Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare is officially out, and it's rad. If this is your first foray into the world of PvZ, or perhaps your first experience with online-only third-person shooters, you might need to get yourself a little more familiar with the various classes in Garden Warfare. Mind you, they're not hard to wrap your head around, but each of them does have a distinct playstyle.
Both Plants and Zombies have similar classes that parallel one another, but there are some key differences.
With that in mind, let's start with the Plants.
Peashooter
This is your go-to starting class, and acts as the scout. His shots do splash damage. This is ideal when shooting at a bigger horde of enemies or when taking down tomb stones, since splash damage spreads to the spawning enemies around it. His Hyper skill will make him run really fast and jump really high for a short amount of time, letting him cover some ground really quickly. This is handy if the garden you're defending is getting attacked or if you need to run to somebody's aid. Peashooter also has a chili pepper grenade which has a high damaging explosive attack. In Garden Ops, Zombies will be drawn to the pepper, making it a perfect distraction.
Peashooter's ultimate skill plants it into the ground and makes his mouth into a gatling gun. This does some really impressive damage, but immobilizes the Peashooter, so make sure you do it in a safe spot.
Chomper
This is my personal favorite class. It's both the strongest yet most vulnerable class in the game. Chomper doesn't have a ranged weapon, and his most valuable asset is his giant mouth. He can swallow enemies whole, assuming he attacks them from behind. His Dig skill also allows him to consume enemies in a single attack. However, Chomper has the unique advantage of being able to damage shielded enemies directly. Zombies carrying a fence or guarded by a porta-potty can be damaged directly when attacking them from the front. Trust me, this is super helpful, since those enemies take a lot of damage. Chomper's goop is also perfect for disorienting players and sneaking up behind them to get an instant kill.
So what's the downside? Once Chomper eats a zombie, he's stuck digesting the enemy in a short animation. Even though it's brief, it lasts long enough to get him killed. Chomper is best used when protected by another player, preferably not another Chomper.
Sunflower
One of the most overpowered yet weakest classes is Sunflower, the game's healer. Their initial skill will chain heal any players or set up defenses nearby. The second skill deploys a small healing flower that spits out sunshine heals to anyone nearby. Lastly, the third skill has the Sunflower plant itself into the ground, much like the Peashooter, and shoot out a ray of high damaging sunlight.
Sunflower's main offensive weapon is a machine gun shot, with a high bullet count, so you'll be able to pump out 50 bullets before having to reload. In Garden Ops, having two or more Sunflowers in a team is pretty much a guaranteed win, since they can all simultaneously heal each other.
Cactus
The Sniper of the group, Cactus can zoom in and unleash high damaging shots. While not my favorite class, they have the most useful skills outside of Sunflower's heal. Cactus can plant down mines, which when placed down in key locations can take out an enemy in a single blow. Tallnuts can also be placed as barricades. However, Cactus' most useful skill is the Garlic Drone. This remote controlled flying garlic can dish out damage from above with its machine gun and call down Corn Strikes. Not to mention, it's a good scouting device. The downside is that it can die extremely quick, as it has very low health.
Now let's take a look at the opposite team, the Zombies.
Foot Soldier
This is the equivalent to the Peashooter. While he doesn't have a Hyper mode, he does have a Rocket Jump which allows him to gain some quick ground.
One of his most useful skills is the poison cloud which not only blinds a certain area, but also damages enemies on contact. The heavy hitting skill is the ZPG or, Zombie Propelled Grenade.
Basically if you're looking for a good class to start as with Zombies, Foot Soldier is the perfect candidate.
Engineer
This butt-crack showing Zombie is, like his name implies, the fixer-upper of the group. He can build turrets and can ride a damaging jackhammer into battle. However, his true usefulness, at least in a good team comp, lies with his Stun Grenades. These will immobilize their target for a short amount of time, leaving them completely open to attack.
He also brings a shotgun into the fray, making his shots a little slower than most, but definitely packing a punch. The Engineer is best suited for those that like to play Support.
Scientist
I can't quite wrap my head around the Scientist, but maybe it's because I'm just not good with him, and he takes quite a lot of skill to play as. He has one of the best escape skills, and can easily warp past enemies. This can really confuse other players, and allows him to warp behind someone and finish them off.
He also has sticky grenades, which when combined with Warp, can be truly devastating. Although he's not as good of a healer as the Sunflower, he can also deploy a healing station that slowly heals any zombie that walks near it. It can be destroyed though.
All-Star
If we'd compare PvZ classes to Team Fortress 2 classes, the All-Star would be The Heavy. Wielding a large and heavy weapon, he's also the slowest of the bunch. That's fine, because he has a lot of health. Not to mention he has the ability to drop down a tackle dummy which can soak up more damage.
His tackle skill can also be used one of two ways. It lunges the All-Star forward, doing some really good damage if you can manage to get a hit. However, it can also be used as a defensive move. For example, it's one of the best ways to escape a Chomper before he swoops in for the kill. It's also a good move to quickly get behind cover, you know, since he's so slow.
