Why Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted?

The classic Plants vs. Zombies returns in glorious HD! DANG! After years in Crazy Dave’s attic, the original battle between Plants and Zombies is back – bigger, brighter, and crazier than ever before! Experience the game that started it all, now remastered with upscaled HD graphics and packed with new secrets to uncover.

Revisit the epic backyard standoffs you remember, this time with new levels, fresh twists, and 15 years of never-before-seen franchise history at your fingertips. Relive the glory days of pea shooters, sunflowers, and brain-hungry chaos! Rejoin the ultimate garden defense and experience the backyard brawl that started a phenomenon – now back for a new era!

— PlayStation Store

Like many others who’ve been in the game for a long time, I have many fond memories of older titles. (I know many readers probably scoffed at my description of Plants vs. Zombies being an “older” game, but bear in mind that it originally released in 2009… nearly twenty years ago. Sorry, friends.)

Plants vs. Zombies is one of the games that would actually catch the attention of my family members, encouraging them to sit with me and help me puzzle out solutions to stages. Coming from a household where gaming was tolerated but not celebrated, it meant a lot to me to have these kinds of memories.

So when I was perusing the PlayStation Store for my next trophy hunt, I was very surprised to find the very same game from so many years ago staring back at me. Naturally, I decided it was very important to get closure on something I hadn’t thought about since I was in a different stage of my life entirely.

Little did I know what I was getting myself into. If you’re looking for a deceptively challenging trophy hunt, then you’ve come to the right place.

The Trophy Hunt

Adventure Mode

The first stop on this journey is, of course, the story mode. Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted comes packed with 5 worlds divested between 50 stages. There are the daytime stages, which serve as the most straightforward tutorial levels; the nighttime stages, which force you to use brand new plants; the pool stages, which turn two lanes into water only; fog stages, which stifle your vision significantly; and lastly, the rooftop stages, which are sloped, rendering much of your arsenal moot. Each world has a bonus stage as well, which can sometimes serve as the scariest part of a run.

Your first task is simply to beat the story mode without worrying about anything else. Get used to the game, learn the combos you enjoy, and gain a better understanding of how the various game mechanics interact.

You will eventually need to play the Adventure Mode fully a second time. You can either do that now, or save it for later if you need a break.

Mini Games

One of the things Plants vs. Zombies has to break up the monotony is mini games. These generally use the same lane-based tower defense setups, but defy your expectations on the objective. For example, there is a mini game that resembles Bejeweled and another that has an insane amount of Zombonis to contend with.

For trophy hunters, you must complete every single mini game to get an achievement. Additionally, several have very specific requirements that you must follow through on to get additional trophies. These are as stated:

• Wall-Not Attack: Complete ZomBotany without using Wall-nuts, Tall-nuts, or Pumpkins
  • This is honestly a lot less scary than it sounds. Your first inclination in this mini game is to use plants with high defense to combat the more aggressive nature of the plant-zombie hybrids. However, you can choose a different approach entirely. Use Potato Mines, other insta-kills, and Spikes to handle the zombies. Bring in the Imitator to help manage your cooldowns. You can use Flower Pots and Garlic to tank hits for your Sunflowers as well, as they have a surprising amount of health.
• Shooting Star: Complete Seeing Stars before the first Flag Zombie arrives
  • This is a mini game in which you are given a grid and told to place down Starfruit exactly as indicated. To get this trophy, getting your sun production up as quickly as possible is vital. Either bring the Imitator as a Sunflower replacement or a Starfruit replacement and work quickly. Just don’t miss your placement like I did.
• Sol Invictus: Complete Last Stand with 2000 or more sun remaining
  • There are many known configurations to solve this trophy. One of the most effective ones is to use Garlic and Gloomshrooms in conjunction with one another. If you need more help, check out the relevant section in my video for my specific layout.
• Sproing! Sproing!: Complete Pogo Party without using Tall-nuts or Magnet-shrooms
  • This mini game is one of the more evil ones. Pogo zombies move very fast, jump over your plants, and can make quick work of a lane if left undeterred. And this mini game brings out tons of them, all while requiring you to not use their counters. I personally liked using Split Peas and Torchwoods to handle them. You may as well use their strengths to your benefit.

Puzzles

After the mini games, you’ll want to jump into the other mode: Puzzle Mode. There are two types of puzzles in Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted: Vasebreaker and I, Zombie.

The former requires breaking open vases, revealing either helpful plants or dangerous zombies. You need to reveal the entire board and also defeat the zombies before they reach your house.

