Plants vs. Zombies: Battle For Neighborville

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Notes Debugging MaterialStill waiting, Jeff... Unused CustomizationsLooks like they didn't plan to end support for this game so soon. Unused GraphicsScrapped graphics new and old to be found here. Unused UpgradesThe heck is confidence? Leftovers From Other GamesBattlefield leftovers? GW2 leftovers also.

Unused Game Modes#

To do: Include information about the unreleased Ops Phase 3.

Golf/Minigolf#

There is an unused area in Giddy Park that was supposedly for a golf minigame, judging by the grass tracks and holes. This can be proven more as in the files, Golfer Gnomes exist and also have a weapon used for golfing. We can assume that originally, you were able to play golf as a Gnome.

Gnome Tag#

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This unused minigame was basically tag, but with a twist. The player that is it would be a Shooty Gnome. The Shooty Gnome's abilities consist of a primary with large homing, a long warp, an ability where players get stuck in the air for a short amount of time (similar to Imp's Gravity Grenade), and an ability to throw a bomb, dealing 175 damage. The Gnome even has a sprinting animation, suggesting the minigame was almost finished at one point, but was scrapped.

Seasonal Events#

Similar to the Food Fight scavenger hunt, there were three other seasonal events planned during the game's lifespan. The events were Gift Wrap, Snowman Tag, and Breaking Hearts. There are various files in the game defining logic for how the modes would have played out. Currently, the only thing we know about how the missions are played are based on the dialog (Snowman Tag does not have any dialog).

Feastivus - Gift Wrap#

The dialog implies that it's similar to Food Fight scavenger hunt in a way where the goal is to collect an amount of items. In this mission, you are assisting a gnome named Gnolines, a gnome who has lost the presents of the Gnomish children. Upon finishing the quest, you are awarded with an unknown amount of Prize Bulbs.

Dialog

Mission Start

• "Yes yes, it's me, Gnolines, famous gnomish ac-tor. No autographs!"
• "Hold on. You look like a rough character. Can you help me?"
• "See, I'm "between roles," and took an "elf gig," delivering gifts of anvils to Gnomish children for Feastivus."
• "Gnomish kids LOVE anvils!"
• "But I messed up the chimney portal, and the unwrapped anvils are popping up around Giddy Park!"
• "Find them and wrap them! I'll give you a prize--and MAYBE an autograph."

Mid-Mission

• "You've gotta wrap more anvils, or I'll never act again!"

Mission Complete

• "You wrapped all the gifts and saved my acting career! Oh, and Feastivus."
• "King Gnomus himself has offered me the role of King Gnomus himself in his biopic: "King Gnomus, Himself"!"
• "I can't offer you a role, but I can offer you this prize! Exeunt!"

Post Mission

• "You deserve the Gnommey for "Best Supporting Supporter.""

Additional Strings

There's also a few additional strings while Anvils are around in Giddy Park.

• "AN ANVIL HAS APPEARED"
• "AN ANVIL NEEDS TO BE WRAPPED"
• "LOCATION OF GIDDY PARK ANVIL GIFT REVEALED"

Valenbrainz - Breaking Hearts#

The dialog for this one implies that the player is looking for a certain character as per requested by

Dialog

Mission Start

• "Are you up for the ValenChallenge?"

Mid-Mission

• "Did you find my Twin, Valengnome B? He's in Cheesed Mines."

Mission Complete

• "TEMP: You heart breaker, you!"

Post-Mission

• "TEMP: Hope I can find another job as this one end at the end of the month. TEMP: Acting sure is tough."

Damage Falloff#

Damage falloff is a feature that existed in both Garden Warfare and Garden Warfare 2 as a means of reducing a weapon and an ability’s effectiveness at longer range for balancing purposes, but is almost wholly absent in Battle for Neighborville for unknown reasons. Several weapons such as the Sunflower’s Sunbeam ability, and the Imp’s Z-mech's primary weapon used to have damage falloff in past versions of the game, but were ultimately removed in certain updates, being described as "bugs".

Two unused upgrades present in the game data, Carbine Rounds and Increased Bullet Range, would have affected damage falloff in some way, suggesting that damage falloff was meant to be added in at some point but was cut during development, as these upgrades increase the damage falloff start and end distances.

Unused Weapons#

Acorn#

• Hey You: An ability for Acorn that when he turns into Oak, it could show where the Oak is, probably an early name for Invoke Oak.

• Acorn Alternate primary: Acorn has multiple alternate primaries, with most lacking data in the final patch. However one of them remains, it shoots black spiky looking balls at enemies which do massive damage and have a large amount of bullet gravity.

Space Cadet#

• Astronaut Dock: An ability for Space Cadet that could work similar to Hey You, probably an early name for Station Inflation.

Unused Gestures#

To do: Add the gestures.

Although you can see a few of these gestures by any of the CPU players, they are complacently unattainable.

Unused Firework Gestures#

Originally, all characters except Wildflower and TV Head where all going to have firework gestures. However, Chomper, Nightcap, Snapdragon, Sunflower, Electric Slide, and Scientist’s gestures were never implemented.

Unused Classes#

Iceberg Lettuce#

To do: Documentation for Iceberg Lettuce's upgrades are needed.

Watch on YouTube

Iceberg Lettuce is another plant from PvZ2 that was going to be added into the game.

Class: Defense

HP: 200

Snowflakes (Primary): has 8 ammo, shoots like scientist, and deals 6 damage per pellet. It creates floating ice particles which when a zombie touches them, inflict damage.

Shield Deploy (Ability #1): Places a ice shield that last 15 seconds.

Back Dash (Ability #2): When used, Iceberg Lettuce jumps back and drops a frozen chili pepper, which explodes freezing anyone in its radius shortly after.

