Plants VS Zombies (Original) – EVERY Plant Ranked

Fun fact – one of the main reasons I desperately wanted an iPad as a kid was because I’d played the original “Plants Vs Zombies” in an Apple Store and couldn’t get it out of my mind. All these years later, it still holds up as an all-time classic tower defence game!

I’ll be ranking all forty-eight plants from the original game (no Imitator, as that just acts as a copy of other plants) based on their usefulness rather than their design.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Utterly Useless

48 – Gold Magnet

Why does this plant exist? Who thought it would be a good idea? And who in their right mind would choose to purchase this optional plant instead of the half dozen other actually good ones?

Gold Magnet is an “upgrade” to Magnet-shroom that collects coins. That’s it. That’s the plant. One of the most useless features I’ve seen in any tower defence game.

47 – Marigold

Marigold is in a similar boat to Gold Magnet where its primary focus is money, which is the last thing I’m worried about when my lawn is being bombarded with Zombies.

I suppose if you have a few free spaces on your lawn a couple of money-generating plants couldn’t hurt, but otherwise Marigold just acts as lawn fodder.

46 – Ice-shroom

The only “real” plant that I couldn’t find a use for at all, Ice-shroom has a theoretically powerful ability that isn’t needed in the slightest.

There’s not much point wasting Sun on a plant that freezes Zombies, as there are plenty of other offensive options like Cherry Bomb or Jalapenos to alleviate the pressure instead.

Not For Me

45 – Doom-shroom

Doom-shroom is introduced at pretty much the same time as Ice-shroom, and I don’t think I used either plant at all during any of my playthroughs.

I prefer Doom-shroom for its devastating capabilities, but the crater it leaves behind isn’t worth the hassle.

44 – Scaredy-shroom

In theory, Scaredy-shroom should’ve been a winner. It has the damage output of Peashooter, all while only costing 25 Sun to plant.

It comes with a big drawback, sadly – if a Zombie gets too close, the plant hides and becomes useless. Since I reserve my back columns for Sun-producing plants, that meant that Scaredy-shroom wasn’t feasible to my playstyle.

43 – Gatling Pea

An upgraded Repeater with even more firepower, Gatling Pea is cool in concept but too expensive in execution.

42 – Coffee Bean

I tended to avoid Night plants during the Day levels, so as a result Coffee Bean didn’t get used much.

41 – Chomper

Sometimes it’s fun to go all-out with a Chomper-filled lawn, but it’s a hard plant to arrange with existing garden defences.

40 – Pumpkin

I like the idea of a defence plant that you can place over an existing plant, but I didn’t need Pumpkin when Wall-nuts did the job just fine.

39 – Potato Mine

99% of PvZ players love Potato Mine and use it all the way up to the final Roof level. I’ve always seen it as the most overrated plant.

The charging time doesn’t make it feasible as a last-ditch defence plant, so I ended up using other insta-kill plants like Squash or Cherry Bomb.

38 – Cob Cannon

One of the most devastating plants in the game … so it’s a shame that Cob Cannon is too expensive to ever use.

Has Its Moments

37 – Split Pea

I have nothing against Split Pea. The Repeater on its back makes it extremely useful against the Mining Zombies. The problem is that I only used it once.

You unlock Split Pea exactly one level before Starfruit – the better option by a country mile – so it’s immediately made redundant.

36 – Umbrella Leaf

There are a few Roof levels where Umbrella Leaf helps a lot, but it’s not the most necessary plant in the world.

The Bungee / Basketball Zombies don’t usually steal / destroy enough plants for it to be a major problem, but I quite liked protecting a back line of Melon-pults on some builds.

35 – Blover

You can either use Plantern or Blover for the Fog levels, and I ended up choosing Plantern.

I like Blover’s ability to blow Balloon Zombies away, but it never dispels the fog for long enough to be viable.

34 – Grave Buster

Grave Buster is useful in Night levels for getting rid of pesky graves before the final wave, but does it justify occupying an entire seed slot? No, not really.

33 – Tall-nut

Tall-nut’s height and subsequent ability to block jumping Zombies is useful in some scenarios, but it’s too expensive and takes too long to recharge for it to be my go-to defence plant.

32 – Garlic

I’ve seen some crazy lawn builds where people use Garlics to focus-fire on a single lane, but I’ve never been bothered to try it for myself.

31 – Magnet-shroom

Depending on your playstyle, Magnet-shroom will either be the most useful plant in the world or just another plant in the backlog.

Some of the later levels with Pogo / Buckethead / Ladder / Football Zombies all at once heavily imply that you should use Magnet-shroom, but I tended to steer towards high damage output and insta-kill plants instead.

30 – Tangle Kelp

An insta-kill plant for the Pool levels. Useful against Dolphin Zombies if you’re unprepared, but otherwise you should really just set up a solid defence for those lanes.

29 / 28 – Spikeweed / Spikerock

I’ve put Spikeweed and its upgrade – Spikerock – in the same spot on this ranking as they’re effectively the same plant.

Passive damage is a good idea on paper, but I could never get it to do as much damage as I wanted.

27 – Snow Pea

If Plants vs. Zombies ended after the first ten levels, Snow Pea would probably make the top three. It was my go-to offensive plant in the first ten levels, and they were invaluable against Javelin Zombies.

Unfortunately, you don’t need Snow Pea at all for the remaining forty levels, so I can’t rank it any higher.

26 – Repeater

Repeater is in the same boat as Snow Pea in that I didn’t really use it beyond the first ten levels, but it made a cameo appearance here and there.

25 – Cherry Bomb

Cherry Bomb blows up a 3×3 area of Zombies. Pretty useful, except its high cost and long recharge sometimes let it down.

