Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (Windows)

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
Developer: PopCap Games Publisher: Electronic Arts Platform: Windows Released internationally: February 25, 2016 Released in US: February 23, 2016 This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused objects. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has debugging material. This game has a prerelease article

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Document unused objects. Document unused modes. Document launch build exclusive things, including beta future parrot, beta future dummy, Future tallnut model which is only in launch build, and early 54th rank plate. A tutorial on how to access that build can be found on the Garden Warfare 2 modding server

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is the second Plants vs. Zombies shooter game in the Garden Warfare spin-off series. This time, the zombies finally took over an acre-sized neighborhood named Suburbia and transformed it to a high-tech utopia: Zomburbia! Now it's the plants' turn to reclaim it. Also, plants and zombies battling in SPAAAAACCCCEEEE!

Popcap and EA rushed this game, so there's a lot of unused and unfinished content.

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Prerelease Info

Debugging Material

Developer Menu

Accessed from the pause screen, a button called QA Debug is hidden in retail builds. Clicking it loads a window with many options, values and tabs; most of these options don't work or are lazily written.

Tabs

Gameplay Debug

Gameplay debug options.

Options

• ADD HEALTH: Is meant to change the user's health value, but doesn't work; it can be set to 1, 25, 100, 500, 1000 or 100000, and defaults to 100.
• Teleport to active objective: Doesn't work.
• TELEPORT TO OBJECTIVE: Is meant to change the objective, but doesn't work; it can be set to 1, 2, 3 or ?, and defaults to 1.
• INSTANT CAPTURE: Doesn't work; it can be set to true or false, and defaults to false.
• RUSH TIMER: Likely was used to change the rush timer, but no longer works; it can be set to unpause or pause, and defaults to unpause.
• Jump to wave: Immediately goes to the given wave; it can be set to 1, 2, 3 or ?, and defaults to 1.
• Disable Ability Cooldown (must also be set on server): A server-side setting to toggle ability cooldowns that doesn't work because it needs to be set on the server; it can be set to true or false, and defaults to false.
• COOPS debug: Enters debug mode for Co-Op. The "set health" option works, but "skip wave" does not.
• Zombies Win: Is meant to make the Zombie team instantly win, but doesn't work.
• Plants Win: Is meant to make the Plant team instantly win, but doesn't work.
• Disable Preround: Disables the Waiting For Players phase. Doesn't always work.
• Build Current Teleporter: Doesn't work.
• Ignore Mission Dependencies: Is meant to ignore dependencies for Missions, but doesn't work; it can be set to true or false, and defaults to false.
• Cvd Disable Gnomes: Disables gnomes for Cats vs. Dinos.
• Cvd Force Gnomes: Forces gnomes for Cats vs. Dinos. Results in a crash shortly after they spawn.
• Cvd Disable Singularities: Disables singularities for Cats vs. Dinos. Also removes preexisting ones.
• Cvd Force Singularities: Spawns one singularity per click, seemingly maxing out at 3.
• Cvd Force EndGame: Forces the space-time continuum to collapse.
• Cvd Pause Round Timer: Pauses the round timer.
• Cvd Toggle Debug: Is meant to toggle debug for Cats vs. Dinos, but does nothing.
• Crazy Option Quick Regen: Enables the Quick Regen Crazy Setting. This applies to the entire server and can only be used online.
• Crazy Option Healing Auras: Enables the Healing Aura Crazy Setting. This applies to the entire server and can only be used online.
• Crazy Option Berserk: Enables the Berserker Crazy Setting. This applies to the entire server and can only be used online.
• CTT Plants Win: Makes the Plant team instantly win for Capture the Taco.
• CTT Zombies Win: Makes the Zombie team instantly win for Capture the Taco.
• CTT Toggle Timer: Pauses the timer in Capture the Taco.
• Taco Week: Sets the Taco Week value in the Backyard. This changes the stage of the taco on top of the town hall.

UI Debug

UI debug options.