Snowball (Ability #3): throws a snowball dealing lots of damage. Seemingly cut as it lacks a U_ file and is not used by AI Iceberg Lettuces.

Self heal (Ability #4): Heals Iceberg Lettuce and nearby teammates for a large amount of health.

Berry Brigade#

Watch on YouTube

An unused plant class. It had various weapons and a work-in-progress model, but was cut shortly after it was first data-mined.

Super Bean#

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Another cut plant class, this time of the Super Bean boss! He was almost fully playable before being cut, with 3 abilities

Cape Twirl (Ability #1): An AoE attack that damages a pushes back zombies nearby Super Bean.

Team Shield (Ability #2): A shield that gives Super Bean and all nearby plants shields.

Warp (Ability #3): A basic teleport ability.

Miscellaneous#

There are more unused classes mentioned in the code, but not much is known about them other than their internal names and some weapon data. Toxic is likely related to the "toxic zombie" class that was found in development during the picnic alpha's files

cabbage

squash

mini gargantuar

toxic

eric

Unused Bosses#

Several unused bosses are mentions in the game's files, Many come from Garden Warfare 2, either also being unused, or were scrapped and recycled into existing bosses to save time.

Super Chili Bean: A scrapped boss from Garden Warfare 2 who was planned to finally appear in this game under the new name 'Mexi-Bean,' but was cut. Most of his weapons from GW2 are present and still seem to function just fine. You'll get your chance one day, big guy.

Captain Smasher: The final boss from the Plant's side of Garden Warfare 2's story mode was planned to appear in this game, but demoted to a regular boss. Most of his weapons are still around although some are missing data and his summon ability spawns some... interesting "coneheads"

Crab Machine: Another unused boss from Garden Warfare 2 who was planned to show up in this game, but went unused again.

Sasquatch: One of the many Boss Hunt bosses from Garden Warfare 2 was planned to appear as a regular boss here, but went unused. I'm starting to see a pattern forming here...

Chompzilla: Chompzilla from Plants vs. Zombies Heroes! It looks like she was planned to be a Zombie Boss, but was cut. Also the only cut boss to not originate from Garden Warfare 2, used or unused. Has a slam attack and a fire ball attack within the files. Would have been quite the fight if she made it in!

The Yeti King: Another Boss Hunt from Garden Warfare 2 who was planned to appear in this game. He was scrapped too, probably because there was already the regular Yeti as a boss, who's elite form is very similar to Yeti king in that players must acquire a damage buff in order to even harm him.

Big Stump: A boss that originated from Garden Warfare 2. Most of his weapons are still around although he was likely scrapped and partially recycled into Giga Torchwood.

Giga-Gargantuar: Been around since Garden Warfare 1. Was scrapped and all of his weapons were given to regular Gargantuar instead... poor guy.

Gnome King: A Gnome Boss that appeared in the Infinity Time gamemode for Garden Warfare 2. His Weapons are still around with edited VFX interestingly. His idle animation still exists if you port his model over from GW2 into BFN.

Imitator: A boss that was also unused in GW2, although a lot of its files have been removed, so its chances of being considered for BFN were relatively slim.

Unused Turrets#

"LargeRaid" turrets#

In the directory for where all the AI character files are kept, are 4 turrets that are named "LargeRaidTurret". These turrets are 3 times the size of standard turrets, and presumably would've had much more powerful weapons to deal with enemies.

Unused Animations#

A lot of the unused animations here are leftovers from GW2 from enemies that are no longer in the game, though who's animations can be performed by other characters.

Emo Minion#

All of the animations related to the emo minion can still be found in browncoats asset banks and can be performed by them too.

Walking

Attacking

Spawning

Idle

Captain Smasher#

Many of Captain Smashers animations can also be found.

Charging

Interesting here is that the animation depicts gargantuars imp floating far above him, which seems to suggest that in GW2, captain smasher is supposed to have an imp in the crows nest on his back.

HoverGoat 3000#

Yup, whilst he might be long gone in terms of most of his kit and his model, his animations are surprisingly still in shape. If you were to port forward his model from BFN like demonstrated in the video, they all still seem to work just fine.

Unused Music#

Gnome King Boss Theme#

The Gnome King fight theme from Garden Warfare 2. Most likely to be used in a battle against the Gnome King, which never happens in the game.

Alternate Dreadwood Phase 2 Theme#

An alternate version of the Dreadwood boss theme during Phase 2, which is at a slightly lower pitch.

Old Dreadwood Intro#

An old version of the Dreadwood boss intro found in the game's launch files. The audio is exactly the same as the intro to the Final Boss music from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It's likely it was used during the game's development due to the file being found in the "Sound/Test/AleksTest/Muisc_dreadwood_Daren" directory, it no longer exists in the current version of the game.

Unused Areas#

Season 12 Giddy Park#

Watch on YouTube

An unused variation of Giddy Park meant for Season 12. It is completely barren, with a lot of objects and details missing.

Internal Project Name#

The game's codename is referred to as 'Picnic,' as seen in debugging material and the game's closed beta test.

Deprecated Settings Menu#

There exists an unused settings menu which contains remnants of Garden Warfare 2's settings UI. The menu retains most functionality of the current menu.

Oddities#

Preserve Pastures#

In the Turf Takeover map, Preserve Pastures, there are two areas hidden out of bounds that were likely used during the map's development.

This first area located right next to the first objective has a nice looking area that houses a handful of the props that gets used within the map. You could make the assumption that the developers were creating a mock-up environment with the resources at their disposal.

The second area looks like it was used for creating props and seeing how they would look in the game.

The pictures above represents an unfinished version of the final objective. It contains a lot of whiteboxing and layout differences than the final product.

Weirding Woods#

Weirding Woods houses a strange Magenta Cube far out of bounds.