The latter sees you playing as the zombies for once. You spend sun and attempt to min-max your way toward the brains at the end of every lane. It is very resource-management heavy.

For trophies, you need to beat all the stages and then also reach a certain streak in Endless. You need 15 victories in a row for Vasebreaker and 10 in I, Zombie. Needless to say, this is very difficult. I, Zombie especially is so heavily RNG-dependent that getting 10 wins in a row seems ludicrous.

I strongly recommend using cloud save back-ups to get through this stage of the trophy hunt. After you succeed a stage, back out of the game and upload your save. Make sure your console’s auto-upload function is turned off for this. Then, if you succeed the following stage, simply do the same thing, or, if you fail, download that older save and try again.

In I, Zombie, I’d especially recommend re-rolling the given stage until you get the Scaredyshroom layout. This one has tons of Sunflowers and is easy to win against. This will make the remainder of the stages in your streak much easier to get through, as otherwise you will likely be bleeding too much sun just to squeak by.

RIP Mode

The aptly named RIP Mode is Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted’s attempt at a permadeath, ultra-hard difficulty setting. There is only one lawnmower in every stage, and if the zombies reach your house even once it’s an instant game over. You will lose all of your progress and be forced to start again from 1-1.

As a trophy hunter, your goal is twofold: beat RIP mode fully, and do so without losing any lawnmowers. This is easier said than done. Remember those bonus stages I mentioned before? They are so heavily RNG-reliant that they can potentially end a run no matter how well you play. Getting through all 50 stages is no mean feat.

That’s why I have some tips for you. If you ever get nervous, use the back-up save method from before. This provides some relief that if you do lose, you won’t lose it all. But there is another helpful thing to note.

You can actually use a second player in RIP Mode. This is massive, because they can butter up the zombies and slow them down significantly. That lets you get stronger setups faster, and prevents disasters from spiraling out of control. It makes a huge difference.

Clean-Up

Normally, it makes the most sense to throw in clean-up at the very end of a trophy hunt. That way, you may have already completed many of the tasks required over the course of the rest of the trophy hunt. In this case, though, it actually makes more sense to do it a little earlier.

That’s because the true final boss of this game’s trophy set is RNG. So let’s get to work on what we can actually control before we start chasing our demons. Beginning with Survival. You’re going to need to unlock the Survival Endless stages, then get to the 40th flag. I had a lot of success with my setup focusing on Cob Cannons and Gloomshrooms as displayed in my video.

Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted also has a number of trophies that may require additional attention beyond normal gameplay. Once you know what to do, though, they’re mostly quite free.

• Good Morning: Complete a daytime level by planting only mushrooms and Coffee Beans
  • This may seem intimidating, but it’s actually really simple. The most important thing is to get your sun production up ASAP. Then, you can start leveraging the cheap nature of mushroom plants. It also helps if you do this on a very easy stage like 1-1.
• No Fungus Among Us: Complete a nighttime level without planting any mushrooms
  • This achievement is the converse of the last. Somehow, it’s even easier to accomplish. Once again, prioritize doing this on an easy stage like 2-1, and get your sun production going as quickly as you can. Potato Mines and Imitator Potato Mines are your best friend.
• Don’t Pea in the Pool: Complete a daytime pool level without using Peashooters of any kind
  • Once again, this trophy is a big nothing-burger once you know it exists. It is very simple to avoid using Peashooters. If you want a foolproof strategy, just use Cattails and Starfruit to cut through 3-1.
• Grounded: Complete a normal Roof level without using any catapult plants
  • Okay, this one requires a little more thought. You cannot use normal plants on the earliest tiles available on rooftop stages. To succeed, you need to plant your non-catapult plants at least on the apex of the roof so they can hit the zombies. Once again, it really helps if you use Potato Mines to buy yourself more time to set up properly.
• Penny Pincher: Pick up 30 coins in a row on a single level without letting any disappear
  • Most trophy hunters will probably get this naturally. If you do not, try going to Endless and slowing down time to 1x. Personally, I got this trophy on the bonus nighttime stage, in which you must use a mallet to defeat zombies rising from their graves.
• Pyromaniac: Complete a level using only explosive plants to kill zombies
  • Pyromaniac can be a little on the scary side. It’s really a test in managing your cooldowns. It’s going to be vital that you bring the Imitator as your favorite explosive plant of choice. I recommend the Cherry Bomb. It is also best to do this trophy on an early stage like 1-1.
• Life Half Full / Life Half Empty / Ask Me About Mustache Mode: Toggle on skins for the first time
  • There are three trophies that can be acquired in rapid succession simply by opening up the relevant menu in-game. Toggle on the retro zombie skin, crab head zombie skin, and mustache mode to get them. Easy peasy.
• Towering Wisdom: Grow the Tree of Wisdom to 100 feet
  • At first glance, this seems like a big pain. It does require a lot of money to purchase the required tree fertilizer from Dave’s Shop, however, it pales in comparison to the rest of the grind remaining in the trophy hunt. For reference, I had nearly 400,000 coins in excess by the time I got the platinum trophy. Just keep plugging away and you’ll get there.
• Popcorn Party: Defeat 2 Gargantuars with corn cob missiles in a single level
  • Gargantuars are the large zombies who throw out a little one when they take enough damage. They’re introduced near the end of Adventure Mode. Since so few of them spawn naturally, it is best to get this trophy done in Endless. Just make sure your preferred setup uses at least two Cob Cannons like mine.