Options

• Language: Changes the language the game is using; it can be set to English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian and HAL IDs, and defaults to the language of the user.
• Coop Slots Debug: Enters debug mode for Co-op slots.
• Objective UI Testbed: Enters debug mode for the Objective UI.
• Coop Scoring Debug: Enters debug mode for the Co-op Scoring UI.
• Display Special Characters: Loads a screen with all special characters in all languages from the fonts.
• Long Text Test: A test for displaying long text. Shows LONG TEXT in the top-left corner.
• Boss Heads: Enters boss head debug mode.
• EA Text Debug: Shows Debug Text aligned vertically for the center, top, or bottom.

AI DEBUG

AI debug options.

Options

• Pathfinding Debug: Is meant to toggle Pathfinding Debug, but doesn't work; it can be set to Disabled or Large Type, and defaults to Disabled.
• Kill All AI: Is meant to kill all AIs, but doesn't do anything; it can be set to Team Plans, Team Neutral or Team Zombies.
• Pause AI (must be host): Is meant to pause all AIs, but does nothing; it can be set to true or false, and defaults to false. Can only done as the host.
• AI SPAWN DEBUG: Does nothing.

PROGRESSION DEBUG

Progression debug options.

Options

• Sticker Shop: Loads the Sticker Shop.
• ADD CURRENCY: Is meant to add the given amount of coins, but does nothing; it can be set to 1, 100, 500, 1000 or 100k.
• Wipe Inventory: Does nothing.
• THIS_DOES_NOTHING: An obvious dummy button that, well, does nothing.
• Grant All Inventory: Does nothing.
• Grant Unopened Packs: Does nothing.
• Redeem Code: Does nothing, as the GUI for it was removed at some point.
• Stop Next Purchase Before: Is meant to stop the next IAP before a state, but does nothing; it can be set to CommerceCheckout, BlazeSetStarted, None, BlazeRedeem, BlazeSetConsumed, ConmmerceConsume or BlazeSetVerified.
• List Interrupted IAPs: Does nothing.
• Resume Interrupted IAPs: Does nothing.
• Award active challenge: Does nothing.
• Set Player Level: Is meant to set the player's level by the given value, but does nothing; it can be set to any value from 1-100.
• Prestige Character: Does nothing.
• Add Star Consumable: Is meant to add the given amount of stars to the user, but does nothing; it can be set to 1, 25, 100, 500, 1000 or 100k.
• Delete Bytevault record: Does nothing.
• Wipe Stats: Does nothing.
• Add Character XP: Is meant to add the given amount of character XP to the user, but does nothing; it can be set to 1, 1.10 25, 100, 500, 1000 or 100k.
• Reset Chests (Deletes all save): Does nothing.
• Short Circuit Purchase: Was likely where Short Circuit can be purchased from, but but no longer does anything; it can be set to CommerceCheckout, BlazeSetStarted, None, BlazeRedeem, BlazeSetConsumed, ConmmerceConsume or BlazeSetVerified.
• ID_M_ADD_SELFREVIVES: Was likely used to add the given self revive value to the user, but no longer does anything.
• ID_M_ADD_TEAMREVIVES: Was likely used to add the given team revive value to the user, but no longer does anything.
• Black Market: Was likely used to load Rux's shop. Loads a message named temporarily removed, sorry with text reading talk to jeff cif is you need this put back in!, and OK button text reading okidoke!.
• ID_M_ADD_RAINBOW_STARS: Does nothing.
• GrantGnomeUnderworldKey: Gives the user the selected Key. Grants consumables if you have the keys.
• Set Max Rank: Does nothing.

Quest

Quest options.

Displays current quests; this likely would have been used to enter another UI when clicked, which has seemingly been removed.

Gnomes

Gnomes mission options.

Options

• gn_xx: Displays challenge status for the given mission.
• Collect All Gnomes: Does nothing.

Co-op debug mode

An in-game display for co-op debugging.