24 – Jalapeno

Similar to Cherry Bomb, except Jalapeno takes out an entire lane. I used it much less, but when I did it was a lawn-saver.

23 – Winter Melon

Do you need to spend tons of Sun to upgrade Melon-pult to the ultimate killing machine? Not really, but the damage output and slowing effect of Winter Melon are a ridiculous combo.

Really Useful

22 – Twin Sunflower

Twin Sunflower’s double-Sun capabilities make it useful in scenarios when lawn space is tight, and sometimes it’s just fun to indulge yourself. But if we’re being honest, regular Sunflowers do the job more often than not.

21 – Peashooter

The classic offensive plant, I was tempted to put Peashooter all the way near the top of my rankings for how much I used it in the early stages … because there wasn’t anything else to use.

Considering how almost every other offensive plant is better in every way, I couldn’t rank Peashooter much higher than this.

20 – Plantern

I forgot how useful Plantern was until I replayed the game recently – I used it in almost every single Fog level without fail!

The one level that I forgot to use it in was noticeably tougher, which just goes to show how reliant on Plantern those brief Fog levels are.

19 – Sea-shroom

Speaking of must-have plants in the Fog levels, Sea-shroom was a life-saver on more than one occasion.

Its cheap cost made it a great first defence for the pool lanes, but I almost always replaced them with stronger plants by the end of the level (and they can only be used on those ten Fog levels).

18 – Threepeater

A Peashooter that fires in three separate lanes at once, which made Threepeater an excellent choice for lawn coverage. A bit too expensive for my liking, though.

17 – Squash

My favourite insta-kill plant in the game, there was always something so satisfying about flattening Zombies with Squash.

On top of all that, it only costs 50 Sun!

16 – Sun-shroom

The Sun-producing plant for both the Night and Fog levels, which made Sun-shroom a must-have in most lawn builds.

It’s a little annoying how it gives 15 Sun instead of 25 for a while, but its cheaper initial cost makes it worthwhile.

15 – Melon-pult

Cabbage-pult and Kernel-pult do a good job in the early Roof levels, but there comes a point where you need a high-damage lobbed plant to mop up the tougher Zombies.

Melon-pult was the answer to my prayers, with excellent splash damage capabilities and a reasonable high cost. Shame it comes so late in the campaign, though.

14 – Cabbage-pult

It may not have the damage output of Melon-pult or the slowing capabilities of Kernel-pult, but Cabbage-pult was the ol’ reliable plant in the Roof levels.

Its damage is quite high all things considered, and I liked how it bypassed some of the Zombies’ defences.

13 – Hypno-shroom

Hypno-shroom isn’t an insta-kill plant, because it goes one better – it turns that Zombie onto your side.

I always made sure to use it on the toughest enemies, like the Football Zombies, and I’d be rewarded with a free lane clear-out.

12 – Gloom-shroom

Its relatively low cost and absurdly high damage output when stacked make Gloom-shroom a speedrunner’s dream.

I wasn’t a fan of its tiny range, but otherwise this is the perfect damaging plant.

11 – Cactus

… Alright, I admit I’m a little biased towards the badass design for Cactus rather than its usefulness.

In its defence, it does a good job of popping those pesky Balloon Zombies and does some decent damage for a fair price.

10 – Fume-shroom

I was making do with Puff-shrooms for the Night levels, but once Fume-shroom was added to my arsenal I never stopped using it.

It bypasses some Zombie defences and damages multiple targets at once, all for a low Sun cost. The only thing holding it back is its limited, but respectable, range.

9 – Wall-nut

The tried-and-tested defence plant, I was using Wall-nut all the way up to the final Roof levels.

50 Sun is an absolute steal for this life-saver, and its durability is far more than I ever really needed.

8 – Starfruit

Starfruit may not be the best plant on its own, but once you’ve planted at least one per lane you’ve basically won.

It shoots five hard-hitting projectiles, including backwards and immediately up or down, providing a lawn-wide damage output.

Essential

7/6 – Lily Pad / Flower Pot

Lily Pad and Flower Pot might not be the flashiest plants, but this list is ranking each plant’s usefulness so they had to make the highest tier.

It’s suicide to attempt the final half of the game without them, and their 25 Sun cost is generous.

5 – Torchwood

As soon as Torchwood was introduced, I never wanted to go back to my measly Peashooter builds.

It doubles the power of all pea projectiles that pass through it, turning your lawn into a beautiful cacophony of fiery death.

4 – Puff-shroom

Is Puff-shroom the craziest plant ever? No, not really – it has a small range and average damage, and you’ll replace them 90% of the time.

What makes them broken, however, is that they’re free. No Sun needed. Zero. Nada. The fact you can fill your Night levels with these guys and not spend a single Sun makes them overpowered as hell.

3 – Kernel-pult

If you combine the lobbed projectiles of Cabbage-pult and the slowing power of Snow Pea, you get one of the most overpowered plants in the game.

Kernel-pult costs almost nothing and can freeze even a Gargantuar in place. Have a row of these guys amongst your other offensive plants and the Zombies stand no chance.

2 – Cattail

Cattail is a relatively cheap upgrade for Lily Pad, which you’ll be bringing with you on Pool and Fog levels anyway. In other words, the Zombies are done for before they’ve even set foot on your lawn.

It shoots Cactus-like barbs that actively seek out Zombies. Homing missiles on your lawn! I think the developers made a mistake adding such an obviously powerful plant to the game.

1 – Sunflower

In terms of usefulness, was anything else ever going to top this list?

You’re given the Sunflower right at the start of the game, and you’ll probably take it with you for every single level. It costs next to nothing, generates Sun at a good rate, and can even act as a buffer if you want to sacrifice it to an advancing Zombie!

Aaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: