Plants vs Zombies Deckbuilder

Players must work together to defend their house against 9 separate zombie invasions
consisting of 3 waves of invasions over 3 different time periods, the ancient world, the old world
and the new world. The house can only handle so much damage from the zombies before it
falls. If the house loses all its hit points then the players lose. If the players survive the third
invasion in the third and final “new world” then they are victorious.

There are 5 different types of cards.

Character cards (or Heroes):

At the beginning of each game each player selects a character card or is randomly assigned
one to gain unique benefits during the game. Each character provides two additional cards to
their starting deck on setup. Some characters provide discounts in the seed store, these
discounts apply only for that player unless otherwise stated. Other benefits are unlocked as new
worlds are encountered. Some powers can be used once per invasion.

Sunflower cards:

These cards represent the in game currency used to purchase peas and seed cards from
the shop. As the game progresses you will accumulate more of these and they can also be
upgraded, they can only be upgraded in world 2 and 3 during the pruning stage and only from
your nursery. During pruning stage the sunflowers ability can be activated from the nursery to
tactically reduce the number of cards in your deck and increase the benefit of your sunflower
cards.

Peas:

Peas are the primary form of defence for the house (and appear in a gold pot ), teamup

plants cannot be played without an attached pea. Each pea has a power value and an HP

value along with an ability stated on the card. Peas (apart from the peashooter which

cannot be purchased) also has a sun value indicating how much sun is required to
purchase it from the Pea shop. There are 3 sections to the pea shop that will unlock as new
worlds are encountered. Up to 4 peas can be in play by each player per invasion. These are
placed in front of each player at the end of the shop phase, this is considered the players
conveyor belt and will feed 1 pea at a time onto the lawn during the invasion.

Seed cards:
These cards can be purchased from the shop to add to your deck, providing special abilities or
augmenting peas. There are five different class of seed cards that are differentiated by the icon
in the lower right corner of the seed card.
These classes are Solar cards , Guardian Cards , Kabloom cards ,

MegaGrow cards and SmartyPlant cards .

Of these classes there are two distinct types of seed cards, team-up cards (that appear in pots

) and quickdraw cards . Seed cards that appear in a coloured pot (eg. pink pot

for kabloom cards, blue pot for guardian cards) are team-up cards and must be
attached to a pea on the conveyor belt before the invasion begins. Cards with a bullseye symbol
in the lower left corner of the image are quickdraw cards and can be played from your hand
during the invasion.

Zombie cards:
These represent the invading zombies and similar to peas have an indicated power and HP

along with an ability. Some of these zombies have a gravestone in the top right of the card
indicating an “unearth” ability that activates as soon as the card is revealed. Some zombie
cards, titled as gargantuars or zombots are considered boss zombies and also have a brain

atom symbol on the lower, these zombies are harder to beat but award a zombie DNA
that can be used to upgrade a pea that survives combat against the boss. **This upgrade
mechanic is still in testing stage, not yet implemented.**

Additional Setup pieces:

- 6x Conveyor belts (appear as a row of 4 pots appearing on conveyor belts), one is required
per player in the game. This grid is where each players peas and their attached plants are
deployed to during the conveyor belt stage. Each player can have up to 4 peas deployed and
each of those peas can have two teamup plants (one pink pot and one blue pot).
- 6x Zombie lanes,(appear as a strip of road at the end of lawn with 4 ghost images of zombie
cards) one is required per player. This is where each players zombie cards will be dealt to.
1x Shop square (appears as a 3x3 square of blank cards to place the seed cards on)
1x World Tracker with Pea shop (appears as 3 rows of 4 cards, each row is made up of a
sunflower card and 3 peas preceded by an indicated world with 3 levels on each.) This will be
where all unsold pea cards are placed along with all undealt sunflower cards. The current world
and level will be tracked from here also.
1x House HP tracker with lawn. This is where the active pea will be placed during the invasion
phase and will also indicate the House’s remaining HP.
20x red tracking tokens, to track damage on plants and zombies
20x Blue tokens, to track when abilities have been used up for that invasion.
Each player will have in front of them a draw pile, known as their “deck” and a discard pile
known as their “nursery” where KO’d plants are sent. Each player will also have a conveyor belt
to deploy their peas to, as well as a zombie lane that will have zombies placed face down on.

In the centre there will be the World Tracker/Pea shop, The seed shop and the House tracker/
active Lawn
Next to this there will be a graveyard pile for cards. Cards in the graveyard pile cannot be
returned to play during this game. Zombies that are KO’d are sent to the graveyard, some
Zombies will send plants to the graveyard instead of the nursery, this will be explained on their
text.

Player Setup:
1. Each player selects a character card
2. Deal each player 6 sunflower cards and 4 peashooters
3. Each player then takes 2 additional cards indicated on their character card. Each player then
shuffles these 12 cards and places them face down in their draw pile known as their “deck”
4. The house gains 15 HP for each player in the game. (For an easier game you may choose to
increase the HP gain per player to 20). Set the house HP on the tracker
5. Sort out Pea cards and place them in the Pea shop under their respective areas
6. Place the sunflower cards in their piles next to the pea shop
7. There should be 30 different types of seed cards, take one of each type and shuffle them
together then deal 9 of these 30 cards face up to create the seed shop.