Options

• Garden Health: Sets the health of the garden; it can be set to 10, 20, 30, 40 or ? and beyond, and defaults to 0 (automatic).
• Skip Ops Waves: Does nothing.

Co-op slots debug mode

An in-game display for debugging the co-op slot machine UI.

Options

• Play Intro: Plays the intro animation for the slot machine.
• Play Outro: Plays the outro animation for the slot machine.
• Play Match: Plays the matching animation for the slot machine.

A list for the slot machine's current data is also shown, with SlotXState, SlotXFinal and SlotXTease. These can be set to 1, 2 or 3.

Objective UI debug mode

An in-game display for the Objective UI.

Options

• Tune Rush Objective: Toggles Rush Objective UI; left increases Zombies, right increases Plants.
• TDM Zombie Kills: Toggles Zombie Kill UI; left increases Zombies, right increases Plants.
• TDM Plant Kills: Toggles Plant Kill UI; left increases Zombies, right increases Plants.
• Garden Ops Tuning: Enters Garden Ops Tuning Mode.
• Graveyard Ops Tuning: Enters Graveyard Ops Tuning Mode.

A note saying Navigate Left/Right when highlighted the corresponding menu option to increase and decrease values is also shown.

Garden Ops tuning mode

An in-game display for Garden Ops GUI tuning.

Graveyard Ops tuning mode

An in-game display for Graveyard Ops GUI tuning.

Co-op Scoring debug mode

An in-game display Co-op score display debugging.

Options

• Play Win Intro: Plays the win intro animation for the scoring display.
• Play Win Outro: Plays the win outro animation for the scoring display.
• Play Lose Intro: Plays the intro animation for the scoring display.
• Play Lose Outro: Plays the lose outro animation for the scoring display.

Boss head debug mode

An in-game display for Co-op score display debugging.

Options

• Boss Head: Shows the given boss head.

Unused Graphics

Boss Icons

House Gargantuar

A Boss icon for House Gargantuar. Judging from this, it was most likely originally going to be its own separate boss in Garden Ops instead of only being in Super Gargantuar Wave.

Spotting Icons

Bosses

Spotting icons for the unused bosses.

Bot/Pot Spawners

Four unused Spotting icons for Pot and Bot spawners.

Colored Tacos

Unused Spotting icons for colored Tacos. Most likely would have been used in Taco Bandits.

Objective Icons

Unused Icons for Bases D and E.

Abilities

To do: This should be merged with the other weapons section.

Spike Ability

An icon for a scrapped Spike ability; it likely would have been used for Cactus.

Sprint Smash

An icon for the unused Sprint Smash ability, which likely would've been used for Torchwood. Torchwood would sprint forward and then slam into the ground. It can be used in-game with mods, but its animations are quite buggy.

Future Nut

A model and icon for a scrapped alternate Tallnut Battlement. It would have granted the player standing near it a damage boost.

Explosive Escape

Hidden behind the animated button, Explosive Escape has its own unique icon. It can still be seen rarely in-game if the animated UI button disappears.

Cannon Rodeo Exit

An unused exit icon for Cannon Rodeo.

GW1 Drones

Both of the GW1 Engineer Drones can be found in GW2's files. Both can be used with hacking, but Rocket Drone's model is broken and fails to render properly, resulting in a pink color scheme and a missing laser texture.

Unused Quest Items

Green Crystal

A green crystal. What it would have been used for is unknown.

Crab Robot Bait

A cyan pair of swim trunks. This would have been used as bait in Crab Robot's Boss Hunt.

Early Sasquatch Bait

An open can of soup. This would have been used as bait for the Sasquatch when it was a Story Boss Hunt.

Super Chili Bean Bait

A bottle of hot sauce. This would have been used as bait in Super Chili Bean's Boss Hunt.

Orange Juice Robot Bait

A plate of breakfast shaped like a face. This would have been used as bait in Orange Juice Robot's Boss Hunt.

Imitator Bait

A block of butter. This would have been used as bait in Imitator's Boss Hunt.