The Zen Garden

The final step to the trophy hunt sounds simple on paper. All you need to do is find every plant in the game for your Zen Garden. These are random drops from the zombies, and can be found in virtually every game mode the title has to offer.

The Plants vs. Zombies wiki (and many other guides) recommend spamming Survival Endless to find all the plants. This is a viable strategy to be sure, but it is not efficient. After all, every gift box has the chance to spawn any one of all 39 Zen Garden plants that exist in the game.

That means in Survival Endless, every gift box has a 1 in 39 chance of being the one you need if you’re down to your last. But, if you go to the corresponding stage your plant belongs to, that chance goes up significantly. For example, the fog stages are home to eight Zen Garden plants. So, if you farm fog stages for one of the plants you need, you have a 1 in 8 chance instead of that gnarly 1 in 39 from before.

This is a list of the type of stage each plant can be found in.

It is still sure to take many hours to find all the plants. You’ll find many duplicates and have to get lucky no matter what. However, there’s no need to brute force Survival when you can target each plant more directly. I 100% recommend using the Adventure Mode stages to find your remaining plants at this stage.

Where A Good Concept Meets Tedium

Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is an addictive game that has overstayed its welcome in many trophy hunters’ hard drives. If you weren’t privy to the details of its trophy set, you’d be forgiven for thinking it must be a straightforward experience. A game like this is usually quite simple; beat the game, play the different modes, and you’re done. Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted was not satisfied with such a conclusion.

Instead of asking players to play its various modes, it practically asks players to write theses on them. By the end of the trophy hunt, you will be intimately familiar with nearly every aspect there is to plants battling zombies. And not in a good way. Why does the game require two complete playthroughs of Adventure Mode, another via RIP Mode, and then even more if you just so happened to miss any of those miscellaneous trophies along the way?

There is no good reason. The game is not complex enough to justify so many repeat runs. The mini games and puzzles also do not alter the gameplay significantly enough to justify their existence as a reprieve from the main gameplay loop that Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted offers.

And that is all before you bring in the final grind for the Zen Garden. I estimate that it added about 10-15 hours to my trophy hunt alone. It was mind-numbing, replaying the bonus conveyor stages over and over on repeat. With each level taking about three minutes, you can do the math on how many repetitions it required to get my final plants.

This was so tedious that I stopped recording every moment of the gameplay and had to use the built-in PlayStation trophy capture feature to include the special unlock in my video. There was no way to tell whether I’d get my final plant in the next match or perhaps in 30 hours. Those familiar with statistics know that you could have a million misses tossing darts and that still tells you nothing about your next throw.

But I digress. Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is a remaster of a game that seems determined to punish nostalgic players looking for an easy trip down memory lane. The trophy hunt is needlessly cruel, and highlights all the worst parts of the title’s monotonous gameplay.

I would not recommend this trophy hunt for even the most die-hard Plants vs. Zombies fans. You’re better off playing casually than turning your passion into work.

Reflection

Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted came as an unfortunate surprise for me. A game that I loved in my youth came back to haunt me with a grueling 60 hour trophy hunt. But that’s the risk you run as a completionist who looks toward their childhood favorites for new inspiration. Sometimes you find bangers, sometimes you’d rather get put in the slammer.

Did you play Plants vs. Zombies when it came out back in the day? Or were you more of a Peggle fan? If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy my rundown on Slime Rancher 2’s platinum trophy. It is another article with a video feature, so you can enjoy it in whichever format you prefer.