The game round:

1. Draw stage: ​Players draw cards from their draw pile until they have 6 cards in their hand, if
they run out of cards, their nursery pile is shuffled face down and becomes the new draw pile.
Each player then receives an additional sunflower card (type determined by the current world) to
add to their hand.
2. Seed Shop stage:​ Players simultaneously spend their available sun to purchase items from
the pea shop or seed shop. Sun is not transferable between players and character discounts
can only be utilized by that player. Some peas cannot be purchased until later worlds. When a
card is purchased, send the appropriate number of sunflowers to your nursery based on the
cost. That purchased card is added to your hand and if it was purchased from the seed shop
then a new card is flipped from the seed card pile and added to the shop so that there is always
9 cards available for purchase.
3. Conveyor belt stage:​ Each player deploys their peas to any available spaces in front of any
player. Up to 4 peas can exist on the conveyor belt in front of each player. Team up plants can
then be attached to those peas to augment their abilities. Only one type of each team up plant
can be placed on each pea (eg. 1 pink pot and 1 blue pot per pea.) for a maximum of 2 teamup
plants per pea. If you play cards on another players conveyor belt they now belong to that
player and will go to that players nursery when KO’d. Peas from the top of the conveyor belt are
placed on the lawn first, you may rearrange the peas in front of you in any order you like before
the invasion begins.
4. Zombie burial stage:​ During this stage each player is dealt face down zombie cards
depending on what level and what world they are on. Make sure the correct deck for the current
world is being dealt. To prepare, remove the 2 gargantuars and the zombot from the appropriate
world deck, these are shuffled face down in the boss pile.
For level 1 of each world, deal 3 zombies per player, for level 2 of each world, deal 4 zombies
per player. For level 3 randomly select 4 zombie cards from the deck per player and set these
aside in a new pile, in a 1-2 player game, randomly remove 1 of those cards and replace it with
boss card, for a 3-4 player game remove 2 cards from that pile and replace with 2 boss cards,
for a 5-6 player game remove 3 cards and place all boss cards in that pile. Shuffle that new pile
with boss cards in it and randomly assign four cards to each player.
5. Zombie Invasion:​ At this stage each player will utilize their peas to defend the house against
the invading zombies and wipe out the invasion. This stage is turn based and does NOT occur
simultaneously. All players may use quickdraw cards as well as pea or team-up abilities during
other players turns but these can only be performed once for the whole invasion stage and do
NOT regenerate between each players turn. Combat is explained in more detail in the next
section. The goal is to suffer as little damage to the house as possible, it does not matter if no
peas survive the invasion, as long as the house has some remaining HP at the end of the
invasion then the pruning stage will occur.
6. Prune stage:​ Surviving Peas do not heal any damage after the invasion and so all red tokens
stay in place, all blue tokens are cleared off the board though as abilities will regenerate after
the invasion. At this stage players may place any cards from their hand or their surviving plants
into the nursery to clear up space on their conveyor belt and so that those cards can be redrawn
sooner without damage. Sunflowers from your nursery can be upgraded if you are in an
appropriate world to do so.
Move the level tracker once you are finished pruning.

Combat during the invasion

During the Invasion your peas will attack and be attacked by the zombies trying to destroy your
house. This is also the time you will play your quickdraw cards to help defend your house. The
invasion is played out one player at a time in 4 repeating steps until that player is out of peas or
all of their zombies have been defeated, then play continues to the next player.
The 4 repeating steps are as follows:
1. Unearth. ​If the next zombie to attack (zombie closest to the house) is face down then flip
that zombie face up. If that zombie has an unearth ability indicated by gravestones in the
top right of the card, that zombies ability activates now. Players may react to the unearth
ability by playing quickdraw cards from their hands or activating pea abilities. Even if the
zombie is killed before the fight, the unearth ability takes effect unless a played ability
specifically prevents it.
 2. Fight.​ Both the pea and zombie deal damage to each other simultaneously, equal to
their power. Place damage tokens on each card equal to the damage suffered. If the
total damage suffered is equal or greater than that cards HP then that card is KO’d. Peas
that are KO’d are sent to that players nursery, zombies that are KO’d are sent to the
graveyard. If neither the pea or the zombie are killed then players have another chance
to play quickdraw cards or use abilities before the fight repeats. Repeat this step until
either the pea, the zombie or both are KO’d.
3. Conveyor belt. ​If just the zombie was KO’d then advance all remaining zombie cards
toward the house and return to the Unearth step. If just the pea was KO’d then move the
next pea from the conveyor belt onto the lawn and it becomes the new active pea, then
return to the Fight step. If both were KO’d then advance both the peas and the zombies
and continue to the Unearth stage
4. Lawn Clear.​ There are two possible outcomes for each player, the house is ​defended
or the lawn is ​overrun​.
- If there are no zombies left in the lane you are successful and the house is defended,
continue to the invasion stage for the player to your left.
- If there are zombies left in the lane once all peas are KO’d and no further abilities to be
played then the lawn is overrun, the active zombie deals its damage and is then sent to
the graveyard. If there are any remaining zombies these are advanced, unearth effects
are still resolved and each remaining zombie will deal its damage to the house once
before being sent to the graveyard. If there is any remaining HP on the house at the end
then the play continues to the invasion stage for the player on your left.

Quickstart Guide

1. Deal Each player a character card

2. Deal Each player 4 peashooters and 6 sunflowers (from the top row of the pea shop) to
create each players deck
3. Each player takes the 2 seed cards indicated on their character card (from the top of the
board) and shuffles these into their deck
4. Select all remaining seed cards at the top of the board and press ‘G’ to group them into
a deck, shuffle these and deal 9 face up onto the 3x3 shop board. If there are more than
2 of the same card you may choose to return the duplicates and re-deal once per shop
phase.

Turn Order:

1. Shop Phase: Use sun to purchase seed cards to add to your hand
2. Conveyor belt Phase: deploy peas and team up plants from your hand to conveyor belts
3. Bury the dead: deal zombies to each player (3, 4, 4w/Boss)
4. Invasion: Peas fight off the Zombies
5. Prune: send damaged or unused cards to the nursery if you would like.