Renegade Imp Bait

A piece of Cyber Jerky. This would have been used as bait in Renegade Imp's Boss Hunt.

Unused Classes

Giga Gargantuar

Giga Gargantuar is a very unfinished class most likely used for testing. It uses foot soldiers' abilities, but has a different primary.

Weapons

• Giga Power Pole - A copy of the boss version of Giga Power Pole. Deals 300 damage per shot, and has 200 ammo.

Laser Goat

Laser Goat is an unfinished goat class that was going to appear in the scrapped Mystery Portal mode "Team Vanquish Goats". It has the physics of a regular goat and the ability to double jump. The Plant version has green armor, while the Zombie version has purple armor.

Weapons

• Primary - Functions very similarly to Hover-Goat 3000's weapon, but it has infinite ammo. It overheats like any regular infinite ammo weapon.
• Damage Buff Booster Beam - Same as Hover-Goat 3000's buff beam.
• Heal Belch - An unfinished healing ability that applies a quick healing-over-time effect to nearby teammates.
• Impulse Grenade - An unfinished grenade ability that reuses Gravity Grenade assets. Unlike Gravity Grenade, it doesn't explode instantly upon impact unless it hits a plant. The explosion deals 15 damage and causes knockback.

Unused Weapons and Abilities

To do: Ideally every weapon/ability should have a video and a image of it; please add that if possible.

GW1 Leftover Weapons

All of the GW1 Promotional Weapons and Abilities were left in the files for GW2, and function similar to how they did in that game.

• Orange Burst - Citrus Cactus's Primary Weapon from GW1. Functions the same as it did in GW1, except for having no delay between bursts.

• Berry Blast - Berry Pea's Primary Weapon was left in the files for GW2.

• Cheese Blaster - Dr. Chester's Primary Weapon is still in the files for GW2. Still functional without any bugs.

• Chester Heal Station - Works the same way it did in GW1. Its goo animation is broken because GW2 uses a newer build of Frostbite 3.

• Sticky Cheetah Ball - Works the same way it did in GW1. The texture for the cheetah spots is missing.

• Cheesy Warp - Works the same way it did in GW1.

• Cheesy Chomp - Chester Chomper's Primary Weapon from GW1. Functions the same as it did in GW1, except for having no delay between chomps.
• Chesterweed - The animation is broken, but it still works.
• Cheesy Goop - Works the same way it did in GW1.
• Zombot and Rocket Drone - Leftover abilities from GW1. Zombot Drone has a broken propeller animation, and Rocket Drone's model is broken, causing it to appear pink. The best guess for this is that originally Engineer would've still had the Zombot Drone instead of Captain Deadbeard's Parrot Pal during development.
• Airstikes - The GW1 Boss Mode airstrikes can be found in the files. It refuses to work, so it might've had a lot of its files removed.
• Goo Blaster Charge - An alternate version of scientists' goo blaster. When used, it has no sounds and has two charges; the first charge deals 40 damage at close range, while the second deals 40 damage but then shoots a projectile that does a extra 30, for a total of 70 damage.
• Healing Gravestone - Would have been used when Gravedigger was going to be the healing class.
• AI assault rifle - A weapon identical to default foot soldiers' primary, likely used for testing.
• Teleporter - A unused ability called Teleporter can be found in both games' files. It has a infinite cooldown and places a weird teleporter-entrance-looking object. It can be destroyed and serves no purpose.
• U_AI_PeaMegaGatling - What this was used for is unknown. Has infinite ammo.

GW2 Classes

To do: Needs some videos for those unused abilities and a screenshot model of Imp Flier.

• Imp Flier - An unused Imp mech that was going to let Imps fly around like drones. Has no textures or animations. Although it was briefly seen in the game's cinematic intro, it's never actually used in-game, except as a display in the Imp portal room. A similar concept was later used in Battle for Neighborville, as an enemy in Mount Steep.
• Shuck Shotgun - An unused alternate Primary for Corn. It fires two bursts of 100 bullets that do 1-2 damage each.
• E3 Garlic Drone - A copy of the Garlic Drone. Crashes most of the time when used, likely due to it spawning inside the player. When it works, it only has a propeller; it has 100 health as well as a slightly different primary.
• Future Tall-nut - An unused alternate Tallnut Battlement. It would have given any plant standing behind it a damage boost. While this kind of ability didn't return for Cactus in Battle for Neighborville, its concept was used for Engineer's Heavy Helper.
• Armor Piercing Peach - An unused alternate E.M.Peach. Does 50 damage and ignores armor.
• Zombot Turret - An unused Engineer ability. When used, the Engineer spawns a level 1 Zombot Turret.
• Auto Turret - An unused alternate Big Bolt Blaster. It's an AI controlled Big Bolt Blaster that automatically tracks and shoots at plants. Would later be used as a primary attack for Engineer's Heavy Helper ability in Battle for Neighborville.
• Buff Bubble - A scrapped early version of Hover-Goat's Buff Beam. When used, it creates a damage boosting aura around Hover-Goat 3000 that buffs teammates and debuffs enemies.
• Techno Shield - A scrapped Hover-Goat ability. It's a smaller, wider version of Citron's Peel Shield.
• Early Heal Flower - A scrapped version of Heal Flower. It has 2 charges and spawns a heal flower above the user.
• Sprint Smash - A scrapped Torchwood ability. When used, Torchwood charges in the direction it was looking and knocks any zombie in its path into a AoE smash that deals 75 damage.
• Race Goat Jump - An ability that propels the player forward when used. On some characters, it applies the goop visuals to them. Likely would have been used for Delivery Goat.
• Bling Potato Nugget Mine - A Bling Potato Nugget Mine can be found inside the files; when used, it functions identically to normal Nugget mines.
• Bling Heal Station - Not to be confused with Bling Armored Heal Station. It acts identically to the normal heal station, but is extra shiny!

• 

  Unused Bling Potato Mine from GW2

• 

  Unused Imp Flier Drone from GW2

AI

• Giga Lightning Strike - An unused Giga Gargantuar weapon. When used, it summons a lightning airstrike that deals moderate damage to any plant in the radius.
• Sauron Flower - An unused weapon that deals massive damage to anything it hits. Has no effects or sounds.
• Hot Laser - Laser Bean's weapon from GW1.
• Double Pea - Repeater's weapon from GW1.
• Power Lily Heal Beam - An unused copy of Sunflower's Heal Beam, intended to be used by the unused potted plant Power Lily.
• Shield Boost - Intended to be used by the unused potted plant Magnifying Grass. Has no weapon data.
• Hypno Shroom Strike - Intended to be used by the Royal Hypno Flower. Has no weapon data.
• Water Wheel - Intended to be used by the Gnome King. It fires explosives that deal 100 damage and cause knockback.
• Jetpack Jump - Intended to be used by Robo Zombies. It functions similarly to Soldier's Rocket Jump, and has its own unique animation and effects.
• Missiles - A scrapped ability intended to be used by Robo Zombies. The only leftover is an animation.
• Summon Minis - A scrapped ability intended to be used by the Sasquatch. When used, it summons 3 small Sasquatch clones that run up to plants and explode. These might have been placeholders for Sasquatch Imps.
• Zomboss Laser - An unused Laser weapon. Which AI would have used this is unknown.

Misc

• 3 of the crazy settings have weapon files. When used as a weapon, they act identically to Ice Citron's primary. These were likely used to assign a death message to deaths caused by these crazy settings.

Unused Bosses

Imitator

Imitator is an unused Boss hunt. Its AI is unfinished and buggy. It will roam the map attacking zombies and will randomly burrow and spawn multiple zombies; when that happens, it will burrow into the ground and summon an imitated Zen Sensei, Disco Zombie, Gargantuar, or Baron von Bats. Once the imitated boss is vanquished, Imitator will pop back up to continue fighting. It has tags for boss hunt events, similarly to other boss hunts. According to Jeff Shaw (the Lead Level Designer on Plants Vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville, Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare 1 and 2, and Star Wars: Battlefront 2) on Twitter, Imitator was cut due to how quickly expensive it became while building it.

• 

  The boss icon for the Imitator

Super Chili Bean

Super Chili Bean is an unused Boss Hunt version of Super Bean. All of its attacks are much stronger, and it has a 500-health Shield. Super Chili Bean also has a unique Overbean mode. Instead of constantly firing a single eye laser, it rapidly fires two devastating eye lasers at the Zombies. These lasers are strong enough to kill any playable Zombie in less than two seconds.

• 

  The boss icon for the Super Chili Bean

Renegade Imp

Renegade Imp is an unfinished version of Imp; however, it would not have been a variant. Recently, multiple files were found that refer to it being a Backyard-related enemy, but it also has files referring to it as a boss hunt, so its true original purpose is seemingly unknown. It uses a duplicated version of the Imp Blasters with messed-up sound effects, and will summon its Mech repeatedly. This Mech is very powerful, and like Super Chili Bean, it can easily kill any playable Plant. The Mech has a stronger version of Chain Laser, a Warp, a stronger version of Missile Madness, Z-Mech's Foot Stomp, an airstrike of Stink Clouds, and multiple Gravity Grenades. It would have been lured by “Cyber Jerky”, and strings for this still exist, with one of them saying “Cyber Jerky becomes lean”.

• 

  The boss icon for The Renegade Imp

CameraHit_Gen

WolfNpup_Wolf

WolfNpup_Shrimp

WolfNpup_Pylon

WolfNpup_Imp

Zombot

Zombot was planned to appear in Garden Ops as a boss; it was originally supposed to appear in the first Garden Warfare game, as seen in E3 2013 footage. If spawned, the Zombot is stuck in a glitched pose below the ground.

• 

  The boss icon for the Zombot

Beetboxer

An unused Beet boss that was going to have its own Boss Hunt. It has bait data and strings in the launch build of the game.

• 

  The boss icon for the Beetboxer

Orange Juice Robot

A boss that seemingly was scrapped very early in development. It has next to no data in the final build, but in the first version of the game it has a good bit of data left. There are bait strings, bait (which would have been a “balanced breakfast”), wave data (which, when activated, spawns default Citrons), and boss spawn data (which, when activated, spawns a Torchwood).

• 

  The boss icon for the Orange Juice Robot

Crab Robot

Another Boss Hunt boss that was likely scrapped early on. The only data it has is some text, two icons, animation/attack names, and some spawndata. Also, the player was going to lure it in with... swimming trunks.

• 

  The icon for the Crab Robot

Unused Pots and Bots

To do: The unused booster bots need to be added here.

Fire Pea

Although the Fire Pea does appear in the final game as an NPC, it never appears as a pottable plant. It's similar to the Pea Cannon, but shoots fire projectiles instead.

Magnifying Grass

The Magnifying Grass would've been used to lower the zombies' attack.

Power Lily

The Power Lily's ability is similar to Hover Goat 3000's Damage Boost Beam ability.

Pea Repeater

Also similar to the Fire Pea and Ice Pea, but it would shoot out two projectiles. This version of the potted plant would later return in Battle for Neighborville... but as a regular Peashooter.

Unused Settings

Mantle API

GW2 was going to let the user use the Mantle rendering engine like you could in GW1, but this was cut due to time constraints. It can be re-enabled using mods.

Field of View

Like GW1, GW2 has full support for customizable Field of View; however, also like GW1, it goes unused, and can only be changed by editing the prof_save file.

Unused Crazy Settings

Tiny Mode

There is a unused crazy setting referred to as "Tiny Mode"; when activated, it makes the character about 50% smaller. It is fully functional and was likely scrapped last-minute.

Ink Painting

There is a unused crazy setting referred to as “ink painting”; when activated, it makes everything black and white with thick outlines, and also makes particles invisible.